Pain and Motivation

My daughter loves scary rides at six flags. Superman? The Titan? The Texas Giant? Mr. Freeze? Every trip, over and over. How about being hoisted up in a sling attached to a huge rubber band and dropped about 100 feet? Paid $30 bucks to do it. But I've done something that makes her turn pale to even hear about it. What was it? I laid down on a table, looked at the ceiling, and didn't blink while a man I barely knew dug in my eyeball with a huge needle. Whhaaattt??? Yep, sure did.

How much would I have to pay you to let a stranger dig in your eyeball with a huge needle? Would you do it for $10,000? How about $100,000? Not a chance? Me neither. But what if I were to tell you that not only didn't I get paid, I paid over a hundred bucks for the experience.

Let me explain...You see, I got a splinter in my eye. Don't know where it came from, just felt something in my eye, like an eyelash, couldn't rub it out so went to a mirror and there, sticking out of the Iris [colored part] of my eye was a splinter. OUCH! Actually, it didn't hurt a lot except when I blinked [try not blinking for a while...I tried and tried, it just can't be done]. With every blink, the splinter would scratch the inside of my eyelid. As I said, OUCH! After a couple of hours I ended up in a minor emergency clinic with a doctor who put some in some numbing eyedrops AAhhhhh.... Then he put me on a table, pulled out a large needle, and said "Look at the ceiling and don't blink"...excuse me? "Look at the ceiling and don't blink..." "I'm not sure I can keep from blinking" "well, you'll only blink once!" and do you know what I did? I looked at the ceiling and didn't blink!

Now that I've given you nightmares, permit me to point out the obvious. Pain = Motivation. Under normal circumstances, I would never willingly allow that to happen to me, but under these circumstances, I paid to have it happen. That is useful to know. Think about all those stories you've heard about people who have turned their lives around. Don't they usually have pain [physical, mental, or emotional] in common? "When my daughter died...", "when my husband left me and took our children...", "When I woke up in the hospital without my leg..." Pain is a very useful tool in that it gets our attention, and makes the unthinkable not only thinkable, but desirable.
The implications as far reaching.

On a personal level: when you experience pain in your life, instead of running from it, or trying to avoid it, use it as motivation to godliness. That is what the prodigal son did. He was hungry, he was lonely, and that motivated him to go home.

As a parent: Know that when you shield your child from the painful consequences of their sinful, irresponsible actions, you are removing powerful motivation for change from their life.

As a church: When we look the other way, ignoring open sin to thrive unchecked in our congregation, we allow it to spread, and give the sinner false comfort in the belief that sin doesn't matter to God or his people. When, on the contrary, the church in Corinth refused to even eat with a member who was openly embracing sin (1 Cor.5) he was overwhelmed with sorrow, repented of his sin, and returned to God.

When my heart is wise, pain is an enemy who serves me even as he seeks to destroy me.

Why Traffic Lights don't burn out

This week one of the florescent bulbs in our kitchen burned out. Because of the design, the entire fixture quit working. Only one bulb was bad, but they all shut down because each one depended on the others to work.

A few weeks before that, a cfl burned out in a fixture in another room. This light continued to work, it just wasn't quite as bright as it had been before. This fixture was designed to continue to provide light by connecting each bulb to the power independently. The room was a bit darker but we still managed just fine without the bulb for a few days until a replacement was purchased and installed.

So I got to thinking about lights that need to never go out, and my mind settled on Traffic Control Lights [we usually call them 'stop lights', cause I guess we don't notice them so much when they are 'go lights']. They need to work, and I expect them to work. There is such a light near my home that has been burning -green, yellow, red, green, yellow, red...for years and I have never pulled up to a burned out light. [We have had a power failure or two, but that's a different blog].

Why don't Traffic Lights burn out? Well, as it turns out there is a clever, and very simple reason why the modern traffic lights in your city don't burn out. Each "bulb" is really about 60 little l.e.d. bulbs. All closely aligned, but independently powered. That way, when a bulb does go out [and it does happen], it's just one dot out of 60, and the light still works just fine...think about that...important that it never goes out, closely aligned, yet independently powered...does that remind you of any other lights?

