Epictetus was a Greek speaking Stoic philosopher, born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia, and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in north-western Greece for the rest of his life. He wrote what is likely the earliest known version of the serenity prayer: “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions-in short, whatever is our own doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing.”

Later, in a diary entry from 1932 by Winnifred Crane Wygal, a pupil and collaborator of Reinhold Niebuhr, she quoted the serenity prayer and attributed it to Niebuhr.

“God grant me the serenity, to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.”

If we are not willing to press forward, i don’t believe we’ll ever have victory in our lives not nearly as much as we often wish and hope. You must press, it’s not something anyone can do for you, we all have to do our own pressing, exerting steady force or pressure against something. There is always something pressing against us, and there is nothing worthwhile in this life which happens without our pushing upward and pressing forward. i can confidently assure you, nothing “just” happens. Wishing things were different isn’t going to gain us anything but illusions … and we can conjure all the positive expectations we’d like, but it needs to be said, without Christ, expectation is a lover which will always break your heart. What is it Joyce Meyer says, “We need backbone, not wishbone.” i like that. It takes courage to know good from evil and then practice that knowing, and that is “knowing” not in the sense of “head knowledge”, but throughout scripture, God always intends “knowing” in the experiential sense. More than head knowledge, but heart knowledge.

For many, boldness is not easy to come by, and to acquire it, i believe, requires some suffering … we’ll have to endure, or suffer through somethings and that’s just the truth, that’s just life. i figure we can suffer through the changes God takes us through or we can suffer in our state of no change, but either way we’re going to endure some suffering, so we may as well go with God for the betterment of all things. i still say, the only thing worse than change is NO change, and the longer things stay the same, the more things stay the same.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts. i can feel spring in the air, the buds are busting off the tree branches, it’s as if everything is pregnant and about to bust wide open with life. One morning we’ll wake up and, BOOM, we’ll see spring has fully come and the air will be buzzing with color and newness. Gosh, isn’t God amazing!!

i’m in the post office five days per week, enough so that i’ve listened to entitled people complain how slow the service is saying, “why don’t they hire more people so we don’t have to stand here so long.” i’ve actually done time studies as to how long it takes the clerk to take care of each customer. Actually, the clerks are pretty fast. My conclusion was that it’s not the clerk who isn’t speedy, but the people who are unprepared. It’s amazing that the people perceived the clerk was slow, not that they, the customers, were unprepared. Similarly, i find it a profound observation that in the eyes of many people it is God who is not speaking, when the truth is, it’s us who aren’t listening.

i love pomegranate juice, grape juice, and cherry juice. i love using olive oil and i love getting my coffee from a French press. All those things require pressure. The juice must be pressed from the fruit, the olive oil must be pressed from the olives, and water must be pressed through the coffee grounds in order to make a cup of coffee. It requires pressure, and if we’re going to get much out of our walk with the Lord we’re going to have to press through the obstacles and situations in front of us. Think of all the things which require pressure and pressing in order to get good results or gather good fruit. We take our suits and shirts to the dry cleaner and they “press” the wrinkles out. Think of all the things which require pressure to accomplish. Life is no different.

We all have things we need to press forward about. Some of us need to press forward to make a budget and sticking with it this time. A year ago January, the Lord told me He wanted me to start wearing shirts with a collar and buttons, that i was to look like someone others might want to talk to instead of some worn out farmer or crusty construction guy. Silly as it may seem, i’ve actually had to press forward about that every day. When i leave the house i make it a point to wear a nice shirt with a collar and buttons and, odd as it sounds, it has been a struggle. Many say they’re struggling to overcome the devil, maybe they should press forward and overcome that sink of dirty dishes first. It’s easy to decide you’re not going to do drugs anymore, that’s easy 10 mins after you’ve gotten loaded again, but to truly escape the gravity of the situation requires some pressing, pushing forward, pursuing, some taking action maybe even hour to hour. It’s the same as a determination to advance onward to the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ. Pressing on is not a timid, passive term, it is action and perseverance in motion.

It’s not that the devil has got us in a corner beating us up, we ourselves are the problem in that we don’t want to press past the frustration, we don’t want to press past our old wounds, we don’t want to restrict our appetites. We can’t live life in the now nor hope much for the future if we’re always living life based on the past. From where i’m standing, we don’t seem to want to be pressed about honesty and taking responsibility for our actions. Those old wounds need to quit making front page news every day, if you know what i mean.

Also, among us are those who have made up their mind, deciding they’re not going to live at the beck and call of old wounds. i refuse to let my stomach control me, i refuse to keep being addicted to self-pity and the spirit of “woe is me”. For overcomers, something rises up in us that says i will not be a slave any more, i am not going to live in bondage, i am a child of God, and the children of God aren’t slaves and in bondage. The Lord gives us the gumption to say i’m going to press through and past all those chains and griefs and latch onto Jesus….knotting my fingers in the hem of His garment, refusing to let go even if i am dragged down the street.

