Forty years in the making, two years in the writing, my book, He Hears Me! – Personal Discoveries in Prayer is finally published! This isn’t some boring book telling you that you should pray more. Instead, it’s an easy-to-read account of lessons that God has taught me about prayer and how to have a relationship with God that is joyful and satisfying. It is filled with true stories of answered prayer and what God has shown me as a result.

Do you struggle with prayer? Some people don’t. They seem more “mystically wired” or something. They can’t explain how to pray because it comes very naturally and intuitively to them and they “just do it.” As a result, they aren’t very helpful in coaching someone else.

Others, for whom prayer does not come easily, have had to learn how. They have had to break prayer down to its component parts and analyze everything. These people often make good coaches. They can relate to your struggles with the subject or task. They say things like, “Yeah, I had trouble with that too, until I realized this.” And then they show you the secret and you too can become successful.

I am someone who hasn’t found prayer to be easy, natural, or intuitive and have therefore had to learn specific lessons about how to pray over my forty years of walking with God. I have had to analyze and ponder the lessons of prayer. Filled with thrilling true stories of answered prayer, this book conveys my personal discoveries and lessons learned and I want to share them with those who desire to improve their relationship with God.

The print version can be ordered here:

https://www.createspace.com/3822137

And the Kindle e-book version can be ordered here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BKBUBB6

This post features a guest writer, Dr. Daniel Deckard, the teaching pastor of Parkway Community Church and a man whom the Lord has used significantly in my life. Take it away, Dan…

I came across a concept recently that has helped me in the ongoing journey of change between the “Dan” I used to be and the “Dan” I am now in Christ. It’s a truth that, in some way, I’ve known for some time. But what I needed was someone to crystalize the thought. In effect, the concept is how beauty changes us.

It was brought to light in Timothy Keller’s amazing little book titled, “Generous Justice.” In it he was quoting another author (a Harvard English professor), named Elaine Scarry (not exactly a stellar name for an English professor). These were Scarry’s thoughts about beauty (paraphrased by Keller).

Statement 1: “the observer of beauty always receives a passion to share the beauty with others.”

Statement 2: “beauty radically ‘decenters’ the self and moves you to distribute attention away from yourself.”

Human experience will almost unanimously affirm these two statements as true. When we find something strikingly beautiful we almost instantly draw others to experience the beauty – the beauty of a great recipe, the beauty of a great restaurant, the beauty of a crimson sunset sky or a newborn baby (statement two). In addition, beauty calls one out of the self-centered, self-absorbed state in which most humans live, and toward itself. To this day, I can still remember what my wife wore when I first saw her – the blue dress. She drew me out of myself to behold beauty. And did it change me? Yes. My will was almost irresistibly drawn toward the beauty.

The next step was to think about these statements in light of Scripture. Why were men like king David and the apostle Paul so passionate in their pursuit of God (and Christ)? The simple answer was, beauty. “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord…” (Psalm 27:4). It was the beauty of all that God was to David (steadfast in love, grace, power, goodness, purity etc) that drew David’s heart out of brokenness and up toward God. Paul writes that, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree o glory to another…” (1 Cor. 3:18). Beauty and glory are different words for the same thing. What is glorious is by definition beautiful. Paul’s own approach of change was to behold beauty. And as we do, we are transformed from one degree to the next.

Why is the transforming power of God’s beauty important? Because most of us seek change by first looking inward – disgusted by our failures, strangled by our doubts, tired of trying to muster up the energy to be “better.” That is, our gaze is often upon what is broken rather than on what is beautiful. The way forward in our amazing journey is not to gaze inward, but to gaze upward “at the beauty of the Lord” – in creation, in the Scripture, and ultimately the unsearchable riches of Christ. May God grant us grace to fix our eyes on Jesus, not on fixing ourselves. Only then will we find the will to run hard after him and draw others to do the same.

As Dan attests, this is something I’ve known for a long time but no one has ever “crystalized the thought” so well before. Thanks to Dan, Timothy Keller, and Elaine Scarry (and, of course, to the Lord Jesus).

I had an interesting talk with a guy on an airplane the other day. The conversation turned to matters of faith, and he asked me why I was a Christian. So, I told him the story of how Jesus came to me, turning me from a professed atheist/agnostic and one who mocked Christians and the Bible, into a disciple of Jesus.

Then I asked him about his faith. He told me that he was Jewish, but had come to believe that the “God entity” had many ways of reaching out to humanity and that all were legitimate; the disagreements were simply due to cultural differences, etc. Therefore, my experience with Jesus was valid and wonderful, but someone else’s spiritual experience with Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, or even just “a spiritual experience while in the forest, or listening to music” was just as valid.

He also dismissed the idea that people needed to be saved from God’s judgment or wrath, brought on them by their sins. The “God entity” will not condemn anyone.

This man’s feelings about faith are certainly in touch with what is fashionable in America today. The spirit of the age is to be “open minded” and “non-judgmental”. The absolute worst thing you can be these days is a “fundamentalist”; to be “rigid” and “dogmatic” and “narrow”. Some people are making millions by writing books about how historic Christian teaching is “putting God in a box” (Rob Bell and Brian McLaren, for example).

Does Jesus put God in a box? He seems to. He addresses the idea that “all roads lead to God” with an astounding claim. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.” (John 14:6-7)

What about the idea that God condemns people for their sin? The most popular Bible verse today is John 3:16, where Jesus says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” And then he said, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

Wow! Sounds good, huh? But, wait a second… does the world need to be saved? When something or someone needs to be saved, it implies that they are in (or will be in) some kind of trouble!

Jesus went on to say, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:18)

Wait… condemned? “Whoever does not believe stands condemned already…” Oh! That sounds so… condemning!

Jesus was explicit about hell. He said, “This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:49-50)

Jesus also said, speaking to those that didn’t believe in him; “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” (John 8:21)

Wow. “Where I go, you cannot come” because “you will die in your sin.”

What if Jesus really is right? He said, “Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.” (John 3:11-13)

Put into modern language, he is saying “I know what I’m talking about when I tell you about the afterlife; I’ve been there.”

He continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”

“Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.” (John 8:23-26)

So, who is this Jesus? Was he just another good teacher; one of many, like Gandhi or Buddha? No. Based on the things he said, he was one of three things; a lying con man, a crazy fool, or, what he claimed to be, the ultimate messenger and expression of the Father.

He didn’t come to “put God in a box”. He came to tell us about God’s “box”; to give us the true information about God and his Kingdom. He came to tell us about the afterlife, and to make the way for us to the good afterlife and warn us to avoid the bad version.

Does this seem “narrow”? The spirit of the age says it is. But, if you think about it, reality has always been “narrow”. For example, 2+2=4. Not 3, not 5. Not even 3.99 or 4.01, but 4. Is this “putting mathematics in a box”? No, it’s just an expression of reality.

Speaking of “narrow”, Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

If you’re not sure about Jesus, I invite you to honestly ask him about himself. You see, he’s not dead! Gandhi and Buddha are gone and you can’t talk to them. But Jesus isn’t dead and you can have a genuine, living, relationship with him. Start by honestly talking to him. Tell him the doubts, fears, and difficulties you have. Ask him to reveal the truth about God and his Kingdom to you. Enter through that narrow gate and come into a genuine relationship with God!

I was flying home from Washington D.C. last week, in coach (didn’t get my upgrade) and I looked over at the young guy who was working next to me. He was signing letters with the letterhead “Congressman Ben Quayle”. So, I asked him, “Do you work for the congressman or are you the congressman?” He replied that he was the congressman.

I told him that it did my taxpaying heart good to see him flying coach. We discussed a number of things, and then he went back to signing letters. I told him that he should invest in one of those signature machines. He laughed and then said, “But then the signatures wouldn’t be authentic!”

A United States Congressman who flies coach and cares about being authentic? How refreshing…

http://quayle.house.gov/

This article is a repost of an original article dated May 18, 2010. A friend wanted to know if the following steps had been tested with Provisioning Services 6.0 and XenServer 6, so I re-tested these steps and have slightly modified them for clarity. The good news – yes, this works for PVS 6.0 and XenServer 6!

