Head Shot

 

To be on our game is always preferred over being off kilter. 

We live in a world where routine is king.  Since we are creatures of habit if we get knocked out of sync it throws us for a loop.

This past week was such a week as I had a head cold that had me going thru tissues like there was no tomorrow and sleeping a lot.  During my illness my eldest daughter and I were talking about getting hit in the face.  It was then that I shared an occasion when I had received a head a shot.  It was my favorite dumb story of me during my teen years, of how at the time I thought I was so cool and invincible.  

The story goes like this.  I was in high school volleyball class with a chip on my shoulder, when   I played a lot of so-called volleyball at my church youth group and though I was all that.  Then one day in gym class reality reared its ugly head as l found myself across the net from a football player.  We both went up for a disputed ball at the net, he went to spike and me to block.  However, being the idiot I was, I put up both hands like I was signaling for a touchdown.  He took advantage of my ineptitude and   appropriately knocked me down with a spike that separated me from my glasses.    Leaving me in a heap dazed on the floor and my glasses in two separate pieces careening across the floor.  Unfortunately for him his girlfriend yelled at him, me I felt I got what I had coming to me.

This also reminds me of another time when I was on a youth group trip at the age of fifteen.  We were in Colorado at Rocky Mountain national Park in late summer.  The cool thing was that in Colorado with the high altitude you can have snow up toward the summit.  So, we were having a snowball fight when a girl about  my age hit me right in the ear with one.  Like a pansy, I went to the car.   Later, due the altitude a I got sick and won’t elaborate, but I let a little piece of white stuff get me down.

So, what is the lesson here?  Like a head cold or head shot form a volleyball or snowball initially we get stunned, and then knocked on our keister.  Then we have time to reflect.  Recently with my head cold, while taking a nap I took time to pray and ask God what he wanted me to do with my life right now.  It helped, at least for me, to. do a little spiritual inventory and focus on what truly matters again.

Minus the headache there is nothing like a head shot to help clear you thought.

 

Swavel

 

Snowmen Melt

“Some people are worth melting for.”  Olaf the snowman (from the movie Frozen)

Just a quick heads up, if you are looking for a light read, this is not it.  In our time together I am going to discuss dying and how much our existence can be compared to that of a snowman that over time melts.  In essence we are nothing more than snowmen, which by design are not built to last.  Simply put they are created for the personal pleasure of their Creator.

So, before I elaborate more on the fate of (snow) men, allow me to list the key ingredients it takes to build a proper snowman:

-Three round snowballs consisting of large one for the base, a medium one for the middle and a smaller one for the top

 

-About seven round stones or pieces of coal to form a mouth 

-Two buttons for the eyes

-Orange carrot for the nose 

-Winter hat or top hat

Now, allow me to elaborate more on the inevitable.  “One small fact; you are going to die.  Despite every effort, no one lives forever.” This quote from the movie, The Book Thief, is an accurate assessment.   Another way to put it is, we are nothing more than pawns.  Standing in a hospital parking lot during one of the most profound periods of my life a friend wisely spoke this sentiment to me.   Strangely it was encouraging when he reminded me of my temporary state. Subsequently, he could have interchanged snowmen instead of pawns and made the same point.

 

So, while we as snowmen are here, “all living,” as Frosty once said, we have two choices as far as I can see it. Either we can empty ourselves of all but love on others or keep that love to ourselves.  Whichever way we choose to live, in the end we all melt.  So, we can choose to be mean to fellow snowmen, i.e. our fellow human beings, which is a lousy way to exist.  Or rather we can be like Olaf the snowman, and find as many people as possible who are worth melting for, while we got the time.

Being a snowman is what it is.  There is no fountain of youth and no snow that never melts, at least not here on Earth.   However, my hope is placed in Jesus, when he said, if I go and prepare a place for you’ I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am you may be also.  My interpretation, reading in between the lines a little, is that it is a place where the snow never melts and that place is Heaven.

Although it may be true that snowmen melt, I have determined in my life to smile till I melt and my carrot falls off my face.

Swavel

 

Lucy Moment

Often our disappointments morph our triumphs.

More times than not, as human beings, we tend to focus on the bad things in life.  That was my first  thought  the morning after Russell Wilson threw an interception with just seconds to go turning an apparent Seahawks’ victory into a  loss in this year’s Super Bowl. It was akin to Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown right before he kicked it in the Penauts’ comic strips.  Life is cruel that way.  One moment it looks like it is all going to work out, then disaster strikes and everybody wants to blame somebody. 

Years ago as a teen, I had a similar Lucy Moment when my Miami Dolphins were in Super Bowl XXVII against the Washington Redskins.  To this day, I can still remember sitting in front of my family’s TV hoping my team could hang on to a slim lead late in the game, during a pivotal play when the Redskins had a fourth and one.   The Redskins handed the football to their workhorse running back, John Riggins, aptly named the Diesel and all he had in his way was a much smaller defender, Don McNeal, trying to arm tackle him. 

 

What happened next was predictable, unless of course you were a diehard Dolphins’ fan hoping against hope.  All Riggins proceeded to do was shrug McNeal off like he was a bad habit and rumbled forty yards for the go ahead touchdown, from which my team would never recover. Disappointed hardly describes how I felt.   However, all the Redskins did was played the odds, big guy vs. small guy, and they had won.  Sadly, many people wanted to blame McNeal when in reality it was not his fault.  The truth is one play seldom dooms you, it is a series of plays during the entire game, lots of little decisions.  That night I learned that life can be sudden and final on some matters.  Some times we just don’t get what we want. 

  

During  Charles Schulz’s last interview before he died, the Peanuts’ creator lamented the fact that  Charlie Brown never got to kick the football from Lucy. In my opinion, when we encounter a Lucy Moment and life pulls the football away from us, we have two options. One, don’t let one moment define you but rather get up off the ground and take what you learned from the mishap and apply it to the rest of your life.  Two, we can go insane like Charlie Brown and keep trying to kick that football.

 

Remember, insanity is the very definition of doing something over and over again expecting different results and that’s a losing proposition.  Some issues or events, like interceptions in Super Bowl never resolve themselves.  The best way to live life is to live it fully, not fully dreading each day.

Lucy moments teach us to get back up and accordingly see things for what they truly are.

 

Swavel