Frame of mind counts.

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I went shopping at three very different food outlets this past weekend. All three reflect how we can approach our lives both spiritually and on Earth. Sadly, many of us opt for the third choice and trudge our way through life denying ourselves the chance for an afterlife.

I’ll start with the ice cream parlor, Izzy’s. I wrote the other day about my amazing blessing in going to Izzy’s and how they hooked me up with a hand-made batch of my favorite ice cream. I returned on Saturday to pick up my loot. I walked in the door and people universally had a smile on their face and a look of anticipation about their experience. The clerk greeted me with a grin and said my ice cream was ready, they were just waiting for me to pick it up. And there it was in the cooler with my name on it. Blessing received. 

I would like to think Heaven will be like that. We anticipate it, we smile over the thought of it, and we are welcomed when we get there. Sure, along the road of life we have to work hard to make the currency to get into the place, but that work and trust all pays off in the end. Isn’t that a great way to look at it – do the work and it’s waiting for you? In our case, it means to believe and accept His Grace and you get the double scoop. I’ll go for that.

The stop before the Ice Cream parlor was Cub Foods. For those of you outside the region, Cub is a big-box grocery store. Not the high end of the scale, not the low end. I happened to go to a store in an urban area where I live. And roaming about the aisles were hundreds of people making their food choices. Many were smiling, using it as a family outing. Some looked lost in thought, some had no expression at all, just trying to get what they needed and get out.

When I got to the store I was blown away by the wonderful smells as the doors swung open. There was promise in the air (and chicken, oranges, bakery, etc.) It was a beautiful summary of what awaited me in the aisles. Couple that with the smiling people, the thinking people, and the surviving people and you have another good metaphor for how most of us live our lives. There is so much around us with potential to please and all God asks is that we pay attention and use a little bit of moderation. He wants us to be happy, but knows that there’s a need for drain cleaner, donuts, and apples all at the same time. It’s all what we make it. But if we make wise decisions we’ll eventually find that ice cream on aisle #7 before we hit the cash registers.

The final stop on the tour actually made me laugh. It’s my personal version of Hell. I had to go to an organic coop to get a gift for a friend. The doors opened and I was assaulted with the unpleasant odor of patchouli. I know it’s supposed to be brimstone, but for the life of me why you would have the stench of patchouli in a grocery store is beyond me. I wandered around looking for the buckwheat honey I needed and realized two things – everyone there was frowning and every male in the place had a scruffy looking beard. If any eye contact was made it was hostile.

I found my honey (right next to the “bee free honey” which is not honey – evidently radical vegans won’t touch real honey because a bee might be hurt making the stuff (I couldn’t make that up if I tried)) and reframed my attitude. These people couldn’t possibly all be frowning. So I put on my very best happy-idiot smile

Patented happy idiot smile.

and wandered EVERY aisle of the store looking for more victims. Honest, not one smiling face in the place.

When I went to check out they asked if I had a member number. Nope! I’m pretty sure that triggered the security cameras. And I think I got an extra “poof” of patchouli when I went past the door sensor.

That’s how some of us actually spend our lives. We’re so sure that we have the only clue to life and how to live it that we make ourselves thoroughly miserable. And we deny the joy that God wants us to have at the same time. We just know we could never be good enough so we deny ourselves the chance to accept the love and care that God has for each of us in our lives. We put on sack cloth and ashes and lash ourselves as some kind of a test. And we miss out on the good things He provides as a result.

Are you wandering around in rough cotton clothing with a frown just to prove how “pure” you are? Why? What can you do to make life better for yourself and others and still attain your goals?

 

Dr. Shakil Afridi

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Dr. Shakil Afridi is the Pakistani doctor who helped locate Osama bin Laden. Without him, and the intelligence work he performed for this nation, that monster would still be running loose.

He is currently being tortured by the Pakistanis on a regular basis. Their intelligence agency (ISI) is probably the closest thing to a branch of the Taliban you could find.

And what is our government doing to gain this man his freedom?  How is the country that bankrolls Pakistan’s military working to free a man who helped us “bag bin Laden?”

That was the sound of crickets. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Nothing I can find at any rate. The time for “quiet, behind the scenes diplomacy” is now past. The people need to raise a ruckus.

