January 29, 2012

Living the simple amid the difficult is something that can be mastered, but it takes courage, stamina, and faith that the simple message of Jesus is true.  Courage and stamina carry us a long way but the faith to believe Jesus’ simple message puts the icing on the cake – it allows us to have an outward focus and inward peace.

The simple message of Jesus is summed up by Jesus in a Simple Melody… John 15:12, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” And God has loved us through forgiveness, mercy, beauty, compassion, kindness, patience, and peace. It is our charge to go and do likewise.

Peace

Jim

January 28, 2012

Went to look at the river today and found out that TVA had just dropped the flow rate to something wadable.  Since I had my fishing stuff along I got to fish for an hour or so.

I didn’t even get a bite…but it was fun.

All in all…it was a simple day.

Jim

January 27, 2012

I said Sunday morning that sometimes I think I think too much.  That can be good or bad, I suppose, depending on what we’re thinking about.  If we’re thinking about fishing – which I have been doing for the last few days – it’s not so bad.  But if we’re thinking about how to order every single moment of our life, then, maybe we’re thinking too much.

I read a good quote today.  It says:

“Don’t think too much, you’ll create a problem that wasn’t there in the first place.”

A friend posted that on facebook and I found it more serious than one would think.  Sometimes we create problems trying to think through something that would better be left in God’s hands.  I’ve been guilty of that more times than I can count.  I’m learning though, and getting better at listening for Jesus throughout each day.

Peace

Jim

January 26, 2012

In music, the simple melody often expresses feelings much better than complicated ones.  If the music is too busy it can cover up a simple melody, it can distract from the beauty.  The problem is that a lot of folks ignore the simple chalking it off as immature or untrained, maybe even uninformed.  Even the artists’ often believe they must use all of their knowledge in the same song.  The result is that the listener often becomes confused.

In the Christian life, the simple expression of love works the same way.  If life is too busy the simple message of love is covered up by all of the noise of busy-ness which distracts from the beauty.  And people who look on often ignore the message being lived because the message and the life don’t match.  The result is that the one looking on becomes confused and looks other places for peace.

The challenge for us who want to follow Jesus is to find a way to express what we know in simple terms.  We don’t do that because we don’t understand complicated thoughts and principles, actually it’s the opposite.  Because we understand those complicated things, because we’ve lived those complicated things, we are much better at presenting them in simple ways.

In music, the simple melody has more clout once the performer has proved him or herself in the difficult.  Life works the same way.  The simple message of God’s love seems to have more clout once the one offering the message has proved him or herself in the difficult.

Think about that…

Jim

January 25, 2012

Very often in the lives of people there comes a time when we try to make something difficult out of something simple.  It just often seems that if it’s too simple we find ways to weave in difficulty.  This is true especially spiritually.

I look to Jesus and see him faced with questions and comments from people trying to make following him difficult…Jesus simply said:

 ”Love each other as I have loved you.”  John 15:12.

If we allow our mind to become too cluttered with difficult thoughts and ideas…find a way to remember that the simple can express everything from beauty to understanding much better than the difficult.

Peace

Jim

January evening…

 

January 23, 2012

My devotions this morning, and everything else I’ve read today, sent my mind scampering all over the place as I thought about God and God’s ability not to be grasped and pulled down to my lofty ideas of who God is.

That may sound a little strange but not really.  Just as God refused to be confined in the mind of thinkers in Biblical days, God still refuses to be confined in the minds of thinkers today.  And we thinkers often, usually unknowingly, try to pin God down to how we understand him.  In all reality pinning God down to our thinking is a lesson in futility.

Anyway, as my mind was running all over the place, as my mind was trying to capture God’s presence…in the quiet of the morning what came to my mind were words of the Psalmist whose mind was pretty much in the same place mine was this morning:

“Be still and know that I am God…”
Psalm 46:10

Ever feel reprimanded by God?

There are times when the highest views of God are brought down to the simplicity of God.  Since most of our God encounters are found in everyday life, God seems to suggest that we look for him there.

Peace

Jim

January 22, 2011

A window frame view of the world not only limits our spiritual growth but it also limits our creative side.

God could be creeping in from any angle and we would never know because we can be too focused on this very small corridor of time and space.

Choose to go to that window, stick your head outside and take in everything…That is the difference that God wants to make in our life.

Choose to allow the freedom God gives to take us deeper in our faith through a more complete understanding of God’s grace.

Peace

Jim

January 21, 2012

Woke up this morning about 3 A.M. with thunder and lightning, and rain POURING down.  Sitting in the living room at daylight watching the water flow through the yard.  Haven’t seen that much rain in a while.

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I was reminded this week about the way God extends his love to people through other people.  We often look for God and complain when we don’t feel him close.  And all the while time after time God comes to us through people who offer love through various means.  But if our view of God is limited to what we think God personally does through miracles or divine intervention, we largely miss the ordinary ways God reaches out to us.

Continue (or begin) to look for God through the ordinary.  Miracles or divine intervention don’t seem to be the norm in most of our lives.  Listen to the urging of the Holy Spirit within us and watch for God’s movement through his disciples.

Peace

Jim

Red birds and winter

 

Cardinals and winter time just go together…

What we think about when we have little to think about is sort of funny.  When I began to live on my own I was 17.  And the thing that sticks with me the most about moving out on my own was that my mother gave me an iron.

Yep, an iron.

By choice, I still iron my clothes.

The other thing I remember is that my grandmother taught me how to darn socks.

Yep, darn socks.

I still darn socks when they get holes in them… not really because I have to but because it’s a lost art and it reminds me of my grandmother.  I have gotten pretty good at it over the years, I can now darn a hole in the toe (or the heel) without a big lump where the hole was (If you’ve ever worn socks that have been darned you know what I’m talking about).

 

It’s funny sometimes what makes us sentimental…

Jim