God & Circumstance

Life is happening so fast it seems. Yesterday, October 18th marked 5 years since my Dad passed. It truly feels like yesterday and puts even more validity on James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” When we can set our minds on an eternal perspective, our life here on Earth really is a vapor. Lately, our little 2-year-old has been quite a challenge for us as parents. When I’m tempted to lose my cool with her, I remind myself that she will only be little for so long and to continue to train her up. And the awesome part is that it’s a promise from God: Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

As I type this, I’ll be leaving here in a couple of hours to go on a men’s retreat called The Emmaus Walk below Hazlehurst, MS until Sunday evening. We have been encouraged to not bring a watch and turn our phones off. No phone for 3 ½ days. Sounds good to me. I’m looking forward to unplugging for a while. The more I read the Bible and get to know Christ the more I find myself wanting to unplug from certain things. I can remember just a few short years ago being all bent out of shape if we missed a MSU football event or if they lost (not sure why I got bent on the losing because if you’re a MSU fan, we’ve dealt with it our whole life, haa!) but I came to realize “am I really getting all riled up over 18-22 year old’s running and catching a round object?” I hope no one miss-reads that, it’s nothing wrong with liking sports, it can just become an issue when we prioritize it over what’s important. Same could be said for hunting, working out, doing your job, etc. Those things in themselves are not bad, it just comes down to; where are you putting your focus/energy? What I’m finding over the past year is when my order is Christ, Rachael, Hattie, then work it seems to flow better. Not saying we don’t get “curve balls” thrown our way but that’s the order that God intends for us to live by and I as a Christian man desire to be obedient and stay in alignment with God daily.

As I spoke of last year around this time, God removed a “fog” from our household as Rachael says and our outlook and identity in Christ was locked down. For so long, we viewed God through our circumstances instead of viewing our circumstances through God. And you know what? The answer is really simple: God is good all the time even when the “curve balls” of life get thrown at us. Our house verse is John 10:10 which is straight outta Christ’s mouth: “the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I came to give you life and give it to you abundantly!” Friends, you can cut it how you want to, but Christ is for you and not against you. Yes, bad things happen, we live in a fallen world and we walk on cursed ground due to our disobedience in the garden but that’s why Christ came! He came to transform us to be like Him and break the bondage of sin! Notice in 2nd Corinthians 5:15 it doesn’t say Christ died so we can go to Heaven one day. It says: “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” You’re not here by accident and you’re not a bunch of cells with no purpose. You have created value. Stand on that truth as you go about loving each other daily.