Sometimes Life Just Sucks

Sometimes life just sucks.

In the past two weeks:

• After getting off of work one night my wife and I realized someone had decided to kick in the doors of both of our vehicles, and my best friends brand new car too...
• While leaving the mall parking lot, my wife accidentally backed into a concrete barricade and smashed up the back corner of my Expedition...
• I love to roast my own coffee, and while roasting, I completely ignored the directions and melted down my roaster...it was a big flaming, burning plastic-y mess...
• My mom, who is in advancing stages of liver failure, had a significant bleeding issue and was rushed by life flight to an ICU ward two hours from her home and seven from mine...
• While at work, I painfully rolled my ankle not once, but three times in one day at work...

Sometimes, life just sucks...

In the past couple of months I have heard of:

• A number of couples in which one spouse has just decided that they are done and they want someone else...
• A young girl who ran away from home with an arguably shady and older man, and now is in foster care away from her parents...
• A family who just had the funeral for their 18 year old daughter who was taken from them by a drunk driver...
• A lady who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer...
• A church youth worker who has made significant advances on at least two girls in the youth group he was volunteering in...

Sometimes...life...just...sucks...

In John 10, Jesus says that He came those that follow Him might have life in abundance.

In the book of Job, we are told of a man named Job.  He was good.  He loved God, he did right by others, he followed God's law, he was an upright man.  Disturbingly we read how the adversary, the accuser (directly translated in English as Satan) comes before God, and God, for some untold reason, sends him to Job to test him.  What happens next is horrific; Job loses everything.  Now, when I say everything, I mean everything.  If you can think of anything that Job had before:

• Family
• Children
• Livestock
• Land
• Wealth
• Homes
• Wife
• Health
• Friends
• The shirt on his back...

...he lost it.  He lost it all!  So what is the conclusion of all of this in the book of Job?  Basically it is summed up that God can do whatever He likes, and who are we to question Him.

Seriously?

Is this the abundant life that Jesus was talking about?  I mean it's one thing to say God is God.  He is all powerful and all knowing and all everything and He really can do whatever He likes and we have no right whatsoever to question Him...that I get, but it's another thing altogether to call that abundant life, right?

Unless, of course, there's more to it than me being comfortable and feeling taken care of.

Like I've said before, Jesus' message was about so much more than where I end up when I die, Jesus' message had everything to do with who I am becoming in Him.  Another way to say that might be to say, God is far more concerned with my character than my comfort, and He will go to unimaginable lengths to ensure me every opportunity to have my character shaped into His...no matter how painful it may be...He loves me enough to let it hurt.

Every good parent knows this pain with their own children, if I try and save my daughters from all pain and discomfort and disease and relational drama in life, I will only end up destroying them.  They will become shallow and narcissistic and unempathetic and miserable.

Every good parent also knows that to allow drama and conflict and pain in the life of their child and choose not to shield them from all of it, is not the same as causing that same drama and conflict and pain.  It is simply a matter of choosing not to rescue our children from every negative thing in life...and so it goes with God.  Our Father, whom Jesus spent much time and energy trying to get us to see in the right light, is not the author of any kind of evil; the world manufactures plenty of that on its own.  Our Father simply chooses not to always shield us from the broken world that we ourselves have all to readily partaken in too many times.

Might it be then, that Jesus' abundant life has far less to do with the ordering and fixing of our circumstances, and everything to do with developing within us the character to handle absolutely any kind of circumstance?

What then is that character?  

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-Control

...otherwise known as the Fruit of the Spirit.  

This then is what it comes down to, would you rather have a genie-god who takes care of all of your problems in life, or would you rather follow Jesus into a life of reformed character where you can learn to have the Fruit of the Spirit in abundance no matter your circumstances?

Maybe then, life wouldn't have to suck after all...

Clearing Something Up

I feel the need to state something bluntly; whether or not you go to heaven when you die is not the point.

It's not what Jesus talked about.  His good news, the gospel, is not about how to get into heaven when you die.  It's not what those who wrote the various books of the bible talked about.  It simply is not the point.