So, since our illustrious government isn’t doing the job it should, perhaps we all need to give them a little encouragement. How about if today we all head to our Facebook page, our own blogs, our Twitter accounts and post the item below:

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Dr. Shakil Afridi is being held and tortured by the government of Pakistan. He is a friend of the United States and helped us to find Osama bin Laden. Please contact your elected representatives today and demand that our government actively work toward his release. Use this link to find your contact information and do it now. His life may depend on your call or email: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

 

Let’s all work to “Free Afridi”


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I made all of my calls and sent all of my emails before posting this message. Hop to it people. This is how democracy works. You spread the word, your friends spread your word, and before you know it we’ve made it happen. Be polite, leave nice messages, but do it today. I may have an impact by myself. But if the 20,000 readers of this blog all spread the word, and their friends and relatives and …. get the idea?  Strength through numbers.

If not now, when? If not him, who?

 

It’s more than a glob of lotion.

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If I showed up at a local hospice and offered to massage dying men with lotion I’d brought with me I’m pretty sure that security would be called and I’d probably wind up chatting with local law enforcement. If I showed up with 13 of my friends and made the offer there’s a 100% chance it would make the local news.

In Haiti, at San Fil, the home for Sick and Dying Adults it’s a regular ocurance. The teams from Healing Haiti make this a scheduled stop on the missions, and there is a reason – most of these men and women have no family to come and care for them. Or to love them. They are dying of a variety of diseases including A.I.D.S. and tuberculosis. Most importantly, they are God’s children and they are lonely. Lonely for contact, lonely for care, and lonely in their hearts. They know they will soon die. And some of them are young teenagers. Continue reading →

Life is like snow removal.

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Perhaps a bit more complex than that but today’s funtastic 3 hour snow removal project reminded me of some simple facts that take time to learn in life. I had a very nice young woman taking care of my home and my dogs while I was in Haiti. She did a great job but she doesn’t have the killer snow removal skills that I’ve honed over half a century. The ice storms defeated her in my absence. NO shame there, she is a young grasshopper and has time to learn. Home ownership adds to that dedication to see things through to the end. If memory serves me what was “good enough” at my parents house wasn’t good enough once I got my own house.

Seriously, having professionally plowed and shoveled snow at one point in my varied life, I have some skills and insight that many people don’t acquire. It helps when you have a half dozen bosses at the plowing company “coaching” you on your every mistake and pointing out the reasons behind the endless work that snow removal becomes. And much of the “advice” they gave applies more broadly to life. (Work with me here – after a week in Haiti,  a high fever, and now snow shoveling 3 of 4 days since I’ve been back I’m running low on this profound stuff but this does apply.)

1.  Check your oil before pulling the starting cord on the engine. If you pull that cord and let the engine get hot without enough oil in the engine it will fail. You get exactly one failure per engine. That applies to your soul as well. If you are not prepared with the right spiritual lubricants you will seize up and lose your engine when it gets too hot to operate without God’s balm.

2.  Take a minute to survey your path. Taking time to see where you want the snow to end up is much more efficient than just turning on the snow blower and marching around. I had a friend do that a few years ago at the church where I was a Deacon. I still laugh when I think of her spiraling pattern across the driveway and sidewalks. She would up with more snow blowing back in her face and in her hair than she did on the banks around the building. Nobody had ever taught her how to aim the chute or pattern her runs to keep moving the snow to a destination. Most of us go through life like that: we just go and throw without any real consideration for where our output winds up.

And as a result we hurt ourselves. Snow blown into your eyes can blind you with ice crystals. You can become hypothermic or frost bitten. But most of all you spend a lot of energy you need for life on things that do nobody any good. Let God show you the path to take and aim where he points. He knows more about it than we do.

3.  Take a breather from working now and again. If you grind away in the heavy wet snow for hours it will kill you. Even big strong dimwits like me. We call it “heart attack snow” in Minnesota. It is the worst stuff. It’s moisture content is so high it’s like shoveling a slushy at the convenience store. Life throws a fair amount of that stuff in front of us. It pays to let yourself rest on the shovel handle now and again and survey your progress and what you have left to do. Restore your heart rate, drink some water (hopefully of the Living Water variety) and say a prayer. You will be ready for the next round.

