None of us have to look too long or hard to find someone or something wanting to zap our energy, enthusiasm, and excitement. How about that crazy neighbor or annoying co-worker, they just always seem to know what buttons to push. Or maybe that nagging ache in your foot, from a broken toe years ago that never healed correctly. Being a caregiver for someone. An ongoing health issue that keeps you from living the life you once lived. It could be that you have bounced from one relationship to another, all of them ended poorly, and you begin to wonder if “Mr. Right” is even out there. Every time you take your car to the garage for routine maintenance the mechanic tells you that major service is needed on your engine. Let’s be real – life is a grind.  

Regardless of what it is that zaps your energy, enthusiasm and excitement, it is true that for most of us, we most often try to find our contentment from external circumstances rather than an inner attitude. In a nutshell, we look to the world for contentment rather than drawing it from God. 

A verse in Jeremiah speaks to this very thing. It talks of where we draw our water from. In Jeremiah 2:13 we read these words, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

Let me give some context for that verse. Water was a rare luxury in ancient days, and water from an underground spring, a never-ending source, was to be cherished. On the other hand, cisterns only hold rainwater. At best, they store stagnant water; and at worst, they are cracked and the water seeps back into the ground. So, the verse we just looked at tells us that the nation of Judah rejected God, they looked away from the “spring of living water” and by doing so they looked elsewhere for water (life), as this verse says, “they dug their own cisterns.” 

Isn’t that also true of us? We often look to a broken and leaky cistern to meet our daily needs, or in other words, to find sustenance, to find life. And if that one doesn’t work, we look for another broken and leaky cistern. And when that cistern runs dry, we move to the next one, on and on.

While the verse speaks of where to look for all that we need, it is also a verse that speaks of trust. It asks, “Do you trust God or look to the world to provide for all your needs?”

The next time someone or something threatens to steal your contentment, right then and there you have a choice – you can choose to draw from God’s well of living water or you can choose to draw from those other sources, those broken cisterns that have dirty water and so often run dry. When you find yourself in need of a drink, say, “Jesus, you are my source of living water and right now in this situation I come to You, asking You to fill me up,” allowing Him to quiet your spirit and calm your heart.

Read John 4:1-26 for an encounter Jesus has with a Samaritan woman at a well. This is his longest recorded conversation with one person in the New Testament. A religious teacher hanging out with a woman of dubious reputation, highly questionable (4:27). And a Jew talking to a Samaritan, also forbidden (4:7-9). Jesus crossed all kinds of boundaries to meet with this woman. He does the same for you and me today!

Remember, broken cisterns cannot hold water, they eventually run dry, so, today, draw from the spring of living water. Then repeat tomorrow, the next day, and every day after that!

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Have you ever wondered why technical drawings used in architecture and engineering are called blueprints? A process that was invented by a French chemist in the mid-1800s used a mix of chemicals to create a process to copy a drawing from one paper to another paper. The paper with the drawing was placed over a blank paper mixed with the chemicals. A reaction occurred that caused the black lines on the original paper to become white on the second paper and the background of the second paper to turn blue, thus the new drawing was called a blueprint. With the advance of technology, this antiquated chemical method was first replaced by a less expensive method that produced dark lines on a white background and later with drawings generated digitally by computer-aided design (CAD) and printed from large format printers or plotters.    

When we had our house built, imagine what would have happened if the builder didn’t go by the blueprints. What if they just went from memory? The bedroom might have ended up where the kitchen was supposed to be. The improper placement of a load-bearing wall would have jeopardized the structural integrity of the house by not properly distributing the weight down to the foundation. And when cutting a hole for an 8X8 sliding glass door, what if they didn’t actually use a tape measure, but instead just eyeballed the proper length, saying, “That’s close enough.” It would have been very difficult to properly install an 8-foot door in an opening that was six inches too narrow.

Failing to read the blueprints and guessing at board lengths would have disastrous results. Not only is it important to use the correct blueprints and measuring devices, it is also important to make sure that the equipment used is in good working order. What if the saw blade was dull or the laser level was not properly calibrated, well, once again, you can imagine the results?

We too are often judged (measured) by others, and often times also judge ourselves, using many measuring sticks, but most, if not all, of those measuring devices are calibrated incorrectly. Other people are simply not good tools by which to measure our own attitudes and behaviors.

Hebrews 4:12-13 tells us that the Bible is what we are to use to calibrate, measure, and judge our thoughts and attitudes. We read, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all of creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”    

If we allow ourselves to be measured by Scripture, we will always come up short, but in striving to reach that perfect biblical calibration, we will soon find ourselves becoming more like Jesus. Here is what we read in 2 Corinthians 3:18 – “But we Christians have no veil over our faces; we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him” (TLB).

