Quantity time vs. quality time

Last week, I heard a Christian leader talk about the sudden death of his mother, which occurred less than a month ago and is still fresh on his heart. Losing his mother had been one of his biggest fears, he said, and it happened unexpectedly while he was out of the country, away from his family and totally alone in a gloomy hotel room. He said he sat alone and wept for hours until he found comfort in the reality that his mother, who had a relationship with Christ, was in heaven and was happier than ever. He still misses his mother, he said, but he has found refuge in the fact that his tears are out of his own suffering rather than his mother's.

As he told this story, my heart was softened to the point of understanding his pain. I've been fortunate enough not to have had to endure the loss of a parent or sibling yet, but it is something that I think about often. In fact, it has been my biggest fear all my life, like it was his, and something that has haunted me every time I miss a phone call or a face-to-face visit or e-mail or whatever. I am terrified that every time I talk to people that I love could be the last, but my reasons are different than what his seem to be.

Sure, I'm afraid I'd miss them. But it isn't just that. I'm afraid I'll have lost the opportunity to talk to people I love about Christ and make sure their hearts are where they need to be. Almost everyone I know at least claims to be a Christian, but how many of them are actually following Christ?

I ask the above question rhetorically and with no number in mind. I don't actually know. I'm pretty confident that most of my closest loved ones know Christ, but I've never actually brought it up, and I've always wanted to. I don't want to be 25 or 50 or even 90 percent sure that the people in my life have a personal relationship with Christ. I want to be 100 percent sure, and the only way to find out is to inquire.

But talking to people about their relationship with Christ sometimes feels a lot like interrogating them, so the whole idea of a conversation of that nature just completely intimidates me. I'm certainly not perfect and in no place to judge another's lifestyle, so how do I ask people if they KNOW that they know they're saved?

For about a year, God's been pressing Matthew 4:19 on my heart relentlessly. ("Follow me and I will make you fisher's of men.") The more I grow in my walk with Christ, the more I understand that I can't lean on my own understanding. As I depend on God more and myself less, He has begun to reveal the answers to me and remove my fears by reminding me that I'm not called to do it alone.

I've said all that to say this: Every year at Christmas, I pray that God would give me at least one more Christmas with my family. I've been praying that prayer for years, and it dawned on me as I heard this man preach about his mother's death, that no matter how many times I ask for it, there will never be enough years in all the world to satisfy me. It's not about quantity, it's about quality. So this year, I'm praying for better spent time, better quality time, with the people than I love rather than more time wasted.

God put it on my heart to use my time wisely (better quality) and to take advantage of holiday get-togethers this year to talk to my friends and family, to say--completely out of love--"Hey, where are you in your walk with Christ? How can I serve you? How can I pray for you?"

We don't have all the time in the world here to spend with those we care about, but if we rely on and follow Christ, we can have eternity later.

On that note, I've learned a few vital points this year that are worth sharing:

1. Found people find people

2. Saved people serve people

3. Growing people change

4. I can't do life alone

Anyway, it's Christmas week. The week Christ was born. What a beautiful reason to celebrate. Remind someone--or remind yourself--about the most amazing, powerful, expensive gift you have EVER received for Christmas, God's son, and celebrate like you believe it's true.

How can I serve you? How can I pray for you? How can I encourage you in your walk with Christ?

Wish you all safe travels and fond memories this holiday season, and remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas! :)

Remembering Christmas...

"Oh Holy Night" used to be my favorite Christmas song ever. When I was little--like still sending letters to the North Pole little--I would stop everything to hear this song during the Christmas season. I heard it tonight for the first time of this holiday season, and for a second, I remembered what it felt like to count down the days 'til Christmas and wonder if Santa would leave me a little something extra this year for being "extra nice." (And also hoping he'd forgive me for the several hundred fights I'd been in with my sister and for the times I told my little brother he was adopted).

The gifting was very exciting for me as a child, no doubt, but it really was more than that. The Christmas season was full of magic. There were a lot of times when it didn't feel like anything really "special" was going on in my life or in the lives of those around me, but during the Christmas season, everything was amazing and I was reminded of the special reason we have this holiday to begin with, and that He was around during all the not-so-special times too.

Businesses and individuals displayed beautiful Christmas trees, lights and Santa and sleigh scenes in the yard (I was a kid--don't judge me for enjoying that!), delicious once-a-year party foods were accessible (like fruit cake, which I realize I'm probably one of about 10 people in the entire world who actually love it!), people are nicer and despite all the hardship the rest of the year may have brought, all seems to be right at the end of the year when Christmas comes.

