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Every Step Away From The Lord Is A Step In The Wrong Direction

Pressing ever so hard against this diminishing hope of gaining acceptance and approval, I convinced myself that this purpose was unattainable and my hopes and dreams shatter in the many tears I cry! I arrived at the point in my life where this emptiness and brokenness actually becomes my symbolic birthright represented by my broken leg. I would struggle to fully walk in this life. It’s no wonder I developed an unquenchable appetite for applause, wealth, and power from any source in an attempt to compensate for the loss, to fill this void.

With my broken leg, I would limp through life.

This blurred reality defined my focus outwardly, a public pursuit which left my inner world empty. Behind this intense quest for power was a deep desire for love. As I soon learned, my heart was lifeless, without a beat, and my soul was sick.

I slipped slowly into a shrouded pit as the sorrows and hurt of the scarring wounds from within tore me down. Listening to the faint voices masquerading through the mist and haze of discouragement as the answer to these chains that have entangled me, I slowly leave behind the will to hold on and let go. The core issue we all face is when the self becomes our god and we worship it. When the self is our god, we strive to make all of life revolve around it, and with a consuming zeal, we seek to satisfy empty vanity.

I finally came to the end of myself.

Some Thanksgiving Thoughts for You

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

—Psalm 100:4

I really like Thanksgiving, because there is not a lot of pressure to go out and buy things. You have to get food, of course. But apart from that, Thanksgiving is not about shopping. It is more about getting together with family and friends and doing what most people love to do, which is eat.

We can enjoy the food. We can enjoy our family. We can enjoy our fellowship. But the real purpose of Thanksgiving is to give thanks. It is a day to focus on giving thanks.

Of course, that is sometimes easier said than done. It is easy when things are going reasonably well, the bills are paid, we have a roof over our head and our health is good. But when times are hard, we don’t want to give thanks at all. But here is what the Bible says: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever” (Psalm 106:1 NIV).

Why We Shouldn’t Interpret God’s Silence As His Absence

Have you ever been in a circumstance where there seems to be no solutions? Have you ever been in a circumstance where there are lots of options, but none of them are good?

All of us have a picture of what our lives are supposed to look like…and for many of us that vision is a distorted reality. We all step into a space like this at some point in our lives and we can’t see a way forward or a way out.

what’s even worse is the lives of everybody else around you magnify the tough reality of what you will never have and we slip into this “it is what it is” narrative.

Does this sound familiar?

From my own experience, in these seasons of life, we draw some really bad conclusions and we begin telling ourselves some deep lies. Like; “I will never find happiness again.” or “Nothing good can come from my circumstance.” or “I don’t see any point continuing on…I give up.”

Have you told yourself any of these things?

Why Waiting On God Is Frustrating And Transforming

In the months following Promise Keepers, the Lord moved me into a season of learning the importance of being still and waiting upon Him. This was not a time of inactivity, but a time when I was learning how to rest in Him through the circumstances that came my way. These were extremely difficult, lonely, and necessary lessons to learn for my growth. It was not my nature to be still, to wait, and to remain idle; I kept hammering at God with absolutely no answer! I continued crying out to God, waiting for Him to show up on the scene and fix things, but nothing happened, and I became more and more frustrated. Needing Him every day, I would ask Him where He had gone. It was like a scene from a long family road trip with the kids in the back of the vehicle incessantly saying, “Are we there yet?” and the parents finally uttering a simple “No.”

After some time the Lord would answer me by directing me to Psalms 46:10a, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Not particularly liking this response, I continued to grumble, so God used an e-mail from my cousin to get His point across in a different way. The e-mail had a poem called “Wait” attached to it; check it out.

Can One Person Make a Difference?

Being Fall in New Hampshire, I spent most of the day in the yard blowing leaves into the woods and winterizing my summer equipment. As late afternoon approached and the daylight started retreating, I decided to call it quits and head in to grab something to eat and watch some TV. Of course I couldn’t find anything of interest to watch on my hundred channel cable listing, so decided to see what was on On-Demand.

Was all caught up on my favorite shows, so decided to check out what was on HBO. At first nothing caught my eye until I say McFarland USA and after a quick trip over to IMDb to see what this movie was about, I decided to watch it. McFarland, USA is based on a true story and an inspiring sports drama starring Kevin Costner about an unlikely group of high-school runners competing in 1987 California.

Kevin Costner plays Jim White, a high school football coach with a history of losing his temper coaching and getting fired. Because of his track record any new job opportunities become harder to get that he has no other choice to accept an assistant coaching position at a small town school in McFarland, California. Jim packs up and moves his whole family into the poor farming town of McFarland and soon regrets his decision. McFarland, which is predominantly Hispanic, was not the suburban neighborhood Jim wanted for his family, but his wife convinces him to stay and give it a go.

Every Step Away From The Lord Is A Step In The Wrong Direction

Some Thanksgiving Thoughts for You

Why We Shouldn’t Interpret God’s Silence As His Absence

Why Waiting On God Is Frustrating And Transforming

Can One Person Make a Difference?

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Cool Scripture

Never Out Of The Fight!

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