Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

Archives for August 2009

What Are You Waiting For?

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I read another great Denis Waitley quote this week: “We spend too much energy worrying about the things we want to do but can’t, instead of concentrating on doing things we can do but don’t.”  Are you so busy waiting to do something huge for Christ that you miss the little things you could be doing each day?  Do you get frustrated when looking at the accomplishments of other Christians as compared to how you perceive your own effectiveness?  It’s time we reevaluate our purpose and start seizing the opportunities that are all around us.

Fretting over the things we want to do but can’t wastes time in two ways.  First, any time spent worrying is of absolutely no avail.  Nothing about a situation changes when we worry; the only change that may occur is a negative change in your health.  Worrying causes stress, and stress is a silent destroyer of health.  Second, the time we spend thinking of those things we can’t do steals time from those things we could and should be doing.  The energy given to worrying about things we can’t do simply masks the common malady of procrastination.  We have no idea how much time we have left on this earth, but I guarantee you that none of us has enough time to procrastinate for even a moment.  Time is ticking away from each of us and we have limited time to accomplish all that we can.

There are so many things we could be doing but we don’t.  Why?  One reason is a fear of failure.  We know we are capable of doing something, but what if we fail?  What if someone laughs at us?  Do we really want to face the One we call Lord and tell Him we would have done so much more for Him but we were afraid someone would laugh at us?  One way to overcome the fear of doing something is by imagining yourself before God when He asks what you did for Him.  Will we be able to recite a list of actions we took?  Will we be able to tell Him of how we stared down our reluctance, abandoned our fear of embarrassment and just went for it?  How much better would this feel than having to hang our heads in shame over caring more about what someone else thought than what Christ would think?

Another reason we don’t seize every opportunity is because we are afraid we actually might succeed.  If we are successful, that is going to mean more responsibility, more time out of our schedule, more weight on our shoulders.  God will not give us more than we are able to handle, and He will help us carry any responsibility.  In fact, He’ll make what we’re carrying seem light as a feather.  The joy we feel from doing things for Christ will far outlast any burdens we may have to bear.

What are you not doing that you should be doing?  What are you afraid of?  Stop wasting time thinking of what you want to be doing and instead refocus that energy into things you can be doing.  Make a list of three things you can do for Christ this week… write it down!  Additionally, write down something you’ve not done simply because of your fear.  Now write down one step you will take this week to begin facing that fear, one step that will move you toward accomplishing that task.  When we focus our energy on those things we can be doing, we will find less and less time available to worry about those things we can’t.

Check Your Balance

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Let’s change.  Let’s do it now.  When we wake up tomorrow, let’s determine to stop wasting our time and effort and start living the life we desire to live.  Let’s stop seeking to serve ourselves and instead serve the one who gave His life for ours.  Let’s determine to fight every temptation and to embrace every opportunity to love and live in the manner Christ demonstrated for us.

To lead the life we desire requires balance.  Satan loves to use our weaknesses to knock us off course.  We need to identify those weaknesses and develop a plan to strengthen those areas of our life.  Some have problems staying focused when they’re tired, others when they’re hungry and others when they lack energy due to their physical conditioning.  If any of these apply to you, or whatever your weak spot might be, it is a simple choice to correct the problem.  Determine to go to bed at a time that will give you 7 or 8 hours of sleep each night.  Eat regular small, healthy meals.  Start walking 30 minutes per day.  As we start to feel in control of our lives, we will see more success in our spiritual life.

All of God’s creation demonstrates balance, and we are certainly no exception.  Once we have achieved balance we can fully and confidently focus on living a life modeled after Christ.  So where do you struggle?  Right now, write down your main area of weakness; if you have multiple areas of weakness, let’s tackle them one at a time.  Now that you’ve identified your weakness, the next step is to write out an action plan to overcome with that weakness.  Be specific; set milestones and goals to measure your progress.  Finally, execute the plan.  Each day you should review your plan and stick with it.  Remember, the whole goal of doing this is to lead a more effective life for Christ.  The wonderful side effect is that as we achieve better and better balance, we will find ourselves living measurably happier lives, lives pleasing to God!

How about you?  Are you willing to do what it takes to get your life in balance and start on the path of more closely following Christ?    We honor Him by restoring balance to our lives.  As our balance improves we will find a richer life waiting for us.  We will find more time to study His word, more time to love others and more time to bask in His peace.  It’s all about focus, and focus is the result of balance.  If you find yourself not living a life focused on Christ, check your balance.  Make corrections where necessary, and do it today.

Commitment

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Have you ever thought about the question, “How committed are you”?  We want to devote ourselves to a task, a goal, a dream and ultimately to serving Christ.  We say we are committed to doing so.  How do we measure that commitment?  How do we move it from an “it would be nice to be this way” to a “this is who I am”?

I submit that commitment is much like integrity; there are no degrees of either.  Just as a person either has integrity or doesn’t, a person is either committed or they aren’t; you can’t be partially committed.  To commit to something is to do it; to be committed to a cause is to throw your all into it.  You can’t be committed to run ten miles and quit at five.  That’s not commitment!  Marriage is a commitment.  For those who are married, what if we treated that relationship with the same “amount” of commitment that we give to other areas of our lives?  You see there’s no such thing as an “amount” of commitment.  Committing to something is to give your all, not your part.  It is closely intertwined with integrity in that what you say you will do, you do.

