Tag: #hope

Persistent Little Pumpkins

If you read my post from February 13th of this year (click here to read it), then you know that pictured above are pumpkin plants beside the sidewalk leading to the front door of our house.  In February, I tried transplanting those first several pumpkin plants to the garden in the back yard.  Sadly, they didn’t survive my farming skills.

But to my surprise, three more pumpkin plants recently came up in the same place out front. I had to mow and weedeat but have decided to leave these alone and see what happened since my transplanting efforts failed last time. I just couldn’t bring myself to mow these down, even though it’s the “wrong place” to grow pumpkins… and the “wrong way” to grow pumpkins… and the “wrong time” to grow pumpkins.

PR31 thought it was funny that I left them because she didn’t think they would ever produce.  So I had to snap this pic this past Monday when I walked by and saw the one plant blooming.  They are some persistent little plants.

They remind me of what Jesus taught people about talking with God.  Matthew, one of Jesus’ closest followers, recorded in the seventh chapter of his account of the Good News about Jesus.  This is what he wrote…

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.  You parents– if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?  Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!  So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him.”  – Matthew 7:7-11 (NLT)

Sounds to me like God doesn’t mind if we are “persistent little pumpkins” when we talk with Him.  In fact, it sounds to me like He even encourages it.

So let’s be persistent today.  God won’t mind. And we can be sure that we will receive what we need when we keep on asking… We will find what we’re looking for when we keep on seeking Him… We will have doors of opportunity opened to us when we keep on knocking.

And when you are tempted to give up, just remember those pumpkin plants that just keep growing in my front yard… and ask, seek, knock one more time!

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I love this quote…

“Long before Zacchaeus couldn’t see Jesus, the tree was planted to meet his need.”

Ficus sycomorus is the scientific name of the type tree Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus according to Luke chapter 19.  That type tree can take from twenty to fifty years to grow to its full maturity.  So it is possible that before Zacchaeus was born, that tree he climbed was planted. It also means that it was possibly planted before Jesus even came to earth as a man.

Here’s the good news we can take away from this for us today…

God already knows what you are going to need long before you’re going to need it. And He comes up with a solution to provide what you’re going to need before you even know to ask Him for it.

So you can relax now.  God has everything under control.  You’ll have what you need when you need it.

Look Away From It, Brother, Just Look Away

Our two boys crack me up!  Last week, we were in town running several errands as a family.  We had made a few stops already and we were working our way toward checking off our final to-do item when we passed a store that Alex really wanted to go into to look at some toys.  (Back story… He recently had a birthday and had some cash he had received for the very purpose of being spent on something he would enjoy.)

Normally, we probably would have stopped, but we had already been out long enough that we were all getting ready to be home.  We had already told Alex we would not be stopping at that store, and he had graciously accepted it… even though we could tell he still really wanted to stop there.

As we turned the corner and passed the store, I heard from behind us Austin say to Alex, “Don’t even look at it. Look away from it brother, just look away.”  We all burst into laughter at the unexpected advice from one sibling to the other. It will probably become one of those sayings which sticks with a family for the rest of their lives.

Then I began to think about what Austin said.  That was great advice.  I don’t know if “out of sight, out of mind” is true, but it sure helps when you’re being tempted by something.

I’ve been asked over the years what my favorite Scripture is.  Truth is, there are so many I love that it really is difficult to select one.  But I usually tell people who ask that one of the most useful verses in all of Scripture for me has been I Corinthians 10:13.  I was challenged to memorize  it in special course for students trying to grow closer in their relationship with God.  It has certainly come in handy on more than one occasion when I didn’t even have a Bible with me.

This is what Paul wrote to help people overcome temptation…

“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.”

The part that has always stuck with me is that God would show me a way out of the temptation so that I would not have to give into it… so that I could stand up to it… so that I could endure it and come out of that moment victorious.  As soon as I learned that truth… that there is always a way to escape the temptation, always a way to say “no” to it… I began to look for that way of escape in every temptation that came my way.  Often, it is as simple as Austin’s advice to Alex… “Don’t even look at it.  Look away from it, brother, just look away.”

So, if you find yourself tempted today… whether by something small and simple like an extra piece of cake… or by the cashier giving you too much change… or maybe even by something more serious like taking a drink or taking someone else’s spouse, let Paul’s words echo through your heart and mind.  You don’t have to give in.  There is a way out.  Look for the escape. And then put Austin’s words into practice… Look away, brother, just look away.

What People Look At

Yesterday afternoon, we went and picked up some fireworks to do with the boys last night as part of our family’s celebration of our nation’s independence.  We don’t ever spend a lot on fireworks… just some sparklers and Roman candles, maybe several fountains and one or two things that shoot in in the sky and go “BOOM!”

