Todd Stocker's Blog, page 10

Super Bowl XLIX Greatness

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Deflate gate.��Brady sickness. ��Sherman��due date. ��No matter what part of the NFL Super Bowl��XLIX saga you follow, each has the possibility of making this Super Bowl one that could change on a dime [or millions of them if you’re a player].

Each year, it seems there are countless distractions for the players and fans. ��But if you watch closely, you’ll see greatness overcome obstacles. ��I mean, this is the Super Bowl, the biggest game on the planet. ��When the coin drops and the fist ball is kicked, the players will rise to the occasion because that’s what greatness does.

We all experience Super Bowl moments – times in our lives when we are called to rise to greatness. ��If we focus on the obstacles and the sub storyline that threatens to hold us back, we are, even before the first whistle blows, defeated.

Visualize the end. ��Picture the process of victory. ��Each play of your life. ��Each decision on the daily field. ��Each response to a bad call. ��You are given God’s power to win, obstacles and all.

Peace

 

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Airport Stories

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I love sitting at airports. Call me strange, but I enjoy watching people try to navigate the confusing garage parking, self-checkin ticket kiosks and security checkpoints. Truth be told, I am planted at a coffee shop as I write, waiting for my wife to come in from Miami. (Tough gig for a Minnesotan in January). To my left is the clanking baggage claim merry-go-round. To my right is a large window granting me first row seating to the various hello���s and goodbye���s that happen curb side.

As I watch the last minutes waves and embraces, I wonder about the stories that fill the pages of these families lives. Are they happy? Do they really love each other? Is there a secret behind the man who greeted his girlfriend with a plastic encased rose bought at the local gas station (yes, I can see the sticker from my perch).

Each of us have a story that intersects with the airports of loss and love, hope and helplessness, jilting and joy. But that is what makes life, life. How bland would the story be if at certain points you didn���t miss a flight – metaphorically anyway. How lifeless would the chapter be if the your ride home wasn���t ever late or one of the bags of your life didn���t quite make it to you.

It���s all beautiful. It���s all poignant. It all makes the journey as equally astounding as the destination.

Now I see a true love���s embrace. They are in their 70���s, I���m guessing, and it is obvious that the ups and downs of their story have made them close. And theirs continues at – of all places – an airport.

Peace!

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God With Us

Several years ago, I was one of 10 people who traveled to Israel on an ‘unscripted’ trip.  I say ‘unscripted’ because it wasn’t led by a tour company but by a colleague who’d been there many times before.  The beauty of this trip was that we went to places that most tour companies didn’t frequent.

As we galavanted from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and through the back roads of Jericho, I recognized three people from back in Jerusalem.  They just happened to be casually hanging out at every stop along our way.  I recognized one from our Jerusalem-based hotel’s restaurant.  Another was a local shop owner and yet another was someone from the pizzeria that sat profitably along the Via Dolorosa in Old Town.  They were based in Jerusalem, yet they happened to be in our proximity at the various stops along the countryside.  One was even on a public bus that we hopped as we entered into Manger Square.

“Strange,” I thought until I found out that one person on our trip had a father employed at the US Department of Defense.  The three followers were his lookouts for us to make sure we were safe.  They were with us the entire trip and I felt safe.

This Christmas and New Years season, I reflect on one of the monikers given to Baby Jesus. That title is Emmanuel which means “God with us.”  God with us.  Like our three unsuspecting companions in Jerusalem that were there to keep us safe, God is with you as you enter into 2015.  

If you take time to think about that, it is truly amazing that the God who created everything would love you enough to be with you at every moment of everyday.  The God who holds and withholds everything in your life is with you during the amazing times and during the struggles. 

In Psalm 77, the writer talks about what to do when God seems absent.  In essence the first nine verses outline the dilemma of pain and sorry and loss as it relates to the follower of Christ.  Then the remaining verses answer the question, “How can I get through pain?”  “How can I know God is good and that He isn’t absent.”  The answer to both is that while sometimes he may be hidden, he is still guiding and leading and loving you through it all. 

