52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #10 – What We Still Have

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #10 – What We Still Have

In Week 10 of 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for what we still have.

Earlier this week we received a phone call that makes the heart of every parent drop, “Dad, I’ve been in an accident…”

I thank God that the voice on the other end of the phone was our child. Upon hearing the details of the accident, it easily could have been a different call.

That night could have ended in heartbreak. I can only hope that we could remember God’s goodness in the midst of such unimaginable grief.

Life is a vapor, but God is good all the time.

So, I’m thankful for what we still have.

I intend to make the best of it.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #9 – Constant

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #9 - Constant

In Week 9 of 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for my father’s consistency in honor of his birthday.

There are few constants in this world, and my Dad is one of them.

In a life that can be confusing to navigate, his consistency helps me solve for the variability of the rest.

I’ve tried to pass this on to our sons, teaching them:
“Do what you’ve set out to do regardless of how others act or react.”

I have found that I can navigate virtually anything with anyone when there’s something to come back to that does not move.

Thank you for being that for me, Dad.

I hope to honor you by being that for others so that this value I’ve received from you remains

Constant.

Happy Birthday.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #8 – The Questions

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #8 - The Questions

In Week 8 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for the questions.

My pastor, mentor, and spiritual father, Dr. Gregory Wilson Jones, did not just tell us what Scripture said; he constantly asked us what Scripture said.

First, he made sure we were reading, and second, he ensured we were engaged with Scripture by asking questions that made us wrestle with and explain its meaning in our own words.

Dr. Jones did not just lead Bible class, he taught Bible courses! There was literally a syllabus for each series and everyone received a printed outline for each class. He taught hefty theological concepts but in a way anyone could relate to. I remember many nights where children were sincerely engaged, asking wonderful questions during our discussions.

Dr. Jones understood that growth comes from challenges that are indicated by questions rather than from comfort that results from being spoon-fed.

Oh, how I love that man and miss him.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #7 – My Person

In Week 7 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for “my person”.

It’s conference season and this week my wife and I had a happy happenstance where we had conferences in the same city on the same day. So, we got to travel and room together.

We also have an upcoming conference where the other gets to tag along. We had a little tiff because there was yet another conference for the very next week but I couldn’t attend. I was like, “Babe, I want to, but I can’t be away from the office that long!” 🤣

I thought about this as we were traveling recently. We weren’t doing anything special this go round, no flights, no fancy restaurants, just a basic road trip. We simply wanted to be around each other. That’s not a small thing and I’m extremely thankful for it.

To have someone I want to be with who wants to be with me (today 🤣) makes me very happy.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG

Why Get Up?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Why Get Up?

It’s a struggle to get out of bed many mornings, to push past the darkness.

So, why do it?

Hope.

I have good reason to expect the day when the darkness will cease because the Son has come.

So, with eager expectation I move; walking by faith that allows me to maintain the fight even though my feelings suggest that I’m failing.

I’m fueled by the pleasure of seeing God’s kingdom order come to everything—both the process and the product—to this day and the day it will be fully consummated.

I do it because I believe the love He has for us (1 John 4:16), because I love Him, and I can’t wait for everyone to experience that when He’s King of all.

So, I make Him king of everything I can today.

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:13

#thriveday #goodworks #perfectourlove

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #6 – A New Generation

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #6 – A New Generation

In Week 6 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for a new generation.

My nephew and I were out one Saturday and happened upon a car broken down in the middle of traffic. There’s a young man driving with several other young men in the car.

You could see in their faces they weren’t sure what to do. So, my nephew and I stopped to see if we could at least help to push them out of traffic. As it turns out, their car, a 2013 Ford Escort, has a shift lock mechanism that prevents the car from being put into neutral if it doesn’t crank (darn new-fangled doohickeys).

As we’re figuring out how to disengage the shift lock and get the car in neutral, the driver, a young man by the name of Jeremiah (who is no more than 16) introduces himself to my nephew. He engages in conversation, sharing that he and the young men that were with him were on the way to a baby shower. He asks my nephew, “Are you a new student at State? What are you studying?”

Then Jeremiah says (as we’re all standing closely around a car in the middle of traffic), “Man, it’s great to meet you. I really appreciate your help today. If you don’t have a church home, I invite you to come hang with me at Peter’s Rock.”

I could have swallowed my head I was grinning so wide at this young black man’s poise, confidence, boldness and willingness in his witness.

Though this young man didn’t know what to do about the car, he fully understood the ultimate assignment.

In the words of KB,
“They say [young people] are leaving God.
I just smiled, like, ‘You really need to see the squad.'”
-From the song, “We right here”

God is doing something
in every generation.
(1 John 2:13-14)

I’m grateful.

#52WoG

How Work for Him Establishes Our Plans

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - How Work for Him Establishes Our Plans

Proverbs 16:3,

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and He will establish your plans.”

What a curious turn of phrase.

I find it interesting that the verse does not say “give your plans to Lord that He may establish them”.

Because that’s typically how we approach things, right? We plan; we set priorities and goals, then we do the work to establish those plans.

But, I find the Word of God to be true and observe something amazing.

When I do what I do for God —even when I don’t know where I’m going, He establishes my plans —He gives me what I didn’t know I wanted or needed. He gives me the truest, deepest desires of my heart —which is always some expression of Himself in various forms.

I didn’t put having a warrior of a wife, loving sons, in-laws that are blood to me, a host of delightfully different people made dear family to me through Jesus Christ, fullness, wholeness, satisfaction, joy, peace or many of the indescribably wonderful things I currently enjoy on my vision board.

But, God.

God gave them to me in the course of my trying, and often failing to follow Him, even when I didn’t know what I was really doing or where I was going.

Jesus said don’t seek after what everyone else in the world seeks after, because your Father knows what you have need of even before you ask (Matthew 6:8). And, He also knows what you want most deeply even before you do.

What I see, is that to obey with a heart committed to the Lord is to experience the kingdom. And, His Kingdom is what I want most deeply. This is my plan, though largely unknown to me, that He establishes.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
— 1 Corinthians 2:9

It’s true.

So, my strategy is simple: love God, do what I do for Him and I cannot fail.

#thriveday

Never Forget We Are At War

Never forget we are at war. Hearts are a strategic objective—for us and the evil one. One of his primary aims is to make us bitter.

“Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.”
— Hebrews 12:15

Bitterness cannot be contained. You cannot hate people or desire their harm without poisoning the well that waters every other area of your life—including those you love most dearly.

Guard your heart. Fight to love everyone.
#spiritualwarfare #perfectourlove

The Communion Principle

If it does not promote or protect Communion with God through Christ, it is wrong and sin.

Communion reflects who Jesus is, what He seeks and what He does, and has become a useful principle against which I can test everything else to bring it into obedience to Christ.

In just one example, it guards me against dabbling in worldly philosophies such as stoicism. Stoicism is clearly unacceptable because it seeks something other than communion and has at its core, from which it draws, something other than Christ.

Likewise, it makes clear why Jordan Peterson is not someone to follow.

Christ alone. Communion with God though Him is the pursuit.

#communion