Decisions

Decisions.I hate making them. I don’t like the process of determining one act, item or anything over another. I would much rather have someone tell me what to do, where to go and what to wear. Decision making is just one piece of this inevitable puzzle called, “growing up”.
When I was a child, my parents would tell me what I could and couldn’t do. They told me when to be home. They told me what I could and couldn’t watch, read, or listen to. They instructed me on how to act and helped me make the right decisions about friends, classes, etc. It was a wonderful life. But as I grew older they informed me that they could give me advice but the decision was ultimately mine to make.
My senior year of high school I made one such decision. I decided to join Life Action Ministries. I filled out the application and sent it all the way from Alabama to Buchanan, Michigan. I was accepted in March, 2006. I joined the ministry on July 22, of that same year. I traveled on one of the road teams as a children’s minister for four years. We traveled all over the country ministering in different churches, teaching the message of revival. I have determined I was in over seventy different churches in these four years. Each year I had a decision to make. Was I to stay for another year, or move on to something else? Every year the Lord seemed to lead in the same direction, stay. He seemed to say this until the past year (Aug. 2009- June 2010)
The next difficult decision to be made was this past year. I knew it was my last year traveling with Life Action, but I didn’t know what was supposed to come next. I asked my parents and they gave some suggestions but reminded me that this was a decision I needed to make on my own. I thought and prayed long and hard and searched my heart for the desires the Lord has given me. I found Children’s Ministry at the top. I also found a desire to know more about the Bible and further my education (stamp out my ignorance). My dad drove over 24 hours to pick me up in Sylvester, Georgia where I was ministering, and drive me up to Tigerville, South Carolina to visit North Greenville University (NGU). I decided to come to major in Christian Studies at NGU.
Thus far the Lord has blessed that decision by giving me some great professors (as stated in an earlier blog post), good friends, and beautiful creation to enjoy in upper South Carolina.
Though decisions can be tough to make it does make me feel more confident in what I’m doing. I ask God to give me wisdom (James 1:5) so that the decisions I make bring glory to Him and make me more like His Son.

Love Like Crazy

I love country music. I could listen to it everyday. When I workout I often listen to Josh Turner or Rascal Flatts. My present favorite country song is Love Like Crazy, sung by Lee Brice. Here is the chorus:

Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I love you. Go to work, do your best, don’t outsmart your common sense. Never let you prayin’ knees get lazy and love like crazy.

This chorus is chop full of biblical truth. I don’t always agree with all country music lyrics, but with this I completely concur. It got me thinking. How can I emulate these truths in my life? And encourage others to do the same? Let’s check it out.

1) Be a best friend- “A friend loves at all times…” Proverbs 17:17 “As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs ? We need accountability in our life. We need someone who will listen when we need to talk, love us when we need a friend and correct us when we go astray. We also need to be this for someone else. I am grateful for the ability to name many individuals I can call friend. I hope I can be the same for them and others.

2) Tell the truth- “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” Psalm 34:13 Truth is defined by dictionary.com as “conformity with fact or reality;” We can ‘speak’ in many different ways. We ‘speak’ through our actions as well as our mouths. In our actions we can deceive people to make them believe we are something that we are not. We can also speak lies for the intention of making ourselves look better or worse or smarter or less intelligent than we really are. All of these are lies. We should strive to be truthful in everyway.

3) Overuse I love you- I love so many people in my life: My parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, teachers, and many others. But how often do I let them know? Every time I end a phone conversation with one of my parents one of us will say, I love you, and the other will respond, I love you too. Sometimes it seems a bit cliché but I appreciate it every time I hear it. Everyone wants to know that somebody loves them. I don’t think it is possible to overuse saying I love you. If you haven’t told someone in a while that you love them, I suggest that you pick up the phone, or shoot them an email or letter just to tell them how much they mean to you. You will be surprised what that might mean to someone.

