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How’d He Do That?

“How do you do it?”

That’s one of those complimentary questions we ask someone to show we are impressed with their performance. Sometimes we ask it in utter awe, legitimately amazed at their display of physical strength, mental aptitude and spiritual perseverance.

They are life skill jugglers, and we bow in respect at their ability to endure, thrive and get it all done.

Other times we ask the question with a hint of disdain. We’re not impressed with them, in fact, we’re kind of ticked!

Here, let me translate. On those occasions, the question “How do you do it?” can be translated in these ways:

*What’s wrong with you?
*You’re going to kill yourself
*Are you sure you should be doing all this?
*Knock it off, dude! You’re making us all look bad.

No one likes the guy who blows the curve, but you have to show them some respect. After all, they are apparently doing better than us. So, we continue to say it: “How do you do it?”
Continue reading “How’d He Do That?”

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It may be deadly, but at least we’re rested

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to speak at the chapel service for Hesston College. I always love speaking to college students as they are the next generation and all that, but I was asked to speak on a unique issue.

They were going through the Seven Deadly Sins this semester and wondered if I’d speak to one of them. I couldn’t resist… I picked sloth.

I said I was passionate about sloth… and I get right to work on it… I would diligently pour myself into sloth… if you aren’t getting the humor here, text a friend and ask for help.

In case you are wondering, the Seven Deadly Sins are not a Biblical grouping, but a teaching of the ancient/Catholic church include:

  • Pride
  • Avarice
  • Luxury
  • Envy
  • Appetite
  • Anger
  • Sloth

If you are really interested, you can always learn more about it at WIKIPEDIA, and usually half of what you find there is accurate.

If you are a regular in our faith community I am sure you have heard these illustrations before, but it was a fun challenge to speak on such a unique and narrow subject. Hope you enjoy!
Continue reading “It may be deadly, but at least we’re rested”

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Behave yourself

What’s better than getting up at 4 am on Black Friday to fight the crowds and strategically rifle through a well-thought out plan of attack documented only by a string of newspaper ads marked in Sharpie and ordered by store opening times?

Almost anything.

Anything is better than that.

Still, that was today for my bride and I as the kiddos slept in at Grandmas. We spent a small fortune (as opposed to the large fortune it could have been) and got about 90% of what we hunted.

We dominated Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target Mart and Home Depot Mart and even squeezed in a romantic breakfast for two at IHOP Mart.

While we were wolfing down some pancakes (actually, I was wolfing… Kathy never wolfs… she delicately cuts, slowly eats and cutely chews… she never wolfs) we were discussing how crazy some people were. Continue reading “Behave yourself”

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Symptoms aren’t the disease

We often get caught up in the trap of the immediate, but when it comes to our spiritual condition we need to look further than the surface.

In this video we can explore the possibility that we are spending too much time of the symptoms and not enough on the disease.

Matthew 15:19

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

 

Continue reading “Symptoms aren’t the disease”

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Wrong Getting Wronger

It was Memorial Weekend a few years ago, and due to my lack of planning we couldn’t go camping. As this news would be seriously disappointing to my boys, we determined to continue the camping excursion, even though every campsite in a tri-state area was booked.

We simply moved our adventure to KOA Addisland. Yep, we’ve all done it; camping in the backyard, that is. This would be my boy’s first experience.

Hot dogs and smores over an open fire, a six-man tent pitched in record time (3.5 hours… I didn’t say which record),  and a complete lack of bathrooms. Oh, we had them, but we made the boys go outside to increase the authenticity.

Never should have started that… they’d rather ‘water the lawn’ than all the other civilized options to this day.

Continue reading “Wrong Getting Wronger”

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It’s against my relationship to have a religion

It’s against my relationship to have a religion.

The core of religion (in any faith system) is a focus on rules, regulations and rigorous observation of prescribed behaviors. Sorry, that last one was a bit verbose, but I was looking for another ‘r’ word.

In fact, my good friend Merriam defines religion this way:

IMAGE_277re•li•gion \ri-ˈli-jən\ n

1 a  : the state of a religious  nun in her 20th year of religion

b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural

(2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

2   : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

3   archaic : scrupulous conformity : conscientiousness

4   : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

Hmmm. Sounds inviting, does it not?

