When the World Disappoints

Twenty-five years ago Wayne and Daryl Luthas found a friendship around their similar passion for Jesus and a desire to discover what life in him really looks like. From there, their journeys were as different externally as they could be, but both have ended up in a similar space of knowing the Father's love and provision. Daryl's is a story of losing so much that the world, and most Christians value, and yet through it all the work of Jesus' freedom unfolds in his heart. Now in his mid-fifties, Daryl finds himself an associate at Home Depot and finding more joy and the freedom to love others than he has ever known. Truly, a man's life truly does not consist of his possessions and if we can get our eyes on Jesus instead of our circumstances, we will discover that God's love can thrive anywhere.

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25 Comments

  1. Thanks Wayne and Daryl! So encouraging to hear a story of someone real, living in real trust where the focus is on Father and not outward success. Blessings

  2. I’ll have to say, I am nowhere near the place where Daryl is in his journey. Still being tempted by outward success, still caring about what other people think, yet realizing God loves me through any and all circumstances. What a mess I am, but thankfully, I am God’s mess!! Keep the stories coming.

  3. Wow. What a story. So encouraging and hopeful. The timing is great too. I have been writing a brief synopsis of my life story for a blog assignment early next week, and this story from Daryl really helps put some of my own frustrations with life in perspective. Thanks for sharing it.

  4. Such an encouraging conversation as we learn to move from dependance on ourselves and others to complete trust in Father’s love and care for His children. Great conversation guys!

  5. A very encouraging story! Also like all the background noises and the description of the ‘walking stick’ whatever that was!

    Interesting that Daryl looked into Buddhism. God has never let me near Buddhism or anything to do with it. I always get that yucky feeling, like when you accidently walk into the occult section in a bookstore. Does anyone else get that or am I weird?
    Actually I get a similar (but different) yucky feeling sometimes when I go to institutional meetings (I allow myself the option to attend sunday meetings sometimes, should it seem appropriate).

    As regarding my friends in the institutional church, God impressed on my way back, not to ‘Throw the baby out with the bathwater’; the ‘baby being the stuff He was still doing in His people there, and the ‘bathwater’ being the religion they love to wallow in.

    So I continue to love the my friends in the conventional institutions (as much as they’ll let me) whilst remembering that their ‘bathwater’ is toxic.
    I actually feel more at ease in a pub or bar than in a sunday place. You know roughly what demons you’re up against in a bar, and there’s less shame if you don’t conform.

    I liked the bit about God winning us into a place of trust. I’m formerly from the ‘word of faith’ background: ‘faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God’ and all that. Having seen that work in my life at times, I’m reluctant to totally rubbish it. However it can become a formula rather than a relationship. and relationship with Father and with others has become my priority these days.

    Trust is something deep that comes out of our gradually learning that God is trustworthy in all kinds of situations, as Daryl made clear. Thanks for that.

    Like Ron says: ‘I’m God’s mess!’ I like that too.

    Thanks for your comment Eve Lorraine: I’m now also praying for Abba’s girl. We all need all the prayer and encouragement we can get on this journey! Well I do anyway…

  6. Appreciate the comments from all. Ron, I particularly resonate with what you said “I’m nowhere near where Daryl is at in his journey.” Seems that Father’s tender affection for us means that our trust is won at a very slow pace. Since He’s never in a hurry, it makes sense even though I still find I cannot live with the kind of patience I wish I had. More relaxing into “even though I’m a mess, I’m HIS mess”.

  7. Hi Robin, Yes it is a very encouraging story! I sing ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus’ I need to keep my eyes off ME! I also sing, ‘Though none go with me I still will follow’. We never thought that would really happen.
    I get a gentle no when I pick up a book or google something which Father doesn’t want me doing. I think that has only happened since I left the meetings and started into a closer relationship with Him. Sometimes He allows one of us to go places where He does not allow another. Sometimes we need to fall in the pigpen before we are willing to truly hand over to Him.
    Friends in the Sunday Club thought I had gone to the devil and avoided me. They felt betrayed. Now 20 years down the track it doesn’t matter. They are long gone. I have a much better relationship with the non-believers. They are not threatened by me. I am still a very slow learner. Only yesterday I handed over to Him once again and asked Him to forgive me for trying to fix things myself.

