A Town's Personality

Eleanor H. Porter, was a writer, and is remembered for her series of books for young readers, beginning with Pollyanna (1913). She is quoted as saying, “What men and women need is encouragement ... Instead of always harping on a man's [or woman’s] faults, tell him [or her] of his [or her] virtues ... The influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town.”

I’ve shared the story about my great grandmother before in this column, but it bears repeating: As the town ladies gathered for tea after the funeral of the town nuisance, not a good word was said about this man’s life. No one could find anything good about this man. After all the other ladies were through beating up on this dead fellow, my great grandmother spoke up and said, “Well, you know he was a good whistler!”

Don’t we wish we lived in a town full of people like my great grandmother? A town’s impact on us and our families can be a blessing or a curse and most times both. Especially in smaller towns where everybody knows everybody, pain can be dealt relentlessly. There was a boy in a town that was not serious about his schoolwork in the 4^th grade. His teacher still makes negative comments about this boy some twenty-five years later, even though he has become a good local businessman and community supporter.

Some folks in our communities make bad choices in their lives. We are all susceptible to making bad choices in our workplaces, our families and in the things we chose to do in between. There are few or maybe none of us who have not made bad choices in our lives. Even though we all make bad choices sometimes, we tend to rate and organize bad choices according to our personal severity rating. Of course, there is a commandment that some of us have added to the Ten Commandments. That added eleventh commandment is, ‘Thou shalt not get caught.’   If we can live up to this self-added commandment, we think we are alright in the bad choices we make.

Oddly enough, those who have not been caught in bad choices in life can be very unforgiving and hateful to those who do get caught. This is where we are called to be a Christian community and must come together in Christ’s teachings. Our relations with one another are sometimes overlooked by us as we live God’s Word through Jesus.  Commands and teachings about dealing with other people make up a large part of the teachings of Jesus and His apostles. The Old Testament is also full of ways we should behave and treat each other. In dealing with parents, children, spouses, family, friends, co-workers, or even enemies, the Bible's advice is spiritually sound and effective for promoting peace and harmony.

Even though this commandment seems pretty clear and was taught in books of the Old Testament, the people of Jesus’ time just like many of us today, had trouble understanding what is meant by ‘our neighbor’.  They and we tend to pick and choose who we consider our neighbor.

Jesus gave us the “Greatest Commandment” that should certainly be clear to us. Unfortunately many Christians don’t practice it fully. Jesus was asked by one of the scribes, “Which is the first commandment of all?”  Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 26-31.

The love Jesus talked about here is a mirroring of God’s love. The Greek word for this is Agape Love. God loves all of His children and does not want us to differentiate as to who we think our neighbor is. We are all neighbors. When we read and think about these two commandments, we should realize that the first commandment…”you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength…” sets up our ability to fulfill the second commandment, “‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.” God gives us the strength to love everybody, if we give Him our heart, soul, and mind. With Him there is no picking and choosing.

The following is a list of ‘neighbors’ as contained in Matthew 25: 35,36,40;   “…for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;  I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me….Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

Begotten Not Forgotten

Have you ever thought about how complicated the fact of your existence is? Other than the fact that God created man, how many variables are there that led to the birth of each and every one of us? A guess would be that thousands of things had to happen in sequence for the spirit of each of us in these bodies to have ever been realized.  If we use the alphabet to represent our ancestry, we get a small example of what it took for us to be alive.

Let’s look at an imaginary man named Mr. Al Phabet. He exists in this world because his ancestor Z married U and one of their offspring P married E and one of their offspring Y married W and so on for thousands of years. In addition to who mommies, daddies and their offspring were in our ancestry, the circumstances and time of all the conceptions leading up to our own make a difference in how we came to be who we are. In the Gospel of Matthew we learn the lineage coming through the centuries up to Jesus:

Matthew 1:1-17:  “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.  Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram.  Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse,  and Jesse begot David the king.

David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.  Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah.  Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah.  Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.  

And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.  Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor.  Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud.  Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob.  And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.”

Wow! Do you think God’s hand is in all of this for His purposes?  Can you imagine how involved it would be if you could do something like this lineage leading up to Jesus, for each one of us alive today? Think of all the people of the past that have inspired and changed the world through their lives. Could we have done without them? What if somewhere in the linkage something went a different way and they were not born to us?

The question becomes, is this a random thing in how we have come to be or is this according to God’s plan? Are all of us His children even if He didn’t set out a plan for our existence? Maybe this is all God’s plan on God’s time and we are all eternal spirits whom are God’s children when we turn to Him and recognize Him. Without Him we lose our purpose and His purpose.

Jeremiah 29:11 reflects God’s message in saying, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

In Romans 8:28 St. Paul says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

In summary maybe we can believe that God is in charge and brought us to this life for a purpose that is His desire for us. We cannot fully know how He managed to get us here and why He chose us to complete His work in our time. We can be sure that He does not force us to fulfill His purpose for us. We can see within ourselves and all around us how His children ignore Him quite often. Seeking Him is our sure bet to be who we should be according to His purpose for each of us.

Remembering Can be a Beginning

Many of you know about and might have seen the long running Musical show, The Fantasticks. The show’s original “off-broadway” production is the longest running stage production in American history – 42 years continuously. It has been performed in high schools, colleges and local theaters across the globe.

