Let's Pay Attention

Thursday, June 30 2011

A mosquito is flying about my computer screen. Right this moment it is sitting on the word “mosquito” in my first sentence. Too bad it can’t read. I think it would be amused if it could. Its head is so tiny yet it obviously contains a brain. When I put my finger close to it, it fleas. (Very poor pun intended. I was better at puns when I was in the third grade.) It most likely thinks it is about to find a warm juicy meal. The truth is I am about to smack it and crush its life. But wait, do I have that right? Is that mosquito part of the circle of life and part of the food chain? While I don’t think I need it by my computer should I not try to catch it and release it outside? However, as I look at it I remember suffering from a horrible case of malaria caused by one of its African cousins. Should I after so many years get revenge on its family? But isn’t that same stupid kind of thinking the cause of so many human conflicts? A hundred years ago your grandfather killed my second cousin so now I have to even the score. However, we never really want to even the score. We want to return the deed with interest. The higher the interest rate the better.

If all Jesus was to this world was to be a philosopher, (He was so much more.) and the world realized the value of “turn the other cheek” and “forgive us as we forgive,” our history books would not be filled with tales from umpteen wars. Jesus was the prince of peace. We just don’t pay attention.

Hubbub

Wednesday, June 29 2011

So I ask you. How can a man concentrate on his classroom lecture when a pretty lady comes by the door tossing in kisses? This is not the first time this has happened. We teach in the same department and her office is next to mine but she waits until I am really holding forth with some important topic and then she strikes. I have to tell you even though we are coming up on our 50th anniversary, it is still very distracting.

Life is full of distractions. When I am in the midst of a task needing concentration a student will stick his head in the door to ask a “quickquestion.” I hear this so often it really needs to be one word instead of two. Though it might only take thirty seconds to respond it takes much longer to mentally return to the task at hand. Our cell phones, iPads and pop ups on computer screens all distract us.

We make a conscious effort to grow spiritually only to be distracted by our children’s needs. There is soccer practice, or whatever, where they need to be delivered. As if there is something innately wrong with quiet, our environment so often is filled with background music; usually music we don’t especially like. The pressures of modern life are one of the biggest distractive foes to personal growth. One of Satan’s most effective tools is hubbub. When we are making really good spiritual progress a committee of Satan’s angels meets to discuss our case. First of their suggestions as to how to thwart us comes, “Just, fill his/her life with lots of responsibilities. They can be good things. It doesn’t matter. Just make it a good distraction.”

No Man Can Take Two Classes

Tuesday, June 28 2011

I continue to be amazed by students. Just when I think I have seen it all, something new occurs. We started our summer graduate program this morning for teachers working on their masters’ degrees. One young lady tried to register for two classes that were running simultaneously. Her rationale was that since the courses were in classrooms across the hall from each other she could during the day keep moving back and forth from lecture to lecture. After all she was a smart lady. This is somewhat like chess masters who play several opponents at the same time. I will not mention the personal slight to the professors. It is like a student, who had been absent, coming and saying, “Did I miss anything.” I always want to respond with, “No, we napped while you were gone.”

She reminded me of Christians who think they are smart enough to follow Christ and yet take mini-vacations into places they know they should not be. They can go to church on the weekends and still spend time in relationships that should not be. Jesus said it so well in the Sermon on the Mount. “No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

While it is true that salvation is a gift, it is also true that one really can’t keep giving it back on Monday only to take it again on Friday evening. It isn’t that God isn’t patient with us. It is all about our ability or should I say lack of ability to tap into heaven’s resources with such a divided mind.

$80.00

Monday, June 27 2011

While getting back into the driver’s seat I was muttering about paying $80.00 for the gas I just put in my very thirsty car. I don’t know if my wife was trying to make me feel better or worse as she reminded me of an afternoon almost fifty years ago when our ‘57 Ford was very empty. The needle was riding on the “E” and we were still a few miles from home. We had to do something.   I had two dimes in my pocket and we found a nickel in the ashtray. Pulling into a gas station we put twenty-five cents worth, a gallon, into the tank.   We told the attendant (no self-service then) to be very careful because if he put in twenty-six cents we didn’t have the extra penny. (No credit cards then.)

