Get A Haircut, Fabio!

I can’t read romance novels. I’ve tried to read them a couple of times, but frankly, they make my brain hurt. In saying this I am not putting down romance novels. Men and women are wired very differently and I, for one, am very glad that this is so. We aren’t supposed to think and feel exactly alike.

I have learned a couple of things from romance novels, however. The first thing I learned is that romance is very important to women. I used to frequent a paperback book store back in high school. I would always go to the science fiction and the western sections of the store. One day I noticed the romance section. It was bigger than the science fiction and the western sections combined. Much bigger. That tells me that romance must be a very big deal to women.

The other thing I learned was from the covers. There was this guy who was frequently pictured on the covers. I think his name was Fabio. He almost always had his shirt off. I remember looking at him and thinking, please! Get a hair cut!

But there was something about the covers of those books that I was missing. It took me a while to figure it out. Some of the artists had the ability to depict the people on those books as being in the grip of an overpowering emotion. They weren’t just in love. They were in LOVE!

That’s when I realized that someday, when I had a wife, just telling her I loved here wasn’t going to be quite enough. I would need to find someway to communicate to her that I was feeling what those people on the covers of the books were feeling. That I not only loved her, but that I needed her, and that being with her was an emotional necessity. My body can’t live without oxygen. My heart can’t breath without your love. That kind of thing.

God has created you, with not just a capacity to love, but with a capacity to LOVE! And the ultimate expression of that love is not what you feel for another human being (as wonderful as that might be), it is in the way we love God. Our love for God must grow until it becomes powerful, passionate, and the most important thing in our lives.

You Are An Artist

If I had to guess, I’d guess you don’t know who you are, what you are, what you’re here for, and what your real worth is. You probably think it would be pretty cool if you were one of the smartest, or one of the most athletic, or one of the most attractive, or one of the most talented; but you’ve probably decided that you are average at best, and perhaps below average in some areas. You probably think you lack that one area of genius that would mark you out as being truly special.

I am here to tell you that you are truly special because you do have that one area of genius. There is something that you can do with your life that is a really big deal. It is a bigger deal than making as much money as Bill Gates, or winning as many championships as Michael Jordan, or exhibiting the scientific genius of Einstein.

Is there some human achievement that you greatly admire? Perhaps you admire the Gettysburg Address. Or Beethoven’s sixth symphony. Or Michelangelo’s David. Or perhaps even Paul McCartney’s Hey Jude. Wouldn’t it be cool if, just once, you could create something like that?

The only problem is that for you to create something like that, you need to have some kind of superior creative capacity within. And you do. Your greatest and most magnificent attribute is your ability to love. If love were a sport, you could win a gold medal. If love were an art form, you could create a masterpiece for the ages.

Let me tell you the truth about you. You are an artist. You don’t work in oil, or watercolors, or clay, or stone. Your artistic expression is through the medium of love. You have the capacity to create a masterpiece, not for the ages, but for eternity.

I’m A Generic Hot Dog

As human beings grow and mature, we gradually get a sense of ourselves that is based on the way we compare to other people. Here is the way I see myself in comparison to others.

I have a second class mind. I was pretty good at school work, but I never had the kind of genius that a first class mind has. I’m average looking. To the average woman I am somewhere between a good steak and canned dog food. Depending on the woman, I might get graded as a generic hot dog or perhaps a decent grade of ground beef. I am bigger and stronger than most of the other males, but I am below average in those important athletic attributes of fast reflexes and hand eye coordination. I earn a below average income because I work for a non-profit charity.

As you can see, all of the ways in which I have defined myself are based on comparison with those around me. When we were small, we may have had some big dreams, but for most of us, reality intrudes and we have to accept our limitations. I wasn’t the star of the basketball team (I wasn’t even on the team). I didn’t have the highest GPA in my high school (number 42 out of 720). And I haven’t exactly turned out to be Bill Gates in the financial realm. I am not as big a deal as I once hoped I might be.

On top of all that, when I compare my mind to God’s, I end up being the slow drip of water compared to the infinite Niagara of God’s matchless, beautiful genius. When you come right down to it, I’m not all that much. Except . . .

Except for my capacity to love.

