Don't Be a Bubblehead

Some people have pets that just lay in their laps and snuggle. We have characters. Our latest additions to our family are no different. Bonnie and Clyde, two kittens Ashley got for Christmas, are aptly named, as they are quite the trouble makers. They play the piano at night, and between me and you, their concerto needs some work. They rearrange things for us, like ALL the books from the bookshelf that they decided looked nicer spread out on the floor in the hall. And woe to the person who leaves papers laying anywhere, because those slide on the floor, and therefore, may or may not ever be found again, wherever the kittens got bored. I'd say nothing they do surprises me anymore, but Wednesday Bonnie managed to surprise me.

Ashley and I were on the way home from piano lessons when Tim called, laughing hysterically to let me know Bonnie was in a predicament. I arrived home to find her lying in Ashley's room, happily playing with toys....with a hamster ball stuck on her head. The gerbil was safely in his cage, but it seems Bonnie decided to stick her head all the way in the ball next to the cage, just to check it out. Before we got home, she had tried to visit with Psycho Kitty, who generally is her buddy. But seeing the bubble headed monster coming at him made him completely lose his mind. He fled like the hounds of hell were after him, and Bonnie gave chase. Psycho Kitty finally made it Tim's bed, and poor Bubble Headed Bonnie couldn't make the jump. So she wandered off to play. I found her lying in the floor, playing with toys and with Clyde looking at her in pity. She was happy to scratch at her toys, but got aggravated when she couldn't get them to her mouth to bite. Clyde kept patting her head, or her bubble, confused. The whole situation was hilarious.

Before you think we are just cruel, yes, Tim did his best to get the ball off before I got home, but it was stuck fast. I oiled Bonnie's head and neck, but it still wouldn't slide off. Finally, we had to cut the ball off her head. She took all of this in stride, like it was just another day. The worst part of the ordeal for her was having to get a bath to wash the oil out of her fur. I must say I didn't particularly enjoy that either. Ever bathe a cat? It's like juggling a running chainsaw!

I wonder what Bonnie saw from within the ball. While it is transparent, it is cheap plastic, kinda wavy, and it has air slots in sections, so the view is segmented. I can't imagine it is a clear view. And yet, it didn't seem to bother her. I began thinking about how many people have a distorted worldview and how they don't notice it. Your worldview is very important. It is the lens through which you view everything and it affects your understanding, interpretation, and reactions. A person with a humanistic worldview will see things things quite differently than one with a Christian worldview. And if you see God as a benevolent grandfather type, you will think differently than someone who sees God as aloof, or vengeful, or unknowable.

Because your worldview affects so much of your life, it is important that you know what you believe, and why you believe that. Is it because it's truth that you learned in the Bible, or is it because it's how your family believes? Too many people have been led astray by just going with the flow, not making sure that what they believed was founded in the Bible's truth. Believing something sincerely doesn't make it truth. As wonderful as your own parent's may have been, that doesn't make their views truth. Just because your favorite preacher said it, doesn't make it truth. Be certain that your belief system does not contain flaws, because it really does color every decision you make. Are you certain your view is not distorted?

One Hand Clapping

There is a game show, Cash Cab, on the Discovery Channel, where they surprise people who get in the cab by having them answer questions for cash on the way to their destination. Miss three questions and you are out on the street, looking for a new cab. I watched an episode a while back that made me think. One of the questions was about an ancient question from Zen Buddhism: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”. They mentioned that it was the subject of great debate. I thought it was ridiculous to spend time debating such a silly question, but especially silly as a debate amongst religious “masters”. But then I remembered that famous question, “How many angels can dance on the point of a pin?” This debate became so big that the pope actually appointed St. Thomas Aquinas to use logic to decide if angels were material or spiritual to decide if they could dance on a pin.

People love to debate things, even things that seem to be useless or ridiculous. If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? If an author writes a great novel and there is no one alive at the time who is able to fully comprehend or appreciate it, is it still a great novel? OK, before I get a phone call trying to explain to me the actual importance of such questions, let me just say I do understand the underlying issues that actually are important, and that these debates have led to scientific thought and discoveries, philosophical and religious ideas, and that thinking is always a good thing (for most people anyway). These just aren't the questions that I spend a lot of time on. Granted, I am not a philosopher or a theologian or even a great mind, so there's no reason for me to ponder them excessively.

