Remember the sparrow...

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." - Matthew 10:19-31

Sometimes I forget that this verse is talking about me. Sometimes I forget how very important I am to my heavenly Father. Sometimes I forget that He cares about every tiny detail of my life - all the way down to the number of hairs on my head. Sometimes I forget.

But, sometimes, crazy little things happen - out of the ordinary things - things out of my control - and I remember. I remember that God is in charge and He knows what's best for me even when I don't know it myself.

Like one night this week - I got home after a long day at work and I was staring at a to-do list a mile long. There were things that needed to be done for my family, last minute preparation that needed to be done for a big customer meeting the next morning, and course notes that needed to be prepared for the college class that I was teaching the next evening. All of these things were important, and I had people depending on me to get them done. I was overwhelmed and wanted to cry. I kept thinking that there was no way that I could get everything done if I actually took the time to go to sleep that night. So, of course, I procrastinated and pulled up Jen Hatmaker's blog (my new favorite author).

Her post that day was entitled "On Empty" and here's some of what she said:

"If you are on empty today, having expended all you have to give and sitting stranded on the side of the highway, may I suggest that perhaps this is not the very worst place to be, that sometimes the car running out of gas is a gift, because otherwise you'd never stop?

The night is upon us; our hands are spent from work. The only sane thing to do is rest. God sometimes does His best work while we entrust ourselves to his overnight keeping. Our responsibility is laying down the tasks, setting aside the duties, which is much harder than it sounds. There is never an end to the work; just an end to the day. Sometimes the very hardest obedience involves stopping for the night."

After reading those words of wisdom, the thought crossed my mind (although only briefly) that I should probably consider just doing what I could until my usual bed time and then hitting the sack and trusting God. However, deep down inside, I don't think that I had any real intentions of doing that.

Fast forward a few minutes to 9:00pm. I was planning to put the kids to bed right on time because they had to get up extra early the next morning and I wanted to be sure that they got enough sleep (ironic isn't it!). But, the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance had them begging to stay up for a few more minutes. Since these things usually blow through pretty quickly, I decided to let them stay up in hopes that the storm would pass by before they went to bed. However, by 10:00 (my usual bed time) the storm was in full swing with booming thunder and flashing lightning. I finally decided that the only way to get them to sleep was to just go to bed with them (all of us piled into my bedroom together).

As I laid down to rest, it occurred to me that the One who calms the storm also controls the storm and its timing. And, that still small voice whispered to me, "I knew that you wouldn't stop and sleep on your own, so I wanted to make sure that you did. Now, lay down and rest. Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. You'll see. Just trust me."

What a sweet reminder that my heavenly Father loves me and takes care of me even when I don't take care of myself. Even when I feel insignificant and unprepared and overwhelmed. I never would have gone to bed if that storm had not been raging at 10:00...

Just to finish the story - I woke up the next day and was able to finish up my customer presentation just in time. My kids were up and out the door on time, my guests were taken care of, my family was fed... And, I was even able to squeeze in some time here and there throughout the day to get the notes prepared for my class that evening. Tomorrow took care of itself, just like He promised it would...

Smelling like - bacon?

Have you ever fried bacon for breakfast in the morning? The delicious aroma wafts through the house and beckons everyone to come and enjoy some yummy goodness. And, once the bacon is gone, the aroma lingers in the house – and on your clothes and in your hair – for the rest of the day – a tangible reminder of the breakfast that you enjoyed that morning.

Did you ever think about the fact that each of us gives off an aroma as well? 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 says, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?”

Did you ever wonder about your aroma? I’ve been thinking about it a lot today (and not just because I fried bacon for breakfast).

You see, we have a friend visiting this week. He has stayed with us many times before. And, while he’s here (and for days after he leaves), there is a noticeable change in the atmosphere in our home. It hit me this morning that he carries with him the aroma of Christ – and it lingers even after he’s gone – and it’s a beautiful thing. And, I wondered – what aroma do I carry with me when I visit in someone else’s home? Do I leave a “sweet smelling savor” behind, or do I leave behind a lingering stench?

Your aroma is determined by where you spend your time. If you spend your time in the kitchen standing over a pan of bacon, you’ll eventually start to smell like bacon. If you spend your time in the presence of God, you’ll start to take on the “fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” You get the idea. It’s as simple as that – If you want to know what you smell like, just take a look at where you’re spending your time.

I don’t know about you, but I could definitely stand to freshen up my fragrance a bit!