  8. A very encouraging podcast episode indeed. And good as always to read all the thoughtful and open responses here.
    I particularly liked what Robin W had to say about the “word of faith” movement. I hail from the same background and am similarly in no rush to rubbish it. The key point is exactly what Robin states: it can become formulaic and substitute for actual relationship with God.
    One thing I am still trying to sort out is how the various commissions in scripture fit with the relationally-directed life posited by Wayne. I seem to sway between the two. I love the relational freedom with Father who is always bigger than any ‘mistake’ I could ever make. On the other hand there are times when I’m contending for things in faith, seeing myself as more a heavenly ambassador with a job to get on with. I would love to get to the point where I feel His push to do each thing that I do, but til then there’s the question of ‘am I being responsible with what’s He’s giving me?’. Is God really free to do anything (and thereby fully sovereign), or is he depending on us to get his Kingdom planted down here? On the one hand we read “do not worry” but elsewhere we’re told to pray for God’s intervention – like it might not happen otherwise.
    I realize that sorting this out in my head is secondary to a living organic relationship with Him. So I pursue that first and foremost. (And like Eve-Lorraine, I find worship a real door for me). But nevertheless, I do wonder!

  9. Love your gentle comments Eve-Loraine. I can relate to you where Father has stopped me in certain situations of googling or reading material. His gentle voice is becoming easier to hear and also I’m being won to a place where I can slowly learn more patience to walk with His timing.

  10. Ah….. Finally, someone like me! Loved your journey Daryl. So here goes…

    There was once on this planet a man name of Daryl,
    who found that his faith was quite over a barrel.
    He was active in church, he played his guitar
    but quite frankly found more truth in a bar.

    So he walked away from his “ministry”
    left the youth all on their own you see.
    For he had to find his lonely way
    and not live for the glory of what other’s might say.

    Well the path was dark, the way was obscure
    Many a false path as it all started to blur.
    He tried Buddha, Hare Krishna, and while dining on mutton
    one day thought extensively about his bellybutton.

    He had to go it alone for his wife could not deal
    with a man who struggled to find out what was real.
    The years wore on, the money was spent
    sometimes it was tough just to come up with the rent.

    His daughter stayed with him, and found her own faith
    For though the Father’s not early, He’s never late.
    Through pain and anguish and the dark of the soul
    His faith became real and started to grow.

    Today this man knows the depth of His love
    that He will never leave us or give us a shove.
    He is always there to comfort, encourage and lead
    He gives us HIs spirit deep in us, His seed.

    A man broken reborn, in the image of love
    a light for others, with the touch of a dove.
    So don’t be discourage or ever lose hope
    There ‘s a path for us all even if we’re a dope…..

    Blessings!

  11. Second to last line should be discouraged, not discourage. Sorry, the OCD coming out…….Wrote this in 15 minutes actually. Should have gone over it a sixth time before submitting…..

  12. So glad to hear that the commonality of Father’s love in the midst of living our lives can encourage each other, and that reality of my journey can help reveal more of Father’s faithfulness. Wow… what a blessing. I am blessed by hearing everyone’s input and the sharing of their process. I too am a “mess”, but His mess. 🙂 I relate to what everyone has shared. Many of the truths I learned in institution have been very applicable in the living of my life in Father. There are still times of deliverance and spiritual warfare. There are times in which I discern voices from the enemy and chose not to speak them or believe them…. and sometimes I believe them… and Father has to reveal his love even more.

    Maybe the place Abba has taken me at this point is that I don’t like to dwell on what I do and don’t do. If I need to be convicted of something… He is faithful to do that. As He lives in me…. He reveals Himself to those around me… but it isn’t something I think about or try to do. If it seems right to pray for healing… I pray for healing. If I feel impressed to pray for deliverance… I do it. It just isn’t that big a deal. Living in the reality of my brokenness… immersed in His grace, forgiveness, and love. When I quite trying, and rest in the security of His faithfulness… stuff happens. Imagine that..hahaha.

    And Mark Warner… THANKS for the Limerick/poem. 🙂 Such special gift! “So don’t be discouraged or ever lose hope…There’s a path for us all even if we’re a dope! Love that line. haha.

    Blessings to all! You all blessed me. And Rusty… enjoyed having lunch with you,

  13. Keep the poems coming Mark. We can get so serious about this journey we can forget to laugh.
    Good to have a little humour on the blog, as well as the serious stuff.
    Thanks.

  14. Has anyone tried to listen to the latest podcast, ‘How it all went wrong’. My link doesn’t work.

  15. It’s not just you Eve-Loraine, the latest podcast episode is reported as just 5MB, and does not appear to be available for download. Maybe it’s still being uploaded to the site? Might be worth trying again later.

