Don’t get too attached to the way things are or the way they were. God is doing a new thing. He’s always doing something new. He is the Creator, after all, and He’s creative. And he wants us to work with Him creatively. We can’t be stagnant, complacent, satisfied with the way things are, as good as they might seem. Celebrate progress. Mark your milestones. Praise God for what He has done. But realize He’s not done; He’s doing something right now. And He wants to do something through you.

“An idle person tempts the devil to tempt him.” Don’t stop moving forward in your walk with God. You may get weary but don’t give up. There may be rest stops along the way, but don’t unpack your bags. “Get up and pray. Otherwise [the] temptation [to settle for mediocrity in your life] will overpower you.” In any and every case, press on, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.”

God is telling you right now what the next step is. I dare you to move.

The sordid stories we can conjure up in a sorry fit of pettiness seem so probable. They often are so sad, and with good reason, if only they were true. But most likely these sob stories are so absurd that any sane subject would surely see it. But we don’t see it. All we see is ourselves, hurt, unloved, lonely, neglected. Someone who should have known better didn’t treat us the way we wanted them to, the way we expected they would, the way we believed they should. And we feel it: self-pity. And it demands our full attention. We get so preoccupied with ourselves that we don’t even think that there could be some other more hopeful and reasonable explanation. All we see is how we are being hurt. But we are the ones hurting ourselves.

We all have the picture in our minds of what a “beauty of a car” looks like (my apologies to those for whom the Land Rover is one such vehicle). It seems to me that the cars that I think look good have something in common besides just a pleasing figure; they have sound aerodynamic design. Those cars best suited to minimize wind resistance often seem also to be some of the best looking vehicles out there. The form follows the function.

When a car is made to best conform to the laws of physics that our Creator put in place, it turns out that the design of the car naturally takes on a form of beauty.

Rick Warren shares that “you are God’s handcrafted work of art. You are not an assembly line product, mass-produced without thought. You are a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind, original masterpiece” (Purpose-Driven Life, p. 235).

Take a good look at yourself. Go ahead. I’ll wait… Still waiting. Okay. Well, if you don’t have a mirror handy now, definitely spend an extra moment next time you pass a mirror (I figure that is already common practice for you anyway).

Right now, take a look inside yourself. You might find baggage from the past, emotional spider webs, all sorts of things you wish were not there. But look past all that. Do you see beauty? It’s there. God had a purpose in mind when creating each of us. And He placed in us all that is necessary to fulfill that purpose. God designed us to fulfill a function, to do things only God has yet imagined, but it’s in the plan. And it just so happens that the gifts, abilities, personalities and passions that He infused into us naturally take on a form of beauty.

Now as to your question, how do we make a decision, with our heart or our mind? Well, Jeremiah 17:5 says, “the heart is deceitful above all things.” Scripture also says that the mind can be “corrupt” (2 Tim 3:8) or “blinded” (2 Cor. 4:3,4) among other things. But, as Christians, we are a people redeemed by God. In all these contexts the Scripture is talking either about those who are not His people or, if they are, they are not obedient and have turned away.

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 states: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your HEART, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your HEART.” And again in Psalm 119:11,12 it says, “I seek you with all of my HEART, do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my HEART that I might not sin against you.” So we can and should offer our hearts to God. A heart offered to God, belonging to God, CAN be trusted. One more reason is that if you “delight yourself in the Lord . . . he will give you the desires of your heart.” When we make Jesus our goal and delight, our heart’s desires change to conform more and more closely to his heart and desire for us. He will grant us our desires because they are good and honoring to Him. Every good and perfect gift comes from Him.

Our minds also can be redeemed. We are commanded to love God with all our MINDs too. And we are told to “be transformed by the renewing of our mind” (Ro 12:2). Our mind can be “pure” (2 Pe 3:1)! In fact in 1 Cor 2”16, we are said to possess “the mind of Christ.”

