My thoughts (Steve Adams):

A beautiful song from an album my friend Sharon was playing on the stereo filled the room with rich, earthy sounds and introspective lyrics. It was the first Dan Fogelberg album I’d ever heard, and, in the next few months as we often listened to it, a certain obscure line kept sticking in my head. It didn’t appear until the middle of the six-minute-long song, but it was repeated as the last phrase, posing a profound closing thought:

And maybe there are seasons,
And maybe they change
And maybe to love is not so strange

That was many years ago, and since then God has removed many blockades from my life that prevented me from loving more fully. It strikes me, though, how often my mind still whispers to me, “It would be just plain weird to love in this situation, so just don’t do it! Maybe later, but not now!”

When we’re:

• feeling isolated and alone
• afraid, or just unsure about things
• angry and unforgiving toward someone
• overwhelmed
• feeling ashamed
• in disagreement with somebody

. . .we fall under the illusion that to love would be the oddest thing in the world!

And yet, at those times when we’re:

• seeing life from a spiritual perspective
• moved with compassion to help someone in need
• in union with and focused on God
• peaceful
• giving or receiving love from someone else
• admiring the good qualities in another person. . .

. . .to love is the most natural thing in the world! These situations enable us to see that love is absolutely natural and right — that it’s living out the essence of what our Creator is!

It seems that when my fears increase, it’s because I either have had a high stress level for a long period of time, or I haven’t been focusing enough on God by spending time in prayer and meditation, and therefore failing to soak up God’s thoughts and perspective. Since God is love, and perfect love casts out fear, then spending time with God never fails to substantially decrease my fears. It works that way for all of us, doesn’t it? This is why the “Q” (Quiet Time) Block of LifeJourney’s Soul Care Plan is so important to me.

Jesus had many situations when love seemed very odd indeed — at least to those who didn’t understand him. How strange did it seem to some when he healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, forgave the adulterous woman, raised Lazarus from the dead, healed the gay centurion’s beloved slave, and forgave those who crucified him? But Jesus knew it wasn’t, showing the world he was designed to do what God is — love! And so are we!

Thought for the day: The more I immerse myself in God’s nature, the more natural loving becomes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.

Are you in the process of learning to live healthier? Maybe your New Year’s resolution was to eat better, exercise, or in some other way improve your physical health? Join us for the next few days as we offer scripture, insight, and encouragement to help on that journey.

Today’s scripture: I Corinthians 6:12, Proverbs 14:30, Isaiah 26:3 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?

My thoughts (Steve Adams):

Many years ago I had a friend who knew a lot about healthy eating. Even though I was only in my twenties, I was often tired, and usually got the flu three or four times every winter. I paid no attention to nutrition, sometimes skipped lunch, didn’t exercise much, and ate LOTS of sweets. I thought anything healthy was boring and took the fun out of life.

But my friend introduced me to a whole new world! I soon learned I could feel great — better than I thought was possible — if I limited my caffeine intake, drank more water, ate fresh fruits and vegetables and whole wheat bread and pasta, and took a good multi-vitamin. It was an adventure to try blueberries, kiwi, granola, and even an occasional avocado! And, could it be? The healthy foods started tasting better than the old food — and I felt like a new person! In the years since, it’s been a joy to discover “new” foods, usually through someone else who eats well.

My body and my mind responded to nutritious eating like a wilted plant to water! I felt more relaxed, more energetic, more alert, more peaceful, and more focused than I ever had before, and had much more endurance.

I love what Paul says in response to “All things are lawful for me.” His rebuttal: “Yes, technically I have the liberty to do all things, but not everything is good for me. I will not become a slave to anything!” (my paraphrase). When a little voice in my head says to me, “Why don’t you eat whatever you really want? You’re acting like it’s illegal to eat the good stuff!” I reply, “I am resolved to eat what is good for the body God has given me! I will not surrender control of this part of my life and let tiredness and illness dominate me again!”

Our physical health is directly related to our mental health The brain, being a part of the physical body, needs to be healthy in order for us to have whole, sound thoughts. If the brain is malnourished (poor physical diet) or overly stressed (poor mental diet), we lack the ability to think good thoughts. So, the thoughts we feed our mind are as important as the food we feed our bodies.

Our bodies are an incredible, complex gift from God. How are we going to take care of them?

This reminds me of a friend of mine who got his first car as a teenager. He washed it more than once a week, waxed it, changed the oil often, cleaned the engine, even put Armor All on the dashboard to make it shine, and often bought new accessories to improve it. He even researched oil brands, and was sure to use the very best quality. Most every weekend would find him spending several hours with the hood up, doors open, giving the vehicle some serious TLC. So what about our bodies? They’re a gift from God — and we only get one! How are we going to take care of them?

