Cure For The Common Doubt

blink

Sitting in church this morning, I watched as a casket was brought to the stage, flanked by flowers and sad faces. The pastor took his place in front of the congregation and began to speak. 

No, this was not a funeral, but it was a wake up call. We were all invited to think of the day when we would be the ones inside the wooden box, still and lifeless. It will happen to us all and it will happen in a blink.

It seems this is the perfect message to bring about on the anniversary of 9/11. How many people leaving for work that morning knew their blink would end in mere hours? How many fought with their loved one as they walked out the door? How many left things undone or unsaid?

Now, think of those people who were spared. The ones greatly angered by a flat tire that made them late, who later were never so grateful for a nail on the road. Or the ones who were cursing former bosses for firing them just the day before, now relieved to be out of work. 

Every moment of our lives is a chance to pause and react. You may have heard it said that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. How will you react to what happens to you today? Will you allow your emotions to get control of you and cause you to act in anger? Or will you take the traffic jam with joy, relishing in the chance for a quiet moment, or the possibility of missing a worse fate? Will you embrace every chance you get to tell someone how much you love them and how much they mean to you? Will you talk to someone today about what happens when their blink is over?

We only have one life and one chance to make it count. At the end of your life, what will the impact be of your blink?

You know those pesky little pieces of wood that from time to time end up in places where they shouldn’t be? Splinters. We all get them. It’s a sign of springtime in my house when my daughter comes in, feet laden with tiny pieces of wood and much pain. Just today, she had a rather large such splinter on the bottom of her foot and refused to even walk on it because the pain was too great.

It took some effort to convince my daughter to let me take out the splinter. Afraid of the pain, she whined and cried, “No!” In my desperation to get her to cooperate, I almost told her it would not hurt. Luckily, the lie died on my tongue and I realized truth and honestly were more important. It would hurt. Anyone who’s ever gotten a splinter knows that only the rarest are removed with no pain. So, I told her, “I will do everything I can to keep it from hurting, but it might still hurt. You know what, though? If we don’t get it out, tomorrow it will hurt really bad and it will still have to come out and will hurt even worse if we leave it there.”

After some slight coercion with a piece of gum, I convinced her to let me take out the splinter. I cleaned it first and carefully, while in the midst of children’s worship songs, I removed every piece of the splinter. But we were still not done. There was a good chance some dirt had been on that wood and so I had to clean the cut made by the splinter to make sure nothing would be left behind to cause infection. There will surely be subtle pain, but now empty and clean, the wound will quickly heal and soon be forgotten.

Just like a tiny piece of wood can cause so much pain and heartache, do does sin cause pain and heartache to our spirits. It starts out innocent enough and often seems harmless – well, it’s just one song downloaded, it’s only a few miles over the speed limit. Whatever the sin, it gets stuck in your spirit like a sliver in your hand. Sometimes, we don’t know it’s there at first. Eventually, you will either see it or it will become infected and make itself known by way of great pain.

The best time to remove a splinter is right after it happens. Somehow, the immediateness prevents the wood from clinging and those splinters you catch the second they happen are the easiest and most pain free. But then there are the sneaky ones. You wake up in the morning, going about your normal day. You reach for your coffee cup and all of the sudden there is sharp, unexpected pain as your hand experiences the heat and pressure from the mug. You look, shocked, and find the culprit. A tiny splinter, now surrounded by red, sensitive skin. Maybe it’s even started to get infected and is pussing. With great pain, you remove the splinter. After the agony of digging in the sensitive area to get the offender out, there is still the affect of the infection. If not treated properly and if any piece of that splinter remains, it will not heal and will continue to fester. If the infection were left alone, untreated, it would eventually cause you to lose your hand, and once the infection spread far enough in your body – your life. Who knew a tiny sliver of wood could cause so much trouble?