The Bible leads any thinking person to questions we could never answer. How is it possible for God to have always existed? How can He not have been created? Where did He come from if no one made Him? Oh wait, He didn't come from anywhere because He always existed. OK, He could always exist because He created time...before He created time, there was no time, so there was no “time” for Him to have not existed in. But wait, if He created time, to us there would be a time before time was created, but to Him, not being bound by time, is there such a thing as a time before He created time?Uh...moving on. What did He do before He created us? Did He have other projects? Does He have other projects now? Is there another universe somewhere with other beings He created, maybe even having their own time that is different from ours? (OK, the time thing bugs me.). Why didn't the termites eat a hole in the ark? Where is the garden of Eden? What happened to the flaming swords and cherubim who were set as guards when Adam and Eve were evicted? After they were evicted, did Adam and Eve ever stand outside looking at what they'd lost and wish for the good old days? Did their children or grandchildren ever try to go in, and thus encounter the cherubim or swords? And what happened to the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? OK, now my brain hurts and I need to go rest it.

It may be interesting to ponder such things, and even debate some of them. For the most part, it is harmless. It only becomes a problem when we let it divide us as Christians or we let it take the place of more serious Bible study and time with God. So let your mind ask questions you can't answer on the small stuff, but be certain you have a firm understanding of what and why you believe the big things: who God is, how to be saved, why Jesus came, etc. And if you figure the whole “time before time” thing out, let me know so my brain can rest.

photo credit: darkmatter via photopin cc

Loving the Unlovable

Last week, I talked about a lesson we could learn from a difficult situation my children and I are encountering. I discussed how the actions of a church member reflects on their church and on Christianity in general. This week, I'd like to look at a lesson we can learn from being on the other side of the behavior...the victims, as it were.

As I mentioned last week, a group of us are being treated in a way we feel is extremely unfair and unkind. It's always surprising to be mistreated, but when it is at the hands of other Christians, it seems shocking to us. How could those who claim to love Christ treat others in such a way? And yet, one only has to look a short way into the history of Christianity to find us hurting one another. It's not a new phenomenon, and sadly, it continues. A few years ago when I had been absolutely crushed by a couple of Christian women, a friend sagely told me that “Christian soldiers are the only ones that stab their own in the back.” The fact that that's a saying is telling, and it's not a good story it tells.

After “the last straw” event occurred in the situation I mentioned last week, and we had to go back to that place the next week, (and again, I apologize for the ambiguity, but I have no desire to disparage either the people or the church I am dealing with), Ashley and I had a good talk. She really didn't want to go, and I honestly didn't either, although I was trying to mask that feeling for her sake. She was upset that we had to go back to a place we obviously weren't wanted. She was angry at being mistreated. She was hurt and disillusioned and all the other feelings that come with being ten years old and having experienced so little of the world's ugliness to this point. As I explained that we still had to go, Bible verses started coming to me. Thank you, Holy Spirit! Luke 6 tells us “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” We read this to our children. We preach it from the pulpits. We spout it to others who are in distress. But do we live it? Ashley and I talked about what it means to do good to those who hate you, and to bless those who curse you. We talked about treating people with grace, even when they don't deserve it, because of course, that's when they need grace. We talked about God's grace extended to us all. And that led to something beautiful.

Unfairness. I think the unfairness of the situation is what was the real sticking point here. If we have a disagreement with someone, if we have done something back to them, if we have contributed to the situation in some way, we can understand being treated badly. But when we really have done nothing at all that we can see, it just feels more unfair. And here's where the Holy Spirit really stepped in to give me words. We may not have wronged these particular people. We may not have actually contributed to the dispute this time. But we have wronged people. We have hurt others, sinned against them, sometimes accidentally and sometimes fully on purpose. We are sinners. Jesus, on the other hand, never once sinned. He never once wronged anyone, and yet he was treated beyond unfairly. It hurts us in a special way when we are mistreated and we feel we were right, but imagine if you'd never, ever, wronged anyone. Ever! Jesus' whole life, His very human existence, was an exercise of grace and mercy to save the very people who hated him. He never sinned, and yet people spit on Him, threw things, hit Him, beat Him, said the vilest of things to and about Him. They placed the crown of thorns upon His precious head, they pounded nails in His flesh, they hoisted Him up on the cross, and they continued to hurl insult and blasphemy upon Him. And He responded, not in indignation or anger or despair, but in love and forgiveness. Even as they continued to mock Him, He implored His father to forgive them. We read these words, we know the stories, and yet, saying them aloud, trying to convey to Ashley how unfairly He was treated, and how minor our injury is compared to His, was so powerful. Tears snaked down my face as I tried to express the emotion to her. No story is more powerful. Hatred and fear and evil met love and forgiveness, and grace prevailed. We need more love and forgiveness, and less righteous indignation. We need more mercy and grace. We need more Jesus.

