I hate getting sick. Especially when I get the cold or so, it completely wipes me out. All I ever want to do is just sleep. I can’t talk, I lose my voice almost completely, I can’t breathe through my nose, and hearing is not all too good because of my clogged up ears. Let’s face it, I’m a complete baby when I’m sick. I have no patience whatsoever and all I want is to get back to normalcy as soon as possible. I want to be back to work, back in the gym exercising, back to doing normal activities again and functioning like a normal person. I feel restless, get me out of the bed covers I want to live again! But my body tells me to slow it down, hold on , not so fast. Our body needs time to rebuild its immune system. We have to rest knowing that our body is working to fight the virus but if we get in the way, and try to hurry and get ahead of our body’s time schedule, we only make matters worse and it’s only going to prolong the healing process. In the same way, as Christians in our spiritual journey, sometimes we find ourselves in rebuild mode. Perhaps it’s because we have sinned or because of this sinful life, sometimes it’s hardships that come our way and we discover ourselves lying in our beds unable to function.  We look at our situation and we get frustrated, discouraged and we even doubt whether the path to recovery is even possible. For some of us it’s an addiction that we have been battling for years and it has set us back in our spiritual progress and so we get impatient and instead of resting in God’s strength to fight it, we get in the way by trying harder. We read our Bibles more, pray more, fast more but what we really need to do is rest in the promises of God and let Him fight the battle for us. Yes, there is work we have to do, but if we try to do it outside of the doctor’s orders, we will only make it worse. Whatever our situation is, we have to remember that rebuilding our lives does not happen overnight. Jesus says to consider the birds. Let’s take a look at the sparrow. When a storm comes and blows her nest, she doesn’t panic, doesn’t get bitter, doesn’t complain. She just dries off her wings the next day and begins building again, one straw at a time. We need to learn to pace ourselves. We want to rush things but we need to learn to “Be still and know that He is Lord”. Be still? That’s very hard sometimes for me to do but if He says wait, be patient, be still, than that’s what I’m going to do. Remember, scripture says, “those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.” So where are we? Do we find ourselves in recovery mode, tucked under the covers, unable to move? Don’t worry, you’re in good hands. Jesus, the Good Doctor is the ultimate healer. Don’t try and rush the process, you’ll only get in the way. Let God do His work, follow the Doctor’s orders. When He says rest, we rest in His promises and when He says get up and move, we move. We must “keep in step with the Spirit”. We may not like how long it might take but if we take it one day at a time, eventually the day will come when we will be leaving our bed covers for good, at full strength again, running the race we were meant to run.

Psalm 46:10 New International Version (NIV)

10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

Isaiah 40:31 King James Version (KJV)

31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

“The Itsy Bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Up came the sun and dried up all the rain and the Itsy Bitsy spider climbed up the spout again”. I was singing that the other day in the car with my three year old son and eight year old daughter. We were actually listening to the classic song “Come Around Again” by Carly Simon. Remember that one? Her song is based off the lovable nursery rhyme. What I get from her song is that things in life, like relationships can fall apart but like the sun, love will come around again and give us little spiders another chance to climb that spout again. As Christians, we too are like the spider. We venture out on our God given dreams or our path to holiness and we’re climbing up that spout but of course the rains in life come down to wash us off. It’s easy to get discouraged and give up thinking there is no way to climb that spout again. But thanks be to God for His Son who rose from the grave and conquered death so we can overcome too. I don’t know what that water spout represents for you. Maybe it’s a dream, a relationship or maybe an addiction you’re trying to overcome and the rains of life keep washing you off. Don’t give up hope, keep fixing your eyes on Jesus, whose love is more constant than the sun and focus on the promises of His word. Remember, His word is a “light unto our path”. Allow that light to burn so bright that it dries up all the rain and before you know it, you’ll find yourself back on that water spout again.

