Coming Home To My Wife And My Mistress

Here’s a partial list of things that sucked today: my lack of sleep, my crummy mood, the rude customer, and the SUV with the driver who used it as an urban assault vehicle to force himself into my lane, the drivers that think riding on my tail will get them home faster, and the tomato soup I nearly burned while typing. Days like this infuse the words ‘coming home’ with meaning.

I have the joy of coming home to a loving wife that I laugh with. Some days I come home to a daughter that makes me proud, makes me smile and punches me in the shoulders. Days like today I walk in and crank the stereo—loud. If I’m not listening to Pandora then I’ve got my Third Day, Jars of Clay and Pink Martinis. Once I’ve turned the music up loud and changed into jeans and tee-shirt I set myself down in my beat up blue office chair.

Once I sit down in the big-blue-beat-up-chair it can only mean one thing. I am turning on the computer. In my house she’s nicknamed ‘The Mistress.’ I don’t know why she’s called that. I gave my wife a kiss when I walked in the door, right? I have to know what’s happening in the world. Hey these blog posts don’t magically appear from thin air, okay?

On these days I am thankful for the home I have. It’ll take me a couple hours but the crummy mood will disappear, the rude guy will be forgotten, desired vengeance on my fellow drivers will (almost) abate and sleep will come. It is good to be home.

Accountability

Nobody gets excited about openly sharing their failures. I for one like my world to, at least, appear to be neat, orderly and running well. I rebel against sharing my failures and mistakes. As an example it is great to have a personal trainer to improve on habits you are working on. The Trainer may have a different reaction if you purposely slacked off the training while at the same time engaging in self-destructive behaviours. Accountability should holistically react well to both instances both correcting and encouraging as you walk with another.

Being accountable is being willing to risk self. ‘Iron sharpens iron’ so being accountable to another person means both people encourage in areas they are sharp and sharpen areas of dullness. Spiritual accountability holds iron to the fire. If we are serious we will bare and share areas we have rebelled or are struggling. Our brokenness before each other encourages simply because “no sin has overtaken us but such as are common to man.”

In this life we wrestle with flesh and blood. To stay on the straight and narrow is difficult more so because our old flesh is bent toward all kinds of depravity. We are not to fight alone. One reason we are a body in Christ is that we may encourage one another as the day draws near. True accountability in loving fellowship equips us for the fight so that we can press on and celebrate that great day when we arrive.

On Finishing Well

Early in his cycling career my friend Dee would go full speed out of the gates then crash and burn at the end of each long ride. Most of us look great coming out of the gate. Like Dee we look strong, fast and invincible. It’s not how we do in the first stretch that matters. What matters is how we finish.


I haven’t listened to my Jennifer Knapp CD for some time. It’s not that I don’t still enjoy her music. It’s difficult to listen to her lyrics knowing that she professes Christianity while at the same professing to be in a lesbian relationship. Though her previous music has great guitar riffs and god focused lyrics it is obvious that she currently puts little stock in a Bible centered lifestyle. Like my friend Dee she looked strong at the outset but may not finish well.

Looking at my life as a snapshot there would be many pictures where I would appear to be a pagan because my outward fruit did not match up with my heart. As Paul said in Romans 7, “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body…” The measure of my life and each of our lives will not be how we performed at the start or middle of the race. The final determination will be based on our finishing well.

It Feels Like Helms Deep

It feels like Helms Deep. We look for good but see only Nazgul. In a different image I see a movie scene; dark black roiling clouds moving swiftly toward the city. They cast a shadow on the ground as they grow bigger and move to cover everything. If you understand purity and good, if you eschew evil then you sense it too. I think about the coming election and the current state of the Union. No matter the winner we are a country divided. As a nation we turn to relativism and we worship gods we have created in our image. My heart breaks.

This week the high school my daughter attends had a motivational speaker at the required assembly. At the end of his presentation he said, “To me Jesus isn’t a cussword He’s my Saviour.” A number of people got up in arms and today there were news crews at the school. I received a note from a friend telling me to show up at noon. I can’t comprehend the purpose.

I wonder if we will serve them water. Seriously it seems a better thing to show up and serve the news crews and anti-Christian protesters water and punch than to protest and stand up for our side. What does that gain us? A church pastor in Charlotte, North Carolina invited LGBT protesters into his house for dinner and discussion.