So when did I pay the most? On one occasion I had something left and on the other I had not a cent left. Or does it really matter?   The real richness of life was the person in the car with me on both occasions. True wealth isn’t about dimes and dollars.   It is the people we love and the people who love us. True wealth is a lifetime of good memories and shared experiences. True wealth is being cared about and having someone to cherish.

When Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always”, He made us the richest people in history.   In John 14 He promised to send us the Comforter.   His Spirit, upon our request, will actually dwell within us. “I in Christ and Christ in me” is an amazing concept. If we can but grasp the immensity of this reality we will tap into the resources of heaven itself. See II Peter 1.

To Be Touched

Friday, June 24 2011

One of my favorite things about Jesus was the way He touched people prior to healing them. In Mark 1 He touched a leper and then said, “I will. Be clean.” If it had been me it would have been the other way around. We are very tactile beings and apparently we are not the only creatures God made to be such. In a recent study at the University of California rats were induced to have a stroke. The researchers then tickled the rats’ whiskers and discovered something wonderfully amazing. Neurons that should have died did not. There was no paralysis where there should have been. There still needs to be much follow-up research; however, the implications are extremely hopeful. While it is true, we are not rats and do not respond to things the way they respond, researchers often find correlations. The message is we might have an opportunity to benefit stroke victims by stroking them until we can get them emergency aid.

In Mark 8 Jesus touched the eyes of a blind man. In Matthew 8 He touched Peter’s mother-in-law on her hand and immediately her fever vanished. In Matthew 9 He took a little girl, thought to be dead, by the hand and she got up. Continuing on in the same chapter two blind men were given sight after He touched their eyes. In Revelation 7 John speaks of the redeemed as being a huge uncountable multitude. That is so wonderful. The exclusionists among us are so very wrong. It isn’t going to be just their special little group. It is HUGE and Jesus will touch each person one by one. It will take a while. Perhaps a century or so but I can wait.

Brain Backup

Thursday, June 23 2011

A few years ago one of our church members lost his memory after a horrific motorcycle accident. We were very hopeful it would return even if it was in small bits and pieces. It did not. I could not understand how he remembered language. He could still read and do math but did not know any of his family let alone those of us outside his immediate circle. The selectiveness of what he knew puzzled me.

I remembered him this week while doing a backup of my computer’s hard drive. Supposedly I will be able to restore my system and files if I have a crash. I found myself wishing we could plug our brains into a little box that would store our personalities and our past for restoration in case of a crash.

Basically that is what God does for us. In I Corinthians 15 Paul speaks of a resurrection and this mortal putting on immortality. I really don’t think we much want our old bodies back. Paul speaks of brand new eternal bodies with all our personalities and memories installed in a never dying brain. That sounds pretty terrific. I recently had an elementary student ask me if his head were traded with the head of the child sitting at the next desk, would he think the other child’s thoughts. I assured him he would still only think his own thoughts. Instead he would have a different body.

Our amazing God, who knows all, knows all our memories and as we age and forget He keeps them safe and secure for us. So the next time you can’t remember a friend’s name, just relax, this too shall pass. Old age and forgetfulness is a temporary condition. How grand!

Our Morning Visitor

Wednesday, June 22 2011

I relearned an old lesson at 6:30 this morning. Our dog woke us with her most ferocious bark. We assumed it was the new ground hog that has moved into the backyard. Much to our surprise we looked out to see our suet feeder being ripped from the tree by our morning guest. Grabbing my camera I made my way down to the back door. At first I took some really bad pictures through the window. The rising sun set up a terrible glare. But I wanted documenting shots. Next I opened the door to get some unobstructed pictures. I took about twenty pictures, some which should have been great, except for my haste. I was just pointing and shooting. In my excitement I failed to pause for that half second required for the camera to focus. I just shot away. The result was about three pictures worth saving. The rest were garbage shots. Haste does make waste.

