“Energy follows thought ”

These three words were my take-away from three days of leadership training. Not that everything else wasn’t good information is was just more of the same from previous training events. I probably even heard these three words in training before but it never struck me the way they did that day.

What a simple rule for Christians.

When we take stock of what occupies our thoughts we will likely find an inventory of passions, fears, interests and distractions. These thoughts are the ones that determine what we do. A necessity of being human

But, when we consider what consume our thoughts we will discover our idols. The idols that consumes our energy will guide who we are not just what we do. Here we will find the birthplace of addiction and depression unless we allow our energy to be guided by love for God.

Make quick count of the things we humans tend to idolize: ourselves, people, family, food, things, abilities, money…all of which are destined to fail us in a temporal world. No wonder we are a depressed society. When our idols fail our energy also fails.

“Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Jesus of Nazareth ( Matthew 22:37)

When we allow our thoughts to be consumed with the love of God and love for God our energy will never fail.

Shalom

NOTE:  For those who have followed this blog I apologize for a delay in posting.  On March 10, 2010 we had a devistating fire that completely threw me off my routine.  I posted the following article on my personal blog days after the fire.  We hope to be fully back to posting articles in the coming weeks.  God Bless.

It began with the emergency call code from Angie to me. [ NOTE: If you don't have one of these I recommend it. When I'm in a meeting or otherwise unavailable at work I press "ignore" when she calls which sends her call immediately to voicemail. She then redials and I know to answer because it's an emergency.] During my Wednesday morning meeting in Austin I answered to hear that our house (in Merkel) was on fire. Considering the situation she was surprisingly calm, frantic yes…but definitely not hysterical. Once the front windows broke and flames with smoke rushed from the house we both knew it was best for Angie to go next door to her parent’s home and wait instead of watch. As she was walking in I could hear through the phone the horns blowing for firefighters to evacuate and let it burn.

The fire department was on the scene within minutes of Angie’s call to 911. We found out later someone passing the house had called earlier so they got a head start. Even with the quick response there was nothing that could be done. Our house burned from a mix of accidental ignition of a heat source warming the dogs and 35 mph (with gusts to 50) winds. Even with seemingly initial success in controlling the blaze, the fire and wind created a blow torch effect that would require more water to extinguish than the two Merkel trucks and seven Abilene trucks could possibly pump. The responders fought until exhausted and made the correct choice to retreat, there wasn’t one thing in the house worth even an injury. Thank you to the Merkel VFD and Abilene FD for their efforts, you just can’t beat nature.

I have thanked God every day for Amie’s presence at our house on that day. She only periodically helps Angie clean the house but without screaming for Angie to come downstairs when she saw the smoke, Angie would have been in the shower on the second floor and endangered at best. I’m thankful Angie didn’t open the door to the back porch where the blaze was raging, the wind would have certainly blown the flames into her and Amie and I would be typing this from the hospital She could have thought she could save the dogs (they got out anyway) or put the fire out with her kitchen extinguisher (too late for that) but she had the presence of mind under pressure to just evacuate.

The community of Merkel is phenomenal…I will certainly write more on this in the coming weeks, we would not be as strong right now without the hundreds of our friends and neighbors who showed up to help.

Service to community and help to fallen comrades are tenets so engrained in the ethos of the Texas Army National Guard that we were almost overwhelmed with support. It took direct orders and a promise of future help to keep these Great Americans away. I will always be grateful to God for the blessing of working with such a great organization.

So we find ourselves at zero. Even with the donations of clothes and essentials from the community we still can fit our earthly possessions into the back of my truck. We have always talked big talk that we don’t put any stock on earthly things but the talk falls flat when we actually lose everything. An inventory runs in our minds of all the things we lost…

It’s not so much the loss of stuff that causes sadness but the loss of the memories connected to the stuff. We are saddened to think of losing Angie’s wedding ring, wedding dress, childhood doll “Susie,” cookbook collection, and high school cheer uniforms (into which she still fit!); Chelsea’s impressive collection of books, cheer and dance gear, senior scrapbook, and American Girl dolls; Chera’s sports medals, cheer gear, scrapbooks, snow globe collection, and artwork; The Bible I carried through combatin Iraq and my Jeep (it’s a jeep thing you wouldn’t understand) [Note: Monkey is safely secured at my parent's house because my mother rightfully decided years ago I wasn't responsible enough to have him yet] .

