Allow me to a bit vulnerable in this post. I have lately been fraught with worry, anxiety and fear. I’ve been pondering where this came from (cause it seemingly came out of nowhere), and I’ve spent a good deal of time praying, reading the Word and psychoanalyzing myself. I guess a large part of the fear is simply worrying about ‘tomorrow’ and the thought What on earth am I going to do with my whole life? 

“Worry puts question marks where God puts periods.” John R. Rice

But in all the soul-searching that I have done, I have found no solace or understanding, until today.

I started reading a book by Robert J. Morgan called Red Sea Rules which gives 10 scripture-based strategies for difficult times. I’m pretty blown away with the godly perspective I’ve gained about my worries. The Red Sea Rule #1 to making it through a hard season (be it worry, anxiety from situations or just plain bad circumstances) is to “realize that the Lord has either placed us there or allowed us to be there, perhaps for reasons presently known only to Himself.”

The same God who led me in will lead me out. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” (Psalm 32:8). Realizing that God has me right where He wants me brings a great sense of hope. I’m not in this difficult season because the devil has me in a trap that I can’t break free from and God can’t break into. I will rest in the fact that it is God who brought me here, He will keep me here because of His love, and give me grace to be His child (Heb. 12:6, 1 Cor. 10:13). Jesus will turn this trial into a blessing and teach me a lesson about Himself, myself, and life itself. 

This poem, which is untitled and unattributed, found in a small volume by V. Raymond Edman, titled The Disciplines of Life, really encouraged me:

When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man 
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, Watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which 
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lights beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And with every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out–
God knows what He’s about.

You can check out the book Red Sea Rules here:

I am currently sitting on an electrical box outside of a Christian Life Center waiting on my car to be towed. The muggy air is thankfully masked by the slightly cooled breeze. As I was driving here, my car…bit the dust.

While turning, I lost power steering, A/C; my battery warning light came on and my car let out a treacherous squeal like she’d been shot by an arrow in the gut. Turns out it was the Serpentine belt.

Minwé, my car, has had a rough time lately. Last week her A/C died, costing me a pretty penny (a really pretty penny). We’ve had our fair share of problems and fix-its, her and I. But I’ve never doubted God’s faithfulness and goodness.

The reason I call her Minwé is actually an interesting story of God’s faithfulness.

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168. That’s how many hours we all have in a week. If you average 8 hours a night for sleep, it leaves you with 112 waking-hours. In that amount of time, you could do a lot of things. Like: make 12,320 vinyl records, quilt 5.5 quilts or read the entire Bible roughly 1.6 times.

Needless to say, we all have a lot of time in life. Yet, the most common complaint is, “There’s not enough time in the day.” I’m guilty of this complaint, and it is usually an excuse for poor planning. The issue at hand is that we don’t schedule and prioritize our time according to our life vision and goals.

It’s great to write out a life-vision and life-goals, but if they don’t translate into every-day-action, then they are useless.

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At the end of every believer’s life, they will stand before Christ and their works will be judged. All of their actions will be laid out on the table and they will be rewarded according to them. This judgement seat is not the same as the Great White Throne judgement, where sinners are cast into the eternal lake of fire, but it is still equally devastating.

At this judgment seat, our salvation is not on the line, but our rewards are. In that day, some will feel deep sorrow and regret for the life they squandered and choices they made. Regret on that day will be a terrible, irreversible pain.

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Emily’s Bible
When I was 7 I knew this frizzy haired girl  (I don’t even remember her name, so I’ll call her Emily) whose face was framed in with a pair of massive granny glasses. She was clad in a denim jumper with those nasty white and black shoes, you know the ones I’m talking about. The kind that is only completed when you’re wearing socks that seem to explode at the top with ribbons and ‘poofs’. Well, Emily liked me. It was odd. Of course, I was a 7 year old boy. More interested in building forts with my friend Daniel than girls. Don’t get me wrong, I had a few crushes, but just not on this one. Oh, did I mention Emily was homeschooled? 

