Challenge me. Challenge you. There is so much more… ask.

I don’t know if I have ever taken any bit of new information for granted. In my early married days, my bride was often frustrated with my incessant questioning of everything she had to say. It was not that I didn’t believe her. It was just that I needed the thought validated. If she could share the source, I could add or subtract the likelihood of truth or to what degree of accuracy was likely. As life has gone on, I have tried to mellow out and not appear so offensive in my questioning of my bride. I find value in all she has to say, these days.

Oddly in contrast to life’s questions, there was a time in my early Christian walk, I tended to believe anything another Christian told me about Christ, the Bible and all its characters. I questioned little, trusted implicitly and worked hard to be the model Christian others believed me to be. It was this early belief system that shaped me and kept me well grounded to survive in a world that continues to be ever increasing difficult to thrive in. I especially have my mother and father to thank for this wonderful Christian upbringing.

Today, I have known Christ as my Savior for over 50 years and experienced the bitter sweet of living a Christian life. Most of my life, I spent trying to stay on the mountain top with Christ. I dreaded the valleys, but seemed to spend more time there then I dared to admit. It was this impossible mountain climb that kept me frustrated with my Christianity and kept me asking the single most important question of my life… “Is that all there is?”

I wish when a body realizes the love of Christ on his life and chooses to not reject Christ, there would be infinite wisdom imparted. It would seem so much more of life could be experienced so much quicker, but somehow in God’s wisdom it doesn’t work that way. We grow slowly toward the target of living in Christ daily…  fully in the knowledge of His presence. Christ is so patient with us during this journey. His love never fails.

In the last few years, Christ has honored me with a response that continues to ring loudly in my ears and experienced in my life.  “I have only just begun!“~Jesus

After 50 years or so, Christ daily reinforces the truth that He has only just begun to build me into the man He desires to spend eternity with and there is so much more.

Jesus had a profoundly ridiculous story to tell, yet i believed.

There once was a man named Nich who was ruler over a nation and was a highly educated man.  He marveled at the miraculous prospect of climbing back inside of his mother’s womb, to be born a second time and thus achieving eternal life.  You and i think his belief system pretty ridiculous.   Why is that?

Could it be… our lack of belief in the ridiculous prevents our ability to believe in the reality of the miraculous.  We look at Nich and think how ridiculous he was to consider climbing back into his mother’s womb, but was he really that ridiculous or could it be his belief in the miraculous of Jesus was so strong that nothing seemed impossible to him if Jesus chose.

Jesus had a profoundly ridiculous story to tell.  He had little time to tell it.  In just a few months, He was tasked by the Father to convince the world He was their Savior.  It was a story filled with love and miracles.  It was His story written by the Father and concluded on the cross.  It was a ridiculous story.  The story was written for you.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”~Jesus

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It seems most of the time, God reveals and provides opportunity without warning…

I was in Starbucks minding my own business, when a lady shows up with a couple large empty covered plastic containers.  A Starbucks employee proceeds to give her all the dated pastries for her containers and she hangs around at a table in front me sorting things out.

After a while, i get up to leave and go to work.  I stop in front of her and make comment that i bet she is going to make some people happy. She explains she is from the Saint Assisi or something catholic church and these pastries will go to feed the homeless.  As we are chatting about the local homeless shelter, i am doing a heart check and i think God is saying give her money.  You have to understand there was a time when giving from my excess was not challenging at all.  Today, i give from what i don’t have and i am very aware to give without God’s direction is stupid.

So as she is talking, i am thinking, “God.  Do you want me to give? i am not sure and i want to be responsible with the little i have.”  i am confident this thought was from God.  “Whether you give or not, you will know my will when you walk out the door.”  It reminded me of the times, i heard God and chose to ignore the opportunity to be used by Him.  I get that really sick feeling in my stomach that i just blew it.

Today, i was not going to blow it.  i reached in my pocket and pulled out the exact amount God had impressed on me (without counting).  I handed it to the lady and without a word, began walking out.  She yelled, “What’s your name?”  I wish i had said, “Jesus.”