In the Zone

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by magic and magicians.  I remember buying toy magic kits and checking out magic trick books from the library.  Occasionally, I would try to show off the tricks I learned to my parents and friends. I'm a youth pastor now, so you can rightly assume I never got very good at magic.  Outside of a few easy tricks, I never could pull if off enough to fool people with my sleight of hand. And that's the thing about magic:  it's not real.  It's all a series of illusions made to focus your attention AWAY from what is really happening.  We marvel at how trained magicians pull off tricks we can't understand.  Yet, all they are doing is simply getting us to look, think or concentrate on one particular thing while they do the trick somewhere else. It's all about fooling our mind (or eyes).  Often, the trick itself is quite easy, once it's explained.  Yet, it looks so amazing that we often spend hours trying to figu...

Our society is all about self.  Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine and YouTube is all about promoting ourselves.  We want more followers, frequent re-tweets, lots of web hits and tons of friends to join the conversation.  Our thoughts and phrases and pictures are so important that we put everything out there for everyone to see.  We even created a new word about pictures of ourselves.  Selfies are all the rage. We are all about ourselves. We seek good self-images.  We want healthy self-esteem.  We're looking for self-worth.  We engage in self-promotion.  We talk about the need for self-respect. Are you starting to notice a pattern here? In all this self-glorification, we sometimes go too far.  Sometimes our desire to please us goes to the need for others to praise us.  We become self-important and self-conscious and we value our worth by what others say about us. We become more about pleasing people than pleasi...

Last week, I performed a funeral for my aunt Karen, who passed away suddenly. As I prepared the message, I talked with family about their memories and stories of Karen's life.  Each person I talked to have a positive word, a funny anecdote or a pleasant recollection of their departed loved one.  I incorporated those stories into the message.  You see, it's important that we are reminded of the good times and great memories we have of lost loved ones.  Instead of regret or shame, it's best to remember laughter and joy.  It makes the tough times easier to get through. Yet, it also reminds us of a simple truth:  God is good.  Even when we don't understand tragedy or heartache or death, we must recognize that ultimately God is good.  He provides joy and laughter and camaraderie.  He gives us love and light and peace.  Remembering the good amidst the bad gives a glimpse of our heavenly father, who longs to give us good gifts and ...

When I was younger, I used to hold grudges.  If you wronged me, I simply stopped talking to you while secretly plotting my revenge. Well, I never got my revenge.  In the end, I wasted a lot of effort in keeping silent.  The other person didn't care.  I spent a lot of energy being mad at someone who could care less. As I've gotten older, I realize the futility of grudges.  Life is simply too short to hold on to anger, resentment and even hate.  Do I still get mad?  You bet.  Do I still have conflict?  Sure.  But once the conflict is over, so is the dispute.  I don't have time to hold onto it for days, weeks or even years.  My energy is best spent elsewhere. Joseph found himself facing the very same dilemma.  His brothers sold him into slavery, which spiraled toward years of servitude, a false accusation and prison time.  Eventually, he got out and was made second-in-command of all of Egypt.  He has almo...