On Sunday morning, Aug. 26th, about 10 protesters showed up (we were disappointed there were so few) and some of our FIRE leaders met with them, offering them water and snacks, sharing God’s love and truth with them, and then inviting them to join us in the service. After a few minutes they left, explaining that we were too nice and loving to deserve a protest! Bear in mind that these protesters know the stands we have taken for biblical values and some of them have listened to my radio broadcasts or read my writings, so they recognize how strongly we differ with them on many key issues. Yet they also recognized our genuine love for them and saw that we were not full of hate. The love of Jesus, flowing out of Spirit-filled, godly hearts, makes an impact that cannot be denied.

The darkness encroaches. As it did for believers suffering under Nero and the Diaspora so the call is the same for us. Let us ‘prove to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.’

Lost Enough

I can't see how You're leading me
unless
You've led me here
Where I'm lost enough to let myself be led
And so You've been here all along I guess
It's just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get---Rich Mullens, Hard To Get

The great thing about trials is that they remind me I’m not in charge. When life is going well (some of us are still waiting) I’m feeling like I’ve got it all wired the right way. Then I’ll break my glasses or dent my car and realize I don’t have the universe under control. It may be a speed bump or it may be a major collision but those trials turn my focus from self to God.

God works that way. He brings tests into our life that we may lean on Him. Cruise control doesn’t work so well on wet windy roads. God seems hidden which causes his children to seek with greater intensity.

That must be, in part, why we are to rejoice in our trials. Its in that darkness that we recognize our need for guidance. Lost enough we let ourselves be led.

Botulism, Canned Food and Hoarding

The good news is that she wasn’t a hoarder. The bad news was that when mom died some years ago we still had to sort through the house. This meant boxes with important papers were in the same box with L.L.Bean Christmas catalogs and voter information pamphlets. The freezer was full as was the pantry.

My friend Glenn recently had a similar experience with his mom’s pantry which he cleaned out while she was recuperating in the hospital. As he describes it,

“I threw out half of the canned food in her pantry (an entire garbage can full of canned food) because what hadn’t already exploded (can you say “botulism,” kids? I know, it’s a fun word, isn’t it?!) (had) glued itself to the shelves (which I had to remove—the shelves, that is, because the cans wouldn’t come off by hand—those I had to scrape off with a putty knife)…”

I don’t know if it’s just my parents generation or families of eastern European decent who are born pre-depression that keep so much. My father had a garage full of plumbing supplies, tools, sprinklers (you never know when you will need a pop-up 180 degree brass sprinkler head) paints, waxes and chemical lubes for every purpose. I am certain that it is all worth some money save the chemicals. Those should be taken out by a Haz-Mat team and moved to a landfill on another planet.

At times I worry that I will get Alzheimer’s like my father. Truth is I show more tendencies to storing things that ‘will be worth something some day.’ Fortunately I am not a hoarder. The other good news is that I have a small house with little room for storage. That is unfortunate because I have this nice collection of pill bottles…

Photo courtesy of Flickr commons   By LlGC ~ NLW

Investing Your Talents

I heard a teacher say that you should use your art like the talents in Matthew chapter 25 (The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’) Write or teach or draw,  whether you teach or write or draw for one person or a hundred. The thing is being faithful with your gift.


God surprises us in His faithful use of our gifts. We don’t know how more talents will be gained but God gives interest on our investment. He is glorified by our use of the talents He gives us. The joy is in seeing the unique by product our investment brings.

Tonight while leading the discussion at Bible study God allowed me to use my time in Leviticus to illustrate His holiness. A couple of guys saw God’s holiness clearer as I shared God’s heart in Leviticus. Our responsibility is to apply diligence in sharing our gift. God will supply the increase.

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”

The Poison Of Legalism

I was shocked that someone that used to think so much the same now thought so differently. During my college years I had a close knit group that did life and bible studies together. Two of my friends, we’ll call them Dave and Daisy, ended up getting married. They were a happy upbeat couple. They enjoyed studying the Bible, asking deep questions and wrestling with the text. We drifted apart for a while and some years later life brought us into collision again.