I really should know better. Quality takes time. Quality takes thought. Quality takes effort. It is not only that way when taking pictures; it is that way with 98% of life. I see it all the time in the classroom. I can tell when a student has hastily banged out a paper as opposed to a paper that actually contained some thought. If we really want to get to know someone we have to take some time to do so. If we want a relationship with God we have to pause to hear His quiet voice and we have to spend time reading His letter to us. It is the way life works.

Our Real Need

Tuesday, June 21 2011

It was a cold Iowa night when I received a phone call from a downtown hotel desk clerk telling me one of my church members was sitting on a ledge outside his tenth floor window. On my way I was trying to remember something, anything, that I had learned in the seminary to help me with this. After all that tedious theology and boring church history I came up with nothing. In a few minutes I was halfway out the window talking. I was doing lots of talking and getting nowhere. Finally in desperation I said, “But, Sid, I love you.” He turned and stared into my eyes and reached out his hand. Inside the warmth of the room he emptied a liquor bottle in the bathroom sink and said, “Thank you. I have not heard those words in years.” And there it was, the hunger of the human heart. The essence of life is learning to love and learning to receive love.

Years later I went back to school wanting to learn more about human nature and need. I wanted to know what to say to the heartbroken, frustrated, fearful people who came seeking guidance. I learned about Freudian, Adlerian and Rogerian psychology. After listening to countless lectures and sitting through endless groups, I never did hear anything more meaningful that what Jesus said to the woman whom the authorities wanted to stone. “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin."

I realize it sounds too simple. Life is complex and the situations into which we find ourselves enmeshed seem so entangling one would think the only answer would be years of therapy. But once we cut through all the garbage and all the trauma and drama the answer is always the same. We need to be loved.

3 AM in Bronxville

Monday, June 20 2011

In a successful way to keep their graduating high school seniors safe after a Saturday evening graduation service, the parents of Bronxville, NY provide an all night party. The highlight of the celebration happens at 3 AM. A bagpiper leads everyone on a parent and police escorted walk through their beautiful residential streets. At 2:30 AM we were awakened and invited to join the procession. My midnight oil, my flashlight, was ready. As we walked along I thought if my batteries had been dead there was no place at that time of morning to purchase fresh ones. I might possibly have missed the fun. (Actually there was a half moon and my light was not needed. But I did think of Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins. See Matthew 25)

When we were awakened at 2:30 with the words, “It’s time to go” I could not but think of God’s church being wakened at the end with the cry, “The bridegroom cometh. It’s time to go.” What a glorious moment that will be. Paul describes it so eloquently in I Thessalonians 4 and I Corinthians 15. One of the fascinating details he includes is the phrase, “in the twinkling of an eye.” Suddenly, in a moment, it happens. It is done. The resurrection of the redeemed occurs and we are united with loved ones never to be parted again. Words cannot be arranged into any sentence that would come close to describing the joy.

I was tempted to say something like, “this is what Christianity is all about.” And I certainly want to say it is a major part of our walk with Jesus. But it is not the entirety of the Gospel. We must never forget the joy of salvation does not begin then, but begins now, the moment we accept His gift.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Friday, June 17 2011

There is an abandoned railroad tunnel not far from our college. One’s eyes adjust to the dimming light as one treks into its heart of darkness but soon even the keenest of eyes find it difficult to make out what might be painted on the old rock walls. Eventually there is not enough light to even see one’s own hand held before one’s face. But then as one nears the opposite end, the light increases, the shadows decrease and how glorious it is to step out into the light.

Tunnels are like human’s experience with God. Adam and Eve started in the light of Eden. God came and walked and talked with them. They knew who He was and what He was like. But after sin they lost that privilege and following generations walked deeper into the darkness of forgetting His loving nature. Men fashioned God into their twisted image and He became, in human minds, a vengeful being filled with human traits. People did terrible things to each other and perceived it to be God’s will. Lucifer lied to people about God, smeared God’s good name. Lucifer did evil things and blamed it on God. For thousands of years the truth about God was lost in the shadows of human sin, greed, selfishness and aggression.

