To all the veterans and families of veterans that spent time in Afghanistan…
I’m sorry, and thank you.
There’s nothing I can say that will make things right. I can’t erase the things you’ve been struggling with while watching the events of the past few weeks. I just want you to know that there are still those of us that haven’t forgotten you, and are still thankful for your willingness to spend time overseas on our behalf.
I’m sure there are some today that don’t even understand why we were there. There’s a whole generation of Americans that have been born since the events of 9/11/2001. It’s so far in the past now that some of the Americans born since that terrible day have raised their right hand and spent time in Afghanistan within the past year or two.
I can’t help but think, though, about what Afghanistan was like before we put boots on the ground, and what it might morph into over the coming weeks and months. During that nearly 20-year window when American troops provided reliable security, there was a different group…a generation of Afghans (especially Afghan women and girls)…that experienced a level of freedom and seeing value in themselves that they’d never encountered before.
That’s thanks, in part, to you.
Thank you for your courage, thank you for your sacrifice, and thank you for, at least for a time, making a difference in that faraway place.
I’ve got a theory that might help explain some of the chaos in our country right now.
People are wired differently. That’s not really something that’s in dispute. It used to be that people could have different opinions and it was acceptable to agree to disagree.
I’m not going to take credit for this theory that I’ll describe; there are some books out there on the subject, but I think it’s important to pass the word along right now. I’m going to use a couple of terms that, on the surface, might sound derogatory. That’s not my intent; I think you’ll see what I mean if you give me a chance to explain it. It has nothing to do with IQ or level of intelligence.
Have you ever heard something that infuriated you? Your vision went red, your fists clenched, and you were ready to scream or take a shot at someone. This immediate, visceral reaction is what’s called “fast thinking.” It’s the knee-jerk reflex that almost seems to bypass your brain. It’s an amygdala hijack that overwhelms your thought processes. The emotions and feelings you encounter during the situation affect your decision making, and you react instinctively. On a much smaller scale it could be something as simple as making an impulse buy. Many times store displays and floor plans make it easier for the vendor to take advantage of a shopper’s inclination to be influenced to make unplanned purchases. It capitalizes on your brain’s wiring to stoke the urge to buy something you had no intention of purchasing.
Maybe the next day, after you’re at home, you take a look at whatever you bought, and thought “why in the world did I pick that up?” It’s why it’s a good idea to “sleep on” a big decision before going through with it. The emotions that clouded your vision earlier have significantly faded, and you make your decisions based more in rationality or logic. It’s the Mr. Spock version of approaching a decision point. The emotions were there and may have dominated the early thoughts, but you’ve had time to work through them. You can clearly remember how you felt when you were first presented with the choice, but you look at the situation differently if you focus on facts rather than the way things made you feel. Because the process takes longer to work through, this is called “slow thinking.”
Think “the tortoise and the hare.” The hare (your emotional thinking) is what takes off like a shot right out of the gate. Only when it’s run its course and laid down for a nap can the tortoise (rational thinking) catch up. The hare doesn’t know where it’s going, it relies on speed more than judgment. The tortoise had time to plot the route and formulate a plan as it was going, even though the hare was running circles around it, being a big distraction in the process.
Now, in light of that, let me ask you this. Think about how you keep up with current events. Are the stories presented in ways that appeal to the fast thinking or to the slow thinking portions of your mind’s processing center?
The way I see it, TV news coverage is designed to inflame your emotions. You’re shown images that anger you, sadden you, and because news coverage persists around the clock and the networks have to fill air time, they add commentary that may or may not be based in fact. The news dwells on a shocking topic until the emotional pull begins to fade or something more shocking breaks. It becomes an endless cycle of running from one head-shaking story to the next, all the while failing to report on the lead story from a few days ago, where new developments have revealed that the initial reporting was incomplete or erroneous. That information, or corrections/retractions, rarely see the light of day, because by then you’ve already been shuffled on to the next thing and you’re led to think of the story as “old news.”
Since feel-good news doesn’t provide that same shock value, many times it’s simply not covered. It’s not often you come away from TV news coverage with a warm fuzzy about what you’ve seen. You’re more likely to walk away from the TV feeling high levels of anxiety or emotionally wrung out.
