for the last time

A professor at my alma mater recently raised six questions he’d focus on if he was going to speak for the last time. Here’s the list. 1. What is your biggest dream? 2. When was the last time you made a new friend? 3. When was the last time you were a good Samaritan? 4. When was the last time you did something you got excited about? 5. When was the last time you did something you thought was bold? 6. Who are your heroes? Worth thinking about.

goat

My children Allison and David got my wife Debbie flowers for Mother’s Day. Guess what they got me for Father’s Day? A goat. Yes, a goat! No kid-ding! And, no, it’s not to eat Debbie’s flowers, nor is it to save me from cutting the grass. It was a gift I never saw. They sent it in my name to Africa to support a family in need. I love it! I named the goat “Henry.” Allison thinks that’s hilarious. The only question I’ve been asked is will I have to pay child support?

skunk

Came home the other night. Barely saw a skunk in front of our door. Didn’t panic. Cautiously walked around to the back of our house, peering through the dark to see if he had any “friends.” Called my wife Debbie on my mobile phone so as not to scare her when I entered the rear door of the house. Recalled being told a way to get the smell off after being sprayed by a skunk is to bathe in a tub of tomato juice. Glad I didn’t end up stinking up the place and didn’t waste good tomato juice!

hollow-looking eyes

This week I visited with an 18-year-old woman. She had hollow-looking eyes. Her skin was pale. Her hair unkempt. She was in an orange jumpsuit; she was in jail. She’d been arrested for possession of heroin with the intent to distribute. My heart was saddened to realize that this young adult, who had lost over 40 pounds since I had seen her last, had succumbed to the ravages of drug addiction. The last time I saw her? In our church’s youth group. She was embarrassed. Ashamed. She spoke over and over again of needing to get her life turned around. Of needing God. I wondered how things would be different if we craved God as much as addicts crave their stash.

six monks

Yesterday I saw six monks on the side of the road (no, this is not the beginning of a joke, I really did see them.) They were in a conversation with a VDOT worker. I assume they were going to be picking up litter along the roadside as a way of getting out of the cloister and serving the community. A part of me admires persons who commit their whole lives to God’s service as do the monks. I admire their longing to know God and their contemplative spirit in seeking to commune with God. But as I watched them in their straw hats and long brown robes—in 92 degree heat!—I thought how odd they looked. A part of me thought how quaint, how old-fashioned, how out of step with current reality. Then I wondered how many people today think of the church the same way.

bury me

Philip Yancey tells of walking along a trail and coming upon a cemetery. He found on one woman’s grave marker these words: “Here lies my fear of intimacy.” It took her death before she could bury her fear. I wonder what things we need to bury so we can be set free from our captivity to them. What are some things we need to die to? The habit of lying. The desire to control others. A lack of self-discipline. The craving for cigarettes—or even chocolate! One of my life verses is Galatians 2:20: “I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.” I’m discovering that the more I die to self and allow Christ to live in me, the more I actually find my true self and am set free from those things that self-destructively hold me captive.

crying at weddings

Relationships between women and men are flawed. They have been ever since Adam and Eve. There are times of wonderful love and devotion, and then there are times that are, well, let’s say, not the best. There’s a story of a woman who was so mad at her husband that she went to a fortune teller to seek advice. She was told to prepare for her husband’s violent death. The wife sighed deeply and asked if she would be acquitted. Charles Lowery writes that girls marry men like their fathers . . . and that’s why mothers cry at weddings. If that’s true, Debbie is going to wail if the time ever comes that Allison gets married! Jesus met a woman who had been married five times and was living with a man. He told her that no human being could meet her deepest needs. She would thirst again because ultimately people will let you down. Jesus offered her Living Water. He offered her Perfect Love. That’s what we all ultimately yearn for.

called out

The NBA finals have begun. It seems like the playoffs have been going on forever. Repeatedly one person has “called out” someone else to step up their game. Well, it seems to me that God is calling us out. I believe God wants us to “step up our game.” God has given us the privilege of cooperating with him in the redemption of the world. But way too often we seem content to sit on the sideline, passively waiting on God to do something dramatic and “win the game.” I fear that if we don’t get the job done God has planned for us, God will sit us on the bench (just ask J. J. Redick what that’s like.) The Greek word for “church” is “ekklesia.” It means “the called out” ones. Will we fulfill our calling?

a heart transplant

I can be my own worst critic. I see how far short I fall in being who I was created to be. I yearn for a more God-shaped heart. A heart that cannot remain unmoved when I have the power to help someone who’s hurting. A heart that passionately pursues Jesus-like sacrifice rather than running from it. A heart that’s more concerned with giving away than getting. A heart that’s more concerned with God’s approval than public recognition. A heart that’s free from the need to impress. A heart that lives for God and others more than self. God, I need a heart transplant.

spiritual seeking

People today are spiritually seeking. You see it in New Age spirituality. In Eastern thought. In the rise of cults. Americans are exhibiting the highest interest in spiritual matters in 50 years. The problem is that Christianity is registering the least amount of interest and energy in 50 years. People want to grow spiritually. They hunger for a connection with the transcendent. What’s it going to take for those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus to deepen in our spiritual lives so that we ourselves can experience God in a life changing way so that we then will be able to help others experience that as well?