Let us learn to have our joy and to also be happy whether anyone approves of us or not. i have learned to rest in the joy of the Lord if everyone wants me around or if no one wants me around. i don’t know about you but i’m fed up with my circumstances dictating my joy. Knowing Jesus and the power of His resurrection is what drives my heart and life. Why? Because there is no other name under heaven. It’s good to read John 6:68-69, “Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” When you’ve lived life like a bright beacon, and then the circumstances of life have crashed you on the rocks again, only to rise and fall and rise again, you start to notice the pattern of God’s presence…. you begin to know that you know that you know, truly, there is only one Name under heaven, Jesus, beautiful Jesus.

Do you want power in your life? Know Jesus. Our reason and purpose shouldn’t be to know our purpose but to know Jesus, the buck stops with Him. Matthew 28:18, “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He said “all”, and once again, God is not mincing words here. This is a declarative, and it’s the truth, ”all” means “all” and Jesus wasn’t being flippant.

When the Lord said in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly,” He wasn’t using words and phrases He might have to back up on later…. it was a well thought out, pre-planned statement in the heart of God. How many of us say, “Oh, i’ve got life, or so i’ve been told, but i’m just wondering where the abundantly part is going to come into the picture.”

It’s nice to think we’ll just get saved, live our little lives, and go to heaven, and i’m sure heaven is all together wonderful because God built it, but i don’t want to just go alone. In order to go with God, we’ve got to press forward. It seems to me, by way of observation, the only people who actually accomplish mighty things in His name are those who press on. There are so, so many things to waste our time on being offended and wounded over. These days are some very dangerous times. We are going to have to press past those things, keeping our eyes on Jesus.

i had a dream, and i’ve said this before but i feel it’s important to make mention of it again. i dreamed i was in a little boat, maybe 10ft long and i was in a terrible terrible perfect storm. The lightning was flashing, the rain was coming down in buckets, and the waves were so high i couldn’t see the top. In the dream i was looking at the raging ocean and briefly thought about the certain death i was facing. i turned my head and directly across from me was Jesus holding on, just as wet as i was, but He was smiling, yes He was smiling across at me. Above the roar of the storm, i heard Him speak loudly and He said to me, “Pretty cool, huh?” i woke up immediately thinking about the dream and had a startling thought, no matter what my circumstances are, no matter how good or bad life gets, as long as i can see Jesus, i’m ok.

Maybe you can’t do anything about your situation right now at this time, but someday, someday, with God’s help, you will find the courage to change it. There may still be things you wish didn’t happen, but that was then and this is now. Maybe you can’t change some of it, but those things you can change, get to your feet and take hold of Jesus, declare out loud every morning that in the name of Jesus darkness and circumstances will NOT take over your mind, or your life. Persist! As long as you can see Jesus, it’ll be ok.

This scripture has come up a lot lately, and the Lord will bring it back to us as often as necessary until we get it down in our head. Philippians 3:14, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Press on, push forward, refusing to give up. It is high time we stop letting the devil and our circumstances mow us down like we were weak weeds at the mercy of a lawnmower.

           i believe the Lord wants us to not only press towards Him but to set our mind to push past the things which hold us back. Many, many people are in a holding pattern of sorts, just circling something in their past that possibly should never have happened, regardless as to who’s responsible for it, and they just can’t seem to leave the place of their brokenness. Maybe it’s “offense” which keeps our feet nailed to the floor. Let us not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed in the flood of our circumstances.

For some folks, old wounds have become an addiction and the addicts wander in the cemetery of old hurts and past errors, rereading the old headstones of old things long gone, moaning over old wrongs like a lost spirit out of an old horror movie, saying over and over, “Oh, i so wish it wasn’t so.”

Now listen, you may have driven yourself far past anything reasonable and done a nose dive into a ditch of your own making, and when all was darkest and you were laying in the bottom of the empty place, too exhausted to even crawl up the ladder that was nearby, in the moment, when your heart seems just crushed beyond being able to bleed anymore, right there, at that crossroads, a magical place of miracles as all crossroads are, God was bringing to you the symphony of the morning that will rise to the ears of your heart. Redemption and change were at your fingertips, or “the Kingdom God came near to you” that day. You may not want to believe in the Holy Spirit, or maybe you’ve been taught there is no such person, but yet, well, there He is, coming to you with a voice like birds singing, like wind in the tree tops and the consonants of His words are like bells chiming in the distance, all a melody so sweet you can’t imagine how to tell about it. Yet there He is and He comes to you to give to you His strength to crawl up and go out of your pit.