I was raised in a Christian home, so I always knew we celebrated Christmas as the birth of Christ and I think maybe that's why I liked the song "Oh Holy Night" so much. One of my favorite Christmas memories ever was when I was in elementary school and my older sister was going to be in a pageant. It was around Christmas, so after we went to the mall to look for her outfit, our mom and step dad took us to get happy meals from McDonald's and then took us to see Christmas lights. I don't remember why--maybe we were just at a traffic stand still--but we drove up to this nativity scene and sat there for a while and "Oh Holy Night" was playing and I had this happy meal and my heart had never been so full of joy in my life because it seemed like everything in the world was perfect at that moment, and after that, every time I heard the song, I could just picture Jesus in the manger, like in the nativity scene, and I imagined what a beautiful moment that must have been.

And even now, I think there's something very symbolic about the "Christmas magic" that spreads to everyone this time of year, but I also think there's something very intentional and beautiful about it. A savior was delivered to us when Christ was born. All was made right.

This year has been the hardest for me to get in the Christmas spirit. Every year, it seems to get more and more difficult, and as I thought about how much I missed feeling the "Christmas magic," I realized it's because as we get older and take on more responsiblities, we sometimes lose sight of why we do things in the first place. Now that I am an adult and I am responsible for buying presents as well as receiving them, my holiday has been filled with shopping and number crunching and party-planning and finger-crossing for a Christmas bonus. Not once have I looked at lights or sat and listened to Christmas carols or celebrated the true simplicity and beauty of what the holiday really means.

Tonight, I am reminded that Jesus truly is the reason for the season and my heart is beyond full of thankfulness for his birth and for his hand in my life. In the spirit of simple thanksgiving, I'm reminding myself of some of my favorite childhood traditions at Christmastime: drinking apple cider, looking at Christmas lights, eating fruitcake, watching the classics (Rudolph, Grinch, Frosty), singing carols, hearing the story of Jesus' birth and enjoying quality time with family that we can't seem to make time for in other seasons of the year.

Over the next couple of weeks, I hope I'll have a chance to cross a few of those things off my list this year and continue to seek the warmth and magic this season brought in years past. What is it that reminds you that this is Jesus' birthday party, not ours?

Merry Christmas season!

Treasure-mapping The Bible

I'd like to start today's post with a little game I like to call "recite that verse." The object is to--you guessed it!--recite verses of The Bible from memory. Shall we?

Annnnddd...GO!

-John 3:16

-Jeremiah 29:11

-Romans 8:28

-Phillipians 4:13

-Proverbs 3:5

...How'd you do? Chances are, you recognized at least one of those verses. And I don't think it's a coincidence.

Something dawned on me yesterday. I'm beginning to notice a trend in Christian behavior. Now, I haven't done a thorough investigation on the issue, and I'm certainly no scholar, but it seems to me that people like parts of the Bible that say positive things. In particular, positive things geared toward ourselves.

Biblegateway.com listed the 100 most read bible verses on their website, and each of the five above were within the Top 10.

I'm not saying we shouldn't like those verses. Christ died on a cross so our hope could be restored. That is certainly something to celebrate. We should be ecstatic that there is promise in our future.

BUT...

As much as we delight in His promises, we should tremble under His commands.

I've noticed that many of us (and I am including myself) only like to quote the good stuff. We like to read about healing when we're sick, about hope when we're hopeless, about faith when we're doubtful, about plans to prosper when we feel defeated...

And suddenly--it's the strangest phenomenon--when all is well, we forget to keep reading.

I wonder how many people read Proverbs 13:3 or Proverbs 20:19 before they spread juicy gossip, or Exodus 20:12 before they tell their parents where to shove it.

If I had to guess, I'd say the only people quoting those verses on their Facebooks are the ones who are the subject of those verses--as in, you ARE the one being gossiped about or you ARE the parent who is not being honored.

Cases of the offender quoting those verses are very rare, I bet.

There's a logical explanation for all of this: WE ARE SELFISH!

It's human nature. We were born sinful. The desires of our hearts are naturally wicked. That's why we love to remind ourselves of all the wonderful things in our future, but hate to be bothered with what we have to do to achieve those things.

But here's the deal: If you want the reward, you have to work for it.

God didn't call us to be complacent, self-righteous takers. He called us to be passionate, selfless givers. And the only way we can spread truth into the world is to KNOW the truth.

Christianity is not a self-serving religion. The rewards of being a Christian outweigh any gift you could give yourself, but that is a side note. Christianity is not about YOU. It's about HIM. It's about honoring the sacrifice that was made for us.

