gratitude

I have been thinking about this verse since the moment I heard it:

Proverbs 30 ¹⁵ “The leech has two daughters. ‘Give! Give!’ they cry. “There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’: ¹⁶ the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’

God never ceases to amaze me.

In my rat race of a life I read these things like they are pauses in my life to be eaten like an apple as I go to my next thing.

LORD, forgive me.

Because this word … this Proverbs 30:15-16 advice is a look into the portal of eternity for little ole me … and little ole you.

Number one. Check out a leech with two mouths. They suck the life out of you until they cause sickness or even death. And these bloodthirsty animals can not get enough of it. When I looked on line, I actually saw a leech with two mouths. Heck, maybe they all have two mouths. But for me, it was a great educational moment and a great connection to the word.

And it gets better.

God warns us of three things that are never satisfied:

The Grave

The Barren Womb

The Dry Land

I don’t think that God just meant these literally. And I think it is necessary for us to think about it.

The Grave. How many of us live as though dead? Constantly in a fight to avoid, or not deal with, death. And yet, we must somehow face it. But not just death. Maybe God wants us to rise up and get rid of the emptiness or the feeling of: “what is this all about?” As a parent, I must take this into account. YES–I can teach my children something. But YES–they, too, have something to teach me too. And it goes like this: Get off your butt, dad, and quit looking for the living among the dead. I mean, come on! Jesus tells us in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son … I need to get up, celebrate that, and live like I am going to live forever! Because…I am!

The Barren Womb. Maybe this pertains to the dreams that we give up on … the idea that we can somehow have life. Maybe we need to stop sitting like the lonely woman by the window waiting to be visited. Maybe we need to get up and activate our dreams again … not like Joseph when he initially bragged to his brothers but like Mary—who basically said: “To God be the glory!” Amen! I can dream again because God gets the glory!

The Dry Land. Jesus told the lady at the well “if you drink the water I have you will never go thirsty again.” EVER! Maybe I need to live in contentment, to be grateful, to find the things I DO HAVE and not the things that I DO NOT HAVE and maybe, just maybe, I need to stand up and praise the Lord for what He has given me.

The thing about the Proverbs verse is that I believe it is never ending. Three goes to Four. And I believe that God is telling us that perhaps this thing can grow to a point where we are actually crippled.

NO MORE!

Jesus doesn’t have that for us.

Rise up from the dead and dare to dream again.

Rise up from the dead and dare to thank God for all that you have.

Rise up from the dead and dare to challenge your immortality.

After all….Easter is coming.

And us sitting there being harassed by a blood thirsty two mouthed leech is no way to celebrate it … and no way to live.

Be blessed.

Be empowered.

Be the one that cries out to God and actually walks in freedom.

That’s what you are called to do.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Coach J

When my father died many years ago I could not stop myself from crying … And then I encountered a vision of him in church one Sunday. He was in heaven, he was happy, and he was where he wanted to be. From that moment, the STING of losing him was gone.

There will be many times where we will legitimately cry tears of pain and anguish and despair.

Surely God has something more … In fact, we know that He has more … And so I say:

“Cry At A Wedding”

In both of these verses, God’s elect cry in joy for who He is or what He has given them:

Jeremiah 31 ⁹ They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble, because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

Luke 7 ³⁸ and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

What I recommending is not just to cry tears when we are sad … but to never forget to cry tears of joy:

As I watched Caden Wach tearfully await his soon-to-be bride come down the aisle, I was prompted by God to “cry at a wedding”.

I knew exactly what God wanted me to share out on my 2 minute warning.

When I drop my kids at the airport, I cray all the way to I-25. I am so proud of them and I love them so much.

When my daughter Jordan came around the corner for her last 4×400 relay and she “displayed incredible courage and unselfishness”, I was proud of her beyond what I could possibly say, and I cried on the corner at Jeffco Stadium.

When Teagan Malcom, the 300 meter hurdler that I “got to coach”, ran the greatest race I have ever seen, I cried at the finish line, again, at Jeffco Stadium.

For me, it happens in locker rooms, on football fields, at track stadiums, when I am with my family, and in worship of our living King.

God has given us tears for a reason … and not always for when we are sad …

And so I say …

Cry At A Wedding

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

2 MINUTE WARNING

WITH DOUG JOHNSON

Tag

498 The Leech or The Savior?

468 Cry At A Wedding