For some reason, it is what many "christians" and "churches" have tried to make the point.  It's the infamous alter call, "If you were to die tonight, where would you go?"  Making getting to heaven and avoiding hell the point, is solely responsible for the salvation=free gift mentality that I wrote about in my last blog.  It is also responsible for the 77% of americans who claim to be christians (according to a December 2012 Gallup poll) while living in a decidedly un-christian nation.

How does that happen anyway?  How do so many claim to of the way of Jesus, and have the result be a nation that is marked by greed, and excess, and hate, and bigotry, and abuses of all varieties, and the list goes on?

In the 1960's, the number of americans claiming christianity was at 90%.  That's a fairly steep drop.  What is interesting is that of that nearly 40 million people, most of those have not abandoned religion in general, but instead have embraced the idea that all roads lead to heaven and it is shallow and small minded to claim that Jesus is the only way.

So let me state again, Jesus' point was never about how to get to heaven when you die.

But didn't Jesus say, "I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father accept through me."  

Yes, but notice what He did not say, "...No one gets into heaven accept through me."

When getting into heaven becomes the point, then I begin to look for the least exhaustive means of entry, the minimum requirement.  Jesus came to offer something different.  Jesus came to offer life; a certain kind of life that only the Father has to offer.  Jesus' good news is that God is eager to rescue all of humankind into this new kind of life.  Right now.  As we are.  Today.

So for Jesus to claim that He alone knows the Father but His desire is to make the introduction to all of humanity, then it is not exclusive, just a statement of what He alone has to offer.  He is offering God's kind of life.  If you want to know more about it, you've got to come to Him, on His terms, with the intent to learn.  He's the teacher.  He's the master.

His good news, His gospel, His message belongs to Him.  It's His.  He is the only one offering it.  You can look for life on your own, He won't stop you.  You can look to another teacher, another rabbi, another god, another master, He won't interfere, it just won't be His gospel.  

So the real question that should begin to form is not which of these roads, if not all of them, get us to heaven when we die; but instead, what kind of life today is Jesus offering that He is claiming no one else can?

Now this is where things begin to get exciting...

Why Salvation Is Not A Free Gift

Before we were married, my wife spent three months in Calcutta, India.  Located on the eastern side of the country at the northern point of the Bay of Bengal, it is a harsh and dirty and incredibly impoverished place.  Life expectancy is much lower than many places in the world and people live in a constant state of despair.  There is not much hope to be found in Calcutta.

This morning I was reading a news article on the large number of tourists who had traveled to Calangute, Goa, India to celebrate the Ganesh Chathurthi holidays.  Calangute, Goa is on the far western side of India on the Arabian Sea and is home to one of the most spectacular beaches in the world.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  The article was talking about how around a month ago, a large number of tourists, around 400, were swimming in a specified and well marked "no swim" zone.  The zone had been designated as such do to some very strong and dangerous rip tides.  The life guards on duty that day had been fighting the crowds, begging them to please come out of the zone.

400 people...well marked danger zone...what could possibly go wrong?

Sure enough, throughout the course of the day four different individuals began to shout for help as they were dragged out by the forceful rip tides.  The lifeguards immediately sprung into action and were able to rescue the four different individuals at great danger to themselves.

It was a day of extreme and ongoing stupidity, offset by strong and vigilant heroism.

The point the article failed to make, is that there was absolutely no mention of that due to stupidity of the large group, it would have served them right if the lifeguards had just allowed those four to drown.

It made no mention that the four did not deserve to be rescued from the rip tide, there was absolutely nothing they could do to earn the rescuing of the lifeguards, and it made no mention of the free gift of rescue that the lifeguards had given to those pathetically rebellious individuals.

It simply lauded them as heros, and I'm sure they were glad to have done it.  After all, it was why they were there on the beach that day, to rescue those who have no possible way of rescuing themselves.

Why then, when it comes to talking about God, do we go to places of extreme pain and poverty and abuse and even rampant death, like Calcutta, and share with them the "good news" that God is offering them the "free gift" of rescue, the "free gift" of salvation?

Why have we come to communicate to a lost and broken world that they are in dire need of rescuing, but they don't deserve it because they are horrible and terrible sinners and they have offended God.

