character

The Greatest of These…

/ The WheatandTares

What principles define how you live?

Principles to live by… well, that can be a long list, I guess. But to sum it all up, I suppose the principle that all the rest would fall under would be a principle of love. Yet, if I start describing this in detail, it might look a little different than the societal demand for love these days.

In our current culture, there seems to be a demand to show love by accepting a certain opinion as truth. Or the demand might be that if I disagree with you, then, I’m not showing love but hatred.

Or if I’m not giving you what you want, then I’m not showing love. Or maybe if I’m not giving up something I want, or maybe I’m not suffering in a certain way, then I’m not showing the kind of love I’m supposed to be showing.

Pure, unadulterated love is sacrificial, gracious, and compassionate; yet, it is also full of truth, strength and courage.

True, unblemished love is is not one of these without the other. It is both.

If a parent loves his or her child but allows that child to run in the street to play while the truck is barreling down the path, is that really love?

If a spouse declares his love yet leaves and showers everyone else with his affections because he wants more, is that really love?

If a friend promises to share love and friendship yet breaks every confidence because she wants her liberty to share, is that really love?

If a child proclaims his love to his parents yet steals and destroys because he wants his freedom to live as he pleases, is that really love?

True love will rejoice in the truth, will bear all things, will believe all things, will hope all things, and will endure all things. Love never fails.

And love is impossible without abiding in the Only One who gave true love.

So, what principles define how I live? I guess I could begin with 1 Corinthians 13. I certainly don’t live it perfectly, but I strive toward it daily, only by seeking Him first.

Because He loved me first, now only can I begin to truly love.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. … And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13

Beauty in the Miniscule

/ The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

In the vast expanse of the Grand Canyon, one small tree branch can seem minuscule.

Just as my life can seem futile in the sense populate of the human race.

What can my life accomplish among so many?

How can my life make an impact within he density of the crowd?

And it would be so easy to stay tucked away in a hole, never reaching, never moving.

Yet, how is it with that little one by your side?

How is it with the coworker across the room?

How is it with the roommate on your hall

How is it with the ones surrounding you day to day?

If you quit, who will lead them?

If you let go, who will breathe life to them?

If you walk away, who will speak hope and truth?

That small branch on the side of the canyon might be the resting place for the weary, fluttering butterfly.

That small branch might be just the finishing touch for the next of a feathered friend.

The insignificance we feel might be just the highlighted reel of the one who can’t see tomorrow.

Don’t look out over the sphere and lose your way.

Look right in front of you, beside you and behind and reach.

Be hope. Be light. Be truth. Be life.

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Matthew 13:31-32

Beauty in the Small

/ The WheatandTares

Beauty really does come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. It all depends on your perspective and angel.

Viewing a brilliant mountain sunset can be all about the incline or all about the glowing orb in the sky. It can be all about the painted sky.

Or it can be about the tiny patch of flowers at your feet that will be trampled if you take another step.

Viewing an enormous crisis can be all about the chaos of sights and sounds or about the multiple dilemmas that have just been added. It can be all about the loss of time, money and energy.

Or it can be about the tiny hand grasping yours that is desperate for reassurance and comfort.

It all depends upon your vantage point.

So, what do you see?

Where is your focus?

Beauty is all around you if you can only open your eyes to see.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.

Jeremiah 24:6-7

Beauty in the Hard

/ The WheatandTares / 1 Comment

If you’re growing, there’s going to be pressure.

If you’re moving forward, there’s going to be pressing.

If you have no pressure, no pressing points which have become uncomfortable, you’re probably not developing.

Just as a flower has to break through the seed and push up through the ground, when you are going to bring about change, there has to be a breaking, a crushing, and finally, a breakthrough.

So, if life is heating up, and you’re feeling the weight of responsibilities and decision making deepening around you, stand strong and walk proud.

Not in conceit or arrogance. Only in humility and respect can you truly survive.

But if you’ll rise to the occasion, grasp the reigns of opportunity and ride it to probability, you can thrive under the constraints.

You can succeed under the strain.

And when you do, not only will the blooms be beautiful, but the impact on those around will be spectacular, too.

My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:26

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10

Into the Dark or Into the Light

/ The WheatandTares

Into the dark or into the light

Where are you walking?

Are you leading or are you following?

And who is with you?

It takes only one step to change directions.

It takes only one turn to alter destinations.

Into the dark or into the light

Which way will you travel?

Where will you land?

Make your choice

But choose wisely.

For all decisions have their consequences.

But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.

Proverbs 4:18-19

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

James 1:5

Above all, Find Peace

/ The WheatandTares

Find the place where your soul can find rest.

Take a stroll along the stream.

Hike to the summit.

Crawl around in the cave.

Bike along the coast.

Sit beside the rushing waterfall.

Where doesn’t matter so long as your soul can breathe.

Too often, we simply push through the hard and forget to let the dust settle.

