One at a time

Track meets in Northwest Iowa are really not spectator sports. The wind often howls, the temperatures are ordinarily not too warm, and when you package those two things together, wind chills on an evening when the temperature reads 49 are more like 29. Not very pleasant!

But when you force your kids to be involved, to make themselves better for other things they are involved in - including life - you had better show up to watch.

So there we sat, my wife and I, on Monday evening in the frigid conditions mentioned above. (At least it wasn't raining!) As we sat, we cheered on the kids from our school, noticed how gifted some of the kids from other schools are and, despite our butts being nearly frost-bit on the aluminum bleachers, enjoyed ourselves.

But then came the 100m hurdle race. When the hurdles are coached well, practiced well and run well, it can be a thing of beauty. A girl from a neighboring school ran a flawless heat and was very impressive.

In a following heat, however, one of the competitors clipped the sixth hurdle. Down she went - face into asphalt, sprawled out for the whole crowd to see!

"Ooohhhh" rang through the bleachers.

As is customary, the hurdler got up and tried to finish the race. She hobbled over the seventh and eighth hurdles, and then bit it again over the ninth hurdle as she tried to complete the race.

"Nnnnoooohhh" was then heard as the crowd hurt for the young lady.

She eventually crossed the finish line, but did so a little beat up.

Made me think of life - our lives.

We can be running along, clearing hurdles and looking pretty good, can't we? Our form is spot on, we pick 'em up and set 'em down and reach whatever finish line is in front of us at the moment beautifully.

Once in a while, though, one of the hurdles seems to jump up and tackle us - to send us sprawling to the asphalt. And there we lie, bloodied, dinged, unsure how to proceed and wondering what the heck just happened.

It is there that we have a choice to make, isn't it? When we are sprawled out on the asphalt, bloodied and dinged, unsure of how to proceed.

I am pretty sure we have all faced something in our lives that we can relate to this scenario - perhaps it was something of our own doing that sent us face first into the pavement, perhaps it was something someone did to us that tripped us up and hurt us? Perhaps it was a disease, an accident, pornography, gossiping, alcoholism, (insert your malady here) that took you down and left you with a choice to make.

Sprawled out on the pavement when life strikes, we do have a decision to make. Am I going to stay down? Am I going to continue in this pattern? Am I going to try to get up on my own? Or might I change the pattern and seek guidance?

The world long told me to pick myself up by my own boot straps and to get out of whatever it was that had tripped me up and sent me sprawling, on my own. But one day, when I had fallen and couldn't get up, God made himself known in the way of other people and the Word.

I love this piece of scripture from the book of Hebrews. Read what Hebrews 12:1 has to offer us: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Hurdlers, in a way, understand this. They know that when they run the race, there isn't just one hurdle to clear but 10. They know that if they go down, they must somehow muster the courage to get up and try to clear the next one.

That's perseverance, isn't it? It's looking fear in the eye and walking (or running) right into the face of it. Perseverance is dealing with whatever it is that had us sprawled out on the asphalt, fully and completely, so that we might be able to continue on running the race marked out for us, isn't it?

We have talked a lot about this topic this week, my wife and I. Jennifer Lee over at Getting down With Jesus blogged of a scenario in her own life - where life has presented a major hurdle - and yet walking straight into that fear is part of the perseverance piece.

Chances are there are going to be more hurdles to clear for each of us. That's the other thing about persevering in this race. As long as God allows us to be here on this earth, there are going to be obstacles and hurdles that will be there - that's a fact. We are told in the Bible that "in this world we will have trouble, but I has overcome the world."

Whatever the stumbling block, I pray we call God into it with us. I pray that we rely on God, that we realize that he has a plan for us and that with Holy Spirit alongside (not out in front or behind, but beside you) that we run with perseverance the race marked out before us.

Grace and Peace!

Broken and beautiful

My prayer, which began in earnest on Palm Sunday, was that I might be led to the cross during Passion Week; that I might see Jesus in a different way this Easter; that I might experience the depth of his suffering; that I might get a glimpse into all that he endured just for me; that I might look anew at the ways in which I live and breathe and follow him.

It was an incredible week, to say the least.

Reading and re-reading the scriptures uncovered some things for me that I had perhaps never really read before, that I must have missed or at least forgotten about Holy Week.