Psalm 119:105-112 King James Version (KJV)
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Hebrews 12:2 New International Version (NIV)
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I’ve been in a few relationships, where we had to reach the point where we couldn’t go on the same path anymore. She had to go her way and I had to go my way. Of course that dreaded word “goodbye “ was always uttered every time and usually it was as cold as ice. What happened? What went wrong? Each relationship had its own unique and different reasons for the breakup but it always had one common denominator and that was me. Sometimes we don’t want to admit it, but we play a role too in the demise of our broken relationships. I’ve been to divorce groups and I’ve talked to many going through a divorce and it’s always about their spouse. Their spouse did that and their spouse did this but very rarely did I ever hear what their faults were. I know it’s hard to admit or sometimes share because who wants to tell someone that their marriage ended because they were at fault. I know there are cases where the other spouse is more to blame but it still takes two to tango. If you are one who is going through the aftermath of a divorce, or a breakup in a dating relationship, my encouragement to you is to stop finding faults in your ex partner and begin to seek inwardly and take a serious look at what role you may have played in the breakup. Ask God to show you and confess it and then give to Him. The anger, the bitterness will eventually fade and that’s when the real healing takes place. It could be an addiction to alcohol, pornography, sex, whatever the area of sin, we must learn to first come to terms with ourselves, humble ourselves before a holy God and confess our sin. We must give up holding on to thinking we got this, there’s no problem with me and humbly admit to ourselves that we don’t have it altogether. When we do this, that’s when we will start to see the healing that God wants to do in our hearts. If we do reconcile with our ex partner or begin again with another person, we will then not be bringing the same baggage we carried before into the next relationship. Remember, scripture says you can’t love your neighbor unless you love yourself. Now I know there are two different interpretations of this. There’s the one that says, love others like yourself because we are really good at doing that. We think of ourselves all the time and so it’s easy for us to love ourselves. So love others in the same way. But there’s another view. Sometimes we self sabotage ourselves and make decisions that hurt us. Too many of us hurt others simply because we are hurting. If we can learn what it is to help ourselves we can get to a better place of empowerment and this will in turn help us to love others. Both views are right and I believe that both are applicable here. I believe that the reason we find ourselves checked into heartbreak hotel is that we failed to follow this golden rule. May God show us the areas of our lives to give up to Him so He can heal our hearts and we can love others the way God intends us to. Remember if we have put our trust in Jesus, then we have the Spirit of Love who can help us to love like Christ. Just let the God of love have your heart, stop holding onto the past hurts, give Him your baggage, he’ll know what to do with it and when someone you love says goodbye, don’t cry. Learn to let go or you’ll miss out on your next hello.

Mark 12:30-31 New International Version (NIV)
31 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Galatians 5:22 New International Version (NIV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love

I read once that your life is made up of a sum of your choices. Looking back on my life, I find this to be so true. Especially when it comes to my career path and the relationships I have had with other women. In my journey in life, I have come across many a fork in the road where I was forced to make a decision. I would like to say that every choice I made was the right one. Sometimes the path I would take would lead me to green pastures and satisfaction but often the paths I took led to hardships, loneliness, and a broken heart. Then out of that broken heart, I would find another path to take and that would lead me to rejection. Then from rejection I would take another path and that would lead me to a place called addiction. Then from addiction that path would lead me to a place called shame and guilt. Then from shame and guilt that would lead me to a place called desperation and from desperation to hopelessness and eventually I would settle in a place of broken, messed up relationships and unfulfilled dreams. How about you? Do you find yourself lost, meandering in the woods, taking any path you find that comes your way? Are your choices made out of impulses and emotions? I think if you’re anything like me you can relate to this. So, why do we do the things we do? How can we stop the cycle of repeating the same toxic relational choices, career decisions or self sabotaging habits we form that make us live in our world of regrets?  I believe in order to truly find a way out of our woods, we should all start to take an inventory of our lives and ask ourselves the question, is the reason I want to be with this person, based out of fear or faith? You see whatever the choices we make, we either make them out of those two things, fear or faith. Fear says I’m lonely and afraid that I’m getting older and no one is going to want to marry me, therefore I’m going to settle with this person who loves me even though I’m not madly in love with this person. Fear says, it’s too risky for me to go for my dreams, get your head out of the clouds, get some stability in your life and stay in this job that’s safe and secure. So what do we do? We spend years of our lives, counting beans in a corner, unsatisfied, when deep down there’s this burning desire to be writing the next great novel which will inspire millions around the globe. Faith says, I’m not going to settle and rush into this relationship because I don’t need anyone to complete me. I’m content in my singleness, I’m loved by God and He completes me. Faith says I’m not going to just take the easy paths, I’m going to choose the road less traveled. I’m going challenge myself and not run from obstacles but see them as the bridge to opportunity that will eventually lead me to my God given destiny. Faith says that all things are possible with God, so I don’t have to settle for mediocrity, I don’t have to accept an outcome of defeat but one of victory. Remember, scripture says “Perfect love casts out all fear.” That perfect love is only found in the one who gave it up for us all on the cross and who rose again defeating the grave. For Jesus to live in our lives and drive out fear it’s got to come from faith and trusting Him to achieve this. It is not up to us to muster up the strength. We must give up trying and give up leading our lives. The scripture says, “that those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God”. This verse is not saying that a genuine believer is always led by the Spirit because we know that even genuine believers can at times make choices being led by something else. Scripture is full of examples of men of faith like Abraham for example, who was led at times by fear. His impulses led him at times to deceive others about his relationship with his wife Sarah and also his fears led him to have intimate relations with his mistress Hagar to try and bring about God’s promise of a child. He tried to do it in his way and as a result, God couldn’t bless his works. But whenever He let faith be the starting point, God always blessed him. Many times we too fail to trust and let faith lead us, but don’t beat yourself up, you are in good company. Just read Hebrews 11 and just about all those listed in the “hall of fame” of faith, were people like you and me who were not perfect at all. However, as a child of God there is grace and He will enable us to achieve His dream for our lives. All we have to do is give up trying in our own strength and let Him lead our lives through His Holy Spirit. All we have to do is spend time with Him in prayer and worship so that He fills our love tank, and we won’t have to fill it with something secondary. So the next time we are faced with a major decision in life, let’s tell fear to go back to where it belongs, in the grave, where Jesus left it. Wait for His leading and then move. When you follow Jesus, His path will always lead us to a place of empowerment.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Romans 8:14
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

