The Seed of Hope

God Stories

God Stories

A couple of months ago, Jeff, a long time business associate, friend, and amazing Christian, stopped by the salon for a few minutes. When Jeff spotted me, he broke out in this huge, toothy, “cat-that-swallowed-the-canary” grin, vigorously shook my hand, and said “Sam that was another great post! I can’t believe that you’ve done eighty-five of those things! Where do you get the ideas? I would’ve run out of ‘em a long time ago.”

Good question Jeff, and for the longest time it was one that I would often pose to myself. As a matter of fact my biggest fear when The Seed of Hope was launched wasn’t saying the wrong thing, or feeling qualified to share my thoughts, but running out of things to say (the number is up to ninety-six, which is almost unfathomable for me). How would I possibly come up with enough “O.C.” material (my friend Kris’ term for original content) to write something that was meaningful every week?

There’s actually more than one answer to mine and Jeff’s questions…

Change

Change is inevitable, you know? Change is gonna happen in your life; every day. There’s no avoiding it. If you were to wake up tomorrow morning and make a decision to do nothing, absolutely nothing, all day long to bring change into your life, it would still happen. Don’t believe me?

If nothing else, the day after tomorrow you’re gonna be another year older! And of course, the world around you is gonna change, which will, in some fashion, have an effect on your life. What I’m saying is that change is gonna happen, whether you like it or not!

Some of the changes in our lives seem to come with “easy” buttons. (I’m reminded of the Staples commercial in which the voiceover simply states “That was easy!”) It has been my experience the easy changes in life were the ones that I didn’t have time to prepare for. Not physically, but mentally. Give me too much time to think about making changes, and my brain turns to Jello.

I believe that we face the majority of changes in our lives with skepticism, doubt, resistance, and fear. We’re predisposed to the idea that change is a bad idea, that it’s for other people, and that nothing good will come out of it. We’re so convinced that the outcome is gonna be bad that we don’t allow ourselves to see or receive the blessings that quite often accompany change!

I’m gonna share a little nugget of truth with you that took me fifty-seven years to discover:

One of the most important things to realize is that it’s not what you receive in life, but what you do with what you receive.  

I walk with this thought ingrained in my mind each and every day. Of course, if I had a vote, I’d opt for receiving nothing but the good stuff! But life doesn’t work that way does it?

I don’t know about you, but my life, and what I receive in it, seems to run in seasons. There’ll be a stretch of prosperity that lasts for months, and just when I’m getting a bit comfortable, something happens that reverses the trend. There have been periods of time when our hair salon has been filled with peace and harmony, and seemingly out of nowhere, I’m standing in the midst of chaos!

I find that my walk with God, or better yet, my spiritual life, runs in seasons as well. A few weeks I wrote about a spiritual dry season that I was in, and had been for several weeks. As it turned out, I was the one responsible for that one; I had done something that wasn’t the right thing to do, and God let me work through it until I realized the error of my ways.

There have other times when I felt as if I were standing on a spiritual mountaintop, as close to God and the heavens as humanly possible, only to wake up the next day in what seemed like Death Valley, wondering what had happened to me! On each of these occasions, I’ve just gone after God with all that’s in me, believing that a new level of spirituality was in store for me.

This is where it gets good.

I’ve said many times on this blog page that God is faithful to those who love Him, to those who seek His face, and to those who serve Him. I’ve said that because that’s exactly what He is.

He’s gotten me through all of the seasons; every one of them. And here’s the thing…I had good seasons because He gave them to me; He allowed me to have them. I had bad seasons because He gave them to me; He allowed me to have them. And He gave me the strength to get through them. For years I didn’t realize that it was His strength, and not mine, that got me through all of the rough spots. You can bet that I know it now.

It’s that “knowing” that allows me to receive everything in life with the expectation that the outcome is gonna be good, regardless of how bad it may seem to be. Call me a fool. Call me blinded by my faith. Call me whatever you like. It really doesn’t matter. I know what I know, and I know that He’s all that I need.

Most of what I share with you on these pages is from my journey through life and towards God. They’re what I call God Stories, and I call ‘em that because they’re stories of what He has done in my life. I love to tell them because they quite often impact people’s lives; not because of what I’ve done or received, but because of what He’s given! (I hope that made sense. What I’m trying to say is that it’s all about Him, and not about me.)  

