Category Archives: Personal Growth

Posted on

Seasons Of Dryness, Springs Of Refreshing

Watching God At Work When I Rest In Him

There are seasons of life where I have found that God is more at work doing the little things than he is showing me the big things. Have you ever experienced that?

Seasons Of Dryness, Springs Of Refreshing

A year ago, I would probably have said that I was in a spiritual valley. I don’t know if I could identify anything that was wrong, but it just felt like I was in a dry season of my spiritual life, and I didn’t even know why. But as it turns out, now that I can look back at the last several months, maybe it wasn’t such a dry time after all.

For the past several years, I can honestly say that I have never felt more consistent in my spiritual journey. My spiritual disciplines have been growing steadily. I have been learning more and more about God’s Word, consistently becoming aware of new things as I read. My prayer life has never been more more solid. And yet, I felt dry… drained.

But one of the habits I strive to as consistent as possible is the discipline of journaling. And a week or two ago, I took some time to look over and read some of my entries for the last year or so. And frankly, what I read surprised me. I saw two very consistent themes in those pages. The first was that I have frequently felt overwhelmed and tired, to the point where I needed to take a rest. The second was that when I took the time to rest, the next thing in my journal was God pointing something out to me in his Word.

Posted on

Reminded Of God’s Love

When God Uses a Big Dog And A Bigger Man

Every now and then I need to be reminded that God loves me. And sometimes, that reminder needs to be a pretty severe kick in the head. Fortunately, God loves us enough to do just that.

Reminded Of God's Love

A few weeks ago, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with some things going on in my life. I decided to go for a drive to clear my head. I ended up down by a river somewhere south of where I live. I couldn’t tell you what river it was, I have no idea even where I ended up. In fact, I tried to find it again a few days ago and couldn’t. But it was beautiful. And it was just what I needed.

I didn’t plan on stopping but the scenery was beautiful, and the river bank was wide and clear, and looked like it would be a good place for a walk. So I stopped driving and started walking. I hadn’t made it too far when a big, mean looking dog came barreling out of the woods and joined me. He looked like a cross between a German Shepherd, a T-rex, and a grizzly bear. That’s how big he was.

His appearance kind of startled me, but he was a friendly pup, and he joined me as I walked along. It wasn’t long before I found the people he was with. I’m just walking along, and this guy, who owned a big, super-friendly but mean looking dog, who looked to be part grizzly bear himself, was sitting there with his feet in the water with a couple of other people.

Posted on

One Word 365 – 2018 Edition

Forget The New Year’s Resolutions - Just Choose One Word

I decided a long time ago to forego making New Year’s Resolutions. I was never any good at keeping them, and the harder I tried, the worse it got. I finally made one resolution that I have managed to not break: to not make any more resolutions!

One Word 365: Unhurried

What I have done instead is select a word that I intend to focus my life around for the next twelve months, one word to live by for the year. This practice has had the effect of helping me to keep my focus on a specific area I need to grow in, and it helps me become more who I believe that God wants me to be.

Over the years, I have selected several different words, such as the word “passion” in 2011. As I look back over the years, it seems as if many of them have a common underlying theme, such as my choice of “commit” in 2012, or “intentional” in 2013, or even the words “wait” and “prudence” in 2015 and 2016. And last year, my word to live by was “present.” It seems as if God is teaching me through these years to slow down and allow myself to be led by him, to be intentional, to wait on his leading, and not be so eager to do things my own way.

It seems that my learning in this area is not yet complete.

For the past couple of months, as I have reviewed my Life Plan, striving to be a complete man in every area of my life, I felt like God was leading me to choose another similar word to live by in 2018. As I reviewed every area of my life, one word seemed to crop up over and over.

Posted on

Maintaining Balance In My Life

Making Changes To Be A Better Me

Things have been pretty quiet around here for the past few weeks. I have been stepping back from several things in my life to reevaluate them and see just how I need to proceed with them, how God wants me to proceed with them. I am now beginning to implement some changes, in order to regain, and maintain, balance in my life.

Maintaining Balance

I have always been one who works a lot, often more than I should. As I spent a week in Colorado with several other ministers in October, I was challenged with the thought that my lifestyle is too hurried, and that I need to slow down, and maybe let a few things go.

Through most of the month of November, I stepped back from a lot of personal projects, from my hobbies, from many of the extraneous things in my life in order to gain a bird’s eye view. I spent most of that month praying about what I have been called to do, and how best to go about it.

In my life, I prioritize things in this order: first is my relationship with God. This involves my study of God’s Word for my personal relationship with him. This includes journaling, reading, praying, solitude, fasting, and all those spiritual disciplines that help me to seek him as much as I possibly can.

