Lessons Learned

What’s the Rush?

/ The WheatandTares / 3 Comments

What is the rush?

We run to get dressed. We hustle to get the kids ready for school. We hurry to get to work. We scurry to get our jobs done.

We dash to get the kids home, to eat, to practice, to do homework and off to bed. We bustle to get ourselves to sleep to start the new day all over again.

We rush, rush, rush like a hamster on a wheel.

Even our breaks and our vacations seem to fill up with more scheduling and more doing.

But why the rush? What is so important?

Our breathing, our health, our expressions of love?

Our legacies, our memories, our impressions of care?

What is really vital? Our advancements or our investments?

What really makes a difference? Our successes or our impacts?

Can we take a breath and inhale a little peace and exhale a little gratitude?

Can we take a pause and look around us and reach to the ones coming behind?

Slow down a minute and really see who is watching you.

Stop seeking the approval of those who won’t matter tomorrow.

Seek the One who will be there for eternity.

Encompass those who await your calm.

Envelope those who need your adoration.

Take a rest and make a memory for life.

Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

Psalm 46:10

The work of righteousness will be peace,
and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places, though hail comes down on the forest, and the city is brought low in humiliation.

Isaiah 32:17-19

Practice Makes Permanent

/ The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

I always heard as a child that practice made perfect; so, I practiced playing the flute, and I practiced riding my bike, and then, I didn’t.

Because I wasn’t practicing accurately. I was just putting into rhythm the actions that wouldn’t make me better.

Practice truly makes permanent what you are doing, but it doesn’t make perfect if you’re doing it all wrong.

If your words are bringing pain, the continuation of those will only continue to wound and harm.

If your actions are bringing trouble to your life, to your family, or legacy, that turmoil will not stop as you continue the same steps.

We must change our practice to change our outcome.

We must alter our path to alter our destination.

Actions become habits. Habits become lifestyles. Lifestyles become character.

So, if change is to come, change is the action that must be taken.

You’ll never climb a mountain if you don’t start hiking.

You’ll never succeed at anything until you first, begin the task.

And today is a great day to commence!

Be consistent in truth. Be faithful in love. Be reliable in kindness. Be dependable in joy.

These are some great places to start.

Let’s get ready! Let’s go!

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Colossians 3:17

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works…

Hebrews 10:22-24

Be Like Jesus

/ The WheatandTares

So many say, “ I want to be like Jesus.”

So many preach, “You must be like Jesus.”

And so many more believe it’s such an easy task.

They claim we simply must be more kind, more loving, and more peaceful.

Yet, when love is proclaimed so elementary by pointing fingers at others and declaring what you must do,

I believe we are neglecting to look in the mirror at our own souls to see what we must do.

When kindness is demanded from others so readily, and it is said to be performed so smoothly,

I believe we are avoiding the reality that our flesh never truly desires to be gracious and kind.

No one is born good. We are not birthed in righteousness.

Our natural tendencies do not lend themselves to be like Christ without first dying to self.

If we long to truly be like Christ, we must remember He had a wilderness where He was hungry, tempted and had to be bold in faithfulness.

If we truly long to be like Christ, we must remember He had a Gethsemane where He was alone, discouraged and had to be brave in love.

If we long to truly be like Christ, we must remember He had a cross by which He was broken, disgraced and had to be truthful in kindness.

If we truly long to be like Christ, we must remember He had a Judas by whom He was betrayed, ambushed and had to be confrontation in peace.

When we profess others should be Christlike, we need to actually know who Christ is and what He did.

When we confess a desire to be Christlike, we need to actually recognize who our Savior is and what He did.

When we assert there is a common ground with a mighty King, we must acknowledge and embrace what must be crucified within us to become someone we are never capable of becoming

Without first, surrendering all to Him.

This is to be Christlike.

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:9-11

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 8:32

Disagreement isn’t Hatred

/ The WheatandTares / 4 Comments

In our modern age, it seems there are becoming more and more polarizations to right and wrong.

Yet there also seems to be more twisting to truth than I believe I’ve ever seen before.

