Memories of My Aunt

I was raised on a farm in northwest Missouri. My aunt and uncle lived about a mile west of our house. I spent a lot of time at their house as a kid! But this past Monday was my aunt's funeral and I was asked to do her funeral. It was a sad day, but it was a great day. It was great because of the many fond memories I have for my aunt. She was a good woman and a godly woman. Here is one of the stories I related from my memory.
This story took place 30-some years ago, shortly after me and the Mrs. were married. We went back to Missouri to visit our family and attended the church where I went as a child. My aunt attended the same church. After the service, the ladies gathered at the front of the church to discuss the upcoming Vacation Bible School (VBS). As usual, the Mrs. and I hung around talking to some friends and I picked up bits and pieces from the ladies' meeting at the same time.
One of the women suggested that they should serve healthy snacks for VBS. Her reasoning was that the kids eat too many sweets anyway. And they could still serve snacks that the kids would like. She suggested some foods like carrot sticks, celery with peanut butter, and various kinds of fruit were things the kids would like. I thought to myself that this was a good idea. If I had been in the meeting, I would likely have voted for this idea.
But then my aunt spoke up. She said, "I am baking cookies. Kids need cookies at Vacation Bible School!" And I thought to myself, "She is right!" My aunt knew what kids wanted and she wanted them to want to come to VBS. Cookies would make it more enjoyable for the kids and happy kids would make for a great VBS!
We live in a "me-first" culture. I read a book once that said that everyone listens to the same radio station: WII-FM, which stands for "What's In It For Me!" We want and expect the best service when we are out and about. We want to be pampered and treated as if we were the most important people in the room.
But Jesus had another plan. Jesus told His disciples in Mark 9 that, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." My aunt understood this very well and lived it. My cousin shared at the funeral that she was a "do for others woman." That says it very well. And now she is in heaven with her Lord and Savior and she gets to serve Him! She may even be baking Jesus some cookies!
How would your world improve if you decided to "be last of all and servant of all?" Let's focus today on being a "do for others person!"

Mean Older Brothers

I was raised on a farm in northwest Missouri. My older brother and I carry a few scars from horsing around the farm - and I don't mean riding horses! I don't know when it started, but it seems like that kid was beating me up from the day I was born.

Being two years older than me, and since I was tall and skinny, he had the upper hand most of the time. Occasionally I would win a battle, but usually I lost the battle and the war. 

I remember one time we were playing in the back yard. He was being bossy and whatever game we were playing involved a broken hoe handle. As he came running towards me, I threw that hoe handle like a spear and it hit him just above his eye. He was bleeding like crazy, so I ran and hid, hoping that Mom wouldn't kill me. Eventually she found me and we all piled in the car and headed for the doctor so he could get stitches. Mom later talked about how frantic she was to find me so she could get him to the doctor. And at the time, I was just worried that I would be unable to sit for a week!

As we grew older, I grew a little wiser. I figured out a trick that delayed the pain when Mr. Brother got angry. I would start running from him and he would chase me. He was faster than me and I knew it! So just as he was close enough to grab me, I would fall down and he would trip over me and I would jump up and run in the opposite direction. That would work for a little while, but eventually I paid the price for making Mr. Brother angry!

One of the things he did to me that made me the angriest happened when we were both teenagers. We had an electric fence south of the house and I needed to climb over it. So I yelled at Mr. Brother to shut the fencer off so I could climb over. He shut it off and I grabbed the wire and swung a leg over. As soon as I was astraddle of it, Mr MEAN Brother turned the fencer back on. There I was, holding that hot wire in my hands and no good way to get off it in a hurry! Mr. Brother was laughing his head off. He thought it was a great trick! I didn't think so...

Older brothers can be mean. I know that...because I had a younger brother too! So what I received from Mr. Brother, I gave back to Mr. Brat! Of course, Mr. Brat had no one to pass the pain on to.

People sometimes do mean things to us. Sometimes it is intentional, but I believe most of the time it is not. And still, it hurts. How do we handle these painful situations? Jesus gives us the answer - and it is a difficult one to swallow!

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave this advice: "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you..."

What? Love your enemies? Bless those who curse you? Do good to those who hate you? Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you? It sounds impossible, doesn't it? And it would be, if we had to do it by our own power. But we don't.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, He sends us a Counselor to live within us and help us. A human counselor listens to your problems and tells you what to do to fix the situation you are in. Our Counselor is God's Spirit and He has all wisdom! When we are on the receiving end of meanness, the Counselor tells us to love Mr. Meanie! And as we do something loving for that person, we find our anger disappearing and, if they have a heart at all, the Meanie will feel convicted of being so mean towards you. It might take many loving actions before you melt that hard heart, but in the end you are a better person and so are they!

Love your enemies! What great advice!

A Trip To Pain, Discomfort, and Anxiety

I had to go to the dentist on Tuesday. No, there was nothing wrong with my teeth; it was just time for my regularly scheduled cleaning. I don't like going to the dentist. And I know am not alone in that aversion!
My dentist has changed their routine lately. The first thing my dental hygienist now does is take my blood pressure. This is something new for me. Until my last couple of visits, I have never had a dentist office take my blood pressure before. Maybe they are trying to gauge how far the blood will spurt when they prick my gums!
My blood pressure was a little high this time. Just like it was last time. And just like it was the time before that. I do watch my blood pressure because Dad has high blood pressure and has since he was in his early thirties. So I take my blood pressure fairly regularly at the machines around the Mayo campus. It is always just a little bit higher than normal, but not enough to worry about. Except when I am at the dentist.
My dental hygienist acknowledged my blood pressure was a little high. I told her I expected that because I hate going to the dentist! "Nothing personal," I told her, "I hate all dentists!"
I don't know of anything else that I do regularly that intentionally causes discomfort, pain, and anxiety. I tend to avoid things that do that to me! And yet, multiple times a year I find myself walking back into the dentist office for another round of pain, discomfort, and anxiety.
Why would I do this thing that I hate so much? Because I know that it is good for me in the long run. My family has a long history of bad teeth. It is a curse of my family. I hope my sons inherited their teeth genes from my wife instead of me! I am pretty sure that I will need false teeth someday, since that accessory has run in my family (both sides) for generations. But by going to the dentist now, I can delay that inevitability as long as possible.
The same can be said for our spiritual life. If we neglect our spiritual needs (and everybody has them), we will not be prepared for the inevitable difficulties that life presents to us. When the storms come, we will either stand up against them, or our destruction will be great. The Bible compares our lives to a house (Luke 6:48-49). We can lay our foundation on the rock (Jesus) which cannot be shaken. Or we can lay our foundation in sand (worldly desires) which will easily shift when the river rises.
Let's build the foundation of our life on Jesus! Devote a portion of every day to a quiet time alone with Him. Read your Bible during that time. Pray during that time. Read a devotional during that time. Reflect on what the day may bring and pray for wisdom and strength in every circumstance that comes up. Put on the "armor of God" (Eph. 6:10-18). When we invest that time, we are laying a firm foundation that cannot be destroyed no matter what life throws our way! "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)"

