Waking Up Lions

Broken with gladness!!

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry,

When your soul leaps out with a ginormous sigh,

When the tear ducts of your heart wash out the stress

When your sense of being is in a blissful mess

How can one measure this rapturous state?

What words can describe this glorious fate?

How can crying and laughter dance at the same time?

How does a heart instantly experience sublime?

All I know is that God answers prayers!!

He knows all of our needs and affairs.

He is comfortable with His mystery

He is way beyond time and space.

AND He so longs to put a huge smile on our face.

When your heart is smashed with worldly pain

and your dreams are lost in hopeless gain.

When your brother calls to check on your soul

and your words are stuck in a black hole…

Cry out to Him! Draw near to Him.

Wait on Him and His timing

even if there is no reason or rhyming.

Remember, His love is greater than our hopes and dreams,

He goes before us no matter how this world seems.

Frequent His path and watch for your heart to be “broken with gladness.”

If you’re waiting to be in a good mood where everything lines up perfectly in the day…this is what I have to say… wait no longer! Seize the day, clothe yourselves with power on high! Give the Lord a chance to change your heart and Watch What Happens!

“We will slide towards being rude if we wait for the right mood!”

This is what I am learning in my journey of contentment and gratefulness.

Take a couple of good deep breaths, drink a coffee or two and reboot your heart and mind! Stop looking at what you don’t have and focus on what you do have…yes what you do have!

Let’s say you have a runny nose and a cough, which my wife knows when I do because I get grouchy! Instead of focusing on the runny nose and cough(or other ailments or irritations or even expectations not met) I need to focus on and be grateful for what is working. I need to be grateful for clean water, I need to be grateful for food on the table and for healthy kids. I need to focus on what is amazing and not on what is bumping me into a bad way! It’s actually through trials that we grow and learn to lean more on God and not on ourselves. I actually can be grateful and joyful through trials and the hardest of times.

This year I celebrate 6 years and 6 months of recovery from cancer. We are taught to redeem the time and be grateful for everyday. My prayer for my family is that we learn to be grateful and to be content in whatever circumstance we are in. There are so many things that we can’t control. Charles Swindoll says there is one thing we can control and that is our attitude. We need to be grateful for the smallest things, like a smile from a friend or a joke that makes you belly laugh until you cry.

My family has a tradition at the dinner table to name 10 things we’re thankful for and after about number three or four we start realizing wow we really do have so much. The first three help clean up the manure of ungratefulness in our brains and hearts!

That’s why it’s so important when we are out and about and especially in our homes, to be filled not with ourselves or with bad attitudes, but rather filled with the Spirit of God.

Even the smallest appreciation for the functions in our body that do work, when naming just even some of them become a blessing.

I coach swimming at the YMCA and I see people swimming with one leg or some kind of ailment. Many times, I realize I’m the one with the handicap especially when I see them smiling and being grateful for what they do have.

Most of all, be grateful for being loved and being able to love.. only because He loved us first! Love can break through any Darkness and depression. Love can break through even bitterness and unforgiveness. Love, from above, will transform our overburdened earthly attitudes of ungratitude. Love from above makes us come alive and fills our hearts with soothing joy.

I am still how learning to be grateful or content everyday, but the Lord is helping me in my heart and mind to say more often… I shouldn’t be this happy, but I am.. because my life( my mind and heart) has been redeemed!

Have a blessed, grateful, joy filled day!

And when somebody asks you how you’re doing?.. you can say…I shouldn’t be this happy!!

Brad

 

 

Dear Lord,

I’m asking You to show me how I can show more daily love to our girls in such a way that they would see You even more. Help me to put on a smile glowing like a full moon even when my day was challenging. Help me make them laugh even more than they do so they know a healthy alternative to sadness and anxiety. Help me to be a living example of gratefulness and contentment so they don’t fall into the world of entitlement.  Help me be there for them especially in those times when they need their dad’s hugs and words of encouragement. Help me to bring them to You for their deepest needs and cries of their hearts so they grow in You more than anything. Teach me more on how to listen to their stories of the day to show them that everything matters. Remind me in the toughest of days that You care even more than Traci and I do about their wellbeing.

