The translation to the ‘Craziest Sign’ post from yesterday means “Please sit while…uhhhhhhh…doing your business.”

It’s German.

Somewhat of my translation to the translation, but you get what I mean.

This is the craziest sign I think I have seen yet. A friend has this on his Facebook page. Wow. I don’t know what it means, but it looks ummmmm……difficult.

Don’t try this at home.

As you have probably noticed, a lot of what I have written lately has been related to challenge, trial, testing, etc. I am in a season where my mettle is being tested and God is refining me.

Not easy at all, but God is near. Sometimes it seems like when you are stretched the most, God is the most present. I have been enjoying the nearness of God in the middle of challenge. As I was thinking about the dealings of God I had this thought:

If you are being tested like never before, then God wants to do with you, and take your life to a level where it has never been.

He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
Daniel 3:25

Do you find yourself in the burning crucible of testing and refinement?

Are you being challenged at a deeper level than ever before?

Though we may be in the middle of the firestorm, we don’t have to be afraid.

We don’t have to be reluctant or unsure because Jesus is with us.

We don’t have to fear the threats and intimidations of the Enemy of our souls.

In the classic story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace there appears a 4th man in the flames with them.

The King sees this and is amazed.

But I don’t think the 3 guys that were tossed into the blaze were shocked.

They already knew Jesus was there.

Because if you are going to dance in the fire, you have to know Jesus is on the dance floor too.

If you are one of the fiery furnaces of life, don’t get scared and stand on the wall.

Just dance.

Jesus is with you.

I was talking to a friend a couple of days ago about the pain of challenge and trial and the positve impact it can have on our lives.

After our conversation I settled on a quote that is a paraphrase of the dialogue (More his words than mine.):

Comfort and ease has never been and will never be the genesis of greatness. Greatness has always come through the crucible of adversity and trial.

Maybe the battle we find ourselves in is not a dead-end, but a launching pad.

‘Zyxt’ means ‘to see’. I got this word and definition from a guy I read about named Ammon Shea. Ammon read the entire Oxford Dictionary in one year (click for NPR story) and wrote a book about it entitled ‘Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages’.

When I happened across this story and read about his enthusiasm and persistence in his task I couldn’t help but think, “What if we had that same level of persistence and enthusiasm when it came to the Bible?”

Rather than learning obscure words and odd definitions, maybe we would get to know something about God that would challenge, change, and surprise us.

Maybe we would even get to know God.

Just maybe.

Has the thought of someone ever suddenly popped in your mind without warning? And when it did you thought, “I need to call them!”.

But time passed and you NEVER did?

Then some time later you found out that this person was in crisis and in desperate need of help around the same time that the thought came?

And words something like, “Man! I really should have called!” filled your brain?

Isn’t that a TERRIBLE feeling?

From here on out, let’s make the call instead of just thinking about it.

Someone’s future could be riding on that call.

“In the middle of the garden were the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Gen. 2:9

“A ravenous spirit can cause a man to do fearful things.”
-Anonymous

Have you ever felt out of gas? Depleted of energy? Drained and empty?

We have all been there.

And it one thing if it is physical, or even emotional fatigue, but when we are spiritually worn down we are in a very dangerous place. Because when our spiritual tank is on ‘E’, our body, mind, and soul are all effected.

I was thinking about the reality of these spirit hunger pangs, the cause and the remedy.

Like a doctor searching for a cure, I began to think about the complex conundrum that the human condition presents. I thought about my own experience and the experience of others.

But the cause and solution are simple:

Solution: Eat more.

We exist in a fallen world. In this world we deal with challenges, struggle, stress, relationships, sin, conflict, etc. These things literally drain the life out of us. They empty and wear us down.

In order to combat this ‘life-leak’ and drain, we have to regularly eat from the Tree of Life, though we are often tempted to fill the empty space with quick counterfeits. These false fruit trees can look good, but ultimately bring even more pain and spiritual thin-ness.

The Tree of Life Menu consists of:

Prayer
Bible-Reading
Worship
Gathering with other Christ Followers
Repentance and Confession
Forgiveness
Serving and Giving
Silence and Solitude
And more…..

If you are hungry, go and eat. There is enough for all us.

Quote from Seth Godin at SethGodin.com:

“A journalist asked me, ‘Most people have a better standard of living today than Louis XIV did in his day. So why are so many people unhappy?

What you have doesn’t make you unhappy.’ What you want does.”

Are you Happy or Unhappy?

On the long running show TV show ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’, there was an option for the contestant to call a friend.

This friend was to help them answer a question in which they were stuck. The success of their quest rested on the knowledge of the person on the other end on the line.

This got me thinking of how true that is in real life. Help is so often just a call away when we are in a tough place.

But too often we DON’T reach out.

We attempt to tackle everything on our own.

And in too many cases we suffer because of our adversion to vulnerability.

Maybe we should call our friends more often.

We’d be healthier people.

Over the past week or so, the entire athletic universe has been focused on the Olympic Games in Beijiing, China.

And at the center of that universe has been a U.S. swimmer by the name of Michael Phelps. This past weekend Phelps broke an Olympic record with 8 gold medals in a single Olympic competition.

I must say, I don’t follow swimming very closely. But Michael Phelps in a pool is a very bad man.

And it got me thinking:

What if we had the same focus, passion, and dedication in our pursuit of Jesus that Michael Phelps has for winning gold medals?

What would we look like?

What would the church look like?

What would the world look like?

I wonder if we will ever find out.