More thoughts to chew on...

Afternoon, y'all ::


Apparantly, someone is trying to get a message to me.  Yesterday, I had several events come together (actually, collide might be a better word!) that gave me some insight on a quote from Mother Teresa:

"I know that God won't give me more trouble than I can handle...
but sometimes I wish he wouldn't trust me so much."

So, I did a little typing, and came up with yesterday's blog posting, focusing on how God never gives you more than you can handle, and when you think he does, a few ways to find out that you have more than just your plate at the buffet line.


Pulling into church this morning, I saw on the marquee the sermon text for this morning's message.  Immediately, I could tell that we'd be hearing about Jesus and the feeding of the 5000. (For those who'd like a refresher on the story, head here to BibleGateway.com and read up.)  Aside from the Resurrection, it's one of the few (if not the only) miracle performed by Jesus that appears in all four gospels (others may appear in one or two, but rarely in all four.)


The focus on the sermon wasn't on how God takes care of us, and provides our needs, exactly.  The disciples get it wrong at the outset, just like we do from time to time.  "There's no way I can do it.  It's only me.  I'm not enough." Note the words in bold -- they focus in on me.  Head back to yesterday's blog posting, more specifically, the second tactic on how to keep your plate from getting too full:

2.  Get a second plate.
If "many hands make light work," having a "wing man" help out in carrying a drink or (if you really, really trust her) your dessert can be invaluable.  Even better, getting a helping hand in carrying a second plate full of food the two of you can share is worth the food's weight in gold.  So, if you need some help in handling what life is scooping on your plate, go to a trusted friend or advisor, and get some help!  Of course, turning to God and asking for a little help is a great start.  But don't forget those friendships and fellowships that you've been blessed to be a part of.

The right answer was hidden in that one line: Give Jesus what you have, and let Him deal with the solution.  In this parable, God's purpose wasn't to feed people with fish and bread.  He looks for opportunites to test our faith.  In this context, "test" doesn't mean to prove, but more to strengthen and temper.  From Hebrews 11:6 (Message paraphrase)

It's impossible to please God apart from faith.  And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.

Hudson Taylor said, "Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith." We have to go beyond knowing.  If you look at any ancient map of the seas, there'd be a point where no explorer had gone yet.  There, a phrase that would often be written would be "Beyond this point there be dragons."  It's also where our knowledge and understanding ends and where our faith in God lies.  We have to go beyond knowing how much we can do by ourselves, because God never intends for us to go solo on this!  God does give us more than we can handle, but He never gives us more than the two of us (God and I) can't handle.  God doesn't ask us to do anything that He's not ready to help us out with.  In the Feeding of the 5000, Jesus asked His disciples to be HIS PARTNERS in ministry.  Today, He asks us to partner with him in doing great and (seemingly) impossible things!


If you're interested in hearing the sermon, head right here to download an audio version of the sermon.  If you'd like some notes to fill in, head here.


Take care! :: Greg

Thoughts from Mother Teresa, a car collision, and Aunt Ernie's deviled eggs...

Good morning, y'all:

"I know that God won't give me more trouble than I can handle...
but sometimes I wish he wouldn't trust me so much."

The above is a time worn quote from Mother Teresa, and about lunch time, I was thinking my plate was pretty full.  It's hot, it's humid (which means the house we live in is hot and humid, the kids were nipping at each other, Ellen and I were getting a few things done before we both headed into work for the evening, and right before I walked out the door, Ellen gave me some information that added yet a few more things to ponder and think about.

Walking into Lowe's, that Mother Teresa quote ran through my mind.  My first thought after that was: What do I do when I run out of room on my plate?  Second thought -- get a bigger plate!

Since then, what was a full day turned into an ugly day.  I had just gotten home for lunch, when I get a phone call from Ellen.  She's been involved in a three-car accident right in front of the mall.  The next couple of hours were spent getting a few pictures, getting Ellen to St. Francis to be checked out, making a few phone calls making sure that the kids and Ellen's mom would be taken care of, getting prescriptions filled at 8pm on a Friday night, and (most importantly), getting the both of us dinner.  Fazoli's always tastes this good, but the breadsticks were extra yummy.

Now that all of this has stewed around for a while, here's a little insight I've picked up over the past 24 hours.  And of course, the analogy involved uses some of the best food around -- that found at a family reunion.  Or, more precisely, the plate involved.

