Growing my faith, my relationship with God, is my top priority. Above all else, my relationship with Christ must come first. Everything else in my life hinges upon this. But in order to do that, you have to develop a series of disciplines that will help you grow and mature in your faith.

As a minister, all too often, I have conversations that center around how to grow and mature in our faith. I have discovered that most people have no idea what to do to deepen their faith. Most of the people I have these conversations with want to deepen their faith, they just aren’t sure how to go about doing that.

As a result, I’ve decided to write a series of posts about spiritual disciplines. These are habits that I believe are necessary to grow in our faith. These are habits that are either prominent in Scripture, or have been proven through the lives of other, spiritually mature believers.

Not everyone grows in the same fashion or speed. What might be a breeze to one person may be a difficult discipline to master for another. But I firmly believe that each of these disciplines play a part in our becoming who God has created us to be.

Over the course of the next few weeks and months, I will be writing a series of posts about these disciplines. Each post (or posts, maybe) will define each discipline, and give some practical ideas on how to implement this effectively in our lives.

By nature, these will be fairly brief overviews. Books could be, and have been written on each of these topics. My intent is not to recreate a lot of that material, but to give some resources that can be used to help deepen your faith, as these disciplines have deepened mine.

The inner life is something that too many of us neglect. We purchase gym memberships for the physical body. We educate ourselves, sometimes through graduate and post-graduate levels, for the mental portion of our lives. But when it comes to the spiritual aspect of our reality, we find it sufficient to attend church each Sunday, maybe even on Wednesdays, and we get our spiritual fill-up at those times.

That simply is not enough.

If we are to grow in our faith, we must be as intentional about it as we are with our other goals, physical, mental, relational, or otherwise. The inner being, though neglected, is perhaps the most important part of who we are. After all, we are created as spiritual beings. Our bodies will grow old and die. Our minds will grow feeble and forgetful. But the spiritual part of us is eternal.

So why do we ignore it?

I believe that if we strive to make these disciplines a reality in our lives, we will see significant spiritual growth.

These are not cut and dried, formulaic patterns, where if you do this, you’ll get that. But just like anything else in our lives, when we focus and practice something intentionally and repeatedly, it will become stronger, we will become better at it. In short, we will grow.

As a youth minister, I always used the illustration of tennis. I don’t know why. I don’t play tennis. I don’t watch tennis. I have no desire to do either. But if I wanted to become a great tennis player, I would need to learn the principles of the game. And I would need to practice. I would have to continue to do these things, and in time, I would become competent, become more adept, and eventually master the game. Perhaps I would never win a championship, but I would have a skill in the game that others do not, because I applied myself to learning and growing.

The same is true with our spiritual disciplines. The more we apply them in to our lives, the more we practice them, the stronger our skills will become, and the deeper our faith will grow.

Over the years, I’ve read several books on this topic, and I’ve identified a list of several disciplines that I think we should consider. Some of my thoughts have been shaped by two books in particular: Ordering Your Private World, by Gordon MacDonald, and Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster. Each of these have played a valuable role in teaching me to develop spiritual disciplines. Much of what I will share have been developed in my life because of these two books, which I read years ago.

But my growth in this didn’t stop after I read these books. Instead, I took the disciplines I was introduced to by these books, and implemented them, tweaking them to fit my life, growing in them to become stronger in my faith because of them.

Those are the things I want to share with you in this series.

Here is a partial list of the topics I plan to cover. As this series progresses, I will probably add to this list. And I will return here and add links as each post is written. This page will serve as a landing page of sorts for the entire series.

• Reading The Bible
  • The Importance Of Reading The Bible
  • Establishing The Discipline Of Reading The Bible
• Praying
  • The Purpose Of Prayer
  • Rejuvenating Your Prayer Life
• Fasting
• Solitude
  • The Need For Solitude
  • Cultivating Solitude
• Community
• Bible Study (More than just reading)
• Developing Healthy Priorities
• Meditation
• Simplicity
• Serving Others
• Worship
• Submission
• Fellowship
• Confession
• Celebration
• Developing A Life Plan
• Personal Retreat Days
• Reading Good Books
• Guidance
• Mentoring Others

I realize this is a lot of disciplines to take in. But I have learned that each of these, to one degree or another, is essential in my life for me to become the person God has created me to be. And I’m fairly certain that I will add a few others to this list as it goes on.

