A Tribute to a Faithful Man of God

I met Mark Warren at a Cru summer staff training conference in Ft. Collins, Colorado more than forty years ago. He was a good-natured friendly guy, an active fitness enthusiast, and serious about making a difference for Jesus. We really hit it off. Over the next few years, we saw each other a few times but, as often happens, we ultimately lost touch.

He died on February 11, my fourth friend or acquaintance to die within the last six months. All of these deaths were tragic, but Mark’s has haunted me in a special way.

He got married in June of 1983. Exactly one year later, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) – the dreaded Lou Gehrig’s disease. Within a year, he lost the ability to walk and speak. Here’s part of his obituary:

Mark’s faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not only never wavered; it grew increasingly stronger throughout his life. Mark was an example of courage to his family and friends. As ALS diminished his physical strength his faith, love, perseverance, and joy in every circumstance through the power of the Holy Spirit increased. ALS did not define or defeat him. Mark had hope in Jesus that sustained him. Mark trusted Christ and followed Jesus because he believed the truth of John 3:16-17. He believed that Jesus took his place and died on the cross for his many sins. That is why we can know that he is with his Savior right now. He would want anyone reading this to know that of every worldly pursuit in which he engaged only his trust in Christ’s work on the cross provided him with true satisfaction, unsurpassed peace, and deep abiding joy.

Even though he could not speak, Mark became an accomplished writer, had a quirky sense of humor, and pursued as many interests as his disability allowed.

I was astounded to learn how upbeat and optimistic he was, especially after I did the math. If he lost the ability to walk and talk in 1985 and died in 2025, that means he literally spent four decades unable to get around by himself or communicate orally. That was more than half of his entire lifetime.

Perhaps it’s a reflection of God’s grace that he seldom clues us in on what our futures hold. I wonder what Mark and his devoted wife would have thought had they known the day they got married how the next 40+ years would unfold. Undoubtedly, they had many ups and downs and shed buckets of tears, but God sustained them as the disease progressively took its toll.

I remember reading a comment from Corrie Ten Boom, the famous Dutch Christian who spent years as a young lady in a Nazi concentration camp. Years later, she recalled a time when, as a child, she was about to embark on a family train trip but hadn’t gotten her ticket from her father yet. When she asked him why not, he explained that, because he was afraid she might misplace it, he would give it to her at just the moment she needed it and not before. Corrie later saw that as a great picture of how God offers us his grace:  right on time, but rarely early.  

Based on seeing how well Mark finished with praises to God on his lips, I can only conclude that he and his wife faithfully tapped into God’s grace, dispensed day by day. What an inspiration! It makes me wonder if I’d have the same level of faith and fortitude. And it also puts my issues – which are miniscule by comparison – in perspective.

I wanted to pay tribute to this amazing man of God, and I hope that his story causes you to you evaluate how willing you are to trust God even in the most dire of circumstances.

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“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy.’” 

Jesus in the parable of the talents – Matthew 25:21 (CSB)

• How do you react when you read about Mark’s faithfulness? The goal is not to make you feel guilty over worrying about your circumstances. Instead, it should offer some perspective.

• Think about the hardest thing you have ever faced. What was your initial response to those circumstances? Were you able to finally come to a place of trusting God through them?

Yet Another Follow-Up on Why I’m Glad I Didn’t Ask for Prayer

Two posts ago, I explained that I was glad I didn’t ask for prayer during a recent pre-service worship team meeting, I had invited three guys from the gym, all of whom said they might come that day, but I decided not to mention that to the group because doing so would have been more about me as “the great outreach guy” than about my gym buddies and my desire that they further their relationships with God.

Last time, I reported that none of them ended up coming and stated I was disappointed but recognized that the story isn’t over. I continue my friendly chats about faith and Jesus with each of them.

This week, I’d like to mention another aspect of this story. John Hard, a friend from my Cru music ministry days, left an insightful comment on my original Face Book post.

I . . . recently have come to realize that there is practically nothing I do in my Christian service that doesn't still have some taint of my sin nature attached to it. . . . I need to . . . (acknowledge) that there is a sinful motive underneath the surface but that my genuine heart’s desire is for God to do something spectacular for his own glory.

I’ve said exactly the same thing many times. Even quietly making an online charitable donation has something in it for me – the pleasure of knowing I am helping a worthy cause. But should the fact that I enjoy helping others prevent me from doing so? Of course not.

