April 8, 2012

Resurrection Sunday!

Well, yet another confusing day for Jesus’ followers.  Where did He go???  Not in the tomb?  Mary of Magdala tells Peter she talked to him.  What????!!  How could she do that?  He was killed, died and was buried!  There were guards at the tomb, weren’t there?  Mary of Magdala tells them she and the other Mary saw and talked to men whose appearance was like lightning, clothes pure white.  Angels who told the women that Jesus was no longer here but risen from the dead.  WHAT!  The guards had been so scared by what had taken place they “became like dead men.”  Where is he but on his way to Galilee!  Who wants to go to Galilee, a place of nothing?  Why now?

Things get really strange for Peter, James and John and the others.  Jesus begins showing up places, seemingly out of nowhere.  A ghost??  The ancients did believe in ghosts and that they could roam the earth with humans.  But he ate with them!  Ghosts don’t eat!  Could he really be alive??  Maybe we were right to follow him the last 3 years after all!  But now what????  He appeared to them and many others over the course of a few days, even over 500 people at the same time.  (Paul in 1 Cor 15.1-8)  Most of those were still alive when Paul wrote, he said.  Thomas had to put his hand in the spear wound before he would believe it.

The resurrection is a game changer.  Hope is alive once more!  No reason to stay scared in a locked room any longer.  What He said was going to happen really did happen!  That can’t be denied.  Sooo many are living today with no hope, no life, nothing to look forward to.  Life is much more than getting up, working, going home, watching TV and doing it all over the next day.  We have hope for a future resurrection and restoration of all creation, back to the way God intended in the beginning.  Back to Eden before the choice made by man.  Do you really think we are here to just live a few years then die then it is all over?  That makes zero sense.

Resurrection Sunday solidifies our hope.  There is a foundation for hope.  Imagine how those 11 men felt after all of this finally dawned on them after the 2 days they just experienced.  It is no wonder they endured beatings, prison, hunger, being essentially homeless and couldn’t be shut up!  What they had witnessed will do that to a person.  HOPE!  Their hope is OUR hope, not without foundation.  The resurrection proves that.  Life takes on new meaning because of that, in every aspect.

HOPE

 

 

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April 7, 2012

Holy Saturday

The remaining apostles are scared to death, hiding in a locked room for fear of being put to death themselves.  Wondering what will happen to them now that Jesus has been killed, not understanding at all the last 3 years of their lives they have given to following him.  With every knock at the door they jump, looking at each other, wondering if it is all over for them as well.  Peter is deeply distressed because of his denial of knowing Jesus, Judas has hanged himself because of his.  To all of them life has fallen apart, pure chaos.  They don’t understand any of this!  The earthquake at Jesus’ death, the many dead who were raised to life and who were now walking around Jerusalem.  What in the world is happening????  The veil/curtain in the temple has even been torn in half! Wasn’t he supposed to be their king?  Why is he now dead like all the rest?  Had they left their families and occupations and followed this rebel teacher around for this?  Only to end up looking like fools with nothing to show for it?  Will they, too, share his fate and be killed?  Is this how it is going to end?

Can we even begin to imagine what they were thinking and feeling?  Probably not.  But, they wait, not knowing for what.  These scared men didn’t know what was coming or what was going to happen.  They may have been plotting how to escape the Holy City, Jerusalem, without being seen, fleeing for their lives in fear.  They couldn’t even risk being seen visiting their families.  Something had to be done now, but what???

On this Holy Saturday we, along with those scared disciples, wait.  Because today isn’t the end of the story as they thought.  Not at all.  There is so much more to come.

 

 

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March 14, 2012

Musings On Faith

After reading a blog review of the film Higher Ground by Mike Cope I rented and watched it.   I have been thinking on this area for quite some time anyway and the film fit right in.  My thinking on this is far from complete and actually feels quite muddled at times.  Faith in God can be a strange thing.  It can take you down paths you never thought of going!  And on some you wish you weren’t on!  Confusion and bewilderment can set in and you wonder if your faith is gone, messed up, right or just totally wrong.  You begin to question things you have always believed and believe things you never thought of believing before.

