Adversity vs. Success

C. S. Lewis On Aging

[Senior devil Screwtape to junior devil Wormwood:]

“The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives, and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it–all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition.

“If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is “finding his place in it,” while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home on Earth, which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle-aged and the old.”
—The Screwtape Letters, p. 132

The above quote is from the book, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  If you have not read it I encourage you to do so.

One of the following two words usually describe peoples lives- successful or adversity.  This can change of coarse but generally you will pick one or the other to classify your life.  Each comes with a trap as pointed out in the above excerpt.

If your life is full of success and everything seems to be going your way-watch out.  As a Christian we are not supposed to be attached to the things of this world so much that they become more important to us than our relationship with God.  If I asked you what is the one thing you can’t live without what immediately springs to mind?  Computer, iphone, kids, spouse, home, car?  Does God make the list?  Does having a personal relationship with Jesus even make the top 5?  Like T-Mobiles Fave Five, is Jesus in your circle?

Matthew 6:19-21 ^19-21“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.  (The Message)

Don’t load up on junk here on earth.  Don’t try to keep up with the Joneses.  Don’t obsess with finding your fortune here because eventually it will all fade away.  Ever see that bumper sticker, “Whoever dies with the most toys wins.”?  How juvenile.  I mean really, do you really think anyone cares how much junk you had?  Or do you think people care how much good you did?  Leave a legacy of love, not a legacy of yard sale items.

On the flip side is the life of adversity.  Here is where most of the people reading this will probably fall.  But there is a trap here as well.  You can go through so much, experience so much pain and loss that you become numb to the world around you.  Another trap is jealousy.  You see the successful person and think, “I want that.  I want that so much I am willing to do things that I shouldn’t to get it.”  Numbness and jealousy, jealousy and numbness.  Where are you?  Has so much happened that you have withdrawn from God and the world or do you fall into the other category, your so jealous that you would do anything, sacrifice anyone to gain the world?

1 Peter 5:6-7 ^6-7So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.  (The Message)

Either way you fall; numbed or jealous, you can still live carefree, another version of that verse says to “cast your cares and burdens on God because He cares so much for you.”

Everyone has problems, it’s those that find the solutions that are truly successful!

Baby Shaker App for iphone

Update- Apple has removed the Baby Shaker app for iphone.

This is not my usual blog entry but it is something that I feel to be important enough to post.  Please, if you have any info let me know.  As soon as I get any info I will pass it on. I have emailed the folks at this website for info on who to contact to stop this. 

Below is the link to the news story on www.news.cnet.com

Distractions

I think one of the most destructive forces that the Church faces today is also one of the smallest and hardest to detect. It is called DISTRACTION.  Raise your hand if you have ever been distracted.  OK, now, raise your hand if you were distracted by something before you finished reading this paragraph.  I bet some of you had to raise your hands didn’t you.  Distractions are so common that we rarely notice them.  Unless we are seriously into something, a deadline, trying to solve a problem or a serious T.V. show we tend to accept them and keep going.  The problem is that a lot of times the distraction becomes our focus and we get sidetracked.

I don’t know about you but I have a one-track mind.  I am a typical guy, but even then I get sidetracked.  My wife on the other-hand is a multi-tasker, she can be watching T.V., cross-stitching, texting on the phone and eating all at the same time.  It baffles me.

Distractions can be dangerous.  Take a marathon runner for example, if he or she is not giving 100% concentration one wrong step and crack, bye bye ankle.  Or an electrician (which is what I am), when I am in an electrical panel and the power is turned on I promise I am giving 100% of my concentration to that panel.  (note-I do not endorse working on live electrical equipment but in the military it is sometimes necessary to ensure the mission continues)  Police Officers, Truck Drivers, Firemen and a myriad of other professions battle distractions every second of every day while they are on the job and any distraction could cost a life.

Distractions are also dangerous in our spirtual lives.  Maybe I am all alone on this but if I get sidetracked from my quiet time with God a few days in a row then those days become weeks before I realize I haven’t spoken with God in a while.  That is dangerous.  Like a ship without a compass I am running full tilt and I have no idea where I am going.  Without God’s continual direction I am just cruising through the water with no sense of purpose.  I think we all want a sense of purpose.  I mean there are several hundred books and thousands of seminars given across the world on finding your purpose, writing your purpose statement or achieving purpose in your life.  Distractions kill your pupose.  Listen to what Paul says about staying on track;

I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done.  Philippians 3:14 (Contemporary English Version)

Paul is focused.  He has his priorities set and he is moving forward with a purpose.  No distractions, no side tracks; just dogged determination.

Why don’t we have that?  Where is our dogged determination.  We are so easily swayed- T.V., X-Box, NBA finals, Ben & Jerry’s, The Mall, Make More Money, Clean the Car, all these to-do’s on our list and most of them won’t matter in a week.

My wife makes to-do lists for me.  Why?  So I stay on track.  Right now I am only home every other weekend.  I have limited time with her and the kids and to get things fixed around the house, so she plans and schedules everything.  If I get a call from someone asking if I want to get together when I am home I divert them straight to her.  Why?  Because she keeps me focused, she knows what needs to be done and I trust her and the list to keep me on track.  That way at the end of the weekend my to-do list is to-done.

Maybe we need a to-do list for our spiritual lives, a list that will keep us on track.  We need to stay focused on God and our relationship with Him.   To loose that focus is to loose the the only thing worth anything, God’s Purpose for our life.

What’s your To-Do List look like?  Is there room for God on it.  If not, maybe you should do some re-arranging until He becomes a priority in your life.

How Small is God

Yesterday we looked at how big God is.  As one person commented, “God is big!!!”  Yes He is.  Today we are going to see how small God is.