We can’t allow anger and bitterness to stay with us so long it grows roots. If we let a seed grow in a rock wall, given time and water, that seed will sprout and little by little it’ll grow roots through the crevices and will eventually split the boundary apart….anger and bitterness is the same way, it’ll just grow roots breaking down our boundaries, eating away at the joy and peace in our hearts until we’re just horrible people nobody wants to be around, unless they want something from you. The Lord is so very not interested in you living life that way, and if God isn’t interested in that, who would you say is? And if you said it is the devil, then the next question is, “why do you let him ride?” You know, if you let the devil ride, the next thing you know he’s gonna want to drive.

You’d be surprised at the people who walk around disappointed, angry and bitter.

Philippians 1:9-11, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” The Hebrew word for “offense” means to stumble or trip over and it’s root word means something like a plague.

Think of offense like being gripped with malice, potentially capable of causing death. The root word of “offense” is in the sense of seriously slamming your feet on rocks. In Jeremiah 13:16, Israel is threatened with being allowed to possess “toe breaking offense” if they don’t repent. The same word is also used in reference to the Messiah being a stone of stumbling.

Press past your offense, past your anger and bitterness. We can’t stop there and linger in the twilight and the dark, there are better things to do.

           “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. Some things are up to us and some things are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions-in short, whatever is our own doing.”

Offense is akin to the plague. i don’t know about you but i get weary of brutally slamming my feet into rocks, and yet many seem so willing to carry offense like a plague with them everywhere they go, allowing it to influence everything about their lives, constantly bearing about the heavy, intrusive, burden of offense. Don’t we all know there is always something to be offended about, hell makes sure of that. The mature thing to do is to consider carefully, “Can i do anything about it?” and if not, set your mind on the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, in fact, even if there is something you can do about the situation, again, above all, set your mind on the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. Here’s a follow-up question: Upon what or whom do we center our minds and hearts? If our hearts and minds aren’t set on Jesus, what or who are we set on? If we aren’t serving the King of Kings, who are we serving?

We, who are in Christ, must learn to press past offense and its potentials to see the big picture, Jesus Christ, the point and focus of the entire universe. If we’re waiting to be validated by the approval of someone with a recognizable name and titles, we need to know that approval is a lover that will always break our heart. Chances are slim we will ever get the approval we desire from church dignitaries, or those who stand on an elevated platform.

i heard someone say once that the present is the making of soon-to-be-history.  Stop looking where you are and focus on where you’re going, every step counts and it’s either a stepping up or a stumbling down. In Christ, even if we stumble, He empowers us to turn our stumbling down into stepping up. He has turned our morning into dancing and loosed us from the coarse adornments of this world which chafe us to blood. Jesus set us free from having to do penance, wounding ourselves when, by the blood of Jesus, we need not suffer any longer.

We are pressing on, pursuing, pushing, exerting steady force or pressure toward attaining Christ. Not that we have already arrived, but i can assure you we have left, and every day, we press on to make Jesus our own, because Christ Jesus has made us His own.

If we can’t say something nice about those who don’t like us, then, well, this may be a little blunt, but, just shut your mouth. Bless those who despise you. Ain’t it the truth, there have been times when someone has mentioned another person’s name and they’re just saying such nice things and we’re thinking, “Oooo! If i could just tell you what i know!” Every time we feed into our offense and bad attitude we are helping to keep it alive. Romans 12:21 says We overcome evil with good. These are things i can do something about and i choose to press onward and upward. How often do we practice our offense and anger and we end up taking it out on people who have nothing to do with it? Let’s be so good to people they can’t help but notice Jesus in us. Hospitality is one of the earmarks of our faith which is in opposition to letting our anger and offenses dictate prejudice, which is judgment based on unfounded facts. God brings reward and no one or thing can prevent His reward for the Lord is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Think about it!

           Who is going to pay you back for doing the right thing when life is hard is a great big “what’s in it for me?” attitude. “God grant me the serenity, to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time;

enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;”

Proverbs 25:21-22, “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.”

And expounding on the part about heaping burning coals on his head more clearly, the burning coals part is the fiery love of God which melts even the hard hearts of those who oppose us. Jesus died so we could have the life He desires for us, and in fact, we have to give up our lives like Jesus did, so others may experience the overwhelming love of God and live instead of being held captive by death, hell, and the     grave. God has healed our hearts giving us the power to own a renewed mind, and delivered us from the downward spiral of the world, where darkness has tried to keep us slaves and captives to offense, to keep us occupied with constantly battling with things we have no power to change. Let God be the great equalizer He is….and He will restore what darkness has stolen from us. Believe it, it’s true.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation, speaking to people about three inches below the surface of their presentation face.

To truly escape the gravity of our situations requires some pressing, pushing forward, pursuing, some taking action, and determination to advance onward to the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ and stop feeding into our own offense and evil forebodings. Pressing on is not a timid, passive term, it is action and perseverance in motion. Come go with me, it’s time to change the planet and the Lord has empowered us to press forward, losing the goodness of God on a lost and dying world.

Pray for your neighbor this week, set your feet toward home friends, we’re almost there. Amen, and amen.