Zap Me, Lord!

 I don’t believe in pulling myself up by the bootstraps. I don’t think I have the ability to change myself. I believe true change comes only from God. However, I also believe I must cooperate with his change. I cannot continue to make bad choices and expect Him to zap me into goodness. This blog is about cooperating with God in becoming peaceful. I believe there are actions that I must take to allow God to sanctify me to become what he wants me to be. This is the basis for this blog.

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Why do we fixate on bad news? Why do we rubberneck at a bad wreck? Why do we gravitate to flaws in the opposition? Why do we gossip or sink into rabbit holes on social media? To deny this behavior would be ridiculous. We love celebrity or political dirt. We are drawn to it like moths to a roaring flame. 24/7 news channels, social media and even the local weather cash in on this truth. And is this behavior so wrong? Shouldn’t we stay abreast of the news in our world? 

But  the real question is why we prefer to let our hearts be troubled rather than peaceful. The fact remains that we cannot be troubled and peaceful at the same time. We cannot love our neighbor while we are judging their choices. We cannot have hope if all we feed on is catastrophe and chaos. Catastrophe and chaos will push out the faith, hope, love and peace in our hearts while filling us with hatred and fear. 

Remember Covid? How could we forget! We feasted on that news. We picked sides and drew lines in the sand. It heightened mental instabilities. We lost our way. I believe it was feasting on the negative that pushed out our sanity. You can probably name some folks that still haven’t returned to normal after Covid.

Do we really want our hearts to be filled with love or do we want our heads full of dirt? We are what we ingest. We must be careful about where our choices lead us. We all know we can be pulled down by hanging with the wrong crowd, but do we know that we can be pulled down by 24/7 news channels and the feed on our social media? Who knew that the wrong crowd can be a network on the TV? 

Pro tip: turn off the news channels, and do not like or repost any political posts on social media. In fact, scroll like the wheel on a slot machine when you see a political post.

What will fill this vacuum? Whatever good or bad thing you choose. Choose wisely. So many good people have become filled with hate and/or fear because they innocently tried to stay informed. And they don’t even see what they have become. Like the injected anesthesia of a leech, we can’t feel the blood being sucked out of our souls by 24/7 news channels and social media. And it doesn’t matter if your news feed is the right one, they all suck out our peace and this loss breaks my heart. But when we choose wisely, we will feel the fresh breeze of freedom from breaking those chains of fear.

The ball is in our court. Instead of feeding on the negative, play a game (maybe not Twister), listen to music, pray, bake cookies for a friend, walk your dog, anything! Just don’t allow your heart to be troubled so you can leave room for God’s peace to take root. 

Cars and Jesus

 

I said a sad goodbye to my little blue Jeep Wrangler after ten years of driving her. She had not one bell or whistle but I loved that about her. She had hand-crank roll up windows, and if you wanted to lock her, you reached over to the other side of the Jeep and physically pushed the lock. In her place I got a 2025 Explorer with ALL the bells and whistles. Dora can do so much more than I ever thought about. No, she doesn’t do my taxes, but I unwittingly discovered that she can drive herself. I was driving down I45 to see my daughter in Galveston and set my cruise control. The steering got really stiff and messages popped up on the large display in front of me stating that she was hands-free driving. 

At first I didn’t let go of the wheel. But I gradually loosened my grip noticing that she was staying right between the lines better than I ever could. Then I took the leap. When there were no cars around and a straight road, I let go to grab a piece of gum and unwrapped it. She stayed on track perfectly. I kept experimenting with letting go and each time she was flawlessly driving. A car dodged in front of me and she slowed down and maintained a safe space between us. Eventually when driving home through Houston on a quiet, slow-traffic Sunday morning, I let her drive. Since I absolutely hate driving with a passion, I found Dora’s talent quite freeing. A month later I received a message from Ford saying that my free subscription to hands-free-driving had expired. Lol, it was fun while it lasted. 

This description of driving wasn’t just to brag about my new car, although I obviously did. It was for an illustration. You have probably heard the song by Carrie Underwood, Jesus Take the Wheel. Well this hands-free driving gave me a better taste of what it takes to let go and let God steer me. 

The Bible doesn’t say, God helps those who help themselves. However it says a lot of things about giving total control to Him. The Bible doesn’t say if we reach deep in ourselves we can handle anything life throws at us. It says life is tough and to rely on the Holy Spirit within us. The Bible doesn’t say we are perfect as we are and don’t need help. It says that we are all sinners and are in need of a Savior. 

