So, what does God have in store for you?

"for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future"  Jeremiah 29: 11


About 20 years ago I had an employee who was not a Christian. However, she set outside my office and often overheard my discussions with others about God and my faith. Slowly she would come in and ask me questions. Over time, God brought her unto Himself, then her husband, her children, sister, brother, and their families trusted Jesus for their lives. Recently her elderly dad moved to her city to live his last years. She had been sharing Jesus with him for several years and soon (with him around more often) they were singing God's praises together on a regular basis.

Tonight we celebrated her dad's life as he died last week. People from all around gathered to praise God for his life. Dozens of friends and family were there to honor his passing to glory, many could be linked to my former employee's persistent witness of God's transforming power in her life. As we sang Amazing Grace I was overwhelmed with tears of joy. I couldn't stop the tears. Why???

God brought to my mind the hours in my office that she I and spent discussing God just in the normal course of the work day. It was from those simple moments 20 years ago between two people that this entire family and many friends were eternally blessed. She and I certainly did not know the future nor God's plan for it. We just prayed for each family member over time -
God did His thing!!!!!!!

This is what God means when He says He will prosper us - He will be faithful to work the transforming miracles in lives of those we love and present to Him in faith.

I was blessed looking back at the legacy of those simple conversations between two people - a room full of people sharing their love and admiration for a man who was ushered into eternity by God and the faithfulness of his daughter - that my friends is what God has in store for us!!!

"Let's have the truth, please! REALLY?"

No moral person would argue that telling the truth is the honorable thing to do. The question, however, is how easy is it to always know what "telling the truth" really means. One of the 10 commandments declares we should bear no false witness. This would mean that telling the truth is refraining from misleading or misinforming someone when we know the difference. This is quite clear with objective facts. Example, one's age is an objective fact and it would be "bearing false witness" if we told someone our age is 21 when it is really 20. BUT, there are many instances when we are not dealing with OBJECTIVE facts.

For example, suppose we believe that we need some other person, or even love some other person. To what degree is this subjective, or subject to our sense-making mechanisms. Because of the way we perceive ourselves and events around us, we may believe we need or love someone. BUT, what makes that true??

There are other challenges regarding being truthful. We have covered the moral imperative to never intentionally mislead or misinform another when we are confronted by another. BUT, what about when we know things that another doesn't and don't tell them. There are two conditions of this. One is the other person desires to know this from us and withholding the truth (as we understand it) would be contrary to the moral imperative to be truthful. BUT, what about when another person really doesn't seek from us or maybe even does not want to know what is true. Do we have a moral imperative to tell them anyway? Is it being untruthful when we withhold something we know to be true from another to protect them from harm that the truth may cause them? Do we tell our aunt who is overweight that she is fat without her asking us our perspective? Withholding what we know to be true when others really don't seek it from us seems to be a dilemma, especially when what we know to be true is subjective, or determined by the limitations on our own sense-making.


So, telling the truth may not be so simple. What are our options?

For those who have trusted Jesus to provide them life, we have a really good option. Jesus said He is the truth. OK, then one thing we can do is depend on Him to provide "light" as the basis for our sense-making (kingdom mind). Another thing we can do is to trust He will redeem all the mistakes we make in failing as truth tellers - AND for one, I make many, many mistakes in this area.

Certainly something to ponder .......

Reflections from Nantucket

It’s early Friday morning, my last day in Nantucket. It is the 12^th year out of the last 13 that I have spent the first week of August here. It is an unusual place in many respects - the eastern most island in New England. You might say it is one vacation spot where the place defines the tourists, not vice versa. It is quaint, an island approximately 3 miles wide and 20+ miles long. There are no chain restaurants or hotels, everything seems locally owned. No high rise buildings along the beaches, just natural sand and dunes with tall grass blowing in the ever present breezes.  While most of the country sizzles in August heat, temperatures here stay in the 60’s and 70’s. It’s not uncommon to see jackets and bikinis on the beach at the same time. Nantucket seems more European than American – no sales tax added to purchases, secular and liberal charm (the tallest structure remains the steeple on the Unitarian Church), hard to find a big glass of iced tea, often languages heard on the street are French, German, Spanish, and many of the people doing service jobs are foreign (many young people from Ireland).

There are lots of children and teens, but no commercial outlets for them such as game rooms, theme parks, etc. They seem civil and human most of the time as they just hang out with each other and their families. Very little changes here from year to year. Murray’s liquor store on Main Street is always busy. There is always a live drama production being offered at Centre Stage, located in the basement of The Methodist Church on Centre St. The English garden at the Manor House is always inviting to guests and the hydrangea throughout the island are stunning.  The ferries come and go regularly bringing new faces and taking those back who are reluctant to leave. The lines at the Juice Box (fantastic ice cream) are always out the door. But, some things do change. 21 Federal changed its name. It is an iconic landmark fine dining restaurant often cited in novels set on Nantucket.

