Triangle, circles, community and Christ

Good morning,
 
I pray that the day is finding you well.
 
I got to the YMCA a few minutes later than normal this morning, the snow storm that we were going to have never really materialized.  In fact, the weatherman told us last night that NOAA would not even record the snow that we did get because it wasn’t measureable.  I learned that “a trace” of snow is not measurable, hmm.
 
When I got to the YMCA Norm, Nikki, and Lindsey were at the front desk.  Norm and Nikki doing their normal front desk stuff and Lindsey had a child from childwatch with her and he had math homework.  He was busy adding and subtracting on the number line.  Norm was helping him.  It wasn’t long before a math conversation ensued.
 
We started talking about triangles and the question came up, “How many triangles does it take to make a circle?”  We found out it is two, did you know that?  Of course you did, as my youngest son told his grandfather one Christmas when Grandpa guessed what was in the wrapped package, “Grandpa you’re so mart; how did you know it was a train game?”
We continued to talk about triangles.
 
Did you know that two triangle of the same shape make either a rectangle or a square?  Why am I asking you this?  Of course you knew.
 
So if two triangles can make a square or a rectangle and two triangles make a circle, then there must be a corresponding relationship between a square and a circle, but you already knew that too.
 
The next thing we learned was that if you were to put a circle under a “theoretical” electron microscope you would find that the circle is made up of many, many very small straight lines.  Lines so small that there wouldn’t be much to measure at all.
 
In fact, I would say that if we were to put a word to it the word “trace” could be used.  In any given point of a circle, there is only a trace of a straight line.
 
I started to think about NOAA and the fact that the snow event wasn’t big enough for them to bother with.
 
I started to think about Christ and how He was amazed at the little things, the same things that most of us would not even notice.
 
Matthew 13:31
 31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.
 
Matthew 18:1
 1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
 2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
 
Christ wasn’t impressed with the size of something, in fact the bigger something was the more He saw man’s will and not His father’s will in it.
 
Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline makes the following observation about service and the heart.
True service comes from a relationship with the divine Other deep inside.  We serve out of whispered promptings, divine urgings…Self-righteous service is impressed with the “big deal.”…True service finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service…Self-righteous service requires external rewards.  It needs to know that people see and appreciate the effort…True service rests contented in hiddenness.  It does not fear the lights and blare of attention, but it does not seek them either…Self-righteous service is highly concerned about results.  It eagerly waits to see if the person served will reciprocate in kind.  It becomes bitter when the results fall below expectations.  True service is free of the need to calculate results.  It delights only in the service.  It can serve enemies as freely as friends.  Self righteous service picks and chooses whom to serve…True service is indiscriminate in its ministry…Self-righteous service is affected by moods and whims.  It can serve only when there is a “feeling” to serve (“moved by the Spirit” as we say)…True service ministers simply and faithfully because there is a need…Self-righteous service is temporary…True service is a lifestyle…Self-righteous service is insensitive.  It insists on meeting need even when to do so would be destructive. True service can withhold the service as freely as perform it.  It can listen with tenderness and patience before acting.  It can serve by waiting in silence…Self-righteous service fractures community…True service builds community. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishing Company, 1998), 128-9.
 
Just as a circle cannot be made without many, many very small straight lines.  One cannot build community without placing one’s self in a position  of smallness and place other people’s needs  at the center.
 
Blessings,

A good night's sleep

Good morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

Laurie and I bought a new mattress.

Our old mattress had gotten so lumpy and bumpy that it had become almost impossible to get a nights sleep. In fact it started to look like one of those 3-d topographical maps that we used to have in school. I would look at our mattress and I was sure that I could pick out the rocky mountain range, the vast rift valley of Africa and the mid Atlantic ridge. There was one part of the mattress that I am sure had the same measurements as the Mariannes trench.

Laurie is a consummate garage saler; she loves the treasure hunt and really has a aversion to paying full price for anything. The running joke in our family is she found me at a garage sale. Over the years as our mattress got worse she would find garage sale mattresses; I would nix the idea, I have an aversion to sleeping on mattresses that others have used for a long time, eeeu.

