An Easter Story

It took 15 staples to patch Tyler's head back together after being mauled by a large neighborhood dog Saturday. He is a very brave little man with lots of angels looking after him. The dog was huge Alaskan Husky that outweighed Tyler by about two to one. It could have easily have been a very tragic Easter, But God was merciful, and we are all very thankful.

Pa and his angels

Please..Anything But Politics!

I consider myself very apolitical. It’s not that I don’t care – in the end I do my patriotic duty and vote for the candidate I feel most closely reflects my ideals – but this whole election process bores me to tears. (And it’s only March)

I wish that someone would simply publish a check list of the candidate’s views, and a record of how he or she has voted on key issues in the past, and let people vote for the one that they agree with.

The debates are especially disturbing to me. Two smiling candidates on stage – representing the same party – supposedly on the same political side – arguing and tearing each other down – even resorting to name calling and personal attacks - trying to prove that they alone are the “real” Democrat or Republican, and their opponents are just impostors. Sounds too much like the religion of my youth….

One political story that I do find interesting this year is the one about the racist and separatist remarks made by Barack Oboma’s Pastor, Dr. Jeremiah Wright. I’m sure that his sermons were not intended to be political. They were not designed for public consumption. I suspect that they were just typical Sunday morning fodder that his congregation was very used to being fed.

The interesting part is going to be watching Mr. Oboma try to avoid stepping into this political pooh and distance himself from the racist views of his church. How can he publicly denounce his pastor’s views and still save face with his congregation? After the election, win or lose, will he be able to sit quietly in the pews of that church again on a Sunday morning and listen to this racist rhetoric? I don’t know. But, if he does, then I suspect that he never really disagreed with Dr. Wright in the first place. Time will tell.


Footnote: I just finished listening to Obama's speech answering to the controversy about his connection with and his allegiance to Dr Wright. I must say I was genuinely impressed. He seemed very straight forward and honest and didn't do a lot of side stepping. One interesting quote was "the most segregated time in America is the one hour on Sunday morning when we all go to church". We can't deny that he's right on that one.

What is Truth (part two)

I believe in everything - a little bit"
Marilyn Monroe

Long ago, and far away, the world was flat. People lived and died with no logical reason to ever question, challenge, or rethink this perceived truth. As far as they could see….it was truth.

Are you old enough to remember the TV game show Concentration?
It was based on a children’s matching game where contestants slowly revealed a hidden picture called a rebus. A rebus was a person, place, thing, phrase, etc., that was spelled out using phonetic sounds and pictures - hidden below a board of 25 numbers. As the rebus was slowly revealed contestants tried to be the first to see the whole picture and solve the puzzle.
(http://www.tv.com/classic-concentration/show/5391/summary.html)

So, what does an old TV show have to do with truth? Well, imagine, just for the sake of this discussion, that the rebus represents “The Truth” (the whole complete truth). It could therefore be reasoned that each small portion of the rebus represented “a truth” – which when pieced together at the end made up “The Truth”. How silly and pointless would it have been for the contestants to argue, debate, and out-right fight over “The Truth” before it was completely revealed? To guess, theorize, piece together, and ponder was good hearted, healthy, and fun. It was what made the show interesting. But to dogmatically declare “The Truth" based on your impression of “a truth” would have been absurd.

The objection to this allegory is predictable. Most will quote 2 Peter I: 3 and rightfully claim that we already have the complete picture and “The Truth” revealed to us in God’s word. Granted, this claim is “a truth”. But, how many of us have a complete understanding of God’s word? Let’s be honest, how many of us have ever even read it in its entirety?

There is indeed such a thing as truth. And, that truth is attainable - but it takes a lifetime. The truth is absolute and never changing. I, on the other hand, am growing, changing, and ever learning. The truth that I know today is not like the truth I knew when I was 20. While the truth never changes, my understanding and grasp of it changes daily. The truth, like the galaxy is so vast, that humans at their best can only catch a glimpse.

So, lighten up. Don’t be so dogmatic and opinionated. Don’t be so quick to judge. Be forever a student. Make sure your words are always seasoned with salt, for you may have to eat them one day.

I Corinthians 13:12 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.

Job 28:20-23 Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, Concealed even from the birds of the air. Destruction and Death say, ‘Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.’ God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells

Angels Among Us

She wasn’t my patient. I just went into the room to adjust one of the many IV pumps that were hanging by her bed. It was about 2:00am. It was quiet and dark. The only light in the room was the glow from the monitor that was currently saying that she was very sick. I thought she was asleep.

“My mother was just here” she whispered. “Maam?” I asked.
“Oh, I know she’s dead, but she was just here.” “She talked to me.”

Maybe it was the morphine. Maybe the neurons in her brain were misfiring after her stroke - but, then again, maybe not…

“What did she say”? I asked.

“She told me that I had helped her during her lifetime, so now she was here to help me.”
By this time the nurse who was assigned to her had slipped into the room and was listening to our conversation.

“That is wonderful” I said quietly. “God works in mysterious ways”

As we left the room the other nurse told me about her other patient. He was in the room next door. He had just become well enough that day to be taken off of his ventilator. He had just finished telling her about “Seeing the Master that day at the foot of his bed”.

