Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus.  But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.      Luke 15:1-2

This verse struck me when I was reading it the other day. It seems that the tax collectors and sinners were interested in what Jesus had to say. Interesting that the Pharisees were there too, but only as critics, not followers.

Those who were outcasts, judged by others, found comfort in hearing the words of Jesus. They seemed to know that Jesus was not interested in casting them away. They had heard the stories of his acceptance, healing, and words of comfort and reconciliation. After all, what is it that sinners and tax collectors had in common? They were outcasts, hated and judged by the community. They needed acceptance and forgiveness.

There is an old saying, “People need love the most when they are the least lovable.”  We need acceptance and forgiveness at exactly the times we are least lovable. Following Jesus sounds like a place of comfort in a difficult time.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the love and acceptance you extend through your son, Amen

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, …                                                                Ecclesiastes 3

As I sit on my patio writing this blog, I am soaking in the beauty of summer. The pond is clear and babbling with a gentle waterfall. My resident frogs hop warily on the lily pads, waiting for evening dinners of moths and any other unlucky critters that fly near the lights. Flowers surround the pond and the trees in the background sway gently in a warm evening breeze.

Then I think about the brevity of summer. Yes, this is wonderful, but it will pass all too soon. Indeed, our lives will be passing as well. Such is the circle of life.

I recall a breakfast many years ago with my mentor who was twenty years my senior. At one point he said, “You know, I have about four hundred or five hundred more Saturdays left, maybe less.”

This took me aback as he said it so dispassionately and matter-of-factly. He had calculated that maybe he had 8, or maybe 10 years left in his life. He had decided to treasure each of those Saturdays. It was not a morbid thought for him and he did not intend it to be for me. He was simply acknowledging that his time was growing relatively short.

Seasons come and go, and the older we get, the faster they go. Actually, there is a scientific reason that time does seem to go faster as we age, but that is a blog for another time.

The point is, we are subject to changing seasons. I love summer, and my family would attest to the fact that it is very hard to keep me indoors during the Spring and Summer (Autumn as well for that matter!) I have decided to soak in as much as each season has to offer. Enjoying each season as it comes helps us to live in the moment and not rue the passage of time.

So, enjoy this wonderful season. Soak in the beauty of flowers, long evenings, and all the Vitamin D that the sun has to offer!

Prayer: Lord, you have made this earth a scientific marvel of change and beauty!

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.                                                                                                                       Psalm 51:6

I have displayed below an excerpt from a client’s journal- his “book” he calls it. I had asked him to write out what is going on in his head- things that have troubled him for years. He writes with a depth and honesty that only one who has suffered pain and suffering can get in touch with.  

The writing has helped him to begin to heal. He writes about depression, about suicidal thoughts, about loneliness and self-hate. He also writes about his growing self-awareness and self-care. He has come to see that he is a strong person, not the weak young man that others derided in their own immaturity. He is on the road to healing because he had the courage to look inside of himself. I am so proud of him, and I tell him so.

Looking inside and committing it to writing is a powerful healing process. I am so glad he undertook that process. He has asked me to share parts of his journal to make sure that others can see that healing can happen. I do this to honor him, and in the hopes that others may find healing in similar ways.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the strength to look inward in an honest way, Amen

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.                                                                                                                                     Psalm 139:13-14

What are the odds of being born? I mean, all of us reading this blog have indeed been born and we are alive, but what were the odds of that happening? Depending on how you parse the math, and considering the odds of that one little sperm finding that fertile egg, and the further odds of how your parents even got together, and how the thousands of generations past had to work out just right for us to come along- well, you get the picture. Maybe the odds are one in 400 trillion. Likely, we cannot even measure the odds.

All this to say, the gift of just being alive is an absolute long shot! You, my friend, are a miracle. When I consider the gift of life, I am blown away. Yes, life can be very difficult and painful at times. But consider the alternative. Your life is an absolute miracle. You are not an accident. Your mind and body are a marvel that cannot be duplicated. The spirit that gave you life was breathed into you through those who came before, and the Creator who planned it all.   

So, just a thought for today. Consider the incredible gift of life that you have and cherish it.

Prayer: Lord, you have produced amazing miracles, including our very life. We are grateful! Amen 

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect                                                     Romans 12:2

Have you grown in your faith over the years? I hope so. Do you think about your faith the way you did several (or many) years ago? I suspect not. That is O.K. We are curious people, growing physically (well not in the ways we might like!), spiritually, emotionally, socially. We change, and that is good.

We are forced to look regularly at our faith, and how it guides us through changes in our life. Yes, there are some basics that we hold fast onto. We may not change so much what we believe, but we may change the way we talk about our beliefs.

As I have gotten older, for example, I have recognized that my idea of “certainty” has changed. I am more open to seeing that there are many ways to look at how God deals with his creation. My limited understanding does not limit God and how he has organized the universe. As science gives us new insights into the world, it does not weaken my faith- it strengthens it.  As I look at the history of Christendom, I see the flaws that sapped the vigor from the bold witness that the Church could have given to a needy world.

Yes, we evolve in our thinking, but we hold fast onto basic truths. God loves us, created us to love and trust him, and to love others.

The Good News!

