No Limits

28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” Luke 15:28-32 (NLT)

In the story of the prodigal son, the son goes off on an adventure to basically please himself. He does whatever he wants, even things he knows are not in his best interest, until one day he wakes up and realizes he has nothing. He reaches rock bottom. At that point, he decides he needs to go home.

When he arrives, his father runs to him and embraces him and welcomes him home. He is restored as a son and the celebrations begins.

His older brother however, is not happy. He stays away from the celebration not willing to go in and embrace his returned brother. Why? He feels that all his years of service should have amounted to some sort of reward. He complained because he didn’t feel his commitment was recognized. And why in the world would the father welcome in the person who did all of those wrong things?

The sad thing is we often behave in this same way. We see ourselves as good Christians and we judge whoever wants to come in. Do they measure up? Have they behaved in a way that fits our standard? What about me? These are the questions we ask (even if we wouldn’t admit it.)

As Christ-followers, these are never question we should ask. Right? Shouldn’t we be standing out front of the celebration yelling “Come on in! You are welcome and loved! We want to get to know you!”

The really neat thing about this story is that the father says “All that I have is yours.” Jesus is saying that to us too. But unlike the limited inheritance of the father in the story, there is no limit to what Jesus has to share. There is plenty to go around. We can welcome in every single person that ever lived and our inheritance as children of God will never run out.

So get out there. Invite people in. Love on them like there is no limit. Because there isn’t.

"God-Normal"

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways
    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

When someone says to you “Is that normal?” my response is almost always “Whatever that is!” Each of us has our own normal. My normal may look super chaotic to some and their normal may not be something I would embrace.

What does that mean? Normal. The definition is “conforming to a standard, usual, typical or expected.” And that is where God is not normal. He never conforms and he never does anything in a typical or expected way.

Recently, I’d been praying for something. I wasn’t sure what it would look like when God answered and honestly, I had no pre-conceived notion of how God would answer. And then he did. A week or two passed and I got a call. Someone was asking to meet. I said yes because when you get a random call out of the blue, you have to go see if it’s God calling.

I attended the meeting and sure enough, it was God calling!

The next day I was talking to God about it and it was then I realized he’d answered my prayer. Want to hear something funny? He answered it totally outside of anything I would have thought. He showed up as only he could. The way all the pieces fit together, the story that went along with the meeting and the prayer I had been praying, only God could orchestrate that.

When God shows up in my life I have two reactions. I want to dance around the room in celebration and then I want to drop to my knees and worship (all at the same time.) You see, there is no normal for God. He doesn’t do anything the way we expect and even if we don’t have any expectations, what he does is so outside the realm of what we’d ever imagine! And in my experience, he doesn’t do the same thing twice. Wrap your mind around that!

I don’t know about you but I’ll take God’s “normal” any day of the week. It’s so much more fun to follow a God that isn’t standard, usual or typical. Don’t you think?

Pursuing Happiness

I have a T-shirt that I love. It’s old and not so great looking but it’s still my favorite. On the back it says “Created to Worship.” I love it because at my core I believe this. We are created to worship. We are created to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And it is only through pursuing this that we find happiness.

But man, do we pursue other things! We pursue our careers, the perfect house, the spotless image, lots and lots of material things or the perfect entertainment. We pursue control, security and immediate gratification. Will these things make you happy? Not really at your core. You will, for a moment, feel satisfied but there will not be a peaceful happiness for long.

The Bible tells us how to find lasting happiness.

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Psalm 37:4
So rejoice in the Lord and be glad. Psalm 32:11
Yes, joyful are those who live like this! Joyful indeed are those whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:15
Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Philippians 4:4

When we are in pursuit of Jesus, that’s when we find true, deep-down happiness. No matter what’s happening around us, to us and in us, we are at peace.

You were created with a God-sized hole in your heart. Only he can fill it. How are you searching for happiness today? What are you pursuing? Is it working?

Beautiful Silence

If God remains silent, who is fit to raise his voice against Him? Job 34:29 (VOICE)

Some days when I pray and sit down to write these posts, I get nothing. God doesn’t say anything about what he wants to say. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t give me a clue.

That happens when I pray too. I don’t hear an answer. I can’t figure out what He wants.

There are so many articles out there about what we can do when God isn’t speaking. And sure, the self-reflection is a good thing to practice but maybe, just maybe, we are supposed to relax in the silence.

If we know that God is there; if we believe that he loves us and has not abandoned us, shouldn’t we be OK with silence sometimes? When I sit with my husband, family member or close friend and there is no need for words, I find it comforting. Sometimes, the relationship transcends words. In the silence there is beauty.

Maybe we should stop worrying about always doing something or striving for some activity. Maybe we should relax in the love that we know is there and bask in the silence of a Creator who is always present even if he is not always vocal.

Finding Peace

And know that the peace of God (a peace that is beyond any and all of our human understanding) will stand watch over your hearts and minds in Jesus, the Anointed One. Philippians 4:7 (VOICE)

Have you ever felt this nagging that you were supposed to do something but for whatever reason didn’t do it? I have. You know, you hear something in your head. It can be exact instructions like “Call so and so” or a reminder to do something you forgot. It can also be the impression that you are supposed to take up a task or not take up a task.