It also drew me in closer to Jesus than I have been in some time. In the midst of personal struggle and a bit of a dry season, I needed to be drawn in.

Thursday evening we went on a journey during our Maundy Thursday service. We journeyed to the table - celebrating in the Lord's supper. We then journeyed to the Garden of Gethsemane and I really heard and understand for the first time that victory was won in Garden, when Jesus decided to take on the cross. And then we journeyed to the cross, where he suffered and died for me and for you.

Thursday night was a meaningful service for me, one in which I could hear Jesus ask from the cross, "What sin?"

Good Friday came and I spent much of the day, for lack of a better word, bothered. Bothered that victory had to come with Jesus hanging there - because of me - for me! I thank God that he did it, but the pain of it all is almost too much. It was my sin that nailed him there, it was me who turned his back on Jesus - who cut and ran. Oh, to not do those things!

But Good Friday also included Bible study. Six broken people who love Jesus, who love each other and are living life together. On this night, we continued to toil through the book of Job (we are officially halfway - yippee!), shared what was going on in our lives and then, dimmed the lights, lit some candles and again ventured to the cross. We took in this Youtube video - I would like to share it with you here...



This Good Friday - the day in which Jesus's body was broken and blood was poured out for the healing of the world, the healing of those who would call on his name - we broke bread together, served each other and enjoyed the feast.

Holy Communion - the Lord's Supper - is a very personal experience. He endured the most excruciating of deaths in which his body was literally broken and his blood poured out. He did it for me and he did it for you, if you believe.

It is the most meaningful of experiences for me to take his body, soak it in the cup and remember what he did for me. It is written: On the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took the bread, broke it and said 'This is my body which is broken for you. Every time you eat of it, remember me.' And in the same way, Jesus took the cup, and after having blessed it, said 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood which was poured out for many.' Every time you drink of it, remember me.

An amazing thing, isn't it?

Jesus gave us these elements that we might never forget. He also gave us this supper, I believe, with the intent of celebrating it with others. Merriam-Webster defines community as a unified body of individuals. Communion, loosely defined, is the celebration of being in community with one another.

And so, on this night, six broken people whose lives are being put back together through the body and blood of Jesus Christ - and through the love and care of each other - intimately shared the body and body of Jesus Christ. Tears were shed, hearts were opened, and sharing occurred about the very personal meaning of the sacrament. I believe we were all touched by the body and blood, and the sharing, in ways we have not encountered before.

This is a meager attempt at explaining the celebration - but Good Friday will never look the same to me again. I saw him there, broken and beautiful.

Then came Sunday morning - where the church building was bursting at the seams and a cantata called "I've Seen Jesus" was performed. Beautifully sung music and incredible narration took us to what Mary Magdalene, Thomas and Peter all experienced upon coming to the empty grave.

They saw Jesus, ALIVE! He was both broken and beautiful before their eyes.

In this past week, Jesus was both broken and beautiful before my eyes. How about you? My prayer now is that I read and re-read the accounts of his time on earth following the resurrection, that it might become more and more real - that it might lead me ever closer to him - that it might help me better share his love with others - that I might be better prepared for his return!

Grace and Peace!

The burden

We all have them, right?  

Things we wish we hadn't done?  Things we wish we could take back?  You know, the burden!?!

A rude comment or something we said or did that was hurtful, embarrassing, or painful?

I sit this Saturday morning wondering what the disciples of Jesus, who was crucified yesterday, must be thinking today?

When Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, the account of Matthew 26 concludes this way in verse 56:  (from The Message)  The disciples cut and ran.  In the NIV it says that the disciples deserted him and fled.

Here are these 12 guys whom Jesus had singled out, had told to drop everything they were involved with and to follow him.  And they did it.  While they followed him they saw signs and wonders, witnessed miracle upon miracle, and heard teachings that baffled the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.

They lived and breathed with Jesus.  And yet, when one of their own betrayed Jesus and the crowd came for him to arrest him - the other 11 betrayed Jesus, too.

Jesus foretold of Peter's denial, and he knew that the other 10 would cut and run, too.

After he had been handed over, tried, flogged, beaten and crucified - what must they have been dealing with this Saturday morning?  What was running through their minds?

