The Intentional Life

  It’s inevitable. At some point in time, someone in your life is going to let you down.   Your expectation of what you thought they would say or do falls short and you are disappointed.   Someone you trusted is caught in a lie. A friend who is loyal is found to have broken your confidence. A family member who you held in high regard is shown to be deceitful.   I recently had an experience of finding out that a person I thought of as one of integrity was part of an aggressive, foolish act. It left me feeling deflated, a bit confused, and very disappointed. As I was sitting at a red light, fighting tears, I handed it to God. I asked Him what I was supposed to do with it.   And He reminded me of the life of Moses. I was prompted to dive a bit deeper and so I took a walk through the books of Exodus and Numbers. Time and time again Moses was disappointed by God’s chosen people, the Israelites. Either they were complaining, disobeying, or doubting. Moses ...

  We all describe our homes in different ways and we all have different goals for what we want our home to be to us. But, one thing we can all agree on, is that we want our home to feel safe.   On average, Americans spend $20.64 billion on home security systems every year. Clearly, we want our homes to feel secure and we're willing to shell out the money to make it that way. But while our homes may be physically safe, how safe are they spiritually? A century ago it was a lot simpler. You didn't let unknown people in your home, you could easily track which books, mail, or newspapers came in or out. You could turn off the one radio in your home if you didn't want your children to hear the news. Today it's a lot more complicated with phones, internet, and television. You can monitor it all, but things can still creep through. All of these ‘voices’ speaking into our family's lives can wreak spiritual warfare on all of us. So, while we have a handle on ou...

       A few years back we moved into a new home. It had a decent sized yard, so the first thing my husband wanted to do was start a garden. Unfortunately, the whole yard was grass. There was no previously cut spot of exposed dirt for a garden. We had to start from scratch. This involved cutting up the sod and tilling up the dirt. Many sweaty and exhausting hours later we finally had a rectangle of space for our garden! We planned out the rows, decided on what we wanted to plant, and put the seeds in the ground. Within a week or two, the sprouts started to appear. But, they weren’t the only ones. The grass wanted to take it’s space back. For a time, we let the grass go, mingling in with the newly sprouted seedlings. But the grass was more aggressive than the beans and peas and we couldn’t let it go any longer. We took to weeding, pulling out the grass and weeds at their roots. Unfortunately, because the weeds had become so prevalent, it was hard to pul...

  Heart. As Christ followers, our first response to any trial or difficulty should be to turn to Him. Seek Him is prayer and wait for His leading. When we see hard things around us, our first response should be to pray.   In this past year there have been events, on a global scale, that feel large and beyond anything we can impact. We may feel this is the time to step back, remind ourselves that we’re not of this world, and continue in prayer in our safe little corner.   True, we need to keep an eternal focus. This world isn’t our home, we’re only here for a time. But God’s not expecting us to just hold on and wait. He’s also called us to be His hands and feet.   His words from Isaiah 58, though originally written to the wayward family of Israel, can still speak into our lives today. The nation of Israel was going through the motions of their faith, meanwhile their hearts were not devoted to God. The following seven verses speak to the worship that God ...

    It was a random Wednesday night. My husband had of course fallen asleep in about 3 minutes and I was lying there, listening to his breathing, wishing I too could fall asleep that easily. As I lay there wishing, a sense of melancholy came over me. And, as is my nature, I follow that emotion and try to figure out where the root originated. And so, my mind began to think back through the day. As it did, I started to take note of everything I didn’t get done. I didn’t get the kitchen cleaned up and decluttered like I had wanted to. I did zero work on that book I dream of publishing some day. I made no sales in my online business. I didn’t get any exercise in. At my office job I did many things, but nothing that felt like it really made a difference in anyone’s world. Basically, I felt like I didn’t move the ball forward on anything.   I eventually fell asleep, somewhere in the middle of my rumination on my failures. And, with the unfinished business in my mi...