"And seeing the multitudes...He opened His mouth and taught them, saying...You are the light of the world..." -Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount

I believe that is the way God designed his people to bring light into this world. Like the traffic control signal, God's people, living God's way, give direction to the world. It is a light we can't afford to lose. For that reason, we need to be closely aligned, not identical, but all shining the same light. Yet we must be independently powered, because sometimes, one of our lights goes out.

Consider the chaos, tragedy, and darkness our world would be plunged into if we all quit shining each time one of us stopped. When closely aligned and working together, we can bring light, significant, helpful light, into this world. And they will see our light and glorify the Father.

Part of the brilliance [pun intended] of God's plan is that you don't depend on anyone else to shine. All you need is your own connection to the power source. Don't waste your time examining all the others around you for their "candlepower output". Some will shine brighter than you, and others may quit shining, for a time, or forever. Don't worry about that. We are each an individual ray of light from the Father of lights. Just maintain your own connection and keep on shining!

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

New Birth

Just wanted to say how incredibly happy I am that my daughter, Jordan, was baptized into Jesus Christ today! I know there are milestones all through life, but none are any greater than this!

Jordan, my greatest prayer for you is a life of faithfulness to the Lord you claimed as your own today. I am so proud of you, and I love you dearly...

-Daddy

The sneaky benefit of complexity

At my house I have a box of remote controls. One for the TV, one for the DVR/Satellite, one for the Clearplay, one for the over-the-air HD-digital receiver, one for the stereo, one for the DVD/VCR recorder combo, etc. Now, being a typical man, I see this as a thing of beauty. For one, I love remotes, and secondly no-one in the house but me knows which remote does what with which device, sooooooo guess who always gets to run the remote when it's TV time? Clever eh? Just make something so complex that no-one else understands it, and the job is always yours.

Okay, I suspect that our government does this to us all the time [The US tax code for instance]. But what I'm more interested in here is how our religious leaders do the same thing. How many times in a sermon have you heard something like "In the Greek, this word means servant, but not just any kind of servant, it is a special kind of servant, and to get the thought you must understand the ever so delicately discerned shade of meaning that is the critical centerpiece of God's message here... This is the kind of servant...that you couldn't possibly understand, much less teach anyone about, unless you have a Master's of Divinity Degree from an Accredited Theology Department in a Prestigious University, like I do..."

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3

The truth is that Jesus spoke the common language of the people, the apostles did too. The New Testament was written in common fish-market Greek. The most commonly understood language of the day. Don't be fooled into thinking you can't understand God's word. To be sure, there are difficult passages, and sometimes understanding the Greek can be beneficial, but you don't need a Biblical Criticism and Ancient Languages to understand what God tells you to do. See if you can figure out these difficult passages:

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Mark 16:16
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9
love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you
Matthew 5:44

Or this marvel of complexity: "be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another".
I doubt there are many ten year olds who couldn't understand these things. Don't be impressed by the letters behind someone's name when they present a complex explanation of a Bible text. Most false teachers can give an impressively complicated explanation to show
you why the Bible doesn't mean what it says. They shroud the simplicity of Christ in complexity so you'll keep paying their salary.
Read the Bible for yourself, you really can understand it!

A time to Plant

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted...

So I said I would be updating the garden story and the season is almost over so here goes, in a series of posts.


First, our black soil is wonderful...and nasty. It is very thick, heavy clay, sometimes called gumbo. If you try to dig in it when it is wet, you will spend as much time scraping the mud off the shovel as you do digging. If you walk on it when it is wet it will stick to your shoes and you will grow taller and taller as you walk. If you let it get dry in the Texas summer heat, it gets great cracks in the soil, wide enough for a child's foot/leg to fall into, and it gets as hard as brick. There is about a 4 hour window that the moisture content is just perfect for working.

Every year we add organic material to the soil. We've used compost, horse, rabbit and chicken manure, rotted hay, pete moss, etc. Our land used to be a cotton farm, and for all it's foibles, it is very fertile.

As we had left the garden to rest for the previous two years, it takes lots of digging to prepare for a crop. Here Jordan tills the soil the old fashioned way, with some help from mom.

Notice the pan of potatoes that we planted. The red variety don't seem to grow as well but we sure do like them. Nothing like Red 'new potatoes' for supper.