Here’s the thing: All of us have God Stories. Yes, all of us; even you. I don’t care what you’re going through right now. If you look back over your life you’re gonna see some times when it was His strength, and not yours, that got you through a rough spot.

You need to share your God Stories with people that are willing to listen. If you’re willing to try it a few times, I have a feeling that you’re gonna discover a couple of things:

·         There are a lot of people in the world today that have heard about God, but don’t know the first thing about who He is, or what He can do. You start sharing what He’s done for you, and you’re going to open some eyes and some hearts. You’ll be sowing some Seeds of Hope, and you’ll know why I do what I do!

·         God’s gonna be listening too. If you give praise to Him, and you turn those eyes and hearts to Him, He is going to bless you abundantly. You’ll be receiving His Seeds of Hope, and you’ll really know why I do what I do!

See you next week!

...about feeling God.

…about feeling God.

Have you ever felt God’s presence, either around you, or with you, or in you?

I’m not asking if you believe in God, or if you have faith in Him, or if you can wrap your mind around the concept of the Trinity, as in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I’m not asking you if you know that He’s with you, or if you know that He’s everywhere, of if you know that He’s in you. These are things that you’ve read, or heard, or have been taught.

What you believe, and what you know, are all matters of faith. You should know by now that I love talking about matters of faith, but we’re gonna save that topic for another day. On this particular day I want to talk to you about feeling the presence of God.

A Strange Place is the title of a post that was made a couple of weeks ago, in which I made several references to the fact that I was a bit unsettled because I hadn’t felt God’s presence in several weeks.

I received a lot of feedback from that post, and it was from that feedback that I came to realize a few things that I’d never considered before and something that I had forgotten… 

For the past six weeks, my wife Jackie and I have been hosting a small Bible/fellowship/discussion group in our home. During one of those meetings, I shared my feelings of frustration with our group. It was during a conversation afterwards that Greg, a good friend and co-leader of the group, confided to me that he had never really felt the presence of the Holy Spirit.

“Why not?” was the question that immediately crossed my mind, but I didn’t voice it aloud to Greg; I didn’t want to put him on the spot. Besides, I believed that it was a question that I was supposed to answer for myself.

Why don’t more people feel God’s presence?

I spent the next several days trying to answer the question. I’ll confess that while there was no sense of emergency to find an answer, the question never really left me. During prayer and meditation; Why not? During the day at work; Why not? Watching T.V. with Jackie; Why not?

The answers to the question actually came to me when I was looking back over my shoulder, as in reflecting on the man I was four years ago. I’m gonna throw all of them out there; perhaps you can relate to one or more (I can relate to all of them!). And I’ll preface what I’m going to tell you by saying that FEAR is at the root of every one of the answers.

Actually, there’s only one primary answer to the question:

Quite simply, and quite truthfully, I never tried to feel His presence. Oh, I asked for His help, especially during the hard times. I’d pray, and go to church, and receive the Eucharist, and fast during Lent, and do all the things that I was supposed to do; the things that I was taught to do. I never knew that I could actually feel Him, and all I had to do was ask. All those years…I just didn’t know to ask.

There are a few other things that stand between many of us and God.

·         We don’t seek his presence because we don’t think that we’re worthy of being in his presence. I feel that the worthiness issue is a huge stumbling block for most of us. We’re too busy looking over our shoulders at what we may have done in the past. We figure that there is no way that God could excuse us for some of the things we’ve done.

If that’s your line of reasoning, I’m gonna offer you one example that’ll blow your theory out of the water. For those of you not familiar with the Bible, I want to tell you in brief about this guy named Saul, who lived in Jesus’ time here on earth.

Saul was a Roman citizen whose primary purpose in life was persecuting Christians, and not just in the sense of dealing out orders for punishment. Yes, I’m talking about death sentences. This guy was responsible for the deaths of many Christians. In the eyes of God, how much worse can you get?

One day Saul is on the road to a town called Damascus with some of his men. At some point in his journey, he gets knocked off his horse, is blinded by a bright light, and hears the voice of God calling him.