So here is my simplistic analogy: First I must admit that I cannot steer my own life perfectly, I am tired of the effort, and I need help. Then I must realize that I have been given the help I so badly need in the form of the Holy Spirit within me. Next I must test this out by slowly letting go. I must quit working so hard at making myself do and say the right things, relying on the gift of a greater power inside me. Last, like my hands-free driving experience, I can peacefully relax knowing God loves me and is holding me 24/7. Oh the freedom is liberating! And the subscription? It comes when we love Him. 

The Best Kept Secret of Sharing Our Faith

 Recently there was an unusual situation where my heart burned to talk to someone about Christ but was not able to in this particular situation. I won’t go into the details here, but it was quite challenging to speak truth over desperation without referencing words from my faith. It made me wonder how people share their faith in places where they can’t freely quote scripture or speak the name of Jesus or God. Is there an effective way to preach the goodness of God and use no words?

It is said that living out your belief is so much bigger than mere words. And this isn’t said to chain us to rule-following performance. Performances are just that. They have an end. We can behave ourselves for only so long because we are easily broken and our real heart eventually shows. We are simply clay vessels. So how can clay pots show Jesus to a broken world other than rule-following and scripture quoting? How can we be transformed from clay to the embodiment of Christ so that we naturally reflect his glory? This scripture from Paul to the Corinthian church teaches how this is done. I love this translation by Eugene Peterson in The Message Bible.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 MSG. Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are-face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

We must develop a closeness to God to reflect his glory. We cannot show Christ-likeness by that old constricting, rule-following lifestyle. And that is such a relief! That is true freedom! To me, this says that the only thing we need to do is to encounter God personally and frequently in a relationship. Also note that this change from clay to Christ-likeness is gradual, not a one-and-done thing.

How do we encounter God? It is really quite simple. If we know how to make friends, we know how to encounter God. And just like making friends, we have to push past the awkward and put ourselves out there. Unlike people, God never rejects those who want to be with him. To develop any relationship, we must let go of some things on our calendar and schedule regular time to be together. If we give God our precious time we will have the privilege of a growing relationship with him.

There are many books written about ways to encounter God but the most noted way is solitude and Bible reading. One thing is for sure: there is no specific place, time or method to experiencing God’s presence. If your mind is on things above, you are opening the door to let God in.

I have noticed that by removing hurry from my life’s equation there are so many more chances to encounter God. And the best way to do that is to schedule in “margin”. Margin is time in your day with nothing scheduled. Margin can also be one lovely day of the week where you ditch all your obligations. This isn’t a new concept. You will find it in those Ten Commandments. (We often think of it as nine commandments and one Sabbath suggestion.) It is the one commandment we feel free to break without being fired from our job or reprimanded in any way. Jesus often took the time to retreat to a quiet place to talk to His Father, yet he accomplished changing the world in three short years so surely we could take ten minutes a day in our busy schedule to be still. And in addition, maybe we can learn to take one day a week without work or phone obligations.

We think to become more like Christ we must add to our calendar. But in reality, we were never asked to check items off of a list to become like Christ. Counterintuitively, we must let go of our perfect performance to reflect his glory to a broken world. To become a vessel of Christ, is to relax and take time to encounter Him.

Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face.

The Message

 

What I Learned From My Students

 I don’t know if you have ever had the opportunity to work with special needs children but it is an experience that I highly recommend. My experience began when, as a veteran teacher, I was assigned one class of resource science students. Resource classes are for students with a wide range of learning disabilities. I was honestly not looking forward to it since my favorite teaching assignments had always been advanced high school classes of college bound students. It wasn’t a week into this new assignment until I realized I had been missing out on so much joy all those years without them in my classes. I have tried to reflect on why they were so delightful to be around and this is what, I believe, it boils down to: humility and simple trust.

My resource students didn’t worry about all the things that other kids worried about. They were so much more free and joyous. They didn’t worry about what the other kids thought about them. They trusted and they were guileless. They let others look out for them. I will never forget the baptism of one of our special needs kids at our church. If you ever have seen baptisms, you know there is a procedure to it and it is very structured for safety. But when this dear child of God came up out of the water she did a full-on cheer with arms raised high and jumped up and down looking to the sky with the look of ecstasy on her face. She was radiant!

Luke 18:15-17 MSG People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. "Let these children alone. Don't get between them and me. These children are the kingdom's pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in."

