Stephen De La Vega

When we contemplate the canvas of life, I hope we recognize that God is the Master Painter. He determines the colors, the background, the foreground, the objects, and the goings on in His big picture. We see in limited frames, but God combines them onto a single, grand canvas, with the richness of differing perspectives, multiple art forms and mediums, and expertly woven nuances of light and dark space across and beyond varied genres and time periods. God is the artful Master, and He profoundly captures the details of our interests, talents, and emotions within a single image. And then another that expresses a new adventure or a different struggle, and ever-maturing qualities as time elapses. All that is within our hearts, that which was before and that which is to come, are deeply impressed in our eyes as He unveils His treasure: each one of us – each individual, eternal person. The Master Painter never overlooks the value of texture and depth. Each portrait within ea...

[This is Part 2 of Animal Instincts Trilogy.  Also read Part 1 and Part 3 .] I stepped out of my comfort zone one day and walked into a GRIT Cardio class at the gym.  Well, I wasn’t out of my comfort zone as much as I was out of my lazy zone, but that's another blog.  Either way, the cardio class was still pushing the envelope for me.  GRIT Cardio is a high intensity, teacher-based, half hour span of utter desperation.  After every 1- to 2-minute set of jumps, squats, planks, donkey kicks, and other humanly impossible actions, I wished I could claim my incessant panting as sufficient aerobic exercise for the day. I realize there are certain humans who can manage this insanity while hardly breaking a sweat, but I'm not one of them.  These other humans somehow reached a point where executing the unnatural movements of GRIT Cardio was not as heavy a burden for them as it was for me.  It still takes effort, they still get a workout, but the...

I used to think I was very patient. Any offense was water off my back.  If things didn’t work out, no big deal. ...Then my patience was tested.  This was some 30 years ago, so I don’t recall the circumstances, but I do remember the ego shock when it hit me:  I really did have a problem with patience. Since then, I’ve been tested and tested again, continuously, and I’ve fallen short.  I’m not the guy I so naively…and arrogantly…thought I was. The kind of patience I’m writing about is the kind that is associated with forbearance, forgiveness, understanding, gentleness, and self-control. It’s the kind of patience that directs a right response when we experience the unpleasantries of people. About a year ago, I shared with the men in our small group that various little things had been bothering me and I had trouble just letting them be. Some things should bother us as Christians, but these were not those things. A couple weeks later I shared the following...