Putting the Wrong Gas in Your Tank

Your car is on empty and you see two gas stations up ahead.

One advertises goodwill toward your car.

The other says it will contribute mightily to the breakdown of your car over time.

The choice is obvious. Would your car crave the gas that would break it down?

Your body is on empty and you have two categories of food choices before you.

One is processed, acidic, animal-protein based, with a by-product of inflammation and breakdown for your body. American, delicious, in fact, almost addictive--and destructive over time.

The other, lesser known, comes more as whole foods, alkaline, plant-based, with healing properties that reduce inflammation and keep the body in a more disease-resistant state.

Sounds obvious, right?

No, because unlike our car, we crave the processed, the animal protein, the acidic foods.

We teach our kids to love them because we love them.

Nothing seems a longer, harder journey than to begin to discover what our bodies want and doing the work of choosing, preparing and embracing as delicious the category of healing foods.

It is an uphill battle of overcoming addiction.

Your car and your body are depending on you.

Remembering Simple

Someone dear to me commented on yesterday's reminder that we can ask to fall in love:

Funny how I had forgotten something so simple.

Yes, how we forget.

Or it is that we are deluged with complicated?

Life is hard. Too many choices, too many tragedies, too many theories, too much incoming data. And that is just what is swirling around us. Throw in the people we have to deal with, no matter how much we love them, and the mind and heart simply move into overload.

How do we ever participate in simple?

I only know to offer this:

Schedule time to remember.

Whether it's shower time, drive time, quiet time, or stroll time, use that time to ask God to show you simple.

Life begins at conception and really before that, because God had you in mind all along, before your parents even came to be.

God paints scenery exclusively for you every day in the sunrise and the sunset, in the face of a stranger, in the giggle of a loved one.

There is nothing you or another can do to be separated from God's unconditional love. You are loved utterly and completely for always for all time, regardless of how you see yourself or what you may have done or not done.

When you begin to remember the most elemental truths of the universe, you enter into a rare and profound space:

You accumulate simple, a treasure offered by God, found in the scheduled time with Him, purposed by Him to help your heart deal with complicated.

The power of cumulative, scheduled time and remembering simple.

Life-giving.

Ask to Fall in Love

The heart grows cold.

Toward someone, something at any given time.

I have, over my life, routinely enjoyed exercise in various forms. I've generally not had to fight the idea to make myself participate.

So it was curious to me as to why, of late, my heart was growing cold. I could just feel my engagement in my exercise routines slipping away.

Then I remembered.

Many years ago, over wine in New York City, I confessed to my sister-in-law that I definitely called on Jesus for forgiveness of my sins but in my heart cared more about God. Truth was, I had this idea that I wanted to be in with the Guy I perceived to be at the "top."

What could be more foolish?

So, in that very setting, I simply asked God to help me fall in love with Jesus. I had no idea if that was a legitimate prayer but I only knew to be honest.

It worked. That prayer was answered and continues to be to this day.

So yesterday, in my somewhat cold-hearted effort to exercise, I asked God to help me fall in love [again] with working out. It might be my imagination but I felt warmed even as I walked.

With what, or whom, do you wish to be in love? Vegetables? Your cranky neighbor? The God of the Universe?

No request is too large or small. If it helps you in your mission in this life, ask away.

God is the grantor of love.

Runt Believers

The luxury of hindsight generally gives us a favorable view, if not outright admiration for, the disciples.

We love that Thomas doubts, Peter jumps the gun, and James and John vie for the best seat in the house (or rather, heaven).

In short, they seem much like us.

So what Jesus observes in Matthew 16 is pretty comical and unfortunately true of us as well:

On their way to the other side of the lake, the disciples discovered they had forgotten to bring along bread. In the meantime, Jesus said to them, "Keep a sharp eye out for Pharisee-Sadducee yeast."

Thinking he was scolding them for forgetting bread, they discussed in whispers what to do. Jesus knew what they were doing and said, "Why all these worried whispers about forgetting the bread? Runt believers! Haven't you caught on yet? Don't you remember the five loaves of bread and the five thousand people, and how many baskets of fragments you picked up? Or the seven loaves that fed four thousand, and how many baskets of leftovers you collected? Haven't you realized yet that bread isn't the problem? The problem is yeast, Pharisee-Sadducee yeast." Then they got it: that he wasn't concerned about eating, but teaching--the Pharisee-Sadducee kind of teaching.

Runt believer describes me perfectly. I rock along faithfully, full of wonder and faith and praise, and then a bump in the road sends me into a tailspin of doubt and fear.

Jesus chose the twelve and he chooses me, too...chooses to work through me to love on the world and field his invitation to all.

Our "runtedness" makes his magnificence all the greater.

Be a good runt.

Ruled by Desire or Wonder

We operate each day on a ruling principle. Something drives our choices and efforts.

In John 11, Jesus is summoned to the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, as Lazarus is sick and dying. Because he waits four days to travel a short distance, Jesus finds Lazarus dead and buried.

He accompanies the sisters to the tomb, raises his eyes to heaven and prays, and then shouts, "Lazarus, come out!" Lazarus walks out, covered in burial wrap.

Not surprisingly, many put their faith in Jesus that very day. Others went back to the Pharisees, the religious rulers of the day, and told on Jesus.

It is a bit laughable to tattle on Jesus. He makes us, sets us in motion, can clearly do whatever he chooses to do, and we try to get him in trouble.

Those who put their faith in Jesus that day chose to be ruled by wonder. They had just experienced a true resurrection miracle and carried away that awe in their hearts.

The tattlers saw the very same miracle and put their faith in cronyism, believing that the Pharisees could do more for them than Jesus.

Jesus recreated breath in a dead man but the perceived power of the Pharisees held more attraction.

Desire for earthly power, to be in with the "right" crowd, is hard to overcome.

Consider the quiet awe of wonder that Jesus held then and holds today. He is ruled by the One from which he comes. The wonder of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is a ruling principle that recreates breath and life and joy in our dead souls.

Breathe wonder.

Progress is Limits

Limits are the nearly lost art form of saying no--to self, to indulgence, to more, to consumption.

What comes to mind when you consider the question: "What is God calling me to limit?"

Our country's founders set into motion limited government.

Parents set into motion limited freedoms for their children.

Each of us sets into motion personal limits on eating, spending, careless speaking, and reckless behavior.

It is a constant vigil to limit with wisdom and strength.

Consultation with God on how best to execute limits in your life is required. Your future that only He sees is an accumulation of limits installed wisely or run amok.

Better to let God make our big little and our little big.

If Today

If today is the day you could extend that forgiveness for which a special someone waits...forgive.

If today is the day that you find victory over eating badly...eat well.

If today is the day that you tackle the clutter that keeps you paralyzed...clear with gusto.

If today is the day that you show your spouse how much you care by being uncharacteristically kind and helpful...serve generously.

But, you say, it is the Sabbath. Shouldn't we be resting?

Jesus pointedly heals on the Sabbath--over and over--to say to the religious culture that healing is pleasing to God every day of the week.

Perhaps your most powerful worship to the Lord today would be the healing that waits on you to extend either to yourself or someone else.

Heal away.