So read all of the beautiful, uplifting scripture. God intended on it to be in The Bible just as much as the rest of it. He loves us. He wants us to be overjoyed in His promises. He wants us to know that He has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. But he also wants us to know the rest of it.

The Bible is The Bible for a reason, in its entirety. God's offering warning and commands so that we may have knowledge to advance in His kingdom. We're foolish to only read the "good stuff" because we are missing the parts that tell us how to achieve it.

So don't just read a verse today. Read a paragraph. Better yet, read a page or two.

Test Him

In Malachi 3:10, God challenges us. He tells us to test Him and see if He doesn't throw open the flood gates of heaven. Although that particular verse is about tithing, I think it applies to every area of our lives. If we would turn "that" area of our lives (whatever "that" area is for you), He would blow our minds. The question is, are we going to let Him?

After reading this verse last week, I read a devotional story in which this statement was made: "Nobody asks to be tested unless they know they'll pass."

I was floored by how much was revealed to me through scripture and devotion that day.

Yesterday at church, a guest pastor preached on Joshua and his prayer to make the sun stand still. It got me thinking "do we realize that we serve the very same God who made the sun stand still?" If we do, how do we justify the box we keep Him in?

I don't know about you, but I've never prayed for something that HUGE. Sure, I've prayed for healing, I've prayed for other's salvation, and, in a sense, that's all the same as God making the sun stand still. But do you trust Him to do all the things you WISH you could do for Him?

Ask yourself, "what would I do if I knew I could not fail?"

Whatever your answer, that should be your sun stand still prayer to God. Test Him. Give Him a chance to do something so mighty nobody will be able to deny it was the work of God, even the non-believers.

I'm not talking about magic tricks here. Like, if you would sprout wings and fly across the earth if you knew you couldn't fail, I'm not quite sure how that would glorify God. But ask ANYTHING according to His will, and He will do it. So why don't you test Him?

Give Him a worthy challenge. Prove how mighty you believe He is by giving Him a challenge so big you will have to rely on Him because you couldn't possibly achieve it on your own.

Do you believe you serve the God who made the sun stand still? Then prove it.

"God is God, and God is good."

www.newspring.cc/stories/zacsmith.
Zac Smith has since passed away.
Thanks for the reminder that God is still good, even in hard times.

i'm the spoiled child

Today is the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year, and that fact, along with the perfect amount of chill in the air to start the month off right, has made me feel invincible today.

I absolutely LOVE fall! I love the colors, the events, the weather...in heaven, I'm gonna keep my thermostat set to "fall" all year long! :)

It isn't just about fall though. October is the beginning of the holiday season. I know some of you don't consider Halloween one of the "major holidays" (I do, by the way), but you're going to be side-swiped by the holidays in November and December if you don't start prepping for them now.

Trust me--it happens to me every year.

Anyway, we've been doing this series at church called "The Blessed Life," which I really had no interest in originally. Call me selfish, but I wanted something that was applicable to ME, and given that I'm new in the career world and make entry level pay, I didn't really think I was in a position to live the blessed life financially, which was the primary emphasis of the series.

Thankfully, I started leading a small group that, coincidentally, began meeting after church during this series. If our group wasn't meeting on Sundays, I can honestly say I probably would not have even given this series a chance because it's just so far from where I am. If I wasn't LEADING the group, I'd probably have just bailed on church and the group during this series. (Allow me to digress to say I highly recommend joining a group for accountability purposes if your church offers them, or if you know someone who does).

I wish I could go into all the ways this series opened my eyes, but I don't think you all have 4 days to read this blog continuously, so I'll save that for my next post.

I'll say this though. I had a huge eye-opener during this series. It was like God was telling me to stop complaining about things if I wasn't going to use the resources He'd given me to change things.

That might not make sense to you, since you probably don't quite know what I was "complaining" about in my prayers, so I'll explain it this way: In school, most of us were given text books. We also had class time in which we were able to take notes while someone who had devoted years to learning the stuff taught it to us. We had classmates who were better in certain subjects than we were, and, if we chose, we could study with them. But, come test day, if you never cracked a book, took a note, or studied at home, you couldn't just raise your hand and ask the teacher for all the answers. If you did that, they'd probably say you deserved to fail because you had not utilized any of the resources that had been given to you.

Now, do you see the analogy I'm going for here? God gives us so many resources--The Bible being the biggie. We also have pastors and sermons, fellow Christians, prayer....

Okay, so back to the story...

Actually, before I get back to the story, I should also add that I'm not really "broke." I mean, I am not where I want to be financially, but I complain too much for what I have. I live alone in a brand new 2-story apartment and, by the grace of God, I've been paying for it without ever missing a meal. Furthermore, I've paid rent, had food on the table, AND I've never had to turn down a friend for dinner or a movie...AND I haven't robbed God to do it (meaning, I've still tithed).

