Getting Ready

03.08.10



Is the surf flat today where you live? If so, you can still keep the surf stoke going: grab a paddleboard and stroke away, hit the pool for some laps, go for a workout at the gym, or go “ironman status” and run underwater hugging a boulder! In each and any of these, what are you doing? Getting ready. Getting ready for that day to come when all the conditions of swell, wind, and tide come together. As you get ready, you look forward to that day. When conditions finally get epic, you’ll be able to say “yes.” Yes to the long paddle, yes to clawing over the ledge, yes to those power turns that set you up for position in the pit, or launch you off that ramp.

Once again, the surfing life parallels our spiritual life. God has prepared for us many epic days of knowing him and serving him deeply. Days where eternity is altered, and miracles happen. But there are also many more days, where we simply get ready. We prepare...prepare for the moments ahead. So we lean into our Bible reading, we soak up teaching and worship as we gather in churches, we do the hard work of living clean relationally with others. We overcome addictions, we steward our resources wisely and we gain skill in ways to serve. Why? So that when conditions get epic, when eternity is on the line, when God calls us as his agents of change at our local break or around the world, our answer can always be “Yes!” Yes Lord! Yes, I’m ready! Yes, use me! Yes!

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" --Isaiah 1:8

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. --I Corinthians 1:19-20

Love Me extravagantly

02.22.10



In Luke 14 a large crowd is following Jesus. He stops and begins to talk to them. In short He says, you need to love me extravagantly. Love me more than anything. His comparisons revolve around family connections but end with our personal self-promoting nature, stating that we need to love Him more than ourselves.



A good question to meditate on today - Do you love Jesus more than surfing?

A good way to evaluate this is by taking a quick look at your checkbook and your calendar. They generally show what we are investing ourselves in.



BTW, the month of March lines up perfectly with our Feb Prayer Calendar – so, feel free to use it again.



See why we’re able to pray

Now What?

02.22.10



This year we are placing a greater emphasis on prayer. This month we have spent more time praying. But now what? What about the outcomes?



Allowing God to be in charge is a deep rooted struggle for humanity. Letting Him answer and respond to our conversations with Him as He wills is difficult. It requires us to trust Him to know and to do what is best. Often we are tempted to believe that He doesn’t grasp the intricacies of our situation and so His “advice” doesn’t apply. At other times we feel that He knows best but aren’t quite sure that He has our best interest in mind. The Bible is the authority on which our insecurities are propped up with clear answers to both these questions. So, how does God answer?



To over simplify, He gives three answers; yes, no and wait. In the mean time we are to continue spending time with Him believing that He is addressing the situation with an attentiveness that far exceeds our ability to understand.



So, watch for how He responds to what we’ve prayed about this month and continue to sit with Him – not to convince Him to do what you want. But, because, who wouldn’t want to sit with their loving Dad and just chat?




See why we’re able to pray



Get the calendar here.