My Place In This World

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about the very first chapter of the Bible. This is the story of Creation, for those of you less familiar with how things go in the Bible. First, God created Light and Dark, Day and Night. Then, He created the Sky and Water. Next, He made dry Land and all of the plants and trees. For these first 3 days, God was busy setting the stage. He furnished the set, got it all fixed up just the way He liked it and THEN He brought in the players. For the Day and Night, on day 4 He made the Sun and the Moon and Stars. For the Sky and the Water, on day 5 He made the Birds and all of the Fish and creatures of the sea. And finally, on day 6 He made all of the Animals and Mankind. Such beautiful symmetry, such careful planning is evident in the pattern of Creation. First, he made the Habitations, then the Inhabitants. First, He built the house then He brought in the occupants. He never created anything that wasn’t well prepared for in advance. On day 7, He rested. He sat back and enjoyed the show.


Understand this, before you were ever born, God had a place prepared; a niche tailor-made just for you. When you begin to question your purpose and wonder if you even matter, remember this.

Psalm 139:16-17 “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!”

He made you. In all of your complexity, sophistication, uniqueness, quirkiness, idiosyncrasies, flaws, and perfection, He planned it all out and executed the making of you FLAWLESSLY. Everything about you was on purpose. But before any of that, He took great care in making a place for you, a job for you, and a fulfilling purpose. Just like He made the garden first and then placed Adam in it, instructing him to take care of it, He also has a place and a job for you. And working and living in that place is the most fulfilling thing you will ever do.

Have you ever seen an eagle or a hawk soar in the sky? How amazing is that? Have you ever seen an otter swim? You know those dudes are just having a BLAST. They are just doing what they were created to do in the place that God created for them. The same will be said of you when you find your place, accept it, and begin to live and work in it. It will be just as fulfilling as that eagle soaring or that otter playing.

You have a place, you have a purpose, or else you wouldn’t be here.

Help! I'm in a Box and Can't Get Out!

When did life get so compartmentalized?


Today you have to make your choice between Oldies, Pop, R&B, Rock, Country, Christian, or talk radio. And you can’t mix them up, either. You make your choice and that’s the compartment you stay in, that becomes your identity. You’re an old fogie, a band-wagon groupie, a booty bouncer, head banger, red-neck, do-gooder, or a right wing extremist.

Why do we feel the need to separate everything and everyone into labels? With so many digital-age networking methods, that “bring us all together”, why do I see people more separated than ever? There’s the MySpace crowd, Facebook followers, Twitter tweets, and on and on. We have a thousand “friends” and very few relationships.

And it goes even further than that, with Italian Cuisine, Tex-Mex, Chinese buffet, fast food, dine-in, 20 items or less, self checkout, credit card only, cash only, express lane, truck lane, HOV lane, sedans, coupes, vans, SUVs, crossovers, soccer-moms, working-moms, gas powered, diesel, hybrid, Democrat, Republican, Independent, Apple, PC, Coke, Pepsi, iPhone, Blackberry, cable, satellite, HD, LED, Plasma, Christian, Atheist, Humanist, scientist, other…

All of these bubbles are reminiscent of a bad Lawrence Welk Show nightmare. All of these divisions of society are bouncing around, bumping into one another and never being allowed to actually connect. For such an enlightened, inclusive society, all I see are more labels, more separation, and more loneliness.

Wasn’t there a time when there was just one big bubble? You could use the term “American” to mean “all of the above”. The first friends I ever made in school were a brown boy named Roshan and an Asian kid named Vincent. We were quite the 3 amigos, not knowing anything about ethnic pride or racial prejudice. We were just buddies. That’s all. Not too long ago they used to play gospel music right along songs about love, life, and the heartland. But now, you’ve got to keep those things separated. We don’t want our religion bucket spilling over into our politics bucket or our entertainment bucket.

I was at a community music event this past weekend where they were playing some of the best blue-grass music I’ve heard in a long time. (Now, don’t go shutting me out because you don’t like blue-grass. Remember, resist that bubble mentality.) They started singing an old gospel song about knowing who holds the future and that He holds my hand, right in the middle of songs about living in a hollow and about foxes running wild. A little lady in front of me snuck her hand in the air and began to worship God a little right there in that old courthouse building. I caught myself thinking, “Now, is that appropriate?” But then it hit me, why not? Why can’t we love Jesus at the same time we are loving our country, our homes, and our families? The way I see it, isn’t the love of Jesus supposed to touch all of those other things as well anyways?

Let’s do this, shall we? How about we break everything down to its most common denominator and group it as such? Let’s make just one big category out of it all and just call it what it is, LIFE. And then, let’s crawl out of our tiny bubbles into that one big bubble. Feels kinda nice, doesn’t it? It’s roomy in here. And you know what happens when a bunch of people get into that one big bubble together? Well, a whole lot of Life… together. I think I heard it called “abundant life” somewhere.

What do you say?

Who Needs Sleep?

When I was a young Art Major in college, I used to say, “Sleep is overrated. I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Now, as a business-hours father of two, I look back and think, “What an idiot! I can’t believe I had a chance to sleep and PASSED!”

Have you noticed the number of mattress and bed commercials lately? Cruises, vacations, spas, night-time cold medicine, everyone is trying to find a way to get some REST.

Now, there’s a difference in sleep and rest. I know of some folks who get plenty of sleep, but never seem to get enough rest. And I know others who never seem to sleep, but they always appear well rested. How can that be?

I’ll tell you. Sometimes it’s not just your body that needs rest. What about rest for your mind or, most importantly, rest for your soul? Unfortunately, many people are trying to find rest for their souls by getting all the rest they can for their bodies. We often think that one more vacation will straighten out all the kinks. One more cruise or a better mattress will give us better rest, but we’re missing the target. We’re treating a bad ankle when it’s our wrist that hurts. “Here’s a band-aid for your cold.” Sorry, that just doesn’t help.

We need to realize that it’s our minds and our souls that need some attention. And there’s only one treatment that works.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

“Now, wait a minute. Yoke, learn, burden… this doesn’t sound like my idea of REST.” But, we’re not talking about rest for your body; we’re talking about rest for your SOUL. You can find rest for your soul in many ways, sometimes to the exhaustion of your body. For me, it may be drawing in my sketchbook. For someone else, it may be a long walk in the woods, pulling weeds in the garden, or tinkering around on an old lawn mower. It’s not the same for everyone. Hanging out with a crowd of people is exhausting for me, but it’s energizing for my wife. One common denominator is the key. In your own way, using your own unique creation, connect with your Creator. It’s the only way to get the rest you’re looking for.

Tap into His creativity while you draw. Tap into His cleansing nature as you pull those weeds, His salvation as you restore that old motor, His compassion as you mingle. However you do it, tap into Him.

One thing is for certain, you can’t get the rest you’re looking for through sleep. In that way, I guess sleep really IS overrated.

(By the way, you can click on any of the drawings you see in this blog to see a larger view. Hope you enjoy the pic of Union Station, today. Being a hotel, I thought it was appropriate.)