I know sports teaches the concept of teamwork, but there is something different about family teamwork...there just is. One of the neat things about this project was that every day we worked in the garden was just another "take you kid to work day" for us. They get to see, touch, smell, and taste (literally) what they hear us say about hard work and it paying off.

After a few hours work, Jacob is ready to plant the Broccoli. He learned how to dig the hole, mix in compost, and gently pack the soil around the roots. You can tell by the jackets that is was a bit chilly that afternoon in North Texas. Do you think he'll sleep well tonight?

As you can see we got to spend some quality time together digging in the dirt...

Do you think anything will grow?

Why are there so many liberals?

It is well known in legal circles that eye witnesses are notoriously unreliable. It is not terribly uncommon to have eye witnesses who give, not only different, but conflicting, and mutually impossible accounts of an event . Why is that? How can two people see the same thing and see it so differently?

I recently preached on the topic of Grace, Faith and Works and how they relate to one another. Someone remarked, with disdain, that the sermon was no different than what would be heard in a very liberal denomination. This week, a dear friend informed me he can no longer worship with me because I am a legalist. What is so interesting [and candidly, heart breaking] about this is that I am the same guy, believing and teaching the same thing. Yet to hear these people talk, you'd think one of them heard John Calvin preach, while the other was hearing Charles Russell. Again I ask, how is that possible?Well, as usual, I have a theory, and it goes like this. If you consider liberal/conservative beliefs on a continuum, from one extreme to another it would look something like this:

On the one [left] hand you have liberal theology which dismisses the literal truth of God's word. A belief that discounts the necessity of recognizing that Jesus is not only my savior, he is my Lord, and as such gives me commands that I am required to obey. On the other [right] hand, you have radical theology that not only requires obedience to the commands of scripture, it also demands submission to the man made [non-biblical] commands made by the leadership of the particular fellowship.
Now, most of us know that the actual truth is somewhere in between the two extremes, but that isn't really what I am concerned about in this post. What I am wondering is why two people, can hear the same message, preached by the same man, and one walk away believing the message was ultra liberal and the other believing it was radically conservative.
I think that at least part of the answer is that whatever I believe others to be is just as much an indication of what I am as what they are; in fact it may say even more about me than them. You see, if I am very legalistic, considerably more so than the average person, then most people will be more liberal than I am. The result is that, since most people are more liberal than me, I will tend to see more people as liberal. The further right on the chart I am, the greater number of people will be on my left, and therefore seen as liberal from my Point of View.
If on the other hand, I am very liberal in my thinking, most people will be more conservative than me. I will then naturally see a legalist behind every tree. Everyone seems legalistic because they are more legalistic than me. This tendency is not new.
Paul warned against this type of judging by the standard of ourselves when he said:

"For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." 2 Corinthians 10:12

I judge truth, error and my fellowman using my own opinions and judgments as the standard. One great danger in this is that, if my point of view is more legalistic than scripture, I will tend to think those who walk in truth are too liberal. If my point of view is more liberal than scriptural, I am likely to judge those who embrace the truth to be legalists.

So, my friend, where do you stand? Do you see a liberal behind every tree? Or are we being over-run by right-wing radicals?

$80,000 worth of advice

Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. Ecclesiasted 2:13

I made a wise financial decision once, then I made a stupid one. I decided to sell our 48 shares of Unocal Stock and buy Best Buy stock. Within three weeks, my portfolio had grown nearly 30%. Wow, how easy is this? Within three months it was up nearly 50%. (Donald Trump watch your back!) Within 6 months it was worth only 1/3 what I paid for it. So what did I do? I'm no fool, I bought more. Doubled my shares. I was 'dollar cost averaging' or so the Motley Fool Website said.

Within 2 more months it was worth just over half of what I paid for the second purchase. Ouch! Those Motley Fool Guys are Idiots! I've gotta get out of this, it's killing me! But I can't sell now, I'll lose all my $$, so I decide "If it ever gets back up to where we can recoup our investment, I'll bail!" Four long years later it happened. What a glorious day! I called the broker and said "Sell it quick!" Then, of all the audacity, he suggested that I 'wait a bit to see what it is going to do'. No. Sell it...all...now. Less than 30 minutes later it was done, and not only did I get my $ back, I actually made about $200!

Within a couple of months the stock (which no longer belongs to me mind you) is worth what my original investment was, then it doubled, then it doubled again, then it split, then it doubled, then it split...over and over again for the the next 5 years. Just to torture myself, I figured it up, if I had held on to those shares, through splits & run ups, and sold at their peak, I'd have made about $80,000. But I brilliantly, loudly, and proudly, settled for $200 and some knowledge.

So, what did I learn from this? I learned that I am not going to spend enough time studying the stock market to make wise stock market decisions. I learned that I'm far better off to sub-contract that job out to someone who will. A specialist. A 'financial advisor' whose job it is to know which industry sectors are doing well, and which ones aren't, and which Mutual Funds are well managed, and which ones aren't. So, every month [remember dollar cost averaging] I put a little more $ in a boring mutual fund. And guess what? Over the last 2 years, when general stock market has lost about 43% from it's high I am down 9%. Why? Because I didn't try to do it myself, I hired a specialist. Sounds like an ad for Merril Lynch huh? Not really, I have lost 9%. Even a specialist, who studies the market daily, can't guarantee certain results. Like with medicine or education, the best doctor in the world may not be able to cure your cancer, and the best teacher in the world may not get you an A in Pre-calculus.

My financial advisor is fond of saying "A rising tide lifts all boats", well it seems the opposite is also true. Today Forbes posted it's list of the world's Billionaires. Subtitle of the story was: Last year the world had 1,125 billionaires. Today there are 793. In fact, the two richest men in the world lost a combined $43 Billion! [which, by the way, is more than the individual GDP of the bottom 115 of the worlds 190 nations!] If I do the math right, they lost a greater percentage than I did...

The moral of the story? If you know what you're doing you stand a much better chance of succeeding, but that still doesn't guarantee returns.

...the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11

The General Contractor

Any major construction job has a boss. He's the guy who takes the architect's plans and makes them happen. He's the guy who puts a building on the site. He's called the "General Contractor" (G.C.). He is the point man for the project. How does he get it all done? Well, actually, sub-contractors do most of the work. The G.C. will sign the contract to build the road, school, hospital, etc. which will specify parts of the job the G.C. will take care of himself. Then he will make contracts with many other tradesmen and construction specialists to do pieces of the job; a concrete crew, framers, brick layers, Sheet-rockers, landscapers, plumbers, electricians, etc. Then, under the supervision of the G.C., they will work together to complete the building project.

I believe that guy equates to my job as a Dad. I am the General Contractor of the character of my children. "Whoa there", you say "What about God?" In my analogy God is the Architect, the Designer. Remember Ephesians 6:4?

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath,
but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

I have full confidence in the Lord to do His part, it's my part I worry about. For instance, I sub-contract out my child's health care to Dr. George Eastman III. He is an excellent Doctor, and he is a man who has dedicated his life to becoming a specialist in Childhood heath. It seems to me, one great challenge of parenting is making wise decisions about what jobs we handle ourselves and what jobs we sub-contract out. You may choose to handle health-care yourself with alternative medicine. Okay, you are G.C., it's your call.

Four years ago, we fired a sub-contractor, the Prosper Independent School District, and decided to educate our children ourselves [yup, we're homeskoolurs]. You may choose to sub-contract Algebra, Science, & Early European Lit. education to your local School District. That too is okay because the Architect never spells out specifically who should set your child's broken elbow, or who should teach him Metal Shop.

But I have a more pertinent question. Who is handling the spiritual education & health of your children? "Hey, that's what we pay the preacher for." "That's why we send them to Sunday School." We sub-contract out their character development and eternal destiny. Oh really? I'm not sure I'm with you on that one Spanky. As I understand the blue-prints from the Architect, he specifies that my wife and I are responsible for that.

Whose job is it to infuse values into my children? Hannah Montana? Zack & Cody? The 'health & sex ed' teacher? Oprah? Harry Potter? Edward the Vampire? Child Protective Services? the Discover Channel? Brittany Spears? No, no, and no, it is me. "Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord". Whether or not you teach them Algebra, teach your kids God's word. Don't 'send them to Sunday School', instead 'take them to church'. Then discuss the sermon, help them apply it in their own lives, let them see you apply it in your life.