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [and fire] destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust [and fire] do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:19-20 (NIV)

On Wednesday night we had a family meeting in our hotel room to discuss the importance of the day. I believe that with every life changing event there WILL BE change. It’s up to us to make it positive. After a family hug we all confirmed that stuff didn’t matter and our memories will survive without the stuff. More importantly, we had each other.

The GREAT thing is we are only at zero in terms of possessions. We are blessed beyond description in so many other ways.

• We still have treasures in heaven by the grace of God through Jesus Christ
• Our family has never been closer and each are stronger
• We live in the greatest community in the world
• I work for an organization dedicated to service to others
• Starting at zero gives us the unique opportunity to rebuild with focus on what’s REALLY important

We are thankful and at peace…Shalowm

Once upon a time a man lived in a little village that was overrun with skunks. This man was a good hunter and trapper and knew how to entice the skunks into cages. People would ask him to come and remove the skunks that denned up under their houses. He became known as the “SKUNKMAN”! He eventually charged a small fee for his services and most people were happy to pay him to take away the odorous little creatures.

One day, after removing the fifth skunk from a home, the homeowner asked what would happen if he didn’t pay. The SKUNKMAN said he put captured skunks into little cages and gave his clients thirty days to pay. If on the thirty- first day he had not received his money, all the skunks he had collected from under the non-payers home would be returned to the front porch. Needless to say, this policy was seldom enforced.

Our sins are like skunks, they seem to hang around and stink. Satan likes to bring them back to our door, over and over and over. He wants to shove our faces into our mistakes and shortcomings. He wants to keep us captive, ruminating over old failures. It is one of Satan’s biggest tricks, to get people to despair and think there is no way they can be “good enough” to be acceptable to God. The good news is that the price of our “skunkey” sins are paid for by the blood of the Son of God, Jesus Christ! Satan cannot bring back our sins for payment, they have been paid, in full!

“ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“…and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” I John. 1:7

I grew up in a time when church frequently included special gospel meetings that featured a guest preacher imploring over the course of a week to get right and reap the rewards of heaven or certainly go to hell.  Night after night the message and volume would escalate until a satisfactory number had responded to avoid the punishment of hell.

As a result, my upbringing most of my Christian life has been spent figuring out what “get right” means.  My relationship with God was shallowly based on a set of rules based more in the tradition of my recent ancestors than the Word and Spirit.   It took a couple of family tragedies and a tour to combat for me to reevaluate and search for a deeper foundation [Christ] for my relationship.

The struggles of my God relationship search came flooding back as I read Daniel Pink’s book Drive:  The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us in which he presents a compelling case for a deeper method of personal, peer, and subordinate motivation.  I was struck with how closely the history of motivation parallels the Bible story and my story.

H. Belloc, in his essay, “The Little Old Man”, said, “ that of everything which runs or creeps upon earth, man is the fullest of sorrow”. Sometimes, the events of life send Belloc’s observation about sorrow cascading deep into our psyches. We may feel overcome, even overwhelmed by the loss of loved ones that seem almost impossible to bear. But, over time, great sorrow is replaced by joyful confidence that God is with us and all is well.

Jesus was described once by the prophet Isaiah as “a man of sorrows”. A being that could have had anything He wanted, and died on a cross, how strange that would seem to a person who didn’t know the greatest story ever told! But, now, He does have everything, eternity in heaven with His loving Father! From Calvary’s misery to heaven’s glory . He’s home, home at last. And He calls us home too. Little sheep, come home to Me, and be safe at last, safe at last.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair…, struck down, but not destroyed… For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Selections from I Corinthians Chapter 4 (NIV)

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)

Have you ever been on the “outside” of things?  Remember when certain ones were chosen last to be on teams in their childhood?  It was usually the same person all the time.  We all want to belong, sometimes desperately.  How sad it is for those who want to be on the “inside” and are held on the “outside”.  Wouldn’t it be grand if there were a place where who you were didn’t make a bit of difference to those who were there, and there you would be accepted, loved and even adored?  There is!

It’s the family of God, a community of believers, who because of what was done for them, would do anything for you.  People want to be valued – to know they were here for a reason – that is what fellowship is all about – to bestow honor upon those who expect it the least – a community where one is treated and treats others better than any place on earth.

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” I John 4:11 (NIV).

