At The End

 

A true test of character is not how you respond when things go your way, but when they don’t.

We all like it when things work out the way we planned for them to go. Especially during the holidays many of us get frustrated with what we can’t control. For me, there are several traditions that help Christmas feel like Christmas.  Right or wrong, over the years I have acquired preferences for certain foods, certain movies and other traditions that help set the mood for the season. And sadly this can influence my attitude during the holidays.

For instance, years ago on Christmas Eve my wife and I were watching the movie, A Christmas Carol, on public television when something memorable happened.  The movie had five minutes left to go in it when Bob Cratchit, who was about to enter Scrooge’s counting house, suddenly disappeared into oblivion.  After a painful pause a documentary about a homeless person came on in the movie’s stead.  Flabbergasted we both sat there in shock waiting for the station to correct its error.  It never did come back on and we both went to bed with an empty feeling in the pit of our stomachs. 

Hard lesson to learn, but even at Christmas time things don’t always work out the way we would like. However, if we are looking for the right things we should be less likely to be disappointed.

So, here are 5 important things I suggest we should try to look for this year during Christmas:

1- At the end of the Christmas meal I should be glad for the dirty dishes because that means I did not spend the day alone

2- At the end of the gift opening may I be glad for each smile a gift brought.

3- At the end of the family gatherings may I remember the air of happiness hidden by the hustle and bustle of the busy day.

4- At the end of the day, or well before then, try to reflect on the real reason for the day, being Jesus’ birthday.

5- At the end of the night as we turn off the Christmas lights try to enjoy the silence of a full and complete day.

Funny thing I discovered about A Christmas Carol being cut short was that now my favorite part of the movie is those last five minutes.  In those waning moments every year I am reminded that right now is the best time to make rather merry, despite whether things are going my way or not.

At the end of Christmas and at the end of .our lives may we be defined by the love we gave?  

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Mild Mannered

 

Mild is a positive description of one’s character, not just how we like our coffee brewed.

When you hear: mild he lay His glory by, born that man no more may die… what thoughts come to mind?  

A little background first, this phrase comes from the popular Christmas song, Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  The pervading thought that comes to my mind is what in the world was Jesus thinking to come down from Heaven and set aside all He was and had, just to be with us.  Looks like a matter of high risk / no reward or someone who embodies love.

 

Think about it for a moment: God became a baby.

 

Have you ever stopped to think about the great significance of The High King of Heaven coming down to save those who could not save themselves?  Sadly, I believe we fall in love with the thought of Christmas and not its true meaning.  We love to sing songs and buy gifts and feel jolly, but we forget to remember the sacrifice. 

Here is a brief summary of Jesus’ short life on this planet. He was born in a wooden stable. History tells us he worked with wood as a carpenter in anonymity. He then led a group of renegade followers telling people the simple message that God His Father loved them.  On Good Friday because he claimed to be the Son of God He died on a wooden cross. 

 All these circumstances dictate that Jesus was mild mannered, not looking for attention or fanfare, even though at times He got it anyway.  Jesus was the epitome of mild mannered, which often is characterized by someone with strong charisma.  By definition the word charisma means a rare quality or power attributed to those who have demonstrated an exceptional ability for leadership. This word helps us see mild for what it really is: powerful.

 

Mild he lay His glory by, born that man no more may die was quite the inauspicious method for Jesus to enter this world.  The Savior of the world was born in a stable in front of a lot of stinky animals since there was no room at the inn. He was then held by a teenage mother who rode for miles on a donkey before giving birth to him.  Not to mention his step-dad stood nearby taking in the enormity of the moment, who had risked his entire reputation to insure this little boy would be raised right.

Sometimes, I don’t get God, because by all human sensibilities this sounds like a really strange way to save the world.  However, when you love you don’t need attention; rather He was paying attention to us.  Jesus had a job to do and we were the job, his mission, so to speak and He would not fail us or it. Christmas reminds me that Jesus gave all.  It took great strength to do what Jesus did when he came to give not to get.

Those caught up with life’s concerns are inclined to be hasty, while those with great purpose tend to be mild mannered.

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Flirting With Wisdom

 

The wise man benefits by learning from his mistakes, while a fool only gains heartache from his. 