Dave and I sat down to catch up on life then things got weird. Dave talked about the King James Bible being the only version one can use in teaching. Daisy shared that as a woman she wore only dresses. When discussing music Dave advised me that Rich Mullins wasn’t a Christian because he had, “Catholic leanings.” Somehow these intelligent people had lost sight of the simplicity of the Gospel. To quote Paul, “…just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, (their) minds were somehow led astray from sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

The saddest aspect of Dave and Daisy being led away from the simplicity of the Gospel was they’d lost their joy. Daisy especially was once an energetic, happy, joy-filled woman. She’d lost her freedom and was living trapped in a box. Living in that box robbed her of zeal and joy. Beyond that both Dave and Daisy seemed more nit-picky and angry then loving and Christ adoring. In pursuing legalism they’d lost their hearts.

The danger of an unbalanced view of the Bible is a turning away from a loving Christ-centered gospel to the traditions of men and principles of the world. In relationship to Christ there is freedom and simplicity. There is escape from guilt and guarantee that there will be no condemnation. Life in this world weighs us down enough. Our relationship with Christ shouldn’t be the same, “…For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Time Tunnel Travel

“Two American scientists are lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages, during the first experiments on America's greatest and most secret project, the Time Tunnel. Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly toward a new fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time."   So began the Time Tunnel series in 1966. According to Wikipedia, the Time Tunnel itself is like a long corridor that stretches through the time continuum with portals that allow access to any moment in history past, present, or future. When I read the Bible I feel connected to those that have gone before me. I feel I am standing on the shoulders of patriarchs and saints of yesteryear.

Though I haven’t found any secret portals the Bible writers allude to the fact that we are connected to those that have gone before us. Ephesians tells us we are fellow citizens with the saints, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The writer of Hebrews cheers us on in noting that we have a “great cloud of witnesses surrounding us,” by which the writer refers to the ancient ones that gained approval through their faith.

In my head I know that the Bible is just ink and paper. Since getting my first one as a teenager though I see myself as a runner in a relay. The baton handed down to me on ink and paper as I am to hand the message off to the next generation. Perhaps it’s my Jewish roots or my love of history that has me thinking this way.

“By luck (or lack thereof) the travelers, Doug and Tony, frequently found themselves thrown onto the precipice of major historical events: They would try to warn people about the event or try to prevent it from happening…while the Time Tunnel crew, who once gaining a "fix" can view through the Tunnel the action taking place in the different time, would try to rescue the travelers before the historical calamity befell them too.”  We too find ourselves on the precipice of major events.  As it was for Tony Newman and Doug Phillips a portal is open for us through which enlightened voices speak to us words of direction and wisdom.  May we be that voice in our own time.

Shoot Only The Good Stuff

When you take pictures on vacation you shoot only the good stuff. You don’t generally photograph the dirt in the hotel room or get a picture of the guy at check-in goofing off when he should be serving you. For documentation purposes photos of these things make sense but it’s the good stuff you want to remember so that’s what you shoot. Today had its high and low marks but I’m focusing on the interesting stuff.

Joan the homeless lady was one of my first customers this morning. Joan stands near five feet tall and like many homeless is thin as a rail. She is usually dressed nicely and seems all there. Her hands cupped together she came up to the register pinching a plastic container in the pinkies of her hands so as not to separate them.  She asks if I have a way to punch holes into the top of the container. “This little guy ran into a window,” she says. She opens her hands a bit to show a baby bird which immediately sees light and boogies for the window. Joan managed to retrieve the bird and brought it outside. She later informed me that it flew well but didn’t know how to brake and land.

Speaking of not landing well…An elderly lady approached the register. We spent a minute, as we always do with the unitiated, discussing types of coffee drinks. She ordered from me (a white guy) and turned toward Luis (who is brown in color) and began speaking to him in Spanish. Funny thing is Luis speaks no Spanish.

Speaking of horses of a different color…It was motorcycle weekend in Palm Springs. Anecdotal reports indicate there were 15,000 riders downtown. Though most wore leathers customers report that women were riding bare-back. That happened in the afternoon. I hate to think what the town will be like after sunset.

Speaking of ‘partying’ there was the customer that was in a hurry to get back to the motel with his purchase of Advil and Iced Vanilla Latte with Soy. Makes sense going with soy, because after all you’d hate to put anything unhealthy into your body, right?

Saturdays in tourist season make for interesting photos. Granted I had interactions that were like the hair behind the hotel room bathroom door or the lipstick stain on the coffee cup. The beauty of shooting digital is we can delete what we don’t want. Then we can focus on the good stuff.