Do More Meet Less

It is just a silly story that came to me.

There was once a city somewhere in the United States.

The governing body of the city became deeply concerned when it came to their attention that people were actually hungry. Something just had to be done. So the strategies began.

At the first meeting in which hunger was placed on the agenda, a young man stood up and offered a solution. Let's plant a community garden and share. We share the work. We share the garden goods with those in need. With that, he left the meeting and planted a garden on an abandoned field near the town.

The Council heard the idea but the decision was made that the idea needed to be refined. Therefore, a study committee was appointed to study the options as to what plants would yield greater results as well as where the best place would be to plant the field. After the first meeting of the study group, the group came back to the Council suggesting that it also include in its study a look at what other cities had done to face the problem.

The Daughters of American Gardeners (DAG) decided that it would be necessary to honor all of those who had planted gardens in the area over the past 100 years. After all these folks had paved the way for gardening in the area and to not honor their work would be a slap in their face. The Council adopted an official day of recognition for this celebration.

The local ministerial association decided that there needed to be a day of prayer to ready the city for the task ahead of them. The God Almighty would be the one to bless the crops and allow the problem to be resolved. It would also be a great time of spiritual renewal for the community.

The Mothers Against Youth Being Endangered (MAYBE)) organized within 30 days. These Mothers of all ages would take a stand against what hunger can do to the youth of our day.

The Political Action Pac Against Hunger (PAPAH) immediately when into action. The group of political pundits had a $1000 plate benefit in which the money raised was used to run political advertisements identifying politicians who voted against hunger oriented legislation. Some of the money raised was also used to prosecute persons who planted a garden in places where city resolutions prohibited them to be planted. Nothing worse in life than illegal gardens.

There was more action and movement in the city than one can imagine. However do not confuse action and movement with resolution.

Three months later, the young man passed out food the hungry in the city. Their smiles were his reward for the work he had put in the field.

One of the things that amazes me about the life of Jesus is that nowhere in the scriptures do I find that he organized a study or held a committee meeting. Jesus just went about doing good.

Maybe our world would benefit with less meetings and studies and more hands doing the work of compassion. When all is said and done, may more be done than said!

Pray for me as I pray for you.

Life is Too Short!

For those whose spiritual life is not at its highest point, I need to give you information you probably are not privy to have. The 112^th U.S. Open Championship Tournament was held this past week. Webb Simpson won it.

Golf is a spiritual game. I can play a round of golf with someone and learn a lot about their spiritual life. For some playing with a clergy is a challenge. When I have met some folks on the golf course, when asked what I do for a living, I have answered, "I'll tell you after we putt out on 18!" I do not want to spoil their round!

For many years, my brother, Larry and I would play in some golf tournaments. We would take a Sunday off and play during the weekend. We enjoyed tournament competition—most of the time. One tournament we were paired with two Baptist deacons. The first nine was one of those rounds where there was not much talk. They were played great golf. They were also speaking in tongues and consuming lots of beer. We were not playing well at all. As we made our way to the 10^th tee, one of their buddies ruined their day. "How are ya'll making out playing with the two preachers?" All of a sudden they were trying to remember what they had said and done. They began to apologize for everything. They shot a 50 on the back nine! We were amused.

I remember playing with two guys where I learned the B and J rules of golf. These were two church members who had played together for years. They invited me to play a round with them. Usually golf is ruled by the United States Golf Association rules. Each person is responsible for enforcing these rules for themselves. However a person playing with you also enforces the rules to protect the field of competition.

The B and J rules were quite different. First of all you had to walk. How could you carry on a conversation riding? A pull cart was permissible even encouraged. If you hit a hazard, you had the option of hitting another ball or just lifting from the hazard with no penalty. If you needed to move your ball or tee it up to hit it, no problem. Once you began putting on the green, you continued until you finished. You never had more than two putts per hole. The maximum number of strokes per hole was two over par. Your efforts were recognized in deduction of swings taken on the hole. If you found a golf ball, you gave it to your playing partner. Two whiffs equaled a free "throw" of the golf ball. It causes less damage than throwing the club. Laughter during, after, and before the shots was encouraged. Any snacks harbored in your bag for the round had to be shared with everyone.

I have never laughed so much during a round of golf as I did with these two guys. They enjoyed each other's company. They enjoyed their round of golf. As we were loading our clubs back in the car, I asked them how they came up with the B and J rules of golf. B looked at me and said, "The days and the courses became too long!" Without a moment's pause, J continued, "and life is too short!"

I think Jesus spent time with the disciples laughing and loving. Maybe it was the time at Lazarus' house. Maybe it was on the journey around the Galilee. Good friends make it a habit to laugh a lot and love even more.

