A Change of Perspective

By Kim Stokely –

For the hundredth time that day I looked in the mirror and cringed. My schedule had been too busy to drive the extra miles to the woman who usually cut my hair and I’d let it get too long. Cousin It from the Addams Family had more style than I did. To top it off, I had less than a week before I hopped a plane to visit my mother back East whom I hadn’t seen in a year. I’ve always said her biggest disappointment with me was that I never cared if my purse matched my shoes. What would she say to the kitchen mop draped over my head?

In desperation, I texted a girlfriend of mine who used to work in a beauty salon, “Do you have anytime this week you could give me a haircut? If not, I’m shaving it all off.”

Bless her heart, my friend texted right back, “NO! No! Don’t shave it! Come over anytime today and I’ll see what I can do!”

Two hours, a pile of hair on the floor, and a tube of dye later, and she’d given me a radical new hairstyle and a new outlook on life. Now when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see a frazzled, frumpy, forty-five (plus some) year-old woman with desperation leaking out of her eyes; instead, I saw a vibrant, put together, forty(ish)-year-old woman, ready to take on the world and my fashion savvy mother. Nothing could hold me down.

It’s amazing what a little change can do for our perspective. It can invigorate us to set a new goal or energize us to pursue old goals with renewed passion.

I thought about how that can be true in our relationship with God as well. God says in Isaiah 29:13, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (NIV). Do you get excited by your time in the word or are you reading out of habit? Have you let your prayer life become a laundry list of needs interspersed with a few moments of praise? Maybe pray at a different time of day or write out your prayers instead of saying them silently. Buy a new Bible study or a find a devotional to help you focus your thoughts and stir your curiosity. If we think our relationship with God has grown stale, imagine what He thinks. Perhaps it’s time for a change of perspective.

Me ‘Firt’! (aka Me First!)

By Jarrod Spencer –

I would like to go so far as to say “everyone does it” but there are probably some exceptions to the rule. What everyone likely does at sometime in their young life is to strive for independence and meaning. Ava, our two-year old is well into that stage of life. Whenever I want her and her older brother, Oliver, to do something, she will often say “Me firt!” She wants to do the task that I am allowing or assigning first. There are times in which Oliver may want to look at something, for example, she pipes in with “Me firt, Oliver!” She wants meaning in her life and would like to have independence. She also exercises that desire by not wanting to have her hand held when we are in parking lots.

Why is it that she wants to be first? What is it that she does not want to be after Oliver? I am not talking about a scientific or clinical reason, but more of an intellectual reason. She has a great desire to let her abilities be known and has already learned that first is “good.” We may race up the stairs and see who “wins.” They may be in a “race” to be buckled first to get the “buckle badge” (something invisible that simply affirms I’m proud of their obedience). They want to outdo one another and are driven to do that at this stage in their life.

As we go about life as a Christian, what drives us? Are we driven to try to be “first?” When we are challenged by a thought or song, do we seek to be the first to go out and do something? Are we driven to be “firt?” Or are we simply letting it go in one ear and out the other? Are we not caring if we’re first or last in the challenge?

As you read this, may you be inspired to go out and see what you can do for God. We are not in competition with one another, but sometimes if we felt like “I’m going to get to someone you know first” then you may be inspired and motivated rather than just letting it pass. So, who will it be this week? When hearing a challenge, who will be the one to say, “Me firt!”?

PRAYER: Father, thank You for giving us two wonderful children. It is a great privilege to be called “Daddy” and to see these young people grow up. I thank You for the opportunity to have these two precious gifts from you, if only for a short time, later to be returned back to You. I ask that You help lead me in the guidance for the direction they should go.

“For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory” (I Thessalonians 2:11-12 NIV).

Life Interrupted

By Alan Mowbray –

It was a long day at work—ten hours. Arriving home, I discovered things in a shambles. Dinner not started. Dishes not done. And my wife still working feverishly in her office to satisfy a deadline commitment. There was a time when I would have just said, “Let’s go out for dinner.” But in today’s economy, that kind of attitude can add up quickly in the financial column.

Now, although I had other plans for the evening, there was an obvious need. My kids were hungry. My wife was on track workwise, but needed a domestic assist. My dream of a relaxing night after a hard day’s work kicked to the curb.

Kaput.

Interrupted.

Sad story. Stuck in a rut and can’t get out of it, right?

Some might say that, but they’d be wrong. Sure, I cooked dinner, did the dishes, drove the kids to dance and football practice and whatever else needed to be done. My little hour or two of quiet bliss was gone. But a wonderful thing happened. I demonstrated love. I demonstrated honor. This interruption was an opportunity to fulfill a need. The lost quiet bliss was forgotten, but in its place, love, honor, and happiness shone brightly and the evening turned out to be great, peacefully chaotic, and full of family. Perfect.

