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Thought For an abundant day

Pain

Rick Warren (with an assist from Paul) has given me a new perspective on pain. Where once it was to ignore, minimize, and hopefully avoid pain—mine and the pain of those I love and care for—, now I see that there is a redemptive power in it.

(To avoid being hypocritical, I confess that it is easier for me to write about pain than to experience it.)

Warren entreats us: “I beg you not to waste your pain; don’t waste your hurt.” What does he mean?
He means that how we live with and attack pain affects us and those around us; it becomes our “deepest life message.” We have these critical choices to make:

     Will I fight pain with endurance and tenacity or surrender, that is, will my actions support others?
     Will I us use my pain to awaken compassion for others suffering the same pain?
     Will I look for the goodness and love in others who try to comfort me (and this includes relatives, friends, healthcare professionals, and those who pray for me), or be oblivious and unresponsive, meaning ungrateful?

Warren calls us to look outward toward others, not inward, as we consider our response to pain. In one of life’s great mysteries, as we tend to others we nurse ourselves.

“I beg you not to waste your pain; don’t waste your hurt. People all around you are going through the very thing you’ve already gone through, and they need your help. They need you to comfort them.”

2 Corinthians 6:4
“in every way we demonstrate that we are God’s servants by tremendous endurance in the midst of difficulties, hardships, and calamities;”
International Standard Version

A final thought. Pain and suffering bring us into the frontline battle with good vs. evil; good because we can reach out to God for comfort, strength, and endurance; evil because Satan can use pain to drive us from God.

Naming, Claiming, and Proclaiming

the Abundant Life

Who am I? Good question. Who am I, really?
A very good question, a soul-searching question.

I am in search of The Abundant Life.
Why  choose the abundant life? What is it? And where may it be found?

Join me in my journey to The Abundant Life..

Why Choose it?

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where is it?

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my journey begins daily

today i will...

 

I begin each day with short reflections based on Study, Prayer, and a commitment to Action (my Bible SPA).

What amazes me is the ease, breadth and depth of these thoughts that can only come from the Holy Spirit. I conclude each reflection with a mention of God’s altar because it is at God’s altar where blessings are bestowed, gratitude is offered, and wholeness is made. And God’s altar may be found anywhere and everywhere, and especially in my heart.

Walk With God

Walk With God

Today I will endeavor to walk with God in the cool of His garden, which is my heart, and be refreshed from His never-ending stream of life-giving waters, which is His spirit, by repairing and maintaining my relationship to Him and to my neighbor, which is through...

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Affirm Trust In God Alone

Affirm Trust In God Alone

Today I will reaffirm that God and God alone is to be trusted when our common sense says otherwise. What did common sense say to Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jeremiah, and Joshua?* Yet, they trusted and God delivered in spectacular ways.Jeremiah 32:17“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you...

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Decide For God, With God

Decide For God, With God

Today I will decide, “for God or against God, with Him or without Him” and make the hard choices. In contrast to our Isaacs (goodness that is not aligned with God’s greater good) there is our badness that also is not aligned. Both need to be sacrificed.Matthew 5:30And...

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Themes to Explore

“Lessons From The Helm”

This is my first published book.

“Lessons” presents life’s big lessons from the helm of a very small boat and details a 3-day sailing regatta in which my son and I competed and capsized.
Available on Amazon.com

Lessons From The Helm

Life’s big lessons

“Destroy These False Gods

My latest book. What false gods are vying for your soul? Discover 101 false gods that must be destroyed before they destroy you. Available on Amazon.com

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