Tag / God stories

by Greg

Marveling

I was listening to a podcast from NASA the other day that described a recent photo session from a satellite in a synchronous orbit around the sun, 1 million miles behind the earth. They had captured the moon passing in front of the sun, except, since it was 1,000,000 miles away, the moon was a lot smaller, and did not cover the entire disc of the sun as it does from Earth.

As they were talking, I looked up at the sun, not far above the horizon in the early hours of the morning, and I thought that it is so cool that the sun being 93 million miles away and the moon being a lot closer (don’t remember that distance!) look about the same in our sky. That was a pretty cool plan by the Planner. 🙂

We were just talking not long ago also about how cool just the moon is. How it’s cycles are so regular (people used to plan around the lunar month) and how neat it is that moon always faces the same way? Doesn’t it? It doesn’t rotate. Does it? I’m not putting a lot of research into this… just taking a moment to marvel at the universe God has created. The precision of all of the elements within it working together, and this is the “fallen” state. Romans says creation “groans” to also be set free.

It’s a pretty amazing world. Just wanted to share some of my recent marveling.

by Greg

Why Do We Love?

I went for my morning walk today, despite the couple inches of snow on the ground from a persistent late-winter blanketing we are getting this week. (AND I AM LOVING!) 🙂 I was up pretty early to help Julia and then just decided to head out for a nice brisk walk with my iPod shuffle to keep me company.

About half-way through the first part of my walk (I walk 1.3 miles east, and then turn around and walk the 1.3 miles back home for a total of 2.6 miles…) I was just enjoying the podcast I was listening to when I noticed an older lady shoveling her driveway. It’s been warmer the past couple days (even though it was snowing) so I knew that snow was heavy for her! When I got closer, I noticed she was even older than I thought, so I stopped my iPod, and said, “Good morning!”

She looked up and smiled at me, and returned my greeting. I said, “Can I help you with that?” pointing to her shovel and the snow-filled drive-way. She sort of laughed and said, “No, no… I’m fine. I just do this for my neighbor.”

(At that point, I was very impressed…) 🙂

We talked a bit more about our neighborhood, the weather, and shoveling snow. I asked her once more if I could help, saying, “I’m out here to excercise, so I’d be glad to do it!” But she refused again with a smile, and so I said good-bye and continued on.

The rest of the walk was filled with a few more out-of-the-ordinary events – including a visit with an old friend, and giving directions to someone who was lost. But what I wanted to write about here were the thoughts that circled about my head and heart during the moments following my brief encounter with my nice elderly neighbor.

Why did I stop to help her? Was it so I could invite her to my church? (HA!) 🙂 Was it so I could just tell her that God loves her? Was it simply to show her that God loves her? How about just because I should? Or maybe because I know Jesus did so much for me, so I should do that for him, and for others? Was it guilt-induced, or an obligation (to God) or even due to an expectation that I or others have put on myself to “do the right” thing as a Christian?

Nope. 🙂

As I was walking away, I realized that I had absolutely no agenda, or any other reason for helping that lady other than I could, and it was a nice thing to do. 🙂 That’s it. I didn’t want anything from her, or of her. I was not meeting anyone’s expectations (including my own)… I wasn’t repaying some cosmic debt I owe to Jesus for “all that he has done for me”. I was just loving her. Just to love. Just to be nice.

It’s nice to be nice says Pig Will. (long story…)

So what I ended up thinking was (and perhaps this was prompted by Holy Spirit, perhaps not) are we able to love in proportion to how much we know we are loved? If we really get how much God loves us, how much we mean to him… are we then all the more free to just love people as our Father loves us? Not necessarily because (read: post-facto) he loves us… but more “in the same way as” he loves us.

I really don’t have any conclusions on this… those were just my thoughts. I would really love to hear yours on this…

Do we love other people in proportion to how much we know we are loved?

by Greg

More Than Jesus

“If it’s about something less than him, we can fragment on anything.”