I often get asked about how to update the Provisioning Services “Target Device Software” on a vDisk. The “Target Device Software” (also known as the PVS Agent) is the piece that allows Provisioning Services (PVS) to control the machine and to use its NIC as a substitute hard drive controller. So let’s say you want to upgrade the PVS Agent from 5.0 to 6.0. Well, you boot up a physical or virtual machine with the vDisk and then uninstall the PVS Agent. You freeze up or crash! It’s like sawing off the branch of the tree you’re sitting on!

So, how do you do it? There are several ways, but here’s one of the simplest, assuming you’re using XenServer. It does require that you have an NFS storage repository (SR). If you don’t have one, you can make one easily if you have Windows Server 2008 (both the earlier version and the R2 version) or Windows Server 2003 R2. For directions on how to do it with 2008, see the May 16, 2010 article about this here. Of course, you might also have access to a Linux machine on which you’ve installed an NFS share, or a NAS that uses NFS.

 

1. Once you have an NFS share available to your XenServer, place the vDisk you wish to upgrade into Private Image mode.　

 

2. In XenCenter, create a new virtual machine using the Other install media template and name it UpdateVDisk or some other name that identifies what you are using it for. When you create it, give it the same number of virtual CPUs and the same amount of memory as the VMs on which you are using your vDisk (the one you want to upgrade). Create a new virtual hard disk of the default size but make sure you create it in the NFS SR. Uncheck the Start VM automatically check box and click Finish.

 

3. In the NFS share that you are using for your NFS SR, you will see a folder named with a UUID that represents the SR itself. Inside that folder will be the new VHD file with a UUID for a name, ending with the .VHD extension. This is the empty virtual hard disk you just created, assigned to the UpdateVDisk virtual machine. Tip: Use the “Date created” property to help you find the right one.

 

4. Copy the vDisk you want to update from the PVS store location into the NFS SR, but only copy the .vhd file. You don’t need the .pvp file.　

 

5. In the SR folder, rename the blank virtual hard disk (the one you identified in step 3) by adding an underscore on the end. Anything will work, but an underscore is a good way of visually telling a blank virtual disk from one that isn’t blank.　 For example: rename　 195fb77d-48d2-47db-b138-4fd198b21f49.vhd to 195fb77d-48d2-47db-b138-4fd198b21f49.vhd_.

 

6. Then, copy the UUID from the blank virtual hard disk, and use it to rename the vDisk to it. For example: rename Win7vDisk1.vhd to 195fb77d-48d2-47db-b138-4fd198b21f49.vhd.

 

7. Now, boot up the virtual machine you made earlier, UpdateVDisk. It will start up using the non-blank VHD file which is now being supplied to it by XenServer, not by PVS. Now, in this virtual machine, you can uninstall the PVS Agent and then update any other things you wish to update. A restart will be required after uninstalling the old PVS Agent.

 

8. Once everything you want to update is finished, install the new PVS Agent. Do not allow the Imaging Wizard to run after the installation, as it isn’t necessary. Reboot and make sure it starts with the new PVS Agent installed. Log in one last time, and then shut it down gracefully.

 

9. Now copy the updated VHD file back into the PVS store location and rename it back to something useful. For example, rename it Win7vDisk2.vhd.

 

10. In the PVS Console, use the Search for an Existing vDisk feature in the PVS store and the new vDisk will now be available to assign to the virtual machines you wish PVS to deliver it to.

(This is Part 2 of a two-part article. It will make much more sense if you read Part 1 first. Click here to go to Part 1.)

Before we can come to Jesus and be filled with the Spirit, don’t we first have to repent of our sins? We’ve heard that message from preachers many times, and, it’s no wonder since the Bible says it, for example in Isaiah 59:20: “‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,’ declares the LORD.”

But what does “repenting of our sins” mean? Does it mean that we stop sinning so that God will know that we’re serious and then when He sees that we mean what we say, He’ll extend grace, favor, forgiveness, and love to us? If that’s the meaning, how long do we have to abstain from sin before He will extend His blessings? A week? A month? A year?

Many people feel that this is precisely the meaning of repentance, and this is exactly the way God acts toward us. And it’s no wonder, because this is the way that we treat each other! Let me give you an example: A good woman I know, Joyce, married a man, John (both their names have been changed to protect their privacy), with an alcohol problem. At first, John could keep it under control and function at home and work. As time went on, the problem got worse until he became a danger to his family, so Joyce asked him to leave them. This, for him, was rock-bottom, and he began to attend AA and come to grips with his drinking.