I’ve found each of these to be very beneficial in my life. I hope that you will find them helpful as well.

The post Establishing Spiritual Disciplines appeared first on JeffRandleman.com.

Most of us long for personal growth and spiritual growth. Often, those two areas can overlap. If we want to grow, there are a few areas of life where we need to invest time and effort to make growth possible.

Luke’s Gospel gives us a brief glimpse into the childhood of Jesus when he tells of Jesus in the Temple at the age of 12. It’s an interesting snapshot of the childhood of Jesus, and helps us understand his purpose here on earth. But then Luke makes a brief statement that we can kind of overlook as just a summary of Jesus’ early life. If we look closer, this statement actually gives us four key areas in which Jesus was intentional about his growth, and we can follow that example in our own lives.

In Luke 2:52, we read, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

In one sense, that is exactly what we assume it to be: a summary of the life of Jesus between the age of twelve and the start of his public ministry. But a deeper look shows us four key areas of growth that we can pursue in our own lives, just as Jesus did. When we invest in these four areas, growth will follow.

The first area that Luke highlights is the area of wisdom. This is a critically important investment in our lives. And one that we need to be very intentional about pursuing.

Wisdom is more than just smarts, although that definitely can contribute. Intellectual knowledge is a beginning, but wisdom goes beyond that to insight and understanding. Wisdom is taking the knowledge we have and applying it to our life situations. Wisdom is being able to see how the world operates, how and why people act in the way that they do, and being able to respond appropriately in light of those insights. Wisdom is studying not just books, but life, and growing in mental intelligence, emotional intelligence, and relational intelligence.

There are a few key ways I think wisdom can be an investment.

Study God’s Word

First of all, wisdom is to be found in the study and application of Scripture. The writer of Proverbs encourages us to invest in wisdom in several places. In Proverbs 3:13-18, he writes, “Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding.” He goes on to describe some of the benefits to be gained from such an investment. In the next chapter, in verse 5, he adds to that by saying, “Get wisdom; get insight.”

How do we get such wisdom? He explained in the passage right before this command: “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.” Wisdom is to be found by pouring time and effort into reading and studying God’s Word.

Read And Study Other Topics

Another way to invest in wisdom is by reading and studying other things that will help make you smarter. One of my favorite topics to read about is the subject of leadership. The more I read, the more I learn, and the smarter I grow in this area of my life and ministry. Other resources can help, too, such as podcasts, videos and more. But don’t just read it and then forget it. Take time to reflect on what you’ve learned. One way I do this is by copying key insights from the books I read into a journal or document on my computer. This is helpful in two ways: First, writing helps me to really grab hold of the concept and strengthens the lesson in my mind. And second, saving it digitally allows me to be able to search for and find it a lot easier when I need to refer back to it later.

Watch the Lives of Others

A third way to invest is simply by watching the lives of those I respect. These may be people I know personally, or people I don’t, such as authors or other leaders. Those character qualities that are admirable, I seek to emulate in my own life. This is wisdom in practice.

Practice What I’ve Learned

A fourth way to invest is to put into practice what I have learned. This may be a positive step, applying a new skill or instilling a new thought into my life. Or it could be more from the negative side of things, such as becoming aware of a blind spot in my life and taking steps to counteract it and overcome it. Paul encourages his readers to do this in Philippians 4:8-9.

Accountability

Finally, invest in accountability. Share how you’re growing with a few key people. Share how you struggle as well. They can help you take steps to become more of the person you desire to be, and the person God created you to be.

There may be other areas you choose to invest in as you seek to grow in wisdom, but these are a few that might help you get started. But one thing is for sure: growth rarely happens by accident. We have to be intentional in pursuing and investing in our growth in order for it to happen. We have to pursue it.

An old proverb states that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now. It’s the same with investing in our growth. Don’t worry about time that has passed. Start now, and start growing. You’ll soon see progress, and you’ll build habits that will last the rest of your lifetime.

The post Invest In Wisdom appeared first on JeffRandleman.com.

Life can get busy. And in those busy moments, it can be hard to remember to take the time to slow down and rest in the presence of God. It can be hard to seek solitude and rest.

Slowing down is hard for me. I’m a doer, perhaps not by nature, but by a habit ingrained long enough for it to seem like it’s my nature. I like my routines. I’m pumped when I’m productive. I feel anxious often when I’m not busy doing something. It can be very hard for me to slow down.

