The title is from a song and comedy bit on Hee-Haw that aired on TV back when dirt was being invented.  Rick made reference to it on Sunday and it’s been on my mind since.  I spent Sunday nigh talking to a friend who is going through the emotions from the song title and spend a fair amount of my free time talking to others who know pain, despair and agony all too well.  It’s all around us.  Marriages on the rocks.  Death of a loved one.  Kids who are out of control.  A spouse who has been unemployed for too long.  A loved one going to prison. 

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And Christians are supposed to be a people of joy?  For real?

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I suppose that depends on my perspective.  Friends have asked me how I am doing and my response is generally the same.  If I want to look around and see darkness, I will see it.  If I want to look around and see light, I will see it.  It’s up to me on what I choose to focus on.  When I choose to focus on pain, I can find it in abundance with plenty to spare.  There are so many things that have gone wrong in my life and I dare say it could be that I’ve had more bad than good.  I think that’s just life.  But, if I choose to focus on the good, on the people who continuously share acts of kindness with me, people who are praying for me, people who have a smile or a hug, a text or phone call just to check in, I can find it.  Then I top it off with a decision. 

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I was a basketball player growing up.  I loved it.  LOVED it.  I spent more time in my driveway than anywhere else shooting basket after basket for years.  I dreamed of making the last second shot for the Texas Longhorns to win the national championship.  I played all the time – even when the high school varsity coach told me I wouldn’t play on his team – I kept playing and made the team and even a starting spot before illness took me out for the year.  I went to practice after practice.  I ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and…you get the idea.  I went through weeks of pain leading up to the season practicing over and over and it was often painful.  Yet I went through the pain for the opportunity to play for less than an hour per game because I found joy in playing the game.  The pain was worth it.

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I have to decide if the pain of this life is worth the joy of what comes in the next.  I can give up and give in to the pain here and now or I can run the race, endure the pain and stay focused on what God has planned.  It’s my choice.  Pain, despair and agony on me.  Maybe so but I refuse to wallow in it.  I will walk to the light.

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Grace and peace to you.
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1 Peter 5:9 – 11 (NIV)
⁹Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
 ¹⁰And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Today is a hard day, a day where my suffering is more acute, more pronounced than just another day.  At the same time, it is a very good day, a day where my suffering brings me closer to God, more in touch with Him being Lord in my life.  For that reason, I accept my suffering, even rejoice that my life has taken a turn that has brought this pain because it has brought me into communion with God in ways I have never experienced in my life.  The pain has forced me to examine my life, to examine my mind and to examine my heart and I have learned that for most of my days, I didn’t know God intimately.  Today, I am experiencing a new level of intimacy with God and today I stand in my suffering knowing it is what has brought me to a place where I bow low before the feet of God and rejoice that He is the all-knowing God, He is loving and His mercy knows no bounds.

Today, a hard day in my life, I accept that while I might suffer for a season, God will restore me and make me strong, firm and steadfast.  It is a day where I accept the pain and rejoice in what God will do with it.

Grace and peace to you.

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Better late than never?  Not always.

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I had this question posed to me the other day.  “Do we have to have a Damascus Road experience to really learn about forgiveness?”  I don’t know but the people who I trust to have the best understanding of forgiveness have all traveled that road.  It worked out pretty well for Paul and I have found it to be most effective in my life.

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There’s much more to be said about that but I’ve only had a quarter cup of coffee this morning.

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One of the renewing parts of suffering is when I see God at work allowing me to help someone else who is suffering, it brings an inner peace that a) helps my healing process and b) shows me that I’m on a journey where God wants to use me.  One of my prayers has been that God wouldn’t let me suffer without using what I have learned to help someone else.  Prayer is being answered.  Glory to God.

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Grace and peace to you.
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The way to render a man happy, is to engage him with an object that will make him forget his private troubles. – Pascal

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This blog is similar to others I have written but remains something I’m still wrestling with.  I know I’m one of many who is dealing with some pain, some trouble, some obstacle that is mentally, emotionally and spiritually draining.  I, like others, have used different objects to help me forget my pain, my troubles as does the world.  I know the easy targets are alcohol, drugs and sex but there are others, things we get involved in to keep us busy and to take our mind off our pain; reading, movies, cooking, restoration projects, work and, yes, even church activities.  I, like so many, grew up hearing the adage “idol hands are the devil’s workshop.”  Well, I think busy hands are used by the devil just as much so that our heart and mind are to engaged to focus on God.

