Then one morning at breakfast, when Fred was 8, his mother made oatmeal and toast, as she often did. And on this day, when she served it to Fred, he said, “The oatmeal’s cold.” Fred’s mother was in shock and then got really excited “Fred, you can talk. I’m so happy.” With tears of joy running down her face, she asked, “Fred, Honey, Sugar Pot, why haven’t you spoken in all of these years?” Fred looked at her and said, “Up until now everything has been okay.”

Obviously-Fred was not a very good communicator. He didn’t express himself well. He didn’t reveal himself well. Fred followed a method many have chosen. That method basically says, “I will let you know when something is wrong, otherwise, assume everything is acceptable.”

I was raised in a home that followed this method. My folks let me know when something was wrong otherwise the assumption was-I must be okay. Not a great way to go through your day-hearing silence or “bad stuff”.

What if Fred-or you or me-went through our day stating positive things-sharing praises, blessings and speaking well of each other? Psalm 19:14closePsalm 19:14 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (ESV)  says, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

Today-for just one day-let this be your goal-to only say positive things. Or to say the truth that needs to be told in a gentle, kind way. Speak softly, laugh, share of your true self, don’t hide in the shadows. Don’t hold back on the praise. What a difference that could make! And then do it again the next day. What a day of rejoicing that will be!

An angel met him at the gate and with a concerned look on his face said, “Well, I see you actually managed to get here with something from earth! But unfortunately, you can’t bring that trunk in.”

“Oh please, sir,” said the man. “I must have it. It means everything to me.”

“Sorry, my friend,” said the angel. “If you want to keep that trunk, then I’m afraid your entrance to heaven will be denied. And if your entrance to heaven is denied, then there is only utter darkness for you.”

“Well, I won’t part with this trunk. It contains everything important to me. I will not, I cannot, I shall not.”

“Have it your way,” replied the angel. “But before you go, would you mind if I looked inside to see what you’re willing to trade Heaven for?”

“Sure,” said the man. “You’ll see how valuable it is and why I could never part with it.”

The angel opened the trunk and saw the bright shiny gold. With a puzzled look on his face, he said to the man, “You’re willing to give up all of Heaven, and eternity with God for…..pavement?”

The angel knew-that Heaven is described (Revelation 21:21closeRevelation 21:21 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. (ESV) ) as a place where “the great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.” The gold of earth meant nothing in Heaven. It means so little that walls were made of it, that the street was lined with it-its decoration.

Earthly treasures are just building materials in Heaven. Heaven’s riches, eternal things-have to do with Love, Hope, Peace, Sacrifice, Joy. This man had struggled and worked all his life for things that had no eternal value or consequence. He had lost the plot of true greatness. He had focused on himself, rather than others.

It causes me to think of what I labor for-what I hold dear-how I invest my time and God given gifts. Am I laboring in vain for temporal things? Or am I setting my sights on investing in the things of God for gifts that last like, Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Gentleness? How about you? “

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness…and all these things (the things we need on earth) will be added unto you.”

One night, this young man was about to go out with a few other friends. They were preparing to leave. He actually had his hand on the door knob to go. The phone rang. It was her-his love-on the phone. She did not feel well. She thought something was seriously wrong. She wanted him to come and take her to the ER. Could he come soon?

Now, he had a dilemma. A room full of waiting friends, wanting to go out and have fun. His girlfriend, someone who he professed to love, was on the phone asking him to give up those plans and take her to the hospital. This was a dilemma, a conundrum, a situation for sure. What to do? He really wanted to go out and party with his friends, have a good time, yet he said he cared for her and she needed him to back up his claims of love.

Suddenly a brilliant idea came to him. “Why don’t you wait until morning and if you feel bad then, then I can take you to the ER?” He thought it sounded like an excellent idea. Why wasn’t she in favor of it? Why was she yelling now?

Even in her sickness, she was well enough to know, when someone says they love you; their actions should be loving. To say you believe something but then not to act upon that belief is hypocritical, fraudulent, pharisaical, unctuous, pietistic, and sanctimonious. What we say, needs to match what we do.