4.  Do it right the first time. Taking half measures will usually shorten the work but leave you with a result that just doesn’t cut it in the long run. If you don’t get rid of all the slush while it is still slushy you will invariably be back outside dumping salt on the ice it becomes and then chipping away with an iron bar to break it up and remove it. I’d much rather spend 4 hours with a snow blower than 2 hours with an iron bar and a shovel. Today was an iron bar and shovel kind of day. My arms, neck, hands, and legs all ache from the pounding and lifting of 20 pound blocks of frozen sidewalk slush. How nice it would have been to get it while it was slush. (But I was in tropical Haiti so I have an excuse!) In my life it’s become clear to me that most things we tackle are the same way – half way means doing the same work 3 times. Not a short cut in the long run.

5.  Check your results. When you’ve been out moving snow for 3 hours (like today) you are wiped out at the end of it. I was soaked, my snow suit was soaked, and I was starting to tremble from the exertion. But I took the time to go back over my work and make sure that I hadn’t missed anything. I will sleep well tonight knowing that I did my job well. No nagging concerns about what might have been done wrong. And I know that unless it snows again tonight I have a free day tomorrow.

As Christians we have a great manual to follow in the Bible. It tells you where to check the engine, how the pattern works, where the snow goes, and how often to take that rest. The final result check is pretty harsh – I’m aiming to be with Jesus when the final tally is taken. No slush or ice on my sidewalks if I can help it. Thankfully he keeps pointing out the patches I have missed.

The question for you is: Where are you in your snow removal project?  Have you checked that oil? Are you exhausted and need to pause a minute to get your bearings? Where do you store your salt and shovel, and is there enough salt stored for the next storm – it will come whether or not you are ready.

 

Non-chronological it is!

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I promised not to drag you down the road pointing out goats that Jesus loves and I’m going to stick with that plan. So today we start at the end of the trip.

I am still dumbfounded by the fact that I’m a missionary. This was my second missions trip. In my youth (and until a few years ago) I was firmly stuck in that place where missionaries were bringing the Bible to “the heathens” and converting them to Christianity. Picture pasty white people in white shirts and khaki pants waving crosses in the air and despairing of the souls of the locals. African Queen, etc. I’m way more Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) than Billy Graham.

That’s not at all what missionaries do in my world. I’m sure that it’s still a primary focus of some groups to bring the Gospel to people in a didactic form and actively win souls to Christ. But the missions I’ve been on (yeah, only two) were ones of service and giving. We didn’t do much preaching beyond saying Jesus loves you to the children and the sick that we tended to in our daily work. I’m not much of an evangelist when it comes down to it. I’d be lying if I said I understood the whole Bible, or even to say I’ve read every book and chapter and verse. (Working on it, but parts of the Old Testament kind of put me on the nod and it’s a struggle. No pop quizzes on Leviticus, please.)

But being a missionary isn’t about throwing out chapter and verse from the Bible, nor is it about bringing people to their knees in a flash of conversion. I think it’s showing that love through example and talking honestly about your faith with people you meet. That’s mission work as well.

Do you talk about your faith and your Christian walk with strangers?  Is there a slightly embarrassed place in your heart that says “Don’t be some boring holy roller” when you start that conversation? Are you reluctant about even saying “I’ll pray about your cares and the calving season coming up?” (Hi, Randy!)

I’m not. So here we go:

Lord, let this season of birth and life be abundant for Randy and his cows. Let the joy and pride he talked about with his 15 year old son extend to all of his life. Let his son know that he is proud and honored by his actions in his father’s absence. Let his cows bring forth new life free of pain and loss. Let his farm prosper and his joy in his family and you grow each day until he is called to eternity with you. I ask this, Lord, on behalf of a fellow traveler on the walk of life. Amen.

That wasn’t hard, was it? Just a simple prayer for the man in seat 21D from Iowa.

Why don’t we share that faith?  Why don’t we spread that ministry of our lives talking about the mission trip we are returning from? Why not talk about the blessing and protection of Jesus while walking the streets of Cite Soliel?

I will. I have. I’m doing it now. What’s keeping you from that witness?