Zone Bleue

Zone Bleue (French for Blue Zone) was a special traffic zone in the inner city of Paris in the decades after World War II. It was restricted to cars and delivery vehicles that required very little space on the street. Think Fiat 500. I had a very tall friend, 6’5 as I recall, who drove one of those for years. I had no trouble getting in and out of it but it was a treat just watching him fold himself into that small car. The neat part was that he could park it just about anywhere and we rarely had to walk far from a spot to a store.

In America, we have parking restrictions, believe it or not. You would never know it if you watch how people conduct themselves in parking lots. And how about those shopping carts–that’s a whole other story.

I live near a fairly sizable strip shopping center housing half a dozen shops, a few of them pretty large with hundreds of parking spaces from which to choose. Of course the first few spaces nearest the entrance doors are set aside and marked as handicap spaces. The usual color to signify handicap is blue, sometimes red. Red is, for sure, the color used by government to mark prohibited space primarily for emergency vehicles.

Just about every time I go over to this shopping center, a local police officer is sitting at one end or the other of the strip, obviously watching out for those who park near the curb that is clearly painted red with the words, NO PARKING — EMERGENCY VEHICLES ONLY. I bet you can guess or you have seen with your own eyes that message is ignored, a lot.

A day or two ago, I was sitting in my truck waiting for my girlfriend of 53 years, to whom I have been married for nearly 52 years, to come out of one of the stores in that strip. I usually do not park anywhere near the entrances because I do not want my truck to get banged up with doors opening and carts slamming. On this occasion, though, I was able to back into a space that afforded me some sense of security and a clear view of people parking across from me, especially in the handicap spaces.

Before I paint the picture for your mind that I’m thinking about, let me say I know the person behind the wheel of a car with a handicap tag is not always the one with a limitation. That kind of makes this little story even more poignant, in my opinion. As I sat waiting, a beautiful, very expensive, black crossover pulled into the first handicap space. I could not see anything through the windows because the tint job was clearly darker than what is allowed by law. A female bounded out the door of the car and proceeded into the same store where my wife was shopping. A few minutes later, she walked briskly from the store to the car, opened the rear hatch to set a large box in the back. That is when I saw the handicap card hanging from the rearview mirror. I could also see now that she was alone. Alone mind you, with what appeared to be a perfectly legal handicap parking placard, but one that she clearly did not need.

She stood there for a minute and then another equally nice black and expensive SUV pulled in beside her in yet another handicap space, same blacked out windows and probably even more expensive than the one she was driving. The rear hatch of the new parker opened and low and behold, another legal looking handicap parking card. The person who emerged from this car was familiar with the first driver, equally as capable of walking, and picked up a box from her rear compartment and put it beside the box already in the other car. Both women proceeded to grab their purse, close their hatches, and head of down the strip I can only assume to merrily go shopping.

Sad. A travesty, no. Breaking the law, yes. But worse than that, these two, mindful or not, showed a complete lack of respect for others, especially for those who have physical limitations.

But there is a part to this story that is even worse than their display of disrespect and ignoring the law. Their conduct was an ever so brief commentary about our society as a whole. Greed, selfishness, and having no regard for others, are symptoms of the chaos facing us every time we leave our homes. Godlessness, a clear lack of morality and self respect are are clearly destroying what was once a great country.

There is a cure and it quite simple. But people are too busy to stop and recognize their need. They need a good dose of Jesus, not in name only, but in a way that changes their hearts so that their behavior follows what they say they believe.

Choices

In 2024, for most of us, maybe all of us, there will be a lot of choices to make. I sincerely hope that you and I make the right choices, but I doubt we will, at least every time. Making a choice is kind of like driving up to a fork in the road. You must decide which way to go, left or right. Or, you decide to turn around and go back the way you came. That might be the way to go, especially if you don’t know for sure which is the right turn. Sometimes, when you get to that fork in the road, the choice is really easy because you have been to that same fork many times and you already know the right way to go. But, also sometimes, you face that same fork in the road knowing which way is the right way to go and once again you take the wrong turn knowing the negative consequences you face going down that road.