Part of me can identify with them, I think.  Every time I louse things up (which is often, unfortunately) it is as if I have handed him over.  Every time I neglect someone in need, it is another swing of the hammer.  Every time one of those horrible thoughts enters my mind, and I allow it to germinate for just a moment, it is as if I spit in Jesus' face.  Every time I do what I want and know it is against his will, it is as if I cut and run.

Increasingly those feelings bother me.  There was a time when it didn't matter, because Jesus didn't really matter to me.  It was a story from a book written hundreds - no thousands - of years ago.  It had no significance in my life.

Jesus matters to me now.  Jesus is everything to me now.  The fact that it was my sin that nailed him there, that forced him to have to endure all he did on Thursday night and Friday is weighty.  

So are the guilty feelings of Saturday.  It had to be for the disciples, too!  All of the "what ifs" they had to be asking themselves this morning!   Uuuuggghhhh!  

And the sorrow of the death of their dear friend and King - the one they had hoped in - the one they had dropped everything to follow - must have been incredibly painful.

Praise God we know Sunday's coming.  They should have, too, since he told them over and over again that he was going to handed over to sinners, crucified and risen on the third day.  But even as he returned to them following the resurrection, they still doubted.

My prayer today, this Holy Week Saturday morning, is that we are able to take a few minutes between the grief of Friday and jubilation of Sunday and perhaps deal with all of the feelings that come in between - the feelings that accompany Saturday.  

The remorse...the guilt...the sorrow...the grief...the pain.

I pray we address them all so the fact that the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty - that Jesus is Alive - may be a time of celebration in our lives like none other.  That his sacrifice was not in vain and that it is extremely personal.  That Jesus' sacrifice on that cross gives us hope, life, grace and peace!

Beat down

It's Friday. Thank God Sunday is coming.

I sit in my office this Friday afternoon, needing to leave - wanting to leave - but unnerved by it all - by the beat down that occurred some 2000 years ago.

Last Sunday I preached the Palm Sunday message and encouraged those present to ponder why it was that we had to read that story over again. It was a message I needed to hear - one that God clearly laid on my heart to help me to understand the depth of his love for us - how Jesus Christ was the most humble of servants.

Triumphal entry? He knew that while people were cheering and celebrating his arrival this Sunday, that they would turn on him in a matter of days and that he would be betrayed, tried, beaten and crucified. And he entered Jerusalem, just the same.

Triumphantly! And he did it on a donkey - a humble servant entering the city unlike the King's of Old Testament times who always rode in on the finest of stallions. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred. Entering triumphantly to fulfill his purpose on this earth - to fulfill what the prophets like Zechariah had foretold centuries earlier.

The encouragement was also to be led to the cross in this week. My prayer was that I might be led there, too. In reading and re-reading the varied Gospel accounts of this Passion Week, I have been more intimately to the cross than at any time in my 40 years on this earth.

Today is Friday. I don't like Friday. The weight of my sin and shame is too much to bear. Jesus hanging there - beaten and bloodied because of me - is more than I can bear. I know Sunday is coming - thank God I know that - but the pain of Friday is weighty today, my friends.

Toward the end of Luke's account, Jesus says, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." It was a notion that was on his heart from the moment he left the Garden of Gethsemane, I believe, and is what he still thinks some 2009 years later as we mark the day in which he was crucified.

The Apostle Paul called crucifixion the most humiliating form of execution - it would also have to be the most excruciating form of execution. And so as I sit and ponder what Jesus must have endured on that cross this afternoon, I do so most humbly. It was my sin that nailed him there; it was my failings that nailed Jesus there; it has been my voice yelling "crucify him, crucify him"; it has been me who betrayed Jesus; it has been me who turned my back on Jesus.

And yet...Jesus hung there, nearly out of life, beckoning his Father to forgive me - to forgive you. The beating and flogging he endured are beyond anything we can comprehend, but I believe it was nothing compared to the hurt and anguish in Christ's heart for those who were doing the beating. Had to be, how else could he utter "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing."

My life has been forever changed in this Passion Week. I have experienced things in my time of re-reading the scripture and in prayer, of being led to the cross, that I pray spill out onto others. Tonight, as we gather with dear friends for a time of study, reflection and communion, I pray that Christ's body broken and blood poured out for the healing of the world - for each of us - will transform our lives more deeply than we could fathom.

