INNOCENCE LOST

As I sat next to my daughter, tears began to fill my eyes. Her innocence was slipping away, but it gave me a chance to explain to her God’s greatest desire.

Yesterday, our families Golden Retriever gave birth to puppies. We had been awaiting the moment for the last two months and we knew that she was getting closer. She was walking around less, starting to pant heavily, and she was trying to make a bit of a home for these new little guys. The kids were at school when the first puppy was born, and when Tricia picked them up from school they could hardly sit still on the ride home. They couldn’t wait to see the puppies (see attached picture).

My daughter is 5.5 years old, and she is such a tender heart. Whenever anyone gets hurt, she is very quick to comfort and console them, telling them that everything is going to be okay. How does she know these things? J

But then it happened. The fourth puppy that came out wasn’t moving. We tried to stimulate it to breath and come to life, but after several minutes we knew that wasn’t going to happen. The puppy was stillborn. It was the first girl to be born as well, and my daughter has an affinity for the girls. She held that puppy for so long, caressing it’s body as it lay in a towel. She even took her over to Anney so that, in her words, “Anney could say good-bye.” It was so sweet and yet so heart-breaking at the same time. She was losing her innocence; that sense that everything in the world is okay. She was realizing that everything in the world was not okay.

As hard as this was for me, her father, to watch (no Father wants their child to be said), it did give us a chance to talk about how sad death is to Jesus. We talked about how Jesus never wanted us to experience hurt and pain and loss. Ally seemed to grasp this idea well. She said, “I know Jesus doesn’t like it when we hurt. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God and then we had hurtness and sadness and painness in the world.” I smiled and nodded my head, but then I talked about how this world isn’t our home. We talked about the day when there is no more hurtness or sadness or painness in the world anymore (Revelation 21-22). We talked about the day when all things will be made right, when the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.”

When a horrible earthquake devastates a country, encourage one another with these words. When your best friends parent’s divorce, encourage one another with these words. When you fail a class, when you get dumped, when you lose a loved one, when you experience great hurtness, sadness, and painness, encourage one another with these words for the Lord is coming, He is on His way, and His reward is with Him. He longs to take us to the life He created for us, to the life where we are with Him forever.

My prayer is that you would know just how much Jesus desires to take you there. He desired it so much He gave up His life, He changed His essence by taking on Human skin, He walked this earth and experienced greater hurt, sadness, and pain than we may ever know. He did it all for us.

Please, come soon Lord Jesus, and thank you for giving us the hope that you are on your way and that this life, as great as it can be at times, is only temporary. The life to come, the one with you, that’s eternal. PRAISE GOD!

A Life Monitor

When my wife was in labor with our first born, I had very little to do. My job was to be the support while my wife went through the most horrific pain she had ever experienced. Not really a fair trade, but it wasn't like I could have the baby, despite the wishes of 5 out of 5 American women.

One of the ways I tried to help was to read the monitor on the side of her bed that tracked her contractions. I would watch until it peaked, telling her to hold on and hang in there, then when the intensity of the contraction began to fade, I told her the worst was over for now.

I thought about this last week while I was huffing and puffing on the stair-stepper watching the seconds click down until I could advance to a less strenuous level. Twenty seconds seems like an hour when you feel like you could faint.

Don't you wish life had a monitor like that at the side of your bed or beside your computer at work? Like you could look at a scale and see that it’s not going to get any worse than it is right now and that tomorrow you’ll be feeling much better.

I reflected on Psalm 23 in light of this. It starts out beautiful...green pastures, still waters, restored soul. So peaceful. Then it moves into the valley of the shadow of death. YIKES. Sounds tough. But it quickly rebounds to being guided and comforted by His rod and staff, preparing a banquet, being anointed with oil, and having goodness and joy following you all the days of your life. What a way to end a story.

Life isn’t so much about mountains and valleys, as it is about a roller coaster ride where you’re holding on for dear life. At times it’s thrilling, other times it’s downright frightening. So how do we endure to the end of the story?

Paul's thought was, keep fixed on Jesus, His life, His testimony. “I have learned to be content in all things,” Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” What if our lens to life was Christ? What if we remembered that often times, some of the best gifts come after the most difficult of circumstances (i.e. labor brings baby/life, working out brings health benefits)? What if we accepted the truth of the Bible over how we’re feeling right now? What if we could always remember that no matter how bad our circumstances get, that our days here on earth are but a blink of an eye and what happens next is our forever (teach us to number our days, O Lord, that we may gain a heart of wisdom…Psalm 90: 12)?

I don’t know where you’re at today on Life’s Monitor. I don’t know if you’re at the top of the pain peak and life seems to be too much to handle, or if you’re so relaxed and calm that you’re not even registering on the scale. Either way, we are all in need of the prayer and support and encouragement of this community, and we are all in need Jesus. Students need God. Faculty & Staff need God. Administrators need God. And by praying for each other, lending an ear, encouraging one another, we bring Jesus to life to a world in need. We are His hands, His feet.

