I met with an awesome couple today that is going through one of those waiting times on God.  I could sense the tension developing in them as their patience, and literally their faith, is being stretched.  I could easily identify with their situation, because I have personally been there many times.

What should you do when it feels like God has forgotten you?

Here are 7 things to remember or do in those times when God appears silent.

• Be honest with God, those closest to you, and ultimately yourself about your fears.  We are not meant to be silent sufferers.
• Keep in mind that you are not alone.  All of us go through times of uncertainty.  Even the great heroes of the faith had times of doubt.  Don’t beat yourself up emotionally because you are in one of those times now.
• Remember that just because you feel a certain way does not mean the way you feel is truth.
• Recall truth:
• That God has promised to “never leave you nor forsake you”. Even when you feel abandoned by God, He is closer than you can imagine…and, He cares!
• That God has promised to work “all things for good”. That means He has a plan, even when it doesn’t seem that He does.
• Don’t sit still for long without doing something you already know to be doing.  Volunteer, help others, stay busy, pray, seek His face.  Be active in living out your faith during this time.  Idleness is one of Satan’s best friends.
• Know that God prepares for some of His best work as He makes you wait.
• Read Psalm 27 and 121.

Have you ever been in a time like this?  I would love for you to leave a brief testimony here to encourage others.

Michael Higdon, our Director of Creative Arts was working on a song for a Sunday a week or so ago. The song is Carrie Underwood’s version of “How Great Thou Art”. I have it on my iPod and suggested we consider it. Michael said as he was preparing this song for practice he had one of the greatest worship experiences he has had in a while.

The next day we were discussing this song again and he said something that stuck with me. He said, “I finally stopped long enough to actually listen to the song with the intent of worship and not just planning it for Sunday.”

Wow! That was a convicting statement. How many times do I miss the truth of a passage of Scripture because I’m too intent on studying the passage so I can teach it on Sunday morning that I fail to apply the truth of that passage to my own life?

That also made me consider what other ways we may miss the big picture of God’s blessings because we are caught in the little picture of the routines of life. Sometimes we literally miss God, because we are caught up in the busyness of life.

The first example that came to my mind is how as parents we often fail to enjoy the blessing of our children, because we are too occupied by trying to provide for their needs (or their wants).

So, here’s a question to consider:

Are you experiencing the best in life, or are you too distracted by the tasks of trying to get there?

“I am the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me….” John 10:14 NIV

I often get asked, “How do I hear a word from God?” Great question! I know of few people, especially Christians, who wouldn’t act immediately to obey God if they only knew for sure they were hearing from Him.

I don’t believe God means for us to wander aimlessly. God does not intend for you to live your life without knowledge of His plan. (He may make you wait to see the whole picture, but you’ll get it one step at a time.) God wants you to hear His voice.

Here are a few tips to help you in your journey to hear from God:

1. Get to know Him. That is the key to any relationship. How can you hear from God if you have never met Him? You can’t meet Him apart from knowing His Son Jesus. If you have not yet invited Jesus to be your Savior, now is the time!

2. Listen. That sounds simple, but unless you are spending time trying to hear from God, it will never happen.

3. Learn His voice. When you first meet someone, it usually takes a few tries before you begin to recognize their voice over the telephone. If my Mom calls, she doesn’t have to say, “Ron, this is your Mother.” I know her voice by now! (It’s when she says “Ronald” that I know I’m in trouble.)

4. Check it with Scripture! If you have any doubt about what God may be telling you, compare it to His word! God will never contradict Himself.

5. Obey! If God speaks to you, clearly, without question, and you know it compliments what has already been written in His word, don’t waste another second. Obey Him immediately.  If you want your relationship to grow, you will need to establish early on that you will follow His will for your life.

6. Enjoy! Hearing from God is a great thing! It doesn’t even matter as much what He says. The great miracle is that a holy, powerful and mighty God, the Creator, has spoken! That is an event!

Therefore, let me ask you, what is God saying to you these days?  If you could hear anything from Him right now, what would you want to hear?

Here’s a piece of advice for everyone in business, as well as in church life, today. It’s simple, yet complex. It requires time and energy, but it will pay off when needed.

Keep your resume updated and keep it handy.

There are several obvious reasons.

1. Life is uncertain. You never know when it may be needed.

2. It gives you a quick edge if opportunity arises. When someone asks for it, they want it quickly.

3. If you update as your life changes, you add new skills or complete projects, you are more likely not to forget important updates for your resume.

