This is a poem I wrote for my fiance to give to her the day I proposed.

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I imagine myself

In the future afar

In an old wooden office

And my door ajar.

I am typing away

With a bad writer’s block

When out at the door

Comes a soft, saddened knock.

A sad, youthful chap

Mopes in kind of slow.

No spring in his step,

His head hanging low.

When asked, “What’s the matter?”

He let out a sigh,

And said to me slowly,

“I don’t understand why…”

“Trouble with the lady?”

I asked knowingly.

“How do you love mom

So romantically?”

I just sat there

As I thought for a while,

Until finally

I said with a smile,

“Son, there is a lot

That I don’t understand -

Like a flower in bloom;

Or how life began;

Or the way that whenever

I come up with a plan

It fails, and I’m struggling

To do what I can.

You see, there’s a lot

That I don’t understand,

But none quite compares

To this Quest of a man:

Loving a woman -

I’m learning a whole lot -

Not the greatest knight

In all Camelot,

Would be up for a Quest

So brave and so bold.

I’m learning some things

Even though I am old:

To love a woman,

You must let her go.

Love must mean action

Not merely a show.

Leading her is more

Than simply a title.

I must rule myself

Or I’ll make her an idol.

To love her like Jesus

Means giving up myself.

There’s no time for pride -

Feelings go on the shelf -

Like straining myself

To go the extra mile

To inspire some romance

If only for a smile;

Trying to cheer her

Even when I feel gloomy;

Or help with her homework,

Kind of like her roomie;

To make time for her,

Sacrificing my plans;

To love her and earn

The respect of a man.

I don’t understand

How simple this sounds

But for some reason

I’ve only figured out

The way to her heart

No science can tout,

But pure, patient love

Day in and day out.

Son, love is a verb.

It walks and has feet.

It’s not about you.

Your will you must beat.

Around every store,

And with ever fashion,

You’ll hear loud and clear:

“Love’s about passion!”

While it’s partly true,

It misses the point.

Commitment and effort

Give love its joints.

Your love will die

Without dedication.

Love is a lifestyle

Without a vacation.”

And if that weren’t enough,

I added just one

Concluding advice

For my disheartened son.

“I cherish Christine,

As I have all these years,

Because Christ loved me first

And calms all my fears.”

And though it was rather

A hard pill to swallow,

I saw him embrace

A brighter tomorrow.

I am often like this mouse.

   A few weeks ago, I was out in my backyard mowing the grass. I had to turn the mower off for a second in order to move something out of my way. And just before I was about to begin mowing again, a little field mouse scurried past my dirty shoes. It was odd that I would see a mouse in the first place. They are just not something you see everyday. But it was also odd because he was running in circles right past me. I don't think he eve knew I was there because he was blind. That is why he was running in circles. He was looking for some sort of point of reference. He was lost and looking for his way. I wanted to help him, so I bent down to pick him up and take him somewhere that he could find his way. But when I touched him, he jumped away from me. He was naturally scared of me, that I would hurt him. But eventually, after several tries, I finally picked him up and escorted him to the woods, where he would have many points of reference and could make his way despite his blindness. When I knew he was safe, I resumed my lawn mowing.


   While I was finishing the job, I was thinking about that mouse. I am often like that mouse. In this life, I have no point of reference. I can't know on my own what is right or wrong, true or false, safe or dangerous, healthy or cancerous. And when God sees me running in spiritual circles, He gently reaches down to pick me up and lift me to safety. I want to go one way, but he sees where it leads and corrects me or lifts me out of harm's way. And I fear his touch, thinking it will harm me. Little do I realize that it is the best thing that could possibly happen to me. The thing that seems like the worst possible idea at the time, is often God's loving hand protecting me from something really bad.


   God is lovingly sovereign. He does nothing for our harm. He loves us tenderly, and has the wisdom of an all-knowing Father. But sometimes he has to override our own will in order to bring us to safety. And often he has to wait for us to realign our will before he can use us greatly. On the one hand, when our will is contrary to God's, we are speeding toward danger. On the other hand, when our will is contrary to God's, He can't use us for His amazing purposes and we can't grasp His love. Our will must be submitted to Him before we can live a life that is worth living.


   But how must we can we submit our will to God, if it is our will that drives everything we do? It seems almost contradictory, like making a robot that recreate itself, or designing an engine to be its own mechanic. It is hard to grasp the concept of submitting your will, until you can understand that God is greater than you and that you desperately need Him. This is the essence of worship: declaring that God has infinite worth, not only to you, but also to all of creation because He is greater than all and needed by all to even exist (cf. Colossians 1:17). And when you begin to worship - not only with your words, but with your whole life - you have taken the first step to a life that matters. Worship wins the war for the will. And it is a lifestyle of worship that makes God proud.

