I LOST MY FAITH THIS WEEK...

...thank goodness I found it Sunday, just before church.

This past week I had been thinking about God's involvment in my life. I came to realize that I was resolving to believe that God watches what is happening in my life and does care about it, but does little to involve Himself. I accepted that He hears my prayers and knows the desires of my heart, but He only acts when He feels like it. I almost started to feel like life in general was a crap-shoot as to whether God would work to bring about the desires I long for in life.

Just before church, I engaged in a conversation with a woman who I had used as an illustration just last week, for placing our faith in God and counting on Him to respond. She helped me remember that God indeed cares about every aspect of my life. She said that she expects that God is often looking at us an laughing at our anxiety, saying, "Don't worry, I'm taking care of everything."

Personally, I have to remember to balance my belief that God gives us choice and expects us to do the best we can in our lives, and that He is heavily involved in making our dreams come true.

COMPUTERS ARE OF THE DEVIL

You know, sometimes, I believe that we use our God given abilities to create and engineer tools that make our lives easier. But I also believe that we become so reliant on such tools, we fall apart at small collapses in technology. It seems that when we become dependent on technology to accomplish specific goals, we are setting ourselves up for impending doom.

I know, I know, technology helps us a great deal and we are able to accomplish much more today than we could before some great technological advances. I agree. But we have to remember the value of people. It is people who make the technology work, and keep it working. We need to love people more that possibilities.

I'm sure this rant seems unnecessary, but I'm on hold (as I type this) with my webhosting company, hoping to find out why they took my site down after I just upgraded and paid more $$ two weeks ago for my site. Am I being subjective? Yes. But I'm trying to remind myself, before my customer service rep comes on the line, that he or she is more important than my website. Jesus died for him or her, and no one should die over failed webhosting.

HIDING YOUR SINS CAN BE THE FASTEST WAY TO BECOME A CHURCH LEADER

This is a sad truth about churches today. Everyone would say that church is the place where you should feel the grace of God. You shouldn't be afraid to admit your struggles, because everyone there knows that we all struggle. But unfortnately, the people we thrust on a pedestal and put in leadership positions are those who are best at appearing like they have no struggles. If you really want to break it down, you could say that the those who are best at deceiving are given the microphone and expected to lead. We all need to be transparent. We all need to be honest about our struggles. Of course there is a need for some discretion, but not deception. When we admit we are weak, then God can be glorified through our victories over these areas of weakness.

I SURPRISED MYSELF

Again, this post is not necessarily going to be my most inspiring. But I wanted to share a comment that I made last night at a small group we were hosting. -- "Yeah, let's all go around and share a story about a family member's colon." This was in a discussion about the movie, Amazing Grace. It just goes to show how in a discussion, you can move from one idea to another that seems completely unrelated in very little time. Have a great week!