I pray that you would endure and I hope that all of us would pray regularly for this campus that we would all persevere and endure, drawing ever so much closer to our Savior until He comes to take us home. May God bless you and keep you this week!

The Ride of Patience

My son is an early-bird. It doesn’t matter what time he goes to bed, he is almost always up no later than 6:30am. And here’s the even more amazing thing; he’s happy. He sings, he plays games, he reads. Because of this, he goes over with me to the gym in the mornings to get in some exercise before the day starts. When the weather is nice, we ride our bikes.

This morning, Ayden wanted to lead us home. I told him that was fine as long as we were always heading in the direction of home (he likes to take lots of circuitous routes). Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for an adventure, but this morning I had (and have) lots to do at work and needed to get ready. He agreed, but with the typical “7 year-old short term memory syndrome” it wasn’t long before we were twisting and turning in all sorts of directions except for the one that leads us home. I immediately became frustrated and said in a tone reflecting my emotions, “Ayden, daddy has to get home.“ I saw his head drop in disappointment as he began to turn us in the “right” direction.

No sooner did those words come out of my mouth that I wished I could have taken them back. I stopped Ayden and repented. In my mind, God impressed these words, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…” Exodus 34: 6. I knew in that moment that I needed to have patience. I knew that I needed to learn a lesson from my Father, who goes with me on all sorts of circuitous routes and is ever so patient with me; and tender, and gracious, and abounding in love and faithfulness. For you see, Ayden will see the Heavenly Father first through me. That is an incredible an humbling responsibility that can only happen by the grace of God. I needed His grace that morning, and I needed to change my attitude.

After that, it took us a little while to get home. We rounded a few extra bends in the road, stopped to take pictures of horses, and clocked how fast Ayden could go down the hill by Davis. And you know what, it was all good. My guess is, at the end of this day I am sure I will be far more pleased that I had an adventure with my son than I would be if I accomplished everything on my to do list.

So it is my prayer for you that today, you can have an adventure of some kind. Take a walk during your lunch break. Call your grandchildren on the phone. Skype your BFF who’s at work on the other side of the globe. Do something just because and see what you can learn about your Heavenly Father today. Remember, He came to give us LIFE and LIFE ABUNDANT. If you’re not experiencing that abundance, it’s not because of Him.

Love, Pure & Simple

I have to admit that I’ve been selfish lately. Several weeks ago I had a special moment with God that I thought about sharing, but I’ve been keeping it to myself as if sharing it would take something away from that moment. But then I realized, through several moments over the weekend, that someone else in our campus family needs to hear this message.

It was a month ago and I had escaped the valley for two days for a Spiritual retreat. I needed to take the time months ago, but I had been ignoring that inner voice calling me to come and rest awhile. So I finally did it, and I’ve vowed to make it a regular thing.

Though much happened during this time, one of my most special moments involved climbing up to the top of a nearby mountain (it was really a hill but that sounds less exciting) and asking God what message He had for me. And here it is, clear as can be, “This is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3: 17

Now, I hadn’t read that verse in a long time, but it was right there, plain as day, in my mind, and it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear.

One week later, having returned to the Valley, I was pouring my heart out to a mentor as I was struggling to remain grounded in my experience of the week before. As we prayed together, I was blown away by the first words that came out of his mouth. He said, “Father, remind Paddy that he is your son, whom you love, with Him you are well pleased.” Now, I hadn’t told my mentor anything about my mountain-top experience, and yet he quoted those exact words and I knew it was God telling me that whether you’re on the mountain-top or in the valley, I am in love with you. What a powerful message and one I needed to hear. What about you? Do you need to hear those same words from your heavenly Father? “This is my daughter, my son, whom I love. With him/her I am well pleased.”

I am always amazed that when I challenge students to sit and listen for God’s voice, those that hear it often hear the same types of things. Even if I asked them to pray for a vision for their ministry this year, or pray for direction in a situation, or pray for healing, they almost always come back with, “God spoke, and you know what He told me.” And I sit on the edge of my seat and say, “What?” With a smile as big as Texas they say, “He told me He loves me.”

I'm ALIVE!!!

Okay, so I took a hiatus from blogging and when I did start, I only had three entries. Don't judge me. I can see your eyes rolling from the other side of the computer screen and I just don't like your tone very much :-).

But seriously, I am committing to adding to this blog weekly and directing people from my weekly emails so that I can tell, in the words of Paul Harvey, "The Rest of the Story."

Incidentally, tomorrow I hope to be writing about a special moment in my life this summer where God spoke, loud and clear. I've been keeping it to myself out of fear that if I share it it won't be my special moment with God. However, I think the message is relevant to us all and I am finding out that the one thing God is most clear on when we need to hear from Him is this, "HE LOVES US, HE'S WITH US, HE WANTS TO HOLD US AND HE HAS BEEN LONGING FOR US MUCH LONGER THAN WE HAVE BEEN LONGING FOR HIM." He's such a good and a gracious God and I am finally beginning to learn what it is to come to Him out of pure joy in worship instead of obligation.

Have a great rest of your Sunday.

Blessings, Courage, JOY!!!