I feel like an ant

So last week, Cassie went with her 5th grade class to tour one of our local dams. They were built in the late 40s and early 50s for flood control, and transformed this sleepy little berg into a tourist and retirement mecca... (a subject for another time, perhaps)

Anyhow, as she exited the mammoth structure through which so many millions of gallons of water flows daily, she texted her mom. It was a 5 word message:

"I feel like an ant"

Wow. from the mouths of babes, right?

Louie Giglio does an unbelievable job in his DVD series explaining how big God is and how small we are. and an even better job articulating just how much that God cares for each of us....

It is amazing... and a bit of a paradox... to know that God is so big and powerful that He breathed the stars into existence, while also knowing the number of hairs on my head.

But that is how it is.

Try to wrap your head around that one.

Bask in it.

Blessings!

a day to remember

we set aside today to remember sacrifice.

I watched Band of Brothers all weekend, and I am remembering... though I knew none of the real life heroes in Easy Company, I am compelled to think of them with great respect and honor.

I live in freedom because of what they (and hundreds of thousands just like them) gave...

One day a year surely isn't enough.

Take a minute and thank God for those who gave - and continue to give - so you and I can live in peace...

Happy Memorial Day!

praying for rain with no umbrella

what would it be like if we prayed, believing?

what would it look like if we, when we got up off our knees from petitioning the star-breathing universe creator, set about preparing as if we knew that prayer was gonna be answered?

Jeff prays fervently for opportunity and support for his passionmission: to serve those in prison.

Cait's on her knees asking for opportunity to continue playing the sport she loves.

Melanie prays ceaselessly that her momma will be healed from the mass on her brain.

Lynn and Joy pray - for years - for God to provide the way and means and opportunity for them to engage (full time) in His passion, seeking lost people...

Matt prays - on-his-face type prayers - that his lovely wife has an uneventful pregnancy and delivers a healthy new baby.

cool. that's what we are supposed to do... right?

but what if Jeff 'gets the call' and receives the funding, but he has not prepared and studied and educated himself to be ready to minister to the imprisoned?

what if Cait gets a tryout and then a scholarship to play college ball, but has failed to work out and 'live' in the gym and get in the best shape of her life?

and what if Melanie's momma comes home from MD Anderson after successful treatment, but Mel does not have the house 'ready', cleaned.... spic and span and bright and happy?

what if they bring new baby home, but Matt has failed to buy the baby bed and paint the new nursery?

preposterous, right?

really?

how do you live? how do you pray?

well, yeah, but.... you know, God sometimes doesn't answer our prayers like we want... so, we are left to try to explain that to ourselves and each other.

I, for one, am not sure we have gotten this one completely right...

we have assuaged our stupid curiosity by telling ourselves that God sometimes just doesn't answer prayers like we want Him to. we sleep better at night thinking that God is God and we are not and He decides who gets their prayer answered and who does not.

and - in a way - that relegates him to the role of a fickle, impotent wizard-of-oz-like buffoon behind the curtain conjuring and deciding and faking out.

I have written (in this space) about God's omnipotence and how we cannot see the huge mosaic, but only our little piece of it. and how God makes decisions based on 'the greater good' (for lack of a better phrase)...

and I still stand by that....

But I've been thinking a lot about prayer lately... and I wonder if ours is the weak link.

Otherwise, how do we 'explain away' passages like Matthew 21:21-22?:

"I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt,

not only can you do what was done to the fig tree,

but also you can say to this mountain,

'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

or Mark 11:24?:

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer,

believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

or how 'bout James 5:16:

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective"

Could it be that we don't know how to pray, or God doesn't know how to answer? yeah, the same God who literally BREATHED the Milky Way into existence? I'd err more on the side of US not praying with belief..... wouldn't you?

