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2012-02-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

The world’s last surviving veteran of World War I died on February 4. Florence Green signed up for the Women’s Royal Air Force 98 years ago at age 17. Ironically she was afraid of flying. She worked as an Officer’s Mess steward.

Before passing away at age 110, she had been in a nursing home less than three months. Previously she lived at home with her daughter, who is 90! By every account Mrs. Green was a wonderful lady.

My Great Uncle Carl fought in World War I. When I was a boy I visited him and felt as if I were touching history in the flesh. This man who held my hand had been in the trenches and fired a gun. Until he died his physical presence connected me to an otherwise faded past.

Now there is no one left from that war, or any war before it. Every last survivor eventually died. And every war from now on will have its last survivor die.

I think of the unspeakable horrors World War I unleashed. And now those involved are all gone. Every last person. It no longer matters what side they were on in that senseless conflict. Nor does it matter whether they died on the battlefield or years later in a nursing home. Now they’re all in eternity, for better or worse.

How they spend eternity has nothing to do with which uniform they wore but with what was in their hearts. So many things seemed important back then, just as so many things seem important right now. But they will all fade and give up their last survivors.

If we can truly grasp this, what would it do to us and the way we face conflicts, whether as a nation or in our own lives?

Flowers from a Stick

2012-01-09T14:21:00.000-08:00

My wife bought an orchid. But it was really just a two-foot-long stalk as thick as my thumb. It sat in a pot on her table, this green stick. It was not beautiful, and to my eyes didn’t show much promise. It only took up space.

After a few weeks it still sat there gathering dust. For some reason she watered it. Seemed like a waste of water to me.

For two months the green stick sat on her table. Several spikey leaves had sprouted at the base, and a big bulge grew at the top. Probably a tumor.

Then one morning we stopped and stared. The tumor had bloomed into a magnificent flower. Now it’s the glory of the house. Before I took this photo, a second flower bloomed. And two more buds have formed.

So many things in life are like that stick. Things we build. Things we work for. Things we attempt. So many people are like that stick too.

Some things--and some people--have a critical mass, a tipping point, where months or years of effort or waiting reach a point when something happens. A project is finished, a conflict is resolved, a child grows up, a skeptic comes to faith. Transformations occur that could not have occurred without that time of waiting.

Are you attempting to do anything that’s like that green stick and hasn’t yet produced its flower? Or is there something inside you that’s like that green stick, quietly developing and will someday come out as something beautiful?

If your flower hasn’t bloomed yet, don’t give up. Keep tending to it. Be patient. Work hard. Hope. Big or small, you’ll get your flower.

Christmas and New Years Greetings from our family to yours

2011-12-29T12:13:00.000-08:00

The Ford Foundation found that among Americans

23 percent have no idea what they want from life.

67 percent have a general idea but no plans for how to get it.

10 percent have specific goals.

Of that ten, seven reach their goals half the time. Three reach their goals 89 percent of the time or more.

What makes the biggest difference for those 3 percent who are likely to achieve their goals?

Their goals are written down--not nice thoughts they later forget.

Their goals are measurable--not vague wishes.

Their goals have a time limit--not eternal hopes.

Now is the best time of year to do this. So…

What do you sense you need to do, and how would God work in you in 2012?

How would these goals build toward a bigger vision for the future?

When you can answer that, what written, measurable goals would you make for 2012?

If you make a habit of doing this, welcome to the 3 percent!

Kim pastors the main Korean congregation of our church, which is doing well, and she works hard in her Mannatech business.

Peter pastors the English ministry of our congregation, teaches online and in the classroom for Nazarene Bible College, and is still writing.

Irena is a junior at Walnut High School and is very committed to working with autistic children on Saturdays.

Sweet Homeless Lady

2011-12-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

I got to church early one Sunday morning and found a homeless lady with her shopping cart sitting on the steps of a side entrance. They know right when to come, hit you up for money, then leave. I avoided her for a while, because I didn’t want to be treated like a vending machine.

Finally I introduced myself. Her name was Ariel. She appeared to have a bulging tumor in her upper lip.

Then she got up to leave.

Huh? This wasn’t part of the script. “Please stay for the worship service,” I said.

“Is it okay? I don’t want to be a bother.”

“You’re not a bother. We’d love to have you. Just park your cart there.” She told me where she was from and that she didn’t like shelters. Then she pulled a big steel bolt out of her mouth. It made her feel secure—no tumor. She smiled the biggest, prettiest smile I’d seen in a long time. Ariel was so sweet, yet so hurting and lost inside.

I told her to wait there while I went to prepare things and think up ways I could help her and encourage the congregation to help her.

I came back and she was gone.

Oh, no! Why did you go?

I still feel sad when I think of it. And I still hope to find her.

Do you ever find yourself jaded and not wanting to help some people who hold out their hands? Maybe you feel guilty and bothered at the same time.

And do you also find yourself wanting to help, and sacrifice for, others who don’t ask but need it?

In the course of living, we either nurture or banish that sense of helping others through the sum of our experiences and resulting attitudes we choose.

Where are you on that path?

Seeing as God Sees

2011-11-22T10:52:00.000-08:00

Do you ever compare yourself to others who have a similar level of education and who don’t work any harder than you do—but who make lots more money or achieve a higher degree of recognition?

When I feel that way, I remember a different kind of people—and everything looks different. In countries all over the world live people who are smart, work hard, would have gotten academic degrees if they had the chance, and who give their lives to serving God or some cause.

Yet they live in the poverty of an African village or a Southeast Asian jungle. Or they live under the religious oppression of a Middle Eastern society. Or they work in secret under the brutal North Korean regime. Many have no salary at all. For all their work they may receive only beatings. They may receive a prison cell. And some are tortured and killed.

We so easily forget these people, especially our brothers and sisters in faith. But God does not forget them. They are closer to his heart than we can know.

When I think of them, I ask myself what on earth am I thinking when I say I’m not making enough money or not being “successful” enough?

From God’s point of view everything—everything—looks different from how we typically perceive things from our human point of view. Especially in a wealthy and free nation.

God does not watch TV, and he does not care who’s rich or famous. Second Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”

Regardless of how your outward life appears, as your heart grows and you as God sees, you’ll have spiritual wealth and recognition money can never buy.

Big Ship, Small Helm

2011-11-06T23:21:00.000-08:00

I rode a cruise ship three football fields long, that weighed 137,308 gross tons, and carried 5020 passengers and crew—a floating city.

A window looks onto the control room of this behemoth. In the center is a high-tech control console and, like every large boat, it also has a helm with a wheel to steer the ship manually. I could hardly believe what I saw, and you can see it in the bottom center of the photo. The wheel that turns this monster ship is only 12 inches in diameter—smaller than the one on your car. Yes, it’s power steering. And the captain used it to steer the ship through coral reefs off the shore of Bermuda.

When I look around, I see small things that direct huge things. Electronic chips control cars and planes. Leaders direct national governments and international corporations. Your three-pound brain directs all the rest of you.

In the Bible James 3:3–12 tells how a small rudder steers a ship, a bit in a horse’s mouth directs it, and a spark sets a forest on fire. He writes how our tongues can praise God or curse people. The tongue can express great good or cause great harm.

Small things direct big things. Sometimes seemingly small decisions or habits can result in life-changing directions or influence on others, both for good or bad. Have you made a seemingly small decision, a seemingly small mistake, or practiced a seemingly small habit or discipline that led to big results? Have you ever said something that caused another person great joy or great pain?

A small wheel steers a big ship. It’s also true with your tongue, your money, your relationships, your career, and with your salvation and eternal life.

Remember the bigness of small things.

Newsbit:

Check the Library page of PeterLundell.com for two new sets of articles: “To Heaven or New Heaven” (the afterlife in Christ) and “To Hades with Hell” (the afterlife outside of Christ). You’ll read things you’ve probably never read before.

Seeing through Trees

2011-10-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

Paralleling my mother’s apartment is a thick stand of trees. Summer grows an impenetrable green. Autumn drops the leaves to uncover winter skeletons of branches through which I see all ouses on the other side. Spring buds restart the cycle.

The cycle helps me overcome temptation. Through the sameness of daily life and annual events, I’m tempted to feel a sense of permanence, as if the people I know will always be there and the things I do I’ll always do. But behind the appearance of sameness lurks an ending. Always.

Children feel as if their parents will always be there to watch over them. Adults feel as if they’ll go to work at the same place for eternity. Meeting relatives or old friends feels as if they’ll always be there next season, and that I will too. For thousands of years people have probably felt the same way. But there always lurks an ending.

Most of us like permanence and sameness. We like familiar, predictable, and comfortable. But permanence and sameness are temporary, even illusory. So I’ve started to resist that sense of permanence, the feeling of sameness. To do so, I must willfully embrace change and accept that no one and nothing will be around forever.

And when I do that I live better.

A sense of permanence and sameness lulls a person into a daze that can cloud life for decades. Change and the cycles of life are often challenging or agonizing. But embracing change—as Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is a time for everything”—prepares us for the difficulties.

And that wakes us up to live more fully here and now. Our hearts embrace and our minds understand God’s hand in life. And our eyes just might see our path into eternity.

A Giant Has Died

2011-10-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

A giant has died. He revolutionized computer use so totally and pervasively that he changed the world. And all before his mid fifties. I lose my breath just thinking about the man’s prowess and accomplishments. And I write this on an iMac. I feel almost a personal loss.

Steve Jobs clawed his way up, was knocked down, and came back stronger. People with this combination of genius, creative innovation, and relentless pursuit come along once in a generation.

Given all that, I’m deeply thoughtful at his early death and what it means. He was the creative computing titan. He had all the money one could imagine; he had all the technology one could imagine. But neither could save him.

This leader and changer of the world was felled by cancer in his pancreas that couldn’t be fixed or upgraded. Before his diagnosis he didn’t even know what a pancreas did. I didn’t either.

I think of how little I’ve accomplished by comparison. I know I’ve done a lot that has eternal value—and that’s what God looks at, so I rejoice. Still it’s hard not to feel small, but that’s okay. Yet I have one thing that Jobs didn’t. One thing that all the money and technology in the world couldn’t buy for him or me: good health.