A Child of the King

By Lou David Allen

I stumbled and fell right down,
Silly me, I hate to be a clown.
I was hurt, I knew, really bad,
They all laughed and I was sad.
Mocking, “ You can stand if you try!”
But, all I could do was sit and cry.
So completely embarrassed by it all,
Why did I have to go and fall?
I hung my head in shame,
And thought, “It’s all me to blame.”
Then I heard someone sweetly say,
“Have you hurt yourself, are you O.K.?”
No, it couldn’t possibly be true!
The most popular girl in my school,
Sitting here, by my side,
Unwounding my broken pride.
Afterwards, all agreed she had done me a kindly thing.
But I think more.
I think they had seen a child of the King.

I’ve been to war.

Not a figurative war, which many people have experienced within their unique circumstance, but a real war where bullets fly both ways and mortars and rockets explode with the intent of ending lives.  My war experience, of course, is no longer unusual as the United States continues adding to the longest period of conflict in our history.  I understand the damage a war can do.

Private, figurative wars, the ones without bullets, have been raging for centuries and are just as spiritually damaging as the real wars are physically damaging.  Spiritual wars are waged in our minds as we deal with the loss of loved ones, the breaking of a heart through shattered marriages, the breaking of promises and vows, the loss of stability financial or emotional.  The lists go on and undoubtedly will touch everyone who will read this paragraph.  The private wars have touched my family and me through suicide, cancer, divorce, death…

Once, when I was a little boy, something happened to me that was way beyond my control.  I had sustained a dangerous head wound and was helpless.  My father took me in his arms and carried me to the hospital which was very near to where we lived.  I’m sure my dad lived the event over and over in his mind all the days of his life, even though he rarely mentioned it.  My mom and dad were not young when I was born and our age difference could have made him my grandfather.  He had lost my sister only five years before and must have died figuratively many times as he carried me to medical help.  My father did not cause the accident, would never had let it happen if he had been there. I don’t know what went through his mind as carried me in his arms; perhaps this, “ I would never dream of letting something like this happen to you, but if you will let me, I will love you through this, help you through this, and show you how it will work eventually for your own good.”

In this world bad things happen.  When they do, God is there and He, like my dad, says, “ I did not cause this, I would never plan this horrific thing that has happened to you, but know this, if you let Me, I will love you through this, help you through this, and show you how it will work eventually for you own good.”

Surely God is my salvation,

I will trust and not be afraid.

The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my defense,

He has become my salvation. Isaiah 12:2 (NIV)

I can still jump as high as I always could, I just can’t stay up as long, my cousin once said.  He was making humorous commentary on the fact that he was getting older, and knew it.  That little funny statement has a great truth embedded.  That is, facts are often overrun by fiction.  Coming from emotional sources rather than logical ones, fictional, emotional ones sometimes seem logical.  I once worked with a man who would hold his hand over his heart and say, “Dave, if it feels good in your heart, it must be right.”  Really? If that were true, the rich young ruler that Jesus interviewed would have been completely O.K. because he “felt” he was O.K. But the one thing he lacked and needed to do, was not in his mindset to do.

Some people today have a great feeling about their acceptance of Jesus, but little regard for what He commanded for full obedience, baptism. Like the rich young ruler, they refuse to finish their acceptance. Movie stars desire to be described as famous, not nearly famous. People should desire to be described as saved, not nearly saved.

“ I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” John 3:3 (NIV)

“ I tell you the truth, no on can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of the water and of the Spirit.” John 3:5 (NIV)

“ Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38 (NIV)

“ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:3-4 (NIV)

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”, according to a Chinese proverb. How true! People sometimes hesitate to start long journeys of all kinds because they perceive the difficulties they may encounter along the way. I have also noticed that people who do make journeys love to tell of their experiences and may have some photos to enhance their story. Some of my friends have visited many countries, I have only been to one other than my own. Some of my friend’s trips have cost them quite a bit of money. There is a journey that all will make and that is the one into eternity. No one will be able to say that journey is one they won’t make. We all will, unless Jesus returns first. If one believes God’s Word, the journey will end in heaven or hell. The price of the ticket is vastly different for each destination. The price to hell costs nothing and a person can purchase the ticket by doing absolutely nothing. Satan will take care of the ticket and be one’s personal conductor. The price of the heavenly ticket is awesome. That ticket cost God His only begotten Son. Your ticket is paid in full – the blood of Jesus on a Roman cross.

“Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” Matthew 20:28

A Glimpse of Eternity

By Lou David Allen

Stars floating on an endless celestial sea,

A glimpse of eternity.

Arching rainbows in the clouds, gifts from Divinity,

A glimpse of eternity.

Mary, bouncing her baby on a knee,

A glimpse of eternity.

Romans planting crosses high on a hill for all to see,

A glimpse of eternity.