Making choices is only ever easy if we are prepared to make the right choice. And believe me, you can be as prepared as you can be and still make a wrong choice. I have done it over and over. By the way, life does not just happen and we are not just along for the ride waiting for someone else to make choices for us. Even in not making a choice, we are choosing to make a choice. Now that is heady.

I know a lot of people who live reckless lives. It appears they are always making wrong choices. They get in trouble a lot, they almost never have enough to get by, and they seem really sad and unsure most of the time. That is not fate, and it is not a matter of circumstance, it is the result of wrong choices. Some might say, “Well I can’t help it, this happened to me because. . .” You still have a choice after something happens that was unfortunate or just plain wrong. You can choose to be a victim of circumstance or you can choose to rise above it and stay on the right track or get back on the right track. The choice is always yours.

I was in a jail one time (not as a prisoner, thank God) talking to a guy who had been there for many years. He had just been in a fight and was pretty beaten up. We were talking about the choices he had made in life, especially the bad choices he had made, and he said something that has stuck with me all these years. He said, “I’m all beat up because I made a bad choice.” Why was that a significant statement? Well, you might think being in jail puts you in a predicament where you can no longer make choices. That is not true. Wherever you are in life, choices are staring you in the face all the time. On this particular occasion, I spoke to this rugged looking, foul talking, disrespectful man, and decided to try to help him make sense of what life he had left. I wanted to help him make a right choice for a change.

As we talked, he realized I didn’t have to be there having that conversation. I chose to be in that jail, at that time, with a message of hope for him. I told him it didn’t matter where he had been or what he had done, hope was still available, in fact, right on the horizon. At first, it didn’t make a bit of sense to him, but as I started sharing about my faith and where I had come from, he began to realize that the hope I was talking about was real and it was a matter of a choice I had made many years ago.

I told him how I nearly ended my own life out of frustration and almost took the lives of my infant son and wife as a result of my bad choices. I let him know that my life had not been anywhere near perfect since I decided to follow Jesus Christ, but the more I walk with him the better it gets and the more good decisions I am able to make. This dear man began to listen intently as he heard more about Jesus, his sinless life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection. He began to understand his dire need of a savior and how he deserved to die and go to hell but didn’t have to do that. You see, in his mind he was already making good decisions. He decided to listen, he decided not to argue, he decided not to dismiss the message. . .and finally, he decided to make the best choice he will ever make in this life. He decided to receive Jesus Christ as his own Savior and Lord. He approached God in repentance, truly sorry in his heart for the godless life he had lived to that point, and he decided he didn’t want to live that way anymore.

He made the right choice.

Wham, Bam, Thank You, Ma’am

Another year has come and is almost gone, society seems to be deteriorating at a pace not before seen in history, politics is still politics as usual, more eyes than ever before are blinded to truth, and the majority of people are passing the time as if nothing is really wrong. How do I know this? Isn’t it obvious.

People are spending money like they have it to spend, but the evidence shows that personal debt is at an all time high (at least in the US). It is not just individuals and families who are charging their lives into bankruptcy, government is working overtime to give my grandchildren debt they will never be able to repay. And, then, taxes. What in life is not taxed, some things are taxed multiple times. I paid taxes on my income. I pay taxes on my individual retirement. I even pay taxes on my Social Security earnings that were taxed to hell and back while I was working. Now, the tax money coming out of the pockets are working Americans is being spent on non-Americans who absolutely do not deserve to be here. There are plenty of free loaders right here in the US who were born here, don’t work, don’t have any intention to work, and have their hands out to government to spend our tax dollars into which they haven’t invested a single dime. Wham, Bam, and no thank you, please.

It is high time for the working class to tell the bums to get off their duff and do something that contributes rather than sit around getting fat and enjoying a life they don’t deserve. In this number, we must remember to include many, if not most, of the politicians around the country who have gotten rich passing laws that benefit themselves and not us.

