God's Love

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Keep Shooting

So a couple of weeks ago, I was playing basketball with a group of guys and before I tell on anybody else, I have to tell on myself first, I missed some very makeable shots early on.  A buddy/co-worker of mine came to me and said "don't worry about it, just keep shooting."  As a good leader, he saw that I could have let those missed points bring down my confidence and taken me out of the game.  Knowing that I had his confidence to make those shots even when, honestly, I had some doubt, gave me some confidence to just play harder.  I kept working to get open and he gave me the opportunity to shoot and low and behold, I'm making the shots. 

Since the games were only going to 10, each shot should be a good look at the very least so whenever I would miss he would still say, "Keep shooting."  He trusted in (1) that I was listening and (2) that I could make those shots.  After the winning the first game, my friend gave me a vote of confidence with the game on the line to make the winning basket of the second game and kapow, I hit the game winner!  I was able to make that shot even when earlier, I thought I shouldn't be shooting anything because my friend told me it could be done.

If I can go to the Bible on this, Jesus told the disciples to keep fishing even though they had been fishing all night long and caught nothing and fishing while the sun was out did not make much since but they believed in what He said and ending up catching more fish than they ever caught before (Luke 5:4-7).  Now think if they would have told Jesus that He was crazy for even saying to fish in the middle of the day when all the fish can see the nets-they probably would never have become the fishers of men (Luke 5: 10).

So here is the point I want to make:  we should not get weary in well doing.  In this day and age of instant gratification and having things at the tips of our fingers, it can be so easy to give up on things when it gets difficult.  And what I want to drive home is not just giving up on a dream or a career or even a personal relationship but in a bigger picture, we should not give up in doing good to people at every turn.  We should look to be there in a time of need for a friend, for a co-worker, for a stranger, for a fellow laborer of Christ  (Galatians 6: 9-10).  If we keep in mind that we should spread love to all men and women then we can really make a difference in so many people's lives.  So lets keep fishing for those who need help and who need love and encouragement because they made end up winning the game for us.  We need to keep shooting.

Willing To Wait

Recently, I mean very recently in December 2012, I saw a line begin to form one evening in front of a shoe store on Candler Rd in my hometown of Decatur, GA and the next early morning, the line got even bigger.  One can assume it was for the Jordan 4 or the D Rose 3 shoe; in any event, it was cold and the store was not going to do a midnight sale so those people had to wait.  It made me think, people can discipline themselves to wait for anything and go to any lengths if they think it is worth it.  We can hardly wait for the dinner to get done or for microwave popcorn to finish or even for a friend to hurry up so that we can get to where we are going; we have to build up patience for those things because in reality, those things are not of great value to us.  But things we really value and want to happen, we become very patient for it.  So I think that is an approach we should to take to our dreams and goals as well.  In Luke 2, Simeon was promised to see Christ before it was over and so he waited.  Abraham, in Genesis 12 and 13 was promised to have essentially, a nation of children but he had to wait on his first child with his wife, Sarah.  And there are so many other examples I could give.  The point is, we must have patience for things to happen because, like those customers that waited for about 15 hours in the cold, anything of value is not going to be given over night.  In the book, Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell, he gives us the "10, 000-Hour Rule," which is to work on your purpose, your dream, your goal, for a long period of time, working out the kinks and the wrinkles so that it and you are perfected.  It takes time + dedication (patience in other words) = to get perfection but you have to be willing to go through whatever it takes, good and bad, cold and hot, sun and rain, days and weeks, months and years.  In this smart phone and facebook/twitter/instagram society we tend to think that things should be done in a blink of an eye and that our dreams and goals should get presidential treatment (never having to wait on anything); but if you look at what it took for the person to become president, all the years of hard work plus the amount of the babies kissed, its no wonder he or eventually she, does not have to wait for an elevator or an airplane or limo.  So remember to go for your dreams and purposes but remember that it takes patience to keep going after them, and if you read Hebrews 11, you may not see the full completion of it in your lifetime but that does not mean you give it up.  Run with patience until your task is complete.