Elections bring out the best and the worst in people. Fortunately, in order to preserve our sanity, they also bring out the funny and the philosopher in us, too. Check out Walt Handelsman’s take on McCain vs. Obama: The 2008 Summer Olympics.
The amazing folks at jibjab have created this one:
Now for some real wisdom…
Athens had Plato and Aristotle. Israel had Solomon. Colonial America had Jefferson and Madison. We had Bobo Brown.
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I haven’t said anything about the current political scene for a variety of reasons, but this scares me. I haven’t seen fawning like this since I escorted W. A. Criswell into a Baptist pastors’ meeting.
Something’s wrong when the same people who want to make sure terrorists get equal time and a “fair and balanced perspective” do this kind of drooling. And something is even more wrong when the people whose vocation is to report the facts and to ask the tough question lose their calling to a thrill running up their leg.
Good grief, Chris, have some dignity.
But this isn’t about politics or the press so much as it is about healthy leadership. I’ve seen the same kind of crap surrounding pastors, business leaders, and celebrity-types who never had to give an account to anybody for how they influenced people.
When leaders create or inherit an environment where nobody asks the tough questions, they are setting themselves and their organization (or nation) up for their own demise.
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Tense Truth: Because every human has a great need for guidance and care, God promises to personally meet the need of every Christ follower, as a shepherd would his sheep. Yet as our Shepherd, He will lead us directly to hostile or dangerous places, into the very presence of our enemies and death. Nevertheless, my safety and peace are not found in where I lie down, but in Who stays awake when I’m resting.
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Give your heart to Jesus, and it will be the end of all your trouble.
The front end.
Just remember as you’re bumping along the road to eternal bliss, you have a Shepherd, and He has committed Himself to meet all your needs. Of course, if He’s the Shepherd, what does that make you and me?
Sheep. The stupidest, most defenseless animal in the world.
But we’re sheep with a Shepherd, and we can rest in that. It never ceases to amaze me how those inspired words of David, so comforting for centuries, continue to work their magic today. I witnessed it again last week, as a grieving family said good-bye to their mother/grandmother.
I love how practical the Lord is when He meets our needs. When God finds you hungry, He gives you food. When God finds you with a broken heart, He’s not going to come and ask you if you’ve read the Four Spiritual Laws. He’s going to attend to your broken heart. Whether the need is for strength to keep going, direction for decision making, encouragement along the way, or something more tangible, our Shepherd delights in solutions to the real problems in your life.
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Yesterday God played “connect the dots” with me. He used a series of apparently random or loosely-connected ideas to form a whole – a picture of what He’s up to or what He wants to communicate. I’d like to share what I learned in the process. So here are the “dots”:
Be Ready
Tim Challies told an amazing story about a crash landing that took place at the Toronto airport in August 2005 during a horrific storm. The plane overshot the runway and came to a crashing halt.
Some fifteen to twenty seconds had elapsed from the time the aircraft left the runway. Amazingly, the fuselage was largely intact. But as the plane had crossed Convair Drive, fuel had begun to leak and had immediately caught fire. As the plane came to a halt the fire began to spread and to intensify.
Keep in mind that it had been 27 years since a similar incident had happened in Toronto.
For twenty-seven years the firefighters had trained to deal with a situation like this one. An entire generation of firefighters had come and gone without seeing a single incident. They could almost be excused for being under-prepared, slow to respond, slow to act.
They weren’t. By the time the tower controller activated the airport’s crash alarm, 26 seconds after the flight left the runway, the firefighters were already in route. They arrived only 52 seconds after the plain left the runway.
Despite twenty seven years without an incident, those firefighters were ready and they responded well in advance of the parameters dictated by safety regulations. In less than a minute they were on the scene and were assisting the passengers. It took less time for them to get to the crash site than it did for fully half of the passengers to leave it.
Fifty-two seconds! After not having an incident in 27 years. The key was training. They had disciplined, trained, and practiced so much that when the crash occurred, they were ready.
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Somewhere up in heaven, Aunt Ruth is probably hooting. I know she would be if she were still around here.
Aunt Ruth (who was neither my aunt, nor was she named “Ruth”) used to love to catch preachers with their foot in their mouth; it was something of a hobby to her. Nothing could penetrate her sometimes-sharp exterior and produce uncontrollable laughter like hearing that a prim and proper “man of God” had just said something stupid. And she was cruel with it! One little snafu from you-know-who, and I’d hear about it for weeks. And between guffaws, as she would gasp for air, she’d always sound the same warning. If I spelled it the way she said it, it would read like this:
“You gotta watch them woids!”
Rather than get offended, I played along. We often entertained each other with stories we’d heard of other preachers. Like the time a preacher friend of mine said three times in a sermon, “I’m praying that God would make our church a cesspool of His love! A cesspool of His grace! A cesspool of his power!”
He was thinking artesian well. But that’s not what his folks were smelling at the moment.
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Scattershooting, and wondering whatever happened to Blackie Sherrod…
Rip van Computer
I feel like Rip van Computer. Last weekend I finished the book I’ve been writing with Kaye, the latest Regent class, and Carrie and Kyle’s move. I found my email inbox with a record 761 messages in them (sorry if yours was one of them – I promise I wasn’t trying to diss you.) My Google Reader had nearly 900 entries. But this goes much deeper and further. For seven months I’ve been in “hunker down” mode, time- and responsibility-wise. The clouds have parted, and the time-sun is starting to shine. But I feel like I’ve been asleep at the keyboard.
