Logjam

           I was reading a story about logjams this week and I went to YouTube to watch a logjam be unjammed and I got to thinking about the stresses and strains we carry.

          How do logjams begin? I think it’s because a log turns sideways to the flow of the water and encounters an opening under a bridge or a narrow spot in the river.

          If that initial log that’s stuck can get back into the flow of the river and keep from getting crosswise to the limitations it faces (bridge opening size, river width), then all will be well… but we know that doesn’t happen. Logs get stuck and then increasingly smaller logs pile up behind it.

          Isn’t this just like our life and our thinking can be! Big things, big challenges, in our lives come along, get crosswise with our personal limitations, create pressure, and we don’t get busy doing whatever we need to do to loosen up these “big things” as they occur and get them back into the flow of God that caries all things safely along the river of life.

          Instead of identifying with “the flow,” we identify with the limitation and we feel the pressure being applied upon limitation and all too often we don’t do the kinds of things that will loosen that one big thing and get it back into the flow of the river of life. The next thing you know, increasingly smaller concerns pile up behind that “big thing” until even the tiniest things add to the mess; smaller things that, on their own would sail along the river of life completely unobstructed… too small to be held back by anything… there’s too much pressure, and we lose it.

          Have you ever seen anyone explode over “nothing” and you wonder to yourself, “I wonder what that’s all about?”

          Big logjams, in the outer sense, are attended to with big resolutions from blowing up some of the logs to bringing in heavy equipment to break it apart, or move it around, in small chunks trying to get the debris back into the flow of the river.

          The flow of the river is like the flow of God. What we want to do is get all those worries, cares, concerns, fears, etc., into the flow of God.  When things get cross-wise in our live we want to do whatever is necessary to move them into the flow of God and let them be “washed away.”

          Whenever anything gets “stuck” with you, give it to God sooner rather than later; not because it’s harder for God later, but because the longer you wait, the more and more pressure you feel.

          What pressures are you feeling in your life today? Whatever they are, call God in to “do the heavy lifting” and get that big thing, or things, back into the flow of life where they’ll be quickly be carried away.

          How do we do that? I suggest when we are pressured by something, BEGIN WITH GOD. Sometimes we end up with God as a last resort.  That’s the hard way of doing things, and we don’t have to do it that way; we can begin with God.

When we realize we can connect ourselves with God and prove what Jesus said in John 14:10, “The words I say I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works,” almightiness begins to appear and free-up the logjam.

          How can we connect ourselves with God? Prayer.

          During a summer-long drought, a newspaper in South Carolina carried this story: “About 100 people gathered on the Lexington County Courthouse

steps, Sunday afternoon, and prayed for rain. 'We had a very specific prayer,' said the Reverend Henry 'Hank' Moody, Jr., pastor of the Pisgah Lutheran Church, who gave the prayer during the twenty-minute service. 'We prayed for a gentle, soothing rain for the land, a rain without lightning and storm, a rain that will nourish the land and refill the ponds.'” The

article continued, “That's a tall order, and the one the National Weather Services says won't be filled anytime soon.”

          Isn't that the way of the world? The world seems to say, pray if you want, but don't expect anything to happen because of your prayers.

          But by the next weekend, the city had gotten more rain in that one week than in the previous three months combined!

Prayer is a kind of thought. There are two types of thought: God-thought and problem-thought. 

I suggest that what we need to do is look to God instead of identifying with our own problems.

Maybe you say, “Oh, but I don’t identify with my problems.” I think that we do so more than we realize. When we say things like, “I am

·        not smart enough

·        unhappy

·        not pretty

·        not handsome

·        sick, or

·        poor, etc.,

we are focusing on a limited perception of ourselves.  Those limitations are what you perceive you are.

You are not.

          Perceive something different, like the power and presence of God working in you, through you, and as you… that’s the key that will open new doors to a richer experience of life by unjaming that logjam.  Have faith in that.

