Helpless

So, all three of our kids have the H1N1 virus. Nice.
Our oldest child has it the worst by far. Last night we gave him some medicine to help ease the high fever and numerous other symptoms and it ended up causing hallucinations. He seriously thought his fingers were tools. So his doses are pretty much over. It is hard to see your child go through something like that (let alone all three), and know that there is absolutely nothing that you can do about it. The virus must run it's course and with all of the confirmed children deaths linked to the H1N1, it is a bit unnerving. We humans love to be in control of things don't we? I am not a big fan of flying because I feel like I have more control of my own life in my car. Even something as small as holding the remote control to the TV gives most men pleasure because no channel will be changed unless we say so! The feeling of being helpless in any situation is just not in our human make-up.
I believe that is why some people have a difficult time trusting their lives to Jesus.
We read in the Bible where is Jesus telling someone to sell all of their possessions and follow Him. Even our remote control? Talk about feeling helpless. As my wife and I sat there last night, watching our child hallucinate and recalling the words of the pediatrician when she said that there is nothing else she could do and that we would just have to let the virus run it's course, I knew I was completely and utterly helpless. Nothing I did at that point was going to change the state of my child's health. But here is where the awesome part comes into play. Knowing that I was helpless, the only thing I could do at that time was pray. So I did. My helplessness drove me into communication with God.
Maybe you are at a point in your life where you are feeling helpless. You might feel like you are slowly losing control over some aspect of your life. May I suggest that if you have found that you have run out of options and do not know what step to take next, that you try communicating with the one that created you. The Bible says that He will never leave you of forsake you. Just as I was there for my sick and hurting child, He is there waiting to love and care for you. But He loves you enough not to intervene in your life until you request His presence. Will you call on Him today? You need not feel helpless any longer.

The Call

One of my all-time favorite movies is Billy Madison. I love it because no matter what mood I am in at the moment it comes on the TV., I will always laugh. There is a part of the movie that isn't so funny to me though. Near the end of the movie, Billy decides that he needs to correct some things he has done in his past that may have hurt someone. So he calls this guy up and apologizes for his behavior when he was younger. The guy then crosses Billy's name off of his list of people that made fun of him when he was younger that he intends to kill. It's intended to be funny but it always gives me that feeling like someone just punched me in the gut. The problem is that I know I have done some things in my past that have hurt people. I have said some things that have been cruel and I have participated in some practical jokes that more than likely have wrecked someone's day, or week, or maybe even their year. I wonder if when those people from my past hear my name in conversations, if that is the first thing that comes to their mind. I wonder if they have forgotten about it. I wonder if they are still holding onto what I had said or done?
There is really only one way to be sure.
Today I am going to begin a list of possible candidates that I have wronged. My goal is to have contacted everyone on it by the end of the year. I am going to ask each one to forgive me. It is my sincere hope that when I reach the end of my list, that it will turn out to be a new beginning for both parties. Maybe you have hurt someone a while ago. Maybe you hurt someone last week or last night. Can you come up with a list? Do you have the courage to make the difficult calls? It will be tough without question, but the end result will be worth the pain. Our short pain may be only a fraction of the pain that the person on the end of your telephone line has been experiencing. You have the ability to change that for them. What are you going to do about it?

The weather forecast

My wife and I had the TV. on the other night looking for the weather forecast for the following day. While waiting for the chipper weather guy to deliver the bad news, the following stories were delivered:
This week in Chicago, a kid literally got beat to death with 2x4's, and it was caught on video.

John Evander Couey died this week. He was the guy that kidnapped a 9 year old little girl and buried her in a garbage bag.

A tsunami went through the South Pacific this week and 112 people are dead so far.

Genocide in Darfur is continuing and the death toll is estimated at over 300,000 human lives.

Looking back, I just remember thinking to myself, "That's horrible……..what's the weather for tomorrow?" I mean, have I become so numb to tragedy and disaster that horrifying events like the ones mentioned above don't even make me pause and pray for the victims? I know people who don't even watch the news. They tell me that there is too much bad news and they just can't take it anymore. I usually respond by saying, "How do you keep up with the events in the world?" I guess I have just always found it weird when people didn't watch the news. Now, I am just not so sure that they are the weird ones. I wonder if Jesus would watch the news looking past the horrific stories of the week, anticipating the forecast for tomorrow. I don't want my heart to be hardened to tragedy but I am afraid it has been. Instead of getting to the point where my heart breaks for the things that make Jesus' heart break, I just choose to gloss over them and make the excuse that I can't help everyone. How different would this world be to live in if we all chose to love one another as much as we love ourselves? We may not be able to help EVERYONE, but we can't let that be an excuse not to help ANYONE. Who have you sacrificed for today? Who have you listened to someone who needed a shoulder to cry on? Have you reached out to someone who is lost? Wouldn't this be a better place if we all chose to do that?
What's the weather forecast for tomorrow? I could guess that it will be another gray overcast and rainy day…….but I have the ability to make it a sunny one for someone. So do you.

