Through the Lens of Faith

Let’s face it, a person can choose to live an optimistic, joyous life, having a smile on their countenance, and being contagious to everyone around them with an uplifting spirit or they can choose not to.

I know a woman that sees the world through the lens of faith and lives every day with a positive outlook on life, similar to rose-colored glasses.  She reminds me of her mother, which was a Godly woman of faith and a prayer warrior.  I am sure she was the apple of God’s eye.

It goes without saying that people like this walk in God’s strength and give Him the glory for each victory that comes in the name of Jesus.  Such a person is my wife, Katie.  She is the best thing that ever happened to me in my lifetime.

Katie is my helpmate in every sense of the word.  She loves me and I love her.   God must have loved me a great deal to bless me with such a giving person.  She is a wonderful mother to our three children and extra special Nana to our six grandchildren.

Her personality is explained in two words, Loving and Kind.  Katie would never intentionally say or do anything to offend or hurt another person in any way.

In a world that is full of anger, frustration, and expressing the “Me” syndrome everywhere you look, it is refreshing and truly saying something when you can look at a person and say, “She’s real and not a phony.”

Katie is who she is.  She doesn’t have to put on a fake façade or pretense, because she is a sincere woman of God.  She considers others before herself to a point that I sometimes catch myself taking up an offensive in her behalf.  I don’t want people to take advantage of her goodness, but she takes everything in stride and knows that God is her vindicator.

I began this writing using the word optimistic.  The opposite to this word is pessimistic.  There in-lies my personality.  Katie and I are total opposites, at opposing ends of the spectrum on the personality graph.

Yes, I walk in faith, but it sometimes takes me a while to totally surrender situations to the Lord, but I am getting better at raising my hands and surrendering my will to His.  I am a man that endeavors to see every angle and critique a situation, having all the facts before making decisions.  No doubt, I am analytical.

My kids and their spouses might say that I can dig in my heals pretty deep until God tells me to move if that is what He wants.  It’s not a bad thing; I am who I am.  God deals with me and every person individually.   He knows me, because He created my personality.

God uses different methodologies with me than He does with my wife.  Perhaps you have a similar personality to mine.  I am not a pushover in any sense of the word, but this is where an optimistic type of personality, like my wife, is used by God to blend patience and humility with my pessimistic way of thinking and handling things.

Katie assists God in soothing my Type-A personality to accomplish common goals in our household and the work of the Lord.  I am not weak, but I am striving to become meeker. 

God in His omniscient knowledge of things knew that I needed a helpmate to help Him level me out at times, which I truly believe has happened since we’ve been married these 53 years.

Am I the head of my household in the way God intended me to be?  I hope so.  I am learning how to do things in a calmer, more long-suffering way, while staying sensitive to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to lead rather than me taking the reins and going off halfcocked in the wrong direction.

Trusting God to lead takes time to learn, but He is patient.  I am learning to be a willing student that listens to my teacher’s voice—the Holy Spirit.  This comes with practice by opening my spiritual ears.

They say opposites attract.  I believe my wife’s weaknesses are my strong points and my weaknesses are my wife’s strong points.  We complement each other as God would have it.  We see through the lens of faith together, as we strengthen each other’s personality.  The Lord does all things well.

I must say that God did a great job in bringing us together, and yes, Katie would say likewise.  We are happy, because Jesus is the common denominator in our marriage.

Are you struggling to find compatibility, stability, or transparency in your relationship?  Put God first and personalities will begin to blend, and the riffs of life will level out as you and your better half lay them at the feet of Jesus.

The three of you will certainly work things out and see through the lens of faith together.  I do not believe in 50/50 relationships.  We must be willing to give 100% and receive 100% from the other party.  It takes working at it on both ends of the spectrum.  It cannot be a one-sided affair.  I’ve heard that it takes “Two to Tango.”

Written by,

Papa Boyd

Follow the Leader

I am sure you’ve watched people walking their dogs in the evening, or I should say dogs walking their masters. 

It is funny, yet sad to watch a dog owner as they struggle to hold onto a leash that is being yanked and pulled, and the person almost being dragged from place to place wherever man’s best friend is determined to go.  It is a true picture of untrained pets that have been allowed to have their way, here-to-fore. 

It is easy to look the other way and be more lenient when dogs are puppies.  Certain patterns are then formed of giving into the pup, but as they mature, the habits they develop can become problematic.  This behavior is then interpreted as being disobedient.  The pet remains the aggressive leader over its master trying to take the lead.