Several years ago, I read Leading on Empty, by Wayne Cordeiro. In this book, he stressed the importance of getting away on what he referred to as Personal Retreat Days. After reading that, I jumped into that discipline with gusto, but over time, it kind of slipped to the side and was more and more neglected. I knew that I needed it, but it always just seemed to be something that got pushed aside by other, more “important” things.

Within the past two months, a couple of different things have taken place to remind me of the necessity of getting away for a time of silence and solitude, and to simply seek God’s presence.

First, I joined three other guys in renting a cabin on a lake in central Kansas for a spiritual renewal retreat. The four of us spent several days simply soaking in God’s presence, discussing life, ministry, and growth with one another, and simply allowing God to speak into a silence big enough for us to listen to his voice clearly. It was a refreshing and renewing time for me personally. I spent a lot of time in God’s Word, in 2 Corinthians mainly, and in a couple of books. And those other three guys spoke some truth into my life that I really needed to hear. I’m thankful for friends who are willing and bold enough to speak in such a way into my life.

The second thing that happened recently is that I became aware of a new ministry located not too far from me that specializes in providing a private retreat location for ministers. I have already scheduled an overnight trip for later this spring, after my semester of grad studies ends and before the new term begins. Once again, it will be a time where I simply soak up some of God’s Word and spend some time of solitude in my journal and in prayer, this time by myself. And in addition, I’m already looking at dates to get away every few weeks for the rest of the year.

Times such as these are a very necessary part of my spiritual life. They are times when I can recharge myself, so that I can continue to serve in my roles as husband, father, minister, neighbor, and more, and to do so in a way that fully honors Christ in every area. I’m learning all over again that these times are really indispensable. I desperately need opportunities like this to allow God to refresh me, or I’ll run myself dry trying to do things under my own power.

Times of solitude and quietness are critically important for my spiritual well-being. Times such as this serve to remind me not only of what I can and cannot do on my own, but they also refresh my mind with why I do what I do. I am able to refocus my sight on Jesus, and pursue him more fully.

It may seem to be counterproductive to some, but it’s one of the core elements of my life that help me to be as effective as I can in the things that really matter.

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Sometimes, life gives you some unexpected circumstances and situations. That’s where I find myself right now; and I kind of expect to be here for a while. That’s not what I had planned for 2022, but it is what I’ve experienced, and have to deal with for the moment.

On Christmas Day, I fell down our stairs and broke a bone in my foot, giving it a pretty bad sprain to go along with it.

But let me back up.

Last summer, I experienced a flare up of some lower back pain that sent me to the Emergency Room. They diagnosed it as a pinched nerve, and told me that it would gradually subside. And it did… to a degree. But it never really completely returned to normal. For a while, I walked with the help of a cane, but eventually managed to leave that behind me.

However, my leg was still mostly numb and unfeeling, and my foot had no sensation of whether it was off the floor or not, causing me to stumble frequently.

That’s what happened on Christmas Day. My foot drug, this time on the stairs, and down I went. We ended up in the Emergency Room that day, with a follow up at an orthopedic doctor the next week. A bone in my foot was broken, so I received a cast for a few weeks before moving to a walking boot. However, while in the cast, I developed a pretty significant blood clot in my leg. So now, we’re treating that as well.

In the meantime, the orthopedic doctor I saw locally recommended that see a back specialist in a nearby community. He has determined that the damaged nerve is the likely cause of the fall, as we suspected, but he isn’t so sure it’s in the lower back. So he has ordered a nerve conduction test to find out where the problem lies. That has not happened yet, but is scheduled for next month.

In the meantime, we’re monitoring my blood work a couple times a week as we try to dial in the specific levels of the blood thinner I need to address the clot, and I’m traveling between the hospital lab, three different doctor’s offices, and physical therapy. And, on top of that, we’re working with the various offices and our alternative to insurance, Samaritan Ministries, to figure out all the financial details.

That’s not at all how I envisioned ending the year and beginning a new one.

And frankly, I’m a little overwhelmed and stressed out. It’s a lot to deal with, and it feels like it.

I’m doing my best to maintain a positive attitude through it. I think I’m doing ok with that (although my wife might tell you differently). It’s ironic, though, that last October, I determined that the word phrase that I wanted to dominate my year for 2022 was to “choose joy.”

