Can we actually give ourselves away? If so, how often? We are each just one person but with many accessories. Although it seems not to be true at times, there is not a one dimensional human walking this planet. This is meant in the sense of our character, capabilities and capacity for caring, not our physical dimensionality. God gives each of us some aspect and unique combination of these character traits: playmate, lover, friend, caretaker, guardian, nurturer, teacher, messenger and supporter, any or all of which are ours to simply give away. These traits emanate from a constantly renewing life force, readily available with a moments notice to be gifted away. To make us aware of this, “Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” (John 7:28, 29 NIV). We too, as His followers are not here just of our own authority, but are meant to be messengers of He who sends us. To fulfill this role we must stay focused on our mentoring, guiding God. We must present ourselves to those who know us, who know where we come from. We don’t come from a place as such, but from a very unique set of circumstances, orchestrated by God to be employed in unforeseen future situations. We can give ourselves away repeatedly and still be complete because we are from Him. “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:38 NIV). There is no beginning nor end to these rivers afforded in us, when they are shared.

So why are we timid about sharing ourselves? Who has told us to fortify our walls, to shield and protect our feelings, to pocket our helpful hands and to never mention our benevolent leader? There is only one who has any interest in doing such things, the one who competes for our souls. If we are being influenced by him, it’s time to shake free and reach out for our savior once more.  Time to uncork our rivers and fill our cups to overflowing. Once filled, give away what we have so often treasured; understanding, compassion, forgiveness and of course love. Each time we gift some part(s) of ourselves, the Holy Spirit refills our tanks to an entirely new level of overflowing. To experience this wondrous happening is a far greater high than any standing ovation offered us by our peers for performances of the mind. Rivers flowing from the heart of Jesus, through us, bind us more tightly to our own source of light, life and love. Step onto His life stage once and you’ll never want to leave.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

This is how life really is. God created an incredible world and then us. He watched over everything for thousands of years and then left His seat at the right hand of the Father to give us one more chance to get our stuff right. This was done at enormous cost to himself, out of love. Old news right? Maybe. The result? For another couple of thousand years, a few righteous people followed his counsel while the rest kicked back and took His offer of eternal life as a given! Taking such an offer for granted dramatically shows our predictable lack of understanding and wisdom. Which part of our societal or familial existence offers us something of incredible value for nothing? Really! None, that’s right. So how did we ever get to the senseless point of assuming we’re good to go, as is, on the biggest issue with nothing ventured? This example validates the old French & Greek axiom of “nothing ventured, nothing gained“.  When it comes right to down to it in this case, if nothing is ventured, everything is lost!  EVERYTHING.

Think about the following statements from God as we contemplate using our “good to go free tickets”. “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3:13-15 NIV). Eternal life in Him! Because of Him, through Him, by way of Him. Him alone. There is no other way to get there. Also in this other parable about heaven “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.‘” (Matthew 13:29, 30 NIV). There is much to venture and from such venturing even more to be gained. Let’s take our good to go tickets out of our pockets and read the fine print one more time. “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:47-50 NIV). Fish can’t weep.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

If God approached you outright (go with this for a minute) and offered to answer just one question for you, what might that question be? “Why do good people die while the selfish live on“? Or, “If you really love us, why allow us to experience so much pain and sorrow“? I’m sure that you have some deep question which only the master of the universe could affectively address. Some troubling issue which has caused a separation between you (or many of us) and God, simply because the concept of omnipotence coupled with absolute power, held exclusively in the hands of Love never seem to reconcile with the confusing world we live in.

After listening to you, as carefully as a perfect Father does to His innocently troubled child, God might say, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8 NIV). In other words, I’m really sorry but your just not ready to understand any of this yet, but one day you will be and I’ll explain it all to you then. It sounds like a cop out, yet even in our world we can not fully grasp the fundamentals of so much that we take for granted. Yes, scientists have a better understanding of physics than most of us and mathematicians might find solutions to problems which we can’t even fully formulate questions for. Yet these same experts are inefficient in areas where others clearly excel. God might then add “”As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9 NIV). After which we might throw up our hands in frustration. As a society of collective learning we are significantly more astute about this world than we might ever become as individuals. Perhaps even more astute than wise. “The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6 NIV). Wisdom flows only from God and knowledge without the wisdom to manage it, is like a deadly weapon in the hands of an infant. Long ago a child named Solomon, asked God directly for something, “So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong … The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, … I will do what you have asked…” (1 Kings 3:9-12 NIV). The answers we seek often hide behind the right selfless questions.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