          If you think you don’t have faith, or you have too little faith, just remember this; let’s call it rule number one: GOD IS CHANGELESS.

(There are only two rules to a happy life (1) God is changeless and (2) remember all rules)

          Please don’t let those words go in one ear and out the other; God is changeless.  Think about that. Contemplate this question, “If God is changeless, what does that actually mean to my life?”

What God gives in one moment God gives fully in every moment, eternally. What heals one thing heals everything.

When we “worry-talk” (problem-talk) to ourselves in the middle of the night or during the day; whether we do it verbally or silently; whether it’s about lack, or hard times, or our health… when we “worry-talk” we would do well to tell ourselves, “There is no place for these things in the mind of God.”

Did you ever notice this about Jesus? Before He performed a “miracle,” He blessed what He had and what He was about to do.

There was no place for trouble in His mind.

This week, if you’re willing, bless everything you have, whether you think of it as a lot, a little or a perceived void… and bless everything you do before you do it (or bless it after you do it if you forgot to bless it beforehand. Blessing is not limited by time or space).

Remember in times of doubt, worry, fear, or confusion, bless yourself with this reminder, “There is no place for these things in the mind of God”

God Direct Me

         “Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and compassionate…and abounding in love…” (Joel 2:13)

         God is gracious, compassionate and abounding in love. That’s why it’s important to return to, become aware of, stay aware of, the Presence of God. OK, if we’re not already there, or we’ve forgotten, what’s the first step in returning our awareness to God?

         I suggest saying, “God direct me.”

         With God’s help, there is ever-expanding good in your life.

         Now let’s just stop here a moment and clarify some possible unconscious misunderstanding: “With God’s help sounds like God is outside of us… someone who’s going to fix some sort of problem like a plumber fixes a leaky pipe.

         The idea of “God’s help,” I believe, is better understood as allowing ourselves to be directed by divine truth, as best we understand it and have practiced it. Doing so will change our lives for the better.

         God’s Power is present in every one of us. We must allow it to move, and we must be ready to move and change if necessary… i.e. do something differently!

         Here is a story about a woman born in St. Louis, MO. I think you know her when I tell you her name.

         She described herself as a “born loser.” Born into poverty, born into a broken family, she was raped at age seven by her mother’s boyfriend.

         She told no adult, but did tell her brother that she wished the man were dead. Found dead the next day, the little girl, thinking that her words had killed him, chose not to speak for the next five and a half years!

         At some point the family moved to California. At age 16 she became an unwed mother and now had to fend for herself and her child. She worked as a dancer, cocktail waitress, Creole cook, nightclub singer before eventually becoming the first black female street-car conductor in San Francisco.

         It was about this time that she decided that if her life was going to get better she had to take a part in changing her life. She realized that neither the past nor the present determined her future.

         This is a truth that we, too, must realize.

         She had to grasp those proverbial bootstraps, pull herself up, and tell herself that she could be created anew with God’s loving help.

         God Direct me.

         Pulling ourselves up when we have fallen is something a lot of people choose not to do. Some people face a crisis and they decide it will never get better; their past has been a crisis, their present is in crisis and therefore that determines the whole future of their lives… and then it becomes a recurring theme in their lives.

         The idea that we cannot change our lives is a human lie we tell ourselves.

         Invite god into your life. In other words, live according to your highest understanding of divine truth… and be ready. Be ready to think and act differently… to have a different experience.

         This woman decided that, with God, she could turn her life around. She started to study spiritual things. She started to fill her mind with possibilities instead of limitations.

         When you are stuck are you ready to learn? Are you ready to start to feed your mind with possibilities instead of the same old reinforcing ideas of limitation, and then act on those possibilities?

         This woman unlimited herself, and eventually became a professor at wake forest University!

         You will know whom I’m speaking about when I tell you that in 1992, this woman, who is very, very distinguished, stood in front of the Capitol of United States to read poetry for President Clinton’s inaugural: Dr. Maya Angelou.

