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Building A Dream Life

Why is it That Some People Can’t Stop Pre-telling the End of the Story?

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It Would be Helpful if Those People Had a Spoiler Alert Alarm

It’s fun when reading a book or watching a movie and we’re trying to figure out what’s going to happen. It’s like solving a puzzle or riddle and makes our creative brain go to work. Part of the thrill of those kinds of stories is in trying to figure it out before you get to the end.

It puts a real damper on the fun of figuring it out when someone who knows the ending spoils it.

One young man had such a friend. This friend was notorious about spoiling the ending of movies. One day when the friend had spoiled another movie ending, the young man had had enough. The young man came up with a plan to get even.

He knew the friend loved jigsaw puzzles and he was always bragging about finishing them. So, the young man got a puzzle for his friend and before giving it to him, he took some of the key pieces out that were critical to the finished picture. 

One day, when the young man was at the friend’s house, the friend said, “You know that puzzle you gave me, some pieces were missing. I looked everywhere for them. I don’t know where they went. They are a key part of what the picture is supposed to be. I sure would like to see the finished picture.

The young man reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic bag with the puzzle pieces in it…they had been cut up into little, tiny scraps.

Sometimes it’s good to know how the story is going to end.

Here’s where I’ll give you a SPOILER ALERT.

In Matthew 17:1-9 Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on the mountain and tells them how the story’s going to end. God comes to them in a cloud and tells them, “This is my Son and I’m pleased with Him. Listen to what He says.” Before God dropped in, Jesus’ appearance changed, He began shinning like the sun and His clothes become as white as light. Then Moses and Elijah show up and start talking with Him. These two represent the law and the profits being fulfilled in Jesus.

This story ends with a promise of eternal life.

One good series of books that tell a great story of the battle of good and evil and keeps us reading to the end is the Harry Potter series.

Back in 1999, when J.K. Rowling was in the middle of writing The Goblet of Fire, the author received a letter. It came from Anne Kidder, the family friend of 9-year-old Natalie McDonald who was dying of leukemia.

The books “had been her respite from the hell of leukemia,” Kidder told Maclean’s, a Canadian magazine, in 2000. “And because I’m the sort of person who thinks there must be something I can do, I badgered Rowling’s publishers in London, sending them a letter and an e-mail and a fax for her.”

Rowling herself responded to Natalie with a “beautiful” email that revealed secrets from the book and talked about which characters she liked best. Sadly, it was too late — Natalie died the day before the email was sent.

Natalie’s mother, Valerie, and Rowling kept in touch. The following year, Natalie’s family traveled to Britain to meet Rowling. It was on that trip when Valerie was reading The Goblet of Fire to her other daughters on the subway when she discovered an incredible gesture from Rowling: a passage in the book contained Natalie’s name. As a Gryffindor, no less, the house “where dwell the brave at heart, their daring, nerve and chivalry.”

It’s sad that Natalie wasn’t able to read the rest of the Harry Potter books. Sometimes, here on earth, no matter how bad we want it, some stories don’t end the way we want them to.

J.K. Rowling did something remarkable for this young fan who was dying. Natalie McDonald was the only real person ever named in any of the Harry Potter novels. As the author of an unfinished story, Rowling was able to change it.

As long as we’re still alive we can rewrite our eternal stories.

This is why it’s important for us to tell people about Jesus’s story and how it ends. It’s okay if we’re a spoiler when it comes to this story.

It’s Not Because We Have Value That We’re Loved

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It’s Because We Are Loved That We Have Value

We all want to be valued, but most people are looking for it in the wrong place. They’re looking for value from a worldly perspective. They see value in material things.

Our true value is bigger than the world.

Last week we discussed the surprising connection of salt and light, rules and laws. I shared how in Matthew 5 verses 13-20 Jesus shows how these are related.

It’s not good to be without salt and light. The same goes for rules and laws. This isn’t to say that there aren’t some poor human laws (like India’s cobra law).

God’s rules, however, are meant for our protection.