Sin can be painful or difficult to remove, but it’s the sin we allow to remain that causes the most agony in our lives. If not caught quickly, the infection starts. First, it’s a little redness – maybe a speeding ticket or you get caught in a lie. But, sure enough, the infection grows if the sin remains. Soon, the whole area is affected. That one beer you used to drink after work to relax has turned into several and before you know it, you’re getting drunk, you’re getting into fights, you’re getting DUI’s and one day, you find yourself in jail or have become an alcoholic. The infection begins to spread to the rest of your life. You lose your money first, then your car. When you show up at work drunk or hung-over, you lose your job, then your house when you can’t pay your bills. Finally, you destroy every relationship you have, through drunken rage, persistent lying, or the constant borrowing of money, and lose those who love you. After time, your health fails and you die a painful death of liver cancer, alone and homeless or in jail.

Does that sound extreme? It’s a harsh reality that many live and is a possibility for us all. Any and every sin has the potential to destroy each area of our lives. Maybe it’s not alcohol for you. Maybe you’re a “good” enough Christian that you don’t drink. But maybe you look at a dirty magazine just once and a while. Maybe you take extra pain relievers when you don’t really need them. Maybe you reach for the chocolate instead of your Bible. Maybe it’s a little flirting at the office to boost your self-esteem. If you’re lucky, your sin is that obvious. You can spot it quickly – if you look for it – and you can remove it before it causes pain and infection. With a little worship and healing, the sin is soon forgiven and forgotten.

But maybe you’re not that lucky. Maybe you have sin that isn’t so easy to see, that’s even justifiable (in your eyes). Maybe it’s lunchtime gossip. Maybe it’s downloading software that you can’t afford, but really need. Maybe you’re only giving the minimum tithe from your paycheck. Maybe you do volunteer work grudgingly because you feel like you have to. Maybe God has called you and you’re not listening.

Disobedience is not only about the sins we allow into fruition. It’s our thoughts, too. It’s the sin that seems minor or doesn’t hurt anyone (so we think). Those are the splinters in our spirit that sneak in unnoticed and aren’t discovered until it’s far too late. Those are the ones that can leave lasting damage or fester for years before they are treated. Those are the ones that have the greatest potential to bring the most suffering and in the end, those will be the ones that lead you into spiritual death because you refuse to acknowledge them, let alone treat them.

Let’s not forget either, that the splinter (sin) must be removed in full for it to heal correctly. If any part is allowed to remain – “Well I’ll just eat one little grape while I’m finishing my shopping, but I’ll pay for the rest of them this time.” Or, “I’ll watch that R rated movie just this once because, well, everyone said it’s good even if there is a lot of sin in it.” Any part you allow to remain, any dirt left behind after the fact, will still cause infection in your spirit. And once you have removed the bulk, but have only a speck of dirt left in a now-infected cut, good luck getting it out. Not only will it be much harder to see, but now it will be much more painful. Jesus has already felt the blistering infection of your sin. The pain Jesus experienced on the cross to pay for our inequities was far greater than any caused by most splinters (though He surely received many of those while hanging on a rough piece of wood).

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (ESV). This is one of many verses about how we will be judged. The fact is, one day our lives will end and we will face Jesus. Even if we make it into Heaven, our place there will be determined by what we have done. He will look at how we served Him (1 Corinthians 9:4-27), how we fulfilled the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), how we handled sin and temptation (Romans 6:1-4), and how we speak to others (James 3:1-9). And these are only some of the verses that speak of how we are judged.

Check yourself daily and completely. Search not only for those sins which may be obvious, but do not overlook those that seem harmless or minor. The Bible says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” (Psalm 139:23 ESV). This is something God will help you with. Ask Him, and He will search you and point out every painful sin that needs to be removed from your life.

When He removes your splinters, He does it with precise skill. Just like my daughter trusting in her mommy, you have to trust Him that He will do it as pain-free as possible, that no piece will He leave behind, and that He will clean the wound, allowing it to heal. There may be pain involved in the removing and even in the healing, but in the end, you will suffer far less and save yourself from misery or Hell if you remove the sin in your life quickly and completely.

I accidentally rediscovered a song just the other day. I was just at the start of my high school days in 1995 when it first came out and while I do remember enjoying the song then, I know I did not grasp the true meaning behind it.

The song is called “I Believe” by Blessid Union of Souls. I was looking for a different song when I found this one, but as soon I heard the first line, my finger froze on the mouse button. It opens with the line, “Walk blindly to the light and reach out for His hand. Don’t ask any questions and don’t try to understand.”