The bloat in the federal bureaucracy is sickening. Anyone with at least half their thinking ability intact, who is paying attention, knows it. Print and spend, print and spend, claim they are saving for the future, claim they are creating new jobs, claim they are protecting our country–it is all lies.

The solution to all this is really not that difficult. It may be very, very hard to implement, painful to many, but doable anyway. Close the border[S]. All of them. Build a wall, build something–and stop the ILLEGAL immigration from every nation on the earth. Do not accept those who are already here. Ship them back to where they came from, and don’t let them back in under any circumstance. Some will say that is cruel. Those people are stupid on so many levels.

Close the border, and close loopholes–loopholes that allow government to spend what they don’t have, loopholes that allow criminals to continue doing crime without any fear of punishment, loopholes that punish honest, working people who just want to live quietly and protect what they have, loopholes that leave the starving hungry while bums and illegals feast, loopholes that allow unelected bureaucrats mandate anything.

Close the border, close loopholes, and close down the government–not all of it, but much of it. Lock the doors, throw away the keys, and don’t ever let them back in. In particular, close the Department of Education; that would only leave 14 more to deal with. The people who run that department are doing nothing to educate children, period. A comprehensive overhaul of the remaining gangs would go a long way toward saving trillions for average Americans. That leaves 430 agencies to deal with, the largest and most destructive being the Environmental Protection Agency, which, by the way, is independent. It gets bigger and bigger and protects less and less.

The EPA, in its independent charter, is like the Federal Reserve banking system. The FRS doesn’t need anyones approval to do what they do. It was organized to prevent “panics” like the Great Depression and more recently the meltdown around 2008. Sadly, it has become a behemoth that does not and cannot guarantee financial liquidity in the economy, it has created worldwide instability of monetary systems, and has worked arm-in-arm with the handlers in the executive branch to create debilitating inflation when its charter was to prevent the very situations that are running rampant.

Wham, Bam, no thank you, ma’am. Right now America needs a hero, a patriot, someone with some guts to do the right thing knowing it is going to hurt. As a new year dawns, I sure hope someone is up to the daunting task.

Sexual Identity

A few days ago, someone ask me about the sex and gender debate. I’m not sure that person liked my answer. I’m going to share it here so there is no question where I stand on the matter.

My answer, quite simply, is that there is no difference. Gender fluidity, as it described today, is nothing more than perversion. My old 1958 Webster’s School Dictionary defines perversion as “a turning away from truth or propriety.” This is exactly what is happening in the world now.

Perverts, or those who have turned away from truth–not their truth or a truth but the truth well established by real scientists many centuries ago–are wielding a societal sword of chaos in an attempt to get rational people to begin thinking irrationally. In other words, truth becomes error and error becomes truth.

Except, in this discussion, the argument is not about “error” but about absolute denial of anything scientific and reasonable. No amount of surgery, makeup, clothing or anything else can make a man a woman or a woman a man. Period.

The whole idea of a “birthing person” as opposed to a woman who gives birth is ridiculous. The people who support such a description have, at some level, lost their minds. Where they lost them I have not a clue. But it is obvious their agenda is not one to help people understand their true identity as a person but, rather, to confuse them. People are confused enough when they know what they are. They don’t need any more help.

The presence of men in women’s sporting events is no less stupid–yeah, that’s right, stupid. Men and women are substantially different in many ways. You can deny it all you want. It’s still true. Generally, men are stronger and faster whether you like it or not. Pitting males against females in any sport and calling it fair is a travesty.

Make no mistake, though. The argument is not about individual rights no matter how loud the ludicrous left shouts. The endgame for this bunch of miscreants, along with much, if not all government agencies and public press, is control. They talk a good talk about diversity and fairness. But that is not what they want. They want to control everything you do so you are required to go to them for permission–permission to act and permission to disagree. And if you disagree with their faulty thinking, you are the one who is wrong, not them.

