Life Truths

I like to think of myself as a sensitive guy.  Probably not in the best sense of the word, however.  I’m not sensitive in a way that causes me to cry at chick-flicks.  I probably should have been a little more “moved” at the end of The Notebook or Forest Gump but then my wife might actually think that I care to watch those movies and I don’t want to lead her on in that way.

I’m actually skin sensitive.  I mentioned one time before how things that bite or irritate the skin turn me into a walking, talking swollen mass of puss.  We have small patches of poison ivy around our house and after several rounds of steroids and creams and many a night of moaning in irritation I decided to nuke the stuff wherever it was.  I went out and bought that concentrated round up that you shoot out the end of a garden hose and started to slaughter the poison ivy everywhere.  In the process I had to kill some of the plants and ground cover that makes our home look nice.  I know that this caused my neighbors to think that I was crazy as they spent the summer looking at brown, dead patches all around the house.  To be honest, I could care less.  The poison had to go and this was the only way to do it without itching my way into oblivion!

After looking at the brown patches myself I was reminded of what Jesus said about sin.  Mark 9:43 (NIV) “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.”  Poison ivy is a lot like certain types of sin in our life.  It may mean cutting out some of the good stuff in order to maintain the life that God desires so that holiness is still our character and nature.  The life that seeks Christ and His will is one that is willing to sacrifice certain perceived “rights” for the sake of holy growth.  Your neighbors may not understand and think you’re a little crazy but it is not really about them, is it?  Eternal itching and irritation (my version of hell on earth) just isn’t worth their opinion.  Plus, they don’t see things the way you and God see them.  Besides, the good stuff of God grows back and takes over the missing poison and that is way worth it!

2010 has been strategic for me.  From a personal standpoint I wanted it to be the year that I actually get healthy and get some physical fitness back in my life.  I devoted the past three months to a strict regiment of exercise and better eating.  It’s paid off a bit.  I used to always feel like Kevin James from “King of Queens”.  Now I feel a bit more like myself.

At first I felt pretty stupid as I did all these pushups, crunches and exercises.  At one point I had this out of body type thingy where I knew I looked like a jack rabbit on a hot stove top.  Remember those old western movies where guys used to shoot at their enemies feet and tell them to “dance!”.  That was me.  But it became more natural.

Then I started to run.  I really enjoy running.  I spent a good part of my younger life running.  But Old keeps getting in the way.  But I thought this time was different.  ”I’m not going to roll and ankle!”  ”I’m not going to pull a groin  muscle!”  ”I’m not going to tear the obscure ligament in the top of my foot that I never knew I had!”  It was going great until yesterday.  3/4 of a mile into my 3 mile run, out of nowhere, blammo!!  My right calve wrenches and cramps like it’s in some sort of nasty vice.  And the irony is, each time some old-person injury happens to me it something different.  How amazing is that?

Anyway – I’ll rebound and try and keep all the progress I’ve made but I’m not liking the fact that age is rearing its ugly head more and more.  I’m glad that God loves me despite my inabilities.  As I get older and change physically it doesn’t discount me in His eyes.  He says in Proverbs 16:31 (NLT)  ^“Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by living a godly life. ”  I don’t know how godly I looked walking home yesterday afternoon but I can be sure that God’s not demoting me to the second team.  He can use all of us no matter what our station in life or physical condition!

