Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

Upon returning from space, the Russian cosmonaut Gherman Titoy said, “Some people say there is a God out there…but in my travels around the earth all day long, I looked around and didn’t see Him…I saw no God nor angels. The rocket was made by our own people. I don’t believe in God. I believe in man, his strength, his possibilities, and his reason.”

Isn’t it amazing that at moments when we’re most vulnerable, and most clearly confronted with God’s majesty, we can be so unaware of His presence?

God is wiser than we can comprehend, more immense than we’re comfortable with, and merciful beyond the reaches of our imaginations.

Yet, He’s also the One through whom everything makes sense. So don’t mistakenly think that faith is the result of understanding. It’s the opposite. Faith is the basis for understanding.

Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right. – Max Lucado

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blessings to each of you!

Chaplain Rob

When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. – Genesis 32:25

There’s a story in the Bible about Jacob wrestling with God, and as a result, God touched Jacob’s hip resulting in Jacob walking the rest of his days with a limp.

Have you wrestled with God? What’s your limp? Do you have a scar or a wound that you have hidden from the world? Note that God gave Jacob a limp. Unlike a scar or a wound, you can’t hide a limp. It shows whenever you get up and move around. I think God wanted Jacob to limp with pride. It was his battle scar.

What’s your battle scar? Have you accepted them for what they are and for the person they have made you? Have you allowed the pain of your wrestling match to grow you into a better, more compassionate person? Let God unfold more of His beauty and grace and love in your life. Would you have it any other way?
God will take the lowest of all and raise him up. He’ll take the weakest one and strengthen him. He’ll take the most insecure and fill him with courage. He’ll take the least and make him the most. All you have to do is let him.

So, whatever your limp is, walk with it and don’t deny it. It is who you are, and He is molding you into a masterpiece. You are who you are because of your painful past. God accepts you right where you are, limp and all. I hope you do, too.

Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has.
– Billy Graham

The wound is the place where the Light enters you. – Rumi

Blessings,

Chaplain Rob

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. – Hebrews 10:24

The first sentence of Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life is this: “It’s not about you!” Do you believe that? Does your life reflect that? It’s a struggle for me, and I bet it’s a struggle for you.

Consider these situations: You’re in the checkout line and the older gentleman in front of you wants to write a check, but can’t find his checkbook. He locates his checkbook, but now he has no pen. Finally pen in hand, he inquires about the date. The clerk noticing his out-of-state check calls for approval. This short “in-and-out” errand adds additional minutes to your packed schedule. It was probably the most inconvenient experience you’ve gone through. There ought to be a law! Or in the words of my mother, “It’s always something!”

Or what about your restaurant experience with the hamburger and no ketchup because the waitress forgot. She is off talking, ignoring your request, and crying about something. The serving station has ketchup but it is her job. So you sit, tap your fingers on the table, and shoot darts at the lady crying at the back of the restaurant.

Did you think to say a kind word to the gentleman to help settle his nerves, or tell the waitress that you hope things get better. You might even leave a bigger tip or offer to pray for her. It’s not about you! Look outside yourself. It’s what we’re called to do. Try it. See if God doesn’t affirm you for it.

Only God can give us a selfless love for others, as the Holy Spirit changes us from within. This is one reason we must receive Christ, for apart from His Spirit we can never be freed from the chains of selfishness, jealousy, and indifference. Will others see Christ’s love in your life today? – Billy Graham

Chaplain, Rob

Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. – 1 John 3:18

If you’re like me, you live a life in community, but your community isn’t likely one to include your neighbors. I know people who have lived in their neighborhoods for years and still don’t know their neighbors’ names. Busyness blocks out the world immediately around them.

A friend of mine recently shared a story with me. She said that she’s lived in the same neighborhood for twelve years and never really reached out to any of her neighbors. Having learned that one of her neighbors was battling cancer and leukemia, she thought that the time had come to express care, concern, and love to her.

So, she wrote a note, wrapped up a little stuffed bunny, and approached her neighbor’s house. Her heart was pounding. Was she opening herself to ridicule? She knocked on the door, wondering how this little gift and expression of care would be received. When the neighbor came to the door, she could tell that this hand delivered expression of love really moved her. The whole 10-minute process, doing exactly what God wanted her to do, was a blessing to both and an expression of the love of God to her neighbor.

Do you need to step out of your comfort zone and express love and concern to someone? Just look around you; the opportunities are there. We just close them off in our hurry to have a day without interruptions. Express some care and concern for someone today. Lend someone a helping hand. Spend time (and money if necessary) to be an agent of God’s love. You know you need to do it!

You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes. – A. A. Milne

Blessings,

Chaplain Rob

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:1

We live in a culture that values things that are large, extravagant, and impossible to miss. For this reason, we’re tempted to look at the struggles in our rather ordinary lives, and consider our victories insignificant if they’re not acknowledged or recognized by others.