So, what do you do? Do you keep quiet and let it “run its course?” I think not. The time to stand up and speak out against this foolish turn of human events is now. If not now, later will be too late and your children and grand children will be duped into believing it is OK to be a pervert. It is not. So there.

It’s Just A Twig

Over the course of several days, I worked in my yard to get rid of a hedge row. With a front loader on a tractor, chain saw, pick ax, shovels, and a hatchet, I managed to delete the unmanageable bushes from the landscape. After hours of cutting and pulling, what is left is an apocalyptic looking area about 100’ long and 15’ wide. There are still a lot of dead roots sticking up and a few craters left by yanking out stumps.

After several days of rain, a few sunny days, and then more rain, I ventured out to see what steps are necessary to restore the area for sod and new, more manageable evergreens. This part of the yard, right beside the driveway, looks pretty bad right now. But as I surveyed the area, I saw something a bit strange—a small, actually tiny, conifer peeking up through the ravaged dirt.

Having no idea how the little pine got there, I decided to rescue it. I’ve always wanted to start a Japanese style bonsai from scratch and this is a close as I’ll ever get. I dug around the little root stem, very careful not to break it. Now, it is planted in a small black container with fertilizer. I’m optimistic it will live.

Why did I do it? Life. . .even though it is tiny and I’m not quite sure how to support it, it is alive and I’m going to do my best to help it mature into a mighty tree, albeit one I try to shape into what I want it to be.

This brings to mind the whole process of human babies coming into the world. As small as they are, and as much as they cannot fend for themselves, every one of them deserves the opportunity to live. It doesn’t matter how they came to be. . .they have life, and their life should be honored, not ended.

Just like my little tree, babies have to be nourished and their lives shaped by those who bring them into the world and raise them as sons and daughters. We must be careful to educate them, first at home and then in whatever schools in which we enroll them. We must teach them how to respect the lives of others, the importance of family and community. And most of all, we must tell them about God in Jesus Christ. 

The twig may become a tree, but sooner or later it will grow old, begin to decay, and it will die. Likewise, every human who lives faces death sooner or later. As I grow older and all the aches and pains of the aged creep upon me, I realize my responsibility to share what I know with younger generations. God has been good to me, way better than I have been in return. One thing I know for sure—Jesus Christ came into this world to provide an abundant life for all who trust him. And he came to offer a place to live for me and all who know him when we die.

My little pine is just a twig today; what it will become only God knows for sure. What I have become is a man who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ without reservation. I’m looking forward to heaven and living forever in the presence of a loving God.

I’m an Extremist

I just found out that I’m an extremist, a real threat to the American way of life. Just a few years ago I discovered that I’m also a deplorable because of what I believe.

Apparently, a nuclear family, that is, one with a married mother and father that has children being reared in their home, is dangerous and un-American according to a politician who currently holds office in South Dakota. She made the claim because Family Heritage Alliance, also based in South Dakota, believes that “the safest place for kids are in families that have a married mom and dad.”

This state house rep gives as her credentials being a “patient experience specialist.” That means she sat behind a desk and welcomed patients into a medical office to fill out their paperwork.” That is one powerful resume’ for injecting your useless opinion about families into the American discussion of what is right and wrong in society today.

I’m sorry, but this is just wrong. The worst part is that it made national news. This sort of pandering to the far left political machine does nothing to strengthen an already weak America. It only adds fuel to the system that wants to destroy everything that made America strong.

It’s a Trick

There is something going on around us that is not right. You know it and I know it. But somehow, we can’t exactly identify what it is. If you’ve ever seen the movie, Matrix, you know what I’m talking about. And, no, I don’t believe we’re living in some dream world, although if you watch or listen to much new programming, maybe some people are.

What do I mean by “It’s a trick?” We are being tricked into believing things that simply aren’t true. And the tricksters are not just government mouthpieces and sexual perverts—even though there are plenty of those to go around.