Laurie and I bought a new mattress.

I am feeling kind of jipped out of a nights sleep. I lay down at night and the next thing I know it is time to get up. I often wake up in the same position that I lay down in when I go to bed. With the old mattress I knew I had been in bed for a while. The act of tossing and turning, looking at the clock umpteen times a night verified that I had been in bed for a certain amount of time. Now I go to bed and then wake up, I wake up most times on my own completely rested. I never used to dream, now I dream all the time and I'm not used to it. Dreams are weird and sometimes scary.

I like to get up early in the morning, make my coffee; actually push the on button since Laurie makes the coffee the night before, something that I really appreciate.

The other morning I woke up, went to the kitchen to push the button to make the coffee; actually I have to push two buttons. We have a fancy coffee maker that has a bean grinder on it so that one can put fresh coffee beans into the coffee maker and the coffee maker grinds the beans, then make the coffee all in one process. Laurie bought it at a garage sale for $5.00. I don't use the bean grinder, I don't think it is necessary to grind up Folger's again before I brew it. So I have to push the button that turns the bean grinder off, obviously a coffee maker a fancy as this assumes you will be grinding your beans and not be using Folger's in the coffee maker, in fact I am sure that I am shortening the lifespan of the coffee maker by using Folger's, anyway, I turn off the grinder and then push the "brew the coffee" button, quite the process actually.

I push the buttons on the coffee maker and the radio comes on. This is when I realize that Laurie had not put the coffee maker together to make the coffee. I turn off the radio, open the dishwasher, get out the parts to the coffee maker and put it together and then push the buttons again. Again, no coffee just music, now I am really getting upset.

It is at this moment that I realize that the alarm is going off and I am in bed dreaming. As amazing as our coffee maker is, it doesn't have a radio in it and it doesn't disassemble into many parts that can be put in the dishwasher. Hmm, something that I could invent; no, I'm not creative that way, it would probably turn out like some combination soup and tea maker which doesn't sound appealing at all.

I had another night of going to bed and then waking up, only this time I had a weird dream added in for good measure.

Why am I telling you all this? I can hear you know thinking in your mind, or maybe even out loud, "Really Roger, what's the point?"

The point is, here Laurie and I had been putting up with a very bad mattress for a very long time because we could not truly grasp what it would be like to be on a very good mattress. In fact it wasn't until Laurie had a back problem that the thought of a new mattress came to the top of our minds and then became a priority.

After getting the mattress and a great nights sleep; here I am feeling cheated out of "rest time" because of it's effectiveness.

So often I think that we Christians here in America are feeling that we need to put on a dour face as if we are truly suffering for the Lord when in fact we have a pretty good mattress in our life. We hear of others being persecuted, others that are truly suffering for the lord. Yet when we go to these countries they are the ones acting as if they have the good mattress, they are joyful in the Lord; we, the ones that the world looks at as the top 1% of the wealthy of the world, don't seem all that joyful in our walk with Christ.

Awake, my soul!

Awake, harp and lyre!

I will awaken the dawn.

I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples.

For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to the skies. (Psalm 57:8-10 NIV84)

If others had done a more complete telling of the beauties of what a good mattress could bring maybe Laurie and I would not have waited so long to buy a new one.

If we do a better, more complete work for the Lord maybe others would be compelled to give Christ a try. Life isn't easy and sometimes it is downright hard, but that should not take away our joy in the Lord. He died for us, the least we can do is be happy about it.

Blessings,

Get out of the boat

Good morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

I was driving to the YMCA this morning, as I was driving I was listening to the radio.

Yesterday I was talking with a friend who had recently bought a car, he is an avid motorcyclist and didn’t even have a car for years. I asked him, “How do you like the car?” He said, “It’s warm!”

