Banish the word facilitator from your vocabulary. Men follow leaders, not facilitators. Jesus led, and so must we.
Can We Really Trust Our Choices?
We soon discover that our journey in this world has so many competing demands distracting us from our true destination that we usually miss both the journey and the destination all together. Consumed with my empire building, I lost sight of what was important in life and sadly “arriving” became more important than “becoming.” Because I was so focused on what was next, I was never able to enjoy living in the moment. How much of the journey do we miss because we are so focused only on the destination? Our choices, our idols, and the stuff we covet have significant impact on us. What we fail to see is that God is more concerned with who we are becoming than with our empire building. Oddly enough, so are our wives and kids.
Power to choose; why does God allow this?
Looking Back At 2014
The new year has come and it feels like only yesterday that I was writing my 2013 year in review. Wow, where has the year gone? Since my last year in review a lot has happened on Heartstone Journey and in my own life. There is so much I could share, but here are some highlights:
Under God’s Training
He guarded him…like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him. (Deuteronomy 32:10-12)
Our almighty God is like a parent who delights in leading the tender children in His care to the very edge of a precipice and then shoving them off the cliff into nothing but air. He does this so they may learn that they already possess an as-yet-unrealized power of flight that can forever add to the pleasure and comfort of their lives. Yet if, in their attempt to fly, they are exposed to some extraordinary peril, He is prepared to swoop beneath them and carry them skyward on His mighty wings. When God brings any of His children into a position of unparalleled difficulty, they may always count on Him to deliver them.
from The Song of Victory
When God places a burden upon you, He places His arms underneath you.
There once was a little plant that was small and whose growth was stunted, for it lived under the shade of a giant oak tree. The little plant valued the shade that covered it and highly regarded the quiet rest that its noble friend provided. Yet there was a greater blessing prepared for this little plant.
What Does Walter Mitty And A Fire Pit Have To Do With Finishing Strong?
I just finished watching “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” a story that highlights the transformation of a man and the unsettling power of the human imagination. IMDb summarizes the movie like this. A day-dreamer escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action. When his job along with that of his co-worker are threatened, he takes action in the real world embarking on a global journey that turns into an adventure more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined.
As the ending credit began to scroll by and the music played in the background, I began to daydream about my journey up to the mountain where God revealed the heartstone. Here is a snippet from that adventure.
The Spirit of God moves with a mystery we cannot understand. He influences whatever He wants, where, when, on whom, and in what measure and degree, He pleases. His soft winds led me to the base of Mt. Lafayette, my own Mount Horeb, to once again make the ascent to the mountaintop to encounter the living God. His soft winds guided my steps again to the large rock hidden on the mountain. His soft winds led me to the heartstone that God had placed within the walls of the hotel ruin. Four years ago, He led me to discover four stones. Today, He has led me to find one:—His heartstone.
(Excerpt from Heartstone Copyright © 2009 by Tim Young. All rights reserved.)
The imagery was awesome and the life narrative still echoes today, “Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it!”
Coming off the mountaintop from my daydream I remembered all the adventures I have been on and something in me ached for more. Life seems to role in like a thick fog bank at times and somehow we get pulled back out of the imagination into the mundane. Then something in us begins to fade.
Are you tracking with me? Lets see.
