I remember so clearly their voices. On any long road trip we would take my kids would ask "Are we there yet?" It is a memory I will always cherish because we laughed so hard at how irritating it was to hear that over and over again.

Like little children we have a ton of questions about life. Where are we going? Who am I? How long will I live? What's the meaning of life? And on and on we are constantly asking Questions. How about this one: How can I overcome the obstacles of life?

The Pharisee Nicodemus asked Jesus what he meant by the words You must be born again. In a nutshell his answer was you must have a complete faith makeover. Get rid of the human elements of faith you have learned and change your mindset to what is the will of God not the will of the people. Then you will know how to have the courage and strength to overcome even the most difficult of life's challenges.

His words from the NLT: Humans can only reproduce human life. That's right, issues like addiction, relationship troubles, behavioral problems, etc. can not always be overcome by human knowledge, they require spiritual guidance. And where do we get that guidance - from that Spirit we receive from being born again, renewed in our mind, body and spirit.

Lots of questions. The Pharisees asked Jesus another one: What is the most important commandment? His answer Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.

Think about it. How do we know how to love God - by being born of his Spirit to receive his Spirit.  How do we know how to love our neighbor - by loving ourselves the way God loves us. And how do we know how how to overcome life's most difficult obstacles:

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.  2 Timothy 1:7

We are "there yet" when we come to him. Does that answer your questions?

We all have probably gone through a period of time where we struggled with our ego. We may have created a false sense of ourselves because we were not happy with who we were or maybe we lived in a fantasy world that escaped from reality for a myriad of reasons.

Ego is a persons sense of self esteem or self importance. When exercised in balance there is a sense of humility present that takes ourselves out of the way and puts God in the way. Ego is often referred to as Easing God Out but when we deflate the balloon of that false sense of who we are then ego can mean Easing God On.

In Luke 18 there is the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee and how they prayed. One prayed as a person who "had it all together" and the other prayed like "I wish I had it all together". One had a false sense of themselves, the other realized he was a work in progress. In verse 14 it says For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

We can look at it like the Pharisee was dead wrong about his spiritual status because he belabored the sins of another so he could make himself feel good but it works both ways. Here's a quote from the AA 12 & 12: In belaboring the sins of some religious people we could feel superior to all of them. Moreover, we could avoid looking at some of our own shortcomings.

Another quote from that book says this: All of A.A.'s 12 Steps ask us to go contrary to our natural desires...they all deflate our ego.  In other words, Your Ego Is Not Our Amigo when we use it as a weapon, a fantasy or a protective device to escape from who we are. It's all about understanding humility.

Are we easing God out or easing God on. If it's the later, then we take on the character of Jesus and follow the words in Philippians 2:3: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself.

​Talk about ego deflating - more of him, and less of me!

Everybody knows Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future".

But did you read the beginning (v4-9) where God sends his disobedient and defiant people into exile for a period of learning time? This is the back story and the part where you insert you into this story if God has ever set you down for a spell to change your ways. I like to think of exile as growth time, and God instructed them as to how they needed to grow before they came back home. 

And he told them to stop listening to outside voices. You know the ones that keep telling you to relapse, that life was better on the other side. Kind of like the Prodigal Son. Those voices didn't come from him. but from those opposing him and taking folks away from the path God wanted them to follow.

God stayed with them during this time and then told them (v10-11) that there was an exit time if they paid attention. And then he mentioned the plans, prosperity and hope. The set down time is rehab time, time to learn how to grow into a man or woman of God. Not a fun time, but a time to heal.

Then, he gives them the benefits of being Set Free instead of being set down in V12-14: Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

Set Free - Indeed! 

I remember the disappointment of returning from Viet Nam not only because of how let down I felt, but also because of the negative reaction of the public to what we did. Instead of being hailed as heroes we were thought of as murderers and rapists (not pulling any punches here).

I had put my faith 100% in this country, only to be manipulated by the politicians who had us fighting with one hand tied behind our back, and negative media coverage which portrayed us as hostile bullies. I had blind faith in the USA as a Marine when I went over, but those events shook me into reality.

The phrase "Drinking The Kool Aid" has been used in reference to the Jim Jones cult that in 1978 drank the cyanide laced Kool Aid that killed 900 followers in a virtual mass suicide. Believers in a man who thought of himself as God, in a sect that actually did many good things but in the end destroyed itself, had that same blind faith.

There are many things that we mistakenly put our blind faith in such as our employers, our sports teams, our church, a relationship, or a cause,  not realizing that these are all human concerns that also have flaws. No problem to believe in them but to have total faith without some understanding of the humanity of it all can be devastating.

That's why when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well he took the opportunity to teach her and us what was much better than Kool Aid. Hers was relationships  - 5 marriages and a live-in boyfriend plus a set of beliefs in only what she could see. Then he gave her an opportunity to drink living water which is something we cannot see, but will never disappoint and last eternally. No blind belief, a sustaining wellspring of contentment.

The gods we have idolized in our lives that have all let us down need to be replaced by The God who always lifts us up!