Paul Clark

Looking at Our Life

For the last month or so, I've been rising each morning at 5:30 am in order to be at the gym by 6 am, so that I can get back home for coffee and devotions with my wife before she leaves for the office. It's going surprisingly well, which sort of surprises me as I have not been much of a morning person. One thing I look forward to is being able to read while I do the LifeCycle or bike.  This week, I especially enjoyed a chapter from the book, The Beautiful Fight, by Gary Thomas, regarding how we look at our lives. As a winter-hater, I've been bummed about the next few months of clouds, cold, snow and heavy coats.  This passage reminded me how easy it is to begin to look at life through glasses clouded by petty stuff that really amounts to very little in light of eternal truth...

"When we look at life through God's eyes, we become lost in wonder and convinced of God's astounding generosity, his marvelous mercy, and his gigantic grace. Sin causes us to look at life through the lens of entitlement - that we deserve salvation without repentance, wealth without work, accolades without self-denial, health without personal discipline, pleasure without sacrifice. Biblical truth reminds us that, in reality, we deserve hell. Because of Adam's and our own sin, we deserve "painful toil" all the days of our lives, eating food only by the "sweat of (our) brow" (Genesis 3:17, 19), and an eternity separated from the God against whom we have arrogantly rebelled.

Every small laugh, each tiny expression of joy, a simple meal - any momentary reprieve from the ongoing agony of hell - truly is an undeserved gift. When we add the assurance that the completed work of Christ guards our eternity, our lives should radiate not merely joy (though there should be an abundance of that) but wonder and astonishment at how good God truly is.

And yet why do so many believers live without this joy? Why do so many walk without this sense of wonder and live in heaviness of heart instead of lightness of spirit? Perhaps it's because we don't view our reality through God's eyes."

If you're looking for a great book to start the New Year, pick up this one. It will challenge your thinking.

Simple Church

Now here's a gig that all of us would like... this little church on Captiva Island is only open November through April, one room, one service per week.  Now that's simple church.  Where do I send my resume?

Lessons Learned: Read a Good Book Twice

Another lesson I've learned is that when you find a good book that really moves your soul or inspires your passion for God or for ministry, read it a second time.  Don't hurry.  A wise person said that it's better to read a good book several times than to read several mediocre books.  And there are lots of really mediocre books out there.  The Christian publishing industry is running on all cylinders.  Rather than wasting time reading every fadish book that comes off the press, find the books that really speak to your life, and read them again.  Sometimes, in trying to stay up on all the ministry bestsellers that roll so rapidly from publishers presses, we forget that the point of reading is to improve who we are; to grow at loving God and loving our neighbor.  Most of the difficult situations we face as pastors and managers call into question our hearts, our love, our grace, and our wisdom.  Those character qualities are gathered through transformation and renewing the mind (Rom. 12:2), through storing up good things in our heart (Lk. 6:45), not from seeing how many books we can speed-read.