What a gift to have a healthy body. And I see so many people not taking care of the only one they have. Jobs would have given anything to be healed, yet he didn’t seem to have had faith or anyone to pray.

So I’m left with the gravity of it all. And I think:

Be thankful for the gift others are to us—they could soon be taken.

We are fragile, frighteningly fragile.

Whatever we accomplish or don’t accomplish, make sure to be in God’s hands.

The Bouncing Spider

2011-09-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

Under the front eaves of my house, a spider web stretches seven feet from the roof gutter to the bushes below. At the center of this engineering marvel hunches the spider. The little bugger is about the size of my fingernail—and it bounces.

If I blow on the spider or reach close, the thing jiggles itself violently up and down. The whole web vibrates, all a natural defense mechanism designed to scare off a predator.

The spider doesn’t skitter away. It doesn’t hide. Even after the web was destroyed, the next day the spider was rebuilding.

This bouncing spider inspires me. Despite the fact that I am 10,000 times bigger than it is, it still defies me. And it takes a stand (or bounce). Sure, it’s acting on self-defensive instinct rather than rational thought, but even that’s part of the inspiration.

I think of all the things that threaten or scare me. What threatens or scares you?

Too often we freak out because we think so much about the threat that we don’t instinctively take a stand based on who we are and what God has promised us.

He has promised to provide for us, protect us, and strengthen us. And when God’s plan really is for us to suffer, he is there with us, guiding us in his purpose.

Some of God’s greatest truths are seen in the natural world and its creatures—great or small. Take a lesson from the bouncing spider. When you feel threatened or scared, don’t skitter and hide. Take your stand (or bounce if you like). The Bible is full of promises, many of which we haven’t experienced as we could, perhaps because we’ve skittered and hid.

How might you take a stand today?

Battles of Earth and Spirit

2011-08-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

The battles of this world often depict what goes on in the spiritual battles we cannot see.

For six months the opposition movement in Libya has struggled against Kaddafi. For decades people in Libya endured his regime, which glorified him, benefitted the people just enough to keep most quiet, and executed those who dared oppose him. When people saw hope in the overthrow of neighboring Tunisia’s dictator, then Egypt’s, they rebelled.

Similarly, people often find hope for personal transformation when they see the victories of others.

The Libyan struggle was harder than most people expected. Early on the Libyan rebels didn’t know how to fight but learned as they went. NATO helped by bombing Kaddafi’s instillations, but didn’t send troops. For a long time the battle stood at a stalemate. Breakthroughs started in the unlikely corners of the mountains to the south. The war brought blood and grief, freedom and jubilation.

Similarly, unseen spiritual battles go on around us. Some are simple; others are long and agonizing. We may not know what to do but learn as we go. God intervenes, but maybe not as much as we’d like—he makes us fight. Battles may stalemate. Breakthroughs sometimes come from unlikely places. We experience both grief and jubilation.

Some battles are disguised behind personalities and conflicts, beliefs and mindsets, maybe sicknesses or addictions, accidents or events. Some people imagine spiritual battles that really aren’t; others don’t acknowledge battles that really are.

If you or a loved one face a spiritual battle, take heart from those rebels who didn’t give up against the oppressor of Libya. And take heart from God’s promise in 2 Thess. 3:3 about our battles against the oppressor of the human race: “The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”

A Life Beyond Nonsense

2011-08-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, July 27, 2011, a giant among Christians died of old age after a tremendously fruitful life. John Stott was an unassuming English pastor and scholar who wrote fifty books, mesmerized people with his preaching, and was one of the main influencers of how evangelical leaders, missionaries, and most believers understand and act on what the Bible tells us. He embraced, taught, and led Christians worldwide. His impact infinitely surpassed his fame. And that was fine with him.

After he died AOL news carried typical headline stories like, “Princess Kate Wears the Same Dress Twice,” “Hollywood Starlet Shows off Curves in New Bikini,” “Watch What Happens When Man Encounters Dog—Shocking!” And the only death they were interested in was that of a troubled rock star.

Yet many large newspapers had the intelligence to run articles on John Stott, describing how he led the rise of global evangelism. In God’s eyes, nothing is more important than that.

Unlike reputable news sources, the superficial "news" on many Internet and other media outlets ignores that which is substantive in favor of that which is titillating. It's always in our faces, and it never stops.

So it’s left to each of us to purposely look beyond the nonsense and seek what’s truly meaningful and important. What’s meaningful and important are found in eternal realities and how they affect the lives we live.

I encourage you to deliberately go against the current, all the time. When you deliberately practice ignoring nonsense and seeking substance, you may be surprised at how distinctive you become.

Obituaries and Eternity

2011-07-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

For a brief time I read obituaries in the newspaper—just for fun. It didn’t last long, because they got repetitious. Besides, reading about dead people can get morbid. Yet I learned something.

All the deceased were good people and were missed. Of course they were; people don’t spend money on obituaries for people they don’t like. I didn’t see any for jerks—no one missed them. Or if anyone really was bad, the description was whitewashed.

Each obituary listed the career highlights and accomplishments of the deceased. Some were impressive: degrees, important jobs, civic activities, and contributions. Most folks appeared to have been nice people, good people, ones we’d like if we met them. I found myself being impressed. I imagined meeting them during their lifetime and being impressed—even envious and wishing I had accomplished the things they had.

But there was always one catch: They were dead. This single fact changed everything. After reading all the impressive things they did, I found myself oddly unimpressed. I kept thinking, So what? Their life achievements are over, and now they’re in eternity.

I scoured each obituary for indications of whether they had prepared themselves for eternity. I can’t say whether they or not they did, but nothing was ever said about it. I’m sure some did and some didn’t. Some knew God and some had positively influenced others, but most centered their activities and accomplishments on themselves.

Crossing the line into eternity changes everything—everything that on this earth is impressive or important or worthwhile.

Someday people will read my obituary. Yours too. What if we live our brief lives in ways that reflect and prepare for eternity? After all, that’s where we’re all going. And besides, we’ll almost certainly end up living better lives.

Cookie Cutters and Uniqueness

2011-07-14T23:36:00.001-07:00

“You must Tweet. You must Facebook. You must blog. You must use this system,” went the list. Do all these things and, in my case, I would sell lots of books. Jump in the cookie-cutter solution of what worked for someone else and must now work for me. If I didn’t, I’d miss out—and I wouldn’t want that, would I?

Last time I checked, I was a full-fledged human being, not a clone.

If I’m a pastor, I must use these ten business principles and my church will grow. If I’m in business, I must use church principles and my business will be healthy. If I don’t like commuting to work, join this multi-level marketing, and I’ll make easy money.

Somebody show me the exit.

I’ve lived long enough to figure out that in any life endeavor, some people will make it big, most will not, and others will be in between. Results will be less than what some claim but more than what others complain. One size, or method, never fits all. And no market of any kind will equally reward every competitor.

But people never tire of telling others how one size (their own size) fits all. And there will always be a crowd that follows.

God, on the other hand, created us to be unique. I’m not saying don’t cooperate or listen to good advice. I’m saying discern how it fits. Most people who make breakthroughs or impact others in any area of life know what to follow and what to ignore. And they do things according to the way God created them. They aren’t afraid of being unique. Unique is always different—otherwise it’s not unique.

How are you unique? And how has God created you to bless others in a unique way?

"You'll miss your flight"

2011-06-28T12:11:00.001-07:00

“You’ll miss your flight,” the agent said. If she were comatose she would have been just as helpful. Because of airlines buying other airlines, I was at the wrong terminal. I got mad at the airline, mad at the unhelpful personnel, mad that every shuttle was going to Car Rental.

So I selfishly asked God to delay the flight. A sympathetic driver took me to the other terminal after a quick stop at Car Rental. I clenched my teeth through TSA, where of course they had only one screening line open.

The flight was delayed. As I calmed down before getting on, the Holy Spirit prompted me. I had been tested. And I had failed the test. If not just coincidence, God had been gracious to me, yet I had not lived up to my character as a follower of Jesus.

Then my connecting flight was canceled. “You’ll have to stay here overnight,” another not-so helpful agent said. I would not fail a second test.

I smiled. “You can do better than that.” At customer service another agent put me on standby for the next flight and said, “You still won’t get on. It’s a small regional jet, and we have too many people waiting. Come back afterwards.” So I selfishly asked God to let me on the flight. But this time calmly, with faith, and the added request that no one else suffer because of me.

One passenger wasn’t showing, but I was impossibly low—eleventh—on the standby list. I calmly waited. Even if I didn’t get on, it was okay because I was passing the character test, which had become more important to me than the flight.

Problems are temporary; character is lifelong. And little victories add up to big differences.

I got on the plane.

Rest or Get Sick

2011-06-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

For a long time, I avoided taking a full day off. I wasn’t earning enough money to pay off credit cards, so I worked harder and longer. Preparing for a conference, I went almost a week with little sleep and crashed after returning home. I kept going and got worse again. My body seemed to break down, and I’ve been sick for weeks. I was a fool.

I’ve told others that if they didn’t rest, their bodies would eventually take it out on them. I’ve heard the lectures and read the articles on how, if I don’t rest, my body will take it out on me. But hearing and acknowledging is different from listening and doing.

And when I did rest, I kept busy. How American of me. How utterly ungodly.

I ate right but acted as if rest were for the weak—a subtle form of arrogance I could not see.

Of all the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath rest is the one Christians like me think is okay to break. Some of us even do it with a sense of increased self worth.

We have rewritten Descartes’ dictum, “I think; therefore I am” to read: “I’m busy; therefore I am.” We assume being busy is a virtue. But in the Bible, Israelites were punished for breaking the Sabbath. There is no biblical virtue in busyness.

The Bible says twice that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. When we don’t take care of our temples—whether the way I did or by stuffing them with junk food—we can’t very well claim to have much respect for God.

After resting a lot, I’m slowly getting stronger. More important, I will change. If I don’t . . .

Is there anything in your life that needs to change?

Trying to Love People

2011-05-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

I’m trying to love bad people. It’s hard, and I often fail.

I’m trying love people of other religions, including the terrorists. It’s so hard, and I often fail.

