The Path to “Checkmate”

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chessI have been thinking a lot lately about how every choice or decision I make moves me either closer to or away from God.  There is no neutral move.  Kind of like the game of chess, every move is strategic with one goal in mind: to get the king piece on the opponent’s side.  The path to “checkmate” is packed with strategic moves, all to support this one goal.

My one goal is to know and experience the love of Jesus and to know Him – not just about Him.  It is also to honor and worship Him with my life and all that entails (spirit, soul, body).  Making strategic moves to reach your goal can apply to many areas of life (i.e. addictions, anger, people-pleasing, pride).  As an example, I have struggled with food and my weight most of my life.  Food is one of those addictions that is not so “cut and dry” because you have to eat to live.  I have been meditating on the idea that every time I eat a piece of food, my choice will either honor God in my body and bring health and life to me or it will not honor God in my body and it will lead to being unhealthy.  To reach my goal of worshipping God in my body requires that I make healthy choices each time I eat.  It is baby steps.  Just like chess is made up of many small moves to reach the ultimate goal, my goal requires the same.  Rarely is a goal achieved with one huge step/move.  Not only is strategy involved, but planning is involved.  I find I am most successful in the area of losing weight and eating right when I plan ahead and I strategically eat certain amounts of protein, carbs, and fats.

On a much broader scale, when we look at life, I have learned this.  God is  in control of every minute detail of my life and every single thing that happens today is a strategic move on His part for His glory and my ultimate good.  It is to this end that He allows or doesn’t allow things to happen in my life.  It is all for His glory!  That is His goal for my life.  The enemy will have his own strategic moves, but God will always beat him to “checkmate.”

One of my favorite quotes is from John Piper: God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.

What goals does this make you think of?  Do you see similarities in this analogy in your own life?

What Was in My Heart Was Greater Than What Was in My Boot

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I have had 3 surgeries on my left foot in the last 14 months – all 3 due to totally difference injuries.  Needless to say, I have either been in a boot or walking in pain for most of this time.  As a result of this, I have found it very difficult to stand throughout the worship in our church services.  Until this last week – what was in my heart and spirit was greater than what was in my boot!

About 2 weeks ago, I was getting my nails done and getting a pedicure.  I took a book with me to read from a book club my church is doing online via Facebook.  As I stilled myself and began to read, it was like Superman opening his shirt – I had opened my spirit to receive from God through this book.  The truths of the book began to feed my spirit and I began to weep.  I had allowed God to bring a fresh awakening to my spirit.  I filled my mind with worship music and wept off and on the rest of that day.  Then I had nightmares that night and the next day – I knew the enemy was ticked off because I had humbled and stilled myself before God – enough for Him to begin to meet me.  I began to feel ALIVE in a fresh way.  You see, I love Christian books, but rarely am able to still myself to read and learn from them.  Sometimes, reading the Bible is even harder.  I reread one of my blogs from a couple of years ago called “When the Feelings Aren’t There”, and found great encouragement in being reminded that who God is and His love for me has nothing to do with feelings or emotions or lack of them.  So, with this new fire inside of me, I have begun pursuing God regardless of my feelings.

What God is doing in my heart is greater than what is in the boot!  In other words, one superseded the other and my behavior changed – I was able to follow the longings of my heart to worship regardless of the pain in my foot or the discomfort of the boot.  The behavior change is that now I am able to stand through all of the worship in a service.

I wonder if the same principle can apply in other areas of life.  Could my desire for God supersede my desire for other things (food, watching TV, wasting time, etc.) and cause other changes in my behavior?  What if I loved God more than sugar?  What if I chose to spend time getting to know Him rather than watching TV?  What if………  What would this look like in your life?

Can Pain Be a Good Thing?

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Pain is a small word  that packs a big “punch.”  It conjures up so many feelings, thoughts, and emotions in people.  I found this excellent definition (medicinenet.com):

Pain: An unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerve stimulation. Pain may be contained to a discrete area, as in an injury, or it can be more diffuse, as in disorders like fibromyalgia. Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors.

painIn general, people associate pain with something negative and it can be physical or emotional.  My recent foot surgery has made me contemplate how pain can be a good thing.  In March of this year, I tore the peroneal tendon on the outside of my left foot.  I was in a boot for 7 weeks hoping it would heal, but it didn’t.  I was in continual pain as additional tests were run and my doctor found out the tendon was torn and would need to be repaired surgically.  So the pain pre-surgery was a bad thing and signified something was very wrong.  The pain post-surgery was severe at first and has  lessened in the last several weeks.  I continue to have numbness in my toes and “zinger” pains from the nerves that were cut.  The pain I have experienced post surgery is a GOOD thing because it means my foot is healing – the “zingers” mean that the nerves that were cut are ALIVE and regenerating and rebuilding their connections.  This process of healing will take months to fully restore.  My pain is normal and will pass.  It is for a season.

Although I have focused on physical pain, Emotional pain can work the same way – it can be seen as a good or bad thing.  In the throws of either pain, it seems impossible to view any pain as good at the time.   It is through pain that we go through that allows us to identify, pray for, and minister to others going through the same things.  This is one of the ways God uses our pain, scars, brokenness to bring healing to those around us.

Observations:

  1. Pain can be GOOD
  2. Pain means I am ALIVE
  3. Pain can mean that God is healing me
  4. Pain is uncomfortable and can be extreme at times
  5. Pain can indicate an area (physical or emotional) in my life that God wants to heal
  6. The scars from my pain allow God to use me to minister to others out of my own pain and experiences
  7. Pain is normal and we will all experience it at one time or another
  8. The healing process will take time

When God allows any kind of pain in our lives, maybe we need to step back and see if we are seeing the cup half empty or half full.  God can use any pain for His glory.