Last night I was listening to a podcast we listen to regularly, and this week’s episode just resonated with me more than I can say. The show covers all sorts of things… it’s just a weekly conversation between two guys trying to live life with God outside of any boxes we can create. This week, I believe the topic was picked from when one of the guys made a trip back to his Christian college alma mater. Many of the people there were living life with Jesus completely differently from how he currently is, or would ever want to – and still there was unity. There was commonness. There was togetherness.

The guys got talking about how if we just share Jesus, we can live together in harmony. When we make it about anything less (they meant that obviously anything in the universe is “less” than Jesus, so if we make our bond, or our unity about anything other than Jesus) then we will inevitably fragment. We’ll argue about music style, or carpet color, or what we call ourselves, or any number of silly things. We’ll even argue about what we call “truth”. But truth is a Person. Not a list of doctrines. So even THAT can get in the way of our unity – of us being a family.

I could not agree more.

Probably more than 10 years ago now, I had just begun working for a tiny “church” here in upstate NY and, being the idealist that I (still) am, I would engage the current “senior pastor” and my fellow fledgling “minister” in long discussions about the nature of what we were trying to accomplish as the Church of Christ at Victor. And when I would boil it all down, I came to the conclusion that nothing that we currently did together – none of the very helpful programs, or even the weekly worship services – were essential to us being the Church. We simple are the Church. Nothing really can change that, unless we choose to leave the Church.

And I don’t mean to put our behinds somewhere else on a Sunday morning.

God’s plan from before creation was to adopt us into his family, as his children. That is what he offers to us. Anyone who accepts his offer is now part of his family – which is The Church. His Body, of which he is the head. His body is not just some small group of people meeting across the street from another small group of people calling themselves his body also… it’s the whole of both of those groups, plus the other three groups meeting just up the street. We in America (not always, but quite often) base our “fellowship” or our connection with believers on the extra name we bear. Not that of an adopted member of God’s family… but that of our local congregation. In many ways, being a member of “First Church of the Resurrection” is more important to us than being a son or daughter of God!

Or at least, that’s the way it would appear.

One of the podcast guys told a great story about one of his instructors (I believe that’s who it was) at his college, who has since been a life-long friend. He had a falling out with the school when he left, and the bitterness continued in him for a time after that. His friend was taking communion one day and as he was holding the bread, looking at it, he saw through the bread – like a door – and on the other side was Jesus, standing there with his arm around one of the people from the school who had hurt him the most. His reaction was, “No, Jesus! You can’t do that! He’s the one who hurt me!” And Jesus’ response was, “I’m not going to stop being this guy’s friend to be your friend.”

How cool is that? Jesus does not take sides (he shows no favorites). He loves us all the same, even when we don’t or can’t. It doesn’t matter how we “do church” or where we “go to church” or anything EXTRA. All that matters is that we are his brothers, that we are all adopted sons and daughters of the same Father.

We don’t have to pretend… we just are. I know, brothers don’t always get along. Just yesterday, Alex came out from the other room to where I was and told me that Ian wasn’t his brother anymore. After stifling a little laugh, I asked, “Well what do you mean?” He told me the “horrible” thing Ian did, and said, “So he’s not my brother anymore.” I smiled at him, and hugged him and said, “You know, that’s never going to change. No matter what either of you do, you’ll always be brothers. That’s just the way it is. So what you have to do now is go back in there and figure out a way to work together.” (I wish the story had a better ending, but I think what he did was go in and demand a little louder what it was he wanted from his brother. 🙂 We’re still working on that….)

But isn’t that the point? We are brothers, and sisters in Christ. We are his family. Not multiple families bearing different names who are distant cousins. We are his family. Brother and sister. When we put anything else in the way of our common bond – Jesus – then we begin living like we are not. Even though that will never change. We will always be brothers.

I thought it was an excellent podcast, and I intend to ask some folks close to me to check it out. How I long for the unity Jesus spoke of in the book of John. We are meant to be united, but too often we make life as a believer to be “more than Jesus”… and it just gets is in a big mess.

It really is true… the more we focus on him, the more he holds all things together (that’s the name of the show…) So, today and this coming week… that’s what I will try to do. I want to focus on him in my relationship with other people, and we’ll see what happens. 🙂

by Greg

Some Good Reading?