Bad Drivers

A friend from a former church once complained to me about bad drivers. He said that when you went to get your driver's license renewed, they should issue you a dart gun with five darts. Each dart had a little flag on one end that simply said "idiot." Whenever you saw someone doing something stupid, you could shoot their car with the dart gun so the "idiot flag" was clearly visible. Whenever the police saw a car with three "idiot flags,"they would pull the person over and give them a ticket for bad driving!
I know how he felt! I have seen some of the crazy things people do when they get behind the wheel!
Just this past week I was coming home from church on Viola Road. I looked in my rearview mirror to see this driver pass a car that was a ways behind me. And Mr. Bad Driver was in a big hurry! He was catching up to me quickly.
There was a pickup in front of me - driving at a reasonable rate of speed. So I was content to stay behind Mr. Pickup. But not Mr. Bad Driver! As we were going up a hill, he pulled out to pass me! And, we were in a no-passing zone! I just shook my head in wonder as he went around me!
But then I was astounded when he stayed in the left lane to pass Mr. Pickup too! Just before we reached the top of the hill, another car popped over the hill towards us! Mr. Bad Driver had no place to go! Fortunately, Mr. Pickup swerved onto the shoulder and I hit my brakes hard, expecting something terrible was about to happen. Mr. Bad Driver quickly pulled into the lane the pickup had vacated and just missed a head-on collision!
I wondered why anyone would be in such a hurry to pull such a stupid stunt as that! His bad driving could have easily impacted many lives in the four cars that were there - which included mine! Why would anyone be in such a hurry to risk the lives of people in four different vehicles? It makes absolutely no sense!
But then...don't we do stupid things? I know I have caught myself making a mistake in my driving that I would describe as idiotic driving! And I am sure you have too! We all make stupid driving decisions at some time or another. And some of our blunders are costly.
The rules of the road were not designed to prevent us from enjoying driving. They were designed for the safety of the drivers on the road. We know that. But sometimes we get in a hurry, like Mr. Bad Driver, and we find ourselves in serious danger.
God's rules of life were not designed to prevent us from enjoying life. They were designed for our safety and the safety of others. Many of life's problems and much of life's pains could be avoided by "loving God with all our hearts, with all our soul, and with all our mind and loving our neighbor as ourselves" (Matthew 22:37-39).
Just consider for a minute the consequences of how we live. Every conversation today will impact our relationships tomorrow. Every action today will reflect on our character tomorrow. Every selfish attitude today will damage our relationship with God immediately.
You see, living by the rules makes a difference! The Psalmist knew this when he wrote, "I have your decrees as a heritage forever, indeed, they are the joy of my heart. I am resolved to obey your statutes to the very end" (Psalm 119:111-112). Living by the rules brings joy, not misery!

Celebrating Birthdays

I am only one day older than my lovely bride! That proximity has its advantages. It is hard to forget her birthday when I celebrate mine the day before! Plus, my birthday experience can weigh in on hers. Let me give an example.
I remember well the year I turned 40. No one at work knew I was turning 40 and I wanted to keep it that way. I wanted a simple, and quiet, birthday. So I told my lovely spouse not to do anything to draw attention to my birthday. No balloons. No fanfare. No nothing. I even warned her that if she did do something, I would get even immediately. She nodded and I was glad she understood.
My birthday arrived and I went to work. Everything was quiet, just the way I wanted it. I went to lunch with a friend, and was shocked to see black balloons in my office when I returned! Only one person knew it was my birthday, and that was the conniving woman I am married to!
I called her on the phone and voiced my displeasure with her handiwork. I warned her that I would get even. After all, her birthday was the next day.
"What can you do to me?", she asked. "I don't work outside the home", she gloated. I told her I would get even and hung up the phone.
Immediately I began calling people. I called our pastor. I called some church friends. I called some neighbors. I called some of her PTA friends. I invited them to a birthday party for the Mrs. and told them the birthday party was the next morning a 8 AM. Then I called the school and informed them that I would be taking my boys out of school for a short while the next morning. I informed my boss that I would be late coming to work the next day. The stage was set...
You see, that lovely lady that I adore is not like me at all. I get up early and hit the ground running each morning. The Mrs. never sees the sunrise! Especially late in May! She prefers to stay up late and sleep in. So she does. In those days, she would get up and get the boys ready for school, get them out the door, then she would go back to bed! She was going to get a nice surprise for her birthday!
I got up and got ready for work the next day, like always. But instead of going to work, I went to the store and bought lots of fresh donuts. I stopped at the school on the way home and picked up the boys. We snuck into the back yard and decorated the picnic table with the same black balloons she gave me. Then we went back around to the front porch. People started gathering at the front door...LOTS of people!
The time was perfect. I knew she was back in bed. And I rang the doorbell... No way would she have time to put on makeup, or get dressed beyond throwing on a robe! And she had to answer the door! I listened as she made her way down the stairs. I persistently continued to ring the doorbell. Finally she opened the door and saw the crowd!
I led her around to the back yard and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time singing the birthday song and eating donuts. All the while, I just smiled at her and told her "I warned you!" It was a great birthday!
Our culture tends towards "getting even." When I "got even" with my bride, it was all in fun. But in this culture, it is seldom for fun. In fact, getting even usually means "getting even...and then some!"
But Jesus challenges us in Matthew 5:44 to "love your enemies" and "pray for those who persecute you." This is not easy, and in fact it is nearly impossible without Jesus' help! But with God, all things are possible, so we can love our enemies instead of getting even. Max Lucado points out in "Just Like Jesus" that "the burden of bridge-building falls on the strong one, not on the weak one. The one who is innocent is the one who makes the gesture." Instead of getting even, let's be bridge-builders!

