I've still got an image in my mind: watching pastor Will pouring the red blood (paint) over the white cross a few weeks ago. Laura and I believe the entire series on SEX was exactly what our society needs to move towards freedom. I've also had images from our last baptism weekend in my mind.
Pam is someone I want to highlight. Pam knows God saved her life when she was found, almost dead in a tree (her car crashed, she was catapulted through her sunroof into a tree). Following brain surgery, Pam is now restricted to a wheelchair. Sun following our Laurelhurst service, Pam asked if it would be possible for her to be baptized. Laura and I took her to our Prairie Campus and together Pastor Will and I baptized her. Her story is truly amazing. You can pray for Pam as is praying that her parents and kids will come to know Jesus. More on Pam later.
All of this brings my thoughts back to a powerful word that rubs up against us daily: pastor John mentioned this word in our SEX series. It's a word that was crushed by a lot of people this weekend (XXX Where Baptized into Jesus this past weekend!).
THAT DANGEROUS WORD? Rationalization! It's perhaps the most powerful tool we use to do what we really want to do.
What do you most often rationalize most? For me it's food and the way I talk about "bad" K-Mart driver types (people without politeness or brains - "Why do you love the left lane! Please get over!!). It's so easy for me to rationalize -do creative self-talk to justify my thoughts and actions.
Most rationalization is based on mis-truths (distorted realities -lies). For example I've often bought into the totally bogus mis-truth that "Other drivers should respect my rights and be sensitive to my need to drive fast. And if they don't I can't be happy; I can't be Ok." This simply isn't true. I like respect and fast driving (Driving in the UK was so, so wonderful - they are so much better than us - the "right lane is always open.") but it's not essential to my happiness.
Try making a list of your favorite rationalizations (for getting irritated, angry, raising your voice, withdrawing, medicating w M&M's). Invite a friend to give you feedback. Then spend some time in prayer - see if God reveals some of the mis-truths to your rationalization. Tuesdays are now my juice/12 almonds/apple day. It's very hard for me! This week I found myself remarking about some great physical goals I'd reached. I wondered, out loud, if really an "all juice" day was good for me. I knew I was rationalizing. I even teased that I might get up at 12:01 a.m. and eat. Well, I survived! I'm still laughing at my crazy rationalization. What I really wanted to believe was simple: "Bruce deserves to come home after a long stressful day and eat food that makes him feel good." Sounds good, but very "less filling" in the long run.
obsession with the whole "Socialization" ideas got stuck on the back burner and I forgot on Wed. to take home my powercord for my laptop and my PDA sync got lost and I . . . well, I'm back!
good thing I spent two hours in the gym; ate apples, and smiled a lot before eating at such a Roman hour. All was good. Brett Favre was inspiring, my boys are SO much fun to hang out with and we ended our Friday with a fun movie; a huge "Native Leg-wrestling" contest and a marathon of the game Twister (I wisely stuck to supervising, coaching, and cheering on the glistening gladiators).
You don't have to go far to express yourself creatively . . . Thanks Ray and Shay