An interesting note about the heart and mind is that in Hebrew there is no word for “mind.” So the OT does not even contain that word. In fact, the heart is not only the seat of the emotions, but also of the intellect, personality and will. So, in OT thinking, the heart is a complete package, the total person, closely related, if not interchangeable with the “soul.” I think that in the NT, since there was vocabulary and language to express the concept of the “mind,” there was more distinction given. At any rate, your question is interesting since, biblically, heart and mind are basically the same thing.

In decision-making the hard thing is whether to rely on what we THINK is right, or what we FEEL is right. And we usually tend to believe that what we THINK is more reliable because we associate thinking with fact, maybe even truth–on more concrete things, and we associate what we feel with what we want, which may or may not be a good thing.

As Christians, we cannot make either-or decisions solely on what WE think and feel either. We pray and ask God for guidance, for wisdom, for discernment. PRAYER should be a matter of becoming more sensitized to the Spirit and more surrendered to God. In essence, our prayer when making decisions should be with the goal of simply delighting in the Lord. Then, as we know, everything else will fall into place.

In addition to prayer, we need to be in THE WORD. That’s when our mind becomes transformed and we start thinking more and more with an eternal perspective, becoming more confident of what is right and good.

An often-overlooked piece of the puzzle is seeking COUNSEL. Here are some verses:
Pr 11:14 – Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
Pr 12:15 – The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.
Pr 15:22 – Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.
Pr 20:18 – Plans are established by counsel; by wise counsel wage war.
Pr 24:6 – For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, and in a multitude of counselors there is safety.
Pr 27:9 – Ointment and perfume delight the heart, and the sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by hearty counsel.

There are three more important principles involved in making decisions for Christians: one–obedience, two–freedom, three–the sovereignty of God.

I mentioned loving God with all our heart. Well, Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commands. 1 John 2:5,6 says, “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him musty walk as Jesus did.” The final result of God loving us should always be that we obey Him. If there is a specific command in the Bible—don’t commit adultery, don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t be drunk on wine, speak the truth in love, bless those who persecute you, preach the word—then that is God’s will for us. If God has specifically spoken to our heart, or has given us a calling we are obliged to obey. It’s about OBEDIENCE.

Now, here’s were the next principle, FREEDOM, comes in. In those areas where God has not either in Scripture, or through the Spirit or the preaching or prophecy of another given specific instruction, then do whatever you want. As long as we follow His moral law, and do whatever else he specifically asks us to do, we have the freedom to choose what we do. However, there are some guidelines. “. . .Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). The Bible also states: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col 3:17). “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Col 3:23). So we don’t have to worry about if we’ve missed our calling, or God’s plan, or even if we married Miss Right. We simply commit to do everything we do for God, his way. If we honor Him with our lives, He will honor us. Now if, for some reason, we do stray off a path God has specifically laid out for us that does not necessarily mean we’ve missed God’s purpose for us. It simply means we’ve taken a detour on the road to our destiny. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).

Last point: God is SOVEREIGN. No plan or decision can stand against him. Just look at the next two verses:
Pr 21:30 – There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord.
Pr 19:21 – There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel–that will stand.
Acts 5:38, 39 – If [a] plan or [a] work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it–lest you even be found to fight against God.

So, go out and do something for God! Look for open doors. Take them. Seize the opportunities presented to you. Nothing happens by chance. God is in control. Don’t let hard times or bad days, or opposition of any kind deter you from serving and loving the Lord. But when doors close, suck it up and move on. Circumstances do not change purpose or calling. Keep on going. Run the race!

In closing: “Wisdom is supreme; therefore, get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding” (Pr 4:7). “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Pr 4:23).“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10)

After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them . . . Then the man who had received one talent also approached and said, “Master, I know you. You’re a difficult man, reaping where you haven’t sown and gathering where you haven’t scattered seed.  So I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the ground. Look, you have what is yours.”

But his master replied to him, “You evil, lazy slave! If you knew that I reap where I haven’t sown and gather where I haven’t scattered, then you should have deposited my money with the bankers. And when I returned I would have received my money back with interest.”