It seems I’m getting crash course in that, with this set of circumstances before me. I hope I can learn whatever lessons God is teaching me through it all, and learn to trust him more in the process.

And while I deal with this, I would appreciate your prayers for me, and for my family as we work through this.

The post Life Update appeared first on JeffRandleman.com.

Sunday marked the beginning of our Christmas series at my church. We will be looking at three different perspectives of the birth and incarnation of Christ from John, Matthew, and Luke. I’m excited about what God has in store through it.

As I studied the nativity accounts in both Matthew and Luke, and as I have been preparing for some future preaching series, I spent a lot of time looking at the reasons why Jesus came to earth. John’s gospel offers a lot of insight into that question as he covers the teaching ministry of Jesus.

One particular verse stood out to me. It’s a short statement Jesus made, and I’ve read it over and over, quoted it numerous times, and generally understood it. But something about it really jumped out this time through it. It’s found in John 10, right in the middle of Jesus’ discussion about being the Good Shepherd. In verse ten, Jesus tells us what the purpose of the enemy is for us, to steal, to kill and to destroy. But then he says this:

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Jesus came so that we could have life. How many times have you read that? How many times have I? Probably too many to count. But have you ever stopped to consider just what “life” Jesus is talking about?

In the original Greek language of the New Testament, there are several words that are translated as “life” in English. Probably the most familiar is the word bios. In English, this refers to the medical status of being alive. Think of going to the hospital and watching a nurse check your vitals – your blood pressure, your oxygen level, your pulse. These are indicators of life, of physical life, of the state of being alive. In the Bible, this is also used to indicate the means of life, of subsistence. This is the word used about the widow in Luke 21:4, who put a couple of pennies in the offering, “all she had to live on.” She offered her life because that’s all that she had to exist on.

But that’s not the word John uses.

John uses the Greek word zoe. This term means more than just the basis of life, it’s more of the idea of “really living!” This term carries more of the meaning of a vitality of life that is worth pursuing! When you are really living life, that’s zoe life. It’s stopping on the side of the road to enjoy a sunset. It’s finding satisfaction in the smile of a mother as she looks at her newborn baby. It’s being surrounded by family and friends during the holidays, and taking the time to pause and appreciate what you’ve been blessed with. That’s zoe life!

Every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, we decorate our house for Christmas. One of our family traditions is that we buy a special ornament for each of our kids that reflects something from the previous year, that somehow reflects their life for the last 12 months. We have seven kids, and as the years go by, that can be a lot of ornaments! But it means we have a tree that is decorated with much more than baubles and lights. Every evergreen bough holds a memory. Every twinkling light reflects off of a moment in time in the life of our family.

As we decorated the tree with all of those ornaments, as the kids sorted through their boxes, and my wife hung up the ones that reflect the two of us as a couple, I just sat back and watched for a moment. I watched my kids’ faces light up as they pulled out hot air balloons, and little mermaids, and My Little Ponies, and broccoli… yes, a broccoli ornament. I saw the emotions on their faces as they reminisced. And I got a little teary eyed myself, just watching their joy, their life.

That kind of experience is a zoe experience! Those are powerful moments!

And John says that in Jesus we can find zoe! Jesus is life!

We need this life desperately. We live in a world that seems filled with darkness; and it seems to be increasing as time passes. But here’s the thing to remember about darkness: when a light shines in the darkness, it shines bright!

So this month, as Christmas draws closer, and as the world tries to distract us with sales, and movies, and TV specials, and all the rest, keep you eyes on the source of life. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Enjoy the zoe life that he offers. And allow that life to shine as a bright light into the darkness.

Enjoy life this Christmas season!

The post Enjoying Life appeared first on JeffRandleman.com.

For the past year or two, it seems my routines have been out of whack, and it’s been more than a little frustrating. So what do you do when that happens? Eliminate those things that distract!

I am a creature of routine. I much prefer when things go the same way, every day, without change. Change messes with me more than I’d like to admit, and as I get older, I find myself more and more routine oriented… and more and more frustrated because of it.

Routines are good. They can be very beneficial. They can help you make the most of your time, utilizing your days for the most effective impact on your life, on the lives around you, on your community, and the list could go on.

But if there is one thing that is certain, it is that things change. Routine can only work up to a certain point, because the fact that things will change and shift is inevitable. Finding a balance between the two can be tough to do.