Will You Respect Me For My Mind?

I’ve always wanted to be a genius. I admire brains over brawn. If you were to give me a choice between the mind of Einstein and the abilities of Michael Jordan, it would be no contest. I would take the mind. You could even throw in all the money Michael has made and it would still be no contest. I’d pick the increased I. Q.

The only problem is that even with a greatly expanded intelligence my mind would still be that very, very slow drip of water from a faucet compared to the infinite Niagara that is the mind of God. All of which brings us to the question asked by David in Psalm 8:4. “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” (KJV) What does God get out of His relationship with us? I think that there may be two answers.

First, God gets to love us because He wants to. God loves us because God is love. God is kind to us because it is His nature to be kind. God is the kindest being. He is the most compassionate being. All the love and kindness and compassion that exist in the universe originally came from God. Everything about God is infinite. His love, His compassion, and His kindness are infinite. God loves us because it is His nature to love. That’s one reason why God made us.

The other reason why God made us is so that we could love Him back.

We have to change gears mentally when we speak to babies and small children. When you speak to small children you have to use simplified words and concepts. When you speak to babies, you may not even be using real words; you are communicating emotions to the baby through your voice tone even though the baby may not understand a single thing you say.

I wonder what it must be like for God when He speaks to us. If one were to attempt an illustration, we might think of the mind of God as being like Niagara Falls. In comparison the human mind might be compared to a faucet with the very slow drip. In order to speak to us, God would have to simplify His communication from the mighty flow of the Niagara to the very slow drip of the faucet.

Of course for the purposes of this illustration, you would have to make Niagara Falls much, much bigger. Bigger than the earth. Bigger than the solar system. Bigger than the Milky Way galaxy. Bigger than the universe. You would have to conceive of an infinite water fall, because everything about God is infinite. God has an infinite mind.

And in speaking to us God would somehow have to simplify from that infinite, rushing, roaring flow of water down to a single, slow drip.

I can’t think of a better way to close today’s mediation than to share with you two words of exhortation that I frequently express to myself. I have come to think of God as both the Perfect Mind and the Beautiful Mind. Here are the two exhortations. Never second guess the Perfect Mind. Always try to flow in harmony with the Beautiful Mind.

Prosperity

Let me tell you about my investment accounts. I think that a truly wise man would target 20% of his income for long range goals. You should save 10% and give 10% away. Unfortunately, I only got it half right when I was a young man. Fortunately, I got the more important part right.

I was meditating recently and the Holy Spirit prompted me to think about how much money I would have accumulated by now if only I had saved 10% of everything I have ever made. Even at my non-profit corporation salary levels it would have been a very tidy sum. Then the Holy Spirit reminded me that everything single penny I have given away has been gathering interest, and that the current economic troubles had absolutely no impact on the balance of my heavenly account.

We need the Holy Spirit to make it real to us. Every single act of kindness is remembered. Every single act of kindness will have it’s recognition and reward. Every penny given away has been invested. I don’t know exactly what kind of a return I’ll be getting on it. Will I really need money if I am living on streets of gold? Not likely. But the most intelligent and creative being in this universe is planning to give me a return on my investment. I can hardly wait to see what it is.

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” (Matt. 6.19-21 NLT)

Prosperity

If we are going to get our heads and our hearts in harmony with God in these challenging economic times, we are going to have to set our hearts to seek His face. I may find myself in a situation where I have fewer new toys to play with. What will I do with the extra time? I will spend this time seeking His face.

The only thing that ever can or will make me happy is the awareness of the love of God being poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit. The love of God must be my goal. The love of God must be my drug. The love of God must be my obsession.

When we feel the presence of God inside, we feel loved. If we feel loved we can be supremely happy even if all we have are the bare necessities of life. “Godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.” (1 Tim. 6:6-8 NLT)

Prosperity

If we are going to get our heads and our hearts in harmony with God in these challenging economic times, we are going to have to set our hearts to seek His face. I may find myself in a situation where I have fewer new toys to play with. What will I do with the extra time? I will spend this time seeking His face.

The only thing that ever can or will make me happy is the awareness of the love of God being poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit. The love of God must be my goal. The love of God must be my drug. The love of God must be my obsession.