For example, Stellantis (the French-Italian company that makes Chrysler products), has been hyping it’s new all-electric Dodge Charger. This EV, that has nothing in it’s mechanical system that produces high pressure exhaust, somehow sounds like a V8 when the accelerator is pushed down. How is that even possible? Dodge calls it the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust. In reality, it is a recording pumped through tubes to make it sound like a gas burner. Some people are going to fall for it, buy it, and still sit on the side of the road or in their garage while the thing recharges it batteries. It’s a trick.

Here’s another one. If you listen to the pundits of the Federal Reserve, the Washington wags,  and even some business leaders, the US economy is stronger than ever, there really is no sign of recession, the work force is strong, and inflation is not as bad as we think. How do they manage to convince people the situation is OK. They ignore the facts. Gas prices only moderated when the president used the strategic reserves as a way to feed the supply we use every day. He’s doing it again right now so you see the daily commodity prices fall and then a little tick downward at the pump. And yet we as a nation are buying foreign oil instead of producing our own all in the name of green energy. It’s a trick.

The federal government and their mass media darlings are reporting that more people are working than every before, unemployment is low, and wages are high. If that’s the case, why is almost every store front in America posting Help Wanted signs in their windows, on their social media pages, and across the spectrum of employment websites? The big reason for that is people have left the job market and are depending on government handouts and family for help. Where Is the evidence? According to a writer for Credible, who tracks credit and debt trends, “consumer credit increased at the end of 2022 amid high inflation and a rising interest rate environment.” This consumer credit debacle increased by $30 billion with most of the increase coming from credit card debt. The reported experts say that record delinquencies are coming in 2023. Why can’t people see this happening in their own household? It’s a trick.

And then there is the whole question of sexuality. Is sexuality and gender two parts of the same thing or are they totally separate? The short answer is yes, they are. There are two sexes/genders: male and female, period. The whole gender dsyphoria/identity/preference argument has no basis in fact. Eighth grade biology makes that perfectly clear. And the medical profession, at least those in it that are honest, know better. All the claimed differences in who can be a man and who can be a woman are just part of another trick. Perversion is real whether you want to admit it or not. 

This list goes on and on—questions of history, race, the universe, and others are staring us in the face everyday. Are the things flying overhead Chinese balloons or alien spacecraft? What a zoo. But here’s the idea I want to leave you with. Why is all this happening? In a nutshell, CONTROL. The movers and shakers in government and industry want to tell you where you can go, what you can do, and when you can do it. And make no mistake, they will go to whatever lengths they need to try and make it happen. So look out, your are being tricked.

Egg Shells

Have you ever hardboiled some eggs? Of course, you have. You choose the right saucepan to hold the number of eggs you are going to boil, maybe pour some salt in the pan, add just the right amount of water, set it on the stove, turn on the heat, and carefully lower those raw eggs down into the water without cracking the shells.  Then, in a little more than five minutes after the water comes to a boil–voilà–hardboiled eggs.

After you turn off the heat, you have to decide how to cool the eggs. I usually just start running cold water over the little critters in the pan. After a few minutes of that, it’s pretty safe to pick one up and get ready to peel it. Some people crack the peel on the edge of the counter, some use a kitchen knife; I just smack it good on the side of the pan I cooked it in.

As soon as you crack the egg, you start peeling off the shell hoping it will come off in just a few pieces and come off completely. Here is where I have a problem. I don’t know if it’s impatience, lack of knowledge on how to actually peel and egg, or some mysterious rule of the universe that causes egg shell peeling to never go right. Rarely do I get an egg that starts to come apart but almost always I get a lot of little pieces of shell on the egg and on my hands. What do I do? I hold the mostly peeled egg under some more cold water and wash the small bits of shell off the egg and my hands and into the sink to be dealt with by the disposal.