I’m trying to love adulterers, drug addicts, thieves, murderers, cheaters, liars, perverts, and child abusers. O Lord, it’s hard, and I usually fail.

I’m also trying to love Christians who don’t act like Christians. Sometimes that’s been me.

I don’t like loving all these people. It’s easier to scorn them, justify myself, and pretend it’s okay for me to be this way. It’s easier to simply be religious, which is why many people are.

But I keep running into Jesus. He will judge those people; I don't have to. Instead he insists that I love all people with the love of God—irritating people, disgusting people, and people who are enemies to me.

A lot of Christians get angry about people they don’t like. I don’t blame them. But if we’re truly followers of Jesus, He won’t exempt us. He insists we love others, including our enemies. For that we need the grace of God.

Jesus can be difficult to follow. We love him because he loves us so much, but He also loves those who are easy to despise. Thankfully we have testimonies of many persecuted churches to inspire us to love those who hate us.

None of this means that people who do bad things are okay. It means that while we’re alive on this earth, we love people with the love of God. We do not love because others deserve it but because of who we are.

Imagine. Imagine what would happen if large numbers of Christians did this. The whole world would turn upside down.

That’s Jesus’ intention.

Faith

2011-05-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

God chooses to connect with us. Great! Who wouldn’t want to connect with God? But there’s a catch: He's something like the Supreme Creator and Master of the Universe.

God is loving and forgiving. But if we fully connect with him, he wants it on his terms. That may seem like a bummer at first, but it’s like when we were little kids and mom or dad made us brush our teeth. Those of us who still have teeth are thankful we brushed. In the same way, we eventually find that God has good reasons for why and how he does things.

He gives us tons of evidence to verify his existence. Sift through ancient documents or dig in Israel’s dirt or look through a telescope or a microscope and you’ll find good reasons for faith. That’s good, but agreeing with doctrines or being nice to the Supreme Being won’t make him say, “Hey, let’s spend eternity together.”

I’ve noticed that God refuses to relate to anyone except on the basis of faith. He’s adamant about this, and no one’s ever been able to change his mind. In the past I tried to relate to God as one intellectual to another—debate our ideas, see what I could get away with. Guess how far that got. As far as the thick line of faith that God demanded I cross.

Faith, by definition, steps beyond rationality. Whether we call that step a “leap of faith” or a logical progression beyond reason into relationship, faith steps past the mind and into childlike trust. God insists and will have it no other way.

If you think about it, it makes sense. God is not negotiating business deals or debating in academic symposiums. He wants our lives. And he gives us his.

Dreams to Reality

2011-04-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

In the midst of hardship at every level, millions have been captivated by two versions of the same song—sung by two people who seem to have only one thing in common: they both speak English. Other than that, they appear as opposite as two human beings can be. One is a gargantuan obese guy, the other six-year-old girl, who live (or lived, he died) on opposite sides of the world.

Though they represent two opposites of humanity, their voices and the song they sing embraces everyone in between. The song is a fantasy of a wonderful world that one believes will come true. The way each singer sings touches people in ways that evoke deep universal longings. Perhaps they will touch your heart as they do mine.

God is present with us in this world that is far from fantasy. He is with us in darkness and with us beyond hopes and dreams that may or may not come true. And God says that when we have faith, he will respond as he has promised.

But we still hope and dream, and I won’t claim that realizing dreams is easy—it’s not—or that believers don’t get disappointed—we do. But isn’t that why Jesus exhorts us to never give up? Because after we endure the trials, answers come.

This fantasy song comforts and plants seeds of hope that I hope would not end in disillusion, but would turn into faith and diligence on a journey toward answered prayer.

Here are two links where you can hear each one (you’ve got to hear both):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cnRXmMn2Ag&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I

May your dreams grow to persistent prayers and fruitful labor until they come true.

And may God bless you, truly bless you.

Peter Lundell

Newsbit:

I recently signed with a literary agency, Credo Communications. Blessings on my agent, Karen Neumair.

How our Brains Perceive God

2011-04-12T08:38:00.000-07:00

If you ever want a scientific basis for connecting with God, here’s one:

Andrew Newberg, a neuropsychological researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, studies two kinds of reality: One is physical or “baseline” reality—the brain’s perception of material objects (a chair, a table) and sensations (warm, cold). In contrast, he attempts to scientifically verify the brain’s perception of spiritual reality, which he calls “Absolute Unitary Being.”

Some argue that what we think is spiritual reality—for example, God—is nothing more than neurological blips or chemistry changes. In fact that’s what happens in our brains when we experience spiritual phenomena.

The problem with this argument is that the brain experiences physical reality in exactly the same way—through neurological blips and chemistry changes. So even the most hardened atheist or scientist must either take the possibility of spiritual reality seriously or discount all perceptions of reality and conclude that we all live in a dream state.

Isn’t this fun?

Persons who engaged in his research consistently testified that the experience of spiritual reality was more “fundamentally real” than that of physical reality. Wow.

Newberg theorizes that spiritual and physical reality are two versions of reality that may be complimentary. That makes biblical sense.

I’m not concerned that Newberg doesn’t take a Christian point of view. A person can perceive God’s existence, just as we perceive his physical creation, without knowing or submitting to him.

The significant point is that Newberg is doing breakthrough scientific research on the ways in which God created the human mind to perceive him, as well as his creation. He is giving us a solid scientific basis to say that faith and perceptions of God are as real as the physical world around us. That’s worth getting excited about!

God's Ultimate Interest

2011-03-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

I grieve with many others at the unfolding tragedy in Japan, where I lived for eight years. How does a loving God allow so many people to suffer and die? Though the nuclear problem is man-made, the question is still painful. But we can get a good perspective.

Many people seem to have the idea that God’s purpose is our well-being—or that he is concerned about our happiness. Our happiness is important to us, and we naturally think it’s important to God too. But the Bible doesn’t say much about being happy. And God never promises to make us happy. That’s what heaven is for, and we’re not there yet.

Throughout Scripture God lets, even causes, people to die in astonishing numbers: 14,700 in Numbers 16; 24,000 in Numbers 25; 185,000 in 2 Kings 19; then there’s the Book of Revelation.

But God also says he cares for us and promises to bless us. Jesus came, showed endless compassion, and even died for us.

How do we reconcile those two extremes?

Here’s a try: Yes, God cares for us and will bless us. But whether we’re blessed or not is secondary. I don’t mean God doesn’t care; I mean our physical well-being is not his main interest. It appears to be secondary to God whether we even live or die. That’s hard to swallow, but both the Bible and the daily news tend to agree.

What’s primary then? Relationship. God is primarily concerned about our being connected with him. And he will let all manner of things happen if it helps. All through the Bible God is focused on people’s turning to him and growing in that relationship. It’s as if when someone says, “God!” he zeros in and says, “Yes? I’m here.”

May the whole world meet him in its suffering.

Learning from the Middle East

2011-02-25T11:15:00.000-08:00

We are at a hinge of world history. The last time this happened was in 1989, when Eastern European communist governments fell one after another to popular uprisings. At the time most of us were surprised, but many had been praying, and prayer was being answered in a big way.

Now dictatorial governments in Islamic nations are falling, teetering, or under assault of popular uprisings. Most of us are surprised. Yet many have also been praying.

What happens there will affect the world we live in for the rest of our lives—for better or for worse. Some of these nations may see quasi-democratic peaceful governments may take root. Others may descend into chaos and become havens for terrorists. We don’t know. We watch and pray.

I cannot help but wonder, if the USA had not invaded Iraq—and spent untold billions of dollars, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed and maimed—that Iraq would probably be having its own popular uprising right now, with no cost to the USA.

Then I think of our own lives, churches, even our nation. Sometimes we try to push change or make things happen, and we exhaust ourselves. Have you had the experience?

What if, for better or worse, we instead paid attention to what God might do, or is doing, in our lives, our churches, and even our nation? What if we learned a lesson from what’s happening in the Middle East? What if we submitted our lives, our churches (perhaps our careers), and our nation to God enough that we watched, prayed, and acted in line with what he is doing.

I suspect the odds of things going much better in the long run would be something around 100 percent. Is it worth a try?

The Legacy of Samjee Kallimel

2011-02-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

On February first a great man of God departed this earth. He was unknown in America, but he’s certainly known in heaven.

I first met Samjee Kallimel in 1986. He pastored a church in northern India, from which he evangelized people in the Himalaya Mountains. The people literally lived in a miserable Stone Age culture, and no one else would go to them. He walked in the power of God.

From the late 1990s through 2010, he worked from central India and started churches among the untouchable castes, raised and trained pastors and evangelists, trained people in job skills, sponsored medical clinic, supported and educating orphans, and started churches in four leper colonies—as always, where no one else would go. He said that when the lepers clapped in worship, blood from their sores often spattered across the room.

When he visited us in California, he pleaded not to go to nice restaurants, so he could instead use the money to support his workers India. He wouldn’t sleep on the guest room bed either, because none of his people in India had such a luxury.

Always joyful, always humble, always with a testimony of a miracle God had done, he was the only person I have ever known who had calluses on his knees from praying.

After his first wife died, he went through a long period of grief until he remarried someone who could handle him. Mary joined him in ministry and spearheaded one of her own—a home for baby girls who had been abandoned by their own parents to die or survive on the streets. Mary will press on without him in her vision for the children.

Until he slipped into a coma hours before he died, Samjee encouraged and directed his followers in how to carry on without him. Thousands of people live in the legacy of this man who was more like Jesus than anyone I have ever known.

It would be unwise to stop here. Rather, I want to embrace his example. And in my own life increasingly live with a similar heart and mind. I also encourage you to consider his life’s example. How would Samjee inspire you, even in small ways, to walk more in Jesus’ footsteps?

New Things Happening

2011-01-31T12:26:00.000-08:00

If you’ve been watching the news, you’ll know that Tunisia erupted in a democratic uprising and overthrew the dictatorship. Egypt is following in the same throes. Other countries may be next, as the events are being broadcasted around the clock to riveted audiences in the Middle East. Regimes in the Muslim world have been toppled by Islamic revolutions, but never democratic. This is a new thing. What influences come to dominate these nations has yet to be seen.