Too often, good is being called evil and evil is being called good.

Too often, those fighting for justice will de over and connive to achieve their purposed goal rather than seeking for truth no matter the cost.

And for certain circles, if you disagree with the relative truth they’ve created, you are relegated as hateful, rude, and even wicked.

Where is the logic in any of this?

Where is the sanity to this altered reality?

There is none.

And my statement of fact will send many into a tumultuous and relentless battle of words.

What happened to the days when truth was sought above all?

What happened to the lives who sought truth at all cost?

There has to be an absolute truth on which to hold firm.

And even if you disagree with that truth, it doesn’t make you a demon of the abyss.

And it doesn’t make you freakish, deformed, or necessarily of a nonredemptive evil.

It just simply makes you wrong.

An absolute truth does not move for modernity.

And absolute truth doesn’t change with new winds of doctrine, opinions or even popularity.

An absolute truth stands firm in it’s truth.

An absolute truth stands true through the tests of time.

And an absolute truth is a rock upon which you can fall and it will sustain you.

I have found this absolute truth.

I will hold on to it.

I will bind myself to it.

And I will run to it in torrential times.

It is a truth that with change you forever.

And unless you’ve found it as well, please know that when my absolute truth disagrees with you, it is not hatred I bring.

It is a love, a peace and a hope that will transform you, heart, mind, body and soul.

He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.

Deuteronomy 32:4

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18:2

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

Isaiah 5:20-21

Grasping at Heritage

/ The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

I recently lost my grandmother of 94 years, and I miss her so. She and I were a lot alike in so many ways, and often growing up, she was more like a mother to me than a grandmother.

She taught me how a young lady should carry herself and how to really love your man.

She taught me that a gentle word really can turn away wrath and a loving touch can bring harmony to a chaotic world.

She taught me how to be classy and be okay with tradition, religion and “the way things have always been.”

She taught me that you’re never too old to try new things, as she traveled to Jamaica in a missions trip at 80 years old.

She taught me that if you set your mind to it, you can accomplish just about anything, as she lived by herself for almost 20 years in a great big bay front property after my grandfather’s death.

And the most important thing she ever taught me was that a relationship with Jesus Christ and with the joy of the Lord being your strength, you can live out your days with laughter and peacefulness, no matter what the storms of life might bring.

I am thankful for the heritage she offered, and I will gladly pick up the mantle she left. She may not have always done everything right, and she’d have never wanted you to call her the picture of perfection.

But if I can live my life with as much dignity, class, integrity, charm, joy, love and peace as she had, I will call myself a blessed woman.

What heritage are you grasping hold of today?

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:30-31

She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

Proverbs 31:25

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”

Proverbs 31:26-29

Demons of Consequence

/ The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

Too often, people blame their circumstances for their behavior.

They blame someone else for their poor choice.

They blame their upbringing for their bad response.

They blame this one or that one for their own failure.

Tragedy comes to all us in one way, shape, form or another.

Trauma befalls every individual on the planet.

(If it hasn’t hit you yet, just keep on living.)

It’s not the events that matter.

As much as, it’s what you do with it.

It’s what choices you make to get out of it, to keep fighting, to win.

A champion never wins by staying on the mat when he’s knocked down.

A hurdle jumper never sees success by remaining on the asphalt on top of the broken hurdle.

A rower never receives the medal by flailing in the water once knocked out of the boat.

We’re not promised good fortune simply because of what family line, nation, or skin color we have.

Our modern society claims if you’re born into the right circumstances, you will always win.

And those same people claim if your birth brings you into the wrong heritage, wrong race, or wrong town, you’ll never achieve more.

Lies. All lies. Never embrace those fallacies.

Show me a person who cannot succeed when effort is made.

Show me a person who cannot achieve when sacrifices are made.

Show me a person who cannot triumph when the passion is deep within.

Does it mean some have it easier than others?

Sure. That’s the life we live.

But never hate someone for the blessings she has been given.

You never know the cost that has been paid.

Never curse someone for the accolades he is presented.

You never know the hell he had to live before you saw the crown.

