The comeback

I was inspired by a short post by Jon Acuff last week who wrote "This is for all the people who have made mistakes and hold out hope that it’s not impossible to return."

That's me!

I've been reminded of past failure so much that they now are part of my resume. It's a tattoo for all to see. It's a rock that I drag around for all to wonder. It's an anchor that holds my heart.

Acuff uses Joseph in Gen 43 as an illustration. Joseph is charged with feeding  Egypt, and his scoundrel brothers who sold him into slavery come begging for food.

Joseph demands that Benjamin be brought before him, but Israel, the father, is unwilling to lose yet another son. But Judah, the older brother gives a guarantee.

“Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life.”

Acuff notes that Judah is murderer and adulterer himself, but he's making amends. He's standing up for integrity. He's ready to move beyond his past and be a stand-up guy. Acuff dissects the verse and notes the personal responsiblity:

Send the boy along with me

We will go

I myself guarantee his safety

You can hold me personally responsible

If I do not bring him back

I will bear the blame before you all my life.

Acuff says, "I love that the Bible is full of mess ups that come back. Abject failures of human beings that through God’s grace are pulled from the pit and do some tremendous things."

So, here I am God. Ready to stand upright. I've taken my lumps. I've paid my dues. I've lived out the consequences. I've suffered at the hands of a hardened heart. I've failed so many people. I haven't lived up to Your name. I'm broken.

You can fix me.
You can bring me home.
You can put a song in my heart again.

Let the comeback begin.

The $4 Cup of Coffee. How did we get to this place?

Image via Wikipedia

The Soul’s Slow Demise

Whether you drink it or not, you must admit that coffee is a strong part of our image of Americana.

In the wide open plains of the Old West, coffee was a just reward for a day's work. The dusty, chiseled faces of cowboys would gather around the evening campfire, relaxing from a long day of driving cattle. A makeshift spit hanging over a fire held a battered pot that would pour hot liquid into tin cups.

The Depression era imprinted another image of coffee on our minds. A man standing on a corner, clothes worn, eyes reflecting the hopelessness of the day. His request was simple, echoed in a polite tone, "Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?" The money was for a hot cup of coffee.

But today, coffee is much more than these images of old.

Look at the state of coffee drinking in America today. Many mornings, we drive to work and speak to no one until the morning cup of coffee. And that cup of coffee in a tin has graduated to a $4.00 Cup of cappuccino.

Can you hear the laughter of the cowboys now?

All of this has happened slowly. It somehow snuck up on the unsuspecting public. Stealthily, without warning, we were inexorably sucked into the vortex of some mad coffee conspiracy, perpetuated by Juan Valdez, his burro and the coffee cartel.

While we were looking away, the baseline; the cost of a single cup of coffee -- began inching its way up. I remember the day clearly when I bought a cup of coffee at a 7-11 and innocently handed over a dollar bill. The clerk looked at me like I was an alien... “Like it’s $1.14, man,” she said. I choked as I grabbed some change and handed it over.

Once it went over a dollar, it was all over. Now, the sky is the limit.

Frothy, steamy, murky concoctions with shaved chocolate and cinnamon are brewed with milk -- steamed, whipped, or stirred. By the millions of cups we shell out two, three and four dollars apiece because it's different than plain old “joe.” We never noticed the incremental, upward shift of prices.

Life works much the same way. I have allowed the slow creep of things I once opposed to bully their way into my life. What I once called a lie I now call a slip of the tongue. What society once called sin is now emancipation and freedom. What was once reprehensible and wrong is simply another lapse of good judgment.

Oh, for the day of a dollar cup of coffee and an innocent heart

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Power Trip

(This is a copy of my featured post over at High Calling Blogs today. Click here to read the whole post.)

I’ve had some outstanding bosses. And I’ve have some pretty bad ones, too. I bet you’ve experienced both kinds as well.

The worse ones were those that were self-absorbed. The entire workplace seemed to revolve around their personality, opinions, likes and dislikes. They expended tremendous energy on the endless accumulation of converts and followers. My job description could boil down to one thing: To make him look good.

Jim Lange’s blog recently highlighted what it takes to be a true leader, as articulated by John Maxwell. He lists the following seven points:

• Let go of your ego.
• Become a good follower first. Build positive relationships.
• Work with excellence.
• Rely on discipline, not emotion.
• Make adding value your goal.
• Give your power away.

The last point really struck home. We spend so much of our energy grasping at power – who admires us, who follows us, who listens to us – that we are never really in a place where we can learn from someone else. The tightly controlled ships of power eventually spring a thousand leaks.

