When you have a child that’s attached to a blankie, it goes with you everywhere- just in case.  Heading out the door you grab your purse, your keys, the diaper bag and the blankie.  Going on a trip you take your tickets, your luggage, the snacks and the blankie. It fits into your life so completely you barely think about it until…it’s missing.

The removal of one simple blanket can take a peaceful trip to the grocery store and turn it into an ear splitting, baby screaming disaster.  Any calm, mild mannered parent becomes obsessed with one thing- FIND THE BLANKET!  Blankies are definitely one of those things you don’t really notice until they’re gone.

God has placed something like that in our lives too.  Instead of it being a baby blankie, God places a hedge around us.  The first chapter of Job tells us that God put a hedge around Job and his household and everything he has.  What’s the big deal about a hedge from God?  God’s hedge is not bushes and twigs.  It’s a giant wall of protection from Satan.

This may be hard to wrap your head around.  Why?  Because like a baby blanket, this hedge is most easily seen when it’s gone.  Have you ever moved into a dark time of your life when you felt tested?  Maybe it’s involved the loss of a job, an illness, a struggling marriage or maybe all three.  In that difficult place it’s easier to see that before the problems, life had not been so bad.  You catch yourself yearning for the times when your biggest problems were stretching a paycheck, being too tired to go out or wishing your kids would clean their room.

It’s one thing to see the goodies in life as blessings but maybe we need to see the small problems as blessings too.  Thank God for your times of simple problems and common stress.  It’s important to SEE God’s hand when life does not seem so hard.  Too often we wait until the hard times come and then we stop and try to understand what God is up to in our lives.  Our faith can be strengthened through the storms of life but there is much to be learned about who God is in the calm.  Believe me, if you take the time to see God in your seasons of protection it will be easier to see God in your seasons of trial.

Don’t wait until the calm is gone to notice the blanket of warmth God has placed around you.  Rejoice in the broken rear view mirror and the toilet that won’t stop running.   See God in the daily bumps in the road.  He’s there you know.  He’s always there.

Imagine jumping in your car with a map, a tank of gas (and a camera grew) to display the meaning of a song.  That is what Britt Nicole did for her song The Lost Get Found.  The opening screen of her video says:

“On September 16 and 17 I took a road trip and asked God to put people in my path that were in need.  These are the people I met.  I hope this encourages you to reach out to those around you.”

This is the song she was trying to demonstrate:

So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There’s a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
There’s a girl on the streets, she’s cryin’
There’s a man whose faith is dyin’
Love is calling you

Don’t let your lights go down
Don’t let your fire burn out
’cause somewhere, somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don’t you rise up now?
Don’t be afraid to stand out
That’s how the lost get found
The lost get found

I love the mix and uniqueness of all the people she touched in her video but the thing that impresses me the most is her prayer.  What if you prayed that prayer and God started popping all these folks in need around you?  What could you do for them?  How would that fit into your schedule?  What if you saw a needy person when you were with your kids?  Do you really have time in your life for needy people?

Be inspired not just by the song but by the video too.  CHECK IT OUT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO2prEoATH8

I’m so glad I found this song.  I apparently am not the only one because it won Song of the Year at the 2011 Dove Awards.   Jason’s rich voice and simple clarity makes Sometimes I Cry a true expression of a simple truth:  No matter how strong your faith, sometimes the walk can be hard.

I try to speak faith
never give the devil one inch to get in
I do worship and praise
let everybody know just where that I stand
on the back of my ride is a fish and a cross
for the world to see
I know God is good, all of the time
yes there’s no doubt for me

Chorus
But sometimes I hurt and sometimes I cry
sometimes I can’t get it right
no matter how hard I seem to try
sometimes I fall down
stumble over my own disguise
I try to look strong
as the whole world looks on
but sometimes alone I cry

My favorite line is when the chorus says “Sometimes I can’t get it right no matter how hard I try.”  It’s time like those we fall back on Jesus’ ability to use our mistakes.  Sit back and let the truth of this lovely song melt through you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE0Gb28MF4c

“If we hear in our inner ear, a voice saying we are failures, we are losers, we will never amount to anything, this is the voice of Satan trying to convince the bride that the groom does not love her.  This is not the voice of God.  God woos us with kindness, He changes our character with the passion of His love.”

College can breed some peculiar survival techniques.  One technique I latched on to in college was the late night junk food run.  While many of my roommates preferred thick crust pizza or the candy aisle at the nearest gas station, I usually found myself at 1 AM in a car filled with starving girls headed to a drive through burger place.  Now I never ordered a burger, I was too broke for such a high-end delicacy.  I just got a large fry and a Diet Coke.   Many times my girlfriends would ask me why I bothered with a Diet Coke when I was digesting massive quantities of grease, carbohydrates and fat grams from the French fries.  My answer?  “The Diet Coke cancels out the fat in the fries.”  Now I did not REALLY believe that the fat was miraculously dissolved by the magical properties of a diet soda but saying it made the fries go down easier.

Junk food is not the only bad thing that goes down better with a good excuse.   At some point, washing down the bad with some good is something we all do.  It might sound like: “I know I yell at my kids but to be a good mom I have to get things through their heads.”  Or “I know I didn’t have any charitable contributions last year but isn’t it important to be a good provider?”  Maybe even “I know I lied.  I’m not really putting in over time but when I’m away from the house there’s less fighting.”   It’s too easy to find a good excuse to try and water down the bad things we’re doing.

This is not a new discovery.  The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:21 “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”  It’s creepy to think that evil is right there with you but it’s true.  Christians want to do good, try to do good and sometimes, things really do turn out good.  But more often than we’d like to admit, our good intentions are over shadowed by our bad behavior.

