Feet of Clay: Learning Love from a Tennis Story!*

I had played tennis several times a week in Middle School at the asphalt courts owned by the church next to my home and loved it. I was hopeful in trying for a spot on the team at my new high school, my freshman year.  I was a little intimidated because I was largely self-taught, unconventional and modestly equipped compared to the kids that I would be competing with. They were the well-coached kids. They were every-summer-all-summer tennis camp kids, with elite equipment and facilities. The tryout was a simple challenge system. You could challenge someone for the vacant spot on the team and you got to name the court. If you won you earned your spot, if you lost you were out, no challenge backs. There were 4 of us freshmen trying to make a spot on the team. I had defeated two others and thought I was assured of a spot at least playing doubles (the top 6 players play singles and 7&8 play doubles). My insecurity began displaying itself in pride about those first wins.  However, there was a late challenge from classmate #4. He had done his homework and strategically selected a clay court, first, because he knew I had likely never played on clay (his country club was the only place in town that had clay courts) and, second, because he knew the moist court would slow down my serve and forehand. He also knew my feet would slide a little on clay, unlike asphalt and it would slow my quickness. We were fairly evenly matched going to deuce several times. In the end, his strategy had served him well.  He had changed the whole game with his court selection and turned my strengths into weaknesses. My dreams of playing high school tennis were dashed to the clay.  (I ended up on the swim team, but that’s another story for another day). 

The Apostle Paul was concerned because there were Judizers who had come to the church in Philippi.  These hyper-religious people were very impressive with how well they could follow the rules and they insisted that everyone else do the same. These admirable attributes of rule following, sounded like something every Jesus follower should do, but actually this self-righteousness threatened the very core of what it means to belong to Jesus. This salvation based on ascetic rigor AND following Jesus was antithetical to a simple humble relational connection with Jesus. Sure, acting rightly is what happens when we begin to mature in Christ, but the Judiazers made it sound like it was necessary for salvation. Having a place on Jesus' team has nothing to do with our own strength or rule-following ability, and everything to do with a real attachment to Jesus, who changes us and then matures us through relationships with other true believers to do the right things. God's plan, through Jesus, had turned all the strengths of Judaizers into weaknesses.  Paul knew this first hand, he used to be one of the best of those super-rule followers. He tells his friends, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ  and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.  Philippians 3:8-9 (NLT2) We all have feet of clay, our greatest strengths can be considered our greatest weakness if we value them more than our relationship with Jesus. God's love for us is immeasurably greater than our ability to follow the rules.

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

Hot Buttery Popcorn, Warm and Safe Hospitality!*

Photo: Simply Recipes / Mihaela Kozaric Sebrek

Mrs. Blackburn made the most delicious skillet popcorn, salted and buttered just right, served warm, right out of the pan, with lots of smiles and laughter, and a glass of lemonade in the Summer, or cup of hot cocoa in the Winter. Miss Bonny was a neighbor on our cul-de-sac on Fox Chase Lane with a long straight uphill driveway, so she could see all who entered the cul-de-sac. The driveway up to this lookout was built where an old wagon trail had traversed the neighborhood a hundred years before.  She was quite a golfer, who loved to coach teenage girls to play the links, some of whom went on to play in college. Though her husband, Henry, was kind of sickly and ill, she was gregarious and very social. She loved to host my sister and me for impromptu snacks when she saw us playing or riding our bikes around the end of the street circle.  The cul-de-sac oval, with four houses,  had a little patch of grass inside the asphalt loop, a perfect place to play “rolly bat" or find 4 leaf clovers, but watch out for the bees! Miss Bonny would come out her front door, see us playing, smile and wave us up to her house. We knew that meant a delightful snack was coming. One particular day, my sister decided to ride her bike by herself around the circle, on our little hill in Lakemoore Hills.  She was gone for a long time, but when she returned, she was talking a mile a minute, eyebrows up, and smelling like hot buttered popcorn. We knew where she had been. She explained that she had run over a black snake that was so long, it stretched all the way across the driveway.  She was so scared that she didn’t stop pedaling until she got to the top of Miss Bonny’s drive. She knocked on the door and Miss Bonnie welcomed her, fixed her the wonderful skillet corn, and later sent her home after making sure the snake was gone. Whenever we heard the 1972 international hit, a cool Moog synthesizer instrumental song, “Hot Butter - Popcorn,” we were reminded of sitting in Miss Bonny’s kitchen watching her pour the oil into the large skillet, waiting for the test kernels to pop, pouring in the rest of the kernels, then shaking the pan like crazy it until the last pops sounded, dumping the steamy white mushroomed puffs into a bowl, drenching them with melted butter and generously sprinkled salt, then putting them in little bowls for each of us. Though I don’t remember her being an overly religious person, Miss Bonny acted like Jesus, welcoming people, protecting them from scary things, offering warm hospitality, and feeding them puffy delicious grains with salty melty butter.  More of us need to be like Miss Bonny, a safe, caring, fun, friend to those who are in the cul-de-sacs of our lives. 