Thought for the day: What is by body trying to tell me? Does it need more rest, more exercise, better foods, some deep breathing, more peaceful thoughts, or. . . ? I can learn the art of listening to it. And then, I can make the choice to give it what it needs.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Steve Adams):

It can’t be! Jesus turned down an opportunity to evangelize? His unbelieving brothers urged him to go to the festival so people could see his works. However, Jesus said no to a public appearance that could have gotten his message out because it wasn’t the right time to do so.

As a person who struggles with guilt and shame, I’d be afraid I let God down if I ever refused to go to an event where I had a chance to show God to the world. If I had been Jesus I would have thought, “OK, I did say how important it is to shine your light from a lampstand instead of hiding it under a basket! And I also said that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, then nothing will be impossible for you. So, where’s my faith that God will protect me?”

Well, thankfully, Jesus’ understanding is higher than mine! He apparently had a thorough, holistic understanding of what God’s will for him was. His statements about shining your light for God and what faith can do are important, but they don’t paint the whole picture about this situation. When God told him it wasn’t time to go to the festival, Jesus trusted enough to comply.

Later, when Jesus did go to the festival, it was in secret. Again, I’m glad I wasn’t in this situation because I would have been thinking “Oh, God, I’m such a fraud hiding like this!” As you continue reading past verse 13, you see that, at about the midpoint of the festival, Jesus went to the temple and began to teach. Finally, the time was right, and Jesus laid it all on the line, holding nothing back!

With so many wonderful opportunities to serve God in our church community, do you ever get a bit overwhelmed, thinking, “Should I do this, too?” Jesus shows that we can be so closely in tune with God that we know when it’s time to go and do something public and adventurous, and when it’s time to hold back. I’m convinced that God wants us to do as much as we can, but we also have to deal with the human limits of time and physical/mental/spiritual endurance. Thank you, Jesus, for showing us when to go forward and when to stay put!

Thought and prayer for the day: Lord, I ask you to show me what activities are the best use of the time you give me, and to help me do them in close fellowship with you.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to begin, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Steve Adams):

Have you ever been fortunate enough to know someone who guided you into a totally new, higher understanding of what life’s really all about? Maybe a teacher, pastor, or friend? Those people are rare gifts from God, aren’t they? Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus was like that.

When Nicodemus stated his reason for believing Jesus was a teacher from God (namely, that Jesus had performed signs and miracles), Jesus doesn’t seem impressed. Instead of saying, “Yes, Nicodemus, you really get it,” he tells him that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. If Nicodemus is to truly see what Jesus is all about, he needs a new way of thinking and living — and needs to start learning via the spirit.

How do you explain the spiritual rebirth? It’s as mysterious as the wind, Jesus tells him. With no weather maps showing the cold/warm fronts and the jet stream, the wind must have been quite a mystery! And Nicodemus just doesn’t seem to get what Jesus is saying. As a leader of the Jews, he must have known all of the details of all of the laws, and how to comply with them, so he was extremely skilled in rational religious reasoning. But, as far as spiritual learning went, he was like a baby!

Did Nicodemus ever develop his spiritual perceptions? I don’t know, but it’s clear Jesus made a huge impression on him. After the crucifixion, he joined Joseph of Arimathea in preparing Jesus for burial, which must have been a risky thing to do. This makes me wonder, had Nicodemus become a follower of Jesus by then?

So, Jesus challenged Nicodemus to think in a radically new and different way. But, what about the “truth shifts” you and I need to undertake in order to continue following Jesus? They’re not easy, but thankfully we have the support of God’s Spirit, strengthening us to become what we are to be. The Spirit is there to help us, even when the change is difficult.

Thought for the day: Lord, what new truth do you want me to see, and what changes will I need to make in order to embrace it?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to begin, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

This is the second week of Advent, the Christian season of preparation for Christmas. We’re looking at some of the traditional themes of the season. This week: Patience, Preparation, and Accepting.

Today’s scripture: Romans 8:19-25 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?

My thoughts (Steve Adams):

Note: I dedicate this to my super Uncle Don “Pooch” Hunter, who passed away the night I was writing this, and to my beloved Aunt Dianne.

“It is what it is.”
Life isn’t easy. The entire creation is trapped in decay and death — and none of its creatures can avoid it. Right now as I look at my dog’s beautiful face, I’m confronted with this reality. She’s about twelve years old now, and her face no longer has that youthful look it once had. Her eyes look older and there’s some gray around her nose. I don’t even want to think about what this signifies — that someday I’ll have to give her up.

