Piece by Piece

I've never been the type of person who likes puzzles. In fact, I don't even remember spending much time as a kid working on them. The problem may have been I didn't sit still along enough to DO a puzzle, but that's a problem to solve for another day. Now however as a dad, I have TWO boys who love puzzles. They are probably just as active as me as a kid, but they enjoy the challenge of linking pieces together. Here's a pic of them from last night working on Micah's NEW hockey puzzle that he got for his birthday.

Even though I don't enjoy puzzles, I can certainly appreciate the finished product. Seeing all those pieces click together I'm sure can make someone feel quite accomplished. They finally see that puzzle as one WHOLE piece instead of 48 or 96 individual pieces.

Looking at life like a puzzle, I believe can also help us out in our walk with God. We each are only one small piece of the billion piece puzzle of the people of our world. AND when we look at our world, we probably feel our individual puzzle piece is BIGGER and more important than the other ones.  In reality, that just isn't the truth.

Each of us is equally loved and important to God. We see such a poignant example of this in the story Jesus told of the Good Samaritan. (Full Bible Story Here- LOVE the last line) Jesus was speaking to the religious leaders and his disciples when He told this story. Jesus speaks of a man going on a journey between two cities when the man is severely beaten and robbed. This man is left for dead. Two people pass by the man- one is a priest and the other is Levite. Both of these men, based on their conscience and belief in God, SHOULD stop and help this injured man.  But they don't stop. Whatever THEY are doing is more important- or THEY are more important than this injured man- so they pass by without helping. Finally, a third person comes by and STOPS. This person is a Samaritan. Now Samaritans were low class citizens- Jewish people of that time wouldn't even TALK to a Samaritan. This Samartian doesn't owe this Jewish person ANYTHING, there is no real reason he should help him. BUT- the Samaritan saw the Jewish man as valuable to God. The Samaritan bandages the injured man, brings him to an Inn where he can receive care, and he PAYS ahead for any care the injured man may need.

The point Jesus is making in this story is we are all an important piece of the puzzle to God. This is true regardless of our race, religion, gender, or occupation. We are all an intricate puzzle piece of life who God loves AND cherishes.

A line from Charles Dickens famous play "The Christmas Carol" said by Scrooge's nephew in speaking of Christmas sums up my sentiment nicely, "the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

This week, even if you aren't a puzzle person- show some love and respect for the people who are around you. Treat them like fellow passengers on this life WITH You. Just like you, they are a person that God has fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Don't forget what you love

If you had to make a list of the five things you LOVE the most in life- what would they be? Now I don't mean people, although I'm sure they will be a part of the things you love. In giving this some thought, here is my top 5 in NO particular order- going to a new city or place; playing football with my boys; going on a date with my wife; hearing my favorite song on the radio; AND listening to kids sing/pray.

Who wouldn't want to play football with THIS kid?

Almost married 9 years, still LOVE date nights!

I'm sure I forgot SOMETHING, but these are the things I was thinking about this morning. So once you make YOUR list- I want you to ask yourself this question- when's the last time I did one of my favorite things?

In examining my list- the last thing I did WAS hear my boys pray last night and hear in a video my wife received two kids loudly singing VBS songs.

So THAT part is good, BUT if I look at my other favorite things- it's been awhile. My wife and I got a date in for her birthday and that was only two weeks ago, but for the rest of the things- I'm NOT doing so well! My boys and I haven't played football b/c the weather hasn't helped and we have been busy. I keep flipping on the radio, but I haven't heard any of the songs that are my current favorite in QUITE some time (although Call Me Maybe TOTALLY came on in the grocery store the other day and I embarrassingly struggled with NOT singing it), AND I haven't been on an adventure to a new city or place in a REALLY LONG TIME.

I bring this up today because everyday our lives are FILLED with choices. How often do you choose doing what you love? I would guess, like me, it's probably not quite often enough. Why? Because LIFE happens. It seems to get in the way sometimes of what we LOVE to do.

But you know what? By making this list, it makes me want to do EACH of these things soon. It helps me refocus on what's important.

This struggle to remember what's important isn't limited to us now. This happened A LOT in the Bible. People would lose focus on the things they loved or were the most important. One group that was guilty of this was the Pharisees. These were the religious leaders at the time of Jesus. Instead of focusing on spreading the Word of Christ, they became consumed with the RULES. They KNEW the scriptures, they knew the stories of God, but they lost sight of what they REALLY meant. Here's an example from Matthew 15- 15 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ² “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” ³ He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? The Pharisees were worried about the disciples washing their hands before dinner. Jesus meanwhile wasn't worried about their hands- Jesus was concerned with their relationships!

