Christ Follower, Husband, Father, Writer
How much time do you spend beating yourself up for things you wish you had done? Or things you wished you’d done differently? Or things you’d wished you’d never done? Or, or, or…
That guy you dated for WAY too long, the girl you dumped WAY too soon, a class you wanted to take, a movie you wanted to see maybe you zigged when you should have zagged? I bet you have your own that you’re already thinking about.
I have not been very focused on PADAG recently. It is not that my interest in helping people find their way to God’s will has waned but to be perfectly honest, I have been so attuned to my own purpose that writing for this space has taken a back seat. This blog and all of you are on my mind all the time but my attention has been on other kinds of writing.
As today – last Friday by the time you read this – is Valentine’s Day, I thought I should write about all things love and romance.
Then I thought naawwwww, instead I am going to take this to a place it was never meant to go – the Christians,
What?
So, last night – last week by the time this publishes – I wrote about two deaths, my cousin who was about a year older than I am and my friend Mike Dorman – from high school. Well, really I knew Dorman in eighth grade but whose keeping track? I thought specifically about the memorial service we had for Dorman here in Tampa.
More on that in a bit.
Through some of the comments I received I stated to think about the impact we have on the lives of people around us and most of us will never know that impact this side of Heaven.
And maybe that’s a good thing.
Photo from Find a Grave
It’s funny how something that happened more than six years ago can be mentioned and bring to mind a flood of raw emotion that I really thought I had dealt with. Turns out I did nothing more than bury the feelings so deep because I was not equipped to deal with them then.
I am not 100% sure I am right now, either.
The anger, frustration and sadness, I felt in 2007 was at times overwhelming. The complete futility I felt at the news of my cousin’s death was only compounded a couple months later when I learned of the death of a high school friend.
Photo by: pol sifter
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14 KJV).
I am working through a month long challenge wherein nearly 1700 people have committed to writing at least 500 words a day. Every day we’re given a writing prompt; some use it some do not – it is not part of the challenge to write what we’re told to write just that we write.
Photo By: ndboy (Creative Commons)
Colossians 3:23-24
How many times have you read that verse and applied it to your J-O-B?
1? 10? 50? 100?
If you’re like me, you’ve probably done it more times than you care to remember. And the truth is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that application.
Most of us won’t say it out loud, but we think it:
If I had a better job, I’d feel better about myself.
A bigger title. A better salary. Something that sounds impressive when people ask, “So what do you do?”
And if we don’t have that?
We start to feel like we’re less.
Photo By: leo.craig (Creative Commons)
I read a discussion on a site I frequent about how telling people they are going to hell in not the way to get them to love and accept God’s love.
I don’t disagree.
I often talk, here at PADAG, about finding God’s will for your life – as I have come to believe that’s part of what I can do to help people – find their way closer to God.
Something that I have struggled with for years is my own direction and the thing is the answer has always been right in from of me.
Pick a Direction and Go!
BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
On Writing, Ideas, and Making a Difference
Daily Thoughts and Meditations as we journey together with our Lord.
Mick Holt 