I’m turning 50 this week. 

I’m not yet fifty — it’s just one day away — but I thought I’d lead you through my journey, and maybe you’ll learn a thing or two that will help you on your journey.

Alone, But Not

You know how it is when you feel less alone when someone else can understand your pain?

There are days when I live like a practical atheist. 

Not that I don’t care about God, but that I don’t even think about God.

Overcoming Fear

Eric Valli, a professional photographer, is dangling by a nylon rope from a 395 foot cliff in Nepal.

Nearby on a rope ladder is another man, Mani Lal, doing what he has done for decades: hunting honey.

Here in the Himalayan foothills, the cliffs shelter honeycombs of the world’s largest honeybee. At the moment, thousands of them are buzzing around both men. Lal, a veteran of hundreds of such attacks, is calm. Not so Mr. Valli.

Biblical Paradoxes – Weird but True

• You can find your life, yet you lose it.  (Matthew 10:39; John 12:25)
• You can lose your life, yet you find it.  (Matthew 10:39)
• You can be unknown, yet you are well-known.  (2 Corinthians 6:9)
• You can be dying, yet you possess life.  (2 Corinthians 6:9)
• You can be dying, yet you can give life.  (John 12:24)
• You can be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.  (2 Corinthians 6:10)
• You can be poor, but make many others rich.  (2 Corinthians 6:10)
• You can have nothing, yet possess all things.  (2 Corinthians 6:10)

“…the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love…” [Psalm 33:18]

True fear and genuine love seem paradoxical; nonetheless, they are biblical.

A.W. Tozer wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think of God is the most important thing about us.”

If we could inquire of every person we happened to see on the streets of the Twin Cities, “What comes into your mind when you think of God?” we might be able to anticipate their spiritual future.

Beyond Whatever. I have had that title in my mind for so long I cannot even tell you when it first appeared, but it’s perfect.

Beyond “Whatever” that sense that “whatever” you or I want it’s okay.
Whatever we say is okay.
Whatever we think is okay.
Whatever we do is okay.

Beyond whatever means it’s not. I wish it was but it’s not. I would like it to be that you and I and everyone else could do whatever they wanted and it would be okay; but, it’s not.