Here is where it gets tricky. You see, we have a large, deep farm-style stainless steel single basin sink so we have one of those sink grids that protects the sink bottom and allows stuff to fall through without scratching the sink. Most everything falls through and goes down the drain easily–except for the small, pesky pieces of egg shell. No matter how many times you take the faucet around the edge of the sink at full force, invariably, there are still tiny little pieces of shell hiding–most of the time right under the edge of the little feet that hold up the grid.  Wash, wash, wash, look; eggshells. Wash, wash, wash again; eggshells. Finally, pick up the grid, pull the little pieces of shell off the feet and curse them as they once and for all go down the drain.

Ever had that or something like it happen to you? Maybe not with eggshells but something else you are trying to get rid of in your life. Maybe it’s a bad habit you can’t lick or a dangerous relationship you just can’t seem to give up. You have tried to bust out and get away from what’s hiding, but you can’t. Every time you look around, there it is–holding on to you with a grip as strong as super glue.

What to do? Well, the practical self just says something like, “I’ll just keep working on it and eventually it will all work out.” But then, months or even years later, it’s still hanging on like a piece of egg shell in the bottom of the sink. Sometimes, you just can’t get rid of what needs to be gone without some help. I find that a good degreasing dish detergent helps with the shells. And I find that a great God helps with the issues of life that we just can’t seem to overcome.

For those of us who are believers in Jesus, we are oft to quote Phillipians 4:13 (my favorite bible verse), I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, and then we go right on doing the same stupid things we do. Well, I’ve learned something lately that has helped me and maybe it’ll help you, too.

There’s a big difference between doing and giving. By nature, I’m a doer. Give me a problem, let me analyze it, and I’ll do my best to accomplish whatever task is at hand. Most of the time, I’m really good with that scenario. But sometimes all my analytical skills and more time than should be necessary just don’t cut the mustard.

That’s when I have to–you have to–lean in hard toward Jesus. Sometimes there is no good answer, not from counselors, not from good books, not even from the Bible. What? Not even from the Bible. That’s right. When you are wrestling with something that you need to turn loose but can’t seem to find the strength to do it, not even all the great memory verses you’ve learned over a lifetime seem like much help.

So, you lean in hard toward Jesus, the one who gives you strength, and you let him find the pesky eggshells. What, exactly, does that mean from my point of view. Continue to read and study the Bible–even when it seems like it’s not helping. By the way, the Bible always helps us even when we don’t realize it. Continue to pray about whatever it is that’s bothering you and won’t go away. Why? Because even when you’re stuck and it seems like your prayers aren’t going two inches past your lips, God hears you. He loves you and he has a purpose in all this. Continue to do whatever you can to advance God’s Kingdom around you. Even when it seems as if you are getting nowhere fast. Someone who needs your help is watching, waiting, and listening.

Don’t ever give up on yourself or on God. Listen to what the apostle Paul said about something in his life that was bothering the heck out of him. He said, I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Romans 7:15 [ESV] Romans 7, especially the last half, speaks to this issue of dealing with hard stuff. You ought to read the whole thing and then think about it.

One day soon, my life, and yours, is going to end. Death is imminent. Maybe not tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. But before you know it. So, while you have breath, keep fighting the good fight of faith, keep wrestling with whatever gets you down, don’t give up, and wait on God to show you what is going on. He will, in this life or the next. The fight is worth it, friends. It is.

 

Life Hurts

It has been a while—about a year, in fact, since I’ve written for my personal blog. I don’t really know why, but here goes anyway.

First, I want to praise God and tell you that I am blessed among men. If, for no other reason than, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy,  he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5 [ESV]

Or, as the prophet Jeremiah put it, Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. Jeremiah 17:7. [ESV] And that’s not even to mention my sweet wife of nearly 47 years, my son who is a great pastor, his wife, 4 grandchildren, and so many more who have invested in my life over the years.

