Day 5 - "Love is a waiting game. Time is enough to make the best fall apart"

For those just joining us, read Day 1's caveat.

First of all, let me say that undoubtedly my favorite band / music is anything Seth Roberts does. Yes this is a shameless plug but if you doubt, go to www.lakesband.com. The main reason I'm so drawn to it is because so much of it seems like this I would write but never could.

The music coincides with what I've learned in large part this week. I will say unashamedly that I love my friends. I love the people I work with. I love my family. I don't say I love them like Larisa Oleynik loves her Prada backpack in "10 Things I Hate About You". I mean I love my friends, I want the best for them, and if you are in my life to any degree which shows my concern or pursuit, I will probably sacrifice any and all things to build that relationship.

Patience, however, is not my strong suit. I want things now. In fact, if I have to finish the sentence and I don't have it, it's too long. You probably relate in some area whether it's loving fast food, always wanting to watch your favorite show but can't wait 6 minutes for it to be on, freaking out during a commercial break, or the biggest problem: wanting to text someone you just sent a text message to 3.5 minutes ago just to make sure they actually got the first text.

Text messaging has done two wonderful things: it has given us the ability to show people how much we care in the easiest way that has an opportunity to convey what love we can in at least a somewhat meaningful way and turned our society into instant gratification fiends.

I realized in a conversation (read: set of text messages back and form. not synonyms) today that I am typically quicker to voice a brash opinion over text messages which is actually the exact opposite of what I should aim for. James 1:19 says:

Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry." (AMP)

I don't see anywhere in there where it says "Just say whatever you want." This does not mean that I will be completely giving up text messages like I have some music any time soon. This does mean, however, that I will be answering text messages slower from here on if I don't just call you in response. I hope you'll be patient

After all, it's a hard thing, patience.

Day 4 - "I will love you for you. I will give you the love, the love that you never knew"

For those just joining us, read Day 1's caveat.

I want to say thank you to people already following this journey. It's funny that I would start a journey like this and have such immediate spiritual attack happen. It's actually encouraging! It means that I am doing something that is moving someone's heart towards God somewhere. I have woken up with a song in my heart of God and woken up pretty quickly (which is something that is hard for me). If I stopped today, this entire project would be a success. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

Today is simple: Thank you to Marilyn Carrasco for recommending JJ Heller during this journey o' mine (and I encourage anybody to contribute or recommend music I should investigate. I don't care what genre or style at all!

Honestly, sometimes it's better to just let music do its thing so I'm going to let God encourage you through JJ Heller. I hope you connect with a story somewhere, I know I do.

Day 3 - "Cause we have all we need in you"

For those just joining us, read Day 1's caveat.

For those who have not heard this idiom before, "The Refiner's Fire" suggests trial, stretching and pressure that someone endures in hopes of refining them to be better. The hard part is that as Christians, we all want to be better but we don't want to be improved. We want to be refined, but we don't want to go through being refined.

Whether it is trying to calculate how you will pay $100 more in bills than you have money, feeling like one of your best friends is mad at you (or even feeling like you're losing one of your best friends), feeling like you are a corporate pawn, feeling completely alone or looking at your life and having no idea where it is going, there seems to be something always in our way (and those are specific examples from my life and others this week).

I don't do well when friends and I aren't on the same page. So when this song came on directly after 2 different people either said or showed that my input in their life was neither wanted nor appreciated, it immediately penetrated my heart.

The main reason it penetrated my heart is how much faith I put in people. We don't think of ministry, "Christian music", or people who point us towards God of idols. We think, "I trust this person's opinion because they point me to God". We eventually get to the point, however, where we turn to that person for comfort, advice, or solace and not God. We think that we cannot get through the fire without that person. In all reality, we cannot get through the fire with anything but God.

My biggest prayer is that I would trust that I am taken care of. That He is truly ALL I need. After all, Jesus is better than the waves.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? - Matthew 6:25-27 (NIV)

Day 2 - "As surely as the sun will rise, You'll come to us! As certain as the dawn appears!"

For those just joining us, read Day 1's caveat.

I never recommend playing bible roulette. That is, flipping your bible wildly and dropping your finger like some spirit-led anchor believing that wherever you land is where God needs to speak to you specifically.

