Singin' like a bird

I stepped out of my car early this morning and the tune caught my ear immediately! This little bird thought he had to carry the whole load in singing praise to God! He was completely engaged in his praise to The Creator! Later in the morning, I had the awesome privilege of leading several hundred humans in singing to God and we committed to sing with that little birds' abandonment. It was less about pitch and so much more about full expression to our God.

How about it? Why don't we try today to live our lives in complete "self-abandoned" worship to our KING! I want to live like that little bird was singin' !

"COOL" loses its flavor quickly!

I love to go to the gum isle and check out the new flavors that come out almost daily. The gum comercials are amazing too. The person on the screen gingerly takes the wrapper off of his piece of gum and slides it into his mouth and BOOM, it seems to be life changing!

I have had chewing gum that tasted so... GOOD the first 5 minutes I chewed it. Then, all at once, flat as a flitter! Almost no taste left at all and even the texture turns to a hard rubber. Old school gum like Wrigleys Sperimint or Juicy Fruit was all about the short term blast of smooth chewing flavor and it only had enough ingredients in it to hold you for a few chomps.

"FIVE" gum is the ultimate chewing explosion now for me and because they have upped the ingredients, it seems to last and last. I find a lot of people today are kind of like that with how they live their lives: a little in, a little out - a lot in, a lot out! Matt. 5:13 says "we are the salt (or tastiness) of the earth..." Wow, we really need to have a lot of the good stuff in us so we don't lose our effectiveness, don't we?

What do you say, we don't just try to be "cool" (packaged right, tasty for a minute) but put in the powerful ingredients of God's Spirit which will have a huge impact and last FOREVER!

Are you settling for just what comes along!

Good question for all of us to ask ourselves. It is real easy, especially with all that we have at our finger tips, to just accept what is coming without really trying to reach out or up to challenge our potential. I just attended a wild game dinner where the well known guest speaker had lost a tooth out of his partial plate and was feeling really bad and intimidated to go up front and speak to his next crowd. He had a choice, just leave the gaping hole alone and save up for a new set (which on his small salary in those days would have taken a while) or find a tooth on his own and not just "settle"!

He had shot a bear just days before this unfortunate tooth break and a genius idea routed through his brain. He went out and picked up the skull of the newly dressed out carcass and there it was! The most awesome looking white tooth ever, he knocked one out and did some smoothing and shaping and glued it right into his broken set. A long story shorter, he never told anyone for a long time of his creative maneuver and had saved "dental face" by taking action.

I want to face my adversity with that kind of focus and not just settle and let "stuff" happen. Hopefully, we won't have to use bear teeth to fix our situation. I would challenge you to go ahead and think creatively and not be victimized and swept away by what is coming into your day. You can make it!

Where there's a will there's a way!

I remember hearing so many cliques as a kid growing up in the church that like many, my ear went a bit numb even though my respect never dropped for the credible ones who were speaking what they knew. "Where there's a will there's a way" was usually ringing in my ears about the time I wasn't "all out" in the effort department on any given chore. I am glad someone was pushing me to greatness even with words that seemed a bit monotonous. Today, I find my own words still challenging students to greatness and maybe in their own way becoming a bit monotonous. This is a fact, when a kid understands Truth and chooses to do the right thing, everyone wins! I am going to go after the "will" of today's teens like never before and I might even throw in a couple old "blasts" from the past!

All out!

Dan

Missionary to Students