But that’s just not true. Victor Hugo, the great French playwright who penned Les Misérables, rightly said our “greatest actions are performed in minor struggles. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment and poverty are battlefields which have their heroes, obscure heroes who are at times greater than illustrious heroes.”

It’s not the size of the audience, or the amount of applause, that determines the value of your achievements. Live your life before the one true God. And live it with faith, hope, and love even though you’re not getting accolades for it. Remember, your true character is what you do when no one is looking.

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip. – Will Rogers

Blessings,

Chaplin Rob

“Trust me in your times of trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory” (Psalm 50:15 NLT).

When I ask people what keeps them from trusting in God, they sometimes say, “Well, I haven’t seen what’s on the other end, so I’m not going to trust it.” Yet they trust all the time in things they can’t see.

We can’t see television or radio waves, but we watch TV and listen to the radio. We can’t see cell phone waves, but we use our phones every day without thinking.

It’s selective trust. We trust what we want to trust.

What about you? Are you willing to trust in the One who is unseen but is more reliable and more dependable than any technology this world could create? Are you willing to commit your life to him?

If you are, I encourage you to pray this prayer:

“Dear God, forgive me for my pride and for thinking that I don’t need you in my life. I’m sorry. I admit that I need rescuing. I need saving. There is no way I can pay for my sins on my own.

“And so I’m asking you, Jesus, as much as I understand it, to rescue me and set me free. I am calling on you because you’ve said that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

“I want to commit my life to you, and I want to learn to trust you and know you better. Give me the better life and set me free. In your name I pray, Amen

Blessings,

Chaplain Rob

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. – 1 Corinthians 10:31

Too often we view our work as a curse rather than a divine calling. Renowned author Dorothy Sayers is precisely right in observing that we need “a thoroughgoing revolution in our whole attitude to work.”

Namely, that our work should be viewed not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life in which we find personal delight and magnify God’s glory. Sayers believes work, “should be thought of as a creative activity undertaken for the love of the work itself; and that. . . (men and women), made in God’s image, should make things, as God makes them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well worth doing.”

With the right attitude your work can be a source of personal blessing and a vehicle for glorifying God.

Train yourself to recognize the hand of God in everything that happens to you.  – Andrew Murray

Blessings,

Chaplin Rob

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. – Lamentations 3:40

I took a course in seminary and the professor told us that we could ask him anything we wanted, that his life was an open book. He would answer any question about anything. I didn’t believe him, but as the semester went on, I witnessed transparency in this man unlike anything I’d ever witnessed before.

It can be difficult to be real and open and honest, but if I want to continue growing and learning and being open to the awesome things God is doing, I have to at all costs keep myself accountable and let others know exactly where I am, what I’m feeling, what I’m concerned about; in short, just where I am emotionally.

When I don’t do that, that’s where the journey into isolation begins for me, and I head off into an unhealthy emotional state.

I want to be honest and exhibit integrity at all times. I want to be someone that others can trust and turn to knowing there will be no judgment. And I want others to come to me in the same way.

What keeps us from this transparency in life? I know one thing that hinders transparency is pride. Satan has used this since Adam and Eve to put a wedge between man and God. That’s why we have to put on the whole armor of God.

Our battles are spiritual. Don’t let pride get in the way of God’s call for you to live a transparent life.

Eyes so transparent that through them the soul is seen. – Theophile Gautier

Blessings,

Chaplin Rob

Recently I have been transcribing notes that my grandfather (deceased) left in some of his journals that he kept throughout his life.  A couple of days ago I came across this list that he wrote in December 1950.  I wanted to offer it to you for a thought for the day.   I hope it inspires you as it has inspired me.

45 Life Lessons

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2.  When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come…

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”

Blessings,

Chaplin Rob

No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death. – Ecclesiastes 8:8

When it comes to the length of your life, what do you consider long enough?

On March 9, 1996 comedian and actor George Burns passed away at the age of 100. He was still performing live comedy, until just a few years before his death. At his 98th birthday celebration, he addressed his guest in true “George Burns style”, saying “It’s nice to be here . . . at 98, it’s nice to be anywhere.”

At 98 years-old, George Burns considered every day a gift and he was right! Whether you’re twenty-two years old or ninety-two, life is precious and should never be taken for granted. None of us are born with a guaranteed number of days on this earth. We have no promise that we will be here tomorrow and should realize that each moment is priceless. In acknowledging each day as an irreplaceable gift, we will be more likely to make the most of the time that we are given.

Start each morning by thanking the Lord for the day He has given you. Then spend that day, as if you meant what you said. Remember that every moment is a gift.

When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick. – George Burns

Blessings,

Chaplin Rob