I pray that from this day forward that we might stop and think about what it is we are doing, that we might think about what it is we are doing here. I pray that we might live in expectant waiting of Sunday. I thank God that Sunday is coming!

The attack and the baby Jesus

He is so subtle, the enemy.

Satan picks little, innocuous things that seem insignificant to so many to throw us off.

Satan knows just when and where to attack, and always do so when huge things for the Kingdom are on the horizon.

This is the story of my day, which really began last night. I am in the middle of planning and organizing a little weekend of spiritual renewal that will involve between 100-150 men. Some will be new to the event, others will be there because somehow God used the weekend as a tool in His redemptive story in their lives.

The weekend is a well-thought out event, all shedding significant light on the love and grace offered us by Jesus Christ. Detail after detail make up the planning and organizing. In many ways I am an "as the Spirit moves" kind of guy, but also have a level of reverence for this weekend that has me doing all I can to pay attention to the details.

Last night, a thoughtful, well-intentioned phone message was left asking if I had remembered, of all things, popcorn!

POPCORN! Significant enough for one person I know to petition to have it declared the fifth food group. Significant enough to send me into the tank this morning.

There are hundreds of details going into this event and popcorn gets me. See what I mean about subtle? It isn't as if I don't have cooks to provide meals, or people to clean up after the meals, etc. Those would be significant details, but Satan gets me with popcorn.

I have long proclaimed that I don't really care what people think about me and carried a confidence level in the things I do (because I do everything I can to stay away from sure failure), but the fact of the matter is that this has been a lie. We all have a desire to be well-thought of, to have people appreciate us and the things we do, and to, frankly, be loved.

I know I do - some of you may, too, if you cut through the bull and be real.

The morning attack sent me reeling. "Why did I think I could be involved in this, in this position? I can't even remember popcorn." "You're no good at things like this." "I can't believe you forgot that!" "Why would anyone have ever entrusted this position for this weekend to you?"

Takes me into John 10:10. It reads like this: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." The words of Jesus for you and for me!

After shaking off the sucker punch from Satan, that scripture came to me. So did all of the acts of love, grace and mercy Jesus has shown me in the course of my days on this earth. I praise Him that He is giving me eyes to recognize the attack and that He is better equipping me to handle the attack all the time.

This weekend I am talking about has nothing to do with me - it never has. I am aware of that. Popcorn or no popcorn, the weekend is going to be what God wants it to be and how God wants it to be.

Sometimes it takes a four year old to make the point stick.

Having made my way out of the attack I stopped home for lunch. Our fourth child, Anna, is the only home with mom during the day and seems to be our biggest mess maker. I made my way through the living room and one of her messes to encounter her at the island in our kitchen making another mess.

This is the moment at which I sometimes have something stupid to say, get upset with her and the like, but today I just took it in. There she sat, with some Dora dominoes her grandmother had given her just an hour earlier, standing vertically. They were all facing inward, and inside the oval was a couple of dominoes stacked on top of each other with some others on their sides acting like walls.

"They're all looking at baby Jesus," Anna says.

"What?" I ask.

"They're all looking at baby Jesus. All the wise men and people are looking at baby Jesus."

It wasn't until after these words that I noticed the detail described above in the little nativity scene she had created.

God blew me away through that little girl - our little angel. Here I had been running around sweating some silly little detail that is fixable, having allowed Satan to get in my way for a time this morning, when I really should have been looking to Jesus...should be looking to Him at all times in all things.

More and more, as He tweaks my sight and gives me eyes to see exactly what it is that is going on around me I am blown away. They continue to be exercises in experiencing His grace and His peace in my life!

My prayer today for anyone who happens to come around here is simply this:

Abba, Father, may I always know (I MEAN REALLY KNOW) that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy and that You, Jesus, came that we may have life and have it to the full. In the holy, precious, healing name of Jesus I pray. Amen!

It's all about love

It's February, which means that commercialized season of love. Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and Robert Hruzek over at http://middlezonemusings.com has launched his latest writing challenge, "What I Learned from...Love" this week. Click on over to the Middle Zone to check out some other thoughts once you are finished reading my take on experiencing grace and peace through the topic of love.

It's all about love, this life we are living. This life is about loving our spouses, loving our kids, loving our neighbors, loving our "framily" and friends, and loving people to Jesus.