I want to focus on one statement that the lazy slave made: “I was afraid.” What was he afraid of? He was afraid of what his master, a stern man, might do if he didn’t produce the expected results. He thought his master to be stern. He had been given a task and was accountable to the master to do it and do it well.

As Christians, we have been given certain responsibilities as well. There are things God expects of us. In the context of this parable, in the parable immediately following, Jesus spells some of these tasks out as meeting the needs of our fellow Christians. Elsewhere we are commanded to love God and one another, be holy, be light and salt in the world, and make disciples wherever we go (among other things). And there are also responsibilities unique to each one of us implied by our spiritual gifts, passions, abilities, personalities and experiences. This may include the education or career we are pursuing and how we are serving in the church or community. What this all boils down to is that we have been given one short life and we are accountable to God to live it well.

I believe the Parable of the Lazy Slave can teach us to live life well. The slave was terrified at the thought of his responsibility. Sadly, we too let the fear of losing our life keep us from living life to the fullest. I would like suggest four reasons: fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of inadequacy, and fear of comparison.

First, he is afraid of the unknown. He just doesn’t know what might happen. So he lets his imagination get the better of him. All the what ifs turn into worse case scenarios. He is like the slacker in Proverbs who says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the streets!” (22:13). He is assuming the worst and his fear is keeping him from doing anything at all.

The truth is we may not know what might happen if we take the next step and do what God is calling us to do. But we do know Jesus and His power. And He has promised to be with us until the end of the age. Unlike the master in the parable, He will not give us a task and then disappear on us for months. He is with us every moment. He is already all we need no matter what comes our way. Nothing ever surprises Him.

Not knowing what may happen really isn’t the issue for the slave. For all he knows he could end up doing his job well and without any difficulties. What he’s really afraid of is the possibility of failure. So, instead of risking his energy on a job well done, he begins to spend all his energy on maintaining the status quo. He sticks to what he knows and plays it safe. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

The truth is that the responsibilities God gives us are gifts of grace, not impossible burdens. And with each responsibility He gives us equal ability to carry it out. So not only is He there with us as we pursue His best for us, He is helping us as well, giving us the wisdom, strength and resources we need. It’s all by grace!

Unfortunately, we tend to stay in our comfort zones, like the slave. He kept doing what he’d always done because the outcome was predictable and he knew he could handle it. But if he pushed the boundaries of his abilities he was afraid he may be inadequate for the task. He suspected himself to be a loser and figured trying and failing would only confirm that fact for the world to see.

The truth is we were “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10, TNIV). All that God is calling us to do we were literally made to do! Though we may think at times that we are inadequate, the reality is that no one else is adequate for the task before us but us!

The parable also talks about two other slaves that got entrusted with more responsibility. Even if they lost money in their investments they would likely still have more than the lazy slave had to begin with. One could speculate that in such company the lazy slave was afraid of comparison. He may have thought he could never be as good as the others. He was judging himself by how much he was entrusted with rather the fact that the master believed he could be trusted in the first place.

The truth is we can’t judge a basketball player by how many touchdowns he makes. There are certain standards we are all expected to live up to. But we are not clones! God does not expect me to be you. He expects me to be the best me I can be. That’s what is at issue here: it’s not whether you will be the next so-and-so, but whether you will become all God created you for.

In order to make the most of the life we’ve been give, we will all have to face our fears. As Yoda has said, “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” Our fears can paralyze us and make us angry at ourselves for not trying, for being stuck in a rut. But eventually that gets old and we replace being angry at ourselves with hating God for ever expecting anything from us to begin with. We end up blaming God and making excuses for ourselves. So instead of sharing in the joy of a fulfilling life we are wallowing in the suffering of a wasted life.

If we continue to do nothing with our lives, our fear becomes an excuse for laziness. At first laziness is a choice. But it soon becomes a habit—the result of choosing inaction at every opportunity until it becomes second nature. This predisposition to do nothing is wickedness in God’s eyes because it squanders our life and hinders us from the abundance He has in store for us. 