So I am driving along listening to some station that was on the radio when I got in the car this morning. They were talking about sandwiches, more aptly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They talked about crunchy or smooth, debating the pros and cons of each. They talked about jelly verses jam, debating the pros and cons of each. The topic of preserves came up and threw everyone for a loop for a while.

I am driving along thinking my own thoughts with half an ear tuned to the radio. After about twenty minutes I came out of my thought and started listening to the radio fully. This is when I realized that I was listening to utter nonsense. That in my unintentional state of being I had been listening to a group of people who had nothing better to talk about than the differences between chunky and smooth peanut butter. When they went off on a debate over miracle whip and mayonnaise, with arose after someone said that they like to put mayonnaise on their peanut butter sandwich, I turned off the radio.

I like being intentional.

I like being a chaplain.

I like being a conduit that Jesus can use to have conversations with people who for whatever reason never or at least seldom walk through the doors of a church.

I like working with people, getting them to see their God given potential.

I like being a chaplain in the YMCA.

I like seeing people learn to be great.

My sadness comes when someone says, “I’m good to go. I don’t need the YMCA, church or Jesus.”

Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, makes the following observation.
Good is the enemy of great.

If someone never takes that hard look at themselves they may never go from good to great.

John Ortberg laments the following in his book, If you want to walk on water you’ve got to GET OUT OF THE BOAT.

To sinful patterns of behavior that never get confronted and changed,
Abilities and gifts that never get cultivated and deployed –
Until weeks become months
And months turn to years,
And one day you’re looking back on a life of
Deep intimate gut-wrenching honest conversations you never had;
Great bold prayers you never prayed,
Exhilarating risks you never took,
Sacrificial gifts you never offered
Lives you never touched,
And you’re sitting in a recliner with a shriveled soul,
And forgotten dreams,
And you realize there was a world of desperate need,
And a great God calling you to be part of something bigger than yourself –
You see the person you could have become but did not;
You never followed your calling.
You never got out of the boat.
[1]John Ortberg, If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to GET OUT OF THE BOAT, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 34.

My prayer today is that we spend less time talking about peanut butter sandwiches and more time talking about things that truly matter. That we spend less time thinking about things that at the end of the day are really trivial and more time thinking about the things that are truly important. That our hearts are turned toward love and unity and away from anger and dissent; that we have the courage to get out of the boat.

When I asked my friend what he liked about his car I am glad he didn't say the radio.

Blessings,

Roger

The case of the missing boom box

Good morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

A boom box went missing the other day.

I found out about it as I went into the person’s office and she was complaining that somebody took her boom box. It was in her office when she left on Friday but was missing when she came back on Monday. Needless to say she was pretty upset. She wanted to know who took her stuff.

The funny thing about “stuff” is that we get attached to it. When “stuff” goes missing we wonder two things: one-where it went and two-who might have taken it. We go to great detail as to “why” someone would take our stuff.

As she lamented the loss of her boom box I said, “We live in a broken world.” She said, “Roger, that doesn’t help.” I said, “I know.” So often we try to ultra spiritualizing something and offering someone no real help often times inadvertently hurting them even more. To push her buttons a little more I said, “Maybe they needed the boom box more than you.” She said, “That doesn’t help either.” I said, “I know.” She said, “I just want to know where my boom box is and why someone would take it.”

So the hunt was on.

At first the thought of a practical joke crossed our minds. When after a time no one returned the boom box the idea of a joke had passed.

We looked up and down but to no avail.

Two days go by.

It was Wednesday afternoon and I was walking through the YMCA and there on top of the sound equipment in one of the studios was a boom box that looked exactly like the one that had been missing. An instructor was teaching a class and the music was playing. I went to get my friend who had lost her boom box.

She looked in the studio and sure enough that was her boom box.

She turned and started walking back to her office smiling.

I said, “Aren’t you going to get your boom box?”
She said, “No they are using it.”

I said, “We live in a broken world.” And smiled at her.

