A Coffee Kind of Morning

I woke up this morning, and realized that I had been sleeping in the most comfortable place on my bed (you know that one place where every part of your body is relaxed). When my eyes popped open to the sound of talk radio and some type of very boring discussion, I cringed at the thought of rolling over to turn off the alarm clock. I gave myself an extra 10 minutes under the pre-tense, that "I needed some extra rest", then scrambled out of bed and began the morning routine. I looked in the mirror and determined that shaving could wait another day, then finished the usual routine and headed to the kitchen for breakfast. At this point, I was about 10 minutes behind my schedule, (see a theme here), and looked in the fridge, to start making "the usual" breakfast. Of course, I had forgotten to grab more eggs in my 10:30pm excursion to Wal-Mart last night, so I had to be resourceful for breakfast. "Let's see, I have fajita chicken strips and......fajita chicken strips". Well, I guess we're going south of the border for breakfast this AM! I grilled up some chicken, popped some bread in the toaster, and then got ready to enjoy some increased morning insulin levels! Woo-Hoo!

After breakfast, I start quiet time.....I started reading in Isaiah, and realized that my battery way apparently not plugged in this morning, as I felt like I was literally reading the Hebrew! (and I've never been to seminary)! After struggling through for 10-15 minutes, not really getting any thoughts to gel, I flip over to Proverbs, and read the Proverb for the day. ( I have recently gotten in the habit of trying to read the chapter of Proverbs that correlates to the day of the month, and now that I think about it, I actually read yesterdays, today (chapter 20)! Well, that doesn't surprise me, as it has been one of those mornings.....

So, as I skimmed through the Proverbs, and overwhelmed my brain with the shear depth of wisdom.....BOOM! At last, some light breaks through!.....Hallelujah!!! Proverbs 20:6

"Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?"

I have actually written a blog on this verse before, but again it resounds in my heart!

Faithfulness Josh,....that is what I want! Faithfulness.......Keep on stepping, don't stop, no matter what you come up against, what your flesh tries to tell you, keep on keeping on!

Okay, so the Lord did not actually say "Keep on keeping on", but nonetheless, I got his message.

In this day and time, faithfulness has become a forgotten word. The idea that I stick with doing something when: 1. I don't have to, 2. I don't want to, and 3. I don't feel like it, is almost ridiculous to many. But, as I thought deeper on this, the question arose, How else do we truly show that we are loving others above ourself, How better to reflect Christ, How better to show the Lord that we love Him? We stay in the place he has us, whether we like it, or not, until He tells us to move. We continue serving Him, and serving others in that place, until He tells us to stop.

Let's take a small detour and look at the sacred institution of marriage. It is only my speculation, but I would bet, that after being married to someone for 10-15 years, that there come a few points along the way, where you probably would want to leave. You no longer "feel" in love, you know longer "want" to serve, you no longer "think" you need to stay. How do you show love in that time?......You remain faithful.

You stay, and you keep stepping, and stepping, and stepping. If the Lord called you to marriage, then that is the place you are called to be until HE changes it. So, while emotions will come and go, problems that were never anticipated occur, and pain will be inflicted by the person that can and will hurt you the most......you stay and remain faithful.

In this faithfulness you are showing the Love of the Lord. The world sets it self up to be first, so that whenever self feels hurt, or pain, or anything uncomfortable, it chooses to do what is best for self. We need to look no further than Christ's example to realize how our response should directly contradict that. We need look no further than the cross to see that faithfulness through the pain is the standard the Lord has given us. Where else can the tremendous love of Christ be seen, if not in the places that world will never tread, in the decisions the world will never understand to make.

Man, this blog kind of took on it's own direction.....

In the end my dear brothers and sisters....in the joy, in the pain, in understanding, and in confusion.....remain faithful to tasks to which you have been called, by so doing your witness for Christ to a dark and selfish world is seen like a candle on a lampstand, and a light on a hill!