place of nathan.

This reminds me of what I previously blogged about here, here, here and here.

2 Peter 1:12-13 (NIV):

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body.

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In the past six weeks, I’ve injured both my finger and my knee.

I thought both would heal quickly. But as I recover, I’m finding it isn’t so quick.

My finger, although better, is tender to the touch at a specific angle. The problem here, is I forget about it until I hurt it. I don’t hurt it as long as I’m thinking about it–but it doesn’t hurt enough to think about it…

My knee is also much better than it was last week. But the past few days, my knee just feels swollen. It aches. It’s a constant reminder of my injury.

This nagging injuries got me thinking about how much this is like those nagging sin issues in our lives. The thing we think we’re over, we forget about, and then when we forget about it, it pops up. As long as we’re thinking about protecting ourselves from it, we’re good, but then after a while, we slowly forget about it and stop thinking about protecting ourselves anymore…
The knee reminded me of sometimes our problems in life stay with us for a while–sometimes a choice we make when we’re young stays with us for the rest of our lives.

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Mike Ash is in the middle of a 4-part series on Integrity for Sale, and today’s was Part 2: Lying.

As you may know, I’ve written about lying before, about how much I hate it. Mike’s post let me see the lying issue from a new perspective, and perhaps why someone would actually lie.

This is a great post, and I recommend you swing over to Mike’s blog and read Integrity for Sale (2 of 4).

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The first recipient (1917) of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting, Herbert Bayard Swope, said this:

I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.

What do you think? Will that bring you surefire failure?

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I have a new Email signature I’ve been using for about two weeks. I think I found this quote from Seth Godin, if memory serves me correct (and it normally does).

Repeat yourself until everyone is annoyed but your accountant.
-Jay Levinson

This reminds me of something Andy Stanley has said:

Vision Leaks.

How often to give vision to those around you? Can people figure out what you want, why you want it? Do you provide your spouse/dating partner vision for your relationship? Are you doing marriage/dating ‘aimlessly’? Does your spouse think you are? Remember, vision leaks, so repeat yourself until everyone is annoyed…

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Every morning, Emily and I leave for work at the same time. I have a one-minute commute, or a seven-minute walk (I am not walking through the winter though), and Emily has a 35-40 minute commute.

Needless to say, Emily uses much more gasoline in her car than I do in mine. I try to do most of her gasoline fill-ups, but sometimes she gets gas in Fort Wayne without letting me know she needs gas.

This morning on the way to work, Emily needed gas, so we stopped at our local S & S Express, and I pumped gas for her. I went in to pay as Emily drove off. The young lady behind the counter said, ‘You always pump gas for her, don’t you?’
I said, ‘Not always, but I do try to.’
‘I think that’s so cute,’ she said.
‘Sometimes she gets it without asking me, but when it’s cold outside, I especially like getting it for her.’
‘I think it’s so cute you two get along so well.’
…

As I left, those words stuck with me…’you two get along so well.’

I think that is key to making any marriage work. You have to do what the other person wants, even when you don’t want to. I don’t particularly enjoy standing out in 20-degree weather pumping gasoline, but when I do it instead of my wife, I am making a sacrifice for her, and she knows it. I gladly make that sacrifice for my wife.
She doesn’t like pumping gas ever, and when she can get a replacement to do it for her, she is indebted to her replacement, and she serves me well.

The thing is, this is just like what Jesus did for us–he was the replacement sacrifice for all we deserve for our screw ups and mess ups. Jesus made a sacrifice for us, do we serve him well?

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My dad recently posted a Merry Christmas message I believe everyone should read.

Enjoy the days leading up to Christmas everyone! Remember it’s not about consumerism, it’s about Christ.

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The past few days in our ten inches of snow, I’ve been thinking about my car and driving. I drive a rear-wheel drive mustang, and in snowy/icy conditions, driving can be both fun and dangerous. I need to slow down and drive carefully.

Many people have sworn off rear-wheel drive vehicles because they slide so much easier than a front-wheel drive vehicle, and that is true.

However, a rear-wheel drive vehicles is much easier to control through a slide than a front-wheel drive.

Did you get that? The vehicle which slides more, slides controllably. The vehicle which slides less, slides uncontrollably.

Which would you rather have–more controllable slides, or fewer uncontrollable?

Is there anything we can apply to our walk with Jesus as we consider slides?

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This morning I was thinking about my issues last night in getting my WiFi Router to work properly.

You see, I knew what I needed to do the whole time, but I thought I could figure it out by changing a setting on the notebook.
I knew what needed to be done, but I thought I could do it better myself. Turns out, I was wrong.

I think often in our own walk with Jesus, deep down we know what our next step should be, but we don’t like it, so we try to find a different route. The thing is–there often isn’t a second route. When we face a bridge, there’s only one way to cross it, and we need to do what needs to be done–no gallivanting around will get you across the bridge you face.

Next time you find yourself in a place in your walk with Jesus where you know the next step you need to take, just do it. Don’t waste your time trying to find a way around it–just do it.

I’m talking to myself here.

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I am happy to report, after putting if off much too long, and admitting it yesterday, last night I braved the freezing temperatures to clean out my side of garage. I put on my pajama pants (as they are very warm), a long sleeve shirt, a winter coat, hat and gloves. It only took me 15 minutes, but by the time I was finished carrying things down to the basement, I was out of breath.

I was very happy to have my garage all cleaned up and out.
Yesterday when I got home, I just kept thinking about putting it off, putting it off yet again. Would it really matter? What’s the big deal? I don’t feel like cleaning in the cold. Then I thought about what it would be like to scrape my windows, brush snow off the car every morning. Not fun. I thought about how I said on my blog I was going to get it done, and I needed to get it done, so I did. What an accomplishment. I was happy I got it all cleaned out.

The stupid thing I did–I didn’t park in my garage last night, so this morning, I still had to scrape my windows.

Application: Even though I got it accomplished, what good is it if I don’t use it?
Do you see any areas in your walk with Jesus where this can be applied?

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This morning, we awoke to about 2″ of snow on the ground.

We have a two-car garage, which makes it very nice in the winter to be able to park in the garage and not have to scrap the snow and ice off the windows in the morning.
Of course, I’ve been lazy, and there isn’t room for me to park my car in the garage at the moment. Emily can park in the garage, but I cannot. My side has a stack of shingles, empty cardboard boxes, three different types of powered saws, a pair of saw horses and some other miscellaneous odds and ends. The thing I, I have known for months I needed to clean up the garage. It’s been on my mind especially over the past two or three weeks but yet I haven’t done anything about it.

I think this is like our walk with Jesus, sometimes. We know what we should do, but we keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off until we finally come to the realization, ‘Huh, I really should have done this a long time ago. It would have saved me a lot of time, I could have done it more comfortably earlier and it’s not as easy any more.’

Wouldn’t it have just been much easier for me to clean up the garage when it was 60 degrees out instead of doing it tonight when it’s 30? Will I ever learn my lesson?
Or, will I not do it tonight and put it off again?

Have you ever been there?

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