So how do you keep up with current events without dealing with this phenomenon? Consider instead looking at a news source’s website. If you like a certain network, that’s fine, stick with that network’s website. I’d recommend not using just one source, though. Journalists are no longer known for being thorough or presenting all sides of an event. I’m not talking about streaming the feed from that website, I’m saying read the stories instead of watching them. Reading them, rather than being pelted with images and commentary at the speed of someone else’s choosing, allows you to go at your own pace, and lets you digest the facts (if presented) at your own speed.
Today’s visual news coverage is intended to evoke an emotional response from you and divide you from your fellow Americans. News coverage is supposed to present facts and some context, but today’s coverage is light on fact, heavy on repetition, and includes more opinion and speculation than information.
It’s important to keep tabs on world events, certainly, but if you’d like my unsolicited advice, don’t spend more than about half an hour a day getting caught up with what’s going on in the world. You’ve got to get back to doing whatever it is that God put you here to do, and it’s best to do that without getting worked up into a tizzy by someone that’s trying to do exactly that.
Lord, I’m human, and fully susceptible to the pitfalls of how my mind is wired. Help me to recognize the ways my brain’s wiring is used against me and not fall for it, staying focused on finding and fulfilling Your purpose for me here in this life. Amen
People in the Air Force regularly have to pass a physical fitness test. As long as you remember that Uncle Sam is paying you to stay in shape and even gives you time on duty to work out, it’s generally not difficult to stay in decent shape as long as you have some discipline and routine in place. When I was on active duty, a few times a week I usually did pushups and sit ups at my dorm or house in the morning before I left for work, and a few times a week I’d leave work early to do some running, swimming, or other type of cardio at the gym. Not a lot at once, just consistently.
I remember one occasion where a handful of us were getting ready to take a PT test. We paired off to help each other count repetitions and monitor proper form. The guy I paired with was older and more senior in rank than I, and we talked about the number of pushups we expected to perform. Things have changed since I last took an Air Force PT test, but the way it used to work is that there were several components (push-ups, crunches, run, body fat measurement), and you get a different amount of points for each component depending on how well you perform. Once you’ve performed all the components, you add up the points, and the total needs to be at least a certain number in order to pass. Each component also has a minimum passing score, and a maximum number of repetitions (once you hit the max number, you don’t get any additional points for doing extra crunches, for example).
He gave me his anticipated number, which wasn’t very high. I told him that I expected to max out my number of pushups and crunches. Almost dismissively, he said “yeah, well, you’ve got that muscular build.”
I was a little taken aback and didn’t quite know what to say or how to react. Did he think I accidentally had the capability to max out my pushups and crunches, or maybe that the capability was just handed to me? The responsibility to pass a PT test belongs to each individual in the Air Force. It’s not like the military branch’s leadership kept it a secret that we’d have to take these tests periodically, or that as a professional warrior susceptible to being deployed to warzones it might be a good idea to have a reasonably good baseline fitness level.
I never figured out whether he was serious or not. It certainly left an impression though.
If you know you have a test coming up…in any aspect of life…and you want to do well on it, it would behoove you to prepare for it. There’s an old saying: “Fortune favors the prepared.” It means that people who prepare for challenges tend to be more successful in overcoming them than the people that don’t prepare. Jesus said in John chapter 16 that “in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Although Jesus was talking to His disciples right before the events of His arrest, trial, and execution, I believe the same message applies for Christ-followers today. If that’s not an indication of an upcoming test, maybe 2 Timothy 3:12 will spell it out a little clearer. “In fact, everyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
No bones about it. If you follow Jesus, and other people know you follow Jesus, you’re going to have to take some flak. Bet on it.
So there you have it: you have a test coming up. It may be today, it may be decades from now, but you know it’s coming. To pass the test you may not have to “beat” the one doing the persecuting; passing the test might simply mean bearing up under the pressure or not giving in to what all the voices around you are saying.
Are you spending time in God’s word more than just whenever you go to church? Do you pray more than just basic prayers, and more than just at meal times? Do you read books or articles that help explain the things that are in the Bible? If you listen to podcasts about the stock market, retirement, politics, etc., those things are important, but are you also finding the time to listen or learn about something that has a longer-lasting effect?