         My Angelou field over and over again at life and then with God’s direction moved beyond her limitations.

         In the Sermon on the Mount (MT 5:14) Jesus says that, “You are the light of the world.” He doesn’t say that you are a faceless, unimportant, ho-hum member of humanity, a born loser, but YOU are the light (the expressed truth) of the world!

         When you are attached to God, really attached, when you really follow Jesus Christ, you do not just read about Him, you take on His teachings inside of you, and you make a difference right where you are-in your family, in your business, in your service to mankind because you have made a difference in your heart by being willing to let God Direct you.

         We need to believe in bigger possibilities, not just as individuals, but as nations and humanity.

         No matter what we face in life, God is bigger than our problems! Don’t tell God about your big problems; tell your problems about big God!

         There is not one of us in here, who has not faced a mountain in our life that was so big and so seemingly powerful that we didn’t know how to get around it. The important thing is to keep on climbing, but don’t try climbing alone. God is there holding the rope. You do what is possible, and God will do the impossible. You have a big God that is bigger than your problem, a God who can help in you and through you.

         In the Bible it says that God defeats your enemies.

         In Deuteronomy 23:14 the Bible states, “For the Lord your God is walking among your places of dwelling, to keep you safe and to give up into your hands your enemies who are fighting against you…”

         A failure or a loss can seem to be your enemy. After you have failed at something or suffered a big loss, after you have had a big mountain come into your life, do you know what your greatest enemy is? It’s not the event. It’s your negative thoughts about the event and your negative self-talk about your self.  It becomes your enemy when your negative self-talk keeps on daily, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, year by year, even decade by decade. It will keep defeating you…if you let it.

         There comes a time when you have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off, and stand tall because you are a child of God; you are the light of the world, you are the truth in expression in the world, you are the hands and feet of God in the world.

         Here’s one last story to illustrate the point about our thoughts being our enemy and how letting God directives made a difference.

         This is a true story, it was told to me by the person to whom it happened. Her name is Muriel. Muriel and her husband had been separated and intending to obtain a divorce for couple of years. Muriel said she could hardly stand to speak to her husband. When he would call it would deteriorate into a shouting match of insults and anger.

         Muriel told me she wanted to get the divorce settled, and she wanted God to direct her to be able to have a productive conversation but she was stuck in this eddy and couldn’t get free of it; her husband in attack mode, she would also tighten up and become angry, too, whenever they spoke on the phone.

         Muriel wanted God to direct her but she would forget that every time she saw her husband’s name on the caller ID of her phone. Then she did something genius. (Actually God gave her the idea) She went into the contacts list on her phone and changed the caller ID on his name to say, “God direct me” so that each time he called she saw those words on her phone just before she answered it. She says that calmed her down, and after just a couple of more phone calls from her husband he called to say, “look, why don’t we stop fighting and just get this settled” which is exactly what they did.

         When you do that, let God to direct you, all power, which is already in you, placed there by God, moves through you. And not just through you but through the situation at large.

         You may be urged to pull your self up by your bootstraps into the many things necessary to change your life and move forward to an experience you never imagined just as Dr. Angelou did, or perhaps you just let your defenses down and your immediate struggle smoothes itself out to resolution as it did with Muriel and her husband.

         If you are willing (willing is important in spiritual growth), I invite you to let "God, direct me" be your mantra, your guiding idea this week. You can put that as a message on your screen saver or you can change the caller ID on your phone. If there is someone with whom you struggle, you can change their contact name in your email if you have a charged relationship with them. You can write, “God direct me” on a 3 x 5 card and post somewhere where you’ll see it regularly like your desk, your mirror, the steering wheel of your car, even your sock drawer! Put a rubber band around your wrist with the intention to think of that each time you see it. Work up some other creative ideas for yourself.

         God is bigger than your problems!

         Let God direct you - participate in the changing of your life.

         Let me conclude today’s message by saying, “I love you and I bless you for the goodness of God at work in you now.”

Thank you.