No one ever asks the lifeguard if she was offended by the drowning person.

When you really think about it, it's kind of like asking the question, what does black taste like?

Or what does the moon think about the recent government shut down?

Or how deep is fire?

They don't have anything to do with one another.  One can analyze and philosophize and pontificate all they would like, and the two simply have nothing to do with one another.

When it comes to rescue, when it comes to salvation, the one who has the ability to rescue simply does not think about whether or not she should; she simply does.  

...unless, of course, that one who has the ability is not good.  Unless, of course, they cannot be trusted.

I offer to you that God is in fact good, that He can be trusted above all, that He is love.  I offer to you the picture that Jesus offered Jerusalem as He stood lamenting in sorrow over her:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

If ever there were a picture of an underserving city, this is it; and still Jesus' desire is to gather them to Himself like a hen gathers her chicks in protection, in safety, in rescue.

If we are to begin to trust, to have confidence in God with our very lives, this is the first thing that must begin to change in our thinking.  God's desire is to rescue you, even from the mess of a life you very well may have created for yourself, and certainly from the mess of a life that may have been thrust upon you.  

To think about God's desire to rescue you as a "free gift that you don't deserve" is like asking if paint is happy.

Do you deserve to be rescued?  Who cares!  That isn't the point!

His ability and desire to rescue are the point.

...we can worry about what went wrong later in order to avoid the rip tide again in the future.

Can God be trusted?

"Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it." - Winston Churchill

Over the last couple of years, Jess and I have been putting this quote to the test.  The wind blows a certain way in our little town, and gusts through our even littler churches (yes, pun intended).  Our intent wasn't to go against the wind, we simply were naive enough to believe that if you worked hard enough at it, you could actually redirect the wind.

Like I said, naive...

Nonetheless, we did rise.  Please don't misunderstand me here, I'm not talking about popularity or fame or wealth or status or power or any of these traditional measures; I am talking about rising in our understanding of who we are as children of God and active citizens of His Kingdom.  

We saw miracles, we saw relationships form and develop that we would have never imagined, we saw individuals draw together in passionate causes that I believe will never allow them to live "normal" lives again.  We saw God...we saw Him in His people.  

But we were blown around a bit too, and I suppose that it is simple common sense...for one who is not naive.

See, this is where we have risen against the wind as well.  Wind has a way of shaping the one's view of things who has the audacity to stand against it.

I am no longer naive.

Naivety is easily seen in the face of a child who leaps off of the edge of the dock into the waiting arms of her daddy.  Not a thought in the world as to whether or not those arms will actually catch her.  Whether those arms can actually catch her.  Simple trust radiating from the beaming smile as she just...leaps.

At some point in our growing up we begin to become aware of another thought, a foreign thought, a ridiculous thought to a 3 year old; what if daddy's arms aren't there?

This thought changes everything.  This thought opens up the realm of harm, of pain, of suffering, of fear, of motive, of intent, and so on.  It makes us long for the foregone days of naivety.  It makes us suffer because we know that once we have had this thought, we can never return.

Several months ago Jess and I chose to make another leap against the wind.  We packed up and moved away from our very busy, very involved, but very secure and meaningful life in our little town for a city.  We had many reasons, none of which made the move easy, but we knew that the wind had shifted and we could glide its currents indefinitely, or we could tack and rise again.

We chose to leap into the wind.  

It's amazing how powerful the wind can be.  It's amazing how it can seemingly buffet you from all directions at once.  It's amazing how painfully loud it can scream in your ears.

This leap has left us with a defining question, can God be trusted?

I have come to see this question as the single most defining question that any person must answer, whom will I trust?

I must trust someone, there is no other option.  There is no vacuum of faith as some would like to posit, the question is one of where you will place your faith, your confidence, your trust.  

Sadly, and naively, and sometimes rebelliously, many choose...me, myself, I.  "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

We must trust someone, we must follow someone, we will have a god...

The problem I have is that most everything is outside of my control.  If I am to be my own god, I make a pretty shitty one indeed.  I can't even make my dog come back to me when she decides to run away.  How then am I to trust myself for things that actually matter.