Life In The Rearview Mirror

$12.88

Hey folks…
There has not been much time for blogging of late, which is actually very good. Business is “booming”… I am getting lots of repeat business, and perhaps even cooler, referrals from current clients. That’s neat. I’m very glad God is providing for us through this. I do mostly enjoy what I do.

There will be time when things at least slow down (I’d imagine?) so I’ll post more thoughts here later, but for now, I have been re-reading the book I released last year, “Life In The Rearview Mirror” and there’s some good stuff in there. I’ve been encouraged to read some of the stuff God had taught me in the not too distant past, and to see how that could help me in the now to handle some of the things I (we) am (are) dealing with now. Some stuff about money… and a few chapters lately about just the way God made the world to work best.

I feel like I did not give LITRVM as much attention since the Here’s The Church book was so much more focused “topic-wise” and seemed more relevant to more people. And, it’s a great book, and I am glad so many people have purchased or downloaded it from the GregsHead.net Bookstore. That’s awesome.

I’d like to recommend again that you check out Life In The Rearview Mirror. If you’re able to purchase, that would be great. You can buy it at my bookstore (linked above) or using the button in this post. Or, you can get it at Kavanagh Books right here in Palmyra, or even better… you can purchase straight from Amazon, via my Amazon Store (and they will pay me a commission on the sale of my own book!) 🙂

If you really don’t want to buy the book… may I recommend you read the blog posts from whence the content of LITRVM came? (Well, at least, two of the chapters) 🙂 Here are the links to the two articles I spoke of before. If you can get the book, that would be grand, and I think you’d enjoy it. If not, enjoy these articles from 2005…

The Right Place
Selflessness

by Greg

Go(o)d Timing

While I am here… I wanted to post this story last week, but didn’t have the time. (I don’t now, but since I’m here…) 🙂

I usually take a break for lunch (which my wife dilligently prepares for us) around 1pm every day. Often it will end up being 1:15… or if a particularly busy day, it could be later. But this past Friday, I had finished up some things… and there was a rumbly in my tumbly… and didn’t want to start the next thing for fear of going way past 1:00… so, I decided it was time for lunch at 12:15. Usually, I would not make such a decision. There was a set of odd circumstances that led to that, and then even more odd was, if I ever do “leave” early… I usually find several things to do on the way out of my office. But today, I didn’t. I just left.

I walked downstairs and greeted my family. The greeting I received in return from my wife was, “Why are you down here now?” It was not the kindest greeting, but Jen prefers things to be as they “should” be. So, deviation from the norm (though completely expected from me) is much more difficult for her to handle than me, or perhaps our children.

I tried to think of how to explain why I was down there early, but really, there were several reasons (too long to explain) and at the same time, there were no reasons. So, after a brief pause, I replied, “Because I had to.”

The words even surprised me. 🙂 I think I followed that up by saying quickly, “That was a weird thing to say!” But not 5 seconds after I had said, “Because I had to,” there was a knock on our front door. I peeked around the corner to see who it was and it was a friend we have not seen in a while who stops by on occasion to spend time with “basic”, as he calls us. 🙂 From observation, it seems like he’s on the lonely side, so we’re happy to share a meal with him or just hang out for a while.

So, I said to Jen, “And maybe this is why…” (refering to my previous statement, “Because I had to.”) I went to the door, and happily invited him in. 🙂

The cool part was, had I dove right back into the next project, I would have come down, but not been “free” to do so. This time, I was, and it was an enjoyably quirky lunch. (He’s an odd fellow, to be sure…) 🙂

After he left, I just marveled for the rest of that afternoon at God’s timing, and maybe even the way he gave me words to say. I mean… I didn’t know really why I chose the words, “Because I had to,” but they seemed to fit once our friend knocked on the door. (FIVE SECONDS after I said them!!!)

Just a fun God moment in a very busy week. Wanted to share it with you. 🙂

by Greg

Which God Did This?


I am working on a website for a video that some friends of mine had a big part in making. The video is being produced by a former member of the Mormon church who has since discovered evidence upon evidence that what the Mormons teach just does not hold up. The video is very thorough, and very condemning. I live in the town where Mormonism began, and I didn’t know a lot of the stuff presented there.