I have been in a season of life recently that has messed up my routine. This has impacted various areas of my life, including my desire to write more, to read more, and to study more. And honestly, I’m hard pressed to identify where the time is going that I used to invest in these areas.

I’m trying to tackle this in a couple of different ways.

Eliminate Time Wasters

It’s easy to get trapped in mindless activity. Social media, I’m looking at you! But it’s not just the endless scroll that eats up time. Add to that the little games on the phone, Netflix, news sites, and a hundred other little things that conspire to eat up my time.

Eliminate Unnecessary Urgency

Several years ago, I read a little book called Tyranny Of The Urgent. It was a quick read, but it impacted my life in a massive way. Just because something is urgent — right now! — doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the most important thing I can do. And very often, the urgent can get in the way of those things that are truly best.

In addition, I just picked up a book that I’ll be reading over the next few weeks, The Ruthless Elimination Of Hurry, by John Mark Comer. I haven’t started in on this one yet, but from what friends have told me, it’s built on the same premise. I’m looking forward to it, and the challenges it will bring.

Eliminate Activity Others Can Do

This is the simple process of delegation. I do a lot that someone else could do just as easily as I can, and probably better. It’s time to let them.

Will all of this be enough to reestablish my normal routines? That remains to be seen. But in the meantime, it will have an impact on my spiritual and emotional health, and will result in a greater impact on those things that I choose to focus on.

What I know is this: life will always be busy. That’s just a fact. I can either choose to let the busyness control me, or I can take control and choose the best things out of it all. But in order to do so, I have to be intentional. And so do you.

The post Reestablishing Routine appeared first on JeffRandleman.com.

For the past few weeks, I have been evaluating some of the things in my life, and reducing or reorganizing a lot of it. What I’m doing has been called by many “simplifying.” But I’m trying to be much more strategic than that.

Often, the things that we have can get in the way and become a distraction to us. I believe that is the case much more often than people realize, and when “things” get too important, we lose track of our proper priorities.

The Bible calls that idolatry.

But what we need to stop and realize is that it’s not the thing itself that is the problem, it’s our motives and attitudes towards it. So when we start looking into our lives to simplify things, and to remove distractions, we need to look more into our hearts than into our homes. Because that’s where all of this is rooted.

So I have been seeking to be strategic as I simplify my life some. I have been reevaluating a lot of stuff. Do I really need to keep this? It this something that God can use through my life to accomplish good for his Kingdom? Or is this something that I am attached to too deeply? Those are the kinds of questions I’m asking.

But it’s not just about the physical possessions. Sometimes it’s other things as well. And sometimes, in order to simplify our lives, we need to strategically add some things in as we take some others away.

An example of this has recently occurred in my life. For years, I have desired to pursue a Master’s degree. I know that this is something that will benefit my personal growth greatly. It will benefit my ministry effectiveness in some major ways. And it will open up avenues in my life that are currently not available. So when Ozark Christian College announced their new postgraduate program, I applied and was accepted.

This will add a lot to my plate for a couple of years. But the benefits that it will bring greatly outweigh the costs. It might not feel like simplifying, but it is. It’s strategic in approach, and that’s vitally important.

So yes.. I’m emptying my home, my office, my garage, of those things that might distract me from closely following God and his calling upon my life. But I’m also adding in a few things that will help accomplish that same goal.

Simply.

But strategic.

And that makes all the difference.

The post Strategically Simplifying appeared first on JeffRandleman.com.

Right now, I am in the process of purging some of the things in my life that I have accumulated. I’m shooting for something more simplified, maybe even leaning towards minimalism, in theory. And I’m finding it very hard to do.

My life is complicated.

I don’t state that in a complaining fashion, because I know just how many different things I have going on in my life. Some I can control, others I cannot. My wife and I have a large family, with seven kids. A couple of them are in early adulthood, a couple of them are teens, or soon to be, and the rest are younger children. That fact alone ensure that we are busy, and that we live in a cluttered home.

I’m also in ministry. Every time I see something that might be a resource, I’m tempted to grab it and hold on to it. More on that in a moment.

My wife is also very frugal. She’s always thinking ahead, so if she sees a deal on something that we don’t need now, but will need later, it’s quite likely to be brought home and stored until we need it. She saves us a lot of money that way.

