Awe & Wonder

The LORD gathers the waters of the sea… let all the people of the world stand in awe of Him. – Psalm 33:7-8

Have you ever sat on the beach and watched the tide come in? Sooner or later you’ll be either moving your seat or getting wet. It’s a sure thing. At high tide, the beach shrinks as the ocean tumbles in, wave after wave.  

Have you ever contemplated how the tides ebb and flow? Or why hotels and homeowners feel confident building a few feet away from the breaking waves? I thought about these things while watching my daughters taking a surf lesson in California after a recent soccer tournament. 

Most of my days are spent in landlocked Colorado, so I seldom think about the ocean.  But here in San Luis Obispo, CA, near the ocean, I feel God’s powerful presence. I stand in awe at the magnitude of His power as he controls the flow of the oceans around our coast as well as around the globe. He sets the boundaries of where the oceans end and the land begins.  

As I’m pondering these things, I can hear Christmas music playing from a nearby beachfront store. I’m snapped back to reality. As soon as I arrive home, I will be full-throttle busy, preparing for Christmas. Company’s coming, so the house needs decorating, the tree needs presents, and the lists just keep growing. How will I ever catch up after being at the beach for a week?

The chatter in my head reminds me that what I truly need to do is TRUST God at all times. My mind rewinds to several years ago when Oceans by HillSong was at the top of the music charts. The chorus comes quietly…

“Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders.  

Let me walk upon the waters 

Wherever you would call me  

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior.”

I love that song and I love what it reminds us to do. What do you need to trust God with these days? How can you trust God without borders? No limits and no backup plan. Answer these three questions honestly. 

• How can you carve out time to be with Jesus and listen to the Holy Spirit during this busy season of the year?

• What is one area of your life you know God is calling you to trust Him more in? 

• What’s the first step you need to take to start walking out into deeper waters of trust? Will you take it today, this week?

I wish we could sit together on the beach and dream of what our ideal Christmas season looks like. I’d love to learn how you balance all the demands of the holidays and still stay focused on the true meaning of Christmas. I’d lean in and listen.

How about doing just that with God in prayer?

Heavenly Father,

Lead me through this Christmas season.

Help me trust you completely. 

Let me walk in the plans you have for me. 

I will go wherever you call.  

Take my faith deeper than I can imagine.

And make me stronger, braver, more confident,

In the presence of my Savior, 

Jesus who’s birth we celebrate this time of year.

In His name I pray, 

Amen.

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank You for Being a part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

Forgiveness. Who's Counting

Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?  Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” – Matthew 18:21-22

Forgiveness, I find, is one of the hardest emotions to muster up in the moments I need it the most. Isn’t it true, those who need our greatest forgiveness are the ones who have hurt us the deepest?

Are you like me… when someone hurts your feelings, your tongue gets tied, your heart twists until it hurts, and your thoughts are so tangled you’re stuck in time? My first response tends to be paralysis when I’m hurt. It’s one of the only times in my life that I find myself speechless. 

How do you respond when she tells lies about you, or he ignores your pleas for help, or they plan to leave you out on purpose? Hurt. We all walk through this life being hurt far too many times to count. I think that’s why when Jesus was asked how many times should we forgive someone, He gave a number we’d lose track of, too many times to count.  

Jesus was familiar with the psalmist’s words, 

If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O LORD who could stand? But with You, there is forgiveness. (Psalm 130:3-4)

Think for a split moment of how many times God has forgiven you for big and small mistakes you’ve made. Too many times to count, right? That’s why when Peter asked Jesus how many times he needed to forgive a brother or sister, Jesus told him a story to make it crystal clear.

Jesus told Peter about a King who wanted to settle his financial accounts. The King summoned a man who owed him a huge sum of money, worth millions of dollars today.  He told the man to repay the debt or he and his family would be sold into slavery. The man fell to his knees and begged for the King’s mercy. The King took pity on the man, cancelled all his debt, and set him free.  

Right after this, the forgiven man found another man who owed him just a few dollars.  He demanded repayment. When he was asked to show mercy and forgive this small debt, he refused and had his debtor thrown into jail. When the King heard what had happened he said, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” (Matthew 18:32-33)

Like the originally debtor, our sins are too many to count, millions of times we’ve messed up and fallen short, yet our heavenly Father still forgives us. As we’ve been forgiven, we too need forgiveness to override our hurt. 

