About a month ago, ok, six weeks or so ago, I was out yard saleing. This was one of those days when I wasn't really feeling it but there were two sales I wanted to go to. I don't remember the first but the second was a little ways out in the country. I kinda skipped all the stuff up by the house for the little bit of tools in front of shop. I was listening to this old guy tell his war stories to another customer then after he left it was my turn to try saving a few bucks on the battery charger I really wanted.
It's funny how people will tell their whole life story to someone they just met but that's kinda what he did. First was Vietnam, 1962. He was on a gunboat mapping out all the rivers. I don't remember the exact numbers but something like 175 guys went over and 30 or so came back. Then he talked of all his illness, relating much of it back to agent orange, and how the government denied the existence of it and therefore denied help for his health problems. Then we got rudely interrupted by a phone call. It was his son.
After the call was over he talked of his 40 years as a tough guy biker. How he used to ride with all these bad dudes. Then how his ex showed up one day with his son and some clothes and said, Here, take him, I can't do it any more. How his buddies couldn't believe she would leave the kid with him. Then he told me about what a kind and generous man his son had become. And how proud he was of him. Of how one day the boys mother came to him and thanked him for being such a great father and raising their son up the way he did.
Then came the story of being in a bar with his biker buddies one day some thirty odd years ago. Of this young girl in the bar who was being abused by these guys. Of how he took her out to his truck and told her to stay while he went back to the bar and finished his business. Of going back to his truck, back to this girl, who was so scared she was shaking. Terrified of the rape and abuse she was sure to suffer at the hands of this man.
Upon arriving at his house he told her, you can stay as long as you want with one condition, you are never return to that bar. Fast forward thirty some years to a phone call at a yard sale from a son to his father. A son who would tell his father that this now mid thirty year old woman and her son had just left a bad situation leaving them homeless and looking for help. This father who has no home of his own, but is living in a small trailer. This father who says, tell her I will get a house and she can come and live with me as long as she wants. This father who has been the hands and feet of Jesus many times without even knowing it.
Somewhere in the middle of this conversation we began to talk about Jesus. Somewhere in the middle of his story Jesus had found him. He says sheepishly, I don't normally talk about these things. He says, I have never found a church where I feel accepted. We talk about church, about the Bible, about talking to God. This big brave man is embarrassed to talk about God. Somewhere God got a hold of this man for some reason I don't know. For some reason God sent me to that yard sale, not just for the two battery chargers I got for $35, but to talk to a man about God. I have a feeling that God was not finished with him yet, and I know He's not finished with me yet. I can't help but have my heart warmed every time I think of this hardened biker Vietnam vet who's heart God is after. My God is good. His purposes I don't understand, but He is good. Amen!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
God movies and using their lessons in my life.
A while back i picked up a two movie pack at Wally world. Faith like potatoes and Facing the Giants. What i love about watching movies like these is that unlike a book, with a movie you actually get to see how the subject is practiced. Like with potatoes, you get this picture of radical child like faith. The lead character finds God for reals and he just takes God at his word. Ya know, the Bible. When he has a fire out of control he just prays for rain. But unlike us, he believes God will send it and he does. Not only that, but his corn crop is totally destroyed by the fire and comes back to life. Another time two people are injured, one of them dies, and he prays over her, lifts her up and she comes back to life. Like the faith that you and i would have if we had watched God create the world. The faith that we are supposed to have.
Then there's the Giants. This guys a football coach in a Christian school and everything in his life that can go wrong has. When he has no more rope to reach the end of he turns to God. Like up all night just pounding the Word to standing out in a field just talking to God. Totally honest communication. He just gives everything in his life to God. He takes God into the locker room and teaches the players that putting God in their lives has got to come before football or anything else. God has to be the foundation. The school finds itself in a revival. There's a guy who goes thru the school every day and prays over every locker, year after year, waiting for revival. He never gives up and never loses hope. And he gets to see that revival.
How awesome would it be if we prayed over every chair before service? Not because David asks us to but because we want to see God move in our students. How many things would we start doing or doing differently if everything came out of service to God? If God was at the core of everything? Both of these would be considered radical by most people. The problem is that they are not radical. They are simply following the Biblical way of serving God. The problem is that the rest of the world is radically far away from God's design. We are radically far away.
Sometimes it is very hard for me to picture what it looks like to walk out my faith. When I see these movies it's like, Oh, that's how that should look. Well, duh. Anyways, if you haven't seen these i strongly recommend watching them. Potatoes is pretty slow and didn't hit me at first but its been over a month and i still can't get it out of my mind. Giants has only been a few days ago and i really want to keep that picture fresh in my mind of how to implement my faith all day.
Yesterday i was out in the shop doing this job and it was kicking my butt. I tried one last thing and when it didn't work i started cussing at it and it was ugly for a minute. Then i had this glimpse of if my work brought glory to God then he would bless it. I stopped and said i'm sorry God. I don't know how to fix this and i don't really know how to bring you glory in my work but i'm asking for help. I couldn't even tell you if it was a minute or ten minutes or an hour but the next thing i remember is looking at it and realizing i had the wrong adapter on it and when the right one was used it came right apart. And i was so in the middle of it that it took me like a day to realize what God had done. I asked for help, he helped, and i didn't even catch it.
