This Stinky World

I once heard of a prank perpetuated by some kids on their grandfather. He was known for taking daily naps on the sofa, naps that were so deep nothing would awaken him. So during one nap the smeared some Limburger cheese on his mustache and waited for him to awaken. Soon he did, with a sniff, and declared, “This sofa stinks!” He then moved to the LazyBoy where again he declared, “This chair stinks!” He tried every room in the house only to find that they, too, stunk. Finally he went outside to get some fresh air, and when he took a deep breath, he declared, “The whole world stinks!”

Unfortunately that story is repeated daily in the lives of some people, only figuratively. With bad attitudes they declare that everything in the world stinks – their job, their circumstances, their church, their pastor. They look at a situation or a person and view it as bad, yet almost everyone else sees it differently. All the while the stink was actually right under their nose, following them everywhere they go. The stink is THEM.

Our attitudes determine how we view the world around us, and the good news is we control our attitude – it is a choice. Proverbs 23:7 tells us as a man “thinks within himself, so he is.” Our attitude actually BECOMES our reality. So, how can we change our attitude and thereby change our reality?

First, we need to change the contents of our thoughts. If somehow Limburger cheese has gotten smeared under nose, we need to wash our face. Philippians 4:8 is a good guideline for the kinds of thoughts that will help us maintain a good positive attitude: thoughts that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. When we fill our mind with the right kinds of thoughts, it leaves no room for the negative thoughts. We can change the way we view our reality by changing WHAT we think.

Additionally, we need to change our influencers. The people around us either lift us up or bring us down – and the direction we are going is often deceiving. Sometimes we think people are making us feel better by commiserating with us, but in the long run they are only helping us dig deeper into the pit of negativity. 1 Corinthians 15:33 teaches us that “bad company corrupts good character.” Rather than lifting others, too many times we allow them to drag us down. If your friends are negative, chances are you will be too. If your friends are positive, they will lift your spirit and help you attitude.

If we change what we think and change who influences our thoughts, chances are we will begin to see our reality in a fresh new light. Things are not as bad as we think they are nor nearly as bad as others try to tell us they are. So, wipe the stinky cheese off of your face and face the world with a new attitude.

The Noise

Words cannot describe the sound – a dozen kids running around screaming and playing, a VCR playing the movie Toy Story, a vacuum cleaner, and two teachers trying to restore some semblance of order to a borderline chaotic classroom. That was the sound I heard Thursday (and most days for that fact) when I picked Bekah up from her Parents’ Morning Out School. Yet somehow, amid the din and ear-piercing decibels I heard it. In fact I heard it as crystal clear as if it were the only sound in the room.

Through all the other voices, noises, and rackets I heard Bekah’s voice. I heard it not because she was louder than all the other sound, although she can hold her own quite well in a noisy room. I heard my daughter’s voice because I was listening for it, and I was familiar with it. I knew what she sounded like and I came through the doors with my ears trimmed specifically for her sound. Those other kids are absolutely adorable and precious in their own ways, and Miss Ginger, Miss Kelli, and Miss Cheryl are angels in their own rite, but the one I wanted to hear and see was Bekah. Isn’t it amazing how familiarity and anticipation enable us to hear our children even when a myriad of other sounds would otherwise drown them out?

But what about God’s voice; have you ever noticed that God doesn’t scream? He just patiently waits for us to listen for Him to come to us in His usual hushed tones. Of course right off the bat we need to establish one essential truth: God is speaking to us all the time. Consider what Jesus said,

“…his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger, in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice . . . I am the Good Shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me.” (John 10:4b, 5, 14)

Many noises threaten to drown out the voice of God. There are the deceptive voices of doubt and despair. God can’t. You can’t. He won’t. You’ll never. There are competing voices of culture, flesh, and comfort. Sometimes we can even be duped by the supposed voice of “reason” or experience. And we cannot forget the subtle yet, ever-present tempting voice of our enemy satan. Then of course there is the “white noise” in our lives like pain, stress, fear. These noises may not speak particular words but the ruckus they raise makes it very difficult to discern and heed whatever God may be saying to us.

What makes it possible for me to distinguish my daughter’s voice amid the crowd at her school also makes it possible for me to hear from my heavenly Father even over the noise of life: anticipation and familiarity. Do I listen for God’s voice in the average, mundane, and routine of my days? Do I walk through the opens doors of each new day every morning with my spiritual ears trimmed to hear what God may be saying to me through His Word, my circumstances, and my occurrences during the day? Do I recognize and promptly ignore the other noises and voices that clamor through my psyche?