Watch Hannah Montana with them and help them discern the good from the bad. Read 'Twilight' before you give it your teenage daughter then decide if it is appropriate and discuss it with her regardless of your decision. Dads, we are the General Contractors of our children's lives. We must pay careful attention to what parts of their lives we sub-contract out, and even then we must oversee and inspect the work that is done. If not, we may be heart-broken by a building that will be a hazard to itself and everyone around it.

The Ultimate Buffet

Imagine with me for a moment the Ultimate Buffet. All your favorites, personally selected by you, cooked just the way you want it. ALL your favorites...ALL you can eat. Sound like a dream?
More like a nightmare in reality...what? That's usually part of our problem, we don't think things through. So you're at this buffet, all you want of everything you want and what happens? Well, you begin to load the plate, "just a spoon of this & a glob of that, yeah, pile that steak right here". Then you waddle to the table and begin to eat, and eat, and eat, another trip or three through the buffet line, maybe the dessert line (or did you start there?) and then, all of a sudden you get that "wow, my belly hurts, I should've stopped eating a couple of plates ago" feeling, or the "I think I'm gonna be sick" feeling. And you've barely tasted half of your favorites so far...isn't that how it plays out? "Well, it just turned into more than I thought."

Yeah, I know, and that got me to thinking about our lives here in this good ole USofA...Too much of a good thing. What is it that you like (besides food)? Do you like Volleyball? My family does. Did you know that you can play competitive Volleyball 7 days per week? Yeah, about 360 days per year. There are school leagues, rec. leagues, city leagues, local club leagues, regional club leagues, national club leagues, & international club leagues, adult leagues, church leagues.

Then you can coach, referee, work the gate or the concession stand at the tournament. Oh, did you say you like Volleyball? There are movies about Volleyball, songs about Volleyball, books about Volleyball, articles about Volleyball, magazines about Volleyball, instructional videos about Volleyball, Volleyball websites, Volleyball camps, catalogs full of just Volleyball stuff. V-ball light shades & switch plates, I love V-ball bumperstickers & cell phone covers, V-ball posters, computer backgrounds & screensavers. There are special Volleyball shoes, kneepads, ankle-braces. You can proclaim your V-ball love on your socks, jacket, hat, purse, key-chain, coffee mug, jewelry, birthday cake. There are 450 pieces of Volleyball flair on facebook this morning.

Oh, wait, you don't like Volleyball? You like fishing? Well did you know you can fish 7 days per week? There are fishing tournaments, there are...No, it's Nascar? "Surely you've got your limited edition Kyle Busch M&M's travel alarm clock, eh?" Naw, I don't like that sports stuff, I love Video Games, collecting Precious Moments figurines, '24', scrapbooking, English Country Dancing, reading, woodworking, Acting in the community theater...

You see, anything you want, you can just get too much of it, and then all of a sudden you look at the schedule for the next week and realize that Volleyball has eaten your life. There is no time to go see the grandparents, we've got practice. There is no time to go to church Sunday, we've got a tournament. There is no time to play in the yard with the kids, I've gotta send a few emails to the players about our games next week, there is no time to eat a family meal, we've got a team meeting. There is no time for math, I've got to work on my jump-serve. Metaphorically speaking, your belly begins to ache and you think "how did I get into all this?" "Well, it just turned into more than I thought..."

So is this your "I hate Volleyball" post? No. Volleyball is fine, fun, and even good for you...taken in it's proper place. This is my "I hate Volleyball overload Post." The Apostle Paul said that one character trait of Christians is Temperance [Galatians 5:22-23]. Do you know what temperance is? It is self-control. It is moderation. It is saying 'no' to too much. I'm not tempted to have too much Broccoli, but put a couple of big juicy New York Strip steaks on the plate & "Owww, my belly hurts!"

I want to encourage you to take a break from the black hole that is consuming your life right now. Just pull back a bit, it's ok, no, it's godly, to say 'no'. Take the night off, hang out with the kids, go to church tomorrow, slow down, get things back into perspective a bit.

I'd love to say more about this, in fact, I probably will in the days to come, but right now, we're almost done with pool-play. We've done well so far [4-0] so it looks like we're in the Gold-Bracket...