My jaw dropped and I turned up the volume to listen more intently. The chorus came next and I found myself singing along in instant recollection. “I believe love is the answer. I believe love will find the way.”

I continued listening and couldn’t keep the tears from my eyes during the next verse. “Violence is spread worldwide and there’s families on the street. We sell drugs to children now, oh, why can’t we just see? That all we do is eliminate our future with the things we do today. Money is our incentive now so that makes it okay.” The last verse of the song talks about hope for wiping out racism, “And one day he’ll understand. He’ll see me as a person, not just a black man.” The sad truth rang through me, gripping me. Fifteen years passed since that song was written, yet nothing has changed. If anything, things have gotten worse.

This song describes so many of the problems going in the world. The great thing is, it gives us the answer, too. Love is the answer. It’s real easy to blow that off as some lovey dovey chick concept, but that attitude is part of the problem. Love isn’t something you watch actors do on the big screen. It’s not even something you do in your everyday life. It’s a way of living, it’s a way of being.

Picture for a moment what the world would look like if we all truly applied the love of Christ in all we do. Racism – gone. Crime – eliminated. Hungry, hurting, and lost – fed, healthy, and saved. It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? Yet, that is exactly how it should be. God created the world to run on love and in love.

It’s not even a suggestion. We are commanded to love. Jesus makes it very clear in Matthew 22:36-40: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” What this verse really says is that God demands for us to love Him more than anything or anyone and that demand is closely followed by another – to love the world like we love ourselves.

You’ve heard it a million times. Put others first, don’t be selfish. What does that really mean, though? It means when you‘re doing your holiday shopping you don’t forget about the kids who will have no gifts for Christmas. It means that you don’t get offended that someone says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, but that you smile and bless them the same, knowing that they are merely conforming to the world, and that needs prayer. Not being selfish means you don’t sit waiting for the perfect parking spot or get mad when someone cuts you off at the last minute. That you hold the doors for others, that you give away that extra buck instead of buying another over priced coffee, that you take the time to talk to someone instead of being so busy by life. It means that you invest in relationships, knowing that five minutes of conversation can mean more to a person than an expensive gift. It means that this Christmas, when your holiday dinner isn’t perfect, you are still grateful that you have food to eat. It means that you appreciate the people who are sometimes the hardest to love – your family. It means all this and so much more.

Our national day of Thanksgiving may be passed, but being grateful should not be a one day a year thing. Being grateful for your blessings is part of that loving God thing. Sharing those blessings with others is part of that loving others thing.

Grow your grace, stretch your mercy, and focus on the good in everyone you encounter. Try it sometime. I know it’s easy to judge and be petty. When your mind jumps to a negative, force yourself to find at least one thing you like about someone. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. When you can see people as God does, it’s easier to love them. God knows what he’s doing. When you don’t love one of His creations, it’s like telling Him He did it wrong. I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t want to be someone who goes around telling God He’s wrong.

Love is the answer. Jesus was not wrong about that, either. We all have it in us. We would not be commanded to do something we are incapable of. Be that love the world so needs. You’d be surprised how easily problems get answered when you let love find the way.

Sometimes all it takes is convincing someone to get on the bus…

There is a story of salvation that goes something this:

Once upon a time a young boy of age four went to church. After many, many attempts by his neighbor, he decided that it sounded like fun, hopped on the church bus that came around town picking kids up and attended his first service. Whether it was the power of the Holy Spirit or the fact that they gave him candy, we may never know, but whatever the reason, this boy kept on going. A short time after, he accepted the Lord and his salvation.

Now that the boy was going to church, his mother decided to join him and take along his younger brother. One member of the family refused to attend, however. Their father would often times stay home or sit in the car while the family was in the service.

This father will even tell you that the first time he braved the journey through the doors to hear a sermon, it was a teaching on tithing, to which he stood up angrily, declared that he had discovered the real purpose of the church which was to get his money, and stormed out.

Now, anyone who knows the Lord and the power of His Spirit knows that sometimes He works in mysterious ways. I can tell you that while this family may have seemed doomed to be ripped apart through faith and the lack of, quite the opposite happened.