One of my favorite stories growing up as a child was “Peter Pan”.  As a boy it appealed to me because of the interesting characters like Captain Hook and the pirates but it also was fascinating because I always wanted to be able to fly like Peter Pan, and just soar above the clouds.  As an adult now with two kids, the story still fascinates me but for different reasons. I love the theme about never growing up, and staying young at heart. Sometimes as adults we lose that as we get older. We lose that spark we once had when we were young. We get stuck in the mundane of life, just going through the motions. I once was alive like Peter Pan, full of life, full of dreams and ambitions. I wasn’t afraid to dare to fly to my Neverland. However, over the years I sadly have to admit, I was settling for what I thought was the real world and eventually the dream to fly to Neverland became foolishness.  Suddenly, pixie dust no longer worked its magic, suddenly, the lost boys I once hung out with were distant and instead of playing in the woods and being free, I began to listen to the naysayers, the pirates, and the dream of walking in the clouds was replaced with both feet securely on the ground. I bought the lie that says it’s safer to live your life in reality and not in the clouds. Life’s challenges and rejections began to wear me down. I started to think of myself as a man who is talented but will never see my dreams come to fruition.  I started to believe that I would never set foot in my Neverland. But thankfully a good friend of mine, reminded me of what I once was. She held up the mirror of scripture and got me to look intently at my own wrinkles. It was a hard pill to swallow. How did I ever let myself grow up? I never thought it would happen to me but it did. I had lost that child like spirit. I was now a pirate. It seemed like I was living the plot line to the Robin Williams movie, “Hook”. Thankfully, God’s Word reminded me the truth that to follow Jesus we must become like little children. Only when we become like little children can we enter the kingdom of God. I’m convinced that the spiritual development of a Christian is the exact opposite from the regular maturation process we experience with our earthly bodies. When we are born into this world, we are dependent on everyone but as we mature, we become less dependent on others and more and more independent so we can become functioning adults. However, in the Christian life, we are told to make it our goal to become like kids. When we are born again spiritually we are adults, full of ourselves, independent, making our own choices but as we grow up in Christ, we should become more and more like children who are humbled, dependent on their Heavenly Father for everything, and trusting Him to make the decisions for our lives. When we get to that place where we are totally relying on God for everything, then I believe we will find ourselves soaring to places only God could ever imagine for our lives.  When we follow Jesus just as a child follows His parents, Jesus will take us on an adventure. You’ll notice in the scriptures there was never a dull moment with Jesus. When Jesus said follow Him, it meant walking on the waves. He wasn’t in the boat playing it safe and secure and even when He was in a boat, He slept during storms. He didn’t let fear or anything in reality stop Him from believing in His reality. He didn’t listen to the naysayers who shouted out to crucify Him and ridiculed Him for claiming to be the King of the Jews. He became a child and believed everything His Father told Him that He was. He stood firmly in His identity from the baptism to the cross and three days later defeated the grave of reality, eventually ascending into the sky, with His two feet touching the clouds. He now looks to us and invites us to come to Him as little kids. He welcomes us like lost boys and gives us a home. He wants us to follow Him into an adventure that He has planned for us. An adventure that can only be experienced when we learn to grow young, and believe. So where do you find yourself?  Stuck and going nowhere with two feet on the ground of reality? Just set your hearts and minds on things above, and you will find yourself leaving the ground for good, soaring towards your Neverland, following His footprints in the clouds.

Matthew 18:2-4 New International Version (NIV)
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.