Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Well, I’m thankful for a few things this year—Family (Thanks Rachel for giving me such a great family), the grace of Christ, Church family, my friends, health, and that we live in such a blessed area of the world.
How about you? Give me 3 things that you are thankful for this Thanksgiving Day!
Lessons From My Lawn (Lesson #2)
Last week I started a series called “Lessons from My Lawn” where I talked a little about pulling weeds (destructive behaviors) from their proverbial roots, and today I want to talk a little about “weed identification.”
A few weeks ago, after spending plenty of hours weeding and mulching my yard, I took a minute to step back and marvel over what I had accomplished. Rachel, who was bringing me a drink, came outside and looked over the yard and lovingly said;
“Looks great, but are you going to pull out that weed?”
“Weed?” —I defensively responded. “Where?”
She proceeded to point out a weed that, to me, looked like a flower (This is why I try to focus on the lawn.)
With dripping skepticism I asked, “Are you sure that’s a weed?”
She blurted, “Yes, positive!” (Insert a “your an idiot” type of stare here —I get that a lot.)
After I pulled the weed, this small exchange made me start thinking about all the behaviors in my life that I think are flowers but are really weeds! Like, for example, busyness. We live in a culture that models, celebrates and rewards busyness. And I (we), in return, embrace busyness (having no margins) at the expense of my relationship with God, my children, Rachel, physical health, emotional balance and time of Sabbath. Yet, if our society was looking at this particular weed in my life it would be celebrated like a prized rose bush.
Do you find that busyness is a weed that you nurture? Do you have any different weeds (destructive behaviors) in your life that look like flowers to others?
“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’ ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10: 38-42
“Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them.”
Psalm 39:6
The Sharing Box
My 4 year old daughter, Ella, brought home the “Sharing Box” this week. What is the sharing box? Well, as you can imagine, it’s a box that you bring home with you, from Pre-school, and put 5 or 6 important things in the box. Then, you bring the box, and it’s contents, back to school and “Share” the contents, and why it’s so important to you, with the class.
It made me think about what is in my “sharing box”, and how the contents of that box affects how I “share” life with the people that are around me. Of course, I am not referring to a real “sharing box” that we all bring home from work or school, but the internal box that is deep with in us where we keep the things that we think are “important”. Those things that we determine as “important”, and keep close to us, can be both good and bad: important relationships, wounds that we have suffered, fear, hope, self image, ambition, money, love, the cross, and our relationship with God.
Take a look at what Jesus says about the Sharing box in the verses below.
What is in your sharing box these days? How does it affect how you “share-life” with the people around you?
45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks (Shares) what the heart is full of.
34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks (Shares) what the heart is full of.
Advertising is literally everywhere!
Is it just me or have you noticed a new level of advertising. With the complete saturation of advertising in all of the “normal avenues” advertisers are now looking for new and unique places to stick advertisements and possibly reach new markets.
Here are just a few examples of what I am talking about.
(Yes, I took these pictures with my I-phone)
Straw advertising
Valet Tag Advertising
supermarket aisle video advertising
Here is one thought and a question about all the non-stop advertising that we face every day. OK, it’s no secret that we live in a hyper consumer culture, and much of our common language and experiences today stem from our absolute immersion into this culture of capitalism. And, because of this “culture of capitalism” most of us have developed a “consumer-radar”, if you will, that first assumes that people are trying to sell you something. My question is this: Do you think this “consumer-radar” affects the ability of people to hear the message of Jesus? Is there a cure?
Have you seen any unique places where advertisers have posted their messages? Please, feel free to take a picture and send it to me so that I can add them to the blog.
Also, would you do me a favor, if you see something, anything, over the course of your day that looks interesting… church signs, posters, funny people, things you read on-line, you-tube videos, t-shirts, bumper stickers, real life stories, sad stuff, happy stuff, christian stuff, (No Justin Beiber stuff please)…please email them to me so I can pass them on! Pictures are good!
Oh, and by the way, I have two blocks of adverting at the top of this blog I will sell you at a great price! (lol)
What is faith?
I was scrolling through the “#Jesus” twitter feed when an unexpected tweet caught my eye. This tweet read; “Faith = 1/4 wishful thinking, 1/2 willful ignorance, & 1/4 gullibility.” Now, I usually don’t get into conversations with people online, because it rarely changes any-ones opinion or ends well. And, the fact that this guy “hash-tagged” Jesus, (#Jesus- for my non-twitter people out there, #hash-tags are simply the way to make any topic search-able through the powerful twitter search engine) and compared him to a leprechaun, just meant he was looking to argue/tick-off some Jesus followers.
My response to tekphreak, and atheists/agnostics who argue against the idea of faith, is that atheist do believe in the practical reality of faith, like it or not! Mariam Websters defines faith as this:
“ (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof
(2) : complete trust”
Here is my argument against Tekphreak.
1. Atheists have a firm belief that God does not exist
2. They can not prove that God does not exist.
3. Therefore, they have faith that God does not exist…. but, they still have faith! It might be faith in their own understanding, and not God, but it’s still faith! “A firm belief in something they can not prove!”
As a believer in Jesus my faith is described in Hebrews 11:1
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
What do you think? Read my conversation and tell me how would you have responded to Tekphreak? Do you believe a person can have NO faith? …In anything?