Then something absolutely amazing happened. Angels appeared in the sky outside a small village and sang gloriously about a birth. It was time to tell the truth about God. It was time to flood the world with the light of His true nature and to stop blaming the corruption of the world on Him. Jesus came. He and He alone was and is a photograph of the Father. Emmanuel, God with us. If we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father. Please see Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Goalie We Need

Thursday, June 16 2011

It has been 39 years since the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup. Last night the drought came to an end. It was a phenomenal series for Boston’s goalie. He stopped 37 attempts on goal. Vancouver just couldn’t get that puck past him.

I need a goalie like that. Satan is out there taking his best shots at me and way too often he scores. He dekes me time after time. Every day he scores a hat trick. The problem being that I try to be my own goalie. My personal pride tells me, “Oh yeah, I can do this.” Ah, pride does indeed go before a fall. Just when I think it’s coming straight in he wraps it around into the net from behind. I need help. I should get smart. Even though I have almost logged my three score and ten I am a rookie compared to Satan who has thousands of years of experience deking people.

According to the end of Jude, God is able to keep us from falling. It’s a matter of teamwork. We need to allow God to do for us what He is really good at doing. He is good at fending off temptations. In John 14 Jesus promised that He would send us help. He would not leave us orphaned but would send a Comforter to supply all that we need. Psalm after Psalm promises if we call upon God when things get tough He will be instantly at our side. He is never begrudging about our requests. He loves it when we acknowledge our need. That gives Him permission to come to our aid. Satan can’t get anything past Him.
Yeah, that’s who I need for a goalie!

Use It or Lose It

Wednesday, June 15 2011

I have a friend with a small black convertible. It’s not much use in New England from Thanksgiving through May, so it’s put in storage for the winter. One would think nothing could go wrong with it sitting safely through the snowy months. However, this week it started leaking hydraulic fluid from one of the rear shocks. It appears that one of the seals dried up during the winter because it wasn’t being used. And so goes the old saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Next winter my friend will bounce on the corners of the car every once in a while.

That adage is true for more than machinery. It is also true for our bodies. If we don’t exercise we lose strength, endurance and muscle tone. If we don’t challenge our minds we lose mental agility. If we don’t feed our souls with good nutritious inspiring material we cease being attuned to such and thus miss much. The more we miss the more we spiral down and become like the average Joe Blow, who is so spiritually blind he sees nothing uplifting.

Balanced usage, well thought out, well planned usage builds strength and agility. When we are tuned in we see God’s power everywhere. God actually expects us to do so. In Romans 1:20 says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Please note that last phrase. There is no excuse for not seeing. We are expected to be aware. Seeing should be believing. The more we do it the easier it becomes.

The Street Sweeper

Tuesday, June 14 2011

While sitting on the porch of a home in a small town in the Napa Valley I looked up to see a street sweeping machine work its way along the curb.   “Humm,” I thought, “the street isn’t dirty.” It had been nine months since the leaves had fallen and the locals seem to take pride in their community and pick up any fallen piece of paper.   About thirty minutes later I watched the same machine with the same driver do it again. To my amazement about thirty minutes later he came by for the third time. I thought, “Either this guy has a clean fetish or not enough to do and wants to collect a paycheck for working all day.”

I used to know a guy very much like that street sweeper. He just couldn’t bring himself to believe that Jesus really did forgive his sins.   He would claim the promise in 1 John 1 that tells us, if we confess, God will forgive and cleanse us. He would pray, ask for forgiveness and be fine for a short while. But Satan taunted him into thinking he was being presumptuous to think he could be saved. His sins were so bad he was unforgivable. His very short lived freedom from guilt was soon overwhelmed with the depressive body and soul destruction of guilt. Soon he was praying again for God to forgive him of those very same sins of which he had already been cleansed. The joy of salvation continually eluded him. He kept sweeping the same street over and over and over.