This young man needed to be schooled about the connection between words and actions, professed beliefs and actions to confirm beliefs. That young man did not realize how important it is to have the two halves of his life connected and led by God. That young man did not realize life has to be congruent between what he said he believed and cared about and how he showed he believed and cared. That young man was a fool and needed to learn as James 2:17closeJames 2:17 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (ESV) says, “Faith by itself, if it is not accomplished by action, is dead.” That sad point of this story is-that young fool was me.

But the passing of 35 years has a way of changing perception. That young man feels like someone else now, someone I don’t know why he did what he did. But this man who writes this to you-if he can learn from that piece of history and grow, then it has not been for nothing.

I want my life to be such that I cannot tell where my faith starts and my works begin. William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army said, “Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again-until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other.”

I want my entire life to be a synchronization and symphony of faith and works, a paragon of beliefs and actions, all working together to do what God would have me to do, to be who God would have me to be. What about you?

One night, in their efforts to keep quiet so I could sleep, they went out to Aaron’s car to listen to a CD of a group Aaron played guitar in, so they could play it LOUD.

I don’t know how long they sat there or how much they listened, but I do know that they did not turn on the car, they just turned the key to “accessories”. In all of their youthful excitement, the boys got caught up in this thing called “rock and roll”. They must have boogied long into the night, forgetting they had no energy being generated by a running engine and the battery ended up drained of power. Result: dead battery, car sits on the street for three days.

They missed a lesson. You must have juice coming into the battery to keep the battery charged. Or to put it another way-you must have something coming into life in order to maintain life. Batteries need to be charged to create power. Re-fresh, re-create, rest. These are not passive activities, but active. Recharging is something you do-like resting is as well. They are not the absence of all things but the presence of specific things

Rest starts in the Bible in an unusual place-at the beginning. It is odd God creates, stands back and says everything he made is good and then, at the end, he rests and tells his people to rest. But that is what happened. Because REST is part of Life.

You and I have are like batteries needing to be kept charged. You cannot keep going and going and going and going. Sooner or later, you will be sitting on the street, with no power to go anywhere. How do you recharge? What brings you life? How are your rest habits? Where is your down time? What brings rest to you? What fills your battery? What fills your cup? Sooner or later, you will run out if you don’t find time to recharge. Re-fresh, re-create, rest.

But trouble begins. Jerry goes to the men’s room, and as he is washing his hands, out of one of the stalls comes Poppi. He repeats to Jerry his plan of personally fixing their dinner and leaves the men’s room, without washing his hands.

Jerry, being fastidiously clean is appalled and as he returns to the table, he is filled with dread. As he looks into the open kitchen, he sees Poppi kneading the dough for their pizza with his two unwashed hands. Jerry is nauseous and when Poppi brings the pizza, Jerry will not eat it and will not explain why. Audrey gets angry and breaks up. Jerry’s trust in the cleanliness of the restaurant had been violated. Poppi had gotten sloppy.

Trust is the foundation to any relationship-a relationship with a boy or a girl, a work relationship, trust in your bank with the handling of money, trust among friends, trust in government, trust in the airplane you are boarding and of course, trust in God. Trust is being able to have confidence in the integrity, strength, or ability, of a person or thing. Trust fills us with hope.

Trust is one of the main attributes needed to be productive and flourish. Because deep inside trust, is a need for safety. We must feel safe, that we are not under any threat. With trust, we can relax and look beyond our basic need of safety and move to areas of growth and life. Good health happens when we feel safe and feel the people and surroundings around us are trustworthy.

Psalm 4:8closePsalm 4:8 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. (ESV) says, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” This is peace-rest that comes as a result of trust.

But in your world-trust starts with YOU. Not God, not those around you, not the next door neighbor-but with YOU. Trust is being who you say you are. Trust is having no deceit or two faced-ness. Be the kind of person you would want others to be. Yes, God is trustworthy-but you are His servant. Do you reflect Him today? Or have you gotten sloppy-like Poppi?

But the mother’s optimism was soon shattered. The other animals around the farmyard stared and did not like him. “What a queer looking object he is, we don’t want him here”, one of them said, then he flew out and bit the ugly duckling on the neck. “Yes, he is so big and ugly, and therefore he must be turned out.” The ugly duckling was bitten, pushed and made fun of, not only by ducks, but by all the animals. The ducks pecked him, the chickens beat him, and the girl who fed the poultry kicked him with her feet. So at last, he ran away and spent the long winter alone.