This is the daily struggle for all of us: The things we love to do will always be challenged by the things we must do. Every once in awhile to make sure we are balanced- make a list! Make a list of what you love and who you love and ask yourself- have I been doing the things I love recently? Have I been spending time with the people I love? If you are answering too many NO's- get yourself refocused on what really matters. 

Today is always the perfect time refocus yourself. God has blessed you with things you LOVE and people you LOVE- don't miss out on the opportunity that today is!

Looking BACK

Sunday was Micah's birthday! I can't believe he is 3 years old already- where did THAT time go? My favorite thing about Micah is his sense of humor and HIS laugh. He's also more stubborn than anyone I know, but I'd rather focus on the funny. On Friday I took Micah to the zoo. He LOVES the tanks with all the fish. There was one particular fish in the salt water tank that kept swimming back and forth along the bottom of the tank. Micah decided that fish was his "buddy" and he got so excited every time the fish came back.

One thing about your birthdays as a parent, is that you almost can't HELP but look back. You think about the day they were born or significant birthdays or events. Here's an awesome collage Bec did of Micah.

And looking into the past can certainly be fun sometimes. I LOVE looking at old pictures and Timehop is one of my favorite apps. But one thing I'm always careful NOT to say or think is "I WISH I could go back." Most of the time I wouldn't want too, but sometimes there are those moments I wish I could go through one more time.

However, honestly the way I look at history is this. History is a great place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there. What I mean by that is, the past COULD be great but we can't spend our time dwelling on what WAS instead of what WILL be.

There isn't a better Bible story to show this than Jesus Transfiguration. (Full Story HERE) What happened was, Jesus was with three of his disciples- Peter, James, and John. Jesus led them up a mountain and there those disciples saw Jesus in all his heavenly glory. They also saw Moses and Elijah- the great prophets who had gone to Heaven YEARS ago. Now Peter, when he sees this he doesn't want it to end. He suggests they build three tents- they celebrate and bask in this moment. Peter probably would have wanted to hear stories from Moses and Elijah- hear about the OLD days. But God tells Peter NO. God speaks saying, "“This is my beloved Son,^[a] with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” God changes Peter's focus on the past into the present and the future. The ministry Jesus is going to do is still greater than any ministry He has done before. 

That's the tricky thing about us looking back. There will always be moments in our lives we wish to recapture. Maybe there is a person in our past that we wished we could have back. If our focus then turns TOO much to the past, we are going to miss the present. IF I longed for the days of rocking Micah as a baby, I might miss out on Micah and his "buddy" fish at the zoo. 

AND here's the best part. Those people in our past who might no longer be here on earth? We REALLY haven't seen the last of them either. In this Bible story in Matthew, the disciples get to see Moses and Elijah again. The SAME will be true for us and our loved ones. If someone passes away and believes in Christ, we still get to have an eternity to spend with them in Heaven. In HEAVEN- a place with no sin or hurt. SO those cherished memories with those loved ones here on earth are great, but just image how amazing our time with them in Heaven will be?

Hairnets are cool

Hairnets REALLY get a bad rap. It's probably because the first experience for most of us with hairnets is in the elementary school lunch line. Scoop of potatoes- PLOP! Baked beans- PLOP! Random mixture of fruit- PLOP (and why do the grapes always get put in those random fruit mixes? They always seem to taste weird and have a certain sogginess unique to them)!

Anyways- I'm here to say that hairnets CAN be cool. Why? Because if you serve at an awesome place LIKE Feed My Starving Children- you need to wear a hairnet. Yesterday, the 6th-7th grade confirmation kids got to all LOOK cool. Isaiah even got to go along- here's us looking good in our hairnets.

Hairnets are cool because in this case they were used to serve. The reality with most of us in America is we are richly blessed beyond our wildest imaginations. We have food in our cupboard, food at the store, food at restaurants, and leftover food in our garbage. Most of us eat three square meals a day and snack in between. The bigger challenge for most of us Americans is NOT eating. We eat TOO much!

That's why I'm happy there are organizations like Feed My Starving Children. Their goal is to serve those people all around the world who NEED food. Not like we need food if we are having a late lunch, but people who NEED food to just survive!