The pace is slow and planned activities are limited offering plenty of time for reflection, my favorite activity on Nantucket. It’s helpful to read, reflect, and remember. Remember the people who were special in my life in times past. Letting the fond memories float to the surface and warm my heart. I saw Midnight In Paris last night. While a bit bizarre, the movie’s point is that we all like to think of times past as The Golden Years. But if truth were known, for the people who lived in those times, it was simply their life and they looked to the past for their “golden years”. So reflection can and should also focus on the now, for today is the only day we really have. Today is yesterday’s tomorrow.  Today encompasses both our dreams and our “golden days gone by”.

Today is a lovely day. It’s early in the morning. Hardly anyone is stirring but me. What will the day afford me? Opportunities unknown – we’ll see!!!!!!

Scratching the itches of society

Society represents a collection of people who have needs that must be met. Some are basic like safety, food, water, sanitation, healthcare, etc. Others are more "luxury" like entertainment and recreation. The driving issue for society is which institutions of society will scratch which itch? There are basically four possibilities - commerce, charities, families, and the government.

Commerce scratches societies itches when people can organize themselves to offer products and services to society that can provide economic benefit to those who invest their money to provide what meets the needs and wants. The purpose of a business is to "create customers". If organizations cannot make a profit scratching itches, then non profit institutions develop when enough of society feels the products and services are worthy enough that people will donate resources necessary to meet the needs/wants. These non profit organizations form when there exists sufficient critical mass of needs that families cannot meet them, especially as families have fragmented in recent times. The government forms organizations to scratch society itches when society believes none of the other institutional options can or are meeting the needs/wants of society as society would want. This can be because the interest of society is not best met by economic oriented markets and involves the entirety of society, such as national defense, or because non government options to scratch society's itches have the potential to "damage" society.

A great example of how the ingenuity of society can generally figure out how to best scratch society's issues is the area of interpersonal communication. Society needs people to get information from one person to another across distances. For most of history, people used "runners". The telephone was invented which allowed individuals to talk with each other. Initially, this service was offered by private, profit oriented organizations but society felt that it needed to protect itself from being taken advantage of by the "greed"motives of private, profit oriented providers, so government was asked by society to regulate the actions of private organizations to limit any "damage" that may occur while scratching the itches of communication. However, there were communication needs the telephone could not meet, such as mail and packages. To meet this unmet need, government formed the Postal Service. Over time, individuals in society saw that they could meet these needs too and create economic value doing so. First there were delivery services such as Fed Ex and UPS. Then, technology afforded opportunities for electronic mail which was instantaneous and distance insensitive and Skype, which even offers seeing each other while we speak. Now today, the government's role in communication is questionable. First class mail has decreased 25% in just a couple of years and the government loses billions each year trying to provide services to society. Why is government still involved?

The operative principles as to whether private or government organizations ultimately scratch society's itches are this - the profit factor forces efficiency and government sponsors fairness. The mortgage industry is a perfect example. Private banks formed to provide credit to society so that people could buy something today and pay for it tomorrow. However, banks collected their money to loan from society by offering interest on savings and as doing so put society at undue risks if the banks failed - so society asked government to regulate. Moreover, banks were not "fair" in that many people could not qualify for loans and thus could not get their itches scratched. Enter government again (Fannie and Freddie) to inject "fairness" into the credit business. When fairness, NOT profit, is the driving force, the economic value of scratching society's itches falters and society can afford less of it.

Healthcare is next, following the same pattern as credit. Who ultimately scratches these itches of society will be the outcome of society's view of whether their itches are based on "justice" or "efficiency". In the case of society, when "justice" is the norm of equality rather than equity (see earlier blogs), society splits between the market or government as the answer because equal outcomes and profit motive are in contradiction with one another. This is not a moral question but simply one that determines the standard of living associated with each choice - just ask Europe --

Almost every challenge our society faces is grounded in this question ---  something to ponder!!!

The story of Spot

Once there was a 91 year old man living alone with his old dog and his caregivers. The old man decided he needed another dog because his old dog may soon die. His daughter who lived in the same town was totally against him having another dog, especially a puppy because the dog would be nothing but trouble for her and the care givers. So the old man talked the pastor who visited him regularly to take him to get a dog. About the time they arrived at the place to buy the dog, the daughter called the pastor and told him in no uncertain terms that her dad could not get another dog, but they were already there and so the dog was bought and brought home. There was an immediate bond between the old man and the dog, who was white with a black spot and so was named Spot by the old man.

A few months later after the dog had torn most everything up in the house as expected, the daughter came and got the dog while the old man was asleep and took it to a kennel. The old man became furious with his daughter and when he got the chance, drove his own car 20 minutes to the kennel and brought the dog back home. He had not driven for months and this was the last time he ever drove, but he had his dog, who was a faithful companion for him until he died a year and a half later.