Big

Not too long ago I took my boys to Cabala's with me. Cabala's, for those of you who live in a cave, is the most awesome sporting goods store on Earth. They should hand out drool catchers at the door for people like me. I walk around in a trance with my mouth hanging open, imagining how many fish I could catch with all of the colorful lures that pretty much guarantee that I will catch the biggest fish on any lake (which has never happened). But that day I was on a mission. No time for drool. A group of guys and I were heading up north for a camping trip and I had to grab some supplies and get back home. I was really looking forward to the trip. For the weeks leading up to it, I had been focused on how BIG God is. How He does everything BIG. My idea was to share with the guys one night around the fire, just how BIG our Creator is. It's hard to convey that in our daily environment, but when you are up north and it's just you and nature, it carries a little more weight. I printed off pages from scientific websites and memorized mind blowing numbers about the span of the known universe. For example, Carl Sagan once said that there were more stars in the sky than grains of sand on all of the beaches on Earth, which blows my mind. In doing the research, there are quite a few scientists that agree with him. Simply amazing!
So in Cabala's that day, as I was still in "thinking BIG" mode, I took my boys to the mountain of animals in the middle of the store. I wanted to show them how God creates BIG.
I pointed out the Grizzly bear standing on his hind legs. We looked ar the Moose and the Polar bear. I was trying to point out to my boys the same thing I was hoping to point out to the men I was going camping with, that their God is a God who creates BIG, massive, colossal things and that if God is BIG enough to create those things, He is BIG enough to take care of whatever comes their way.
God had other plans though...
The students became the teacher that day. As we were making our way around the mountain, they were only mildly interested in what I was showing them. What they were interested in however, was the chipmunk. Of all the things to look at, the chipmunk captivated them. They spent 10 minutes talking about that animal to each other. They were making comments about how fast they are, how small they are, how the markings on it looked like racing stripes, and how cool it is that God makes such small things. They see stinkin' chipmunks everyday!!
And there was the lesson.
God is BIG. He is most definitely awesome and He certainly creates BIG, but don't spend too much time on the BIG things. He is in the little things too. He is in the normal stuff. He is in the creatures that we grow numb to because of the frequency in which we see them. You don't have to escape to some far off spot in nature to see Him. He is here today, right now. He is at your office. He is in your car during your commute. He is in the daily routine. He is present in the BIG things to be sure, but He is without question even visible in the chipmunk.
I never talked about the "BIG" topic around the campfire that week. I was too busy thinking about the little things.
This week…..Be careful not to miss God in the small stuff.

Mafia Wars

I have started taking a liking to Facebook. I don't post much on there but I do like checking in during the day to see what people are doing. The thing that I don't get is the games that Facebook offers to play. I saw one the other day called "Mafia Wars".
I mean, who plays this crap? Hold that thought….
Last night I visited a friend of mine. I was just in the neighborhood and decided that I was going to drop in unannounced. Now this guy is very well read. He is the kind of guy that can quote scripture and tell you exactly where it is found in the Bible. He attends a Christian college and gives the professors a run for their money regarding interpreting scripture correctly. He and I have had some great conversations about what true faith is, how we know we are heaven bound, and many other topics. Last night we were discussing possible Jesus sightings in the Old Testament and some good laughs. As I was leaving, I apologized for interrupting him and what appeared to be some on-line studying perhaps. He assured me that it was never a problem to drop in. He also told me that the only thing I interrupted was his game of Mafia Wars on Facebook.

Test tube Jesus

Remember Chemistry class in high school? I hated Chemistry with a passion. I still have no idea why I had to learn that Gold is actually "Au" on the periodic table of elements. Now, there is a useless bit of information that is taking up room in my brain. It is probably housed in the compartment that could be used to solve world hunger, and I only need that much more space to solve it, but "Au" is hanging out there, never to be removed apparently. What I did like about Chemistry class was when we got to play with the beakers and test tubes.
I remember the teacher telling me to put the right amount of the liquid labeled "A", and the right amount of liquid "B" together in the test tube for a desired result. Of course, I would follow the directions the first time, but that got old real quick. In no time at all I would be wondering to myself, "what if I mixed a little less of "A" and a little more of "B", and maybe threw in some potentially hazardous "C" and then some…..", and without fail my experiment would end in disaster. The point is that I think we do the same thing when it comes to following Jesus. We like to say we follow Jesus, but it is really a Jesus we create, isn't it?
We like to set up our test tube and our measuring spoons and pull our Bible out. When the real Jesus calls for a level spoonful of love, we take the level spoonful and dump most of it in the test tube but stop short at the measuring line that says to love our enemies. We see that the recipe for the real Jesus asks us to put 10 droplets of tithe, so we put in 20 and look to the person next to us to make sure they see how many drops we put in. The recipe for the real Jesus calls for 2 teaspoons of caring for people less fortunate than we are, and we just sift in enough until it starts making us a little uncomfortable. See, the real Jesus cannot be concocted in our religious labs. The real Jesus cannot be tampered with. He is the same all the time. There are no other versions of Him. There is only 1 true Jesus and the only way to find the true Jesus is to study the real Jesus and choose to follow the real Jesus completely, not just partially. Are you studying the real Jesus or are you creating one from your own test tube?

The jump

Today is the day.
Looking back on the 2 options: The road to the left and the road to the right, I know that the reality is that there was no option. When you feel the Spirit of your Creator calling you down a certain path, you simply "go". Praying through this last week and a half has really just been affirmation for me. Thanks to those of you who prayed along side of me. I seriously appreciate it.

I am now jumping into the unknown and uncomfortable.