For as long as we’ve existed, we’ve sought easier ways to do things.  Businesses are built on this concept. Cultures thrive with this philosophy. The easier things are, the more time we have leftover to do something else. Something more or something more fun. But usually not something more important. In some ways making mundane tasks easier is both logical and good but in other ways it is taking us farther away from what’s really important in life. We begin to think “that’s a lot of work … for what? Why bother, who cares anyway”? Growing up I can still recall my mother repeating to us, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well”. And my father saying “Whenever someone is willing to pay you for eight hours of work, give them nine or ten hours, the extra for goodwill”. God’s word is overflowing on this topic, Proverbs alone addresses laziness and sluggards in so many unrelated verses but it all begins with this, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15 NIV). To work it, not to sit back and ponder or enjoy without effort. This is not about gardening, this is about life, all of life for as long as we are able. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,” (Colossians 3:23 NIV). As working for the Lord? None of the key character examples in the bible ever retired. They did their jobs, whatever those job were and then (in the positive biblical references) they did as God willed them. Any job done for God won’t be an easy one, and it will most likely be done in our “free” time, not as our chosen vocation. The Levites were the equivalents in biblical times of our pastors, ministers, priests and rabbis. The were not the same characters whom God called upon to go that extra mile for Him. Those folks were ordinary men and women, carpenters, fisherman, tax collectors, farmers and yes even prostitutes. Free time is an oxymoron. We have very short lives (here) and there is a very defined limit to our time. None of it is free, every second is a gift from God, an opportunity to serve Him and His in some small or giant way. For most of us, it will seem like a small way, but it all measures out to God the same.

God asks much from some of us and a little from all the rest. But He does ask something of all of His children. None of His children are just basking in the Garden of Eden, waiting for others to serve them.  Those are probably somebody else’s children. Time to go to work.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

Has anyone angered or frustrated you lately? Are we intolerant of the behavior of others, of even our own emotions or do we embrace our anger as justifiable in certain situations? What does God think of us when we become angry with those around us? After all we’ve been instructed to honor and obey our parents, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to teach righteousness to our children. We’ve been taught above all else to forgive, so that we might be forgiven. That doesn’t seem to leave much elbow room for anger.  The bible references anger many, many times. This verse may help us to relate better to this widely distributed emotion. “He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4:2 NIV). Jonah understood God better than he understood himself. Our God is “slow to anger”, yet He is not without anger and we are created in his image. Our lives should not be ruled by anger, which when left unchecked is like any other destructive or chronic disease. Anger can turn us into bitter, unhappy people. Anger can steal the joy from all of our other experiences. We also should be slow to anger, tolerant, understanding, yet there will still be times when the foolishness or selfishness of those around us, will make our existence less tolerable. We should turn, turn, turn our other cheek, but not endlessly, for there is a limit to everything.  We should make every attempt to resolve our differences peacefully or walk away. We should really try to understand what drives the behavior of others in ways that draws up the anger within us.  And finally we should try to understand ourselves, what it is, that we are truly reacting to. Are we being selfish ourselves, of our time, our wants or expectations? There is nothing in these words which is attempting to justify bad or thoughtless behavior, but we don’t want to become an unwilling party to that same unjustifiable behavior. The takeaway is that this world is not filled with kind, selfless and always caring people. We are simply a collection of differing opinions and attitudes which will never reconcile completely.

Yet we should work toward not angering others. We should move away from behaviors that will embitter us toward those around us. We should pray for God’s governance when our anger is unleashed, whether justifiable or not. We should be better than those we are unhappy with, for that is what God wants from His children. When all else fails we should ask God to intervene and then give our One who is slow to anger time to remedy the situation for us. His justice is the only true justice we’ll ever find.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

Can we fully trust those whom we don’t know? Does it seem natural to find comfort in the arms of strangers? Shall we willfully turn our lives and assets over to those who share similar trust concerns of their own? Or is it far easier to lean on ourselves, on our proven abilities, on our own strengths, even while they might seem inadequate when compared to our demonstrated weaknesses and flaws? This is our dilemma, in a hurried life, we rarely take the necessary time to develop the kind of relationship which really requires us to forego our independence and put everything we value in the hands of a stranger. We say that we believe in God, but so very few of us ever really behave like we do. To really believe in our God, requires a knowledge, which when called upon trumps all self reliance, all other relational dependence and at times the concrete logic which we’ve set as our life foundation. Such a belief may begin as faith, but with work and God’s help, that faith is transformed into certain knowledge. It’s a rare person, who knows and trusts God above all else. That rare person knows without any doubt, this about our God. “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4 NIV). If we can absorb and accept this description as an absolute truth, our inferior human doubts can begin to be erased.