My Mom lives in the country and a neighbor down the road has a dog that likes to run out in front of cars, running around in circles barking. Mom was concerned that she was going to run over the dog. So, after dealing with this for a while, one day before the dog had a chance to get started, she stopped the car, rolled down her window and forcefully told the dog to get back in the yard. After repeating this to the dog a few times, it went back to the yard. This process went on for a while as Mom would drive by. Now, the dog recognizes Mom’s car and doesn’t even bother to go to the road.

People are like this dog and sometimes God has to roll down His window for us.

This week Pastor Lee continued looking at God’s rules and laws in Matthew 5 looking at verses 21-37. Like the dog, these rules are for our benefit. God’s rules are because He loves us.

The religious leaders in Scripture were focused on the rules not God’s love. Jesus came to fulfill the law not to abolish it. He came because He loves us.

It can be hard to love people who treat us badly. But we are told to love our neighbor. The worse a neighbor has treated you, the harder it is to love them.

We all know how Jesus was treated and how He responded.

But you may not know how Douglas “Pete” Peterson was treated or how he responded.

Pete was flying bombing missions in Vietnam in 1966 when his plane was shot down. He landed in a mango tree and was badly hurt. He had head injuries, both knees dislocated, a broken leg, arm, and shoulder.

He was caught by a group of villagers. They stripped him of his clothes, bound him and dragged him back to their tiny village. After a while he was moved to another village where he was interrogated, and then, still in his broken, untreated state, piled into the sidecar of a battered motorbike, and paraded through countless other villages.

Then he was taken into Hanoi, to the Hoa Lo prison – known to its American inmates as the Hanoi Hilton – and there he was brutally interrogated.

After four days, Peterson was finally transferred to a hospital and from there, to a prison camp south-west of the city, known as “the Zoo”.

His prison room, “had three air-holes in the ceiling, a trap door in the door which food and so on was passed through, and a bunk, just planks of wood set on concrete pillars – and that was the bed.”

Peterson was released on March 4, 1973.

He remained in the Air Force until 1980, retiring as a colonel.

In 1990, he was elected to Congress and remained there until 1997. During this period, he revisited Vietnam three times in the hunt for information about US soldiers missing in action, the “MIAs” who some believed were still be imprisoned in Vietnam.

These trips were a chance for Peterson to come to terms with his wartime experience.

Peterson became a voice for reconciliation. After he chose not to run for a fourth term in Congress, he was approached with a job offer.

“President Clinton contacted me and asked if I would be interested in being a candidate for the ambassador slot in Hanoi.”

“I was a little concerned. You can go back and visit a country and that’s one thing, but going back and being a chief diplomat of a country is quite different,” he said.

From one perspective, he was a strange choice. How would the Vietnamese receive a man responsible for 66 bombing raids on the country – raids which Peterson admits probably resulted in civilian casualties?

And although he insisted at the time that he would “check hate at the door” would his counterparts in the country buy that, or assume he still bore grudges from his ordeal during the “American War”?

He was welcomed with open arms, according to former LA Times journalist David Lamb. He said that during his four years in Vietnam, Peterson became “a walking billboard for reconciliation”.

He drank tea with Nguyen Viet Chop and Nguyen Danh Xinh – two of the men who pulled him from the tree and dragged him back to the village through the rice paddies. He walked through the fields, holding hands with the grandson of one of his former captors, to the mango tree in which he had fallen 31 years earlier.

Pete Peterson was not a man to relax in his retirement, nor was he one to dwell on the past. Years ago, he said that he had no intention of becoming a “career POW”, but that God had not saved his life for him to be angry. “My life was preserved to do something constructive.”

I believe that we can all take some lessons of forgiveness and love from Pete. He didn’t get hung up on the rules and law…he was focused on love and reconciliation.

We are loved by God and that love is what gives us our value.

It is up to us to share that love with others and show them their value.

This is What We’re Supposed to do…Make Things Better

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How Does Salt and Light Have Anything to do With Rules and Law?

Initially salt and light don’t appear to have any connection with rules and law.