Much of what I have learned about love can be attributed to two recording artists. My life has been much like a two-act play to date. The first act looking a lot like a tune recorded by Tina Turner called "What's love got to do with it?" The second act, I pray, is looking a lot more like the Steven Curtis Chapman recording, "It's All About Love."

Love is a tough word to define, isn't it? We fall into love, we love things, love is a feeling, an emotion, a commitment. Huh?!?!

In those days when I lived life wondering "what's love got to do with it" I often played this silly little game in my head. Remember, I am 6-5, 475 (exaggerated for effect), so the thought of me plucking petals from a daisy thinking "He loves me, He loves me not" might be pretty amusing.

I dare say we probably all played this game at one time or another, though. You know the drill - I helped that woman across the street the other day (he loves me); I told a lie (he loves me not). I taught Sunday School this week (he loves me); I yelled at my kids again (he loves me not). You get the picture.

This isn't really what Christ's love is supposed to look like, but for many who don't grasp grace and peace, it has a pretty strong hold.

But as Christ grabbed hold of my life, he began to explain to me and to show me what love looks like. THE good news, John 3:16, reads this way: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life."

As experiencing grace and peace has overtaken my life, those numbers of hope (3:16) mean everything as God so loved the world (and everyone and everything in it) that he willingly sent his son to this earth with the sole purpose of redeeming us from this fallen, broken, messed-up world.

What is love? In the Greek, Agapao (verb) and agape (noun) is the Christian love of the Bible. It means affection, benevolence, good-will, high esteem and concern for the welfare of the one loved. It is deliberate, purposeful love rather than the emotional or impulsive love most of us are familiar with. Agape love is a brotherly or sisterly love that is the kind of unconditional love that comes when a child is born. There isn't anything a baby does to receive love - to earn love - rather affection and high esteem come naturally to us.

As I move away from Tina's thoughts of love being a "second hand emotion," John 13:34 speaks to my heart. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

Stop and chew on that for a second (pause). As Jesus Christ gave up his life for me and for you, we are supposed to give up our lives for others. As I contemplate this passage it becomes clear to me that we are to love in every aspect of life. If I truly get 3:16 and 13:34 then I will love people with all of my heart in every way imaginable.

I Peter 4:8 from the Message continues the theme: "Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything."

Love each as if my life depended upon it? Really, Jesus?

Am I really supposed to do that? My shallow, narrow little mind raises points like: "I know too much about that person to love him; I know how they are; I know who they hang with; I know what they did. Besides, how can I do that? Do I really have to make enough time to get to know someone well enough to like them, let alone love them?"

Living into the scriptures is everyone's battle, isn't it? We don't love because we have to obey the law, but rather we love out of this deep love and appreciation for all that Christ has done for us.

Read these words from I John 3:16-18: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth."

I John 4:7-11 reads like this: "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

Love. We who follow Christ have learned that we love because he first loved us. And if we say "I love God," and yet hate our neighbors, the Bible calls us liars.

Love. I John 4 tells us that God is love, which leads me back to Tina Turner and her hit song. Tina poses the question, "What's love got to do with it?" She calls it a second hand emotion.

If you and I can agree that I John 4 says that God is love, isn't Tina Turner really asking "What's God got to do with it?"

This tour through scripture would tell us that with God, "It's All About Love."

I have seen love first hand, acts of agape love that are carried out in this world - sometimes simply because God first loved us and because of what Jesus did on that cross. How can you show love to someone around you?

Perhaps when someone is hurting and has nowhere else to go, you listen to them and pray with them. That's love.

Perhaps someone needs their sidewalk shoveled or their lawn mowed, and you do it for free!?! That's love.

Maybe someone needs a lift somewhere and you give them one!?! That's love.

Perhaps you write a note, send an email, make a phone call - you fill in the blank!

Experiencing grace and peace in this life has come in many forms for me - the greatest being love. Love of my God who could've turned his back on me. Love of my wife, family and friends in the toughest of times and in the best of times.

That love has transformed my life, has put love in my heart for God, his Word and a desire to proclaim it that I have a hard time containing. For me, it's all about love!

Check this Jeremy Camp song out - this is the result of what I am experiencing right here, right now!

Have You Seen Jesus?

I once was blind, but now I see!

