One More Thing

“Contentment is found before the one thing you’ve been waiting for.”

Loren Thornburg

“The Can’t Live Without It List” caught my attention on the cover of a clothing catalogue. A list of things you need to be happy, that you can’t live another day without. It’s everywhere, including within ourselves, that we hear this message in one way or another. We are waiting for that one more thing before we are content. Waiting to be married, to have a house, to get a promotion at work, to have more money, to achieve our dreams, and on and on. These aren’t bad things but it is an endless cycle of things we need to be satisfied, yet they never fully satisfy. Maybe for a moment there is a temporary excitement but when that fades we are left needing one more thing and thus stuck in the trap of waiting for contentment. Maybe actually we need one less thing. With all the “things” we have we lose track of the thing we really need. It’s hard to break free of the cycle and the voices that call us to one more thing. Yet until we do we will be bound to the can’t live without it list. Break free into contentment, where you are free to live without it!

“Just think-you don’t need a thing, you’ve got it all! All God’s gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale.”

1 Corinthians 1:7 MSG

You’ve got all you need when you’ve got Jesus. Oh it doesn’t always feel like it. The voices and the temptation for another thing that we can’t live without are still there but there is another way, there is another choice. We are not bound by the endless cycle but free to find endless satisfaction and everything we need. God gives us everything that we need. The confusion comes however when what we think we need and what God defines as our need look different. So let’s cling to this reminder of truth. All God’s gifts are right in front of you. Yes, you’ve got it all!! You don’t need a thing. Contentment is here for the taking in Him.

Cleaning is Messy

“Freedom is worth the mess.”
Loren Thornburg

We are in the process of cleaning out some rooms in our house. The thing is, you wouldn’t know how much we have gotten rid of because the cleaning creates a mess before it is complete. It is the hard part of cleaning. Things tend to get worse and messier before they get better. As I see the piles around the house I am reminded that my own life looks like this sometimes. In the process of cleaning out some of the junk of my heart it gets messy because the junk that was once hidden behind closet and doors is now at the surface and easily seen by myself and others. Although it is on it’s way to being cleaner and freer, it looks and feels messier than ever. I begin to wish for things to go back to how they were before. Even though there was junk, it seemed more manageable than the mess. In the middle of the process it seems like it will never be over and things will never be clean again. Yet, things will find their place again if we continue to work through the piles little by little. It won’t get clean in a day, but as we continue it will get better and we will wonder how we ever functioned with all of that stuff before. We will wonder why we didn’t do it earlier because it feels so good and so free. Cleaning is messy but it’s worth the process.

“After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.”
Romans 8:30 MSG

It’s in His nature. He is a faithful God who completes what He has begun. He is faithful to invite you into the abundant life of freedom and walk with you each step unto the very end. It is a process. He calls you by name, sets you on a solid basis, establishes you, and stays with you. Did you notice who is next to you on the solid basis? It’s Him. God Himself is with you. He is committed to you. He is with you in the mess you are in and the piles you see, but He doesn’t seem them the way you do, as piles and messiness. No, He sees freedom. You are one step closer to freedom. This is not to be confused with being loved more by your Father. He loves you as you are, which is why He is calling you out of the junk and into freedom. He can’t help it. He can’t help but be faithful to stay with you to know more freedom and life. So stay with the One who stays with you.

Settle but don't Settle

“Settle on what is real so you don’t settle for what’s not.”

Loren Thornburg

A young boy on the plane would not stop crying. He was offered food, comfort, toys, and everything the dad and grandmother could think to do. The only thing that would satisfy him it seemed was going to be his mom who was absent. I was struck by how the young boy would not settle for anything except his mom. Even the grandmother, although having incredibly motherly qualities, was not going to satisfy his need. I was reminded that we need to be a little more like this boy. I don’t mean we should cry until we get what we want, but that we should not settle for anything less than the real thing. So often we look for comfort in places that are only temporary fixes, leaving us with no other option but to continually be dependent for more, because it is never enough. Instead, we can look deeper, beyond the surface or the instant comfort to that which we are truly longing to find. First you have to know what that longing is to be willing to search and wait for it. Don’t miss the real thing. Settle on it and don’t settle for anything less.

“You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation. Cry out for this nourishment as a baby cries for milk, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.”

