Daddy's Just Not Funny Anymore

This morning I was getting ready for work when my thirteen year old daughter walked past me on the way to the laundry room to get some clothes out of the dryer. She had a towel wrapped up on her head in a beehive style trying to get it dry. I made a comment about the towel (which I thought was humorous) and yet she walked right on by never even acknowledging that I was even there.

It dawned on me then that my children (all teenagers)no longer think that I'm funny. My kids love me of that I have no doubt, but I have come to realize that where I used to be the center of their universe, that role has changed. This is actually something that I had not really considered happening in my life. So it has caught me a little bit off guard to say the least.

I kinda feel like echoing Captain Algren's thoughts in the movie "The Last Samurai". He is living amoung the Japanese people in their village, actually a captive, but one who has the freedom to move around and enjoy all that the village has to offer. As he is reading his journal post, he makes the comment that the people while friendly enough, treat him more like a dog that is living with them. Not an enemy, but not really worth much attention from them either. That's kind of how I was feeling this morning...a part, but not the most important part like I used to be.

And you know that's okay, it shows me that my kids are beginning to move out on their own and really become their own person. And after all isn't that what parenting really is about, teaching, training and helping your kids to become the person that God intends them to be...not someone who's parent is the center of their universe, but a part of it.

Of course a little tact from my daughter would have been nice, instead of just saying, "I didn't laugh daddy because it just wasn't funny." Oh well, just another day in the life of raising kids....life's good!

Did Jesus Use Tact?

My pastor was teaching this last Sunday on the baptism in the Holy Spirit and took us to Scriptures that were talking about the Feast of Tabernacles, and how that Jesus was in Galilee because the Jews sought him to kill him. (found in John 7)

In verses 37 - 39 the NIV reads, "37) On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38) Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39) By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified."

An interesting thing that I had never learned about was how on the last day of this particular feast the high priest would take a special empty pitcher and then there would be a procession to where he would fill it with water. It was symbolic of how God provided water in the desert for the Children of Israel when they left Egypt. It is in this setting where we see Jesus stand up and say in a loud voice, yada yada yada.

Let me ask you a question. The Jews are seeking Jesus to kill him. He sneaks into the festival, and while the high priest is doing his thing Jesus stands up and draws the attention to what he is saying about the Holy Spirit coming to those who believe on him. Is that tactful?

I'd have to go with no, it's not. This seems more like William Wallace in the movie Braveheart riding out to the English and as he said, "Picking a fight." If you'll give more than a casual glance at the reading of Scripture, you will see time and again that Jesus calls out the religious leaders of his time. Remember, "white-washed tombs", "brood of vipers", "making them twice as fit for hell". And these are just a few of them.

Jesus wasn't out to make friends with the religious leaders, and the best I can tell he didn't care too much about using tact when he spoke to them. I think that maybe we've put Jesus up on a pedastal as some kind of Godly Emily Post, when perhaps he was actually a little more like William Wallace...just a thought...strength and honor.....

Passive versus Aggressive

This last week I had an opportunity to either go passive or to become aggressive with a situation. Now to be quite honest, I tend to follow after father Adam's nature of passivity more often than Jesus' nature of aggression. Let me explain what I mean.

When the serpent beguiled Eve in the Garden of Eden, where was Adam? Right there with her. (Genesis 3:6) He had been given the charge by God to tend the Garden. He named all of the animals. I'm pretty sure he knew that a talking serpent wasn't quite right, and yet he did nothing.

Men all down the ages have blamed Eve for listening to the serpent and getting us kicked out of paradise, but if you really look at scripture the sin that got us kicked out was the sin of being passive. Adam did nothing when his wife was messing with the one thing that God had told them to leave alone.

Now look at Jesus in the Garden the night He was betrayed. There he was on His knees in prayer, the Bible states that He was praying so hard that droplets of blood fell from His forhead. He prays, "Father if it be possible, let this cup pass by me, but nevertheless not what I will, but Thy will be done."

You see Jesus had the opportunity to go passive, to tuck tail and run so to speak, but He didn't. He got aggressive and saw His responsibility through to the end. And because of that, humanity is able to become saved (John 3:16 / Romans 10:9-10) and get back into fellowship with the Father.

Now back to my story. I had this opportunity, and this time I chose to fight. To stand up to what I saw as an irrational request that should be challenged, and I did so. I have yet to hear anything back from my challenge, and it may never come. I think really it was a test to see if in fact I would stand up and do what was right. I'm glad to say that I did, and that something inside of me felt triumphant afterwards.

It felt good to not let passivity win this time, and hopefully next time I will be a little bit stronger and more able to become aggressive when needed. Strength and honor....

Hidden Meanings...

This morning on the way to work, after having had a great breakfast with my Mabookie friend Terry, I found my mind kind of wandering as I listened to the voices on my radio. I looked up at a stop light to see an older Lincoln Continental sedan in front of me. As the trunk was directly in my line of sight, I noticed that the key cover for the trunk was ajar.

Well that got me to thinking. Isn't that cool how they took something as ordinary as a key hole and covered it up using the car manufacturer's logo. There it was in front of me something that was suppose to be hidden, but in plain sight for reasons totally unknown to me.

I wondered about other things that use hidden aspects and found a picture on the internet of a hidden doorway that you can purchase to put into your house to hide a certain room from view. It looks like an ordinary bookcase, but if you know the secret you can move that bookcase and enter the room behind it.