4. It provides more time to have a first class resume, rather than one that is thrown together at the last minute.

5. It gives you a sense of personal ownership in your vocational future.

I am a church planter. I have no intentions of going anywhere soon. My church is growing rapidly and needs me at this point in its life. (At least that’s what I am leading them to believe.) I still keep my resume current.

Do you?

This weekend is for Cheryl. I have a few business things (very important, but very short time commitments) to do out of town, so I decided to take Cheryl with me and make it a long weekend. We’ll hang out, eat, sleep, laugh, attend another church, and reconnect. It’s been a long few months. As an accountant, she is in the middle of tax season. As a pastor, I am in the middle of people’s lives. The demands of ministry have certainly increased in the last few months.

With a master’s in counseling, and years of experience dealing with the hurts of other people’s marriages, I have realized the importance of safeguards in a marriage. I know it’s time for us to get away and regroup when a few signs appear in our marriage.

Here are a few of the things I look for:

1. The Biblical model of marriage is that the “two shall become one”. When I see us drifting further apart rather than closer together I know we need a break. (This is the number one clue.)

2. When our conversation becomes more tense or short-fused with each other.

3. When too many nights go by without us spending quantity time together.

4. When we have pressing issues we need to discuss.

5. When either of us is at a point of stress overload for an extended period of time.

6. When my spirit says, “Get away!”

All of those have been factors in our marriage the last couple of months. I know I can’t continue to pour into others until God and Cheryl pour into me.

Do you need to get away with your spouse? Perhaps you don’t sense the need, but does your marriage need you to get away for a few days?

Don’t stop investing in your marriage!

Ending Note: Obviously, as a pastor to many military families, much of this post is not helpful to you during times of deployment. It makes me think that maybe I need to write a post for those who are separated not by choice for long periods of time.

Times are tough. I have been overwhelmed in the last six months with the struggles of our people. As a pastor, I carry the weight of my people’s burdens. I know this is part of the call and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Still, sometimes I just need a little encouragement.

Thanks to Dave Barnes this song has been that encouragement. It’s first on my iPod right now and my running days have been sweeter because of it.

When I hear this song I’m reminded of Psalm 77:19.

“Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.”

Be encouraged. God will indeed carry us through.

When I taught our oldest son to drive I tried to teach him more than just the basics of the road. I showed him how to avoid accidents, how to drive defensively. I even tried to show him how to drive on snow and to turn his lights on in the rain.

I later realized that one thing I didn’t teach him was to take care of the vehicle. He knew he had to put gas in it, but other than that, he must have thought cars were supposed to last forever. He never initiated an oil change on his own. He drove for thirty days with the engine warning light flashing on his dash, before telling me.

Our physical bodies are like that vehicle. Just as my son’s car is his transportation to get from place to place, our bodies are the vehicle God has given us to carry out our life.

1 Corinthians 10:31 says that “whatever we do…we are to do it to the glory of God.” We are to honor God with our body. The way we treat our body is important to God. God cares if we take care of the vehicle for life He has given us.

I believe we need to think more about our physical health. Doesn’t the way we feel physically affect every other aspect of our life? If we don’t feel well physically we are not going to be as effective in any other area of your life.

It is proven in clinical studies that there is a direct connection between physical health and our emotional health. Poor fitness can contribute to depression, anxiety, and a host of other emotional disorders. The same is true of our spiritual life. When we are sick, we will be less effective for God.

One question to consider is: Would there be a value in being healthier?

There is a story in the Old Testament, which has encouraged and challenged me. After Joshua and Caleb took over command from Moses and became the leaders of the Israelites, Caleb told Joshua, “So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.” (Joshua 14:10-11) At 85 years old Caleb was still fighting; still going strong.

That’s what I want my life to be like. My motivation for the health kick is different than it used to be. I’m passed the trying to look good stage and into the trying to feel good in the morning stage. I don’t want unproductive years of my life.

How do we continue to be productive like Caleb was? How do we remain productive at 85 years? I don’t know that I have all the answers, but I’m fairly confident that we don’t start at 85. We start at 20 years…30 years…40 years of age.

Thankfully it’s not rocket science when it comes to being more physically fit. Unless something is seriously wrong with us, for most of us if we want to be more physically fit we need to eat less and exercise more. The question is not whether we have the right diet as much as it is whether or not we are going to follow through.