Yeah, I get it... sometimes we DON'T see the big picture... and we pray selfishly... and maybe God reacts accordingly to prune us and teach us... or in the best interest of a greater good...

but I wonder....

what if we prayed for our church buildings to be filled with seekers...

oh, wait.... what if we even took the next step - beyond the praying - and actually 'outflowed' into our community and helped people (you know, the Jesus model: feed the hungry, visit the sick and imprisoned, etc), THEN ACTUALLY PREPARED for the FLOOD of seekers FLOCKING to our "doors" ??!?!?!

we GOTTA stop praying for rain and leaving our umbrella at the house!

God is the God of BIG. and we typically pray such teeny tiny prayers... shame on us.

let's resolve to pray GINORMOUS PRAYERS! Then let's prepare to move with GOD as He answers them!

how would that look?

what are we doing?

so let's concentrate for a minute on our mission...

just for today, try this:

view everything you do through 'wimm' glasses... "what is my mission?" I mean everything you do, say, think...

see how it looks through your wimm glasses.... I suspect it will open your eyes like it does mine... because what I 'do' most days is a far cry from what my mission should be...

how 'bout you?

when you put on the wimm glasses, how does your day look?

Blessings!

what a week!

so, First Day just returned from a fabulous week of worship and praise aboard the Music Boat Cruise!

It was unbelievable to spend time with the guys from Mercy Me, NewSong, David Crowder Band, Jars of Clay and TobyMac! and Matthew West is a really nice guy... got to talk to him about song writing on the bus back to the airport...

We had a terrific time! God was glorified and Jesus was lifted up!

check out our website for photos of the cruise www.firstdaymusic.com

Blessings!

a horrible family

the advent of the 24 hour news cycle has produced some interesting offspring...

each of its progeny is slightly different, but it is easy to identify the 'mom and dad' by watching each child...

• Stress - yep, we had stress before CNN opened the flood gates of instant and constant information 29 years ago... but this new 'information overload' stress is like our dad's brand of stress on steroids!
• Anxiety - twin sister to stress, this wench is a very cruel one indeed... she feeds off of feeding a steady diet of 'worst possible scenario' and 'most dire outcome' to the unsuspecting, causing people to bite and tear at each other and themselves. While people today are not taking swan dives out of tall buildings in droves, this insidious interloper is destroying lives with the constancy of a clock
• Worry - evil brother to stress and anxiety, this guy's shtick is enticing us to play the negative 'what if' game. He lures you into borrowing trouble from the future (Matt 6:34), his influence is so thoroughly pervasive, most of his victims completely forget about today
• Fear - the antithesis of faith, this favorite son is determined to steal your joy and make you afraid. and he is very very good at it.
• Doubt - this is the quiet loner of the brood. Not very close to his siblings, he simply whispers things in your ear that cause you to wonder... and not in a good way. Perhaps this 'son of the cycle' is the most evil of all, because he wears clever disguises like intelligence... and knowledge... and sage wisdom... his masks are limitless, and he is a master at boiling frogs.

do you know these horrible siblings, these children of Beelzebub? Do you believe you are improving yourself by 'knowing' everything that's going on? Are you tuned in, plugged in, wired up? ...or should I say 'wirelessly connected'?

do you get your emails on your blackberry? Can you text one-handed on that IPhone? are you Twittering every other minute? is Facebook your homepage? are you watching 3 different news channels all the time? Is there ANYTHING you are not aware of?

and.....are you deceiving yourself into thinking this is all... somehow... healthy?

really?

I am torn.

On one hand I feel the need to know... otherwise, how can I be a true roaring lamb? I need to know what bills are before congress and what law the president is about to sign... I need to know what the stock market is doing, right? I need to know how to pray and what to pray for...

on the other hand (and this hand, frankly, is becoming my more dominant hand), I want to know nothing... except that God is in control. I want to know that He has a plan that neither Obama nor Bush nor Pelosi nor any other political figure or powermonger will contravene... I want to know that if I show Jesus to the people I meet every day, that's my mission.

and to do that mission, I am beginning to believe that I need to place as much distance between me and this horrible 'family' described above as humanly possible.

how 'bout you?