As I train myself to hear God’s voice speaking to me, over the course of time I am trained to know and hear when He is speaking and to recognize and flee the strange voices and defeating noises. My daily anticipation gives me opportunities to hear Him and seizing those daily opportunities regularly makes me familiar with the sound of His voice so that I hear it more easily with each passing day.

The question is never “Is God speaking?” That is a given. The question is “To whom and what am I listening?”

The PAUSE Button

I am not a big fan of movie theaters. Tickets are almost $10, a soda (which is actually about 12 ounces of drink and 20 ounces of ice) is almost $5 and a box of movie popcorn is another $5. So for a couple to take in a movie, share some corn, and drink a soda, someone has to fork over about $35, or almost $20 an hour for entertainment.

Watching movies a little later when they come out to video . . . that’s the trick. And lately, our local grocery stores have become the one stop shop for all your movie viewing needs. You can go into the store and buy a 2 litre drink for about $1.25 and a box of microwave popcorn for about $2. Then as you leave the store there is a movie rental machine with all the latest movies for $2. Movie, corn, soda at the grocery store comes to about $6 and since you get to keep the movie for 24 hours that amounts to a cost of about $0.25 per hour for entertainment.

But the best part of all . . . the PAUSE button. If your soda forces you to briefly abandon the movie, you’ve lost nothing. You pause the movie and pick up right where you left off before your “detour.” At the theater when that happens, you lose about 3 minutes of movie or an estimated $1. The PAUSE button is a wonderful thing.

Can I encourage you to use your PAUSE button on your life on a regular basis? Three times in Psalm 46, the writer uses a musical notation called a “Selah.” A Selah in the Psalms was an instrumental interlude which gave the worshipper a chance to stop and think about what he or she had just sung.

Psalm 46 encourages us first of all to hit the PAUSE button for reassurance. In verses 1-3 we are reminded that although things may seem a little out of hand, and although our world may shake –literally and figuratively – God is always an abundantly available and ultimately able. He is our refuge, strength, and very present help in time of trouble. Sometimes we need to PAUSE from our anxious, full speed ahead, stressful days and remember that.

Verses 4-7 encourage us to hit the PAUSE button for refreshment. God is compared to a refreshing river in the middle of the chaos of life. Life in the 21^st century can have a profound effect on us spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Planning time each day to pause and spend time with God is like plugging in a cell phone for a recharge. We cannot go long without time with Him.

Then verses 8-10 encourage us to hit the PAUSE button for reflection. Just as the nation Israel had many things to look back at and see the hand of God in their lives, so also we need to take some time to remember all that God has done for us; to remember the trials He has brought is through, and the victories He has won for us. Remember what He HAS done is reason enough to have faith in what He WILL do.

Where Should I Brush My Teeth?

How often do we do things “just because”? Or how many things do we do for no other reason than we have always done them? Today, I was brushing my teeth and walked out of the bathroom to the bedroom window to watch the birds enjoy their morning feeding. My daughter, who was sitting on my bed watching TV said, “Daddy, you can’t brush your teeth out here.” When I asked why not, she replied, “Because you have to do it in the bathroom.” When I asked why only in the bathroom, she said, “Because you can’t do it out here.”

In our lives, so much of what we do becomes so mundane and repetitive that we loose sight of the reasons behind their existence. In fact, it seems that some things in life exist only for the purpose of maintaining their existence – we do them because if we don’t do them, they will not be done anymore. How ridiculous is that?

An old story made its way around the email circuit awhile back claiming that U.S. Railroad tracks were the width they were because of English locomotive makers, who based their standard on old tram rails, who based their standards on mule and cart paths who based their standard on ruts in the old Roman empirical roads. While the story is based mostly on fictional premises, a sliver of truth still shines through: we are creatures of habit. Stated again, we do things because if we don’t do them, they will not be done anymore.

Contrast that sentiment to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 9:17:

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”

For some reason we long for God to do a fresh work in our lives, yet we give God nothing new into which He can pour new blessings. We pray the same prayers from memory, we sing the same songs giving little thought to the meaning of what we are singing, we perform the same religious rituals without considering their meaning - we do things because if we don’t do them, they will not be done anymore.

If God is to pour out His Spirit and power in our lives in fresh ways, then we need to provide Him some new wineskins into which he can pour. If we are to experience this fresh touch from God it will be poured into hearts that are willing to serve in new ways, see through different eyes, and stretch to new heights. Our lives will become new wineskins when we are willing to move out of our comfort zones and stretch our faith with new challenges.

I have to ask myself the question, “what new wineskins am I ready to make available to God?” I have grown weary of going through meaningless motions and doing things because if I don’t do them, they will not be done anymore. I am ready for new challenges, new experiences – I am ready to sing to Him a new song. I want to brush my teeth somewhere besides the bathroom.