Instead of beating yourself up when there’s some kind of benefit to you, you should humbly admit that there is always some degree of self-interest in even the most altruistic actions. And then move forward, asking the Holy Spirit to keep your less-than-ideal motives in check. You’re OK as long as you stay away from the tipping point where the value to you exceeds that of the value to others. 

The Bible recognizes our dark sides. Jeremiah 17:9 teaches that human hearts are more deceitful than anything else and are incurable. And no lesser person than Jesus himself rattles off in Mark 7:20 the “contents” of human hearts:  sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. Not a pretty picture.

But thjs is only half the story. The great news is that if you:

• Come to grips with your sinfulness and its implication (continued separation from God)

• Recognize that the only cure is acknowledging your inability to be acceptable to God based on your own merits

• Trust in Jesus’ death in your place to pay for your sins, and

• Ask him to take over your life

everything changes.

Here’s what 2 Corinthians 5:17 says:  “Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence” (God’s Word translation). And Romans 8:1 – one of my favorite Bible verses – delivers this incredible verdict:  “ . . . there is now no condemnation for those whare are in Christ Jesus” (NASB1995). Did you get that? No condemnation.

According to the Bible, true Christians are sinners who have been redeemed. Both parts of that statement are 100% true. Some Christians read that thought this way:  We’re sinners who have been redeemed. Others stress the second part:  We’re sinners who have been redeemed! I plant my flag with the latter group.  

We should never ignore our continued tendency to sin, but true Christians have been redeemed and are no longer subject to God’s condemnation. This is the way Jesus wants us to live, leaning into God’s grace.

If you’ve committed your life to Christ, although it’s important to remember the “dark side,” I hope you fully recognized you’ve been redeemed and live in the freedom Jesus offers.

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“Those who belong to Christ Jesus are no longer under God’s judgment”

Romans 8:1 (New International Readers’ Version 

• If you know Jesus, do you focus more on the idea that you’re sinful or that he has completely redeemed you?

• How do you live in the truth that God has completely forgiven and redeemed you as a Christian without abusing his grace and failing to honor him in your behavior?

We Came Within 50 Feet of Disaster

A week ago, we got to live out the truths of two cliches:

• Life can change in an instant

• When all is said and done, what really matters is the safety of your loved ones

On Thursday, September 5, Annette and I drove to the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles to babysit the grandkids for nine days while Andy and Liza went to New York and Maine to celebrate their tenth anniversary.

Sunday afternoon, we started hearing about the Bridge Fire, about 15 air miles south of our town of Wrightwood in the Angeles National Forest. The fire was pretty stable all day Monday and into Tuesday morning.

Mid-afternoon Tuesday, Annette drove back to Wrightwood for her Bible study meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning. Before she got there, she called a couple of times alarmed by the ominous smoke clouds over the mountains.  “The sky looks like tomato soup!” she exclaimed. An hour after she got home, San Bernardino County issued a sudden “Evacuate NOW” order, so she jumped back in the car and made a beeline down the mountain.  

Tuesday morning, the Bridge Fire covered only 4,000 acres, but because of what fire officials called a 1% of 1% set of weather conditions, within a few hours it had exploded to over 40,000 acres. Because we are in a canyon that backs up to one of the ridges, our neighborhood was incredibly vulnerable.

As Tuesday evening wore on, the possibility that our house could be gone by morning grew increasingly real. I began to think through what we would have to replace in the event of a total loss:  all our furniture and appliances, the car we left behind, all our clothing (down to socks and underwear), our hundreds of books, Annette’s kitchen gear, my 50+ harmonicas (each of which costs about $45 and some of which are hard to get), the 150+ music charts I had spent countless hours arranging, even mouthwash and Q-Tips. But then I remembered that we were safe and so were our family and friends.

As Annette and I lay awake in bed at 4:00 a.m., I echoed what many before us have verbalized when they escaped death and injury but lost everything they owned. “At least we’re all safe.” She wholeheartedly agreed and said that, if the worst happened and our town burned down, what she would be saddest about would be the inevitable scattering of our immediate neighbors whom we have come to love. Then I said, “I’m so glad to be going through this whole thing with someone who knows how to respond the right way.”