I have also witnessed pet owners assuming their responsible role as leader over their pet and directing them in the path that the owner decides to go.  The dog obeys and joyfully walks at the master’s side, while enjoying the night out together. 

It makes perfect sense to me that proper training of how a pet should follow the leader must happen early on when pets are young.  There is truth in the saying, “You can’t teach old dog’s new tricks.”

When my wife and I were married in 1971, the groomsmen and bridesmaids decorated my car with different, colored streamers and soaped up the windows with, JUST MARRIED.  They also tied thin pieces of rope to my rear bumper with tin cans firmly attached to the other end of the ropes.

Several cars would line up behind the decorated car with the newly married couple inside, my wife and me, and everyone would follow the leader, blowing their horns in celebration of the married couple, while driving single file around town.

This practice was very popular in my day and was called The Chase.  It reminds me of playing Follow the Leader as a kid when I would get together with my neighborhood buddies and ride our bicycles, instead of driving cars, teehee.

We chose a leader to follow and performed on our bikes everything that the leader did on his or her bike.  Following the Leader had its ups and downs, literally.  This could prove somewhat dangerous to those following if the leader was too aggressive, reckless, and took chances that shouldn’t be taken.

It was up to each individual follower if they were dumb enough to try some of the silly stunts the leader was doing or bow out and say “No” to danger and go their separate way.

There was a time I followed the wrong spiritual leader that was dangerous in all his ways and lead me into everything that was unsafe, debased, and anti-Christ.  It was very sad that I struggled when becoming lost on this meaningless journey, while losing sight of important values that I was taught in my youth.

Self-esteem was also slipping away.  My leader, the devil, did his best to take from me any hope of making heaven my home, because I was too dumb to say, “No” to his enticements and go the other way from his influence.  I played Follow the Leader with the wrong example for a leader.

I allowed myself to be put into compromising situations that hurt me physically and most assuredly affected my spiritual wellbeing in negative ways.  It was like the times I hurt myself when crashing my bike, because I didn’t bow out when playing Follow the Leader with an aggressive leader as a kid.

I was being devoured by a selfish, uncaring spirit that is evil in every way that gave me nothing but heartache.

(1 Peter 5:8), “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Following the right leader matters when we want to respect ourselves, live an abundant, prosperous life, and possess the hope of eternal life in heaven when we pass from this life.  The perfect leader is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of the true and living God.

We have a choice; we can choose good or evil; right or wrong.  The entity we select to be our leader will ultimately determine where we spend eternity.  A sobering thought is this: Our eventual destination will either be in the presence of Almighty God, in heaven, or with our adversary, the devil, in hell.  It depends on who we follow.

Understand this, we cannot play church and expect anything from the Lord by holding onto the things of God with one hand, hoping or pretending that He is our leader, and at the same time, holding onto sinful things around us with the other hand.  This is foolish; it’s an effort in futility.  Fresh and bitter water never flows from the same fountain.

(Matthew 6:24), “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon (money).”  

There is no in-between with God, no neutral ground.  Being lukewarm is not in God’s vocabulary and unacceptable with Him.

(Revelation 3:15,16), “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I could wish you were cold or hot.”  (v 16) “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

There is only One true leader that God recognizes.  His name is Jesus.  We will most assuredly follow a good leader or an evil one, it is in our DNA to do so.  We were created to worship someone; it will be Jesus Christ or Satan.

Refusal or procrastination to choose Christ means the decision has already been made, automatically, as the default to follow Satan as leader.  We are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God, and because of this, the devil is already the default leader.

This is why every person must choose to follow a leader having pure integrity that has the soul of humanity as His top priority.  Jesus is my perfect leader of choice—the Master and Savior.

When I play Follow the Leader with Him, it is not a game; it is literally a life and death decision and nothing to scoff at or take lightly.  He is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life.  To play Follow the Leader with anything or anyone else other than Jesus, is signing one’s own death warrant for eternity; separated from God forever.

The choice is ours to make.  To follow the leadership of Jesus is the most important eternal decision that a person will ever make in their lifetime.

Written by,

Papa Boyd

Miracle on Crooked Street

My wife and I flew to Maui, Hawaii with our daughter and son-in-law a few years back.  He took receipt of a rental car and asked us if we were ready to explore the hills and take a trip to Hana.  I heard the Road to Hana was very winding and steep, but I was ready for an adventure and excitedly said, “Let’s go!”

They call it a road, but it is nothing more than a narrow, winding street that the person driving must slow down dramatically when taking the hairpin curves.  It’s like Lombard Street, in San Francisco, which is known for being the most winding street in the city.