One thing you and I can do is pray. God is working in the Middle East more than ever before in history. Every year since the 1990s “followers of Isa” (followers of Jesus) have been increasingly growing in number. The fasted growing church in the world is in Iran, mostly underground. Matthew 9:38 tells us to pray that God would “send out workers into his harvest field.” Each of us is as much a part of world events as we pray. The fall of communism in Easter Europe in 1989 was largely influence by prayer. We don’t know what will happen in the Middle East, but we do know it will indirectly affect us all, and that God hears prayer.

A more immediate thing you and I can do is recognize what new things are happening in our own lives. Is there a change in your life that’s new to you? Do you see a change coming? Such times are ripe for God to do a new—and good—thing in your life. How would you respond?

Isaiah 57:15 basically says that God has two addresses: in heaven and in our hearts. He is the God of history, and he hears our prayers. He is also the God of our intimate, personal lives, and he hears when we respond, “Yes, Lord.”

Do You Have a Growth Commitment?

2011-01-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

I often ask people how long their New Year’s resolutions last. Typically they seem to crash and burn sometime by the end of January. So life goes on as it did before.

Positive change must be addressed every day. It happens not by achievement but by habit.

I encourage people to chuck resolutions in favor of what I call “growth commitments” that I establish for each year. My growth commitment of 2010 (die to the dream of being a success, and live to the dream of being a blessing) has led to major changes in my life.

Think primarily in terms of personal character growth, not just paying off a credit card or losing weight. Those are fine, but if you relate them to deeper issues of character growth, you’ll go much deeper with the whole commitment and attain more overall results than you would otherwise. Go ahead and have other goals. But if you keep the growth commitment to one main thing, simply expressed, you will do well.

Two keys make it work: 1—Keep it simple and short, then write it on a on a small piece of paper (or PDA), and put it where you’ll see it daily, like on a mirror, in a wallet, as a bookmark, or whatever works for you. 2—Pray it, incorporate it into time you (hopefully) spend with God each day. And do it all year long. When you write it down and keep it where you’ll always see it, you enable yourself to consistently pray it.

Doing this accomplishes two other things: You bring God’s response into it, and you reorient your own thinking around the commitment. Change your thinking and you’ll change your behavior—especially if you seek God’s blessing each day.

What would your 2011 growth commitment be?

Dancing with our Defects

2010-12-29T12:25:00.000-08:00

I recently watched a video of two unusual ballet dancers. The pair dances passionately, with meaning and effect. Their achievement is different from most others, though. They each had the vision and will to overcome what few of us could imagine. The woman doesn’t have an arm and the man doesn’t have a leg. Yet they have mastered ballet. I’d never before seen a crutch used so artistically.

What is your handicap? Is it a beaten-down, heart? Years of being abused? Lack of ability? Failure in the past? Fear of the future? If so, you’ve got lots of company. But ask yourself: Is there anything that God has created you for that you have yet to fulfill? Something you feel called to but have held back? An obstacle you’re trying to overcome?

Too many times I’ve shrunk back from being and doing what I could because of some setback or painful experience. I didn’t fulfill the role—or dance of life if you will—that God had given me. I only wish I had. The man without a leg and woman without an arm faced their handicaps and got creative. The result has blessed millions. What could happen with you and me as we do likewise in the coming months and years?

My point is not to motivate us toward success but rather to fulfill what God has made us to be. We’ll always have obstacles. We can see them either as barriers that stop us or as hurdles to overcome—and with each one we will grow.

Who are you? Who will you be?

In this new year, what steps might you take in the dance of your own life?

A Different Kind of Christmas

2010-12-08T12:25:00.000-08:00

On my first Christmas back in the U.S.A. after years of being a missionary in Japan, I got so into the warm, fuzzy feelings of carols, activities, and atmosphere that even after the new year, I was lost in a daze of holiday bliss, and I had become almost useless for anything else. After I snapped out of it, I toned myself down to simply enjoy Christmas.

In later years I grew increasingly tired of all the activities and expectations. Eventually I was just glad to be done with the Christmas hassles.

In that Grinch-minded time I kept seeing that tragedies at home and around the world never took a holiday. They cruelly invaded life anywhere, anytime.

So why did Jesus come in the first place? I doubt it was for parties, presents, and Christmas programs. One of my favorite verses for Christmas is 1 John 3:8: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Spiritual warfare! Not very warm and fuzzy. And while Jesus walked around on earth, his mission was to “preach good news to the poor,” and to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:8).

In God’s eyes, Jesus’ coming—and thus Christmas—seems to be less about holiday cheer and more about relieving oppression and overcoming spiritual darkness. We see that good work happening through believers, especially the church, when we rise to be what we’re meant to be.

I’ve created a 3 min. Christmas video for you, maybe different from any you’ve seen, that expresses what we have made of Christmas, the tragedies that invade, and what we do (or can do or support) in response.

Pilgrim's Perspective

2010-11-25T09:28:00.000-08:00

I often think of how in their first year the Pilgrims lost 50 percent of their group to starvation and disease. They suffered unimaginably (partly by their own bad timing of arriving in the fall), but none wanted to go back to England. A year later they celebrated a time of thanksgiving.

The folks in Jamestown, thirteen years before them, also suffered unimaginably, and they all wanted to go back to England. They never once observed a time of thanksgiving.

There’s a reason for this. Beyond all the details of each settlement’s history, Jamestown was settled for economic reasons. Their eyes were on wealth, and the survivors found little of it. Who would be thankful? Plymouth was settled by people who wanted freedom of worship. Their eyes were on heaven, and the survivors experienced God’s deliverance. They found much to thank God for.

Thankfulness and a right perspective on life do not go together by accident.

When I’m thankful I tend to have an honest view of my life and what I have, and when I’m not thankful I tend to think only of what I don’t have. When I’m thankful I tend to see God at work, and when I’m not thankful I see myself struggling. When I’m thankful I think of others, and when I’m not thankful I think only of me. When I’m thankful I worry less than when I’m not. Simply choosing to be thankful leads me to find things to be thankful about.

If for no other reason, it's worth being thankful just to get a right perspective in life. However we may feel, thankfulness orients us toward a healthy heart and mind.

Seeing Past Earthly Paradise

2010-11-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

My wife earned an all-expenses-paid trip to a gargantuan, opulent resort for a working vacation, and I got to go with. I was awestruck at the gardens, aquariums, water park, ocean, and at the grandiosity of the architecture—the billions of dollars that must have gone into making this heaven on earth. I thanked God I didn’t have to pay.

Being so enthralled with the immensity of the place, I found myself not praying or reading my Bible as much as I normally do. Oh, my.

So I asked myself where God fit into this picture of extravagance. Since God is everywhere all the time, isn’t it up to us to determine where he fits into our lives—or more accurately, where we fit into his universe? As I surveyed this Garden of Eden, this palace of kings, I started looking beyond it. And I saw two things.

First, though it would take four days to see everything in this resort, it's still just a dot on the planet. It would take many lifetimes to see even a fraction of everything on God's earth—and it's still a tiny ball in a vast cosmos.

Second, if humans could build such impressive places, what must heaven be like? Being at this resort gave me a new anticipation for how God’s eternal resort must be infinitely beyond this earthly one. Absolutely beyond imagination.

From that point I continuously found myself praying and reaching for my Bible. The change was a matter of getting a new perspective. Whether your life feels good or bad right now, here’s a promise from 1 Corinthians 2:9: “No eye has see, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Voicemail in Heaven

2010-10-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

What if God ran heaven like a business and installed voicemail? It might sound something like this:

Thank you for calling heaven. Please select one of the following options:

Press 1 for requests.

Press 2 for thanksgiving

Press 3 for complaints

Press 4 for all other inquiries

[Press any number]

I’m sorry; all of our angels are busy helping other saints right now. However, your prayer is important to us, and we will answer it in the order in which it was received. Please hold for the next available angel.

If you would like to speak to God, press 1. For Jesus, press 2. For the Holy Spirit, press 3.

If you would like to hear Kind David sing a Psalm while you are holding, press 4.

To find a loved residing in heaven, press 5, then enter his or her Social Security number followed by the pound sign. If you get a negative response, please hang up and try area code 666.

To make a reservation for heaven, please enter J-O-H-N-3-1-6.

For answers to nagging questions about dinosaurs, the age of the earth, life on other planets, and where Noah’s Ark is, please wait until you arrive.

Our computers show that you have already prayed once today. Please hang up and try again tomorrow.

This office will be closed for the weekend to observe the Sabbath.

Please pray again on Monday after 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

If you are calling after hours and need emergency assistance, please contact your local pastor.

Can you imagine this? No one would pray. Thank God—yes, I mean thank him—that he gives us direct access. All the time.

Hiding behind Trees

2010-10-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

I was walking by a junior high school physical education class and saw two boys hiding behind trees. The trees were six inches in diameter, maybe less. Anyone who looked their way would have seen these two boys looking like fools trying to hide behind skinny trees. I stopped and stared at them, partly to make them nervous, but mainly for my own entertainment. Amazingly no one in the class noticed them, or maybe they did and paid no attention. The whistle blew and the boys ran out as if they’d participated all along.
     Ding-a-lings. They might have felt good about succeeding in their little scheme, but I wonder if they’re taking little steps in a lifetime pattern of avoidance. I hope I’m overreacting here.
     Yet it struck me that people can live their whole lives that way—hiding in the open and pretending to participate. Or not even bothering to pretend and always being spectators. Confession: I’ve done it, probably more times than I’d care to inventory.
     How do we do this? By watching and listening without doing. By procrastinating on an idea until it fades. By learning and talking about something without putting it into practice. We’ve all “hidden behind trees” in some way.
     My concern is that we fully engage with the life we’ve been given—rather than make ourselves comfortable and let life pass us by.
     My deeper concern is that we fully engage with the spiritual life God offers us—rather than get complacent and let God’s promises and possibilities pass us by.
     We all engage differently. But whatever we do, it will cost us time and energy and sometimes money. It takes effort and may involve risk. But it will be worth it. Always. And for eternity.

How to Become a Car

2010-09-28T12:39:00.000-07:00

It’s been said that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. I decided to test the theory and made a short video of my experience. The link is at the bottom.