Fast forward many years to the present. The same father that refused to attend services is now a pastor, on staff at a mega church and is one of the Godliest men I know. The boys and their mother regularly attend church, and I mean that’s 1-3 times a week minimum. They and their families are all involved in the church and with their church families and all have an amazing love for the Lord.

It is because of this family that I married into that I am now saved. Through their support and ministering and the wonderful body of believers, I not only love the Lord, but I am also out there sharing the Word and making a difference to only God knows how many people.

The point is this. Had that neighbor, now over thirty-three years ago, not convinced a small boy to get on the bus to church, the family may not have found Jesus. But because she did, countless lives have been touched and many, many others continue to be touched. Telling just one person the Truth can begin a chain reaction that leads to thousands of lives changed.

Sometimes all it takes is convincing someone to get on the bus…

One of my most loved life moments occurs when a musical discovery about one of my favorite songs finds me. Realization slams into me like a crashing wave filling me with a deep joy that meets my ears and trickles down into my heart, rushing around my soul and lifting me up. One of these precious moments occurred to me one night in late October.

I had recently discovered and fallen head-over-heels in love with the band Family Force 5 (FF5). If you haven’t heard them, go buy their CD or hit up MySpace RIGHT NOW. These guys are true musical geniuses in many ways and I have listened to very little besides their 2 CDs since I first heard “Dance or Die” a month ago. Their lyrics and music float around my head and control my tongue and I love every second of it. But before I get to my latest musical realization, I need to tell you about what happened over the last month.

My husband introduced me to FF5. As he often does, he started a song and said to me, “Check out these guys.” Being as in touch with the musical world as he is, I hear this phrase frequently and am exposed to such a wide array of new music that it often takes me several listens to really pay much attention to a particular band or song. This time, however, my ears perked up and my head spun around as he played “Dance or Die”. “They sound like Daft Punk!” I exclaimed (which is a very good thing because I love the electronic beats and musical excitement songs like “Around the World” create). My attention was more than gotten.

We had been in the car for a while that night and by the time the rotation of songs was up and “Dance or Die” came around again, we arrived at our hotel. As my husband went to check us in, I found myself half asleep and alone with Family Force 5 in the pitch dark. I had no choice but to focus my full attention on what I was hearing. My head was bobbing and my foot tapping and then I heard something which made me crack up laughing. “1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a dance war.” It was the silliest thing I had heard in a long time and I absolutely loved it. From that day on, I was hungry for more. It became a common thing for me to say or text to my husband, “1, 2, 3, 4…..” and get the reply, “I declare a dance war!”

This happened at a time in my life when things had been going badly. I was backslidden and hurting and forgotten completely what the inside of my church looked like (it had been completely remodeled, but that was beside the point). I needed something to get me moving inside and out and this new-found musical love was just the thing I required to put a smile on my face and make me shake my booty. I love to be silly and have fun in all I do and lyrics like “Shaky shake up the dead now” are just the sort of thing I thrive on.

After a few solid listens all the way through Dance or Die, I was fully addicted and loving it when I remembered my husband telling me that Family Force 5 is a Christian band. I remember actually saying to him, “Are you sure these guys are a Christian band? Because I just don’t hear God in there.” I think he muttered something about being on a Christian label and not much else was said at the time. I should tell that you up until this point, the majority of my experience with Christian music consisted of the songs sung during worship at church and my 2 favorite Christian artists, Jars of Clay and Jeremy Camp. I wasn’t used to having to search for the God in the music. It was blatantly obvious and my naivety of the Christian music scene led me to believe that all artists in this genre would follow the same pattern.

I’m still trying to figure out how I could have been so ridiculously blind and completely missed so much of it, but all I can say to that is sometimes when you’re blinded by ignorance, you need someone to lead you to new eyes before you can use them.