Not a very nice story, is it? One lone creature feeling entirely freakish and left out for reasons outside his control. Feeling unconnected, feeling no kinship with anyone, not even to its own mother, having to go from place to place, trying to find acceptance and a sense of belonging. Pure and simple-the little ugly duckling was lonely.

As the story progresses, it wasn’t until the spring when he found a flock of swans, that the once ugly duckling realized he was not a duck at all, but a now handsome young swan. Then he found relationships and contentment. The other swans accepted him for who he was and he felt love. The last lines of the story are, “Then he rustled his feathers, curved his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his heart, ‘I never dreamed of such happiness as this, while I was an ugly duckling.’”

Have you ever felt like the ugly duckling? Like you did not fit in? Like everyone else was a part of a group, had friends and acceptance-but you? Lonely is not a popular word-no one wants to admit to it. Maybe we might want to change it to, “relationally challenged.” Anything that would make it safer for people to confess.

Loneliness does not have to do with looks or dress or even behavior. It can be felt by the most “normal” of people, even in the middle of a crowd. Loneliness is not the same as being alone. Loneliness is a matter of feeling disconnected. We can be so busy with our jobs, our work, and even our families that we fail to realize how lonely we are. You might be surprised at who around you today is actually lonely. There may be an emptiness within us that longs to connect and it will ache until it is filled.

Today: look for those around you who seem disconnected. Is there anything you can do to make them feel good? Alive? Well? Then do those things.

And what about you? What are you connected to? Who brings you life and joy? Go to those sources that bring Life. Jesus said, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.” That is the call of Someone looking for the burdened, the outcast, the tired. Be refreshed my friend. And then share that refreshment with others.

I like Starbucks! I know the drinks are overpriced, I know the names of the sizes are weird, “tall, grande and vente” And ordering a drink can take a long time , “I will have a grande white chocolate mocha frappachino with soy, no whip.”Ordering can take forever. But I like going there. I like going in and seeing who is there. I like to get to know the people who work there. I like to look at their CDs. If I am alone-I like to read the paper and enjoy my drink. In the same way, I don’t like pizza delivered or fast food ordered from a drive thru and handed to me from a window, I don’t like to get my Starbucks drink “to go”. I like to sit there and drink it. I enjoy being there.

And I realized I do not go to Starbucks for the coffee so much as I go to Starbucks for the experience. I feel like I belong-and that is exactly what they want me to say. I have become “the average Joe” at Starbucks.

I can make coffee, tea, frappachinos, lattes, etc at home-not very well, but I could. I go there not because I cannot get the product elsewhere, but I go there because I want their excellent product in a community setting. I want to belong and feel a part of something greater than myself. We need community. We were made for community.

Community is essential. That’s like saying oxygen matters. As lungs need air, so hearts and souls require community. We were designed by our Trinitarian God (who is himself a group of three persons in profound relationship with each other) to live in relationship. Without a community where we come to know, explore, discover and connect with each other, our experience will be one of isolation.

The Bible says, “Behold how good and pleasant it is when we dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133closePsalm 133 A Song of Ascents. Of David. 133:1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore. (ESV) :1 The members of a community of faith; the employees at a hospital; the members of a gym, a quilting club-Community should add Life that is greater than the sum of its parts. Let’s live together today in Community-growing, working, supporting, encouraging-so that coming together is greater than each of us alone.

What community are you glad to be a part of?

            Mt. St. Helens is a volcano in Washington state, and until that day in 1980, it had been dormant since 1857. It started rumblings in early 1980 and on May 18, it erupted with the explosive force of 500 atomic bombs. The top of the mountain was blown off and a cloud of ash and gases was sent to an altitude of 12 miles. Ash fell as far away as Montana. The blast created landslides, mudflows and floods that buried the valley below as far as 17 miles away.

The blast killed 57 people and destroyed all life in an area of 70 square miles. Enough trees were toppled in an area of 230 square miles, that 300,000 homes could have been constructed from all of the lost timber. As a result of the eruption, the mountain’s elevation was decreased from 9600 ft. to 8300 ft.

            That is a lot of power. Yet all that power is child’s play compared with the power of God. If God is the Creator of all things and God is the one who created the potential for such power to happen, then it would take only a murmur from God to flatten the entire world if He felt like it.