Can you imagine letting go and trusting God like this everyday? To step into this we must let go of any thoughts that we are superior to anyone else in any way. We must let go of our self reliance and adopt a God-reliant attitude. We must trust Him and give up trusting ourselves. I really think that it is those of us who are not special needs that have a handicap. We mistakenly think we are smart enough or experienced enough to navigate our day on our own power. We depend on no one and nothing but ourselves. After all, we have diplomas and college degrees. We have passed classes like organic chemistry for crying out loud! We have studied under professors that would make you cry. We are stinking brilliant in our own eyes. We know things.

But can we see our “brilliance” in the light of the creator of the universe? We don’t know what will happen next Tuesday, much less tomorrow or the next hour. We are handicapped and we have no idea. We need to realize it and lean into it so we can experience the Kingdom of God here and now. We need to let go of all thoughts of being self-reliant and become God-reliant. With that will come joy. How do I know? My resource students taught me this.

A Poster-Child for Atheism

 Many Christians like to wear t-shirts proclaiming who they are. I do not. But my reasons for this are not noble. Here is what goes through my judgmental little mind when I see a Jesus bumper sticker or shirt. “Look at how they drive! Look at how they act in line at HEB. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. And they have the gall to wear that shirt. 🤦🏻‍♀️ They are the poster child for atheism!”

So since I could be a poster child for atheism at any one point in my day-to-day life, I cannot and will not wear the Christian swag. But, in reality, can any of us? We are all so far from perfect. And most of us are far from joyful except maybe when we are filled with spirits that are not so Holy. How are we any different? None of us can live sinlessly and joyfully all the time. We are all repellant for recruitment into the faith at some point in our day.

Have you ever tried to live a perfect day? It is painstaking and joyless work watching our own thoughts and actions every second of the day. In a book by Steve Brown called Scandalous Freedom, he calls out Christians that are faking it. He says we are not living in the freedom that Christ gave us and we bind ourselves to things like rule-following perfectionism, sacrificing the joy that Christ followers were given. The author says we are wearing masks that we think the church people ought to wear to be acceptable. And he says that those masks are the very thing that repel folks from Christianity. After all, who wants to live a joyless life of rule following?

In the aforementioned book, the author says Christ followers need to focus less on sinning and more on Christ. He says we are still sinners and when we try to pretend we are not, we lose our freedom and joy. We will always lose in the battle for perfection in the eyes of the world. So quit trying. Quit beating yourself up because you don’t fit the Christian profile. Quit chasing joy and let it catch up with you.

The point is that Christ set us free when we humble ourselves and cry out to Him. He didn’t remove our penchant for sinning, He forgives them and covers them with His perfection. This makes us perfect in His eyes even though in reality we are riddled with sin. And His, is the only opinion that matters. In that, there is joy! In that, there is freedom. It is joy and freedom that makes folks want what we have, not a life of rule-following. So are Christians really any different? I have found the answer to be, “Christians are not better, they are forgiven.” I believe that saying is on a Christian t-shirt.

Galatians 5:1 MSG
[1] Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

Choose Hope

 I’m a mess. There, I said it. I struggle with issues like anger and fear. To top it off, I am a control freak. It is so hard for me just to stand down. And I find myself in a world that has lost love, kindness, sanity and is full of greed and depravity.

But…

I have hope and hope makes all the difference! My hope is in Christ. God wants to save us from our own destruction because He created us and loves us. He created us with the freedom to choose. All we have to do is believe and trust what He said. He said that God created everything and then sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to live in the flesh among us. And that Jesus was crucified over 2000 years ago on a real Roman cross to his death and that His body was buried in a real tomb and three days later He rose to life in the flesh. He returned to heaven after leaving behind the Spirit form of God to help us grow as believers. And He said that on a day that we have no idea about, Jesus will come again and gather up all of the dead believers and those believers left on earth and take us to live in an unimaginably beautiful place with Him to live a totally fulfilling existence without pain and death. And in this lies all my hope.

Here are the words of Jesus explaining to a guy named Nicodemus, who wanted to know why the Son of God came to earth to live as a human among us.

John 3:16-17 AMP
"For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world, that He even gave His One and only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him as Savior shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world, but that the world might be saved through Him”.

So He clearly lobbed the ball into our court. We each must choose to participate by belief and trust. We must choose to volley our thoughts and beliefs daily with Him or to walk off and leave Him. But if we participate, we become the recipients of grace for all the messing up that we have done, are doing, and will do.

It is this hope that keeps me looking to God. My hope keeps me talking to him. My hope holds me up when the world knocks me down and consequently, love and compassion grow where there was none before. Everyday my hope is in Christ. Everyday I talk to Him about letting go of my anger, fear and control issues and I see that He is making improvement in spite of me. So I have hope for a bright future knowing someday, all these issues will be a thing of the past.