But isn’t that easier said then done? What if the next time you’re wronged or hurt you…?

• Remember all the times God had forgiven you.
• Remain calm and look at things from the other person’s point of view.
• Request God’s help to forgive and set you both free.
• Reach out to God and pray for the one who hurt you. 

Forgiveness is hard but the drawbacks of not forgiving are far worse. Like the story Jesus told, un- forgiveness makes us slaves to bitterness, revenge, or anger.  And un-forgiveness also imprisons our emotions when God, our King of Kings, wants to set us free.  

Who do you need to forgive today for the seventy-seventh time (but who’s counting)?

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

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A Thanksgiving Call to Love

Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 

– John 13:34-35

What are you most thankful for today? Is it family gathered around the table sharing delicious food and wonderful laughter? Is it a few days off to enjoy more time outdoors? Is it online shopping for Christmas? 

I’m most thankful for my daughter Abby’s return from South Africa. She’s home until the first of the year to rest and reflect before going back to finish her year-long cultural immersion program. The joy and love she’s brought into our house is overwhelming and highly contagious. 

As soon as we picked Abby up at the airport after 73 days abroad, I knew something was different, something in her soul had shifted. Every other sentence seemed to contain the word LOVE. She’d loved her host family, the leaders of her team, and the directors who dedicate their lives to building bridges not walls. She’d fallen in love with poor and rich children, black and white farmers, highly intelligent leaders and uneducated cooks in the kitchen. Her love of all people reminded me a bit of Jesus. 

All I could say was, THANK YOU GOD!

As Abby and I talked more in the days that followed, she shared a passage from the Bible that had propelled her faith forward in South Africa. These timeless truths compelled her to love like Jesus, and not categorize His children. 

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. – Galatians 3:26-29

Simply put, God loves all of His children and has no favorites. How can we follow in His footsteps? 

This Thanksgiving week, possibly even at the table today, there may be people who you find challenging to love. You might not see things the way they do, agree with their political views, or approve of their lifestyle. Still… you can choose love and let go of all that separates you.

If Jesus sat at your dinner table, went on a hike with your family, or went shopping with you, who would He include in His love? What words would He choose? Who would He stop for? How would He touch? In what ways would He encourage? 

You have Jesus’ Spirit within you. Let His unconditional love flow through you and love all of His children He brings into your path. When you love like Jesus, not only does your soul shift, but you saturate those around with love and joy. This is the kind of love that breaks down barriers. It’s highly contagious, give it a try!

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World

Thank You for Being a Part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Call Movement

Ready... Set... Rejoice!

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! – Philippians 4:4

Much to the embarrassment of my family, I am a people watcher. Being out in public for me can be as entertaining as going to the movies. To the point where my kids have to nudge me and plead, “Mom, stop staring!”

Awhile back on vacation, I couldn’t take my eyes off a toddler throwing a monster of a temper tantrum at the beach. I felt badly for his parents. I’m sure they’d worked so hard to get everything ready, anticipating of a fairy tale day of family fun in paradise. But all their little guy wanted to do was eat the sand. Every time they tried to stop his chubby little fingers from shoving fistfuls of it in his mouth, he’d scream like he was being tortured. 

I giggled to myself. Partly out of empathy, partly out of relief that it wasn’t me, and partly because it reminded me of what God must be thinking of us when we whine and complain in our own paradises. We’re given a beautiful day, but we complain about the traffic. We’re having lunch with a co-worker, and criticizing others in our company. It’s Thanksgiving week, but we’re mad at the grocery lines and wish everyone would just “get out of the way!”

Much as the parents on the beach wanted to plead with their son to stop the whining and just enjoy himself, God must look at us sometimes and think the same thing.

Paul, when he urged us to rejoice every day, had endured every kind of hardship you can imagine. He’d been beaten, shipwrecked (three times), bitten by a snake, and imprisoned. You name it, Paul endured it. How could he still rejoice?

I believe Paul could rejoice because of his close relationship with Jesus. He counted this relationship as the most important thing in his life, above all else. He writes about his intense desire in Philippians 3:10, I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him. 

Paul knew his confidence and strength to endure suffering came not from himself, but from Christ. It was Christ’s strength that Paul relied on during his hardships. In knowing that he was Christ’s servant, spreading the good news, Paul could find joy, contentment, peace, and hope in all circumstances, from a packed church to a solitary prison cell. He could praise God knowing each situation was molding him into the likeness of his Savior. You can too. 

