Just Don't!*

 

My family had a mini-farm, 7 acres on the Little Tennessee river that we would visit on weekends and some afternoons when I was in elementary school. I learned to garden, fish, shoot a gun, ride a pony, whittle a stick of wood, pick fresh cherries and eat them right off the tree, and run from an angry rooster (a whole other story). I also learned some new ways to aggravate my sister. One cold day we were checking to see if the electric fence was working. I pulled the finger of my glove away from my finger, so as to not complete the circuit, and touched the fence, saying to my sister casually, “it’s not on.” Her response was to grab it with her whole hand (aaaand wait for it) ZAP came the electric pulse. “OW!” she shrieked,  as I laughed and ran away. She was mad as a wet banty hen, which gave her a little extra closing speed. If I hadn’t had a bit of a head start, she would have caught me…! My parents reminded me, ahem, exhorted me, (read disciplined me), saying that we don’t treat our siblings that way. And my sister may have taken the next opportunity to smash a Hostess Twinkie in my face.  (Thank goodness we now treat one  another a little better). 

In the early church God’s people apparently weren’t treating their Christian brothers and sisters very well. So Paul reminded them to be kind and gentle with each other, stick together and act like people who belong to Jesus. He says, “ Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:2-3  So, the next time we are thinking of being unkind to someone, anyone, just don’t. 

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

Are You Fatigued*

I took Military Science class in College, mainly because I needed another college credit and a couple of friends were in ROTC and they needed soldiers to lead as they trained for service. Both of these men served our country well… thanks and kudos to them and all those who solemnly swore “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic…” The class came with a lab, which was actually field training. We put on Army issued fatigues and boots, we marched, carried stoppered weapons, learned to ford a raging creek with a rope, repel and do push ups… I am thankful for the small taste of the training our service people go through, it makes me appreciate them even more. We took an overnight FTX, a Field Training Exercise, somewhere in the North Carolina mountains. It was dark and we hiked toward our target. With weapons and a 30 pound pack… and we hiked, and we hiked, we got lost, and for 3 straight hours we hiked. We finally made it to our target point, then we engaged the “enemy.” For a while adrenaline perked us up from the all night hike. We dove into ditches to dodge grenade simulators and enemy “fire” and took over a small “fort.” When the battle was over my M16 was traded for a much heavier M60 from the guy who had to leave for a wedding (a privilege of not being real enlisted soldiers)... with which I again got to hike through the mountains. Then my pack was traded for a heavier military communications pack, that again, you guessed it, I had the privilege of hiking through the mountains. When the FTX was over when the Sun began to rise, after we disassembled, cleaned and reassembled our weapons, and ate some MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) breakfast, the cadre of officers rewarded everyone with a surprise for their hard work. Normally, I would have been really excited to rappel down Grandfather Mountain, in NC, but because I was so fatigued in my fatigues, I couldn’t enjoy it. My mind was foggy and my body was exhausted, I wasn’t even sure I had secured my harness well. I wasn’t present enough to relish the experience with my friends and colleagues. I made it down the mountain with shaky muscles, but not with the exhilaration it should have brought. I was just too tired. 

Sometimes we are just tired, fatigued. Life can get exhausting. The things we would normally enjoy are not as enjoyable because we are just tired. Work, family, friends, demanding schedule, even fun; too much of them can get the best of us sometimes. The weights piled on your shoulders can seem to be increasing as you get more tired. Don’t forget to rest. Don’t forget to refresh. Take a timeout, a Shabbat. Find some time to step away from all the stress. Rest, connect with God, then do something fun. Then you can reconnect and bring your best self to those you love and care about. Get a dose of God’s joy and return to share it with those around you. 

Listen to Isaiah’s reminder to those who follow God: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding. He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:28-31 (CSB) 

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

(Updated version of an older post)

Sailing Into Trouble!*

 

