Ministering reconciliation...

In this world where so many are fatherless, many are frustrated and angry at their fathers, I want to take a few moments to talk about my dad. My dad was a fighter! When I say fighter I don't mean that he fought for money, or was in the Army. What I mean is that my dad fought many problems. He fought long days to provide for our family, he fought the attitudes my siblings and myself had towards him. He fought rejection, he fought loss, he fought being without a job, he fought the end of our church, he fought so much. It would be easy to look back at one of those areas and say, "Dad you didn't do enough!" It would be easy to look back at the long days he spent trying to provide for us away from us; a task that I cannot fathom at the present. Why do I bring this up? Why did I talk about him? The biggest reason is that today he embarks on perhaps the biggest journey of his life. He leaves for a 6 month job. A job that will take him THOUSANDS of miles away from his wife,

I cannot really take credit for this thought. But I can flesh it out a bit more. As a pastor, I have struggled with the idea that I am not successful because I don't see the numbers, I don't see the connection, I don't see a lot of things that the world measures as successful. While listening to Pastor Aaron Stern @theMill, God reminded me that his standards are different. Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. God doesn't measure success based on  the American dream. He measures it by how willing you are to follow him. “Walking with Jesus isn't about your success; it's about God's Glory. and often times, God's glory, God's holiness, God's work, God's redemptive picture in us; he will do at the expense of our happiness, our comfort an