Stay focused on your purpose.

Stay tuned in to your faults.

Grasp the convictions needed.

Stay fixed on your goals.

Your success never depends on them.

It depends on the determination within.

And sometimes, you’re no longer winning because you’ve lost the two vital ingredients to score:

Coaching and support.

Everyone needs someone better in their corner. Let them refine you.

Everyone needs someone to cheer them in the darkness. Let them soothe you.

But never let them coddle, pacify, or justify your resignation.

Fight to win.

Win to testify it can be done.

Extend a hand to someone else.

For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

2 Timothy 1:12

The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

Proverbs 18:15-16

Slay the Hidden Desire

/ The WheatandTares

Desires can make or break you.

Desires can thrust you into success or throw you down in shame.

And what you do with hidden desires will be the difference in honor or humiliation.

Desires have to be pulled out into the sunlight and exposed to verity and axiom.

Desires have to have the magnifying glass of honesty peered over them in full.

Desires have to be broken down with integrity and authenticity all wrapped in accountability.

Otherwise when concealed, neglected, and cloaked with insignificance, those same desires will become a dragon thirsty for flesh.

Those veiled desires throw off their disguises and unleash a furious reckoning that cannot be hinged.

So no matter how wise of a sage you have grown to be,

Those ignored desires will grow to be a beast not easily reconciled or silenced.

No matter the might you believe you posses,

No matter the expertise you trust you’ve acquired,

If those desires are held in secret, they will become your evil demise.

Reveal them to absolute truth and faithfulness, and those demons who seek your soul may be impeded and chained.

…Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:4

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battlewithin you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

James 4:1-3

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, yousinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

James 4:7-10

Significance

/ The WheatandTares

We all want to have significance. Don’t we?

But what will you do to get it?

Will you beg, borrow and steal?

Will you sweat, toil and sacrifice?

Will you push and prod, stepping over or on those who get in your way?

Will you eat humble pie and serve those around you to become great?

To what measure will you strive to succeed and become significant?

And to whom are you seeking the same and acknowledgement?

Remember this:

What you bow down to on your way up the ladder of success will OWN YOU on your way back down.

Choose wisely.

Choose sparingly and carefully.

For too many owners makes the slave exhausted and weary…

And the success so much less to be desired.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:21

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Matthew 6:19-20

Healing is Messy

/ The WheatandTares

Healing is never easy.

Healing is not for wimps.

Just as a broken bone takes time to mend, it takes time for a wounded heart to heal.

Really, more often than not, it takes longer for the heart to take the journey of reconciliation.

And sometimes, the healing, the mending, and the restoration of peace and sanity may come while reconciliation never does.

Forgiveness is for the heart to heal and for the soul to be freed.

Forgiveness may not bring the reconciliation that was once hoped for or demanded.

For some things can be so damaged, the body cannot be recovered.

For some things can be so destroyed, the explosion left nothing but the crater that had already been formed.

For some things can be lost forever.

Never demand harmony when you’ve caused the destruction.

Never demand compromise when you were the source of the wound.

These are hard words to receive and much harder ones to actually live out.

But we all live by grace, and by grace we go forward.

So, forgive again and again.

Repent as needed.

Heal over and over.

And leave the rest up to the Creator of your soul.

For He knows all, and He will bring healing that soothes the soul and brings redemption.

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.

Jeremiah 7:14

Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.

Jeremiah 33:6

He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

Proverbs 28:13

Flippin’ Tables

/ The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

What are you allowing in your life that Christ would urge you not?

What are you coveting that He would have already cast away?

Sometimes, our lives seem to be on hold, and we blame it on circumstances, being held back, and maybe even our own incapacity to overcome a certain handicap in our lives.

Yet, I have found too often, my limitations aren’t due to someone or something around me, but rather it’s from pursuit of something I should have never been chasing in the first place.

When we start chasing God stuff rather than me stuff, we will find success will come on a whole new level.

Ask Him what tables He would flip in your life, and let Him start cleaning house.

It’s a whole better place when He’s in charge and He comes to abide.

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

Matthew 21:12-13