We must not allow our feelings to negate the truth that God means what He says and is a promise keeper.   When He says He forgives He means it. He is faithful and just. Put the street sweeper in the garage.

Terror Alert

Monday, June 13 2011

Our brains are wonderful computers instantly analyzing billions of bits of data as they unfold before us. Our brains constantly work in the background calculating speed, distance and space as we drive. While on my way to our college Thursday morning my brain issued an instant terror alert. As I started up a hill I noted a mail delivery truck coming down the hill. I watched as he pulled halfway off the road to open a mailbox. The terror occurred when I saw a 100,000 pound 18 wheeler coming 50 plus mph down the hill behind the mail truck. There was no possible way he could slow down. Those two trucks and my car were going to get to the same small piece of road at the very same instant. If he was not going to flatten the mail truck he had to come into center of the road. I would have to go for the ditch if I was ever to make another brain calculation. I’m not sure how many heart beats I missed as he chose the middle of the two lane road. I still cannot understand how I still have a driver’s side mirror. It was over in an instant. All I could see were his tail lights receding in that mirror I still had.

These brains we have can do some marvelous things. Each day they quietly make thousands of decisions as to how we are to nourish ourselves, physically, mentally and spiritually. They safely guide us through a maze of activities, many of which have great potential for harm. Not only do they house who we are they hold the potential for who we can be. The real terror alert should be an awareness that we might miss our full potential. And what might that be? To grow into the very likeness of God Himself. See Philippians 2.

Half-truths

Thursday, June 02 2011

I am sitting here looking at a photo of a spokesperson for a hair-care company giving one million dollars worth of PRODUCT to a mission for the homeless in LA. I am trying not to be cynical about the value of this gift as I think of LA’s homeless being the best groomed people in town. Perhaps the mission can sell it on Ebay. Most likely if I knew more details it wouldn’t seem so ludicrous, which is the case with most of the stories we hear. Often we make snap judgments with very little solid information. My email fills each day with critical stories about politicians and the like and you know they are prepared by special interest groups preying on the gullible. Facts are often deliberately distorted and half-truths are told to play on our insecurities and fears.

One of the classes I teach each summer is called Research Methods and one of the very first lessons is to ask who paid for the research. One can find research that will support almost any position. It all depends who put the numbers together and what is their bias. Most of us with grey hair can remember when the tobacco industry filled evening television with actors pretending to be doctors as they told us how soothing, relaxing and stress-reducing cigarettes were. They had all kind of research data to back up their health claims. One thing we do know is often people do not want the truth. What they really want is a research study to support what they already believe.

It is the same way with Bible study. Often instead of looking for truth we instead look for a text to support what we already believe.
__________________

Things We Shouldn't Know

Wednesday, June 01 2011

There are things we see and learn that we really don’t want to know. Many years ago when I was a pastor I pulled up alongside a car being driven by one of my church elders. He was thoroughly enjoying a huge cigar; something on our no-no list. Before he saw me see him I turned my head to the left as if concentrating on oncoming traffic. I didn’t want him to know I saw. (There were times I would not have wanted him to see me.) Recently my wife was reading the local police blotter in the newspaper and spotted the name of one of our students. Ouch. I wish she didn’t read that thing. Now I know something I didn’t want to know and I don’t want him to know I know. Or should I quietly and gently take him aside for a concerned man to man talk? What is my responsibility to the school administration? Do I need to tell them? It could further complicate his life and jeopardize his education. We have often heard that ignorance is bliss. Often times it is. Does knowledge obligate us to respond?

Adam and Eve were carefully and thoroughly instructed regarding the forbidden tree. Lucifer via the serpent told them the truth when he told them if they ate the fruit they would learn things God didn’t want them to know. They ate. They learned all about death, loss, suffering, betrayal, selfishness and jealousy. While it is true that inquiring minds want to know there are many occasions when we should choose not to know. I have on occasion felt sorry for God. He knows all our dirt. How fortunate we are that He is willing and able to forget it should we only ask