Scripture
If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. Mark 8:35

Observation
The internet has made it possible to create a self-designed life. It begins with MyDocuments and shifts into MySpace then on to iTunes. I just turned on iTunes to import a CD when a popup box informed me that if I would only click now that the search engine would record my song selections and then give me more options of more downloads to buy that are my genre of music. I then went to iGoogle which allows me to scatter widgets any way I like. There is even a domain name called Youniverse.com. That says it all. Today it is not so much that we want to control the world but to create our own world just perfect for “me”! Just look on Youtube.com for proof.

I think that’s what Jesus was getting at when he talked about “your life” that we either lose or gain. Sure the ultimate is life or death. But there is a lot that happens before then. We could easily replace the word “life” with “lifestyle”. That brings the words of Jesus close and personal:

“If you try to hang on to you lifestyle you will loose it. But if you give up your lifestyle for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”

I can hear ten thousand Starbucks’ Grandes and Ventis slamming on coffee tables around America. What? Give up my lifestyle? I just have everything adjusted in my life to suit me. Earphones in, notebook screens up, and the voice of God fades away.

But what would happen if we were to allow Jesus to tamper with our lifestyle? What if we let others tread across my space? What if we went places we weren’t comfortable with and stayed longer than was convenient?

The other day Levi my son had done some fiddling around with the controls on his MacBook Pro to speed up a megadownload. His impatience had a side effect. Mysteriously his cursor began moving independently on his screen, searching and clicking. A hacker was working on his desktop Faster than a highnoon gunslinger Levi nailed the intruder and put securities back in place.

Someone is trying to invade our lifestyle. Jesus wants to take over our desktop volitionally. This is no hacker, just a virus pop up box that reads, “Click OK to allow lifestyle intrusion or to retain current operating platform click CANCEL.”

Application
What would happen if we clicked OK and let Jesus in?

We would gain everything. It’s like when Apple lost market share in the early days but PC dominated because of a choice to let anyone enter. It’s like the bad choice Sony made with their superior Beta video by closing the door to cloning only to be overtaken by JVC’s inferior VHS because of their generosity. There is something about giving our life away that enables us to gain the whole world. Apple learned their lesson and made iTunes accessible even to PC users. Is it any wonder that iPod dominates the market? Smart thinking for Apple and smart living if we will but give up our life.

Here’s the prayer that will change everything. Ready? Sure? Brace yourself: Jesus I give you permission. Everything changes after saying those words.

Prayer
Jesus, I give you my permission. Amen.

Scripture
Then Jesus asked them, “Would anyone light a lamp and then put it under a basket or under a bed? Of course not! A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light will shine. Mark 4:21

Observation
I am a bedtime reader. Two chapters before bed is like a sleeping tablet to me. I even read at bedtime when I go camping. It is so hard to hold the flashlight under the chin with a book propped up on the chest. But I’ve found at the center of the tent there is a loop of nylon designed just for the purpose. I tie my light to the string and all is solved because the light is in a better position.

God has given us a light. Light argues with the despair of darkness and declares it is never too late for a miracle, that mountains are only one earthquake away from crumbling, and that despair is temporary.

God has placed us in the dark. He must because otherwise our light would be invisible in the brilliance. Darkness comes from discouraging friends that surround us. The blackness can be a hopeless situation when only problems and not answers come knocking. The shadows of night can be coworkers who blow out our candle or family who unplug the light. The inky blackness threatens to stain our soul with despair.

God has given us a lampstand. If the Lord has given us a light he will always give to us a high place to position it where it can illumine every dark corner. No matter how obscure the place we are God has surely put some little ledge high up on a wall where that one light can make a difference.

I read a story once of a widow who spent lonely days without her husband in a one bedroom apartment at the top of a long, creaking flight of stairs. The hundreds of pedestrians shuffling below only reminded her that life had passed her by. But she fought off despair with a plan. She began praying over the busy workers in the street below. Then on little slips of paper she wrote messages of encouragement and dropped them from her window. Office workers and street people alike stooped to find her words of inspiration always signed off with directions to her little flat. Many found Christ because of those little scraps of paper when they made their way up the creaking stairs.