Traffic Jams

I hate traffic jams. Every time I have to drive in a big city I remember why I live in Rochester! I can get home from downtown in 10 minutes. There are times in Minneapolis that you can't go 2 miles in 10 minutes!

Last weekend, Mr. Friend and Youngster went with me to Cleveland to watch the Twins play. We left at 6 AM on Thursday which had us driving through Chicago during the noon hour. Mr. Friend drives through Chicago far more than I do, so I asked him which way he would recommend. Since it wasn't rush hour, he thought it would be OK to stay on I-90 through Chicago. We sailed right through town! There were only a couple of times that my speed dropped below 45 mph. I was shocked! I don't think I ever got through Chicago as quickly as we did that day.

We arrived in Cleveland, checked into our hotel, then headed out for some supper. Since Red Robin is the Youngster's favorite restaurant, and there was one really close to the hotel, that was chosen as our destination. Youngster loves their hamburgers! Actually, he loves a particular hamburger. He ALWAYS orders the same one. He mentioned at supper that he is afraid to try any other burger because he loves that one and if he doesn't like a different one as well he will feel as if he wasted the trip. That makes sense...

The next day was a fun day! We toured the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Then headed for downtown Cleveland to watch the Twins play the Indians. It was a great game - the Twins won 1-0!

The next morning we headed back for Rochester. We left the hotel at 7:30 AM which got us into Chicago...during the noon hour. I had no qualms now about Chicago. Surely the traffic on Saturday would be better than the traffic on Thursday was! We entered Chicago and we were making great time...for a few miles. Then we hit a slowdown in the traffic. Actually it was a complete stop.

For the next two hours, we drove across Chicago. 

We stopped.

We drove slowly. 

We stopped. 

We tried different lanes. It didn't help. 

For some unknown reason, the traffic was horrible - worse than any Chicago traffic I had encountered before. I kept expecting to see an accident up ahead, or maybe some road construction. But no, the only reason for the slow traffic was a tremendous number of vehicles on I-90. By the time I finally reached the western side of Chicago and the traffic picked up to a normal pace, I had sworn I would never drive through Chicago again! Chances are I will have to eat those words someday!

Sometimes life is like Chicago traffic. Sometimes life is easy and your sailing along and enjoying the ride. But sometimes life is not so easy. Sometimes things get in your way and you feel like it is a struggle to make any headway at all.

It is tempting to fall into "pity" mode when we are in the midst of life's struggles. It is tempting to quit reading your Bible. It is tempting to stop praying. After all, you haven't heard anything from God for a while. That is a major part of the struggle. But it is during those times that we must spend even more time in the Bible and even more time in prayer! God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. That means that He is there, even though we may not sense it. As Henry Blackaby has said, don't interpret the Scriptures by your experiences; interpret your experiences by Scripture! We need to believe God's Word that He hears our prayers, even when we don't sense it. We need to believe that all things work to the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.

In reality, our slowdown through Chicago was not that bad. We still made it home in good time.

And in reality, our difficult days will pass, easier days will return, and our faith in the Lord will be even greater! God is always faithful to keep His promises! 

Disaster Relief In Louisiana

I first became aware of disaster relief shortly after we moved to Minnesota. We became aware that Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptists had several teams, but the most visible one was the feeding unit. This unit was a mobile kitchen that could be used to prepare the food that would be handed out by the Red Cross during a major disaster.
The team who manned the feeding unit were activated during the flooding at Rushford. The kitchen was set up in Winona and then various groups distributed the food to those impacted by the flooding. The team also flew to New York City and helped feed the responders at Ground Zero after 9-11.
I was attracted to the idea of serving on a disaster relief team, but I didn't have enough vacation time saved up to be able to take the time to go. So for years I never took the first step of taking the basic training that would prepare me to serve. But then I had no excuses when our disaster relief leader offered to do the basic training in the church that I served as pastor. So I took that class and filled out all the paperwork and received the recommendations that laid the groundwork for me to serve in disaster relief.
When the flooding hit Louisiana last year, it caught my attention. It was hard to imagine the amount of rain they received in a short time - 2 feet of rain in 2 days! The papers said it was a 1,000 year rainstorm! I followed the news over the coming weeks. Then the announcement came that Minnesota-Wisconsin might get called to go and help the victims.
I contacted our disaster relief leader and discovered that I could go and receive the rest of the training that I needed at the site. I had plenty of vacation time saved up, so I was fresh out of excuses! I checked with my boss at work and she gave me the green light to go. The next week I was driving my little Subaru to Louisiana!
I would be working on the shower and laundry unit, and the other two team members were waiting to train me on that work at the church where we stayed. My work was different than a lot of disaster relief jobs because I was not serving those who were flooded, I was serving the ones who were serving those who were flooded! In other words, I was support for the ones doing the dirty work. And it was dirty work! It is difficult to imagine what it would be like to dig mud out of someone's house, tear the drywall out, and then spray the studs to prevent any black mold from growing. These men and women came in filthy every night!
My team had several jobs. We cleaned the showers in the morning as soon as everyone left for work. We cleaned the bathrooms in the church. We swept the floors in the dining area and the hallways of the church. We helped the kitchen crew as needed when they were preparing the food for the relief workers. And we did laundry.
I never realized how much our work meant to those working to help the flood victims until I heard the stories of some who had been involved in the early days of disaster relief work. There were no mobile shower units at that time. So people got as clean as they could in the bathroom sink and slept in the gunk they had worked in all day. They had no mobile laundry units, so they wore those same clothes multiple days as they cleaned mud out of the homes. Those folks appreciated the work my team was doing!
While I was not directly involved in the relief efforts, I did get a chance to drive around and see the damage. We drove through one neighborhood where houses were still standing in 3-4 feet of water - a full month after the 1,000 year rain fell!
Every night the teams would tell stories of the work they had been involved in. I remember one couple who had recently retired. In order to reduce their expenses, and since their house had never come close to flooding in thirty years, they canceled their flood insurance. Just a few months later came the 1,000 year rain. It is hard to imagine their pain in that situation.
As we gear up to start a new church along Highway 14 east of Rochester, God led me to focus our efforts in two areas - loving God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). Disaster relief is an area where we can love our neighbors as ourselves! With all the many options available in disaster relief, anyone can serve.
The men I met in Louisiana went on disaster trips nearly every year. Every time they heard of a disaster, they could not stay away! I know I will be going again...

