This past week I got back into the Instagram game (thefcshoots). And my tagline reads, “I like to take pictures of my beautiful wife, trains, and the fire hydrant by my house.” I thought this was pretty witty. But a couple of days later I learned a valuable lesson.

Each of these three subjects (my wife, trains, and the fire hydrant by my house) are representative of the different opportunities we are often faced with. The first being my beautiful wife.

She, like this type of opportunity, is present a majority of the time, but not always. I have a relationship with her, which creates new opportunities. She is the living opportunity that is always changing.

Other examples of this might include relationships with family or co-workers. We have opportunities to show them Love a majority of the time, but not always. They are a living relationship that is always changing.

We must be intentional to not waste these opportunities: whether it is a prime photo opportunity or a prime opportunity to extend Love. These opportunities wont last forever so we must take full advantage while we can.

Stay tuned next week for the opportunity represented by the train.

Soli Deo gloria

And you’ve done all of this in just about 20 or so years of life. But you’re not done.

Most people get a solid job, also known as a career, and settle down and live the next twenty years in a very monotonous fashion.

Now I have nothing against monotony, but when monotony replaces the curiosity that leads to new understanding and new knowledge then there is a problem.

So here is my plea: continue to learn these next twenty years. Learning shouldn’t stop because school does. And then your next twenty, from ages 40-60, do the same thing.

Learn.

Make the most out of these times. Stay creative. Cultivate your imagination. And never stop growing.

Solo Deo Gloria

Soli Deo gloria

But not only is it the huge decisions like marriage and what we are going to Love that effect our lives every day. It’s every fork.

Every day we are faced with “forks” that force us to react, thus altering our entire future. Every person with whom you come into contact today will require a reaction from you. The Starbucks cashier fork, the homeless man fork, the parents fork.

The way you react effects your future.

This is serious. When you view every fork in your day with intentionality then you will have better control of your future.

Live Intentionally.

Soli Deo gloria

(Disclaimer: I’m not sure if I got the idea of “with every person you meet you have to make a choice that will effect your future” idea from the movie Cloud Atlas, but if I did here is there credit where credit is due.)

Many times it feels like our lives consist of waking up and going to bed. The days fly. There’s a possibility that the good old days are happening right now and you’re missing them.

Just like I always say, everything isn’t going to be lilly pads and rainbows. There will be some tough times. But when you have food, people that Love you, and a God that Loves you more there’s a pretty good chance you’re living in the good old days.

Let me leave you with this, so that you don’t have to be like Andy someday: You’re living in the good old days.

So live.

Soli Deo gloria

Summer is a great time to get some quality reading done. This post is to help and encourage you to read some books this summer. Easy as that.

Here are the three steps I use.
1. Chose number of books you want to read.
2. Try to keep a balance of nonfiction and fiction as well as old and new.
3. Read them.

Here is my list.

Five books. 3 fiction, 2 nonfiction, 2 old, 3 new. I’ve split my summer into 5 two week sections starting June 1st and ending August 10th. That gives me two weeks to read each book. It is important to plan your reading schedule out in a way that works best for you to help keep you on track (and to give you some motivation).

Of course, if you get done with a book early there’s no reason to wait to pick up the next one. Take a little break between books and read on. Make a goal that works for you, choose books that you want to read, and enjoy reading this summer!

Soli Deo gloria

Take this picture for example.

My guess is that very few people in 1969 would have believed that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon if NASA just made a public announcement that said, “We’ve put a man on the moon.” They wanted observable proof.

We long for evidence to the point that it becomes mandatory for us to observe something before we can believe it to be true. We’ve lost faith because we don’t think there is anything to put our faith in. Our society mocks people who believe things that cannot be observed or that science cannot prove. The tragedy.

But there are things worth believing. I’m not talking about a blind belief in something. I’m talking about looking at the evidence and believing that something could have happened, even if we didn’t see it ourself. Believing in something by having faith.

What a tragedy it is when we only believe that which we can observe with our eyes.

Soli Deo gloria

But there’s another road. A road of uncertainty. A road of hardships and reliance. A road of pain and faithfulness. This road requires faith in God and complete surrender to His Power. This road is most feared because we must abandon our man-made support beams and surrender everything to God. The most dangerous road.

We want to be in control. We want to live in a way that honors God but we also want to not rely in Him fully. Of course, we must be responsible for our actions and be good stewards of our resources. Nonetheless, we must put our faith into action and do something that requires us to trust fully on God.

Now the irony. When we live on the road of comfort, the less dangerous road, we miss out on many of the lessons God wants to teach us. The ways He wants to grow us. Growth cannot happen without change. When we live on this road we become stagnant. The absence of growth seems dangerous.

When we live our lives on the road of pushing our comfort zones and service, the most dangerous road, we must have complete faith in God. This road is actually the less dangerous road because God is in control of our life and there is no fear, even in death, because God is in control.

Which road on you traveling?

We were pushed past our comfort zones almost daily, but with good intention. We didn’t merely canoe in hail or walk down mountains in the dark with no purpose; each challenge we faced had opportunity for spiritual growth. Though the spiritual growth did not necessarily occur the moment the snow started falling, we were able to capture these moments every night as we sat around the camp fire and discussed how we can grow closer to God through the events of the day.

There is growth in the community as we all strived to be an example of biblical community, but there is also spiritual growth that happens internally. There is time for devotion everyday because there are no distractions. There is time for growth everyday because there are no distractions. And there is time for God everyday because there are no distractions. Sometimes we tend to forget these important areas of spiritual growth because we are busy or distracted. But we cannot. And going n the wilderness challenge was an excellent reminder that God must be first in my life everyday, not just when times are hard.

Soli Deo gloria

― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature and Selected Essays