I love my wife! I really love her and I wanted to show that love to her this past Christmas. Some might think, “Oh, you bought her diamonds.” Nope. “You took her away to a fine spa to pamper her for a long weekend?” Nope. “You bought extra duct tape for the sake of quieting the children down for a day of peace and quiet”. Nope.
I expressed my deep, heart-felt love for my wife by purchasing her some pepper spray! Merry Christmas honey…try it out, go ahead!
Now some might think that this is a peculiar way to express love. For me it makes perfect sense. She arrives at work in the city in the pre-dawn hours and I wanted to give her an advantage against those who would try and rob or steal my Mindy. The only problem with this gift is that it still sits on the kitchen counter 5 months later. It has never made the trip to work in those pre-dawn hours because she’s fearful of it. She thinks she’ll hurt herself or mess up with it.
Merry Christmas, honey!
Now there is a spiritual side to this story, fortunately. We live in a country where most families have a Bible sitting on their bookshelf, but rarely use it. It is God’s great gift to those that He loves so much and wants to protect. We look at the Bible in an attitude of fear…worried that we’ll confuse ourselves or convict ourselves rather than considering the greater goal of God’s word which is to save yet another one for Himself and His pleasure. The Bible gives us a guide for life (this one and the next) to keep us safe and saved.

People watching.  I love it.  You can learn so much about society in general by simply taking time to sit in a mall food court for an hour and observe the humanity crawling around you.  I am a hound for free wi-fi so I have my favorite mall food court which affords me this luxury every so many weeks.  What a trip! 

• First I see an elderly couple dressed like they are going to an art gallery premier.  I know that they must have money because they are eating and drinking Sbarro.  No one with any financial common sense and a limited income buys pizza from Sbarro.  Of course…she has a salad.
• Woops…scratch that because to my left I see a single mom with three in diapers and she just polished off an entire Sbarro pizza.  But she’s probably on a tight budget because she clearly can’t afford enough clothes to cover her own body.
• Gathered around the kiddie playground area is an intriguing layer of moms who are basically clueless to what their children are doing as they dish away with someone sitting next to them.  I can hear the conversation now, “So I told Jerry, we simply can’t afford the riding mower.  If he buys that mower there’s no way we’ll be able to keep Samantha in her dance and equestrian classes.  He thinks horseback riding is silly for a preschooler but I feel it’s a significant form of therapy while she’s potty training.
• Over my shoulder are four men standing in front of their respective restaurant counters offering the same things on toothpicks.  Bourbon chicken, honey chicken, spicy chicken and sweet & sour pork.  Of course I take a sample from each.
• Lastly are the teenagers.  It’s the middle of the school day but somehow they are here.  Amazing.  I’m sure they are eating their fast food over a heated discussion regarding what excuses they need to use this week.

My point to all of this is not to mock those different from myself but to highlight an extremely important concept from the Bible .  John 3:16 is one of the most recognizable Bible verses simply because of that guy behind the goal-posts at each NFL game.  It says, “For God so love the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”  God loves the world!  My human tendency is to stereotype, differentiate and categorize.  In God’s eyes He sees humanity as His cherished creation that He loves and it was worthy of giving up His Son in order to save.  Everyone in this room surrounding me is cherished.  Everyone.

We’re all friends here on this anonymous rollercoaster in the dark called the internet, right?  Can we be honest?  If you’re like me then there are purchases that you are enthusiastic about and then there are those purchases that cause you to sweat and your hand muscles to cramp as you hand over the cash or swipe the card.  Here are some examples in my life:

• Writing a check for girl scout cookies – enthusiasm!
• Writing a check to the IRS – not so much.
• Purchasing a large pizza and a dozen spicy wings – enthusiasm!
• Purchasing my wife’s low-fat rice cakes - not so much.
• Paying to go into Epcot or the Magic Kingdom – much enthusiasm!
• Paying to go into the dentist office – not so much.
• Purchasing a new part to get my hot tub working again – enthusiasm!
• Purchasing a new part to get my mower running again – not so much.

God also realizes that there might be things that we undertake in life with the wrong attitude.  Perhaps it’s a job or a responsibility and we go out it with that “not so much” attitude.  I was reminded that I need to keep my attitude in check by Paul in the Bible when he said  “He gave himself for us to set us free from every sin and to cleanse us so that we can be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good things.” Titus 2:14 (GW)

I guess that he wants us to all be enthusiastic about the good things we do since we carry His grace with us wherever we go.  In the 80’s we used to refer to people who don’t live life like this as “downers”.  I’ve known downers and I tend to feel revitalized when I hang out with the enthusiastic types.  Treat your work like girl scout cookies!!