The music was created by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics written by Tom Jones. There is a special tune used to set the mood of the story that is performed at the beginning and at the end of the show. The tune entitled, “Try to Remember,” sets the stage for the story and gets us older folks thinking about what our lives once were. It is a story of our vitality and foolishness in youth that moves to cynicism, disappointment and boredom as we realize what our lives could have been if our dreams had been achieved.

The “Try to Remember” tune reminds us about the young September time of our lives as well as the December time of our lives. It begins, “Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow…………when grass was green and grain was yellow……..when you were a tender and callow (naïve) fellow.”

The story is a reminder for older folks, like me, recognizing that some change is doable even in our later years. For youth it is a warning and for those in between it offers a chance to change complete direction. The song goes on, “Try to remember when life was so tender that no one wept except the willow………when life was so tender that dreams were kept beside your pillow…….when life was so tender that love was an ember about to billow. Try to remember and if you remember then follow.”

As we move into our December years, the tune tells us, “Deep in December it's nice to remember although you know the snow will follow……….it's nice to remember without the hurt the heart is hollow………it's nice to remember the fire of September that made us mellow. Deep in December our hearts should remember and follow.”

Psalm 25:7 speaks to us in saying, “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!”  It is the rare person that lives life near perfection from childhood. I’d guess no one is near perfection if I had a guess. Of course we know a man who lived among us as perfection and we try to follow His example as we live our lives. I guess “try to follow” are the key words here.

In 1 John 2:16 we see what the world offers that we sometimes take for the taking, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”  While most people experience flaws in their early life, is that a necessary thing? God’s answer is no, but he forgives us our sin and gives us a chance to turn around when we seek Him in our lives.

Matthew 7: 24-27 wraps things up for us as we know we are forgiven, but we know the result of our folly: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Choices, Loving & Forgiving

"Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious and it does not cease to bear fruit." (Jeremiah 17: 7-8) One would think that everyone knows when they make a choice in life that is bad. Our farmers know when and how to plant. Yet, our prisons are overflowing, society and politics corrupt, marriages and families are breaking apart. Why do we keep putting our roots down in the desert?

We know there is no hope of bearing fruit in the desert soil, but we keep trying to control the uncontrollable. Our history is full of stories concerning bad choices; poor human planting places. We just can't trust in the Lord in all things. It's like playing the lottery with a one in a million chance when we decide to test the dry soil one more time. What is it about our minds that allow us to continue to repeat bad planting times and places?

Jeremiah goes on to say in 17: 9-10. "The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse--who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings." We all slip away from the Lord in our lives and we all deserve a chance to return to the Lord and live a Godly life, even if our natural world punishment puts us in jail or prison.

I have been involved in Kairos Prison Ministry Int'l, Inc. for many years. A significant part of this ministry has been 3-day retreats held inside a prison with 40 some inmates per retreat. Our team-cooks prepare and deliver six terrific meals and lots of home baked cookies for the inmates and the team inside the prison over the 3-days. Our team bonds and trains in our specific retreat format beginning 2-months before the retreat with meetings (that include much prayer) totaling approximately 30-hours.

The team recruits lots of outside prayer partners as we prepare and for support during the time we are with the inmates. The team brings its love for God and for each other into the prison and directs that love to each of the 40-inmates. We never ask any inmate what he is serving time for. Many of them have never felt loved in their entire lives. They are shocked and blessed that our team members are willing to give up time with our families to come to prison and love them in the name of God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

By following Jesus' call in Matthew 25: 31-46 where He says, "I was in prison and you visited me..........Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me", our team provides a blessing and is blessed in doing so. Christian communities are building inside prisons all over our nation and the world.

God knows no barriers when He seeks to love and be loved by His children. While many in the world want to take God out of everything, many inmate lives are changed and the recidivism rate for those who participate in the retreats drops significantly compared to the general prison population. Jesus' Great Commission to, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations", includes the least of His children.

A Man’s Letter to his Mother

Dear Mother,                                                        
I have come to know that I’m really going to die someday.  I hope that this doesn’t come as a surprise to you.  I know that you must have anticipated my dying when you and God brought me into the world.  You never told me that I was going to die, but I’m not mad or upset.  I realize it is something that I had to find out for myself.  Besides, who wants to talk about dying all the time? 

The illness that brought me to this place of thinking is mostly over, but I’m not over what it changed in me.  It made me realize down deep inside that I am not in control.  That God is in control of my life – my birth, my living, my dying and my salvation.  He is in control in the sense that He created me and that I am His when my life on earth is over. 

As for earthy living, He is in control only to the extent that I let Him control my life.  That’s right; I have veto power over God until I die.  If I trust myself more than I trust God, I can tune Him out of my natural life.  There is a gamble, however, if I choose to take control.  What happens to me if at the most critical moment, I weaken?  At the point when I must be sharper than ever before, what if I slip?  What if I can’t quite put things together?  What will I do?  The answer is clear.  I must seek God’s Grace with faith in His love and power. 

When we experience God, and He shows us the way and we see His light, then we have truly experienced death.  Death is seeing God, and this is a miracle, a surprise.  And so, this is the irony in the way we humans look at death.  The very thing that we fear as we work to prolong life turns out to be the greatest joy of all.

So we, in our lives can experience death years before it comes.  We can do this by giving up control and having faith that God will redeem all that might happen to us.  Of course, we must do our best to live our lives in our realities, by following the example of God’s Son our Savior Jesus Christ and all the Saints.  And we can experience God and His love and thus taste the beauty of death – that time when we become one with God forever. 

