Mission Possible

What get's you out of bed in the morning? Today, what made you to pull back the covers and plant your feet on the floor?

Maybe, it's your little ones that come running into your room looking for breakfast. How about the dog? She sits whining at the bottom of the stairs wanting to be let out to do her thing? Maybe, it's your boss that wants you at work by a certain time.

There are many reasons we get out of bed in the morning.

What if it was your personal mission that got you out of bed every morning?

If there is one thing that I have been learning about myself these days, it's that if I am not clear on my mission in life, then I am not fulfilling my purpose in life . See, we are not here on this earth to just collect stuff, make money and retire at 65. God has placed a greater mission within each and everyone of us.

When you discover your personal mission, it doesn't need to kick you out of bed in the morning, it stands beside the bed whispering, "let's go make a difference".

Just Sayin

Dripping in Gratitude

This past July, my oldest son Dave and I spent a week in Nairobi. It was an amazing Father son trip with many different experiences that left an impression on both of us.

One of the experiences I had was preaching in the slums of Korogocho. This is one of the largest slums in Nairobi. When we arrived at the church, we learned that the church was built on a dump... literally, the ground was previously used as a dumping place. Between a few of the buildings we could look across the Nairobi river where the dump was still active. There were children searching for their daily meal... in the dump.

It's not everyday you get to see this type of thing firsthand.

I will never forget our visit to this church. I will never forget the smells. I will never forget the church experience - three hours long. There is one more thing that I will never forget; how thankful the Pastors were for what they had. They were dripping in gratitude to God for all that He had provided. We could hear it in their words. We could see it in their excitement as they showed us around.

What these men taught me was we can be thankful, no matter what our circumstances may be.

There is this verse in the Bible that tells us that we are to be thankful "in" all circumstances. One of the many things that I learned from my trip to Nairobi is that being thankful in all circumstances helps me rise above whatever my circumstances may be.

Whatever your circumstances are, find a way to be thankful, it can help you rise above it!

Just Sayin

Backpacks

If you drive by the high school in your area you will see a very common thing - backpacks. They come in all shapes, sizes, and colours. Almost every student is wearing one of these backpacks. When I grew up we didn’t carry backpacks. We had those blue and yellow Adidas bags (I know you feel the connection). I loved the one I had.

In those backpacks students carry everything from books, pens, pencils, paper, gum, and things I’m sure every parent would not want to know about. The purpose is to carry the things they need to be in school.

When you think about it, we all wear backpacks. We don’t carry school supplies, but we carry all of life’s stuff. All the high points and low points go in our backpack.

Some of our backpacks have things like:
Worry
Regrets
Hurtful words
Addictions
Guilt
Broken relationships
Anger
Some of us have some pretty ugly stuff in our backpacks.

The thing is we were never meant to carry all of this stuff in our backpacks. All these things do is weigh us down. Hold us back from living free in life. Keep us from living into who God wants us to become.

I guess what has been running around in my heart these days is this – we need to stop letting the things in our backpack rule our lives.

God knew that we would not be able to run through life with all this extra weight so He did something about it. He sent his son to take our backpacks for us.

Today, maybe what you need to do is give your backpack over to him and let him carry it. Or at least begin to replace the stuff in your backpack with new things like:
Peace
Hope
Love
Grace
Mercy
Forgiveness

I don’t know about you but it seems like a pretty great exchange of what we have in our backpacks.

Just Sayin