A Journey from Surviving to Thriving

  No, I have not yet reached the finish line!   But one of my ultimate life-goals is that when I get there I will “finish well” to the glory of God.  The older I get, the more relevant this goal seems to be. And with this life-goal staring me in the face, I find myself thinking about it during more than a few fleeting moments.  But first, let me define what I’m talking about.  In reality, this is not all that complicated.  It’s simply about ending life in a way that truly brings glory to God.   The purpose of this post is to process what “finishing well” means to me and to identify what it might take to make this a reality in my life. Unfortunately not all leaders finish well.  It is sobering to reflect on studies that have shown that approximately one out of three leaders down through the years, including biblical leaders, fail to finish well!  (To read the details, google Dr J. Robert Clinton, Finishing Well, Six Characteristics )....

I woke up this morning with a rather troubling question on my mind which I believe God put there.  It went something like, “Don, is your focus these days primarily on allowing My thoughts to feed your soul … or is it on allowing TV talk show hosts and YouTube videos to fill your brain with lots of disturbing current events?”   Frankly now that I think about it, the first part of that question  generally energizes me, gives me hope and purpose, fills me with awe and wonder, and helps me thrive.  However, the second part usually tends to anger me, cause anxiety and confusion, weakens me, and leaves me rather lost and hopeless. After allowing these words written on this page to stare back at me for a while, I found myself saying to myself — why in the world would I not clearly focus continually on allowing God’s thoughts and words to feed my soul and less on news anchors and the disastrous spin they tend to put on the news to fill my brain?  Dear Reader, I am be...

In a previous post (Post #8)  I shared “My Story” of how years ago I admitted to a friend on the Air Force Base that my “time in the Word” was not good, and thus accepted his invitation to meet with him for a series of Monday mornings before work to read the Bible together and pray. That year was life changing for me!  I had been a “Christian” for years before this, but was not what I’d call today a “follower of Jesus”.  But with my friend’s mentoring and thoughtful care, I became reasonably confident in my relationship with the Lord. Then, after about a year or so of meeting like this, he said, “Don, let’s pray that God leads you to someone in whom you could invest and share what I’ve shared with you” .  This was a new thought to me, and a rather frightening one at that, yet with my new confidence in the Lord I was able to pray about this possibility. THE REST OF THE STORY Generally when we hear about “investing”, our minds go to the financial world.  This is...

A friend recently commented, “Now that we’re becoming seniors, the challenge is to focus on “BEING More and DOING Less”.   I admit my first response to this comment was not a positive one.   After all, I’m a doer and to contemplate DOING less simply did not sit well with me.   But after pondering this during some quiet moments, God began to cause me to see a bigger picture.   Yes, for us “old guys” there comes a time, because of the usual physical limitations that come with age, the demand for us to “do life” as we’ve always done it begins to change.   But it also occurred to me that as followers of Jesus, God’s priority concern for all of us, regardless of age, is on what we’re becoming, not what we’re doing for Him.  BEING always precedes DOING at any age! The Psalmist expresses God’s desire for us in Psalm 51:17 — “ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (ESV)  God indeed is first con...

I was recently impressed by the psalmist’s response to God in Psalm 119:50 — “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.” (NIV)  David obviously discovered something therapeutic from God’s promises!  This immediately begs the question for me: what are the specific promises on which I personally firmly stand and can I experience that same sustaining power?  Through the years, I’ve “claimed” many promises for life and ministry.  I thought it might be helpful (for me at least) to put on paper the promises that currently provide stability and power along my present  medical journey  — and that indeed “preserve my life”. WHAT IS A PROMISE FROM GOD?  But first, just what is a “promise from God”?  The dictionary says a promise is a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen. In Scripture, the promise of God is the declaration or assurance which God has given in his Word th...

Let’s face it, there are times in life when the journey simply does not make sense — when there are more questions than answers and it’s difficult to understand and appreciate the boundary we’re experiencing.   In times like this, do we fret over the unanswered questions or are we able to somehow see a larger picture and trust God to have it under control?   In our last post (Post #13) we explored what it looks like trying to appreciate “self-imposed” boundaries in our lives — limits that we have set for ourselves by following proper priorities and wise decision making.  We explored the power of Psalm 16:5-6 — ‘’ Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup.  You make my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.  Surely I have a delightful inheritance. ”  I’ve defined a “boundary” (for me, at least) to be a “limit” or “fence” within which I feel the pleasure of God, but whenever I step outside that limit I potentially step i...