So what should we do with our fears? There is so much that we may need to do and to work on. But what is God asking you to do now, to do next? Is there something you need to start doing, to do again, to get better at? Maybe you need to repent of the evil of laziness. Whatever it is, the point of this passage is: Do something with your life and do it well!

I have even heard descriptions of paintings inspired by this verse that depict a calm, long-suffering Jesus lightly tapping on the door.  A close observation of some of these paintings reveals that the door at which the Savior stands has no outside handle.  The door can only be opened from the inside, further testament to the idea that we must open the door and invite him in.  Jesus is truly a courteous caller.

Once we invite him inside, the verse tells us that Jesus will come in and dine with us.  There is something very personal, even intimate, about sharing a meal together.  It is not only a sharing of food, but a sharing of our lives together.  Of all things, Jesus chose a meal – communion – as the experience by which we remember his sacrificial death.

This verse from the third chapter of Revelation paints a beautiful picture of relationship with the Savior.  Jesus waits for the invitation into our hearts and lives, then shares with us one of the most personal and intimate experiences a person can have: a shared meal.

The problem is Jesus wants more than just dinner.  After this metaphorical meal we share, he hangs out for awhile… a little too long, perhaps.   Then he starts messing around with things.  He rearranges the furniture.  He thumbs through the checkbook register.  And worst of all, he goes straight for the closet to pull out all those skeletons.

All that hard work I put into arranging my life is thrown out the door.  I worked hard to get things just the way I want them.  And worked even harder to hide and bury those skeletons in the closet.  I just took him at his word; he said he wanted to come in for dinner.  He didn’t mention anything about turning the whole house upside down.  There are a lot of things I just don’t want him messing with, and of course those are the first things he goes after.

He says it’s for my own good.  He says that it’s because he loves me and wants what is best for me.  He says that the things he takes away with be replaced with even better things.

But I still don’t like it much.  It’s never easy.  It even hurts at times.  But I guess I’ll try to take him at his word.

As the first chords were played, the audience of young people stood and began singing and clapping along with the music.  Many raised their hands.  Some sat or even knelt on the floor.  A few others just stood silently and listened.  A typical high school chapel.

I stood.  I sang… at least some of the time.  To be honest, I was tired and having trouble concentrating.  It was early, and I had a lot on my mind.  After several songs, my feet got tired, so I sat down.  I continued to sing, most of the time.  A million thoughts streamed in and out of my head, but only one really stuck around.  I thought back to a conversation I had with a colleague the week before.  We whispered comments back and forth about one of the songs.  Although it was a highly emotionally driven song, it lacked both substance and sense, creating images that were shallow, absurd, and perhaps even theologically incorrect.  Lines like, “Walking blindly in the truth,” or “”Breathe upon the ones unknown.”  How can a person walk “blindly in the truth” when Jesus said we will know the truth, and the truth will set us free?  Or who are these “unknown” that we are asking an omniscient God to breathe upon?  It wasn’t just a bad worship song, but bad poetry as well.  Needless to say, neither of us liked the song.

On this occasion, I didn’t like the songs much either.  However, for very different reasons.  These songs had depth, made sense, and were about as theologically correct as “Amazing Grace.”  My problem with these songs was that they were too good.  They were too correct.  They echoed feelings and desires and claims that I felt I couldn’t honestly have or make.

One song was particularly problematic.  It went, “This is my desire, to honor you / Lord with all my heart I worship you / All I have within me, I give you praise / Lord with all my heart I worship you / Lord I give you my heart, I give you my soul / I live for you alone / Every breath that I take, Every moment I’m awake / Lord have your way with me.”  A song of complete surrender, love, and adoration.