There are always those who are really convinced in their faith and have no doubts whatsoever.  They hang on no matter what and just keep right on going, questioning nothing, ever.  I have gone through times when I have changed my thinking on some areas from study and was almost crushed because they were areas I had believed strongly in and my faith seemed to rest on them.  That may seem kind of silly to those who have never had that happen, but it didn’t seem silly to me when I was struggling with it.  These were issues I had grown up with and had always been taught.  But sometimes things we grew up hearing and learning may not always be totally true, or don’t hold true forever.   Experiences tend to change our outlook and faith as well.

Sometimes you may experience the cold shoulder from those with whom you no longer agree.  What can I say?  We have to allow others to develop and have their faith in their own way in their own time.  Faith in God is not the same as all of us agreeing on every point.  Read through the New Testament and look at all the differences in the churches there. The Jewish churches did things differently than the Gentile churches.   Scripture promotes diversity, not uniformity.   Faith in God is the key.  Not a faith that thinks everything will be fine and work out the way we want it, but a faith that we will make it through either way!  Sometimes things do not work out well or the way we want them to.  Not everything is a rose garden, which also has thorns.  Life isn’t always fun where we go around with a big smile on our faces.  Sometimes life is painful.  We keep going anyway!

I used to always feel strong and full of faith.  Not any more.  But faith is there nonetheless, however small and weak it may be.  Not everything feels like It Is Well With My Soul, much the same as Corinne in the film.   But that is OK!  To voice that it does and act it is a lie.   I have questions, I have feelings that don’t seem right most of the time.  But I will keep going anyway, hoping things may become clearer to me someday.   Those who have no questions and can accept everything I have nothing against.  As Mike said in his blog, I haven’t had the experiences some of them have had nor have I seen some of the things they have been blessed to see.  I am long past the time when I had all the answers.  Now I feel as if I have none!

God knows all this about you, me and everyone else.  WE know it, too!  But we think we have to act as though we have full faith and no doubts.  That is a dangerous path to go down.  In times I feel afraid and weak and vulnerable I keep going anyway.  Which is most of the time these days.  There have been times of deep depression where I just felt crushed and unable to make a move.  I was broken and still feel broken at different times.  What do we do then?  Keep an ever so weak faith anyway.  It is the best I can do!  How about you?

Thanks for reading my ramblings :)  Your comments are always appreciated!!

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February 21, 2012

Our Age of Excess

Lately I have been giving a lot of thought to achieving a balance in life.  Sometimes it seems easy to do, others times not so much.  We live in an age of excess, though I am not too sure this is so recent.  Commercials bombard us constantly about things we “need”, new and shiny things, it is claimed,  which we just cannot live without.  Would you like to Super Size that?  Would you like a larger order for only .99 more?  Nearly gallon sized mugs can be gotten at most convenience stores.  Go ahead and finance this new car, we can go 7 years on your loan!  Huge mortgages, deep debts and whatever else you can imagine.  Why?  We want it all!!  The bigger it is the better and happier we are! (we think)  All the while griping about the debt the U.S government is dealing with and making bigger every day.  While we do the same thing!

 

We do it with everything!  For some reason we just cannot seem to balance things and keep them in moderation.  We do it with food, exercise, money, houses, clothes, shoes, shopping, cars, you name it.  We have this idea that we need more and more of whatever it is we are wanting.  How much does it take to make us happy????  Why is it that monks can be so happy with so little?  The last few years I have gotten rid of a lot of things that just became kind of senseless to me.  I don’t make as much money as I used to, my car is 13 years old and I have had it for 9 of those, and I just don’t “need” things like I used to think I did.  Am I happy?  Yes!

