Where Is Your Happy Place?

Many thanks to my high school classmate, Michelle, for giving me the inspiration to write today.  Michelle lives in New Hampshire and often posts photos of the many outdoor activities she enjoys with her family.  Recently she posted one of her family and admitted it was taken when they were somewhat lost, having taken a wrong turn down the river, and ending up in a bog.  What is so striking in this photo is the contentment and the smile on one of her kids while sitting in the middle of a bog not really knowing where they were.  THAT'S a happy place.  

She described it as being one of her happy places and asked her friends to share their happy place.  Where IS your happy place and who is there with you?  What is around, the sounds, the sights, and smells?  How often can you go there?

I look forward to reading the responses from people and hope there are many shared.  It got me to thinking about my happy place and, although I came up with an immediate response which I will share later in this blog, I have been thinking about my happy place – or rather, happy placES.  As my mind began to wander through the years of my life I came up with many places that bring a smile to my spirit.  Some of those places were more about the experience and the people than the actual place. 

Where is my happy place? Mine is anywhere that conjures up thoughts and memories of my mom.  I know in those times that she is still with me and that God is the bridge between her and I, with his hand in mine and the other in hers.  I love you and miss you Mom.

I pray you have many happy places in this life.  Although dark times are all a part of our human experience, those happy places in our lives are a tremendous gift from our Creator.  Know that, not only in the dark times but also the good ones, God has you securely in His hand.

Where is your happy place?  What goes on there and who is with you?  Share them with me, won’t you?

The Perfecting of Our Faith

The past two weeks have been rather dark in my life.  For a myriad of reasons, the evil one has seen fit that clouds of sadness have lingered over my spiritual house.  It has been a trying time indeed.  I am not fully out of the darkness but today I rejoice because I feel a slight bit of warmth from the light of hope.

I found myself returning to one of my favorite Scriptures.  It can be found in the letter to the Philippians, first chapter, and verse six.  This letter is a thank you note from Paul for a gift they had sent him while Paul was imprisoned in Rome.  Paul’s purpose is not only to teach theology but to call the church in to unity on the basis of the servant-mentality and humility of Christ. 

“I am confident of this; that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it in and carry it on to full completion until the day of Christ’s return”

In this verse, Paul recognizes the work God has done in the hearts of the Philippians and also the continued work of grace that God will do through-out their life and up to the moment of Christ’s victorious return to earth.

There is a wonderful promise in this verse.  First, God started the work within our hearts and second, He WILL be faithful to complete it.  In other words, God is preparing our hearts and souls for the exact moment of the return of His Son.  God is faithful to us – yes – even when OUR faithfulness wanes.  The work is God’s.  He began it the moment we accepted the consecration of our hearts in to the servant ministry of Christ.  What exactly is this work though?

This work is the perfecting of our fellowship with one another in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

But I believe there to be one more important lesson to learn here.  You see, God didn't start a work in us to bring us to the moment of our own death.  He isn't working on us to bring us to the final seconds of this life so that we are ready to enter the life eternal.  No – that works is OURS to do.  But God is working WITH us to prepare us for the return of Christ.  Not the ‘end of all things’ but for the beginning of all things.

God begins many things in us throughout our life.  He plants seeds of hope and of dreams and ambitions.  And He continues to work those out in us as part of the process of a life designed for the Kingdom of God.  Not the kingdom of man.  Our knowledge that God is continually working in us, through us, and around us AND, many times, in spite of us, should serve us well in lifting us out of those dark times in our lives when we cannot see the direction we are going. 

The past two weeks I have not been able to see any further than the moment in which I was living.  This did not bring me joy because I had no light to see.  The moment is great WHEN you can see it.  But when you are suddenly thrust in to darkness it can be very disturbing.  You know that feeling when you go outside in the bright summer light and then walk back inside your home?  You can’t see anything, really.  You stretch your eyes wide open as if that’s going to increase your ability to see but your eyes are still adjusting from the massive amount of intense light that was just thrown at them.  You can’t see – so you wait for the darkness to subside and you are able to see well. 

Today God began to lift that darkness and my eyes are just now adjusting properly to the light.  He gave me hopes, He gave me ambitions, He gave me dreams to dream AND to build – and He has been faithful in carrying out His work.  Shall I be passive in my work or shall I also participate in the work that will bring me to the moment of Christ’s amazing return?  I rejoice because by God’s Grace, and only by His Grace, I am able to see through the darkness of the evil one, and once again take another step in my journey that God has prepared for me.

May God’s Grace grant you safe passage through every darkness that will come in to your life.  May you hold fast to the promise that the One who began an amazing work in you, will continue working it out until the moment of Christ’s return.  Work not for your own death but work for the return of the resurrected Christ.