So, last night, we waited till it was as close to dark as we could stand, and then we went out in the driveway to celebrate.  The moon peeked out over the treetops.  Others in our heavily wooded subdivision were already lighting up the night sky with flashes of light and color.  Even the fireflies were getting in on the celebration.

We had a blast… yes, that pun was intended… lighting up our little area of the world.  It was so much fun watching the boys, sparklers beaming, running around like Mario with a superstar power-up.  We all ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the one firework that crackled and popped little blasts of light and sound far longer than any of us expected.

And part-way through our celebration, I noticed something.  None of us were watching the darkness around us.  Not one of us.  No one said, “Wow, there sure is a lot of darkness out here tonight.”  Everyone was focused completely and entirely on the lights being displayed in front of us.

And my guess is that it was the same everywhere fireworks were shot last night.  I’ve already seen videos on social media with people lighting a fuse and stepping back quickly.  Guess what? No one capturing that video focused on the darkness. Instead they kept the camera directed at where the small sparkle of a fuse suddenly turned into a shower of sparks lighting up the entire area.

In darkness, people look to light.  They focus on it.  And as soon as they see light, they forget about how much darkness there is around them.

We were designed to be light in the darkness of the lives of those around us.  For Christians, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world- like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.”  We have the opportunity to calm fears and warm hearts by bringing light into people’s dark life situations.

Darkness can’t stop light.  So wherever you go today, shine.  Just because the sun is shining in the physical doesn’t mean that people aren’t living in darkness. Show up and shine.  They will immediately focus on the light you bring and want more of what you have.

Payback Time!

As a young teenager, Saturday nights from 10:30pm to midnight meant professional wrestling on TV.  Midsouth Wrestling to be specific.  Think Junkyard Dog… Hacksaw Jim Duggan… The Missing Link… Andre The Giant… Jimmy “The Super Fly” Snuka… Ted Dibiase… The Von Erichs… The Midnight Express… The Rock-N-Roll Express… The Fabulous Freebirds.  Yes, I still remember.  It was almost a religious experience for me.

The rest of the family would have already gone to bed… resting up for a Sunday full of church.  And I would be laying on the shag carpet in front of the small TV with the volume turned down low so as not to wake anyone.  Sometimes my mom would stay up a little later than the others reading a book.  She would come to tell me good night before she went to sleep and find me there, completely caught up in the frenzy of a grudge match… or a cage match… or a title bout.

Mom would try to tel me that it was all fake… all a set-up, but I wouldn’t believe her because there was real sweat and real blood.  Granted, it was no UFC (which I’ve never really watched), but I knew in my junior high mind that it was real.

I can remember one of the story lines that seemed to play out time and again… It would be a match between a “good guy” and a “bad guy.”  The good guy would be winning until the bad guy cheated… like pulling brass knuckles from his tights, or jumping off the top rope, or grabbing a chair from the audience and slamming it over the head of the unsuspecting good guy. The tide would turn in that moment and now the bad guy had the advantage.

But all of the sudden, one of the good guy’s other good guy friends would come racing out of the locker room “where he had seen the whole thing unfold on the closed circuit TV,” and this friend would come sliding into the ring to rescue his friend. And it would be payback time!

The friend would take it to the bad guy using any method necessary to let the bad guy know he had messed up… that he had messed with the wrong guy… because that good guy had friends who weren’t going to stand by and let that abuse go unpunished.

Now don’t be ridiculous… I am completely aware now that it was all fake, that all the plots were written out, that those pro wrestlers knew how to make it look like they were beating the living daylights out of each other without really doing any harm.  It was all a show.

But real life is no fake. It’s no made up show.  There are times when bad people really do mistreat good people.  Truth be told, there are even times when good people slip up and mistreat other good people.

And sometimes it looks like the person who did wrong is getting away with it.  It looks like they are going to win the day.

But there are plenty of places in Scripture which point out to us that, if we will keep a right attitude… a right heart… a right spirit, then we have a Friend who is watching it all unfold.  He will rescue us. And when He does, it will be payback time.  In fact, Zechariah 9 says that God will repay His people double for each trouble which has been inflicted upon them.

Now I can’t guarantee that you’re going to get paid back during this lifetime, although you might.  But God is keeping detailed records… one of the Psalms even says He collects every tear you ever cry in a bottle… and He will make sure that eventually payback time comes.  He will restore to you more than you ever had taken away.

So, today… if you’ve been beat down, determine to keep a right attitude and know that payback time is coming if you’ll just leave it to God!

Celebrating A Miracle

Like Abraham and Sarah…

Like Manoah and his wife…

Like Hannah and Elkanah…

Like Zechariah and Elizabeth…

We, too, thought we might be without children our entire lives.  But God gave us a promise. And then He gave us a miracle!  Like those listed above, He gave us a son.  Two, in fact! And today we celebrate the birth of our first son 9 years ago!!!