I won't mislead you and say all the hurt went away in that moment. But it lessened. And it continues to lessen as we continue to focus on loving others, even as Jesus loves us at our most unlovable times.

Examine Your Reflection

My kids and I are currently dealing with an ugly situation. I'm being purposely vague so I apologize for the lack of details, but the point here is not to identify the people who are acting in such a way, but what we can learn from it. The basic situation is that our group has to use another church's building. Even though we pay them for the use of the facilities, over the last several months, a couple of staff members of that church have become progressively more hostile and unkind. Last week it got bad enough that something had to be done. I don't know how it will all play out, but for the time being, we are still meeting there. There are dozens of lessons we could talk about relating to this situation, but I want to cover just one this week, and it's an important one.

How we as church members act reflects on our entire church. I will admit that I have very hard feelings at this point toward the church in question. The staff members we have dealt with have treated us like second class citizens at best. They have made us walk in the rain to enter a specific door, rather than the one that was open for them. They have left ugly signs on doors. They have left us standing in the cold. I won't say more, but it goes on and on. In speaking with the other people in our group who are experiencing this treatment, we all feel angry, hurt, and disgusted. We feel like we've gone above and beyond to make the situation work, but we are getting nothing from the other side but meanness. It is very easy to paint the entire church as hostile and unfriendly. But you know, I realized the other day, when I finally got my emotions out of the way, that we really don't know how many people in the church even know this is happening. There had been talk of “I can't believe their preacher lets them treat people like this,” and “I wonder how they welcome visitors here.” There was even some mocking of the church's motto which is prominently displayed on a sign out front, because it certainly wasn't being lived out by those we encountered. But emotion aside, we really don't know if the preacher knew what was happening before we finally had enough and he was contacted. We don't know that a single church member other than the two staff we'd dealt with had any clue this was going on. My point, however, is that it was very easy to think that they all were like the ones who are unkind. Whether we like it or not, as members of a church, we represent our church to those we encounter. They base their opinion of our church on those they meet. When they go to lunch and overhear folks trash talking the other church members, it makes a bad impression. When they hear you talking to your friend about how long winded the preacher is, how you don't like the music, how the Sunday School teacher doesn't study enough....those things do not make them want to visit your church. And if they do visit, and no one speaks to them, or conversely, they feel like they are being interrogated, that certainly doesn't encourage a repeat visit. Our behavior may be keeping them out of church. It's easy to say that folks will use any excuse to stay home, and that can be true, but that doesn't give us free reign to act like heathens, literally. We are supposed to be Christ-like, at all times, to all people. Cattiness, hostility, or indifference to people has no place in any Christian’s life.

In an even bigger sense, we represent Christians in general. Westboro Baptist Church has done enormous damage to the view others hold of Christians, because their behavior is decidedly not Christian at all. But they are the ones that show up on the news and everyone sees, and that's who they base their opinion on. All Catholic priests are not pedophiles, but non-Catholics judge the entire Catholic church as if they were. All televangelists are not adulterous money-grubbing thieves, but those who are tarnish the image for all. We must remember that we represent Christ to those in the world. What image are we projecting?

The situation with the church I mentioned above will get worked out eventually, one way or another. And I am praying for God to remind all of us to extend grace to one another. I don't want to harbor resentment or bitterness. It will take a little time for the damage to be mended, but I want to use it to grow in grace and mercy. And I will take the lessons to heart and remember that my behavior reflects on my church, and my Lord. I only want to reflect His love.

Cooking Up a Disaster

Some of you may know that I kind of like to cook. I'm not so much on cooking peas and cornbread every day, but I'd rather try new recipes. My family, for the most part, enjoys being my guinea pigs. I'm not expecting to get my own Food Network show anytime soon, but usually what I cook gets eaten. I'm also one of those people who looks at most recipes as suggestions. I can recognize what ingredients or spices my family is likely not to enjoy, and I can substitute something else that we will like. Or, I may see that it needs bacon or cheese (most recipes do, by the way). Around ninety-five percent of the time, it turns out well. Sometimes, the dogs get a meal. Experiments work that way. That's part of the fun. I used to collect cookbooks, but the internet has been a benefit to my recipe collection. I can now collect thousands, maybe millions of recipes, and they don't clutter up my kitchen anymore.

