Never doesn't mean Never

Never doesn’t mean Never

“Never has doesn’t mean never will

hasn’t been doesn’t mean can’t be

what was doesn’t mean what is to come

and who you’ve been doesn’t mean who you will be.”

Loren Thornburg

It’s true that the past is often a good predictor of the future. In sports we study and predict what our opponents will do based on what they have done. In relationships we know friend’s tendencies to be late, to respond a certain way, to say a particular phrase based on what they have done. In life we are creatures of habit often clinging to the familiar ways of how it’s been. There are many times where this is true. ...but not always. Just because something has always been one way doesn’t mean it always will. Change is possible. The baseball team that usually struggles with the off speed can learn to adjust or the friend that usually flakes can be dependable. The same is true for us. We can change...from insecure to secure, from timid to bold, from foolish to wise, from depressed to joy, from lost to found. Who you’ve been doesn’t mean who you will be. Let us give ourselves and those around us the freedom to change knowing never have doesn’t mean never will. Though it’s been never, it’s possible.

"Sing, O childless woman! Break forth into loud and joyful song, O Jerusalem, even though you never gave birth to a child. For the woman who could bear no children now has more than all the other women," says the LORD.

Isaiah 54:1 NLT

God is a God of the impossible and He loves to show up in our impossibilities! He makes the impossible possible and He goes big when He does it!!! We see this here in Isaiah. He is saying not only will you have a child, you who have never had a child, but you will have so many, even more than all the other women. He says I won’t just meet your desires, I will exceed them. The same He is speaking to you, ‘Believe in me, child. I see your desires, I hear your pain. Don’t lose hope or be discouraged. Instead, Sing! Sing loud and joyful! For even though it seems impossible, even though you feel your desires have never been met I will exceed them beyond what you hoped or dreamed. So sing! For what was is not what will be when you believe in me!’

More than Not

“Faith is more than not fearing, not worrying, or not doubting...

it’s trusting, it’s relying, it’s believing.”

Loren Thornburg

So many times I am trying so hard “not to do” things that I forget “to do” things. I tell this to my pitching students all the time, I guess I should listen. It’s a simple sports psychology lesson of the way the mind works. Your brain doesn’t hear the don’t so when you say, ‘don’t strike out’ it hears, ‘strike out’ and so you end up telling yourself the opposite of that which you are trying to achieve. So while it is good not to strike out instead it is better to focus on hitting the ball. The same is true in life. It is good not to fear; it is good not to worry; it is good not to doubt; but, that is not the answer. Simply trying not to do these things seems to only replicate them for our focus remains on them even if in desiring their absence. We don’t learn to walk by trying not to fall, nor will I learn to walk in faith by trying not to fall by the way of fear, worry, doubt or any other way that we fall. While it is good not to fear if I trust I will not fear. While it is good not to doubt if I believe I will not doubt. So do more than not, think more than not...trust, rely, believe and you will find the more you were hoping for.

“The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the worlds ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.”

1 John 5:5 Message

Faith is what allows us to have peace in the midst of the storm, to bring the world to its knees when it seems over our heads. Now what it doesn’t say is just make sure you don’t fear, focus really hard on not worrying or try as hard as you can to not doubt. No, the conquering power is FAITH. Faith and fear are in contradiction. The latter is an abandoning of a former loyalty while the first is to remain loyal to your conviction, to the truth. Often I get focused on fear even in simply trying not to and I only fall short of the faith that I long for. I have not been called to not fear but to walk in faith. Not in faith alone as a nice idea but the real victory, that which brings the world to its knees is from God through Jesus Christ. As I walk in faith believing in who He is, believing He is the one that saves me from fear, believing that He loves me and loves to care for me...then I can walk in faith! As I walk in that faith the fears begin to subside; they have to for Jesus is in the midst!! Victory is more than not losing it is believing! Lets do more than not, lets bring the world to its knees, lets walk with Jesus by FAITH!!

Reigning Reins

“The one who holds the reins, reigns!!”

