Quote of the Day

"God loves us and delights in us, and so he wishes us to love him and delight in him and trust greatly in him."

-Julian of Norwich

Are you Serious!!??

Sometimes I come across something that leaves me speechless. This is one of those things. Here is the header from the webpage:

"You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved.But when the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are leftbehind?Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burdenoff your mind."

Click here to see it for yourself.

Worth the Wait?

Eighteenth Century English Poet Alexander Pope once said that the 9th beatitude in the Bible should've been “Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” I think some of us can relate to this. Most of us have been disappointed, hurt and even overwhelmed with despair at expectations that were never met. While Pope's statement may be true in some areas of life, it is not true when it comes to God.

Lamentations 3:21 begins with these profound words: "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope..." The author of Lamentations then continues in verses 22-26 to express the reality of God's inability to be unfaithful to His promises. God, because of His great love, compassion and faithfulness, will fulfill every promise that He has made to us in His word. We can count on it! We can live expectantly knowing that God can and will do big things in us and through us.

Every day when I come home from work my boys are waiting expectantly for me to get home and walk through the door. Sometimes I'll catch them looking through the window scanning the front yard in hopes of seeing me. When I walk through the door, they run to me while shouting out "daddy!" and they wrap their arms around me. I will never grow tired of this! They bless me by their expectant waiting and their show of joy when I get home.

I imagine that God feels similar when we wait expectantly for Him to show up. This is what true faith is all about. It's scary because we have no control over when and how God shows up. The only confidence we can have is that God will show up.  Author Henri Nouwen writes, "Hope prevents us from clinging to what we have and frees us to move away from the safe place and enter unknown and fearful territory."

May we be people who wait expectantly for God!  Let's forget about playing church or just going through the motions.  Life on this earth is too short to waste time playing make believe when it comes to our relationship with God.  Let's embrace the unknown and the fearful and wait for God to meet us in the midst of our pain and joy, our abundance and need, our dreams and fears.  

I gotta go.  I'm expecting God to show up and I want to be ready when He arrives.  Please pray that I have the persistence and courage to wait expectantly no matter how long it takes!