            God’s strength and power is so vast, so limitless we cannot truly understand it. He has the power to do anything, things we cannot even conceive of being done. He is the author of power. He is power. We are part of His creation.

 But here is an incredible outrageous idea. This all-powerful God doesn’t simply keep His power to Himself. Instead He offers to share it with us. And that is good news for us, because His power helps us to not just survive but thrive.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and discipline.” 2 Tim.1: 7 

            You are a child of the King. You are plugged in for power if you access it. God wants to use you, use us to do great things. And sometimes great is seen in small things-just to be kind, to touch a face gently, to tuck someone in bed. Greatness and power can be seen in BIG things, like a volcano erupting, but also in seemingly small things as well. You have nothing to fear today-you serve a powerful God. You can have power, love and discipline.

Even so, when Homer saw Maude in her backyard, he greeted her warmly. “I haven’t seen you around in a couple of weeks,” he said. “Where have you been?” “Oh,” Maude replied cheerily, “I’ve been away at a Bible camp-learning how to be more judgmental.” I can imagine millions of viewers around the country erupting in laughter and saying a hearty “AMEN!”

Because, unfortunately, that is what a lot of people think Christians and religious people are about-being critical and judgmental. If you look at Homer’s Bible-thumping neighbors, you see a faith that is rigid, superficial, pushy, moralistic, saccharine and out of touch with reality.

Who is going to be attracted to faith like that? Not me. I always looked at Christians like that too. To me, a Christian was someone who was always trying to tell you how to live, and they always had their hands out for money. They might have a peaceful chloroformed look on their faces. Or they might have a worried sour look on their faces, as if they were keeping tabs on the amount of fun others were having and wanted to nip it in the bud. They were fake, manipulative, deceptive and judgmental.

The truth is-God is love-the Bible says it and shows it again and again. It is a love that must be lived out in a flesh and blood world-which is what makes it complicated. Jesus came with a beautiful message of love, but the problem was not him, or even his message. The problem is and always will be-people. So, we have to live among people-yes. And we are called to serve them-yes.

But we must look to God for inspiration, rejuvenation and direction. Let’s put first things first today. Serve imperfect people with a perfect God’s perfect love. It makes dealing with the Homer Simpsons and the Marge Flanders of the world a bit easier.

When I pastored in Ohio, a church member sent one of my sermon tapes to a young man they knew in prison. He listened to the tape and wrote me to tell me he liked it. I wrote him back and we started a friendship. Soon after, I went to see him in prison. I was skeptical at first, thinking he would ask for money for his legal defense as I have seen other prisoners do. But he never did.

I gradually learned his story. The short version is, when he was 20 years old, he did something very violent and very stupid, was poorly defended in court, went to trial hoping he’d get a light sentence but didn’t. He was given a life sentence, which means at least twenty years. He had been in for 11 when we met. He went in as a 20 year old punk-and had been broken and reformed into something else.

When some men and women do time, it makes them bitter, but somehow my friend was able to use it to make him better. He says, “Do your time; don’t let the time do you”.

Since being incarcerated, he has quit smoking cigarettes, taught himself guitar and keyboard, gotten his GED, became a certified plumber and HVAC man. He also is a trainer of rescue dogs for adoption.

Most importantly, he accepted Christ and was baptized. I baptized him in a piece of equipment that had the dual purpose of use as a large Communion table, but if you lift the lid off, it is a tank for baptizing.

I enjoy sitting with him talking and visiting. I have no professional obligation to see him. I am not a pastor in Ohio anymore. The reason I still go to see him, when I do not “have to” is-actually a selfish reason-I like him-he fills me with hope.

What could have taken away his will to live, his will to be alive, or to be productive does not exist for him. He looks toward the future because it gives him life. He always speaks positively. He doesn’t dwell on negatives. He says they can kill you. He has hope. Hope looks towards the future. Hope sees a tomorrow. Hope looks for something different, something better.

Have you ever felt hope less? Have you ever been unable to see tomorrow? Or the next step? Have you ever thought of ending your life because you could see nothing of any good out there for you?

Hope is essential for healthy living. Hope for today and for tomorrow. God is the Author of Hope. Where there is no hope or faith in the future, there is no power in the present. Because hope can be a dangerous thing.  It changes things. Hope imagines things that are not there and sees them as they could be. Hope brings life. Hope brings energy and looks toward growth. Keep hope alive today!