We came so close to calamity that the back of our next-door neighbor’s fence got charred! Thankfully, by God’s grace and through the incredible work of the hundreds of firefighters, only a handful of structures in Wrightwood burned. You probably heard about our fire on national news.

Since we bought our house four years ago, we’ve suffered two years of serious drought, a severe blizzard, a few very minor earthquakes, a hurricane, close encounters with a bear and a rattlesnake, and now this (our second wildfire evacuation). We’re living a lot “closer to the land” than we did in Metro Atlanta!

A few people have asked, somewhat facetiously, if we regret moving here. Absolutely not! Even if our house had been destroyed, I would say the same.

The punchline of a talk called “Demystifying Decision-Making” which I have given several times is that if you deliberately, responsibly and prayerfully seek God’s will for important decisions, you must interpret everything that results from that decision as part of his plan. And that includes even such tragedies as your house going up in flames. God is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving That means none of the unfortunate aftermath of a decision is beyond his control or has caught him by surprise.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you won’t experience frustration, disappointment, or even anger over the circumstance, but ultimately, you have to settle in to the fact that God filters everything through his omnipotent and loving hands.

Next time, I’ll relay some of the great things that have already happened because of this forest fire experienc

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Keep your life free from love of money; be content with what you have. He himself has said, after all, “I will never, ever leave or forsake you.” – Hebrews 13:5 (The New Testament for Everyone)

• What is the hardest set of circumstances you have ever faced? To what extent were you able to see God’s hand in the situation?

• How do you think you would react if you lost all your possessions?

WHAT DO YOU CALL THE OPPOSITE OF GOD BLESSING A VENTURE?

Among my other responsibilities as Executive Vice President at Georgia Hospital Association (GHA), I served as the “front door” for vendors seeking the association’s endorsement. I met with hundreds of companies over my 19 years there. Some of them got it right, and others were flaming disasters. Additionally, I had the chance to lead GHA teams in developing our own products to sell to hospitals nationwide. So I thoroughly get what it takes to successfully launch a healthcare product.

When I founded my consulting company post-GHA, I infused it with my deep understanding of what it takes to successfully sell to healthcare instituti0ons. These insights also made it into my book, Thriving in the Healthcare Market:  Strategies from an Industry Insider for Selling Your Product. The book features 84 pitfalls I’ve seen trip up vendors and also offers nearly 200 tips on how to avoid them.

Almost miraculously, the publisher – an affiliate of the 80,000-member international Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) – approved my proposal two days after I submitted it. This never happens! I was also delighted when the book got glowing endorsements and the highest possible rating from an outside organization that reviews business-related books.  

Once my book hit the market, I pulled out all the stops to get it before the right audiences:  joining 31 LinkedIn healthcare technology groups, regularly posting brief articles and crisp videos highlighting the top 10 pitfalls and other significant topics, approaching many health tech incubators and accelerators, doing podcast interviews, and speaking at various meetings and conferences.

Not all my promotional efforts panned out, however. In fact, several of them totally bombed:

• A division of Emory University considered developing a video curriculum based on my book but ultimately dropped the idea because of budget constraints.

• An affiliated arm of HIMSS failed to promote the book to HIMSS’ 80,000 members.

• Every year HIMSS has a huge convention and expo with up to 40,000 participants and hundreds of vendors on the exhibition floor. These vendors are the book’s perfect target. The publisher invited me to the HIMSS 2020 trade show as their guest but, alas, the Covid pandemic shut the whole thing down.

• For HIMSS 2021, I spent many hours developing a joint talk with HIMSS’ immediate past chairman, a highly sought-after international speaker. Unbelievably, the education committee rejected this proposal, even though it came from HIMSS’ top leader.

• The HIMSS chair and I tried again for HIMSS 2022. Same result!

• I contacted six senior leaders and professors at a for-profit educational company whose sole focus is preparing sales executives to succeed in selling to healthcare organizations. They couldn’t have found a more perfect resource than my book! Despite two emails and a phone call to each of them, not one of them ever acknowledged my emails or voice messages.

• I co-chaired two regional multi-day health tech conferences for an organization that also has a magazine devoted to promoting emerging technology. Since I knew the president, I approached him about seeing how my book might help his readership. After his initial expression of interest, he ghosted me.

Had any one of these initiatives succeeded, the book’s reach would have greatly expanded.