Christ Jesus loves you (and those confronting you), will empower you, and will be with you until He returns or calls you home. In the meantime, just like in the Air Force, it’s the responsibility of everyone who wants to pass the test to prepare for it. Not a lot at once, just consistently.
Your test is coming, and fortune favors the prepared.
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You know, considering everything that’s going on in our nation right now, I just kind of feel like it would be a good idea to try to help you smile.
I’ve got three kids, and they’ve each got their own distinct personality. When they were little and they did something cute or funny, we’d write it down in what we now refer to as “the quote book.” It’s full of little stories or fun quotes that came from the kids or the sleep-deprived things that we did as parents of young kiddos. Now that it’s at least a few years after some of the quotes, our kids enjoy when I pull out the book and relay some stories we’ve written down.
Lately I’ve been taking a look through the book, and thought I’d share a few entries with you. Just for context, I’ve got a daughter, then a son, then another daughter.
My older daughter used to pick the most inopportune times to tell us about her day. When you have multiple young kids in the house, life is a blur. There’s not a whole lot of conscious thought that extends out past the next meal or bedtime. The minutes leading up to dinner were a mad rush of “go potty,” “okay, who still needs to wash their hands?” all while getting hot food on the table and scooping out some of the hot food early so it can cool off enough for the kids. Right as we sat down and things got quiet enough to pray, our daughter would pick that moment to start telling all of us about some event from earlier that day that was memorable in her mind. We’d all sit around the table, holding hands, about to pray but unable to begin. We could’ve shushed her, but…that just didn’t seem right. Then, just as she finished recounting her tale, but before we could jump in and start praying, her spellbound little brother would ask a question about her epic yarn. (“Nooooo!!!”) This happened at bedtime on a regular basis, too.
She could also open “childproof” caps before she could put together a complete sentence. We kept them away from her for awhile, and she lost the knack for it, but it still kept us on our toes.
She could also open “childproof” caps before she could put together a complete sentence. We kept them away from her for awhile, and she lost the knack for it, but it still kept us on our toes.
My little guy was the craziest blend of sweet and sour. He had heart-melting moments when you just couldn’t believe how compassionate or kind he was, and he’d have moments that make you want to pull out your hair. When he was little enough that he still slept in a crib, there was a time when my wife and I were laying him down and he saw his favorite little stuffed dog laying in the crib waiting for him, and my little guy let out a giggle. It made me appreciate how wonderful it must be to laugh simply because you’re happy.
On the flip side of his personality, there were other times he’d just utter blatant, unprompted lies. If he said “I don’t have anything in my mouth,” it’s a solid bet he just got into some snacks that he knew he wasn’t supposed to touch. He also knew that naptimes were for napping, but he loved to get up and look out the window. As he got big enough to come downstairs on his own after a nap, he’d reassure us by seeing us and saying right away “I wasn’t looking out my window.” The stool near the disheveled curtains suggested otherwise.
It’s also fun to look through the book and find little exchanges like when he and I were watching the winter Olympics on TV together when he was probably about 3. During a ski-jumping event, I told him “That guy’s from Norway.” He looked at the screen, interested, and said “Oh, is that his home planet?”
There are some slapstick memories, too. Parenting is a full-contact sport. All of our kids enjoyed when my wife and I read books to them. My younger daughter, when she was a toddler, had no concept of causing pain in other people. If I was laying on the floor and said to her “do you want me to read a book?”…man, I’d better watch out. She’d take off and find a book to read, which was great, but on her return trip, I needed to keep my gloves up. She’d come bouncing back at me in a full-speed toddler waddle, holding the book out in front of her. In the beginning, I figured she’d slow down as she got close. Nope. She came running with her arms stretched out in front of her, and she didn’t stop until she slammed me in the head with the book. (It didn’t take me long to learn to pay attention when she came running with a book, though I think it took me longer than it should have.)
This is the same little one who, when I held her in church during the live music, would watch intently everything going on up on stage. One time everything was quiet as the worship leader prayed, but my little girl kept her eyes open and was mesmerized by all the light reflecting off the shiny instruments. During the prayer, when her face was about six inches away from mine, she let slip a little burp that smelled like Cheerios.
Also, as our third child, she’s the only one I’ve used a dust-buster on.
