You have heard the term before I am sure and you have probably had no problem understanding the term or believing it, or have you? I have been in the ministry for ten years now and I must admit that I am not sure that I have a grasp on the act of unconditional love. I thought I did, but now I am not so sure. This thought was initiated from my recovery from surgery. I have had two conflicting emotions during my recovery process that have perplexed me. The first one came rather quickly when I came home from the hospital to rest and recover. The feeling was amazing. I have not relaxed that much or had that mental state of relaxation for years and years. This is sad but true at the same time. Now, after a few weeks, I have started to feel a slight bit of depression because I have not been able to do anything or produce any results for quit some time now. This my friends is a problem. I have either trained myself and/or society & ministry has taught me to produce, accomplish, & do something in order to receive love, acceptance, or affirmation. These emotions tell me that I do not yet fully understand or believe in the unconditional love that Christ offers me. It's unfortunate but ministry in and of itself can direct you and condition you to think and act contrary to the Word of God. This has been a revelation to me and I am on a journey to retrain my mind, my actions, and how I act or respond to others in this area. The Bible is very clear. There is nothing that we can muster up or do that can make us worthy to receive God's unconditional love. It is just who He is. He made us with perfection and precision. His love is offered to you in every spectrum whether you are close or far away. It does not come once you think of something really cool to implement at work and then get the attention of others as a result of it. It does not come after you have written your first book. It does not come after the purchase of your new home or the birth of your first child. Nothing, nothing, nothing you can do makes you eligible. It is done. It just is. We have to really train our minds to comprehend this because we have been conditioned to think otherwise for so long. Think about how this effects you as an individual. Do you really believe in unconditional love? Does the way in which you live your life and spend your mental energy reflect unconditional love? Think about how this effects you as a leader or a manager of an organization. Do your actions and expectations reflect unconditional love? Are the people under your supervision able to express themselves in a way that honors God and follows His leading? Think about it. This could be the thing that transforms every area of your life and most importantly your perspective of God Himself. Please don't misinterpret what I am saying. This is no excuse to sit around and become a flake in the wind. This is only a desire to inspire you to find out where God is moving in your life and act on it instead of chasing the tumbleweed in the wind to try and produce results that in the end just brings countless feelings of exhaustion and emptiness. So you have heard the term before, but do you really believe it? Your heart will let you know for sure. I want to, but I don't think I am there yet.

Christ Holds It All Together

I am back in the office today. I have to admit I am not sure I am going to last the whole day but I wanted to come in and give it a shot. Feel like I need a beach trip for some inspiration. Lol! I am going to work on the Alpha Videos this week so we can get them ready for national distribution. So excited about this opportunity. Who would have thought that a random idea a year ago would make such a huge impact. I love it!

As my surgery has been approaching I have been faced with the temptation to worry. Divinely enough, my particular reading topics this week have been related to worry vs. trusting. It seems that trusting is far more relaxing and energizing then worry. I even came across a great definition for worry in my readings from the Christian Atheist, "worry is the sin of distrusting the promises and the power of God." Wow! So quite honestly worry is a sin. When you worry your perspective of God is false. You minimize His power and His truth. When you put it that way it seems preposterous to worry, right. Who am I to take the reign from the creator of all things and profess, by worrying, that He is in fact NOT able. Ouch! I do not want any part of that. However, when you and I worry, that is exactly what we are doing. Be encouraged by this scripture today and know that worrying will accomplish absolutely nothing. Trusting in Him is way better use of your life and energy.

Have you ever looked at one of those pieces of art that play tricks on your eyes? You know, you can look at it one way and then turn it and see something totally different. Pretty freaky huh? I think that can happen to us sometimes when we read through the pages of scripture. We can read something that perhaps we have read before a few times and out of nowhere see something totally different. This can happen for a few different reasons. One, the Holy Spirit can bring something to your attention and enable you to digest scripture from a different perspective or you can read a different version of scripture and see different things via different linguistic styles. This definitely happened to me when I read through 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. I have read this passage before, in fact many times before. I have always understood the mentality that you should work hard for a living and provide for your family and not be lazy. Reading this passage through the lens of your household makes perfect sense, right? But what if you read it through the lens of the church. Yowzer! It puts new meaning to the phrase “if you don’t work you don’t eat.” Have you ever felt this way or ever heard someone say, “I don’t feel like I am getting fed at this church”? My question to you would be how have you invested in that church? Because this is saying if you don’t work first then you do not eat. Or how about the next passage that reads “now we are getting reports that a bunch of lazy good for nothings are taking advantage of you. This must not be tolerated!” Jeepers! I don’t know about you but I want to make sure that at no time do I fit the category of a lazy good for nothing in the church. I don’t want to simply take up real estate in the church and spend my time spectating. On the contrary, I want to invest my time for which Christ Jesus invested His entire life for and remain a participator in this organism that we call church. Where are you on this scale? What does your church experience look like? Sitting and standing with an occasional head bow? Or are you investing and sweating to share the message of hope? If it’s not the latter than do something now to change it. Sign up for a ministry this weekend at your local church. Find an area of need in your community and meet it. Get creative but don’t get lazy. Time is ticking!