Ice Cream For The Soul

I like ice cream. I love it homemade. I don't recall ever having bad homemade ice cream. I have many fond memories of sitting on the back porch while Dad cranked the ice cream freezer. It seemed to me that he turned that crank for hours before it was finally ready! Anticipation can really slow down time...the wait was always worth it though. That first bite of homemade ice cream is one of life's greatest pleasures!
We have a burger joint close to our home that serves frozen custard. I had never had frozen custard before moving to Rochester. I assume there is a difference in the recipe between frozen custard and ice cream, but I am not sure what it is. All I know is that their frozen custard is excellent! And, they have the wisdom to advertise the "Flavor of the Day" on their outdoor sign where we read it every time we come home.
We have an ice cream shop that is part of a national chain close by as well. You pick the flavor of ice cream and the goodies you want to mix into it and they put it together while you watch. It is a favorite place for the family to go!
We have another ice cream shop that is owned by another national chain close by that is one of the most recognized brands in America. You probably already know who it is! I am doubly blessed because they have ice cream within walking distance of my office too! I can have great ice cream at home and at work! What a deal!
We have a locally owned ice cream shop nearby that has a funny name and top-notch ice cream. They make their own ice cream and it is a great place to go on hot days...and days that are not hot!
I have never had a bad bowl of ice cream. I remember a little ditty that went something like this: "Everyone loves ice cream, yes indeed they do! Everyone loves ice cream, I do - do you?" Have you ever known someone who doesn't like ice cream?
Music is like ice cream for the soul. I have never met someone who dislikes music. We all like different "flavors" of music - some like it loud, others soft. Some like it fast, others slow. Some like the words, others the tune. We may like different kinds of music, but we all like it! I personally like both kinds of music - country AND western!
A while back my family attended a Christian conference and the music leader made a comment that "There is no bad music; there is only broken music. It may be broken because of bad lyrics, but all it takes to turn the music good is to change the lyrics." Then he proceeded to take some popular songs with questionable lyrics and rewrote the lyrics to glorify God instead! He was an amazing musician!
1 Chronicles 13:7 tells us that "David and all Israel played music before God with all their might, with singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets." Clearly they were in full worship mode that day! Music is truly a gift of God that we can use as praise to Him and which He can use to speak to our souls.
It is a shame that so many churches argue over the "appropriate" style of music to be used in worship. Remember, there is no bad music! While we all have our favorite flavors, it would be a sin to force someone who prefers a different flavor to always listen to OUR favorite flavor! God created mankind with great diversity and I am convinced He loves any song that praises Him as long as it comes from the heart! Let's remember that the next time the music is not our "favorite flavor." Sometimes the "Flavor of the Day" surprises us and we find ourselves worshiping in a new way!

Difficult Decisions

Sometimes it seems you are in a no-win situation. No matter what choice you pick, it has consequences, and not necessarily fun consequences. I recently went through one of these difficult decisions.
Decades ago I left the college where I began my computer science degree to attend a computer programming technical school in Omaha. I had a decision to make at that time that wasn't easy. The computer science program at college was focused on scientific programming but that was a very small percentage of the computer programming job market. Plus I had financial considerations. So I left the college and turned my focus to business programming, which dominated the job market. I never finished my degree.
I worked on the degree a little more, taking night school off and on, but still never finished the degree. Last fall I discovered a college that would accept most of my college credits, I could earn some credits for the 37 years in my career, and would switch my focus from programming to my ministry. So I enrolled.
I thought I had considered everything and that I could handle the load. After all, I have been bi-vocational for most of the last twenty years. And I read a ton of books every year. If I would put my outside reading aside I assumed I would have time for the college class on top of my job and my ministry.
I was wrong. The college class ate up a lot of my time. My ministry of starting a new church began to suffer. I looked at how I was spending my time. I modified my time management process to help - and it did - a little. I tried to find some help for my ministry that would help take some load off, but no help arrived. After getting half-way through the class I had to make a hard decision - keep going and let the ministry suffer, or quit the class and get back on track.
A lot of thoughts ran through my mind as I debated. I looked to my professor for some advice. I talked to a friend who works at the college for his advice. I prayed with my prayer partner. It came down to my priorities. My number one priority has to be my job. My number two priority has to be the ministry. Then there is family and school. I decided the school had to be stopped at this time. So I called the school and emailed my professor with the decision.
This is the process we must use to make hard decisions like this one. What are our priorities? Who can I seek advice from? What options exist? And, I believe the most important, prayer. When it all came together, there really was only one option - focus on the ministry and put the degree on hold again.
These decisions are never easy. And they have consequences that are difficult to accept. But decisions have to be made. And the above process is the best process I have found. Just don't forget to pray! God alone knows what you are supposed to do. He will make it obvious to you.

Start Today...

What would you like to have accomplished a year from now? A year is a long time! Do your plans include improving your walk with Jesus? Are you satisfied with your quiet time? Are you satisfied with your devotions and prayer time? Are you hearing from God on a regular basis? If you are like 100% of the Christians I know, you will have to confess you are falling short of where you want to be! We are never satisfied because the closer we come to God the more we realize how far we still have to go! 

Whatever changes we desire to occur in our lives in the next year, we have to set some short-term goals. It is difficult to focus on a goal that is a year or more away. It is similar to looking at a painting from fifty yards away – you can see it, but not well enough to appreciate its beauty. When we can’t see the goal clearly, we tend to get distracted by those things we can see clearly – the day-to-day problems and activities. So we need to create sub-goals that are easier to see and will continually move us towards our ultimate destination.  

Think through the steps that it will take to get you to that long-term goal and set your first goal close enough you can see it clearly and can anticipate the results.  What do you need to do over the next six weeks to improve your prayer time? What steps can you work through to improve your daily Bible study? Maybe you need to find some books to help you gain more understanding of the topic. Maybe you need to take a weekend sabbatical to pour through God's Word to set your goals and gain direction. If you are looking for "3 easy steps to spiritual fulfillment," forget it! It is going to take some work, but it is worth every minute!

Working towards each short-term goal will bring us closer to that long-term goal we so desire. Remember the words of Karen Lamb, “A year from now you may wish you had started today.”