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So how are you doing at submitting your will?

If you gave someone permission to be honest with you, would they recognize a pattern of worship in your life? or just selfishness?

Are you up for the challenge of submitting your will to the One who holds all things together?

How are you doing at submitting your will?

I dare you to be brave today: Tell God you are ready to submit your will to Him, and ask Him to show you specific way you can worship Him with your life. And DON'T back down from what He shows you.

I am a repenter.

Yes, I am a Christian.
Yes, I am a man.
Yes, I am a student.
Yes, I am a boyfriend.
Yes, I am a barista.
Yes, I am a soccer player.
Yes, I am... a lot of things.
But I am a repenter.

   It is very weird to find my identity in turning away from something, because every human wants to have a secure identity. Every human wants to find meaning in something that is firm. Nobody wants to repent. Nobody wants to admit that they are no good. But that is the essence of repentance. It is saying that I am no good, and I am turning around and walking toward what is good, even though it may be hard to get to. How do you find identity in that?

   King David - the guy who killed a giant; the man who unified the nation of ancient Israel; the man who trained the mightiest fighting men in the world; and yes, the murderous, adulterous liar who stole the wife of one of his soldiers, killed her husband, and then lied about it - was known as a "man after God's own heart" (Acts 13:22). So how in THE WORLD did he ever get the identity as a man after God's heart? He first found his identity in repenting. And so must every Christian. Get used to it. You sin. You are not perfect. But God calls you to live a holy life. So when you don't, you can't just give up. It doesn't work like that. You must learn the habit of repenting.

The essence of repentance is
turning around and walking
toward what is good.

turning around and walking toward what is good   This is why I say that I am a repenter. I sincerely and desperately want to be close to the heart of God. But so often my life doens't reflect this desire. So I must repent. Frenquently. And openly. It does nobody (especially those affected by your sin) any good to pretend that you have nothing to repent about or that you already repented a long time ago. You sin all the time. You must learn to repent all the time. The man (or woman) after God's own heart isn't perfect. He is just really familiar with the discipline repenting.

   "The Cost of Discipleship" is trending on Twitter right now. I think that is so sweet. It is nice to see every once in a while that there enough Christians populating the Twitter-sphere that things that I see as vitally important are also seen that way by a lot of other Tweeters. However, I am not excited that this phrase - and title of an amazing book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer - is trending just because others can see Christianese up on Twitter. i am excited because people are talking about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus... in a "secular environment"! Though being a disciple means a lot of things, part of the cost of discipleship is frequent and open repentance. Frequent. Open. Repentance. Sounds simple, but difficult, doesn't it? It is. It is not any fun at all. But if you are up for a challenge, here is one I will give you.

Repent.
Frequently.
Openly.

When you do, you open up the door for Grace to get behind your steering wheel, and drive you into the heart of God.

This is a sermon I preached on Sunday, July 8th at First Baptist Church of Petoskey, Michigan. "Part in the family of God is a matter of grace, not goodness."

http://www.fbctag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/07-08-2012-AM-Brant-Cole.mp3

It doesn't matter...

Think about the one thing you are investing the most into right now. What is it that you think matters the most right now? I mean, when you look at your life, what is it that really stands out as paramount? Unless it is something done for the Lord, it doesn't matter. That sounds harsh, but in ten years, fifty years, after you die, will you really be proud of your current passion? It doesn't matter.

Now, of course I understand that what you are super involved with might actually matter in the lung run, but I think most of us get so worked up about things that are just so insignificant. For most of us, we need to take a long, hard look at what we think is so important.

Wining a dusty trophy. Important?
Facebook. Important?
Youtube.  Important?
That really hot party. Important?
New clothes.  Important?
Free time. Important?
Work.  Important?
iPhone. Important?
Texting. Important?
Internet. Important?
Lots of food. Important?
The best grades. Important?
Tanning. Important?
Sports. Important?
Being popular. Important?
Being more attractive than "them." Important?

I mean, really... how important do you really think these things are in the light of eternity? We get so scared of failure, but what we should really be scared of is succeeding at things at things that don't matter. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:13 that "each man's work will become evident," and that the quality of each man's work will be tested in the final judgment.

So my question to you is this: do you really think that your main focus right now is something that matters, or will it be burned up?

Live for eternity.