Daily Archives: May 3, 2012

 

What are you doing?  What are your goals?  Naturally, we all are working, raising a family, maintaining a marriage, keeping the house standing upright, and cutting the grass!  But aside from the maintenance side of life what are you focused on. I would dare say that for almost everyone it falls in several broad catagories;

 

1.  Getting what I want for myself.  Security, health, recognition, love, possessions.

 

2.  Helping others get what they want.  Serving others, watching over others, attempting to protect others.

 

3.  Doing what God has planned for me.  Listen and say yes!

 

All of our lives are a combination of those categories.   I think it is normal to have a little of each in your make up, however to have your life heavily weighted in the first category is very dangerous.  When we invest in just ourselves and our wants and needs, we build a wall around ourselves.  Eventually that wall becomes so think and tall that people can’t get in.  What we own will soon own us!  Long term peace and joy never comes from the physical weight of your possessions or toys.

 

Number two, serving others can be rewarding and to a certain level a very good thing, however we must always test our motives for why we are doing it.  Selfless service to others can be a wonderful way of blessing others, but if done with a strong motive of what I may get back, it can become destructive.

 

Only number three, serving Him, can lead to a joyful life filled with true contentment.  A heart that is truly turned over to God, will seek what is best for others and themselves.  It’s not wrong to want nice things, it’s a mistake to think, in the long view, they mean all that much!

 

Be blessed,

 

the pilgrim

I  know I came down a little hard yesterday on working an event like the Derby, but I had a reason, it was a set-up, I set you up!  God has taught me some very valuable lessons over my life.  Maybe one of the most important is that no matter how bad you think things are , they could be much worse.  The photo above was made of me early in my career when I worked in Eastern Kentucky for a coal company.  My job required me to go into the mines quite a lot.  I will be very honest, I didn’t like it a bit.  I was scared down in the mines, and for good reason, it was a very dangerous environment.  I saw more than few men die during those times I was working in and out of the mines.

 

When I finally left that industry, I never looked back, but I never forgot how thankful I was to work, above ground!  God lets us experience things sometimes that may not be pleasant, but leads us to an understanding of just how fortunate we are, and how much He has blessed us!  Do I want to go back into the mines?  No way, but I’m glad that I had that experience, it reminds me often that my worst day is nothing like as bad as those days, five miles back under a mountain with only 32 inches from top to bottom to crawl around in.

 

Don’t curse God for your circumstances, ask Him to show you what He wants you to learn from them.  Know that He never allows anything to come into our lives that will not help us in the long run.  If you’ve given Him your life, you can trust Him with it!  And the next time you think you’re having a tough day, stare at the photograph above for a few minutes!  I bet you will feel better!  If I endured it for no other reason than to make you thankful you’re not in the picture, it was worth it……

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim