The Confessions Stand

Have you heard about the news out of Minneapolis where the I-35 Bridge suddenly collapsed yesterday? Here is yet another unexpected encounter with a tragedy that crept on the scene in milliseconds. Time and chance once again decided to meet in a place that no one expected.
Life is like that don't you know. Meeting us at places we where we had no clue or anticipation.

During interviews a man visibly shaken stated, " It sounded like the world was collapsing." And for all practical purposes it was. Some were injured, fearful, in shock, and some lost their lives on this dreaded day. To think a bridge structure the length of several football fields would go tumbling down like dominos, free falling in the air, seems so unimaginable--but it really happened. My heart goes out to the families of those who lost loved ones.

Once again our headline news has covered a story involving humanity and circumstances that surround our humanity. I am certain not one driver in route ever believed there would be a bend in the road or an end to the road. Some found the bend and survived. Others unfortunately found the end, not just literally, but eternally. For these it didn't just sound like the world was collapsing around them--it was a world that was collapsing and catapulting them into a river of no tomorrow. Never planned! Never scheduled! Never expected! Not for one second did anyone driving across that bridge anticipate his or her fate.

Speaking about anticipating our fate, the Bible clearly allows us a glimpse into the future if we so desire. Here we can review the annuals surrounding living and dying. The writings expose that it is 'appointed unto to everyone to die and then afterwards there is a judgment' for how we lived our lives on the earth. The good news is that it also shares a noble passage that breathes encouragement; 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only son (Jesus) that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.' Wow! Life beyond death is a really cool concept isn't it? Actually thinking it is a cool concept may not be the best way to describe it. How about let's just say that being able to have a life after death is the best gift anyone of us could have.

I am reminded of a song I used to make grand attempts at learning and singing.

This world is not my home
I'm only passing through
My treasures are laid up
somewhere beyond the blue
angels beckon me
to heavens open door
and I won't have to worry
bout this world any more

We most likely will continue to face circumstances that sound like the world is collapsing around us. Even more we will feel like the world is collapsing around us. The real kicker here is that if we start crossing some bridge in life literally or figuratively, and our number is called... meaning our time is up on this planet called earth. We can have more then just a hope--we can have an assurance that death is just our passageway to eternal life. That is if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. If you haven't made that commitment then today can be your day. You don't want to be crossing any bridges and end up taking the last drive of your life without being ready to go--now do you? Well neither do I--neither do I!

God thank you for giving us hope beyond the grave.
Thank you for giving us hope while we are living.
Today we ask you into our lives to be our Savior.
We believe in you!

Two days ago my wife and kids of the ripe age of 3 and 4 convinced me it would be a great idea to go buy a tent and enjoy "camping" for a few days. Their concerns were that dear ole dad had been working long and hard over the past month in preparing to launch a new church, thus it would be to my benefit to find pleasure in some extra relaxation. For some reason all their hounding and badgering seemed shadowed in more of their need for some extra fun and frolicking in the sun, then my own.

Of course I caved in since the opposition was 3 to 1 and in my family those odds are always difficult to beat. Through my glazed over eyes and limp body parts I relented to go to the cheers of everyone but mine. At least I didn't want to let on like I secretly thought the idea was a good one, but in actuality I thought some fresh air and special family time would be good for everyone. Naturally I kept up with the pout look so as not to blow my cover.

To speed up the story we spent two days out in the open air except when we all slept in the big tent. Now that was a treat with a 3 and 4 year old who wondered what every sound was. Then there was the 2 am Iowa wind and rainstorm that lasted most of the night. You can say the house (tent) was rocking. The only positive was the new tent didn't leak or blow over. I guess we can thank the Coleman Company for that.

As for the good news my two boys each caught their first fish of their young lives. What a big high fivin celebration that was. Then came fish number 2 and 3 and 4 and 5. They were making Bill Dance that T.V. angler mighty proud. Of course their mom and I were having a blast watching them smile and relish in their accomplishments.

Well this camping trip is now in the books and I have to say all the effort put into this great outdoor adventure was worth it. Worth it in spite of the storm, the wind, the rain, the sunburn, the firewood gathering, the tent making, the packing and unpacking, the heat, the sweat, the smelling fish and grimy worms. Together we had moments we will never forget!

Speaking of moments we will never forget. I forgot to do something before we left for the campground. It was called forgetting to take the trash out before we left our house. Garbage pick-up has come and gone and we are left with bags of trash until next week. That will be eight days from now. That means we will have collected even more trash before that grand day. Oh boy! Things could begin to stink around here if you know what I mean.

I was wondering if I could throw in a spiritual truth here without going off the deep end. I was wondering how much trash we may have forgotten to throw out over the past few days, months or years--spiritually speaking. Is anyone home out there? Like the American express commercial asks, what's in your wallet? Like we need to ask, what's in your heart?

Forgetting to take out the trash anyone?

Being a former coach for over 20 years has me peeking once and awhile at ESPN or watching a game of football, basketball, or baseball on the Hitachi Big Screen. These 3 sports I identify with since I coached all three with much success. Before I married my wife she asked me if I was a sports nut which I inaudibly denied, considering I had never brought myself to paint my face or write the name of my favorite team on my bare chest. To me that is a bit nutty and radical.

Well to clear the air I do like a little sport once or twice, here or there, and most everywhere. But that doesn't make me a sports nut--does it? Just because I had the privilege to have coached in over 1000 games and been a part of 700 wins and 35 championships--doesn't make me nutty does it? I consider this just being a lover of the game. O.K. lover of the games. Lover of the sport. Is competition bad for you? Hey just ask anyone who knows me. I was one of the calmest, coolest, and collected coaches ever to be a part of high school sports. Really!
I was calm until an official blew a call, the coolest until we were losing to a lousy team, and collected until our players weren't carrying out the game plan very well.

As far as locker room banter I've been told that my motivational speeches over the years were great. There have been only a few broken clip boards that slipped mysteriously out of my hands, a few water bottles that had NASA written on them, which, I just had to launch and get rid of, and maybe only two ejections by officials who thought I had bad breath when I knew I brushed and gargled before the game. Go figure! All this for the love of the game.

Speaking of the love of the game. Baseballs new homerun king Barry Bonds bypassed hammering Hank Aaron last night when he hit homerun no. 756. A lot of folks love to hate this guy because they think he used steroids to blast baseballs over outfield fences. As for me who am I to judge. I never saw any needles stuck in his bottom extremities. However, there is just one thing worth making a few comments on about King Barry. What does Barry Bonds have to do with eternity?

Today papers across the country highlighted the Bonds feat, which is what they are paid to do--write articles and sell papers. No harm! No foul! But somebody had to get cute and write a header (a headline) as follows: Bonds moves into eternity, assumes MLB home run record. I will not reveal my source, but this really happened. Now what in the world does hitting a history breaking baseball homerun have to do with eternity? Like I thought eternity begins when we exit this world--after we die. Now to me that’s eternity folks. That’s reality. That’s life. Live and die--eternity. Eternity is not jacking a homer, waiting in a doctors office, being stuck in a traffic jam, or having the patience to make it through a tough time. Eternity is really something many of us do not really consider even a little, sometimes or at all. But hail the name of Barry Bonds.

Over the years I have come to grips with life, as we know it having a short lease. I know for most of us we have heard it said, here today--gone tomorrow. Though this may seem a sinister or sadistic thought. It is so very true. It is so very real. It is so the pattern of life. Whereas Barry Bonds hitting a baseball was very true, very real, so the pattern of the game he plays--but it has nothing to do with eternity. Eternity has to do with where we end up-- in the end of our lives-- when our lives come to an end. I am not talking about inside a funeral home, lying inside a pretty casket, or being placed ten feet under. No! No! That is not eternity! Eternity is where we will end up next. Because there is an eternity isn't there? Our bodies have a soul don't they? Isn't the real me just clothed in a tapestry of flesh and bone?

Hmmm eternity! What does Barry Bonds have to do with eternity? Nothing except his baseball record may live on for the generations to come. But his record will certainly have to live on without him. Sooner or later, just like the rest of us King Barry will die and face the eternity of our soul. Forever! No turning back. No re-inventing the life cycle, as we know it. No time machines available to undo anything.

So have you thought about your eternity lately? What does it mean to you? Where will you go when you die? What answers do you have for this unknown? A good place to start for you may be the Bible. There hasn't been any other book written on the planet that reveals life in its simplicity, complexity, and in its eternity.

So what does Barry Bonds have to do with eternity? He will have to answer that question for himself.

And so will we! So will we!

I know that I am not the only one to recognize the massive mazes of church ministries scattered around our cities, towns, and rural areas. Because of this it would be easy to think that none of us needs any more religious influence thrown across the landscape of America. But we still do. Except not religion that suffers diseases of the heart, mind and soul. The last time I checked these were the three areas God desires us to be attentive to once we say we believe in the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Now don't get me wrong I may just be rambling today since I have been buried most of the afternoon in finalizing some required "religious" training in completing a college course dealing with church history and polity. Like this course is going to make me more spiritual since I better understand the dark ages of religious rites, historical proclaimations, and the gaily benefits of forefathers I have never heard of. O hail saint Randy for his gathering of educational (old church) wisdom. And I thought everything was founded on the old and new testament--period--end of story.

My father who never made it past the 6th grade in school and learned how to read a little out of a phone book has always said to me, "I am so sick of religion, to me the Bible is so simple a child can understand it." Of course I may not totally agree with my pops, but then again I can't help but see his point. Our society remains filled with God chasers even in this era of the weirdest, eclectic, and wired. It seems like the days of old from what I have recently read in my studies. Folks everywhere seem to insist that they have a corner on God.

No offense, but the Baptist folk think they have a corner, the Catholics have a corner, the Lutherans, Methodist, Charismatic, Pentecostals, Independents, and hordes of other religious institutions. Heck, don't we all personally feel we have our own slice of the God pie. In essence we have our corners also. Yep, we continue to keep having a meeting at the God corner. Don't we? Come on and be honest.

With so many corners how does this relate to having One God, One Lord, One faith, One baptism? Hey, I don't have an answer--do you? It remains mind boggling to me but I want to get off this corner wagon. What it comes down to is where we end up kneeling and not necessarily standing on our God corner.

I don't know about you but I am tired of all the God corners. Please don't misread me. I am not tired in a mean spirited way. I love God's flag being flown all around the country--in churches and ministries everywhere. O.K. yes even on corners. Just not on corners of self-righteousness and chest beating. The time is now for a return to simple church and the simplicity of the gospel. In this I believe the presence of God will begin to transform all of our personal corners.

Today why not start to have some new meetings down at your God corner?

Throughout history it is clear that there has always been "wars and rumors of wars." Quite frankly the Bible addresses this candidly. The written word even goes as far as sharing that there will be "fighting’s" among those who declare having a relationship with Jesus, the one who wrote the famous 2 commandment twist of loving God and loving each other. The battle continues within us all to maintain balances between the two.

The older I get I look backwards in the rear view mirror and see clearly what scripture has asked-- "why are there fighting’s and warring among you?" It also adds, "where there is strife and confusion there is every evil work." The last time I checked this is not a good thing for any of us, mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Yet, tied to relationships everywhere there is multitudes of bickering and strife. I am not talking about unchurched people either. I am talking about the rippling waters among the brethren. That would be "Christian" folk in all shapes and sizes.

Now let's be real, the beat goes on and on. I have been caught with my mouth-pants down on more then one occasion in my lifetime. I have a sneaky suspicion that I am not alone.

There are times that I stake claims and give myself the personal right to dig in and play hardball if someone has treated me less then respectful. As a human being I have had my share of inconsiderate, backbiting, uncaring, harsh, and disloyal individuals. I like so many have battled, been wounded, loved and have been taken advantage of. I like others have invested and been cheated, helped those in need and still gotten stolen from. Given time, money, and efforts to comfort the weary--and receive not even a thank you. I like others have offered encouragement, meals, financial support, gifts, and love from a pure heart. Yet, in the end was treated like I never was the one who reached out a helping hand.

Anyone ever catch this kind of bad break? Anyone ever feel the hurt and pain? Anyone ever feel emotionally violated? Wham! Bamm! Body slammed!

Two major incidences come to my mind that my wife and I have faced the past two months that would blow some of your cyber-space minds. I have neither the time nor the energy to go into any details, even though I realize that the devil is into the details. I simply have concluded that even if I were to start holding up a peace sign in front of the opposition that this may not even do the trick. How do I know because I have tried. Can I get a witness?

Today I've decided to reduce my mental hurt (hit) list of all those who have jacked me and jerked me around. I am releasing those who have fired verbal and personal volleys in spite of forgetting the way of righteousness. I am removing those who were helped in various ways and yet never appreciated the love. I am cutting loose those who have wounded the core of my being. I am letting go of all the trash mongers who still find it appropriate to continue to dump trash. Finally, I am releasing any stagnate waters of any pride or unforgiveness-- past, present, and future.

Holding up a peace sign may not ever do the trick, but holding up a repentant heart to God regardless what my neighbors decide to do--will make me reap the benefits.

God here is my peace sign!

James 1:19
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
1:20
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
1:21
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
1:22
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Today I plan on being brief enough to write that life is filled with plenty of opportunities to:

1. Get our feelings hurt
2. Get our blood pressure up
3. Get mad at someone or something
4. Get upset for the right and wrong reasons
5. Get ticked off and boil over
6. Get irrational and loud toward someone else
7. Get confrontational enough to spit bullets
8. Get angry over another’s comments or insensitivity
9. Get a mental camping spot for bad treatment
10. Get hung up on past pain and bring it into the future

When bad things happen to good people (we are good aren't we?) the evidence is astounding that most everyone responds in the same manner. Do you know what the response mechanism is? Oh sure you do. Forgiveness is the last thing anyone wants to do. I guess that's the nature of our natures. Hey, no need to be in denial. When some one scores a major blow against my head and my heart--it’s on. I easily can become the seeker rather then the sought. The appetite for personal slam-fest just got a new participant. ****Don't start acting holy on me****
Only the purest milk toast in spirit want to stay in denial. You know the ones who won't let you know how they feel, but jump on a plane in pursuit of a doll to stick pins into. Most of us aren't living in this category.

So speaking about forgiveness. Can some one please tell me why during the times we feel so shafted, are the times that leave ugly marks all over our hearts and foreheads. Then when the moment passes a mental expose' keeps playing over and over inside our jelly filled heads.
It's here we silently or not so silently scream out in episodes of fits and rage. It's here that some meaningful outsider says to us, "get over it--what's in the past is in the past." Then about the time no one else is looking we deck our best friend, tell him or her how sorry we are, and ask for his or her forgiveness. Do I sense any double standard here?

Well, I said I would be brief. In truthfulness, forgiveness is the last thing anyone of us wants to do when we have been burnt by the forces and stupidity of others. But also in truthfulness, forgiving the forces and stupidity may never alter the impact of the forces or the stupidity. What will be altered is our own lives. We will be altered by not fully embracing the effects these persons and things have had on us. In essence we give away the control of theses effects and release ourselves from a prison ward of despair, bitterness, and hatred. In the end we free ourselves to live again.

Forgiveness is the last thing anyone wants to do--rightfully so.
Yet, forgiveness should be the first thing we fight to do--in doing so we win!

Being 40 something and still raising kids should at least place me on the top hundred list of great dad's in America shouldn't it? I assure you that I would have placed my wife at the top of this list except for two reasons. First of all she is female, and secondly she isn't in her forty something’s. She reminds me of this quite frequently. So onward I go with the purpose of this blog. After helping raise our 23-year-old daughter and 19-year-old son, you'd figure the remainder of our lives would be magical and blissful--sort of like an eternal vacation without the kids. But then it happened. Late pregnancy number one followed two years later by later pregnancy number two. The results are now the rearing of a 3 year old and just turned 5 year old. Whoopee!

I already have thrown my retirement parties out the window and decided that the purpose of having our two boys late in life must be deemed a Godsend rather then a death sentence. Each day I get older and look in the mirror convincing myself that my boys will keep me young. Like I have much of a choice anyhow. Now I realize why my wife shed a few tears during the announcement of our first of the two later bloomers. I thought it was for joyful reasons--then realized that there was something drastically wrong when the crying went on for days, around the clock, and there wasn't enough kleenex in the house to meet the need. Just joking! But it did seem a bit intense considering we thought our last son Sean was the end of the road for child raising.

So here we are--once again facing the inevitable. Another first day of school challenge It is back to routine school weeks, parent-teacher meetings, school activities and plays, playground bumps and bruises, fevers, belly aches, and days of "I don't wanna go to school today." Plus so many school related issues that go beyond day one. Can someone say 12 more years twice? O boy here we go again!

Tonight there will be the famous bath, the special tuck em in bed, the backpack and lunch box preparedness, and the laying out of the first day outfit. All this just to do it over and over again and again, and again... Yeah for all the mom and dads out there. For our son Joshua he will awake to the dawning of a new world for him. With excitement and his superman backpack and lunchbox he will enter the footrace until graduation. God bless him and all the other sons and daughters out there. God bless all the mommies and the daddy's too.

So here we go once again. In hindsight I wouldn't want things to be any other way. Children are supposed to be a heritage from the Lord. I guess this is the place I am supposed to say, thank you Jesus. Of course I have to get my tongue unstuck from the side of my mouth. Not really!
I believe for another long but great run to childrearing.

For all you parents with those superman backpacks and lunchboxes I salute you. You are the heroes of the world. Just keep in mind your ultimate calling as a parent. It is to bring up your children in the reverence and understanding of God. He is the reason any of us are here on planet earth in the first place. Therefore life is not a dress rehearsal it is a journey of faith and thanksgiving. So here we go. Three cheers for all the parents! Three cheers for all the kids! Three cheers for surviving parenthood!