And finally, to cap it off, here’s a story with all three. There was a phase (at least, I hope it’s a phase) where my older daughter liked to over-dramatize things, so she’d pretend to cry at certain things. The problem was that anytime my younger daughter saw someone cry, she thought it was her cue to start apologizing, even if it wasn’t her fault or she didn’t know what was happening. She’d keep doing it until someone acknowledged her, too, and would get louder as she went. Making it more fun was the fact that she couldn’t pronounce an “r” sound very well at that age. There was one instance where I sat in the living room and my wife and all three kids were in the kitchen. My wife and older daughter started acting silly, and began pretending to cry about something. Right around then my son, who needed to hear the same thing three times before it started sinking in, got hyper and did something he shouldn’t have, which distracted my wife. Imagine the sound of fake crying from one daughter, my wife talking firmly to my little guy, and an ever-more-persistent little voice saying “sowwy. Sowwy! SOWWY!”
You know, despite what you see on TV, there’s still some good stuff going on out there. Despite what you may see and hear, there are some good people in the world. Keep your chin up and keep smiling, because like I’ve said before, your joy and positive attitude in Christ is one of the things that will make people take notice, especially in times like this.
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Exiting an aircraft with Tony and his very recognizable jumpsuit
I’m certainly no skydiving guru. While I was a skydiving student, though, I had a few memorable jumps. I’m not sure what the requirement is now, but when I was working on getting my A License (the most basic jumping certification), the rule was that you had to accumulate at least 25 jumps and meet certain milestones along the way.
I was in the plane on the way up for my 23rd jump. The weather was turning sour, so this was the drop zone’s last load of jumpers for at least a few hours. We saw the cloud bank rolling in, and we were trying to rush up to altitude so we could jump out and land before the clouds obscured our view of the ground.
Another student named Jeremy and I were going to jump with our coach Tony. Tony was pretty familiar with us and we had all jumped together before. He wore a neon orange jumpsuit that was so bright it looked like it ran on batteries.
On a jump with Tony as my coach
I don’t remember what the freefall objectives of the jump were, but once we arrived at altitude we hopped out together and began going through our freefall plan. We fell through our predetermined “time to separate” altitude, so we broke apart to get some distance between us before we opened our parachutes. All three of us opened the chutes without a problem, but much to our surprise, the cloud cover had blown in much faster than we anticipated. We couldn’t see the ground anywhere. The only thing we had were our altimeters; we knew how high we were off the ground, but we didn’t know where we were in relation to the airport, so we couldn’t line up in our landing pattern. Since the wind was pushing us the whole time, the longer we floated aimlessly, the further off course we drifted, leaving us less margin of error for a safe landing at the airport.
Since Jeremy and I were still students, each of us had a one-way radio in our jumpsuit shoulder pockets. There was a guy on the ground with a walkie talkie that was waiting to spot us, and he would radio instructions about which way to turn and when to do it. Until we popped through the clouds though, it was useless for all of us.
Tony took the lead; he was the lowest jumper “under canopy,” so I followed him, and Jeremy followed me. I was glad Tony’s jumpsuit was so bright. It was eerie and unsettling to drift without direction in a thick fog. The last time we saw the airport, we were right over it, but the wind can be a lot stronger than you realize when you don’t have any visible references.
Suddenly we popped through the bottom of the clouds at a low altitude. The airport was impossibly far away! We had bled off so much altitude in the fog that there was no way we could make it back. Tony’s canopy had a much higher performance capability, so he made a break for the airport and was able to make it back. With our “vanilla” student rigs and oversized canopies, though, Jeremy and I had no chance of reaching the airport.
The dropzone where I learned to jump was home to the Guinness World Record holder of sport parachute jumps. Don Kellner, who just recently completed his 45,000th jump, was on the radio giving instructions to Jeremy and I. Don’s a funny guy; he doesn’t pull any punches, so he says it like it is and doesn’t sugar coat it.
“Well…find a place to land” came through the radio. Thanks Don.
We had blown way off course. We were now downwind not just of the runway, but of the entire airport complex, and we had a choice: land somewhere in a neighborhood, land somewhere in a wooded area, or land in a big rock quarry. Don advised us to shoot for the quarry.
