Trying to please God does not please Him

"Without faith, it is impossible to please God" - Hebrews 11:6

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have heard people talk and preach on this verse and the emphasis has always seems to be some kind of insinuation that pleasing God is really difficult and that the goal of our life should be to please God. I have to tell you that I know that these sermons and opinions came from places of good intentions, but they were absolutely wrong. Here's the part where you might gasp and say things about how if I don't believe that we should live our lives to please God that I must not really love God. This is a distinct possibility, but maybe, just maybe it is in trying to please God that we fail to please Him. Paul writing in Hebrews 11 says that only through faith or through trust can we please God. He goes on in throughout this chapter, which is often called the "Hall of Faith" to describe men and women throughout the Old Testament who were able to please God, by trusting Him in very practical and tangible ways. Abraham left his home for a new land, Rahab welcomed the spies into her home, Moses left a palace to free his people, etc. What pleased God in each of these people was that they trusted God, they didn't obsess over pleasing Him, they made the choice consistently to trust Him.
Think back to the Garden and Adam and Eve, what was their sin? It was that they failed to trust God and what He had told them. The Fall was a result of man trusting himself and his own desires above what God said and the result was a break in that relationship with God. The creation account in Genesis says that God was pleased with His creation, so the Fall didn't change the fact that He was pleased with creation. It was trust that was destroyed in the Fall. Just as any relationship is destroyed when there is a lack of trust, our relationship with God can only be restored and healthy when there is genuine trust from us towards Him. We overcome that sin that originated in the Garden when we trust Him. Trust is not something we say, it is demonstrated in what we do and also in what we don't do.
The problem with living to try to please God is that it is unhealthy if that is our primary focus. Think about kids who obsess on trying to please their parents, never feeling like they can live up to those expectations and the guilt and shame that it brings to their lives. I have to be honest, I spent so much of my life trying to live in way that pleased God, never feeling like I did quite well enough and maybe you did too. It is in the realization that God loves us just as we are and that all we have to do is trust Him that we can find liberation from that. According to Paul, it is only by trusting God that we can please Him, then our focus must be in trusting and not in pleasing. Our focus then is on trusting Him on a daily basis, living our lives in a God-oriented way that demonstrates our trust in Him.
There is nothing you or I can do to please God apart from just simply trusting Him, living daily in such a way that acknowledges my need of Him and my willingness to follow Him even at times when I don't fully understand what is being asked of me. Start by trusting in just the small things and eventually it will help you to trust in the big things of life. God trusts you and is inviting you to trust Him, to escape the weight of expectations by trusting Him. In a trusting relationship both parties know the other person and accept and value them for who they are, allowing each other to be themselves. If you are tired of attempting to be pleasing to God and feeling like a failure, I invite you to shift your focus and just trust Him as He trusts you. It will allow God to be God and you to be you, and that's how it always should be.