Before Moses died, he wanted to bless and encourage God’s people, reminding them of His kind protection, provision, and care. God had used him to bring them out of Egypt, he had been with them in their desert wanderings, and rescued them many times from danger. He knew there would be more difficulties to come, but he also knew Yahweh’s arms were not weak. God had already brought them through many trials. Moses told the children of Israel, “There is no one like the God of Israel. He rides across the heavens to help you, across the skies in majestic splendor. The eternal God is your refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you. He drives out the enemy before you; he cries out, ‘Destroy them!’ So Israel will live in safety, prosperous Jacob in security, in a land of grain and new wine, while the heavens drop down dew. How blessed you are, O Israel! Who else is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your protecting shield and your triumphant sword! Your enemies will cringe before you, and you will stomp on their backs!”(Deuteronomy 33:26–29 NLT-SE)  Hymn writer A.J. Showalter was encouraging some of his former students who had just experienced tremendous loss with these verses. He reminds them, “What a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms; What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.” We can take comfort in God’s care and great love for us, but we also need to give that comfort to others in real, tangible ways, just like Miss Bonny Blackburn. It's a great excuse to make hot buttered popcorn for some friends! (Oh and you are welcome for putting these two songs in your head today!)

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

Who Rules?*

 On safari in Africa, our friend, who had been in the Rhodesian army, was our guide. My college friend and I had been invited to join him and his family as they returned to visit South Africa from the U.S.  He drove us in a Landcruiser in the Kruger Park and he was fearless. He drove us up to a large bull elephant that could flip our vehicle with no problem. As we approached, the elephant began flapping his large ears as a warning to back off. Did I mention our guide had no fear? We finally got too close and the elephant charged. Our driver threw the SUV into reverse and backed up faster than the charging pachyderm could run. Just when we thought we were out of danger and far enough away not to be gored by a tusk or trampled under foot, our “friend” put the vehicle back into drive and approached the ticked off elephant again. His ears flapped and our driver inched closer, until once again, he charged. Once again, he sped backward, and out of danger. We were hoping that he felt he had sufficiently scared the Americans, but he was not finished. He did this a few more times, laughing harder at our fearful shouts to please not to do it again. We finally moved on and saw some Zebras, Ostriches,Warthogs, and other game.  We watched from 100 yards away as a small female lion unsuccessfully stalked and chased a Giraffe.  A bit later, our personal guide saw 3 large male Lions crossing the road ahead of us and drove between them, putting us face to face with a huge male lion inches away from our window. We were so close, I couldn’t get a picture of him with my telephoto lens (the one I thought I would need to photograph lions in the wild). His head was as big as the window. I was just glad he wasn’t hungry for American cuisine under glass at that moment, because the widow would have just been an annoyance to break, before dragging our flailing bodies out of the back seat to dine on us in the SA Highveld (broad grassy, plateau) to be the latest "lion kill" viewed by all the passing tourists. Our last meal would not have been our own. The night before, we had just heard the petrifying roars of one of his own just outside of our Kruger Lodge. His Panthera leo cousin had isolated a Wildebeest, he would later eat.  His guttural roar was like none other, the power of its reverberation, freezing in terror his prey and us in our tracks. He left no doubt that he was the King of Beasts. The inconvenienced lion on the road gave us a sideways glance and finally walked around the car and disappeared into the bush. We were glad that, at that moment, Solomon’s words were not true in this case, “the lion, king of animals, who won’t turn aside for anything,”(Proverbs 30:30 NLT)

Sometimes some of us act like lions who won’t turn aside for anything.  We act like predators, seeking weaknesses in others to exploit for our own benefit, especially those who disagree with us, or those we see as competitors. At one point in Israel's history, as the Prophet Isaiah is speaking to God’s people, he tells them of a time to come when there will no longer be predators and prey, but all will be at peace, and love will prevail.  The Evil One’s ways of destruction and domination will no longer be the norm, but “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle, but the serpent’s food will be dust! They will not do what is evil or destroy on my entire holy mountain,” says the LORD.”(Isaiah 65:25 CSB)  It will no longer be the fearful life of “survival of the fittest,” or “only the strong survive,” or “natural selection” that seems to currently rule in the world. When Jesus came, He showed us another way…He tells us to love each other, even our enemies (Luke 6:35) rather than seek to destroy them. He teaches those who belong to him to be gentle with the weak, not take advantage of the weaknesses of others, but protect them.  The “King of Kings,” “Lion of Judah”(Jesus) is driven by love, joy, and peace and He is a protector. We gotta stop acting like the one we used to belong to who came to steal, kill, and destroy, the Evil One, the Predator… We will act like the one who rules our heart, Predator or Protector. 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!