One Sunday morning during our Children’s Church’s special event called Bible Olympics (imagine Chariots of Fire music) Emily and I were sitting a row apart from each other. I was on the front row, she was on the second. During the Bible Olympics games the teams are split up boys vs girls, and I was on the team that was playing against Emily’s. We won the round of Bible trivia and paraded back to our seats with excitement. Then wam, smashed in the face with a hard back Bible… Emily threw a hard back Bible at my face. Why on Earth would a 7 year girl throw a hard-back Bible at the face of a boy she liked? This was only the beginning of the Great Confusion.

THE OBLIVIOUS JERK
I was 15-years-old when I thought I had girls completely figured out. I had grown out of my adolescent years of playing the game during recess where girls chased boys around trying to kiss them, and boys subsequently screamed and ran like the girl has the bubonic plague. Cooties were no longer a problem. I thought I was doing pretty good for a dude. Age 15 and I have the world of understanding girls checked off. “They’re not so complicated,” I thought, “Just give them chocolate, watch some chick-flicks with them, and talk about what’s wrong with them.” Good thing I had a girl-friend who told me bluntly that I was an oblivious jerk. But, of course, myself being the oblivious jerk that I was wrote her off, ”She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I’m a genius. I don’t get why guys think girls are so confusing.”

THE OUTCOME
After 22 years of the proverbial hard-back Bibles being thrown at my face, I am resolute in thinking I will never fully understand women. And I’m pretty sure they will never fully understand me. I’ve talked with a lot of women who say that it’s guys who are the confusing ones. What? No way! Guys are easy to get… Girls are enigmas wrapped in a paradox hidden inside a treasure chest wrapped in bacon. But maybe this Massive Divide in understanding, the Great Confusion, is more than just guys being oblivious jerks. Maybe it’s that we’re fundamentally designed to reflect the unsearchable heart of a ‘confusing’ God? Genesis 1:27 says,

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

More than just being physically male and female, God made our emotions, soul, mind and heart male and female. Both made in His image. The masculine and feminine soul both reflect different aspects in the heart of God. God’s heart contains both the valiant King who clothes His neck with thunder (Job 39:19), and the empathetic counselor who keeps track of all my sorrows, collects all my tears in His bottle, records each one in His book (Ps. 56:8). Maybe the reason we don’t understand each other is that God’s heart can never be fully understood. His emotions and character is vast, and ours is a dim reflection of that same vastness. Maybe next time you find yourself thinking, “I don’t understand them!” (it’s bound to happen) pause and ask God, “Is there something I can learn about Your heart through this? Can you teach me something about Your heart?” If not, then we’re gonna be in confusion for a very long time…

Did you know our destiny isn’t preset? Our lives aren’t on an inevitable collision course with fate? Apparently I didn’t! Sure, I knew my actions would affect my outcome, but I subconsciously thought God has a predetermined plan for my life and no tiny choice can alter it. I thought that God has a life (wife, kids, ministry) for me and nothing I can do now will affect that later. Pal, that aint right! Our lives, plans, and character are directly affected by the smallest choices we make — for good or for bad.

Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide…is the way that leads to destruction… Narrow…is the way which leads to life… (Matt. 7:13-14)” I don’t think He meant that the only ones on the broad path to destruction are those who are clearly rebelling. It’s not just our great big life choices that put us on either path, but every teensy tiny choice pushes us toward one or the other. Every time we choose to do bad (gossipping, looking at that person with lust in our hearts, speaking out of anger) we are pushing ourselves onto that broad path leading to destruction. Conversely, every choice for righteousness pushes us toward the narrow path leading to life.

Notice something interesting about these two paths Jesus speaks of: there is not a third one. There is either wide or narrow, good or bad. There is no middle ground. There is no such thing as coasting and no such thing as It’s neither bad nor good for me. Gal. 5:16-26 makes it clear that we are either walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh, and these war against each other.

The only collision course we have with destiny is the one we choose — day by day, choice by choice. What path will you choose to be pushed toward today?