  16. The next podcast won’t load until tomorrow… A glitch put it on the iTunes feed before the actual podcast was loaded. Sorry for the problem. It should all clear up tomorrow…

  17. Thank you Daryl. Your words explain my life too. –“Maybe the place Abba has taken me at this point is that I don’t like to dwell on what I do and don’t do. If I need to be convicted of something… He is faithful to do that. As He lives in me…. He reveals Himself to those around me… but it isn’t something I think about or try to do. …When I quit trying, and rest in the security of His faithfulness… stuff happens. “
    I share my life when Father gives me opportunity. I shared with someone this morning who has previously been closed. I actually shared that I found relationship with Father when I discovered that I was never going to be good enough and accepted that He died in my place. Later I understood that He redeemed (owned) me and I could expect Him to direct my life. She heard. I hope she tries it too.
    As Daryl said, “When I quit trying, and rest in the security of His faithfulness… stuff happens. “
    I was blessed!

  18. Thanks for the encouragement, Daryl. I do seem to be able to see the humorous side of things even in the darkness.

    In reading comments I think of Romans 8, “Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them-living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than about God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.”

    I’m reminded of that famous Christmas poem:

    On Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen,
    it’s off to the car wash the sleigh’s full of shitzen!

    So wash off the shitzen and let Him lead!

    Blessings!

  19. I apologize in advance for anyone offended by my last post. Just so you know, my daughter thinks I should come with a warning label…….

  20. I’m sitting here with my friend and he said that he hoped I would write the warning labels because they would be a lot more fun to read…..

  21. Oh Mark! Daughters feel called to expose us.
    I asked Father about Andy’s questions and He gave me two answers.
    1) God has a thought which relates to me as one of His Own; and that thought is, that through the conditions and sufferings of my life He should develop in me the features of His Son. (TAS)

    2) Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you. (2 Timothy 1:14 NLT)
    How much have you to dispense? Are you sure that you are dispensing what you have? The Lord did not lead you through that trial, through that darkness, through that strange experience, just for your own sake. The Lord has not dealt with you as He has, in order that you should be shut up to yourself, to enjoy the result alone. He has done that to constitute you a steward. If you and I will only allow that fact to govern us in the days of difficulty and trial, it will help us through. We should hold fast to the fact that the trial is to mean enrichment for the Lord’s people, and an increase of equipment and qualification for stewardship…. Ask the Lord to release you into your stewardship within your measure. …We simply have in mind the way in which the Lord creates living contacts. Children of God may cross your path in dire need, and may all the time be looking for the person who can help them. They have been crying to the Lord to meet the need, and have been watching to see how the Lord would answer. They may cross your path, and you talk upon all sorts of ordinary things; they pass on their way, and you have failed in your stewardship. …Let us ask the Lord to give us release from our tied-up state, to fulfil this stewardship. (T. Austin-Sparks
    I have found that Father seems to be more interested in changing me than in my witnessing. Once again Daryl’s words are true. “When I quit trying, and rest in the security of His faithfulness… stuff happens. “

  22. Thank you Daryl for that wonderful gift! My husband and I have been taking a similar journey of just “letting it go”! Sometimes it has been action and sometimes it has been a place of rest. I have been hurt by church, not with abuse but with loneliness. I was the one to avoid in church; now I see that many saw me as a threat because I was a heavy believer in relying on the Holy Spirit. Now I see that the loneliness was a gift because through it at a young age I learned to trust in Him only. Of course that did not mean I did not go through rough patches- oh boy! The hardest was when I almost gave in to an institution and experienced Satan tormenting 2 years with voices stating I was not a child of Gods because I was not worthy enough. This all happened within this church. When I left the voices left.
    We have been financially insecure for 10 years, so I get it- we had to rely on God for everything- losing businesses and a house! In fact, for 41/2 years every two weeks we had some kind of financial struggle hit us or something break or some family issue. Right now God told us to move again – my husband is there and I am still at our old house with my two boys waiting for it to sell. We have been separated for 2 months now. My daughter is 19 and struggling with her faith and my father-in-law is angry at my husband (they are living together at this moment) BUT nothing could prepare me for the great and amazing gifts God has given me. See, I look at the greatest gifts that God gives us are of the fruit of the Spirit- love, joy, peace, long suffering as the BEST! I have got a long way to go, but by God’s grace go I.
    Thanks again Daryl……and Wayne thank you for your precious blog; it is a great source of comfort for me and what I have been thinking about church for a long time now, but there was not anyone out there where I could vocalize it!

  23. Amen,Amen and Amen again to all I am hearing and reading here!!! My heart soars to hear such beauty coming out of all your lives! Thank-you all for sharing your hearts..It blows me away to hear people that we’ve never met,saying the same things we’ve been learning on this journey. God is truly SO FAITHFUL and this journey is so much more than I could have ever imagined!! Blessings to all you brothers and sisters out there…These podcasts are a bright spot in our lives Wayne! Thank-You.

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