Monthly Archives: January 2011

Beautiful Things

Posted on by
Reply

Just a quick addendum  to the previous post ( Terrible Things ):

After God refers to the “terrible things” that have been said about Him, He still offers hope:

“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. – Malachi 4:2 NLT

Throughout Scripture and history, God has proven Himself to be remarkably patient with us.  He offers hope, forgiveness and restoration as we return to Him.

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair. For the LORD has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory. - Isaiah 61:3 NLT

Through Christ, my yesterdays do not limit what God wants to do in my life today.

He turns terrible things into beautiful things.

This song by Gungor says it pretty well:

Terrible Things

Posted on by
1

This passage of Scripture from Malachi chapter 3 has been chewing on me for days, now.

13 “You have said terrible things about Me,” says the Lord. ”But you say, ‘What do you mean?  What have we said against You?’

Before going any further, imagine what these “terrible things” could possibly be:

Curses? Insults? Blasphemy?

Amazingly, no:

14 “You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the LORD of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins?

15 From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.’

God considers it a terrible thing to say about Him when we:

  1. Say that serving Him has no value.
  2. Say that  confession and sorrow for sin are worthless.
  3. Say that God treats the world better than His followers.

But surely I haven’t actually “said” anything like that.  Surely I would not “say” anything so terrible to God.

But I may have felt/believed/acted as though those things were so… And that’s a terrible thing to do.

It happens when we:

Give up on Him.

Stop trusting Him.

Think He is unjust.

Believe He no longer cares.

Assume He has deserted us.

Terrible.  Things.

Terrible. Life.

So today, I’m saying this:

  1. Serving the Lord is valuable, and I do so from a heart of gratitude.
  2. Confession of and sorrow for my sin is an absolute necessity.
  3. God loves me, has the big picture and knows what’s best for me.
  4. God has already done more for me than I deserve.
  5. I will trust Him with my life.

For to be shallow, whiny, ungrateful and miss the point of my life would be a terrible thing, indeed.

Creativity and Innovation

Posted on by
2

Something I’ve been chewing on for some time is this concept:

“Innovation must be driven by discipline, and creativity must be channeled through order.…Otherwise you just end up with a great big, cool and pretty mess of inneffective stuff.” – Me. :)

Sometimes I find that my right brain creeps over to my left and picks a fight, and a ballroom blitz ensues. Then paint, ideas and scribbles are left all over the place in in a right brain victory while undone to-do lists, missed deadlines and a messy desk are scattered around in the wake of a left brain loss.

And poor “Mr. Left Brain” really only wanted to help “Mr. Right Brain” be successful.  …Boy my right brain can really be a punk, sometimes.

This is not a good thing.

It’s been said that a pond or lake may be able to sprawl out widely but a river channeled through the right river banks can become a powerful force. (or something like that) I’m discovering every day just how true that concept is, and how important it is for me to keep working on it.

Maybe I should make the whole “disciplined innovation” or “channeled creativity” concept a regular feature here. But first my left brain needs to build a little bit of muscle and street smarts to handle his own with my right…