What do I make of all this? If I were cynical, I would accuse God of “teasing” me with so many false starts. Interestingly, I usually find it easiest to trust God when multiple things go wrong. One or two disappointments are frustrating, but so many fizzles can’t be “just coincidence.” (Of course since God absolutely controls everything, nothing is truly coincidental.)

Over the years, I’ve learned accusing God is a bad idea. First of all, he’s God and I’m not. Similar to what God asks Job after Job complains for several chapters, where was I when God created everything and set the world in motion?

Secondly, God doesn’t owe me anything. What I really deserve is condemnation and hell because of my sin. By his grace, God touched my heart years ago and forgave my sins, bringing me into a relationship with Jesus. Anything beyond this is pure blessing.

Furthermore, I’ve stopped “demanding” that God explain his reasons when things go south. Sometimes I can look over my shoulder and see some good that eventually emerges from problems or disasters. Sometimes I can’t. And that’s OK. Like I said, God doesn’t owe me anything. 

So what do you call the opposite of God blessing a venture? I call it part of God’s loving will for me, even if I don’t fully understand it. I hope you can embrace this attitude too.

Meet Job Version 2.0

Back in May 2020, I introduced you to a very good friend of mine, Chris Hogg. I mentioned that I didn’t think I had ever known anyone else who has had so many things go wrong, none of which were self-inflicted. Here is the list of woes I mentioned:

·       His mother was an explosive bi-polar, and his father was a narcissist who constantly berated him.

·       His only sibling is a brother who was estranged from the family for years. Chris has a college-aged niece he only recently met.

·       Right before we started getting together, Chris’ wife of twenty years unexpectedly left him for another man.

·       His ex-wife did all she could to turn his children against him. He spent many thousands of dollars and almost two years battling to get custody of his then-school-aged son.

·       On January 30, 2018 Chris came within inches of being crushed to death when another driver performed an illegal U-turn right in front of him, causing a nearly fatal T-bone accident. Chris suffered a traumatic brain injury, major vision damage, significant pain, and multiple other injuries. Most of these problems remain five years later.

At the time, I stated that if there is a “Society of Job” in heaven, Chris will be a shoo-in once he arrives.

Since my last post about Chris, his credentials for joining the “Job Club” have only increased:

·       When Chris had to reign in his father’s reckless spending and take his car keys away for his own safety, his dad reported his to state Department of Family and Child Services for alleged theft and elder abuse.

·       On top of their full-time work responsibilities, Chris and his second wife had to assume nearly-full-time caregiving duties for both his parents as their health declined. Both parents recently died within a few months of each other.

·       Chris’ children and stepchildren have suffered significant personal and health issues, nearly bringing the family to the breaking point. One of his children has a severe medical condition from which she may not recover.

·       Chris’ own health has steadily declined to the point where he can only effectively function for a few hours a day. And he has to be in near complete darkness because of severe photosensitivity, an after-effect of the accident. What’s worse, there are days when he has trouble even getting his words out because of the traumatic brain injury.

·       About two years ago, Chris’ high-end camper was destroyed in a freak accident when the building it was stored in burned to the ground.

·       Last December, Chris contracted a mysterious eye infection which resulted in additional scarring and has further compromised his vision.

·       Besides the direct physical fallout from the truck accident, Chris has other ailments including a torn rotator cuff (brought on by his decades as a building contractor) and kidney cysts. He recently had a knee replacement and said he has never experienced this level of pain before, even from the accident. That’s quite a statement from someone who has suffered as much as he has.

A couple of months ago, I heard him complain for one of the first times. If it were me, my complaint undoubtedly would have included the entire list of everything mentioned above.

But what was Chris upset about? “I’m afraid all my physical needs are stealing my wife’s life from her.” Unbelievable! That was what was weighing most heavily on him – not his personal pain, not his reduced ability to work, not a sense that God was being unfair to him. He was most concerned about the impact of his needs on his wife!

When Annette and I visited Atlanta in June, I had the delightful experience of spending two hours over bagels and coffee with Chris. His genuine smile in this picture reflects his peaceful trust in Jesus despite unimaginable hardships. As he walked to his truck, Chris’ parting words to me were, “I’m super thankful, and I’m so blessed. This isn’t my permanent condition. Eternity will be a whole lot different and a whole lot better.”