Since the time of Jesus, people have been confusing the commitment and lifestyle of following Jesus with the religion of Christianity. We easily forget that Jesus never came to start a new religion. He already had one. We call it Judaism. Jesus came to connect us to God.

People have a habit of adding things like rituals, institutions and allegiances—any of which can either help or hinder. Besides things we do in worship services, or how we spend our time, we can also confuse our spiritual identity with our national or cultural identity.

Christianity as a religion too often replaces the intimate relationship Jesus intended for us to have with God. What a cheap substitute! We too easily settle for going through motions rather than engage the harder prospect of life transformation. No wonder people often leave church.

This tendency has a lot to do with why evangelicals often have a bad reputation in America. And why so many of them do things to deserve that reputation. When we lose sight of what Jesus cared and didn’t care about, we say and do all kinds of dumb things.

I’m not saying don’t go to church. People who bail out on church sever themselves from the main social/spiritual fabric God established to keep us spiritual healthy and interactive. The church is essential. The issue is what the church does about what Jesus said and did.

Where do you fit in all this?

*****Newsbit: My book Prayer Power just received the "Best Book Published in 2009" award from the San Diego Christian Writers Guild Conference.

The Man Behind the Glass

2010-09-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

Jesus said that if we see him, we see the Father. Yet seeing Jesus can be like walking up to a bank. Every time I go to a bank, I approach a glass door. When I look through the glass, I see people inside. But I also see my reflection in the glass. And on a bright day, I see my reflection more than is see the people inside.

Sometimes that happens with how we see Jesus.

Imagine Jesus standing in front of us. Effects of two thousand years of doing church can subtly become like that glass. We can see Jesus, but when our focus strays to busy activity, church agendas, or assuming that Jesus will fit into our expectations, we begin to see ourselves more than we see him. We assume we see Jesus, when we may actually see reflections of ourselves superimposed over the real thing. Is it any wonder that the church’s expansion in modern, wealthy nations leveled off long ago? It happens when we remodel God into our own image. We rationalize a materialistic lifestyle and even ask God to bless us with more stuff. We act as if God gets riled about the same issues we do—and ignores the same ones we do. Go anywhere and you’ll find people putting their values and assumptions, or their ethnic and national identities, ahead of the faith they profess.

Some of us have been looking at our own reflections a long time.

And some of us have found how liberating it is to see beyond them.

Seeing past our reflections can change our lives.

How might you have mistaken your own reflection for Jesus? And how have you seen him, the real thing?

May you see him, really see him.

Sand to Sea

2010-08-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

   Imagine your whole life washing away in the ocean. I did when my daughter and I built a sandcastle on our vacation.
   I stood by the water, facing land, and the castle looked great. People even came by to take photos, as if they’d built it themselves. Then I stepped to the other side of our sand monument and faced the sea.
   Against the vast expanse of waves, the castle looked puny, miniscule, like nothing. And I knew it would wash away.
   We built another castle after some little kids had fun kicking down the first one. Their parents apparently thought it was fun too. The second one still stood when we left to go home. But I knew that if it survived a kid’s foot, it would not survive the next storm or big wave.
   Like the first castle my life could end suddenly. Or I might slowly wash away in old age. Either way the impressive things I’ve done with my life are like sand at the edge of the ocean, whose waves will eventually wash away every trace.
   So what do I do about it? Panic—that’s wasted energy. Cynical disillusionment—that only makes things worse. Build bigger castles—the waves are infinitely bigger. I’ll never get out of this world alive, and I can’t take anything with me. Instead I’ll focus on what is not temporary and physical, what cannot wash away. And what brings more joy and purpose than anything else.
   Jesus’ teaching, and his great commandment of Matthew 22:37–40, all come down to two things: loving God and loving people. To follow him, my life becomes an act of worship to God and of blessing to other people.
   Whatever castle I build, I’ve come to accept, even anticipate, an eternity that washes up like those ocean waves. How about you?

DNA—God's Fingerprint

2010-08-10T00:40:00.000-07:00

When the movie Avatar came out, some people thought it had too much New Age eco-religion. Okay. But I said to myself, “I want to connect to God that way. When I pray, I wish the whole physical world, even myself, were part of it.”

That hope may be more fact than fiction. When I look at DNA, for example, it is complex beyond my imagination. And in a sense I connect with God even in my physical body—not because of anything I do but because of what God has already done.

A set of human chromosomes contains as many as three billion codes. If you printed them all out into books, each four hundred pages long, it would take five thousand (yes, 5000) books to contain the information of your DNA molecules in the nucleus of a single cell. I can't even imagine how this happens.

DNA directs the building of each protein in an organism and makes every living cell a select part of the living thing or creature it becomes. To do that, it includes a jaw-droppingly intricate system for self-replication. And it’s submicroscopic.

DNA is more complicated than anything else on earth. And the information of the DNA is independent from its structure. That means it did not—and could not—have randomly evolved, any more than a computer program could evolve out of computer hardware. Someone carefully created our DNA.

As Psalm 139:14 says, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” God’s fingerprint is on every cell of our bodies. You can’t get more intimate than that.

Every cell of your body bears God’s design. Remember that when you pray.

Watch my newest video, “DNA—God’s Fingerprint,” to hear more.

Dead Jesuses

2010-07-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

   I visited two churches in downtown Los Angeles. And they both had dead Jesuses.
   One was the first church ever erected here, when LA was just a pueblo built by settlers from Mexico. At the back of the sanctuary lay a statue of Jesus dead in the tomb. He was white as a ghost, with plastic rays spiking out from his head, safe under a Plexiglas cover. People stood and worshipped him. I was not inspired.
   The other church was a beautiful Italian Renaissance structure with an imposing Greek colonnade smacked on the front. Trees obscured the statues above the columns. Everything on the edifice was written in Latin, and the only English was a small historical plaque the city had stuck on it. People passed by without a glance. The building and grounds were well maintained, but the doors were locked and lacked any kind of handle. I peeked through the crack between the doors to see white marble floors, walls, and altar—empty. Cold and bare, uninviting and irrelevant.
   One church has an actual dead Jesus with worshippers who pay their respects as they would at a funeral. The other has no Jesus or anyone at all—a dead and gone congregation along with whatever Jesus they once worshipped. By the looks of the church edifice, they considered Jesus rich and respectable—like themselves.
   If you worship Jesus, what kind of Jesus do you worship?
   Is he respectable? —he who was a rabble-rousing misfit.
   Is he meek and mild? —he who took on demons and a temple full of merchants.
   Is he sophisticated? —he who was homeless.
   Is he absent most of the time? —he who left the throne of heaven to walk in our midst.
   Or is he beyond categorization?
   And alive. Alive like a fire burning.
* * * * *
I just posted a video on YouTube. Here it is:

What to Do with God's Garden?

2010-07-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

Oil continues to flood the Gulf. Whether we blame BP, the government, or consumerism, it’s the innocent who suffer most.

Along toxic waste zones, also known as beaches, the people who live and make their living along the coast are economically decimated. The foundations of the oceanic food chain—Sargasso seaweed and the algae, crustaceans, fish, turtles, and birds that thrive together die either by oil toxicity or by being burned in the oil burn-offs at sea. The alternative is worse—the bayous being flooded with oil. But with hurricane season upon us, that may happen anyway.

And the drilling goes on. What oil doesn’t spill gets burned in engines then belched into the air. Every four days California sends as many tons of pollution into the air as the oil spill sends into the ocean in a day. But California does it nonstop. And it’s just one state.

Oh, well. Jesus is coming and the world will burn up anyway. But until then what about our health, our lives? What about our children? What about God’s command to take care of his garden (Genesis 2:15)?

I don’t hug trees or sing about mother earth, but I want to take good care of what God gave me, whether my soul, my body, my relationships, or this beautiful world he created for us. I do it because I want to honor God. And because I’m compelled by mercy toward those who would be harmed if I didn’t.

I can’t do much about the oil spill, but I do control how I live. There’s nothing religious about “going green.” But I can do that kind of thing in honor and love to my Creator—which becomes a witness to the world.

Would you join me? Trust me, if Jesus tarries, your children will thank you. God might too!

The Legacy of Influence

2010-06-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

John Wooden, considered by many the greatest coach of any kind who ever lived, recently died at age 99. Wooden took a losing UCLA basketball team and turned it into the greatest powerhouse in the history of the NCAA, with an untouchable 10 national championships, 88-game winning streak, and many other records.

Yet his greatest influence was off the court, especially after he retired. He was a life coach.

His achievements rose from who he was, and people increasingly wanted to learn. His influence had everything to do with character. A Christian man, he inspired countless people by who he was as a person and by the “Pyramid of Success” he designed, which outlined that character for others to learn and adopt.

In this jaded age of self-gratification and celebrity, Wooden exemplified godly virtues of integrity and selflessness. To most people’s surprise, the world watched and listened, compelled by the man’s unmatchable success.

I never met John Wooden. And many who commemorated his death and legacy never met him either. But we all learned from him and are better people because of him. In one way or another, Wooden’s life offers an example anyone can follow. We can all positively influence others, and we can all leave a legacy.

Think about this: Our greatest influence may have nothing to do with our achievements or with our professions. It will always have to do with who we are.

Even from a young age, those of us who positively influence others each day, and after death leave a legacy, do so because we make positive choices in how we live our lives. These things don’t happen by accident. They are deliberate, usually found in details, and happen every day.

How will you influence those around you?

What legacy will you leave?

Hold Life Loosely

2010-06-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

Twice in four days an LA County Sheriff’s helicopter has evacuated people from ambulances right by my house, once in the street and once in the park. I live in a suburb that’s so peaceful, I sometimes think I’ll go comatose. People move here and pay too much for their houses in order to avoid drama and send their kids to good schools. And they typically prohibit anything they don’t like—or wish they could. Don’t we all?

But drama ignores boundaries. Every one of us lives moment-by-moment, never able to say with certainty that we’ll be free from affliction or even live another day. We all know people, young and old, who have died unexpectedly. Many of us have lived through hardships and even tragedies. We all have bad days.

No amount of health insurance, life insurance, or stock portfolios will ensure we won’t be hauled off in a helicopter—followed by the sting of a hefty bill.