Sailing into trouble. All my growing up years, my mother wanted my sister and me to have to have a well rounded childhood experience. She enrolled us in diving, swim, skiing, television, tennis, art, drama, music, sports, and several other kinds of lessons. When I was in my pre-teens she put me and my sibling into a sailing class. I don’t know what I was expecting. Perhaps my pre-adolescent mind pictured a pirate ship with giant square sails, men with eye patches, peg legs, or hook arms, yelling at me to: “hoist the mainsail,” “swab the deck,” or call me a “limey,” or a “scurvy dog.” Or maybe I imagined one of those racing schooners that I had seen on the black and white TV and people quickly raising and lowering large triangular white sheets and hanging off the side to keep it from capsizing, while waves threatened to knock them into the drink at any minute.  My fears were alleviated when we showed up at Ft. Loudon Lake to find some tiny tubs with one sail and one single mast, Sunfish sailboat. The instructor was laid back but got right to work teaching us the terminology of sailing vessels, teaching how to rig the boat, and coaching us on the navigation rules on the Tennessee River. The first week we never even got in the water. As a young man of action, I was reluctant to return, but my mother, who needed some time with us “out of her hair,”insisted that we try it again. This time we actually, one by one, got into the Sunfish with the instructor, and sailed a bit. I did enjoy it. We returned each week of the class and learned to sail solo. Unfortunately, there was only one Sunfish, but the instructor was quick to point out that we had the small tubs with sails we could use, we were all skeptical. One day, my ADHD self could wait no longer for the Sunfish to come back, so I decided to try one of the tiny boats. They are smaller than a bathtub and quite unstable.  I quickly found out why no one was using these boats… as soon as I got into the boat it began filling with water, but I kept going at the urging of the instructor, who assumed they were self-bailing like the Sunfish.  As I inserted the small daggerboard (used to keep the boat from capsizing) and got some wind in the sail, the boat began to move, but took on water even more quickly. By the time I was a few yards from shore, I and the boat were under water.  The instructor apologized for the equipment and dragged the boat back to shore as I swam back in. We all had on lifejackets, so we weren’t in any danger.  It wasn’t exactly a shipwreck, but in my imagination… I had to avoid being attacked by sharks…  or at least being gummed to death by a suckermouthed carp nestled in the mud at the bottom of what we fondly called “Lake Nasty.” Our beloved body of water had earned the moniker when the water treatment plant had “mistakenly”  been dumping raw sewage into the river a few miles upstream for years (a problem now rectified… according to officials). I went home and took a good bath… and only sailed in the reliable, stable, Sunfish for the remaining lessons. (Years later, I enjoyed the faster, funner, reliable Hobie Cats.) 

When Paul was talking to his young protege in the faith, Timothy, he warned him to hang on to the One he could trust and live life with a clear conscience, or his faith would be ineffective and headed nowhere.  Paul, who himself had been actually shipwrecked three times, one time floating helplessly adrift on the open sea, gave a strong warning about not behaving like those who don't yet belong to Jesus.   He says to Timothy, “Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.”(1 Timothy 1:19 NLT-SE) Doing what we know to be wrong and doing it anyway, is like getting in a sinking ship. Start with Christ, talk to Him, listen to Him, consult Him and let Immanuel remind you how His people act, and then go do that. 

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

Were You Born Last Night?*

In late elementary school and early Middle School, for a couple of years, everywhere but church and school, I wore a hat. For some reason, I was attached to this cranial covering. It was made of denim, but it was a sailor hat… I wore it flap down, like Gilligan… of Island fame. Not sure why I loved it so much. I guess it was like a special security blanket or stuffed animal, only for my head. Or perhaps it was because my creepy old balding, red-headed, round red faced bus driver used to call me “Cotton Top,” and I wanted to cover my white blond hair. He used to make me sit on the seat closest to him… gives me the heebie-jeebies even now. As I would get on the bus and try to quickly move to the back, he’d yell in a gravelly, whiskey, smoker's voice, “Get up here Cotton Top and sit in this seat right here!” I used to beg my mother to drive me to school, but that didn’t always work out. I lived in terror until we got a new bus driver...the next one was a little less scary. I still wore that hat for a while… somehow I didn’t mind the taunts of my sister over it. It finally disappeared somewhere… I guess my mother quietly threw the sweaty, dirty, old thing away one day, like mothers do when it's time to get rid of pacifiers, security blankets, and... security hats. I guess the attachment to it was only temporary.

From what I understand, we were always made for loving attachment… to God and the people He loves. The need to attach and belong is so strong that if we don’t do it properly in God’s way with Him and the significant people around us, we can end up attaching our lives to unhealthy things like addictions, work, hobbies, stuff, (hats) and even religion. Sometimes we attach in unhealthy ways to others who are unhealthily attached to us too. There is good news for all of us, though. When we are born again spiritually, like Jesus talks to Nicodemus about in the famous “Nic at night” conversation in John chapter 3, we are attached to God and we belong to Him permanently. When we are born physically there is a natural loving connection between mother and baby. It brings the security, belonging, joy, and peace babies need to grow up healthy. When the Holy Spirit connects us to God, our secure, healthy, grateful, and joyful connection with Him begins. When we attach to Him, we begin to understand our new identity as one of His children. Jesus tells Nic, the uber religious "teacher of Israel," and us, this new spiritual attachment is a must. He says, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ John 3:5-7 (NLT2) Attachment is a big deal spiritually and emotionally. There is a temptation for us to remain attached to the unhelpful stuff and detached from God and those who belong to Him. We have to fight against this trend and keep finding ways to reattach to God and the people He loves in healthy ways. If we will first reciprocate God’s loving attachment to us, back to Him, He will give us what we need to re-establish those relationships we may have missed out on and/or establish new ones. Relationships with God and other people are not like pacifiers, security blankets and old hats discarded after a while… they are important and valuable forever. We learn later, that Nicodemus, does some things for Jesus that make us think he may have been “born again” that night. Wonder if he ever said, “I may have been born at night, but not last night”? If you are not sure, be born again in the Holy Spirit, attach, connect and don’t let go, then connect with God's people and don't let go!