Suddenly she realized that when I said that two days ago I wasn’t lamenting over the brokenness of everyone else in the world. I was making an observation that her perceived need for her “stuff” had taken her to a place of anger and anguish; that even though someone took her boom box without asking or at least leaving her a note that she was placing a lot of value on something that could break or be gone in an instant.

True happiness doesn’t come from the things we own.

True happiness comes from the things we share.

She wasn’t there the Saturday that the sound equipment failed and a group exercise instructor was scrambling to find something that would work for a class. That is why the boom box went missing. In her haste she forgot to leave a note and then forgot to leave a note after the class.

It was fun to see her smile!

Matthew 6:19-2119 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Blessings,

Baritones and violins

Good morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

When I was in the fourth grade my parents took me to band night at my school; band night is where all the instruments are laid out to look at and hear. The band teacher was there and played a number of instruments so that we could listen to them and see which one touched our hearts and captured our souls. This was where I learned what an Oboe was. I sat there not really interested, my parents made me go, and listened. Nothing really hit and I was growing impatient. I was growing impatient until I heard the most beautiful thing that I ever heard; a violin. I immediately knew what instrument I wanted to play. I leaned over to my dad and said, “I want to play the violin.” My dad leaned over to me and said, “You’re going to play the baritone.” I asked, “Why?” Dad said, “We already have a baritone at home and violins are expensive.”

So I played the baritone.

I would go to band practice and listen to the violin sing. All I got to do was boom, boom, boom, the melodic rhythm of the bass section.

I didn’t play the baritone very long.

I played sports.

I always told myself that when I grow up I am going to buy a violin and play it!

I ended up being kind of good at football, good enough to play it in college anyway. So I did. I played wide receiver and defensive back. The funny thing about these two positions is that you get your fingers jammed a lot; you get your fingers broken at times. I liked playing football; I didn’t like the jammed and broken fingers very much.

Time goes by.

I grow up; I get a job and yes I buy a violin.

The day I brought the violin home was a great day. I took it out of the case, placed the violin under my chin and griped the neck. It was then that I realized that I could not bend my fingers around the neck to press the strings. My fingers didn’t work the way they used to.
It was a sad day.

I placed my violin in a place of prominence, a place where I could at least look at it and see its beauty.

A place where it could collect dust.

I was talking with a friend the other day and they were looking in pawn shops for a violin for their daughter. They were not having any luck. They were getting frustrated.

As I listened to my friend talk I realized that as beautiful as my violin was its true beauty came from the music it made.

A violin is meant to be played, not looked at.

I gave my friend my violin.

They were very thankful, they kept telling me what a blessing I was.

What they didn’t realize is how they have blessed me.

In my mind I can hear their daughter playing that violin. I can hear it sing.

Christ’s love comes to mind.

He could have kept His love to Himself, but He didn’t.

He could have kept it on a shelf, but he didn’t

He gave it away, He gets to hear it sing.

The blessing of giving.

Blessings,

Lasagna and Corn dogs

Good morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

The sun is shining and the day is warm.

At church on Sunday one of our members mentioned that it was the first day in over two hundred days that had any measurable sunshine. He made the observation, “I am not sure how you measure sunshine.”

Two hundred days is a long time, over six months. Actually in the course of a lifetime it isn’t that long but it can sure feel like a long time when you are going through it.

The “two hundred days without any measurable sunshine” thing got me to thinking. It got me to thinking about the statement, “this too shall pass.” We tend to live in the moment and we do have a hard time looking forward to the things to come; especially when the “things to come” are out in front of us a ways.

I can remember when we were in the midst of the rain the weather people would say things like, “Well, today is rainy, the three day forecast is rain. But Friday looks dry. I would excited about Friday. I would look forward to Friday.

I would get up Friday morning and look outside and expect to see the sun only to see rain continuing to fall. I would turn on the news and the weather people would say, “Today is rainy, the three day forecast is rain. But Tuesday looks dry.” Only to have the same thing repeat itself on Tuesday. This would go on and on and on and as I mentioned earlier it went on for something like two hundred days.

