300

Thank you. 300 times, thank you! Thank you for your amazing support.

Thank you for friendships.

Thank you for your encouragement and willingness to walk this Overboard journey with me and my family.

Thank you for reading this blog.

In fact, 300 times you’ve come to this blog and dialed up the words and challenges put on my heart by God and His Word. Thank you for following, reading, commenting, correcting my lousy grammar and encouraging me along the way. Most of all, thank you for growing with me as Overboard Ministries is becoming a movement of people eager to live their God-designed lives of faith, out of the comfort of the boat and out on the water where Jesus is building His Kingdom.

Over 50,000 times this blog has been read by people from 75 different countries. (I know, small potatoes for some of you bloggers, but for this boy, I’m blown away by what God has done!) 12 books have been released, with several more scheduled before year’s end. We have dozens of financial partners supporting our work each month, and nearly 100 people who pray for us regularly. The list goes on and on, and all I can say is “Thank you!”

I am humbled and grateful and can’t wait to see what God does in the next 300 blog posts.

As a way of remember the path we've traveled, here is one of my favorite blog posts (definitely t0p-5 out of 300!), dating pack to April of 2013. This was blog #102 (198 posts ago!). Enjoy.

Joe Castaneda

-----

Every time I watch a movie, read a story or see something about Dick and Rick Hoyt, I usually end up wiping tears from eyes. Over 950 times Dick has pushed his son Ricky in a wheel chair or pedaled him on a bike or pulled him in a canoe across race finish lines all over the U.S. Every time I think of this duo, I am reminded of what the power of a father’s love can do.

Rick Hoyt is severely disabled. And when doctors told the family to just “put him away” because he would never be more than a vegetable, the Hoyt family decided to take him home and prove doctors wrong. Take ten minutes to watch this special piece on Team Hoyt as they tell their amazing story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36fjVFHNU48

My favorite part of the video is when Dick says, “He’s competing. I just give him my arms and legs, but he’s competing.” I am so moved by that father’s love and I am so reminded of the love of my own Heavenly Father in the same way.

I’ve often heard people use the phrase, “we are the hands and feet of Jesus” -- and in one sense it is very true. We represent Jesus in this world, and the way we walk and serve will be the best (or sometimes worst) representation of Jesus some people will ever see.

But in another very real sense, we are all like Ricky Hoyt. “Powerless” on our own, but with God as our hands and feet, we are able to compete in this life. We are able to put aside our own selfish ambition and vain conceit, we are able to serve others as we have been served, we are able to love as God loved and we are able to run our race because of God’s power in us. We aren’t gods; we are God’s.

At the end of his life, the Apostle Paul told Timothy, “I have the run the race” and he was ready to receive his reward. How did Paul run? He ran as man pushed by God. He didn’t run on his own strength, He ran with God’s! In 2 Corinthians 11:23-29, Paul lists out the trials he worked through in his life while serving God. Then, in chapter 12, he discusses a “thorn in flesh” -- some sort of extreme suffering that kept him dependent on God. And at the end of this recounting of all of his hardships Paul says this, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Paul was just admitting that he was like Ricky Hoyt. No mistaking it -- Paul was competing. But he was competing with the power of God’s arms and God’s legs, so that using God’s strength, God would be glorified in Paul’s life.

You can’t live Overboard in your own strength for very long. Let God give you the power you need to press on so, like Paul, you too can finish your race!

Go ahead and take the plunge, life is always better on the water!

When you hit the wall

Last month I was working out in my friend’s gym, having one of those days. You know, the ones where every exercise seems painful and hard? Some days exercise is fun and energizing for me, but other days it feels like the weights are extra heavy, the treadmill is extra fast and my whole body just lacks the umph it needs to keep going.  

As I finished my first set of reps (I usually do five activities two or three times, then do a different set of five activities, two or three times, for a total of ten activities in a regular workout), I thought, “Ok, today I’m only going to get through 2 reps” and I felt a little energy boost knowing that I was already half way done.

I stood up on the gym floor, faced the mirror to do a set of dumbbell curls, and that’s when I noticed the verse my friend had stenciled on the wall opposite the mirror: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” It’s from Isaiah 40 and the whole passage reads like this:

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young me stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:28-31).

As I reflected on the passage from Isaiah 40, that line really struck me: “...will renew their strength.”

When I think back to my youth, I can think of just a few times when I was one of the “young men” who “stumble and fall...” In fact, I can vividly remember a time when my youthful energy totally betrayed me and I had nothing left to give.

I played basketball my freshman year of high school, and we played for a tough, but very good basketball coach. Coach Miller had a very important philosophy about practice and it was very simple: “We are always going to accomplish something. And if we can’t accomplish anything else, we will get better conditioned.” That was code for running our butts off.

One particular torturous conditioning drill was called a mop-up. When doing a mop-up, you took your practice jersey off and placed it on the floor. You then grabbed it with your hands and ran a basic line drill. There were only three rules: The jersey had to stay on the ground. Your hands had to keep in constant contact with the jersey. And you could never sit down.

One mop-up was painful, but doable. Two mop-ups was excruciating, and required breaking through a pain threshold most of us had never approached. But the day we screwed up in a basketball game so badly that coach gave us three mop-ups, I found muscle groups in my body that I used that day, that have never been exercised before or since!