Jim Lange quotes Maxwell, “One of the ironies of leadership is that you become a better leader by sharing whatever power you have, not by saving it all for yourself. You’re meant to be a river, not a reservoir. If you use your power to empower others, your leadership will extend far beyond your grasp.”

When Jesus leads with a line like, “If you want to be great…” we lean forward in anticipation. After all, we all want to be great in one form or another. But then he says, “Learn to be a servant of all.”

It’s a paradox – give and you shall get. The Bible is full of them.

At first, this release of power is deflating. After all, we’ve been schooled in the ways of the world. But letting go of power is actually liberating. It frees us up from the exhausting pursuit of things that don’t last. It frees us from pride. It frees us from the pain we inflict on those around us.

What’s your personal experience with power trips? Read all of Jim Lange’s blog here.

Comment here and also hop over to High Calling blogs and comment here.

The darkest hour

You never can appreciate the light until you’ve been plunged into darkness.

It’s a place where all your fears cry out your name and grip your heart.

It’s a place where all the bitter reminders of an inadequate life rise up and accuse you.

It’s a table reserved for one – as you can neither see nor sense anyone else around you.

Darkness is a lonely place, indeed.

As the night wears on, the darkness deepens. Every bit of light is swallowed into its suffocating grip and all you have left is the fading memories of a sun you once thought too bright.

Scanning the horizon, you see no hope. The sky above is dark as the ground below. To the left and to the right provide no relief, so you stumble on in the blindman’s path.

A flickering flare shoots up out of nowhere, but it’s quickly doused by men who fear better days.

Dawn seems so far away.

This is the darkest hour

Looking around I hear a noise – rather, I feel it and it speaks out to me.

“I am your refuge. I am your strength”

We will not fear.

Though the earth give way

And the mountains fall into the heart of the sea

Though its waters roar and foam

And the mountains quake with their surging”

I’m listening God

“There is a river whose streams make glad

Be still, and know that I am God

I am with you."

So, in the darkness I wait, no longer alone.

Scripture adapted from Psalm 46.

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Beyond appearances

For years I had an old, lime green, International Truck. It had a splintered windshield, a primer brown door, and rust on every surface. And the engine belched plumes of smoke while the holey mufflers roared.

Ugly.

Yet, I hung onto it. It pulled trailers. It plowed through snow. It went off road. It went anywhere.

Sure, I was lured by the shiny Dodge pickup at the dealer. My lust for the new and flashy continually tested my satisfaction for the old and functional.

When Samuel chose the family of Jesse from which to select the King of Israel, the proud father marched all his handsome sons in front of the priest. Yet it was the “ruddy boy,” David, tending sheep who was ultimately picked by God.

“Take no notice of his appearance...God does not see as men see; man looks at appearances but God looks at the heart.”

This is the most frightening verse in Scripture. All the adornment, all the face-saving, all the puffed up pride is invisible to God.

He sees my heart.

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Spit in my eyes Lord!

Swaggering.

Swaying.

Tenative.

The blind man approached Jesus.

They exchanged a few words. And then Jesus spit on the hard clay ground.

There's not a spiritual, holy way to do this. Nor is there Christ-like spitting position. Like every other man who has ever lived, he swallowed hard, and pushed up the milky flem and -- did it.

It was disgusting to the bystanders. It was pedistrian. Certainly it could viewed with contempt by the ruling class. And the religious leaders must have been horrifed. Some King of Kings!

Jesus then bent down and pinched the now muddy soil and smeared it on the man’s cloudy eyes.

Do you want vision? Do you want to see things differently?

Often the restoration of spiritual sight can be downright ugly. It may be tough and uncomfortable and dirty. But clearing the years of ‘human vision’ off our sight requires scraping. Dirt requires scrubbing.

Like the microscopic laser which peels away the cataract from the eye, so too the exacto knife of the Word of God suddenly makes everything clear. The vivid and clear insight will allow us to see miles and miles.

We will be able to see beyond human misery.

We will overlook the opinions of others.

We will not worry about money and possessions.

We will see like God sees.

Can you imagine what it would be like to envision the finished product before it is even begun. Three men worked side by side on a large building project. One was asked, "What are you doing?" "I'm mixing mortar," he said. The second man said, "I'm helping put up this great stone wall." When the third man was asked, he replied, "I'm building a cathedral to the glory of God."

It's all a matter of what you see

How's your vision? Comment here.

It's not what you look like. It's how you see.

Frail.

Withered.

Pitiful.

While visting my father in a nursing home, I became acquainted with a silver-haired woman named Beth. Almost 90 years old, her best days were far behind her. She’d been blind since 1921 after a childhood sickness stole her sight.