Catch-up Stains
Right after that, prophetically, I read this story from John Fischer, reportedly from the writings of Rabbi Kushner, about a group of tourists who went on a safari in Africa and hired several native porters to carry their supplies for them. After three days, the porters announced they would have to stop and rest for a day. When the tourists asked why, the porters said they weren’t tired, “…but we have walked too far too fast and now we must wait for our souls to catch up to us.” John talked about the need to let our souls catch up, and I can relate. It’s time for some soul work.
Resumes and Cover Letters
My son sent me his resume with a cover letter this morning for me to review. It reminded me of the massive staff search process we have just been through. I absolutely know how the American Idol judges feel when they do their nationwide search. Sometime soon I’ll share with you some of the good, the bad, and the you-gotta-be-kidding-me stuff we received (with names changed to protect the laughing).
Handling Fees?
Jackie Huba just shared an experience in which she was purchasing a $50 gift certificate from her favorite day spa. (I can relate – I just did that for my wife). As the clerk filled out the certificate, she said the total would be $51.50. “Handling fee,” she said. When asked what kind of handling was involved, she said (with a straight face, I suppose), “Writing out the certificate,” she said. “It’s labor-intensive.”
I’m not sure whether to laugh, cry, get mad, or get inspired. We all know about the airlines introducing fees for different things we all sort of took for granted. Before long, I suppose, we’ll see all kind of new fees for “labor-intensive” or “optional” services: [click to continue…]
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Here’s what happens when “public servants” invade the local ladies’ room.
Hey, rules are rules…
Somewhere there is a bureaucrat, who takes us all for fools,
And has a bit of brainlessness interpreting the rules.
He thinks that women everywhere would certainly be blessed
To see their neighbor face-to-face when they sit down to “rest.”
This gives new meaning to the phrase we men think sounds so wrong:
“I’m going to the ladies’ room, you want to come along?”
So if Point Loma, California is your local town,
I’d tell them this is something that you won’t take sitting down!
(photo by kinpatsu, taken inside an Ace Hardware Store in Point Loma, CA)
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Hungry? A couple of years ago a local institution here decided it was time for a second location. River Smith’s Chicken and Catfish had been serving up good food since 1976, and built a second restaurant on the south side of Lubbock.
Even though I grew up on the Gulf Coast, seafood isn’t usually on the top of my culinary agenda. In fact, I can count on one finger the number of times I craved seafood. So you can imagine my wife’s surprise when I said, on a Friday no less, “Let’s get seafood.” Then I remembered that River Smith’s had opened their new location, so I suggested we check it out.
I’m sure that wherever you live it’s probably the same way, but when a new restaurant opens in Lubbock, you may as well get ready for a wait. But it was after 8:00, and I figured maybe the movie crowd would have left by then.
Wrong. The place was packed. But we were pretty leisurely, and decided to go ahead and brave it. At River Smith’s, you order at the counter, and they give you a numbered buzzer that you place on a rack at your table so the server knows where to bring the order. I should have known there might be a problem when the lady that took the order had run out of buzzers and grabbed one from a different register. Nevertheless, we took our drinks and buzzer and somehow found a seat to wait.
And wait.
And wait some more.
Again, we weren’t in a hurry or even frustrated. But I did catch a server passing by and asked her if she could check on our order.
Impress me #1:
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Our family keeps an oral tradition of famous lines spoken by somebody. Today’s edition comes from Joel, when he was about seven or eight:
“Daddy, when you die, can I have all your tapes?”
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I want to be like Abel.
Not so much the rock-upside-the-head part. I’m talking about legacy.
Hebrews 11:4 contains a fascinating description of Abel’s life: “By faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.”
Here’s a guy who could be famous for the things he never did:
He never preached a sermon.
He never started a church.
He never wrote a book.
He never engaged in an argument to defend the faith.
He never had his name plastered on the side of a building.
He never had a wife or children, much less succeeding generations.
He never was elected to any office.
He never fought for a cause or a nation.
He never was on TV, or interviewed by the press.
He never had God give him a song (all rights reserved, of course).
He never made a YouTube video.
He never made a financial fortune, that we know of.
He never rescued anybody in distress, except maybe for a sheep or two.
Yet long-dead, Abel still speaks. And so can you and I. It’s what the LifeVesting Principle of Legacy is all about:
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Right now my spirit is welling up with great joy, gratitude, and praise. My mother’s heart is proud, humble, and completely blessed by my four year old son, Ethan. Over the past few weeks, I’ve tried to be more intentional with my three precious kids, teaching them about Jesus and how they can be a lover of God and worship him. Several times this week I’ve resisted the temptation to allow my kids to watch TV in the morning. Instead we decided to turn on our worship music. We have had a great time jumping around spinning and singing songs. Honestly, it’s a great break from Bunny Town songs on Disney Channel. If you have kids you will know what I’m talking about.
We are a family deeply moved by music and have a love for all different genres. My three precious kids didn’t have a choice to love music! God has created their daddy with the love of music and great musical gifts.
We were deeply moved by “How He Loves,” a song we sang at Buckhead a few Sunday’s ago. I couldn’t wait to download this song on my IPod and plug it into my ears and just worship. Pat and I both had eyes welling up with tears and hearts full of unexplainable emotions when we heard this song. For Pat it was a mixture of emotion; he has not led worship for almost two years, now, and such a great love is deeply missed. His heart was moved by the love of God; for me, a funny moment with God. I humorously asked God why I have such a heart of worship but such a horrible voice. My humorous prayer is that all the people on earth that can’t sing will be HIS most gifted singers in heaven. If I can’t sing beautifully on earth, I’d better be able to sing in heaven! I think that you get the picture. We love worship!
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