What do you get when you cross the Incredible Hulk with Winnie the Pooh?

Been awhile since we last talked.  
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are facing this new year with excitement and promise.


I've turned a few corners of late.  Growing up in a lot of areas.  
Hopefully it is showing.  Still have a long way to go.


Taken some shots lately as well.  
Taken them all personal - which I know is dangerous and wrong.  
Because of that I'm a little wounded and nervous.  
No real reason to be - just am.
I've let it affect me.  As a husband.  As a father.  As a child of God.  
And last and definitely least - as a pastor.  
I am questioning everything anymore - except that I am a hopeless sinner and He is a loving God.


I'm learning that I must allow God to define and defend me (heard someone preach that recently).
Easy to preach.  
Hard to live.


I think the problem lies in the fact that I am equal parts Incredible Hulk and Winnie the Pooh.  
I rage with the best of them - but it is all internal.  
I don't want anyone to not like me.  
Which is fine until the day Winnie just explodes from the inside out.


My first response is to fight back with the same weapons I'm attacked with.  
I'm growing tired of being told that I need to be the "bigger man".  
What I really need to be is a kid who trusts that his Dad is bigger and tougher than anything.  
And He will never leave me or forsake me.


A good friend helped me see recently that I need to transition from being combative to being confident in who and what God has called me to be and do.


I get that.
But it still seems like I'm always auditioning.  
I am the hypocrite Jesus talks about in Matthew 6.  
Worse yet - I'm a cowardly one at that.


This has to stop.


"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." - T. Roosevelt


So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: - Romans 8:31-39 (The Message)


I can't (and won't) take credit for the vision I'm called to pursue.  
I can only press in to the One I feel planted the vision in me.  
I want to know God more and more.


So for all the critics and the haters.  
Know that I'm not mad at you anymore.  
Matter of fact - I love ya...


And another thing...
I'm not going anywhere.  
I'm going to stand
With arms high and heart abandoned.  
In awe of the One who gave it all


So if you want to beat this vision out of me... 
you're going to have to step into the ring.


Bring a jar of honey when you do.
Hulk and Pooh both love honey.


Peace

For Miguel

Today I will be participating in the funeral service of Miguel Moralez.
I wrote this up some time ago.  Pretty much sums up what kind of man Miguel was.
I pray I have a faith like his...

I spent a part of today with my friend Miguel.

To say he is amazing would be an understatement.

Confined to a wheelchair due to an industrial accident.

Hospitalized with pneumonia.

Fighting for a life that has taken a drastic turn in the span of just a couple of years.

He misses running alongside his kids...

He misses dancing with his wife...

He misses his independence...

You know what he doesn't miss?

The life he had a couple of years ago.

The life in which his legs still worked.

The life in which he didn't call Christ his Savior.

That relationship has changed everything for my friend.

I asked him if he would trade his faith for going back to the way things were.

"Not a chance."

I shared with him the story of Moses, Aaron, and Hur. How as long as Moses had his arms raised, the Israelites whupped up on the Amalekites. The moment the arms fell the tide of the battle turned. I told how Aaron and Hur would lift Moses arm when he was too tired to do it on his own.

I told my friend that we would be his Aaron and Hur.

That we would lift his arms.

Every Sunday (when he's able) Miguel sits on the front row of the sanctuary. He smiles like someone who knows that once they were lost, but now are found.

Today he shared how he knows God is using all he is going through.

How sometimes he gets discouraged.

How tired he is.

How good his God is...

I went expecting to help Miguel "lift his arms".

I left realizing he was lifting mine.

Peace