So as we begin 2015, look around you.  God is near.  He speaks through his word.  He consoles through his people.  He leads through his Spirit.  He does it all for the sake of Jesus and out of his love for you.  

Peace!

Too Busy To Drink

Indulge me in a quick time of introspection.  

I just looked back at the last time I spent enough time to journal my bible reading (read about that here) and it was over a month ago.  For me, that’s far too long.  I’m not beating myself up about it.  I’m not offering rams, sheep and goats to make up for a sin, but in these early morning hours, I realize me dehydranic need to drink in the waters of God and his word.

It happens when I’m busy — my devotional time with God looks like last years Christmas gift sitting in the corner.

Yet, I need him — every hour, I need him.  So I’m getting back on track with the first appointment of my day — quiet time with God.  In these times, he tells me what to do.  He gives me new perspective on old problems.  He lifts my spirit and secures my soul so that I can live out my personal mission to honor him by adding value and leadership to others.  That’s being a stream of living water.

Peace!

Jesus – God’s Secret Santa Gift?

I sat in anticipation as my gift was opened.  The person who picked it didn’t know I gave it, yet they were thrilled.  It was a gum ball machine – $9.99 at Walgreens and the perfect secret santa gift.  I love this game.  You pick an anonymous gift.  If the next person wants it, they take it from you and you pick another and so on.

What struck me about these exchanges is what was happening inside of me on two occasions.  The first was when my gift was exchanged three times.  Like when a Facebook post is shared, my heart jumped with pride and I wanted to boast that it was my gift that was so popular.  The second experience was opposite.  My gift sat next to the chair of the person who opened it first.  The look on everyone’s face said it loud and clear.  This was a dud.  “Who doesn’t want a reindeer stamped plunger at Christmas?” I thought.

Not to trivialize in anyway, but make the analogy to God’s secret santa gift in Jesus.  It seems that a select few, on that first Christmas, would have swapped anything they had to get him.  For many – then and today – the unwrapping of Jesus is met with polite smiles and a casual ‘that’s nice’ from onlookers as this gift seems to be left on the floor of a random office Christmas party.

Hm.  Am I doing that right now?  Is the party of Christmas more important that than reason for the party?  Are the expectations of Christmas overshadowing the magnitude of the Giver shown in the power of the Gift?  Am I rushing through it rather than living in it?  I wonder.

This Christmas, as you unwrap stuff, ponder Jesus.  Think about him.  Experience again the innocence and depth of the gift that brought you eternal, abundant life.  The gift is Jesus.

Peace!

He Restores My Soul

It’s the kind of morning that comes too often.  Flying into the hours too fast.  Running out the door.  Forgetting what shouldn’t be forgotten and listening to the drone of the radio talk as I head to work.  

Except, this morning, I choose to derail the norm.  I really don’t need to get into work before my first of many meetings.  I really don’t need to learn one more thing about the world.  So, this morning, I choose to power down.  Radio off.  Deep breath in.  And now I’m positioned at a coffee shop, waiting for the sun to crawl from its bed and pull off the covers of light that wakens my side of the earth.

I need refreshing today.  I need restoration.  It’s been a long run.  

“… he restores my soul”

Biblically, ‘restore’ means to return back to an original place.  That’s what I need — what you need — daily restoration of your total being, back to a place of simple purity, of hope, of comfort and peace.  

Unfortunately, it’s cloudy today.  No direct rays of reddish-orange light cutting through a devilish blue night sky.  But there is light, nonetheless — enough to remind me that all is okay, all is well.  Rushing is optional — my choice to do.  And today, I choose to be restored.  

Peace!

I Choose Joy

Up here, it’s cold, rainy and dark.  The yellowing tree leaves pretend to be the sun but it’s still rank with clouds.  Such it is transition for us Northerners from summer to winter through fall.

I enjoy the change but I have to choose to do so.  I like when old and new collide into a splattering of colors, but I have to choose to do so.  I happily breathe deep the morning chill that is the appetizer to frost, but I have to choose to do so.