When you’re a novice jumper, you usually have a flat patch of grass that’s as big as a football field to land on, and there’s usually plenty of other open space nearby (runways and the grassy areas next to them are usually pretty long). All of a sudden, a hilly rock quarry that didn’t have any wind indicators seemed like a pretty hostile place to land. It was the best of our bad options though, so we went for it.
With Tony out of the picture, I was now the lead in the flight pattern. I made a series of turns to get us lined up for what looked like the longest stretch of the flattest ground at the bottom of the quarry. We floated below the horizon and became committed to our flight path.
We both stumbled and took a few bumps and bruises as we tried running out our landings on the side of a hill. We made it safely to the ground without any blood or major injuries. After the canopies fell to the ground, we excitedly checked in with each other and exaggerated to each other just how truly awesome we were with lots of laughs, wild gestures to help relive the experience, and congratulatory slaps on the back. As we took a deep breath and looked around the bottom of this hole, we realized that we didn’t even know which way we should start climbing up out of the quarry. With all the midair turns we did, we lost all sense of direction and couldn’t even point to the airport or the nearest road.
Something tells me that we weren’t the first wayward skydivers to land in this quarry. Before we could even decide what to do, two of our other instructors, in their goofy neon jumpsuits, appeared on the rim of the quarry, shouting and waving to us. We were rescued!
Some general perspective on living: Life isn’t always going to go the way you planned. There are going to be times you find yourself traveling through a disorienting fog. Sometimes you’ll feel abandoned by the people you depended on (or you simply can’t keep up with them). In those times, when you’re at the bottom of a hole, someone might just show up to help you. They may not be what you expected, but it’s still an opportunity to find out which way to climb out of the hole.
We’re passing through strange times; it might not be a bad idea to accept a hand up when it’s offered. Keep your chin up; brighter days are coming.
Tomorrow is Valentine’s
Day. It’s often viewed as a time to pause and reflect on the “special-ness” of
the important people in your life.
While the celebration
of love is nice, our culture seems to have adopted the idea that “anything
goes” in the name of love, and that finding true love means everything after
that point will be perfect. Love stories end with the main characters living
“happily ever after.” The unfortunate fact is that taking two imperfect people
and placing them in a relationship will always yield less-than-perfect results.
Sadly, many committed relationships crumble despite the noble intentions of
those involved.
People who have known
great heartache can therefore best appreciate the idea of a love that will not
fail.
In Bible times,
weddings worked a little differently from the way they do today. Back then when
a couple became engaged, the groom-to-be departed to make preparations for the
wedding, their living arrangements, and their future together. The bride-to-be remained
with her family while this took place, and she waited for the groom while he made
preparations. Without texts, emails, or any other expedient form of
communication, she would have to wait and be perpetually ready for her groom to
show up and whisk her away to their wedding and new life together. Imagine not
only having no input on the details of your own wedding, but also being left completely
in the dark about when it would even take place!
This is the situation where
we currently find ourselves. We’re waiting, and we don’t know for how long. In
my last post I wrote a bit about the importance of the Church. The Church is
sometimes referred to as the “Bride of Christ.” Jesus has gone on ahead to make
preparations, but He fully intends to return for us, the Church:
…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that
where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:2c-3.
Now that’s a kind of
love we can celebrate.
Like in Bible times, we
receive very little information about the details of when the Bridegroom is
planning to come back. Even though we live in an era of instant gratification, lack
of a specific date on the calendar actually changes very little about what’s
important in this case. It’s important to remember that while waiting, we are
to remain faithful and we are to remain ready, no matter how long it takes. It
is imperative that we watch with expectation and with anticipation, ever on the
lookout for when our Lord will make His return and escort us to a deeper phase of
our relationship with Him.
The question is…have
you stopped making yourself ready? You know in your mind that He’ll come
someday, but it probably won’t be anytime soon, right? I mean, it’s been about
2,000 years since Christ walked the earth; what are the odds that He’ll come
during this lifetime?
What you decide to do
is up to you, but I’ll pose one last question to you today. Are you living
faithfully for the one to whom you are betrothed?
In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus tells a few
different parables to describe the period of time where we wait for the second
coming. After telling a story about not knowing when it will occur, He launches
into a story about how we’re supposed to act while we’re waiting. It’s the
parable of the talents.
