to…
Overindulge
Spend
Speed
Rush

May you take the time today to overindulge in family, spend time with those that matter most, speed through the gifts and into the fellowship, and rush to a time of reflection and thankfulness for all that you have.

Merry Christmas

My friend Bill is a great guy, we’ve worked together for the last five years.

He has some of the oddest (in a good way) comedic timing and dry wit.

He has a lovely wife and two young boys a little younger than my two boys.

He also has cancer.

I’ve been watching him deal with this and can only hope that I would have half the grace and strength he has modeled through the battle.

A few days ago, he shared a post that was both beautiful and tragic and I’m sharing it here in the hopes that you will pray for Bill and his family.

A couple weeks ago I watched the movie Shadowlands again. This is the story of C.S. Lewis (author of Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity among other things) and how he met his wife Joy. Early the movie he is in a church giving a message on why God allows pain. “God whispers to us in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” This seems consistent with Romans 8:20 which seems to say that God frustrates the creation so that the creation will call out to Him. Don’t we all (me included) seem to call out to God most in the middle of some crisis. In another sermon Lewis likens God to a sculptor and man to his clay. God is an artist, and with each painful chip of the sculptor’s hammer God is attempting to liberate his perfect sculpture from that which is hidden within rock (my paraphrase). This would seem to parallel James 1:2-3 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” 

Lewis dedicated his life to writing books and teaching at Oxford and only later in life met Joy Davidson. Not long after they meet she develops cancer. They get married and she has a period of remission where they truly are able to enjoy each other and Lewis for the first time experiences real love, having been a bachelor into his 50′s. Then not too long after that she dies. There is a scene where Lewis is left weeping with and hugging his wife’s son Douglas. Lewis says at that point “I don’t have any answers anymore”.  

I bring this up because alot the scripture people seem to quote as encouragement assumes a successful a outcome. I’m afraid that if there isn’t a successful outcome then these people might have their faith devastated or go on quoting the same verses that don’t seem to work if somebody doesn’t survive (and we know that people don’t always survive). That seems to be the case with Romans 8:28 God causes all to work for good for those who believe him. Trials that develop perseverance only seem to be helpful if you survive. Chipping away at a sculpture is only good if the hammer doesn’t smash the whole thing to pieces. So I wept with the C.S. Lewis character because at some point there are no good answers and all you can do is hug and love those who are grieving. 

So here’s a good verse for those who want to provide comfort from Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. I think that means just love and support those that survive and don’t try to come up with good reasons why people die from cancer.

It’s essential to excellence.

How to get it?

It may take some searching, but you’ll know it when you find it, motivation is easy to come by when you’re working on something you love. FIND something that keeps you up at night and wakes you up in the morning. If you’re having a tough time getting or staying motivated, it may be because you haven’t found the right thing, it’s worth looking for!

How to keep it?

Once you’ve found the thing that breeds the motivation, the way to stay motivated is to keep revisiting the goal—It’s easy to get lost in the process and begin to lose motivation after a few days of hard work in the trenches…if I don’t remind myself of the goals every few days, my motivation starts to wane, keep the goals close and revisit them often.