And in light of our celebration, I pray for those reading this right now who long for the Lord to give them a promise and a miracle.

A Real Head Slammer

It was a Saturday morning, and our youth pastor… who happened to be my brother-in-law, David, was taking a handful of us out to go door-to-door in the neighborhoods surrounding our church in order to ask people if we could pray with them.  It was getting close to noon and we were about to make our last push through the neighborhood closest to the church.  Plus, it was beginning to sprinkle and rain was imminent.
We dropped off the other guy to go with two girls down one street while David and I tackled an apartment complex.   We pulled in and David parked the white 15-passenger van that it seems every church in America owns.  When he had turned it off, I slid across the first bench seat, slid open the large side sliding door, and in one majestic leap hopped out of the van, keeping my right hand on the outside handle of the sliding door.  As my left foot landed on the ground and my right foot began to press off the floor of the van, I slammed the sliding door shut with all my early twenties might without even looking behind me.

But the van door didn’t make the normal sound it made when latching shut.  In fact, it seemed to not even go all the way closed.  I couldn’t understand why it didn’t close.  I mean, I had slammed that door hard.  “Oh, well,” I thought, “I’ll just slam it again.”  And I did.  And again it didn’t make the right noise or shut as it was supposed to.

So, I turned around to see what was keeping the door from shutting properly just in time to see David grabbing both sides of his head and falling backward onto the front bench seat. Only then did I realize what had happened.  Instead of climbing out the driver’s door as I thought he would, because of the rain he had decided he could exit more quickly by following me out the sliding door.  He thought I heard him coming behind me, but I had not.  And so his head was just coming through the path of the sliding door, as I gave it my first slam.  SLAM!  Stunned, both physically and mentally, by that first blow, David couldn’t move.  That’s when the second slam came.  SLAM!

I felt horrible… for a moment.  Then I laughed.  Then I felt horrible again.  You could actually see the indentions on the sides of David’s temples where the door had sandwiched his head.  And to think that I did it to him not only once, but twice.  Then I felt really horrible.  His head hurt so badly that he had to ask me to drive the one block to pick up the other students and get back to the church.  His head hurt for weeks.  Even months later certain things triggered pain where his head had been creased by the slam of my door.

Lo, these many years later, David actually talks to me.  In fact, we often tell that story with a lot of laughs attached.  Occasionally when we tell it, though, I think I see a little wince and maybe some moistness in his eyes as his mind recalls and relives the head-slamming incident.  But David quickly forgave me, even though I know he had to have been frustrated with me at the time.

The truth is, we all get our heads slammed in the van door of life sometimes.  Sometimes by enemies.  Sometimes by well-meaning, well-intentioned people who never wanted to hurt us.  But SLAM!  And suddenly we are reeling backwards from the unexpected blow.  When these head-slams come our way, it feels like the pain is never going to stop, never going to go away.

But it does… eventually.

In the Old Testament, Joseph faced a few head-slams himself.  His half-brothers hated him and threw him in a pit to die.  SLAM!  Then they changed their mind and sold him into slavery and told their dad a wild animal killed him.  SLAM!  For years he served his master faithfully and very successfully, but then was falsely accused of making advances on the boss’ wife and was thrown into prison.  SLAM!  He interprets dreams for two of Pharaoh’s servants who promise to remember Joseph and help get him out of prison, but one dies and the other forgets.  SLAM!

But then the one living servant remembers Joseph at a crucial moment when Pharaoh needs a dream interpreted.  Joseph is brought out of prison, interprets the dream about a looming famine, comes up with a spectacular plan to save the nation and is made second in command over all Egypt.  A little healing.

Joseph’s half-brothers actually have to go to Egypt to get food due to the famine.  And they have to get food from Joseph.  A little more healing.  He does not reveal himself immmediately, but helps them.  Eventually, Joseph tells them who he is and that he no longer allows the damage they inflicted upon him to control him.  And in one of the most amazing verses in Scripture, Genesis 45:15 tells us that as Joseph wept with joy, he kissed each of his brothers and they began talking freely with each other as the relationships are restored.  Complete healing!

So, whatever head-slam you’ve faced in life, know this… If you will give the pain to God, the pain will stop at some point.  I cannot promise that it will always be immediate, though I have seen situations in which He has done that for people.  But He will bring about healing.  He will make things right.  And sure, there might be an occasional wince as your mind recalls the head-slamming incident, but that will fall away into the joy of being healed from the hurt.  Who knows?  You might even be willing to drive a van again like David!

New-Fangled Possibilities

Growing up, I loved watching “The Jetsons” cartoon.  And I never thought I’d live to see the day when there was an actual flying car… but I saw one on the internet recently which built and tested in Europe.

Growing up, I used to love shows like Star Trek and Buck Rogers.  Again, I never thought I’d live long enough to see the day when people could communicate via video and audio over handheld devices… but I FaceTime with family regularly.

