WHEN LIFE DOESN’T WORK

Sometimes in life it doesn’t work out. I know for a lot of you this year, whatever you have strived for hasn’t worked out or it hasn’t met your expectations… Maybe it’s been disappointing, hard and a tough year. Sometimes that happens and you get knocked down.

But my question for you is…are you going to let that moment define you?

Are you going to let the disappointment take your passion?

You have a choice- you can quit and give up, or you can say, “Yes it hurts and it’s disappointing. But, I’m going to be the first one to get back up.”

Real passion fights through adversity…

Don’t let one moment define you!

HOMEWRECKER

This past Sunday I invited Shawn and Dani to help unpack the parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15. It was a privilege to sit alongside of them and speak candidly to our church.

 

Our emphasis was on the often overlooked, but perhaps the most important focus for Christians, the older brother. You know the story…younger brother asks dad for his inheritance up front, dad complies, younger brother goes away and wrecks his life with the money, finds himself homeless, sleeping in a pig pen and hungry, returns home where he finds his father thrilled, but not so much the older brother.

 

The parable is an incredible display of sin, redemption and… religious, judgmental, holy-art-thou attitudes towards others who sin differently than we do.

 

In the story, the younger brother returns home to his father, his father is overjoyed and throws a massive celebration. The older brother, who has been faithful to his father, begins to compare himself with his younger brother and in his outrage, refuses to celebrate his return.

 

I can imagine what the older brother was thinking…

“Why should we celebrate him? He has ruined his life, the family name, blown his money, lived recklessly, and now that he is broke, he returns home and you throw a party for him?!?! I’ve been faithful, I’ve honored you and the family name, I’ve lived a good life, I’ve served faithfully and what have you done for me…???”

 

The parable wraps up with the following tragic verse.

 

Luke 15:31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you have always been with me…”

 

Why so tragic? The older brother had spent all of his life with the father, but unfortunately, never learned the heart of compassion in the father. He had been faithful, served him diligently, spent time with his dad, but never learned.

 

No, he just became religious. He failed to see he was just as lost in his pig-pen of religion and self-righteousness as his younger brother was.

 

Friends, we can be rock-solid faithful in our church attendance, our giving, our serving. But, if we don’t allow the personal transfer of God’s heart into ours, we will become just like the older brother… judgmental and self-righteous, looking down our religious noses at others. Frankly, I believe that is often the image that comes to mind to those outside of the church, when really they need to see compassion and mercy.

 

Life Church Louisville is a safe place for those lost and broken. May we never forget the pit where we came from and may we always, always, always have the heart of compassion that comes from our Father!

 

If you’re lost, searching for a home or just need to come home…come on! We’re looking for you! It’s safe here.

GRASS SHOULDN’T CRUNCH

Michele and I recently returned from spending some time on vacation in south Florida. It was a great time of cleansing the palate and reconnecting with some places we have not been to in over 20 years. The weather was perfect (clear and hot) even though we had a major hurricane churning off the East coast of Florida and a tropical storm off of the West.

 

In total, we were gone just over two weeks, we needed the break. Frankly, I didn’t realized how mentally tired and crusty I had become. While away I shut social media off, turned my phone off, refocused and refueled.

 

Returning home after a late flight, we found dead leaves on the ground, all throughout the neighborhood. My driveway, patio and deck were covered with leaves. It looked as if Louisville had been thrust into late-season fall. It was strange.

 

The temperature in Louisville had been in the mid-90’s so it wasn’t cool temperatures, it was from the lack of rain.

 

Walking through the backyard in the dark I noticed a row of hedges we had recently planted were dying, the grass greeted me with a crunch rather than the usual soft heather. I broke out the water hose and began watering our hedges and everything else I could. I managed to save the hedges, but not without some trauma. Most everything else is a loss.

 

While watering that night I began to think of how everything living needs a certain amount of water to live, regardless of how young or strong. Without it, it’s an almost certain death sentence.

 

I also thought of two extremes; how much rain we have received over the last year, and how little rain we have received over the last 60 days.

 

Think about this: To remain in good health physically, emotionally and spiritually you need to take care and provide for those areas continuously, and might I add for optimum results, you should care for them daily.

Much like my yard, it had received an abundance of water over the past twelve months, but the rain eventually came to a end. My plants needed to be watered and when they weren’t, they began to die.

 

The amount of rain we received last year mattered little in the current heat of September.

 

It is common to care for ourselves when there is a crisis, a breakdown or an emergency. Otherwise, we get busy, distracted or just lazy. Once we head down that path it’s not long before we wind up in trouble and have to nurse ourselves back to health, and like my hedges, we are usually left with some scars.

 

-We allow unhealthy relationships to go too far and the life is sucked out of us.

-We pile on unneeded debt and the payback suffocates us.

-We emotionally spend ourselves without putting something back.

-We allow our spirit to become stale and cold, becoming indifferent to the needs of others.

-We allow our schedule to limit our time with our spouses and kids.

-We allow unhealthy thinking, ideologies, hatred and indifference to creep in.

 

Been there. Done all that. Have the scars…and unfortunately, so do those around me that I love.

 

When you don’t care for you, you neglect you.

When you neglect you, it’s not long before others suffer.

 

Allow me to encourage you to make sure you are caring for….watering…yourself.

 

-Find healthy nurturing relationships with people who build you.

-Stop spending money you don’t have.

-Rest your mind. Turn off the social media machine. Get some exercise.

-Connect to or be faithful in your church…Sunday matters!

-Say “no” to stuff you want to schedule.

-Address wrong thinking, and indifference head-on.

 

Also, saying “NO” to some things will allow you to say “YES” to the bigger “YES!”

 

Doing these things will keep you well nourished…watered, and keep you alive, fresh and healthy…not crunchy!

 

“They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” Jeremiah 17:8

 

Praying for you! #WhatWeBelieveAtLifeChurchLouisville