There is no other beside God who fits this description. God doesn’t need to prove this to us, we need to prove this to ourselves and that is no small task. Often, to move ahead, we must be faced with impossible barriers blocking our paths. We must be forced to take unfamiliar detours without a map. These unwanted obstacles may seem to us like the worst that could happen, but if our necessary detours should bring our deaf ears close enough to the voice of God to really hear Him, even once, our lives will be permanently transformed. This stranger we call Jesus Christ, will develop within us a face, a strength, a compassion and love like no other. His outstretched hand will become the shelter and support we seek in every storm. His alone will be the voice of reason. He will become to us, what He’s become to others, Hope. And yes there is one more giant step in this evolution of ours, in time that Hope will become the purest, absolute certainty which transcends everything else we thought we understood about life. But we need to know Him to fully trust Him. Know this about Jesus to start or continue, He would never, ever do anything to hurt us.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

Doctor’s use skills and medicines to treat or cure disorders. Psychologists use observations and communication to address emotional dilemmas. Social workers resolve societal imbalances. Couples have love to carry them through trials. Children have parents to see to their best interests. These advisors, overseers and guardians each use what they have to pursue solutions to problems, of others and themselves. Christians have the necessary resource available to perform all of the above services, and in following the advice of our leader, we do this simply for the pleasure of serving God and His children, who are also our neighbors.  There is no other pleasure in life which rivals the shear joy of feeling God use us to assist Him in answering the prayers and needs of others. The results are so gratifying that they justify and fulfill our lives. If we feel at times like situational losers, it’s because we aren’t serving the purposes God has in mind for us or we’re taking personal credit for the wisdom, talents and purpose God has instilled in us.

Here’s one way to do better. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV).  Doing our best to present to God as one approved involves doing what God has asked us or told us to do. As we know, He see’s right through everything else. Don’t be ashamed to represent God, be honored. And last but not least, let God do all the heavy thinking, then just follow His lead. The difference between His thinking and ours is that His is always on point, objective, wise, loving and free. His word is always the Word of truth. Every little corner of the world needs Him. There are times when people in distress close their hearts to God, but they might just be open to us. God uses His children to carry on the family business, but only after we’ve learned how to correctly handle the word of truth. His truth. Now how do we do this?  We pray for His assignments. We also pray for our own redemption and for Him to help us rectify our flaws and shortcomings. God speaks to us the most when we’re talking with Him, when we’re reading His word and thinking about its applications to our lives and those around us. Whenever God lets you in on somebody else’s painful secrets, reach out gently. Gently means allow the Lord to lead the encounter, do the heavy thinking,  uncover the missing pieces, solve the puzzle. When we can see God at work, and when His help is accepted, make sure the beneficiary knows who we represent.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

When tragedy or anguish enters our lives, we tend to search for an explanation. “Why me, or my loved one, what did we do to deserve this”? However, when love or joy makes an appearance, we presume that we certainly deserve it and rarely question or quickly praise the source of our joy. Are we so enamored with ourselves, our talents and contributions, that we can’t or won’t focus on the reality of life? In this perfectly ordered world is chance or happenstance really a key player? Human nature is to dismiss and move past our misses and then dwell in the victories of our lives. A conveniently blended “don’t cry over spilled milk and the cream always rises to the top” approach. While not getting stuck in misery is a healthy attitude, claiming title to the blessings which suddenly appear to lift us up is downright myopic. If you’re a Christian it’s also selfish and disrespectful to God. God makes the best out of all of the bad things this life offers to His children and we should be thanking Him.  I don’t believe that God punishes us for our mistakes. God (to say it again) is love, light and life, there is no darkness around Him. He blesses us regularly but we often fail to recognize those blessings. There is darkness in this world. We find ourselves in both darkness and light for half of each day. This natural world we know is the exact garden necessary for this sunny, shadowy creation. We should expect half of our lives to play out in each environment. God’s goodness surrounds us every day. God’s Holy Spirit infuses us every day, but neither goes unchallenged. God’s light is the only answer to this darkness.