I have a repeat closing question to consider. Could your quality of life be improved if you were more physically fit? Is there something you can do to improve your physical life? What are you going to do about it?

Yesterday was another amazing day at Grace Community Church. In three and half years our church has seen many such days, but yesterday seemed extra special. We concluded our series “Am I The Only One?” considering how God’s grace can change a life. I was not speaking, so I stood in the back of the room as my co-pastor Chad shared about God’s grace in the life of Bible characters such as Moses and Paul. He then shared how God had poured grace upon his own life eight years ago when he felt ministry was over for him. God breathed new life into him. You can hear the sermon HERE. (I think one of the things which has made our church grow as fast as it has is because we have been open and honest with people about who we are and the struggles of life that we all face, including the pastors.)

Chad’s message closed with our own version of the cardboard testimonies so many churches have done, where you share your hurt, brokenness or failure on one side and flip to the story of God’s grace on the other. As I watched those familiar faces and stories walk across stage, and I looked at the packed room of people in the auditorium, I was instantly reminded of all the lives God has touched through our church in a short time. I saw couples reunited, men who others thought would never come to church, former alcoholics, and those who have been so beat up by the world. It was all I could do to hold back the tears.

We concluded the day with an afternoon baptism service and that’s where I couldn’t hold back the tears. Several hundred of our people returned to enjoy the time together. We had a full band lead us in a few songs; then took the Lord’s Supper together and then the baptism. Twenty-six people were baptized. One of our practices is to allow the father, if he wants to, to baptize his child. Seven dads baptized their children. Two of these were core members of our church. Two were people who have been a part of my ministry for years. I remember sitting with one of these men when we started the church and watching him tear up about being asked to be a core member. He didn’t feel worthy of such a task. Today these men are leading his family well and have played a significant role in the life of the church. I looked into the audience and saw the families represented by those being baptized. I knew that God had changed not just a few lives, but many lives. I couldn’t hold back…the tears flowed.

At the end of the day, another man said to me, “My tear ducts have been cleaned out today.” I could honestly say to him, “I know what you mean”.

Thank you God for your abundant mercy and grace poured out upon us.

Ted and Robyn Randall have only been in our life a few months, but they will never know how much their friendship has already meant to us. Thankfully we have several friends like them, and Cheryl has even more of these friends than I do, but last night we spent some time at Richard’s Café in White’s Creek with the Randall’s.

The reason their friendship means so much is that when we are with them, the only business at hand is having fun. As a pastor, when I’m with someone, usually there is a perceived expectation that I’m to be “pastoral”. I’m supposed to be the one to pray. It is expected that I can provide answers, comfort, wisdom, hope, suggestions, insight, and condolence. I’m supposed to be the rational one. Some, not so much in my church thankfully, think a pastor should always be serious and certainly never silly. (Sorry, that’s not always me!) I realize the expectations and responsibilities that come with the calling, and I’m not at all complaining about it, but sometimes I just like to have fun, with no expectations on my part.

Ted is an Army Chaplain and pastor. They have been in ministry for years. They understand the stress of always being “at work”. They are both fun people. Hanging out with them is just that, hanging out. There is no pressure to be anyone other than a friend. Through that time with them they invest in me and help me unwind from the stress of ministry.

I value my time with friends like this.

Most people who know me well know I would have loved having a daughter. I have two of the greatest sons any father could ask for and I wouldn’t trade them for anyone, but there’s a part of me that envies the dads of daughters I know. As much as I think it would scare me to have one (I think I’d probably make them cry daily not meaning to), I often wish I did. It makes me really hope that someday I will have two special daughter-in-laws (I have my eye on one already. No pressure!) and granddaughters. I plan to spoil them greatly!

If I did have daughters, along with teaching them the Scriptures, I think I would have them listen to Kellie Pickler’s song “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful” and read Angela Thomas’ book, “Do You Think I’m Beautiful”, as they were old enough to understand. My goal would be to show them their own self worth, that they are beautiful not only for their outer appearance, but for the person God had created them to be.

I would strive to let them see that no man can completely fill the deep need of their heart for love. As wonderful as a man may try to be, he can never emotionally complete the heart of a woman. Only Christ’s love can meet that need fully, completely, and continually.

I would, however, try to convince them that their dad unconditionally loved them.

And I would keep my shotgun loaded!