Making Waves reflections on walking with God and helping others do the same

In response to your feedback and some technical needs, I have retitled my blog to Your Disciplemaking Coach I have moved to a new “home,” dougnuenke.com. Don’t worry, I’ll still be writing practical posts on the topic of making waves of the gospel in our world through discipleship, I just redecorated and changed the name and address.

On a fishing trip to a high-country lake, I made an interesting observation. When there weren’t waves, we caught NO fish. When the waves picked up, things changed!  The waves bounced through the shallow waters, waking up the submerged bug life—putting them into the water in reach of the fish. The sandy shore spread into the shallows clouding the water just a bit, making it harder for the fish to tell the flies we were offering were fake bugs! The waves change everything – and the fish began to bite.

Pam and I lost our home and all our earthly belongings in the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs, back in June of 2012. One of the ways God hears us and acts on our behalf is by transforming the ruins of our lives into something beautiful.

The last couple of blog posts have focused on how clear our spiritual eyesight is. Without a doubt, how we view our daily circumstances plays a huge role in whether we approach the day with courage or with fear. 
 

So—Jesus says, “The eye is the lamp of the body…” (Matthew 6:22ff). He says, “If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.” What about how we view ourselves? 

In past posts I’ve mentioned Matthew 6 where Jesus speaks strongly about how important it is to “see” and how devastating it is when we don’t see clearly. “The eye is the lamp of the body…” (Matthew 6:22ff). Without a doubt, if our “eyesight” is “poor” and our view of God is distorted, it impacts everything!

Years ago, I sat with an older mentor friend and his wife. He was going through a very scary health issue. They had faith that God would be with them and take care of them, but they were also afraid at the same time. Isn’t this one of the grittiest paradoxes of human experience?

Most people live by an unwritten rule: Do good to those who do good to you or who might treat you well in the future. What Jesus suggests we do instead is crazy! But maybe this is why people who follow Him stand out from the crowd.

In our world of grading on a curve and passing everyone for showing up, Jesus spoke truth, revealing God’s perspective.  Look at your own life. What kind of fruit do you produce?

God has made every one of His followers a masterpiece with an attention-getting purpose. It feels good to think of, doesn’t it?!