Are your spiritual pipelines clogged?

One day, a worker from the local utility changed out my water meter. While he was there, I asked if there was any way to get more water pressure to my house. I had been in the house for over two years, and I had always assumed that every house in the neighborhood, which is about fifty years old, had lousy water pressure due to old plumbing.

The guy checked things out and told me I had no water pressure to the meter, which meant that there was some blockage between the water main and the meter. Then he told me he would place a work order to get someone else out to run a new pipe from the water main to my meter.

After the work was done, I had tremendous water pressure. I no longer had to wait till late at night, when everyone was gone to bed, to take a shower. They can flush, they can run the dishwasher, and they can put in a load of wash. I couldn’t care less because no matter what anyone in my house does, there’s still ample water for a shower. What a spectacular improvement that has been in my life! And it didn’t cost me a penny.

I think a lot of people have mistakenly assumed that in order to make a significant change in their spiritual lives, they have to do something huge. They have to go to a big church meeting, or maybe they have to make a big commitment to Christian service, or maybe they have to make a big contribution. There’s nothing wrong with any of that. However, there are times when spiritual change can be easy and inexpensive, like upgrading the plumbing to the water main was for me. I was ignorant. I had no idea that anything could be done about the problem. I lived in water pressure purgatory for over two year because I simply didn’t know that anything could be done about it. The utility guy set me straight.

What can we do to improve the flow in our spiritual lives? Avoiding the seven deadly sins might be a good start. Adhering to the Ten Commandments to the best of your ability would also be a good idea. But what else can we do? One thing that has made a difference in my life, when I’ve done it, is to simply get on my knees – a position of humility – to pray early in the day. And sometimes, instead of listening to talk radio while I’m driving, I’ll pop in a tape of the Psalms or something similar. Sometimes little changes like those can make a big difference. Asking Holy God for His direction can also be very helpful.

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Dear God, please show me what I need to do to maximize the flow of your love, your grace, your strength, and your mercy into me and through me so that I might become what you created me to be and so that I might do all that you created me to do. Amen.

Paul’s Secret

Our most popular sayings assure us, “You can do anything you want to do.  You can be anything you want to be. You can have it your way, do it your way, and go your own way.”

Those phrases comfort us, empower us, and help us to believe that we can call all the shots in our lives. But it’s not true. If it were, we’d never have to look inside the bag we pickup at the drive-through window. Still, the mantras have been repeated often enough for many people to believe them.

Paul wrote something that sounds very similar in Philippians 4. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Unfortunately, this is probably one of the most misappropriated scriptures of all. Christians have used it to rationalize all kinds of things.

However, in the preceding verse, Paul wrote, “I know how to be abased and how to abound.” That bit about being abased doesn’t get quoted very much, and it gets explained even less. To be abased is to be humiliated or degraded.

When Paul wrote about doing all things, he wasn’t talking about doing whatever passed through his head. Paul was talking about handling whatever his life and ministry brought his way. The NIV reads “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

Through Christ who strengthens us, we should be able to handle our lives as well as Paul.
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Lord, please teach me to maintain my relationship with you in all circumstances, whether I’m abounding or being abased, whether I’m well-fed or hungry, whether things are going well or not.

24 hour God

Did you ever think to yourself how nice it would be to be God almighty? If I was God, I would do this? If I was God, I would do that? I don’t think being God would be that easy. For one thing, the work week has probably gotten longer since Genesis. Way back when, after God created the universe, he got a day off. Now it looks like a 24/7 job. Somebody always wants something, so God’s always on duty – no vacation, no holidays, and no personal days. After a hard day at the office, God probably never gets to just come home, kick off the shoes, sit back on the recliner, pop open a beer, and relax while watching a little TV. He probably never gets to take a nap either. Whenever he tries, someone somewhere is probably making war, or committing crimes against humanity, or some other thing. And no matter what he does, someone is always second-guessing him. Would I want to be God? No.

Be the Blessing

Remember Chevy Chase in Caddyshack? He encouraged a young golfer to, “Be the ball.” Over the holiday season, a similar, but better, philosophy washed over me. I could be a blessing, especially to my own family. I’ve been so many other things in life that I never really gave it much thought before. Although I’ve fallen short in a lot of ways throughout my life, I truly believe that being a blessing is something I can pull off, by the grace of God.

I recently swam in Silver Glen Springs, one of Florida’s fountains of youth, deep in the heart of the Ocala National Forest. Swimming in one of Florida’s springs is one of my favorite things to do, especially when there aren’t very many people around. It’s cleansing, refreshing, and, yes, rejuvenating. I actually do come out feeling younger, looser, cleaner. It is a baptism of sorts. Between the swim and the idea of being a blessing, I feel like I’ve been baptized into a new way of thinking, perhaps even a new way of living.

My dog is a role model for optimism

Generally, whenever I get ready to let my dog, Sparky, out the back door to the yard, she has her nose in the crack of the door and is ready to move the moment the door opens wide enough to get out. She seems always to be thinking, “There could be something out there that’s going to be very fun to chase. Maybe a cat, maybe a squirrel, but something.” And she never seems concerned that the big dog next door might have gotten over the fence again and could be out there waiting for her.

When the door opens, she is gone, almost instantly, to the back fence to see what might be there. Most of the time there isn’t anything to chase. Still, she knows that every time the door opens, there just might be. When she comes back in the house, she always checks the front door, just in case someone might have left it open so she could go for an exhilarating run off the leash. She would never pass up an opportunity to do that.

Is some fantastic opportunity going to present itself to me every time I go out my front door? Probably not. However, if I go through the day thinking something great might be just around the corner, which is similar to the way Sparky – who, by the way, is actually an idiot – thinks, I’m going to be much more ready when an opportunity arises than I would be just moping through the day.

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