As I reflect on this thought today, I am reminded how easy it is to always take the short view and to forget the long view. We are such a fast food and microwave society that we want things and we want them now. However, God is not bound by our definitions of success or timing and we should be thankful for that.

Where are you right now? Are you content in the place that God has you? Are you seeking to grow where He has planted you or are you dreaming about getting to the place where you can really thrive? Do you believe that God is going to finish the work that He started and that right now and that He is using the circumstances of your life to accomplish His goals? In reality, if we believe Romans 8:28-29 and have a proper theology of place, we must believe that God has planted us exactly where we need to be. The only place we can be is wherever we are right here and right now. We can daily miss opportunities to love those in front of us, experience God’s grace, and lose precious moments to truly live. I know because I’ve spent countless days in some nebulous future that will never exist. I must be where God has planted me and live in the now for that is where I am.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.”

Remember that we can’t just flip a switch and appear in the land of contentment. We must own our lack of contentment and take it to the Father. We must pray and ask that He would teach us and draw us to believe what is true. We need to surround ourselves with believers who can speak truth in our lives, and ultimately, we must trust ruthlessly in the goodness of our Abba Father. He is always faithful. He is always good. He always knows best and He is doing a work that is beyond our understanding.

We were created to never be truly filled by anything but God alone. If we believe the Scriptures, God has us where we are for His exact purposes and to fulfill a greater plan. I have seen the green grass on the other side of the fence and moved to the neighbor’s yard only to desire to go back because the shades of green seemed to change.

With all of this, I think of Paul’s words in the epistles. He counted “ALL” loss compared to knowing Christ. He counted everything as rubbish and refuse compared to knowing Christ. And he also found contentment in all things. Whether he was hungry or full, warm or cold, in safety or in danger, in all these places he was in Christ and Christ was in him.

We were not created for this world so the next time you find yourself useless because you are thinking that being somewhere else would solve all your problems, remember that your problems and heartaches will always go with you. However, the God of our fathers will never change and He can meet us in our time of deepest need.

So I write this to myself this morning because I’ve been thinking that the grass is greener right now and my contentment in what God is providing is at a low. But, I will trust in His promises and say along with David, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures…” God has made me lie down in the green pastures that He has ordained for me at this time, and I will praise Him for it.

We do live in an entitlement age. We feel entitled to get what we deserve. We see this on talk shows, on the news and to those desiring to get what is coming to them. The selfishness of this age should not surprise us. It just seems that media allows the message of “self” to get to the public’s ears much more readily than in any time before ours.

So this attitude seaps into our churches. We blame God for not making our lives perfect according to our standards. However, when you look at the lowest class of Americans, they are rich in comparison to the rest of the world. In our country, you can usually find food to eat and water to drink no matter how bad your plight might be.

If we are not careful, we can reach the point where we proclaim to God that we deserve grace and all the blessings of this life. We forget one enormous truth. We don’t really want what we deserve.

If we got what we deserve, we would be put on trial instantly for pointing our finger in the Creator’s face and saying “No thanks! I’ll do this life thing my way!” We would be put on trial for the mulititude of sins we commit each day as we put ourselves before God and others.

We are in the most hopeless and pitiable state. Those who do not realize this are the worst off. They do not even realize what they deserve.

If we are children of God, we should look and see that grace is really amazing. We should look and see that all we have has been given to us. We should look and be thankful for another breath to be able to even speak the Name of God and thank Him for what eternity has in store. This life is not too long to live recklessly with great contentment for the One who has given us life and Himself. Let us refocus and whose we are and what we really deserve.

As I pondered the first verse this morning, I told God that He is what I longed for. Even when I don’t realize it, my soul yearns for God alone. I may try to fit something in the place that only God can fill, but it leaves me lacking, discouraged and even more thirsty than before. Whether it be a relationship, job, ministry or anything else, it was not created to fill the inmost need. Only God can do that.

This world is a weary and parched place. We can watch people every day who are dying of thirst. They try to squeeze a drop of water out of a dried sponge when God has the ocean waiting for them.

So what do we do? We ask to see the One who can fill us up. And when we do see Him (and I believe we need to be reminded of who He is everyday) we can say with David, “I have seen You in Your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise You!”

When we see God with His infinite love, our response will be the same as King David’s response. Not only is God’s unfailing love better than anything this life has to offer, it is better than life itself! And then? We are are left praising God as we walk through life.

Take some time to soak in Psalm 63 today and remember God’s unfailing love for His children.

In the past, one area that has plagued me is suffering through singleness. Some times I have soared with the wings of victory in contentment, while other times have seen me crashing in the rocks down below. During the times of crashing, too often my good desire for a best friend to marry has turned into a demand. “I must have this to truly be happy!” This is when my eyes roam and Chad becomes captain of the ship. Even during these times, God has been gracious to let me know that my mutiny is not right and I humbly give Him back the wheel.

Currently, music has become a demand. After recording four humble, self-produced albums, a few guys from my church have taking me under their wing to help me take my best stuff and make it better. Somehow as the process has begun, my good desires to have this album be useful for others has become a must. Somehow I believe if this doesn’t happen in a big way, it was all in vain and I’ll just quit songwriting altogether. I truly write music to encourage people and let them know they are not alone. This is a good desire. But when this desire turned into a demand, my focus changed for the worse.

