On Blocks

 

 

It is not my business what others think of me- Charles Harling

Perception is not always reality.

Far too often in life we let others dictate who we really are.  Or we allow what others remember us to be, sum up who we are now. It is easy enough to do.  Often we grow to believe that the perception of who we are will never change. 

For example, years ago in my youth I was often labeled as someone who was irrational and flighty.  Unwisely, I had once eaten a whole stick of butter as a lunch time challenge at a summer camp.  And on a youth group trip in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, I epically threw up in the car causing the rest of the occupants to immediately vacate.

Yet, it does not tell the whole story about me.  Many today still remember as that crazy teen.  Changing the past is not something we can do. The past is good in that we learn from it and then take that knowledge and move forward with it.

However, if we allow people to label us, it more or less puts our ability in the present to be taken seriously - ON BLOCKS.  Just like a car that has been hoisted up on cement blocks unable to move.  Although, when we invite God into the equation of our lives, our past simply no longer can hold us hostage.

The truth is that no one knows us more intimately than the God who made us - flaws and all.   In my life God has done many miracles.  Things that are just supernatural and that as long as I held his hand worked out beautifully.  Yet if I had told God I was a failure and that I was no good to Him, I would have missed out.  And that truly would have been a crazy thing to do.

The only time our lives are truly on blocks is when we don’t give God the keys to drive…

Swavel

Deep Down

 

Never doubt the fact that God doesn’t make junk.

Do you remember the catch phrase, what’s in your wallet?  Well, it got me to thinking, so I pulled out my wallet and started looking.  Here are a few random items that I found:

- Library card

- Wedding picture of my wife and I (with me sporting a motorcycle cop mustache)

- Pictures of all my kids

- Spare key for my bug truck

- Shortcut directions on how to get to Wild Wood, NJ

- Webster‘s definition of the word  faith

- A business card for a Seeing Eye dog organization

- And lastly, a wallet size picture of Bob Griese, hidden behind the pics of my kids. 

The reason this oddity is there is that for a short span of his football career Bob Griese wore eye glasses under his football helmet, even though it looked a little out of place.  For quite a while, as a young kid, I thought I bore a resemblance to him, because I too wore glasses.  Not to mention, he played for the Miami Dolphins who happened to be my favorite team and still are.

For a lot of my childhood I did not care for my looks, like many of us growing up do not during our formidable years.  So, for a NFL player to vaguely look like me, in my distorted view, gave me hope that I wasn’t so bad off after all.

 As parents, my wife and I often have told our kids repeatedly it is much more important what you look like on the inside than the outside.   Even more significantly it is of the utmost  importance that our souls be right with God.  Not that we look cool.  So, I carry Bob Griese around in my wallet as a reminder that it is OK to look a little dorky.

Deep down inside of all of us, we are hoping that we possess some sort of real worth.

Swavel