The purpose of the video is to give current members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS, Mormons) the chance to review all of the available information, and, to hopefully get away from a false religion. There is a plea at the end of the video to the leaders of the Mormon church to lead their followers into truth. As I said, it’s all very convincing.

Part of me just cringes when we try to make someone else think like we do. The other part completely agrees with what was said in the video, and I do wonder how anyone could “be a Mormon” after thinking through the info presented there.

Then, today, I came across a video on YouTube of an interview with radio personality, Glenn Beck. I was aware that Glenn was a Mormon, and never really thought too much about it. His show is certainly entertaining, and I enjoy listening to it when I can. I also knew he had at some point made big changes in his personal life. I was not aware they were so connected to his conversion to Mormonism, however.

So, there’s a part of the video where he describes how the Mormon church had changed his life, and almost immediately following his baptism, things began to miraculously fall into place for him. He attributes it to God’s hand in his life. Funny… when that happens to me… so do I! But wait… if Mormonism is false, inaccurate, and begun by a shady character named Joseph Smith … Glenn & I can’t be doing life with the same God, can we? The things that he thinks God is arranging for him… has to just be demonic, right???

I think I may have thought that a few years ago. I don’t now. I continue to learn that God loves everyone. Everyone. God arranges for good things to happen, life-changing things to happen, for Christians, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Buddhists, and even Democrats. (That was for you, Mom) 😉 It IS the same God… He is THE ONLY ONE.

So, while Glenn may be confused (as I believe he is) on the historical side of things, and on who God is and how he operates, I believe that it was God – the same one I know – who arranged events in his life to get him to where he is now. Yes, even “though” he is a Mormon.

I don’t think God waits for us to “get things right” before he leads, guides, blesses, and just actively loves us. He just does. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. That’s how much he loves everyone… no matter what we are trapped in.

When I look at it, I’m not sure we have that right. We are better at loving either after a change has been made, or, in order to make a change.

So, anyway… that’s my thoughts for the day. Enjoy the video. Do post your thoughts if you are so inclined.

by Greg

Loss

“I came naked from my mother’s womb,
and I will be stripped of everything when I die.
The LORD gave me everything I had,
and the LORD has taken it away.
Praise the name of the LORD!”

Those were the first words – words of worship – immediately following Job’s hearing the news that his children had been killed in a horrible accident. And just before that he had lost much of the wealth that God had blessed him with. An amazing reaction to an extraordinary circumstance. His first thought was to worship the God who had given him life, even in the midst of the demise of the life he had known.

There is a song by songwriter Matt Redman called Blessed Be Your Name. It echoes those lines Job spoke so many years ago,

“You give and take away, you give and take away,
my heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name!”

Those words reverberated loudly – even confidently – through my head as we learned that the child we had been eagerly preparing a space for in our family, had stopped developing inside mom’s womb.

“You give and take away… You give and take away…
My heart will choose to say… Lord, blessed be Your name.”

The first moments were just hard. Shocking. Deep sadness. Life hoped for, now lost. And this was not the first time we faced this.

About one week into our tour, there was such a shocking occurence that we thought we had lost the baby. That was on our anniversary. Not the way we wanted to end the day. The drive to the hospital was a little over an hour. Of silence. Of doubting. Of wondering. Of self-pummeling. I felt completely culpable for the loss of this baby’s life. Our lifestyle, my missed chances at reminding Jen to rest, my busyness keeping me from helping Jen with the three kids on the outside. All things were pointing to me being the reason we had lost the baby.

But God was beyond gracious.

When we arrived at the hospital, we were greeted by a friendly nurse who was fairly convinced that the baby was doing just fine. The doctor who followed happened to be at the church we had led in worship the morning prior, and he echoed those sentiments, but they needed to do an ultrasound to make sure.

My heart skipped a beat or two in astonished joy. My soul gasped for air! I can’t describe the feeling of life from death. How the Father must have felt when his son was given breath again! Even knowing the plan ahead of time, his heart must have exploded with joy knowing that not only his son, but all of us who trust in him were given back to him that day!

We went from that place, with images of a dancing baby in our head, and the hope that through a rough 6 or 7 months ahead we would emerge with a miracle baby from God.