Are you allowing the Word of God to judge the intents and thoughts of your heart? It is my prayer that you and I, through the power of the Holy Spirit, allow the “perfectly calibrated” and “perfectly measured” Word of God to be the blueprint and measuring stick from which we build our own lives.    

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When we moved back to Pennsylvania, the farmhouse we lived in for a few months had no office space, so I did most of my writing at the kitchen table. Every day as I wrote, one of our cats would very patiently wait for me to pet him. He just sat in the windowsill, in no hurry to go anywhere, simply waiting and waiting. When I got up, he got up, following me wherever I went. When I sat back down, back up into the windowsill he went. Just waiting. And to this day, when I sit at our kitchen island and write, he still waits for me to pause and pet him, sitting in the chair next to me, just purring, just waiting and waiting and waiting.

Anytime we walk toward our kitchen, both our cats run over and sit there and wait. Waiting for us to open the pantry and give them treats. They will just sit there and wait and wait and wait. I could learn a lot from the patient waiting of our two cats.

In 2016, the Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians in seven games to win baseball’s World Series, which ended the 108-year drought for the Cubbies. Not only did winning the Series end that long drought, it also put to rest one of the longest running superstitions in professional sports. According to legend, in 1945, Chicago’s Billy Goat Tavern owner William Sianis brought his beloved pet goat to Game 4 of the World Series at Wrigley Field. Because of the goat’s odor, he was asked to leave the ballpark, and upon exiting, allegedly shouted, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.” The Cubs, who were up two games at the time, ended up losing Game 4, going on to lose the best-of-seven series, four games to three, and thus, “The Curse of the Billy Goat” was born.

Cubs fans had waited and waited for a championship, and they were tired of waiting. I imagine many of them had given up waiting, thinking the Cubs were destined to never again win baseball’s highest prize. Regardless of what you have been waiting for, I think you will agree; we are not a society that waits very well.

For some of you, you too are in the midst of a long dry spell, and you wonder when it will end. Or maybe you have been praying for something for what seems like an eternity, but so far, no answer from God. Or at least not the answer you hope for.

Usually when we think of waiting, we think passive, sit back with feet propped up, and wait – “I will wait until it stops raining to go outside.” But waiting on God is anything but passive. In Psalm 27, David expresses that waiting on God involves trusting (vv.1-3), seeking (4-6), and praying (7-12). And the hopeful psalm ends like this – “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD” (13-14).

“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I hope” (Psalm 130:5).

So today, even if it seems like you have been waiting and waiting and waiting, maybe patiently, maybe not so patiently, know this: “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him” (Lamentations 3:25).

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We all know people who are unavailable and often unapproachable. You know, those people who are seemingly too busy or too distracted to listen to you. For many people, you need to get written onto their calendar, usually in pencil so it can be changed, months in advance, just to get a few minutes in the same room, or these days maybe video conferencing, with them.

My first academic advisor in college had office hours from six to seven in the morning, two days a week. And not just that, if I wanted to meet with him, I needed to make an appointment, by coming during those two hours he was in his office to schedule the meeting. There was no emailing or texting in those days. One time I finally got a few minutes with him, and entire time he was grading papers while I was talking. So, the message he seemed to send – I am really not too interested in meeting with you.

On the other hand, my college head football coach had an open door policy. Anytime Coach was in the office, his door was open, he was available, and no matter how busy he was, if I sat down in front of his desk, I had Coach’s undivided attention. I do not always get it right.

When someone wishes to talk to me, I try hard to be available and give them my undistracted attentiveness, but I am sure there have been times when I too, like my first academic advisor, appeared as if I was either too busy or not really interested in what they had to say.

While it is often hard to get people to listen to you, let alone give you what you might be asking for, we have a God who is always open for business. Early in His ministry, Jesus was on a hillside teaching those who came to taught, in what is called the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew Chapters 5-7. One of His many teachings that day was really an invitation to approach God with your needs. This went against the norm of that day; kings and rulers were not approachable without first being invited. In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says – “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.” 

If you are a savvy Christian, then you probably are thinking, “Oh no no no, that ask-seek-knock thing, it comes with a lot of caveats” Yes, while it is true that we do not get everything we ask for and we can abuse or distort that invitation to ask-seek-knock, the thrust of Jesus’ message is that we have a God who is approachable and responsive. And yes, our requests do need to be in alignment with “let your will be done,” but again, the thrust of what Jesus is saying is that we have a God that invites us to commune with Him. Jesus is sitting on the hillside teaching the rule, not the exceptions.  

The three verses that follow the ones I just referenced tell us – “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (vv.9-11).

So, today, take Jesus up on His invitation to ask, seek, and knock. God invites you into His office every time you come! He always has an open door policy. And in the midst of that interaction between you and your Heavenly Father, let Him work out what is and isn’t in His will. Based upon my experience, I have confidence that you and He can sort it out.   