Prepare For Tomorrow

What we do today prepares us for tomorrow. How we react to events today will affect how we react to our problems of tomorrow. What we learn today will guide our decisions tomorrow. How we interact with people today will affect our relationships tomorrow. Today is a stepping stone on the way to the future. Each day is never a moment that stands alone in time; it is the result of how we have built our lives day after day. We don't know what tomorrow will hold, but we can begin preparing for expand »our future anyway. 


Phillips Brooks wrote the following challenging statement, "Some day, in the years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process." Don't just react to the events of the day without thinking. Instead, think about the kind of person you want to be and then react like that person would react. You will appreciate it tomorrow.

Where do you want to live?

I read a book a few days ago that really spoke to me.  The book is called "A Requiem For Love" by Calvin Miller.  The storyline follows the biblical account of Adam and Eve living in the Garden of Eden, although Dr. Miller changed the names and embellished a lot on what could have happened.  I would recommend this book highly!

The book really got me thinking about my spiritual walk.  As much as I would love to go into detail about how Dr. Miller painted the picture of temptation that broke through Eve's resolve, I refuse to ruin the book for you!  We all know that she did stumble, and that she thought there was good that was going to come to her life if she did.  She wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil.

The book painted a clear contrast between the Garden of Eden and the wilderness outside the Garden.  Eve knew if she sinned she would be banished from the Garden.  She and Adam even stood where they could look out of the Garden and see the wasteland of the wilderness - and she still chose to sin. 

I wonder, what would happen if we honestly considered the consequences when we were tempted, instead of simply taking the easy way of following our selfish desires.  What if we looked at the temptation and considered the full cost of following our human nature versus the benefits of following God's holy nature?  What would life look like?

God's promises throughout the Bible are to bless those who live in the shadow of His love.  Romans 8:28 encourages us with these words, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."  Wouldn't it be grand to know that we are living in such a love relationship with God that He is always working things out for our good?  Even when life hits us with its hardest pains (cancer, job loss, death of a loved one, etc.) we can KNOW that it will work out for our good!  Wouldn't you like to live with that confidence?

Let's paint ourselves a mind-picture.  How do you envision the Garden of Eden?  I see lovely green grass, better than the best golf course!  I see gentle flowing streams, full of fish, ducks lazily swimming along, and water as clear as glass.  I see tall trees providing protection from the wind and sun.  I see birds and harmless animals living in perfect harmony with man.  I see God walking hand-in-hand with Adam and Eve, loving them in a way that only He can.  He is taking care of their every need.  His love knows no bounds.

Now, how do you envision the wilderness?  I see a hard land, full of thorns and thistles.  I see wild animals lurking behind trees and boulders, out of sight until I let my guard down, ready to attack.  I see a river that goes from drought to a roaring flood in minutes.  I see storms that appear suddenly with devastating winds and drenching rain.  I see loneliness and sorrow in the wilderness.

Here is the big question.  The temptation is before you.  You can follow God and live in the Garden of Eden, with all your needs being provided by God.  Or you can follow your own desires and live in the dangerous wilderness, fending for your own safety and living by the the sweat of your brow.  Which will you choose?  Every temptation provides that choice.  Live with God, or live apart from Him.  Joshua so clearly stated his choice, and I hope we all will follow his lead and say, "As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."

A Change In Life Habits

The Mrs. and I are making some lifestyle changes with our eating habits.  Since I started serving as a pastor again, my weight has been steadily climbing - again.   I have always enjoyed eating - a lot!  When I was growing up on the farm, I was as skinny as a rail.  Hard work and the high metabolism of a growing teenage boy prevented any fat from attaching itself to my body.  But as I got older, things began to change.

After marrying the Mrs., my weight slowly began to climb.  Some blessings seems to carry a curse with them.  I married a great cook, but that meant I began eating better and eating more.  The result was a slow, but steady weight gain.  I was able to keep most of the weight off through light exercise, like playing church softball, but still it was creeping up.  When the Mrs. was pregnant with our first son, she craved chocolate malts which caused me to experience significant "sympathy" weight gains.  Still, I was keeping my weight below 190 lbs., so I wasn't overly concerned.

After we moved to Sioux City, I hit the magical age of 30 and found my weight was getting harder to manage.  I added a bicycling commute to work to get the exercise I needed, and was still able to keep my weight down.  But, when I started serving as the church planter for a new church start in Kingsley, my time to exercise slipped away and the pounds starting slipping on.

By the time we moved to Rochester, my weight was officially a problem.  I went on a diet and lost a lot of weight, and started biking again to keep it off.  Even with that, I was gaining some weight back over the winter - a little at a time.  When I started serving as the pastor of Viola Bible Church, the biking slowed significantly and my weight ballooned again.

So, here I am with a problem and, after the Mrs. had a health scare, a new motivation to get the weight off and keep it off.  Her doctor recommended she start following the GI Diet (glycemic index).  So we both adopted that diet as our new eating lifestyle.  The whole idea of the GI Diet is to stabilize the rate that sugar is entering the bloodstream.  Some foods digest quicker than others and cause a spike in your blood sugars shortly after eating.  Those are naughty foods and we were told to avoid them.  Some digest slowly and are slowly releasing sugar into the blood stream.  Those are nice foods and we can have lots of them.

To make a long story short, the diet is working, the pounds are coming off and I am feeling better about where our health is headed.  And I don't feel hungry all the time.  I haven't been eating some of my favorite foods, but I really haven't missed them.  The Mrs. is really a good cook and can make almost anything taste good.  Except broccoli, which is categorized as a noxious weed. 

I needed some discipline in my eating habits, and now I am motivated and have been given the right instructions to do that.  Our souls need discipline too.  We need to meditate on the Bible and pray every day so we can hear God talk to us.  It is for our own good, but it is so easy to grow lax in that discipline and just coast along. 

My memory verse this past week has been Psalm 5:3, "In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation."  As I have worked at memorizing this verse, I have been blessed by it.  First, the psalmist is committing himself to pray every morning to God.  He is showing good discipline!  But then he adds the benefit - he waits in expectation.  He truly expects God to answer his prayers!  Why shouldn't he think that?  Jesus promised in Mark 11:24 that we could ask for anything and know that He will answer our prayer!  That doesn't mean that we will receive anything we ask for; the Bible clearly teaches that unconfessed sin can hinder our prayers.  Barring that, when we are earnestly seeking God's will on an issue, we can "wait in expectation" for an answer. 

Let's not pray and wonder if God will answer it.  Let's pray and ask God to reveal His perfect plan for us and "wait in expectation" for the answer!