Gardening

Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.
~Thomas Fuller, 1732

The youngest children get the short end of the stick don't they? When Jordan [now 15] was little, one of her favorite things was to meander through the garden eating a snow pea, a tomato, or a cucumber. The strawberries & dewberries were her favorites...talk about fresh! Jacob has been cheated. He is 7 and knows almost nothing of a garden (but he knows every MarioKart course by name)...We have officially been 'too busy' to plant, tend, and harvest. Oh, we have the yearly Tomato vines, but that's about all. I talk about it every year, I think about it every year, but you know, there is (home)school, volleyball, soccer, girl scout cookie sales, church fellowships, meetings, Iron Chef, and about a billion other things claiming a portion of our attention. So yesterday, once again the soil was torn asunder by shovel and rake...and we will have a garden.

Gardens give such great opportunities to learn about God and life (I know, I know, so do sports, girl scouts & even TV occasionally...yada, yada, yada). Simple, profound lessons. You plant and don't harvest until many weeks, or months later...what a shock in our TIVO'd, microwaved, buy-now & pay-later world! Food you grow just tastes better. Participating in life instead of watching it on YouTube. Which is the "business end" of a shovel. You can grow a lot of food in a small area, but don't crowd the plants too much, they need their space. Even with meticulous attention and care, some of it dies anyway. Mother Nature is mean. Chicken poop, which stinks & is disgusting to us is a delicacy to veggies...hmmm. There are good bugs and bad bugs. It's not so hot at 6:30am and a sunrise is really cool to see occasionally. Sometimes the very thing we do to help, hurts. Mistakes. Weeds are persistent little vexations. It's really ok with mom for me to get dirty. Whistle while you work. Even with neglect some of it lives. Mother nature is kind. There is a difference in an herb and a weed [ask Cari for that story...], dirt doesn't taste good, but produces things which do. The same soil will grow fruit or weeds either one, plant one or the other will grow. Without water, even the healthiest plants will die. Nature hates bare ground and will try to cover it with something so use lots of mulch and you'll cut your gardening work by 70%...Patience, Tolerance, Discretion, Non-Judgmentalism, Attitude, Diligence, Compassion (remember Jonah's vine?), Mistakes, Vigilance, Work-ethic, Death, Attentiveness, Wisdom...

So, our plan is simple and the garden small (roughly 30x30). Turn the soil with shovel & rake (no tillers allowed) into planting beds separated by walking paths. We have what they call 'blackland' which is heavy, black clay (none of the beautiful loam you see on HGTV) so we'll need to mix in compost & rotting organic matter. We will lay soaker hoses in the plant beds and cover that with about 12 - 18 inches of hay mulch (thanks Steve & Ahnna!) We will lean toward the organic side but I'm not too much of a hippie to use a bit of Miracle-Grow where I deem it appropriate (I also occasionally take vitamins myself).

I intend to share some of these lessons with my children this year in our garden and see what we can grow out there besides plants...stay tuned.

Secrets

God's ways are not our ways. Never have been, never will. And often I realize that my natural inclination is directly opposed to God's wisdom. I sorrow over the death of a godly christian and rejoice at the death of a despot. Whereas God "has no pleasure in the death of the wicked" but the death of a saint is "precious in His sight". It seems to me that to "lose my life" would not save it, and that the servant of all is surely not the greatest of all. No, God's ways are not my ways. There is one particular thing I noticed today that is opposite my natural tendency and I wonder if you are the same way. Secrets. What secrets do you keep and which ones don't you keep? Here is God's take on secrets we should keep:

...when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly...But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Matthew 6:3-4

And His take on secrets we shouldn't keep:

He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy...Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. Proverbs 28:13; James 5:16

Like I said, Backward. Am I the only one, or is it natural to think we are best served to keep our sins secret? God says otherwise. And don't we really want our righteousness, our good deeds, our devotion to God to slip out, not in a big braggy way, but...you know...just so people will know...???

Maybe this week you could join with me in determining to keep the right secrets and not the wrong ones. Find a fellow christian who you can openly confess a secret sin to. Then, do a good deed for someone in complete secret, then secretly go to the Lord in prayer and thank Him for your forgiveness and your reward which will be great!

Good Bones

My sister just bought a house. It is a neat house, on two wooded acres with a pond...but quirky to say the least. The previous owner was an antique dealer so the house is filled with antique doors, knobs, lighting fixtures, leaded glass windows, etc...as I said, neat. The quirkiness is that none of it matches. A metal light fixture from the 30's & a porcelain one from the 60's. A leaded glass window with a striped pickle next to an Anderson casement bay window. She has assured me [and herself I think] though that the house "has good bones". That got me to thinking about bones. Do you have good bones? I believe I do...now. The thing about bones is that no-one can see them [unless you've been dead a while or are seriously injured] so you can dress up the outside and be hiding rotten or diseased bones on the inside. So, what causes bad bones? Lets' listen to King David, who knew a thing or two about bone rot.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin. Psalm 38:3

Why did he say there was no health in his bones? Because of his sin. We all know about David's notorious sin, but don't forget that we know because God told us. If you lived during David's lifetime, you likely would have had no idea [unless you were Joab]. Do you have sin, hidden sin, that eats at your spiritual bones like termites on a floor joist?

For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Psalm 31:10

What a description of guilt and regret eating away at the structure of a man who outwardly was a man's man. A king to be respected and feared. There was no joy in the eyes of that smiling man. His sighs were heavy, his energy, his zest for life, was drained out like forgotten headlights drain a battery. And, he says, "my bones waste away".

When I kept silence, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. Psalm 32:3

He was groaning inwardly and it was making his bones old. Can you relate? The weight that just never seems to go away? How can you bring back health to your bones? Notice what David identifies as a cause here. "When I kept silence"...We all commit sin, we will never escape that. What we can refuse to do though, is to keep silent. This secrecy is Satan's trick. If you keep it secret, if you keep your sin hidden beneath the sheetrock, paint, & wall paper, behind the couch or the entertainment center of your life, it will rot your bones.

I think the new house has great potential to be something special someday, with lots of work. Because visible, quirky, ugly and even serious problems can be fixed...if you have good bones.

Happy Birthday Jericha!

Bambi: My favorite Scary Movie

Do you remember how the movie Bambi ended? After the forest fire, Bambi stands watch over his new family. He stands with his father, the Great Prince, on a hill looking over what's left of the forest as it begins the process of renewal. Bambi, now a young buck, steps up beside his father, both surveying their domain. Then, the scary part happened. The Great Prince silently turns and walks away, leaving Bambi, the new prince of the forest with the responsibility to lead and protect the animals of the forest. Not long after I saw this movie as a young adult, newly married, recently moved to an unfamiliar town and starting a new church, one of those men who had always seemed like Bambi's dad to me died. He, like my own dad, was one of those men you'd count on in a fire. Steady, imposing, decisive.
It was frightening to me to identify with Bambi. The challenges and tasks that lay before him/me. Moving from 'son' to 'dad'. All of a sudden, my generation moving into the role of the last generation seemed less like the mental exercise of a freshmen philosophy course and more like real life.
That was nearly 20 years ago, which brings me to last week, when my grandmother, Arrita Mae McKay, passed away. She was my last remaining grandparent. She was in the hospital about a week, and seemed to be recovering from her bout with Pneumonia when 'just like that' she went into respiratory & cardiac arrest. They were able to get her heart pumping again, and help her breathe with a respirator, but they never brought grandmother back. At the funeral, I was talking with my dad and something he said reminded me of Bambi. Dad's words were "I told your mom that there don't seem to be many of the old generation left anymore, and she told me "we are the old generation now."
I've grown accustomed to, and even comfortable with my move into the role of "dad" in my world, but it is a weird sensation to think about, not Bambi, but Bambi's dad. Yeah, I know my son is only 7, and that there will likely be many more forest fires for me to fight, but I've got a few under my belt now, and the confidence that comes from experience makes the next one not so daunting. I've survived before and that makes me believe I'll survive the next one too. I just never noticed Bambi's dad, until I listened to my dad last week.

I am learning, I think, that life will never be without it's frightening, and difficult challenges. I will never be at a point in my life where I can just "coast" downhill. That "Ahhh, I've made it! Soul, take thine ease. Eat, drink and be merry" moment is a moving target. It will always be just out of reach. I think, in fact, that it was as foreboding for Bambi's dad to step away as it was for Bambi to step up. Do you ever think about that? Do you think that maybe it's meant to be that way? That life isn't meant to be taken on cruise control?
Not only did I lose my grandmother, but my mom lost her mother, and just about a year ago, when my grandfather died, I watched my grandmother lose her husband. Someday my son will lose his grandmother, and at the same time will watch me lose my mother. Then, almost like the song that never ends, someday someone will lose me...when my song here on this earth ends.
Goodbye Grandmother. I will miss you. Tell Granddad "hi" for me, and I'll see you later.