Just the other day I celebrated my forty-seventh birthday and it got me to thinking about the phrase, “with age comes wisdom”.  Somehow as I grow older, I don’t feel overly discerning, however, I believe wisdom can be achieved if we pursue it.  As far as I’m concerned, life experience is always the best teacher.

 

If the truth be told, most of us have been flirting with wisdom most of our lives.  This kind of flirting is very much like the type most of us did growing up.  You know the kind, when you would see a cute guy or girl during your high school days and you would smile or wave at them.  However, out of nervousness, you never pursued a relationship with them. 

Consequently, I thought it might prove helpful to find words that define the fool and the wise.  This way it helps us avoid playing the fool and at the same time encourages us to pursue what is right. 

The fool is often characterized by two words: careless and wasteful

Fools tend to be careless with their words, actions and often how they live.  They could care less and this attitude directly corresponds with their actions leading them to be self-absorbed.  Fools also tend to be wasteful when it comes to relationships and how they treat and also hurt others.  Laying waste to many relationships in their wake.  The fool is shortsighted and pays for it with a life that is not eternally significant.

The wise man is often characterized by two words: faithful and useful

A truly wise person is someone who is characterized as being someone who is faithful. This is a dangerous person because he or she is taking their directions from God.  He could care less what the world thinks of him or how he is perceived. He trusts God day-by-day to lead him by His Spirit.  A wise person is also someone who strives to be useful to God and to others, so he doesn’t waste a lot of time thinking about himself.  Strange to me that as I get older, I learn there is something useful I can take out of every day if I look deep enough.

The following is a paraphrased response a professional basketball coach recently spoke to the media regarding what his 0-10 team had to do to get better.  If we don’t waste days and we put in the work, we can turn this thing around.   How true.  If we don’t waste days as we desperately pursue wisdom, there is always hope. 

Better to be partnered with wisdom and have a significant life, than to be flirting with wisdom all your life and have nothing to show for it.

 

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Everyone Thankful

Complaining is easy, being thankful on the other hand is hard work.

The other night I was reminded of a cool phrase.  Just as I was about to give grace at a family gathering my wife reminded me of a prayer my brother-in -law gave once before a picnic.  All he said as he looked around was this, “EVERYONE THANKFUL?”  Everybody bobbed their head yes and with that he said, “AMEN.”

Three words, five seconds. Done.

 

As we approach the Thanksgiving season that question, “EVERYONE THANKFUL?”,  reminds me that my life should be answering  it.  Truly thankful should be defined by significant things that we cherish in our lives along with everyday niceties that make life more bearable.

So, here is my list of things/ people I am truly thankful for:

-          Those brave enough to pave the way for us, like the Pilgrims

-          Family: great wife, wonderful kids, loving parents and in-laws, and everyone else related to me that puts up with me.

-          More than enough food to eat

-          A house which is heated and shelters me from the cruel weather

-          A job that pays the bills

-          Lungs that fill up with air and a heart that beats

-          Vehicles that allow me travel near and far at my bidding

-          New slippers that keep my feet warm

-          Coffee with friends who speak truth into me

-          Others, who in their brokenness just like mine, force me out of my comfort zone.

-          A God who loves me despite how often I fail Him

-          A Savior who died for my sins

The list goes on and on, but the pervading thought is that of being thankful.  It is the best way to live.  Less people will avoid you and you will have more significant friends.  Your smile will mean something and people won’t refer to you as fake or someone who is half hearted.  

So, as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving,  I believe the best way is to practice the art of appreciation.  In layman’s terms that means I should make an attempt to remember the good and focus less on the bad.  It also means I should live in such a way that my life honors those who have gone before and above all Almighty God.

Everyone thankful should be a way we all live every day, not just a short prayer we utter before we chow down.

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Still Good

 

Do no harm still remains a good motto to follow.

As a man, our first instinct should be to protect, not harm those we love.  If you are a pro football fan, like me, these past three months have been beyond disturbing.   Sadly, in the last few months we have been over exposed to the ugly side of what men, who wear helmets for a living as they  crash into one another, can do to those they love when lose self-control.