Problem is, what I believe does not fit into this ‘religion’ model without a lot of cramming.

It’s a pretty complex recipe needed to change the teachings of Jesus into a religion. But, have no fear, humans are capable of almost anything; especially if it means taking something beautiful and making it bureaucratic, burdensome and baffling. Continue reading “It’s against my relationship to have a religion”

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Fear Not…

Fear is a funny thing. Some of it is good for you. God gave it to you as a way to protect yourself.

For example, when you’re walking down the street and massive pit bull with foam dripping from its mouth comes running at you, your typical response isn’t, “Nice, puppy!”

It’s fear… run, kick, scream. That’s a good thing.

However, the vast majority of our fears aren’t pit bulls. They aren’t collies, or even kittens. Truth is a good chunk of our fears are like that noise in the basement we  imagine is a serial killer whose been hiding there all day and is waiting until 3:46 AM because of some sick ritualistic obsession of his to come in and pounce on my entire family!

When actually it’s just the sump pump.

I’ve got some potentially scary days ahead and I just wanted to offer you this children’s camp moment as a reminder to Fear Not.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Now, watch the video below! Continue reading “Fear Not…”

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It’s Hero time!

I’ve spent this past Monday afternoon with a couple hundred grade schoolers here at Venue 302… yeah, day off!

Actually, it’s been fun. They are being rewarded for making their end of the year reading goals by getting the faris-at-venueafternoon free from class and kicking back to watch a movie here at our facilities. So, with popcorn and cookies in hand these kiddos sat down to watch The Tale of Despereaux.

I had never seen it, kinda cute.

As the movie was getting underway and the plot was setting up, the ‘stinger’ line is given: “A hero never appears until the world needs one“.

Enter title character Despereaux.

A great little movie about bravery, hope and the little guy making it big. But, I started thinking about the premise.

Is it true? Do heros wait to appear when they are needed? Do circumstance create our saviors?

At first, there seems to be some Biblical support for this. Galatians chapter four says:

4But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

Just looking at this verse it appears that God waited to send Jesus until we needed Him, but that can’t be right…

If that logic were correct then it would mean humans hadn’t pegged out the sin meter unil 2,000 years ago, and there was no need for a Savior until Jesus actually made the scene at the BC/AD split. Continue reading “It’s Hero time!”

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Expectations

 I am not a natural optimist. In fact, my natural propensity for fear, tends to lead me the…er, other way.

So, trying to have a positive expectation is not the norm for me. If I am getting ready for travel then I think about every nightmarish movie scene of plane, train and automobile disasters I have ever seen and simply overlay my face into the scenery… fun!

If I get a mysterious phone call and need an urgent reply, then I am sure that the person on the other end of the phone message has had their life completely unraveled or hates me… or their life has completely unraveled because they hate me… super fun!

If I have a soar throat, it’s never sinus drainage, it’s always some precursor to cancer, a rare disease in its final stages that will only be discovered in my autopsy, or the final mutation of the swine flu that has evolved to its pristine killer form within me… uber fun! Continue reading “Expectations”

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To hypocrite, or not to hypocrite

Don’t you hate it when you have to practice what you preach? You know, those great moments of accountability that you prepare for your whole life while simultaneously praying never arrive. I’m not just talking about the little things either:

  •  “Kids, eat your veggies,” and now a huge plate of asparagus stares you in the face
  • “Don’t drive like a maniac,” and now your 20 minutes away from a super important meeting that starts in 10 minutes
  • “Just chill out and quit worrying,” and now, well, you fill in the blank with anything. Am I right?

These little moments of accountability test our character everyday and threaten to label us “Genuine” or “Hypocrite” depending on our response.

Even if no one else knows, we’ll know.

But, every now and then comes a big test. Something that will really cost us something and totally begs the question, “Do you really believe all the junk you say?”

Which, by the way, is probably one of the best questions we could ever ask ourselves.

Continue reading “To hypocrite, or not to hypocrite”