Saturday, April 25, 2009

A fowl attitude

Last Thursday morning I was setting on the porch with my laptop just enjoying the weather and seeking inspiration for Sunday’s message. And then in the midst of my meditation I heard what appeared to be a gaggle of geese coming my way. As I looked up I was surprised to see about fifty or so geese flying in formation only thirty five feet above me. They were gloriously beautiful and graceful as they flawlessly swam through the atmosphere on what seemed to be invisible sheets of glass. When all of a sudden the magnificent sounds of their voices and flapping wings was intruded upon by the shrill voice of our miniature dachshund as she awoke from her sound sleep from beneath my chair and dove off the porch, yelping all the way in her feeble attempt to seemingly ward off the noisy perpetrators who were invading the airspace above her turf. She continued to bark until they were completely out of site and then proudly trotted back with both her head and tale held high as she reclaimed her domain for the morning under my chair, and went back to sleep on the cool concrete floor of the front porch.

Now as my mind was downloading what I’d just encountered I realized something I seriously needed to record and share with others. You see as these majestic creatures were flying just above us, I’m sure they could hear the yelps of the dog as she beckoned her warnings and complaints in their direction, but the thing is it didn’t stop them. It didn’t faze them at all because they just continued to fly above it. They didn’t allow her complaints to slow them down, change their direction or goal for their lives.


And that’s when it hit me, as followers of Christ we have a direction and goal in this life to “rise above” all the stuff, or those who would try to detour us, or cause us take our sights off our destination before we arrive there. We can be flying high and doing fine, but then there always seems to be somebody who’s unhappy with the fact that you’re flying and they’re still grounded. And for some reason they have this insatiable desire to do their best to bring you down. But in order to keep from being grounded, as Christ followers we should always keep our focus on the goal or as the Apostle Paul puts it, we should always “keep our eyes on the prize”. And honestly our true goal should not only be to make it to heaven, but it should be to “rise” to the occasion of drawing close to God every opportunity we get in this life now. So keep your goal and destination ahead of you and don’t be diverted, disrupted or detained by others complaints or disapprovals of your altitude, but rather do all you can to “lift them up” in your prayers.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

THE BOX

I can remember this one time growing up I was probably around 5 or 6 years old and mom and dad purchased a new washing machine and in order to get it out of the box dad cut one of the side panels on the box so it opened like a door in order to make it easier to slide the washer out. And after they were finished hooking up moms washer she gave me the box, which for my age at the time, was ginormous (giant + enormous = ginormous). Mom helped me take the box outside and then as she placed it in the front lawn she said, “Look you have a new playhouse.” From that point on that box became something new day, after day, after day through the power of my imagination. It started out as a house, then it transformed into a fort, from a fort to a castle, from a castle to a boat, from a boat to a submarine then from a sub to a spaceship…well you get the picture. Then one morning I awoke and ran outside to live out my next adventure in the box only to discover it had rained most of the night and my box had dissolved into a representation of a Salvador Dali painting. Well as you might guess I was devastated, distraught and disgusted. My box was no longer usable for my adventures and it was laid to rest in a black body bag and placed by the curb for the garbage hearse to take it to the box graveyard just north of town.

But now every time I see a large box sitting on the curb somewhere I reflect back to a time of vivid imaginations and a mother who not only encouraged, but spurred on my adventurous creativity. Now that I’m grown and 48 years old those memories may still be there, but usually all I see when I see a box is something that’s in desperate need of recycling. What happens to us as we get older? Do we gain so much knowledge that we misplace our God-given imagination? As we get older do we get told enough times that a box, is a box, is a box that we can’t imagine it being anything other than a box? The next time you see a box, take a long look at it and remember that like a box your mind and your life can become whatever you make of it, if you will just set your mind to it, and be open to your God-given creative imagination.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

KNOWING

This Sunday is the last of our KNOWING series. And this message literally brings the others to “an end.” Now the movie Knowing we’ve been using as a reference to this series has a little sci-fi in it mixed with plenty of Biblical connotations and references. And like this series the movie reflects the fact that “knowing is everything” and to be honest for us as Christ’s followers that fact stands equally true. You see we call ourselves “believers” because of our ‘knowing’ God raised His Son from the dead, which in turn, affords us the fact of knowing we are saved and so knowing is everything.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Dads plan

I heard this story once about this couple and their six year old daughter who went on a two week vacation to California. When they arrived at their hotel the daughter was so excited because she saw the hotel had an indoor swimming pool. So the Dad loved his little girl so much he decided to allow her to go to the hotels pool and he would watch over her as she swam while the Mom unpacked their things. The daughter swam in the pool for about two hours and when the Dad finally said it was time to get out of the pool, she didn’t want to go. So the Dad allowed her to swim another ten minutes, then another and another until finally he had to actually get in the pool himself and carry her little six year old body kicking and screaming all the way back to the room, all because she didn’t want to stop swimming in that nice hotel pool. But to her surprise a few minutes later her Dad and Mom drove her to the beach where she was introduced to the pleasure of swimming in the ocean. And after swimming in the ocean the six year old never swam in the hotel pool again.

Now this story reminds me of us and our Heavenly Father. Sometimes we settle for a hotel swimming pool when our Heavenly Father or our Heavenly Dad has an ocean he wants us to experience. You see there are times in our lives I really believe we settle for less than what God has or wants for us. But we miss out on His plan because we're not always willing to give up our will for His in order to experience it.

So maybe we should ask ourselves everyday, what am I settling for?

Because whatever it is, I guarantee you Dads plan is way better!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Gettin' some Z's

Last Monday night I had to go in for a sleep study at Olathe Med. For once in my life it was a good thing I didn't meet protocol. The sleep dude told me he didn't have to wake me up and put me on the breathing machine because even though I did stop breathing in my sleep a few times it wasn't enough to warrant using one of those machines the rest of my life. It took him forty five minutes to hook me up to forty-some wires from my legs to my almost bald head. Then he monitored my every move and every breath by camera and all those wires all night long. Talk about the definition of "Big Brother is Watching" that night took the cake.

Well even though it was a different experience, now that I think about it-it isn't really that different. The Word tells us that God knows every hair on our head and it also says He watches over us all the time, twentyfour seven. All I can say is I'm glad He's watching over me all the time instead of that dude in the baby-blue blue pajamas.