Christians everywhere are fighting a force most of us cannot see. It is a two-headed challenge we all face: Living with spiritual INTENTION—focused commitment–and not have it be derailed by our worldly INATTENTION.    Beating back the world’s distractions and committing to an intentional focus on Christ is one tough job.    It’s a silly understatement to say we are living...

I have no idea why the notion of MISSING THE BUS consumed me with my first breath this morning and then shot forward like a rocket when a jolt of java delivered its brewed energy. Perhaps MISSING THE BUS came from the busload of youngsters—masked but still giddy—I saw on the way to this one-room wilderness cabin housing me to work on my book for a couple of days.    But forget about the...

Are you still feeling ADEQUATE? Are you still wanting to be the BOSS of your life? Are you still thinking it IS possible to be partially connected to God? If the answer to any of those questions is YES or MAYBE, please join ME and you’ll be in the right spot. Here’s why…    We’re only one third the way into this month’s hyper-focus on the spiritual imperative of recognizing our INADEQUACY...

Early in my faith walk I had no idea how DAMAGING it was to get MY OWN horses ready for the battles of life and think it was not only sufficient, but “the best way to go.” Recognizing my INADEQUACY without God wasn’t even a seed that could grow. It did not exist in me.    Moving down my spiritual road a piece has brought my INADEQACY without God into essential focus. Though full of pain,...

We all have bosses.   The two-year-old who tests the boundaries set by well-meaning parents. The teenager managing his online profiles the way HE thinks is the best. The head-strong CEO who thinks he is boss of EVERYTHING—not just the business, but his entire life (ME early in my faith walk). Playing boss creeps into the life of every human being on planet earth. It is inevitable...

Failing to recognize our INADEQUACY without God is the first step on the road to naming ourselves “BOSS.” But what goes through the mind of a Christian before rejecting God and embracing the lie that they can be the boss of their life?    They play the NEVER song over and over in their mind: I will NEVER be good enough for God to forgive my past. God will NEVER use me to build-up his Kingdom...

RECOGNIZING OUR INADEQUACY without God is not a “one and done” exercise. We must work on it EVERY DAY. I learned that lesson the hard way early in my faith walk. It was a time that had me searching for an EASY way to fire myself as boss and promote God to be the CEO of my life. I wanted to draw a line through the word SELF; but did not know how to pull it off.    It took far too long, but...

It hit my early this morning during my quiet time that the spiritual imperative of RECOGNIZING OUR INADEQUACY without God is a FIGHT that I want to be “the good fight” Paul talks about in 2 Timothy.    “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7    We all—that includes YOU—have a fight to fight in this life on planet earth. Everyone’s...

By now you can see that this month’s spiritual imperative–RECOGNIZING OUR INADEQUACY without God–is mostly about not trying to be the boss of our life. About trusting God. About embracing HIS WILL over our own. That’s the neat and tidy summary. But it understates, if not ignores, the reality that trusting GOD’S WILL can be so frightening that defaulting to OUR WILL is an ever-present and...

The spiritual imperative of RECOGNIZING OUR INADEQUACY is misleading. To admit our INADEQUACY without God is so understated that it can cause us to miss that we are utterly, 100% HELPLESS without God.    INADEQUATE and HELPLESS without God is how I want to live out my faith every single day. Not just on Sundays. Not just when my spiritual equilibrium is in balance. Not just when my moods...