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First I’d like to say that the fact that I’ve seen no progress (and you’ve seen no updates) in the past couple of months is purely my own fault. My own lack of motivation and a few injuries. (although I’m not using the injuries as an excuse, cause I could always do other things).
The beginning of something is always very interesting, exciting, exhilarating! Then comes week 2. The exercises don’t get harder…but going to the gym becomes harder. Week 6 hits and that’s when sheer discipline and motivation have to kick in. So I’ve come up with a plan: I’m going to start every week at week 1. Plus I’m going to set some concrete goals and timelines for myself. Here they are:
January 2010: Begin Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training.
April 2010: Compete with a friend in the CN Tower stair challenge. 1744 steps. 144 stories. 30 minutes.
May 2010: Hit my goal of 100 lb’s of weight loss.
2011: Compete in my first small triathlon.
Those are my newly updated goals! As always, I want to thank Nathan and Paul for being such a great support…as well as my family for putting up with me! If you’d like you can leave me a message here!
Everyone has dealt with difficult people in their lives. In fact, I’m pretty sure that at one time or another we”ve been the difficult person in question! So how do we deal with people, who for one reason or another, have made it their life’s mission to make everyone around them absolutely miserable? Luckily there are a few things we can understand that will help us better deal with these types of people.
First, take a deep breath and realize that for the most part these difficult people have created a life for themselves whereby everything is “happening” to them. In short, these people are for the most part pretty selfish people. They are only thinking about what the world around them must do to appease them. As long as you know that this is their mindset, you can counteract their negative with these simple tricks:
1) Understand your role in the conflict/complaint. Many times there could be legitimate reasons that a person is being difficult with you. Coming clean with your role in the the situation is often times the most helpful thing we can do. it’s the equivalent of putting out a small kitchen fire before it engulfs the whole house. if we argue about who started the fire, why the fire is there, or other moot points….this small fire grows and eventually nobody wins. Recognizing your part in the situation gives you the opportunity to put the fire out, long before it becomes a major problem.
2) Be a peacemaker. Being the peacemaker isn’t always everyone’s favourite activity…in fact the peacemaker is often the one who bears the brunt of both sides argument. But in the end it’s the peacemaker who helps people realize that getting along with each other can have it’s benefits. As Canadian’s, we have a rich history of peacekeeping in the world. The result of that peacekeeping role? Canadians are accepted in countries around the world for their warmth, caring and compassion. Being a peacemaker will also lead to more peace for you!
3) Life is short….tomorrow is a new day. When all else fails in dealing with a difficult person remember that tomorrow is a new day. Get a good night’s sleep and put the situation behind you. If you have to deal with this person every day? Plan for times when you’re away from them where you can unwind and completely forget about the situation. Join a gym, go for a run, take a cooking class, take up martial arts….there are a variety of stress-relieving activities you could do!
In the end it’s important to remember that someone else’s bad attitude does not have the right to make you miserable. You have the choice to either become like that person, and stoop to their level….or rise above and develop more and more character each time you meet them.
 Do you like wearing long brown robes? Do you like chanting monotone rhythm’s in unison with a group of similarly dressed brown-robed figures? No? Then more than likely the monastic lifestyle isn’t for you!
What if I told you that meeting with God could be much simpler than you think?
We (humans) have this amazing ability to take the simple elements of life and whip them into absolute complexity. Walk into a Starbucks for a simple cup of coffee and you’ll see what I mean. We do the same thing with our relationship with God.
Jesus was asked what the most important commandments were. His reply? “To follow exactly the 627 rules set forth by generations of people before you who were trying to live their lives by their own rules all the while trying to appease a God they barely knew.” Hardly.
Love God. That’s the first commandment. Love people. That’s the second. I know it’s a bit more involved than that, but at it’s core we are to be lovers of God and lovers of people. Meeting with God starts with this basic understanding.
Stop trying to do everything right and just meet with Him. He’s waiting for you. He’s longing for you. His plan throughout eternity has been to redeem the relationship he once had with you.
So how do we meet with God? Spend time with Him. Sit in His presence. Learn to hear His voice. Read the letter he sent you. Honour Him with your praise and your worship.
How do we meet with God? Simply. Honestly. Openly. Regularly.
For the past few weeks now I have been reading Psalm 63 any chance I get. David is in the desert and writes the following words: “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
If you’ve ever been in a desert then you know that life in the desert is not pleasant. It is hot, dry, barren, hot…extremely hostile! As I’ve said, I’ve been reading Psalm 63 (yes, the whole chapter) but I often get snagged on the very first verse.
“Earnestly I Seek You” Can I say that I’ve earnestly been seeking him? Can you say it? I can’t help but look at my life and see how blessed I am and how lucky I am to be in the situation I’m in. I have a family who loves me. A job that I love. And my friends are the best any person could ask for! And yet with all the good things that surround me, I find myself having to push to get into God’s presence. Is this an isolated thing? Am I the only one with this problem? Or is it something that many people wrestle with? (In case you’re wondering I think it’s the latter!) I think that being in a desert probably had something to do with David’s earnest seeking of God. But shouldn’t we seek God earnestly even if we’re not in the desert? And how much more could we avoid the desert or at least prosper in the desert if our connection with God was strong to begin with?
