Heart Work

Why is it that God is the first thing to go when we’re stressed?

Is it because we are feeling so overwhelmed – pulled from every which way – that we step back from Him because He actually needs our time… He wants our investment… He holds us accountable? The choice to follow Christ requires heart work… and let’s be honest, that’s just too hard... It is easier to let what’s right in front of us take priority.

Sometimes we think, “I’m not that bad” or “I’m a good person” or “I’m doing pretty well” so we distance ourselves from God. Other times we think, “I’m worthless, I’ve got nothing to offer” or “It’s hopeless, I can’t change” so we let the distractions of the day change the direction of our focus.

In college, we loved to play “The Procrastination Game.” We spent hours thinking up things to do to keep us from studying and doing our assignments. All because we didn’t want to put forth the effort or take the time to do the very thing that would make our lives better – that would help mold us into better human beings. So it is with God.

Heart work is tough. Heart work is messy. Heart work often begets more heart work. Heart work breaks your heart. Heart work is exhausting… and it never ends. UGH!

But... heart work heals. It’s what restores. It’s the only way to wellbeing. It’s what brings truth. It’s what brings LIFE.

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But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33 (NASB)

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33 (NLT)

"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. Matthew 6:30-33 (The Message)

Restless Seasons

It seems that I’m constantly rollercoasting between seasons of contentment and seasons of restlessness. Will it ever stop? Am I stuck in this misery for the rest of my life?

In the restless seasons it usually has to do with my circumstances not being what “I think” they should be or because I feel the intense need to “DO something” but I don’t know what it is I’m supposed to do. Is this all there is? What about the “abundant life of Christ” all the TV pastors are pontificating about? Or “live your best life/awakening to your life’s purpose” Oprah is proselytizing?

I’ve got to say – I HATE the restless seasons!! I get depressed, I get angry, I get sad & weepy; I eat too much, sleep too much, hole up at home and become anti-social… I am mean, and pissy and rude to co-workers, family & friends… I HATE IT! (November 2007)

In February I took a week off because I had been slowly loosing my mind since November ’07. I found this wonderful hotel, with a fireplace in my room overlooking the ocean just north of Carmel. I sequestered myself away to regain my sanity and reconnect with Christ. (Funny, how He’ll always meet you where you are, when you have no agenda.) In so doing I gained a new appreciation of the restless seasons. And I can honestly say – as frustrating as those periods of my life are – I truly am grateful for them.

As a Christian, being restless is natural. Wondering – “Is this it?” – is expected. Restlessness is the homing device God planted in our hearts when we were created in our mother’s womb. Because this is NOT all there is. There is so much more to come… there is a future, and a hope. I will always be restless until Christ returns. So in that respect, I am now grateful for the restless seasons because it makes me hungry for more… it keeps my focus up & out instead of in… it triggers that desire to "seek first the Kingdom of God”…

If I ever get to a point of not feeling restless… that would mean I had truly given up hope... that I had completely lost heart. Completely losing heart – and hope – would be a fate worse than death.

Three Wise Men... Three Wise Statements

I’m just finishing up the book Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant? A Professor and a Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism and Christianity edited by Preston Jones. Boy, is it packed with things I could talk about for months. It’s opening my eyes more to the depth of an atheists beliefs… and although I completely disagree and much of the arguments make me want to pull my hair out… I do respect their view and can understand why they’ve come to the conclusions they have. Anyway, I just read the following three statements and I had to repeat them here:

“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.” Blaise Pascal, mathematician and philosopher (1669)

“Help me, Lord, to discern and to understand whether it is better first to call upon you or to praise you, or whether it is better first to know you before calling upon you.” Augustine, church father, Confessions (A.D. 397)

“Believing that there is not a god, you have as little evidence for that as you do for believing there is a god. You have no evidence for either… You can’t answer the questions except by the act of faith, and if it’s an act of faith, it’s just as much an act of faith as saying there’s no god as saying there is a god.” John M. Thoday, geneticist (2003)

Faith and the Human Condition

For someone who is basically a realist with a dash of idealism… it still amazes me how self-destructive humankind is. In day-to-day life we are continually offered resources, cures, solutions and help for the physical, emotional and mental circumstances of our lives. Yet we do not take what is offered. Most of the time, we don’t even apply common sense or what we’ve learned. But still we kick and scream and scratch and claw and proclaim God is dead (or never existed) because our lives are not turning out the way WE expected.