At that moment, Saul’s life was changed. Saul went on to be an amazing servant of the Lord, and in fact played a huge role in the spread of Christianity. He healed the afflicted, and raised the dead! He also went on to be one of the largest contributing writers of the Bible. Don’t really recognize the name? Oh, I forgot to tell you. He changed his name to Paul.

What if Saul had deemed himself unworthy?

·         FEAR! I think that many of us fear God’s presence because, well because He’s GOD. It’s almost as if we’re afraid that He might see who we really are, and even worse, all those dark secrets that we tuck away in the recesses of our minds. I’m not trying to be cynical, but come on; He knows what’s in our minds as soon as we think it! (Probably sooner.)

I believe that the fear factor is even stronger when we think about being in the presence of the Holy Spirit. I won’t go into depth on this topic because it would be an entire post in and of itself. Today, I’m not gonna talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which includes Healing and Tongues. It’s the Tongue one that scares a lot of us, isn’t it? Our fears tend to makes us forget that the Holy Spirit is also, among other things, our Comforter, our Sustainer, and our Strength.

·         Many of us won’t allow ourselves to step outside the box of conventional religion. It goes back to what we learned as children from our parents, our churches, and our own personal experiences. Our minds won’t allow us to seek God in a different way, and it’s our own fears that are at the core of our reluctance to change.

If you believe that you’ve never felt God’s presence, or if you’re not sure, would you try something for me? This won’t take very long, and I pray that you’ll find it to be well worth the effort. And you don’t have to be in church to do it…

The first thing that I’d like for you to do is have one or two of your favorite worship songs ready to play. Don’t have any music at home? That’s okay. If you’re reading this post it tells me that you know how to use a computer. Visit www.Pandora.com and type in your favorite artist. If you don’t have a favorite artist, and are ready to broaden your horizons, just type in Hillsong United or Chris Tomlin. Either offers my favorite genre of worship music, not always for the melodies, but for the words.

Next, find a quiet place in your home, and say a prayer, asking God to forgive you for any and all things you’ve done in the past that were offensive to Him. Ask Him to remove any mental barriers that may prevent you from feeling Him. Tell Him that you want to feel His presence in you. Invite Him in. Prepare yourself mentally to feel Him.

Now cue up the music. When it begins playing, wait for Him. It doesn’t matter if you know the music, or the words; just let go and lose yourself in it. Look, if you really want to feel Him, do us both a big favor, and tell Him! Tell Him that you want to be with Him, that you want to feel the nearness of Him. You see, all that He’s waiting for is an invitation from you.

Then close your eyes and open both your heart and your mind. Be still, and be patient. He’ll show up; He always does. It may be in an earth-moving, heaven-shaking, or time-stands-still way when you feel Him the first time. Then again, it may seem to be nothing more than a gentle touch, or a tingle that runs up your spine, or the hairs on your arms standing straight up.

But when it happens, you’ll know it. And you’ll want to feel it, His presence, again and again and again. And life, as you know it now, will never be the same.

See you next week.   

How God Works

How God Works

For the last several days I’ve sat down to write a post titled Feeling God’s Presence. Each time I’ve managed to type in a few sentences, and then come to a screeching halt. No inspiration. No ideas. No words. Nothing! Until a few months ago I would’ve been panic stricken. You see, I used to worry about waking up one morning with “writer’s block”, a syndrome that has abruptly ended the careers of many aspiring authors.

I’ve gotten to the point that I’m not really concerned when it happens, for several reasons. To begin with, I’m certainly not an author by any stretch of the imagination. And though I do write, I don’t consider myself to be a writer.

It goes a bit deeper than that. I write The Seed of Hope primarily for God. It’s my way of giving glory to Him by sharing what He has done, and what He continues to do, in my life. And I write The Seed of Hope with the prayer that something I’ve conveyed to you makes a difference in your walk with Him. Lastly, I write because doing so draws me closer to Him.

So I figure that if God wants me to write something, He’ll give me the right words to convey to you. And that’s exactly what He’s done, for the most part, since The Seed was launched in November of 2008.  

The only times that I’ve had trouble writing was on those occasions when I was trying to steer a particular post in a way other than the way that it seemed to want to “flow”, or when I was trying to share something without, well, without the inspiration to do so.