And still, life hurts sometimes. I was reflecting about life the other day and it occurred to me that, like many of you who read this, I’ve had some painful episodes over the course of years. Not too long ago it was kidney cancer. Before that, a nearly deadly blockage in my heart. Before that, my dear old dog died. Before that, my parents died a few days apart. And a long time ago, over fifty years in fact, my first bout with cancer ended in a surgeon using a circular saw to remove an entire joint. Ouch, I still remember waking up to the pain. So, life has hurt from time to time because of death and maladies.  And that doesn’t even address all the other hurts that concern people who I care about.

What I really want to speak to in this essay is the prison we sometimes jail ourselves in because we refuse to listen to our own body or the sage advice of another person who is trying to help us live a better life. You need to know that what really got me thinking about this is the sermon series my son just finished up at church. The series title was simply, HABITS.  Here’s a link to the last message, although I encourage to you watch the whole 4-sermon series; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOZcZmS0zLM&t=2s. In my personal opinion, and I’m not the least bit prejudiced, this is the best series I’ve ever heard about developing good habits and defeating bad habits.

You are probably thinking, Oh boy, here goes the preacher picking on my XXXXXX.  Nope, not gonna happen. I’m not about to tell you what is right or wrong—you already know that. I already know that. And still it seems that we often lock ourselves up because of what I call mental blindness.

What is mental blindness? It’s when a normal, clear-thinking person allows their self to be hurt by. . .their self. Let me explain. Over the course of the last 24 months or so, I’ve had a couple of those hurts that pretty much sidelined me from activities that I enjoy. What I’m talking about is the heart/cancer issue.  Sure, it hurt physically. Who wouldn’t hurt after a surgeons knife goes poking around inside your body. It hurt emotionally. When your physician comes into the room and tells you your heart is about to explode or you have a cancer growing, it’s scary, whether you want to admit it or not. Having both, back to back, took a toll on me. And, it hurt spiritually. Now I know God in Jesus Christ very, very well. He’s had my back for a long time; actually since before I was born. But we’ve had a close personal relationship for over 40 years because I accepted him as my Savior and Lord. The Holy Spirit has been my guide for all of those years, the Bible has been my roadmap, and ministry has been my vocation. And, yet, those days of pain caused me, allowed me, tricked me, I don’t know—did something to me that started me down a path I didn’t want to go down, didn’t intend to go down, and frankly, never thought I’d ever go down again. Let me see if I can describe that path. . .looking for a word, the word, any word will do. No, not just any word, a particular word that is so descriptive of my case, it simply cannot be ignored or denied.  The word—INDOLENT. My 1948 Noah Webster’s Dictionary defines indolent as indulging in ease, avoiding labor, lazy. Ouch. The current Merriam-Webster online dictionary adds habitually lazy. Double ouch, but guilty.

How do I know this applies to me? I stopped eating right, I stopped sleeping right, I stopped exercising, I stopped being in the Word several times a day, I stopped praying regularly, and on and on. The key here, I STOPPED. I bet you didn’t know stopping could be a bad habit. Sure, you’ve heard plenty about stopping stuff that hurts you because it’s a bad habit. But what about stopping stuff that’s good for you?

In my case, it was weight gain caused by eating stuff I have no business eating, eating too much of whatever I was eating, and failing to realize that the resulting physical pain had nothing much to do with a bad back but, rather, a bad. . .dare I say it, HABIT.  There was much more than poor nutrition, though. I put stuff off—I’m not even wired that way. I’ve always gotten out of bed with a plan, things to do, people to see, a schedule and a budget. What I found myself doing instead was planning how to do little, put off more, and sit around feeling sorry for myself because I “hurt.”

And, then, the worst part. My quiet time became alarmingly quiet. God became distant. I didn’t think I could hear him anymore like I could before I retired. The Bible started becoming stale. The message didn’t resonate in my heart anymore. Does that sound at all like a place you have visited, a road called silence?

You see, mental blindness usually has two sidekicks, physical lethargy and spiritual deafness. I wear hearing aides and know a lot of people who are hearing impaired. It’s not a happy place when you can’t hear the person sitting next to you. It’s even worse when it’s God. Worse yet, well maybe not as bad but it seems like it, is when you’re sitting on the couch with a half gallon of ice cream and a spoon watching some stupid program on TV wondering when you’ll get that next half gallon when you finish the one on your stupid lap.