When Joyce heard that he was attending AA, she was not impressed. Years of pain had hardened her heart. She prepared herself mentally and emotionally for a life that didn’t include John. However, he continued the program and after he had been clean and sober for three months, asked her to allow him to return home. Although she was impressed that he had gone for three months without a drink, something he had never done before in his adult life, she refused his request.

Despite being discouraged by her rebuff, John continued to work the program and remained clean and sober. At six months he approached her again. Although her heart was beginning to soften, she was afraid, and refused him again. He approached her again at nine months, and she began to allow him to visit but not stay the night. Finally, at his one-year anniversary of being sober, she allowed him to come home. I’m happy to say that John has remained sober and they rebuilt their marriage and are doing well. Did Joyce pursue the wrong course of action? I don’t think so. I think she was wise in the actions she took to protect herself and her children.

But does this scenario apply to our relationship with God? The good news is that it does NOT! God does not hold us at arm’s length for a year before accepting us, because, if He did, it would be the Great Reversal!

So, what does “repenting of our sins” mean?  The word “repent” is a religiously loaded word. Those of us who have come from a religious background bring years of baggage to that word. But what does it really mean? A clue comes from learning what the word translated as repent means in the original Greek. The word is metanoia, which is a compound word coming from meta which is “to change”, and noia, from nous which is “mind”. It literally means to change the mind! So someone without any religious baggage would hear Mark 1:14-15 like this: “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is here. Change your mind and believe the good news!’”

Change your mind? Is that all God is asking from us? YES! But what does changing my mind mean? Let’s look at some examples:

First, I can change my mind about not believing that God will accept me right now with his love and grace even though I haven’t proved myself by being “clean and sober” from sin for three months, six months, a year, etc.

Next, I can change my mind about what makes life worth living; the pleasures of sin or the joy of relationship with God. As Paul said in Ephesians 5:18-19, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord…”

At first, John’s greatest joy in life was the good feelings he got from alcohol. Although he appreciated his wife and children, life without alcohol was empty. John told me once, “I used to feel sorry for people who didn’t drink, because when I would wake up on Monday morning feeling lousy, I would think to myself, ‘For people who don’t drink—this is the best they are going to feel all day!’” But after Joyce kicked him out, John changed his mind! He decided that the joy of right relationship with his wife and children was more important than the joy of alcohol. That is what Paul is saying in Ephesians 5. “Don’t look to wine for happiness, instead look to a joy-filled relationship with God.”

But how could John make it work? He had been addicted to alcohol for many years. Many people think that AA works for people because it’s a psychological program, but that’s not the reason it works. It works because it points people to God. The Twelve Steps of AA are a discipleship program drawn straight out of the Bible! And one of the first steps is “Make a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him.” And God does NOT say, “First go show me you’re serious by staying clean and sober for a certain amount of time!” Instead, God received John immediately and then by His Spirit, John was able to stay clean and sober.

The Great Reversal says, “First clean yourself up and then you can come to God.”

God says, “Come to me and my love and Spirit will clean you up.”

(This is Part 1 of a two-part blog entry. Read this first, and then read Part 2. You can go to Part 2 here.)

Don’t fall into the jaws of the Great Reversal! The Great Reversal has caused such frustration for many people who genuinely want to walk with, and serve God.

To understand the dreaded Great Reversal, we need to look at three passages of scripture. The first one we will look at is Ephesians 5:15-20:

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, let’s check out Galatians 5:16-26

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

And finally, let’s look at Jesus’ words in John 15:1-8

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Some reading over these passages quickly might be tempted to think that they teach the following:
First, don’t get drunk, don’t commit sexual sins, orgies, etc., don’t be jealous or selfish, etc. In short, don’t sin. Secondly, praise God, be filled with love, joy, and peace, etc., and bear fruit for God. In short, be good. If you got that from these passages, you’ve fallen into the deadly clutches of the Great Reveral!

We’ve all heard sermons like this, and after hearing them, we have tried very, very hard to live up to what we’ve been told to do. So, we work hard at avoiding sin and try hard to be virtuous. And what do we find? We’re unable! Oh, yeah, we can do it for a little while; maybe for two weeks, or a month. Maybe the most self-controlled among us can keep it up even longer, but eventually we “run out of steam” and we fall into sinful attitudes and behavior and our zeal for good works wanes.