Seems that the only smart thing to do is to hold life loosely, enough that it will set well in God’s hands. Easy to say. Doing it demands humility and faith—hard ingredients if we like having our own way.

All that “die to yourself” and “take up your cross” talk in the New Testament fits in about here. It’s no wonder God lets us be miserable at times, or for some of us it’s much of the time. Seems that God wants our attention.

I find that the more attention we give God, the less concern we have about our insurance, investments, jobs, or anything else in life—except that which has eternal value.

Maybe that’s God’s general idea. And it will forever fly in the face of conventional wisdom. I often wonder who’s paying attention. I’d like to think I am. Are you?

The Supernatural within the Natural

2010-05-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Within the natural world do you see hints of the supernatural? Could the fingerprint of God—the evidence of his supernatural presence—be on us all? And on all the world?

How does a fully formed miniature person come out of a woman’s middle part? Science can explain how a fertilized egg becomes an embryo then human being. But science cannot fathom how it is possible in the first place.

When this life grows, how can a mass of human protoplasm, which is 55 to 60 percent water, fall in love? How does a person with a physical body connect with a God who is spirit?

Though scientists can reduce most things to quantifiable lab experiments, beneath explanations often lie unexplainable causes.

How does a bird migrate a quarter of the way around the world to find the same spot every summer and every winter? How can the earth, through earthquakes and hurricanes we hate so much, keep its geological and atmospheric equilibrium, so critical to the preservation of life—and without any help from us?

Of course there are answers, but how are those answers possible? Every natural law of physics, chemistry, biology, and their related fields bears God’s stamp. Within the natural resides the supernatural.

In a sense, much of life might be seen as a miracle. But when the supernatural alters the natural order in an unusual way, we truly call it a “miracle.” Occasionally science grudgingly acknowledges miracles but more commonly passes them off as mystery. Yet when we see the wonder of God’s fingerprint throughout the natural world, the genuine supernatural miracles are not farfetched. They’re an extension of God’s presence already there.

If we have eyes to see, we might glimpse the presence of God everywhere. How are your eyes doing?

Search Party

2010-05-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

At the park across the street from my house, a two-year-old boy disappeared from a softball game. I joined the search party with fifty other people, half a dozen squad cars, and a helicopter. We looked everywhere a two-year-old might wander in the darkness.

As the helicopter searchlight beamed through the trees, police radioed back and forth, and the volunteers poked around every rock and shrub, I stopped. A child was lost, and all this went on to find him. Nothing was spared for that one child. My lost dog never got such treatment. Children are different.

Then I thought, Could Heaven respond like this when God’s children get lost? In Luke 15, Jesus tells the parables of the lost sheep, coin, and son. In all three something of great value is lost, and there’s an all-out search until it’s found, followed by rejoicing.

As I paused to watch the search effort, I thought, How much does God also want his children found? I thought of the Father grieving over people who turn away and of the effort to draw them back. If the Bible is true, we’re as precious to God as that child was to his parents. And the eternal value of a life certainly outweighs its temporal earthly value.

Eventually the child was found in the back seat of an unlocked car. Later tests found he had alcohol in his system, and the investigation is ongoing.

People can get drugged with excesses and temptations and bitterness. Whether they are snatched or just wander, they are lost even as they live their daily lives. God wants them found.

I think about my role, and I find that drawing nearer to the Father makes me more useful. Given who you are, what might your role be in God’s search party?

What's at the Core?

2010-04-26T11:41:00.000-07:00

I need a personal renaissance, a renewal of the Spirit in my life—and of my spirit. God has been showing me that.

Through lots of hard knocks I’ve lost vitality in what I do, with poor results and diminished passion. Some kindly disagree, but I hunger for more. And, as you may imagine, this has caused some discouragement and frustration.

I dumped my feelings on my pastor friends and my wife. They were very supportive, and I feel better. It’s good to have people who will listen to you dump.

To make a complicated matter simple, I’m discovering that I need to return to the core of my heart’s passions in life and why I began doing what I do in the first place. When what I do flows from who I am—without compromising—things will go better. God seems to be showing me that too.

I’m happier already. And in time, the results will show.

My guess is I’m not alone. If you’re anywhere close to middle age or older, you might relate to what I’m talking about. Life tends to pull us away from our original passions and shove us into what supposedly needs to be done. If you’re closer to being a kid, heads up, dude, it will come.

From childhood to adulthood to old age, our passions change. (The first thing I remember wanting to be in life was a garbage collector, because when I was six I thought their trucks were cool.) But as we mature and develop our core interests, purposes, and commitments in life, we must take care to never let them go—no matter what.

Are you living out the passions at the core of your heart? If not, what might you do about it?

Win or Lose One Detail at a Time

2010-04-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

I live near a city that has two professional basketball teams that oddly share the same home arena. One consistently ranks around the top of the NBA. The other loses most games.

I was privileged to go see one of these games (thanks, Juno). When the team came onto the court, they didn’t wear any winner or loser label, and as they played, they weren’t obviously better or worse than the visiting team. Both teams made some remarkable shots, and both teams missed and made mistakes.

One thing stood out from beginning to end. The game was won or lost one basket, one rebound, one small success or small mistake at a time. Neither team was lucky or unlucky. They simply did well or badly in particulars—the details that in themselves may have seemed insignificant, but added up to make the difference between winning and losing. It took both individual and team effort. But the winning team and the not-so-winning team created their own win, their own loss one play at a time.

Our lives are full of “plays.” Every day we make hundreds of them. And they quietly add up to the legacy of our lives.

We get the good grade, win the contract, resist temptation, control our temper, work hard and reap our reward, trust God and live a life of faith—one detail at a time. We also get the bad grade, lose the contract, fall to temptation, lose our temper, get lazy and reap the consequence, fear what we face and don’t live by faith—one detail at a time.

Though life is rarely fair, and we all have advantages and disadvantages, the way we live each play of our lives determines the ultimate score we take into eternity.

I need to pay more attention to that. Do you?
Peter Lundell

Real Success

2010-03-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

One day when I was overworked and stressed, I snapped at my daughter. Later I imagined her growing up and not taking God seriously because she had not seen the life-transforming power of God in her dad’s life—because he was stressed from trying to be successful. If that happened, the life-transforming message would be worthless.

Later I imagined myself going to heaven and God asking me how many books I sold—and he bestowed my eternal reward because I sold a lot. Yeah, bad joke. If what I write or say makes an eternal difference to people, or if I personally make an eternal difference to people, then God will may give me the “well done good and faithful servant” line.

At the end of our lives, only one opinion will matter. Not mom’s or dad’s or husband’s or wife’s; not the boss’s, the pastor’s, or the friend’s. Only God’s. That’s an opinion we should pay attention to.

In the face of this ultimate reality, what’s your definition of success?

Isn’t being a blessing a way to be a success? If you bless people, you’ll probably gain success, however you define it.

That’s good but we can do even better. What’s God’s definition of success? The span of Scripture suggests that it has mostly to do with loving God and loving people—Jesus’ two greatest commands (Matthew 22:36–40). In this sense, being a blessing doesn’t only lead to success (although it does). More than that, being a blessing is the very definition of success. They equal each other.

Think about that.

Our life purpose then would circle around questions like, “Given my life and what I do, how can I best be connected to my Creator? And because of that, how can I be a blessing to others?”

What’s your answer?

Choices without Excuses

2010-03-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

I’ve never heard excuses in a ski resort. So I think people should live the way skiers ski.

Most start with the bunny hill, and for some, beginners’ runs are challenging and satisfying. Snowboarders try daredevil stunts. Some of us scream down long, steep runs that leave the blood pumping long after reaching bottom. Blind people ski with a guide telling them where to turn. Paraplegics sit on mono skis with short, ski-tipped poles in each hand.

I don’t hear people making excuses in ski areas, because if they did, they wouldn’t put on skis in the first place. These people choose to engage themselves in something challenging.

None of us chose to be born, but we all chose to live (or we’d have killed ourselves). And each day we choose how to live. How many excuses have I made for myself through my life? How many times have I let setbacks or fears or other people’s opinions limit me? Too many.

Every ski resort has one more thing: a bunch of people sitting around in the lodge at the bottom of the hill, spending more time eating and drinking and talking about skiing rather than skiing. How many times have I done that in my life? Too many.

A ski resort accommodates all types of skiers and snowboarders, the same way life includes us all. Whatever we choose to do, excuses only hinder us from pursuing the course God has marked out for us, whether in our career, relationships, personal endeavors, or life of faith. That pursuit can be scary. But that’s why it’s worth doing. Anything else is a slow death by mediocrity.

We all have choices. Every day. What is the course God has marked out for you?

Olympic Courage--Life Courage

2010-02-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

In these Winter Olympics I have been impressed with the hindrances athletes have overcome: A skier who overcame years of poor performance. Another skier who competed despite a knee injury. A skater who skated her life’s best right after her mother died. Lugers who slid despite the fact that one of them had just died on the track. All won medals. And then there’s the teenager who became the best figure skater in history.

Beyond who got what medals, it’s the athletes’ courage that stands out, even if they don’t win. Their determination to withstand defeat, injury, fear, and expectations of others—and do what they do anyway—is awe-inspiring. They’re also willing to push to their limits and court disaster in their effort to win, which is why we saw some horrific crashes.

Olympians do it for gold, silver, and bronze disks that hang from their necks and give them lifelong prestige and lucrative endorsements--and because thy love the sport. But all that aside, they are models of a purposeful life. Whether they win anything or not, they give their whole lives to what they do.

The Bible compares our lives to Olympic races: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25). The reference is to the crown of laurel leaves that winners wore before the days of medals. In contrast, the crown God offers is eternal.

I’m convinced that we can all have God-given purposes worth giving our whole lives to—especially if they include something eternal. Doing this takes courage and determination, and maybe lifelong patience and persistence. To what are you giving, or might you give, your life?

Being a Blessing

2010-02-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

At the end of December a friend asked me, “Peter, what’s your definition of success? How many books do you have to sell? How much do you have to achieve?” I didn’t have an answer.

