TV Dinners

You ever have a really bad TV dinner? Most are after all, but you know the kind I'm talking about... the green beans are half frozen no matter how long you nuke it, the Salisbury steak has some kind of unidentified ligaments still in it, and the brownie... well, the brown part's right। They're just not good. Why should we expect anything more for $2.37 and 3 minutes of radioactive heat waves?

Isn't a big home cooked meal better? I'm not talking about the every day kind। I'm talking about the kind where your Grandma spent the morning peeling potatoes, slowly roasting the beef, and carefully baking not just brownies but a whole slew of desserts. For every one thing on the table that you don't like, there's two more that you just can't get enough of. My stomach is rumbling while I type! It's just sounds so good... and so much better than whatever is in the freezer aisle at Wal-Mart.

It's like that with God। We wonder why we don't see Him more in our life, why He doesn't speak to us more, or why others seem to be able to grow so much more spiritual when we aren't. To us He just seems kind of... flat. We wonder these things while we read our "3 Minute Devotions" book, "Our Daily Bread" that we picked up at church, and just pray for every sick member of our family.

The Bible tells us to taste and see that the Lord is good! (Psalm 34:8) We're supposed to sink our teeth in! We're supposed to enjoy the overwhelmingly rich flavor! We're supposed to savor every bite! ... Somehow I don't the psalmist was talking about the TV Dinner God।

That home cooked meal takes time, preparation, and developed skill। It's no different if we want to experience the full richness of God. We have to be patient. We have to keep at it. It's not going to be easy and we're going to have to learn, but the wait is going to be well worth it.

The wonderful thing you'll discover about that meal? It's just you and God sitting there with all the time in the world. If you want to know how you can move on from the freezer and into the dining room, let me know. I'd be happy to help.

Glasses

When I was in 10th grade, I found out I needed glasses. To some kids this would have been traumatic, but I didn't really mind. Actually, I liked my glasses. (I know... nerd! ) The eye doctor told me that I only needed to wear them while I was trying to see the chalkboard. That was most of my classes, so I just decided to wear my glasses all day.

However, it wasn't long before I needed to wear them all the time. Everything got fuzzier and fuzzier. I couldn't get a clear picture of the world around me without them. Once I put those specially prescribed pieces of plastic in front of my eyes, everything came into focus. My eyes had become trained and dependent upon these glasses to see.

Sometimes I still don't clearly see the world around me. Today it has less to do with the eyes on my face and more to do with the eyes of my heart. We've all experienced this, sometimes it's just hard to feel and experience God. We go a whole day, maybe longer, and can't point to a single moment that we genuinely had an experience with Him. It all seems a little... fuzzy.

Back in 10th grade, my eyes deteriorated to that point everything was out of focus (to which I have to give some credit to computer use & video games). They just got worn out. Our hearts are the same way. They take a beating. They get stepped on, crushed, moved, compelled, and broken. It's hard to see clearly with a heart like that.

... but God offers us glasses. When the eyes of our hearts are fuzzy, when it's hard to see God, we can put those glasses on and see clearly. His word is that "corrective lense" to our heart. It brings the world around us into focus. That's not to say we're without questions, but rather that we see things for what they truly are.

Seeing God isn't something that's reserved for Moses, the disciples, Billy Graham, or anyone else. You can see God... just put those glasses on. Allow the eyes of your heart to be trained by His word.

"They only differed from the average person in that when they felt the inward longing they did something about it." - A.W. Tozer

Markers

When I was a little kid one of my favorite activities was coloring. My chosen "tools of the trade" were markers. Now back in the late 80's to early 90's (by far my best coloring years) marker technology hadn't advanced that far. Whether it be in a coloring book, in a notebook, or on any blank piece of paper I could find I'd fill in, scribble, and carefully draw lines only to discover that the marker ink had seeped through to the other side and onto whatever happened to be there. Thus altering it forever.

Much to my disappointment the next picture in the coloring book was "ruined" and couldn't be used. We don't like it when things get past the surface in our lives either, do we? There are some people that we're honest with and allow to see the highs and lows of our depths, but not very many. It's uncomfortable. Dare we even admit that we're afraid? If we really let someone that far into who we are, what are they going to do with what they see there?

What about with God? Maybe disaster strikes in our life so we cry out to God. Maybe we encounter God in an awesome church service, on a great retreat, or even just out in nature. It feels good, doesn't it? But what about when He wants to sink in? What about after the warm fuzzies have subsided and God is saying "Let me get past the surface..." It's uncomfortable. We're afraid. What's going to happen once He's in there?

A.W. Tozer refers to this as "brain-deep, not life-deep." When we encounter God and He wants to begin signing His name to our lives, do we stop to make sure he's just using the pencil... or do we allow Him to use the sharpie so that His ink gets past the surface, past the parts that people see, and gets "life-deep"?

God wants you to be everything you can be. The Bible says that He knows the plans He has for us, and they're good! It might be uncomfortable and it's going to be difficult, but most worthwhile things are.

When God enters your life, what do you really want Him to be writing with?

Where Are You?

Happy New Year!! Yeah. Ok, so I'm a little late. Unfortunately, I've spent much of this young 2008 lying around sick. Mucinex, Robustussin, honey-lemon cough drops, and soup have been some of my best friends. All of that has amounted to some time to think though.

Where were you when you started 2007? I don't mean whose party you went to. I mean where were you in terms of your life?
Were you starting something fresh?
Hoping to?
Pretty low?
Happy-go-lucky?

Now that the "New Year Smell" has started wearing off 2008, where are you now and where do you want to end 2008? This isn't a resolution as we've come to know it. Those only make statistics out of us and are often superficial. This is the deepest yearnings of your heart.

I know, for me, I want my heart to be even more conformed to Christ's. I want to become a more urgent seeker. I want my life's message to be simple and clear, not cluttered or distracting. I want to take off after these things with great resolve.

Paul probably said it the best...

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
1 Cor. 2:1-2

Where are you? ... and where are you going?

A New Blog

Well, welcome to my new blog! You may have found this through one of my others. I'm moreorless just trying to expand my horizons and make my posts more accessible for view and comment by others.

I'm a 24 year old aspiring to be a Youth Pastor. I'm currently the Youth Director for a Free Methodist Church in Pennsylvania. I love my church, I love the people I work with, and I love my teens. That really does about sum up my life and my job!

You might find some general posts about my life here. You may find posts that pertain mainly to Youth Ministry, but above all you're going to find posts about the journey everyone of us is on to greater meaning and discovering God and the world He has for us.

You can also check me out on MySpace at myspace.com/final_night or I can be found on Facebook as well. If you're interested in checking out some of the books I own, you can find that on my LibraryThing.

Hope you enjoy!