Now there are some people who seem to be able to make it work, and they rise to high positions in churches or other Christian organizations. Having been in some of those high positions myself, I have had a first-hand look at the lives of those who seem to make it work, and what I find is that they actually aren’t making it work at all, it just looks like it from the outside. They actually fall into the same trap as the Pharisees, the trap of the Great Reversal!

In Luke 18:10-14 Jesus told the following parable:

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

The Pharisee is one of those guys who can “make it work”. They can muscle down their more primitive urges and avoid the grosser sins of sexual immorality, drunkenness, and the like, even while doing good works like fasting, tithing, church work, etc. The problem is that the only sins they can control are the obvious ones. They are actually powerless over the more subtle ones, like greed and covetousness, fear and insecurity, mental lust (which Jesus said was the same as physical adultery), and anger and looking down on others (which Jesus said was the same as murder). As a result Jesus described these kind of people as “whitewashed tombs,” that looked good on the outside but inwardly were full of corruption (Matthew 23:27).

So why do I call this problem, this trap, the Great Reversal? It’s easiest to see when we look again at John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” There is a natural tendency in us (and I’m sure the enemy helps) to turn the order around. We want to bear much fruit so we can say, “I’m in Him!” So we work hard to bear fruit so we can assure ourselves that we are His. We’ve reversed the order!

Or, to use the language of Galatians 5 we want to first stop sinning (the deeds of the flesh) and then show the fruit of the Spirit. Again, we’ve turned it around! Or, from Ephesians 5 we decide to stop getting drunk and then spend more time worshipping with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Again, we’ve reversed the order.

The only way to be successful in life is to get the order right. First, we get into Jesus and live in Him. As Jesus says in John 15; “If you abide in me, you will bear fruit.” In the Galatians passage, we need to first “walk in the Spirit” and “keep in step with the Spirit”. Only then will we not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, both the obvious gross ones and the more subtle ones. Only then will we exhibit the fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The key is really clear, to me, in the Ephesians passage, “…be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.” The first step is to be filled with the Spirit! Then, I can live in victory over sin, be filled with the fruit of the Spirit, and be filled with praise and thanks. When filled with the Spirit and walking in Him, keeping in step with Him (which is what abiding in Christ means), He can lead me in the good works He has planned for me, thus I bear fruit!

But don’t I have to first “repent of my sins?” I will address that in Part 2. Click here to go to Part 2.

With the passing of Steve Jobs, lots of people are posting quotes from him. The ones I see a lot are all from his Stanford University commencement speech from 2005, entitled “How to Live Before You Die.”

“You have to trust in something; your gut, life, destiny, karma, whatever; because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.” 

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

There is no question that Steve Jobs was a brilliant man who has made a significant impact on the world. And, he dispenses some very real and valuable advice that far transcends what we usually hear from public figures. But there is a great danger in his wisdom—it’s so good, and so eloquent, that it may entice one to not go on to get the best wisdom. And in this deadly serious game of life, it’s the best wisdom that we must have. We cannot, we must not, settle for less than the best!

An analogy may help make this point clear. Imagine that you have a treatable form of cancer. The cure is sure. It’s the best course of action, but it’s expensive and painful. It leads to freedom and life, but at a great cost. The cure is, in fact, so painful that while you’re going through it, you can’t do much “real living” but simply suffer and focus on getting well.

Then, someone suggests an alternative which feels so much better. It doesn’t hurt and it takes away the pain of the cancer! You feel so good that you can carry on with work, play, family life, etc. It makes you forget all about the cancer. The problem is, however, it doesn’t cure the cancer. While you forget about it, it’s still there, growing and eating away your life. Eventually, the cancer claims you.

The “alternative cure” is good! It takes away all the pain. You can continue living and doing the things you need to do. It makes the cancer seem to be irrelevant. That’s a powerful good. The problem—it entices you to forgo the real cure; the expensive and painful one that actually kills the cancer, setting you free. The Good supplants the Best, and it leads to death.

I submit to you that Steve Jobs’ advice is a Good that can make you miss the Best.