With each new generation, people more and more believe the world revolves around them. They are shocked and indignant when expected to think otherwise. Somehow they decided they are entitled to the best life simply because they didn’t choose to be born… so life had better damn well make it worth their while to be here. For those with crap childhoods and crap parents – forget it! – the world doesn’t stand a chance at fulfilling their needs… meeting their demands. No one believes they have to roll up their sleeves and actually work at life… to work at being a contributing member of society or family. They don’t understand what it means to “build” a career… or to “build” relationships.

And yet, this is the 21st century – we all are “enlightened” and Oprah-ized with the pursuit of “Living Your Best Life.” You got a pair of wading boots? It’s getting thick in here.

Re Careers: Kids expect to step from the college campus directly into a VP position with an office on the top floor overlooking all of creation and a salary to match. They’d rather make no money at all – zero dollars coming in – than take a job that pays $10-15 bucks an hour. Come hell, high water or homelessness, they will wait until they find someone to pay them what THEY think they’re worth before actually starting at the bottom and working their way up.

Re Relationships: If, as a friend &/or family member, you aren’t intelligent enough, entertaining enough or fulfill their needs, then forget it – you are thrown away quicker than a cold latte. Or worse, kept around “just in case” – ignored and insignificant until you do something they like or have something they need. There is no loyalty, no honor, no true forgiveness, no understanding, no consideration of the other view, no allowance for mistakes and disappointments. All that matters is “what’s in it for ME.”

What horrible devastating thing happened to make us turn the people around us into instant gratification dispensers? When were we given the power to pronounce someone obsolete and remove them from our existence if we are not completely satisfied with their contribution to our lives? Who died and made us king?

I don’t know about anybody else, but my life has not been filled with an abundance of family and friends that I can afford to just dismiss them at the slightest disappointment. I can count on one hand the number of people I truly trust enough to know the real me – I can’t afford to loose them and I wouldn’t want to. They are truly the best part of me.

The bottom line is we cannot save ourselves. We want our lives to be what we expect – and yet we don’t have the power to make it happen. The world screams at the top of its lungs that “all we need is education,” “it’s all about having the right information.” Never in the history of humankind have we had more of both available to us! The World Wide Web, a gazillion TV channels running 24/7… science and technological capabilities expanding by the nanosecond. And yet we’re getting more dissatisfied, more violent, more indulgent, more lascivious, more addicted. On a global scale the issues of war, basic human rights and the environment continue to rage; religious differences are not tolerated… We’re more concerned with who is “right” that we can barely sit down and talk about the issues with those who have opposing views. Therefore, there are no permanent solutions that can actively be pursued by everyone to bring about change… peace.

The human condition needs a Savior… a supernatural answer – someone outside itself to step in and intervene… Christ is that Savior. He came… He stepped in... He intervened.

Why is He so hard for people to accept or believe? Maybe it’s simply because there is no one on the planet who even remotely meets the requirements of “savior of the world;” no one on the planet who exhibits what Christ exhibited while He was here… and so we have no point of reference. Of course the requirement of “faith” which is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1) is a whole other can of worms. People don’t want to be required to believe in what they can’t see, to trust something that is beyond their own control. No one wants to believe there’s a God who will judge or who holds us accountable for our actions… We want to do it our way with no rules – no authority. On the other hand, with all the pain, destruction and overwhelming problems – faith in an all loving touchy-feely big ole teddy bear in the sky God is too simple, too trite and frankly, insulting. Faith in the one true God of the Bible is too ambiguous, too impossible. So it’s easier to reject Him, to claim He doesn’t exist. It's easier to keep kicking and screaming and scratching and clawing our way through…

Faith has made my life signifcant and purposeful, no matter the struggles or the mess. I have a future and a hope. If I’m wrong, in the end I will have lost nothing. If faith makes me a moron and delusional then so be it.