Power of Prayer

January 5, 2010 is a day I will never forget.  It started like every other day, but it shook my world.  When I came home from work, we were planning on having our weekly "family night."  This is a tradition we started when the boys were pretty young.  One person in the family gets to pick where we eat dinner and pick a fun activity for the family to enjoy.  While we were out, the Mrs. asked me to stop at Walmart and pick up some aspirin. 

We came home and played a new game that the Mrs. had received for Christmas - Bananagrams.  After the game, the Mrs. told me she was feeling "pressure" in her chest.  I knew that was a symptom of a heart attack, but I went to the computer and checked it on MayoClinic.com.  It recommended going to the Emergency Room.  I came back upstairs and the Mrs. was getting dressed to go out.  She had come to the same conclusion and off we went. 

When she explained her symptoms to the desk clerk, they immediately took her to the critical care area and began running tests.  Shortly they mentioned the two words that we didn't want to hear, nor really expected to hear - "heart attack."  She really wasn't even in pain - just this pressure in her chest.  For the next 4 hours, the doctors worked on her.  She received nitroglycerin to open her blood vessels, they gave her other medications to lower her blood pressure and reduce her heart rate.  Finally she was resting in a hospital bed; it was late, so I headed home.  Sleep came, but it was far from restful.

I had to get up early the next morning to get Mr. Youngster off to school.  I told him what was happening and told him I would keep him notified of any news.  He left for school and I picked up the phone to call two of my closest prayer partners.  They were both out of town and in a meeting - the same meeting.  They prayed with me and I headed back to the hospital.  January 6th was a day of tests as they worked to figure out why the Mrs. had a heart attack - an EKG and an angiogram were the tests de jour.  I continually texted my prayer partners as we learned each new piece of info.  The EKG showed where the damage was, but the angiogram showed absolutely no problems.  According to the doctor, her arteries were "beautifully wide and clear."  They had fully expected to find blockage in the artery where the EKG had shown the damage, but there was nothing.

More text messages went out, phone calls were made to family, and we were starting to breathe a little easier.  Our prayer request went out to more people - pastors, church members, and fellow Baptists across Minnesota and Wisconsin.  The Mrs. finally was allowed to eat supper and she was starting to get some real rest. 

The next day brought an MRI on her heart.  We were assured that the MRI would tell us why she had the heart attack.  The doctor explained that blocked arteries are not the only cause of a heart attack, the attack could be brought on by a blood clot or a constricted artery.  The MRI would show where that had happened.  The MRI results came back with a better picture of the damage, but nothing to indicate why it happened.  I texted the good news back to my prayer partners.

Now the Mrs. and I are making major lifestyle changes.  Our primary care physician has placed us on a diet that is to be a permanent change of eating habits.  The Mrs. is now exercising and my bike is begging me to start riding when the weather warms up.

I have never experienced anything as scary as what I experienced on Jan. 5.  To look down at my beloved Mrs. and know there is nothing I can do for her but hold her hand and pray is a scary feeling.  I can't begin to explain the emotions I felt.  I went from great fear one minute to great joy when we received the good news from the angiogram.  I will never take the Mrs. for granted again.  She is the greatest gift that God has ever given me.

James 5:16 tells us "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."  We still don't know what caused the heart attack.  I know that I had two righteous men praying for the Mrs.  Maybe God heard their prayers and healed her before the doctors found the problem.  Maybe the doctors just never found the problem.  Either way, I know the prayers of those two men helped me and the Mrs. tremendously through the whole ordeal.  I know prayer works and I know I need to spend more time with the One who showers blessings down on me and the Mrs.  I don't plan to take God for granted anymore either.  God is good - all the time.

Choosing A Team

My favorite NFL team is the Kansas City Chiefs.  Since I was born and raised in northwest Missouri, you might think it was quite natural to follow them, but that really wasn't the case.  I never followed the NFL during my formative childhood years.  I loved baseball (still do!) and I enjoyed following the Missouri Tigers in college football and basketball.  But, the NFL never caught my attention until late 1989.

I moved to Sioux City, Iowa in December of 1988.  When football season came in 1989, I discovered I was a square peg in a round hole.  Everyone I hung around with loved the NFL.  I ate countless lunches that Fall in total silence because I had no idea what was going on in the NFL.  Finally, I decided to start following this sport so I would know what everyone was talking about.  It's tough to follow a sport without any team loyalties, so I started the process of picking a team.

You would think I would have selected the Chiefs to start with, but that wasn't the case.  I had a specific set of criteria I used to select my team.  First, I wanted to follow a team that no one else I knew followed - that way I could argue with everyone!  Second, I wanted to follow a team in the Midwest so I could watch them on TV and maybe in person.  Third, they needed to have some moral values.  Armed with this information, I settled on... the Cincinnati Bengals!

I know what you are thinking - you can understand how they filled the first two criteria, but what about the third?  Sam Wyche was the coach of the Bengals that year and he did a couple of things that caught my attention.  He refused to allow female reporters into the locker room - which made sense to me.  The league disagreed with him, though, and made him scratch that rule.  The second action by Coach Wyche was a classic!

The Bengals were playing against Cleveland at home.  The officials made a call that the rowdy home crowd did not appreciate.  They began booing loudly and throwing things onto the field.  The officials asked Coach Wyche to tell the crowd to stop throwing things on the field.  He took the microphone on the sidelines and stepped out onto the field.  He pleaded with the crowd to stop throwing things on the field, because "you live in Cincinnati, not Cleveland!"  I loved it (there is a major rivalry between those two teams) - but the officials didn't and gave him a "sportsmanship" penalty.

The day I decided to be a Bengals fan, I went home from work, putzed around a bit, and flipped on the TV.  There was a football game on and the Bengals were on!  I sat down and began rooting for my beloved Bengals when the Mrs. walked into the room.  She saw me watching the game and questioned what I was doing.  She noted that I didn't like pro football and I replied, "I love pro football, and the Bengals are my favorite team."  She asked me, "Since when?" - to which I replied, "Since this afternoon!"  She rolled her eyes and walked away.

As an FYI, after the Bengals served as the NFL's doormat for many long and depressing years.  I finally gave up on them and switched to the Chiefs.  I have no plans to switch again, no matter how bad they are playing.