So how is Mr. Jobs eloquent wisdom less than the best? First, let me state that his advice is good, as far as it goes. It just doesn’t go far enough. Let’s start with this statement:

“You have to trust in something; your gut, life, destiny, karma, whatever; because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

It’s really true that there is a benevolent force behind the universe that rewards faith, honesty, and courage. Someone has said, truly, “The universe rewards action.” A Buddhist proverb says, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” Obviously Steve Jobs tapped into this truth. But here’s the best wisdom; that benevolent force that Steve calls “your gut, life, destiny, karma, whatever” is actually a person! A genuine, real, living person that knows you and loves you and wants you to know and love Him! If you stop at receiving the benefit of “whatever” and don’t go on to receive the personal love of the Someone, you’ve received the Good and missed the Best!

That Someone is Jesus. He created the universe, died to pay the penalty for our sins and rebellion against God, rose from the dead and is alive today, available to you. Here’s the Best:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.   John 1:1-4, 12, 14

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.   John 17:3

Mr. Jobs said,

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

Again, it’s good! I agree. But again, it doesn’t go far enough. Unfortunately, authorities in the religious world, (priests, pastors, parents, etc.), sometimes attempt to get others to live by the authorities’ dogma; thinking that if people will accept the dogma they’ve helped them. However Jesus never wants you to believe in Him because I say you should; He wants you know Him yourself, personally.

Believe me, I don’t believe in the truth of Jesus because my parents, Sunday School teachers, pastors, priests, etc. told me that I should. I don’t believe in Jesus because the Bible tells me I should. I believe in Him because I have met and experienced the love of the Giver, the Satisfier, the Source of my life, and He tells me that I can trust him.

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” There is a lot of noise about God. I urge you to quietly listen in your heart for Him. If you genuinely wish to know the truth He will meet you there. He wants so much more for you than to guide you with your career and your marriage.

Mr. Jobs again,

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

Again, so Good, but not the Best. He recognizes that death makes our time here limited so we must use that time to its fullest, not fearing pride, embarrassment, failure, etc. But he doesn’t understand that there is life after this one, one that is affected by the choices we make in this life. Missing the Best is actually a terrible tragedy. Jesus says,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.   John 3:16-18

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles.   Hebrews 2:1-4

Have you ever met anyone who came to Jesus who was genuinely sad that they did? Anyone who would say, “I experienced Jesus Christ and I wished I hadn’t!”? In the forty years I’ve known Jesus, I’ve never met one. I’ve met people who came to Jesus and experienced real trouble because of it; rejection from family and friends, even persecution and imprisonment, but not a single one wished they hadn’t come to know Him. Each one felt He was worth anything they had to pay for the privilege.

He’s the Best.

Recently I was at a gas station near my hometown of Fairfield CA and a man approached me and asked for directions to Martinez. He told me he had driven from San Jose up Interstate 680 because someone told him, “Go north on 680 and you’ll run right into Martinez.” So, here he is at the end of 680 and he didn’t see Martinez. Hmm. He must have been asleep at the wheel.

He was just sure that he had been misdirected, but I assured him that his original directions were correct, that he had simply missed the Martinez exit. So, I showed him where he could get back on 680 going south, and told him to watch for the first exit after crossing the Benicia-Martinez Bridge. He thanked me and took off back south on his way to Martinez.

How come he didn’t get angry with me? Why didn’t he rant at me and say things like, “How dare you tell me I’m going the wrong direction? Who do you think you are?” Instead of ranting at me, he thanked me! I think the reason he was grateful instead of indignant was he really wanted to go to Martinez! His desire to actually be successful in getting to Martinez was greater than his desire to have me affirm his driving choices. That bears repeating: his desire to actually be successful in getting to Martinez was greater than his desire to have me affirm his driving choices.

I mean, think about what I told him: First, he was driving the wrong way, going north when he now needed to go south. Second, he was wrong about not coming to Martinez on his original route. He missed it. Third, he was wrong about thinking that his original directions were in error. He had not been misdirected, he just messed up. In short, he was wrong, wrong, wrong! But, when I pointed out his errors, he was glad, and why? Because what he really wanted was to get to Martinez!

