QUOTE (Elon Musk)

I have had several conversations with young(er) people who can’t afford a home and are not optimistic about the future.  They are struggling with hopelessness.  

My tendency is to feed and confirm that skepticism.  The messaging of doom and gloom is not unique.  

I have been wrong for my part in those attempts at predictions. We are making bets on the future through our words, with no skin in the game.  

It is a form of pride.

It is harmful when we as leaders make predictions of forbodings without remedies of hope.  The predictions might be right. I don’t know.  What I do know is that it is not kindness to tell someone something they already feel and add to their hopelessness.  

We should help them.  The help might be as simple as reminding them that they are not alone.  It might be helping them practically navigate a chaotic world to find that bright day.  Hope comes with the discovery of their plan.  Their unique plan for a bright future, a hopeful future.  The kindness comes in assuring them that they are not alone.

That is kindness. That is the golden rule. 

INHERITANCE

I will give you a treasure. It will be your inheritance.

These words, inheritance and treasure, receive their significance in the reality of the allocations. The mind can rationalize throughout the period of promise while treasure remains intangible.

All inheritors hope in the promise while all remains a promise. What happens on the day the promise is fulfilled, when hope becomes reality; when deeds are issued and seekers become the bequeathed?

Allocated assets enter balance sheets. Future net earnings are calulated. Improvements determine based upon their return on investments. Fortunes are made in these declarations of allocations. Yet, not all land is the same; not all fortunes are equal. The inheritances will be different.

The differences do not matter while they remain a promise. Something is better than nothing lasts until something become something.

The satisfaction of the heart is tested when comparison becomes unavoidable. It seems the greatest test resides with those examined with intangible promises while others are scheduling meetings with their accountants.

The mind can reason that God is better. He is a treasure, a pearl of great price, better than anything the world can offer. The tangible inheritors might even agree.

What does the heart believe when others take up residence in the land you have walked through, the possessions you have fought for, the assets you have suffered for.

The balance sheets will quantify the comparison between tangible and that which is not.

• What if the Baptists received Wall Street, New York City and all the businesses that call it home;
• The Episcopals got Google, Apple, and all of Silicon Valley;
• The Methodists got Amazon, Seattle and the Pacific Northwest;
• The Lutherans got all the resources of Texas,
• While the Presbyterians received Alaska?

On and on, the allocations go but you are told that these fortunes are not yours to hold. Your inheritance is God. How would your mind value the allocations as the balance sheets are told?

Would your reasoning, God is a treasure surpassing all earthly wealth, determine that you received the most valuable of all inheritance? How will your contentment weather the reality of others taking possession of their new wealth?

Our eyes are so quick to turn evil to the generosity of God. Our chameleon hearts change rapidly when confronted by God’s unequal gifts.

Has God done us wrong by giving as our gift, Himself?

Perhaps, we have been set apart, holy unto Him; spared from that which God knows will corrupt.

Have you ever considered that prosperity absent holiness is never a gift? Wealth in unrighteousness is always a curse.

Our inheritance does not come in this world. We are like the tribe of Levi, content in the best of inheritance!

https://soundfaith.com/logos-media-share/514827

Testing For Fear – Psalm 56:3

I am a bit anxious this morning, I will not lie.

All the self-confidence belies the insecurities of a day full of significance.  Today, I lead a team readied for a presentation instrumental in winning a five year, $15 million contract.

It is a big deal for a small company.  We have been waiting for eight years. 

I am embarrassed by my own anxiety.  No lives hang in the balance.  My employment is not dependent upon the perfect pitch.  All today can hold is a hope for a bulwark against tomorrow’s uncertainty,  so that I won’t have to worry about where tomorrow’s prosperity will reside.

Oh, foolish man that I am.

In essence, my anxiety reveals an inherent resistance to trusting the One who truly controls the conditions of my future.

God knows what I need and when I need it. He has provided my daily bread my entire life and I know He will provide tomorrow’s.

My anxiety is just a fear;  a revelation of an unholy alliance with control.

Are you fearful, like me?  Our response to uncertainty is the most revealing test one’s faith can undergo. Testing for fear is not a scare opportunity.  

The nature response to uncertainty is fear, whether we recognize it as fear or not.  Fear changes us.  It effects our behavior.  It modifies our attitude.  It steals our joy.

Fear is a foe.

So, I repented this morning.  I have changed my anxiety to trust.  I have done all the work to be prepared for today but God has done more.  It has been Him who has sheltered me to this point and it will be Him who shelters me through tomorrow. 

Therefore, I can enjoy the opportunity of today.  There are not many people who get to do what I have the privilege to do.  I will trust, which enables me to enjoy.
https://soundfaith.com/logos-media-share/491949

QUOTE (Ralph Waldo Emerson) – May 25

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In honor of Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who was born on this day in 1803.