Prayer: Lord, help us to embrace change as we cling to the basics of your love, Amen

“Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”                                                                                                                                                         Jeremiah 29:7

This passage from the book of Jeremiah has always intrigued me. The context is that God is speaking to and through the prophet Jeremiah, who is crushed in spirit about being carried away from his beloved Jerusalem. Jeremiah and the captive Israelites were lamenting that they were no longer in the Promised Land, and that they were now cut off from their destiny.

God gives Jeremiah a new plan. Really, I am thinking it was the plan all along. Jeremiah was to tell the captive Israelites that they were to plant gardens in Babylon. They were to marry and have children. They were to participate in the economy of this pagan Babylon and to help make it prosper. I’m sure that this was hard for Jeremiah to hear, and then to relate to his people, about participating in the hated Babylonian society and economy.

I think that message was also for the Church today. It was a cornerstone of my philosophy at New Creation Counseling Center. Christian organizations ought to be an integral part of society, helping in every way possible to enhance the physical, social, economic and spiritual health of where we are planted.

The history of the Church involvement through the centuries has been to start schools, hospitals, and benevolent organizations to help people in every walk of life- especially carrying out the mission Jesus set forth to help the poor and disenfranchised.

So, we grow where we are planted, and as our city prospers, so do we.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for this simple plan- to grow where we are planted, Amen

“What were the things that drew you to your spouse when you first met, or when you were in your early dating years?” This is a somewhat common question that I ask couples who I am seeing in counseling. I ask it for several reasons. First, I want to get them in touch with characteristics that are likely still present in their partner, but they have been overlooked due to stresses of marriage or living together over the years.

Next, I want the partners to share those things with one another, because they may not have been saying affirming things to one another for a long time. Finally, I want to explore the idea that the very things that drew them to one another are also the very things that can drive each other crazy now.

As I have said before, our strengths, our good qualities, if not managed well, can become weaknesses. I ask the partners to remember that there were very good reasons that they came together in the first place. Perhaps at this moment in their relationship, they have lost sight of those things.

It is a good exercise that we can all benefit from. It changes the lens a bit about how we currently see our partner/spouse, and how we used to see them.

Prayer: Lord, help us to continue to see our partners through a positive lens, Amen

A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap, A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer, A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part, A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go, A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up, A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace.                                                                                                       Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 (The Message)

I spoke with a client recently who has experienced a series of losses in the past couple of years. She has lost both parents, and now she is experiencing “empty nest” with her kids moving out of the house for college and careers.

I talked with her about grieving losses, and not just death, but any type of loss. As she is getting through the grieving, I talked with her about those losses, and the need to start looking at adding some things in her life. The losses are real and painful, and we must acknowledge them. At the same time, we need to start, at some point, looking for things to add into our life. These additions are not “replacements.” They are attempts to grow into a new season.  

I talked with her about looking into some learning opportunities as well as some safe outreaches into new social settings. The challenge is to look for some new things to stimulate us. We are made to be curious and we look for stimulation. When we have a loss, there needs to be a new infilling- a healthy addition into our lives.

These things are not replacements, they are new opportunities to grow.

Prayer: Lord, help us to find the rhythm of loss and addition that keeps us healthy, Amen

Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.  Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:1-2

I am currently reading a book titled Theo of Golden. It is a best seller, and I can see why. It is very well written, and it has a compelling character, Theo, who is a breath of fresh air. I have not completed the book yet, and indeed, some of my readers have likely read the book, so don’t tell me the ending!

What I have seen in Theo is the power of listening. I have also seen in him the ability to see the very best in the people whom he encounters. He becomes a wonderful encourager and affirmer of others. He also takes great joy in helping those people whom he has met in the small town of Golden.  

Theo reminds me a bit of the lead character in my historical novels about the adventures of Joseph Shepherd. I wrote Shepherd’s character to be one whom readers could not easily place- was he just a man ahead of his time? Perhaps he was a heaven-sent angel? Maybe he was even Jesus come in another age in our history?

In either case, both characters are examples of the best of human behavior.  You will have to read Joseph Shepherd, a Story of Travelers, and the sequel, Joseph Shepherd, the Adventure Continues in order to determine who Shepherd really is. As for Theo, I have not yet finished, but I am enjoying him a great deal.

The lesson for all of us is this- be a Theo or a Joseph Shepherd!

Prayer: Lord, help us to be those people who make the world that much better for us having been here, Amen 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,                                                                                                                                                                                    Hebrews 12:1

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.                                                                         II Timothy 4:7

Just the other day I was thinking about my resume, and it dawned on me that, at my stage in life, a resume no longer serves me. It is the epitaph that now looms larger in importance. Now, I do not want to appear maudlin or melancholy here. I am perfectly fine discussing this idea, and it does not cause me any sadness. It merely is that stage of life where we are looking more backward than forward. My epitaph will actually contain my resume. However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that we must look forward!

All this to say, I need no resume for employment any more. Though we stop working for a living, we never stop our work. We have our calling and our abilities, and we must continue to use those abilities to serve out that calling. I believe that there is truth to the saying that “if you don’t use it, you lose it”. This is certainly true of our physical bodies, and I think it is true of other skills or conditions as well, whether emotional, mental or spiritual.

Paul talked about our need to “run our race”. I think that race lasts our whole lifetime.

I am thankful for that.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for giving us our calling, and the will to play it out for our whole life, Amen