Apparently, God doesn’t want me to talk about feeling His presence this week! I believe that He wants me to tell you about what He did in my life since last week’s post, Rain. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, I’ll go ahead and tell you that in it I apologized for having misused the opportunity that this platform has given me to help others. And I swear to you, it seems as though that apology, or the act of asking for forgiveness, opened up the heavens for me to be bathed in God’s goodness….

Since last Monday’s post…

On Tuesday morning, I attended a small men’s group associated with Church of The Highlands here in Birmingham. To be in the presence of a group of men from all walks of life with the common goal of drawing closer to God was such a blessing. It seems that “real men” do love Jesus!

Later that Tuesday, I had the blessing, the opportunity, and the privilege of praying with two other individuals in our prayer room, The Seed of Hope office, which is located right in the middle of the salon! I found myself thanking God for His presence in our business, and for allowing me to be a small part of , and a witness to, what He’s doing in that room.

Wednesday night I attended a service at Highlands with my wife Jackie and my Mom (earth shaking…Mom is still a practicing Catholic) so uplifting that it shed any and all of the remaining “junk” that had been on my heart from the previous couple of weeks.

On Thursday night I attended a forty year reunion planning meeting with a gathering of my old friends and classmates from John Carroll Catholic High School and was invited to say a prayer before our meal (of course I prayed for more than just the food!). The following day I received a message from Teresa, one of those old friends from school. Teresa told me that she could sense my spiritual “awakening” and could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the room.

On Saturday morning my small men’s group met at the home of a lady that attends Church of The Highlands. This lady, the mother of seven children, had run into a rough spot in her life, and needed some help on the outside of her home. Our small group spent over four hours toiling in the heat, giving her yard and home a good facelift. When we were finished, this teary eye Mom extended her sincere thanks for our efforts, and joined us for prayer in her back yard. During the prayer, I was silently thanking God for allowing me to be a part of the moment.

On Saturday night I was attending another small group that Jackie and I had been hosting in our home. As had been the case for the five previous weeks, God’s presence in our home was so overwhelming. I know that minds were opened, that hearts were touched; I could feel it. I found myself overwhelmed by the fact that this was happening in our home.

On Monday I was invited to share what was on my heart about God, life, and dreams with a group of young adults attending 2:52, a summer internship offered at our church. And that’s exactly what I did. I told them about my addictions, and weaknesses, and all the poor decisions that I had made when I was their age and through my adult years. And then I told them about all of the amazing things, the miracles, and the work that God has done in, through, and around my life. What a blessing it was for me to spend that time with those young people. I pray that I touched the heart of at least one person in that room…

Tuesday

It’s Tuesday, and my self-imposed Monday morning deadline for this week’s post came and went. I was a little concerned that God still hadn’t given me the desire or the inspiration to sit in front of this laptop. I figured that perhaps He had something else in store for me, something else that I needed to learn, or to experience. If not, there would always be next week. Maybe.

Late this morning I got the idea to write about the past week, or more specifically what God saw fit to put in my life. I took a break to have lunch with Jackie, and to check my e-mails. There I found a message from a young lady named Laura, who had found The Seed of Hope through a local publication a couple of months ago, but had just gotten around to visiting a day or so ago. I won’t go into the details of Laura’s message to me. I will tell you that it impacted me greatly, and it reminded me, once again, of why I write these things every week. How very blessed I am.

Look, the events that I’ve told you about may not be a big deal to you, but they were HUGE for me. There was a point a couple of weeks ago when I didn’t feel worthy of writing The Seed of Hope, of being a soldier of Christ, of being a light that shines, or of being anything that I strive to be each day. For Him to put me, to allow me to be in the midst of so many situations where He was present, was quite overwhelming. And I wanted to share it with you.

“God works in mysterious ways.” was one of my Dad’s favorite sayings. I know I’ve shared that one with you before, but it’s so true. We could never, in a million years, figure out what God is thinking, or the way that He works.

Only God could take a man, broken and full of remorse, and give him a week so incredibly uplifting that he felt as if he were standing on a mountain top, basking in God’s incredible light!

Only God. It’s how He works.