People. We need them.

For over a month now I've visited friends, family...covering many miles.  It's been good. It all started just before Christmas.  I remember how cold the weather was as I drove to NW Arkansas on the way to my grandson's house for Christmas Eve.  I stopped at the store to pick up items needed for making a huge pot of chicken and dumplings.  Oh my, it was cold!  Chilling...cold.  But we had such a great time.  I have 2 children and several grands....all totaling eleven if I include those connected by marriage.  We drove from different states just to enjoy that one evening together.  Since that night, I've taken time to be with friends and family. 

Life is fast paced.  Seldom do we have time to just visit.  Families no longer live close in one community, as in years past.  We are scattered from state to state.  Fortunately, technology allows us to maintain contact easily.   Facebook is a great tool for social contact.  It's allowed me to reconnected with friends from the past and touch base with relatives that I seldom see.  Now I can keep up with folks through their posts and pictures.  I feel that they are a part of my life again. 

I enjoyed visiting, but now it's coming to an end.  It's time to settle down - work at being productive.  I've learned that staying busy is not the same as being productive.  Most of all, I desire to be productive for the Kingdom of God.  Thankfully, our life can glorify Him as we live out each day.  Even writing this blog can be a source of service for my Lord.

I thank the Lord that we have each other.  We can't live without friends and family.  I don't have brothers or sisters...so every church family became like relatives to me.  People are a God's gift to us.  Oh, that we would take the time to enlarge our list of contacts - build new relationships - and keep each other encouraged.

Maybe this can be your new resolution this year.  Determine to enrich your own life by reaching out to someone you've had little or no contact with for some time...or to a person in need.  Isolation and loneliness easily drains the joy of living for many folks - you can make such a difference in their life.  I have a feeling it's a lot easier to do than we realize.  You are creative.  You have a lot of love to give. Never underestimate who you are and what you have to give to others.  As you share love - you increase satisfaction and fulfillment in your own life.  

I challenge you to reach out - overcome timidity - touch a life - because one day...that person will reach out to you...and probably at the time you need it most.

Thank God for people.   There are plenty of them out there for us..and they are valuable.

Be blessed...
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What Do You Want To Do Next?

I opened a new tab on my computer - and those words appeared at the top of the page, printed in blue slightly darker than the background, subdued, yet with just enough color to catch my attention. 

What do you want to do next?

This is an interesting question...What do you want to do next?  The question implies that I have already done something and now it's time to do something different.  What do I want to do next?   What do you want to do next?

The first of the year seems to be our opportunity to launch a new beginning - steer the course of our life in a different direction - fulfill the dreams which have loomed before us for years - make life count.  Your answer to this question might be different than mine...yet we still want to do something "Next" - the question is ...what...and how...
  

Most of us don't have a clear map in front of us saying "go here" - "do this" - yet we all long for a life that's filled with purpose, provision and in the right place.  God put inside of us a longing to be and to do more than we have already become and done.  This is what drives us.  It keeps us from being satisfied with mediocre living.  If you aren't satisfied with the "same" -  that can be a good thing. It means you are searching and longing for what you want to do next...

The new tab also displayed options below the question "What do you want to do next?"....and there are options in your life as well.  A person who knows Jesus Christ as Savior is never boxed in.  Our Creator makes a way when there seems to be no way.  That means that our life is not over. There are options we've not yet discovered.  There are doors not yet opened.

 

The starting point for "What's Next" doesn't begin with us.  Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Life gives great insight: 
...we typically begin at the wrong starting point—ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like, “What do  I want to be? What should I do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future?”  But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose.

The Bible says, “It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in his power.”

Contrary to what many popular books, movies, and seminars tell you, you won't discover your life’s meaning by looking within yourself.  You’ve probably tried that already.  You didn’t create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for!  If I handed you an invention you had never seen before, you wouldn’t know its purpose and the invention itself  wouldn't be able to tell you either.  Only the creator or the owner's manual could reveal its purpose.

So, What's Next?  What's next is simple.  Obviously, it is seeking the Creator.  What's next ... could be nothing more than building a strong relationship with the Lord.  Getting to know Him...spending time with Him.   He provides the manual for our lives.  I can trust Him.  He has quite a reputation for parting the sea, walking on water, closing the mouths of hungry lions, raising the dead, and confusing the enemy. 


While I'm soaking in His presence and allowing Him to lavish His love on me  -  probably...the "What's Next" will appear.  It will be accurate, fulfilling...complete with purpose, provision, place and total fulfillment.  Sigh a sigh of satisfaction...What God does in me and for me and with me... will be right.  It will work.


"I love my life" ... "I love living" appears frequently on facebook posts...not all of us can honestly say that because there's still a vacancy in our purpose department.  God meant for us to love being alive and love living.  It's a waste to be alive and not love living.  Jesus came so that we could have life abundantly.  Most of us just need to seek the Kingdom ....  Revelation is better than Speculation.  We can stop speculating when we receive a revelation from God.

Andrei Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up under a government that

denied the existence of God.  But God got his attention one dreary day.

He recalls, "In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro

in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) I was overcome with a despair

so great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely,

let alone any meaning.  Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared:

"Without God life makes no sense."

Repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving

staircase, got out of the metro and walked into God's light.

If life without God makes no sense - then life with God makes perfect sense.  I'm looking for "What's Next" and only my Creator has the answer.  He has an answer for your "What's Next" as well.  Don't give up.  Go for it.  The year awaits.

What do you want to do next?

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