The First Valentine

St. Valentine’s Day is one of the most highly celebrated times of the year. Who was St. Valentine anyway?

Valentine was a priest in Rome in the Third Century C.E. The Emperor at that time, Claudius II, wanted to amass a powerful army, but could not get any volunteers. It seemed as though men wanted to stay home with their families. So, Claudius declared marriage to be illegal. Valentine defied the Emperor's decree and secretly married young couples. He was eventually arrested, imprisoned, and on February 14, 269 he was beheaded. The jail keeper’s daughter visited him often and encouraged him. She too believed that true love was a just cause! The night before he was beheaded he left her a note thanking her for her encouragement and signed it “your dear Valentine.” Thus began a tradition!

What a challenge. What are we willing to risk to show love to others or to encourage others to love? The ultimate expression of love was when God sent His Son into the world to become the payment for our sins. Romans 5:8 says it this way, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Did you catch that qualifying statement? “While we were still sinners.” Now that is unconditional love. God does not wait for us to love Him; He takes initiative. God does not wait for us to straighten up; He loves us as we are. God does not love us partially; He went all the way to the cross with His love.

How can I follow that example? First of all, by loving in action rather than in words. Michael W. Smith lyricized an important truth: love isn’t love until you give it away. Expressed love is only as good as the actions that back up the expression.

We also can follow God’s loving example by loving unconditionally. We find it easy to love those we like, but what about those we do not like, even those who mistreat us? True love extends even to those who are different from us, indifferent about us, or unloving toward us. True love is given for no reasons, it is just given.

And we follow the example of God’s love when we love initially. God did not wait for us to love Him first. We love only because He first loved us. We do not love when we wait for someone else to take the initiative and then we respond; we love when we risk indifference or rejection and become the one who takes the initiative.

Let me encourage you to become a St. Valentine to several people this year. Take the initiative to love unconditionally and without thought of how your love will be received or if it will be requited. Find someone who NEEDS love, take a risk and SHOW them love. You may be surprised at the results. True love is indeed a just cause.

Quite the Contrast

It’s quite a contrast really. Anna Nicole Smith died Thursday . . . as if you didn’t know. She who is famous for (a) showing her body, (b) marrying a geriatric, and (c) selling her celebrity status has garnered quite a bit of news with her mysterious death. Even in death her bizarre life continues to spew intrigue. Two men, neither of whom are her husband, are claiming to be the father of her recently born child. And as if that isn’t strange enough, now a third man – not only NOT her husband but the husband of another woman (who also happens to be a geriatric) has staked his claim to fatherhood of the child, even boasting of the affair he had with Smith for several years.

In contrast, as I addressed in my Thursday blog edition, two men and a woman gave their lives in service to Jesus Christ while on a week long volunteer mission adventure to Honduras. Martha Fuller, Perry Goad, and Ric Mason have not garnered near the press coverage as the aforementioned Smith, yet their claim to fame is far greater – at least in heaven’s eyes. While one woman spent her life promoting herself, these three gave their lives witnessing about Christ. While Smith lived searching for significance and bounced from relationship to relationship, Fuller, Goad, and Mason were anchored to the Rock of Ages and died fulfilling the purpose for which they were created.

If these two extremes were at opposite ends of a continuum, toward which would you place your life? Do you live for yourself or for your higher purpose? All four of these souls who slipped out into eternity last week have learned something that we would all do well to understand on this side of the grave – death is inevitable. We will all taste death whether we want to think about it or not. But THE GOOD NEWS is that we have a choice as to what our death will say about us and our lives.

In John 21, Jesus was having a last meal and chat session with some of his most beloved disciples. He prophesied to Peter about the kind of death Peter would experience, then in verse 19 we read, “This He spoke, signifying by what death he (Peter) would glorify God.” When we stop and think about it, that is really an amazing concept: our death can glorify God! As I have thought about that this weekend I have come to realize that our death glorifies God when our life is lived for His glory. We die as we live. So the essential question for us is NOT for what or whom will I die, but rather for what or whom DO I LIVE?

Those three volunteers lived their lives for Jesus Christ; they were already crucified with Him, so even in death they honored Him. Anna Nicole Smith lived her life for her own pursuits and pleasures, and in death what does she have to show for it?

I don’t know about you, but to quote a song by David Young: “I want to live the rest of my days for the Lord.” I am considering myself dead to me and alive in Christ. I pledge before you and God to use the remaining days God grants me on this earth to pursue with a relentless passion the purpose for which He saved me. Care to join me?

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Philippians 3:12

What a Way to Go

I’ve been reading the tragic story of the three people who were killed when their truck overturned while they were on a weeklong mission trip to Honduras. If you haven’t heard about it, you can read the story by clicking on this link. Family, church friends, colleagues and the body of Christ are grieving the passing of these two brave men and one brave woman.