A week later an acquisitions editor who had loved my book proposal and wanted to publish it wrote back and said the publications board thought my previous book sales weren’t high enough to go forward with another one. It was like a sucker punch to my gut. I learned that the whole publishing industry is pulling back. The recession and digitalization are leaving many publishers scared and only working with those who can guarantee big sales. I’m left on the outside.

I remembered a pastor who said God told him to “die to the dream of being a success and live to the dream of being a blessing.” How would I do that in my writing, my pastoring, my teaching?

At the end of January I went to a church that had a long worship time and lots of prayer. God spoke to me there, as clearly as I’ve ever sensed it: “Do not quote that other pastor any more. I am now saying this directly to you: ‘I want you to die to the dream of being a success and live to the dream of being a blessing.’” Tears streaming, I said yes.

I don’t know how it will work out. I will probably do many of the same things as before. But I’m freer now. I don’t have to achieve. Rather I must bless. And being a blessing will probably be a path to “success” (whatever that is). But even if it’s not, I won’t fret. Being a blessing is its own success.

Could this be true in your life too?

Praise from Rubble

2010-01-26T21:47:00.000-08:00

Humility lifts us up.

More than Hurricane Katrina, more than the great tsunami in Indonesia, more than tragedies in Sudan, Rwanda, or Zimbabwe—the earthquake that leveled two-thirds of Port-au-Prince, stands among the greatest of human tragedies: 1.5 million homeless and more than 150,000 killed¾and counting. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, "We have never been confronted with such a disaster in the U.N. memory. It is like no other."

Haiti’s is a history of sorrow and insurmountable trouble. And their problems of what to do now have only begun. Yet in the midst of the rubble, even from the day after the quake, people sang. They prayed. In despair, in hope, in faith, they worshipped God and sought his comfort and strength.

I asked myself what would lead people to do this. Because lots of people in despairing situations, even if they have hope and faith, have a hard time praising God. They more likely cry or bellyache. I have.

I’ve come to believe, partly because I know the people, that most Haitians have something that, if I may say, seems in short supply in America: humility. Haitians don’t have better moral character than Americans; they’ve just been beaten down all their lives. Endless hardship causes them to be resigned¾and more humble.

Then I consider my own life. Humility always seems to follow being beaten down. Could the highest intelligence mean being humble without having to be beaten down?

However we get there, living with a consistently humble attitude opens us to the amazing ability to praise God in unlikely times and places. Doesn’t this in turn make way for amazing responses from God? Humility may look low, but it’s actually the way to be lifted up.

Peter Lundell

Haiti Earthquake

2010-01-17T19:57:00.001-08:00

The earthquake news and photos coming out of Haiti have been devastating. Hundreds of thousands are thought to be dead, others buried, others grievously injured. And though nations are rushing to help, rescue workers can't possibly get to most victims in time. Yet even the survivors are victims.

I was a missionary in Haiti for seven months in 1983 and years later took a church group there. I knew many Haitians. Some were good friends. I've been to the areas in and around Port-au-Prince and know all the street names and places that are in the news; I’ve been to buildings that were flattened, stayed in houses that slid down the hillside. The photos keep bringing me to tears. I so badly wish I could be there right now.

I shared experiences of these people's constant suffering. They often likened Haiti to hell and America to heaven. Sadly it’s true. Today I yelled at God, “Haven't they already suffered enough?”The city and the people may never fully recover from this. How can they when all they have to move the rubble is their hands, and most professionals have left the country, and their land is largely stripped bare? Right now they have little but foreign aid. And no amount of generosity can really be enough, because they need to stand on their own feet. But they never could before, and now their misery will be deeper than ever.

“Haven’t they already suffered enough?” can be asked of millions—no billions—of people around the world. Maybe I’m an answer to the question. Maybe you are too.

Long after Haiti is out of the news, catastrophe will hit somewhere else: Central America, Africa, Asia. Don’t be surprised when it hits the USA. Sooner or later, every one of us will have opportunity to become an answer to the perennial questions of “Why, God?”

Whenever, and in whatever way, that question comes to you, please—please—become a good answer.

And from whatever kind of ruin, you can rise as a blessing.
Peter Lundell

2010-01-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

The Christmas theme of peace on earth was a bit interrupted by the extremist Muslim dude trying to blow up a plane. What is often overlooked in such conflict is the need for changing minds. One news item that didn’t get nearly enough press was what happened in Libya. Officials of the Libyan government, which once sponsored terrorism, met with imprisoned Al Qaeda affiliates and learned to understand them. Then they convinced the terrorists that blowing up innocent people was not nice and that this activity should stop. The terrorists eventually denounced violence, were released, and are now propagating across the Arab world a concerted message of peace and reconciliation.

I wonder if the US spent more effort changing hearts, we might have more long-term success than we seem to with guns.

I also wonder if in our own culture wars between conservatives and liberals, Christians and those hostile to the faith, we could learn a lesson. I’m not talking about useless, politically correct “dialogs” but rather understanding why people think and behave in hostile ways and addressing the root issues. When I look Jesus, he tended to go to the root causes of issues in people’s lives. Could we do more of the same (even if we’re the ones who need to change)?

Admittedly, with some people no amount of effort will ever produce positive results. But I suspect most of us could learn a lesson from both Jesus’ approach and from what the Libyan government did with its now-former terrorists. I can sure learn.

We can practice this kind of understanding and getting at root causes of problems with people in our own lives. And we can pray for those, like the terrorists, who are beyond our personal influence.

How might that happen in your life?

Peter Lundell

www.PeterLundell.com

Spinning Tunnels

2009-12-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

I’ve lived near Los Angeles for nearly twenty years, and I finally went to Universal Studios with my brother-in-law Markus. We rode the tour bus past movie sets and props. Then the bus stopped in a narrow tunnel. And, because this was Hollywood, the tunnel started turning—the whole tunnel, counterclockwise.

We glanced at each other, convinced the bus was slowly spinning. I repeatedly expected to slip or fall sideways, but the whole time I was absolutely stationary. The bus did not move. We did not move. Only the tunnel moved. It looked as if we were spinning, and we felt it, really felt it. I was astonished at the connection between what the eyes see and what the brain thinks is happening. My brain was convinced and sent panic signals to my body, all based on the optical illusion.

The Bible’s words, “We walk by faith, not by sight” took on a whole new meaning. Just like that revolving tunnel, our sight may say that the world is spinning. So panic, or be afraid, or at least get upset. These spinning tunnels may be our finances, relationships, health, work, or school.

Right now I feel as if I’m in one of these spinning tunnels, and I don’t like it. I feel unstable, discouraged, tired. Yet the Bible promises that God is with me and will meet my needs, as in, “God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

As long as I focus on the spinning tunnels around me, I’ll expect to slip or fall—and probably will. But, despite my feelings, when I focus on the solid ground of God’s promises more than on my fears, I will not only survive, I will prevail.

How about you?

Peter Lundell

www.PeterLundell.com

Stop Complaining!

2009-11-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

Emmanuel Cleaver, a Democratic Congressional Representative from Missouri, wants people to stop complaining. Last summer he introduced a resolution to declare the day before Thanksgiving as “Complaint-Free Wednesday.” He cited complaining’s negative effects on personal performance, health, relationships, ability to solve problems, and propensity to violence. And he stated, “The average person complains approximately 15 to 30 times per day, resulting in approximately 4,570,350,000 complaints per day in the United States.” Whew!

He wanted to promote a “reminder to prepare for a day of gratitude.” And even if no one supported him, he said he wouldn’t complain. What a guy.

It may seem silly to legislate something like that, but remember this is the same Congress that has recognized and officialized nearly everything else. The LA Times wrote, “The notion that on Thanksgiving eve, people might stop whining for just a day, take stock and give thanks would not seem to be a threat to the republic.” But apparently it is.

The public response was largely to complain—particularly on conservative radio shows and websites. Yes, in this time of recession people are reasonably mad at government, banks and industries. But the response that topped them all was, “I want you to show me where in the Bible it says I shouldn’t complain. I haven’t seen anything where Jesus asked us not to complain.”

Sometimes I’m embarrassed to be a Christian.

So even though we won’t have an official “Complaint-Free Wednesday,” we each can have our own. I challenge you to join me in not complaining all day on Wednesday—and on Thanksgiving Day besides. At least let’s try.

And what if instead of complaining, we praise God for being the source of our solutions?

Tell me how it goes for you.

2009-11-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

In 1961 the East German government, under Soviet dominance, erected the infamous Berlin Wall that divided democratic and Communist Berlin. The wall epitomized the government’s iron-fisted control of its people and its paranoia of the West. The concrete blocks and barbed wire isolated West Berlin from the rest of East Germany for 28 years.

In November 1989, after much protest, prayer, and political change, the border opened—and the wall broke down under the hammers of jubilant citizens. I watched it on CNN, amazed at how it could have happened.

Oppressive governments aren’t the only ones who erect walls. People who are hurt or deceived or embittered erect walls to protect them from hurting again. Walls to prevent others from getting close. Walls to prevent them from ever being vulnerable.

We erect emotional walls that say I will not feel, because it hurts too much; I will not trust, because I’ll be betrayed; I will not open up, because it scares me. At first these walls serve the good purpose of self-preservation.

But over time, we need to be healed of hurts, form trusting relationships, and open ourselves to others and to God. If we don’t, we’ll be miserable on the inside no matter how good we appear to others.

Some people go through their whole adult lives with psychological walls to protect them from everyone and everything outside--like blobby, squishy shellfish hiding inside beautiful shells. I’ve done it. Maybe you have too.

The Berlin Wall, which we once thought would stand forever, came down after 28 years. Everyone but the Communist thugs has been happy about it. Any wall can come down.

Do you have walls in your life that need to come down? It’s not too late. And it’s not too soon.

Peter Lundell

2009-10-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

Jesus would have had a great time with this one: a website offers to have a computer with text-to-speech capability say your prayers for you, so you don’t have to. They “voice each prayer at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying. Each prayer is voiced individually, with the name of the subscriber displayed on screen.” You may choose from Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or Unaffiliated prayers. For Muslim prayers they even face the speakers toward Mecca. Isn’t that thoughtful?