What if you saw yourself as a modern day apostle? When asked where your joy comes

from, you point to Jesus. When hardships hit, you walk through them with a

good attitude, giving Jesus the credit. When your self-esteem hits a low, you look up and find your confidence in the One who’s name is greater than all names. 

At all times, in all circumstances JOY is a choice. As Paul encourages, choose wisely and live a life of confident rejoicing.

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank you for being a part of The 3 O’Clock Wake Up Call Movement.

Test Yourself

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 

– 1 Thessalonians 5:18

My highly organized friends sent their Thanksgiving invitations out a month ago. They’ve planned the menu, bought the food, cleaned the house, set the table, and will be ready to relax and give thanks to God next Thursday. 

As for me, I’m planning on keeping up my Thanksgiving tradition: I’ll race around town the day before with an impossibly long shopping list. The next day, I’ll wake up before dawn to clean the house, then spend the rest of the morning cooking and shouting orders at my family to hurry up and help out. When the dinner’s finally on the table, my heart won’t be in the mood to give thanks.

So often our hearts don’t feel like giving thanks, do they?

How can we possibly feel like giving thanks when…the medical report comes back worse than we expected, or the kids are fighting over the same toy again, or the house looks like a bomb went off even though we just cleaned it yesterday, or the bills add up to more than we have in our bank account, or our spouse keeps complaining about the ugly habit we can’t seem to break?

Many years ago, while stuck in a rut and wrestling with God, I accidentally developed the habit of inviting Him into my day at 3:00pm and giving Him thanks. (I say accidentally, because it started with a running watch alarm that I couldn’t re-set. You can read more about that here).

This daily interruption helped me see that my negative mindset was truly hurtful to both me and my children. So I decided to take charge of my afternoon thoughts and turn them to gratitude. At first it was a chore, but soon it became great joy. 

This habit of giving God thanks every day no longer impacts just my afternoons, it has changed my world. Yes, simple moments have the power to change everything. How? 

Intentional moments of gratitude awaken our faith to experience God’s presence around us, His power within us, and His great plans for us. 

Want to see how? Try this:

• Think of a challenging situation or negative emotion that you are struggling with (anger, bitterness, fear, envy, anxiety…). Focus on it for a bit.
• Now, stop and give God thanks for 5 blessings in your life. List them out loud or in your head. Write them down if you can.
• How do you feel now? As you were counting those blessings, you were focusing your mind on the positive in your life and forgetting the negative. 

It’s virtually impossible to be thankful and angry at the same time. If you don’t feel much different, keep practicing. You’ll be amazed how intentional moments of thanking God eventually resets your mind on God’s great design for you.

Each day is an opportunity to take charge of your thinking, to live gratefully. Today, will you give thanks to God in all circumstances and live out His will for your life? 

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World

Thank You for Being a Part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

Multiply, Don't Divide

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

– Romans 15:5-6

Have you ever watched a really heated competition? Maybe a hockey game where the pushing and shoving turns into punches? Or maybe you’ve seen a soccer team turn on itself. When the other team takes the lead, frustration leads to criticism, teammates begin to blame each other, and winning becomes almost impossible. 

I wish this only happened in the world of sports, but unfortunately, disunity is widespread in our families, marriages, parenting, businesses, schools, and churches. Every day the enemy of God works to divide us with schemes like: comparison, envy, competition, judgment, and lies.

But God desires multiplication, not division. 

You are called by God to multiply faith, hope, and love. He gives you endurance and encouragement to have the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had on earth. It’s when we stand in unity with one mind and one voice that we glorify God (Romans 15:5-6).

The first step in unity is taking on Christ’s attitude. Paul explains how this is possible in Philippians 2:1-5. 

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

Take a moment and remind yourself: you are united with Jesus through faith. He comforts you with His love. And His Holy Spirit guides you to become more and more like Christ Jesus. 

In unity, there is nothing you cannot do with Christ’s powerful Spirit alive and active in you. 

In real life, Jesus’ “I Can Do All Things” attitude looks like:

• She picks up the phone and invites the woman who lied about her to lunch.

• He apologizes to his wife for not loving her the way God wants him to.

• They schedule a marriage counseling appointment, and actually go.

• She prays for the friends who abandoned her after her divorce.

• He stops calling her names, because now he sees through God’s eyes.

