God's Day Off

Each year, school students who live in the northern part of the U.S. anticipate their favorite holiday of the year. What day am I referring to? Is it Christmas? Is it Easter? Is it President's Day? No. Why you ask? Here's the point. All of those are planned days off of school. They are strategically placed into each school year calendar and they are repeated each year. The holiday I'm talking about is the unexpected, unplanned, and surprise day off that almost every student prays for every time snowflakes fly. What day is it? What day can be better than Christmas, Easter, or President's Day? Well, if you haven't guessed it yet, it's called a "snow day." Schools are permitted to use 5 of them per year. Thank God for unexpected days off, once in a while, that break up the winter monotony. So, what does God do on a snow day? Does he ever get a day off or take a day away from the hustle and bustle of running the universe? The bible says he "never" sleeps or slumbers. He is on the job 24/7/365. Why doesn't he ever relax, take it easy, or chill out? Well, if he did who would make the sun rise or set? Who would watch over every human being? How would life be sustained? Who would keep spinning the earth on its axis and keep asteroids from colliding with the earth? Thank God he doesn't take a day off. He is forever faithful, ever present, and always in control. So, the next time it snows, think about God's faithfulness and enjoy it. Just remember who gave it to you!

What's behind trials?

Sometimes life seems to be filled with one heart ache after another. It just doesn’t seem fair nor does it seem to make any sense. Why would a loving God want us to go through the trials we encounter? Why would he want to allow the pain it brings? The answer to that question is simply found in the D.N.A. of trials. What are trials and what purpose do they serve? Trials are the hard evidence of God’s love for us. Trials build character into our lives. Trials grant us the ability to appreciate what we formerly took for granted. Trials reveal the stuff we are really made of. But perhaps more than anything, trials drive us closer to the one who permits them. God’s love for us is so intense that He is willing to do whatever he can to get us to love him. The Old Testament defines his love as "jealous." So if he is jealous, he is driven by an intensely passionate love for each of us. And if trials bring the desired results, he’ll do it. So in other words, God will resort to permitting trials to come to awaken a love within us for him. Trials give new life to prayer, new meaning to faith, and new gratitude for blessings. Trials somehow create a sense of desperation and desperation drives us usually to God. So then, can trials be proof of God's love for us? Think about it!

The freedom of forgiveness

One of the common threads that tie the human race together is that each of us, somewhere, sometime, have been offended by what someone said or by what someone did. And now we are left with emotions and memories that can haunt us the rest of our lives. Sounds pretty unfair, doesn't it? Well, no one said that life is fair. There are times when innocent people get hurt by the actions and words of others. So, the question isn't, "Is it fair?" The question now becomes, "What do we do with the feelings that are left to contend with?" What happened can never be erased, but there is something we all can do to escape the pain of that offense? It's called forgiveness. Forgiveness is simply making the decision not to hold anyone responsible for how the offense affected us. No matter how severe the offense, the offender needs to be released from the responsibility of the feelings that the offense caused. If there is no forgiveness there is no freedom for the offended or the offender. This decision is perhaps one of the most difficult of all the choices in life that must be made. But it is also the most freeing one as well. Remember, that the way you treat others (forgiving or not forgiving) is how you will be treated, as well. So the next time you are offended, be quick to forgive. You'll be glad you did!

Expecting the unexpected

Are you stuck in the rut of life's routine? Do you feel like you're on a treadmill, working hard but going nowhere? Each one of us have those moments when it seems like life has been reduced down to a daily grind. Each morning begins with hitting the snooze button again, then attending to personal hygiene, followed by selecting the day's wardrobe, then grabbing a quick bite, finally walking out the door to get to the usual destination. Wouldn't it be great if one day your routine were interrupted by something unusual? Something out of the ordinary? Something surprising? Well, that's just what your Creator desires to do with the routine. You see, daily ruts are human made. They were never God's idea. They weren't in the original manuscript for life. Somehow we have made life mundane, routine, and stagnant. So how do we get out of the rut without shirking daily responsibilities? It's simple. Ask GOD? He has a daily plan for your life that may involve something surprising. But the plan will not occur without a little inquiry. I don't claim to have it down pat. But I do know that when I ask for God to intervene, He always has something better for me to experience in any given day. So what's the secret to living routine-free? Ask the master designer what he has in store for you and then be ready to live rut-free.