Sunday, March 18, 2007

Meet me there

And now for something completely different ...

After a couple of half-serious posts, I thought I might post something serious, with a reflection from Journey a few weeks back ...

Let's say you and a friend are at your house, and you decide to go somewhere else. The friend says to you "you go on ahead, and I'll meet you there." So you both leave your house, and you take a path to your destination. Your friend is not beside you on that path. Are you mad at him? Of course not. The intention was to meet you there, not be at your side for every step along the way.

Yet, do we sometimes find ourselves in a similar situation with God, and get mad at him for only wanting to meet us at a destination, rather than walking every step of the way with us?

A couple of weeks back at Journey, we looked at the first half of Luke chapter 10. It opens by saying (NASB):
Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.
The Lord did not set out with them. He sent them to places he would be. Future tense.

And yet, this is somethign difficult to grasp, at least for me. Why wouldn't God be with me along the way? Why would God set me on a path, and only want to meet me at the destination?

Yet, the more I meditate and perculate on it, the more it makes sense. He is our Father. If you watch any parent, as their children begin to walk, they stand behind them, arms stretched down in case they fall. As the children become more stable in their walking habits, the fathers bend and stoop less and less. Eventually, it gets to the point where the father can sit across the room, and just enjoy watching his kid walk across the room without any help from him.

So why can't our Father be the same way?

He'll meet us there. Even if he's not there every step of the way. Even if we have to go through rough patches on our journeys. Even if we get delayed on the way. He'll meet us there.

And isn't that reason enough to keep walking towards whatever destinaton He's meeting us at next?

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Days like this could kill me, but at least I'd die happy

Another solid day of basketball. Another solid day of bad-for-me food. The two seem to be going hand-in-hand. Also, Rachel decided to stay in Columbus all day. Not a coincidence that my food choices didn't become any healthier.

let's see if we can tally up the food (so far) today ...

2 corned beef sandwiches with swiss cheese on sourdough rolls
8 deep fried jalepeno poppers
4 boiled red potatoes topped with butter and oregano
3/4s of a cabbage (look, vegetables!)
1 large slice of pie
several heaping handfulls of garden salsa sun chips
1 can of pepse
1 corona

Add to that the self-imposed stress of near heart attack(s) from watching the Buckeyes game (thank you, Ron Lewis, for sparing various articles of furniture in my house from being destroyed), and following the Cavs game online (32-31 halftime with Boozer outplaying Hughes and LeBron combined??? thank you, Sasha Pavlovic for playing an entire game, and thank you LeBron for playing a rock solid second half), and I'm amazed I'm still alive. This day can't have been good for my heart.

Rachel better come home soon. I might not survive many more days like this.

And on that note, I think I'll go eat some more. I've got more Corned Beef, so that's an option. Or another big slice of pie ... or some Girl Scout Cookies ... hmmm ...

Friday, March 16, 2007

Without Women, Life on Earth Would End

It's true. Without women, life on earth would end. And, yes, physically, this is true. You need the oppossite sexes to create future generations. But let's go back to the beginnings.

Eden. God. Creation.

Surely, in his ultimate power, God could have created us as asexual being, able to reproduce without use of another being. He didn't, and for that we should be thankful, but he could have.

And why? For compansionship? For love? For (His) humor?

Sure, all of those might be true ... but in reality, it's for survival.

Man cannot survive (longterm) on his own.

Take me, for example. My wife goes out of town today, just for a one-day trip to see her mom. What's the first thing I do? Grab a couple extra pieces of greasy garlic cheese pizza and slam them down. Then, after vegging out in front of NCAA Basketball games all day, I take the hour off between games (arrgh! why didn't I get the Miami-Oregon game???), to prepare food. What kind of food, you might ask? Deep fried food. Popcorn chicken, tater tots, and fresh fried tortilla chips. And chased it all down with a Corona (that I got for free from Rachel's gramma).

And while I know this isn't good for me, I continue to do these things. Greasy food, less than healthy beverages, and movement enough to grab the remote and get more to eat.

And, I'm not alone. Check out today and yesterday in the life of Bill Simmons.

I'm telling you, sin or not, Eden or not, men alone would have found a way to deep fry stuff in the garden and kill ourselves off.

Thank God for women.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Modern Day Samaritan

Today, I tell you a story that I think is fictional, although it may reflect actions and behaviors of actual real people. This is not intended. The story is for illustration purposes.


One day, a man fell into the hands of the wrong crowd of people. He was beaten and robbed, and was left laying on the side of the road. His injuries left him incapable of moving to get help, and the gang that had beaten and robbed him took from him any means he had to contact someone for help.

Soon after the attack, a very prestigious ordained man walked past the beaten and bruised man. Seeing his pain, he stopped, and stretched his vocal chords. He spoke to anyone within hearing distance, willing or not.

"Clearly, this man has sinned against our God. Clearly, has taken a stance on abortion, homosexual marriage, poverty, war, immigration or the environment that is not pleasing to our God. And, now, we see that God is punishing him. Let his sad, sad story be a lesson to all of you, that you will repent, and follow me as I follow God, always being on his side of issues, so as to avoid punishment."

Having finished his speech, the prestigious ordained man left, and the beaten and bruised man was left no better than he was before the prestigious ordained man arrived.

Not long after this, a holy man arrived, fresh from leaving his place of worship, where he spoke to like minded folks about his faith. He saw the hurt, wounded, and broken man lying on the side of the road, and he could feel a part of his heart break. He walked over to the men, knelt and stretched his hand out towards him.

"Holy God, we put out trust in you. We see the terrible burden you have placed on this man's life. Lord, I know not the circumstances that lead to him being placed here, hurting and wounded, but I thank you for them. And I pray that this burden you have placed on him will lead him to salvation through you, will lead others to salvation in you, and will bring glory, and honor, and power to your name. Amen."

Having finished his prayer, the holy man stood up, and left and the beaten and bruised man was left no better than he was before the holy man arrived.

A short time later, a man with no identifiable clothing nor any identifiable bumper stickers showed up on the scene in his modest car. He saw the hurting man, and brought his car to a complete and total stop. He left his car and went to the man, checked his vitals, and seeing that he was alive but in pain, scooped him from the ground and put him in his car. He drove him to the nearest hospital, and went to the administrative assistant behind the desk.

"I do not know if this man has insurance or money, but here is my bank card information. Whatever charges are incurred to treat, heal, and nurse the man back to health, please charge to me. Here is my credit card, as well, and a phone number to reach me, if my bank card runs out of funds. Let me know when the man is healthy enough to be moved to a hotel, and I will return for him."

And the man with no identifiable marks left, and the beaten and bruised man was able to have his wounds healed, and able to return to full health.


And which of these three do you think truly served the Lord?

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Head Games

I've now missed a day-and-a-half of work thanks to a migraine headache. I hate these things, but even more than that, I hate the effect the medicine I take has on me. Almost no strength ... boy, isn't that fun.

On the bright side, I still love my job. Haven't had a ton of success, but I'm getting better. I've improved from getting a single "no" from business owners to getting 15 or so. I guess that's improvement. Also, I do have a couple of appointments set up, so things are looking up, at least a bit.

Had some deep thoughts to share after jOURney last week, but my head isn't in shape to share them right now, so I'll have to share them later.

Gotta love a life where just about the only thing out of place in my life is my finances. And I honestly mean that.