What if i went to Walmart and prayed before entering store; God, help me to focus and buy only what i need. To not waste a bunch of my day. What if i prayed when i got home; God, help me to bless my family and represent Christ to them. What if i invited God into every part of my life? Just the very thought of that brings shivers down my spine. Imagine how God would work in my life. Imagine all the stuff he could get done if i would just get out of the way.
Imagine if you work with customers all day and just find a way to say a short prayer for every customer. Imagine if you dedicated your shift to God. Imagine the Holy Spirit hovering over you and touching each person as you interact with them. Literally, take some time and try to imagine stuff like this. I'm telling you. No matter what you imagine it will pale in comparison to what God will do if you will dedicate that time to Him. I dare you. I double dog dare you. When i finish this post i'm going to pray over it. That anyone who would benefit from this would find it. I've never done that before but there's a bunch of things i've never done before and God only know where this will lead. Where my life is going. God bless every one of you who reads this. Praise be to God.
Then there's the Giants. This guys a football coach in a Christian school and everything in his life that can go wrong has. When he has no more rope to reach the end of he turns to God. Like up all night just pounding the Word to standing out in a field just talking to God. Totally honest communication. He just gives everything in his life to God. He takes God into the locker room and teaches the players that putting God in their lives has got to come before football or anything else. God has to be the foundation. The school finds itself in a revival. There's a guy who goes thru the school every day and prays over every locker, year after year, waiting for revival. He never gives up and never loses hope. And he gets to see that revival.
How awesome would it be if we prayed over every chair before service? Not because David asks us to but because we want to see God move in our students. How many things would we start doing or doing differently if everything came out of service to God? If God was at the core of everything? Both of these would be considered radical by most people. The problem is that they are not radical. They are simply following the Biblical way of serving God. The problem is that the rest of the world is radically far away from God's design. We are radically far away.
Sometimes it is very hard for me to picture what it looks like to walk out my faith. When I see these movies it's like, Oh, that's how that should look. Well, duh. Anyways, if you haven't seen these i strongly recommend watching them. Potatoes is pretty slow and didn't hit me at first but its been over a month and i still can't get it out of my mind. Giants has only been a few days ago and i really want to keep that picture fresh in my mind of how to implement my faith all day.
Yesterday i was out in the shop doing this job and it was kicking my butt. I tried one last thing and when it didn't work i started cussing at it and it was ugly for a minute. Then i had this glimpse of if my work brought glory to God then he would bless it. I stopped and said i'm sorry God. I don't know how to fix this and i don't really know how to bring you glory in my work but i'm asking for help. I couldn't even tell you if it was a minute or ten minutes or an hour but the next thing i remember is looking at it and realizing i had the wrong adapter on it and when the right one was used it came right apart. And i was so in the middle of it that it took me like a day to realize what God had done. I asked for help, he helped, and i didn't even catch it.
What if i went to Walmart and prayed before entering store; God, help me to focus and buy only what i need. To not waste a bunch of my day. What if i prayed when i got home; God, help me to bless my family and represent Christ to them. What if i invited God into every part of my life? Just the very thought of that brings shivers down my spine. Imagine how God would work in my life. Imagine all the stuff he could get done if i would just get out of the way.
Imagine if you work with customers all day and just find a way to say a short prayer for every customer. Imagine if you dedicated your shift to God. Imagine the Holy Spirit hovering over you and touching each person as you interact with them. Literally, take some time and try to imagine stuff like this. I'm telling you. No matter what you imagine it will pale in comparison to what God will do if you will dedicate that time to Him. I dare you. I double dog dare you. When i finish this post i'm going to pray over it. That anyone who would benefit from this would find it. I've never done that before but there's a bunch of things i've never done before and God only know where this will lead. Where my life is going. God bless every one of you who reads this. Praise be to God.
Life is dangerous
So Josh brought home a book from school simply titled "100 most dangerous things on the planet". On the back cover are listed; avalanches, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires, asteroid strikes, rattlesnakes, bears, brake failure, etc.
What is the likely hood that any of that would happen to me? The much more dangerous part of life is just walking down the street. Getting a stomach ache that won't go away. Crashing my bike for the millionth time with no helmet. Falling out of bunkbed or treehouse or.......
This world is such a dangerous place that none of us should even make it to 20yrs old much less 100. I just think it interesting how much time we spend thinking about these radical ways our life could end when it's likely to be something not even worth writing about. So.....have a safe day.
What is the likely hood that any of that would happen to me? The much more dangerous part of life is just walking down the street. Getting a stomach ache that won't go away. Crashing my bike for the millionth time with no helmet. Falling out of bunkbed or treehouse or.......
This world is such a dangerous place that none of us should even make it to 20yrs old much less 100. I just think it interesting how much time we spend thinking about these radical ways our life could end when it's likely to be something not even worth writing about. So.....have a safe day.
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