Life is too short to not laugh and love. I think somewhere in the heavens these two guys are still playing golf.

Pray for me as I pray for you.

Fathers Can Inspire

Sunday is Father's Day. It is not as grand and glorious as Mother's day. I think it is because that in the actual birth process, dads are pretty much spectators. So there is not as much a sense of indebtedness. Mothers remind children of the pain of childbirth.

What are your memories of dad?

As a little boy I remember my dad playing all kinds of sports. Secretly I think he wanted one of his sons to be a professional sports star. However, it just wasn't there. He would spend hours with us playing baseball, golf, or football. On Saturdays before there was organized football for elementary kids, my dad was organizing it. We didn't have uniforms or practices. We showed up in our rag tag football stuff and played. When we played golf, the round never started until Dad made his first par. Until then it was just warming up. He wanted to at least start the round even par. Nobody in Minden started on number one at the golf course so it did not matter.

I remember the first plane ride. Dad got tickets to the Dallas Cowboys football game. We flew from Shreveport, caught a bus and went to the game. Then the next day we flew home. My dad ran a radio station so he could get press passes for opening days. I was at opening day for Six Flags, Astroworld, the Astrodome (Yankees versus Houston Colts), the Superdome, and Disney World. I lived a theme park life.

Dad was a leader in the church. He was the one who traveled with the youth group whenever and wherever. The church was the source of friends and fellowship. And God be with you if you misbehaved at the church!

But the greatest gift that Dad gave to me was a sense of security. My world was safe. I was encouraged to adventure (within limits) I was given boundaries to test knowing that my place at home was not at risk. When I did well, he was my greatest cheerleader. When I failed, he was there.

My dad is now blind and 86 years old. The last ten years has changed dramatically for him. He can no longer do the things he did with such great ease. It is frustrating for him in many ways. Sometimes he wonders aloud to me as to why he is still around. I know the answer. He is around for those who need his presence. The presence of a father makes all the difference in the world.

My prayer is that when I am in the last years of my life, my sons and daughters will have memories of their dad that inspire them as much as my dad has inspired me.

This Father's day, celebrate the presence. It may be in the memory. It may be at hand. Know that God is present for you.

Gather Honey in Life!

So while visiting my grandkids, I was introduced to a new television show I had never seen. It is called Duck Dynasty. After watching it I knew why I had never watched it. But when you are with Grandkids, you will do anything—once. It is a reality show about an unusual family in Monroe. The family is what many would refer to as "redneck." Now one needs to understand that this can be a word of endearment to some. At times it seemed that it was a reality episode of the old movie, "Dumb and Dumber". Again, please do not read this as an uncomplimentary remark. I really believe that a part of the reality show wants this response!

This particular episode was about honey and bees. The boys (younger grown men) were out in the swamp in North La and came upon a huge beehive filled with honey. Their challenge was to get the honey in spite of the bees. The decision was made to create a long hose with the shop vac. They would suck the bees into the shop vac and then steal the honey. Needless to say, this ended in failure pretty quickly. So then one of them convinced the other that bees would not sting at night. After all, none of them could remember anyone being stung at night. That night, they made their way to the beehive. One of them would cut the branch holding the beehive and another would catch the honeycomb. Needless to say, bees DO sting at night. Finally they make their way to the dad with their stories of failure.

The dad takes the youngest grandson with him the next day. The grandson blows some smoke around the beehive to keep the bees calm as the dad gently puts the honeycomb into a container. No swarming. No stings. Only honey.

Sometimes gentleness and grace are the greatest tools we have to gather the honey of life. Harsh actions or reactions only create more swarms that can harm everyone. The opportunity to respond as Christ would respond is a gift of the Spirit.

I know it is hard to believe, but there are some folks that simply do not care for me. Don't laugh too hard, it is true about you too! This past week I received probably the harshest letter I have ever received in over thirty five years of ministry. This person thought it was necessary to "dress me down" in every way. Now there is a part of me that remembered the old adage, "Sticks and stones may break…"—you know the rest of it. But there was another part of me that felt the pain of each word. After all, we all want to be liked. Then I remembered what I know to be truer than I want it to be---hurt people hurt people.

So I made the decision to tell Jesus about how the words hurt me. I asked God to help me change what needed to change for my witness to be faithful if indeed it was not faithful. Then I spent some time praying for the person who wrote me the letter. That is all that I will do to answer the letter. Harsh reactions only create more swarms in life. I will choose to focus on those whom God has given me that I will nurture.

Gather the honey of life with gentleness and grace.

Pray for me as I pray for you!

Give Yourself to the Fire!