1 Peter 2:2-5 NLT

The Lord is the real thing. He gives us the “pure spiritual milk” we are longing to find. Peter is encouraging us to cry out for the real thing now that the people have tasted of the Lord’s kindness and know how good it is. Although they faced different times, we face similar temptations; to find satisfaction in places other than the Lord. We look to food, friends, TV, music, success, accomplishments, anywhere and everywhere to find purpose, satisfaction and comfort. These things are not bad things. The Lord can use all of these things. However, they were never meant to be what we often look to them to be...everything. Only the Lord can fill that place in us, that place that is crying out for fullness. Look to the Lord, cry out to the Lord, settle for nothing less than the kindness of the Lord. Taste of it again and again. It will always be enough. Settle on the Lord for He is settled on you. He is settled on bringing you to fullness of salvation and abundant life now and forever.

Closer than You Think

“Hope is often so close that we don’t recognize it.”

Loren Thornburg

In the midst of things it’s hard to tell what is going on. It reminds me of a type of painting known as Pointillism. Small dots of color are used to form an image. If you stand up close to the painting all you can see are dots of color, however from farther away the dots come to life, forming an image. I am finding much of life is similar to pointillism. Each day is a dot forming the story and the image of my life. I live it up close, unable to see the beautiful painting being created. The difficulties and problems are so close that I can’t see the ways they are making something beautiful. In this pain I don’t know that the other dots I see are forming a picture of hope. It is in these times when I am closest to the hope, yet it’s hard to see it for what it really is. From time to time we get to step back and see that the dots are more than dots, the pain is more than pain, and what we thought was destruction was instead our saving. Hope can finally be seen as more than dots. Look for it. It may be closer than you think.

“...They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them that they must enter into the Kingdom of God through many tribulations.”

Acts 14:22 NLT

I found myself kneeling at the foot of a cross. I looked up and all I could see was a pole. I knew I was at the foot of a cross but I realized although I was about as close as you can get to the cross without hugging it, it looked less like a cross than it had when I stood farther away. It reminded me of times when in the middle of suffering Jesus seemed so far away, but then in looking back I was able to see He was actually holding me through it all. When we look at the truth of the gospel we see how closely suffering is tied to following Jesus. It was through His suffering in life and on the cross that we have come to know our greatest hope. Paul and Barnabus are reminding the believers of this truth that believers today need to be reminded of as well. I so often need this reminder. Tribulations are not God’s abandonment of us, but they are His invitation for us to enter His Kingdom. So we can cling to the pole trusting there is a cross, a greater picture of hope. Hope that saves us, hope that holds us, and hope that never leaves us.

Hide and Seek

“Hidden in life’s trials are the treasures we’ve been seeking.”
Loren Thornburg

Hide and seek is a popular kids game where everyone except the person designated as “it” tries to find the best hiding place to avoid being found first and being “it.” What I find from that game is the hide and seek of life. Often we need to be “it” more, seeking the things of life that are hidden. They hide in unusual places that we would not have guessed. It’s not as simple as looking under beds and behind closet doors. Maybe we need to start looking in the places we thought least likely or least desired...the trials that we face. For it is there that I am finding I have found the things that become treasures. What I thought was a set back becomes great provision. The relationship break up that frees us to find someone better fit for us, the job we didn’t get that keeps us seeking to find an even better one. There are blessings to be found. Don’t miss them. They might be hiding.

“Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ--that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective...be content with obscurity like Christ.”
Colossians 3:2,4 MSG

We need to be seeking the things the Lord is about. That means we need to see things from His perspective which is so vastly different from our own. It won’t be found right in front of us. Christ is hidden in obscure places. He is calling us to seek and find Christ for who He is and not for who we want Him to be. It may seem odd or obscure but it is always good and always better, we just don’t always see it as He does until later. The more we learn to seek Him the more we find Him in His obscure places. He is not trying to remain hidden but He is inviting us to real life which is hidden in Him. In hide and seek there is a version where there is a home base that once you reach you are safe and escape being “it.” God gives us a home base in Him. The best part of the journey to see things from His perspective is that all along the way God invites us to be hidden in Him, escaping trouble. He is the ultimate home base. The Lord hides and the Lord hides. He seeks us and finds us that we may be hidden in Him and see more of His perspective. What once seemed hidden and obscure becomes our greatest blessing...more of Him. Hide in Him and Seek His ways.