Buckeyes! Delicious or Toxic?*

Credit: Allrecipes

As a preschool boy, I loved peanut butter. And I discovered,  just like the famous commercial says, that peanut butter and chocolate taste great together. My mother used to make buckeye candy out of peanut butter and chocolate every Christmas, but she had to hide it, because my sister and I would eat all of them before Mom could share them with our holiday guests. She would form the peanut butter into balls by adding confectioners sugar, butter, and vanilla, and place them in the fridge. Then melt the chocolate with shortening. She would dip the pb balls into the chocolate and leave an uncovered spot so they looked like buckeyes. Once, when one of our outdoorsy older first cousins (one of our 35 first cousins!) came to babysit, he brought us some actual buckeyes he found in the woods on his land. Buckeyes are mythically said to bring good luck, so much so that historically, players on a certain football team by the same name were given buckeyes to help them win. This good luck, however, was not the case in this instance. As soon as my cousin said the word, “Buckeye” our preschool minds thought, “YUM!” So we proceeded to eat these much harder, not as tasty buckeyes.   I suppose we were hoping they would get better. Nonetheless, we ate said buckeyes not knowing that they are poisonous. I don’t know how we got through the hard shell, but we were determined little varmints. We were out of sight from our cousin or he would have stopped us. At the time, the antidote was to induce vomiting. My sister dutifully puked it all up. I, however, hated to throw up, so I didn’t. In the meantime I became sicker and sicker from the buckeye toxins. Eventually, I puked, and couldn’t stop puking. I was one very sick little boy. My cousin felt terrible and to this day, he thought I was about to die. As far as we know, there was no significant cognitive da, da, da, damage from the incident, but only God knows.

In the early church apparently they were tempted to believe in old myths, rather than trusting  the Holy Spirit to be with us. Good luck charms or rituals are not something we should put our faith in, because it can be toxic to our faith. Paul tells his protégé, Timothy,  “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7–8 NIV) The word translated, “train” in English,  is the Greek word, “gymnaze.” Paul is saying, it is better to have your daily spiritual “workout” routine to strengthen your relationship with Christ and His people, rather than putting your hope in godless rituals or good luck charms.  So, when someone gives you a buckeye, rabbit’s foot or other charm, don’t recommend that you rely on it for good luck. Trust instead that God sees us, hears us, is glad to be with us, loves us and wants to do good things for us.  I do also recommend eating buckeyes, but only the candy ones.

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

A Great Calm *

A New restaurant called Not Watson's where Watson's used to be. 

 

When I was a child, my mother liked to shop at one particular department store in Knoxville’s historic Market Square Mall. The Square was quite popular until the large indoor mall came and people flocked to the huge indoor space with several big chain department stores. The store Mom loved back in the day was called “Watson’s on the Mall.” The “on the Mall” distinguished it from the other Watson’s stores in its southeastern U.S. chain founded in Knoxville at the turn of the 1900’s.  Watson’s on the Mall had its own commercial on local radio with a catchy jingle. We would park and walk past all the fresh vegetables and artists on the Square. There were lots of smiling people in hippie tie-dye, peace signs, and smiley face t-shirts. We would go into Watson’s and go to where the women’s clothes were. Mom would peruse the newest fashions on discount. Though bell-bottom pants, mini-skirts, and leather vests with leather frill tied with beads were popular, my mother was a little more conservative in her dress. My ADHD wouldn’t let me slowly walk around with her and wait while she stopped, looked, felt the fabric, held the dress up in the mirror. I would escape and climb in and out of the clothing racks while she was distracted. (Though I was undiagnosed, ADHD was called hyperkinetic disease back then. Kids like me were called “Fidgety Phil” in the journals) I once hid inside one of the round racks spinning around the colorful clothes, feeling the fabrics on my arms, smelling the freshly shipped apparel until I got dizzy. It created a kind of multi-stim psychedelic experience for me. When I emerged from the rack, my mother was nowhere to be found.  Initially, I didn’t panic, but looked around for her. When I couldn’t find her anywhere, I began to look a little more frantically. After several harrowing minutes my mother came out of the dressing room to find me with tears rolling down my cheeks running to get a squeezy hug. I promised myself never to do it again, however, “Fidgety Phil” had other designs and each time we went to Watson’s, I climbed behind the clothes. Calming down was a challenge. 

When the disciples were in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee, they were anxious and afraid and could not calm down. Jesus however, was so calm, he was asleep in the bottom of the boat. Mark tells us,  “And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” (Mark 4:39 ESV) Sometimes storms in our lives turn our worlds upside down. Even when we try to rest, we can’t calm ourselves. Jesus can give us a peace that goes beyond understanding. His simple words to our anxious hearts are “Peace! Be still,” can bring about “a great calm,” even if we are a Fidgety Phil or Phyllis.

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

Oh Grow Up! *

Photo credit: bloomie972 Instructables

 When I was a very young boy, we moved to a new house. It had a rope swing and a tree house, as well as a traditional metal swing set with a ladder and slide. The rope swing was tied 20 feet up on a tree branch, the rope was 3 inch hemp and on the end was a large knot to sit on.  I wanted to try it. My little hands were too small to hold it well, it was very rough on my tender preschool skin, and it was so thick it was hard to make it swing, and I fell off. So, I stuck to the safer traditional swing set. The tree house was about 8 feet high and the homemade ladder was nailed to the tree.  At the top of the ladder there was a hinged hatch door you had to push up to get inside, then close it again so there was no hole in the floor. Several times I would get brave enough to climb the ladder, but wasn’t strong enough to push the solid wood hatch door open. So, I often just played on the swing set ladder and slide. When I got a little older and stronger, I decided I was ready to attempt the tree house again. I was so determined to get into the tree house that day. I climbed the ladder and pushed hard against the door. It opened but not enough to stay open and it slammed back down knocking me head first off the ladder. When I woke up, my sister was checking on me. I had a terrible headache and was so dizzy. Eventually, I conquered both the tree house and the rope swing and had hours of fun on both. Soon, the traditional little swing set had little thrill for me. I had grown up in my adventures.  

God designed us for growth. When Paul is teaching the early church about love, he makes it clear we are supposed to grow up in the ways we love people.  Learning to love other people is challenging.  Our natural bent is to love and take care of only ourselves like a child. Growing up in how we love people requires that we do some hard things. Paul reminds us: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8 NIV11) He then goes on to say that we need to grow up in our relationships with people around us. He says, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”(1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV11) It is hard to be patient, kind, and humble when others are aren't being kind to us. It's sometimes hard to celebrate when others do well when they are flaunting it. It is also hard to forgive people, protect them rather than try to be better than them. It is challenging to hang there, when relationships get really tough. It's time for us to grow up and enjoy grown up relationships that can be difficult sometimes. 

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