The challenge we have is to continually realize just how BIG this world is even though we only get to see small pieces of it. That's why going to places like Feed My Starving Children is so important. It opens our eyes to help us remember how BLESSED we are and how WE are called to help others. One of the most powerful Scripture verses relating to this is Matthew 25:40. Jesus is speaking and says, "⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

This Scripture is powerful because it says whatever we do for ANYONE on earth, we do for God. By serving others and helping others, we are serving God. That makes any small bit of help we give, A BIG DEAL. 

That means yesterday by just packing food for two hours (something even a 5 year old could help with), over 13,000 meals were prepared that would feed 38 kids for a whole year. Those are children of God being helped- that's God being helped! That's incredible! That's the type of simple service that we have the opportunity to be apart of.

So USE your hands, your feet, and your hairnets to serve God. Every little bit we do for other people is service to God.  (Take a minute when you CAN and listen to one of my favorite all-time songs!)

Senses don't FAIL me NOW!

Last week I had a cold. WHENEVER I get a cold, it always seems to go to my eyes. So my eyes start watering, and watering and watering. I FEEL like a 4 year old kid with a cold because I can't get them to stop. (This is the place normally in my blog that I would post a picture...but TRUST me, you don't really want to see how pathetic I looked last week, so here's some mountain of Kleenex!.)

This is what my desk and home and car looked like with my eyes and nose.....

But my watery eyes got me thinking- what is it with our eyes? We have 5 senses BUT the one we generally trust the most is our eyes. Sure we can smell something, or touch something- but it seems like until we actually SEE it, we just can't believe something.

The big problem with our reliance upon our eyes is right now we can't actually SEE God. We can see the works of God around us, we can see God working through other people and us, but we can't tangibly SEE God. So if we can't trust our eyes to see God, how can we really TRUST God?

Well first, we can STILL use our eyes to look to Scripture. There is a great Bible story of someone else NOT trusting until they could see something. That person was Thomas. Now Thomas gets a bad rap for being a doubter! Thomas couldn't believe that Jesus came back from the dead until he could actually SEE Jesus for himself. I'll be honest- I don't blame Thomas! People don't come back from the dead, so if someone told me that happened, I'd probably be just LIKE Thomas- I would need to see it.

AND here's the great thing about God- God knows Thomas need. So Jesus appears to Thomas. Here's the Scripture from John 20: ²⁶ A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
²⁸ Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
²⁹ Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

As believers of God in the present age, we now fall into the "blessed" category. Why? Because we haven't gotten to visibly see Jesus like the disciples did- BUT we still believe in God. 

See our eyes are great- but they are just a sense. Go to an illusionist or watch someone do a card trick. They are tricking your eyes. Any sense can be altered and tricked, but do you know what can't be tricked? Our heart. See in our heart, the Holy Spirit resides also. The Holy Spirit helps and encourages us daily to believe EVEN though we can't actually SEE or TOUCH God. 

And if you want to use your eyes this week to do some great reading- check out these stories about blind people who Jesus healed. AND the great part with these stories? These people had faith in Jesus BEFORE they were healed and could see Him.  
* A Blind Beggar Believes
* A Man BORN Blind is Healed
 

So remember- while sight is great- it's just 1 of the 5 senses we have been blessed with. A GREATER blessing than any of these is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us to believe in God every day, even when we do not see.

Afraid of the Grade and what's next!?!

I am NOT an artist. Did you know in 7th grade art class I got a C?!? Who gets a C in art? And I even turned in all my work. The picture I drew of a duck didn't look anything like a duck, but I did my best! And really, how can you even GRADE art? It's art! Isn't that subjective anyways? Now as an adult, when I work on an art project- this is generally what it looks like:

And to be completely honest this would be a GOOD stick person drawing for me.Art just isn't my thing.

I talk about art today because it's almost that time for report cards. I dreaded report card time when I was a kid even though I was a pretty good student (except...yah know...in art). I think really the fear I had was of the unknown. Even if I got a lot of good grades, I didn't believe I had an A until I saw it on that final report card.

Fear of the unknown is something that isn't unfortunately limited to report cards. There are lots of unknowns of life that can cripple us with fear. Will we get sick or injured? What if can't figure out what we want to major in? What if I person we love doesn't love us back? What if we don't have enough money?

One great Biblical example I see of someone who dealt well with the unknown was Noah. The story is so incredible when you consider the context. Noah was told it was going to flood so he built a boat. Seems simple enough right? Until you consider that it took him also 100 years! And during these 100 years, it wasn't raining. There was no signs of a flood. There was no reason for Noah to believe there would be a flood besides what God said. There were SO many unknowns for Noah, but instead of focusing on them- Noah focused on God. And day by day with the help of God and his sons, Noah built a boat.