But I’m just a packrat. I hold on to things, especially if I think I might need it at a later point. We have so much stuff just sitting around, stacked here and there, filling the garage, the closets, and everywhere else we can put it. We need to purge this and eliminate a lot of it from our lives. So that’s what I have been doing.

I started with my office, and began sorting through some things that I have stored away in drawers, boxes and file cabinets. Lately, there hasn’t been much rhyme or reason to where I put stuff, I just put it away… somewhere. So I’ve been sorting through things as I have been working.

I started with my file cabinets. I found a lot of stuff that I had no idea I still even had. I had folders full of old newsletters from old churches, some of them more than 15 years old. I found files full of old classwork from my days at Ozark Christian College. Much of that I saved, such as my class notes, papers and reports, and stuff like that. But some of it, like vocabulary tests that were nothing more than a list of words down the page, I tossed.

I found old bills that I had filed away, including some bank statements from my first year out of high school. Those got shredded. I found tons of encouraging cards, notes and letters from friends in past ministries, as well as current. Those I saved.

So far, I have fully emptied one file cabinet, and have reduced the amount in another by quite a bit. And it feels good to be eliminating some of this from my life and my office space.

I’m both looking forward to, and dreading, getting to my garage…

But sometimes, we just need to go through stuff and throw some of it away. In the process of sorting through some of that stuff in my office, I came across a letter that was written to me several years ago. It was harsh and hateful, and full of meanness and unjustified criticism. And for some reason, I saved it.

As I opened it up and started reading it, realizing what it was, that old wound was ripped open again. I felt that old hurt as if it had just happened. I suspect it will take some time for that to heal again. I should have thrown that letter away years ago, but held on to it for some unknown reason.

It is now in the trash. That’s where it belongs. And that’s completely ok.

Sometimes, you just need to throw stuff away.

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You may have noticed that things have been pretty quiet around here lately. That has been both good and bad, for a number of reasons. I hope that I can maintain a regular schedule again soon.

Sometimes, it’s just time to take a step back from things and take a deep breath. In a way, that has been good for me. I have been able to focus on a few things that needed some attention, and a few things that I have wanted to do for a long time. But at the same time, stepping back wasn’t great, because the habit of writing regularly has slipped a little. This is still a priority in my life, and a slipped habit will be a bit of an obstacle to overcome.

Let me share with you a few of the things that have impacted my schedule over the last few months.

COVID-19

This pandemic has created a lot of casualties, and my schedule has been one of them. But by no means has it affected my immediate family in tragic ways as it has for so many. And while many of the things in our lives have been returning to a sense of normalcy, there are still some areas where that hasn’t yet happened.

Ministry Opportunities And Requirements

With the pandemic came the need to make some changes in how we do ministry here at our church. That has caused us to learn how to livestream our services. In addition, we have begun to create some short and powerful, and short and pithy videos, called PV Shorts. We have also started creating some online Bible studies. We started with a look at the letter of 1 Peter. Learning how to create quality video recordings, edit them, and share them has been a time consuming activity for me.

Church Mission Trip

Last year, we started panning a short term mission trip to Arizona, to work with one of the ministries we support as a church, American Indian Christian Mission, in Show Low, Arizona. That trip was pushed back by a year to this summer. We took a team of 17 in July, and it was a very powerful experience for everyone involved. In addition, I serve on the Board of Directors for this ministry, and because of that, have a few more duties and requirements that need regular attention. That required a second trip to Arizona, just a few days after the group returned home. It keeps me a little busy, and it was a lot of driving, but it’s well worth the effort.

Health Issues

While I have not had any illness due to the pandemic (that I know of) I have still had a couple of health issues that have affected my life. I was in the Emergency Room with back and leg pain during the summer, right before the trips to Arizona. This has caused some lingering consequences, leaving me with a cane as a walking aid some of the time. Hopefully, this eventually is resolved, and I can get back to normal in this area.

Damaged Relationships

We have opened our hearts and lives to many different people over the years, and most of the time, those relationships blossom and grow. Occasionally, however, that’s not the case. We experienced some severe emotional and relational pain recently over such a relationship that has been damaged, and has been the cause of some significant heartache for our entire family.

Growth Opportunities

My alma mater, Ozark Christian College, has announced that it will begin a postgraduate program in the near future, and I have applied to enter, pursuing a Master’s Degree. Technically, this doesn’t begin until next year, but the process has been started and details are falling into place. This will continue to be an item on my agenda for the next couple of years. I’m looking forward to the process, and the growth that will occur as it happens.