For that matter, what do salt and light have to do with each other?

Most of us are familiar with the use of salt and light in Scripture. In Matthew 5:13-16, we are told that, “We are the salt of the earth.” And “…the light of the world.”

The Scripture goes on to say this about salt, “But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet.” 

Then in verse 15-16, “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven.”

Both salt and light make things better.

Salt makes food taste better. It also helps preserve it and makes it last longer. Light helps us to find our way in the darkness. Like a light house, it shows us what direction to go when encountering a storm.

Directly following in verses 17-20, Jesus tells us, “Don’t even begin to think that I have come to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I haven’t come to do away with them but to fulfill them. I say to you very seriously that as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality. Therefore, whoever ignores one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called the lowest in the kingdom of heaven.” And “…will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Laws and rules in society, for the most part, make things better and safer. Things like speed limits in city limits are a good idea. At the same time, we need to be aware that as humans when we make rules…they may come with unintended consequences.

A good example of this is India’s cobra law.

In colonial India, Delhi suffered a proliferation of cobras, which was a problem very clearly in need of a solution given the sorts of things that cobras bring, like death. To cut the number of cobras slithering through the city, the local government placed a bounty on them. This seemed like a perfectly reasonable solution. The bounty was generous enough that many people took up cobra hunting, which…

Led exactly to the desired outcome: The cobra population decreased.

And that’s where things get interesting.

As the cobra population fell and it became harder to find cobras in the wild, people became rather entrepreneurial. They started raising cobras in their homes, which they would then kill to collect the bounty as before. This led to a new problem: Local authorities realized that there were very few cobras evident in the city, but they nonetheless were still paying the bounty to the same degree as before.

City officials did a reasonable thing: They canceled the bounty. In response, the people raising cobras in their homes also did a reasonable thing: They released all their now-valueless cobras back into the streets. Who wants a house full of cobras?

In the end, Delhi had a bigger cobra problem after the bounty ended than it had before it began.

The unintended consequence of the cobra eradication plan was an increase in the number of cobras in the streets. This case has become the exemplar of when an attempt to solve a problem ends up exacerbating the very problem that rule-makers intended to fix.

We can be grateful that God’s rules won’t come with these kinds of unintended consequences.

We are told to follow God’s rules; there will be consequences if we don’t. We are called to be salt and light in the world. These things are all part of God’s plans for us and the world.

Now follow God’s rules, share your light and do your part to make the world a little better.

How Can You Best Serve Others, That’s the Real Question

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We Spend Too Much Time Focused on Ourselves Rather Than Others

We need to be clear on what things are most important and focus on them first. Being clear on what’s most important is the hard part. There’s always something vying for our attention.

For example, how important is fixing a broken lawn mower?

How could a broken lawn mower become a point of contention for a happily married couple? After all, it’s just a piece of machinery. Or is it?  When does it become the central flashpoint between a man and a woman?

“When our lawn mower broke and wouldn’t run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first, the truck, the car, playing golf – always something more important to me.

Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.

When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house.

I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again, I handed her a toothbrush.

I said, “When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.”

        (Wait for it)

                (Just a little more)

The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp. 😊

I think this broken lawn mower was pretty important.

We find ourselves in a very noisy world. Surrounded by something or someone needing something from us.

We get to decide who or what we give our attention to.

In Matthew Chapter 4, Jesus spends 40 days by himself clearing His mind as He prepares for His ministry. At the end of these forty days Satan tempts Him with food, wealth and fame. The same things we find ourselves tempted with every day.

Then in Chapter 5 verses 1-12, He gives us the Beatitudes, a perspective of where our attention should be focused and the blessings that result from that.

Ultimately, we are supposed to be aware of those around us and help them when and where we can. It’s about slowing down long enough to see and hear those around us and then do something to let them know that we do see and hear them.

When Joe Serna was arrested for drinking and driving, one of the terms of his probation was that he would not consume alcohol for a predetermined amount of time. However, after lying on a urine test, Joe was brought back to the courtroom, this time in front of Judge Lou Olivera. Judge Olivera felt he had no choice but to sentence Joe to a night in jail for breaking probation, a sentence which was carried out.