Sow It - Reap It

I am a true believer in the Scripture that says you reap what you sow.  Those two words, reap and sow, are not commonplace in today’s vernacular. There are far fewer people today who grew up in a farming community who immediately place a clear, concise mental image in their head when they hear or read those words.  Reaping is the act of gathering, or cutting down and then gathering, of the harvest.  Sowing is the act of throwing down the seed, or in modern times, having a machine seed the soil for you.  If you plant corn, you will get corn.  If you plant asparagus, you will get asparagus. You will harvest the product contained in the seeds you tossed out earlier. 

The author of Galatians noted this act in Chapter 6, verse 7 when he immediately saw the parallel between these two acts of farming and the walk of common man. 

"Don't be misled; remember that you can't ignore God and get away with it: a man will always reap just the kind of crop he sows!"

If you want to judge a man, an American humorist once said, you should not look at him in the face but get behind him and see what he is looking at, what he is sowing.  Then you will see the true nature and life-purpose of this man.

Remember that if you plant garbage seeds, you will get garbage.  If you sow deceit, anger, jealousy, rage – that is what you will gather at harvest time.  Remember also, as the humorist said, that some people may be really good at throwing down the seed they want everyone to see, but their eyes and hearts are elsewhere.  So step behind someone and take a look at what they are looking at. What drives them?  What motivates them to act day to day?  Are they focused more upon themselves than on others? 

I heard this advice once and now give it to husbands and wives to be.  Ladies – watch how his father treats his wife.  That is your future.  Men – watch how her mother treats her husband. That is your future. 

Get behind once in a while; watch, learn and discover 1) the type of seed being tossed, 2) where it is planted (is it purposeful or thrown in a half-hazard manner) and 3) watch where their eyes are watching while they are sowing.   

Mirror Mirror

I have been receiving blessings by reading a book entitled 'Buddhist Boot Camp', by Timber Hawkeye.  He has some amazing insights on improving self-confidence, overcoming fears, and positive reinforcement.  I enjoy reading the wisdom writings on this author.  A quote from this author:

"A flower doesn't stop being beautiful just because somebody walks by without noticing it, nor does it cease to be fragrant..."

I love that image.  We are beautiful in God's eyes.  We are beautiful in the eyes of others as well.  I Peter 3:34 says, 

"Your beauty...should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight".

The next time you are concerned with how others may or may not perceive you - remember that God sees you.  You are not invisible to your Creator and that is your foundation for living a life free from the burden of worrying about your image and of what others think or feel about you.

May the Love of God surround you, His Grace astound you, and may your knowledge of this, ground you in Hope.

Transition

Do you have transition lenses on your glasses?  I had those years ago and I hear they have improved but the one thing that bothered me was they only transitioned where light was hitting them directly.  In the car sometimes only a portion of the lens would transition as the other part was in a shadow and away from direct contact with sun.  I’m not sure why I thought my glasses should simply KNOW that they should shade my entire lens…it was doing what it was ‘programmed’ to do.  It darkened when light hit it.  The glasses actually receive their ‘photochromic’ properties through the embedding of micro crystalline silver halides, typically silver chloride, in a glass substrate.  But silly me wanted the glasses to actually be smart and tell when I’m outside and thereby shade the ENTIRE lens – instantly, so I didn’t have to hold my glasses out the car window in to the direct sunlight until they changed uniformly.

Transitioning to a New Year is also awkward and seldom uniform in nature.  Only when the realization hits us that the transition has to be gradual, not sudden, can we possibly begin to understand what it means to transition to a New Year.  Hence the reasons many of those New Year’s Resolutions fail so miserably.  We somehow expected that the morning of January 1, or January 2, would somehow grant us a renewed interest in living and would empower us to change.

I remember counseling a young couple before they were to be married and they left me with the impression that something magical would happen as they walk back down the aisle after being proclaimed Mr and Mrs.  They were both disillusioned with this notion that everything will come together.  In fact, they refused to talk about certain topics because it would be “fine” once they were married.  Ah young love – ‘tis oh so blind, is it not?!

As we begin our transition to writing 2013 instead of 2012, may we also focus on HOW our own transition is going to look and feel.  Accepting today that it will not be a ‘hit you over the head’ transition will make it easier to enter in to.  There  won’t be this sudden “Trumpet Voluntary in G” moment and a ceremonial walking down of some aisle lined with loved ones and flowers that will change us forever.  Oh don’t get me wrong – I’m acutely aware that there ARE sudden moments when our lives are instantly transformed but even those moments put us in the position of having to transition to a new normal.  By entering in to the PROCESS of change, the PROCESS of transition, we can more easily see all the ways in which our actions, thoughts, minds and our spirits transform, over time, in to that which we dream.