Choosing a football team is not a major choice for most of us.  And, if we get disappointed in the team we choose, we can switch loyalties without offending too many people.  However, choosing to follow Jesus Christ is a major decision that we should never vacillate on.  God audibly affirmed Jesus when He said, "This is My Son whom I love; with Him I am well pleased."  God gave us the gift of His Son so that we might have eternal life.  1 John 5:11-12 clearly says, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."  To refuse to accept the gift of Jesus is to choose everlasting death over eternal life.  Is that really what we want to do?  Let's become great fans of Jesus, accept the gift of salvation He offers us, and the promise of eternal life is ours!

Unexpected Blessings

We are fortunate to have a Culver's just about a quarter-mile southeast of our house.  For the nearly ten years we have lived in our house, we have enjoyed meals at Culver's.  Our oldest son worked there while he was in high school, which was a great job - we got a family discount!  It has also become a tradition for the family to eat there after church on Sunday nights with some friends from church.

If you have never been to Culver's, I will do my best to describe it.  It looks like a fast-food restaurant, but it doesn't quite fit that description.  Their hamburgers are excellent and made-to-order - no warming tray for precooked sandwiches .  Mr. Interface, one of the Microsoft programmers I work with, insists on eating there every time he comes to Rochester - he loves their Butterburgers!  They are quite good...

They also have frozen custard - which is ice cream on steroids!  They post their "Flavor of the Day" on their sign along the highway, and I always check the sign.  You just can't drive by some flavors!  I like all the flavors except the ones with coconut in them.  I don't understand why you would ruin perfectly good ice cream by putting coconut in it. 

This past Sunday found me at Culver's with my good friends, Mr. and Mrs. Musical Lovers and their youngest son.  The Mrs. and Mr. Youngster had eaten earlier, so I was the only one there from my family.  We had finished eating and were sitting around joking and laughing (as usual) when a Culver's employee approached our table.  In his hands were two pumpkin-pecan Concrete Mixer malts.  He asked if we would like to have them - free of charge!  Naturally, I agreed.  It turns out that Mr. Musical Lover doesn't like pumpkin, so his wife and I enjoyed the Concrete Mixers.  Culver's wasn't through with us though, soon another employee walked up with a caramel cashew sundae and offered it to Mr. Musical Lover.  He gladly accepted it.  We were all three in heaven as we enjoyed our free and unexpected desserts!  I believe the freebies were given to us (good customers) because it was their 10th anniversary of the restaurant.  The Mrs. and Mr. Youngster chose a bad night to eat early...

In Malachi 3:10, God offers us a challenge, "Bring the whole tithe (10%) into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."  I have heard many people say they can't afford to give a tithe to the church.  From personal experience, I found that isn't true.  The Mrs. and I have been tithing from the day we were married.  Yes, there were times that money was extremely tight and giving a tithe to God was an act of faith.  But we quickly found that God will take care of us when we trust Him.  And this verse is 100% true - He will bless you abundantly more than you can ever imagine when you trust Him with the tithe.  I was excited to receive the unexpected blessing of a pumpkin-pecan Concrete Mixer from Culver's the other night, but it pales in comparison to the unexpected blessings God has poured out in my life!

Pigskin Designs

Mr. Youngster and I have been enjoying the unseasonably warm (for Minnesota) November temperatures by tossing the pigskin around.  Football is really not my sport - I love baseball.  I love the pop of a baseball when it hits the glove.  I love the crack of the bat.  The baseball was made to be thrown.  Even a young child can throw a baseball with pretty good accuracy. 

Whoever designed the football was a sadist.  I know it can be thrown accurately for long distances - I have seen it happen on TV.  But the football was not designed to be thrown.  It's shape is all wrong for throwing.  I think it was designed to bounce erratically on the ground to drive the players nuts.  When I throw the football, I don't get a nice, tight spiral.  I can usually hit Mr. Youngster at the numbers, but it rarely is going to have a nice spiral.  More often than not it resembles a wounded duck.

Mr. Youngster, on the other hand, can throw the football with a spiral most of the time.  However, he is sadly confused.  He apparently thinks I walk on my hands, because his tosses always come right at my feet!  It doesn't matter if he is standing close to me or 30 yards away, it always comes right to my feet.  I am now nursing a sore pinky finger on my right hand because I tried to reach down and catch one of his passes.  It hit the ground and took a typical football bounce (who knows where it is going) and jammed my pinky finger.

We often question the design of many items we buy; we have all experienced the frustration of poorly designed products.  I have spent hundreds of dollars fixing cars that were poorly designed.  I have thrown away toys days after Christmas because they couldn't stand up to child's play.  But God's designs are perfect in every case.  As we look through the creation story at the beginning of Genesis, we repeatedly read the phrase "it was good."  When He created Adam and Eve, the phrase changed to "it was very good."  While we may not like certain features of our bodies, God made us so we must be "very good."  We don't have to look like a Hollywood movie star to be a star in God's eyes.  We just need to use the talents and gifts He gave us to fulfill the purpose He designed us for and we will be perfectly satisfied with our lives.

Not Going Anywhere

Last week I alluded to a time when Big Brother and I got stuck in Dad's pickup.  Due to popular demand, I will share what happened.

Big Brother and I were both in high school the year Dad fell and broke his leg.  He is a tough bird - he went to a basketball game with the broken leg before he went to the doctor.  After visiting the doctor, his leg was in a cast and his mobility was greatly reduced.

Much to our chagrin, that meant Big Brother and I had more chores to do before we headed off to school.  We were climbing out of bed at 0-dark:30 to feed the cows every morning.  Big Brother always drove the pickup, because he was older and a "better driver."  Did I mention it was pretty muddy at the time?

He drove the pickup up to the silage pit and we filled the back of the pickup with silage.  Then we headed for the pasture to feed the cows.  To get to that pasture we had to drive on a path alongside a corn field.  The path was pretty muddy, but it was just slick - not deep.  On that particular morning, Big Brother slid in the sloppy-mud a little too much and slid off the path into the corn field.  Unlike the path, it was a deep and sticky mud!

Being a "better driver" and headstrong, he was determined to drive back out.  We were in 4-wheel drive, so he gave it the gas and attempted to pull back up to the path.  No dice.  He threw it in reverse and gunned it and made a little progress, but was soon stopped.  Back into 2nd gear and and a lot of gas and we moved forward a few feet.  He tried to rock the pickup to get it out, going forward and back repeatedly.  It soon became evident that we weren't going anywhere.  Finally he gave up and shut the engine off.