I got to the point where I wished that the weather people would just predict rain and if the sun happened to come out I would have a nice surprise. I started to connect the “predictions” to my wife’s lasagna. I love my wife’s lasagna, this is one reason why my old pants don’t quite fit anymore. These predictions were like me asking my wife what we were going to have for dinner and she would say Lasagna. I would work all day all excited about having lasagna for dinner. When I would get home she decided to make corn dogs instead. Now I have to confess that my wife never traded lasagna for corn dogs but that is what I think it would feel like. I am glad that my wife is not a weather person.

Back to the point Roger. While it may seem that whenever we are going through a tough time it seems that it will never end, it will. While it may seem as if the hurt will never end, it will.

It will if we allow Christ to comfort us, to turn and look at Him, He can and will heal us. He will hold us in His arms and whisper in our ear, “This too shall pass.”


I know that I have used this passage before but it fits very well:
Jeremiah 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

If you are going through a “rainy” season in life know that the sun will come out again.

Blessings,

Paper or Plastic?

Good morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

Paper or plastic?

I found myself at the store the other day and I am standing in line waiting. It seems as though I have the uncanny gift to go to the store when it is at its busiest. I like to joke with my wife that I don’t know how everyone knows when I’m going to be at the store. I live in a small town and it seems that every time I go to the store I run into a variety of people that want to talk. Many times the conversation surrounds kids, family, the weather. Often times they ask me to pray and share times of difficulty with me.

So I am standing in line waiting, and I look around and this is what I see. I see moms with their kids. I see dads with their kids.

I am standing in line waiting, and this is what I don’t see. I don’t see moms and dads with their kids.

I begin to take a closer look.

I don’t see the rings on the fingers anymore; something has changed in the dynamic of some of the families. Not everyone at once mind you, but every time I go to the store I notice something amiss.

I am reminded of a book that I once read, “Those that stayed behind.” It is a book about the depression. It is a book about the dustbowl. It is a book very unlike the “The Grapes of Wrath.” It is a book about the people that didn’t go away. It is a book about the ones that stayed behind.

While the depression and resulting catastrophes that it caused to society and to families was a terrible thing, there are many lessons that we can take from it. One lesson is that know matter how bad things may get or how unhappy one may become we are not alone. There are people that still count on them. There are people that love them.

I’m not talking about people living in abuse. I’m talking about people that give up on people. I’m talking about people that start seeing greener pastures, or so they think, and decide that they will leave. I am talking about people that have made a mistake and can’t forgive themselves so they assume the person that they have wronged can’t forgive them and they leave.

Paper or plastic?

We live in a throw away society. We live in a time or recycle. We live in a time were when we are done with it we recycle it back or simply throw it away.

Recycling is good when it comes to paper or plastic. It isn’t so good when it comes to people and families.

Many have been recycled, many have been thrown away.

In the midst of being recycled there is nothing that anyone can say that will make a recycled person feel better. Every piece of advice seems trite. The best that we can do is just stand with this person and be there for them. The act of praying with them gives them a sense of peace and that they are loved.

There are a couple of verses that seem to help. One is Joshua 1:5 “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Just knowing that no matter what God is with you and will never leave you gives you a place to go to lament. The other is Jeremiah 29:11 “11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Remembering that when Nebuchadnezzar took the Jews into captivity there were many that were just everyday Jews that had kept His word and loved Him that were taken with all the rest. They must have been saying, “Why me, what did I do?” knowing that God was telling the people that had been taken into captivity that He is there with them and that better days are ahead is a comfort.

Paper or plastic?

Being recycled is a challenge. But a very wise person once said, “It isn’t the challenge that defines you. It is your response to the challenge that defines you."

Will you let darkness win? Will you dwell on evil thoughts, on how to get even?

or

Will you let light win? Will you set your mind on the things above:
Colossians 3:1 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

Just remember that Christ loves you, will you love Him back?

Or in the midst of your pain have you recycled Christ?

Something to think about.

Blessings,