One thousand miles away there was a young girl who loved dogs more than anything, but her dad refused her from getting one because her brother did not like dogs and a dog would be a lot of trouble for the family to care for. Finally he promised her that on her 8^th birthday, she could have a dog. But when her birthday came, her dad wasn’t ready to let her have a dog and talked her into a fish for a pet.  She loved the fish the best she could, BUT the fish was not a dog.

A few months later when the young girl was visiting her grandmother far away, something unexpected happened. Her grandmother’s father died and the plans the grand daughter had regarding her visit to her grandparents were altered. They must go 5 hours away to the funeral. When she arrived at her great grandfather’s house, the young girl was met by two dogs, one old and one young. The girl was happy to play with the dogs because she loved dogs so much. BUT strangely, her brother began to enjoy playing with the dogs too.

The grandmother of the young girl told happened to be the second daughter of the old man and lived far away. The grandmother (and daughter) told the children that there was a problem as to where the dogs would go since their owner had died. “They need good homes, somewhere they will be loved, ” said the grandmother and daughter of the old man who owned the dogs and had just died. The little girl responded, “my dad won’t let me have a dog unless it is a Jack Russell and one that my brother would like.” The grandmother smiled and said, “Spot is a Jack Russell and your brother is really playing well with him.” So Spot joined the little girl’s family, a generational blessing passed downed from her great grandfather’s love for the dog Spot.

In the story of Spot there are many actions taken and situations that could be deemed "bad" or "wrong" by participants in the story. The daughter who lived in the same town with the old man thought it was bad for her dad to have another dog in his situation. She thought the pastor was wrong in taking her dad to get the dog without her permission. The young girl thought her dad was wrong for not getting her a dog for her birthday as he had promised. The question is, “what makes someone’s action good or bad, right or wrong.”

This is just one simple story of two lives (an old man and his great granddaughter) that intersect around the death of the old man. God is about redemption. All actions taken cannot be labeled as good or bad without seeing the whole story as God sees it. All actions were woven together into the mosaic of the little girl and a dog called Spot. God’s grace abounded … 

think about it …

Hide and seek

One of the games children love to play, especially with their parents, is hide and seek. At the peak of kid's competency, they take great pride in hiding such that they are not easily found. However, when they first begin playing, say around 2 or 3, they can't wait to be found and usually jump out as soon as countdown is over and shout, "here I am." At this age they really do not like to hide from daddy. They always want to be in his presence.

Such it is with all of us, we were made to shout to daddy,"here I am," but as we age, we get quite competent at hiding - hiding from others, ourself, and our Heavenly Father. For many people, being found out is their greatest fear and they spend much of their time and attention learning how to hide. This is due to sense-making though our carnal mind, which tells us that we will not be accepted and loved if others really knew us. However, hiding is destructive in relationships and robs us of our joy.

When we make sense of ourself and others through a Kingdom mind, we readily shout "here I am." We willingly make ourself vulnerable in our relationships because we trust that the other person accepts us as we are ("Just as I am"). The result of shouting "here I am" is joy and we live a life that is truly blessed.

Hide and seek is not just a game children play, it is a way of life for the carnally minded......

Thoughts on "freedom" this July 4th

Everyone's thoughts around this holiday season center around the blessings of freedom, as they should. We Americans have been rewarded by the efforts of many people over 200+ years to gain and sustain our civil liberties.

Make no mistake about it, as Christians our thoughts about freedom go well beyond civil and economic liberties. There is a song that is popular in churches around July 4th that says, "while the statue (of Liberty) liberates the citizen, the cross liberates the soul."

What do we mean by a liberated soul? Does it mean we can do anything we want? That sounds like freedom that we all would want. We can get perspective on what a liberated soul means from many scriptures, such as "the truth shall set you free." Paul gives us good insight in Romans 7 where he says about himself, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."  (Ro 7: 18 - 20)

This "confession" simply reminds us of the bondage we have to sin as our carnal mind is constrained by our circumstances to make sense of our self and the world around us. Operating in bondage to social exchange, our nature desires that we get our needs met from the world around us, from what we can extract from others that we think we need for well being. No matter how hard we try to do the "right things" in the eyes of God, we can't with our natural way of thinking. 

Josh McDowell has said, "freedom is the power to act rightly." This idea of freedom is obviously missing in this passage in Romans. As Paul continues in his letter to the church in Rome (chapter 8), we find that he reminds Christians that the Kingdom mind (walking in  the Spirit) solves this problem. That is, when we trust (accept by faith) that God has established our soul's well being by the redemptive work of the Cross, we are then free from the magnet of our surroundings, we are no longer bound by what we can get from others to make our self well.


Let's make no mistake about it, while we live in a great country and enjoy civic and economic liberty, we can never forget the truth that sets us free. May it be that "real freedom" of the soul is a soul that makes sense of everything thru harmony with the Heavenlies, or as many say an intimacy with Jesus. 

So while we have a great country, with great founding Fathers, and great patriots gone before us ---- we have a much, much greater God!!   something to ponder this week of celebration ....