Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Pour Some Cold Water!

The guy from Best Buy is still laughing. I am sure.

There are times when one should know to duck or get out of the way. My wife, Mandy, says I have an incredible ability to stand in the kitchen in the one place she needs to access. 

In the new house, we had to have some appliances delivered.  A part of the delivery system is to set them up as well.  The importance of this part of the process is to know that I am lethal with tools.  Remember?  My dad protected himself from me as I was growing up.  Anytime there were tools to be used, I was told to go read a book.  How Mandy wishes many days her husband was not a romantic but a fix it kind of guy.  Oh well, you can't have both!
 
The refrigerator has an ice maker.  I do not think they make refrigerators without them now.  There was a water line that ran to the kitchen sink.  At both ends of the water line there were shut off valves.  (You can see what is going to happen, huh?)  The guy from Best Buy thought that a shut off valve on each end was quite redundant.  His advice was to take the one nearest the refrigerator off.
 
He instructed Mandy, who was over by the kitchen sink (where she lives!) to turn the valve that cut off the water supply to the ice maker.  Mandy crawled under the sink and turned off something.  The Best Buy guy then used his tool to undo the cut off valve near the refrigerator. 
 
United Methodists do not baptize more than once.  The belief is that when God washes you clean,  you are clean--FOREVER.  There may be a time when you need to reclaim  your vows, but never another time when you need a second wash.  In the ritual of reclaiming your baptism, water is slung upon you and the clergy says, "Remember Your Baptism!"
 
Too bad the Best Buy guy was not a clergy and knew nothing about slinging water.  He thoroughly drenched me with the waterline that was supposed to feed the ice maker.  Right in the face!  He could not have aimed it any better if he had tried. (Do you think he was trying?) 
 
I think my wife and the assistant Best Buy guy laughed the quickest, loudest, and loudest.  In fact they are still chuckling today.  The Best Buy guy who drenched me was concentrating on  catching the water that continued to pour and apologizing to me.  To be honest, I was amused too although I did keep my distance from him until he left.
 
There have been so many times when I have wanted to pour some cold water in some folks face to wake them up!  I wanted them to remember their baptism. I wanted them to be filled with passion about the faith again!  I want the children of God to act like children of God.  The faith has so much more to offer than we can imagine. 
 
Remember Your Baptism!  Touch the Water again!  If all else fails, call the Best Buy guy!  I know he is still laughing.
 
I promise I will never tell you about the installation of the clothes washer.....Some things just need not be told.
 
Pray for me as I pray for you
 
In the Master's Name,
 
Jack O'Dell
 
Lead Pastor
St. Luke Simpson UMC
Lake Charles, La
 

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Learn New Rhythms

Old dogs can learn new tricks.  It may take a while but eventually it happens.

In the new house, we have a doggie door.   Actually we have two doggie doors.  For those who do not know what a doggie door is here is the scoop. A doggie door is a door that your pets can go in and out of the house without your assistance.  Now one would think the doggie door would be a welcome to the dog.  No more standing at the door wishing to go out.  No more trying to get the attention of others to open the door to come in.  Free to come and go as you please.

Lisa (our dog) does not like the doggie door.  She is people friendly.  Or I really should say that she is people spoiled.  She thinks everyone is waiting to rub her tummy.  We are all lined up waiting to give her a treat.  The whole world is waiting to respond to her  tail wagging.  After all, who else wags their tail for you?

So two old adults (my wife and I) are on our knees forcing/begging Lisa to go in and out of the doggie door.  She is looking at us like she is saying, "if you like that door so much, YOU go through it."  Lisa is slowly, ever so slowly, learning a new rhythm of life.

Adults also have to learn new rhythms.  In the new house, there is a learning curve for the shower.  It used to be that every house just had a shower.  You pull up on the little shower knob and the shower began.  Then they began to hide it around the tap where you pulled down.  With our new shower, you go one way for the tub, another way for the shower and even farther for other shower heads.

So Mandy was getting ready to shower and I told her, "There is a learning curve on the shower!"  She hears me say so many things she does not even believe everything I say.  She chose to pass this off as one of those ridiculous things preachers and husbands say.  As she was finishing her response, "What do you mean a learning...", she renewed her baptism vow.  We Methodists sprinkle.  Well she was showered by the additional shower heads.  We both laughed.  I think I laughed more than she did.