This was not a quick process but it did sneak up on me. Last night I spent time repenting and God’s sweet refreshment came over me. I acknowledged that His ways are higher than my ways. To second guess the Creator’s plans and say my plans have to take place – that is not the Christian life. With every breath we can pray our desires to God, but they must be stipulated with “But Your will be done, Father. For You know what is best.”

I was humbled, but the fruit of peace has returned to me and I have stopped striving in this moment. However, I know that the battle will come again. When it does, we must stop and remember that He is God. We must be still and hand over the reigns again. This might be a daily thing for many of us.

Let us be encouraged that we are trusting in the finished work of Christ and our God’s mercy and grace are like the ocean. Like Amy Carmichael said, we are just tiny shells and the oceans of God can fill us over and over and over again. May we to God’s ocean and find ourselves filled in Him today.

As we talked about dreams and visions, he said that his mentor constantly reminds him of the following idea. It is so easy to get frustrated in our daily life because we see where we want to be in the future, but we can’t get there. The vision or dream might be great and even planted by God, but we can’t just magically appear at the end. It may seem too overwhelming to imagine the process to actually achieve the goal.

So what do we do? How can we overcome? Do we just quit or stay frustrated? The answer that resounds in our hearts is simple – we live today. The way we get to God’s desired goal for our lives (and the main goal is intimacy with Christ and a life the glorifies God)is achieved by living today.

If I desire to have a thriving ministry to reach out to the brokenhearted, what do I do? Well, today, I write a blog entry. Today is all I have.

I want to record more music and play all over the world while sharing the story of God’s redemptive purposes in suffering and to let people know they are not alone. How do I accomplish that? Well, today I simply work on one song I’m trying to make flow better and ponder different ways to communicate the theme.

If I long for marriage and have someone I am building a relationship with, what do I do today? Today, I simply try trust God with her heart and do my best to live in the now and work on being patient.

You get the idea. I need to be reminded of this daily for we only have the contents of today to work with. We only can seek God today and do that which He puts before us.

So if you’re frustrated with your plot in life, seek God and see what you should do today. And then meditate Ecc. 9:10 and do that thing with all your might while relying on the strength of God in your weakness.

Many blessings,
Chad

Hey, I believe my heart can coincide and agree with you. Circumstances shouldn’t dictate our joy, but they quite often do.

So 31 and still no blips on the radar for me? Somehow, it is O.K. tonight though. On many, many nights it has not been O.K. I have tried thinking of the shortness of time here on earth and how God might most be glorified in my life. I think of my friend and mentor Rich Malone (Director of Lake Forest Ranch) and how he got married at 35 and has 4 awesome kids now… I think of you and how much I struggled with singleness at your age and then wonder where the last years went. It is hard brother. It is so very hard. And though this may not help the aching, I will say what I have told myself many days. You don’t have to make it through singleness for the rest of your life… You just have to live through it today. What I mean is that we will never know what tomorrow holds and we cannot expect grace to be given for next year because it is only available in the moment.

We get overwhelmed and think there is no way we can make it through the rest of our life without that special someone – it is overwhelming for me, but in reality, I just have to make it through today without her. And what do I have instead of her? I have God Himself. His grace can only be experienced in this moment and as we dwell on the future, we won’t live in today. Tomorrow we will find grace for each second, but we must live in the here and now for tomorrow is not guarenteed.

So there is the struggle. Truthfully, I don’t do very well on many days when I’m in the mire of loneliness and I hang out there a good bit. It seems so easy for some people. They meet a girl, they date and they are married. We are the ones that not much comes easy to. It is more frustrating when we have something wonderful in front of us and then it is taken away – but we move on. We will last and God’s will will be done.

My brother, thanks for sharing and I will pray for you as you pray for me,
Stay strong in the word,

Chad

It is a difficult thing to wait. That which I believed hesitantly about my life at 25 I still believe now at 31. I would be a fool to not see tremendous growth and maturing over these years. Some things have changed drastically but some old things still linger.

Wisdom tells me that I should not worry about the fulfillment of these dreams but that God, in His good timing will bring them to pass. It has always been His deal so I wait and work to rest. I work to learn. I work to be patient. I work to abide in Him so I can love others. I work to fight against discouragement.

My heart is reminded of a most precious promise concerning our God. He is not like some distant being who is uncaring and unconcerned. He is not some cosmic Santa Clause who wants us to have earthly “stuff.” He is our Abba, Father to whom we can pour our souls out to and know He hears. He sees us at all times. He knows our deepest hurts and longings. He wants us in the midst of all of our imperfections. He is our fortress and our strength. He works on our behalf and moves in the intimate details of our lives. This is God – how do you explain the One who created the vastness of our Universe that seems limitless? How do you begin to comprehend the One who created mathematics and physics to describe how the universe works? How do you describe the One who created us to feel love, hopes and dreams? Words will never completely do… He is awesome and He bids us to come and seek His face. The invitation is open.

Though we may wait, He is working. May our lives be like King David who writes in Psalm 27:8, “When You said seek My face, my heart said to You ‘Lord, Your face I will seek.’”

Whether you are in the midst of a bountiful time of intimacy with God or you are wallowing in the mire, He desires for you to seek His face. It is here that we will find freedom and rest as we come to our greatest good – God, Himself. Wait patiently on Him.