 

We cannot make ourselves happier with more.  People spend, spend, spend and then spend some more.  All in an effort to have more, more, more.  We have become addicted to excess and most of us probably wouldn’t know what to do without it.  Think about it.  Do you feel a need to always have the latest improvement of whatever?  Phones, cars, computer, cameras?  You HAVE to be at the gym no matter what and just cannot take a day off?  You have to be at a store somewhere buying something?   This has become a huge problem on a personal as well as national level.  This entire mindset affects all parts of our lives.  When something gets out of your control you are no longer the one in charge.  You have become a slave to whatever controls you.  We eat too much, spend too much, party too much, have too much, talk too much, you fill in the blank.

 

I have been there.  I was working for a Fortune 500 company making $4,000-5,500 per month.  The last 2 years of it I HATED.  I didn’t feel free, didn’t feel in control of what I was doing.  So, I finally got out.  Now I am able to think more, laugh more, live more.  :)  Even family has become more important!  The times we spend together I cherish and love.  Everything is not quite where I want it to be but it will be.  Meanwhile I am enjoying the journey and discovering life and the meaning of it.  Let’s all just slow down and enjoy things and people a bit.

 

When you get time take a read in Matthew 6.19-34.  Then take a deep breath and smile and enjoy.  :)  Slow down, look at the world and the cosmos.  Maybe some things will start to become more balanced for you.  :)

 

 

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February 1, 2012

One Day At A Time

A very dear friend of mine is in a treatment clinic right now for eating disorders and exercise addiction.  When we have problems that are taking over our lives to the point everything else becomes less important and other things suffer, how do we fix ourselves?  One way to NOT fix ourselves is to gloss the problems over and call them something that is acceptable to society or to the crowd we hang with.  Doing that just makes us feel good, while inside we are falling apart and struggling.  Joe Walsh has a good idea!  Take things ONE DAY AT A TIME.  Admit the problem to yourself and to those who can help, get help, the take life one day at a time.  Joe knows what he is talking about.  He has been through things himself and it is no secret.  Click and Listen  :)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1272161601900117884&hl=en

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January 24, 2012

A Gentle Whisper

So many things on which I have been wanting to write!  A close friend of mine is in a clinic for 8 weeks, getting herself back into balance from an eating disorder and exercise addiction.  I see so many others struggling with various things through posts on Facebook and personal messages.  Just this morning I was in a discussion on contemplating our lives about directions to go in with life and feelings about that.  Thoughts and feelings were voiced about working hard to get somewhere only to lose it and feel like life has gone in reverse.  Others talk about having so many hard things to get through and believing God has put roadblocks up.  Maybe God hasn’t done that at all.  Maybe WE have done that to ourselves.  People are always in a hurry, trying to do too much with not enough time, then wondering why we are “stressed” and taking pills to get through the day.  Tired constantly, not enough sleep, running all the time and blaming it all on circumstances instead of ourselves who have done it to ourselves.

Balance seems to be an unknown concept these days.  I remember years ago taking Tae Kwon Do from Grandmaster Kang here in Tulsa and hearing him always stressing “balance” in our forms, etc.  But he was also teaching it to be part of our lives.  BALANCE.  Sometimes we need to remember that less is more.  More is not always better.  We have gotten away from this and we keep digging ourselves into a hole deeper and deeper until it falls in on us and we crack.  Then we blame it on stress when in reality WE are our own stress but refuse to see that and do anything about it.  Some just don’t know when to stop. Breathe and take some time out.  We have ourselves convinced that if we GO GO GO we will improve and somehow prove to ourselves and others that we are super humans.  We aren’t!

Addiction and obsession CAN happen with good things and often does.  When we feel the need or compulsion to do something and are unable to stop doing it then we have a problem.  WE are no longer in control.  Balance is needed in every area of life for us to be healthy; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Sometimes we need help doing this!  It is ok to ask someone, a friend, a family member, even a professional.  But most won’t, and they will go on as if everything is ok when it isn’t.  Life isn’t always a joy and was never promised to be.  But we plug along and try to help others as they also help us.  Even a rose garden has thorns.