In this case a talent is not a “skill.”
Here it’s a weight measurement. Before coins were used widely, it was common to
use measures of weight for paying amounts of precious metals during
transactions. A talent is about 75 pounds, and the most common precious metal
used back then was silver. In the context of the passage, we can consider a
talent about 20 year’s worth of minimum wage.
Jesus wants to drive home a point each
time He uses a parable. In this one He’s stressing that it’s important not to
rest on our laurels in terms of building God’s kingdom while we pass through this
life. In the story we have a rich man who’s heading out of town for an
undetermined amount of time. He calls three of his servants together and
entrusts each of them with a large amount of money (five talents, two talents,
or one talent), each according to his ability. Each servant is to work at
growing the value of the money he’s been entrusted with while the master is
away.
The master eventually returns, and he
calls everyone together to see what they’ve been able to accomplish. Both the
five-talent and the two-talent servants had gone out, worked hard, and doubled
the boss’s money, and he praised them both for it. The third guy hadn’t even
tried. He went out and hid the money, rather than even bother to put it in the
bank where the boss could collect interest off of the deposit. The one-talent
servant started making excuses, portraying himself as being afraid of the
ruthless opportunist that he calls his master.
“So let me get this straight,” says the
master. “You think I’m a ruthless opportunist…you fear what I’m going to do
when I find out how little you’ve done…and still
the best you can do is dig a hole and hide the money in the ground somewhere?
You didn’t even take the time to go put it in the bank so I could collect
interest?” The master takes the talent from this guy, who has proven himself
incapable of handling this amount of responsibility, and gives it to the
five-talent (now 10-talent) servant, who has demonstrated his ability to handle
it.
There are a few things I think are
interesting about this parable.
First off, the two diligent servants
received exactly the same reward, even though they brought different amounts
for their boss. This demonstrates that the reward is based on faithfulness, not
results. No matter how little (or how much) you have, be faithful with it. Even
if you don’t think it’s much, God can do big things with it if you devote it to
God’s plan (remember that Christ used a kid’s lunch to feed a crowd of at least
5,000). It’s important to remember that the master gave to them according to their ability. No matter
how much you’ve got, be faithful with it.
Secondly, this parable illustrates the idea that as you prove yourself capable of handling responsibility, you’re entrusted with more of it. When the master gave to them according to their ability, he did it with at least the partial intent to develop and grow their ability. Remember that God doesn’t need to see you demonstrate your ability to do something; He already knows better than you what you’re capable of. Demonstrating an ability to handle responsibility is more for you than for Him. At the end of this parable, there was a servant with 11 talents, a servant with four talents, and a servant with no talents. Just from the few verses we see about these men, we know that the first two didn’t always oversee the amount they eventually ended up with. Looking at your own life, have you grown in trust and capability, to the point where you can look back at past experiences and see how they helped lead to areas of greater responsibility later in life? With your current level of faithfulness, might you one day be placed in charge of 20, or even 50 talents?
This is a parable about the tragedy of missed opportunities. Our King, the master in the parable, is coming one day. We’ll be called to account for the things that have been entrusted to us, and we’ll be held responsible for the faithfulness we’re now demonstrating. In light of that accounting, will you be happy to see the Master return, or are there changes you need to make first?
Matthew 25:14-30 (ESV) 14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Lee with two of his grandkids after returning home from the hospital
When my father-in-law
Lee suddenly had a medical emergency right after Christmas a few years ago, it
caught us all off guard. For almost a week we didn’t know anything, and all we
could do was wait for new developments.
In order to shield the
family at the hospital from having to do all the communicating through texting
and phone calls, I started emailing out updates to close friends and family. The
list of recipients grew quickly though, and soon we had our own Facebook page
to help keep people updated and to pass along specific prayer requests both for
Lee and for the needs of his family. Lee meant a lot to a whole lot of people,
and eventually hundreds of readers received the daily updates I sent out.
There must have been
some people hitting their knees hard in prayer on Lee and his family’s behalf,
because Lee eventually opened his eyes. After spending a few days in a
medically induced coma with a body temperature somewhere in the 80s, his body
had some adjusting to do when he regained consciousness. He was extremely disoriented
and weak, but, at least for now, he was still with us.