But as I have thought about it, I have come to the conclusion that (a) we are all going to die at some point, and (b) what better way to go than serving Jesus in such a real and adventurous way. We give hero status to the men and women in our Armed Forces who give their lives in combat – and well we should. After all Jesus said that a man can show no greater love than to lay down his life for a friend. But what of those who give their lives serving the King of Kings? You see, these two men and this woman were not career missionaries; they were work-a-day people here in the U.S. just like we are. But they gave a week of their time to go to Honduras and meet a practical need of bringing electricity to a remote village and a spiritual, eternal need by bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost village. I believe they are heroes of the highest order and I am confident as they made passage into paradise that Jesus stood to greet them and welcome them – just as He did Stephen (Acts 7:54-60).

But what of us? We use the metaphor often, “I am willing to die for Jesus,” but most who read this blog must honestly admit that to us it is a hypothetical situation and thus not a difficult metaphor to espouse. But what happens when we consider that the hypothetical metaphor could become a bona fide reality? We SAY we are willing to die for Christ, according to scripture we already should have the attitude that we ARE dead in Christ (Galatians 2:20). But our actions belie our affirmation. How can we say we have died to Christ when we value our lives so much? How can we say we have died to Christ when we put our comfort, our convenience, and our preferences before His Kingdom?

You see, I believe that Perry Goad, Ric Mason, and Martha Fuller didn’t die in the village of Mal Pais when their truck overturned. I think each of them died way earlier when they committed in their heart to go wherever God said go and be whatever God led them to be. They surrendered all long before they drew their last breath.

That is much for us to consider. Do we live as dead men and women? Have we died to ourselves so that we can live to Christ? Do the things of this life mean so much to us that the suggestion we make some sacrifices is viewed as unreasonable? I once heard a Bible teacher say, “What can you do to a dead man?” What a powerful point. If we consider ourselves dead to self, sin, and society but alive to God, what can harm us? So what if our life is taken away. I believe that is what Paul had come to understand when He wrote in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” If I live, praise God, I will spend every day dead to myself and alive to Christ. If I die, praise God, I will be in the presence of Christ.

Death seems to be a defeat only because we view it as an end. But thanks to the victory won for us by Christ in His death and resurrection, death no longer has the sting. Why? Because I am dead already. And you can’t kill a dead man twice!

For the families of Perry Goad, Ric Mason, and Martha Fuller I am sad. They lost some heroes. But wow, what a way to GO! I pray that God lets me leave this world in a way that indicates that I died for Him a long time ago.

More on this Monday!

Making Tracks

I will confess, I am a fan of RFD-TV, a cable channel highlighting the rural and agricultural life of our country. Saturday, I watched a show called America’s Heartland which featured a unique farm in Utah. A doctor moved his family to Utah to teach his kids the need to get away, slow down, and simplify life. One particular day as the doctor/farmer was leveling a hill with his backhoe, he uncovered something that would that would change his farm forever. He discovered the remains of a dinosaur footprint.

Paleontologists from all over were invited to the farm, and excavations began which uncovered a number of fossilized footprints, bones, skin impressions, and other items of Paleolithic interest. Rather than turn his unsuccessful farm into a subdivision – as many had done in his area – the farmer spurned the millions of dollars he could have made and donated the land to the city.

The subsequent investigations have shown quite an ecological hub of activity in the prehistory of that farm. Fossils have been discovered for fish, fowl, flora, and fauna. A fresh water lake once existed at the farm, which was a center of activity for prehistoric wildlife. Their activity is there for us to see and learn from even today. Those creatures were simply carrying on their normal activity, living their lives “in the moment” as we like to say, yet today we can look at what remains from their existence and learn about their world.

I wonder what kind of footprint I am leaving. Years down the road, will anyone be able to look back at my life and see that God was at work in me? Am I leaving any evidence that God is real and that He makes a difference in my life? Is my normal, everyday existence so impacted by my relationship with God that people will be able to look back at my life and trace His hand? Will they see the greatness of God in the fossils of my existence?

That is the kind of influence God wants to have in our lives. He wants to influence us so profoundly that the overflow of His influence causes our lives to make a difference in the lives of people around us. I think that is precisely what Jesus was getting at in Matthew 5:13-16 when he used two analogies to describe the effect we should have on our culture: salt of the earth and light of the world. Salt and light both penetrate and infiltrate an existing condition, only working when unleashed on the environment around them.

The secret to having that kind of impact on my culture is to let God have that kind of impact in me. If I let God create, mold, shape, and polish every facet of my life, I will become the kind of man that leaves a footprint that impacts my world both now and in posterity. For the rest of my life, with God’s help, I want to make tracks!