We are here in the natural life for a very short time.  In God’s eternal kingdom the length of our natural life is not important, nor is the way that we die.  Death is merely the doorway to a nearer presence of God.  If we can make our reality here on Earth more peaceful and joyful by seeking to know God, it makes perfect sense to do so.  Through God we are connected with all mankind, past, present, and future.  As a husband and parent now, I know that I must not fear my children’s death or my wife’s death whether or not it precedes mine.  I must not fear your death or my own, Mother. 

Above all Mother, I want you to teach me how to die and help me teach my children, your grandchildren.  Your love of our Lord is shining so bright that all of us may now experience with you the miracle of coming into the presence of God.  Armed with God’s love, our earthly reality no matter how long, will be a joyful experience.  God is patient.  He will wait for us.  And we will be joyful in Him, for he lives and reigns forever and ever. 

Faithfully, Your Loving Son.

The Ups and Downs Racetrack

Wouldn’t it be lovely if our lives were always happy and on the up side of existence? There is, however, no guarantee that our lives will not have bumps and crashes.  We get to experience some of these bumps and crashes vicariously as we take in the news from around the World each day, knowing that in many cases it could be us in the news.

As we live out our lives, there is always the potential that things can get better, stay the same or get worse. Whatever the nature of our lives, there is always the potential for change. These changes can turn on a dime. Life can change course very quickly. Depending on the circumstances, it can be either good or bad, but either way it can be rapid.

There are basically two kinds of “down changes” that can happen to us. One is due to something beyond our control. The other is due to choices we make in living out our lives. Either way, life can be painful at times. We have little or no control over the one kind of down change, but we can have something to say about our choices in life.   

Aerosmith singer and songwriter, Steven Tyler, had some insight about this up and down life in his tune, Dream On. In part he wrote:
“Every time that I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face getting clearer
The past is gone
It went by like dusk to dawn
Isn't that the way
Everybody's got their dues in life to pay…”

Tyler continues in his tune by talking about life and the questions people have about where we come from and what happens when life ends:                                                                                               
“Yeah, I know nobody knows
Where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
You got to lose to know how to win….”

Tyler talks about information he’s sought in life and how that effects life’s outcome:                          
“Half my life's in books' written pages
Live and learn from fools and from sages
You know it's true
All the things you do, come back to you…”

There seems to be a spiritual tone of seeking in Tyler’s lyric. He actually wrote this tune when he was 17 years old and touched it up later.  It is pretty deep thinking for a person that young and you wonder if he is possibly seeking God in his life.

In his closing verse, Tyler refers to ups and downs in life and then mentions the Lord in writing: 
“Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good Lord will take you away…..”

We can look at scripture for a deeper understanding of the things Tyler was commenting on and seeking to understand. Of course Ecclesiastes 3:1-9 certainly informs us of the ups and downs of life as it begins in saying: 
“To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under heaven.” It then goes on to name about every up and down you can think of e.g. “A time to be born, and a time to die….. A time to break down, and a time to build up….” And so on.

In Philippians 4:12-13 St. Paul tells us: “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

In 1^st Corinthians 13:7 we are reminded:   “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” And in Romans 12:12 we hear: “ Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Our challenge is to trust in the Lord in all things and be patient and accepting in all that happens to us in our lives, even though Ecclesiastes tells us in part that we must live out our lives with: “…..a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away….”

God Can Guide Us in Right Directions

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off is a musical originating in England that opened on Broadway in the early 1960’s.  It concerns a circus clown named “Littlechap” that sought to advance monetarily and in importance to become ringmaster one day. This would carry him to great cities in Europe with the circus. His rise to ringmaster would show the World that he was better than the average man.

In his mission to prove that he was a better man, he met a wonderful lady that happened to be the boss’s daughter Evie. He loved her dearly, but as he traveled around the world in his work, he would find other Evies in other places, thus being unfaithful to the real Evie. It was, however,due to his marriage to Evie, the boss’s daughter, that he became a more important man than he would ever have been had they not married.

His seeking to be more successful and important in life, along with his desire to use his stature and self proclaimed suaveness, to find other Evies in his travels ended in his later life in disappointment, but in an awakening. He finally realized that his distorted focus in life was not really what would make him happy and that he had what he really needed in the real Evie.

We all are capable of making bad choices in life. If we’re fortunate we wake up, like Littlechap did, and realize what’s really important in life. God is present for us and in us, if we will just let Him help us with our choices in life.

Our lesson in life is that no matter what we view as important or what desires we think we must fulfill, they will ultimately bring us down if we leave out God in acting out our lives on Earth. When we hit the bumps of life, no matter what we face, our God is there to console us and to heal us.

In Nehemiah 8:10 we hear, “Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

So, we should enjoy life and be happy while we can, always remembering those less fortunate than us. We must remember the Source of our strength and not hesitate to seek the Lord in all things.

2 Timothy 1:7 comforts us in saying, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

  We will face problems, but He helps us get through those problems.  If we are hurt, he will heal us. If we find ourselves in trouble and depression, God has the power to heal our broken hearts.

Psalms 42:5 advises us, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, for the help of His countenance.” Philippians 4:13 instructs us, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

We must get to the point in life where we do seek strength from the power of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Our choices in life will be better guided and we will be comforted by Him when we are in need. Seeking God’s help in determining what is import in our lives is a must and He will help us curb the desires that lead us nowhere.

