Running on Empty

I think it is pretty safe to say that you are like me. No, I'm not saying that you are bald and growing a beard. What I am assuming is that you are like me because you are busy. Life gets pretty crazy with all of the stuff that we are doing, especially this time of the year as we celebrate the holidays by doing even more than we usually do. We don't have to work very hard at filling up our calendar, often times it fills itself up with all sorts of activities, games, meetings, events, gatherings, projects, etc. On the rare day/night that we don't have anything going on, we tend to either fill it up with things we have been meaning to do but haven't gotten around to or perhaps we plop down and veg out. At least that's what I do, between all of the things filling up my schedule, I tend to do a lot of nothing.

With all of that, I have come to realize that lately I have had to make time for God. I am doing it backwards! I shouldn't be making time for God, I should be taking time with God. It sounds pretty similar but really is quite different.

Remember when you were a teenager and the last thing you wanted to spend money on was gas for your car or you simply just didn't have very much money for gas? So what happened? If you were like me, you would put $5 - $10 in the tank (back when that would get you close to 5-10 gallons) and that would last you a few days. The problem was, you would be back at the gas station every couple of days getting gas again. As a teenager you didn't really think about or even care that you would also get less mileage out of the gas you were buying. A car gets better mileage when the gas tank is full.

We often have the same mentality with our spiritual life. We get just enough of God to get us through the next thing. But, I don't want to get just little bits of God that get me through the next thing, instead I want to be filled up. Like my gas mileage, my heart improves when I am filled up. Going through life with the needle constantly hovering around "E" is not what God wants or offers. He offers so much more. If you had the opportunity to have a gas card that had never ending money on it, wouldn't you fill up every time you went to the gas station? You also probably wouldn't wait until you were empty to get more. We have that opportunity with God but we have to stop making time for God and instead, take time with God.

We're #107

Can't you just hear the chants now? "We're number one hundred and seven, we're number one hundred and seven". Ok, so it doesn't really flow all that well and isn't what we typically strive for but that is where we find ourselves. No, I'm not talking about my favorite college football team's defensive ranking, I'm talking about where my wife and I find ourselves on the adoption waiting list with our agency.

Last week we officially finished the paperwork phase of the process when our Dossier was reviewed and deemed to be complete. That act placed us on the waiting list for a boy between 0 and 12 months from Ethiopia. Even though the process of getting to this point wasn't exactly easy (or cheap) it was easy compared to what lies ahead....waiting. We now are faced with the long process of watching our number decrease over the next months and potentially years.

Neither my wife nor I are very patient with waiting, once we know we want or need something, we tend to go for it. So we know that God will use this as a teaching moment for us and we will look to grow through this process. We also know that God already knows the little boy that he has for us and He will bring Him to us in His time. Please join us in praying for this little boy (we are naming him Malachi) as well as for his parents and for us. Even though he probably hasn't been born yet, we love him and are excited to add him to our family.

Help a Brother Out

Have you ever held your arms up for an extended period of time? What if you had to hold your arms up as long as you could, how long would that be? The first few minutes are pretty easy but what about five minutes or ten minutes? Maybe if it was really important you could muster enough strength and determination to do fifteen minutes. Most of us couldn't do more than that without some help.

A few thousand years ago, Moses (you know, the guy who as a baby was placed in a basket and found by the Pharaoh's daughter) was given just such a challenge. Joshua was leading the Israelites to war against the Amalekites and as long as Moses kept his arms up, the Israelites were winning. When he dropped his arms, the Amalekites would start to take control. Fortunately for Moses and the Israelites, he had his brother and another guy there to help keep his arms up and the Israelites ended up winning the war.

Moses needed help if the Israelites were going to be victorious and we need help too. My tendency is do things on my own, depend on myself, not ask for help even when I need it. That mindset leads to fatigue, isolation, and mistakes. It is also poor leadership and a poor example. I don't think I am alone in this tendency however.

What about you, do you allow people to help you? Let me put it this way, who knows when you are struggling? Or how about this, are you someone that other people seek help from? God did not design us to be alone. First and foremost He wants us to have relationship with Him and next he wants us to be in relationship with others. If nobody knows when you are struggling and/or you don't know when others are struggling, there is a problem.

Stop holding your arms up by yourself, get support from others and be a support to others, we can only hold our arms up for a few minutes without help.