So I’m in Baltimore attending the NEXT conference – and listening to the speaker tonight, I was having the hardest time focusing on what he was teaching.

Then I started reviewing my notes, and boy, how I was twisting what he was saying when I was trying to write it down…. It didn’t make any sense.

Then my brain started playing tricks on me, and I was having these really weird emotionally self-destructive thoughts (for those not familiar with my newfound (thanks to therapy (and yes, I’m nesting parenthesizes)) self-examination and realizations, no — I’m not talking suicide or anything else, just… sometimes you start thinking of things and it goes downhill from there)….

And it occurred to me, it was time to pray.

I spent a good amount of time praying — in fact, I probably missed almost half of his teaching. But sometimes that’s just how things work out.

Later, as I’m sitting in my room finding the boarding pass information online, I overheard one of my roommates and his friends discussing how they felt disconnected during the session — just like I had. For one of them it was so strong that he ended up leaving, just to end up being ministered to by God outside showing him the falseness of his thoughts.

The moral of the story:

Do NOT underestimate the power of spiritual warfare, especially if you are in a room with some-3000 other Christians worshiping God at a conference that is being blanketed in prayer.

Sometimes Satan strikes when we think we are at our strongest….

The following has been standing out in my mind a lot this last week:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

— Matthew 6:25-34

Recently I was a somewhat unwilling participant in one of those oh-so-useful object lessons from God.

Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

I was in a situation where I was at a fork in the road. Take the broad way, the way I wanted to go, or the narrow road – the road I should choose.

Take the road my selfish self wanted to take, or obey God and go the other way.

I cried out in frustration, screamed and prayed. And He never wavered. “Go back. GO BACK.”

I could feel it in my soul.

And as I made my choice and dusted the cobwebs off the road less traveled, I felt at peace.

As it’s nearing midnight, and I’m sitting here at work I am reminded of a comment a friend of mine made to me:

It’s all about perspective.

Especially when you’re in the midddle of chaos, frustration or what-have-you — it’s easy to lose perspective on things.

But that’s also the time when it’s the most important to keep perspective, but also the time during which it’s the easiest to lose.

It seems that particular point will be a continual struggle for me — what about you?

Thanks, friend, for reminding me.