According to Miriam-Webster Dictionary, the word ‘life’ is either a noun or an adjective.  But can we consider, for our own intrinsic interests, that ‘life’ is a verb?  It is action.  It is a ‘doing’ and not a ‘being’.  As we enter in to 2013, let us focus on our life in action – our life as something that evolves and is continually moving forward, collecting information and experiences, and processing them, thereby increasing the gift that is the “I” in all of us. It’s not going to happen overnight – this change for the better of which you seek.  Oh there will be bomb shell moments that force us over the cliff of change – usually of loss; but as I mentioned, those are the moments when we are still forced to learn how to transition.

A young man I know has just recently learned what it means to transition.  He understands, perhaps for the first time in his life, that the change he seeks is a process – it is a verb.  It is action and it does not, it will not, happen overnight.  There won’t be some magical  “you've-just-won-a-new-car” moment that will finally transport us to that perfection we seek.  It’s the “you've-won-a-new-car-and-now-you–have-to–pay-for-the taxes-license-plates-registration-and-then-learn-how-to-drive-it-and-maybe-in-six-months-you-may-figure-it-all-out-but-you'll-have-repairs-along-the-way”  moment.

As you transition in to 2013, remember that your life is a verb.  An action word. 

Bumper Sticker Moment

I love the Book of Proverbs.  This is the bumper-sticker section of the Bible.  When I regularly preached I developed a quarterly ‘bumper sticker Sunday’ whereby I would choose a Proverb speak extemporaneously on that verse.  Typically I would select the verse about thirty minutes before the service and without much preparation and no notes; I would deliver the morning message on that verse. Surprisingly, they were often the best received messages!

The Book of Proverbs (in Hebrew: מִשְלֵי Mish'ley)  derives its name from the 4^th Century Latin translation of Scripture, the Vulgate, as Proverbia.  They are generally considered the writings of Solomon, who was consider to be a wise man (remember the words of If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof?  “…they would ask me to advise them, like Solomon the Wise’).  There is also reference to Agur and Lemuel but it is generally accepted that those are other names for Solomon.  The book is included in what many scholars refer to as Wisdom Literature which includes Psalms, Job, and the Song of Solomon.

I find myself visiting www.biblos.com often as it has a large variety of translations and study guides.  Especially helpful to those of us who like to pick apart scripture down to each word, the translation history, and origin of the words (I’ve always wanted to go back to school and study Etymology in-depth!  I suppose a true sign of a word-geek!).

Gill’s Exposition on the Entire Bible shares Proverbs 15:22 as such:  

Without counsel purposes are disappointed,.... If a man determines and resolves upon a matter, and at once hastily and precipitately goes about it, without mature deliberation, without consulting with himself, and taking the advice of others in forming a scheme to bring about his designs, it generally comes to nothing.

In other words:  it is the wise man who seeks many counsels before acting.

I strongly believe in asking for counsel from people I trust when I have a decision to make.  I make many decisions on my own but when there is one that is particularly tough, or the consequences could be grand, I prefer to ask around and see what others have to say about it. The answers are as varied as the human race.  Some of it I discard but I do chew on all of it, taking in to account my own personal believes and values. 

My mother was a wise counselor.  That’s not to say she was never wrong.  None of us are right all the time but what was helpful was the way we talked about things.  We would both approach a situation from our already pre-conceived set of assumptions and then share them with each other.  We would try to see it from other perspectives and work it out to try and come to a conclusion that we agreed upon.  However, we recognized that the goal of seeking the opinions of others was not to persuade us or to make up our minds.  It was the process and time spent on mentally chewing upon each different thought and perspective that gave us the satisfaction.  Many times it can actually make the decision process harder but in the end I am always thankful that I had the counsel.  Sometimes I would go back to the counselors and let them know they were right and I chose wrong.  I would always share my final decision and the outcome so we could all add that experience to our collective mind and thereby call upon the experience should we encounter similar situations in the future.In that process of seeking counsel and coming to a decision, we encounter disappointment. 

G. Hutchinson Smyth reminds us that “there is one thing that can make all disappointments into blessings.  It is said that Croesus had some magic power about him by which he turned everything he touched to gold.  There is more than a magic power which the believer wields over the trying dispensations of life; there is a Divine power.  All things – disappointments included – work together for good to them that love God.” 