Posted on

How To Maintaining Your Health By Eating Better

Continuing My Journey To A Better Life For Myself And My Family

I have shared several times in the past about my health struggles, which have included sleep apnea and skin cancer, among others. The struggle to maintain my health, and to improve it, has been an intense one in my life for the past year. Almost one year ago, I overheard my wife tell a friend that she expected to be widow in the near future. My health was that bad. Something needed to change.

Eating Better

Recently, I shared a few posts about maintaining this temple we live in, our bodies, over at Deliberate Men. Since some of the changes I have made have been pretty significant, I feel it might be of some benefit to repeat this here.

I think one of the best things we can do as men, both for ourselves and for our families, is to stay healthy and care for the body that God has given us. I believe that when it is my time to go, God will take me, and there is little I can do to prevent that. But at the same time, until he chooses to do so, I have to be as effective as I can be here on earth. That means that I need to care for this body so that I can be as effective as possible. Being sickly or in poor shape or poor health won’t allow me to be or do all that he wants of me.

I have focused on two areas in my life to be a better man, when it comes to the physical side of my life. One is maintaining my fitness, exercising and keeping my body fit. The other area is what I put into my body, the stuff I eat. That’s my focus in this post.

I am not an expert in this area. All I know is what I have experienced, and since these actions have helped me, I wanted to share them. Maybe they will help you as well. I have made a few significant changes to my diet, and they have resulted in some incredible changes in my life and body.

Posted on

Sometimes The Unexpected Occurs

When Things Don’t Go Like You Plan

I love having a plan, and everything going according to that plan. But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the unexpected occurs.

Sometimes The Unexpected Occurs

Like this week, for example. I had a lot of things planned over the past few days that I wanted to get done. We had a special speaker in for the weekend at our church. And I wanted to get a few articles written in advance for this site while I am on a retreat the first week of October.

But apparently, that was not to be.

Last Thursday evening, I went home feeling exhausted. I didn’t think anything of it, because it had been a long day. But overnight, I started running a fever. By midday Friday, I was miserable. And I ran a fever off and on for the next several days. After almost a week, and a trip to the doctor, I started to feel better.

As I have reflected on this over the past couple of days, I came to realize that, no matter what my plans may be, sometimes things happen that change my plans. I can respond in one of two ways. Either I can be frustrated and angry that things aren’t going my way, or I can shift my mindset to this new thing, and see what comes of it.

While my tendency is to be frustrated when things don’t go according to plan, and to stress out over the unexpected, I have chosen the alternative way of seeing this past week. I’m watching to see what God may be teaching me through this. He could be saying slow down. He could be saying that I need to trust him and not my own efforts. He could be showing me that things will go on regardless of whether or not I accomplish my plans. There are a lot of things that I have seen through this that I may have missed had I not been forced to stop and rest.

And at the end of the day, there’s always tomorrow, and the day after, and next week, unless Jesus returns first, in which case it won’t really matter at all. I’ll shift my plans from last week to this week, and to next week if need be. Because I would rather slow down and hear these kinds of things than stay busy and miss hearing the voice of God in my life.

Sometimes it takes a sickness to accomplish that.

Question: Do you take time to rest and listen for God’s voice? Or does he have to get your attention in more drastic ways? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Posted on

The Benefits Of Solitude

Why Getting Away For A Time Can Be Crucial To Spiritual Growth

I’m getting antsy. I’m ready for a break from the routine, ready to get away for a few days.

The Benefits Of Solitude

Each year, I take a week around the first of October and head out for a spiritual retreat. For the past several years, I have utilized a program called Wilderness, run by Christ In Youth. And it has always been an incredible time of spiritual growth and reflection for me.

I try to take a short break every few weeks, a day away where I seek solitude and spend the day in prayer and reading God’s Word. But once a year, I take a bigger chunk of time to really revitalize my soul, and Wilderness has been a key factor in making that a priority for my life.

Solitude is a spiritual discipline that most of us are probably not comfortable with. In our busy society, and a very noisy society, getting away by ourselves and being quiet is very intimidating. But it is very necessary.

At Wilderness, one of the elements I love so much is the opportunity to find a place where I can be alone to listen to God for several hours a day, each day, throughout the week. Wilderness is held at Bear Trap Ranch, outside of Colorado Springs, and each morning, I find a spot in the mountains where I can see peaks all around me, and the golden aspens moving in the breeze. It is incredible peaceful, and I relish this time by myself each day.

Solitude is something I have come to appreciate. It’s something that Jesus modeled for us, because he spent a lot of time off on his own, seeking the Father through prayer. Sometimes it was in the early mornings (Mark 1:35), other times it was in the evening (Luke 6:12). Many times it was before a major event in his life and ministry, like the transfiguration, his arrest, or the choosing of his disciples. But regardless of when or where, it is essential to note that he did this regularly and frequently. So should we.