Coach walked in with a stack of papers and said, “Well boys, you know what we have today. So all we’re doing is three mop-ups, and when you’ve done your three, you can go home.” Then he sat down and started grading papers he was behind on. The fastest of us took the better part of an hour; our slowest teammate took almost two.

There was a point in which my legs burned so badly! I honestly have never hurt that much in my life, and that was after I had completed two full mop-ups, with on full one left to do. I kept praying that coach would just tell us to stop, but he didn’t. I knew that if I stood up I wouldn’t be playing in next week’s games. I pressed on through the pain and after about 75 minutes, I had completed my third mop-up. I waited in the gym until our whole team had finished then we hobbled to the showers together and committed to never, EVER, play in such a way as to need a mop-up as torture. If I remember right, we didn’t do a single mop-up the rest of the year.

I hate hitting walls. I always wish my walls were further from the starting line, but it seems like any time I get going on a new project, new workout plan, new eating goals or a better morning routine...SMACK! I run right into some personal, internal opposition. And all-too-often, the wall wins.

When living the Overboard Life, we are bound to hit some walls. That’s when the words of Isaiah 40 have to be embraced. We have to hold on to the truth that God will provide strength when we have only pain and weakness. He will give energy when we are weary and exhausted. He will restore power when we are faint and feel out of control. He will move our standing to walking and our walking to running. He will always give us what we need to get through the next wall.

Have you recently hit a wall? Are you staring at one right now, exhausted, weary and feeling defeated? Have you smacked your head one too many times, and certain that you’ll never get through, over, under or around?

Then you’re in Isaiah 40 country. You need to remember that God doesn’t grow weary and He is always working on behalf of His children. “Since God is for us” wrote the Apostle Paul, “who can stand against us?” And the answer is “No One!” Will you lean on Him again today as you face your wall?

14 down, 26 to go!

Go ahead and take the plunge, life is better on the water!

Overboard Curtains?

My wife and I are in the process of setting up our house after moving out from Oregon. One of the many blessings of our new home is the number of windows that let in huge amounts of light. It is wonderful having so much sunshine enter the house from so many different windows. But one of the curses that comes from so much glass is having to cover them with curtains or blinds. Our room in particular, has a window that faces east. As the sun comes up over the horizon in the morning, it shines across a small valley, lights up the lake directly below us, and then showers our room with sweet golden rays. In 7 of our 12 mornings here, we have had a spectacular view of God’s morning canvass. Only, it’s like 6am and I’m usually not in the mood for a shower of sweet golden rays!

So last week Traci and I hit up Target and found some promising window coverings in a curtain brand called, “Eclipse”. Since we had literally been waking up with the sunrise, I was anxious to try out these new curtains. I believed the advertising on these that stated, “blocks 99% of all light.” I couldn’t wait to sleep in 1% of sunlight.

The night we attached them to the curtain rod, I was excited by the prospects of 99% of sunlight being kicked out of my bedroom. With all the snow around here, even nights are pretty bright, and already I could see a considerable improvement in the darkness of the room. These Eclipse brand curtains were just what the doctor ordered.

When I awoke the next morning, you can imagine my disappointment when this is what I saw:

99% of sunlight my eye! Granted, the room was much less lit than it had been the morning before, but I was expecting 99% darkness! These new curtains did not meet my expectations.

I hopped in the shower a little ticked at my recent purchase and then a thought hit me: what if that was 99% blockage? After all, we’re talking about the sun! It’s not like someone was just holding a flashlight up to our window, we’re talking about a flaming star that is 92.96 million miles away from earth. It is 109 times larger than earth, and has a surface temperature of 10,000 degrees (F). This baby is blasting heat and light across our solar system and galaxy -- giving light to objects billions of miles away.

As I thought about the magnitude of the sun and how big and bright it is, I realized my eclipse curtains were representing truth in advertising. They were blocking 99% of the sunlight, but 1% of sunlight is still a lot of light!

This got me thinking about Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world…” I wonder how much “son power” I’m cranking out as I try to live Overboard for God. If 99% of my light was snuffed out, would I still make an impact on others? At 1% of it’s potential, the sun is still lighting up my bed room, but what would 1% of my potential look like? If I’m truly living the Overboard Life then I know I’m living by God’s power, not mine. I know God’s power is limitless and 1% of Him flowing through me will light up lives everywhere I go.

Are you living with God’s help? The Overboard Life cannot be lived on our own strength or power. If it is, then you’ll see that when even a small percent of your light is eclipsed, things go dark. But when we live how God wants us to, depending on Him for strength and power, we’ll find that even our frailest efforts can still light up a room -- or a life -- for His glory.

Three ways to depend on God’s help:

Read your Bible every day. Fill up with God’s Word as a habit, and you’ll see your light shining brighter and brighter.

Spend daily time in prayer. The disciplines of faith strengthen our candle power! Regular time, connecting with God through prayer, will result in powerful lives of eternal influence.

Serve, serve, serve. Time with God must evidence itself in service. Jesus boiled life down to simple fragments: Love God and love others. It’s not ok to serve others without being connected to God any more than it’s ok to be connected to God without serving. (In fact, I’d argue that you aren’t connected to God if you aren’t serving others.)

Light up the world for God’s glory, and experience the great fruit and reward of living a surrendered life.

Go ahead and take the plunge, life is better on the water.