I hold him up to you as one of the most incredible people I have ever met, not to make you feel guilty if you aren’t as upbeat as he is, but as an inspirational role model. He exemplifies trust in God, faithfulness, and humility like few I know. Next time you are tempted to complain about your rough circumstances or doubt God’s goodness, think about Chris and ask God to give you just a fraction of the grace he has blessed Chris with.

Does Everything REALLY Happen for a Reason?

I can’t tell you how many times that, after someone experiences an unfortunate setback, I’ve heard them say, “Well, I guess everything happens for a reason.” I’m never quite sure what to say when I hear that. There are two very different ways to interpret that statement – one I have reservations about and the other I completely endorse.

Interpretation #1 is born out of a vaguely spiritual, quasi-agnostic worldview. Judging another person’s spiritual condition is always perilous. However, I have noticed some patterns. Some people, by their own admission, don’t embrace the biblical view that Jesus is indeed God whose death and resurrection provide the only mechanism for dealing with their rebellion against God and coming back to him. These are good people who often have some sense of spirituality. But that spirituality is often not well-defined and borders on agnosticism. They may believe in a “higher power” but not necessarily the personal God as revealed by Jesus. In my opinion, when these folks say everything happens for a reason, it sounds a bit flabby and comes across more like wishful thinking than confidence in God.

Interpretation #2 is based on a clear commitment to the picture of the sovereign, all-wise, loving God that emerges from the Bible. Besides the Bible, the book that has helped me more than any other in my Christian life is Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. It thoroughly documents three key attributes of God:

·       He is sovereign over absolutely everything – This includes people, world events and nature.

·       He knows what he is doing – He is all-wise.

·       He loves you completely – This is most dramatically demonstrated by Jesus’ sacrificial death for the forgiveness of sins.

One of my favorite illustrations of God’s sovereignty highlighted in Trusting God is the Exodus 34 account where God instructs all of Israel’s men to leave their homes and appear before the Lord three times a year. Vacating the land left Israel absolutely defenseless and vulnerable to its enemies. Bridges explains that the equivalent in today’s world would be shutting down all commerce, halting all educational activities, and removing all military presence. What do you think our enemies would do?

Here’s the incredible part. In Exodus 34:24, God doesn’t just say the surrounding enemy nations wouldn’t invade the land. He promises they won’t even want to do so. Although these are not people attempting to serve the living God, he still controls their hearts. Think about that. Israel’s foes don’t profess any loyalty to God or his people, but God promises to even reach into their hostile hearts and override the natural instincts of fallen humanity. This is astounding! If God controls even the desires of barbaric nations, what does he not control?

I know. These statements about God’s absolute control of everything raise all kinds of questions about free will, personal accountability, the problem of evil, and host of other issues. I can’t address all that here, but Jerry Bridges provides great insights and demonstrates how Scripture thoroughly supports the statements about God’s absolute sovereignty over everything. He also offers compelling biblical evidence concerning God’s wisdom and love.

The takeaway from Trusting God is that, if God truly rules over all, knows exactly what he’s doing, and loves you beyond imagination, what can happen to you that exists outside those parameters? Clearly, nothing.

So back to the original question:  Does everything really happen for a reason? The short answer is “Yes.” But there is a world of difference between the vaguely spiritual, wishful thinking Interpretation #1 above and the comforting Interpretation #2 so fully described in Trusting God.  The confidence we have is embodied by Romans 8:28, one of the most-quoted New Testament verses:  “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” So, yes, you can trust that God has his purposes. But you also have to be OK even if his plan remains somewhat mysterious. In hindsight, we can often see things more clearly, but we can’t demand an explanation.

If you are still living under Interpretation #1, what would it take you to get to Interpretation #2? Let me suggest that Jerry Brooks’ fantastic book can point you in that direction.

As You Plan, Don’t Forget the “G Factor”

Some financial planners say the word “retirement” isn’t in most people’s vocabularies until they’re in their forties – typically the first time they get serious about retirement planning.

When Annette and I hit that decade, we took stock of our progress. We were in decent shape, but I wasn’t sure if we were completely on track. This caused us to look at how to close the gap. The most likely possibilities were:

• I could potentially get a new job that either paid more or had a better retirement program.

• Either Annette or I could work additional years which would both allow us to add to our retirement savings and reduce the number of years in retirement (meaning our savings would last longer).

