We will be writing faster than usual this evening with the storms approaching.  It reminds me of waiting to have a tooth pulled.  You know the time is coming but there is nothing to do but wait.  Brevity will be needed on this one.  Many things wait to be done prior to the arrival of the weather. Posting tomorrow may depend on how it all plays out tonight.  Few things are as awesome as Texas storms.  We can only hope it rains without any additional damage.  Preparation can be made but all you can do is wait to see how it goes.

I am reading through one of those books that stayed on my shelf for awhile.  Some of my reading is in other areas than theology.  This is a business book but it already has practical relevance.  The authors past works related to how companies succeed even when times are tough.  You can find those efforts on most bestselling lists even today.  But this book goes in a different direction.  Their search is about why even established businesses fail.  The last few years are overrun with stories of even the most popular of companies reaching a painful end.  Part of the thesis of this work is no amount of success can guarantee future greatness.  There is no amount of money, resources or history that protects a business from decline.  So the writers attempt to uncover why it happens along with what can be done to avoid it.  

Perhaps you will read more of my findings here on the blog.  My motive in reading this book is not about organizations but about our lives.  Can we who follow Jesus still fall miserably short despite every resource offered to us?  My answer for now is yes.  No one is ever totally perfect.  This flies in the face of what many believers think but it is still true.  We all suffer from varying degrees of sin even with God's help.  It is just part of being human.  A pure sign of our sinful pride is in how we can live in the denial that our sinfulness is still better than another person.  Comparing our actions to others is a good way to avoid dealing with God about our own.  Maybe we think that our theology or our experience is some immunity against decline?  Ask some of the great biblical characters if that one is valid.  Even the very best of God's people self destructed due to that faulty logic.  If we are to become authentic disciples then we must allow God to search our hearts.  We have to accept His verdict on our being.  Maybe the initial step that leads to spiritual decline is thinking it cannot happen to me?  That will be the most honest path to real maturity.  It is the only path that lasts.

Bro. Trey