Break up the Fallow Soil

Hosea 10:12 talks about breaking up the fallow soil. This is the kind of soil that was once useful for planting and farming but has now grown hard and unusable. It needs to be broken up; plowed in order to be useful again. I have begun to feel like this in my soul. My prayer for now is that God would break up this fallow soil in my soul. I feel like the teaching and preaching I hear, the books I read, etc... are just bouncing off me; the Word of God does not go down deep in my heart, it just kind of stays on top of the hard, crusty soil and the wind comes and blows it away. What does it take to break up this soil? What must I do? 

Loyalty

We live in a world of choice. We value choice. In fact we are downright angry if that choice is taken away. We want to choose the store we shop at, the brand name we wear, the food we eat, the church we attend, the music we listen to... Sometimes however, choice can be crippling. There are simply too many options to choose from. Which is the right choice? Every choice has a consequence. Some consequences are better than others, and we want to make the "right" choice. I believe the question of choice can be settled in most cases when the question of loyalty is settled. There is a passage in scripture that I was reminded of this morning. I feel this passage sums up the issue of loyalty. After devastating loss, Naomi gives her daughter-in-law, Ruth, a choice, she could leave and go back to her own people. It is Ruth's reply that I think is powerful in light of the notion of loyalty, it is found in Ruth 1:16-17: "But Ruth replied, 'Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.' " 

Once the issue of loyalty is settled, then every other choice will flow from that. My first loyalty is to the Lord God, I have devoted my life completely to Him. Every other choice I make, therefore, will flow from this loyalty. Also, I have made a commitment to my wife, a commitment that is not much unlike the one Ruth made to Naomi: "till death do us part." No matter what choice I make in life it must pass the test of loyalty to God and my family. 

Effort

Somehow or other we have come to believe that effort is bad. As Christians we think that we shouldn't have to work at things. That would be, well, "works." And every good Christian knows that to be a good Christian we are supposed to just receive God's grace. I recently came across Seth Godin's blog and found the following bit of stuff to dispel this idea. In the following just change the word luck for grace and you will get it.

"I think we've been tricked by the veneer of lucky people on the top of the heap. We see the folks who manage to skate by, or who get so much more than we think they deserve, and it's easy to forget that:

a. these guys are the exceptions
and
b. there's nothing you can do about it anyway.

And that's the key to the paradox of effort: While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don't get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time.

This is a hard sell. Diet books that say, "eat less, exercise more," may work, but they don't sell many copies.

With that forewarning, here's a bootstrapper's/marketer's/entrepreneur's/fast-rising executive's effort diet. Go through the list and decide whether or not it's worth it. Or make up your own diet. Effort is a choice, at least make it on purpose:

1. Delete 120 minutes a day of 'spare time' from your life. This can include TV, reading the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in social networks and meetings. Up to you.

2. Spend the 120 minutes doing this instead:

• Exercise for thirty minutes.
• Read relevant non-fiction (trade magazines, journals, business books, blogs, etc.)
• Send three thank you notes.
• ...
• Volunteer.
• Blog for five minutes about something you learned.
• Give a speech once a month about something you don't currently know a lot about.

3. Spend at least one weekend day doing absolutely nothing but being with people you love.

4. Only spend money, for one year, on things you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest, relentlessly.

If you somehow pulled this off, then six months from now, you would be the fittest, best rested, most intelligent, best funded and motivated person in your office or your field. You would know how to do things other people don't, you'd have a wider network and you'd be more focused."

Is Truth Still Relevant Today?

"Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land for we can certainly do it.'" Num. 13:30

I love this emphatic, public declaration of truth based on God's promise. There is such a thing as truth, even in this day when truth is seems up for grabs. Where are the Calebs who will silence the people with a strong word of truth that comes from God's word. Jesus said of God the Father, "Thy word is truth." Where are the men and women who are walking with God in His word who are willing to stand for truth no matter how unpopular? Oh God, may I be one of those. Help me to stop being so wishy-washy. That I may own the truth, God's truth. And may I not be afraid to publicly declare His truth without hesitation or reservation. This is my prayer for today! 

Look at the Birds

I really don't get it. I just really don't understand in the deepest part of my being. How can I think that my life somehow compares to the birds? How can I just stop sowing and reaping and storing? Is this what the Lord is saying? No, surely not. I have a responsibility to do these  things. I cannot just shirk my responsibility and expect God to take care of me. That would be... well, irresponsible of me. However, I know -- or I should know, that God will take care of me. Even when, for what ever reason, I am not able to sow or reap -- or when what I have stored away in my barns runs out God will take care of me. And another thing, I can only sow and reap -- it is God who brings the increase.