Hey everyone, I’ll bet you thought I fell off the face of the earth. Well, news about my demise has been greatly exaggerated. The truth of the matter is that for the last week I’ve been working pretty much 16 to 18 hour days and getting about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours of sleep a night. I am so thankful for Marianne providing this time for me to execute this very very big test event at work that included the US government. It was extremely successful, but also very tiring. I got to see some old friends that I’ve been working with for the last 4 1/2 years that I hadn’t seen in probably 3 to 6 months, God has created a very unique situation for me to be a testimony and a witness in situations, where there can be heavily competing cultures…The US ARMY and Microsoft.
Although I will still have to stay fairly engaged at work. I will be doing that remotely from Newport Beach, California where my family and I go for some vacationing every summer to spend time with the in-laws. It’s a great reconnecting time for Marianne and I and her sister and brother-in-law, as well as our four kids and their three girls who don’t get to see each other except once per year during this time.
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? Luke 9:23-25 [NKJV]
Some people read this passage and feel that it is negative in its connotation. For me, it’s one of the most freeing passages in the Bible.
The daily decision to take up the Cross and crucify my sin every day…really crucify myself every day; allows me to operate in this freedom of knowing I am in the right place and the right mindset in following Jesus. The next statement about what we pursue reinforces what Jesus had just finished saying… If your pursuit is to achieve the things of this world in money, career, happiness, and, success, then your reward will be exactly what you achieve. But if you instead pursue Jesus, then you essentially inherit everything that Jesus has coming to him at the end of the age. That, is a big deal and extremely freeing.
Remembering these truths in scripture is so important to my daily life in my desire to be a godly man. Lord Jesus, help me to see that what is to come, is what my focus should be… Once again, here I am, needing to remember that my focus has to be eternal.