And there have been several other items that have impacted my life and time. Some have been unavoidable, others have been by choice; some have benefited my life and my family in a positive way, others have yet to show how they will impact us. Some, we may never see the fruit of. But all of them — every single thing — can and will be used by God for good, even if I can’t see just how.

In the meantime, I hope to regain a sense of routine, especially in this area of writing. It may not be to the level I strive for, but I hope for it to be consistent and meaningful. And yet, even as I look ahead, I know that the step back has been beneficial, since there are some things in place in my life as a result. Sometimes, we all need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and relax for a time.

That has been very helpful for me.

And now… Onward!

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The past few weeks have been pretty quiet around here because of the quarantine. Along with most of you, I’m learning to live with the major disruption to my life and routine because of the coronavirus.

When this all started, I think we all expected it to be kind of like the other virus fears we’ve experienced, like SARS, or H1N1 from a few years ago. No one could have foreseen the complete devastation that would result from this new virus, and the disruptions to our lives.

This thing has caused several major changes in our culture and our world, from food and toilet paper shortages, to economic problems and unemployment on a national and global level. And it has had an impact on a personal level for us all, too. We’ve learned a new reality: social distancing… Quarantine…

From where I sit in the middle of America, we are moving into our fourth week of this. And we have a couple of weeks yet to go, at the very least. That could extend pretty easily if this virus doesn’t slow down.

My emotions have been a roller coaster. One minute, I’m confident that this will be over soon, and we can get back to normal — maybe a new normal, but still normal. The next minute, I feel like cowering under my desk, in abject fear that this is the worst thing that could ever happen. And my perspective shifts like this multiple times a day, it seems.

Yet through it all, I have learned a few things. And these are things that I have to hold on to tightly, so that I don’t completely lose my perspective on this whole thing.

I’ve learned that the way we do church has had to change

We have had to change the way we “do” church. We cannot meet together for worship. And that include Easter Sunday this year. That is very discouraging to me. But that does not change the fact that we are called to “be” the church. How we “do” church might change for a while, but we are still called to share the light and love of Christ with all of those around us, maybe from behind our masks for a while, and maybe from a distance of six feet for a few more weeks.

As for “doing” church, in our case, we have shifted the bulk of our services to an online presence. We post our messages to YouTube and share them via social media. And after looking at the numbers for the past few weeks, it appears that more people have heard the message of the Bible that way than we would have had inside our building. That’s pretty encouraging to me, even though it has been a new learning curve to get it all figured out.

I’ve learned just how social I really am

I claim to be an introvert. And mostly, I am. But I’m also a very social person. It’s weird, I know. But I have experienced the loss of some very close friendship activity over the last few weeks. The friendships are still there, and we stay in contact, but it’s just not the same. I’m learning (maybe relearning) that God has created us to be in relationships with one another, and that we need one another. Social distancing stinks.

I’ve learned that such an influx of family time can be good

Sure, there are moments where we all get on each other’s nerves. But that happens even when we don’t have quarantine restrictions in place. The time together as a family has been a very beneficial time for us. I’ve seen my kids under stress, and yet still act like Christ to one another. And I’ve seen my kids in fear, just as much as I have been, and probably more. This is a very new thing to them, and they have had no experience in their short lives to prepare them in any way for something like this pandemic and the quarantine we have to maintain. That has opened up opportunities to teach my family about the fact that Jesus still is in control, to teach them to trust him even in this.

I’ve learned that I don’t deal with stress all that well

Ok, I knew that already. But this whole situation has pushed me to the edge more than once. And when I get close to that edge, I have a tendency to snap at others. So maybe, what I’m learning is how to control that better, and turn it over to Christ for help to overcome.

I’ve learned, once again, that Jesus is in control

That is a lesson that I have to learn over and over and over. It seems as if I keep trying to control things in my life that I can’t, and that frustrates me. But as I learn once again that He is God and I’m not, I can relinquish my grip on this and allow him to lead me through.

I’m certain that there will be more lessons learned before this is all over. But for now, I suspect that’s more than enough to keep me busy for a few more days of quarantine. My prayer is that I don’t forget these lessons when I get back to “normal.” I hope to use this entire quarantine situation as a wake up call for my life, and for my family, so that we keep our eyes on the goal, which is in Christ Jesus.

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