I remember 35+ years ago living in Southern California and thinking I had to be cool -or KEWL, as they might spell it today- so I liked to get dressed up if I was going out. Of course at that stage of my life, in that context and in that culture, getting dressed up meant that I ironed a tee shirt (preferably one with some sort of anti-establishment message on it), and pulled on a pair of designer jeans. Today I prefer to dress down most of the time, so I don’t bother ironing the t-shirt (still wear the ones with messages – usually a different type of message, though) and the jeans are whatever is on sale from the Softer Side or at Wally-World.
What brought that up is that yesterday I read Mark Batterson’s new Book Soul Print. And as I was reading it and writing a review, I kept thinking how much I could have used this book 30 or so years ago. If I had been able to live some of the practices Batterson writes about, my life might have been a lot kewler. But He also put the antidote to that kind of thinking into the book: it’s not the disappointments, delays and disadvantages that I need to waste time worrying about, but rather I need to be on the lookout for the divine appointments that tend to accompany the delays and discouragements.
Batterson’s point is that when things don’t turn out the way I had planned them, it might just be because God is saying, “Hold on, I have something much better in store for you”. And as I look back I can see that God has taken me to places I never dreamed of, and as a result my life has changed in many different ways.
Things didn’t always turn out like I had planned, but they turned out the way God wanted them to happen, and as a result of those disappointments, disadvantages and delays in my life, I’ve been primed for the divine appointments that God had in store for me.
I didn’t become a millionaire by the age of 30, and it doesn’t look to promising for 60 either, but that’s okay. I’m rich in so many ways that are counted in a way that doesn’t include dollars.
So I have a choice, and so do you. We can look back at the past, let that define us and lock us into a future that is devoid of joy, peace, hope and love; or we can turn the past over to God, and let Him use it to shape our future. The exciting wonderful future that he has in mind for each of us.
And by the way, all those times of disappointment, disadvantage, delays actually have something in common with the divine appointments. You seem in good times or in bad times, I can turn to God and it will keep getting different. Actually whether I turn to God or not things will continue to get different, but different with God involved is a lot better than different without knowing that He is there beside me!
Blessings
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
SOUL PRINT review: Get Ready for a Journey
David is one of those biblical personages that even pre-believers seem to know about, and in his latest book, Soul Print discovering your divine destiny; Mark Batterson sends us on a journey to discover our destiny with David as the tour guide. But it’s not just any journey; it’s a journey that helps us discover who we might have been, who we might become, instead of just who we are. It’s a journey that builds on the legacy that we were left with, and builds to the legacy that we will leave behind
I don’t think there’s a lot of new ideas in this book, but I might as well have been reading some of them for the first time, and I found myself thinking about how my life might have been different if I had read this book 35 or 40 years ago. If I had focused on becoming the right person, on enjoying the current season rather than focusing on the one to come. If I had recognized some of the disappointments to my plans as the divine appointments that God intended them to be.
This book is deceptively simple. You might spend a couple of hours reading it, enjoying the writing style, and promising to try some of the suggestions for making your skin a more comfortable place to be, or you might savor it for longer periods of time, delighting in the knowledge that God has a wonderful plan for you, and Batterson has given you a map with a big “X” marking the spot where you can start the search for that plan.
As I read I was given glimpse after glimpse of the me that God is still working on, not just the me that I might be content with based on the days that have already passed, but the me that God has planned for the days that are yet to come.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
Download a sample chapter: http://multnomahemails.com/wbmlt/pdf/SneakPeek_Soulprint.pdf
Monday, January 24, 2011
Blessed Are the Flexible
Early on in my military career I heard a saying that has stuck with me over the years. Sometimes it has stuck like glue, and other times it's stuck like water on a duck's back, but in some form or another, it has stuck.
It goes like this: 'Flexibility is the key to survival in the tactical environment'.
Today my Colorado/Palestine friend, Donna, reminded me of that axiom when she posted this variation on the theme - 'Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape!'
I was looking at a schedule, and thought that a certain project was due a week earlier than I had thought, (turns out it's not due for another 2 weeks). It's not even a big project, but it certainly would require some changes to my tentative schedule to get it done this week. And that's where the flexibility comes in. Its way too easy to get heartburn worrying over how to manage minor interruptions and deviations to plans, when all I really need to do is go with the flow. But because I 'hate' change, I have to keep reminding myself of this simple fact.
And there are certainly others who have had their plans changed. Daniel thought he was going to spend some time praying to God and he ended up in a den full of hungry lions. Instead of getting all upset, he just kept praying: all that changed was the location, and as we all know, we can pray anywhere. Paul Thought he was going to go to the province of Asia to preach the gospel, but he was prevented from doing so by the Spirit of Jesus. He kept preaching the gospel, just not in the place that he thought he was headed to.
Jonah had his plans changed too, he was happy where he was and God told him to go to Nineveh. That freaked him out, so he took all sorts of desperate measures - he ended up being thrown off the ship, swallowed by a sea creature, spit up on the beach, and adding insult to injury, ended up in Nineveh anyway.
It's good to make plans, but as all good 12 steppers know, it's not always wise to plan the results. I find that if I take things as they come, I might have to change my plans, but by staying flexible, it's a lot easier to not get bent out of shape. By staying flexible it's easier to survive.
And now that I've pontificated and waxed eloquent, I can take some time to freak out...
...see you in Nineveh!
It goes like this: 'Flexibility is the key to survival in the tactical environment'.
Today my Colorado/Palestine friend, Donna, reminded me of that axiom when she posted this variation on the theme - 'Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape!'
I was looking at a schedule, and thought that a certain project was due a week earlier than I had thought, (turns out it's not due for another 2 weeks). It's not even a big project, but it certainly would require some changes to my tentative schedule to get it done this week. And that's where the flexibility comes in. Its way too easy to get heartburn worrying over how to manage minor interruptions and deviations to plans, when all I really need to do is go with the flow. But because I 'hate' change, I have to keep reminding myself of this simple fact.
And there are certainly others who have had their plans changed. Daniel thought he was going to spend some time praying to God and he ended up in a den full of hungry lions. Instead of getting all upset, he just kept praying: all that changed was the location, and as we all know, we can pray anywhere. Paul Thought he was going to go to the province of Asia to preach the gospel, but he was prevented from doing so by the Spirit of Jesus. He kept preaching the gospel, just not in the place that he thought he was headed to.
Jonah had his plans changed too, he was happy where he was and God told him to go to Nineveh. That freaked him out, so he took all sorts of desperate measures - he ended up being thrown off the ship, swallowed by a sea creature, spit up on the beach, and adding insult to injury, ended up in Nineveh anyway.
It's good to make plans, but as all good 12 steppers know, it's not always wise to plan the results. I find that if I take things as they come, I might have to change my plans, but by staying flexible, it's a lot easier to not get bent out of shape. By staying flexible it's easier to survive.
And now that I've pontificated and waxed eloquent, I can take some time to freak out...
...see you in Nineveh!
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