Life Truths

So last night, in an effort to score some “quality time” with my wife I DVR’d her favorite show of the summer…”The Bachlorette” and we sat down together to watch it.  I’m not sure if it was real quality time but during the episode I could feel the size of my brain actually shrinking.  This is probably the reason that I started forgetting necessities at the grocery store!  In the midst of my wife explaining to me why David is good and Wes is bad I began hearing inside my head the cry of millions of tiny little braincells as they said their last goodbyes.

They say that you can’t grow braincells back but I’m gonna try.  Thanks to “The Bachlorette” and my stupid idea of “quality time” I now have to read “War and Peace” and listen to classical music for 8 hours a day for the next week to have any shot of remembering eggs and milk the next time I go to the grocery store!!  Why coudn’t I have come up with a different way to connect with my wife!?

Just writing this made me think about this guy in the Bible named Paul.  Over and over again he expressed his resentment and frustration at the things he had chosen to do in his past.  He wished that he could change it all but he couldn’t.  He even referred to himself as “wretched”.  Yet he knew that through Christ he was forgiven and even if he couldn’t take all those poor choices and sins away – Christ did on the cross.

Now I don’t know if the “Bachlorette” is a sin to watch but it certainly got me thinking about poor choices.  Maybe not for my wife but definitely for me.  I’ve had my share in life as well that (in all seriousness) go way beyond the choice of television shows.  But (just like Paul) I thank God for Christ and his forgiveness.

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
By the way, Nascar fans, you better put “War and Peace” on your reading list as well!

Here I am at 36 and I’m leading the family on our first road-trip vacation.  It’s been pretty good even though we get the expected comments from the back.  My 7 year old updates me on how far behind we are running based on what I told him earlier regarding arrival time.  It’s like a never ending cycle of “Dad, shouldn’t we be there by now!?”  Uhg.  And then there is the two year old who pulls on her car seat straps every 20 minutes and yells out at the top of her voice, “I STUCK!!”  I know, honey, we’re all stuck right now (more than you know).  Was that a Waffle House!?

We stopped to visit cousins in TN and had a blast playing outside and swimming.  We decided to put my son on a little motorcycle with training wheels in this big field just to see what he could do.  Now mind you, it only went like 6 MPH and he did have a helmet on.  But I got concerned when I remembered that he gets flustered on his bicycle of another bicycle is within 10 miles of him.  So we put him on this little bike and off he goes in the big field.  In the distance I see one lone tree.  Just one tree – surely he won’t hit it.  He’s heading for the tree but there’s this great big field – he’ll turn away.  Son!  Turn away.  Nope.  He managed to avoid a massive field and ride right into the lone tree.  No harm – but it made me wonder why.

Then I began to think about our lives and the lone trees.  We get distracted easily.  We miss the parking lot because of the one speed bump.  We find the obstacle and we fixate on it rather than living free and enjoying the ride.  In the Bible is says “In his heart a man plans his ways, but the Lord orders his steps.” (Prov. 16:9).  I wonder if sometimes I prefer to put my own steps together rather than God’s steps and increase my tendancy to run right into obstacles.  What a high price we pay sometimes for our own indepentent streak.  Maybe peace and freedom can actually be found in letting go and turning over the reigns.  I’ve hit enough trees.