Application
If there is a lamp there must be a lamp stand. If the area around us is dark and gloomy it is not the cause of the Lord but of us who have not put the lamp in a place where it can be seen. God has turned the light on and it is up to us to position it where it can make a difference.

Prayer
Father, I ask that you would open my eyes every day to where the lamp stand is for that day. You have given me a light so now I ask for a lamp stand. Amen.

Scripture

Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Acts 26:16

Observation

It has been said that Jesus came not to obliterate our will but to liberate it. For that reason, when Saul fell to his feet at the vision of Jesus, the Master first called him to stand up. Jesus did not appear to Paul to pulverize his potential, he came to give it a new direction.

There is no greater call than the one to follow Jesus. The first encounter cannot be forgotten but it can fade. Throughout his life Paul told and retold the story of his first moments with Jesus. Because he kept returning to his first directive Paul did not end his life by propping up his feet in a Mediterranean villa. Instead his last human act was to lay his head on the chopping block because he kept doing what Jesus told him first to do.

Application

We must constantly retell the first time Jesus communicated with us so that we never live beneath our life potential. How sad on the last day if Jesus were to show me a graph of what he asked me to do compared to what I had actually achieved.

The sun was setting on a Sunday evening. I was just four years old sitting on my mother’s lap in service. Her arms were around me holding the maroon Praise and Worship hymn book as the setting sun washed her face in gold. As she sang I would lower my ear to her chest and listen to the warm tones resonate. I lifted my head to listen to the lyrics but I found I liked hearing her sing best through her heart.The song she said was this,

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.

The song reached down into my own heart. I consciously remember thinking, “I want that in my life.” With the lilting melody she went on to sing these words,

Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.

Those first words of Jesus to me have not changed. In those early encounters he told us what he wanted us to do for the rest of our lives. We are not to dilute those as youthful fantasies. Jesus was in them. Instead the older we become the more we must return to what Jesus said first to us. For in those first sentences are the instructions of how we are to live today.

Jesus has come to give us new direction. He has asked us to stand up and to follow him. Until he gives us new directions we should stay with what he last commanded us to do.

Prayer
Father, take me back to what Jesus first said to me and help me to find my life purpose in that. Amen.

Scripture

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Acts 17:26

Observation

Where I have been in life is not regrettable. Even my zig zag wanderings and scuff marks of rebellion were designed by God to find him.

Where I am is not an accident. God has placed me like a player on the game board and it is up to me to make the next move.

Where I will go tomorrow is not a happenstance. I am being guided by a Lord so sovereign that even my mistakes will contribute to me finding where he needs me to be.

God has planned the time and the pace where I should live in any given moment.

If there is any doubt of that I need only remember dinner at Mimi’s Cafe a a few weeks ago.

I had just arrived in Colorado Springs on a job hunt. Was this the place to be, I wondered. It was a dark and rainy night. As I drove past the quaint Cajun restaurant with gables and window curtains I felt that was the place for dinner. But the turn off was hard to see in the weather and Buffalo Wings was closer. But a voice kept saying, “You need to eat at Mimi’s Cafe.”

So I u-turned and took my seat. While I was waiting for my Gumbo I took time to read a Christian book. The waitress asked what I was reading. How could I creatively explain a book about clergy burnout to a non-Christian, I wondered. She broke into my reverie announcing that she knew the author. That solved that.

A ping pong conversation ensued. She had lived in my hometown, Bartlesville, Oklahoma. That’s a 12 hour drive away. She lived on Osage Avenue. So does my daughter’s boyfriend Chris. She lived in the house next door to Chris. She was friends with Chris’ mother Cindy. She knew all about the wrestling accident that had left Chris a quadriplegic. They had visited Chris in hospital.

In a strange city, on a rainy night, I felt the index finger of God scrolling through the roadmap pointing to a place. God knows where we are. He put us there. And God knows how to get us to where he needs us to be next.

Application

Some are frightened by the sovereignty of God because they forget the love of God. God is in control of everything, even our free will. But such direction is not coercing, it is compelling because we are being drawn by love. Today I can trust him to position me on the map of life exactly where I need to be.

Prayer

Father, you have permission to maneuver me to just where you need me to be. Amen.