The Measure of a Man

Have you ever noticed that there are just a few key areas that a man must have some proficiency in to be considered manly. He doesn't have to be good at all of them, but he better be pretty good or knowledgeable about at at least one of them to keep his man card. I like to break those areas of interest down as follows: sports (this does not include soccer because that is not a sport it is like an acting class for Europeans and South Americans or NASCAR because that falls under another manly area other than sports I believe), hunting and camping, cars, needless but must have technological gizmos, and tools and construction. If you are a man and you do not have some level of proficiency or at least a high level of interest in one or more of these areas, you are probably much to close to your mother and like a nice Pinot Grigio, not that there is anything wrong with that.(actually there is, but I wanted to be PC) I am well covered as a huge sports guy and my love for needless technological gizmos that I don't need and usually end up not fully using, just so you know. With my manhood firmly secure in my own mind, I find myself very aware of those men who don't fit neatly into my perception of what a man is. I hear a guy telling me how much he loves soccer and I think what did your parents do to you to turn you into this and wondering if he likes cross dressing or just feels compelled to do it? Here's the problem, my perspective on what makes a man is highly dysfunctional and does a disservice to the broad scope and beauty of what men can be and are. It has the ability if I allow it to rob me of great friendships and tremendous opportunities, all because of a flawed and limited understanding on my part.
I was thinking about this today as I listened to a "good" Christian man talk about the "compromise" in the life of another believer and how one day this man would stand before God and would be surprised hear God say "Depart, because I never knew you." I refrained from punching this particular "good" Christian only because I know how easy to fall into the same trap of self-righteousness. As much as it saddens and enrages me to see so many try to narrow the scope of God's grace, it frightens me that we are limiting the grace in our own lives as we do this. I am reminded of Matthew 7:2 which says, "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you." By narrowing the grace of God's in our minds and perspectives, we restrict the wideness of grace available to us. Why would we wish judgment on any one or find satisfaction in the struggles of another person, believer or not? It says alot about us that we want to make it more difficult for people to find and live for God. Rather than helping lighten their load by showing grace we add to it with our own traditions and accompanying self-righteous ideas and the danger of that is that these become the standards we will be judged by. Jesus was known as a friend of sinners while so many believers believe that it is our duty to avoid sinners as much as possible. It is not just non-believers who are lost it seems.
As partakers of God's grace, we have a responsibility to confront the self-righteous and low grace attitudes that have pervaded so many of our churches, to let God's grace be fully what it is and to recognize that only God gets to be God.
I will let Charles Swindoll say it much better than I ever could, "The problem with legalists is that not enough people have confronted them and told them to get lost. Those are strong words, but I don't mess with legalism anymore. I'm 72 years old; what have I got to lose? Seriously, I used to kowtow to legalists, but they're dangerous. They are grace-killers. They'll drive off every new Christian you bring to church. They are enemies of the faith. Other than that, I don't have any opinion! So, if I am trying to force my personal list of no-no's on you and make you feel guilty if you don't join me, then I'm out of line and I need to be told that." Grace to you through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rated R for Adult Language

When was the last time you allowed your anger to just overwhelm you and in that moment of being overwhelmed you did things that you would not normally do? For me, it was Thursday. I was talking to Susan about the people who are currently renting our house and who we have already had to take to court once because they refuse to pay their rent on time or at all as now the case seems to be. Not only that, this woman lies and bounces checks to us for thousands of dollars creating real difficulty even though we have tried to work with them and help them in every way possible. We go to court and the judge says, well you should just be grateful to have renters in this economy and I'm thinking, you're an idiot, how is having renters who don't pay any better than not having renters?(More proof that graduating from Law School is not too difficult) I would rather have no one in my house than to collect no rent and having to go through all these hassles and this frustration. So I'm talking to Susan about this on Thursday and I'm getting so angry that I find myself threatening to drive to Panama City this weekend and grab this woman by her throat and throw her and her kids out on their butts (gotta admit I didn't say butts) and unleash biblical vengeance on them. Then I hung up and I replayed the moment in my mind and I realized how ugly I had allowed myself to become in it. Not only was I seriously thinking about inflicting bodily harm on a woman and two kids, I was using some language that I don't ever use because of just the ignorance it portrays. If you are a curser, you just sound stupid when you do it, trust me. Why would I allow myself to regress into that type of behavior over anything? The answer for me, a lack of faith. If I really believed that God was working all things for my good, then I would trust Him with this. In that moment I didn't.
I fell back into default mode, which for me is wanting to handle everything myself. The problem with that is that it has never worked. It is that stubborn desire that has created most of the pain and regret in my life and yet I am still so quick to revert back to it. Thank God that He allows us moments of clarity and reflection to realize how ugly we can be left to our own devices and that He is faithful to forgive and to help us learn and grow from each mistake. If we want to carry the full burden of our own lives, He will certainly let us but the weight is more than we can bare and the strain of it robs us of the beauty of who we are. I hope this week in those moments where you are challenged beyond what you think you can handle, that you will allow God to carry that weight and not allow it to rob you of who you are.