Less than halfway to Hana, everyone wanted to turn around and go back to the lowlands, because we were all carsick from the non-user-friendly road. 

This route reminds me of the street I’ve named, Crooked Street.  I traveled this relentless journey, for years, on my rebellious trek in the opposite direction from God and away from His restrictions, while ignoring the caution signs along the way.

At this time in my life, I remember having a negative insight of God.  I didn’t want Him or anyone telling me what I could and could not do.  I was headstrong and felt He would limit me on my radical taste for having fun. 

I thought that being a Christian meant giving up everything exciting in life and becoming like a monk, hitting gongs and ringing bells every day.  It wasn’t until I became a born-again Believer that I experienced total freedom as a child of the most, high God.

I was set free from the bondage of sin that prevented me from enjoying the fulfilled life that I longed for.  For the first time in years, since I was a kid, freedom bells were ringing inside my forgiven soul.  My perception of God was totally wrong.  In fact, I was searching for Him all the while but was too rebellious and naïve to realize it.

Crooked Street led me away from real peace—Jesus Christ.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; above Him there is no other.  The riff and calamity I encountered on this street is what the Bible calls, “the way that leads to destruction.”  (Matthew 7:13)

Though it seemed I was headed in a direction that would bring new adventures and a lot of highlighted moments, it was a hard avenue to travel, with unforgiving snares and pitfalls, and negative encounters at every turn. 

My saving grace and miracle was the day I finally gave into the wooing of the Holy Spirit.  He was waiting patiently for me to finally accept the reality that I needed a Savior.  I acknowledged the fact that I was discouraged and fed up with the ongoing curves of heartache and nauseated lifestyle that sin brought.  I was sin sick!

I made a 180-degree U-turn and headed back to my childhood teaching where I received enlightenment that in Jesus was unlimited love and total forgiveness for a sinner like me. I also learned that He gives abundant peace where confusion usually fills the heart of non-Believers.

I thank God for Christian parents that lived the life before me and strived to train me in the way I should go, having Christian values.  These teachings were in my early, informative years as a child.

(Proverbs 22:6), “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Considering my less than happy lifestyle when I was estranged from these teachings in my teen age years and early twenties, it was indeed a miracle that later in life I took a detour and rerouted my travels from Crooked Street to Glory Avenue, as I call it.

The less than desirable people I hung with on Crooked Street were like leeches, sucking the life out of me as I followed their lead into deeper depths of riotous living.  I was like a leaf in the breeze when it came to double mindedness.

(Isaiah 64:6), “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness’s are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

(James 1:6-8), “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” (v 7) “For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;” (v 8) “he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” 

I was trying to find myself and where I belonged in an environment of many distractions.  I was indeed lost on Crooked Street.  My quest for solace was beyond my reach, while traveling this unforgiving street.

It took a Godly awakening of supernatural proportion that changed the direction I was headed and transformed everything in positive ways.  I met Jesus, because the Holy Spirit didn’t give up on me.  Jesus made all the difference.

The joyful adventures that I considered fun on Crooked Street, were only elusions of real joy, because the things I involved myself with were seasonal at best, nothing lasting.  It was like being on the road to Hana.  It was a sickening trip, and I was miserable.

It wasn’t until I made the decision to turn my life around and travel the straight and narrow avenue toward God, that I found true joy and happiness.  His road is leading me toward heaven with all its splendor, glory, and wonderful sights.

I am thankful for the hope I now have that heaven will be my home one day and the adventure of all ventures will last for eternity.  I am positive it is a spectacular place, because it was prepared for me and all Believers by Jesus Himself—God incarnate.

(John 14:2,3), “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.” (v 3) “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

This was certainly a miraculous encounter with the Lord when I left Crooked Street and chose Glory Avenue as the perfect road to follow.

Consider this question:  Are you looking for another road to take, off the beaten path that you may be on right now?  Glory Avenue is the road that leads to peace and harmony, away from the unrest and turmoil you may be experiencing. 

I want to share Someone with you Who will change your whole prospective on life and make all the difference in the world.  I give you Jesus.  He is the Prince of Peace and joy unspeakable that you are probably searching for.

Look no further.  Take the detour of a lifetime, away from feelings of inadequacy, to the One Who will give you a reason for living.  You too will find the miracle on Crooked Street you’ve been looking for.

Call out His name, JESUS, and ask Him to forgive you of your sins.  You will receive forgiveness and a brand-new road to travel, the way to a brighter, happier, and more fulfilling life.  A healthy life is just a prayer away when Jesus Christ becomes Savior and Lord of your life.

(Matthew 11:28), “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Written by,

Papa Boyd