An oh-so true refrain from the classic "Amazing Grace," true of me and perhaps true of you.

While Shawn McDonald is not a hymn writer, but rather a former drug addict and drug dealer who found Jesus, his lyrics from the song "Open Me" are appropriate for consideration today.

Would you open up my eyes, so I can see?
Would you open up my ears, so I can hear?
Would you open up my mind, so I can know?
Would you open up my heart, so I can love you more?

That is my prayer - EVERY DAY - that he would open up my eyes, my ears, my mind and my heart, that I can love him more!

When I was blind and could not see, it wasn't even a thought - I could have cared less.

The other day I was led to recall a conversation I had with my old college baseball coach - a conversation that occurred one day before graduating from college way back when.

"How do you want to be remembered? The way you are known around here is probably not how you want to be remembered!?!"

He went on to challenge me in a number of areas of my life, none of which was any good at the time. While the conversation is nearly 20 years ago now, I remember it to this day and thank God for his having enough interest in me to have the guts to pose the question and make me think - even if the reaction was delayed for at least a decade-and-a-half.

Like I said, I was blind but now I see...and with that sight comes a constant desire to see Jesus, to hear him, to know him and to love him more.

If you are new here, music has a significant influence in my life. I love to sing and to worship our King - it feels like that is one of the reasons I am still here. I have already listed two choruses that have meaning in my heart - here's another.

"Have you seen Jesus, my Lord, he's here in plain view.
Take a look, open your eyes, he'll show love to you!"

I love how it seems that stretches of time seem to fit together. Saturday I saw Jesus, and Sunday was challenged by my pastor to see Jesus in all things. He challenged us to stop and think when we here of the cancer diagnosis. Does that have the last word, or do we look to see Jesus? When we fall on economic hardships, do they have the last word, or does Jesus? When our lives are falling apart, does whatever is happening around us win out, or do we look to Jesus?

A powerful message.

On Saturday, I saw Jesus in the middle of the afternoon. He showed up in the lives of two of our dearest friends who were present at a meeting to show their love and support for my wife and for me. They shed tears with us, they prayed with us, they hugged us and they laughed with us. Jesus in the flesh is quite something!

He came in the form of a woman with whom I share elder responsibilities in our church. Her loving kindness, her caring in situations where most people want to judge and/or gossip inspires me.

I also saw Jesus in the form of a pastor-friend from a neighboring community whom I have gotten to know over the past several months. When I was stuck with a computer file, I called him. Dave figured out the solution within an hour and was back to me. But more than that, we had a great conversation on Saturday - one that will not leave me anytime soon - talking about where we've been, but more importantly, where we are heading.

I saw Jesus on Sunday when I sat down with a family facing one of life's greatest challenges - living with five children while being caught in the middle of this economic downturn or depression, whatever we are calling it today. With no income thoughts are normally desperate and of the poor-me variety.

"I guess God has something else in store for me. He must know that I wasn't supposed to spend the rest of my life at that job. Maybe I will go back to school and find something part-time to help the situation, but it seems people who hire want people with college degrees."

That's seeing Jesus, isn't it?

More and more, I am seeing Jesus. I saw him on Friday night at a basketball game, for just a couple of minutes when it was all over, when he told Kathy and me how much he appreciates us.

I see him all over the High Calling Blogs network when I take the time to sit down and read blog posts there.

I see him in the lives of those who are dearest to me. The lives of the people in my inner circle are so ooozing with the love, care, grace and mercy of Christ that it is impossible to miss.

I just finished reading Patty's post over at www.flirtingwitheternity.blogspot.com where she talked about Jesus' desire for us to "bear fruit - living fruit." She is just one who is doing it - where it just oozes in what she writes. There are tons of others, as well.

It oozes out of the two guys (I was gonna call 'em old guys, but thought better of it) who were driving around Saturday afternoon inviting people to church on Sunday. They dropped by after several stops to tell me what they had been up to. The younger of the two is 61, the other close to 80, and they have a love for Jesus and a desire to see others come to him...I saw Jesus in those two guys this weekend.

All of these sightings now have me wondering where I will see him next? At the game tonight? On my next sales call? Over the phone? On Facebook?

Have you seen Jesus, my Lord? He's here in plain view! Take a look, open your eyes, he'll show love to you!