Category Archives: personal

The Shortest Seven Years of Your Life

Posted by Steve on

I have this dream of having a blog that’s active and continuously helpful to my audience, who in my dream is a lot larger than a blog’s audience can realistically become without selling Google ads or something like that.  It’s a pretty great dream; I feel accomplished, others feel encouraged, and everybody is happy.  Sadly, I have failed to meet my goal of “write at least one blog per week” about eighty-seven times at this point, and I think a more realistic goal would be, “write at least one blog per year.”  That’s a good goal, because it’s accomplished by this very post.  Great job, Steve!  You’re doing it—you’re really doing it!

We all have lots to do, all the time.  Blogging just seems like work sometimes.  Other times, it seems like I can’t blog precisely because I have other work to do.  I’m convinced that we are born with the necessity to be busy, like a “to-do list” app that comes pre-installed on your phone and can’t be deleted.  Everyone is rushed and overwhelmed, and when they’re not, they’re thinking about the next time they will be.  Yet, some things seem easy, even when they require a lot of work.  Blogging is clearly not one of those things for me yet.  It takes a lot effort to become good at a sport or game, but people put in the time without a second thought because it’s fun.  They enjoy it.  There’s some sort of affection for it.

It’s really interesting to me how love can turn things around so drastically.  In Genesis 29, Jacob falls in love with Rachel, and agrees to work for her father for seven years in order to marry her.  Then the father cons Jacob into another seven years of work.  I’m sure that  Jacob had a lot of blog material that would not be encouraging, to say the least, after that (see verse 25)!  Yet he served willingly, and the reason was that he was in love with Rachel.

The story of Jacob and Rachel teaches us, thousands of years later, that love turns years into days and labor into joy.  That’s not to say that there won’t be times when we have to push ourselves, and when our work or service makes us tired.  If we all have a pre-installed “to-do list” app, we also have a battery that requires charging sometimes, regardless of how we feel about what we’re doing.  But there’s something about love that motivates us when all other means of motivation have failed.  Paul really was on to something when he said that love “always perseveres [and] never fails.“

“What if I hate what I do?”  No worries, surprisingly enough.  The great thing is that we don’t have to be in love with everything we do to have love motivate everything we do.  Paul exhorts us to “work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”  What that means is that you don’t have to force yourself to love your job.  You don’t have to pretend to love schoolwork.  You simply have to adjust your angle; change your context; modify your mindset.  If I can position my perspective correctly, I don’t have to love blogging—I just have to love Jesus, and let my motivation for Him power my work.

I realize that blogging isn’t the best example…but it’s the one I’m working with.  What is it for you?  If we can identify the things we don’t like doing, we can start to use our love for Jesus to power our labor for the world.  That’s a good goal, and it can be accomplished this very moment with a simple decision to bring what you do under the umbrella of who you love!

(Not convinced?  Check these out: 1 Corinthians 10:31, Ephesians 4:11-13—”for works of service”, Philippians 4:13)

Heaven offers only one Psychology course

Posted by Steve on

It is incredible how active God is.  I haven’t written a new post in awhile, and it is astounding to think about how much has happened to me and in me and through me since the last post!  So, in an effort to reconnect to this ministry, I’ve been reading over a number of my past blogs.  (Yes, I view this blog—regardless of how many readers there are not—as a ministry.  Recognizing God’s ability and giving Him room in every area of our lives, from serving the needy to doing the laundry, is the first step to seeing His hand at work in all places and at all times.)

The most shocking part of all this is not that I’m writing a new blog after five months of inactivity, but that as I read over my previous posts, I felt incapable of keeping it up.  Now, I don’t think my writing is all that spectacular, or that I’ve ever had a “gold mine” of wisdom…but I was actually intimidated by myself.  I’ve set a standard (it may be low or high, but either way, there is one), and regardless of where that standard was, I didn’t feel like I measured up.

Wait—huh?

How can I possibly not measure up to myself?  What kind of weird identity conundrum have I worked myself into here!?

I’m no psychologist, but this is a perfect opportunity to address the fact that Satan loves to mess with our self-image.  If he can convince us that we don’t measure up (as a friend, as a spouse, as a leader, as a team player, or even as a blogger), then we effectively hand him the keys to all the influence we have.  Believing that you’re not good enough, or have somehow been disqualified, is like letting the enemy call the shots on what God is able to accomplish through you.  He might suggest that we compare ourselves to our siblings, or our friends, or our role models; he may even try to get us to compare our current self to our old self.  He points out all the great things in every place we look…until we look in the mirror, and then he turns it all around.

But there’s good news: Satan only has that ability when we agree with his suggestions and give him some space.  He’s really just a guy behind bars—a dog on a leash—and gets only what he can convince us to give him.  If we hold onto what God says through all of the enemy’s suggestions, Satan gets no say in what happens next.  And when God’s hand is in something, there’s no telling what incredible good will come of it!

So instead of allowing discouragement and fear to keep me from writing again, I decided to remind myself of God’s promises: that He is always moving me forward toward a greater level of goodness (Ro 8:28); that He is at work in me to complete all that He’s begun (Php 1:6); that His word is never wasted and always reaps a result (Is 55:11); that His ability goes far beyond my imagination (Eph 3:20); that His power is far more trustworthy than any rationale I can come up with (Col 2:8); that with Him, I can do anything (Php 4:13); that He values me and chose me to be a part of His work in the world (Eph 2:8)…just to name a few.

You won’t find much issue of “measuring up” after you soak your soul in things like that.

There will probably be far more reasons to drop down and fall back than to rise up and press forward.  We tend to be far too easy to scare.  But God is never outnumbered, and he’s never out-gunned.  So when the guy behind bars threatens you for your identity, just call in the warden; because the longer you hold on to God’s promises, the more He proves that he’s made them to YOU…and He’s not ever going to change them or take them back!

Making a Statement

Posted by Steve on

Pray that these would be true in your life and in mine every day, and strive for them with everything you have.  It is worth the risk.