• They stop competing for personal gain, and choose to collaborate for God’s glory. 

Pray and ask God what attitude He’s calling you to take on and live out this week. There is nothing you cannot do with Christ’s Spirit alive and active in you. 

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World

Thank You for Being a Part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

A Fast Forward Kind of Thinking

A faithful and trustworthy witness will not lie, but a false witness speaks lies. 

– Proverbs 14:5

If you ask children what they want to be when they grow up, they’ll probably tell you a firefighter, dancer, police officer, teacher, or a professional athlete. All the boys growing up in Boston right now would shout, “I’m going to grow up and play baseball for the Red Sox!” (I was just visiting Boston and boy is that town proud of their World Series Championship!…)

No child dreams of becoming homeless, landing in jail, waking up one day flat broke, or living totally alone. No parent holds their newborn in their arms and imagines visiting them one day in a homeless shelter or a county jail. But sadly, men and women across our country sleep on the streets, wake up in jail cells, or find themselves alone on Thanksgiving Day. At some point they’ll ask themselves, “How in the world did I get here?”

At some point in life, usually at our lowest point, we all ask ourselves this question.

How did I get here?

Just ask the married couple who’s signing divorce papers, the parents holding drugs in their teenager’s bedroom, the student being expelled for cheating, or the fifty year old woman checking into rehab. At some point each one of them will press rewind to see if they can connect the dots and discover how they got here. 

I propose we ask a different question when we land in a location we weren’t planning on going. Instead of asking yourself, how did I get here? Ask yourself…

What lie did I lean into, listen to, fall for, and act on? 

Before Eve ate the forbidden apple in the Garden of Eden, she leaned into Satan, listened to his lies, fell for his twisted truth, and then took a bite. (Genesis 3) Satan still uses the same schemes with us today.

See how these modern day scenarios parallel Eve’s ...

Scenario #1 – Compliments & Convincing 

• A co-worker compliments her with a high five and hug. She leans in closer to hear the details of his kind words. He smiles and invites her to grab a drink after work to discuss the next project. But instead of talking about work, they share how both of their marriages are struggling. A few weeks later, he counts how many colleagues are having affairs. He makes three promises. No one will find out, no one will get hurt, and it’s just for fun. He then asks, don’t they deserve to have fun at their age? She agrees and two marriage vows are destroyed. Faithfulness is gone forever.

Scenario #2 – Totally Trusted

• She offers to help keep the books for a non-profit organization. Everyone trusts her so they share the passwords and keys to the safe. Months later, she finds herself alone in the office tasked to deposit thousands of dollars of donations. She counts the cash and separates the checks. Suddenly she’s reminded of an outstanding bill she has. It’s only a few hundred dollars. No one will ever miss such a small amount. She’s been volunteering all this time, doesn’t she deserve some sort of compensation? Stuffing the cash into her pants pocket, a hidden video camera records her every move.

Neither one of these women planned to cheat or steal. They simply followed a slippery slope and listened to a lying voice. In both cases, they agreed they deserved something that wasn’t theirs for the taking. Just like Eve in the garden, they leaned in and listened before they reached out, touched, and took the trap. 

Your enemy will also tempt you with questions such as: Wouldn’t that be exciting? Don’t you deserve it? Why wait, you only live once? Everyone’s doing it, why not give it a try?

That’s why it’s vitally important to think several steps ahead of Satan. If you’re tempted to lean into something, ask yourself what am I listening to? Then ask yourself if those thoughts align with God’s truths. Would God encourage you to think like this?

Before you take the first step forward, imagine a few steps after that. Like a chess match, think three or four moves ahead. Is that where you want to end up?

It’s not a rewinding kind of thinking. It’s a fast forward kind of thinking, so we stop asking ourselves – How in the world did I get here? 

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World

Thank You for Being a Part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

You Are a Friend

A friend loves at all times. – Proverbs 17:17 

Do you remember the names of your first friends?  What they looked like, where they lived and your favorite things to do together? 

As you got older, how did your friendships change?  Which ones have endured throughout the years while other friendships have drifting into the distant? 

My husband has done an amazing job staying connected to his high school and college friends. (so much better of a job than me) I think the secret to his long lasting friendships is a deep loyalty in the heart and a sincere commitment on his calendar. 

He carves out time in his work schedule to visit friends on the east coast and plans surf trips with his local buddies because he recognizes life is too busy to just hope they’ll connect soon.  He keeps the friendships alive by planning fun events to enjoy life together.