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My struggle today is hearing God because I am spending so much time filling my days and nights with something to do so my pain is numbed and I don’t have to face it.  I’ve got something going on all the time and even as I struggle sleeping, I just find more to do to fill the time so I don’t just stop and take time to let God heal me and take away the pain, the burden I am choosing to carry.

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Not, “get busy” or “work your fingers to the bone” but BE STILL.

Exodus 14:14
The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

God then goes on to tell Moses to tell the Israelites to move on.  Move on.

What does it take to move on from our pain?  Does it take replacing it with something that will make us happy?  What if what God told Moses applies to me?  Be still, let it go, let God fight the fight…and move on.

Moving on from my pain isn’t easy.  It’s mine to hold on to.  It’s mine to wrestle with, to hold up as my barrier to peace, it’s what I know.  I don’t know what happens when I move on, when I let it go, when I let God take on the battle and I resign from it.  I don’t know what might happen and there is some fear there because now, I can wallow in something I know even though it hurts.  It’s time to move on and I’m working on it – because I want to know His peace in all areas of my life.

Grace and peace to you.

 
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I hope the video link doesn’t get zapped.  It’s Jackie Evanko signing on America’s Got Talent and she has the voice of an angel as best I can tell.  I listened to her sing and watched her composure and thought, “maybe God is giving me a glimpse.”  She’s 10 years old, looks so innocent and sweet and sings unlike anything I’ve heard.  I would buy a CD full of songs I cannot understand to hear her voice and were I to vote, she would get them all for me.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Grace and peace to you.

Today’s title has nothing to do with the content of the post.  That’s just the kind of day it will be.

I can talk Rangers again.  A 3-game sweep of the hated Yankees.  Let’s go Rangers!  Cliff Lee throwing like Cliff Lee again.  Now if they can just figure out a way to wrap up games in 2 1/2 hours instead of 5. 

I got to spend part of Saturday and Sunday with my college roommate.  We were laughing about our conversations when we were 20 about what we would be visiting about when we were 40 and it’s worse than we thought.  Ha.  Comparing injuries, illnesses, eyesight and kids…and sharing memories of the simpler days with a couple of other friends from college.  Other than the lack of sleep from talking, it was a great, great weekend.

Tomorrow I get to spend time with one of my very best friends growing up in Tyler.  I am excited for that time to get here too. 

I was listening in on a discussion between teenagers about the movie “To Save a Life” last night and, once again, blown away by their observations.  I think the hearts of today’s teens are much more open to truly helping people than when I was a kid.  Maybe it’s simply the observations from the jaded eyes of a 45 year old but these kids seem more in tune with acting in more loving and kinder ways. 

Ephesians 2:10 is on my heart of late.

Grace and peace to you.

I spent the weekend with my kids and had a fantastic time.  Being away from them is the hardest thing I’ve ever known.  Being with them is an incredible joy.  One of the new, fun things of life is being chauffeured by my daughter.  I always imagined having my kids driving would be similar to electro-shock therapy to the nerves but I am completely comfortable with my eldest at the wheel.

I hear Steven Hawking has come out with a new book disproving God had anything to do with the creation of the world.  I may have to read it just to understand this man but I certainly think he needs my/our prayers.  I firmly believe God created the world which means I firmly believe in the existence of God.  Maybe, when I die, I’ll find out I was wrong in my beliefs and that I’m just dead.  If that’s the case, how much better is that than figuring out the God Hawking doesn’t appear to believe in is waiting to visit with him?  I hope Mr. Hawking will have a change of heart.

I think I would like the news better if it only talked about all the bad stuff and didn’t do a weather report.  At least I know all the bad stuff is true.  Just one more reason I seldom watch the news anymore.

I really don’t want to talk Rangers today.  How about Boise State?  I’m a fan.  It was good to see Texas beat Rice.  I was worried about that one.  Ha.  Yea for TCU.  I hope they have another undefeated season and make the BCS folks squirm. 

I really missed being at my church on Sunday.  I’m blessed with an incredibly loving family there and miss them when I’m not there.  It is a church that is developing day-by-day, more-and-more, into the body Christ intended.  I believe that because not being there feels like part of my body is missing, something that I rely on is not there to rely on. 

Grace and peace to you.