God, Nature and Us

The scenery that God has placed around us can serve to help us connect with Him spiritually. From the sky to the dust of the Earth, God touches us with His creative stage setting where we act out our lives. William Shakespeare once said, “And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

We are after all created, as God’s Word tells us in Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”  We came out of the same dust that God used to create the scenery around us. Just like the plants in nature, we have a calling to become more as we emerge from the dust.

Anais Nin told us about this tenuous part of our development out of the dust in saying, “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Blossoming for the Lord is our calling, but we can choose otherwise. We can overrule God in all things if we are that foolish, but what sensible person would want to overrule the one who created us, is with us every moment, who knows the number of molecules in our natural body and especially loves every molecule that makes us whole. He loves His created children. And while He’s in our being, He’s managing every particle of mass in the universe!

As children of God, Psalm 103:13-17 informs us in saying: “As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children…”

We are all connected with all who have gone before us and all who will live after us. While we are in this natural world, we are called to seek the spirits of those who brought us to our place in history and use them as our springboard to leave a better world to those who will follow us.

Psalm 1:3 tells us this about the Godly man: “ He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.”

An old Greek proverb speaks to us about life in saying,” “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

So, let us get the fertilizer of Christ-Jesus He left us in the Gospels and mix it in the water of our Baptism, and we will be prepared to flourish in our gardens of life. In concert and love with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we can plant our share of trees for the shade of future generations, always remembering those who passed on the shade of our time. 

Looking Inside Ourselves

Evaluating ourselves is a tough job.  We are naturally a bit prejudice, but more than that we are blind to much of who we are or at least a little fuzzy in our vision. 1 Corinthians 13:12 reminds us, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”

Yes, we can look in all directions, but the most important view we should take in living our lives is inside ourselves. That is the place where the truth will be revealed to us. In James 1:23-25 we discover, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.  But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

You probably remember the Wicked Queen Ravenna in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She was so full of herself, but met her match at her mirror when the mirror revealed the truth:

“Queen: “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”

Magic Mirror: “Famed is thy beauty, Majesty. But hold, a lovely maid I see. Rags cannot hide her gentle grace. Alas, she is more fair than thee.”

What the Queen couldn’t see inside herself, the mirror revealed. What can we do to help ourselves understand what is really inside us?

Our spiritual condition is very important in understanding ourselves. In seeking God through His Son and the Holy Spirit, we come closer to understanding who we are and who we should be. We look inside ourselves not to see who we think we are and where we should go, but we look inside ourselves to seek our Creator God.

God can be found inside us.  Most times we think that our God is in a faraway place, but as our eternal source and creator, He is always right here with us, inside us. So it seems, our battle is within us. We seek the material and other attractive things in our lives that are outside us in the world, but we refuse to look inward. When we truly look inward we don’t see what we want, we see what God wants for us. He is so close, yet we think of Him as if He is in a faraway place.

We tend to seek all the things we can gain in our lives that we think will make us happy. Whether it’s money, status or pleasures we seek, when our focus is on them, we lose our life as a true child of God. The questions become for us: Can we dare look inside ourselves in order to connect with God’s Spirit? Are we willing to let the outside go and move our search in life toward ourselves?

In Luke 17:20-21 we get this understanding, “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation;  nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Can we take this a half step further and claim that we are presently living in Eternal Life?

As we’ve learned, God’s time is not like our time. His clock is not ticking like our clock is ticking. There is no beginning and no end to Him, His Son or His Spirit. God is Eternal and as His created children, we were born into Eternal Life with Him. That’s why we need to look inside ourselves for the secret of life. When we fail to look, we give up our life in Him.

In our moving to an inward look we can take heed of St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Managing Our Gift of Life

In this gift of life we see the negativity that captures us. We wonder why the love that we are capable of doesn't get practiced as we ply this gracious life, both you and me. Our need to control this gift is sure; to this we cannot seem to die.

The self-centeredness we fight both day and night is a pattern, one that seems to be our plight and the consequences we do reap, that ultimately come to pass. The actions we so freely take, and leave so many lost in our wake, are always nasty in their toll.

This right we exercise is so precise; that we find it so easy to be cruel. Forgiveness and love are not to be found; for we are not looking for a way to bless a brother or a sister in our lives. Instead we seek to find a point of disagreement; so that we can make another pay a price.

We deliver pain without a thought about it. That we're a gift to each other we've forgot. The lessons are there, we've read and seen. If we'd only remember the things that we've been taught; our need for each other we must brightly see.

And in each other things will come to be. These things of life that keep us bound eternal, do bless us through the stumbling blocks of life. And then you can see the Christ in me and I in thee.

The Bible is full of instructions on how we should live our lives in a good and just way. One of many examples is in Leviticus 19:11: "You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God. I am the Lord."

 As I seek to understand the Lord’s role in my life in new ways, I am constantly reminded of a way that we can deal with all the negatives that come out of our sinful nature. I have sought to use this method to overcome my anger, dissatisfaction, criticism and other afflictions in the past, but I have not thought of it in such a broad and intentional way as I do today. The more that I have tried to abandon to God in every aspect of my life, the more I have been able to use positives to overcome negatives in my life, especially with difficult people.

We should approach every moment in our lives as a wonderful gift from God, no matter what is going on at any given time. It all begins with compassion for or forgiveness of the other person. We must become abundant in love if we hate or are angry. We must acknowledge another's needs when we are full of selfishness. We must look for the good in the people we dislike.

There is a family story credited to my Great Grandmother that is a good example of positivity: There was a man that was considered an odd-ball troublemaker in my great grandmother's small town. The fellow had recently died and my grandmother was at a gathering with some town friends discussing the life of this fellow. After listening to all the negative talk about this fellow and his life, my grandmother spoke up with her thoughts. She said, “You know, he was a good whistler." We need to look for the "good whistle" in everyone and everything.

 

The Times That Try Us

Inspired by Thomas Paine’s writing in his pamphlet The American Crisis, circa 1776, I offer this for our present days: Like those who have gone before us we are sometimes faced with acts against humanity that cause us pain and confusion. This is in addition to natural disasters and accidents that impact us in a similar way. These man-made acts and others cause us to feel insecure and unable to defend and protect ourselves. However, we soon learn that the more difficult life can seem to us, the more wonderful we feel as a people when we survive and conquer these tests of life. We relearn just how dear our country and its people are to us.

Paine’s words, “These are the times that try men’s souls”, certainly fit our time with the recent Boston Marathon bombing, the Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion, the killing of innocent school children in Sandy Hook, the theater murders in Colorado, the tornadoes in April 2011, to name a few. We are all reminded of just how important our faith in God is to us. Our politicians use words recognizing our Creator God that are at other times politically incorrect to speak. God gets us through these times in ways He has been using since He created us. John 16:33 tells us: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

As sad as we feel for our fellow Americans who are killed or maimed in an act of violence against them and us or impacted by something accidental or natural, we are called to come together and move ahead with a new outlook on our wonderful gift of humanness and our need to love one another. It is amazing how these kinds of tragedies tend to bring out the best in us and hopefully sustain us in our future lives together.

In Psalm 46:1-3 we are reminded: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah.” 

Habakkuk 3:17-19 addresses the possible loss of all the sustenance of life and says in part: “yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights.”

As the present living children of God’s Creation, we are only a small part of humanity that has dwelled on the Earth since God began creating His children. It is inevitable that we will soon join those who have gone before us. As a God loving people, we believe in eternal life in and with Him. When we view our lives in this eternal way, we realize that no murderer, no disaster, no accident can separate us from our eternal relationship with our Creator God.

As God’s children presently living in this natural world it is, however, our duty and our calling to love one another and support one another in times of trial. We are the instruments of much of God’s Love and Grace. He uses us in so many ways to help Him reach out to His children. In Luke 12:48 we see: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”

Experience has shown us that we children of God go through a transformation when trouble knocks on the doors of our friends and neighbors and those we don’t even know. Sometimes we fall back to less caring ways, when there is no imminent danger.  Oh, that we could live daily in such a sensitive way. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to bring out the best in us and remind us of our duty through and to the Lord.   

Some People Hate Broccoli

I am aware that many people hate broccoli, but I love raw broccoli with a nice dip or cooked broccoli with some cheese melted on top. Do you think that some people actually hate broccoli? Is it possible to hate a vegetable? Is the hate that moves some folks against broccoli the same kind of hate that moves them against other people?

Jesus has made life very complicated for us in some of his expressions and choices of words. He tells us to love our enemies in Matthew 5:44-45: ”But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,⁴⁵so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” Then Jesus changes gears in Luke 14:26 and says: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

As with hating broccoli, hate as used in scripture many times does not necessarily mean to love something less, be aggressively against it, or otherwise want to destroy it. 1st John 3:15 further complicates this “hate” thing by saying: “All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”

Through the Word of the Lord it seems that we are being told both to hate and not to hate. What do you suppose Jesus was up to in this apparent contradiction? Each time Jesus uses the “hate” word, we have to ponder on just how to interpret His usage according to the subject at hand. In this way of looking at the use of the word hate, we see that it is being used to inform us that God must have the number one position in our lives. We don’t really have to hate others.

Now if we think the “hate” word is confusing when we read the Word of the Lord, let’s take a look at “Jesus the Recruiter”. Luke 9:57-58 informs us: “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’”

There’s an old saying: ‘How do you boil a frog in a tub of water without it knowing it’s being boiled?’ The answer is ‘turn the heat up very slowly’. Jesus is certainly turning up the heat quickly on those who say they want to follow Him, so they’ll know what’s expected of them.

 In Luke 9:59-60 He said to another: “‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’” Wow! This is getting worse than the “hate” word confusion. I believe it was a Jewish tradition for a man to live with his father until his father died. Is Jesus being too insensitive with his comment to this man? Is He turning up the heat too fast?

In Luke 9:61-62 we learn: “Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” Jesus would have made a good Army Drill Sergeant with commands like these.

Jesus is like God himself, as we see in Deut. 13:6: “If anyone secretly entices you—even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend—saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’……….,’ you must not yield to or heed any such persons.’” As a good Son, Jesus thus requires that obedience to God must take precedence over all human obligations. Jesus, of course, is “God with us”, Emmanuel.

And finally here comes the “hate” word again in Luke 6:22-23: “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven…” Thanks be to God!

Dealing wih Our Sleeves

Our sleeves are harmless, usually protective parts of our shirts, jackets, coats and the like. They are the part of a garment that wholly or partly covers a person's arm. If you could ask a million people if they considered their sleeves a problem, 99.9% of them would probably say no. Let’s take a look at some history of using our sleeves.  