I’m guilty of just the opposite.  I hope my friendships last when years pass without seeing each other.  I know she’s just as busy with her kids as I am with mine.  I rationalize when all the kids are grown up, we’ll take that trip to Broadway, we’ll have that beach weekend in Mexico, and we’ll finally talk on the phone often.  But will we really when after twenty years, our hearts and minds have changed so much from what they were in college?

I somehow knew this would happen.  My four roommates at the University of Vermont laughed at me when I cried on our front porch steps he day after graduation, blubbering “It’s over.  We’ll never be this close again.”  They reassured me that we’d be forever friends because we’d been inseparable for the past four years.  I knew we couldn’t maintain this closeness if we were spread all over the country with demanding jobs, husbands to share life with, and families to raise.

Now I look back and know in my heart that I still love every single friend I’ve laughed and cried with over the past forty some years.  I just haven’t done a very good job letting them know it.  Maybe you’re like me.  If so, let’s live out what the Bible says about friendships, “A friend loves at all times.”

It’s never too late to reach out, make the phone call, set a date, or plan a trip.  One way we can thank God for the people He has strategically placed in our lives, is to love them on purpose.  

Who needs to know you still care, or are thinking about them, or praying for them often?  Take a few minutes to let them know your love is still alive and well.  When you do, you are living God’s word in real life. 

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank You for Being a part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

The Gift of Reaching Out

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father.  

– James 1:17 (MSG)

Recently I spent a beautiful morning hiking with a dear friend.  It was her birthday but, but she was the one giving me the gift of time together. Joy and laughter flowed as we talked and laughed along the trail, but I found myself questioning, “Why had it been so long since we’ve spent time together?”  I blamed our packed schedules, our kids… anything I could think of that had kept me away from my hiking companion.  

Later, as I drove home and quietness settled around me.  I realized that I was the one to blame.  I’d let so many other priorities get in the way of enjoying the gift of our friendship. I thought about all the hikes we could have shared, all the encouragement we’d missed out on, and all the love not poured out because of “busyness.”   

God has given you people in your life to treasure: people you enjoy and friends who make you stronger, wiser, and braver.  These people are gifts we can either cherish and “do life with” or take for granted and let months and years go by without enjoying each other’s fellowship.

Think of one or two beloved friends you can reach out to this week and reconnect with. Remember the love God has placed between you and schedule some time together.

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank You for Being A Part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement

Price Tag

How priceless is your unfailing love, O God. – Psalm 36:7

While shopping at the mall for basketball shorts for my daughter, I searched first for the price tags before I presented the different colors and styles to her.  After we had checked out with our sale items, she turned to me and said, “I hope one day I’m rich enough that I don’t have to look at price tags.  Then I can just buy anything I want.”

I was speechless (an infrequent event for my family). Since that day at the mall, I’ve been thinking a lot about price tags.

Today, I was reminded of a Bible Study I taught many years ago on JOY.  During the opening session, I asked the women to fill in the blank of this sentence with the first word that popped into their minds.  You try it!

I am _________________.

What was the first word you thought of?  Interestingly enough, when I asked the participants to anonymously write down their answer on a slip of paper and toss it in a basket, almost 90% of them wrote the same word.  Any guess what it was?

It was “Fat.”  I understood, but was shocked.  We weren’t at Weight Watchers, we were at church.  Why weren’t their words Christian words like beloved, saved, comforted, helped, or joyful?

One reason could be that all of us spend most of our waking hours being bombarded with messages to be someone or something we are not.  Magazines airbrush skinny models.  The fashion industry continues to shrink bathing suits and tank tops.  And cosmetic surgery is on the rise, with Americans spending more than 13.5 billion dollars last year to reshape their bodies.

Wow, that’s a huge price tag!  I wonder what God thinks of all this?  

I’ll tell you what I finally told my daughter at lunch that day at the mall.  While looking into her young eyes I said, “You are priceless to God”.  

How often do we see ourselves from God’s perspective?  Like John, one of Jesus’ disciples and closest friends, we too should call ourselves beloved by Jesus. 

In the King James Version of the Bible, God’s refers to His children as “beloved” one hundred and six times.  Over and over again, God calls you “His beloved.”  You were bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:20).  If God placed a price tag on you it would read: PRICELESS.  

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank You for Being a part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement