“I WANT TO DO IT FOR REAL!”

It was a beautiful autumn afternoon at the park with my grandchildren and their parents. We were tossing about a nerf football and several other 4-8 year olds had joined us. Suddenly my 4 year old granddaughter, Naomi, announced, “I don’t want to play; I want to do it for real!” I looked at the young boy who had just joined us and was holding the football and immediately instructed him to “Run like the wind!”

 You see, I knew what Naomi meant. What she actually was telling everyone was “I don’t just want to toss the ball; I want to play all-out, hit-with-everything-you’ve-got tackle football.” And I feared for the young man’s life. “I don’t want to play; I want to do it for real!”

 How about it, child of God? Could that become our commitment, our desire, and our battle cry? To stop playing at being a Christian and to do it for real at work, at school, in our families, and in all of our relationships. LIVING WITH AN ALL-OUT, HIT-IT-WITH-EVERYTHING-YOU’VE-GOT PASSION FOR SERVING GOD!

 Christmas is about God going all-out. God sending His only begotten Son to live life with nothing held back. Doing it for real!

But made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:7-8) 

Sue and I were recently talking with a couple about serving God and the husband made a powerful statement. He said that God had recently revealed to him that it was “time to take off the costume and put on the uniform.” That is just another way of saying stop playing and do it for real. 

Our Christmas production, The Christmas Star, is set during WWII and reminds us of the seriousness of war. The biblical presentation of Christ reminds us of the seriousness of sin and why God sent His Son into this world. 

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (1Jn 4:10) 

I don’t know what 2012 holds. I don’t even know what the rest of 2011 will be like. But I do know this: 

I am getting rid of the costume and putting on the uniform. 

I want to do it for real from here on out!

Old Age and Gray Hair!

My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.  Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.


A woman in her 50s was driving with a friend. She went through a red light. The friend didn't say anything. But then she went through another one. The friend said, "Do you realize you just went through two red lights?"
"Oh," she said, "was I driving?"


There are lots of jokes about getting older.  Maybe aging is one of those areas where you need to laugh so that you won't cry!

As we get older, we struggle with things that we did not struggle with earlier in life.  Things like our memories, our eyesight, our overall health.  All of these factors bring about the desire in some to slow down and coast toward the finish line.  Yet, I don't believe that is what The Bible means when it tells us "run with endurance the race that is set before us." (Heb 12:1)


With much more of my life behind me than in front of me and after over 30 years in full-time vocational ministry, my desire is that of the psalmist who wrote:


 So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. (Psalms 71:18)

The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (Psalms 92:12-15)

May I bear more fruit in my old age than I have at any time in the past.  May I continue to the end to declare the uprightness of the Lord.  May I proclaim His might and power to another generation!

Yes Lord, even to old(er) age and gray (or no) hair may I flourish in Your courts!  May I "run the race with endurance"!

Continue to use me to reach the next generation!!