4) Go to work- Work consists of many different avenues. You can work at a business, or on your studies. If you are physically able, it is important for you to support yourself by getting a job and not to rely on your parents or others your whole life. If you are a man raising a family it is more important that you have a job in order to support them. Work doesn’t have to be boring. Find ministry in your workplace. Seek to glorify God as you work. This leads us to the next line…

5) Do your best- “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.” Colossians 3:23. No matter what your job entails do your best for this pleasing to the Lord. He is the one who gave you the ability to do what you are doing so be thankful and fulfill your task to the best of your ability. Whatever you do means everything. Studying for a test, exercising to stay healthy, doing some physical work to earn money, or whatever you do, do it as for the Lord and not to man.

6) Don’t outsmart your common sense- We have a saying around the Handley house that I heard fairly often growing up. It seemed no matter how much I heard it it just didn’t stick. “Don’t do dumb stuff.” As I think back on the “dumb” decisions I made in high school I regret overlooking common sense. Never think that you are smarter than the situation and be sure to think things through before making decisions. It will help you in the long run. Believe me.

7) Never let you prayin’ knees get lazy- “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;” Philippians 4:6 This line I believe is the most important in the whole song. “Prayin’ knees” keep us humble. They keep us from raising ourselves above others or thinking we’re good enough and don’t need anyone. God promises to give grace in any circumstance, if we come to him in faith and humility. (Hebrews 4:16) Even in the good times we should be praying and thanking God for his goodness.

8) Love like crazy- I often hear love defined as a touchy feely feeling, something that people fall into. My personal favorite definition for love is; “a quite steady decision of the will to care for someone.” Love is giving of yourself sacrificially. To love like crazy one would do things for people and care for people without expecting anything in return. We should love like Jesus would. Jesus said in John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this,that one lay down his life for his friends.” I am not suggesting that anyone go and die for anyone else. I am simply suggesting that you think of others as more important than yourself and love like crazy.

Maybe this can be a challenge or encouragement to some of you. I know it is for me. For fun I’m going to add the last line of the song. It’s just cute and fun.

Always treat your woman like a lady. Never get too old to call her baby. Never let your prayin’ knees get lazy and love like crazy.

Lesson from a power cord

For my high school graduation I received a HP Pavilion laptop computer. That was four years ago. This past week I noticed a rip in my power cord near the adapter. I didn’t think much about it until the power stopped working and my computer was running on battery power alone. I knew this wouldn’t last long. Once it died my dear laptop would be completely useless.

This prompted me to think of the “power” in our lives as Christians. What is it that keeps us going? What is it that keeps us “charged” or “connected” to the power source? I determined that Christ is the power source and the thing that keeps us connected to Him is prayer and intentional meditation in His Word. If we neglect either of these our lives will not be as powered as it should be. If we don’t read the Bible or pray for a few days it may not show or we may not notice the ‘rip’ in our relationship. Then one day we notice a distance in our relationship with Christ and we can’t control problems that seem to come up. We then realize that we are no longer running on Christ’s eternal power but our own temporary battery power.

I was able to find a computer parts store that had the cord I needed for a good price. But I pray that I don’t let my relationship with Christ run low on power because I cannot live this Christian life on my own.

Class Professors

Several of my friends and acquaintances have told stories about some of their college professors. They explained how the professors were easily distracted and they rarely covered the material. They spoke of professors who were non-relational always talked over them and treated them as inferior. After hearing these stories I was a little nervous going into my first classes as a freshman at North Greenville University. 8 o’clock Wednesday morning I walk into my Western Civilization class with butterflies in my stomach unsure about how this how college thing was going to go. I was pleasantly surprised when, after attending my first five classes, my butterflies are gone and I cannot tell you of one professor I am intimidated by or I think I will dislike in any way. I am honestly looking forward to each class and to the once a week classes that will begin early next week. I thank God for these amazing teachers and I pray I can maintain this attitude throughout the semester as assignments become more difficult.