However, I must say that if you happen to be listening to a song running through your queue on Youtube, you open your bible to your ribbon (please someone correct me if I'm not calling it by some proper classy name that I've never heard of) and your eyes drop immediately to words that seem to answer what is being sung through your aforementioned queue, you've got a winner.

The words I am talking about are "come" and "call". The song was singing the phrase in the title. The song is below

The words being read from Psalm 141:1-2 were eerie in their request:

"LORD, I call upon You; hasten to me. Give ear to my voice when I cry to you. Let my prayer be set forth as incense before You, the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice."

See today I sent a text message to a close friend saying about me being stressed but that I was focused on Jesus, but I knew there were waves beneath me, I just had to stay focused on Jesus. If Peter couldn't do it, did you really think for a moment I could? I started sinking at about 1:30 thinking about all I have to do tomorrow and I remembered my friends advice about being stressed... "Stop it".

I managed to call out in that moment and felt the pull of Jesus putting me back on my feet. I couldn't last the whole day though. I don't think I could have said the sentence "Thank you for getting me back on my feet". Before the "T" in "Feet" I would have already transitioned to "But what about the waves?!" and I promptly sunk for the day before arriving home and subsequently at Psalm 141.

I may not be perfect, but I know that when we call, God comes. I hope that when I wake up tomorrow that the first thing in my mind is "I have decided, I have resolved to wait upon You, LORD" because He will come. Hopefully I will remember that tomorrow. After all, as we learned yesterday... it may not be the prettiest thing you'll ever see, but it's a new day.

Oh baby, it's a new day.

Day 1 - "And if you're like me you need hope, coffee, and melody"

To catch some of you up, I have decided that I will not be listening to any secular musicians throughout the end of January and February. For those who make much of nothing, let me go on the record and say: there is nothing inherently wrong with music by people not following Christ. Honestly, often times "secular music" has a very similar message as "Christian music" does. My only stipulation during this is that the musicians themselves are following Christ regardless of genre or message.

Warning: Call it cheesy, but I really do believe the song in your ears is usually the song in your heart. Also what you feel is the song in your heart. So this next month(ish) I will be making reference to the "song in my heart" frequently.

Now that we're all caught up...

I have listened to a lot of Gabe Dixon, MUTE MATH, Hillsong and a lot of Robbie Seay today. The main one being Robbie Seay's album, "Give Yourself Away"...

"New Day" and "Shine Your Light On Us" have awoken a very real idea with the aid of James 1. See, I hate the phrase "I understand". I hate it because in my past I have only been told "I understand" when the person just wants me to shut up. While I may have had a very similar circumstance, in all honesty I would be kidding myself if I thought I knew exactly what you were going through. However, should that really keep me from trying to?

You have needs just like I do, and there is a particular group of people James talks about having needs as well...

"External religious worship [religion as it is express in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need..." James 1:27a (AMP)

Why is it so easy to forget about them? Quite honestly, I have no idea how that could even begin to play out in my life. However, I do know that there are hurting people in my life that I can relate to, or even help. The words on my lips as I go to sleep are ones I hope you start singing:

"Yesterday's gone and today is waiting on you to show your face..."

"It might not be the prettiest thing you've ever seen, but it's a new day..."

"I'm gonna sing the song, to let you know that you're not alone..."

So it's a new day. Think of how different our world would be if we could show just 1 person that it's a new day. Yesterday is long gone. Tomorrow might bring pain. Today is all we have. Take care of each other.

We will see the song I'm singing in the morning.

Inheritance.

meek

  –adjective, -er, -est.

1.

humbly patient or docile, as under provocation from others.

I'm good at things. I am a doer. If you give me a nail, I will find a hammer. One of the main principles in management I feel, is that you should never present a problem (or a complaint) without a solution to that problem. Or at least have a desire to find a solution, even if it's not a very good one!

I have to realize, however, that while I believe I can do anything, I can't do everything. Ironically, the feeling that you can do anything is usually where people sin the most. Other than the pride side of it, most people who struggle with theft get a rush by proving they can do it. Those with sexual addictions usually focus on their ability to satisfy others. I'm sure that at some point you have gone into a situation thinking "I can do this", only to have it blow up in your face. Whether that situation is a relationship, or a job, a class, or even a specific situation. We have all failed, especially in an area we were so sure of. Even Bill Gates isn't the richest man in the world anymore. It's proof that you're never the best.