Have you ever pondered how much our lives remain in motion every day? When we wake up and jump on our personally in scripted treadmills. We normally go along bellowing, full steam ahead. I just wonder how many magical times we often miss due to our abrasive run-of-the-mill natures that have pigeon holed us into racers and chasers.

Just why are we running so fast when time already does that for us? At the end of most days we lie awake in bed exhausted, but wide-awake, trying to figure out how to get everything accomplished--tomorrow. Or we bury ourselves in covers and pillows, not being able to remember the blur of the day or how we overslept without hearing the alarm. Folks, most of us are running on the very fumes that one day will completely disappear on us--leaving us either crippled mentally or physically. Let's just attempt to stop this madness.

It's high time we quit trying to convince ourselves that life is just this way and we have no choices in how "fast paced" we live. When we get sick enough with fevers, running noses, sore throats, and aching bodies, do we ever call in sick and take some days off from work? Do we survive without being there? Does everyone else survive without us there? When we finally choose to say no to some extra project or event and vegetate on the couch for hours, does the world get along just fine without us? Or when we get buried deep enough in the stresses of life and end up in the hospital due to some physical breakdown, don't we desire to get well as soon as possible?

Well friends, we better begin to make some hearty decisions to get well as soon as possible and stop our wellness from getting thrown out the window. We need to start shutting the windows. Hey, case in point. If we are motoring along down the highway and our windows are rolled down on a glorious cool temperature day and it starts to rain...then we put the windows up.
If we are at home and have the windows up and it starts to rain then we put the windows down.
The time is now for us to begin putting the windows in our lives both up and down. Depends on which window needs put up or down. In this up and down world the rains are always coming. The problem is we have the tendency to always be the ones getting rained on. Wet! Soaked! Drenched! Wrung out! Dripping! How is that for a word visual?

The common answer to how have you been is what? O.K. just busy! Keeping busy! Real busy! Staying busy! Too busy! Oh yeah! Too busy to truly take care of ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually in the ways that will end up mattering the most to our well being.
In so many ways we all are in the tank and about to become so submerged that we will soon drown in all of our busyness. That is if we haven't already gone under.

In the next few blogs I will try to throw out some practical and life saving tips involving the art and choice of window shutting.

We all know it's raining!

What windows do you need to shut?

I knew that some of you were waiting for some tips to help you with shutting some of those windows in your life that have kept you on the go so much you thought you were a go-go dancer. Guys included! All right then go-go boys! Go=go girls! Everyone so caught up with the busyness of life. Notice I said busyness of life and not busyness in life. The truth is told we all can find reasons to be involved in the busyness of life, since life is known for its busyness. However, not all the busyness "in" life is a matter of life and death. Come on we all have "things" that have been added to our busy list that have nothing to do with personal survival. We often do them and are caught up with them--just for the sake of doing them and being caught up with them. Think about it!

As a friendly reminder today when you come upon a sign that is red and has four letters posted on it what do you do? You press your brakes and you STOP. Likewise it will do you well to start pressing on the brakes of your life and begin to stop long enough to figure out what windows are needing shut in your life and what busy items should be removed from your life schedule. So here are a few tips.

1. STOP
2. ASK YOURSELF HOW CAN I SLOW DOWN
3. ELIMINATE ONE BY ONE THINGS THAT NO LONGER HAVE TO MATTER
4. DON'T FOOL YOURSELF BY BELIEVEING EVERYTHING ON YOUR LIST MATTERS
5. BE BRAVE AND THROW IT OUT LIKE JUNK IN YOUR CLOSET
6. DON'T THINK YOU CAN'T DO WITHOUT IT BECAUSE YOU CAN
7. ASK YOURSELF IF A DOCTOR TOLD ME THE ONLY WAY I CAN BE ALIVE TOMMORROW IS BY GETTING RID OF ????? I WOULD GET RID OF IT--NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

I want to add a disclaimer that I make no inference of taking your spouse off the list. For most of us it would do our marriages and relationships good if we spent more time with those we love. This is not busyness at all. This is who should be on our time-share list.

8. QUIT BEING ADDICTED TO TELEVISION AND THE INTERNET. THIS IS BUSYNESS IN ITS RAWEST FORM.
9. ACCEPT NOTHING LESS THAN THE VERY BEST! IT'S YOUR BODY AND MIND THAT IS AT STAKE AND NOBODY ELSES
10. BANISH UNWARRANTED BUSYNESS OVER AND OVER AGAIN BY REPEATING NUMBERS 1-9

Time for all the busy bees to pollinate some flowers!

Why not STOP and start smelling the roses?