Slightly earlier that October my husband and I had brought up the subject again of the lack (or so I thought) of God in Family Force 5 lyrics. I just wasn’t getting it so I made him show me. We went song by song deciphering lyrics and the epiphanies hit me one after another. A few were fairly obvious – “D-I-E 4 Y-O-U” contains lines like “Every day I die for you. Throw me in the fire, I’d walk right through”. Some were harder than others but slowly, I got over the fact that love is not exclusive to a male/female relationship, like in “Love Addict”. When you pay attention to the few lines snuck in here and there, “What I’ve got in my soul gives me the highest delight. Oh yeah it’s better than drugs. In fact it’s sent from above,” it starts to become clear. I think the hardest one for me to accept was “First Time”. I argued that it had to be about a girl because he says they kissed and danced all night. I was reminded that it’s not necessarily a literal kiss. People are “kissed” and “touched” by God all the time. And I should know better than anyone that some nights you do end up dancing and talking all night with God, especially when you go to a church like mine. I’ve been there when it was nearing 1am and people are still laid out on the floor and others are in heaps crying and shaking while being prayed over. God doesn’t end just because the church service does.

Once I finally opened my ears and started listening, I finally got it. These guys have more Christian lyrics than you would believe, you just have to know what to listen for and delve far beneath the surface of what sounds like secular lyrics and realize that, when you point it to God and “put a little love in it”, He’s there. In fact, He’s EVERYWHERE.

By now it’s late October and I have listened to both Business in the Front, Party in the Back and Dance or Die no less than 30 times, picking apart every word, listening with linear notes in hand. My husband and I had determined that the majority of Family Force 5 music is greatly God-filled with a few songs that actually are about a girl. There was one song we both really liked, and often got our 2-year-old singing called “Fever”. We figured that it was just about dancing and that it only related to God in a dance-worship sort of way. We had this discussion on the way to church on a Friday night.

As I’m sitting there later that night, deep into God-mode, listening intently to every word missionary evangelist Georgian Banov says, it washed over me. He was talking about his experience getting saved and finding his calling. In particular he was describing one night when he saw a vision of heaven and was baptized in fire by God. Bolts of fire smacked into him filling him with the love of God and it was hot! “Hot, hot, hot!” he exclaimed and as he did, a line from “Fever” jolted into my head – “Hot, hot, hot, hot to the touch, to the Nth degree”. My mouth dropped to the floor as I felt it hit me. The wave of realization washed over me with the biggest “OH!” I could imagine. That’s what that song is about! (Or at least, it is to me) I was so excited that I even dug into my pocket, pulled out my cell phone and sent a text to my husband, who was up in the music control room that night directing the cameras. Now, of course without asking them, I don’t know if that song is really about something similar or not. Who knows. Maybe one of them was deliriously sick one night with a flu bug and wrote that song. I doubt it though.

After that night I started to hear Him in all songs of all types, secular or otherwise. You may find it silly, but when you want to, you can make anything about God. After all, He did create everything, didn’t He? You could stand there and shout at me “That’s not what that song is about!” And you may very well be 100% correct. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. To truly understand you have to visit the original principle of all music. Its purpose is enjoyment for the listener. I’ll bet you could ask any song writer and they will tell you the same thing. It’s about what you think it’s about and how you interpret it is what it’s meant to be. If you get God from a song about bouncing jellyfish, then, my friend, you have accomplished something truly beautiful.

Whether “Fever” is really about being baptized by God in the fire or something completely random, I may never know. But this I do know. Every time from this moment forward that I hear that song, I will think of Georgian up on the stage during a Friday night river meeting, telling the moving story of how he got saved and found God. It will bring a smile to my face and fill my eyes with tears because I will remember how I felt listening to him talk that night and it will remind me of God’s glorious power. In the end, isn’t that the true goal of any Christian presenting a message in any format?

I would love to thank the guys of Family Force 5 for not only providing me with endless hours of musical enjoyment, but also for reminding me why I started listening to Christian music in the first place. There is nothing else in life that can present a message while stirring your soul and swelling your heart quite like music can. It is at once powerful and healing and is the greatest way we can worship our Lord.