“Difficulties show men what they are. In case of any difficulty remember that God has pitted you against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot be without toil.” - Epicetus

What Do You See?

Let me lead with a question, "If you could be one person from the Bible (excluding Jesus), who would you choose?" The first choices that come to mind for me would be Paul I guess, maybe Solomon, David had his moments, possibly Zerubbabel just on the sake of his name alone. Way down on that list would be guys like Job and Jonah and Hosea because let's be honest, their lives had long moments of suckage. I'm talking about those moments that just make you look at the sky and ask God to just be merciful and end it, moments that seem to make no sense in the lives of those who follow God. The problem with that is that if you look at the afore mentioned guys like Paul and David and Solomon and even Jesus himself, it seems that their moments of suffering often outweighed their moments of peace and ease. It seems then that either God just likes to watch us suffer or maybe He understands something that we don't or that we wish were not true.
I was reminded of the necessity and the benefit of suffering and hardship as I read Job 42 this week. Job says in verse 42:5, " “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You" after God allowed everything to be taken from him and he experienced this miserable period of life. This man who God had bragged on earlier in the book says here to God, I thought I knew you before this pain and suffering, but I realize now looking back that I only knew a little. It was the suffering that forced Job to rely on God exclusively and by doing that to understand the true scope of God's love and compassion. I like to think of this idea like you would in working out, if there is not a good measure of resistance when you work out, then there is no real growth. In this life, we need resistance and pain, because it is in those moments that we are forced to recognize that our own strength is insufficient and that God himself must bear the weight of what we are facing.
I was reminded of this today in talking to Susan about some issues we are facing with our renters that to be honest just suck, but I also recognize that it is in these moments that our faith either grows or diminishes. We are unable to do any more than we already have, but we are trusting God through this resistance and in that He is growing our faith. It does hurt a little, but the pain is part of the growth. It is these moments of doubt and confusion that allow us to really see God and so I am thankful that He is working this out for us and that after it is over, we will be able to look back like Job and to say "I thought I knew you before, but I see you now beyond what I could back then."
God is with us and He is with you too. I hope you see Him.

Camera Out, Hip Out!

“Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed.” - Bertrand Russell

If the title of this post makes no sense to you, then you are obviously not me, because I am laughing just thinking about it. If you know my daughter Rylee, and I'm sure you do since the only people who seem to read this blog are my relatives and RJ (thanks RJ for giving me a sense of validation), then you know that she is absolutely hilarious and will take attention when it's available and demand it when it's not. Susan posted a picture of her dressed for her first soccer game (yeah I know it's soccer, but she's a girl so that makes it acceptable) and she invariable went to her "go to" pose. That pose is, created all on her own, left hip thrust out and head tilted to the right. It screams "you are lucky to get to see me today". She lives life full speed and never meets a stranger, always has something to say, which I love about her (most of the time). It also scares me to death to think of her as a teenager (don't worry I am stocking up on ammunition, so we are good.) It made me think about how different she and Aiden are in some ways, he is much more reflective and laid back, but they both have such incredible potential and attributes already that will benefit them as they move through life. I am sure that there will be times in the future when we will be tempted to tell Rylee to tone it down and just relax like her brother or to tell Aiden to liven up just a little bit, but the recognition I want to have is that they are exactly who God created them to be and to do that is to demean God's creative spark that is ever present in their lives.
It also makes me think how often I find myself focusing on other people and the successes they seem to be having, honestly envying that, because I am not sharing what I think is success in that moment. Over the last two years I have had the opportunity to talk and counsel with a great number of people and the commonality that I have found in them and myself is the lack of contentment. We find ourselves focused on what is happening in the lives of others and not on what is taking place in our own lives. We lose sight of who we are in the pursuit of who we wish we were. As Russell says in the earlier quote, we are chasing and emulating people who don't even exist, except in our minds. I am convinced the best way to serve and honor God is to be you, to allow Him room to work in you and maximize the potential He planted within you. It is God who gives the increase in all things and He wants to yield a bumper crop in our lives. We can't water and tend to our lives though if we are constantly looking at the fields of those around us and fretting over why theirs looks better than ours at this moment. You are a marvel of God's creation, I pray that you find your "go to pose" and that you put it out there every chance you get.