 

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

I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying, Jesus Sees Us All!*

 

I’m not crying, you’re crying! Our Chattanooga church had the wonderful privilege of joining with a downtown homeless ministry a few Sunday nights each year.  The soup kitchens were closed on Sundays so several churches joined with this ministry, rotating to provide food for the indigent population each Sunday Evening. This group also helped with clothing, shoes, socks and toiletries.  It was raining cats and dogs when about 10 of our members loaded the bus. Two other men, who had never been to our church, but heard that we were feeding the homeless, loaded up with us, eager to join in God’s work. We prayed that God would be with those we would meet and that we would see Him at work in people’s lives, and we asked Him to please lessen the rain, so the hungry people could be fed. As we drove about 15 miles to the feeding site, it was raining so hard people were pulling over on the interstate with their flashers on. I continued to pray while I was driving the bus and I am sure others did too. Strangely, as we pulled into the vacant parking lot where we were going to set up our tables, the rain stopped completely, not another drop came down the whole time we were there. We fed close to 100 people some pizza, shared a short sermon,  gave them some snacks, water, and helped them find some clothes and shoes to wear. It was obvious they needed some clean clothes after living in the streets with no money nor means to wash the ones they were wearing. One lady in a wheelchair was in great need of some new shoes. It was the only way she could get around. She couldn’t walk, but she could move her chair with her feet, if she had shoes that would grip the pavement. Her last pair had split and the soles had torn off. It was time to go and it was getting dark. We searched every box, every bag, every tote for some shoes that would fit her. We had cleaned up the site, everyone was gone but this woman and her friend, and we needed to get back to the church. Sadly, we were going to have to leave without finding shoes for this woman.  Finally, in hopeless desperation, one of the two men who had joined us, looked at his feet and her feet, then took off his own shoes and said, “please, just try these.” They were a perfect fit. She cried, and he cried and they hugged…and of course, we all cried for joy right along with them. We prayed and thanked the Lord for His providence and thanked Him for stopping the rain and boarded the bus for the ride home. The man climbed on the bus with muddy bare feet and we all cried again. As soon as everyone was gone, our bus wheels left the parking lot and hit the street, the rain poured down in buckets once again. I don’t know if I had trouble seeing the road on the way back because of the rain or the tears that filled my eyes. There was a short sermon that was preached that day by one of the pastors, but the message we all remembered, was the one we witnessed with our own eyes preached by God himself. 

The Psalmist says, “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.  He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.”(Psalm 126:5–6 NIV) 

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

Siblings, a skateboard, a motorcycle, and a steep driveway, what could possibly go wrong?!*

 Siblings, a skateboard, a motorcycle, and a steep driveway, what could possibly go wrong?! In the neighborhood where I grew up there was no lack of giant hills for a thrilling ride on any wheeled object upon which we could perch ourselves. We hoped to enjoy the exhilaration of great speed and also a safe deceleration at the bottom of the hill. In my driveway there was plenty of potential for great speed on a skateboard, but the enjoyable deceleration could be a little more tricky if you didn’t somehow slow yourself in the side grass, preventing yourself from heading into the street and subsequently into the  ditch (assuming you made it across the street without incident). But this story isn’t about the down hill trip, but a trip back up the hill.  One day, I had the “brilliant” idea of making a tow vehicle out of my Honda XL70 motorcycle with a ski rope tied to the back to return us back up the driveway. “Simply, grab the handle and ride leisurely back up the hill.” Kinda like a tow rope on the beginner ski slope. I somehow convinced my sister, who had safely enjoyed her ride to the bottom of the hill, that she was the lucky winner (read: “crash test dummy”) of the maiden voyage of the motoskatelift. I started out gently so as to not pull her off the skateboard. Everything was going swimmingly as I accelerated up the hill, until about halfway up the driveway, where unfortunately, there were just a few pieces of gravel, the size of which were slightly too large for the tiny skateboard wheels to go over. So, the wheels hit the gravel and stopped the board fast and my inaugural rider (i.e. test sibling) was airborne, landing on the asphalt with hands, elbows, belly, thighs, and knees, (I don’t know how she kept from scrapping her chin). I was oblivious to what had happened until she released the handle and it slingshot itself into my helmet. I stopped and turned around in time to see my sister starting to cry and look at her injuries. She was pretty well graveled (both in body and spirit) and because she didn’t normally say bad words, I think she may have used my name as a bad word, yelling, “BILL MCGINNIS!”  I was disappointed that my idea had not worked as planned and…, oh yeah, I felt sorry that I had given my sister a road rash on most of her body. I may have even groveled over the gravel for a few minutes. For some reason she didn’t trust my ideas so much after that. 