Phantom Hairs

Either I really need to shave or I am truly losing my mind… ALL WEEK it’s felt like I have a hair or a piece of string on my right knee. I continue to reach down and remove it – but nothing is there! No loose string. No fly away hair.

I often have this on my left arm too.

WHAT IS UP WITH THAT??

“EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed”

I just saw the documentary - Expelled. It’s controversial. It’s compelling. I believe at heart it’s about freedom. Freedom through our Bill of Rights. Amazingly, people in this country are systematically being denied those inalienable rights.

This is most true for highly reputable scientists. If they have a notion or even ask the simple question “could there be other options?” regarding the origins of life – their very livelihoods and reputations are in serious jeopardy. Many are being fired from their jobs and exiled from science all together. They can’t even ask the question!! If they ask – they are shut up.

I don’t care if you’re a Darwinist or a Creationist or an Intelligent Design supporter or you believe life began when pixie dust accidentally blew over a wooden puppet… All things should be questioned and investigated! The flat out denial of questions on this issue is unfair and should not be tolerated. This denial – as the movie portrays – is eerily similar to how Nazism began.

I’m sure that’s the biggest complaint by those opposing the film… they are scientists! They are sane human beings… they are not Nazis! How dare the film insinuate such...

It is a huge leap to think Darwinist are Nazis. And I didn't think the filmmakers were saying that the Darwinists are Nazis. They are not. However, how did Nazism come to power? It started with an idea and then it grew... and history has proven time and time again the moment we are denied free thought or choice or we’re told what to believe without deviation… when DIFFERENCES are not ALLOWED… that is the moment life is over. So the movie is a warning... a "be careful"... don't start denying people the right to think and come to different conculsions.

Now, I’m not a scientist and I don’t keep up with what’s happening within science much less claim to fully comprehend it. I do believe creation evolves over time, but I happen to be a Creationist. However, even with all that Darwin concluded from his theories – no one – not even the staunch Darwinists interviewed in the documentary, Richard Dawkins especially – no one can definitively prove how life began.

If that is the case then WHY can’t there be any other questions posed? Why can’t any other theories be discussed or debated or considered?

Let me preface this next thought with: I know the loudest mouthpieces for Christianity are out of touch and are absolutely not speaking for most Christians in this country… But, another thing that completely ticks me off about this whole issue is – at the very words “Intelligent Design” it is absolutely and completely decided that ID means God which therefore is religion. Because the idea of a “God” is ridiculous and moronic… ID can’t even be a thought. That is an enormous presumption! Not to mention vulgarly insulting to many of these highly educated and previously acclaimed scientists who are being silenced. I could believe an alien, or robot created life – whatever… I’m just simply saying that “whatever it is” that made life exist... that “whatever” was intelligent!!

Regardless, the fact of the matter is, several founding fathers of science as well as many through history believed in Intelligent Design. Many believe there are holes in Darwin’s theory of the origin of life. It was written 150 years ago – science has certainly advanced since then! No one is saying Darwin is 100% wrong... but ID supporters are saying he is not 100% correct either.

If Darwinists want to believe man came from apes and evolution or if the Atheists want to believe there is no god – I say more power to them! If they want to freely talk about it, meet about it, profess it publicly through the media and academia – go for it! The supporters of Intelligent Design should have the right to do the same! Bottom line.