Throughout much of history, human behavior has many times been connected to a sleeve in the formation of an idiom that describes that behavior. There’s a long list of such idioms, some of which I’ll share with you here.  It has been noted that a person’s behavior can indicate: 1) they have something up their sleeve 2) they have an ace up their sleeve 3)  they laugh up their sleeve 4) they roll up their sleeves 5) they wear their heart on their sleeve 6) and they are given advice not to stretch their arm any further than their sleeve will reach.

In these sayings it is suggested that your sleeve is the keeper of the following: some hidden or secret plan to use to your advantage when the time is right; a way to cheat at cards or have a last resort answer to a situation; to laugh secretly or quietly to oneself; to get ready to work or take on a task; to display one’s feelings openly; and not to spend more money than you have.

Did you ever think your sleeves could have such an impact on your life? I’m surprised someone hasn’t started a new religion concerning the meaningful part sleeves play in our lives; maybe the ‘First Church of the Sleeves’ or something like that. You may have noticed in recent years that it is appropriate to cough or sneeze in public by doing so into your sleeve at the inside of your elbow.

These idioms reflect the good and the bad of our nature as children of God. They represent our way of needing to be in control, to hide things, to set out on a task, to share our emotions and to be conservative in matters of money. God knows all about the good and the bad of our sleeves. He’s been trying to communicate with us since He created us about how we live our lives.

There is an expression similar to our much used expression, "roll up your sleeves." It comes from the ancients who wore robes, but needed to pull them above their knees and tuck them in their belt (girdle) to have freedom of movement. Thus "gird up your loins" means to pull up your robe and tuck it into your belt for action.

In 1 Peter 1:13 it says, ^“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

In The Message, the Bible in Contemporary Language, it gives us the same chapter and verse from 1 Peter as, “So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing.”

We humans have come up with many ways of describing what we do in life as it relates to our clothing. They describe good and bad things. As we seek to live our lives according to God’s Will, we certainly need to “roll up our sleeves” and get to work. The similar expression of “girding up our loins” is found in many places in Holy Scripture. God knows that we have to prepare and use our minds in a very proactive way in order to follow His teachings in Holy Scripture and His guidance through His Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God.

Let's Join the Glad Club!

Most of us weren’t alive in 1913, but that was the year that Eleanor H. Porter published the book titled Pollyanna. If you’ve read or heard about this fictional story, you are aware of a young girl named Pollyanna, whose mother died when she was very young as did her church preacher father. Pollyanna became an orphan as a young girl, but it was a game of finding the good in all things her father taught her that made her life a blessing to many. Her optimism about life changed the whole community she lived in.

As the family was poor, one Christmas Pollyanna’s father requested a doll as a Christmas gift for her from the Ladies’ Aid Society. When the missionary barrel arrived that Christmas, instead of a doll, there was a pair of small crutches for Pollyanna. Her father convinced her to be glad about such a gift since she had no use for them. Thus began their future frequent exercise called the ‘Glad Game’.  As a result of this idea in the book, Glad Clubs sprung up all around the country.

A quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln was used in the Pollyanna book without reference. It was, "When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will.” Pollyanna certainly lived life looking for the good in the worst of situations. When her father died she moved in with her Aunt Polly who was a bit of a sour puss and was mean to her. As time went on, Pollyanna changed the attitude of the dispirited people in her aunt’s town, getting them to be optimistic in life during both good and bad times.

In the book, Pollyanna experienced things like being hit by a car and her legs being paralyzed. In that old glad game way her father taught her, her new found town friends gathered around her and helped her be happy that at least she still had her legs! This was the kind of optimism example that helped her change the people in Aunt Polly’s town as Pollyanna interacted with them.

As the story finishes out, Pollyanna’s optimism finally got to her Aunt Polly. The townspeople gathered around Pollyanna, she got therapy and was able to walk again. Aunt Polly married her old lover, Dr. Chilton and all became players of the Glad Game!

It’s a difficult task for us, but we should all start our own ‘Glad Clubs’ and play the Glad Game. In Proverbs 4:23 it tells us: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” The name Pollyanna has become a word in our language. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as, “a person characterized by irrepressible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything.” If you are that way, you are considered Pollyannaish. Some use the term as a negative by saying if one is super optimistic they are not real and they are being pollyannaish.

Isn’t it like that in our spiritual journeys? In viewing those who are seeking God in their lives in all things, many say they are weak. Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” Seeking God for sustenance in life and thus looking for the good in life, however, is being Pollyannaish in the most wonderful way. Our belief in a loving creator God leads us to look for the good, as He is our keeper.

In Romans 8:26 St. Paul tells us, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” The Gospel of John reinforces this in 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. AMEN.

Jet Lag and God Lag

We humans are very complicated creatures. In our genes and many other parts of our minds and bodies, we have all sorts of biological clocks ticking 24-hours a day. The Free Dictionary defines this as Circadian Rhythms in part: “present in humans and most other animals, it is generated by an internal clock that is synchronized to light-dark cycles and other cues in an organism's environment. This internal clock accounts for waking up at the same time every day even without an alarm clock.”

Flowers open and close due to these circadian rhythms just as we humans are impacted. Biologists have observed that birds exposed to artificial light for a long time sometimes build nests in the fall instead of the spring.

 Many are familiar with or have experienced aircraft Jet Lag when flying across several time zones. If a person flies from California to New York arriving at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, their body feels like it’s 4:00 a.m. because they had been living in the Pacific Time Zone where their bodies had become fixed on that cycle of light and dark. 