P.S. - "But godliness with contentment is great gain." 1 Timothy 6:6

Wisdom From the Stock Room!

“Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.” - Douglas MacArthur

I know you probably have never felt this way, but this week I wanted to quit. Not really quit, my emotions just got the best of me and I wanted to just tell everyone they could keep their stupid jobs, ridiculous assignments, the miserable heat, etc. and I would head back to Florida(I know, it's hot there too) to see my wife and kids who I miss incredibly . It was on the tip of my tongue as someone with no real power or influence other than that in her own head explained something to me that needed no explanation and which she was butchering all the same. As I opened my mouth to say it, the most inconvenient thing happened, I remembered this quote from MacArthur. I thought of the times in my life when I have quit, not because things were too difficult, but because there was an easier option. The easier option was not nearly as rewarding mind you, but it saved me pain and difficulty and at the moment that was all that my mind would focus on. I remembered the after effects of those decisions and the regret that I still feel when I think of what could have been if I had just put in a little more effort and stayed in the fight a little longer. I thought of the people that I let down in the process, including myself, and suddenly it became pretty clear. So go ahead Mrs. Self-Important, tell me eight times how to do the same thing and I will listen intently and act as if it is the first time you said it and that I am gleaning incredible wisdom about how to break down a box and other magnificently important matters because this is part of the journey that God has for me and like my example Jesus, I will bear not only what I enjoy, but more importantly, what is necessary. I am not quite where I want to be, but I am not where I was either, I will finish this race and hopefully finish well.
God Bless You as you run yours as well!

Windshield or the Rearview

I was thinking about why we spend so much time looking backward, full of regret and wishing that we could change things we did. For me, I guess I think that those things have cost me opportunities and that my life could be so much more than I feel it is. I could take away the guilt and shame that I feel for mistakes and failures, ah the guilt and shame, that is the essence of the problem. We find ourselves locked in a cage of our own design. I don't know how to move on and so I assume that this is where I must stay. I can't forgive myself and so I spend so much of the time that I have been given looking back and wondering what could have been rather than looking ahead and determining what will be. It's a recipe for disaster.
Case in point, I was nineteen years old sitting at the corner of John Pitts Rd. and Star Ave. about the fifth car in line at the stop sign. I'm not sure why but I happened to look in my rearview mirror as I sat there and I saw a Firebird maybe 100 foot back not even starting to slow down. It was close enough that I could see the guy driving looking in his rearview mirror for some reason and realized that he did not see me or the line of cars in front if him through his windshield. I watched as he finally looked in front of him and saw his eyes go wide and his panic as he locked up the brakes. Too late, he slid into my bumper and ended up buying a new bumper for me and doing a good bit of damage to his car as well. I listened as he explained to the FHP trooper how he thought he had just passed a friend going the other way and was looking back to see if he was right. The trooper explained that there is a reason that windshields are much larger than rearview mirrors. A windshield should be the place of emphasis for anyone driving a car forward. Unless you are in reverse, a rearview mirror should only used as a reference point for changing lanes and directions. That's good advice for driving and for life.
Maybe you're like me and the pangs of regret show up often and you would like to just sit and wonder what could be as you look in the rearview. The danger is that you miss what is coming up right in front of you and lose your ability to navigate as it approaches. We have all made mistakes, big and small, but those should just be reference points that help us keep our bearings as we move forward, not focal points that keep us looking backward. The key to moving on I have found is understanding grace, radical grace. The source of that grace? God himself. It is grace that defines me not by my mistakes, but by His love. It is grace that incorporates my failures into His plan rather than excluding me from that plan because of those mistakes. If you find yourself focused on the rearview today or an day, just remember that God's grace frames those images from the past and provides a clean windshield as you move forward.