All is not lost however and recently something happened to help me see that more clearly.  It is a moving story about a father who loves his child more than himself and that man happens to be a football player by the name of Devon Still.

 

Devon Still is a third year defensive lineman who plays for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL.   Just this past June, without any warning, Devon Still received the worst news any parent could ever be told. While he was in training camp vying for a roster spot, he was told by doctors that his four year old daughter, Leah, had a form of cancer called Neuroblastomia.  Still was told that Leah had a 50 % chance of survival.

The football playing father immediately put his career on hold.  “She’s fighting for her life…sports is not more important than me being there while my daughter is fighting for her life.”  Since that day,   Devon spent the next three weeks sleeping next to his daughter at the hospital despite a football related injury he had recently suffered.  Still even shaved his head bald to show support for his daughter who lost her hair due to the chemo therapy treatment. 

Fortunately, after several weeks of treatment Leah was doing well enough that her father decided to go back to football camp. Still had weighed her costs of continued treatment around million dollars,  so he came back in order to keep his health benefits.  Unfortunately when training camp was over the Bengals waived Devon.  Then something wonderful happened.  Instead of just letting him go the Bengals put him on the practice squad, so he could keep his insurance to help pay for Leah’s treatment.  Still was beyond grateful as this allowed him to spend maximum time with his daughter.

Then something even more remarkable happened, the news of Leah and Devon Still began to go viral.  In an effort to aid the cause further the Bengals announced that proceeds from the sales of Still’s # 75 football jersey, which sells for $100, would be given to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to support kids’ cancer research.  Reportedly, by the end of October, donations for Still’s jersey topped over 1 million dollars. Devon Still, and others like him, remind us that more times than not we should focus on something more important than a touchdown; someone’s life.

Evil is always present, yet still good exists if we are willing to pursue it

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Whistle Clearly

 

Few things put my mind more at ease than the sound of a train whistle.

From time to time a train will come through my neighborhood causing me to take pause.  In my imagination I can see the smoke billowing out of the locomotive’s stack as its whistle pierces the air like a welcome friend saying hello.  It momentarily calms me, no matter my concern, like a cup of hot coffee for the soul.  

When I hear the sound of a train whistle it reminds me about all that is good in life. To me our existence here on Earth can be likened to that of a short train ride.  That whistle can also be a reminder of how short our lives are and how we need to make every day it count.

The other day I was reading the newspaper and came across the obituary page.  There among the eighty and the ninety year olds I found someone who died at my age, forty six.  Our life can be summed up by three things, that are all engraved on a gravestone marker.  The date we are born, the date we have died and the dash in between them. That dash, like a whistle, is how we lived our lives.

Recently, I read that a 22 year old, aspiring major league baseball player, named Oscar Tavares had died in a car accident.  Death is no respecter of persons, regardless of their natural sports ability or celebrity. Death cares not about potential nor earning power.  Tavares was supposed to be the next Albert Pujols, but his whistle had blown and now he is gone.  

This reminds me of a scene from the movie, We are Marshall.  The movie is based on the true story about the 1970 plane crash that claimed the lives of 170 people associated with the Marshall Football team.  Notably gone was the head coach, many of the administrators, nearly all the players and most of the assistant coaches.  The town was devastated, not to mention a certain assistant named Red Dawson, who felt he should have died with them.

In the movie, the new head coach tries to recruit Red to rejoin the team and uses an illustration of a train that had derailed about a year before.   As they are conversing on a shed roof, the head coach hears a whistle, and sees that same train off in the distance now running again.  He looks at Red and points to the train saying nonchalantly, “Looks like they’re back on track.”

There was another time in my life, many years ago, that contained a moment when I didn’t feel like blowing my whistle.  On that fateful night, while staying at a hotel many hours from home, my life had been turned upside down and the next day I was facing a decision that would affect the rest of my life.  Sometimes, you just can’t stop life from coming and doing what it will, so subsequently I took a prescribed sleeping pill to insure I would be well rested for the next day.

