Driving around listening to inspiring podcasts, it became apparent that I need an alignment.

My tires are fine, but listening to the various accumulated wisdom of some well-informed podcasters indicated that some of my critical life trajectories are off, slowly dragging me out of my own lane and into directions and places I shouldn’t be traveling at my age and maturity.

Interesting how we can sense an unrelenting tug in one direction or another and find things aren’t rolling along as ideally as they could.

Diet, money, sleep, friendships, how I spend my time, they can veer off course right or left of center enough to make an undesirable difference which I fear, without a realignment, could send me off roading on paths for which I am not designed, well-suited, nor intended.

For some, it may sound like a labored metaphor of a hair-splitting perfectionist, but living by much higher-than-average standards was something I was taught from an early age.

Moreover, living life now in pursuit of a singular guiding mission alerts you to such ever so slight variations demands that you make occasional corrections to keep you on course.

So, I got home and had a quiet chat with my Mechanic.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I’d give my own life in exchange for the lives of my kids and grandkids. 

Let’s hope I never have to prove it, but their feelings for me at the time would be of zero consideration. 

I’ve no desire to be a martyr or to be so pretentious to prove my love, but the fact is, when you create a living, breathing human being the bond is inextricable. 

So much so that you long to save it from harm and forces both within or without at any cost, including your own life.

Here we see a perfect Father sending a sinless Son as His own incarnation and with an end game of dying to Himself as payment made for us to live forgiven. 

You know the story. It’s a painful but brilliant plan to demonstrate the depth of His love in a way we can all humanly comprehend. 

And to seal the deal, all that’s required in turn is for us to evaluate the evidence and believe in His plan. 

A complex example made for simple minds like us to understand. 

It’s like a divine sign, date, and return enclosed deal that parents and grandparents uniquely understand and agree to in return for the title. 

I hope you’re listening. 

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 

It may be the most difficult act of self care you’ll ever attempt.

Loving and forgiving your enemies is the model Jesus left to us. Not only to preserve peace and relationships with others but to keep intact our own experience and witness of God’s love. 

While the self may want justice and punishment, parking your mind and heart in that lot waiting for judgment is at best, a waste of precious time. 

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭27‬-‭31‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Being good to others is being good to yourself. 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭10‬:‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Sometimes all it takes is a little coercion. So I left a message:

“Hi, unless I hear back from you today your mother’s power will be shut off and it’s still 105 degrees here in Vegas.

She doesn’t want to bother you after all these months but I’d rather not read about her in the weekend paper.

Here’s my number. Together, I believe we can keep it on. Thanks”

My phone rang in 11 minutes.

Against all hope, Abraham, in hope, believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭4‬:‭18‬, ‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Against the odds.

Against all hope.

When your back’s against the wall, what do you do?

Most of us back off or back down out of pride, fear, or worry that our wobbly faith won’t be enough to sustain us.

But against all hope, Abraham, in hope, believed that the power to accomplish such a destiny set before him was gonna have to be a God-thing.

Wobbly faith misplaces the value of possibility on us instead of on God with whom ALL things are possible.

So summon the faith you now possess, then dig in your feet, and watch God use it do what He does best.

Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.
‭‭Romans‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If we’re entirely honest, the things that plague our consciences worst of all are the harms done to others at times when we knew better.

Swept under the rugs of time, our place looks nice, but all those accumulated wrongs block a truly clean conscience.

Dirty rugs full of hidden secrets.

Rugs may cover sins but they don’t forgive them

Take ownership and responsibility and present your dirt at the cross of Christ for the promise of complete freedom.

A clear conscience weighs nothing and wastes no mental energy.

Get real. Time is too precious to waste on tending to dirty rugs.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Many people today are stupefied by the things some share as truth.

Eons of what the history of humanity has regarded as basic facts are now being questioned without the benefit of evidence required of other assertions.

The gaslighting can make you crazy.

And if you’re God, pretty angry.

They are like toddlers defying truths purely for defiance’s sake just to assert that nobody’s the boss of them.

It takes an incredible amount of determination to hold tight to a lie in the face of the truth, yet some do so at any cost, indeed, costing them both their sanity and their eternity.

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Satan is the great deceiver and the father of lies. And in this increasingly fallen world, people are desperate to know who and what to believe in.

Truth is truth, regardless of who believes it to be.

Be testimony-ready always, and share the truth about Jesus to others like their life depends on it.

Because it does.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. 

‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It might just be that the greatest threat to the gospel  taking root these days is immediate gratification. 

Ours is a world of such plenty that we’ve eroded our own patience.

Though patience is a godly virtue, it’s become among the least popular. 

Great is your reward in heaven—glorious as it is—means the expected payoff may arrive much later than sooner. 

We’re not programmed for that. 

Waiting upon anyone is inconvenient at best. Waiting upon the Lord is worse. 

Shouldn’t an omnipotent God skip the waiting room for those he loves? Concierge treatment should be the norm instead of the exception. 

Self, again, is at the heart of this type of thinking, as if we deserve better consideration. 

Have we learned nothing?

If God promises something, he always delivers. Rest in that truth and be anxious for nothing. 

Great is your reward in heaven. 

Go to these people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭28‬:‭26‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In one ear and out the other.

Arguments and evidences, no matter how persuasively presented, oftentimes have little to no effect on senses seared shut by ‘truths’ presented by the world.

Whether faith, politics, or even travel advice (read Paul’s unheeded advice about God’s warning and promise) at some point, you have to move on to others whose hearts and minds are unafraid to change and whose pride hasn’t yet walled them in.

When you present the way to save someone’s life, soul, or even way of government, and they won’t listen, it moves out of your responsibility to report and wholly into their choice to accept.

Motivation from a place of love, care and compassion is never lost in the effort but the fact remains that it still takes two to tango, and there are plenty of others out there eager for a dance partner

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭10‬-‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

No bait, just a net. 

The preferred, most efficient method of fishing was to capture an entire school of fish in one toss. 

Then he said to his disciples,“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 

Matthew 9:37

Just as Jesus’ instruction where to cast their nets for a full catch, discipleship for Simon (Peter,) James and John began with a miracle. 

Large numbers of people are lost, caught up in their sins, just waiting for a net. 

No bait, no sneaky lures, just a net of love and salvation found in Jesus. 

While not everyone is called to travel to far away mission fields, we are all called to be disciples who will fish in local lakes and ponds within reach. 

Leave the distractions in your way and cast your net into your own ponds and become a disciple equipped with the good news of God’s salvation. 

Tell your own fish story.