daniel troy carmichael

Fall and My Auburn Gal

We were at a wedding this weekend near Highlands, North Carolina, and I took advantage of the great opportunity to go in to the place where I feel most at peace, the Appalachian mountains. Fall had just passed its riot of color and was fading into Winter. A lifelong dream of mine was fulfilled when my wife and I hiked together in these mountains. Below are a few snapshots of our trip.

view from Whiteside Mountain

Ashley out of her element but looking in it at the North Fork of the Pigeon waterfalls

late afternoon view of Looking Glass Mountain

My Little Man

Daniel Troy Carmichael II at Dellmont with "Fish" he caught at Loch Haven

This is such a delightful picture I had to put it in the blog. Our family went to Homecoming at Mt. Moriah this weekend. As usual, Daniel really wanted to go fishing at Loch Haven. I've had to learn a lot about fishing because I've never had any interest in it but I've discovered something: my little mister loves it!

Daniel can cast and reel on his own so this fish is completely his. All I did was hand him the bait caster with a modified Texas rig and artificial lizard. He was and still is so proud of "Fish"; he took a picture of "Fish for the letter F" to preschool on Wednesday. He consistently catches more fish than I do.

My favorite part is he is still carrying his light saber! What a wonderful boy picture!

Fear, Guilt, and Being a Victim

The fearful Witch-King of the Nazgul, from The Return of the King, moments before he realized the prophesy that no man could kill him didn't apply to Éowyn, a woman and the future Queen of the Rohirrim. She overcame and defeated great fear and in that victory fulfilled part of her purpose.

I've been hunting it for a while, stalking it. Persistent. Relentless. Its scent but fleeting, its paths difficult to trail through the streams and places of my soul. What is it, at the core of my being, that is oppressing me for so many decades?

Over the past years I have begun to sense deep within me some fundamental issues that shape my life, unnoticed by me until recently. These issues are ways in which I have always acted and reacted to the world around me, but unaware of why and their origins. With tenacity and prayer to God, I have sought to shed light on these terrors in the soul, to live in freedom and life as opposed to the bondage I am in.

Sure, the simple answer to those terrors would be to say that I am simply a sinner and will always behave as one and have "issues" at the core of my being--and to just tolerate them. I'm not denying the truth of man's sin nature, yet it is a cop out to not persist the battle and to quit something worth fighting for. Sin and other "issues" of the soul that keep us from God's best should never be tolerated.

Billy Sunday once said of sin, "I'll fight it as long as I have a fist; I'll kick it as long as I have a foot; I'll bite it as long as I have teeth. And when I am old, fistless, footless, and toothless, I'll gum it until I go home to glory and it goes down to perdition."

That's how I feel about my sin and "issues" of the soul. And, through God's grace, I recently got a look into the chasm and caught a glance of the enemy. There is much more to come, surely, but here is what I have seen:

Contrary to God's Word and His great desire and love for me, I find there are three things that define how I react to the World in which he has placed me. They are

1. Fear
2. Guilt
3. A victim mentality

Now I know in many ways I behave differently than this on the outside, which is good and evidence of God's grace and mercy in my life. However, instead of fear, guilt, and a victim mentality, here is how God wants me to live opposed to them. They are

1. Faith
2. Forgiven and made innocent
3. A deliberate, "I choose" response to every situation in a manner that honors Him.

Alas, I need His help to displace the ugliness in my soul with His life. I cannot do it without Him, and He will not do it without me. I know and trust Him to work His healing within my heart. May I displace my fear with faith, my guilt with his forgiveness and re-forged innocence, and my victim mentality with a leading, responsible response that gives Him glory.

And you? I pray you ask God to help you displace the ugliness in your soul with His incredible Life.

This is my Purpose: Today

Today. God's purpose for my life is met today. And every day called today.

As I ponder purpose and destiny, I keep on returning to something that my good friend Scott Puckett said to me one time about twenty years ago: "God's purpose for your life is met today. It's not some far off, distant point in time that He is preparing you for; it's not just one moment, but it is a lifetime of todays." (my paraphrase).

God is a generational God ("God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob"); he is also the God of the past, present, and future. But in the Old Testament when He chose to reveal Himself to Moses and Moses dared to ask Him His Name, God simply replied, "I Am." The God who Is, the One who always was, is, and will be to come. Then continuing in the New Testament, God continues to remind us that He is God of the now, of today. He demonstrated this when He, in the fully God and fully human Jesus taught us to pray "this day" for our "daily bread." Thanks to Him for the past, reliance on Him for the today, and hope and faith in Him for the future.

It is true that God created each one of us for a special, unique purpose. That purpose is met today, and every day, while we walk with Him. Some He may choose to be "great" on the public stage of the World but of far more importance is to be great in the private audience of One--our Creator's desire for each one of us to have great friendship with Him.

I choose to rejoice today, and worship my Creator today, no matter what the past has been or the future may hold. I ask Him for the abundant Life in His Spirit. To blaze forth for Him whether simply before my family and intimates or in front of the whole world for all to see His glory.

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark
should burn out in a brilliant blaze
than it should be stifled by dry-rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
Jack London

Jesus, continue to help me use the time you have given me here to burn brightly for you, wherever I go and whatever I do. To truly live and to live out your plans for me and fulfill your purpose for me in my generation.