I’m not that old, but it sure seems like the Winter Olympics have changed since I first remember watching as a ten year-old. In 1984 the Sarejevo Olympic games includes the hard-as-nails men’s figure skating with Scott Hamilton. It included the men’s bobsled which the American’s politely lost over and over again. I even remember watching the ski jump which made me jump off of the couch time and again until I thought I could fly.
Now I don’t mind change once in a while. I change my mind quite often. I change the towels in the bathroom. I even change underwear from time to time. But the change in the Olympics has taken some getting used to. The short-track speed skating is interesting with it’s bumping, and shoving and passing and speed. The snowboard and ski cross has been fun with its speed and danger. The curling has taken some getting used to. It is entertaining in the way that corn-hole or horseshoes is entertaining but I’m missing the Olympian aspect to it. Let’s be honest…these aren’t the same kind of people who participate in the cross-country skiing or the Nordic combined. These people push a stone across the ice. Actually horseshoes requires more athletic prowess.
This brings me back to change. In Exodus God told Moses, “I Am” when asked to identify Himself. (Ex. 3:14). What is so important about this is that God doesn’t change. He’s everything we need and everything we ever will need. That can give you confidence to really fly in life.

It’s snowing again. Now don’t get me wrong, I do not have a personal problem with snow. I’m down with the whole political correctness thing with regard to weather systems. Sunny and 80 is no more important than snowy and 20. Week-long rains are just as appealing as warm breezes and crickets on my back deck. Equal opportunity weather, right? WHATEVER!!
The joy of the first snow is watching my son pretend to be Shaun White blasting down the back hill on his sled while I get a nice workout shoveling the driveway. During the second big snow it’s the joy of seeing him try and loose his little sister in the three foot drifts while I overcome my aches and pains to get yet another good workout shoveling the driveway.
By the time you hit the third big snow something begins to change (read “snap”) inside of you. Now the joy is replaced with inner bitterness towards groundhogs and “those stupid snowplow drivers” who keep burying your mailbox. Your children have lost numerous toys in the snow and whine because they can’t shoot basketball outside due to the fact that you haven’t shoveled the driveway yet.
Some are saying that all the cold and snow this year indicates that global warming is a joke. Other geniuses say that all the snow and cold is a result of global warming (snicker). I’m just fascinated how one year can be so dramatically different from the other. A complete 180! At least, with regards to God, He always stays the same. The Hebrew word for God’s love is chesed and it denotes His unchanging love. Unchanging! I like that. Kind of like San Diego weather. Sunny and 70.

I know I haven’t written anything for a while and it certainly isn’t from a lack of material.  My life has been as nutty as the next guy.  So nutty, in fact, that I think I’m a squirrel buried deep in a pile of heaven itself.  Perhaps it’s been the cold…yeah, that’s it!  Dragging in firewood, scraping the windshields, shoveling snow and simply trying to maintain a heart rate of any life giving manner has killed my various fun enthusiasms.

But the other day I had some “friend” remind me of an incident that I pushed to the back of my mind.  They think of it as a funny afternoon event and I think of it as the day I almost died.  You see, I decided that I would impress my wife, wow my son, and fulfill some inner testosterone urge by renting a piece of heavy machinery and clear out some trees and brush in our back yard.  I was doing great.  Sliding around our yard, powerfully pushing away big trees!  Bucket up, bucket down, bucket up!!  My son thought I rocked!  I was so cool that I was even whistling at my wife every time she walked by just like the other guys on the job site.

Then my ego got the best of me.  With one more tree to clear, I tried to pull a tricky spin move with the bucket above my head and the soft ground gave way under my left track.  Next thing I new I was holding on for dear life wondering if I would ever see my son finish kindergarten.  I did what any skilled driver would do and grabbed ahold of the roll-cage bar and screamed like a girl watching Sanjaya during American Idol.