Noah didn't get overwhelmed with the size of the project, he instead focused on the next peg, the next piece. That's the reality of life- the future is uncertain and unknown. And there will be days we get a C in art class!

We should try not to use our energy worrying about the unknown. Focus instead on what's in front of us. Matthew 6:34 sums it up great by saying-  ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

God takes care of the birds, the plants, the trees SO God is most certainly going to take care of us. What is unknown to us IS known by God. We can take GREAT confidence in knowing that. What we don't know-God DOES.  

So in my case, AND in looking at the sky some days- God is a GREAT artist!

Picture of the lake and sky at my parent's house last summer- YEP God's a GREAT artist AND Becca is too with her painted toenails! HAHA

 

Time to take the tree down

I love Christmas. From my years as a kid going to Christmas Eve candlelight service, to running down the steps to see if Santa came, to making my first Christmas Eve dinner for my wife, to now watching my boys delight in all the lights, sounds, and joys of the season; I soak up Christmas. I try to sponge every ounce out of everyday.

BUT every year, just the same, Christmas ends. Every year I sit in my living room focused on where the tree used to be. All that's left now is NEEDLES that we will be vacuuming up until June. My living room doesn't look quite right.

So WHY ever year do I struggle with the end of Christmas? I mean JUST like I know every year Christmas is coming, I also know every year it's ending. AND I fully understand the ultimate joy of Christmas- it isn't the trees, lights, presents, or cookies- it's the baby in a manger. It's about JESUS!

So why do I start every January feeling a little empty?

I think it's because nothing on earth can fill that first manger of fill our "daily manger." What I mean is that no matter how hard we try and how much we celebrate, we can't replicate Jesus birth. Nothing at Christmas can fill that small little baby-sized spot that Jesus filled in Bethlehem AND in our world.

But the awesome reality is that Jesus is still as active and present in our lives on January 5th than He was on Christmas Eve, or when we were around our Christmas tree, or when we were at our dinner table. Matthew 1:23 states- ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”^[a] (which means “God with us”).

If you look closer at the picture of my empty living room, you'll something in the upper right hand corner. I don't mean the television, I did my best to cut it out but BECCA is the picture taker in our family. What I'm talking about is the cross. And that cross makes my point FOR me. Immanuel- God with us. Our trees may be down, the lights may be turned off, and our cookies may be stale- but God still present, God is STILL with us. 

So don't despair that this year's celebration of Christmas is over. It's time to enjoy that little bit of extra room in our living room anyways! Plus, there is another celebration coming up in April involving a tree as well that holds JUST as much significance. (SPOILER alert- Easter isn't all that far away)

My resolution to remember I am a new creation

I've never been BIG on New Year's Resolutions! Sure there are always things I could change or make better about myself (ESPECIALLY after eating appetizers and cheese and crackers for a week over Christmas,I should probably work out), but I don't think just b/c it's a New YEAR I need to make any big sweeping changes. In fact, here is my only BIG resolution for 2017- 

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I will literally write 2016 until about March so I could definitely get better at making the transition to the new year.

The real reason I think that I am not a big New Year's resolution guy is that I feel that every day during the year we should be striving to be better people. That feeling should not just be limited to the calendar date of January 1st, but February 8th, March 25th, July 26th, and October 2nd as well along with all the other dates on the calendar.

AND everyday we should try and be a better version of ourselves because everyday can also serve as a reminder- WE ARE FORGIVEN. Martin Luther in talking about Baptism says "that a new man should daily emerge and raise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever." What this is saying is that everyday we are to celebrate the forgiveness from God that we receive. That isn't limited by a day or a month, or a year. That's EVERYDAY we are made new again by Jesus death and resurrection for us.

And this is the great proclamation that we see in 2 Corinthians 5:17- ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here!

So here's the great thing. Everyday in our lives can be a new start in terms of sin. Nothing else is like that! If we have debt and we don't pay it, we still have debt. If we have an F in Science class and don't get better grades, we probably still have an F. But WITH God we are forgiven everyday. Everyday, every minute, every second is a NEW start. So if you did something bad yesterday? or this morning? or this minute? God forgives that- start over. The new is here!  

Don't let that sin or that guilt continue to fester and infect you. Live instead as a forgiven child of God. Maybe THAT should be all of our resolutions for the new year. Remembering everyday that God forgives us and loves us.