Don’t laugh, these guys are serious—about making money at least. I clicked on “Protestant” and found I could have a computer say the Lord’s Prayer for me each day for only $3.95 a month. Or I could choose prayers for peace, get well, financial help, my children, or get a package deal. Catholics pay 7 cents for each Hail Mary. That adds up, you know.

“Show God you are Serious,” they say, and order one of the complete packages. This site has a whole shopping section with “Add to Cart” and PayPal links. They even have monthly specials. I am so blessed.

I suppose if people are mindless enough to give money to these guys, they deserve to get ripped off. (And since you're probably wondering, the URL has "information" and "age" along with "prayer.")

If there’s one thing God wants from us when we pray, it’s genuineness. Of all the things we ever do spiritually, prayer is supposed to be the most personal connection we have to God. Our Father loves us and wants to spend time together, hear our voices, feel our hearts.

Prayer is not a software program for sale. It’s a passionate joining of ourselves with God. May your prayer connect you tightly with God, every day, and cost time not money. And may God ignite you with his Spirit.

Peter Lundell
www.PeterLundell.com

2009-10-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

On a trip to San Diego, I stayed at the home of our church members. Their baby cried at 3:00 a.m. and again at 6:30 a.m. Parents of newborns may yearn for the time when their child sleeps through the night. But, not being in such a position, I just listened.
The cry sounded almost like a song calling out to parents. I thought of the babies I’d heard cry: in Minnesota, where I grew up; in Haiti, where they’re born into abject poverty; in Japan, a completely different race and culture. The cries were similar. Rich or poor, Eastern or Western, the babies all called out to parents.
Each child grows up speaking a different language and eating different food, going to school or remaining illiterate, working in an office building or hacking plants with a machete, living in a house or a mud hut, riding a car, a train, or a donkey. That person may connect to God or turn away.
On the day that person dies, he or she may cry out, and that cry may or may not be verbalized. The cry at death will be like a child’s call to the Heavenly Father, or it may be an aimless call into an unknown void.
Our lives appear so different as we live them, yet at the beginning and the end they sound much the same.
And I wonder if in God’s eyes the lives we live are not so different. Perhaps to him our hardships and successes don’t matter so much. I suspect that, like a parent, he longs to hear us--whoever we are--call out to him long after we’re babies and never stop until our dying day.
How is your voice doing?
This “Connections” is dedicated to the baby named Caleb.
Peter Lundell
www.PeterLundell.com

2009-09-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

People talk casually about their DNA and how it determines who they are. So I wondered, Is that something through which I can connect with God?
Under super magnification the DNA molecule looks like a spiraling ladder, commonly called a “double helix.” DNA is made up of four chemical bases linked like ladder rungs along the spiraling helix.

DNA contains the genetic instructions—twisted, compacted and packaged into X-shaped chromosomes—that direct every nucleus of living cells. They might be human, animal, plant, even virus (though viruses act differently—they’re always bad boys). Humans have twenty-three pairs of chromosomes (including those pesky Y chromosomes responsible for all the men in the world).

DNA directs the building of each protein in an organism and makes every living cell an exact part of the living creature it becomes or maintains. To do that, it includes a jaw-droppingly intricate system for self-replication.

DNA is more complicated than anything else on earth. And the information of the DNA is independent from its structure. That means it did not—and could not—have randomly evolved, any more than a computer program that runs the world could evolve out of computer hardware. Someone carefully created our DNA.

As Psalm 139:14 says, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” God’s fingerprint is on every cell of our bodies. You can’t get more intimate than that.

Peter Lundell
http://www.peterlundell.com

2009-09-11T13:31:00.001-07:00

I was driving one day and listening to an oldies station when I heard Pete Seeger's 1965 classic, "Turn, Turn, Turn" that the Byrds turned into a number one hit song in America. Right there in the left turn lane, the Holy Spirit seemed to dance all around me. I love it when God works through "secular" stuff.
But in fact the song is not so secular. It's a musical rendition of Ecclesiastes 3:1–8. That day I spent two hours on a plane ride reading and rereading and meditating on those verses. In them I saw wisdom so deep, so multifaceted, so life encompassing that I could say it's essential to everything a person ever thinks or does in life.
So I hope you open up Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 and absorb the wisdom yourself. Read each line slowly. It will be worth every minute or hour you spend. Just a note: The line about scattering and gathering stones has to do with tearing down buildings or gathering materials to erect them—symbolically, ending or starting any kind of venture. The rest is self-explanatory.
If you're interested, you can check out any of several recordings of the song on YouTube:
This early one is cute and geeky: http://t.ymlp68.com/msaraeeyaoauheqaramyh/click.php
This later one has much better sound: http://t.ymlp68.com/muaaaeeyatauheqazamyh/click.php
And look at this tremendous visual rendition of the verses, set to Pachabel's Canon: http://t.ymlp68.com/meataeeyaaauheqacamyh/click.php
May you absorb the wisdom of God and know when to apply it.

Peter Lundell
http://www.PeterLundell.com

2009-08-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

I whispered, "Speak to me, God." And a whippoorwill sang. But I was hurrying between appointments.

I shouted, "God, speak to me!" And thunder clapped from the sky. But I dashed inside to escape the rain.

When the storm cleared I prayed, "God, I want to see you." And the stars shined from behind the passing clouds. But my cell phone rang, and I didn't want to miss the call.

As the days passed, I asked, "God, show me a miracle." And a child was born. But I only took photos and said a quick prayer.

Finally, I raised my hands and pleaded, "Touch me, God." And the wind caressed my face. But I turned away and put on a jacket, disappointed that God did not respond.

Hmmm…
When we insulate ourselves from nature, we insulate ourselves from God as well, because God connects with us through the natural world. Earth is another word for God's garden.

Our souls can become anesthetized. This happens when we drift into the artificial respiration of needing to be constantly busy or focus on something electronic.

I watch people all around me be so plugged in and so preoccupied that they hardly notice the shining sun or the song of a bird, or the fact that leaves are green and not purple. If we ignore the natural world, we close a window to God. As Psalm 19:1 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God." And safe in the caves we call coffee shops, living rooms, and bedrooms, we turn on our screens or put plugs in our ears.

At any moment we are surrounded by God's connection. Joseph Girzone, in his novel Joshua, says, "The quiet of nature is God's tranquilizer." And it needs no upgrade.

Peter Lundell
www.PeterLundell.com

2009-08-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to Minnesota, my friend Brian took me to visit the world-famous Guthrie Theatre. Along the Mississippi River side of the building is a four-by-six foot cutout in a floor four stories above ground. The cutout is fitted with an inch-thick, heavy-duty glass.

I walked to the edge, stopped, and shivered. My brain was programmed to know that I should never stand so close to a precipice. But it wasn't a precipice; it was a glass floor. Still looking down, I stepped to the middle. My body jittered from foot to head. My brain insisted I was standing in midair or that at least the glass would give way, and I would plummet to my death. I knew it was okay—it had obviously been tested and built according to a code. But it didn't feel okay. And that was the architect's whole point.

Faith is like that. Trusting God for something that seems impossible can feel like stepping into midair. When we look down, it doesn't seem right or possible, and we want to retreat. Remember the disciple Peter almost walking on the waves? Jesus did not judge him for faltering. But he called Peter—and calls us—to step beyond our safety zones.

I found that when I stood on the glass long enough, I got used to it—like all the times I've lived by faith. But I never became comfortable. And I suspect no one ever gets totally comfortable living by faith either. I don't think we're supposed to. God intends us to live with some discomfort—that is how we stay awake and how we stay close to him, which is the key to experiencing those extraordinary things that come by faith. Where are you stepping out?

Peter Lundell

http://www.peterlundell.com/

2009-07-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

At a recent conference with Elaine Pettit Ministries, two people I worked with experienced radical emotional healings. Actually, many people do at these conferences, but these two impressed me because the transition was so sudden and powerful—and because God did it so directly.

After years of abuse and now in middle age, these people are truly free from the devastating effects of the psychological wounds inflicted on them.

Yet their transformations were only partially sudden. Before they ever came to the conference, God had been working in their lives for years. And over those years, they had grown ready and hungry for change. One of them had been partially transformed a year ago—she just finished the process this time.

I was privileged to be part of the amazing change the Spirit of God did in their lives. And many other folks were involved as well—those who prayed, who befriended and encouraged, who brought them there, and who led the meetings and worked hard to make them happen in the first place.

Some of you who receive "Connections" are hurting. I want you to know that one of those two people was so abused I'm surprised she's even alive. But now she's full of life, and God has called her into a ministry with hurting kids in the inner city. Don't ever—ever—lose hope.

Do you have inner wounds that need healing?

I also know that every one of us knows at least one person who is hurting. And I have no doubt that every one of us can be a part of that person's healing and hope—because every one of us can be a friend. Every one of us can love. Every one of us can pray.
Can you think of someone right now?

Peter Lundell

www.PeterLundell.com

2009-07-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

I wasn't going to do it. But the hoopla got to be too much. Recently a world-famous singer died, and the media has gone insane over the coverage. And they've been careful to display every over-the-top fan pouring out grief, devotion, and money. If you live in Los Angeles, the epicenter of the hoopla, it's in your face every day. A minority of news commentators whose brains still work are aware that it's a bit much.
Many have expressed how the extravaganza has carefully ignored the singer's messed-up personal life. True, but I won't blame anyone for messing up their lives if they always live under pressures of performance and publicity. There's something deeper that's been overlooked.
The singer was a lonely, tortured individual. Happy only when he was onstage being adored by fans, his personal life showed every evidence of being empty, without God, and unable to mature or be at peace. I am not bashing the guy. It's his fans who need bashing.
The celebrity cults that have risen with the advent of perpetual media coverage and mindless adulation always and deliberately create distortions of the celebrities.
The grand irony is this: the person whom the fans adore is not there, only his dead body in a box. Among all the millions, no one thinks of where he himself is. If the Bible is true, he is in a state more lonely, dark, and suffering than any he knew in his lifetime on earth.
In his lifetime, few seemed to really care about him as a person—only as an image. After his death, all the excessive memorializing can do absolutely nothing for whatever is his present condition. He is still alone.
From eternity's point of view, this blows my mind—and teaches me how to live.

Peter Lundell
httw://www.PeterLundell.com