The One About Mike Rowe//Passion

I have become slightly fascinated with Mike Rowe since we used part of his Q talk in worship.  I don't follow him on social media or google him, or anything fanatical...but several times I've stumbled across some pieces by/about him.  One was a nicely written Facebook post he wrote about the ALS ice bucket challenge.  (I should provide the link here, but I'm sure you can find it).  Then today, I came across this:

http://yellowhammernews.com/faithandculture/alabamian-gets-schooled-mike-rowe-dirty-jobs/

I'm glad someone out there is thinking, and then turning those thoughts into articulate and meaningful words on a page.  Live a life filled with passion - but following your passion doesn't always get you where you think it will.  It's important to be smart, too.

The One About Discouragement

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  Romans 12:2

Have you read the Screwtape Letters (C. S. Lewis)?  Screwtape (a demon) tries every way he can think of to encourage Wormwood (a demon in training) to bring down a new Christian.  “Oh, that didn’t work?  Try this…that didn’t work either?  Try this instead…”  And so they made efforts to flummox the young Christian in every possible way - from sexual temptation to pride, and so on.  

I have felt these attacks myself the last few weeks in the area of discouragement.  For me and a few of my friends, it seems like Satan has come against us in every possible way.  When one attack didn’t work, he launched another.  When that didn’t work, he tried something else.  As Sunday drew to a close, I found myself pretty down.  I reflected back on the morning of worship that was, and all I could see was the negative.  What didn’t go well.  Who didn’t come.  The negative things people said.  And as I sat at home on Sunday evening, I realized this had been my pattern for several weeks.  I decided then that instead of focusing on what didn’t go well, I would only look at the positive.  On Tuesday mornings, our creative team has a meeting we call the “good, bad and ugly.”  This week I determined that at least for a while, we are only going to do the “good.”  We will no longer even discuss the bad and ugly (we’re perfectionists, and there is always bad and ugly) unless there is something that needs immediate attention.  That little idea has helped us already.  

After my resolve on Sunday, and our fresh start with our creative meeting yesterday, I sat down to look over some sermon notes.  The first thing I read was this: “If you want to change something in your life that you don’t like, you don’t start with your actions.  You don’t even start with your feelings.  You start with your thoughts.”  That’s just a paraphrase of Romans 12:2, but still!  It spoke right to me, and I knew it was a word direct from the Lord.  I am so thankful that God consistently shows up in ways that are clear and on time.