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

Fair Catch

The true measure of a man is when nothing goes right and yet he still stays the course.

We live in an unfair world.  We need to get over it.

Anyone who has ever lived knows that life seldom goes the way we plan it to go.  A great example of this a football player named Leon Bright.

Leon was a backup running back for the Giants in the 1980’s.  What I remember most about him was that while attempting to field punts, on two separate occasions, he got obliterated by opposing tacklers.  In both cases the opponent hit him before the ball got to him.  In hindsight, he probably just should have signaled for a fair catch. 

On both occasions, he got his clock cleaned and lay knocked out on the turf, while the medical staff scurried to assist him.  Both times he got carried off the field with his head strapped to wooden board as they whisked him off to the locker room and probably then to the hospital.  Poor Leon must have not been feeling so Bright.

The reason I bring up Leon Bright and his misfortunes is that sometimes life seems to cheat.  It plays dirty, roughs us up, hurts our feelings and doesn’t even apologize.  The answer is to get back up when life and its cruel uncertainties knock us down. 

Now, sometimes you have to wait for the fog to lift after you get hit, but dog-gone it, get back up. Don’t let life steal your will to live because it is not for sale.

Life is not about fair catches, but rather what we do with each day God grants us.

Swavel

Faith Renewed

In life there will always be something that lets you down.

Even in a cynical world such as ours there was once a popular song called “got to have faith”.  How true.

With this being said faith is something I believe we so often easily lose or get lazy with it. Here are two things lately that have renewed my faith, albeit though very common occurrences that happen in everyday life.

1- The weekly newspaper that had not been delivered to me for about two months is now coming every week.  To top it off, it is even in a plastic bag to protect it.   Who knew that last phone operator had such pull.  The reason this renewed my faith is that often when something dumb like this happens I think, “oh great things are not going my way.” Rather a missed newspaper delivery or a burnt out light bulb or flat tire are in essence just everyday normal inconveniences.  A better way to live is to get the problem fixed or get over it and move on and not blame God for it.

2-Funerals tend to renew my faith.  Just about three weeks ago I was at one for an eighty six year old dear friend of mine.  It is one thing to talk about faith in God and an altogether different thing to live it out.  But, it was reaffirming to know that my friend is now with Jesus because my faith tells me that is where she is, no doubt about it. 

Something that confounds me from time to time is when I hear about people who have lost their faith in God.  Their loss of faith was due to tragedy or that God just didn’t show up when they felt they really needed Him to do so.    The Bible is very adamant that without FAITH it is impossible to please God.  As a follower of Jesus I know that I follow a God who can’t be defined by our human standards.  He simply can’t be put in a box.

Our faith can be renewed every day by just witnessing every day miracles such as the sun shining and the grass growing which no man can ever explain.

Swavel

Going Home

Home is that one place where you can be who you really are. 

I believe Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz had it right when she tapped her ruby red slippers together and said emphatically, “There is no place like home.”

This past month has been a doozy for me.   As an exterminator in the summer heat and my neighbor leaving us and going home to Heaven, it’s been a challenging month.

For example, the other day in the high humidity, I was supposed to be using a leaf blower type device to spread insecticide granules into a high grass area.  However, unbeknownst to me, when I cranked it up the chute was open and I was spraying granules all over the parking lot, like a popcorn popper from my childhood.  Insecticide was everywhere, the size of corn kernels.  And there I was like a lunatic, running as fast as I could to get into the grass so I wouldn’t hit any cars.

Dripping wet with sweat, I tried to sweep up the kernels with a broom I had just bought from the grocery store.   About a half an hour later I was so happy to get into my truck and into the cool air conditioning.   The only thing better was when I got to the final mile of the work day and my Garmin told me Home was in 0.9 miles. There is nothing sweeter than going home.

With that said, my neighbor and landlady, Kass, has been talking about sliding into home or going to Heaven, since winter when her heart began to fail her.  She felt like God was not ready to wave her around third base so she could head home where she so badly wanted to reside. She so wanted to round third, and on July 13^th God gave her the green light and she slid safely into Heaven.

This was great for Kass, but so many of us miss her unique take on life and relationship with God.  However, the song we sang last at her funeral, with her smiling face below in black and white, gave me great comfort.

When I’ve gone the last mile of the way,
I will rest at the close of the day;
And I know there are joys that await me,
When I’ve gone the last mile of the way.

As Kass can surely now attest, some things are worth the wait.

There is nothing like going home at the end of the day. Nothing.

Swavel