“You give and take away…”

Yesterday, following the weekend of God giving wildly to us through his people, we experienced the pain of loss again.

Jen had been experiencing signs of trouble again (we thought) and so we went to the doctor, who put the monitor on Jen’s belly to listen for the heart beat. After about 10 awkward seconds, she said, “Sometimes it’s difficult to find the heartbeat with that machine.”

That had not been our experience, and so we were already thinking the worst.

She turned on the ultrasound equipment, and we began looking at the baby inside. It had grown since the first time, but it was lifeless. No movement. No heartbeat. No life.

No words were said for a time, until the doctor broke the silence, “I’m afraid I have some very bad news…”

My heart sank. It was quite final. The baby was gone. Again.

But this time, the words to that song kept replaying in my head. “You give and take away… my heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name…”

And I meant it. Though I was not necessarily comforted by it just yet.

We discussed the next steps and headed out to the van to go home. The song continued in my head.

When we got to the van, we just sat there in silence. We were both attempting to understand what was happening. To process it. Why would God want to give us a baby for 12 weeks, and then take it home?

There were tears. There was silence. We prayed together. We talked. But the most amazing thing was happening inside my head and heart.

Instead of sadness, there was supreme confidence in God’s love for me. More than just confidence, there was palpable reality. Almost like his hands on my shoulders.

And the song would not leave.

I knew the scripture was from Job, so I looked it up on the computer we had brought with us.

The first thing that stuck out to me was in the NIV translation: “Job got up, tore his robe and shaved his head, then he fell to the ground in worship.” His first response was a brief moment of agony and mourning, and then he worshipped. Instead of blaming God for letting this happen, he was compelled to worship him.

That’s where I lost it.

I was too! That’s what I had been feeling the whole time in silence. Strong images and feelings of God’s love and provision for me, for us, were present in my head. I was not conciously thinking of them… they were just there. I was not dwelling on the loss, but rather on things gained from the Giver of all good things.

And that’s exactly what Job experienced.

God’s bigness, his caring, his inividual attention to my life, his unfathomable love — all of that had never been so near to me, so palpable, so REAL.

Words do not do the experience justice, but I really wanted to try. I was astounded by the love God has for, and was showing to ME. I was crying, not out of sadness at our loss as much as out of overwhelming joy and gladness at my Father who loves me.

In a moment, literally less than a second, God also gave me a strong series of images that reminded me of his goodness.

There were three sets of two images. First was the hopsital back in Arkansas. Image one was the deep sadness of losing the baby, and image two was the unspeakable joy of getting that life back! Second was from the weekend just past, where image one was the empty bank account and actually having zero cash being 3000 miles from home with many big bills to pay, and me asking God in a parking lot, “God, what are you going to do??” The second image connected to that was of the generosity of our Father through his people this weekend, we were given nearly $2,000 by people in places that wouldn’t normally be a source of such abundance. The third image was our present circumstance, the final loss of our baby, and attached to that image was a future provision from God that would blow us away with greatness as much as this loss had brought us low.

I had a very specific image, but as I am not claiming to be a prophet, I will guard that image in my heart and will let you know if that does indeed come to fruition. I don’t think God gave me those images for you… but I KNOW he gave them for me.

In less than a second, all of that imagery of God’s attention to our lives came into focus, and I was full-on reminded of his incredible provision and love.

And again, I was brought to tears… not of sadness, but pure, unthinkable joy!

Our God is so good. So, so good.

We are sad, and still dealing with loss. Loss costs us. We won’t know this member of our family until heaven. I see images of families with kids, or even our kids, and I miss the face of the baby we lost. We are definitely hurting.

But there is over all of that, a far greater peace and hope. God made me SO aware of his presence and love in my life today, right now. He is so good that way. And I am not alone in that experience. Which makes it even cooler. Friends today have shared having a similar experience, and I believe the reason Job reacted how he did was that God was as overwhelmingly present for him that day as he was for me. And Job’s loss exceeds mine by such a volume as I can’t imagine.

He is so good. Today, yesterday, forever.

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Praise the name of the Lord.