I know there are some out there who are thinking, “I don’t serve a small God!”  Well, yes, in some ways, you do.  But probably not the small you are thinking.  Remember, God is a Spirit.  That means He has no shape, size or any other physical form that limits Him.  And size is relative.  Think about it, what is big to us is small compared to the sun.  What is small to us is gigantic to the ant.  Because God has no set form He can go and do as He pleases.  When we become Christ-Followers and accept God’s free gift of Salvation a crazy, miraculous thing happens, God takes up residence in us.  Does that mean that the big God we looked at yesterday shoves and crams Himself into us?  No, of coarse not, as my son would say, “That’s just silly Daddy.”  But the third aspect of God, the Holy Spirit, moves into our being.  Now I can’t explain that scientifically, nor can I prove it beyond this, I know it to be true because it happened to me.  I can feel it.  I know God in Spirit form resides inside me.  Call it faith or belief but you can’t tell me I am wrong because it is my experience.  It happened to me.

I am a fairly big guy, not huge, but above average.  I am 6’2″ tall and about 205 lbs.  But I am nothing compared to the Bigness of God.  So in order for God to move in He has to be pretty small.

Also, think about this.  Stay with me now because we are going outside the box a little.  God is the God of the big things right?  Universe, solar systems, planets and such, but He is also God of the small things.  In Matthew 6 Jesus gives an object lesson.  He basically says- “Take a look at the wild flowers on the side of the road, God cares for and makes them more beautiful that anyone walking out of a Versace store.  Even the ones that no one will ever see are prettier than a queen in all her regalia.”  (my translation)  How many wild flowers have you seen on the side of the interstate?  Do you care about any one of them?  Do you care about all of them?  Would it totally ruin your day if they were all gone?  God cares, He cares so much that He gives special attention to their design and appearance.  Lets look at the whole of that passage in a real translation- Matthew 6:27-30

^27-29“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

^30-33“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.  (The Message)

Did you see it?  Did you see what Jesus is saying here, if God cares for a simple little flower that the mowers are going to cut down in a few days, how much MORE does He care for us.  And the real kicker is this, He not only cares for the big things in our lives but the small as well.  We pray all the time that so-in-so will be healed or we will have enough money to eat this week or that our children will be safe, but when was the last time you prayed for it to stop raining so you could stop for some ice cream (my wife did this when she was a new Christ-Follower and it stopped just long enough to get the ice cream and get back to the van).  When was the last time you prayed for a beautiful sunset just because?  How about praying for someone to smile that looks upset?  God is the God of the small as well as the big.

Here’s where we go outside-the-box.  If God is the God of the small then that makes Him the God of the big as well.  I submit that if He wasn’t the God of the small He wouldn’t be able to be God of the big.  Why?  Simple, there are nearly 7 billion people on planet Earth, each having thousands of small things in their life that they could pray for at any given moment.  God has to have the ability to hear all of them or the Bible would be untrue.  Now, I believe that the only prayers that God hears is the prayers of His followers accept for the prayer of salvation, but He has to have the ability to hear everyone.  Not to mention all the wild flowers He has to design or the bannana trees He grows or the snow leopards He cares for etc…….  All small things but when added together makes one gigantic job.  He is therefore God of the big and the small.

God is so big He has the ability to take care of the small.  The small of the world and the small in your life.

How Big is God?

Sometimes we seem to forget how big God is.  I do, and I am sure you do to.  How many times have you been in the midst of a crisis and in the back of your mind you thought, “Can God really handle this?”  I’m sure there are some Super-Christians out there that are raising an eyebrow like The Rock on WWE right now.  If that is you then you can stop reading now.  This post doesn’t apply to you.  But for those of us who struggle to trust God with the BIG things then this blogs for you!

So how big is God?  While I am neither a physicist nor a theologian, I am a Christ-Follower and I have read and lived the Christian Faith for 28 yrs or so.  I have some background.  I also like outside the box thinking.  How do you picture God?  In your mind’s eye what shape does he take?  Is He an old grandfatherly guy with a beard sitting on a thrown?  Maybe you see Morgan Freeman from the popular movie “Bruce Almighty”.  Is it the portrayal of James Caviezel of Jesus from the move “The Passion of the Christ”?  Do you see a formless spiritual cloud?  Does it depend on the moment or the situation?

No matter how you see him (unless your worshiping Morgan Freeman) God is all of those.

The Bible tells us that “God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality).” John 4:24 (Amplified Bible) The Bible also teaches that Jesus was God.  “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:15-17 (New International Version) Jesus makes the following statement- “But I will send you the Advocate-the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.” John 15:26 (New Living Translation) So in these verses we see God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit.

Now that we have no idea what God really looks like let’s move to how big He is.  Obviously we don’t have God’s bicep measurement or His height, although Arnold Schwarzenegger and Shaquille O’Neal have nothing on Him, we can do some reasonable comparisons.

The Earth-

• The Earth is estimated to weigh 6,585,600,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
• The area of the earth is almost 200 million square miles.
• circumference: 24,901.5 miles
• diameter: Nearly 8,000 miles
• surface area: 196,935,000 sq miles

God’s Bigger!

The Solar System-

• Pluto is 3,728,227153 miles from the sun
• Our Solar System is somewhere around 8,000,000,000 miles long

God is Bigger!

The Universe-

• The diameter of the observable Universe is at least 93 billion light years. That’s 5,878,630,000,000 miles

God is still Bigger!

How do I justify that God is bigger, I bring you once again to The Bible, “First this: God created the Heavens and Earth-all you see, all you don’t see.” Genesis 1:1 (The Message) He is the Creator.  Does that mean size wise He is larger than the universe?  No, but in terms of the power it took to create all things, yes, He is bigger than everything.

God is bigger than the universe; He is certainly bigger than our problems.

Tomorrow- How Small is God?