Now to God’s credit He decided it wasn’t my time and I slithered out sore, but unscathed.  Little did I know that my wife watched the whole thing and was running to find the life insurance policy.  (Actually I heard her scream too).  This is where my funny, fair-weathered friend come in.  I called them up to come “help me” turn this thing back upright so I might possibly spare another $300 bill to fix this mess.  To their credit they did show up, promptly laughed at me when they saw me and laughed when I aske them to try and help turn the machine over.  Let’s just say  that they are rather heavy.

Today, when I read their comments I laughed too.  A couple years have gone by and my “trauma” seems entertaining now.  Life has a way of doing this.  Our ego moments, our pride moments, our personal traumas must seem funny to God sometimes because He sees the whole big picture while we can’t.  He knows how trivial things will prove to become and I wonder if He laughs amidst our hurt pride.

The Bible says that, “ Dear friends, don’t forget that for the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years is the same as one day.” 2 Peter 3:8  He can laugh if He wants because time is not an issue to Him and He always has the big picture in mind.  Maybe we would laugh at ourselves more if we kept the big picture in mind as well.  The little things our spouse does that annoy us mind not seem so trivial at the thought of days later in life that we might spend without them.  Our failing eyesight might not make us feel so old when we are reminded of the fact that someday we’ll see everything quite clearly.  Don’t get too hung up on yourself, I know that God’s not.

I recently sat in a coffee shop and as I was quietly minding my own business and doing my work as a young fellow lounged on the couch across from me and sneezed and hacked his way through the better part of 90 minutes. Each time he coughed he looked at me as if to say, “Sorry. I know I shouldn’t be here because I’m probably making you sick.” With every type of flu going around this winter from swine flu to seasonal flu I was frustrated. (By the way, if we’re going to have a pandemic flu why can’t it have a cool name like Creeping Panther Flu or Mako Shark Flu?)
This guy caused me to think about how I still can’t get the flu shot because it’s not available due to shortages. Unfortunately there is one type of innoculation that I see that a lot of people have received over their lifetime. They have received the “Jesus Shot” which means they are now calloused and innoculated to the effects of the Savior.
These are the people that grimmace when you start talking about Jesus or quickly cut you off to tell you that they go to church on Christmas and Easter.
Just like the flu, I’ve found that a person who is truly infected by Christ runs a raging fever for Him that never stops and they don’t ever get over it. But unlike the regular flu illness, this flu gets better with time and heals us in the end.
Don’t be afraid when someone with the Jesus “bug” coughs on you because you need that kind of infection. And don’t settle for the innoculation of a little bit of Jesus because what we all need is a good raging fever!
Hachoo!!

I just completed a 1300 mile roadtrip with my kids.  I survived but on many occassions I felt like crawling into the back of the van and curling up in the fetal position to suck my thumb.  My son is like a piece of luggage.  Seriously!  You just put him in the van and you hear very little from him unless nature calls.  My daughter (who is 2 1/2) on the other hand is more into the “shock and awe” approach to car travel.  If Norman Schwarzkopf himself had decided to set of a six pack of hand grenades in the car it couldn’t have been louder than my little girl. 

When opinionated meets stubborn you begin to touch on the culture inside that mini-van.  “I stuck, I stuck!” is a common phrase that she will announce loudly for 2 hours straight.  I understand all the cool, rational parents out there that say things like, “‘Well, you just need to remember who the adult is” or “Don’t give in to her immaturity”.  But you weren’t there.  I think I’m still suffering from PTSD – “Post-Toddler Stress Disorder”.

I wonder if that is what God hears from us as we travel through life.  Screaming and crying because we can’t have our way.  “I stuck, I stuck!” because of our life circumstance.  It’s a wonder that He hasn’t gotten out of the car already and left us stranded at the rest area to fend for ourselves.  Yet He continues to love us even when we become a bunch of screamers.

By the way…I don’t really suck my thumb.