Stop it, just stop it. That’s what I’ve been telling myself. Success. Some. Failure. Plenty.

Here’s the good news. Even while it has seemed sometimes that I was lost and on a path to nowhere, that same Spirit that has lived within me for going on 50 years never stopped telling me to get up and do life right. By the way, that’s the way it is for every person who has been saved by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, I got up. Still eating ice cream? Yeah, just not as much and not as often. Potato chips. Same thing. And that reminds me of an old song. 

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

But wholly lean on Jesus name.

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

Not gonna sink. No sir. The God I serve is greater than all my weaknesses, all my excuses, and yes, all my sin. When I’m lowest, He is still highest. When I can’t hear his lovely voice, His trumpet still sounds. When I can’t get up by myself, He reaches down from heaven and somehow lifts me up again and again and again. Thank God!

Is there a moral here? Maybe. For me it’s just time to get “back at it.” And I have. One more thing. When you get yourself in one of these predicaments, the people around you are affected, too. When I quit eating right and exercising to stay alive, my sweet wife was dragged right down into that mire with me. Thankfully, she didn’t sink as far, but still, it’s just not right to hurt the people you love that way.

I’m back to stretching, getting ready to start regular workouts, looking forward to conditioning, enjoying my time in the Word, and looking forward to re-developing the good habits I forgot about for way too long.

I’ll leave you with this, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 312-14 [ESV]

Spending Time

This morning, I read a blog by a Christian leader I really respect. It was about New Year’s resolutions. He made the most valid point that we should focus on Kingdom issues–what spiritual changes do we need to make in our personal lives and how do we advance the Gospel in a world without Christ. I could not agree more.

This morning, I read another article by a guy who said he wasn’t making any New Year’s resolutions because he already knew he wouldn’t keep them. It sounded like he thinks he is somehow morally superior because he knows in advance he is a failure.

This morning, I remembered reading somewhere last week that a vision without a plan is just a dream. I have no idea who said it, probably a bunch of people. I do, however, agree.  As I was doing my reading/tracking/reading/tracking thing I do every morning, I also found this interesting “quote,” “vision without action is a dream action without vision is a nightmare.” Wow. I guess that means if we move without informed direction we’re headed for trouble.

This morning, I was reminded as I read Genesis 1 & 2 for my IFIT Journal study that God made a perfect world and man screwed it up. Trouble is all around us and, frankly, it’s in our bones. Yet, if we try to go through this world avoiding trouble, we won’t accomplish much because we will always be running away instead of facing our circumstances.

So what? Each of us must decide how we are going to spend our time this year–unless we want to begin or continue to hide from the real world and try to find our worth through Facebook and Instagram and whatever other social media medium we find. (Including writing blogs and reading what others write 🙂

Resolutions. Good or bad. Neither. Decisions to act. Necessary. Informed decisions. Absolutely.

When you resolve to do something and fail, at least you tried. Never be afraid to fail–if you do, you’ll always be a failure. But don’t be afraid to succeed either. Success actually feels pretty good. I’ve done it a few times.

Sometime in 1896, Palmer Hartsough wrote the song, I Am Resolved. It’s obviously old, but also tried and true.

I am resolved no longer to linger,
charmed by the world’s delight;
things that are higher, things that are nobler,
these have allured my sight.

Refrain:
I will hasten to Him,
hasten so glad and free;
Jesus, greatest, highest,
I will come to Thee.

I am resolved to go to the Savior,
leaving my sin and strife;
He is the true one; He is the just one,
He has the words of life. [Refrain]

I am resolved, and who will go with me?
Come, friends, without delay;
taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit,
we’ll walk the heavenly way. [Refrain]

As we enter into 2018, let’s resolve to love more–God AND people.

 

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13