Jesus knows that He can’t trust people and so He holds a boundary with us. Yet, He still came to save all who will trust in Him.  We read in John 2:23–25, “Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people. No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.” (NLT)  But then the very next chapter we read the famous words, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”(John 3:16) Now that is love! Even though Jesus doesn’t trust us because He knows what is in our hearts, He is still glad to give himself as a sacrifice for us to have eternal life with Him and begin changing us to act like people who are more like Him! Paul, recognizing what happens, encourages us with his manifesto: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”(Galatians 2:20 NLT-SE)  So, be careful who you trust, we humans are bound to disappoint (some may even ask us to be a crash test dummy for them), but Jesus is never untrustworthy. 

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

Need Refreshing?*

A few years ago, we were having a family reunion at my Dad’s place on the French Broad River. My sister called it “Cousins at the Cabin.” There were lots of cousins there.  We had watermelon, fresh picked berries, burgers, dogs, chips, baked beans, potato salad, and cobblers of all kinds.  We had made our own water slide with 100 feet of plastic sheeting, a hill, a garden hose, and a drop or two of dish soap. We were using some inner tubes to let people float the river for about a half mile where the river passes in front of the property. We put the humans and their giant rubber donuts in the water at the neighbor’s boat ramp and they climbed back out toting their tubes at my Dad’s place. We were transporting them in our old Suburban affectionately called “Bessie.” We threw the tubes on the roof rack and drove back to the take out point to reload and do it again. The water was cool and refreshing and the water was flowing at a lazy pace. It was delightful on a hot Summer day. When everyone finished floating and came back to the house to eat, we parked the car and closed the windows, because we never knew when a Summer pop up storm could come in East Tennessee.  An hour or two later we couldn’t find our dog, Sadie. She loves to run the property and lie in the water at the edge of the river to cool off. After several minutes of searching we decided to get Bessie to go look for her. We discovered that she had climbed into the back of the ‘burb when we were transporting the river-tubers and had fallen asleep, then she was locked in the very back where no one could see her.  We were very worried about her. She was lethargic and would not drink any water. My father, who had done some research with dogs early in his medical training, said that once dogs reach a certain point of dehydration, they will for some reason, refuse to drink water to rehydrate. So, the panic ensued and my wife was headed to the pet hospital, come #&!! or high water. Sadie was given a very expensive IV, they said the fact that she had been playing in the cool water had probably saved her life. Soon, she was, thankfully, back to normal. 

Sometimes I’m like Sadie when I’m spiritually dehydrated. After messing up and not acting like the One I belong to (i.e. sinning), for some reason I refuse to return to The Living Water. I identify as one who belongs to Jesus, but sometimes when I mess up I continue to go away from Him instead of seeking Him. He is the only One who can restore me spiritually and I, for some reason, don’t seek after Him and then I experience even more spiritual exhaustion. Sometimes I need others in my faith community to remind me to get back to Him for a spiritual IV.  In the Book of Acts, not long after Jesus had been crucified, resurrected and ascended to the Father, Peter and John had performed a miracle at the temple and restored a crippled man to health.  Many people were amazed at God’s work and ran to the place where the miracle happened. Peter took the opportunity to remind people to return to God and recognize Jesus as the Messiah who could save them. He also confronted them for disowning Jesus and denying His deity in front of Pontius Pilot by saying “Crucify Him!” Peter says,  “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.” (Acts 3:19–20 NIV)  Why do we do that? Why do we refuse to come to Jesus when we are spiritually parched? I don’t know the answer to this question, but I am so thankful for God’s grace when He draws me back to Himself and He restores and refreshes my soul! Sometimes He even uses people in my faith community to remind me to get back to Jesus. Turn back to Him and be refreshed, my friends! 

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