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When I was growing up, the boys in our neighborhood used to try and catch each other’s shadows. We weren’t too successful. When you move, even just slightly, the shadow that is reflected onto the ground changes both in length and size. And if you stand completely still, your shadow will still constantly change as the sun’s position moves across the sky. The further away that the object creating the shadow is from the surface of projection, the larger the shadow. The length of a shadow is proportionate to the light source’s elevation angle.

Shadows and reflections are the opposite of one other – shadows are formed on a surface when an object blocks a light source whereas reflections are created when light bounces off a surface. Shadows are usually black in color and rarely beautiful, while reflections have rich color and are often vibrant. Think of your body’s dark shadow projected upon the ground in contrast to the beautiful reflection of trees cast upon a still pond’s glassy surface.  

No two shadows or reflections will ever stay the same; they are forever changing. Life is the same way; it is ever-changing, even if you stand still. In contrast to never-ending change in us and around us, we have a God who never changes. The theological word for this is immutable, which is defined as unchanging over time or unable to be changed. God Himself tells us that He does not change. In Malachi 3:6 we read, “I the LORD do not change.” We find these words in Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  

And in James 1:17 we are told, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

There is another image of shadows that brings great comfort; that being God’s protection – “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’” (Psalm 91:1-2). 

Those who call Jesus Lord and Savior, thus turning their faces toward God, have a spiritual blind spot removed. A blind spot created by sin. A blind spot that keeps separated from God. The apostle Paul describes this separation, this lack of understanding, as a veil over our hearts (2 Corinthians 3:12-15), but then he offers us good news – “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (3:16).

Furthermore, Paul goes on to offer this promise – “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (3:17-18).

Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, and the wisest man to ever live (1 Kings 3:1-15; 4:29-34) wrote this in Proverbs 27:19 – “As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the person.”

So, while you cannot avoid change, you can cling to and rest in the constant shadow of the ever-faithful, never-changing God; the same God who created you in His image, who loves you, and who wants nothing more than to be your rock and your protection as life shifts all around you. And the more we cling to God, the more He changes us, the more we begin to look like Him, and the more we reflect His perfect and beautiful image to the world around us!

God invites you, and he invites me, to draw near(er) to Him. . Whether for the first time, or as a recommittal, will you move toward God right now?

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When is the last time you said to yourself that you have too much – too much money, too much love, too much success, too much time, etc.? I am sure most of you have never said that, not even once. But on the contrary, many of us see ourselves as not having enough. You say if I only had more money, more friends, more time, more energy, more influence, more education, and maybe even more trust in God. You see yourself as not having enough. We limit what we do because we don’t think we have enough. We don’t think we have what it takes. We feel under-supplied, under-funded, and under-trained. We convince ourselves that we just don’t have enough.

As I continue to recover from a stroke, I have real thoughts as to whether or not I will have “enough” neurological capacity to do the things I still want to do in life. It is a reality that I am not able to function in some areas of my life at the level in which I did before my stroke. But it is also true that if I allowed myself to buy into my “not enough” feelings, those feelings could become excuses for not doing those things I want to do. And maybe worse yet, not fulfilling the plans and purposes God has for me.      

While the culture often tells us that we don’t have enough – isn’t that the underlying theme of most advertising – God, on the other hand, tells us that in and through Him, we will always have enough. You are probably familiar with a story found in all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) in which five loaves of bread and two fish feeds a very large crowd. We are told the people ate until they were satisfied, and that there were leftovers. This story, while it does involve a miracle performed by Jesus, more directly points to the source of the miracle more than the miracle itself – it points to Jesus as being both our source and our provider. 

There is a similar story found in the Old Testament in which the prophet Elijah has an interaction with a poor widow who barely has enough flour and oil to make bread for herself and her son. Elijah instructs this widow to make him a small loaf of bread and then to go home and make a meal for herself and her son, promising that the jar of flour would not be used up and the jug of oil won’t not run dry.  

This woman was probably very confused, worrying about the scarcity she sees, yet she went away and did as Elijah told her. The story tells us they all ate for many days (v.15). Pretty cool, right! Well, the story does not end there. Here is what we read in v.16 – “For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.”

Did you get that? There was flour and oil left over! What at first appeared to be not enough, then looked to be just enough, was in fact more than enough. 

(To read this story in entirety: 1 Kings 17:8-16.)

What does all this mean? It is about trust and obedience. This story is really nothing more than when you say, “I can’t do that,” God says, “Yes, you can!” It is about looking to God, through His Son Jesus, as your endless source and your faithful provider.

God wants you to offer everything you have, and everything you are, to Him, even if it is nothing more than a handful of flour or little jar of oil.

Where do you need God to make your not enough into more than enough? What He did for the widow He can do for you too! So, today, will you trust God’s promise of “more than enough” rather than your “not enough”? It starts just as it did for the widow… “And she went and did as Elijah said” (v.15).

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