I was having a really hard time with it because, as much as I liked those words and wished to sing them, that was not the song of my heart.  I desire to honor God, but I don’t worship him with all of my heart or praise him with all that is within me.  Usually my praise is only lip service; at most a mental exercise.  I have given him my heart, although I often take it back and keep it for myself.  I desire to live for him alone with my every breath and every move.  But I don’t.  I live for myself, my goals and dreams and desires.  I get caught up in routines and schedules and forget about him.  I have things to do, and often get too busy for him.  I want to say, “Lord have your way with me,” but that scares me.  His way is never easy, and is often very painful. 

I wanted to sing that song.  I wanted to belt in out, hands stretched toward the heavens.  But in thinking about the words and what they truly mean, it was difficult.  The conflict between who I know I am and who I desire to be raged as the band and audience sang.  I was confronted with the reality of my own spiritual apathy and indifference.  Looking in the mirror can be a dreadful thing.

My thoughts then led me in a new direction.  Although I am severely poetically challenged, I began to have aspirations of writing my own worships songs.  Songs I could actually sing and mean whole-heartedly.  Songs not about the ideals I hope for, but about the reality I face.  Songs with words like, “Lord, I don’t love you like I should.  I know I should spend more time with you.  You’re not always my first and last thought of the day.  I often live for myself rather than for you.  But Lord, change all of this.  Help me to love you and live for you more.”

My lack of song-writing ability is probably as apparent as my lack of spiritual fervor.  I know that these words probably won’t find their way into a “real” worship song or into any church service.  But they come from an honest heart.  It is an acknowledgement of complete dependence.  I can’t do it on my own, please help me.  I think this might be what that father of the possessed boy meant when he said, “I believe.  Lord, help my unbelief.”  I know I’m not where I should be, so help me get there.

Read to Believe is a simple and practical way to increase your knowledge of and trust in the love of God by reading through the writings of the Apostle John in one year. It includes The Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation–50 chapters in all. All you have to do is…

1.) Decide on a definite time either Saturday or Sunday to read the week’s chapter and read it in a place without distractions. You may even want to read it out loud with a friend or friends.

2.) Then spend some time every day throughout the week praying, thinking and talking about what it says. Use these two questions as a starting point: “What does it reveal about Jesus?” and “What does it teach about walking with Him?”

3.) HINT: You may want to read the chapter again as the week progresses to keep it fresh in your mind.

READING SCHEDULE:
January 2-3: John 1
January 9/10: John 2
January 16-17: John 3
January 23-24: John 4
January 30-31: John 5
…and so on…

Fortunately, I have not been in a hospital – as a patient or a visitor – very often.  There was my own birth almost 34 years ago, but I don’t really remember that experience.  Then in middle school, I had a pretty serious bout of pneumonia that landed me in the hospital for five days.  But on that occasion, I think I was too young and too sick to experience what has become my normal nosocomephobia.

It wasn’t until my adult life that I began to have more frequent experiences in hospitals.  There was one time about eight years ago that I made a late night trip to the emergency room.  My wife and I were in Anaheim for a teachers’ convention, and I woke up at about 1 a.m. with the worst headache of my life.  My head was throbbing.  My heart was racing.  I was dry-heaving.  My wife rushed me to the nearest ER, where they determined after a CT-scan that it was just a migraine (I use the word “just” very loosely).  They gave me some heavy-duty pain killers and sent me back to my hotel room at about 4 a.m.

My next, and most recent, experience was in urgent care about three months ago with elevated heart rate and blood pressure and dizziness.  I spent several hours there, and for the first time in memory had the doctor tell me with a straight face, “I think that you’re either on drugs, or there is something seriously wrong with you.”  Fortunately, all the tests that were conducted came back normal (and they were testing for some pretty serious, and pretty scary, medical conditions).  Long story short, after a couple months of doctors visits and tests, they determined this incident and the continued dizziness and heart palpitations were again migraine related.  Fortunately, the doctor was proven wrong, but I’ll never forget that moment he said those words to me.  I think that was about the most scared I have been in a very long time.