Jesus' good news, His gospel is that He can handle my life.  God, whom He called Daddy, actually has the power to live life as it was intended to be lived, and He offers that power to me, fully dependent on Him.

The question remains, can He be trusted?

My answer...what other option, of the myriad that exist, is a better one?

In"sin"ity

Albert Einstein is believed to have been the one who coined the phrase, "The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over while expecting a different result."

This presents a problem for the average human being do to the fact that we have an overwhelming reputation of being creatures of habit.  Doing the same things over and over again and wishing for a different result is what we do best.

- I wish I could have more money, so I apply for an increased limit on my credit card.

- I wish I could feel better about my health, so I watch shows like "The Biggest Loser".

- I wish I could feel loved, so I enter into yet another new relationship.

- I wish I could get more out of Sunday mornings, so I start attending a new church.

- I wish I could stop sinning in a certain way, so I zero in on that sin, read some good books on how to overcome said sin, and commit to a plan of eradicating it from my life.

These are only a few of example of the variously "insane" ways we approach our lives.

This is why I believe the church's approach to preaching a gospel centered on the forgiveness of our sins so we don't have to go to hell, leaves us with a very small view of God.  For many, the answer to this problem of a small view of God has been to try and magnify the problem of our sin so we can see just how badly we have offended God and how much more we truly deserve to be punished.  Just this week I listened to a sermon preached to pastors on how we need to be preaching more on sin so that people will begin to comprehend the weight of how badly they have offended the holy God of the universe.  When we live lives of continued and unrepentant sin, we invite the angry wrath of God which He is eager to dish out on those who have violated Him.

I see this as kind of reverse bullying.  This is our attempt to feel worse about ourselves so that we can have a better view of God.

The problem is...it simply doesn't work.

If I focus on how terrible I am, if I focus on how horrific my sin is, if I focus on how to eradicate sin from my life, than Who am I not focusing on?  Is this then merely a new form of self centeredness cloaked in the guise of trying to make God look bigger?

The other problem is that this truly does result in much insanity in my life.  Even if I do succeed at eradicating one sin from my life, I only discover another lurking beneath the first layer.  Often times the harder I work at this project of eradicating sin from my life, I later realize I have only embraced new sins to take the old's place; pride, contempt, judgment, anger, and the list goes on.

Certainly we cannot just accept the problem of sin in our lives, can we?  Sin truly is a damning cancer in the human being, isn't it?  Certainly I cannot just sit around waiting for God to fix me so I don't sin any longer, can I?  Wouldn't that be like sitting around watching a marathon of weight loss shows for a solid week only to be surprised on Friday evening that I haven't lost any weight?

Where then is hope?

In a word, the name, the person, Jesus.

Jesus never once called us to crucify our sins, He called us to crucify ourselves.  The problem with trying to take care of our sins by attempting to crucify them is so often we go on living the same lives, and the lives we live are sin manufacturing machines.  The depths we can sink to in finding new ways to violate and deny God know no limits.  Our hope then is not in trying to purify the well, our hope is in learning to draw living water from a new source, Jesus.  In fact we abandon the well all together and choose to plant ourselves next to the stream of living water.  When my focus stops being about cleaning up my own well and instead becomes about drinking deeply from His living waters, I find myself healed and whole and pure and righteous and holy, not because of what I have eradicated from my life, but instead by what, or Whom, I have embraced.

This is why I take such issue with any so-called gospel (good news) that begins with trying to make one feel terrible about themselves.  How good can this good news really be if it doesn't look good on its own? Besides, trying to feel more terrible about the depths of how I have violated God doesn't really accomplish anything but more guilt and condemnation.  

This is why Jesus' gospel of the availability of life in the Kingdom of God is such profoundly good news.  It is a life that is available to anyone and everyone no matter what their life may have looked like before, and the only requirement is that I give up that pointless pursuit of life lived on my own and embrace Him in all of His fullness and goodness and grace.

Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to not hold my sin against me, which is forgiveness.  

Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to empower me to live in a way that is glorifying to Him and good for me, which is grace.

Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to enter into deep and meaningful relationship with me, which is eternal life.

Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to do the hard work of transforming me into His image, which is sanctification.

Life in His Kingdom is one in which I trust Him to involve me in His good work throughout all of creation, which is mission.

Jesus truly is the way the truth and the life, the only one through whom we have access to the Father.  He really is the only pursuit worth pursuing.  I can stop the insane project of trying to stop sinning and instead put my effort into drinking deeply from HIs living waters.  Only then will I truly begin to understand how magnificent He is, and what joy that He desires me to live life with Him!  I call that some really good news...

Burning Baskets and Beds

I have always been prone to extremes.  It's something I work on daily.  Pendulum swings.  I'm a passionate kind of guy, I get really excited about things, I have a "jump in with both feet" kind of personality.  I don't see this as a bad quality, just one in need of tempering, balance.

I don't think I'm alone, though.

I think this is a very human kind of trait.  Specifically, a western world human trait.  Even more specifically an American human trait.  We like black and white.  We have a very difficult time with shades of grey.  We get very uneasy with the unknown and so jump to hard and fast assumptions in many areas of life (science, religion, relationships, politics, humanitarian efforts, etc.).

Their is One who called us to a very important extreme in this life though, His name was Jesus.

The extreme He called us to was with two very simple words, "Follow Me."  That's it.  Follow Him.

Interestingly enough we have jumped to all sorts of other extremes as to what He meant by this.  We have spent so much time hammering out and arguing over the meaning of "Follow Me" that for many of us we have failed to actually just do it.

In Matthew chapter 4 the bible begins to tell the story of the start of Jesus' ministry while here among us. We see that Jesus began to call followers, disciples, with those very words, "Follow Me..."  The picture that we get is that He must have been calling everyone that He came into contact with to follow Him, because their was this huge crowd that was doing just that.  In Matthew 5 we see Him address this large crowd of followers, disciples, and begin to share with them the benefits, the troubles, the joys, the pains of following Him.  At one point He says, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Then He immediately goes on to say, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.  You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

A candle under a basket is a bad idea in any one's book.  It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you don't but a flame under something flammable...unless you're looking for it to ignite.

Jesus adds to this in Mark 4 when He uses the analogy again, "And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light."  ...made manifest, to come to light.  What did He say again, "...you are the light of the world."

These sayings of Jesus are not just nice sayings.  He wasn't merely a wise sage whom we can listen to a saying and then sit back rubbing our chins saying, "Awww yes....very true, very true..." much like we might the sayings of Confucius or Ghandi.  When Jesus spoke, He intended for us to listen and then to actually act on what He said.  "Whoever hears these words of mine and then does them is like a man who built his house upon the rock...", "Why do you call me Lord and yet do not do what I say?", "Go into all the world and make disciples...teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you..."

When we take in the teachings of Jesus, and then argue over what He meant, or how He meant it, or how it does or does not apply to us today, rather than putting His teachings into practice in our lives; then we end up with burning baskets and beds.  When we don't apply Jesus' teachings in our lives in the manner for which they were intended (to bring light and love, and true morality and goodness, transformation of our inner character into His very likeness, to receive and extend forgiveness, and so much more...), then we end up destroying ourselves and others around us.  We end up burning down the house.



Now in the exercise of balance... there must be time spent learning Him in order to put His teachings into practice.  There is as much danger in running ahead of Jesus as there is in not following Him at all.  Peter proved this when he hacked the ear off of the high priest's servant.  Jesus also said, "My sheep know My voice..."  If we do not spend time learning Him, getting to know Him, listening to His voice, we will only start more crusades.  We will only take His name in vain.  But, merely learning of Him is not following Him.  We must hear and do.

Jesus had strong warnings for those who chose not to follow, "And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Mark 4)


So, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.  You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."  Amen.

The Trade

...time for a little confessing...

It's been a rough couple of months.

Do you ever have those times when you look at your life and say, "Seriously!  This too???"  I consider myself to be a pretty strong person, I rarely get rattled by life, I generally am able to keep a clear head through most situations and circumstances of life; but every once in a while I hear myself breathe that one word, "Seriously?"