We were all thrilled to
see Lee moving in the right direction, but the world didn’t stop turning
because he was in the hospital. My young family was far from home; we were able
to stay in the area for a few more days, but I had to get back to my job. We
had already stayed about a week longer than we had planned, and we couldn’t
stay much longer. Lee was still in the hospital when we left to head back home.
The day we left the hospital, he was weak from a related surgery he just came
through, but was still happy to see us and understood why we had to leave. We
had no idea at the time, but that was the last time we would see him in person.
We made it back home the next day and we closely stayed in touch to hear the
latest news.
Time went on and Lee
got discharged from the hospital. Since his scare, the only times that I had
spoken with him were in the hospital when he was exhausted or groggy. After he
had made it home and had time to recover some of his strength, he called and
wanted to speak with me on the phone. After getting a little bit of an update
on his progress, he began to thank me. I assumed he was referring to the rescue
breathing I did for him when he initially lost consciousness. Just as I was
about to brush it off, though, he surprised me.
Of course he appreciated
my helping him live long enough to make it to the hospital, but that wasn’t the
main reason he wanted to thank me. He was more thankful that throughout all the
updates I sent out to the masses, I kept the focus on our family being open to
accepting God’s will, rather than forcing God’s will to comply with ours. Lee
didn’t have a problem with intercessory prayer, but he appreciated the balance
I put on the messaging. It turns out that on multiple occasions during his recovery
in the hospital he had read every email I sent out. He was surprised at all he
had missed while unconscious; he enjoyed reading the emails to catch up on all
of it, and he felt that the updates had taken the right approach.
That was the last time
I ever spoke with Lee. A few months after coming home from the hospital, he again
caught us off guard and unexpectedly passed from this world into the next. I’m
not sure if it was God’s plan all along to have Lee recover enough to come home
after his initial scare, or if all of the prayers sufficiently moved God to
give us a few more months with Lee, but in the end, God had His way even when
it conflicted with ours.
At Lee’s memorial
service, as a testament to his character, the church was packed with hundreds
of people. Extra chairs had to be brought in to seat everyone. Lee lived his
life knowing what was truly important while ignoring what wasn’t, and people
recognized that.
It’s so easy to get wrapped up and even be consumed by the things of this life, but it’s important to live in light of eternity. Too often we lose sight of the fact that very few of our daily struggles or any other distractions that preoccupy us will even be a memory once we’ve moved on from this life. The only things that will have eternal significance are the actions you’ve taken to know God and help others know Him too.
How’s your focus? Are you
paying attention to the things that are important? As you go through life, are
you leaving a positive lasting impact on the people with whom you interact?
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Our youngest child is
at the stage where she still has bad dreams fairly often. She wakes up crying
during the night, and my wonderful wife usually goes running into her room to
try to settle her down before she wakes up anyone else in the house.
A few mornings ago my
daughter woke up crying. I was already awake, laying in bed, when I heard the
cry begin. I jumped out of bed before my wife started stirring, trying to
return the favor. I went into my daughter’s room and told her “Daddy’s
here now.” I brushed her hair out of her face, rubbed her shoulder, and
kissed her cheek. She calmed down and we prayed, but she wasn’t settled. I stayed
with her a little bit longer, and then went back to bed.
Laying there for a bit,
it wasn’t long before I heard her little feet came walking into our room. But she
didn’t come walking over to my side. She made a beeline right for Mommy. My
wife talked and cuddled with her a little bit, then brought her back to bed and
got her tucked and settled in, where she stayed for the rest of the night.
How many of us are like
that? Whether we like to admit it or not, there’s a God-shaped hole in all of
us. We’re restless until it’s filled. We try to fill the hole with different things…anything.
For some it can be destructive things; alcohol, drugs, relationships that
aren’t built to last, more serious types of crime, or even dark spiritual
things. Others try to fill it with things that might be good, but don’t quite quench
the thirst. Making more money, performing charity work, being very active in
community groups, donating your time/energy/resources to civic or political
causes you believe in, etc.
The problem is, those things are like Daddy trying to settle his daughter in for the night after a bad dream. They might serve as temporary solutions, but they don’t bring a peace that lasts.
To fill the God-shaped
hole in your life, only Christ will satisfy.