The ICU straddles the line between life and death. Sometime the angels come and take souls home, but most of the time they are just there to help.

There is a place on our nurse notes where we can document when a patient's family is at the bedside visiting. So, that night, in a dark quiet intensive care room, with no one around but the nurses, we documented that her family was by her bedside.

What is Truth?

When Lynetta and I were teenagers, there was a man that we both greatly admired (we still do) He was one of the best Bible School teachers that we have ever had the privilege of listening to. I remember that he would always begin a new study with these words:

“I believe that there is such a thing as truth - and I belief that truth is attainable.”

I still love those words. To think that the right answers are really out there, and that they are still readily available to any sincere seeker, is reassuring and comforting.

I wish that I could still just accept those words and be content - but, you know me…..
I still believe the “truth” part. I do believe that the right answers are out there. It is that silly “attainable” part that keeps giving me so much trouble.

The classic, most quoted Bible verses concerning this subject are of course:
1. The question: Found in John 18:38 (Pilot’s question to Jesus; “What is truth?”)
2. The answer: Found in John 17:17 (where Jesus refers to God’s word as truth)

There was a time when all you had to do was start your sermon with these two scriptures and it automatically qualified the rest of what you had to say as “truth”. It implied that from that point forward everything you were about to say was directly from God’s word and therefore truth. That of course was a ridiculous and baseless assumption, but in our innocence we did not seem to notice or mind. This tactic actually seemed to work for awhile - that is until I started hearing the “Truth Scripture Trump Card” quoted and claimed by preachers with distinctly opposite points of view. Both were appealing to scripture. Both were holding up God’s word as the final authority, but they obviously did not interpret “Truth” in the same way.

The short sighted Pollyanna answer would be that one preacher was right and one was wrong. One was a true soldier of the cross, and the other was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. You simply choose which one you tended to agree with, or which one your particular church was affiliated with, and claim him the winner

But who is really to say which one is which? Scholars, men who were much wiser than me, who have dedicated their entire lives to the study of The Scriptures, who know more than I can even dream of knowing, have argued, debated, and disagreed about this stuff for the past 2000 years. How do I even stand a chance?

It is a subject that has caused me much grief. To flirt with the notion that “truth” was somehow so exclusive as to be out of reach for the common man was almost faith ending.

But, as always, God came to my rescue and showed me a better way…..
(To be continued)

When does perseverance stop and futility begin?

If I pull up on my boot straps long enough, and hard enough, will I eventually rise?

Doesn't it make sense to evaluate my methods based solely on my success or my failure? Does my inability to achieve a desired result make my choice of methods futile, or does it just mean that I simply didn’t try hard enough or stick with it long enough?

I know that patience, perseverance and determination are all good Christian virtues. But, what if I am being patient and persevering in the wrong way? For example; when it comes to my lifelong battle with my ever growing waist line, I have yet to find a method that yields any favorable long term results. My wife tells me that it is because I simply lack the perseverance and determination that I need to succeed. I am convinced of course that I just have not found the correct method yet. I know that I could really be determined and demonstrate great perseverance with a plan that worked. The trouble is, no plan will work unless I am determined and persevere. I’m doomed!

Then again, perhaps the only reason that I can’t fly is because I am simply not flapping my arms fast enough. I will just have to try harder.

Losing My Religion

Solomon said it best in Ecclesiastes 1:18, “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.”

Toby Keith, (The country singer) said it this way; “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.”

I long for the days when religion was simple. I still remember the comfort of having a simple childlike trusting faith that accepted without question and believed without logic. Life was so much easier when I truly believed that my church was the only church.

But, somewhere along the way I asked too many questions. I took passages like Acts 17:11 too literally. In my searching I accidentally discovered that some of the things I had been taught over the years were not necessarily correct – others were absolutely incorrect. That is really not an earth shattering discovery for most folks. Most folks would just learn from their misconceptions, adjust their course, and move on. But consider this; I was taught to believe that my church was the one and only “true church” by virtue of the fact we were the only ones left on earth who believed, understood, taught, and practiced everything correctly according to God’s will.. Other religious denominations did not qualify for true church-hood because they were not as correct as we were. So, in my mind incorrectness, however so slight, meant a fall from grace.

At first these questions were just a small chink in the armor of my religion.
I learned quickly that some questions were deemed inappropriate and out-of-bounds. Such questions simply had no place in a serious Bible class. To question was to sow discord. To disagree was to disrespect. So I kept quiet. I kept my questions to myself.

It’s a long boring story, so I will spare you the details. But, over time the religion of my youth grew less and less magical. Its importance slowly began to fade. What had once seemed so vital and so invincible now seemed somehow shallow and orchestrated.

The good news is that while I was busy doubting and losing my religion, God was busy working in the real world of my everyday life in undeniable ways. As my religion faded my faith grew. God has never been more real to me. I am still in awe. When it comes to God, I still enjoy the comfort of having a simple childlike trusting faith that accepts without question and believes without logic. He taught me that I don’t have to understand and I don’t have to know all of the answers. He just wants me to be still and know that he is God.

Am I saying then that religion is not important? Yes, I guess I am. Especially if your religion (like mine was) is the sole focus of your faith.