What this really did in my thinking was to make me ask myself if I have any of those hidden type of things in my heart? Is there part of me that I keep hidden from others, perhaps including myself? And more importantly, how many of these hidden rooms do I have that I am trying to keep hidden from my Father God?

I'm pretty sure we all do it, you know put on the good face for those that we see every day. No matter what we are actually feeling, we just go into that secret room and close the door to our attitudes, feelings or whatever and put on that face that we think most people will want to see.

I know that I do this often, and especially it seems when I go to church. I don't know why I feel that I have to be perfect for my brothers and sisters in Christ, because if there is anyone who should love me without reservation it is them. Of course, I should be loving them that way as well, but it is hard to do that from behind that hidden doorway.

Why is it that we seem to put up a front hoping that people won't get too close, when what we crave as humans is fellowship? I mean the thing that I need the most to survive is good, solid relationships with other human beings, but then I try to keep everyone at bay? I kinda feel like Paul in the Bible when he said, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing."

I think that I have several hidden rooms, perhaps even hidden right now from me....it is time for me to get out of the hiddeness of my heart and seal off those hidden rooms for good! Strength and honor...

It's All About the Relationships

I turned 45 last December. That is kinda like a milestone year for me, as I feel that I have officially hit the half-way mark now. One of the things that does happen as you get past 40 is that you begin to weigh a lot of the things that you are doing as to how they will impact the world around you, and if they actually even are impacting the world around you.

The one thing that I have determined is the most important thing, and forgive me if you already knew this - I'm a slow learner sometimes, is that relationships are king. They are actually the only real thing that matters in this life. If you subscribe to the thought that I do that you are a spirit, you have a soul (mind, will & intellect) and you live in a body. And that we are created in the image of our Father Abba God, then you know that your spirit (the real part of you)will live forever.

Now phones will change, hair do's will change, life in general will change, and none of those things can or will be taken with you when you go the way of the grave, or if we are fortunate enough to live to see the return of Jesus, either way the only thing of substance that we will be able to take with us will be those relationships with others that we have made.

I was thinking about the books & movie "The Lord of the Rings". In that story, it comes to Frodo to take the one ring to Mount Doom and destroy it. He has seveal companions that help him to accomplish that. There were nine in that little ragtag band of companions, yet each important to the story. Now I've gotta tell you, in the natural I don't think Frodo would have actually chosen those that went with him.

Oh he would have taken Gandalf and Aragorn, but the others think of it. A quarrelsome dwarf and an elf of the woodland realm who didn't like each other. (An interesting side note, it was Legolas's father who had imprisoned Gimli's father in the story "The Hobbit", so there was great animosity between the two of them). And who can forget Boromir, the human who had said that what Frodo was to do was folly.

The point I'm making is that in that story fate chose Frodo's companions. In our lives we don't always get to choose who the companions we walk with may be. Our band may not look perfect, there will probably be several knotheads in the group. You may even be one of them. So if relationships are important, and they are, then we need to cultivate relationships wherever they come from, and not wait until we find that "perfect" companion for our journey.

So the next time you are somewhere meeting people for the first time, and there is someone there that just rubs you the wrong way, go up and introduce yourself, you never know, it may be that one person who ends up being just the kind of person God is sending your way to knock off a few of your rough edges, and you may be knocking off a few of theirs....

Strength and honor

Allies...Do You Have Any?

Allies: In general, allies are individuals, groups or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common or purpose.

I received a letter from John Eldredge (he's the founder of Ransomed Heart Ministries & author of Wild at Heart) yesterday and in it he made the statement that one of the most common questions that they are asked at Ransomed Heart Ministries is, "What do you do for church?"

I won't go into the entire letter, that's not really what I'm wanting to talk about here today. The comment was made in the letter that usually a person who is following after God has come to realize that 1) the heart is central to this life and 2) we are living in a spiritual war, and we have an enemy. John when on to say, and I quote, "Which leads us to wonder, Where will I find allies? Who can I take this journey with?"

So let me pose a question here. Who are your allies? Who are you on this God-following journey with? I for one, have a most excellent wife and three kids who are walking this path with me, and they are great companions as well. Yet there are times when my wife and children are not enough.

I need some male allies that can be there when life gets rough. I need men that know my story, and have walked with me for a while that I can trust. An ally is one that you can trust to have your back when times get tough. An ally is also someone who, when needed, will give you a swift kick in the butt if you need it. Allies are those who will speak the truth to you in love, and will let you do the same thing when they need it.

One of the interesting things about developing a group of allies, and I say developing because this is not something that happens by chance, is that it takes an incredible amount of time. It's through sharing your story, and letting them share theirs with you that we develop a close-knit bond that allows the initmacy required in having allies and being one.

I am a firm believer that we should attend a local body, get hooked up and do works of service there. But I think we've missed it somewhere by just thinking that through our church attendance only we will develop a group of allies. We are not in a position to interact with one another in the church setting, not because it's wrong, it's just not the proper setting for that.

Sitting in one another's home, or at a resturant sharing a meal, now this is the place that allies are developed. It's in these smaller, more intimate settings that we are able to pray one for another and encourage each other with God's Word. We are more at ease with each other, and the sharing of our lives with each other is amazing!

So keep going to church, but begin to ask the Father to show you people that would be good allies for you to hook up with. Then take a chance, introduce yourself and get to work building those relationships that will take you to the next level...Strength and honor.....