We opened our doors and stepped out of the pickup.  Notice I didn't say we stepped DOWN out of the pickup - we literally stepped out.  The ground was at an even level with the floorboards.  I have never seen a vehicle stuck in the mud as good as that one was!

We walked a mile back to the house and broke the bad news to Dad.  We changed clothes and headed off to school, leaving Dad to figure out how to get the pickup out.  When we got home that night, Dad was not very happy with us!  He took the tractor over to the field and was unable to pull the pickup out with the tractor.  Our neighbor had a small Caterpillar in the next field over, so he asked his neighbor to pull it out.  The Cat couldn't pull it out either.  It took both - the tractor and the Cat to yank that pickup, full of silage, out of the mud!  Big Brother never does anything halfway!

David wrote the following words in Psalm 40, "I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." This life is full of mud and mire.  Sin and temptations surround us on every side and threaten to pull us in where we will be unable to escape.  But God has the power to break the hold of sin and temptation on our lives.  He desires to set our feet on solid ground where we won't slip and slide.  This type of prayer is one that God will always answer.  Why would we trust anyone or anything else?

Finding God's Will

I spent this week preparing my message for the MN-WI Baptist Convention's Annual Meeting.  I actually settled in on a topic a couple of months ago; I was going to preach on the need to plant new churches in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  This is a great need and it is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart because I served as a church planter in Iowa.  Since I have read a considerable amount of literature on starting churches, and I have experience, I felt I could provide a unique look at church planting.  I was excited to be able to share my enthusiasm for church planting with the pastors and church leaders at the Annual Meeting!

I had even zeroed in on the Scripture passage and a couple of good illustrations over a month ago.  After completing my commentary studies of the selected Scriptures, I sat down Saturday to begin writing the message.  With a cup of hot tea next to the keyboard, my Bible open to the Book of Acts, a couple of commentaries opened with heavy highlighting, I was ready to go!

Scanning the Scriptures, I quickly produced a 4-point outline of the message.  So far, so good!  Then I opened up a line under the first point, positioned my hands over the keyboard, focused my eyes on the screen, and started to ... think.  Nothing was coming.  Nothing.

I know you have been there.  You had an assignment to write in school and couldn't think of anything to say.  Or you had an important document to create for work and you froze.  We have all had writer's block.  Preachers get it too.

I did all I could to break the block.  I reread the commentaries.  I checked some of the words in the Scripture against my Greek dictionary.  After a couple of hours of effort, and five cups of tea, I had about 3 lines written.  This was not good.  Sunday fared no better; I was stuck and didn't have a clue what to do.  Like the time my brother got Dad's pickup stuck in a muddy cornfield, I wasn't going anywhere.

I have been listening to some John Maxwell sermons in my car as I commute to work, and Monday I was listening to a sermon on "Finding God's Will."  Suddenly it hit me - maybe my church planting sermon was not God's will for this message at this meeting.  God has done this to me before, so I should have recognized the symptoms, but I hadn't.

Mr. Youngster had a band concert at the High School Monday night, so I grabbed my Bible and took it with me to the concert.  While we were waiting forever for the concert to start, I was scanning through the New Testament to see where God would lead me.  When I hit 1 Corintheans, it was like a light lit up on my GPS telling me I have "reached my destination."

I went back to work on my message Tuesday afternoon and within a couple of hours, the first draft was done.  It's amazing how easy it is to prepare a sermon when the Holy Spirit is in the driver's seat!  Now it is Thursday and the message has been polished, my Powerpoint is completed, and I am ready to deliver God's Word at the Annual Meeting.  I am confident that I am saying what God wants me to say.

It seems this is a lesson I am continually learning.  I must stay in God's will if I am to be effective in my life - and not just in my preaching, but in every aspect of my life.  Have you ever wanted something really bad and roadblocks seemed to continually pop up that blocked you from getting it?  Maybe that wasn't bad luck; maybe God had other plans for you.  My experiences in life have proven that I am better off in God's will than chasing my own "wants" and "wishes."  It's not always easy to find God's will, but it is worth it!

Seeing Love

Many, many years ago I was assigned a seat in the last row of my 2nd grade class.  That is the advantage of having a last name that starts with "S" - I was nearly always in the last row!  This time though, it wasn't an advantage - I couldn't read the blackboard.  I complained to Mrs. Teach and she moved me up a few rows.  That didn't seem to help much, so I let her know that I still couldn't see the blackboard.  Mrs. Teach once again moved me up - this time all the way to the 2nd row.  

Wouldn't you know it?  I still couldn't see the blackboard!  Mrs. Teach didn't think that was normal, so she sent me off to the Nurse's Office for an eye check.  After the impromptu eye exam, the school nurse wrote a letter and gave it to me to take home to my parents.  When I got home that night, I gave the note to Mom and ran out to play.  Within a couple of days I was headed to Bethany to see the local optometrist.  The news was not good - I had 20-100 vision.  I think the scientific term for that is "blinder than a bat."  Within weeks, this scrawny little boy was wearing  ugly thick-framed, black plastic glasses. 

I remember stepping outside with my new glasses on and looking up at the sky.  For the first time in my life I could see stars!  I had always assumed the sky was cloudy since I could never saw any stars.  And instead of a big yellow blob, the moon had distinct features.  I felt like I had entered a whole new world!

One day after school, I took my glasses off and ran outside to play.  Dad was moving some of our horses to winter pasture, and I climbed up in the pickup with him.  The horses were moving down the road in front of us, and I asked Dad where he got that little white colt.  He looked at me funny and asked, "What white colt?"  I pointed at the back of the horses at this white blob following the small herd.  Dad said, "That is your brother!"  He was wearing a white t-shirt and I couldn't tell the brat from a colt!

1 Corinthians 13:12 says, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."  This verse comes from the Bible's famous "love chapter."  What is Paul trying to tell us?  The mirrors of Paul's day weren't the nearly-perfect mirrors we have today.  They typically were polished metal, and didn't reflect all that well.  Just as I couldn't see my brother well enough to recognize him, we will not fully know love until we see God face-to-face.  The best love this world has to offer is nothing but a very poor reflection of the perfect love of God.  God's love was best demonstrated when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in our place.  What an awesome display of love!  I can't wait to meet Him face-to-face and fully experience His love forever in heaven!