Jesus Groaned
Even Jesus groaned when he walked the earth. When he saw Mary and the others weeping at his good friend Lazarus’ death, he “groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.” (John 11:33, KJV). And as he prepared to enter Lazarus’ grave — where his stinking corpse lay, dead for four days — he groaned again. Soon, though, Lazarus was transformed from the “bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21b). A healthy resurrected Lazarus walked out of the grave ! Jesus had just given a vivid preview of the glory which shall be revealed in each and every one of us!

Groaning Through the Ages
The Bible also tells of groaning:

• animals in drought and famine (Joel 1:18)
• wounded people (Jeremiah 51:52)
• cold, drenched, naked, thirsty people who are exhausted from work (Job 23:12 and context)
• Groaning under oppression, tyranny (Judges 2:18) and slavery (Ezekiel 2:23, Acts 7:24)

Taking a Good Thing to a Dangerous Extreme
At one time I was really into “positive thinking.” Unfortunately, though, I took this good principle to a harmful extreme. I wanted to be positive all the time! I even thought it might be possible to never regret or grieve. However, I soon discovered it’s impossible to do that and be mentally healthy. Now I know better. Let us never feel weak when we take time to grieve. God gives us all permission to do that!

There’s a New World Comin’!
The entire creation is groaning — and we’re all a part of it! We don’t want to get stuck in it, but we can’t avoid it. When a loved one dies, we groan. But, as always, God provides a way of deliverance. I Thessalonians 4:13 says we “sorrow not as those who have no hope.”

The Waiting is the Hardest Part
After the long nighttime of sorrow, morning breaks forth with the light of the sure hope of resurrection. We’ll see our loved ones again. And it won’t be in this wounded world, but in the age of glorious liberty and freedom from sin, deception, futility, and death. As the text implies, when a mother groans in childbirth, she has her mind set on her beautiful, beloved baby coming into the world — and, in the end, it’s OK! There’s a reason and a purpose for all the pain!

I Can Only Imagine
Think for a minute what heaven will be like. Here are a few things I’m looking forward to:

• We’ll see Jesus face to face, and have eternity to spend with him.
• We won’t “see through a glass darkly” anymore! No more uncertainty, doubt, fear, or confusion.
• No more disease. No more pain. No more death. No more futility. Just unlimited time to spend with loved ones!

Thought for the day: Sometimes it’s good to spend some time facing the fact that we’re part of a wounded creation, so we aren’t so surprised when pain, loss, and grief come our way. But, let us never forget — let us have a steadfast mind of steel — that God has prepared eternity in God’s presence and with our loved ones, an age when we’ll have the freedom to fully consummate, express, and experience infinite, incomprehensible love. God is love! So for now, we wait with eager longing!

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Steve Adams):

When I was 24 years old, I got a phone call that changed my life forever. It was my father, telling me my mother had died from a stroke. Suddenly, I was filled with emptiness and mourning. There was no time to pause, though. My responsibility was to drive to my grandparents’ farmhouse about a half hour away, and deliver the news: their only child had died at age 49.

As it turned out, a massive February snowstorm descended on the Illinois prairie after I arrived, and my grandparents and I were snowbound for the next two and a half days. Family and friends couldn’t come to us for support, and we couldn’t get to them. It was as if all the forces of nature were trying to paralyze, isolate, and freeze us in our black winter of despair. The telephone was the only form of communication we had. Those were days of mourning, days of being “clothed with sackcloth.” Note: as Genesis 37:34-35 shows, sackcloth was donned in Old Testament times as a sign of intense mourning.

Death — no one can escape it. No matter how grand our time on earth may be, everyone ends up in the grave. Psalm 44 says, “. . .we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

But our Mother/Father God provides us with ultimate deliverance! Thousands of years later, the Apostle Paul answered the Psalmist’s lament in Romans 8:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our greatest enemy — death — will one day be destroyed! (I Cor. 15:26).

Since those dark days after my mothers passing, God has turned my mourning into dancing a thousand different ways. Of course, there are still times I “wear sackcloth,” but God continues to deliver. And my grandparents also saw joy again. Exactly one year after my mother’s death, at the encouragement of their best friends, they went on a Caribbean cruise with them. More importantly though, after passing from this life, they are reunited with their daughter and other loved ones in eternity. “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (I Cor. 15:55)

Prayer for the day, inspired by I Corinthians 9:15: Lord, you take the cold finality of death and transform it into life eternal with you! Thank you for your indescribable gift — a gift so great the heart cannot grasp, and words cannot capture!

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.