We must look deeper at life to understand even a little bit about our God. Not every blessing of His is delivered by an trumpeting angel. Most in fact just descend innocently enough upon us. The hand of God touching our lives. Sometimes dramatically ripping us from the jaws of darkness but more often just separating the clouds enough for a ray  of His light to filter through to us. If you’ve lost, try and appreciate what you had to have, to lose it. That something special or good in our lives comes to us from God. How long we have to enjoy it is a part of this light and dark world, which we’ll one day come to better understand. Not hearing His gentle voice leading us now is the real sadness. “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? (Luke 15:4 NIV).

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

For years I was confused, even put off by references to the Holy Ghost.  The name itself did not connote any aspect of living compassion for me. So when I finally started to research this religious moniker, I was surprised to learn that the version of the bible which I rely on (the NIV) does not make any reference to this name within the Holy Trinity of God. Whereas the KJ Version of the bible (and probably others) does employ this nomenclature for what I’ve come to call the Holy Spirit. In truth this confusion all boils down to several very old translations of the Greek and Latin manuscripts used in the compilation of the bible. Both names are used today to reference the same entity. That helped me to understand why God chose to refer to Himself simply as “I Am“. No confusion or limitations with that!! Anyway, the Holy Spirit (in essence) really is a very, very special being for us, with us and on our behalf and this verse from the Apostle Paul sums this up better than most.

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26, 27 NIV). I use the Internet constantly but I don’t understand the practicality of it’s workings. Stated simply, I couldn’t recreate it if I had to. The same is true for me with many of life’s specialty complications. We want things to work without having to be a master of the details. God makes this easy for us, or “user friendly”. A loving counselor, guide, translator, interpreter, mind reader and messenger all rolled into one and after-market installed for each of us. On call 24/7 for our conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious states of being. The best service on the planet and beyond! That even adds some light to the old catch phrase, “the devil’s in the details”. God didn’t want any more interference, so He by-passed the details for a clean and pure spiritual connection on a go-forward basis. The only part of this arrangement which concerns me is the stated fact that the Spirit only works for or with “… God’s people …”. That (by choice) leaves a lot of people without any trustworthy connection in life. Alone is only good for extremely brief periods and even then it’s a dangerous place. If you’re one of God’s people, the Holy Spirit is reading you right now. If you’re not, your alone but you can change that. There’s nothing like a high five with the Spirit, to make your day a lot better.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE

Virtually every human being who’s had any time to mature, is really good at something. The flip side of that is of course that there are also lots of things that we can barely do at all.  Occasionally those two factors lock horns and wear us out. For example I feel great compassion for any living thing that suffers, but because of my background (life experiences) I have significant difficulty showing that compassion to the same degree that I feel it.  All I can ever think is, what good is compassion in isolation? Finding a way to use our abilities and passions for the good of others is a challenge for many of us.  It’s easier to love our families than our neighbors. It’s also easier to walk past a hungry or homeless person than to stop, engage and assist one.  It immensely easier to phony up excuses for our behaviors than to change our comfortable patterns.  The most glaring of all O-missions however, is our highly developed skill at successfully justifying our selfish decisions and actions. Why did Jesus come here when He could have just corrected us with a thought or breath or maybe a wave of the hand that produced 40 endless days of rain and floods? Well it’s a lot more complicated than this article alone will outline but one reason that He came this last time was to show us what, as mere mortals, we are actually, inescapably capable of! No excuses, this is what one person of spirit, skin, bone, heart and intellect can be.

Jesus did a lot before the cross to teach us, then from the cross He gave us another chance to practically apply that learning.  If we choose not to apply it, we’ve rejected who our Lord is and there-in we’ve rejected God himself. These aren’t necessarily conscious decisions or actions, but come judgement day that explanation still won’t wear well. We are exactly what we do, not who we’d like to think we are or might one day become. Sure we can change, if we have the time?  Our mission should be to become more like our God. Our great O-mission is just to go on behaving selfishly and think that such behavior is fine since that’s what “everybody” else is doing! It may seem to work for them but it doesn’t work for God and ultimately it won’t work well for us. Jesus showed us what God wants. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16 NIV). God gave me compassion, I must find a practical way to employ it. What did He give you to share? Remove the “O” from omission, attach your gift and begin to glorify and please the Lord.

JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE