This is a place where many adventures took place during my childhood. After I overcame my fear, I greatly enjoyed our horses. Jeneen and I were able to see the corrals this week. The pond in the background also holds memories. There were fish, ducks, and willows for fort building. Trying to raise the water level by throwing rocks in the creek leaving the pond gave hours of fun. Pitching hay into the trough to feed the horses, trying to catch them when they didn’t want to be caught, once apprehended, enjoying the bareback ride up the hill to the corral with just a belt around the neck of the animal, and then saddling up for rides around the area.

To look at the place now, no one would know all the events that took place there. It is a forgotten scene. As we travel the west, we see many such structures; buildings, abandoned cabins, barns, and corrals. These places were the homes, dreams of people, some recent but others, many years ago. There were battles with the elements, struggles with animals, and troubles with each other. There were times of joy and pain. Plans were made and carried out. Times have passed and people moved away or entered eternity. Others took their place, not having the same desires or dreams, abandoning the structures and life built before they arrived, carrying out their own plans and hopes.

We have one life to live on this earth. What will last? Too often we focus on the temporal, thinking it is the most important. Learn from history, learn from observation, and see the dilapidated structures of forgotten lives. We work hard and rightly so. We labor and we can enjoy the fruits of that labor. Ecclesiastes teaches that this is the gift of God to us. But that which matters most in this life is that which is done for eternity. Daily labor with plans and dreams for life on the earth is good and the walk with God, seeking Him, and knowing Him, to be with Him forever is eternally valuable.

“So shall we ever be with the Lord.”

In Psalm 101, David makes decisions about his life and reign as king of Israel. It is a good study on practical Christian living. He did not always follow the principles he spells out in the Psalm but they became foundational in his life. I can identify with David in his desires.

Recently I was asked a question that has caused me to reflect on my life. To paraphrase the question, “What have you found to be the most influential decisions you made as young person that helped you to become who you are today?” I have given much thought to the question, finally coming to an answer.

The first decision was that I wanted to follow the Lord, no matter if anyone else did. This kept me away from the influences of negative peer pressure, making me an independent thinker. Like David, I wanted to live the life God had for me and to walk with Him. Some of my friends were not. So that brought me to the next decision in my life. I want to be around people who are following the Lord. This decision became very influential.

Not everyone in the youth group wanted to walk with God. Within the church family were people who desired to live a life pleasing to the Lord and those who were just there. I found myself gravitating toward those serious about walking with the Lord. Church became a home, a place to be with others who loved the Lord, who wanted to grow and walk with Him. Not only did we meet together on Sunday but we became involved in each other’s lives throughout the week. They helped to focus me on the Lord, pointing me to Him.

So if I were to give advice to young people, I would tell them to walk with the Lord whether anyone else goes with you on the journey. God will sustain you. As they travel the path, they will find many others who love the Lord and are walking with Him. Get close to those people. No matter what happens in life, walk with the Lord.

How does a person take words spoken and written by millions of people and make them their own? The ability to communicate passion and emotion is worthy of thought and study. Words come from one person entering other’s lives. Meaning conveyed, emotion felt, ideas shared, all stemming from the ability to communicate. It is a wonder that one person can share their life with another; verbally, by talking or writing, drawing pictures, making music, using gestures, or facial expressions.

God gave us the ability to communicate with one another. He shows us how as He talks to us through His Word, through the Spirit, through the sights and sounds of creation, words and music for the soul. Many do not hear His voice because they are not listening. They do not see His beauty, feel His touch, or sense His emotion.

I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all, of time and eternity, of all God created and will create, of the complexity of one simple life. Yet, He loves and intimately knows – “ME” – and YOU. I can tell you what He means to me, what He has done in my life. All because, He has given us the ability to make words our own.

“Does anyone really listen to me?” “Am I making any kind of a real impact for the cause of Christ or am I just fooling myself?” “Maybe someone else would be more affective.” Others have shared these thoughts and I have entertained them at various times. Anyone in ministry, whether as a vocation or volunteer, wonders the usefulness of what they do. Some would say that this is not very spiritual. “If you are spiritual, it wouldn’t matter to you.” Let’s get past the platitudes and get to real life. We want to the best we can for the Lord and make the biggest impact we can for the cause of Christ. This causes us to evaluate what we do and our labor’s effectiveness.

Jeneen and I started in ministry as a vocation thirty five years ago. Much has transpired during those thirty five years. Would I do some things different if I could go back and start again? Absolutely! But we do not have a “do over.” Somehow, some way, God has worked in and through us over those years. Many times it would seem He worked in spite of us. Do I wish more would have happened; that we had a greater impact, more results, and wonderful fruit evidenced by everyone? Of course! But all we could do is be us. I have this treasure from God in an earthly vessel. I have thorns in the flesh. My weaknesses are for God’s strength and glory to be seen.

Pastoring a small church is not easy. Pastoring a large church is not easy. Let’s face it, ministry is not easy. It is a labor of love for the Lord, for His Word, for His people and for the lost. The results are in God’s hands. As I have said for years, “God is working in us and through us for His purposes and glory.” This conclusion has come after struggling with effectiveness in ministry.