Let us find a good musician to play the harp whenever the tormenting spirit troubles you. He will play soothing music, and you will soon be well again.
- 1 Samuel 16:16 (NLT)

From the first time I heard Switchfoot sing the words, “The shadow proves the sunshine,” it gave me chills. It’s all too easy to feel cold in the darkness and forget that the shadow would not exist if the sun’s bright light had not first existed. It’s so easy to give up on God when things aren’t going our way. We expect much in return for our measly prayers and weak faith, but often we don’t deserve even half of what the Lord provides for us. When something goes wrong we think God has abandoned us or doesn’t love us. We might even at times feel as though there is no God at all.

When things go wrong in your life, instead of using the old standby, “What Would Jesus Do?” why not use an example from someone human like us? I like to wonder, “What Would Job Do?” Though by no means a man who deserves our worship as we are to only give to Jesus, Job sets a wonderful human example of how unfailing faith should act.

Job looses everything. The devil takes his wealth and all 10 children – in one day. When that wasn’t enough for Job to curse God, the devil also took his health and gave him constant pain and agony. Not much else could have gone wrong for poor ‘ole Job. Then his friends show up and tell him he must have sinned or done something wrong and that he deserved it all. Thanks for the support and friendship! Many of us in his position would be close to suicide or mental breakdown. Even for those of us who do have a solid trust in the Lord, it would only be natural to wonder what we had done to deserve such horrible consecutive tragedies and think that in some way we have failed and God has failed us.

Yet Job did not lose faith and in the end, he was rewarded greatly. So why did God allow the devil to put Job through all that heartache? God wanted to test Job. He wanted to see how dedicated he was and know without a doubt that his loyalty could be trusted with heavenly treasures.

When you start to really live your life for the Lord you begin to see how insignificant so many things in life are. Someone cuts you off in traffic… Did it cause an accident? No. Did it really affect your life in any way? No. Do you want to have to answer to God on judgment day, explaining why you let your anger get out of control and contaminate your heart, distracting you from Him? Thank God He kept you safe, pray for the safety of the reckless driver and move on with your day. It’s not worth your energy or a single thought. While people hurt us in much more significant ways than in traffic, this way of thinking can be applied to anything that threatens to make you jump off the path that leads to peace and the Lord.

Life is not easy, nor is it meant to be. Does a child given everything from birth truly appreciate what it’s like to count every penny and work for a living? Likewise we do not understand true joy without knowing pain. Nothing that happens to you on Earth is worth jeopardizing the rewards God has in store for you. You will be tested constantly but do not forget that your trials are not without reason. Learn from it and praise the Lord through it. There is no shadow without sunshine, there is no hardship without God’s glory.

I recently discovered a local band named About a Mile. One song has captured my attention. It’s called, “Send Me an Angel.” One line in particular got me thinking… “Maybe I’ll try, cause I’ve tried everything else. Maybe they’re right and I’m not strong enough to do this by myself.”

What is it that makes us do that? Why do we try anything and everything else to fill the hole that so obviously can only be filled by God? Drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, work, video games. Whatever fills the time, whatever makes life less empty. Yet the more we shove something that doesn’t fit into that hole, the bigger and emptier it gets.

Why especially, do those who once achieved wholeness in becoming a follower of Christ fall away, thinking a life with no God is easier, happier, better? I tried to recall my own backslidden days and I can honestly not remember why. It was not easier, but so much harder in every way. Not happier, not even close, in fact those were some of my most anguish-filled days. Definitely not better. I even came one signature away from being divorced. What was it that made me walk away in the first place and why did it take over three years for me to realize what I was missing? Why did I give up on something good and willingly choose to make my life miserable?

Perhaps it has something to do with the “work” involved. Living a life with no sin can be tricky and yes, sometimes even appear to be much less fun. Who doesn’t enjoy a good night of binge drinking, complete with headache and hangover? It may even seem cheaper. I get to keep all my income and no one makes me feel like I should be giving more than 10% of it. I don’t have to worry about praying or showing love for others. I am free to criticize, curse, gossip and reject anyone whom I choose to. And in the end, I am also free to burn in flames for eternity because of those choices. Is a night, a month, a year of “fun” worth forever in torture?