If you haven’t made this choice and want to, simply tell God in a humble prayer that you choose this hope and believe in your heart that He will do what He says He will do. If you have this relationship with God, may you find a way to share it with those who want it.

Photo by Laurissa Noack

Are You Clark Kent or Superman?

 The goal is up there, just over the horizon. But in between are dark valleys, massive mountains, and narrow slippery switchback roads. So I crank up the radio, hold the steering wheel with a death grip and maneuver around the beast of a bolder that is right in front of me.

This is how I have approached 99% of my life as a Christian. This is a try-harder style of Christianity; in other words: legalism. Following the rules while juggling elephants. I know legalism is a big issue with Jesus, so maybe I should re-think this route. Maybe I am wasting my time on all these switchbacks and narrow roads. Maybe I should simply use the big paved highway and wait for the get-out-of-hell-free card. But Jesus made it clear that I was not to take the easy way. Far from it!

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

We shouldn’t be surprised by the difficulty of our journey. I’m still juggling elephants here. We all are. We need help, Lord! But I must remember, the Father knows what I need. He knows my challenges. He has walked my walk in flesh. That is why he sent power for this difficult road in the form of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus told the disciples multiple times that he was sending help.

John 14:16-17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever---the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

John 20:21-22 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

The Good News is we do not have to white knuckle our lives as Christians! What He gave to the disciples, he gives to every follower of Christ. We have been given a beautiful gift from our Father and it is our superpower. Why should we try to conquer our day as Clark Kent when we can simply rely on our God-given superpowers? So where is the phone booth? I’m ready to rely on his superpower. What do I have to do to engage it? Is there a magic word? Where do I begin? It is made quite clear in the Bible that we receive the Holy Spirit when we believe but living by the Holy Spirit does not come naturally to us.

H.

u.

m.

i.

l.

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Engaging the power steering is to humble ourselves and admit to God that we cannot do this on our own. It is an attitude. To that I whine, “Not humility! Anything but that. Are you sure about that? I don’t remember that verse.”

God demanded a humble quiet spirit from the get-go. When I searched, I found so many examples of God’s expectation of humility starting in Genesis going through to Revelation. Look at the life of Jesus. Humility was always in the forefront and in the background. Here are a handful of the many examples that I found in my search.

To Pharaoh God said:

Exodus 10:3 “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

The Lord said to King Solomon:

2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

King David notes this about God.

2 Samuel 22:28 You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.

Psalm 25:9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

The prophet Isaiah notes over and over about being humble.

Isaiah 29:19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Jesus said:

Matthew 23:12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

The Apostle Paul instructs:

Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

And a description Jesus’ life on Earth:

Philippians 2:6-11 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death---even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here is instruction from James, the half-brother of Christ:

James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

And finally I leave you with the words of the Apostle Peter who probably struggled with pride as much as anyone.

1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

So I can see that the requirement for humility cannot be denied. It is a prerequisite to living a life pleasing to God. He wants us to step into that phone booth daily, let go of our pride, lay down our elephants, humble ourselves before the him and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to lead our life in his superpower strength. Then tomorrow morning when I wake up as Clark Kent, I will gratefully remember the way that God managed my elephants without my effort and I will step into that phone booth again.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

For encouragement listen to this song. Letting go is step one.

One Right Decision

I have been rescued. And I am rescued on a daily basis. No, I was not a drug addict. No, I didn’t suffer from alcoholism. My demons are covert, they are many and I am under the delusion that I hide them well. They vary and come at me from every angle. They resemble self-pity, anger, bitterness, selfishness, self-righteousness and a plethora of other chains all of which stem from pride. Any one thing on this list can destroy faster than a heroin addiction and I am inflicted with these demons on a daily basis. But God…

Yes, I have been rescued today. And I was rescued yesterday and I will be rescued tomorrow if I choose. All I have to do is make one right decision. I have to let go and give it to God. It is a choice. It is the one right decision. To let Jesus take the wheel even though I grab at that wheel during the stressful moments of a day. But making this choice consistently and daily over the last seven years has brought me peace and joy that has rooted and grown. Most of my days I am not aware of this change since it isn’t one of those bolt-of-lightning type changes. But sometimes I am given a glimpse of someone who is like me who hasn’t made that decision and my eyes see the miracle that God has produced in me and I want this so badly for them too. He is cutting my chains off one by one, replacing each with his peace, love and understanding and I am so grateful. 