When we feel the presence of God inside, we feel loved. If we feel loved we can be supremely happy even if all we have are the bare necessities of life. “Godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.” (1 Tim. 6:6-8 NLT)

Prosperity

We’re still talking about fear. Fear of economic hard times. “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13 NASB) Are you aware of the context of that statement? It’s financial!

“I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am in. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live with prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled an going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:11-13)

Here is what I think happened to Paul from time to time. I think that Paul sometimes got so enthusiastic about giving everything away, that he sometimes out gave his supply lines. So he had days when he suddenly realized that there was literally nothing to eat. And with complete contentment he went ahead an declared a fast day, knowing that sooner or later God would send in more supplies.

Satan’s message is coming through very clearly from the media. “Be afraid. Be very afraid. Bad things are coming. And they will be intolerable.”

This is the truth. Bad things may be coming, but they will be tolerable. We can take it. We can do this. Imagine for a moment that things get as bad (or worse) than they were doing the great depression. Did people live through that? Did people still laugh and love? Was God still alive? Were they able to seek His face?

Hudson Taylor was returning from a mission trip with is wife to their home in China when he found out that their home had burned to the ground. He took the news with complete serenity. “Don’t worry, dear,” he said to his wife, “they were only things.” We can do all things through Him who gives us strength.

Prosperity

The current economic crises is a time of unprecedented opportunity, and I’m not talking about the opportunity to buy stocks at depressed prices (although that might – or might not – be a bad idea). The opportunities are spiritual and they are two fold. First of all, this is an opportunity for me to get my head and my heart strait.

We need to declare war on fear. Our news sources are dominated by people who do not believe that there is a God in heaven who will protect and guide us and who do believe that stuff makes us happy. Every single time you feel the slightest twinge of fear you need to speak to yourself. “God loves me. He is watching over me. He will guide me through this. Stuff doesn’t make me happy. God’s love satisfies my soul. I will not be afraid.”

You can either take control of your heart and mind or you can yield that control to a world dominated by the enemy of your soul. Be disciplined. Respond to every twinge of fear. If it starts to overwhelm you, turn off the TV and the radio. If you can’t figure out what to do with the free time, you can spend some it reading complete threads from this blog. Click on one of the topics to the left and read the postings from the bottom up.

Take your spiritual temperature before and after spending some additional time focusing on the kingdom of God, whether it’s this blog or any other source of Christian material. You will be surprised at the difference it will make in your anxiety levels.

Prosperity

What if I lost my job tomorrow? The natural reaction would be to be afraid. In the natural it is easier to trust in your job than it is to trust in God as the ultimate source of your financial security. The job and the paycheck are visible and real. God is invisible, which can make the whole spiritual thing seem unsubstantial and unreliable.

Exactly the opposite is true. If we don’t learn anything else from the current economic distress, let us at least learn this. We can’t put our final trust in anything visible. Who would have ever dreamed that Citibank could go broke? The seeming reliability of the visible is a lie. The invisible God will never change and can never fail. Let us put all of our trust in Him as we weather the storms of life.

“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” (2 Cor. 4:17, 18 NLT)

Prosperity

Thanks to the internet and charge accounts, I can now go bankrupt without even leaving my house. Amazon.com, I love you, but sometimes you worry me. I hope you are beginning to realize that when you watch TV you are entering enemy territory and that when you reach for your wallet (especially the plastic) that you are engaging in spiritual war. Some common sense advice that we have all heard can have a huge impact if we follow the advice from a spiritual perspective.

Create a “want list” and impose a cooling off period on your impulse spending. Write down that thing that you want and give it a couple of days before you make your decision. But instead of just looking at it from an economic standpoint, I wonder if we shouldn’t looking at it from a spiritual standpoint. I’m beginning to pray along these lines. “Lord, is this thing tugging at my heart? It’s okay to buy it and enjoy it, but has this thing wormed it’s way into a place that should be reserved for you alone? Help me to understand the spiritual impact of things in my life.”

Here is another prayer I have been praying. “Lord, help me to come to the place where more of my recreational time is spent seeking your presence, instead of using the trivialities of my recreational time to mask my desperate heart hunger for You.”