OCTOBER 5, 2024

  “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.” 

― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

ISAIAH 31-33

1Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule with justice.

2Each will be like a shelter from the wind,

a refuge from the storm,

like streams of water in a dry land,

like the shadow of a great rock in an arid land.

3Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will listen.

4The mind of the rash will know and understand,

and the stammering tongue will speak clearly and fluently. (32:1-4)

PHILIPPIANS 1

3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

JOURNAL 

To live is to do. Love is active, it ultimately involves action. Living life well ultimately is dependent on knowing God and following him, wherever he leads. That is a process, God understands that because he created me. He understands I have flaws and hangups and many times just screw life up. Yet just like with my own children or my students or players. I'm more interested in the journey and the ultimate destination than I am the outcome of today.  Yet today is part of the journey, it matters, but only in the context of the bigger picture.

Many times that is hard to balance...well it really is impossible to perfectly balance. That's why God is a God of grace. Yet a God that still pulls us to life and closer to him and in so doing we grow closer to understanding him, ourselves and the bigger purpose of today. That bigger perspective gives me the confidence to live today without fret or worry. It gives me the freedom to love and live fully without reservation and it gives me the hope and peace of knowing that I am part of something so much bigger than me, but of which I do play a part.

So what is success? It is relentless effort in spite of the result. It is the willingness to get embarrassed, pummelled, exposed because I am pursuing excellence and facing challenges that test me. It's the acceptance of life's hardest moments and joyfully stepping into the fire.  It's standing up after getting knocked down with the same passion and fire as when I first began. It's understanding the true meaning of love and that love demands everything I have, without excuse or reservation.  It's trusting that my God will honor my effort and sacrifice rather than trying to arrange an outcome.

 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. - Hebrews 11: 36-40

God asks me to give not achieve an outcome, God asks me to serve not to secure a future, God asks me to love rather than seeking to receive it. This is why to "pound the rock" is such an important visual. Because most days, giving our very best seems wasted, useless and without any benefit to anyone. Yet scripture tells us that it's never wasted, scripture tells us that when we give without "reward" then we are among the heroes of the faith. God cares nothing for what we possess or what we achieve, but rather in how we give, love and trust him. 

 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

GALATIANS 6:9