Open The Blinds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiXZYiyB1L4

At 5:30 am, I heard my baby boy awake. He is still figuring out what it means to to get a full night's rest. I knew his crying was not from a pressing need, so I laid still to see if he may wander back into sleep. As I lay there, I noticed the sun beginning to rise from the horizon. Because of the amount of light entering the room, I knew that the sun was making it's appearance for the first time that day. I've seen the beauty of a sunrise before, but it isn't a regular occurrence for this night owl. My mind was telling me, "get up, go watch the sun come up," but my body was not responding. So, I laid there staring at the closed blinds, knowing that something beautiful was taking place just beyond them.

Unfortunately, I live with the blinds closed to God's beauty all too often. His beauty is pretty obvious (as obvious as the sun rise), but the choice to open the blinds is not always natural or easy. The blinds in my life are the things that don't go my way; the negative and critical. There are so many let-downs, disappointments, unmet expectations, and difficult circumstances that I often become content with whining and self pity. So, I choose to stare at the blinds instead of choosing to fix my eyes on the beauty of the Lord filling up the universe.

I am in need of God's grace to daily make the conscious choice to open the blinds to God's beauty in my life. I know we can never just take the blinds down, but I am praying for the will to choose to open them new every morning.

Thief



"The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." --John 10:10



Have you ever called the devil, "thief?" It's an interesting name for the enemy; one that Christ uses in John's gospel. What is it that Satan is stealing from you?



Just last week my wife and I moved into our new home in Gardner, KS. As you would expect, the move was filled with excitement and stress. We were thrilled to be purchasing our first home and excited about our new community, but the stress of moving is almost unbearable. Our lives were consumed with packing, cleaning, changing addresses, canceling services, adding new services, closing, cleaning some more, renting a truck, finding help, cleaning again, unpacking, and so much more. After the first few stressful days in our new home, I could sense my attitude sinking into the dumps.



The day after we moved all of our stuff to the new place, I went to the old place to clean. In the midst of an all day cleaning session, I found out that the cable company that was supposed to be at our new house installing internet that day had backed out on their appointment. After two hours on the phone trying to understand what just happened, and working towards a solution, my attitude was completed wasted.



After 8 hours of cleaning and a disappointing experience with the cable company, I returned home to our new place in time for some friends of ours to visit. As I sulked in my own pity, our visiting friends celebrated the blessings we had been given with this new home. As they walked through the home you could sense their genuine excitement and joy for us. They were seeing all the good things right in front of me that I was missing. They revealed to me that my joy and gratitude had been stolen by the "thief."



After our friends left, the Spirit of God helped me to understand that in a moment of stress and frustration, the enemy had snuck in to deceive me. He had stolen my joy and gratitude by making the focus of my heart the stress and disappointment I was experiencing rather than the blessings God was granting. My circumstances were not discouraging, but my focus and perspective had been hi-jacked. There was a thief at work in my heart, keeping me from blessings and presence of God.



There is a thief running loose in your spiritual neighborhood. Do all you can to protect yourself.