We cannot look to the results to determine our impact. God is working in us and through us as we walk with Him. We cannot be anything more than who God has created us to be and do anything more than He empowers us to do. But we should be the godliest people we can be, letting God have His perfect way in our lives.

So, if you are pastoring a small church, be the godly pastor He wants you to be. The people God gives you to shepherd need someone to minister and love them. God has given them you. If you are pastoring a large church, be the godly pastor He wants you to be. Results are in His hands. He will work in you and through you to do His will as you walk surrendered to Him. You cannot be someone else. You cannot make it happen. God gives the increase in His time and His way. We are called to be faithful no matter where He places us or what position we hold. As we are faithful we can have confidence that God is bringing about His results in and through us according to His plan and for His glory.

May God freely work in you and through you and you walk with Him. May we be content with His will and His results for our lives while striving to be all He would want us to be.

When backpacking, I encourage the men to stop every 10 or 15 minutes to look back, seeing the area they had just hiked from a new perspective. The purpose of looking back is to give a view of the area but from the other side. People have hiked down the same trail they hiked earlier but found the scenery different. This has caused some to think they are not on the right trail or ridge, leading to them taking a different route, becoming further disorientated and eventually lost in the mountains.

It is easy plodding along the trail to keep your head down, watching your step and miss what is around you. The expression, you can’t see the forest for the trees would apply. When hiking the trail, you only see what is ahead if you do not stop and look back.

How do you know God is working in your life? It is difficult to distinguish from moment to moment the working of God. This is why we walk by faith and not by sight. We must believe that He is as He promised He would. But how do we know? We want something tangible to grasp.

The easiest way to see the working of God in your life is to look back. Remember what you were and who you are now. As we live committed to the Lord and His will, we see Him working. Sometimes it is very obvious but other times not. Here is where faith comes into the picture. If we look back, we can see how the Lord led us through events in our lives. We can see His hand in the daily situations. We can see how He developed our marriages and families as we walked with Him. It is also easy to see where we went astray when we look back, those times we did not walk with the Lord.

God is working in our lives as we walk by faith and not by sight. He works in us and through us. He brings others into our lives for various reasons and purposes. It is easily seen looking back. Doing this throughout the day, you will see God’s guidance, working, enabling, wisdom, and strength. You will say, “I didn’t know it at the moment but God, you are working.” Take time to look back. It brings God closer to the present. He is working right now, even though you may not see it, you will when you look back.

The walk of the believer can be simplified into this simple question, “Are you walking by means of the Spirit or the flesh?” If asked, many believers would not know if the Holy Spirit is actually working in their lives. One question I often ask is, “When was the last time you were under Holy Spirit conviction of sin and knew it was the Spirit, not someone else making you feel guilty?” For many, this is a difficult question.

The New Testament speaks of the comparison of walking in the Spirit or walking fleshly. When we walk in the Spirit, we walk by faith, in the light, experiencing the life in Christ. When we walk by means of our flesh, we walk by sight, in darkness, experiencing the death of sin. No one can experience both at the same time. You are in one or the other as you live each moment.

This brings us to the necessity of walking by means of the Holy Spirit in order to experience the life we have received from Christ. It is a walk of surrendering control to God, dealing with sin as the Holy Spirit convicts, yielding control to God, and embracing His desire and will for your life.

When we walk with the Lord by means of the Spirit, our life is consumed with glorifying God. An observable sign of how you are walking is distinguishing the purpose for your life at the moment. The Spirit will lead us to glorify Christ. The flesh will lead us to watch out for ourselves. If it is all about you, this indicates you are walking in your flesh to the glory of yourself in some way. The Spirit leads us to experience the walk in Christ, experiencing the abundant life of joy and peace, walking in love, to the glory of God.

To find corrupt politicians they say, “Follow the money trail.” To find Christians walking in the flesh, “follow the glory trail.” Who is getting the glory for your life?

The trees move with the wind, making sounds as the unseen passes through the pine needles and leaves of the trees. Waves of music are carried through the air, soothing, moving with the wind to new notes played by different instruments, the trees becoming the orchestra, each playing their part in the symphony.

As a young boy I remember listening to the orchestra of wind play as I would walk by myself throughout town. The sound became a comfort and yet a pause to my heart. I would listen to the voice of the wind as it played its melody, singing, “Even though you cannot see me, I am here and the song I play is evidence of my being, reaching out to touch you.

In my grade school music class, we were taught a song about the wind. It was from a musical produced in 1951 called “Paint Your Wagon.” The song was “They Call the Wind Mariah.” Somehow the music made the wind seem alive, naming it, speaking about it, and showing its effects.

The wind is used in the Bible many times. It was the mighty rushing wind which signaled the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. Jesus used the wind as an example of being born of the Spirit in John 3. An interesting observation is that the wind and the Spirit are not seen but evidenced by what they do; the wind as described earlier and the Holy Spirit as being in control and producing fruit in the Christian. Both are unseen but there.