Dave Dishman

Guidance from Overlooked Men and Women of the Bible

Category: Growth (Page 9 of 15)

Thankful?

November 25, 2019 / / 0 Comments

What are you thankful for? I’m thankful for family, for friends, for health, for interesting work, for insightful travel and for good food, among many other things. This is a perfect week to take a few quiet minutes to reflect on the Lord’s goodness in your life.

It’s fascinating that Thanksgiving is followed hard by Black Friday and the frenzy of Christmas shopping. Unbelievably, every year someone dies in the scrum of holiday bargain madness. Perhaps if we took more time to reflect on what we’re thankful for, we would spend less time on Christmas stress.

Thanksgiving became an official U.S. holiday in 1863, during the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” Still sounds like a good idea.

As you reflect on the goodness of the Lord towards you, be encouraged by this verse from Colossians 3:15: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

The Master’s Completed Work

November 18, 2019 / / 1 Comment
Picture credit goes to my friend Nicole – thank you!

In a museum in Florence, Italy, you can look upon and marvel at Michelangelo’s David, one of the great sculptures in the world. You can walk all around the statue and inspect it from every angle. But a different view, a fuller view, emerges from the entry hall.

The passage to The David is filled with unfinished statues by Michelangelo. Half-formed people emerge from gigantic blocks of marble, unable to fully escape their captivity. Michelangelo carved images from the front backwards, freeing the creatures he pictured in his mind from the blocks of stone. As you walk slowly toward the David, you get the sense of living beings emerging all around you.

Which brings to mind the Lord’s work in our lives. We are not yet finished, like The David, but we exist similar to those statues enduring in a roughhewn state. Thankfully, the Lord does not leave us incomplete, but continues to chip away at those areas in our lives we no longer need. The Master works steadily, creating the final masterpiece he envisions you and me to be.

As you feel the hammer and the chisel at work in your life, always in uncomfortable ways, remember this: He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

Hit Hard

November 4, 2019 / / 0 Comments

When Zac, Pat and Tammy McCloud’s son, collapsed on a high school football field, life took a sharp turn into uncharted territory. This book chronicles their journey and lessons learned, especially involving “ambiguous loss,” about living life with Zac who will never be the same young man he was before the injury.

I have known Pat and Tammy for years, having worked on the staff with Cru together. They are great leaders, people of depth who mentor college students and help young people find their life in God. They are the type of people I would love to have influence my kids.

In their book you get a glimpse of how they wrestled with the Lord through this horrible situation, how they loved Zac and their other children during this time, and how they dealt with marriage struggles. In short, you walk through life with them as they share with you the lessons God is teaching them.

You’ll find this book valuable if you’ve ever dealt with loss, and especially if you’re dealing with the long, lingering changes in life that don’t seem to have any sort of resolution. Pat and Tammy put words to what you may be feeling, and if you read their book I think you’ll get a picture of why I appreciate them, and look up to them so much.

Where do we find true security?

September 30, 2019 / / 0 Comments

The presence of God is true security. There really isn’t any other.

Thomas Keating

This spring I read Thomas Keating’s book, The Human Condition, for the first time. I marked this quote and have gone back to it several times, which is unusual for me.

I share it with you in case you wonder at times, like I do, where our security lies? Is it in a relationship, or a job, or a retirement account or a safe neighborhood? Keating reminds us that ultimate security resides in only one place – the presence of God.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 that since the Lord clothes the flowers of the field in splendor, why worry about what we will wear? Ultimate security lies in the gracious hands of the Living God, one who cares about flowers and birds and you and I.

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