Resources:
This Day in History for 25 May
25 Inspirational Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

 

“MADONNA’S BABY” – June 11

“Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?  Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.”  Job 21:7-8

A little more than a decade and a half ago, my wife and I were without children.  This was not by choice.  We had been hoping to be what so many couples seemed to just become.  Yet, the gift of a child remained a mere dream.  Our friends and family would decide to have a baby and a couple months later they were pregnant.  We waited.  We watched the world growing around us and we waited.  Our waiting involved doctors, schedules, temperatures, medication, procedures, and prayer.

My wife and I were on a cycle induced emotional roller-coaster.  We received an unwanted answer to our prayers every month.  The optimism of getting the science right was always ground away in the reality of the elusiveness of life.  The hope of God doing a miracle was dashed against the hard answer of no.  Every month tears would be shed quietly in disappointment.  The question of why, was underlining many a cry out to God.  My wife and I would push back the feelings of hopelessness and try again for another month.  That was our walk through infertility.

It was during one of these low points when the answer of no was still bruising our hearts that the media heralded an event that pierced me through.  Madonna, the “Material Girl”, the woman who had published a sex book, the performer who had been fined for the explicitness of her concerts, was pregnant.

God was allowing Madonna to have a baby.

I remember being incredulous about that news.  It was just wrong.  We loved God.  We were striving to follow Christ and glorify Him through this path of infertility that He had given us.  We were children of God and yet this woman, who denigrated the name of the Lord and His people, was being blessed with a descendent.  It was too much.  I was angry with God and the seeming injustice of His plan.  The unfairness of that news was palpable.

I remembering questioning, just like Job, why the wicked prosper.  It is so difficult to wait patiently upon the Lord when those who want nothing to do with God are still healthy and prospering.  They seem to be doing extraordinarily well without God.  It is easy to even start to admire and envy the success and freedom that those who oppose God seem to possess.

We are in trouble if our hope turns to a prosperous and healthy earthly life.  We will struggle if our joy and happiness lies in being materially prosperous between now and the grave.  The reality is that the wicked do prosper and the godly do suffer.  All you have to do is be observant to discover that there are not always detrimental material consequences to sin.  The good and righteous don’t always have the storybook ending in this life.  There are some whose sin does cause them to suffer in this life.  However, there are others whose sin is the source of their material success.

I don’t have an answer as to why the wicked are allowed to prosper on this earth.

“Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?” Job 21:22

I do know that we all, wicked and righteous, will lie down alike in the dust, and the worms will cover us (Job 21:26).  Christ did not come into this world to make our lives better.  He did not become righteousness for us so that we would be prosperous and successful.  He came to save us from the grave and the punishment due our sin.

Death does not respect wealth or poverty.  It is not swayed by age.  It is not delayed due to a person’s happiness nor is it hurried by another’s misery.  Death comes at its appointed time to all.  Our faith in Christ is what matters at that time.  Our hope is for our reward beyond the grave that Christ saves us from.

Until that time, we are clay in God’s hand.  While we are on this earth, God will do with us as He has planned.  He will use circumstances to exposes areas of our lives where we have misplaced hope.  He will use suffering to show us where we love something more than Him.  He may use our misery for others in ways that we will never know.  We may struggle in our existence for a purpose beyond our comprehension.

Are you really ready to teach God how He should run the universe?  Do you think that you can educate God on fairness?  It did not work out well for Job when He tried it.

Our faith is so intertwined with our trust in God.  They are one and the same.  You cannot have faith without trusting in the promises of God.  We are told that God is working out everything for our good.

My wife and I have seen the faithfulness of God in our infertility.  We were blessed with two children through adoption.  He blessed us in a way that we had not anticipated.  I cannot imagine being a dad to anyone else.  I can now see God’s hand working through everything to bring those wonderful children into our lives.  Infertility and all of its disappointments and struggles was part of that process.  Now, I still don’t know why.  I don’t know what God has in store for my kids.  I don’t know the legacy that will come from them being raised and loved by my wife and I, but I do know it will be good.

My hope and prayer for them is that my Redeemer will be theirs; that their hope will be as mine, beyond the grave in the everlasting and loving arms of Jesus Christ.

I do know that God’s plan will be so worth it all.

PRAYER: Lord, thank you for giving me a hope that is beyond this world.  Forgive me for getting so focused on what is happening to me that I lose focus on who You are.  Thank you for having a plan that is for my good.  Help me to endure well for your glory in all that you have called me to be a part of here on this earth.  Lord, use me; mold me; make me into a vessel of value for your kingdom.   I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ.   Amen.