But, before I laid down a friend and I went to the grocery store to get a few odds and ends.  It  was there that the meds began kicking in as I went running down the aisles,  talking nonstop and just acting all crazy.  Then my friend convinced me I had better get some sleep, so he drove back to the hotel. As clear as day, I can still recall saying to him I wasn’t tired and then laying down while muttering something about, “the big train’s slowing down.’  And with that I was fast asleep.  Fairly well rested the next morning I arose and did what had to be done and blew my whistle regardless od the difficulty.

Life is short and no matter how derailed we may feel there is always time to get back on track, try again and blow that whistle.  Never stay derailed; because we negatively affect so many others we love when we choose to stay in the ditch of life.  If the truth be told, we may never know how many others’ spirits we have lifted or could have lifted with the sound of our whistle.

It is never too late to get your life back on track and whistle clearly with it.

Swavel

Real or Styrofoam

 

Tales are told to entertain; true stories are conveyed to reveal value.

The story of Jonah and the big fish is one that makes you think.  Our natural human reaction is that it comes across as a nice story.  Many of us have heard it in Sunday School and then made a corresponding craft about it out of a Styrofoam plate, like the one above.  Sadly, I feel many of us feel it has no merit nowadays.

The story of Jonah is important.  Jesus thought so. He believed it to be true and said so in the Bible.  It has all the great elements of a compelling story: adventure, conflict, forgiveness, repentance, mercy, and a giant monster of a fish. 

At the crux of this big fish story we have a guy, Jonah, who God Himself told to go to Nineveh and tell them to repent from their evil ways.  Jonah, who was a prophet back in Bible Times, had a good reason to be afraid because God told to go to a city renowned for its killing and wickedness. Nineveh had a reputation for not taking kindly to other people's advice. 

Since Jonah was afraid, like most of us would have been, he took a ship in the opposite direction.  Then God forced him to take a timeout and think about his disobedience, by putting a tempestuous storm in his path.  When the crew discovered Jonah was at fault it was decided by all concerned to throw him overboard, so the storm would cease.  As he landed in the waves the storm subsided, then a great fish came and swallowed Jonah. 

Allow me to pause for a moment, for this begs a very important question. Yes or No, was Jonah really swallowed by a great fish? 

This answer matters because either this story is fiction or truth.  As stated earlier, Jesus believed this story to be true.  There is also evidence throughout history that certain large fish have swallowed animals as big as humans.  Yes, being swallowed whole be a giant fish would be miraculous, but it’s possible.

According to the Bible this great fish was one that God had prepared ahead of time to swallow Jonah.  Many believe it was a whale, however I think it matters more if such a fish could exist. In my opinion, God created the world in six days therefore He certainly could create a specifically designed fish large enough to swallow a man whole in its belly and sustain him for three days. 

 

Ok back to the story… To be swallowed by a giant fish must have been beyond terrifying for Jonah or any human being to experience.  It definitely had to be one of those moments that was impossible to describe unless you were there.

Subsequently God was just getting Jonah’s attention, not punishing him by sending the enormous fish to swallow him.  He was utilizing his own GPS- God’s Positioning System.  Dark, wet, alone and scared out of his mind, poor Jonah had time to think and pray about his predicament. Then, God caused the fish to vomit him onto dry land.  Ironically very close to Nineveh.

So, picture this, a man who smells awful, covered with rashes, missing hair and probably without clothes, yet now feeling motivated to reconsider his actions   Consequently, it says in the Bible that the Lord came a second time and told Jonah to “arise, go to Nineveh and cry out against it. This time I  am imagining that Jonah was in no mood to disobey. So, Jonah arose and made the three day walk.  When he got there this is what he said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

Short but highly effective, Nineveh knew God meant business.  Therefore they repented turning from their wickedness causing God to forgive them and not utterly destroy them.  However, in the end Jonah grows bitter because God showed mercy. Poor Jonah, he could accept God’s forgiveness for his short comings, but he didn’t like to extend God’s forgiveness to others he felt deserved to pay for their mistakes. Sadly, we all are like this from time to time.

The point of all this is two things. First, when God says arise and GO you better, because far too often we take God’s instructions as advice.  Second, when God does something truly amazing It should be believed because our God is capable of such things. 

What is your status concerning Jonah’s fish story: real or Styrofoam?

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