It's been a rough couple of months and I have been trying to be strong for others around me.

It started with an unforseen and unexpected confrontation with some friends whom we loved (love) deeply, and suddenly the friendships were over.  My mind is still trying to wrap itself around what exactly happened.

A close friend of ours went suddenly missing and after much searching her body was found in the river.

Some individuals in our community have taken it upon themselves to expose me and our church as the preachers of a false gospel and purveyors of heresy that we are.  They do this in conversations, blogs, public withdrawals of community events and so on.

We are involved in a major project in our community for the youth that we believe God has been leading us in which suddenly has been hitting brick wall after brick wall...and God has been largely silent on the matter.

An incident which I assumed would just be a matter of clarification exploded in my face with another church in the area which we have a close working relationship with (...well, close relationships with period), that threatened to end the relationship.  Again, still trying to wrap my mind around that one...

We almost lost my mom in a particularly scary and gory reaction to a failing liver (genetic condition, not do to bad lifestyle choices on her part).  Through this we became aware of just how seriously her health is at risk right now.

We went for a family camping trip to just try and relax and regroup...and our dogs ran away.  I know, I know, they're dogs, but tell that to my sobbing daughter.   Another one of those "Seriously!?" moments. (We did find them a few days later, thank you Skip!)

Ok, I can hear some saying "Really?  That's it?"  I know, many people go through much worse things all of the time.  The death of loved ones, children; debillitating and costly illness; personal betrayals of infidelity in marriage; persecutions that could actually cost lives; physical and brutal attack in rapes, murders and assaults of many kinds.  Comparatively the last couple of months pale in comparison.

I think that has been my problem, comparing.

Over the last couple of months I have been evaluating every one of these circumstances as they come and saying to myself, "Well, it could be a lot worse, in fact a lot of people do have it a lot worse!"  Then I would buck myself up, dust myself off, and tell those around me, "God is good, He knows what is going on and He will turn all this for good.  I trust Him."  I have said that many times over the last couple of months.  I have meant it every time.  I believe it.  It is true.  I have also been using all of those sentences as weapons to beat back the sadness of the situations; weapons to beat back the frustrations of being misunderstood, misrepresented, and things not working out the ways in which I really thought they would; weapons to not allow myself to truly grieve and hurt over losses and wounds.

My wife calls it "internalizing".  I have been internalizing, stuffing things down deep that would like to rise up.  I have been refusing to acknowledge the reality of the last couple of months; choosing instead to claim a reality in which things are really not that bad; where things could be much, much worse and so do not deserve to be given place; choosing a reality where my emotions are my enemy.

In reality, to call it as it is, I have been running my own life.  I have been dealing with myself in the only way I know how, because God has bigger things to deal with.  I have not been trusting Him.  I have not been trusting my relationship with Him, that He just might not care about my comparisons to others "worse" problems.  This is sin.  Not the heavy guilt, condemnation, soul wrenching sense of worthlessness kind of sin; just sin at the core of what sin really is kind of sin, I have not been trusting God with my relatively (comparably) insignificant problems.

I think this is a pendulum swing that happens; I go from a place of desiring all that the world can offer (wealth, power, fame, success, sex, immediate and wanton gratification) to desiring all that is available in the Kingdom of God (knowing God, intimate relationship, love, forgiveness of sin, no guilt or condemnation, and so much more), that I become overwhelmed with the big picture of God and His interaction with the entire world and I lose perspective that I have been adopted as His son, and as such, I am intimately and specially known by God (I Cor. 8:3).

Peter sums it up this way in I Peter 5:6-7, "Be humble then, under God's mighty hand, that He may be the one to lift you up in due time, and give to Him all of your anxieties because He cares about You."

So then, this is the trade, I can continue in a form of pride to think that my day to day, comparably insignificant problems are of no concern to God and He should not be bothered with them; or I can humbly recognize that God is not only capable to handle all of life's circumstances and issues and problems, big or small, but that is exactly how He desires to interact with me, His son, because he loves me, He knows me intimately and specially, and He really and truly cares about me.

It's time to trade in my old thought for a new, it's time to repent, it's time to trust again.