I love reading recipes on the internet, but I often get aggravated. You see, I find recipes I like, and I should just stop there. But no, I feel compelled to read the comments others have made below the recipe. I'm not sure why I torture myself this way. Every once in a while, I get a nugget of inspiration from the comments. Someone may share some helpful tip, like that you can shred cooked chicken breasts with a mixer rather than the time consuming two fork method. But the few helpful tips I get don't compare with the comments from the people I like to call the lazies and the whiners (sometimes also known as the dummies when I'm not feeling generous).

The lazies don't want to try anything on their own, but they also don't want to follow the recipe. They comment along the lines of “The recipe calls for chicken, but all I have is veal. Will that work?” Or “Sure it says use defrosted ground beef, but mine's frozen, so can I throw it in the crock pot anyway? How do I adjust the cooking time for that?” Or my favorite: “It calls for ¾ teaspoon of cocoa, but I don't have a measuring spoon that says ¾. What do I do? And can I use Nestle Quick instead?” They want someone else to do their figuring for them, to try their substitutions for them, and to think for them so they don't have to bother. They seem to think it's the recipe writer's responsibility to rework the recipe for their individual circumstances. They are annoying, but they are still better than the whiners.

The whiners get to me. They go their own way, but then want to gripe about how it didn't work, as if it is the recipe writer's fault. They swap out sour cream for cream of chicken soup, add ½ cup of hot sauce, throw in some sugar, cut the water in half because it sounds like too much, and increase the cooking time by an extra 30 minutes because they read one time that someone went blind from eating food that wasn't quite done. Then they complain that it didn't turn out good, was a waste of their money, and the recipe author is obviously a hack.

Some recipe posters are nice and try to answer questions. Others just ignore the comments, likely to save their sanity. I'm afraid I might have a sarcastic response or two if it were me. But the whole situation makes me think of how we treat God sometimes. We like to go our own way, and complain to Him when it doesn't work out. “Sure God, I felt you telling me not to date that person, so I married them. And now they've treated me so bad. How could you let this happen to me?” “Well, God, I know you don't like this particular behavior, but I only do it because (insert lame excuse here). Surely you won't hold that against me, right?” Or “I know it's not the right way to act, God, but every one else is doing it and I don't want to seem weird. If I ask you to make it all turn out ok, then I'm covered, right?”

God's law is His law. It's not situational. It isn't individual. It's not relative. Asking Him to make it all right when you do something wrong isn't going to change His mind, or remove natural consequences. If we are too lazy to learn His law, or if we insist on doing things our way, then we certainly have no right to complain when we pay the price for our actions. If we insist on cooking up a disaster, God will let us.

What about you? Are you following God's recipe for righteous living, or are you going rogue?

Would You Prefer Life As A Robot?

We had a field trip to tour the Hyundai plant in Montgomery this week, and it was truly astounding. The plant manufactures only two car models, and they put out somewhere around 1,100 cars per day. PER DAY!! That number is astonishing to me. It only takes a car 18 hours to be completed from start to finish, and that includes the nine or so hours it takes for the paint to dry. I do not remember how many individual parts they told us it takes to make the car (somewhere over 3000), but I do know it's unbelievable it can be finished in that amount of time. The plant was the picture of efficiency. It is an assembly line of a magnitude that is hard to imagine without seeing it for yourself. Every single thing they do, every movement they make is designed to make things move more efficiently. There are some 400 robots that perform tasks to make it move faster, safer, and more precisely. The front seats are placed inside the vehicle by robots to prevent strain on a human worker, and to place them exactly in line. The windshield is precisely placed by a robot. There are even carts that pick up supplies and take them to stations, following paths laid out by cables under the floor, completely unmanned. The workers on the production line do one job for about two hours, making the same movement over and over and over. Then they move to another job for another two hours, now making a new movement over and over and over. This is to keep them from getting bored, fatigued, or inattentive. It may be a new movement, but it is still a very small difference. Imagine spending two hours just placing one part on a vehicle, over and over, and then the next two hours placing a different part. Every day, the same thing. There is no time to goof off, no time for chatter, no time for building a relationship with the person next to you on the line. You pick up a part, put it on, pick up a part, put it on. So basically, at the plant you have robots and you have people who act like robots.

I understand why the company has it's workers perform in this manner. The more efficient they can be, the more profitable the company is, the safer the workers are, the higher the quality and safety of the car, and the less room for mistakes. It makes sense, from the company's point of view. But from a human view, I can't imagine anything more dreary than doing one thing all...day....long. Being a somewhat creative person, the lack of individuality here would make me nuts. I do see where some people would enjoy the structure of never having to think or make a decision, never having to wonder what to do next. I am not that person. I thrive on spontaneity.

