A Loss For Words

What do you tell someone who is at wits’ end with life when that person not only knows all of the good news and hope of Jesus, but actually helped you discover it yourself?

Filed under: Contemplation, Faith, Life, Prayer, Questions

Catch 22

As I was walking next door to the gas station during my three o’clock walk, I found myself thinking again about how much I hate my clothes. I’m fed up with all the stuff I wear. I’ve been basically wearing the same crap for over 5 years. And I didn’t like it to begin with. Sure, I’ll add another dopey piece to the lineup every so often, but it’s still basically the same stuff.

But every single time I think to myself that I’m going to burn them all and start over fresh, I think about how wasteful that is in the whole scheme of things. That these clothes are still doing their purpose and aren’t in bad shape. That there are others that would kill to have more than one shirt to choose from in a given week.

So here I sit, again, feeling like a friggin idiot, pondering what to do.

Filed under: Clothes, Contemplation

Russell the father of Tanner

… Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
Abiud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Eliud …

Do you ever gloss over these sections of the Bible? In most cases they are trying to establish lineage lines for prophesies, but for those of us who already believe, what significance does it have? Try thinking about them in this light… we all are part of an ongoing story that has been going on since the beginning of time. How cool is that?

Filed under: Bible, Contemplation, Genealogy, Tanner

God Speak

While I was at a concert festival over the weekend there was about an hour and a half break inbetween two acts and there was a speaker to fill the time. He was talking about a series of events that happened where there was no other conclusion than that God was speaking to him. For instance, he was convicted about a certain subject one day and the next Sunday the preacher preached about that exact topic. Then he went to buy a new study bible and when he got home one of the pages was folded over and when he read what was on the page, again it was the exact same topic. He even read some of the footnotes of the scripture and it told him to go to a another passage, then later in the week he started listening to a series of devotionals on tape from a friend (that had been given to him months ago) and in the very first one it talked about exact same thing and referenced the scriptures he had just read that were bookmarked and footnoted.

Crazy huh?

During the concerts I would sometimes drift over to the fence where all the tour buses were. One of the times I wondered what what happen if David Crowder was walking by and said hi. What would I say to him? What questions would I have for him during a conversation? The first two things that came to my mind were 1) How have you dealt with the loss of your good friend Kyle Lake? and 2) How do your concert songs translate into your corporate worship services at Waco Baptist? I’m weird in that I have conversations like that in my head all the time, but seriously, those were things I was asking David as we sat on a park bench and chatted, and those were the only two things I could think of to talk to him about (other than telling him what a huge fan I was).

Would you believe that Monday at work I was prowling through the internet looking for something about a bonus track on David Crowders recent album and I came across This Article.

Crazy huh?

Filed under: Contemplation, David Crowder, Kyle Lake

Where’s the line?

Pre 9/11 I never watched or listened to the news. Never. I simply didn’t care. Now every day I read the news online and watch some on TV, and every day I see and hear stories that are so far out there that they don’t even register as being real. Just in the last couple weeks I’ve read about atrocities in the Congo, a dad throwing a baby in a dryer, a man trying to abduct a child in Michigan, and today they found nine heads on the side of the road in Iraq.

Do I really live in such a world? Do I really need to know these things are going on? I’d love to go back to not even knowing this is going on, but I know that isn’t the right thing to do either. Where do you draw the line between being oblivious, sticking your head in the sand, and knowing too much information?

Filed under: Contemplation, Crap, News

Tombstone

Have you ever thought about what you would want to have said on your tombstone? I’ve always thought that this is what I would want on mine. I want to be known more for what I gave than for what I took. Not simply monetarily, but also my time, energy, prayers, sweat, encouragement, possessions, attention, ear, support, whatever. I’ve got a long way to go, mostly because I hang around such giving people, but this goal keeps me in check.

Filed under: Contemplation, Questions

Gnothi Seauton

“In the expansive hour of relaxation, the ruling disposition of the heart is instantly manifested.” –Oswald Chambers

Filed under: Contemplation, Oswald Chambers, Quotes

Selah

Selah (Hebrew: סלה) meaning “pause, reflection”, within the context of a prayer or psalms, is similar in purpose to Amen in that it stresses the importance of the preceding passage.

We need more of this in our busy lives. Take time for Selah today.

Filed under: Contemplation, Pause, Selah