So Lord I give them to You again and say WOW..You amaze me daily on how You are shaping the character of our kids! Thank you forever for Olivia and Hannah! You couldn’t have done better!!

Brad

“But officer…”

I said, with my deepest voice of sincerity,

“…I don’t really know how I ended up driving my Willy’s truck on the Arizona State University campus.”

Four officers surrounded me in front of the Life Science building on Palm Walk. I looked into the rear view mirror of my truck to grin at my buddies who dared me, only to find that they ditched me in time to face the hungry “Barney Fife” campus police alone!  The biggest officer, who had a City of Tempe badge, said,

“Son what in the hell are you doing?”

My perfectly thought-out response of, “I really don’t have a clue” didn’t win any points with my potential punishment. I started daydreaming as the group of police confiscated my drivers license to run it in their computer system. My first thought was,

“What will my dad say? What will his punishment be?”

I was abruptly awakened by the lead officer’s voice whispering,

“I think this guy is Dr. Hering’s son!”

Panic ran through my body and I was ready to say gracefully,

“Just give me the ticket please!”

That’s when the biggest officer limped over to my truck window and asked me a very profound question.

“Are you Dr. Hering’s son?” He asked.

I think my eyes went cross eyed and I had a multiple possible answers besides “Yes I am” and “NO I’m not.” Then, after what seemed like coming out of anesthesia, or like my brain traveled through a black hole of brainless space, I was confronted with the bridge of honesty. Do I tell the truth or do I attempt to navigate around truth and float on de NILE (denial)? My jaw slowly moved out of rigamortis and my tongue was suddenly healed from cramping. My lips came out of their hypothermia mode, and I softly uttered,

“Yes, I am.”

Not knowing how the officer would respond, I squinted my eyes to try and hide and after what seemed to be two to three minutes. He said,

“Boy, this is a good day for you!”

In my mind, I imagined a Roman prison cell with shackles and torture devices. Next, I heard the officer say,

“The only reason I can walk today is because your dad put my right leg back together after my horrific motorcycle accident.”

He proceeded to describe how most of his leg became one with the asphalt in front of some jewelry store on 16th street, but I was in a rapturous trance of hopeful delight. Telling the truth absolutely paid off! The other officers faces reflected painful disgust as they heard the City of Tempe officer say,

“Now, get the hell out of here and next time you get a dare, try to pick day when they don’t have a city wide police convention on campus!”

The truth does set you free.

Sometimes it seems God is so far away..but He’s not. There is a bridge of honesty and humility that must be crossed to hear Him and to let go of our baggage.

 

“One of the biggest daily battles is between honestly and pride, the things that free us or bind us are battling deep inside
The starting point to winning every battle is Honest conversation with oneself and God. Questions brought before the Lord like…how is this pattern bringing fruit into my life and in others? How does this action bless my sisters and brothers? Have I truly brought this pride to the Lord? Or is it just a fleeting pleasure when I’m bored?
Honesty and humility is Jesus’ path. Receive His freeing grace or prepare for some wrath.
Not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit of humility…He wins the hour. So pick up the blade of humility and guard your heart throughout the day. He will fight your battles and you will find the way. A Life of peace, a well of joy, a daily power no one can destroy.

Don’t be afraid to cross the bridge of Honesty..there’s a gift waiting for you on the other side! God is upholding you with His righteous right hand!”


There comes a time in every man’s life
whether he’s single or has a family and wife
where he must be awakened from his false deep sleep
where he must stand back up and breathe in deep
where his veins of ferocity come back alive
and his quest for discovery is in overdrive
whether his body and mind are completely well
with the pulse of his heart, it’s easy to tell
whether he’s truly alive or crippled inside
whether he’s captured by fears, inadequacies & lies
his heart will stay dormant and slowly die
this lion must be awakened from this poisoned spell
from his prison of despair and premature hell
like a King wearing a crown with a soulless frown
forgetting his true orders, his soul is trapped and bound
Awaken! My mentor, my lion, my life time friend
waken your true heart
come alive again!