If your soul can find a calm, it won’t matter if the storms brew, the winds howl, and the chaos rages.

Where the tranquility lies deep, stability will find its level, and grace will thrive.

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.

Isaiah 26:3

Take Courage

/ The WheatandTares

So many live out their lives in fear. Reacting to failure. Reacting to pain. Reacting to violence. Reacting to disastrous times.

No precept. No plans. No purpose.

Only reaction upon reaction to circumstance, feelings and desire.

Not enough live their lives by sheer courage. Having courage is choosing to be equipped. Choosing to be intentional. Choosing to be in the moment. Choosing to make the right choices regardless of common ground.

Know preparation. Know purpose. Know peace.

Choosing to respond or not to respond. Speak or not to speak. But always thinking. Always alert. Always deliberate of the choice.

That’s courage.

It’s not having all confidence or even all knowledge. It’s never about being the strongest or having the most.

Courage is the choice to do right and to be right no matter who stands against you. No matter who discourages. No matter who disagrees.

Have courage today. Be different. Make a difference.

And you can change the world.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

John 1:9

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

What’s Love Got To Do?

/ The WheatandTares

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

The best piece of advice would actually be two statements given by different people, but the statements work together:

It takes 1,000 tiny miracles to make a marriage work.

Marriage will only last best when Christ is at the center.

These might sound a bit cliche, and if you don’t have a relationship with Christ; then, it might not even make sense to you. Or if you’ve “been a Christian but everything went wrong in my marriage/in life,” then, it might be a difficult concept for you to accept.

Let me say this loud and clear and long:

Just because the statement did not/does not ring true in your own life, does not make the statement untrue.

That’s why these two statements work so well together. It truly takes a 1,000 tiny miracles to get the right two people together, at the right time, in the right location, under the right circumstances, and in the right context, in the right season for each.

Much more is it tiny miracles that keep those two love birds together over time. After all, he is marrying a woman. And she is marrying a man. Imagine that. Lol. They think differently, act differently, speak differently, react differently, even feel differently. How in the world can that work?

And that’s where God comes in. He is the Creator of our very lives. He designed every part of us and breathed breath into our lungs. How could He not be the miracles working within our lives? But there’s one caveat. He allows us to have the freewill of choice.

You heard me right. He’s the Almighty, great Creator of heaven and earth and all that we see. He is the Master Designer of all creation and of the intricate, complex beings called humans. He is the Alpha Omega, the Beginning and the End, meaning He can create and finish life and everything in it and around it.

Yet, He in His ultimate design, He gives us the ability to choose. We can choose Him or not. We can choose love or hate. We can choose life or death. We get the beautiful freedom of choice.

And what we do with that choice will determine the beautiful finality of those 1,000 tiny miracles that it takes to make a marriage work. What we do in choosing determines where we end up in life and who we end up with. What we do with the choices determines how we think, how we speak, how we act, interact and react, and it determines how we live our lives.

Every. Single. Day.

Every. Single. Minute of that Day.

Every. Single. Second of that Minute of that Day.

These choices don’t automatically make us somehow perfect. They don’t make us sinless. But if we’re daily choosing Christ and the things of Him, it will make us seek perfection, and it will make us sin less. And if two people are seeking, choosing, sacrificing and loving in these ways, it surely helps to support and strengthen a healthy union.

So, what will you choose?

Or better yet, WHO will you choose?

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua 24:15

Look Up Through the Hard

/ The WheatandTares / 4 Comments

Sometimes, life is just hard.

Circumstances go awry.

Relationships go chaotic.

Things just don’t seem to be as they should.

Add injustice, insecurity or instability of heart to any of this, and it can feel like a pit is swallowing you whole.

At that moment, look up.

See the beam of brightness shining through the rocks?

See that sliver of light at the end of the tunnel?

It’s not a train. It’s hope.

And it’s coming for you.

Keep walking forward, even if you have to crawl.

Keep looking up. Change is coming.

Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.

Luke 21:28

Music to My Ears

/ The WheatandTares / 6 Comments

What would your life be like without music?

Honestly, I think any life would be dull and lifeless without music. There’s a quote that says, “Music is the words of the soul.” And I believe it’s true.

I’m not just referring to music with instruments, vocals and different genres, but I’m talking about any music. There’s a melody in the trees as the wind rustles the leaves. There’s a lullaby in the setting sun basking upon the mountains. There’s a cadence in the insects that hum and the birds that sing. There’s a crescendo in the waves crashing upon the rocks and shoreline.

In all actuality, there’s probably more music to be found in the nature around us, or in the children’s laughter that rises above the chaos, or the babies cries that surround a mother’s comforting coos than there is in the simple clanging of cymbals and piano keys.

This music brings peace to the soul and laughter to the lips. It brings strength to the mind and healing to the whole being.

So, where my life be without music: lost. Totally and utterly lost without hope. And I am eternally grateful for great melodies, regardless, of where they come from.

How about you?