If you take a few seconds to think about it, the life of Jesus was full of interruptions. That Samaritan woman at the well, blind Bartimaeus, a Roman centurion, the woman with the issue of blood. In fact, you have to think hard to come up with a miracle that Jesus performed that was a premeditated event.

The easiest way to say it is He was available for interruption at any moment. He lived his life in interrupted mode. Not that He spent his day waiting for these opportunities to occur, but rather, that He went on with life, and stopped whatever He was doing at the time to minister to the one in need. He understood what we all need to realize. We are here to live a Life Interrupted.

Take a moment to look back at the last week and think about opportunities when you could have stopped and assisted or talked to someone right then and there, but instead, you put it off, scheduled it for a more convenient time, or just ignored the need.
Because you had other plans.

Look back a little further and take stock of whether previous plans you had and followed through with were as important as that person’s immediate need.

I’m just going to say it. We as Christians are a very inflexible people. Because of this, small groups are never started, church seats remain empty, and young boys and girls go without fatherly and, in some cases, motherly mentors. Hundreds of other functions of the church body are neglected.

The problem is not the world, my friends. The problem is that we, the church, need to loosen up a bit and stop being so rigid. Knowing the Bible isn’t enough. Applying it to life is where things get done.

So, be available.
Get a little dirty.
Smile.

Before you know it, your life will be full of God’s love working through you.

Before you know it, you, too will be living a Life Interrupted.

Quick on My Toes

By Elaine James –

“Where did you get those cute shoes?” I inquired.

She responded, “Bed, Bath and Beyond.”

Shocked, I repeated “Bed, Bath and Beyond?”

She flippantly replied, “Yeah, that must be the beyond part of the store.”

We laughed. “Wow! You’re quick on your toes. Did you just make that up?”

Most confidently, she chuckled “Yeah”. I had to laugh with her. I never thought of the ‘Beyond’ stuff in that title.

Suddenly as I focused on the beyond of Bed, Bath and Beyond title, I began to put it in spiritual terms; Here, Now and Beyond. The here and now are staples of everyday life, but the beyond is the part I forget to focus on.

First, how many times in my life do I hear a prayer, title or a Bible verse and not focus on each word? After all, a prayer like Our Father, which Jesus taught to his disciples, when simply recited is just babbling to God if I don’t really know who I am praying to and what it is about. The beginning line of that prayer, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,” taught me to adore and praise God.

Second, beyond is eternity or my time after death. Where will I go and why? How could I be living my life daily with the understanding of “eternal security with Jesus in heaven” or “Beyond”? The Our Father prayer goes on to say “Your Kingdom come,” which begs for the eternal security I experience when I focus on the cross and Jesus second coming.

Third, the beyond is not more things I want or have. It is the need God grows in me to be in relationship with Him. The Lord’s Prayer that asks “give me today my daily bread” which is the essential fruits of the Spirit that I need daily.

If I trust in the Lord with all my heart daily I can experience the “beyond” that the Lord freely wants to give me. I was “quick on my toes”; a pun intended by God as I went from shoes, to toes and “Beyond.”

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:9b-13 NIV).

Seasons or Scenery

By Mollie Bond –

Seasons or scenery: the top two reasons I move and change jobs. I may move because I need a change of scenery, but mostly it is because I need a change of seasons.

It’s like this—a crew of Muppets comes to a fork in the road. Their decision mimics my decision. The fork the Muppets see, literally is a fork. Great for comedy, but in real life, forks have prongs that hurt, so I’m careful with my choices. I can find a job based on the scenery (where is it?), or I can find a job based on the season (what I’ll be doing).

Two signs in the fork in the road point to two directions. One sign says “move first.” If I choose scenery, it usually requires a move. I risk moving to a town I like and try to job search. I’ll walk into companies in hopes for the impromptu interview.

The other sign says, “job first.” Find the job you like, then move. That risk is to wait where I am (in search of seasons), and pour resumes into the Abyss where my resumes might also see the Abysses’ city dump.

Sometimes I’ve chosen the Abyss. (I’ve heard it’s a nice place in the fall.) Sometimes I’ve waited at my current location. Here’s where my Bible knowledge comes in handy.

God has an opinion. That opinion on whether you go or stay is straightforward. Seek Him, find Him, and then glorify Him. I first will search for Him.

Okay then. The next step after seeking Him is that I’ll find Him. Check. Then glorify Him. I can glorify Him in this scenery or this season. He is close by us no matter where we are in life. He gives us two choices of scenery or seasons so that we will “reach out for Him and find Him” (Acts 17:27). Pray lots, continue to seek Him, find Him, and glorify Him in day-to-day living. As time goes on, the answer will come, and maybe it will be both seasons and scenery.

PRAYER: God, thank You for creating both scenery and seasons. I pray no matter which situation I am in today, that I seek You, find You, and glorify You.

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26-27 NIV)

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