My family reunions typically are great fun.  Cards and Rummikub are typically played, kids spend most of the day outside running around, but when the dinner bell rings, the feast is typically pretty vast.  And an informal challenge goes out -- who can best pack and stack their plate so that there's room for everything.  From fried chicken to turkey and gravy, to mostaccioli, to chicken and dumplings, AND still have room for corn, some sweet potato casserole, green beans, sweet potato casserole, potato salad, cole slaw, sweet potato casserole (trying to send a message to Ellen...).  We won't even talk about dessert.  The simple truth is that no matter how big of a plate that you have, it's just one plate.  So, what do you do when you run out of room on your plate before you get to the sweet potato cassarole?  Let me give you a few tips from a veteran of many a reunion.

1. Get picky.
   First of all, let's use a little common sense.  Do you really want THREE chicken legs?  FOUR deviled eggs?  TWO HEAPING SCOOPS of dressing?  You can either get a lot of a little, or a little of a lot.  If you go with the former, you'll find out that you're probably going to miss out on a lot of variety in life.  In the same way, be careful what you dish up for your life.  Don't let your rabid hunger for Uncle Butch's Famous Fried Chicken get in the way of the delicious seven layer salad, or cole slaw a little bit further down the road.  In the same way, don't let things you enjoy grow to the point to where you can't do the things you need to do.
   
2. Get a second plate.
   If "many hands make light work," having a "wing man" help out in carrying a drink or (if you really, really trust her) your dessert can be invaluable.  Even better, getting a helping hand in carrying a second plate full of food the two of you can share is worth the food's weight in gold.  So, if you need some help in handling what life is scooping on your plate, go to a trusted friend or advisor, and get some help!  Of course, turning to God and asking for a little help is a great start.  But don't forget those friendships and fellowships that you've been blessed to be a part of.
   
3. Be careful on who's scooping.
   Like I've mentioned before, there's plenty of choices of really good food on the buffet table, and there's more than enough to go 'round.  And when my kids grab a plate, and start dishing up their favorites, sometimes, their choices aren't the wisest.  "No, let's not take 4 scoops of Ice Cream Delight.  How 'bout some corn instead."  "Let's save some room for some baked beans!"  "Let's get some ham or turkey first, then we'll  make our way to the cookies..."  You don't think that the Devil is over there at the dessert tray, saying "Forget about that healthy stuff, here, you can have a few extra cookies.  You're big enough for a BIG piece of pumpkin pie.  You don't need any room for that ham sandwich, or that fried chicken..."  Be careful on who's putting what on your plate.  The Devil seeks to distract and divide us.  And dangling tasty treats out in of us is the basic definition of temptation.  Be sure that the person scooping the potatoes and gravy on your plate has your best interests in mind.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm hungry for some reason.  And I think there's some leftover Fazoli's still in the fridge...

Until later :: Greg

I hate "efficiency."

Good evening, y'all:

This past March and April have really been busy, which means I've been worn down much more often than usual. Other than increasing my intake of good, strong Lutheran coffee and Monster energy drinks, it also ends up getting me a little more philosophical than usual. In short, I've been thinking. And thinking. And thinking some more.

It's also given me the opportunity to really examine things a little. Changes of direction will do that, especially when it changes everything from the ground up. So let me take you on a little journey through my thinking on this. It touches a lot of bases, but it started off all together simply, with a Facebook posting.

"I hate efficiency."

I was tired, most likely a bit more irratable than usual, and I had had my fill of rude customers at work, going through the cow queue lines at McDonalds, and enduring other processes that are streamlined to optimize the efficiency of whatever the heck they were doing. Wandering around the local Barnes and Noble a few minutes before I took over things at the Bunny Set in the mall, somehow, my mind dredged up a simple concept from Steven Covey (the 7 Habits of Effective People author.) Summed up, he stated that while you can be efficient with things, you can't be efficient with people. You can, however, be effective.

I've heard many times on how, when waiting in line, how often we're "herded like cattle," or treated like sheep when patiently holding on until it's our turn. Yes, the jokes are old and well worn, but like all good jokes and satire, they have that kernel of truth at the core. But it goes much deeper than simple puns.

I see the problem as two fold: first, we allow others to be "efficient" with us. Can you be "efficient" when relating to your mom or dad? How successful were you when you were last "efficient" with your wife or husband? I'm guessing not too well. So why do we allow others to be efficient with us when waiting at the DMV, or anywhere else. I think that when we allow others to get the notion that we are something that can be handled purely on an efficiency level of interaction, we lose something very important. Note in that previous sentence the word "something." Not someone, nor a person, but something. A thing that can be dealt with efficiently.

When we lose the person part of the word, and become a thing, we revolt. "I AM A PERSON, not a THING!" we might say. And in doing so, we take that anger and frustraton out on the person who's doing the job. Or on the other drivers as you head home. Or, to get your revenge on "the man," you start seeing other people as "things," depersonalizing them...

I'll keep things going tomorrow.