Transformed Mind

Busyness, that stuff in my life that takes away from what I want to be doing, from what I should be doing, from the relationships I need to be nurturing and deepening to survive.  It’s that email or text I get at home that I just have to check on because I’m of course the only person that can fix the problem or answer the question.  It’s the saying yes to everything that comes my way, from ministry opportunities and extra assignments at work to filling up every evening or weekend with dinner dates and activities.  None of these things are intrinsically bad, but when they take away from the priorities in life, they can be detrimental not only to you, but to those around you.  Some say we, “…equate busyness with worth. A means of gaining recognition and being affirmed as a person, busyness also has nourished weeds that, in our adult years, now threaten to choke our ministries, marriages, and family life.” [1] Is this true, are we taking on the world,...

It’s funny how when things are going well the devil is not far behind, waiting to use our successes for his twisted torment and distorted sense of reality.   Pride is too easily snuck through the cracks of happiness and is manipulated for his gain. Coasting through life I was newly engaged to a beautiful godly woman, the job I had wanted for the past three years had finally contacted me, and I was making more money; everything seemed to have fallen into place.  Slowly and steadily though, I started to implode into a self-centered, materialistic slave.  I turned my back on the church financially by withholding my tithe, talking myself instead to needing the next coolest gadget or fancy watch.  Money somehow became my master, determining who I was and what I wanted.  Happy you may say, but only on the surface.  Material things only last so long before they lose their captivation and glamour.  I soon found myself empty and sullen....

“My Thoughts are completely different than yours,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:8-9 “I’ve got this.” A statement I often catch myself uttering both audibly and under my breath. And why not, I’ve made it this far on my own already.  I moved from MN to the big NYC when I was 19, served a year in Iraq, and have continued to thrive since, right?  Well, not exactly, I did not have a relationship with Jesus then, so when I got back from Iraq, these were my thoughts… “Contemplation, my only solace to the lonesome crippling world I live in.  I must now adapt to the things around me.  Everything has changed so drastically from the comfortable life I once knew, a simple life of waking, school, and friends.  No longer am I a spectator watching the worlds events unfold on...

Hope.  This simple yet powerful word has come up quite a bit these past few days in my circle of friends and colleagues.  Struggles with relationships either ending or being strained, not knowing what the future holds for sick loved ones, and for a military acquaintance, the fear of death in a foreign land. All of these real life worries yearn and deeply cry for hope. If you’ve read my other posts this may seem redundant, but hope, true unadulterated, ever-present, and lasting hope can ONLY be found in Jesus, in his steadfast love and promise to shepherd and protect us, leading us to everlasting life with him. Psalm 23 paints a poignant picture of this hope in times of fear and uncertainty. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2         He makes me lie down in green pastures.        He leads me beside still waters. 3         He restores my soul. ...