While I have endured a number of health problems, I haven’t had to spend a whole lot of time in the hospital as a patient; most of my time there has been as a visitor.  And that tends to be when the “I-better-sit-down-before-I pass-out” feeling comes over me.  As I said, I made it through the births of both of my daughters.  And if I didn’t, I know I’d never hear the end of it.  After all, I was not the one experiencing natural childbirth; I was only the spectator and cheerleader.

I have had two very memorable hospital visits in the past ten years.  Both my dad and older brother were each in near-fatal car accidents.  They were separate occasions, about three years apart.  When I got word of my dad’s accident, my wife and I was on the first leg of a road trip up the California coast.  We had stopped in Monterey to touch base with our friend in San Francisco with whom we were staying that night.  She relayed the message to us.  We continued to SF, then I flew back home for a day or two to be with my family.  Going into the ICU to see my dad for the first time brought on the aforementioned feelings of flushness and dizziness that I have since experienced during most hospital visits.

About three years later, my brother was also in an accident.  This time, I was at the mall with my eldest daughter while my wife was at the gym.  When I got the word of the accident, I drove out to meet my family at the hospital.  I didn’t actually get to see my brother at that time, but spent several hours in a private waiting room with the rest of my family.  I think being away from the tubes and needles prevented the feelings of faintness.  But it was in no way a pleasant experience.

So while most of my experience in hospitals has been as a visitor - and I tend to walk through those doors with much fear and trepidation - I’ve come to realize something from these experiences, as diverse as they have been.  It seems that spending any amount of time in a hospital or urgent care or even a doctor’s office- whether as a patient or visitor – has a tremendous impact on one’s priorities.  When that call comes that a friend or family member is in the hospital, nothing else seems to matter.  We drop whatever we are doing, we cancel our plans, and we get there as safely and legally as possible.

And when we’re there – whether awaiting news in the lobby or sitting bed-side – our sole focus is on that moment and on that person, or on those with whom we share the waiting room.  Hours and hours slip by almost unnoticed.  We usually don’t do much more to pass the time than thumb through a months-old magazine or make small talk about the weather or last week’s football scores.  We are so absorbed in the moment that we think about very little, and we certainly give little thought to the day-to-day things that occupy much of our time and energy.

All those things that just minutes earlier were so important and so urgent no longer seem to be.  The sink full of dishes.  The work deadline.  The dinner reservations.  None of those things matter anymore.  All that matters is being there.

My most recent trip to urgent care, and the plethora of doctors visits that followed, seemed to have much the same effect on me.  Feeling crappy for the better part of two months had a strange way of reshaping my priorities.  While I always try to do the best I can at my job as a teacher, on many days the focus was on simply getting to and making it through a day of work.  It no longer seemed quite so important to bring home a big stack of papers to grade.  The time often seemed better spent sitting on the couch watching reruns of ”The Office” with my wife.  The “important” things of life still got done… eventually.  But a lot of them just didn’t seem quite so urgent anymore.  The energy I had was spent on doing the things that would help me feel better, and the little that was left was given to my wife and kids.

Many of the things that I once spent so much time worrying about just don’t matter any more.  And I spend a lot more time focusing on things that, unfortunately, often were relegated to the back burner.  Faith.  Family.  Friends.  The rest will get taken care of… eventually. 

Which has got me thinking, why has it taken me nearly three months of dealing with vertiginous migraines and all that accompany them to realize this?

All-consuming Fire
Joy of our desire

Come let us worship and bow down
Kiss His cheek, see His crown
This Baby is Immanuel

See His mother there as she ponders
Son of God in her loving hands
Ordinary yet so highly favored
She yielded to God’s holy plan

Like her we find grace
When we seek His face

Come let us worship and bow down
Kiss His cheek, see His crown
This Baby is Immanuel

From His mother’s womb
To the empty tomb

Come let us worship and bow down
Kiss His cheek, see His crown
This Baby is Immanuel

© 2009 Shawn Candelaria