Jesus came to the world and talked about new wine skins.  The old wine skins would burst if you put the new wine in them.  I think that God enjoys teaching us new rhythms.  I think God really enjoys watching us learn new rhythms.  

What about you?  Are you an old dog willing to learn a new trick?  Eventually...

Pray for me as I pray for you.

In the Master's Name,

Jack

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Why Ya Gotta Be So Mean?

My play lists on my IPhone is pretty diverse.  There is a Beachboys favorites list.  Of course, Harry Chapin and James Taylor are there in many forms.  It is filled with Christian music as well.  Somewhere Over the Rainbow with the ukulele and the Hawaiian guy that sings so lightly is there.   A couple of instrumentals can be found.  I have lately become a fan of Taylor Swift.  I saw her perform her song, "Mean" on television one night and I was hooked.

The lyrics in the song, Mean at one point says, "All ya ever gonna be is mean". At another point in the song the question is asked, "Why ya gotta be so mean?"

Do you know people who are just mean spirited?

Today as I was driving to the church there was a huge tortoise crossing the road.  It had almost made it across the road.  As I passed I laughed and admired its perseverance.  The journey must have begun very early for him and he was almost there!  Until....

One of those jumbo suped up trucks was in my rear view mirror coming fast.  It was one of those trucks that you would have to have a rope ladder to get in it.  Grandma would never make it.  And if she ever got IN the truck, she would have to parachute our!  And I almost cried when I saw what happened.  The driver of the big truck showed me how small he was.  He is a coward.  He swerved to the other side of the road to run over the tortoise.  Why?  Why ya gotta be so mean?

I slowed down wanting him to pass me so that I could take a picture of his license plate.  I thought I would message it or text it to God.  Not the God of mercy and love, but the  God of justice.  He would not pass me.  In fact, he slowed down so as to fall farther back from me.  He knew I saw his cowardly act.  What possible joy could one get in such an action?  Why ya gotta be so mean?  All ya ever gonna be in mean.

Mean spirited people are small persons who like to appear big.  They crush the helpless and prey on the hopeless.  Mean spirited people are not what God intended them to be.  They are lost.  They may in fact appear to be mighty and powerful, but they are not.

Why ya gotta be so mean?  By the time I write this, I am confronted my own mean spirit.  Yes, sometimes I am tired, hungry, stressed etc. and I can be mean.  I would hope that the difference in my meanness is that I have learned to confess it.  I hope I have learned to make amends.    I want not to make myself different but to ask God to transform me.  I need a Savior.  I cannot do it on my own.  It is what God can when I open my spirit before God.

What about you? Why ya gotta be so mean?  Taylor keeps singing about me and she doesn't even know it.

Pray for me as I pray for you.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Don't Give Away Your Couch!

We moved our son to Lafayette last week.  We gave him the couch and love seat from our house as we are buying a new one when we move.  I never realized how important a couch is.  Life without a couch is disorienting.

Our dog, Lisa, is convinced that the old people have lost what was left of their mind.  She loved the couch as her resting place for most of the day.  Now she comes into the living room and just looks at us like--"Where have you old folks put the couch?  Where do you think I am going to sit?"  Have you ever heard a dog sigh? I have.

Then there are the early mornings.  When you get old, there are mornings that you wake up and just need a place to crash that is apart from your bed.  The reason for this is to prevent your spouse from killing you.  The couch is the place.  You prop your head under the pillows and if you are lucky, you fall back to sleep.  One should never buy a couch without laying down on it first.

This is also true for the end of the day.  As a child, I watched--no I listened to my dad snore on the couch before going to bed.  It is a pre-sleep routine that one perfects as you age.  My dad would be sound asleep on the couch only to wake up when I changed the channel on the television.  "Don't change the channel!  I am watching it!"  He was watching it through the back of his eyelids.   

Couches are just a necessary part of the comfort zone of life.

Maybe that is what prayer is supposed to be.  Maybe prayer is more about resting in the presence of God than it is talking to God.  What if prayer is the place where you orient yourself and all of life.  Prayer is the place where you find yourself when you are restless or tired.  What if prayer is the place where you can see and hear life through the back of your eyelids that you do not want anyone to touch the channel?   What if prayer is the biggest piece of furniture in the living room of life?

One of the things I am looking forward to already is the new couch.  I can't wait to fall into it!

Pray for me as I pray for you.