With all of my heart I want to be earnest in all of my dealings with God. And I think that if most of us were honest with ourselves we’d find that the more comfortable we are in life, the farther we seem to be from God. That’s not to say that we don’t go through the motions (reading our bible, saying grace before each meal, going to church). But if we don’t seek God with all of our hearts there is no guarantee that we will find him. (see Jeremiah 29:11-13) If we haphazardly pursue God in a passive sense, we miss the very provision we need for our lives. We miss His presence. I don’t think I can go another week without His presence. Why would I want to? What would be the point?
So you might ask me “if things are good, and we tend to be driven to God in the desert then how can I create a desert experience when one isn’t around?” I guess we could fast. I supposed we could pray all night. I guess we could give more time, finances and effort to building the Kingdom. Those would be a great starting point…but doing things isn’t necessarily going to cut it. You have to make a decision to pursue Him. You have to take a step towards Him. You have to begin hungering and thirsting for God more than for earthly things. Notice that I said more not instead of. Your body needs physical water to live…but your spirit needs spiritual water even more. Your body needs food to grow…but your spirit needs spiritual food to grow even more. You body needs air to breath…your spirit needs His presence to bring life! If we are going to change society…and not in the sense of revolutionary upheavel, but in a peaceful, loving way – the way Jesus told us we should…then we must know the presence of God. We must desire the presence of God. We must yearn for the presence of God.
I dare you to earnestly seek him.
The Unger’s Bible Dictionary states that hope is ‘the expectation of something good’. The original way the new testament authors use hope is in a ‘joyful and contented expectation of eternal salvation’. Hope is based on expectation that good things will happen. This sounds very different than I understood hope growing up. Hope to me meant you crossed your fingers, closed your eyes tight and pleaded with God that what you wanted to happen would actually happen! I think most people see hope the way I just described. Hope isn’t based on anything…in fact, I would even say that what most people call ‘hope’ could actually called a wish! People ‘wish’ good things would happen but in the end, they have a feeling that their lives are designed to be at the cruel hands of fate…with not much choice in what goes on!
I think as leaders we need to teach people around us what hope should look like. Take a look at what’s going on recently in the stock market and with governments around the world and you’ll see a lot of people wishing for things but not very much hope. It’s easy to take our eyes away from things that bring us hope, because living in a sinful world clouds us from seeing what God has promised. To those who seek Him with all their hearts, God has promised that we’ll find HIm! [Jeremiah 29:11-13] He’s promised long life to those who bring honour to their parents! [Exodus 20:12]. He’s promised that if we put Him first, that all the good things that are meant for us will follow! [Matthew 6:33] God has given the believer incredible things to give us hope. And not just promises we can use when we die! But right here on earth – the nations are our inheritance….what a promise! My hope is based on the promises God has given and that means that whenever something bad happens I don’t have to wish for a better outcome….I can have an expectation that something good WILL happen.
So the next time someone talks to you about all the evil going on the in world, you’ll have an opportunity to teach them how to hope….
Do you know what God’s destiny is for your life? If you do, and you haven’t realized the fullness of it yet, I’d like to share some encouragement with you. While you may think that everyone else is achieving their dreams while you’re stuck in a proverbial rut, this is just not so! I believe there are two main things to consider while waiting for your purpose to become a reality…
Imagine one million people leaving a land where they had bee subjected to slavery for over 400 years. Imagine those people walking around a desert for another 40 years – enough time for an entire generation to die off. They’d been told that the land they were about to enter would be theirs…not just a part of the land but the entire land! Everything! The food, the rivers, the hills, the plains….everything they saw, every place they placed their feet they could have. That was their promise. We call it the “Promised Land”. The Israelites were given a promise that this land was their land. Here come the two things to consider;
First – They had to fight for it! How often do we receive a promise and then sit back expecting things to just happen? Someone gives us a prophetic word, or we have a dream, or we receive encouragement from a friend, and whether intentional or not, we sit on our hands waiting for God to move. God makes it clear that we are to make the first move. A move of faith. A move of commitment. A move towards purpose and destiny. Jeremiah 29:13 – “You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart!” We have to make the first move. James 4:8 – “Come near to God and he will come near to you”. Matthew 11:28 – “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. Those are just three examples but you get my point. You MUST move. You MUST enact your faith if you’re ever to see God’s promises / visions / destiny for your life revealed! What are you willing to do to see you vision fulfilled? What are you willing to sacrifice? How long are you willing to pray? How much are willing to submit? How much money will you give? For your destiny to be fulfilled you MUST fight!
Second – Don’t be surprised when the fullness of your destiny doesn’t happen all at once. There is an incredible reason that God doesn’t allow us to possess all that he’s promised to us all at once. Exodus 23:28-30 – “But I will not drive them out [the inhabitants of your promised land] in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land”. Incredible! The land (promise / destiny) is yours…you’ve been given a promise that it is yours already…but you’ll have to fight for it, and you’ll need to possess it little by little so that all the ‘wild’ things that come with the land don’t consume you. Over time you’ll need to gain wisdom in order to achieve what you know is rightfully yours.
When it’s all said and done, you have an amazing life to look forward to. But until the day that you possess the complete land / destiny / vision for your life, you’re going to need to grow in strength and in wisdom. So make every opportunity count. Bathe every decision you make in prayer and humility – learning from every situation you’re in.
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