There are all sorts of ways the circadian rhythms affect us in causing strange things to happen in our bodies that most of us don’t understand. They are controlled mainly by the release of hormones. In humans, the internal clock is located within the brain's hypothalamus and pineal gland, which releases melatonin in response to the information it receives from photoreceptors in the retina. This “melatonin” is released in a cyclical manner. Now don’t we understand how it all works?

It looks like God did His homework when He created life on Earth. He put in all sorts of ways that we can function daily in the environment He has placed us in. He gave us this gift of life with the idea that we’d be around for a while and would need to be adaptable to the world around us. This was not the end of His work. As some have thought, He did not just wind the clock of creation and walk away from it never to return. His creation efforts were not just a game for Him. He created all things as a loving God wanting His children to have the best possible environment and to have a relationship with each of His children.

In the Gospel of John 1:3-5 it is proclaimed in describing Jesus the Christ that, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Yes, God did want a relationship with His Children, but in giving us the privilege to seek or not to seek Him in our lives, He found that we humans were having a hard time in seeking Him in all things. Thus, He sent His Word Jesus to better connect with His children and us with Him.

The good news for us children is that we don’t have to depend on hormones impacted by the rising and the setting of the Sun to connect with our creator God. The circadian rhythms aren’t needed to accomplish our true and full relationship with God. Yes, the light He sent through Jesus is a forever light to us and darkness can’t overcome it. It is up to each of us to be sure we don’t have God Lag. He is always available.

In the Gospel of John 3:20-21 it is says, “For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” 

For Our Sake and for God's Sake

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “sake” is defined as an end or purpose for the good advantage or enhancement of some entity or as an ideal; a personal or social welfare, safety or benefit. The use of the word “sake” goes back as far as the Thirteenth Century.

We can think that something is good for our own sake or even for God’s sake.  The expression,  “for God’s sake,” has been used in many ways as a call-out for something to either happen or to not happen or stop.  That usage is considered by some to be almost cursing or taking the Lord’s name in vain, but it is usually an attempt to discourage or encourage something so as to be pleasing to God. That is, to be sure that the will of God is fulfilled and He is not angered. St. Paul says in his 2^nd Letter to the Corinthians 5:13  “ For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.”

Living our lives then, is best done when we can blend the two acts of living for our own sake while living our lives for God’s sake.  That way we are sure to get the best possible outcome that is good for us while pleasing God.  In 1st Peter 2:13-14 we read “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.”

As Christians we recognize that God did something for His sake in order to accomplish something for our sake. You guessed it didn’t you?  God sent us Jesus as His Word for his own sake to better connect with His children and then sacrificed His Son for our sake that our sin would be forgiven and we would have a more direct line to Him through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds us in his 2^nd  Letter to the  Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The more we dwell on the word “sake,” the more we see how it has filled lives throughout history. People have done things for the sake of their family, their friends, their country, their churches, their communities, their jobs, for strangers, for the needy and hungry.  The list goes on.  In our lives we must match all the things we do for our own sake and for the sake of others with that which is for God’s sake.

Probably the most important thing to do for our own sake, for the sake of others and for God’s sake is to forgive.  In His forgiveness of us through the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ, God gives us the example of how we should act for His sake and for the world we live in. In the Gospel of John 13:34 Jesus tells us, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This love message from God through Jesus has forgiveness wrapped all around it for it is impossible to love without forgiving. We can’t pick and choose who to love or who to forgive. For our own sake and for the sake of God, we must love one another.

Spirits Experiencing Life

On a recent visit to a doctor’s office I became engaged in conversation with a lady. The conversation led to comments about experiencing and participating in spiritual things in life. I told her that I had written and published a devotional book and was currently writing a spiritual weekly column in the Messenger Newspaper.

At some point, my new lady friend said in so many words, ‘I consider myself a spirit having a life experience.’ Her comment caught my attention, and I pondered on it the rest of the day. Do we consider ourselves spirits living in a worldly human experience? Were we spirits before we were born and while we’re alive only to leave this life as the same spirit moving into eternal life?

Most all the religions of the World that are seeking a creator God recognize that we humans have some sort of soul or spirit that is part of us. Some differ as to just how long we are spirits.  In the Christian Tradition, we can sense that spirit in each other and have faith that it is an eternal life promise. When we think of most friends and family during their lives and after their death, we certainly sense some kind of spirit relating to them.

We are all tiny physical pieces of our vast universe, God’s Creation, but we see ourselves as spirits whose souls have always existed. While our bodies seem to be separate from our spirit, we are in some sense immortal in our spirit as we leave these short natural world lives to be in God’s Eternal Kingdom.                             

God does not measure time with a clock? Each of us will experience our own death at a worldly time unknown to us. We are, however, on God’s Time. Einstein probably understood that more than anyone with his theory of Relativity, the thought of which brings us closer together with all humanity that has ever been.

St. Paul tells us in Chapter 8 of his letter to the Romans: “9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you …though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness……nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Ben Franklin once wrote to a deceased friend’s family (in part), “Our friend and we were invited abroad on a party of pleasure, which is to last forever.  His chair was ready first, and he goes before us.  We could not all conveniently start together; and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow, and know where to find him?”  Adieu, Ben Franklin

My personal certainty of God’s Love & Grace and Eternal life with Him comes from my personal revelation experience from Him through His Spirit during a 10-hour brain tumor surgery and 30-day recovery at UAB Hospital, Birmingham, in 1993.  I was forgiven and comforted by Him, and my fear of death was removed. He even gave me a glimpse into His Eternal Kingdom. Nothing has changed that understanding I received some 20-years ago.

