9 Church Signs in Troa, CA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve never been a huge fan of the signs with clever sayings that some churches display outside of their buildings (no offense if your favorite church uses those signs). It’s not that I think it’s a bad idea to broadcast a wise saying it’s just that very few of the sayings come off well—to me, they usually sound religious, cheesy, or trite.

In one of my former home towns there was one church in particular that always posted an embarrassing quote that, in my opinion, made Christianity sound silly and out of touch with reality. One night, though, I had hit a very low spot and I was depressed. I was driving through town on the verge of tears, and I was begging the Lord to speak to me. I remember praying, “Lord, you need to come through for me because I’m at the end of my rope.” After a little while of aimless driving I passed the church with the cheesy billboard, and I remember chuckling despite my discouragement and thinking, “I wonder what lame quote they’re posting now.”

As I slowed down to read the sign, however, all of my criticism went out the window. The sign read: “When you get to your wit’s end, you’ll find that God lives there.”

I pulled in to the church’s parking lot, brushed away a few tears of gratitude, and snapped a photo of the quote. On the rest of the way home I repented of my criticism, and thanked the Lord for using that silly, little sign to speak to me when I needed it the most.

I’m still not a fan of most inspirational reader boards, but for some reason that incident has been on my mind a lot this week. Perhaps the Lord wanted me to pass it along to you.

Español: Torre Jenga cayendo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have you ever played Jenga? It’s the torturous game where you remove blocks from a wooden tower and reposition them at increasingly higher levels. The game is over when some poor soul gets too aggressive in their placement and causes the entire tower to come crashing down.

It’s a fun game if you can handle the pressure, and if you don’t mind winning by default. That’s the thing about Jenga—you don’t actually win per se you just don’t lose. You win by surviving until someone else makes a fatal move.

This nerve-wracking, little game has a life lesson to teach us: it’s not the final move that determines our ultimate success—it’s all of the incremental moves along the way. I’ve lost my share of Jenga matches, and I’ve seldom lost because I was too reckless or aggressive in my final move—I’ve lost when my previous decisions weren’t able to support my final move.

I haven’t known many people who made one random, uncharacteristic move that destroyed the tower of their life. Rather, I’ve seen people make small, incremental decisions that gradually led to a significant downfall.

God wants us to make it for the long haul, and He wants our lives anchored firmly to a rock that is stronger than any of life’s storms (Matthew 7:24-27). We anchor ourselves to that rock by making the right individual decisions along the way.

When we crash in Jenga we can laugh and talk about what a stupid game it is, but we can’t afford to crash in life. Whether we’re trying to avoid a crash or rebuild after suffering from one, let’s make wise, daily decisions that anchor us to God’s storm-proof rock.

Mothers’ Day Cake crop (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

God is a Father. We all know that. The Bible tells us as much and Jesus Himself taught us to address our prayers to “Our Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). He is the ultimate template for what a good father should be—but He’s also much, much more.

When God created man in His own image, He made man “male and female” (Genesis 1:27), so it’s only when we combine the unique strengths and attributes of both men and women that we see a shadowy reflection of the true glory of God revealed through mankind. God’s nature contains all of the combined strengths of both a perfect father and a perfect mother.

He is solace. He is nurture. He is unconditional love. He is the beautifier. He cares. Certainly natural fathers can provide these things to a degree, but usually not in the same way as a mom. Healthy mothers reflect a unique dimension of our Heavenly Father’s love (and if your mom wasn’t able to reflect that love in the way you needed, I hope you’ve known some other special ladies who were able to make up for that lack).

This weekend, as you and I honor and celebrate our moms, let’s reflect on what it is that they teach us about “our Father who is in heaven.”

“As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you, and you will be comforted.” (Isaiah 66:13)

Rock Climbers on High Neb, Stanage Edge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whether they’re dreaming of civil rights, women’s suffrage, revival for a generation, cures for ailments, or healing for interpersonal relationships, dreamers are God’s change agents in the world. Indeed, nothing significant happens until someone starts to dream.

Rev. H.B. London Jr. says, “What God wants every church to become must start as a compelling dream for an on-site dreamer.” His sentiment certainly extends beyond a congregation and applies to each of us in our personal lives too—we must be God’s on-site dreamers for ourselves, our loved ones, and for our communities.

What could God do with a roomful of dreamers? What could He accomplish with a group of people who carried His dreams of possibility and then married them with hard work, passion, and determination? Let’s be those people. Let’s rekindle the God-given dream inside us; let’s dream past our pain, our setbacks, the enemy’s lies, and our own perceived shortcomings. He placed us where we are so we could be the catalysts for His agenda, so let’s start dreaming it, and let’s never forget what the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Atlanta Olympic Rings. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This summer is the Games of the XXX Olympiad, and Jessica and I have already cleared our schedules so we can watch Michael Phelps, Brian Clay, and our other favorite athletes make Olympic history. They’ve worked, trained, and agonized for their moments of Olympic glory, and I can’t wait to cheer them on.

I just hope they don’t disqualify themselves between now and then.

We all know that the Olympic games are about far more than a race or an event—they’re about a lifetime of preparation for that event. Phelps and Clay won’t win repeat gold in England this summer unless they’re careful with how they live today.

The Apostle Paul understood this, and he used explicitly Olympic language in        1 Corinthians 9:24-27 when he said, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

My heart resonates with Paul’s desire to avoid disqualification (I’m sure yours does too). And I keep thinking about the fact that there are multiple forms of disqualification. A false start from the starting blocks can disqualify a sprinter from their big event, but so can a positive drug test in the weeks leading up to the event. And so can a failure to diligently pay the price every single day in practice.

Sometimes we can court disqualification through inattention and inactivity just as much as through more overt areas of compromise. Let’s do a little pre-Olympic soul-searching to make sure we aren’t guilty of courting disqualification in any significant area of our lives.