I am beginning to understand this verse from the Apostle Paul. 

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

What If?

 What if I don’t take care of everyone? What if I don’t finish my to-do list? What if I don’t control my mouth? What if I don’t control my insecurity? What if I don’t care for those in need? What if I don’t control my desire for revenge? What if I don’t pretend to like folks that are unlikeable? What if I don’t make myself get out of bed in the morning? What if I don’t ask forgiveness?

What if I give all of the above to God and relax? What if God does this all for me? 

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He does. He did. He will. Always. 

Let go. 

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Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The Missing Adversary

Watching Dana Carvey as The Church Lady on Saturday Night Live, I laughed at the little old lady that saw Satan around every corner exclaiming in a whining, nasal tone, “Could it be...Satan?” Like most of the audience, I believed Satan was only a funny, little ineffectual bad spirit. Due to my upbringing, I never denied that he was real. My upbringing was grounded in the Bible enough to admit that there was an adversary.  But it also minimized this to the point that he was only spoken of in jokes.  

Satan goes by many names. The Devil, the Adversary, the Enemy, the Darkness, the Author of Lies, and the Deceiver are just a few. The first time I realized that the enemy wasn’t just a little voice sitting on my shoulder giving me bad suggestions, I was relieved.  I was relieved that he was so much more evil, powerful and active in the world and my life than what I once thought. Why on earth would this be a relief? Wouldn’t this be scary? Isn’t the reason we hesitate to tell children much about Satan, because we don’t want to scare the poor little guys?  

This world IS an evil and scary place.  It is immediately obvious from our first peek at the cold cruel world from outside our mother’s womb. So from the beginning of our lives, we already know the pain of evil, the heartbreak that happens when a loved one leaves, the feeling of hunger, and the difficulty of getting along with others. But we don’t know the explanation for it. For me, it is much more comforting to understand where something bad is coming from. If the monster is under the bed, at least I don’t have to worry about that closet! When evil goes unexplained it looms larger than life causing even more fear. If there is no source of evil at work in this world, so many things can’t be explained or are blamed wrongly on a blameless God. (The later is a pet peeve of mine.) So understanding the enemy helps me understand the source of constant tension in this world. 

Ephesians 6:11-12 [NIV] Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

This passage confirms that we live in a dark and spiritual world. In fact, the correct perspective is that we are spiritual beings caught in a natural world full of evil. It also confirms that the source of evil is the opposition to God.  But if God is all-powerful, why doesn’t he kick that bad angel down to where he belongs? I know the following explanation is oversimplified and full of holes but here is my answer to this question.

As a girl growing up in the 1960’s, I played with dolls non-stop. But I can remember that as much as I loved controlling the lives of those dolls, I would have given anything if they would have, just once, had a voice and choice of their own. How great would it have been if just once my Barbie would have complained about her outfit I selected for her? However, I would drop those dolls in a heartbeat to play with a real baby that I didn’t control and manipulate, one that could choose to love me. 

This, to me, is the best way to explain why God let his created humans have a voice and a choice. Isn’t having a choice the very definition of freedom? If our choices are removed, we become enslaved. Freedom was God’s gift to us. He created us, the objects of His intense love, and allowed us to choose. The funny thing is, if there was no bad verses God’s good, there was no choice and no freedom. Couldn’t he just have given us a choice like vanilla vs. chocolate? First of all, vanilla and chocolate are both from God so that is not a legit choice. The only choice God could give us is to choose his light vs. darkness because darkness is the world without God’s light. Just let that sink in a minute! God gave us a voice and a choice because He wanted to be chosen and truly loved and not just obeyed like a mindless robot. 

And what did we choose? Right out of the box, the first humans chose the lies of evil. Humans chose to keep this adversary around and we continue to make this choice daily. Humans were created by God for God, but chose to listen to the enemy because we were free to do so. When we see a beautiful sunset, a perfect newborn baby or feel the hug of a loving friend, that is authored by God. When we see COVID-19, when we feel rejected, when we deal with cancer and death, that is the temporary evil of this world. 

The good news is that God didn’t leave us stuck with our choices and no way out. God is a God of second chances. He created a path out of this evil world and sent messengers to point the way. It is a simple choice but involves admitting our helplessness, letting go of our sinful ways and pursuing Him. Someday, for those of us who chose this path, the enemy with all the pain, suffering, disease and death, will be defeated. But until then, I will continue daily to choose God...

2 Timothy 1:12 [NIV] because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay