philip's musings

Oswald Chambers:  “We are not meant to be seen as God’s perfect, bright-shining examples, but to be seen as the everyday essence of ordinary life exhibiting the miracle of His grace. Drudgery is the test of genuine character. The greatest hindrance in our spiritual life is that we will only look for big things to do.”
“Jesus…took a towel and…began to wash the disciples’ feet…” (John 13:3-5).

The last thing we men want to do are all the minuscule tasks of daily living… ask any guy from the 40’s and 50’s what their wives did… raise 6 to 8 kids, do the wash, ironing, shopping, cooking, cleaning, scrubbing, etc…. all the minuscule tasks of life that we guys hated to do… we men did all the important, significant things… we were the breadwinners, the heads of our house, responsible for the finances and other important decisions that needed to be made.

That way of life is long gone… now we can all discover the joy of doing the drudgeries of every day life.  The Lord has brought me to a place where I have embraced all the small repetitious things that are so much a part of my life… whatever they look like…  (nothing like owning a restaurant to help with that)  … cutting the lawn, digging out dandelions, climbing ladders to scrape and paint the house,  (everyone should own a picket fence)…
🙂  ….         just ‘washing feet’...  wherever and whenever….

After reading the book  “Dream Big”,  I saw how dreaming big is a good thing…. actually a very important part of life…. what a thrill it was to talk to Nate about it after he read it…  more next time….

🙂

I have been a part of several  big movements  in my Christian journey…. when I had my collision with God, I was sent directly into  “fundamental evangelicalism”…. soon had an experience with God that sent me on into  “Pentecostalism” … from there into  “Para-Church-ism”…  then the  “Charismatic Movement”  …. and finally the     “Shepherding and Discipleship Movement”….  now I simply walk with Him , enjoy His fellowship and watch Him do all the work…  one person at a time.

I not only became very  anti-religion-anti-religious  in whatever shape or form it appears, but became totally against anything  “Big”  being done for God…. that is… until that weekend I wrote about back on June 6th … about those 2 experiences that I had.

One was a little kid’s book I read… that I had bought for Nate’s birthday… the title was   “Dream Big”.. written for children of all ages… especially  this  almost 83 year old child…  🙂

It was written by the 63 year old director of the Boston Marathon.… here is a link to the story of how it came about…      Dave McGillivray

I was total mush after I read the book.  I can barely begin to tell you how it challenged all my previous thinking…  but I will give it a whirl… of course… you already knew that.

🙂

“Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them….”

We had a really nice family dinner last night, celebrating Nate’s 9th birthday.  There is more than one “Musing”  rolling around in my head about our time together…. so… I will start with this one….

Proverbs 22:6    “Train up a child in the way he should go….”   This is the part that depends on us…. I have enjoyed watching Nate being trained by his parents… when parents put the clamps on early,  (in the beginning),  then gradually loosen the restraints, we are training our children  “in the way they should go”… most folks today do the opposite… we let children do whatever they want in the beginning  (and children want what they want when they want it)  and then we try to put the clamps on when he/she reaches their teens… oh my…. how did that work out…

When we do what  depends on us… then He does the rest ….. and…  Proverbs 22:6 continues  … “Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

🙂

Jesus has made it so simple… so clear… so easy…. how come we make it so complicated… ?

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

“Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

“And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

“Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!”

the best way I know… in order to have the  “right things in your heart”… and make it  totally safe to  “do what is in your heart“… is a pretty simple way… just ask Him  about everything you want to do!!!!

Throughout scripture He tells us these kinds of things constantly….

it is safe to do them…  🙂

Follow me and I will…

Come to me all you who are…

Seek me and you will…

Ask me and you will…

Knock and it shall…

Everyone who thirsts… come….

These verses are all about Jesus…. not about religious activities or getting “things” from God… If you’ve never given this a try…. why not?   You might discover Him  in a whole different way.    🙂

We could do this.  We could do that.  We could do the other also.  But… what … is in our hearts... what has been cooking in there but never expressed… what is it that I really, really, really would like to do.

That time when I explained to our son, what I meant about his “doing what is in your heart to do” … I showed him some options that he could think about, based on his background and life up to this point…

He had graduated with a justice degree from American University… so I told him he could go back and pursue a law degree and be an attorney.

He had leukemia at age 15… so I told him he could come back to Vermont and become a doctor of oncology at UVM Medical School.

He was a high school basketball superstar… so I told him he could come back to Vermont and coach his old high school’s basketball team.  Don’t make it about “money”… just make it about what is in your heart.

You could put all your belongings in a back pack and just travel wherever you have ever  wanted to go…. just be a vagabond… travel the world!

You are our son.  We love you. We will support you in whatever choice you make.

We all have options and choices to make.  Personally, I just want what God wants… then I believe that what is in my heart is what He put there… I also know that  I am His son… that He loves me… that He will support me in whatever choice I make.

Why not do what is in your heart to do?  What are we afraid of?  Missing God?   We would rather do what someone us tells us to do?  Hmmmm….

Our son had moved to Chicago and taken a job with Arthur Anderson.  They hired 70 people the day they hired him… everyone making over $40,000 a year… they had 85,000 employees… I need to tell you, that is a world I have no understanding of at all…  🙂

Then came the Enron scandal in 2002… our son made it thru the first 7000 people they laid off… but not the second round of 7000.  He called us asking for any advice we might have. Guess what I told him?  It was the first time I ever said this.  I suggested that he  “do whatever was in his heart”…

Then I explained to him what that means.   I’ll explain it to you tomorrow…  🙂