Solomon's Counselors

And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?...But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him:

1 Kings 12:6-8

Did you notice that? Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, had counselors. Why? Isn't that a bit redundant? Or is it great wisdom to realize that no matter how wise you are, you need the advice and counsel of others? I suspect the latter. Even the great wisdom of Solomon, was made wiser by the counsel of others.

But we do at times forget that don't we? I recall a time when I had a terrible church problem dumped in my lap. I really didn't know what to do. I was tempted to just leave and let it be someone else's problem, but then my wife asked "Is that what God would want you to do?" No, it wasn't. Ok, but I still don't know what I should do. This problem threatened the very existence of a congregation. Handle it wrong and the congregation would cease to exist. So what to do? I remembered a great promise in the book of James.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
James 1:5

I embraced that promise. I made it mine, and I prayed. I asked, implored, begged God to give me the wisdom to work through to His solution for this problem. I believed it would happen...Every day for that couple of months, as I drove down the road to another home, another brush fire, I asked, and expected. I expected that "ah-ha!" moment. You know, the instant when the answer appears, crystal clear, fully formed before you...but it never came. Oh, I did my best, I called my Dad and a few other elders, evangelists, and older men for their advice, but I never got that Ah-ha moment.

Somehow we did struggle through. We got it right. We did, in that instance, what God would have us do, even though it was painful and difficult, and now there thrives a healthy, growing congregation where only a shell exited before. As the smoke cleared and the dust settled, I began to wonder. What did I do wrong? Why did I not receive the promised wisdom to handle that problem. I believed, I prayed, I sought His will in His word, but no fireworks. Not even that 'still small voice in the night'. I never doubted God, or the promise mind you, but I just didn't understand.

Oh well, you can't dwell on something like that forever, so I moved on...still puzzled, but moving on none the less. Then one day, many months later, when reviewing the situation in my mind I understood and I said "Ah-Ha!".

You see, God did answer my prayer, He just didn't answer it the way I expected Him to. His answer was there, right in front of me all the time, guiding and directing me. Instead of a "flash of lightening" moment though, what God did was to surround me with wise counselors who steered me through the process. That shouldn't have surprised me. The wise man himself had told me.

Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
Proverbs 11:14

Charting our Course

Thoughtfulness...Wisdom...Mulling it over...Introspection...Studying on that a bit...Considering...Puttin' on your thinkin' cap... Meditating...Pondering... However you prefer to say it, this blog is about what I notice when I just pay attention to life and think. I am gaining a great conviction that some things matter, and some things don't, and it is important to be able to tell the difference.

Unlike my wife, I'm not so good at multi-tasking, but I do get in a hurry, and that hurry, coupled with my singular 'just what is in front of me right now' focus causes me to fly through life often missing things that are important. Other than myself, this most directly affects my family, my church, and my close friends, but in a lesser way, my bank teller, our dentist, and even the college student across the street in the brown '78 pinto with the "one nation under goddess" bumper sticker. Solomon said "In the multitude of counselors there is much wisdom". That is why I'm not taking this journey in a hardback blank book with an ink pen in my hand. I welcome and want you to share your thoughts with me too.

The discipline of slowing down, looking around, and thinking about the life I am spending is what I hope this blog will do for me, and maybe for you too. Although I'm sure I will wade around in the shallow streams examining the stony creek bottom, panning for the occasional nugget of gold, and maybe kayak through some frothy, turbulent, and dangerous rapids with you, I will probably play in the sprinkler some too, possibly even take a ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel of my own making, but I do hope to swim out to deeper, still waters where the current is slow but strong and the bottom dark and murky making it foreboding and indiscernible with this endeavor.

It is my hope that this will help me slow down, pay attention, organize my thoughts, wax poetic, mull over questions and doubts, convictions, faith, and even minutia with my family and close friends. So pull up a comfortable chair, wrap your cold fingers around that warm mug of coffee, take a moment to look out the window, breath deeply, then put on your 'thinkin cap' and let's chat a while...friend.