I didn’t have any likely job prospects on the horizon, and, although we didn’t have specific target dates for retirement, we weren’t excited about the thought of prolonging our working years.

This led us to brainstorm about some additional options. Disclaimer:  Some of these are far-fetched, and a couple are downright apocalyptic.

• Perhaps my going-in assumptions were overly conservative, meaning our situation was actually more favorable than my modeling projected.

• We had a distant family member with considerable resources. PERHAPS, some of that wealth would eventually come our way.

• There was always the possibility of an inheritance.

• Although we didn’t play the lottery, occasionally someone would give us a ticket. MAYBE one of them would result in a windfall.

And now here are the more extreme scenarios:

• Perhaps both Annette and I would die before retirement age, thereby eliminating altogether the need for retirement income.

• Perhaps the entire economy would collapse, in which case, no amount of planning or saving would ultimately matter.

• Perhaps Jesus would return before we retired.

Admittedly, these last few are highly improbable, but they WERE remote possibilities. For the record, I don’t recommend counting on Jesus’ return as your primary retirement strategy.

This analysis of our situation was a bit discouraging, even somewhat depressing. And it prompted at least some worry. Although we thoroughly believe God controls absolutely every circumstance of our lives, I couldn’t help just a little fretting.

I’m all for realistic analysis. However, as you plan, you should never overlook the “G Factor” – the God Factor. Despite your best planning, you really can’t control the outcome. That’s up to God. The book of Proverbs refers to this numerous times:

• Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails (19:21).

• The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord (21:31).

• Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth (27:1).

Jesus urges us in the Sermon on the Mount to refrain from worrying (Matthew 6:25-34). And in Philippians 4:6-7 the Apostle Paul teaches:  “Do not be anxious for anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will rule your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

This applies even when things are less than ideal or even disastrous. We can sometimes catastrophize the future – assuming the worst will happen – when projections are unfavorable.

I know. It’s easy to say we shouldn’t worry but much harder to practice.  However, God wants you to live that way.

Bottom line:  Plan realistically based on the most likely scenario, do your part to achieve your goals, but never forget that God ultimately controls everything that happens. This means that you have exactly what he wants you to have – no more and no less.

It turns out my assumptions were far too conservative, and we also received some unexpected fiscal blessings, one of which was not even on my list. God has been good to us!

I Know You Can’t Read It, So Let Me Tell You What This Card Says

The ink has almost completely faded from this somewhat-crumpled, yellowed, water-stained 3x5 card dated September 5, 1972. You can barely make out the important words I wanted to share with you on the card’s fiftieth anniversary. (I missed the actual date by a few weeks because of our unexpected decision to sell our Marietta, GA house several years earlier than we thought. The last month has been a whirlwind!)

The card reads:

Lord Jesus,

Anything

              Anytime

                              Anywhere

  I relinquish all control of my life to you.

And in the upper right-hand corner, I wrote:  “Baptized Sunday, September 12”

This was the fall of my senior year at Syracuse University. (I’ll save you from having to do the math. That makes me 71 years old.) Several of our church’s college students had responded to an invitation to be baptized on September 12, 1972. Initially, I didn’t plan to move forward because I felt I would just be doing it because it was the “thing to do.” However, on the Tuesday before the baptism service, I felt the Lord specifically tell me this was the time.

This card has followed me around the country for the last fifty years and was thumbtacked to a couple of different bulletin boards before finding a more permanent home on the inside lid of the box that holds my keys, coins, and other pocket-paraphernalia. It’s somewhat shocking to see what fifty years does to a formerly crisp, white 3x5 card and solid blue ink. I hope time hasn’t taken a similar toll on my body.

But it’s incredibly encouraging to see what God has done in my life during those same fifty years. I shudder to think where I would be had Jesus not singled me out from among my dysfunctional, emotionally abusive family members to transform me into a (more) stable, healthy person. Although I didn’t have any major self-destructive habits, I certainly had little idea of what loving, selfless living looks like. And I was not on track to find out.

I don’t want to imply that the last half century has been constant bliss characterized by rainbows and butterflies or that I have always instantly appreciated all God was doing in my life. Along with incredible blessings on many, many fronts – including marriage, children, health, ministry, friendships, career, and finances – I have also experienced periods of confusion and disappointment. He has done some things I still don’t understand or particularly like. But, he is God and I’m not, and he sometimes orchestrates things to put me off balance to help me see how I need to trust him in new ways. And for the record, my behavior over the last five decades hasn’t been exactly without question either.