Loren Thornburg

It’s not so much the reins but the one who holds them that reigns! Reins are narrow straps used to guide and control horses. In and of themselves they don’t hold much power, yet they cause the horse to change direction, to stop or slow down by pulling on them. They are used to keep the horse under control. So it is the power of the one holding them, the one who used them that gives the reigns their power. Reign adding just a g, means something so different yet so the same. Reign is to hold a royal office or a particular title yet also to prevail or be the strongest. While a narrow strap and a royal office seem miles apart they both hold an element of power and control. Just like the horse is subject to the reins so the people are subject to the royal office’s reign, and still so are our lives subject to that which holds the reins, that which holds power and control over our lives. At times that is another person, at other times that is our thoughts whether positive or negative and at times that is the circumstances in our lives. So the question is who holds the reins of your life? For that which you give the reins will reign!

“as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:21 NASB

And so our choice remains what will have the reins over our life. What will have the highest influence and control? Will it be sin or God’s grace? If it is sin we are brought to death. But, if God’s grace and kindness rules and reigns then we are given right standing with God and eternal life because of Jesus. When you see it like that the choice seems easy!! Yet how often do we let sin take the reins and reigns in the ways that we allow the ways we miss the mark to be the one that holds the reins? I know I do! I let lies be in control of my mind, I let selfishness and pride be in control of my actions, I let my emotions be in control of my heart. Still, we have a choice, still Jesus has defeated the grave, still Jesus Reigns!!! It is because of Jesus that we can reign over lies, we can reign over pride, we can reign over our emotions! It is when we give Jesus the reins that we can reigns with Him! When we let Him take control, when we let Him take the reins when we let Him be the one of highest influence and control of our lives He reigns and we reign with Him!! Though the choice that sounds easy is not always, but it is possible, and the choice that is possible is worth it! So let Jesus hold the reins so that He may reign! For when He reigns there is Freedom, there is Grace, there is Life! Choose His Reins! Choose His Reign!!!

Purpose in the Cracks

“You have purpose, just as you are. You are needed, just as you are. You bring something that no one else can, just as you are...cracks and all.”

Loren Thornburg

A crack is a line or surface where something has been split without breaking it into separate parts. There are many good cracks like cracks in the window that let the air through, you can crack a book and begin reading it, and you can crack up in laughter. If you crack a dish or crack a pot it doesn’t seem like such a good thing. But, there is a story of a cracked pot that changes that. In short a water-bearer carried one perfect pot and the other had a crack in it. So when the water-bearer delivered the two pots one was full while the cracked pot was only half full. The cracked pot felt ashamed that it could only do half of what the other pot could do. Perceiving it as a failure the cracked pot apologized to the water bearer. However the water bearer pointed out the flowers that were found only on the side that the cracked pot was carried on. The water bearer knew about the crack and took advantage of it and was able to pick beautiful flowers because of it. There was a purpose for the crack in the pot. You never know what you see as a crack and a failure in yourself is watering the ground for flowers to grow if you would only stop comparing and start seeing you have purpose...just as you are...cracks and all!

“The Lord will comfort Israel again and make her deserts blossom. Her barren wilderness will become as beautiful as Eden--the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found there. Lovely songs of thanksgiving will fill the air.

Isaiah 51:3 NLT

The cracked pot gave water where there would not have been water were it not for the cracks in the pot. That water made what would have been just dirt into beautiful flowers! So we see in the story that we can trust the water bearer knew what he was doing with the pots that He chose! The water bearer was aware of the cracks in the pot. He was not caught off guard or surprised, but He knew and used them to make something beautiful. Yet, how often do we look at our own cracks and see them as failures and decide that we must be wrong because of them. God knew and God knows. He knew all about you before He chose to carry you, He knows who you are now and knows what you will do and who you will be and still He choses to carry you and use you. Will you trust the Lord as your water bearer enough not to compare and not to decide you are a failure because you are cracked but to know that He knew and knows and still He chose. All he asks is that you let Him carry you, trusting the One who makes deserts blossom, the wilderness beautiful, and gardens out of nothing!

Trust Trusts

“From action to outcome trust trusts”

Loren Thornburg

Trust is in one part of the definition an acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation. It’s the without evidence or investigation that gives me problems. I want to see and I want to know that it’s going to work out okay, but then that wouldn’t be trust. It’s a scary thing because there is an element of unknown, a risk involved. Often times I can muster up enough trust to move me into action but it gets lost in the outcome. I trust enough to take that risky step but I lose it when it doesn’t turn out like I thought it should or would or when it doesn’t happen as fast as I think it should or would. Yet real trust moves you into willingness to act and trust trusts through the outcome whatever it may be. Trust is not a one time thing but it trusts. The s implies ongoing, active and continuing to. Let’s take the trust that moved us into action and put an s at the end to keep us going through the outcome...whatever it might be.