I Dare You To Step Out of Your Box

A story my high school English teacher, Mr Fleming, taught goes something like this:

I was walking through the forest and came upon the nest of a bird.  As I gazed in to the nest I noticed the eggs were blue. I have, therefore, concluded that all bird eggs are blue.  As I continued my journey down the pathway I noticed that some leaves were falling from a tree in to what appeared as a lake of bright orange and red gathering at the base of the large trunk. I have concluded, therefore, that all leaves fall straight down and gather at the trunk of the tree and can be recognized by their color of orange and red.  As I came to the edge of the woods I noticed a small house with white smoke drifting slowly from its chimney. I have concluded that all smoke from the stove in a house, will rise as slow, white smoke from the chimney.  The lady of the home invited me in to warm myself by the fire and as I got closer to the fire I could smell the heavy scent of pine coming from the flames.  I have concluded, therefore, that all fire has the strong scent of pine.  As she wrapped her tiny fingers around her cup of tea, the lady told me of her heritage as a Jewish woman from a small village in a far off land.  It is safe to conclude that I will always be able to recognize a person of Jewish perspective because they will have small fingers and will surely speak of this village.  When I left the company of this lady I was confronted by an angry bear standing on its back legs and before I could react, the bear had attacked and killed me. I have concluded that anyone who walks in the woods will die from a bear attack and that all bears are angry and will kill humans on site.  As I sit here in the afterlife I wish to convey the following to mankind:

• Any bird egg that is not blue surely is bad and must be destroyed.  Likewise, if you see a bird laying an egg that is not blue; it is also unnatural and must be destroyed.  Any person eating an egg that is not blue is also unworthy and unnatural and must be cast aside.
• If any leaf be found that is not orange and red in color, it must be destroyed for it has wandered from the path that nature intended.  Likewise, the tree that pushed it away from its trunk and caused it to wander so far away must be found and destroyed before other trees learn of this behavior and follow in its ways.  Surely mankind will not withstand the mutiny of so many based on the actions of a few.
• If any fire in the home produces anything other than a slow-drifting white smoke from its chimney, it must be immediately put out. Any food that was cooked must be destroyed and not eaten for it has been distorted by the radical smoke.  We must teach our children how to make fires that only produce this type of smoke and if they do not follow our ways it is important to not allow them access to fire for it will surely pollute the skies and the earth and all its inhabitants.
• If any fire lacks the scent of fresh pine it, too, must be put out.  For the fresh scent of pine is the only indicator that a flame is fresh, pure, and is truly of the makers’ design.  Anyone building a fire that does not send out the divine fresh scent of pine must be cast out among you, singled-out, and not be allowed to partake in the daily functions of humanity.  For surely they will teach our children, they will breed other sour fire starters, and thus pollute all that is good.
• In order for Jewish perspective to continue its purity of ancestry any person claiming to be Jewish but having long, thin fingers, is surely deceiving people and must be brought to trial and punished for providing false witness to the perspective.
• Finally, if mankind is to conquer the wood as well as he has conquered the prairie land and the sea he must make it his purpose in life to destroy all the bears lest the bears destroy him first.

As a pastor it is assumed that, when invited for dinner, I will be the one who says grace.  As a singer it is assumed that I will start the singing of Happy Birthday to anyone who may be celebrating the day of his or her birth, regardless of my personal relationship with that individual.  As a Christian it is assumed I will vote one particular way because I have weighed the candidates against my own perspective and one of them surely plays far different than my Christian perspective instructs. 

The narrowness of the minds of man will surely lead us to our doom.  How can we make educated decisions when we refuse to understand all points of few?  How can we say we hate our neighbor when we have much in common with our neighbor?  How can we say that all Muslims are taught to kill people of other perspectives when the very tenet of that perspective teaches the opposite?  Why must we be so strayed and so jaded by the acts of the few loud squeaky wheels instead of the truth?  Likewise, how can other countries believe that all Americans are inherently evil because of the works and thoughts of a few loud squeaky wheels?  How do you feel when a noisy crowd of a few burn the American flag and would kill you in a heartbeat because you are American when you actually had no part in one made them angry to begin with?  Do you think that the millions of faithful Muslim believers feel the exact same way a few angry, misguided Muslims do?  Do you believe the exact same thing the midnight television preacher does because he does it in the name of Christianity? 

The loud, squeaky wheel gets the grease and all the attention and will actually get farther in its work because we allow it.  It will grab our attention because we are so narrow in our vision that we fail to see the other wheels working together in perfect harmony.  Our vision is narrow and we see only what is in front of us at that particular moment and then we call that truth.

Jesus Christ came not to put blinders over our eyes but to remove them so we may see all that is God’s Creation and that we may have life in full abundance.  Regardless of whom you believe Christ was whether from the perspective of the Jewish, Muslim, or Christian perspective – all perspectives teach that as one of the many aspects of Christ’s work on this earth. 

Friends, I challenge you – no, I DARE you, to stop limiting your opinions and thoughts of your fellow humans based solely on your limited experience with such a small number of them lest you become as foolish as the man in the story. 

Grace and Peace of God our Father to each of you.