In the end, I have learned what’s truly necessary is trusting God and accepting his will, even in those situations that may not seem to make total sense. Since what I REALLY deserve is condemnation because of my sin, how dare I think that God owes me anything, including justification for his actions? Absolutely everything good thing I have comes from his grace and love, and he has filled my life with great joy and even some miracles.

On this anniversary, I wanted to communicate to you that I have absolutely no regrets about having told God so many years ago that he can have it all. And, if you have never done this, I urge you to consider doing the same.

Demystifying Decision-Making - Part 1

Much of the process I propose below falls in line with what others have suggested, but I am adding an element at the end that few have included. Be sure to read to the whole article.

What will happen if I take that job in New York instead of staying in Atlanta? Should we pull the trigger now and put an offer in on that new house, or should we wait till the market improves? How do I know which college is best for my daughter?

It’s monumental decisions like these that sometimes inspire sleepless nights. Of course, decisions would be a snap if we only knew the future. But we don’t.

Even Christians struggle in the decision-making process and sometimes over-spiritualize the process by seeking signs, reading too much into circumstances, or flipping their Bibles open, randomly hoping to spot a relevant verse.

For Christians, the process should include:

• Committing the decision to God through prayer – God will always honor your heart-felt decision to do his will.

• Looking to Scripture to make sure the particular choice conforms to God’s ethical and moral standards – Discovering that a company you are considering a job offer from has been convicted of financial misconduct is an obvious red flag.

• Thoroughly investigating each alternative – Do your homework to learn all you can about each option.

• Seeking insights from wise, credible, and trusted friends and colleagues – This can uncover issues you may not have considered.

• Determining if circumstances may be pointing in a certain direction – Although we should not “seek a sign,” sometimes the facts clearly align to strongly nudge you toward a particular option.

Creating a list comparing the advantages of each alternative and assigning relative importance to each factor can also be helpful. For example, if your extended family lives in Arizona, accepting that job offer in Phoenix might be a major plus, whereas the more favorable climate out there might not be so important.

So far, all this is pretty standard advice. But here is the part I have seldom heard anyone add.

If you have followed the guidelines suggested above and have thoroughly committed to go in whichever direction God leads, and if there is a firm deadline to move one way or the other, then you have no choice but to conclude that whatever decision you made is God’s will. This is true even if that decision results in catastrophe down the road.

As an example, a job offer from prospective employer is a binary decision. Either you accept it or you don’t. You can’t do both. If they have asked for your response by 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, you must commit one way or the other by the deadline.

This is how I handle this type of situation:

• Do my best to determine what I think God’s will is

• Tell the Lord right before I pick up the phone to indicate my answer which direction I believe he has led me to

• Ask him to make it abundantly clear if that is not the right decision

If he doesn’t stop me and I accept the position, from that point on I treat the decision as God’s will – no looking back.

So even if the employer fails to honor what they promised or if the company goes bankrupt a month after I start, this does not mean I made the wrong choice or that God has let me down. Even though there might be significant fallout from the new circumstances, I should not second-guess my original decision. But, of course, it’s perfectly acceptable to move on from there.

Next time, I will offer five reasons why second-guessing God’s leading is a bad idea. Stay tuned!

What Do You Do When Your Daughter Is in the ICU and Almost Dies?

“You’d better get over here right now. Things are very bad, and she might not make it.” I was sitting at my desk at work when my mother-in-law called from the hospital with this terrifying message. This was the scariest moment in my entire life.

Here’s the backstory.

Our sixteen-year-old daughter Stephanie was in the ICU at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) with a terrible condition called Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS). In a nutshell, SJS is a rare, extreme allergic reaction to medication where the body literally burns from the inside out. The mortality rate is about 30%, and many of those who don’t die often experience permanent damage to their soft tissue including their eyes, mouths and lungs. Many lose their sight entirely. And Stephanie had a severe case with second degree burns on 75% of her body

She had recently started a prescribed sulfa antibiotic, and after a few weeks developed flu-like symptoms, strange sores around her mouth, other serious skin eruptions, and a life-threatening fever that reached 105.7 degrees. Our local ER transferred her to CHOA where she spent 20 days in the pediatric ICU, most of the time intubated and in a drug-induced coma. During her hospitalization, she nearly died three times.