For more info visit the Expelled website. www.expelledthemovie.com

Reaching... by Carolyn Arends

There's a time I can recall

Four years old and three feet tall

Trying to touch the stars and the cookie jar

And both were out of reach

And later on in my high school

It seemed to me a little cruel

How the right words to say always seemed to stay

Just out of reach

Well I should not have thought it strange

That growing causes growing pains

'Cause the more we learn the more we know

We don't know anything

But still it seems a tragic fate

Living with this quiet ache

The constant strain for what remains

Just out of reach

- - -
We are reaching for the future

We are reaching for the past

And no matter what we have we reach for more

We are desperate to discover

What is just beyond our grasp

But maybe that's what heaven is for

- - -
There are times I can't forget

Dressed up in my Sunday best

Trying not to squirm and to maybe learn

A bit of what the preacher preached

And later lying in the dark

I felt a stirring in my heart

And though I longed to see what could not be seen

I still believed

I guess I shouldn't think it odd

Until we see the face of God

The yearning deep within us tells us

There's more to come

So when we taste of the divine

It leaves us hungry every time

For one more taste of what awaits

When heaven's gates are reached

- - -
We are reaching for the future

We are reaching for the past

And no matter what we have we reach for more

We are desperate to discover

What is just beyond our grasp

But maybe that's what heaven is for
I believe that's what heaven is for

- - -
There's a time I can recall

Four years old and three feet tall

Trying to touch the stars and the cookie jar

And both were out of reach

by Carolyn Arends

Environmental Consciousness

As a Christian, I believe we are called to be environmentalists. God assigned us dominion over what He created and we will be held accountable for the massive damage we’ve created. We’re obviously already suffering the consequences.

The issues are so overwhelming – how do we even start? The astounding excess and staggering amount of waste we, in America alone, create is devastating. The insurmountable guilt for causing an animals extinction or of the “trash island” floating off the coast of Northern California is too much to bare. It makes me want bury my head under the covers and never leave my bed. However, I MUST think about and ACT on the things I can actually do to take care of MY environment. I recycle as best I can; I shop with cloth bags (when I remember I have them in my trunk); I’ve changed all the bulbs in my apartment with energy efficient bulbs; I’m due for a new car in the next year and will purchase a hybrid…etc. I’ve also been asked to participate on an “Ecoimagination Task Force” at work to identify, develop, implement and maintain “green” initiatives within our division. It will be exciting to be a part of making a difference on a larger scale at my office.

We all absolutely – without question or exception – need to be more concerned and more personally responsible to care for our environment. If we all do our part in our little piece of the planet then we WILL make a global impact. Especially in America – we’ve gotten so fat & sassy – it’s unacceptable. 95% of what is possible is in no way a hardship (it’s basically common sense) – it just may be a smidge inconvenient, and we’re lazy.

But at the same time, I’ve got to say I’m not a huge supporter of this whole global warming panic. Absolutely we need to be making people aware, to bring attention to the issue, to require corporations and industries to rework their businesses. (personally I feel laws should be established.) Absolutely we are and will continue to suffer for years to come the consequences of the industrial age and the damage we continue to do. Every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. We will reap what we sow.

However, the planet is not going to explode tomorrow. I don’t believe that the planet heating up by 1 degree every million years is cause for the panic being created in the media today. I read recently where the founder of the Weather Channel was going to sue Al Gore for fraud. He has been pushed to go to that extreme in order to have a balanced debate on the issue. Those in opposition with Gore have been silenced in mainstream media circles. I find it unfortunate that we do have such biased media – on all sides... so much for freedom of speech. And as a Christian, I believe in creation/intelligent design. Therefore, we as the created beings will not be able to destroy what God has created – He’s in charge. As God clearly tells Job – and by extension us - "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.” (Job 38 – 40:1-14)

Whatever your convictions on this issue the bottom line is… Be responsible people. Keep your mess to a minimum and clean it up. Do your part to diligently care for your piece of the environment in all ways. It’s our job – it was the very first and most important job given when God created mankind – to care for the animals and the planet.

If it’s in your power to do something, anything – no matter how small – then JUST DO IT!