Now certainly if we commit to something that later proves to be a mistake, we should drop that commitment.  So if commitment means to always see it through, but it’s okay to abandon commitment when we’ve made a mistake, how do we know when it’s okay to not follow through?  That decision has to be guided by our overarching value system.  Does it align with the Kingdom mission of Christ, or worse yet, does it oppose that mission?  Let that always be your guiding principle.  Now the best idea would be to check your value system before ever making a commitment.  A commitment is a solemn vow; Jesus said to let our “yes be yes”.  Again this is the integrity issue.  If we are going to commit to something, we should be fully prepared and willing to see that commitment through to completion.  This principle will allow us to live a life according to the principles taught by Jesus.

How is your commitment to Christ?  Are you committed to following Him or are you just providing lip service?  If we claim to be committed and do not follow Him with all that we are, then we are liars and lack integrity.  To be seen as a liar and to lack integrity in our day to day lives is bad enough, but is that how we present ourselves to our Lord?  There is no such thing as being partially committed to Christ.  If we are to be committed we must throw ourselves into walking in His ways, and do so with true reckless abandon.  If we are committed to Christ, we must love everyone at all times; we must actively seek to help others, to show kindness in everything we do.  Failing does not disqualify our commitment; we often fail as we endeavor to fulfill commitments.  With each failure, we must quickly repent, dust ourselves off, get up and be about our committed purpose again.

Commit today to follow Christ.  Live your commitment by loving others, caring for their needs and giving all you have to pursue the mission of the Kingdom.  There is no half-way, no partial commitment if you should choose to follow Christ.  He demands it all; are we ready to commit to that demand?

Faith vs. Fear

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Denis Waitley said, “Success is a process that continues, not a status that you reach. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.”  I find this very applicable to the Christian life as well.  Living out our faith is a continual learning process.  We will never achieve a life lived perfectly.  While some might see that as a discouraging statement, I would say that if you do you are missing the point.  The whole point of the journey is not to arrive, but rather to walk, to strive, to live more like Jesus.

To be certain, we will fail, and we will fail often; but failure is a good thing!  Nothing has ever been accomplished without a good deal of failure preceding the accomplishment.  No one gets it right the first time, and every failure is simply an opportunity to learn something and be better for it.  Life is one long cycle of fall down, get up.  It’s our desire to get up over and over again that builds our character and strengthens our faith.  If we never fell, we would never need Christ.

Often we hold back from doing Kingdom work because we are afraid of failure.  The Bible says that if God is for us, who can be against us?  No matter what trial we face, God is bigger, stronger and more powerful.  What is there to fear?  Fear is evidence that Satan is alive and well, because it is he who whispers fear into our hearts.  We need to always press forward.  Life will come at us full force, but it is up to us to determine whether we simply will wait for it to hit us, or if we will rush headlong into whatever may come.

Life lived intentionally, a life where we race into the fray regardless of the outcome, is a life of adventure and excitement.  Living the Christian life in a purely reactive manner is not only ineffective but it is dull and ultimately life-less!  We need to engage our world, the people around us and those far away.  We need to demonstrate the love of Christ to everyone at all times.  When doing so results in our getting knocked down, we must have only one reaction:  get up and lean into life again; unbeaten, undeterred and unafraid.  Lean into life with the power of Christ and dare it to knock you down.  Faith and courage are built through enduring the storms.

What Might Have Been

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I believe when we die that we will have to give an account for all the things we did in our life.  That can be an appalling and dreadful thought, because my actions have most assuredly not always been good.  While the thought of this accounting can cause us to measure our words and be more thoughtful in our deeds, there is still the reality that we as human beings tend to mess up – a lot!  As daunting as the prospect of accounting for our deeds might seem, this week I have come across a thought that strikes deeper and causes even more discomfort for me:  what if each of us were forced to watch a movie of what our life COULD have been had we not wasted time and squandered opportunity?

The movie would contain scenes of the things we could have accomplished had we not been afraid or filled with self doubt, scenes of what we could have carried out if we had made the time instead of insisting we had no time.  I imagine scenes of wild achievements had we dared to pursue our dreams, magnificent performances for Christ had we only chosen to exercise our faith.  Think of the collective good we could achieve if all of us were to determine that our movie would be an empty reel of film, because we took every opportunity that presented itself and acted on it without fear.

The encouraging and horrifying fact about all this is that it is wholly within our power to write and direct this film.  It is up to each one of us to determine what we will accomplish in this life.  Will we choose a theme of selfishness, timidity, self-doubt and the like, or will we choose a life of significance, a life that leaves this world a far better place, a life of devotion to our Creator, King and Savior?  It is within our power; we have been granted the gift of freewill and can choose each day how we shall live.  Our choices combined with the power of Christ can have an impact beyond our imagination, if we will only choose to live without fear.

We must decide each day, each hour that we will no longer live in fear.  We will focus on the things we want to accomplish for Christ and for those around us.  When your life becomes consumed by service, your dreams will change to align with those of Jesus.  We will love at any cost; we will sacrifice at every opportunity.  It’s not that we don’t have time to live a life of significance, it’s that we do not choose to do so. It’s not that we’d rather be a spectator in life, it’s just we’re too lazy to get involved.

Begin today to envision the person you want to be tomorrow, next year and five years from now.  How do you want to impact the world?  How will you serve?  How will you love?  Write it all down, read it every day.  Choose to rewrite the movie of “could have been” to the story of “what we did”.  The choice is ours and ours alone.  No one will do this for you; but you can do it for the world and for the Kingdom.