PLEASE - ALL OF ME...

Desperation...Do you ever feel it? I think everyone has from time to time. Sometimes we're desperate for a yummy piece of chocolate...sometimes we're desperate for a job...we might be desperate for the attention of a spouse. People express desperation in all kinds of moments...all kinds of situations.
As I sit here this afternoon...rain pounding on the windshield of my car...I ask...Am I desperate for Christ. Desperation is that feeling that overwhelms us to the point of doing whatever we need to do to have the object of our desperation.
I am really good at giving Jesus pieces of my heart. You can have this part, but I'm not so sure about this part over here. It's amazing how I may be desperate for healing...desperate for a touch...desperate for something to change in relationship to those other pieces of my heart, but my level of desperation isn't as intense towards the healer as it is towards the brokenness. I can stress over the situation...desperately seeking the answers and yet not desperate pursuing the giver of the answers. It's a paradox.
Whenever I put a puzzle together with my kids, it drives me crazy when there's a piece missing. If a piece is missing you never get the full picture. The puzzle isn't complete and will never be complete without those missing pieces. How many times do we desperately search for those missing pieces in our own lives only to find that we were the ones hiding them...Why? Because we are desperate in our brokenness but not desperate for the one that knows where those pieces go and has the power to reshape them if need be. So we hide the pieces...thinking they're lost...pretending they're lost and living desperate with no destination.
WHY? Because we don't live desperate for the author and perfector of our faith. We say we're going to spend more time...We say we're going to dig deeper...We say that we're going be obedient...and then...
Maybe I should change the we to I, but I wager there are some others who fall into the same category. We give pieces to God and live desperate in life...instead of giving it all to God and living desperate for Him. I don't know if I write this as an encouragement as much as I write this in light of the truth of my own heart at times.
I have moments of giving my all...but I'm tired of being so fragmented. I spoke with a young man at RLT this last Tuesday who was hurting. In fact, he was desperate. He told me he knows he lives in the gray but he’s still better then other people so that should count for something...he couldn't understand why his life was so desperate.
All I could tell Him over and over again is that God wants all of you. He wants you to be desperate for Him. As I was telling him that i realized that I was telling myself that as well.
My prayer is simple...maybe you would pray it with me...'LORD - Please have all of me.' Imagine what happens when he does...

The End

Is the end near? Is it time? The year 2012 is coming up...The end of the Mayan calendar...what about Nostradamus...

I am always amazed our ability to be worked up into a frenzy. I'm not talking about fervor or being zealous even...I'm talking about a frenzy. A frenzy means 'extreme mental agitation; wild excitement or derangement'...The church is just as good at creating hype and a frenzy over things as the world around us...

I'll never forget Y2k. I remember going to sleep that night wondering if something was going to happen. I was up until midnight and it didn't seem like anything happened...and yet, at three o'clock in he morning I woke up in a panic. I could have sworn the sky outside my window was red and their were weird sounds all around me...THE END HAD COME! Amazing what imagination will do.

I love Jesus. He is everything to me. I know, based on scripture, that Jesus is a returning king. He is coming for his people. I don't know when that will be. However, it seems that allot of other people think they do. I remember the book '88 reasons why the rapture will be in 1988'. Obviously it didn't happen so the book that came out the next year was called 'The Final Shout – Rapture Report 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993.' Hmmm covering some ground there!

Here's the deal. I know Jesus is coming back. I know the scripture tells me I won't know the day or the time. Can I know the season? I believe so...I know that there are things happening in our world that cry out for God. The sickness of our world is so apparent. Read in Matthew 24 and you will read things that we read about in our newspapers all the time. I guess what bothers me is the frenzy that we succumb to. Movies (2012), books, prophetic web-sites with time lines...whatever catches your fancy...and all of a sudden we are operating out of fear and panic.

I am much more concerned about my friend who doesn't know Jesus and who could get in a car wreck today then I am about the end of the world. My focus is on people knowing an incredible God who redeems us...not trying to rally the troops because the end is near...Could it be? Sure it could...But if I am growing...pursuing Christ and bringing people along with me...then it doesn't matter when it is. I am doing what I am supposed to be doing! It was what we were supposed to be doing a thousand years ago...It is what were supposed to be doing today...it is what we are supposed to be doing a thousand years from now (if God gives us another thousand years).

It's not confusing...It's not frenzy based or hype driven. It is born out of a transformed life and a desire to give back to the one who gave everything to us. I am passionate about the love I have for Christ...out of that, everything I am and everything I do flows. I don't know when my end will be...It doesn't matter...I don't know when Jesus is coming back...It doesn't matter. All that matters is that He is my Lord...and I will always be ready for Him...

I am sitting in a coffee shop...listening to some music...trying to figure out what it means to keep up. Blog this...Twitter that...and not to mention face book. It's easy to make ourselves available at any given moment! And I'll admit I fall into those little techie marvels just like anyone else...

But sometimes I wonder... What would it look like if I chose to make myself available for God in the same way that I make myself available to everything else. There is always a new demand, a new thing to try, a new course of action to take - which are often very legitimate. In fact allot of those ventures I would put under the God category...but in pursuit of doing things for God, how often do I miss my intentional time/availability/openness to God?

Every day I wake and a new adventure lays before me. Instantly I recognize the lists of things that have to get done today, the people to reach out to, the "problems" to solve. Somewhere in those moments I hear a whisper. I will be the first to admit that I ignore that whisper...again...I have so much to do!

That whisper speaks to my heart. Are you available to meet with me today? Are you available to move to the beat of my heart? Are you available to answer my call...CHAD, ARE YOU AVAILABLE TO ME?

I want my answer to be yes! However, my life must be a reflection of the words that come out of my mouth...Will I be available? Will you be available?