I believe a lot of the time that is God prompting me. I wish I could say I always listened and acted on what I hear. Sometimes, I don’t.

There are two instances that stand out in my mind today. One was when we were going through a rough patch financially and I was thinking of getting a new job. God had been telling me to wait. Wait as in “Don’t do anything just wait.” I’m not good at waiting. That’s actually an understatement. I’m terrible at waiting. I had been waiting as instructed for what seemed like way too long. So, when a friend called and said I know of someone looking to hire, do you want me to connect you? I said, “No, I’m waiting like God said.” I wish. I said, “Sure!” After we met the man told me I had the job if I wanted it. And as I was agreeing to come in and meet the person I would be reporting to I got this huge knot in my stomach. A knot that was unmistakable. As I was shaking his hand I knew in my gut that I was not going to be able to take the job.

Would it have solved oh so many problems? Yes. Would I have been in God’s will? No. I reached out to the man, thanked him for his time but told him I wouldn’t be able to come on board. I had peace.

Another time, God was prompting me to do something and I was putting it off. It’s not that I don’t want to listen to God. I do! But what he was asking seemed so huge. I couldn’t get my mind around it and if truth be told, I didn’t want to do it. But the prompting continued and I had no peace. I knew I was not doing what I was supposed to be doing.

I began, one step at a time, to be obedient to the prompting. And guess what? The nagging feeling that something was not right was gone.

I realize that every nagging feeling or knot in your stomach may not be a God conversation. I believe that a lot of the time we know what we are doing or not doing is going against what we are being told. We rationalize it away. We are so good at that.

What if we responded to those nudgings when we felt them? What if we followed those promptings or listened to that voice just in case? Isn’t it sad that we miss out on peace because we charge forward with a quick and easy solution instead of trying to center into God’s will?

After following and not following for a while, I’ve learned to recognize whose voice is talking to me. I also know that the sooner I obey, the more peace I have. And it is truly beyond human understanding. My advice on this? Pray it through. Keep asking questions and follow those promptings. You will be forever grateful you did.

Unanswered But Answered Prayers

He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Matthew 26:39 (NLT)

Dink. Dink. Dink. Dink. That was the sound coming from my phone. I was in the ER. Earlier in the evening I went in and my symptoms were getting worse. Somewhere in the chaos I asked my husband to put me on the prayer chain. He did and the Dink, Dink, Dink was the response of the prayer warriors responding.

Shortly after my situation spiraled downward and I became critical. Honestly, I don’t clearly remember all that happened after that but I knew I was being lifted up and God was in the middle of it…..because of prayers. When I woke up the next morning (which is a PRAISE! in itself), I looked at my phone and there were all the text message responses of people answering the call of prayer. As I worked through all that had happened, those prayers gave me strength.

Today, as I pondered Good Friday and Jesus death on the cross, I realized that we could turn to him in prayer because the prayer he prayed in Gethsemane was not answered. God did not take the cup from him and Jesus did not turn back from his mission.

Humanly, he did not want to walk through what he had to walk through but he did. Because he walked through it, we can pray and know we are heard. Because he said “Yes” to the plan, we know that he loves us. We know he cares about us. We know that there is nothing he would not do to help us.

Today, I am especially thankful that because of Jesus’ death on the cross we can pray and know we are heard. I am praising His Name because there is no doubt in our minds that He hears us. None whatsoever. We know this because he prayed that prayer and when it wasn’t answered, He went to the cross anyway. For us.

A Minute In It - Who would have thought?

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. As I read through Isaiah 53 in the MSG, I was taken by the things that stood out; the things that grabbed my attention. As we turn our focus on Easter and the amazing sacrifice, these verses demonstrate that love so perfectly.

Isaiah 53 (MSG)
1 Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?
    Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
    a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
    nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
    a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
    We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
    our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
    that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
    that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
    Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
    We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
    on him, on him.

7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured,
    but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
    and like a sheep being sheared,
    he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
    and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
    beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
    threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
    or said one word that wasn’t true.

10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,
    to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
    so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
    And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul,
    he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
    will make many “righteous ones,”
    as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
    the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
    because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
    he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Made For More

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35 (NLT)

In the story of the Rich Young Ruler in the gospels, the ruler came to Jesus and asked him what he needed to do to be saved. Jesus cites the Commandments. The Rich Young Ruler asks which one. Jesus tells him and he says “But I’ve already done that.” Then Jesus takes it up a notch and tells him to sell everything he has and help the poor. At which point the Rich Young Ruler walks away.

You know, sometimes I identify with this man. I am doing everything I know to do to be a Christ Follower but there seems to be something missing. Deep in my soul I know there is more to this walk than just checking the boxes and following the rules. We were not designed to follow a list of rules but instead to be in a relationship with Jesus.

That relationship consists of conversations and a calling. The calling is more than tradition and things we do to feel good about ourselves. It is a real-life give and take where we step outside the box and into the deep waters. It is the place where we respond when Jesus he says “Follow me.” Stepping out of our comfort zone into the realm of difficult is where we find the fulfillment the Rich Young Ruler was looking for. It’s where we find our heart’s desire.

He knew there was more. We do too deep in our core. The question becomes when Jesus tells you what you need to do to discover what your heart is burning for, what will your answer be? Will you walk away like the Rich Young Ruler? Or will you stay and step into the deep?