How can it be that a God who so loves every single one of us unlovable sinners and wants us to feel that love and love each other, seem to so many to be untrustworthy and even unlovable Himself? Who else in your life would do the things for you God has done? Who else is even capable of that? No one. John 14:6 says plainly, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” He didn’t say a way, He said the way. And yes, no one includes you. But maybe you really don’t want to admit to yourself that He has done anything at all or that His words are true, because that would mean leaving behind your easy sin-filled life. It would mean giving it all up, leaving it all behind.

And for what? A life filled with prayer, Bible reading and church? Why does that seem so boring in comparison? When did humans decide that good was boring and bad was enjoyable? If you had to choose between living without a conscious, free to do or say whatever you so choose to do, but be without joy, or living a life of forgiveness, patience and acceptance to even those you dislike, but be filled with peace and contentment, which would you choose?

How miserable do you really have to make yourself before you will give up the unhappiness that pretends to be comfortable? What is your bottom and how close are you willing to get to it to find out?

Is being Christian really that boring? Is being unhappy really worth it? Is Hell really where you want to go? Maybe you are starting to realize you’re not strong enough to do this by yourself. Maybe you have tried everything else. Maybe you’re finally ready to make the change that will alter your entire perception permanently. Would you at least be willing to try?

Life is hard because we can’t do it alone. We were never meant to. Living without God very plainly goes against human nature. We were created to love, to be loved and to spend our lives loving Him. Anything else falls short.

Living a life dedicated to following Jesus does not mean that things always go your way or that you are suddenly impervious to worry, guilt, depression, anger or even doubt. What it does mean is that when things do go wrong, when those bad feelings threaten to pull you under, you have a lifeline. A constant source of air in your drowning, a knowing that no matter what, in the end life is temporary. In the end we will be inconceivably happy being with Him in Heaven.

Our life on Earth will be reflected for eternity in our afterlife. We only get one shot to do it right and there is only one way to do it. There are no re-dos, no going back, no starting over. Start now. Don’t waste another minute trusting your misery. Trust Jesus and never look back.

Living life as it was meant to be lived is far from boring or even ordinary. I could try to describe what it’s like to see everything washed in a positive light, to know what’s really important and be able to separate it from what’s trivial. To wake up feeling nearly giddy some days and others be filled with a complete sense of peace. I could try to describe it, but I’d rather you find out for yourself.

No matter how hard it may be to give up your misery, the easiest part of life is loving God. There is no one more lovable and no one who will ever love you more.

When I first heard the Switchfoot song, “Happy is a Yuppie Word,” I didn’t really get it. Are they downing happiness? With lyrics like, ” Happy is a yuppie word. Blessed is the man who’s lost it all,” it sure seems that happiness is not really the end goal of these Christians. But isn’t the whole point of following Christ to enjoy your life? The truth is, no. A Christian’s happiness is merely a fringe benefit for being obedient to the Lord.

“Yuppies” as they call them, are representing that group of hard working, middle class people who struggle constantly, with God or without, on an endless quest to achieve what they consider to be success. Many believe success, money, a fancy title and even a strong faith are the things that bring joy and satisfaction to life. I challenge you to redefine “happiness” as you know it.

The only way to find that feeling we all long for, that unshakable, unending joy, is to truly understand what your life’s mission is and begin to walk in it. God put you here to do His work. You are here to love and worship Him, to love others and to be a constant work in progress through a relationship with God.

I’m sure we all know someone who “has it all” materially yet is still a miserable, complaining source of irritation. We think, if only I had what they had, I wouldn’t complain and all my problems would be solved. The truth is, material possessions cannot fulfill your life and neither can mere belief in God. Only when you focus your attention on your true mission can you become fulfilled. Life is temporary, but eternal life is, well, eternal. Make your time on Earth count because once you’re dead, it’s too late.

God choose His mission for you according to you and the unique personality and talents He gave you. He gave you all you need to complete your mission with flying colors. He tells you what to do, but listen hard because He often speaks quietly. All you have to do is be obedient and do it. There is no satisfaction like knowing you are doing what God wants you to do. Only through this will your happiness and enjoyment become unshakable because you will finally understand that your reason for being down here is only to get up there.

For help finding your true purpose, I recommend reading The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. This book transformed by way of thinking and attitude toward life. It takes just 40 days, but will affect your next 40 years.