@vineyardlex – Page 2 – Ramblings of a Christian Father

Don’t worry, it will pass…

It’s a part of life, we all have things that we worry about. But there are only so many things that we can actually do something about.

This post has been running around in my head for a few weeks now, but wasn’t ready till last week, and I’m just now finding the time to get this all out. But we just finished up a series at Church called Courageous. We touched on the stories of David, Gideon, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Benaiah, and Jonathan. Bible heros who didn’t go with what everyone else was doing and what was easy. They went against the grain of what everyone else was doing at the time.

The main point of all of these stories was that these people did not do what was expected of them. These are my favorite type of bible story, God using the unexpected to do amazing things. We all know the stories of David, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, God using young men to defeat a Giant that had everyone in the nation scared, and to change the mind and direction of a king. You see these people weren’t worried, because they knew what God was capable of, and what God had done in the past. It’s not a matter of knowing what God might do, it’s having faith in what you know he can do, and having the mentality to keep on going even if what God does is not in your favor.

One of our pastor’s main points in this series was to look back at your history book with God. Look back at a time in your life and look at what God did then, and now that your in the same situation, why wouldn’t God do the same for you now. So many times we get caught up in the situation that we don’t look back, or the situation is disguised as something completely different.

It’s these times in our lives that we have to just remember that God is always there and the He will always provide. There have been a few times in the past few years that I have just felt an absolute peace in my life and my families life. In all honesty, they were times when conventional wisdom would say, you should be concered, but I knew that God had worked this out this way for some reason. A few years ago this happened right after I had been laid off from job, and another is right now, when my wife quit her job to do her student teaching. Both of these times we were down to one income, now we have a child and we are on one income, but at no point have we had issues. We knew that God has is hand in both of these situations, and even though we couldn’t see it at first, the end results were amazing.

So my advice, to anyone reading this, if you can change the situation to make it better, go for it. If there is nothing you can do, pray for it.

September 30, 2012 by corymcglone

The world does not revolve around…

When the path you walk always leads back to yourself, you never get anywhere – Oogway.

Anyone that has read any of my posts knows I find inspiration in the most random places. The quote above is a prime example. This weekend the munchkin, saw Kung Fu Panda as we were flipping through Netflix. It was in the short Secretes of the Masters, that I heard the above quote and thought that it was a great thought.

Then at church, our pastor was recapping the past few weeks in the series we were on, and mentioned the service 2 weeks ago that was about attitude adjustments and rejoicing. Since we weren’t there that week, I went and pulled the podcast and started listening to it. The main point was that you cannot be self-centered and still be truly joyful in your serving. While you maybe serving God, but if you are doing it for the wrong reasons you are not going to get the results that you are looking for.

Philippians 2:3-4 ³Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. ⁴Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

We go through life, looking for what we deserve. We, I’m lumping all Americans into this, have a feeling of entitlement. I did the work, I should get the credit and the glory. I’m not saying that we should all just say nothing matters and if you want to steal my work and call it yours that fine. What I’m saying is that we are so lucky as Christians, the God does not give us what we deserve, death, he gives us something better, that we cannot even begin to fathom, eternal life.

I am a firm believer in the idea of you get what you put in, if you work hard, and do something that you would be proud to call your own, you will be proud of it. By the same token, if you just don’t give a (insert your own word here), it will show in your actions, and in your life. While you may not get the same benefit or payment as some else, if you did your best and left nothing behind, you can walk away proudly.

It is when we give all that we have, like the small boy who had 5 small loaves of bread and 2 fish, and step back, letting God grab what we have to give, and make something amazing out of it that He gets the glory. One of my favorite songs right now, is Background by Lecrea, and it talks about not needing to be in the spot light and letting God be in the forefront. If you let God have the starring role in your life, the overflow that falls onto you, will be more than enough.

August 20, 2012August 20, 2012 by corymcglone

Praying with sunglasses on…

I realized this weekend how distracted I get. Call it ADD, ADHD, stressed, etc. When I try to focus on one thing, my mind starts racing. I try to take the time every morning as I’m getting ready for work before the munchkin wakes up, to spend time with God. During this time I find my mind going to everything that I had to do yesterday and didn’t get to, everything that I need to take care of today, that song I was listening to yesterday, or the theme from Jem, (another story for another time). Even focusing to write this post has taken me a few days, every time I would start to write something would come up that needed to be done.

In a world where 25 hours a day still aren’t enough, we have to find time to spend in quite devotion with God. Even if it’s just a few moments sitting in the car on your lunch break, a quick walk around the parking lot, or even getting up 15 minutes early to find a quite spot to collect your thoughts and be alone with God. It is in these few minutes that we must make an effort to put the busyness of the world away for just a few minutes, and listen to God.

Sometimes just a few moments is all that God needs to water that seed that has been planted in your heart or mind. Even though it may not seem that God is there, it is in these small times that he will manifest himself in a great way.

At this point your probably wondering if the title will ever tie in to the message here, and it does. I’m sure many of us have seen, Big Daddy with Adam Sandler. The little boy is the movie is scared at times, so Adam Sandler’s character gives him a pair of sunglasses and tells him when he is scared to put them on and he becomes invisible. So yes I know it’s a stretch, but if it comes down to it and the only way that you can get a few minutes alone with God is to become invisible to everyone else, put on those sunglasses and spend time with God.

June 12, 2012June 12, 2012 by corymcglone