There’s lots of ways to hide the evil that’s right there with you.  You could ignore it saying something like “Giving to charities is not important.”  or you could justify the evil by saying  “It’s OK I lied because then no one would get hurt.” or you could even try some magical thinking like “My kids know I love them so it’s OK I yell.”

Good doesn’t dissolve evil just like Diet Coke doesn’t dissolve fat grams.  We must learn to live with both.  But how?  Later in Chapter 7, Paul asked the same thing by saying “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”  And his answer?  “Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Ask Jesus to show you the evil that is right beside you then don’t ignore it, justify it or wish it away.  Take it to your rescuer- Christ the Lord.

Hard for me not to love anything by Third Day but this song really speaks to where I am today,  heading into 2011.  Wouldn’t a little revelation be nice right about now?  “What’s next God?”  “Which way?”  “Don’t let me go down a path without you… again.”    Let this song be a soothing refrain as you search for your own private revelation.

Give me a revelation
Show me what to do
‘Cause I’ve been trying to find my way
I haven’t got a clue
Tell me should I stay here
Or do I need to move
Give me a revelation
I’ve got nothing without you
I’ve got nothing without you

The video has two things I love.  One is it shows this amazing testimony of God’s love that someone painted on a mountain in the desert and it has great clips of Third Day in concert.  If you have never seen Third Day in concert, you are missing out.  Enjoy the video and the second link will take you to the list of stops for their next tour.

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=DPGDYPNX

http://www.thirdday.com/touring/upcoming-shows

I am one of those people that love daily devotions but have problems doing them daily.  I just struggle in general with daily habits.  But My Utmost for His Highest is by far the best devotional I have ever used.  Oswald Chamber’s wife compiled the book of devotions after Chamber’s death from a collection of his writing.  Maybe that’s what I like.  His writings were developed for a variety of audiences from laypeople to theologians to seminary students. 

He’s not one to mix words.  He tells it like is is and I love that.  Other than my Bible, my copy of My Utmost for Hish Highest is my most highlighted, scribbled in and underlined of any book I own.  Before I began my quote of the week, I used to put “Quotes from Ossie” on my blog.  He shared enough wisdom to last a long, long time.

Try it for your devotion in 2011 but be careful which edition you buy.  I have the origional old english sounding version but there is a newer version with updated language.  Both rock.

http://www.amazon.com/My-Utmost-His-Highest-CHAMBERS/dp/0929239571#reader_0929239571

When my son Garrett was in middle school, there were only 7 boys on the basketball team. If sickness or poor grades took out a couple of players, the remaining guys would play the entire game leaving no one to warm the bench.  All the boys wanted to play but no one wanted to run up and down the court for the entire game.  By the middle of the second half, warming the bench was starting to sound good to those tired boys.

It’s funny how we expect teams to always have replacements sitting on the bench.  But when you are playing on God’s team, there’s no bench warmers.  God has provided a dynamic life for each of us, He’s not designed you to be a spectator.  He wants you living each day lifting up prayers, praises and other people.  I have to admit it sounds exhausting living each day in the midst of God’s adventure.  Sometimes it might be nice to take a break.

Jonah was a guy who decided to take a break from the adventure God had planned for him.  In Jonah 1:3 it says “Jonah ran from the Lord.”  What was this guy thinking?  Where did he think he could go to get away from the Lord?  I think Jonah just wanted to sit on the bench a while and watch others on God’s team charge down the court.  As a prophet, Jonah had charged off for the Lord lots of times but now God wanted him to go to Nineveh and preach to a bunch of sinners.  Well, you probably know the story.  Jonah fled on a boat, God sent a mean storm then he sent a huge fish and volla’, Jonah is off the bench and back in the game.  That’s right, it took being swallowed by a huge fish to get Jonah back on God’s grand adventure for His life.

Here’s my question- why did God bother?  Why did God go through all of that to bring Jonah back?  After all, God didn’t need Jonah to save the people of Nineveh.  He could have sent someone else whose heart was ready to jump in the game.  But He didn’t.  God stuck with Jonah.  God did not let Jonah run away.  Why?  Because God’s plan was not just to draw the people of Nineveh closer to Him, it was to draw Jonah closer to Him too. 

Some of you may be thinking God has assigned you to sit on the bench and watch other people’s adventures.  Maybe you have thoughts like “I’ll get to God’s work when I’m not so busy, or when the kids are older or when I’m feeling better.  For now, I’ll just watch the game.”   Like Jonah, what you’re forgetting is that you are the game.  God’s goal for the game is not to complete a task but to complete you.  You know that ache that urges you to put more meaning in your life? That’s God dragging you off the bench and right smack in the middle of the game.  Don’t live life as a spectator…God intends you to live right in the middle of the most exciting game you’ll ever see : your life. Go ahead.  Grab the ball and GO!

I’m not sure why I first picked up a Michael Chabon book.  Could be because he won the Pulitzer for one of his novels but more likely I liked his goofy titles.  Gentlemen of the Road is a fast paced, fun novel that is written in the style of the old serial or even a comic book.  The characters are constantly on one wild escapade or another as they over come unbelievable odds just to find themselves in a new catastrophe.

The humor in Chabon’s writing I find enticing but his writing style I find addictive.  He expects the reader to be bright, and articulate by using vocabulary and metaphor that add richness and depth to the simplest of scenes.  Gentelmen of the Road is a great “kick back and enjoy” type of book that will leave you feeling it was well worth the ride.

http://books.google.com/books?sitesec=reviews&id=sMb8_Yf8uXAC

You need to see this very cool video: http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/11/awesome-pop-up-hallelujah-chorus-at.html