“If you are walking in darkness without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God.”

Isaiah 50:10 NLT

It doesn’t say trust in the Lord unless it gets too dark and rely on your God unless you can’t see a ray of light. No, it says when it’s dark and you can’t see trust and rely on God. Even when it’s dark, even when you can’t see still trust! Yet so often I live trust until it gets too dark, until I can’t see a way of what I’m doing working out. I trust God as far as I can see. It sounds crazy when you think about it but that’s what we do. Somehow we decide that we must know better and we trust our own senses over God. But, even when it’s dark He is still God. He is still the one who created the earth, He is still the one that parted the sea, He is still the one that did those miracles in your life, He is still the one! So even when you walk in darkness, even when you thought it would turn out different, even when you feel lost, He is still the one we can trust.

Where are you Standing

“Find another angle, take a different view

For Blessing may be in the trial before you”

Loren Thornburg

 

Have you ever noticed how where you are standing can completely change the way you view the outcome?  The beauty of TV is that they can show you many different angles of the same situation.  As I watched the baseball game I saw a homerun hit that looked foul from the first angle, but from a different angle they showed it was clearly a homerun and in fact not even close to being foul.  It struck me how often this probably occurs yet how seldom I take time to view the next angle.  I am so quick to see things from my view, from where I am standing.  Although we may not have the luxury of another camera into our lives we still can take time to see the other angles if only we take time and awareness to first realize that there are other angles.  Things are not always what they seem.  What appears to be a horrible situation may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, if only we step back to see the other angle.

 

“You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and water, 

Yet you brought us out into a place of abundance.”

Psalm 66:32 

 

God loves to bring us to His abundance! He loves to bless us!   But that abundance and blessing does not come in the way that we think it would or should.  Usually it comes following times of much trial and pain; after the job loss, the depression, the relationship struggle, the failed attempt, the sickness.  It comes after those times we feel things are consuming us, over our heads, where we feel we are drowning and burning in the flames of the situation around us.  Often when I have come to the place of abundance I wonder why I worried so much, fretted so hard, and let the previous times consume me as they did.  God wishes the same thing!  He wishes that I would take another angle, His angle, and look over His shoulder and see things as He sees them.  For from where He is standing He sees beyond the trial to the blessing, He sees beyond the pain to the abundance, He sees not as it seems but as it is.  Where are you standing?  Take another angle...His angle...what do you see? 

Farsighted

“Don’t miss tomorrow’s victory because you weren’t willing to endure today’s pain.”

Loren Thornburg

So often we live such shortsighted lives.  We can’t see past today.  We feel pain and we want it to go away rather than have its way in our lives.  It’s much like the story of the man who seeing the moth struggle to emerge from his cocoon thought he would help it by cutting the last section of the cocoon.  Yet what he found was that the moth was unable to fly because it’s wings had not been fully formed.  It was in the pressure of coming through such a small hole that enabled the moth to fly as it was intended to.  How often we act similarly to our pain as well as the pain of others. We want to rescue and relieve and so we intervene not realizing that we are taking the very thing that is bringing us to more of who we were made to be. Let us endure the pain and suffering of today knowing it is enabling us to fly.  

“Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.”

James 1:2-4 AMP

God wants to have full play in your life.  He desires to do a thorough work so that you may be complete, lacking in nothing, but, that takes trial, temptation, suffering and pain.  I wish there was another way.  And there is but it doesn’t bring the joy, the fullness and the completeness that God’s way does.  So then it becomes a matter of being willing.  Am I willing to let Him have His way even when it hurts, even when I don’t see what it is achieving, and even when I don’t know why it has to be like this?  Only when I remember who He is can I stay willing.  He is all knowing, all powerful and all good.  I don’t want to miss anything that He in His all knowing power and goodness wants to do.  I would hate to have endured the pain this long only to miss tomorrow’s victory because I wasn’t willing to endure today’s pain another day. So let us let Him have His way in our lives as well as the lives of those around us. Let us see beyond what is in front of us.  For we can know whether we feel like it or not He is saying, “I have victory for you My Child if you will trust me with this pain.”