Some great stories are found in the Old Testament.  Among those we read of Jacob.  As Jacob our journey in life can be lonely, but he remembered his dream in Gen. 28.  As he goes on his journey he didn’t have GPS or maps as we do today, he just had to go along and ask as he went to get where he was going.  He also had no idea what would happen to him along the way as he went several hundred miles to the home of cousins.  As we go through life we have NO idea about tomorrow.  As much as we like to think we can plan our future  and do it just the way we planned, life doesn’t quite work that way.  We take each day as it comes and we work with it.  But we are not alone, no matter how quiet  things seem at the time.  Jacob didn’t just sail through life on still water.  Sometime he was in the shadows and we never see too well in the shadows.  Out sight becomes muddled.

Work for balance in your life.  Relax, breathe, take a walk, watch a movie, spend time with friends without always having to be doing something. Spend time ALONE.  (Gasp!)   Don’t always be pushing towards something,  get off your routine.  Take a time out.  Life becomes more refreshing this way and much more enjoyable.  My friend will be out in about 6 weeks and hopefully will see her life in a different way.  Not everything we do has to be a routine, not everything is urgent and not everything is a life or death matter. We don’t always have to be busy.  Most of the time the voice of God to us is not in the big things, it isn’t in the flashy things.  What do you do AFTER the fireworks are over and all the smoke excitement is gone?  Maybe we are expecting God in the wrong places, as did Elijah.

The LORD said, (*to Elijah)  Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.  When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.   – 1 Kings 19.11-13a

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December 31, 2011

Here We Are Again…

at the end of another year.  Here I sit with a cup of good coffee, thinking about 2011 and what is to come in 2012.  Even though time is linear and not cyclical and we invented the calendar to help us keep track of things, there is still something that makes us stop to look at things from a year to year viewpoint.  Tomorrow will actually be no different that today, as far as time is concerned.  But for us, the way we have things set up, it will seem that way.

So I think about the last year, the friends I have made, people I have met, things experienced, things accomplished and things not yet accomplished.  And wonder what 2012 may bring.  2011 has been a good year, mostly very enjoyable.  I have learned several things, hopefully to better myself.  Met a LOT of people this year while traveling.  I am grateful for each of them enriching my life in different ways.  Thanks to all of you!!  At the same time one learns about oneself and learns ways to improve, some painful or not so fun.

My family is doing well, for which I am grateful as well.  My Dad is on 7 years with Alzheimer’s and in amazingly good health.  My Mom is doing better with her health and Alexis will graduate in 2012.  All good things for which to be thankful.

The end of a year and the beginning of a new one is one of my favorite times of each year.  I enjoy life and always look forward to new things.  I also try to enjoy each present moment and not get consumed with always waiting on what is to come.  I see so many on the social sites that seem to never enjoy the present, always waiting for what is to come to be happy.  Don’t!  Enjoy NOW, each minute we have.  Whatever it is you are waiting on may never come then you have wasted all the present moments.  A future event or thing is not going to make you happy if you aren’t happy with yourself now.  Don’t dwell on the past or try to live the future, live in the NOW.  Unhappiness comes from not being content.  Contentment doesn’t mean not trying to improve or have goals, but loving ourselves where we are each moment and enjoying it.

I love each year I have lived for different reasons, even bad ones, though those bad moments weren’t enjoyable.  Yes, I have had regrets over some things.  To say we live with no regrets is ridiculous.  We all have done things and regretted them later so we learn from them.  Some things I wish I had done differently, but I didn’t, so I decide to do better next time.  Hopefully I will.  :)

Here’s to 2012 being a fruitful and healthy year.  Hopefully we can make a dent in world hunger, help the homeless who can be helped, be a friend to someone who needs a friend, encourage those around us, strengthen current relationships, just be a good influence all over.  Treat ourselves well, be strong, healthy and smart.  Read some good books, better ourselves in whatever way we can.  Work on having lives based on balance.  Anything can be overdone and throw our lives off balance so that we neglect other things.

Thanks to all my friends, clients and family for being in my life.  Let’s continue to enrich one another!

See all of you next year!!!

Enjoying my Holiday On Earth,

Doug

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