Thankfully, the medical experts were able to identify and correct the problem that prompted my mother-in-law’s horrifying call, and Stephanie survived. She eventually recovered, albeit with eye damage and other significant, lasting problems. By God’s grace, she is doing reasonably well physically, and she and her husband recently welcomed their first child into the world. (I assure you, that boy will NEVER take a sulfa medication.)

Throughout this crisis, God made his presence known in a supernatural way. One question that many asked was how we could appear to be so calm in the midst of a parent’s worst nightmare.  All we could say was that somehow God sustained us emotionally.

I distinctly remember him telling me, “It will be alright.” He did NOT say, “SHE will be alright.” The message was, “IT will be alright.” We had no assurance that Stephanie would survive or that she would not have brain damage or go blind – real possibilities. But we DID have an uncanny sense of God’s presence.

Some wondered how we could trust God in this situation. I clearly recall thinking, “Why would I turn my back on God?” I could either scream at and curse him or run to him and cling to him in unprecedented ways. By God’s grace, despite all the emotional turmoil, neither my wife Annette nor I were ever seriously tempted to turn our backs on God.

I had always heard that God provides grace at precisely the moment we need it but not necessarily in advance. Corie Ten Boom, a saintly Dutch woman from a previous generation, once wrote that when she was a child traveling by train with her family, her father would only hand over her ticket to her at the last minute, just as she was about to board the train. This helped her see God provides – not necessarily by fixing our circumstances, but by assuring us of his presence – when we need it, and seldom before.

There is no guarantee that we will always be spared from tragic circumstances, but God does promise to be with us through even the worst of times:  “I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).”

I pray you never experience a similarly traumatic episode, but if you do I urge you to tap into the grace God offers in such pivotal times of trial. Annette and I can testify that it is real.

When You Unexpectedly Have a Ministry to Yourself

Every speaker and teacher I know agrees that organizing their thoughts into a talk or written piece leaves them feeling they learned more than their audiences did. I’m no exception.

At this time of year, we tend to reflect on the previous twelve months. As I did a quick scan of my 2018 blog posts (www.glennpearson.co/new-blog), I thought all of them had something of value. Of course I did, or I wouldn’t have written them 😊. But as an undergraduate English major trained to notice literary patterns, I recognized some inter-related themes in four of my blogs:

• January 24 – The Absolute Best Bible Passage for Resolving an Age-Old Debate – References Daniel 3:17-18 where the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar threatened to incinerate Daniel’s three friends if they didn’t worship the golden image he had set up – “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it . . . .  But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

• July 19 – got envy? – Tells of my envy over seeing people having the luxury of running when I had to drive to work, but then my equal envy when I was the one running in the park when my business was slow and saw people on their way to productive jobs

• November 15 – When God Uses You to Answer Someone Else’s Prayer but Doesn’t Answer Yours – Relates the story how God supernaturally allowed me to establish a mentoring relationship with a young man at LA Fitness who specifically prayed for someone to take him under his wing as he was literally driving to the gym that very morning

• December 12 – Contentment:  2 Obvious But Life-Changing Ideas – Reminds us of two things:

  ·   Contentment consists not in great wealth but in few wants

  ·   Since God controls absolutely everything, loves me completely, and knows what he’s doing, I have exactly what he wants me to have

Here’s how these four fit together. I see others’ favorable circumstances but envy them (the envy blog), and I rejoice when God uses me to bless someone else but wonder why some of my prayers aren’t answered (the blog about using me to answer someone else’s prayer), resulting in more envy. The antidote is to ponder Daniel’s three friends’ faith as they recognize God can do the absolutely impossible if he wants to and to emulate their astounding commitment to trust him even if he chooses a different path for them. Internalizing these three lessons leads me to contentment as I see that my circumstances reflect exactly what God wants me to have.

Ironically, literally one hour before I posted the contentment blog, I received some very disappointing ministry-related news. God graciously reminded me of these four blogs and, although I was still disappointed, he allowed me to exhale and trust his loving sovereignty. So, I’m thankful I had the chance to unexpectedly minister to myself 😊. But of course, I am ultimately thankful to God for driving these lessons into my heart and allowing me to live them out.