Spiritual – Page 2 – "…because you matter!"

Approval, Attitude, Comparisons, Personal, Perspective

Personal Care

So, I read a story today about a guy when he was young, who, almost cavalierly, asked God to fill his life with the power of the Holy Spirit. He accounts that God immediately answered and he felt God’s power. His life went on to be amazing. The events of his life took a positive graph position, up and to the right, and, looking at his life today, that appears to be exactly what happened.

That is not what happened to me. Oh, when I was young, I felt God amazingly fill me, but my life went anywhere but up and to the right. This reading today was an emotional GPS moment of truth versus feelings for me.

I would like to be able to tell the story of success and accomplishment, according to my version of those things, according to the way that story I read today worked, but that is not my story. Rather my story is one of a very Blue Collar, slug it out, and figure it out type of life. The two books I have written, Blue Collar Theology and Path Out – Eliminate the Swirl, tell some of these accounts.

My point?

Does God show favouritism? Do some get the “Blessed or Easy Way,” while others of us get to clean up the mess? Sometimes it seems so. But, it is not so!

God carefully, amazingly, intimately, and personally cares for you. He is working a plan that supports and includes you, even if it isn’t immediately obvious.

He wants to connect with you in such an incredible and purposeful way. All you need to do is what I did: Acknowledge him in all your ways, (this includes your emotions at the moment) Proverbs 3:5&6, and choose truth over feelings.

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

Attitude, Risky

The Upside is Fantastic!

Reality Check.

God? Who needs him?

Measuring against God is risky business. I would rather measure myself against someone else. (Previous two blogs.)

The problem? If I accept God, I have to take his standard and be subject to his rules and authority. This immediately puts me at a deficit of magnanimous proportions. If I am standing on my own accomplishments and pride, I need to find another way, any other way out of such a standard. In all reality, that is the issue. Unmasked, unpopular, and undone pretty much sum up the feelings connected with such vulnerability, so why would I engage in such a journey?

Why would I go through such a feeling of smallness and weakness?

Rather, I want something that affirms my prowess. I want someone who affirms me and lifts me up. I want my personal graph to move up and to the right. I don’t want to talk about an accurate reading, and accurate emotional GPS especially when it includes words like; deficit, deficient, shortfall, need, help, or weakness.

So, why? The upside is fantastic!

The provision that God makes for those who fall short (of his standard, not ours) is unbelievably generous. He has known all along that we do not measure up. We cannot. He has just been waiting for us to realize and recognize it. Nothing in our life changes, nothing can be appropriated, nothing will genuinely transform until we do.

It is that simple. Recognize our need and receive un-proportional grace (God’s own enablement) to help.

Hello God, my name is Phil, I am so bent on doing my own thing, my own way on my own terms. I need help.

You Don’t Have to Live; You Get To!

Procrastinator's Anonymous

Is Today One Day?

“One day I will be ready!” Have you ever heard yourself say this?

“One day …when…” seems to be a formula for “I don’t think so today. “

Don’t get me wrong. There are very legitimate times when this kind of self-talk is appropriate but, probably not as often as I would like to use it as an excuse.

It’s just easier, let me try that again, it just feels easier to delay, excuse, or procrastinate. Take it from me; it’s only in the feeling arena because the spin-off challenges only get greater as we delay.

Hello, my name is Phil Sovdi, and I am a Procrastinator. There I said it. Now that I am exposed, how about you? Do you delay when you should act?

Part of my problem/challenge is that I want to complete the whole thing right away. If I cannot complete, I don’t want to start. What I am learning and have learned is that a little bit of intentional activity moves me toward the final goal. So, if I do a little today, then a little the next day and so on it’s not long before I have a completed project before me.

Let’s talk spiritual.

What is causing the delay in your spiritual life today? Possibly, “I’m not as good as…, I’m not as smart as…, I don’t have a degree like…, I’m just new at this…” We can probably come up with a myriad of excuses of why we are not qualified to act or move on God’s behalf.

The more skilled don’t live in your shoes, you do. That makes you qualified in that moment. The more competent don’t have access to the information that you have. That makes you qualified at the moment.

Here’s a question, “What can you do for and with God today with what you know?” There will always be stuff that you don’t know, but if you wait until you do you probably won’t do anything.

Take it from me; I’m a recovering procrastinator, I know.

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!