Sometimes people ask why God would give people choices. Why does He give them the option to be disobedient and then punish them for disobeying? It is a valid question, but it all comes down to love. The Hyundai worker doesn't install the glove box door because he likes Hyundai, or because he likes the car. He doesn't even do it because he likes the way it looks or he loves glove boxes with doors. He does it because he has to. He has no choice if he wants to keep his job. If God forced us to obey Him by not giving us another option, that would not be obedience. If we have no other option than to serve Him, that is not love. He desires our love, devotion, and adoration. None of those can be coerced. They must be given freely. As a mother, I am not impressed when my child does something because I am standing over them making them do it. In fact, I'm annoyed that I had to do so. But I am thrilled when they spontaneously do something that shows they are thinking of others. That is love. I am moved when they obey me when they don't know I know about it. That is devotion. I turn mushy when they do something to show they love me. That is adoration, on a small scale. God gave us choices, so that we could choose love. It makes life messier, more uncertain, and sometimes more difficult, but it also makes it worth living. Thank you Lord. And I do indeed love and adore You.

I'll Never Leave You (Unless You Don't Get In the Car)

It was a cold, windy, and dreary night. I was anxious to get in the car and get warm. I jumped in the passenger side and cranked up the heater. Tim was driving, and Ashley started to get in the back, but as we will see, she apparently decided to talk to one of her friends and closed the door as she walked off to say something. We left the church, on the way to get gas, and I started telling the kids about choir practice. “We're singing the song you like Ashley, the one we listened to all week on the new CD.” Silence from the backseat. I sigh, thinking she's pretending to be asleep. I continue a conversation with Tim as we get to the main highway. I finally ask Ashley about some clothes she was supposed to get from a friend that night. Silence. I look back, but can't see her because I think she is behind me. I see a lump, and think she is curled up, still pretending to sleep. Aggravated, I threaten to take her tablet away if she doesn't answer me. Silence. And everything explodes in my head, because I KNOW something is not right if she won't answer to that threat. I twist around and see that the lump is actually a pile of jackets. Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! I scream at Tim to go back, he has left my baby at church. By now we are at the 4-way stop of 10 and 5 and he's trying to figure out how to turn around legally. Now he wants to drive correctly??!! I make him spin the car around in the road and told him if the cops see us, they can follow us to church and deal with me, manic-mama. In my head, I see my baby, who in reality is ten and not a baby at all except to me, crying in the parking lot, crushed that we left her, thinking we won't come back, afraid, sobbing, terrified. Yes, I know, she's at church, the safest place I know, and there were people still there, and she'd be fine. I knew that in my head, but in my heart? In my heart I feel the pain of my baby girl, abandoned. Mama guilt is powerful.

When we finally make it back to church, after what felt like endless hours, although I suspect it was closer to two minutes, I find Ashley inside, along with several church members. Safe. Warm. Cared for. Loved. Did I mention safe? I could laugh at how ridiculous the situation was, and relieve all that built up stress. I could laugh when Ricky told me to take my phone off silent, he'd been trying to call me. Of course, the good church member I am, I had turned it off during church and choir practice. I never remember to turn it back on, they need to make a timer app for that. (Note to self: invent timer app for that and get rich, spend that money on tracking devices for my kids.) I could laugh, because it all turned out OK. And I could joke that I deserve the Mom-of-the-Year award. Hey, if Al Gore can win the Nobel Prize for his global warming work and President Obama can win the Nobel Peace Prize for.... um.....whatever it was, I should win an award of great honor for forgetting my child, right?

On the way home, as I was “explaining” to Tim that the driver is responsible for making sure everyone is in and buckled up, and I was “explaining” to Ashley that you don't start to get in, and then leave without telling anyone, and I was thanking God profusely for taking care of all of us, I couldn't help but think about how glad I am that He never misplaces us. He doesn't forget us somewhere, though it does feel like it sometimes. Ask the Israelites, stuck in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. Ask the man who's lost his job, the childless wife, the couple that fights constantly, the parent of the wayward child, the elderly person in the nursing home who no one visits and they just want to go home to Jesus. Sometimes it does feel like God has forgotten where we are and what we are going through. But He hasn't. I won't give you some pat answer for why people suffer. That's too deep for this devotion, but I will tell you with all certainty that God has not forsaken you, forgotten you, or overlooked you. I may have misplaced my Ashley for a short time, but God has not left you.