So, how do I act when someone tells me I’m wrong about something? Too often I get indignant. “How dare you judge me? Who do you think you are?” What I need to do, instead of getting recalcitrant, is to reassess. “Could it be I am wrong?” “Does this person have it right instead?” “Should I change my mind on this?”

If, after reconsidering I find that I am actually incorrect, my gratitude will be proportional with my desire to actually be right. I’ll be like that guy who wanted to get to Martinez. If I really want to “get to Martinez” I won’t mind being told I’m wrong. I’ll be grateful to the one who tells me. On the other hand, if I reconsider and find that my original stand was right after all, what harm has the person who attempted to correct me done to me? They’ve strengthened me, firmed up my thinking, or maybe forced me to clarify myself. All good!

“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” – C.S. Lewis

Recently I posted some comments on the Internet regarding a service organization I support that helps people who face various kinds of challenges; autism, paraplegia, deafness, etc. In those comments, I referred to “people-who-face-various-kinds-of-challenges” as “handicapped”. I got my comments deleted. It seems that “handicapped” isn’t politically correct enough.

So, I decided to find out what the proper term for “people-who-face-various-kinds-of-challenges” is these days. The Internet is an amazing resource for this kind of query. Naturally, one wants to get the answer from the community of “people-who-face-various-kinds-of-challenges” themselves, not those of us who are completely challenge-free (as if!). Imagine my surprise as I found that where you have three “people-who-face-various-kinds-of-challenges” you get three different answers! One says “disabled” is the right term, the next says “handicapped”, and the third says “differently-abled”. In fact, the proponents of the three terms even accuse each other of insensitivity or of being ridiculous.

So what is a person of good faith, who cares about other people’s feelings, and wants to be helpful, not hurtful, (i.e. me) to do? What we usually end up doing is allowing ourselves to be pushed around by officious people who delight in correcting others. If we don’t allow this, we’re “mean-spirited”, “insensitive”, or “thoughtless”. So we scramble to keep up with the latest term.

But the rules keep changing! The word that was OK not long ago, and that we (“persons-of-good-faith-who-care-about-other-people’s-feelings- and want-to-be-helpful-not-hurtful”) changed to not so long ago is now the very proof that we are “mean-spirited-insensitive-thoughtless”!

Examples: In 1929 when the Crippled Children’s Foundation was started, the word “crippled” was considered kosher. Then the rules changed. The correct term became “handicapped”. In 1985, the National Restaurant Association was lauded for its Hire the Handicapped campaign. Now, most of the entries on the Internet tell me that “disabled” is the right term, but many find that demeaning and call for phrases like “mobility challenged”.

OK, why the constant shifting of terms? Is it because as a word gets commonly used, over time it becomes pejorative? Yes, I can see that happening. The phrase, “Hire the Handicapped” became pejorative, with such mocking expressions popping up as, “Hire the handicapped, they’re fun to watch!” But the problem isn’t with the word “handicapped”; it’s with the mockery. Would it be less derisive if the phrase was “Hire the disabled, they’re fun to watch”? Genuinely mean-spirited people are going to ridicule others. You won’t stop it by changing the terms.

All this happens in other areas as well. For example, what is the currently correct term for people whose ancestors (at least some of them) came from Africa? Probably the most common phrase is “African-American” or “people of color”. But when I was in high school, you were a racist if you didn’t use the phrase “black”. Well, “persons-of-good-faith-who-care-about-other-people’s-feelings- and want-to-be-helpful-not-hurtful” scrambled to change from previously kosher words like “colored” or “Negro” as fast as we could. But were those words bad? What about the United Negro College Fund and the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)?

But “black” is now out, and you reveal yourself to be a mean-spirited-insensitive-thoughtless (or worse) person if you use it. Really? What happened to “Black is beautiful” and “Say it Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud”? (I’m a James Brown fan…)

See how ridiculous this begins to be? It’s not OK to call someone a “colored person” but it is OK to say they are a “person of color”? Give me a break!

To paraphrase Martin Luther King, it’s time we stopped judging people based on whether their terms are up to date with political correctness but rather on the content of their character. People who smugly feel superior to others based on physical abilities or attributes or race will be revealed by their mean-spiritedness, not because they didn’t keep up with the currently politically correct terminology.

As always, I’m open to change my opinion if you have a compelling argument. Leave me a comment!