My life – your life – is threaded with changes and transitions.  Losses and hurts, joys and euphorias, all write on the pages our your story.  How is God asking you to respond?  How do you handle the ache of an empty household?  How do you deal with the mountain of responsibilities that lean my way?

God says,

“Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.” Romans 12:12.

Basically, God indicates that I have the power of choice.

So, today, as the leaves fall around me and the fall-rain sets in, I choose joy.

Peace!

Makenzie’s College Visit: Revelation University

We’ve begun a search.

Our youngest is a senior in High School and is in the process of college-shopping.  For those of you who’ve walked this path, you know that it means college-visits and you understand the drill:  setting up appointments with the various departments, looking at their academics, talking with coaches and those who fan the flame of the arts – it’s all part of the gig.  But the most telling and the most exciting part of this journey is the time you actually step on campus to take a look and the environment and feel the ‘vibe’ of the school.

Why do we parents want to do this cross-country trekking?  Simply because we want to know where our kids are going to be.  We want to know what it looks like.  We want to know it’s safe.  We want a visual to hold when they leave our proverbial nest and venture to ‘that distant land.’

This morning, I did a college visit.  (Stay with me as I make a connection).  My SOAP Devotion was on Revelation 21+22 which describes the ‘college’ at which my oldest daughter, Makenzie, now attends.  I walked the halls of the campus that holds an estimated 195 Quadrillion people.  I strolled through its center cut in half by the flowing Alma Mater River of Life.  I inquired about the after dark curfew for the dorms and found out there was none since night didn’t exist there.  (Whew!)

At the end, I came off the visit satisfied that my Makenzie is in the perfect setting.  She is in the Heaven that someday I’ll attend.  She is meeting tons (literally) of new people.  She is learning more and more about the President and Leadership of Heaven and she is completely happy – no sorry, worry or tears.  My daddy-heart is joyful because I know where she is and what it looks like.

And the beauty is, it’s all free!

Peace!

Links:

Makenzie’s Story

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I’m Forgiven: Millions And Thousands

I love the story Jesus tells in Matthew 18 of a guy who owed a king millions of dollars.  The king decides to call in all his debts which obviously put the guy in a very bad spot.  The man begged for mercy and the king forgave the millions.  But then the forgiven guy turns around and finds someone who owes him only a few thousand dollars.  He basically beats him up and puts him in jail until he could pay it back. 

When the king found out, he had the original forgivee thrown in prison and tortured for his lack of compassion, perspective and mercy.

Millions and Thousands.

Crazy thing is, that doesn’t sound like our God.  When God cancels the debt of our sin, it’s a done deal right?  Why would a loving God turn and torture we who are born in sin?  Aren’t we forgiven through Christ’s sacrifice? 

What  if the prison and torture to which Jesus is referring has a deeper meaning.  What if the consequence of your lack of forgiveness feels like a prison.  I know for me, when I hold grudges and harbor resentment against other people, that I am ‘tortured’ by the un-peace I sense and can’t live in freedom in that relationship until I forgive. 

God has forgiven me the millions upon millions of sin debt.  Today, I will strive to let go the feelings of wanting revenge, of passive aggressive tendencies and of grade-school grudges.  Today, I will live holding the perspective of the millions over and against the thousands.

Peace!

Vulnerable: A 9/11 Thought

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  Psalm 34:18

9/11.

Anniversaries can sting.  The recollection of the death of a chid.  The days of counting since the dissolution of a marriage.  The remembrance of a horrific event.  That is today for we who call ourselves Americans.  As we watched the events unfold thirteen years ago, we made note of where we were, what we were doing and how the days to follow were clouded by the dull numbness of shock and the feeling that we were, in fact, vulnerable.

Vulnerable.

The sense that we are susceptible to attack.  The feeling that no place is safe.  The gravity of our barrenness.  That is how we are.  And that is where God meets us.  When we are broken-hearted and vulnerable, God meets us there.  When we are under emotional barrage, God saves us.  When our blue-sky life is suddenly darkened by the smoke of despair, God steadies us.  And in our vulnerability, He whispers, “I am here.”

Peace!