Lessons from Steamboat

Recently, I had the chance to go out to Colorado for a work conference. I got to fly out on the corporate jet, stay in a fancy resort hotel, and eat at the nicest restaurants in town. I was living like the one-percent, baby! And, it was fun. But, on the second day of the conference, they took a group of us out to go snowmobiling as a team building activity. Our driver and guide was quite the character. He used words like “dude” and “gnarly” as a regular part of his conversation. He had recently finished college and is now living in the loft of a barn outside of Steamboat Springs with nothing but a fireplace to keep him warm. He told us stories of how the barn cats sometimes got into his loft and crawled all over him and his stuff while he slept. He spends his days driving tourists up and down the mountain and guiding snowmobile tours. His “office” is a wooden shack in the middle of the woods with a couple of porta-potties outside (yes, people – unheated porta-potties in the middle of the frozen Colorado wilderness – We decided to just “hold it” until we got back down the mountain, but I digress). And, he is blissfully happy because, in spite of his humble circumstances, he is living a stress-free life and doing what he loves to do. And, I have to admit that I was just a little bit jealous of this guy.


I know that it sounds crazy, but there is something deep inside of me that craves a simpler life. There is a part of me that wants to just sell everything and put away all of the trappings of success and settle into a cozy little log cabin in the mountains where I could put off the burden of responsibility and spend my days just enjoying my family and doing the things that I love.

The contrast between “gnarly dude” and my business colleagues at that conference was a pretty vivid reminder that money and success can’t buy happiness. I know that’s an overused phrase, but it’s so true. It’s so easy to fall into the mindset of thinking “if I just had this or that or if I could just get that next promotion, then I’d be satisfied – I’d be happy.” But, that’s not the case. There’s always something else out there that will be calling your name.

I don’t have a deep philosophical conclusion for this post – no great wisdom or insight to be shared. I wish that I did. I just know that there is a longing inside of me for simplicity and focus and quiet moments of reflection and the joy of doing the things that I was called and created to do. Do any of you feel the same way?

To consume - or to be consumed...

I just finished reading Jen Hatmaker’s book “7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess,” and it has really messed with me (to use one of Jen’s favorite expressions). In the book, Jen explores ways to curb the excess that is so prevalent in our middle-class American lives. The issues that she addresses in the book are front and center for me and my family as well. And, the thing that concerns me more than anything else is how our excessive lifestyles are impacting our children and ultimately impacting the world as they grow up to become the next generation of leaders.

If there was one high level take away for me, it’s that we in America are a consumer-driven society. And, unfortunately, my family falls squarely into that category. Jen did an exercise to see how many unique places that she spent money in a single month, so I decided to do the same thing. While it varies from month to month, it averages around 50 places (and that doesn’t include recurring bill payments). We spend little bits of money in lots of places – every day – for all kinds of things. When things break, we usually just replace them rather than fix them. We justify this behavior by pointing out that it costs almost as much to fix it as to buy a new one, but really, it just signifies how little we value things and how quick we are to just throw them away.

When I think back on my childhood, I know that I wasn’t raised with this consumer mindset. I grew up on a farm outside of a small town. We almost never went out to eat. When we did, it was a huge special occasion. On the weekends, we stayed home and worked – in the house, in the garden, around the farm – or we played with the toys and games that we had at home. I can count on one hand the number of times that we ever went to the movies as a family. We went to the mall maybe two or three times a year – when we needed to shop for new school clothes or buy Christmas presents. If something broke, we fixed it – or made do without it.

Fast forward to my family and my kids – I cook at home a lot, but we still eat out at least once a week. We stop by Chick-fil-a on a pretty regular basis to grab a milkshake on the way home from school. We go to the mall or the bookstore at least once a month – just for fun. We stream movies from Netflix or stop by Redbox almost every weekend. We download “stuff” from iTunes at the click of a button. I’m sitting at Panera enjoying some yummy goodness and free wi-fi even as I type this. Some of this is perpetuated by the incredibly busy lifestyle that we maintain (which will likely be the topic of another blog post), but some of it is just habit. And, the thing is – the consumer “attitude” carries over from our spending to other areas of our lives as well.

Think about how we approach church or school or sports or even work – We come expecting to be fed or entertained – expecting to consume. We’re focused on what we are getting out of the experience – and if we don’t like it, we are tempted to just throw it away and move on to the next place or the next activity or the next opportunity. I know that this is a broad generalization, but it concerns me that we are raising a generation that doesn’t understand what it means to dig in and stick to something and give it 100% of their time and attention – even when they aren’t getting anything out of it for themselves - even when it's hard.

I want to raise my children to be givers first – not consumers. I want them to have soft hearts that can willingly sacrifice a little comfort in order to bring hope and help to someone in need. I want to do a better job of modeling that behavior. I want to be a better steward of what God has given me. I want our family to be salt and light to the world around us. I want our home to be open and ready to receive anyone who needs a place of comfort and refuge. It breaks my heart to realize how selfish and greedy we have become.

Heavenly Father, please forgive us and help us not so much to consume but to be consumed by You…