Now when I see a transparent screen on a tablet or a floating hologram computer screen on a movie, I realize that, before my boys graduate high school, they could be using such technology… as we travel across the country in our family’s flying car.

Recently I was watching one of those “Anne of Green Gables” TV shows when I heard the character Matthew Cuthbert say, “I reckon every new idea was modern once… until it wasn’t.”

What once was new to all of us before Steve Jobs pulled an iPhone out of his pocket and introduced us to the new world of smartphones containing phone, camera and computer all in one is now old hat.  Everyone has one… even kids.  They have even created a simple version for elderly folks who may not be ready for all the bells and whistles.

The same is true when it comes to the challenges in our lives.  Often, we can’t even imagine how we could overcome them.  We don’t see how we could get well… or get out of debt… or get an “A” in that class… or get that spouse.  We are limited by what we know and have experienced.

But God is not limited.  He knows all and has experienced all. And He has all creative ability within Himself.  So He can bring something to the table in an instant which is a game-changer for us.

Adam had never seen or imagined a woman when God gave him Eve.  Noah had never built a boat or seen rain when God spared him and his family.  Moses had never seen a sea part when God opened up the Red Sea and led the millions of Israelites through on dry land.  Elijah had never had birds bring him food till he camped at Kerith Brook.  The disciples had never seen someone stop a storm with their words… or heal the blind with mud… or feed the masses with the minuscule… or raise themselves from the dead… till Jesus.  But after those experiences, those people knew that God has ways of doing something even when we don’t.

God is ready, willing and able to step into the course of our lives and bring something we have never thought of… never dreamed… never imagined… never entertained as possible to change our situation completely in our favor!  So instead of sitting around singing, “Gloom, despair and agony on me,” today, try inviting God to work His power of the new and unexplainable in your life.  You may not see a way, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way.  With God, nothing is impossible!

Just pull out that smartphone… although you’re probably reading this on it, and so it’s already in your hand… and remember that every new idea was once modern… until it wasn’t.  Then ask God to do something new in your life, and one day down the road you’ll see that there really was a way… an answer… a solution.  What was new in this moment will be a lasting foundation to believe for other new help in the future!

Because I Just Know

Our family LOVES going to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO!  It so fits our family-friendly, Christian-values idea of fun.  And there is so much for the boys to do.

One of their favorite areas is Half Dollar Holler.  And one of their favorite things to do there is climb through and jump around in the suspended netting of the “treehouse.”  At least, it’s one of their favorite things now.

It wasn’t always Austin’s favorite.

Last night, we sat around watching “old” home videos (from three or four years ago) with the boys.  Captured on video was Austin trying to enjoy the treehouse but with great trepidation.  It was obvious that he was unsure of the safety of that netting suspended ten feet above solid earth.

As we watched, Austin told us that he used to be afraid of the bouncing treehouse at Silver Dollar City because he was afraid he would fall, but that he’s not now.  Sure enough, were you to watch more recent videos or travel with us to SDC, you’d find him tearing through there with no hesitation whatsoever.

I asked Him if he reason that he’s not afraid anymore is because he knows if it will hold me up, it will hold him up. (I mean, I might weigh a little more than he does. Wink, wink.)  I must admit that I was a little shocked when he replied, “No, it’s because I’ve been on it enough times now that I know it will won’t let me down.”

Tested, tried, true.

Reliable, dependable, trustworthy.

Because it has never let him down before, he has unwavering faith that it will never let him down in the future.  And with that, I sat back in my seat, having been schooled in faith by my six-year old.

In Deuteronomy 31:8, Moses… the guy who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, through forty years of wandering in the wilderness, and all the way to the edge of the land promised to the Israelites by God… looks Joshua… his successor who will actually lead those people into conquest of their homeland… in the eyes and tells him, “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

Never.  It just won’t happen. God won’t let you down.  He is incapable of failing you. And He chooses to never abandon or give up on you.  He will go ahead of you and clear the path.  Then He will be right beside you every step of the way.

We can trust God because He has never let us down.  In fact, He has never let anyone down.  So unlike those investment commercials on the radio, His past results are indicative of His future performance.

This means you and I can relax and enjoy the ride now.  We don’t have to stress.  We don’t have to panic.  We can romp through life full of joy and hope and peace, knowing that He will neither fail us nor abandon us.

If you’re battling a lengthy illness, He won’t let you down.  If you’re dealing with a difficult divorce, He won’t let you down.  If you’re having trouble passing that class at school, He won’t let you down.  If the bills are stacking up higher than the paychecks, He won’t let you down.

So go ahead… climb the steep ramp of the treehouse of life… crawl into the netted area… and jump with confidence alongside Austin… because it hasn’t let him down before and it isn’t going to let him down this time either.

Neither will God.

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