Looking at her, I admit, I pitied her. Lost in a world where neither your body or your eyes work, it must be terribly lonely. But strike up a conversation with Beth and you’ll find a vibrant person.

This blind woman quotes long Bible verses verbatim. She is conversant in sayings from wise men and is skilled in the knowledge of many subjects from around the world. She speaks volumes of insights and conveys her wisdom to those who care for her and to those who visit. Within her frail body is one sharp mind.

Behind her cloudy, staring, distant eyes is a vision few possess. She sees Jesus with eyes that few of us can ever understand. Her fragile, failing frame is held together by a faith that is dynamic and sparkling and alive.

She reminds me that it is not what I look like that counts, but how I see. Our culture is obsessed with visual stimuli. Attractive people are magnets for attention; those with valuable invisible characteristics are often shunned. Our society tends to value style over substance.

It is entirely possible to be vogue on the outside, but vague on the inside?  Comment here.

Acts of God

In just about any business or corporate environment, God is a distant entity. He is visibly forced into the darkest recess, never to be mentioned. Embarrassed, ashamed and self reliant, they do not need a supreme being. That's what they have a board for.

What is interesting is that these very same corporate boards protect their interests by invoking God in their legal contracts.

Most corporate contracts have a boiler plate clause called Force Majeure. The term literally means “greater force” and these clauses cover “Acts of God" that prevent a company from performing its obligations under the contract.

If a fire or a flood, earthquake or tornado interferes, they have an out, thanks to God.

So, on one hand, God isn’t considered appropriate for water cooler talk or intra-company fellowship, but on the other hand, God is a convenient protective device if the company is affected when our Lord’s will interferes with its cash flow.

Is this ironic or merely conveniently self serving?

It's naïve to think that corporate America will wake up and suddenly embrace God and invite Him into the board room. But it seems a worthy prayer nonetheless.

Do we do the same thing? Do we push God out of our workplace, out of our lives, yet conveniently turn to Him to blame when things go wrong?

If we bring God with us to work everyday, at least our co-workers will get the opportunity to see the ultimate Chairman of the Board.

Why do we have colors?

Image via Wikipedia

Why did God create a world that is not only functional, but extraordinarily poetic and lovely in every way?

Author Fulton J. Sheen says it is the same reason that we find it hard to keep a secret.

“Good things are hard to keep. The rose is good, and tells its secret in perfume. The sun is good, and tells its secret in light and heart….God cannot keep the secret of His love and the telling of it was his creation.”

In order to fully appreciate the nature of the Creator, we need to become students of His creation. We need to take joy in the intricate details of the world around us We need to see the fashion of the rocks, plants, trees and hills around us. Despite man's continued use of the planet, beauty is all around us if only we will open our eyes to it. To watch the master is to learn the master's heart.

Creation is amazing, but re-creation is the most spectacular event of all. God is no lonely Maytag repairman. He is a busy Mr. Fix-It, a Jack-of-all-trades, a Handyman of the Human Heart. He can take the most broken piece of pottery and put it together again. No condition, no misery, no failure is too much for the wondrous Creator who knows no end to His touch.

Creation is not finished. At this very moment Scripture reminds us that “He is preparing a home for us." Like a masterpiece behind the shroud, he will one day unveil it to all His children.

And it will be a wonder.

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Photo by David Rupert. Please don't use without permission.

Are we all above average? Really?

(We are honored to have this post featured in today's High Calling Blogs. Please visit and post a comment while you are there.)

Radio comic Garrison Keiller has told the joke hundreds of times about the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”

We might laugh about it, but deep down, in our own fictional towns, we actually think it’s true. Our children never deserve a C, our driving is better than every other driver, and we are simply smarter than everyone else out there.

The workplace is an intriguing study of dishonest self evaluation, especially at performance review time. How many of us would rate ourselves in the lower echelon?  We think we're at least as good, if not better than every everyone else.

In a Business Week survey, some interesting results came out about workplace esteem. When they asked managers “Are you one of the top 10 percent of performers in your company,” 90 percent of them said, “yes.”

Do the math and something doesn't add up.

Drilling down, the survey shows that 91 percent of men answered “yes,” as did 89 percent of women. Those over the age of 55 were the most confident, with 93 percent answering "yes." Middle managers scored the “lowest” with a paltry 84 percent.

It seems that managers have quite the elevated opinion of themselves. And I’m sure a poll of rank-and-file workers would show similar elevated results. To be candid, we all work in Lake Wobegon.

This kind of attitude is certainly not confined to the workplace. Honestly, most of us think we are pretty special in school, in our neighborhood and in our social circles.

Romans 12.3 says this. “...Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."

Do we need a reality check?

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‘Reaching Hands'  photo by Erica Hale, used with permission.