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if you knew 6 billion people by name... would you tell each one of them exactly what they needed to hear?

what about 6 thousand?

... what about 6?

do you trust your friends

      if you want to be trusted, you should make it a practice to do what you say that you will do. meet your commitments.

      

      if you want to be trusted, you should not tell people things that aren't true.

if you regularly do things contrary to this and tell me things to mislead me... my actions that look like actions of trust are not what they appear to be. they are opportunities for many things... invitations for many things... but they are not displays of trust. I think that LOVE would be a good explanation of where these things come from. "would be" is important here. you see, I am far too reluctant in my actions for this to be totally sacrificial. perhaps as much as it is me giving you an opportunity to succeed, it is me giving you an invitation to fail once again. 

switch the placement of the words "invitation" and "opportunity," and you have something beautiful.

a mouse in a maze

Last night I realized something. The way that I act at work (mostly while frustrated) is giving a mixed signal. I say, "I'm happy" and that I follow Christ and that my life is secure in Him.... and people hear that... but then I get a bad tip or whatever the silly case may be.......................... and I act like everyone else in the world. Worse yet, most people that I see actually handle these things better than me! I'm so quick to feel like I'm not being given the appreciation that I deserve. Strangely, I've noticed that as soon as I start to feel that way, I actually stop behaving in a way that makes me deserving of anything. I stop being an asset and instead start being dead weight. 

So that was last night, and then this morning I went to work. "I wonder what awesome things Lander did today" you're probably saying.... well, I acted like a ten year old who couldn't handle the "stress" of his life, all while people around him were dealing very well with that same stress. People that didn't know God. People that didn't realize all that is out there... all that is in front of them. 

This is my struggle now. It has been discovered and my be neutralized. My pride has been getting in the way of people around me learning about what a Godly life can look like. Be humble, young man. Be humble and do good:)

under a solitary broom tree

"So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: 'May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you...'

        Elijah was afraid and fled for his life."

Just looking at that excerpt probably makes you think, 'yeah, that seems like a good reaction.'

       Perhaps. But reading 1Kings 17 & 18 kind of makes you feel like this was not a very rational decision in light of all of the events that preceded it.

Check this out, dudes...

        In the previous chapters we read that Elijah: gave a prophesy from the Lord to the king, allowed God to direct him to a specific river to camp out, got fed by ravens (he didn't eat the ravens.... the Lord had the ravens bring him food), experienced as God gave specific provisions through the drought and famine, was used by God to bring a child back from the dead, watched as the Lord sent down fire to ignite a water soaked sacrifice, prayed seven times to make it rain and then watched as the sky turned black with rain clouds, tucked his cloak in his belt and ran faster than a chariot....

then after all of these crazy miracles....... some lady threatens him........ and he gets scared and runs.

Can you relate? 

I certainly can. Especially to his words as he sat under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, Lord."

All of those miracles. All of the times when God spoke directly into your ear. All of those times that things seemed impossible and He came through in such amazing ways. They are all so quick to be forgotten sometimes.

so what do you do? what do you do when you're too tired to keep going? what do you do when the weight of what's ahead of you is pressing down on top of you?

in Elijah's story, he walked to Sinai to speak directly to God. when he got there the Lord said to him, "what are you doing here?"

Elijah told God what had happened..... which God already knew...... and God said this: 

"Go back the same way you came..."