Unsatisfied By Average

The Musings of a Stubborn Believer

Category: on the road (page 2 of 2)

Grace is Power…

February 19, 2011 / / 2 Comments
Just four young adults and a veteran Toyota Corolla sporting new snow tires… 
That was us a few weeks ago. The trip was originally planned for 6, but God had other ideas. 

It was a trip like none other. We sorely missed having our parents along, but even in that I see the hand of Providence. He wanted this trip to be different. and different it was.

Our world is changing. I mean, the world of 4 young people from the edge of nowhere who love to work together, pray together, play together, serve together, sing together… And cry on each other’s shoulders. 


We hear the tread of armies. Constantly.


And we see the gleams of a golden morning…

All at once we are noting in the world around us things that we’ve never perceived before. 

Some things that not that long ago had little or no influence on our personal lives are fast becoming our reasons for living.


I have no way to explain it, other than the fact that we’ve been captivated by Grace.

In all my years I cannot remember another time when the four of us have jumped into the car after a day on the slopes with young friends, pulled off our helmets (hair to the four winds) and had nothing to talk about all the way down the mountain but Jesus… 


He is so irresistible. And every time I turned around, I was looking into the face of another long-time friend and seeing the same thing written there. (for the first time)



I can’t remember another time when one moment, I could be speeding down an icy road on a sled, surrounded by shouts of laughter and high spirits, and the next moment be on my back looking up at the blue sky saying “My Jesus, I love You…” (And the next moment be speeding down the icy hill again.)

I have never seen so much of Jesus in His children… Everywhere I turned, I caught another glimpse of His face. 

Our world is changing…
Or maybe not.
Maybe we’re just tasting more of His grace… And He’s changing the things we love, and the things we live for. Maybe that’s why we don’t pray for happiness, but for usefulness. Why we gladly exchange fun times for the pursuit of His glory…



I never imagined that broken pieces could be this happy… 


Grace is power. 
What it touches, changes. 


Eternal Weight of Glory, serving You is joy unspeakable!
Please keep us in Your hand…







Australia

December 17, 2010 / / 7 Comments
Home. 
A strange mix of happy and sad I’ve never felt before…
Try loving, and praying, and preaching, and crying for souls… 
And being loved by them, and then saying goodbye knowing there’s a good chance you will never meet again on this side of the gates of pearl. 
Oh, I know.
I’ve done it before too. But this time was different. 
A part of me is still in Australia. 
And that part of me will never come home.
Maybe it was relinquishing claims to those hearts and hands 
to trust them to the grip of One infinitely stronger and wiser…
Or maybe it was just realizing how small I am…
Or maybe it was something else…
Whatever the case, it makes my heart burn for Heaven.
Oh, let’s be faithful dear friends…
I want to meet you on the other side.

Please…

November 2, 2010 / / 4 Comments
I have never heard anyone pray like that… 
He was a stranger to me, a seasoned gentleman of years. But his prayer sent chills up and down my spine. 
And it wasn’t because he chose words of special depth or gravity. A child would have prayed as such. It was the way he said one word: please.
I wish you had been there to hear it, because I hardly know how to make it graphically representative. We were praying together, just he and I and one other in a room full of Doctors all doing the same thing.
But when he asked for the Holy Spirit, he didn’t ask like we normally do.   
He begged as though his heart would break. As though he would die without it… 
“Please– 
Pleeeeeeease…”

I stand not as a judge of the hearts of men, but if I have ever been sure of anything, I am sure of this: If anybody gets the Holy Spirit, he will. 
“If you will find time and voice to pray, God will find time and voice to answer.”

Happiness

August 9, 2010 / / 0 Comments
Isaiah 65
Once again the click of black dress shoes on the floor breaks the silence in my office just before midnight. 
Once again the bag goes on the floor, the Blackberry on the desk, and the boarding passes folded in my coat pocket go in the wire trash can in the corner. All is well… 
And once again I first drift off to sleep, and then wake up again, exceedingly happy… 
Because I have seen salvation come… 
I have watched cheeks first pale, then glow. 
I have watched empty eyes fill with tears of hope. 
I have watched faces turn to the sun like flowers on a spring morning.
Ahh yes, this is happiness.
And the fact that it is my happiness, is a gift of grace undeserved…
“Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart…” Isaiah 65:14
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil… [Jn. 17]

Poured Out

July 18, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Isaiah 42-43
Sometimes the flickering of hope is oh, so faint… Let me never carelessly neglect it, or ruthlessly snuff it out…
“A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” Isaiah 42:3
Wow, what a weekend… Once again, hundreds of people to love, and new burdens to lift before the throne of Merciful Father. The Spirit has certainly been here, and I for one am determined more than ever to live the poured-out life…
After all, though we be few, we are called and chosen.
“Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” (Isa. 43:10)

So Little Time

July 18, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Isaiah 40
“So much to do, so little time…”
That phrase, and others like it, must circle the globe 1,000 times a day.
I feel it, especially this morning. But there’s something about looking out the window to my right and seeing planet earth 5 miles down that shifts my perspective on the subject…
Right here it’s just me and my little iPad, and a long to-do list sitting on a plane on the way to Missouri. Out there, I have a very big God.
Aren’t you glad we can rely on a Power outside of ourselves?
“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:28-31

Thanks guys…

April 16, 2010 / / 3 Comments
To some of the highest quality young people I ever hope to rub shoulders with, 
Thank You. 
I can’t say it was my idea to roll credits, anchor the meetings, or stream a game of freeze tag live… Nor could I have pulled it all off if I had thought of it. 
But you did. 
Love you guys…

With My Whole Heart…

January 19, 2010 / / 3 Comments
“The faces of men and women who walk and work with God express the peace of heaven.
They are surrounded with the atmosphere of heaven.
For these souls, the kingdom of God has begun.
They have Christ’s joy, the joy of being a blessing to humanity.”
Just one more reason…
One more reason to give my whole heart.

Here’s to all my friends from the Northeast Youth Retreat–
Your hearts and lives are forever bound with my prayers. My heart is with you, because your victory, your success, your confidence and your happiness, are my treasures.
And where one’s treasure is, there one’s heart is also.
Let’s pray for each other on the 17th.
—————————-

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