I don't say any of that to brag. Just the opposite, actually. I say it to express how much of a spoiled brat I can be sometimes. I don't think I'm alone in that (although I certainly won't call you a brat!) So, as I complain in the next sentence or two, don't take it to heart. I am not in danger of being thrown out on the streets. I'm just a prime example of one of God's "spoiled children.

Ok, now, back to business...

Long story short, I ask God often to take control of my finances. When He gives me some very direct blessings, like, say, this financial series at church, I try to blow it off. Thankfully, I wasn't able to this time for the reasons I mentioned above. Last week was the end of the series, and everyone had the opportunity to sign up for a financial learning class that would take place later that week and be taught by a professional financial counselor.

My church offers these occassionally, and I never go because I don't have money to save or invest or do any of the things I assume they talk about. This time, though, I felt that pressure again from God--that "use your resources or stop complaining" pressure. So, I signed up, and I went (and it was free, by the way).

As it turned out, the guy become a financial advisor after years of living the life I'm living now and finally saying he'd had enough. Surprisingly, he gave extremely applicable advice because he understood my/their situation. (It was a seminar, so I wasn't the only one there). Secondly, he was no longer in that situation, so he obviously knew something we didn't. Lastly, he said financial counseling was what God called him to do, so how can you argue with that?

I have some really important learning experiences to share that have come from "The Blessed Life" series and from the Financial Learning Experience, but that's all for another time. My point of saying all of that is to say this: if you want the reward, you have to do the work.

Don't ask God to bless you when you haven't used the resources to receive it.

Oh, and that whole thing about the holidays approaching earlier, that's a little warning for all you financially unhappy people like me. The financial counselor gave great advice on how NOT to go break financing the holidays. He said "Plan for them to happen every year." Who knew? :)

Happy weekend, and thanks for reading my terribly inconsistent posts!

Go fish!

I pretty much love South Carolina. Those of you who know me well can attest to the fact that I've been a diehard Clemson fan all my life, and that I own pretty much every piece of palm tree/crescent moon apparel that was ever stitched. I'm proud of my southern accent and southern hospitality, and I'd take an evening at Liberty Idol over a night in New York City any time. I have never lived outside of South Carolina, and if I never do, I'd be okay with that. Living in the south rocks.

Unfortunately, our ability to witness does not.

See, the problem with living in the "bible belt" is that everyone is a Christian--or at least they say they are. It's such a standard part of our upbringing that we can say "I believe in God," and most of us are never actually challenged to prove it. You live in the South, so you "were just raised that way."

When I was a kid, I went to church with my family pretty regularly. Over time, it got to be not-so-regularly. By the time I was in, say, middle school, it was never (with the exception of Easter). I still "believed in God," but I didn't feel that I needed to attend church to prove that.

Now, before I go any further, let me say that I still believe a person can be saved without being inside the walls of a church. I also believe a person can be UNsaved and spend their entire lives inside the church.

Anyway, I was out of church for a while. I wasn't reading The Bible regularly either. I still prayed sometimes...when I was desperate for something...but over all, I can't remember a single time that I ever pursued a relationship with Christ from about 10th grade until...well, about a year ago.

If you are a Christian and you've known me for at least a year, that should sting a little bit.

I am not saying that you or anyone else should have catered to my apathy. I don't believe in giving piggyback rides to salvation. Still, as Christians, we are called to be disciples, so how come so many of us go through life without ever having a hard conversation with someone that we KNOW is not following Christ? Why do we accept "I believe in God" as a salvation ticket when we know it isn't enough?

If you know someone who is not living a life that is reflective of what they say they believe, they probably don't really believe that. I can say that with authority because I've been there.

For me, it wasn't like I was saying "I believe in God" with my fingers crossed behind my back. I didn't feel like I was lying. I had been conditioned to say it and believe it. I just wasn't living it or understanding it. I guess I did believe there was a God, but so does satan.

Believing in God and having a relationship with God are not the same thing, and I did not have a relationship with God.

That has changed for me, for what it's worth, but that's not really the point. There is still a world full of apathetic Christians that aren't being reached.

Christ said "follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19)

That passage has been weighing heavily on my heart for months.

Am I following Christ? Am I fishing?

I am challenging myself to try harder and try longer. It's not always going to be easy. It may take more than one talk. But I'm going to try anyway.

So, of course, your prayers are always appreciated, but joining me on this mission would be more appropriate.

Who do you know that doesn't live for Christ? I'm sure you can think of someone.