so admirable, such a good thing.  But.  It’s a heavvvy load having an efficiency idol.  Being a perfectionist about efficiency is just the WORST.  Obsessing as much over minutia as I do really-big deals, is worse than being in prison.  It’s a Curse imagining that I know what’ll make me happy.  Those unbothered by such…

have been carefully crafted by Jesus, for your good and His glory.  When you believe this, you will be curious/expectant to see what He does NEXT, in you, others, circumstances.  If you struggle to believe this, struggle to THANK Him for everything just as it is, including the harrrrd, CONFESS your unbelief in His sovereign…

feels like the weight of the world on my shoulders — alone, adultlike, UP TO ME, heavy, pressure.  But Jesus offers me His radical yoke of DEpendency — light as a feather.  Not radical for a child, but radical for an adult.  Adults in this world are supposed to be INdependent, wise in our own…

circumstances, go to 2 Chronicles 20:1-24.  Read the passage.  I have the following sentences from this passage, underlined in my Bible.  “For we have no power to face this vast army attacking us.  We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”  And later, “Don’t be afraid or discouraged because of this vast…

Because you live in denial of how little you really believe in the sovereignty of Jesus.  How do I know that?  Because you suppress your feelings of fear, frustration, discouragement, boredom.  And that’s why you feel ALONE so much of the time: UP TO YOU.  Your biggest need, all day, every day, is to CONFESS…

unless you’re living in His world, enjoying Him and His creation and His management of everything and everyone, including YOU, just as you are.  When I live in Dave’s world, I’m oppressed, intense, driven to excellence, consumed with proving myself worthy and avoiding failure/humiliation.  Exhausting. But when I live in Jesus’ world I experience an…

But there’s only one place to FIND easy: in dependence on Jesus.  INdependence, feeling alone, UP TO ME, is harrrrd, because the pressure to achieve — perform with excellence, prove yourself worthy, never ceases.  Miserable existence. Big difference between EASY circumstances, and an EASY life.  I ain’t promisin EASY circumstances.  As a human you’ve bought…

unless you really KNOW yourself.  Self-awareness is crucial to really knowing Jesus.  He who has a present sense of having been forgiven only a little, presently KNOWS Jesus only a little, presently KNOWS himself only a little, presently loves Jesus only a little, presently loves himself only a little, presently loves others only a little,…

for followers of Jesus, seems to me, because thanking Him for the easily-thankable, obviously-thankable, reinforces control addiction, and surprisingly leads us into an INdependency that encourages God-bless-my-agenda kinda praying by believers, confident-we-know-what’s-best, confident we know how to direct the CreatorSustainer of the Universe. Thanking Jesus for the harrrd is commanded in Scripture.  Thanking Him for…

Just like getting-or-wanting-my-way is a curse, that I discussed last week. Analyzing/critiquing/judging is a failed strategy for happiness — a horrible way to live, but it’s so natural for all of us humans, nonChristian AND Christian.  We do it unconsciously as we go through our day, looking at this or that, online, TV, people watching….analyzing/critiquing/judging.…