If we believe that a spirit-soul is alive in the heart of every living being we are halfway to understanding how to live life. To know that our bodies can be destroyed, but our spirit is indestructible, gives us a whole new way of looking at life and our relationship with others. We can proceed with life without a sense of fear and worry because we know our spirits are immortal. We can approach each day with confidence in the Lord.                         

Discerning Pathways and Shortcuts

Let’s take a look at something most of us do at least once a day if not many times a day.  That would be when we leave our home, work, or any other place we might find ourselves, for a particular destination and return to the original starting place. If you’re like me, you may take one route to your destination and a different route back to your original starting place. When asked why you took different routes between the same points you may say something like, “well it seemed easier to go a different way back than the way I came.” Then you make another trip to the same place you recently traveled to and from.  More times than not, you take the same route as before to the destination and a different route in returning.

Now we turn our attention to the back seat drivers and the friends that tell us there’s a shorter route to our destination than we’re using. Everyone has their own way of getting from point A to point B. This moves us to the old idiom, “different strokes for different folks.” Basically, this means that different people do things in different ways that suit them.

Let us now crank up our engines and head for a wonderful destination—the presence of God. The question becomes, ‘Is that a one-way trip or round trip?’ If it’s a round trip, then on our way back home do we lose some of the blessing that His presence gave us? Is the best choice then to move in with God?  
“Those who wait on the Lord . . . shall walk and not faint” — we read in Isaiah 40:31 

Oswald Chambers tells us, “There is no thrill for us in walking, yet it is the test for all of our steady and enduring qualities. To “walk and not faint” is the highest stretch possible as a measure of strength. The word walk is used in the Bible to express the character of a person…… Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually.”

Unlike our earthly pursuits, we should avoid making trips to and from God, coming and going on different routes.  We walk with Him always. He is always there walking, even if we don’t recognize Him. Like the “footprints in the sand” story reveals, God carries us from time to time. We must never think we walk by ourselves, ignoring God’s Love and Grace.

No matter how painful life becomes for us, the sense that we’re always walking with God gives us 24/7 comfort through His Holy Spirit. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus tells us,  ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

Many of us change residences, moving to new homes from time to time for a variety of reasons, for example a job change, better location, better house, cheaper rent or mortgage, etc. When we move in with God, we mark the last move of our lives. When we move in with God it means that we have spent time preparing for the one way trip. Unlike moving to a new house where we pack our belongings to take with us, in moving in with God we do the packing after we get there for He has much to load upon us. The good news is: that which He loads upon us is weightless so our trip into eternal life with Him is a blessing.  

Suiting Up For The Game

Back in the “Dark Ages” when I was playing college football, I had a teammate whose favorite saying was, “You win some, you lose some and some are rained out, but you always suit up for the game.” That’s not necessarily one of the Top Ten sports sayings, but it still sticks in my mind these almost 50-years later.

Today I’m amazed at how many people think about their favorite sports teams.  These “sideliners” expect so much from their teams.  They know just who their team can beat and when the team fails to win one of those games they just can’t believe what they’re seeing. They think their team should show up for every game with a switch they turn on and play the game to the fan’s perception of how they can and will play.

Fans sometimes forget that these teams and players are just like them. Fans wake up every morning with a different take on life and the world depending on how they think and feel that day. They sometimes know that they have not prepared properly for what the day will bring, but are unwilling to give the players that leeway.

Let’s think about some of the things that impact the player and team and how they or the team will perform in any given game. To start out, no matter what the sports pundits think, different teams matchup differently. A team can kill a team one week and get blown away by a seemingly lesser team the next week. Maybe their strengths and weaknesses matched up better with the first team played than with the second, even if the second team is rated lower.

Now let’s get more personal about the players that make up the team.  We’re talking about men and women here. The day before the game, did any player sneak any alcohol or drugs? Did they break the curfew, and the coach let them play anyway or did they get sent home for a penalty that penalized the team by their absence? What were their eating habits in the days before the game? What personal relationship issues are they presently having with a friend or loved one? Have they been doing the assigned work to better understand what to expect from the other team.

There are many more individual dos and don’ts we could talk about, but what about their support and training people.  Are the coaches good trainers, motivators, scouts and do they know the ins and outs of the sport? Do they manage the staff and team in a good manner? Are they good communicators and set a high level of expectation with a good game plan?

Let’s put aside our team and player expectations and look at ourselves as to our game plan, or if you will, God’s game plan for us. We are so fortunate that we don’t have to rely on human coaches, trainers and teammates for our game plan hoping that all is right, but God does use our teammates to help him communicate to us. If we live in the present, trusting in the Lord in our daily living, He will direct us and guide us toward what He wants us to do in the future. We do our part and he does His part. He does not show us what the future is, but by living today for the Lord, He leads us and the future takes care of itself.

St. Paul’s letter to the Romans 12:1 begins "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

So we have the perfect Life Game Plan in our seeking God in all that we do. Instead of having to listen to many opinions as to how our game will come out, we have the certainty that life with Him is the one and only game plan as we suit up for the game.

In closing, St. Paul tells us how to suit up for the game in his letter to the Ephesians 6:13-17, “Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”