So this word, meek, carries with it an interesting addition to this. Not only does the word show that someone has power, but they are intentionally not using it. The definition even goes on to say that this person has the ability to do something and does not, even while provoked. Matthew 4 and the temptation of Christ paints a beautiful picture of true meekness.

Imagine that, if everyone were meek. We would have to be given things! We wouldn't just take them! The funny thing is that in Matthew 5 we see a promise in exchange for meekness...

Blessed [are] the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

The oddest thing about this promise to me is the choice of verbs. Meek people are blessed? It's almost a promise that if you endure, you will be given what you're waiting for. But more interesting than that is the word "inherit".

I don't know about you, but I don't own any planets or satellites. Someone would have to give me a planet, because I am quite sure that I do not have the financial resources to get one, even for Christmas. I have a friend who we used to joke only dated a particular boy because he had a trust fund. The boy didn't decide when he could access it, though. He would just inherit it when the donor died. Knowing that he had zero control over it, he was quite patient. He honestly never mentioned it, presumably because he had no control over it.

So knowing that we have no control over other peoples' lives, why do we think we have this control over ours? In Jesus' funny way, he is basically saying "I will give those who wait what they want, because they cannot get it on their own anyway". It's awesome! What awesome relationship would you have if you were patient for it, and lived your life following God? What joy would your job bring you if you did it, and waited for the opportunity to take more responsibility? How wonderful would your relationship with your family be if you prayed for the opportunity for them to ask, "What makes you tick?" and then shared with them?

Next time you want a good reminder about meekness, just observe next time you're in a restaurant. Watch the difference between the people who ask the server, "Do you know about how much longer it will be?" and the people who unashamedly complain "Where is my food?!".

The thing people don't realize, is that the hot air fueling the anger in their head will not help cook the food faster. However, waiting patiently will actually free up the server to be available to bring food as soon as it is ready, rather than dealing with complaints constantly.

So where do you need to show meekness? Where are you not being patient? Do you know that Christ wants to give you that inheritance? He loves to see his followers patient, though. Just remember, just because you have the power to, doesn't mean you have to-and ultimately, it may be all for naught anyway.

Obedience

I'm a horrible listener. I am not patient enough to listen to someone say what they want to say and let them work through it. I like to encourage, I like to teach, but I am not the best at listening in patience.

Needless to say, I was near offended to come across this message from God:

"So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it." (Hebrews 2:1, NLT)

I vividly remember laying on a raft with two friends at a lake house over the summer enjoying myself. Slowly but surely my two friends and I drifted away from the house. We were in good company, warm, and as the sun dried out our bathing suits, very comfortable and eventually sleepy. If you told me as I removed the line tying us to the dock that I would have to swim a quarter mile back, I may have made a far wiser decision.

Swimming even a quarter mile (truth be told it may have been less) while pulling along two girls on a raft was one of the most frustrating and painful experiences of my life. When we finally arrived back at the dock I was shaking from fatigue, and truth be told I should have drowned (I actually swallowed water and almost did at one point, shh, do not tell those two girls).

How many times have you untied the line and let yourself drift off? Have you told one lie and then had to lie infinitely more to cover it up? Has "just one drink" ever turned into "How am I this drunk?" Have you been undisciplined and in frustration reacted in physically punishing yourself to relieve stress through starvation or mutilation? Have you crossed a line of purity only to soon give in to temptation and sex? Have you done all of these things? Good news. You are no worse or better than I.

Personally, I do not see anything except what is right in front of me. It is definitely a problem. But when has drifting away from the anchor, the shore, the lifeline ever been fun? How many times do you say "oh, I think I am alright for now" until it is a problem? How many times do you hit the snooze alarm for "5 more minutes" until you are late? Why don't we just stand up, stand firm, and tie the line tighter?

Let's make sure we never drift down stream again.

Secure the line to a community.

Secure the line to wise people.

Secure the line to encouraging friends.

Secure the line to the God that created all of those things.

Think of the world you could live in, think of the mistakes you would not have to swim back from. Think of the fatigue you will never have to experience.

Oh, what a world that would be!