Recently I enjoyed a walk through the Rocky Mountains. The scenery was beautiful. You could see the handiwork of God. I was captured by the sunlight while looking at snow on the ground. The animals were majestic in their appearance. It was easy to say the words of the Psalm, "I lift mine eyes up the hills…." The whole event filled me with a sense of awe.

I also remembered the scripture, "what is man that thou thinketh of him…" The drama made me seem so small in the whole scope of creation. And yet, with God each one of us is the most significant. God focuses on us individually in our own uniqueness.

I was intrigued by the piles of wood that were stacked up to be burned. Knowing the impact of current fires burning in the mountains and the damage that has been caused would have made me think twice about preparing for things to be burned. And yet, there were preparations being made for such to happen. In fact, more intriguing were the small rings of black where control burns had obviously taken place recently. The fire was contained to a small circle.

Controlled burns are necessary to keep the forest at its best. They clean out the underbrush that puts the whole forest at risk. This enables the forest to continue to grow at its best.

In our spiritual life there is also the need for a controlled burn. Controlled burning is what John Wesley would call "going on to perfection." The old theological word used to talk about this is sanctification. Sanctifying grace is the grace of God that works in us where God shapes our life and character into Christ like form. It is God doing in our life what we ourselves cannot do. It is not good enough to remain who we are. We open ourselves to become what God can make us.

Most of us struggle with what we can make of ourselves. Maybe it is time to give ourselves to the fire—what God can make of us!

Pray for me as I pray for you.

Look Where You Walk

I do not like snakes. I know there are supposedly good snakes and bad snakes. I do not like either one of them near me.

It is no accident in my line of thinking that the fall of humanity began with a conversation with a snake. Talking snakes are probably worse than other snakes. My friends who play golf with me know that if they hit a golf ball in a "snaky" looking area. I will GIVE you a golf ball. We do not need to go look for that one.

So my wife and I are walking across the bridge just having a great conversation. All of a sudden, Mandy does the "snake" dance. You have seen it before. It is that little jig that one does when you are about to step on it or in it. It is a dance that is not done with anyone else in mind. Usually it is accompanied by some religious utterances asking for divine intervention.

The little snake (about two feet long) was curled up between the bridge and concrete just sunning away. You had to look to find the snake. Snakes can be sneaky. They love to blend in the environment. Now some would say that the snake was more afraid of us than we are of the snake. They obviously do not understand basic fear of snakes.

Being the good Christian leader that I am, every person I met on the way to the bridge was warned. There is a snake on the bridge. What I did not understand is that none of them turned around. What gives? Did they not hear me say, "There is a snake on the bridge!"??? To further confuse me, when I told the people in the building that there was a snake on the bridge, they did nothing as well. I immediately doubted their hospitality.

In our walk with God, we have to watch our step. The Lord warns Cain that "sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you." Genesis 4:6. The snakes talking and otherwise are ready to consume you. The seduction of the world is subtle. It is easy to not keep watch!

As Christian brothers and sisters, it is our obligation to one another to warn each other when the way ahead is dangerous. It is not enough to simply say each person is responsible for themselves. We carry one another's load. We urge each other to walk where God would have us walk. We look with each other as we walk.

Look where you are walking!

Pray for me as I pray for you!

Trusting in God

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5

Wisdom has been a focal word for me lately.

I have been having this conversation with God about the gift of wisdom. It is a conversation that invites me to listen more than talk. For me sometimes that is very difficult.

It is hard to put aside what you know—or what you think you know. For most of one's life, one is taught to learn from experience. Acquire living knowledge. From this knowledge you will be able to keep your paths straight. You know what to do in certain situations.

God has a different plan. God instructs us to avoid leaning on our own understanding. The way of trust in the God relationship is not relying on the past experiences. They way of trust with God is submitting to the new creations and paths that God is forging in the world. Submission is not one of humanity's natural responses.

Wisdom is avoiding reaction and waiting for response. Wisdom is to sit in the uncomfortableness of life and wonder—wonder with God. It is the act of living in the gray areas of life knowing that God often makes wonderful portraits out of blending the colors of life. Wisdom is knowing that even if in this life I perish, God is my redeemer that never leaves.

It is graduation time where young adults are wondering what they will do, where they will go. I encourage them to ask a different question: Where is God leading you? What is it that God wants you to do? God needs good people in all professions so this is not just a question of being a missionary or minister. It is a question of vocation. It is understanding that even a job can be a God calling.

As a pastor, I am wondering with God. I am confronted with the question over and over again—where is it that you would lead God? For as a pastor, I am seeking the straight path that only God's wisdom can give.

Trusting in God is indeed putting aside our own understandings. For my ways are not God's ways. It is opening all of my life to God. It is being willing to walk the path that God places before me. And yes, it begins in the love relationship of the heart.

Pray for me as I pray for you.