Let's Take Time to Celebrate Life!!!!

Vacation over

Believe or not I did get back from my trip. My brain was triggered on all kinds of fronts. I was left with wondering how I might best live out what I call my Christian faith. I look at the world and it's way of looking at things. I was watching a cigarette commercial and I was reminded of how my mom and my grandmother struggled to overcome their cigarette smoking. Both of them saw themselves as good Christians and yet that did not mean that they did not have struggles in dealing with bad habits. I look over the whole spectrum of what people call sin. My own way of looking at is looking at what separates us from our understandings of God and each other. This is a tall task, because it is hard enough to be clear about what we ourselves believe.

I found myself pondering the fact that the person with the least faith and conviction in regards to people and God can at times share the most success in overcoming obstacles to relationship. Does that make them better than the people that continue to struggle and can not seem to kick the habit. Over time I am seeing that overcoming means that I make a decision to give over control to a power greater than myself. For me that person is Jesus Christ. I am very sure that others are achieving greater success in overcoming the vestiges of mental illness that I struggle with among other things. At the same time I celebrate that overtime my relationship with Christ is leading me into a better with myself, God and others and maybe that is all that truly matters.

I think all of us find times in our life that might be considered vacation. Our conviction seems to fall on deaf ears. No one wants to know what we believe. I am left wondering if faith in God even matters. In my case, I look back at my humble beginnings and wonder what I bought into. I learned that in giving myself over to God in Christ I had something. The only clincher was in determining what sin was as opposed to love that might lead the way to more effective celebration of God and faith. It is still a struggle. I come back from vacation hoping that I will learn how to meet this challenge. Vacation us over. I heard from a church in the Philadelphia area. I am once again faced with what I believe and how that impacts effective ministry wherever I serve whether it be in Kansas City or elsewhere. To God be the glory. Vacation over.