Jesus, What Are You Up To?
As I travel the country, one of my favorite parts of my job is talking to people after my show. The stories and journeys you people are on are staggering, sobering, raw, painful and beautiful all at the same time. Just this weekend I heard:
-a teenage daughter, holding back her tears, share with me about losing her dad a few months ago to cancer
-an addict that has been practicing Jesus with us via 10000minutes.com and has been sober for 6 months and 3 days :)
-a 27 year old single girl share with me how 2 weeks ago she found out that she has a rare cancer in her womb and is devastated with the potential outcome, but fighting for perspective in every moment
-on and on and on I could go…
What are you dealing with today? Many of us are in these desperate places right now and need perspective, and the rest of us are somewhere on this continuously, everchanging spectrum of unbearable struggle to a “Ho-Hum” stagnation. All of us need an awakening into a fuller perspective.
The “X” that I write on my wrist everyday is my reminder to look at my day or moments through a different lens. We see everything through skewed lenses that have been shaped by all of our life’s experiences and understandings, but this doesn’t always serve us well. We can only see what we can see.
"Now faith (belief, trust) is confidence (living as though something is true) in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1
Jesus has a remedy for our need for perspective. His joy, and really all of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5), are fully available simply with a daily awakening. The reason why Jesus came was to invite us into a new reality called the Kingdom Of God (Luke 4:43) where He is working all things together for our good.
"Some of the Pharisees asked Jesus, 'When will the kingdom of God come?' Jesus answered, 'God’s kingdom is coming, but not in a way that you will be able to see with your eyes. People will not say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ because God’s kingdom is within you.'” Luke 17:20-21
"So we fix our eyes (our mindfulness, awareness, hopes) not on what is seen (with our natural and narrow view), but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal (Kingdom of God that is at hand, here and now and forevermore)." 2 Corinthians 4:18
Today, in the struggle or in the mundane, ask Jesus to open your eyes and put on a different set of glasses (perspective). Ok we just coined a new phrase...put on new “perspectives.”
10000Minutes Practice:
Pray this all day long:
Jesus what are you up to here? Give me new eyes today!
Jesus lead on...
Text “10k” to “55678” if you want weekly text reminders to your phone. We’ll be sending out a few encouragements a week to help you practice Jesus all week long!