Joe is a decorated veteran who served three terms in Afghanistan and has two purple hearts to show for his bravery. This Green Beret survived an IED and a suicide bomber, as well as a terrifying experience getting trapped in a sinking truck with his fellow soldiers and Joe was the only soldier to make it out of the truck alive.

While following a creek, the road gave way, causing the truck Joe and his men were in to be submerged underwater. Unable to move, Joe was trapped in place and forced to feel the water rise up his legs, his torso, and his neck. Finally, it stopped at his chin.

Considering this terrifying brush with death, as well as his other horrifying experience in the war, Joe suffers from PTSD. One of his triggers, which he blames on the sinking truck, is a fear of small, confined space such as a jail cell.

So when Judge Olivera sentenced Joe to a night in jail, he was sending this war vet to one of his very worst fears.

Moments after Joe was locked away for his night in prison, he was surprised by Judge Olivera, who came to stay the entire night with the man he had sent to jail. (Judge Olivera was an Army veteran who served in the Gulf War)

Joe said that with Judge Olivera there, “the walls were no longer there.” His anxiety and fear melted away, and he was able to have a genuine conversation with this wonderful person.

After this night in jail, Joe promised Judge Olivera that there would be no more screw-ups. This might not be the usual way the law works, but this act of connecting and compassion was exactly what this brave veteran needed.

This is the kind of thing Jesus did for us. He left the comfort of Heaven and came to spend time with us here on earth. Ultimately, He paid the price for all our screw-ups by giving His life on the cross.

I’m not saying that you need to spend a night in jail or give your life on a cross.

What I am saying is that we need to slow down a little and open our eyes. Stop being so focused on ourselves and see who and where we can help others.

Knowing Who We Are, is as Important for Organizations as it is for Individuals

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Figure Out What Your Organizations DNA is and Be True to it

DNA is three letters that get thrown around a lot these days. It is something that is commonly gathered at crime scenes and often it is used in solving those crimes. It’s also used to look back and find out who your family is.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms and is different and specific to each one.

One definition of DNA is, the fundamental and distinctive characteristics or qualities of someone or something, especially when regarded as unchangeable –

“Quality is a part of this company’s DNA” or “men just don’t get shopping – it’s not in their DNA”

Being unchangeable is a good thing if you are being true to who you were made to be.

You may or may not be aware of the issues currently taking place in the United Methodist Church. Currently there is some disagreement about who the church is meant to be. The church is dealing with some differences of doctrinal and theological principles.

These kinds of divisions are nothing new. They are as old as mankind itself.

The church of which I’m a member is a small country church with a big heart. I grew up in this church and have never had any reason to find another. It’s a foundational part of who I am…a part of my DNA.

Our local church has been working through the process of deciding who we’ll be, but we first need to remember who we are.

Realizing who we are can be hard when we don’t know anything different. It’s hard to compare two things when you don’t even know what one of them is.

So, all we can do is look back and remember who we are.

We have a very loving, caring and giving history.

Here is a long list of things that have been made possible by or done through this church.

  • Missionaries to other countries sent and/or supported by the church
  • Mission trips by members of the congregation to over thirty different countries
  • Mission trips to work on remodeling and/or repairing people’s homes when they couldn’t
  • Disaster response teams sent to areas of tornado damage, flooding, hurricanes and fires.
  • Helping people in the community by building handicap ramps
  • Supporting and sponsoring community events
  • Supporting food banks and clothing supply services
  • Ringing of the bells for the Salvation Army
  • Giving to families in need through the Christmas Angel Tree program
  • Providing transportation to doctors for people when needed
  • Providing a facility large enough to allow for community events to be held
  • Gathering and preparing flood buckets for United Methodist Committee on Relief

This is just a small portion of what this little country church with a big heart has been able to do over the years.

As great as these things are, if they’re done for the wrong reasons they’re done in vain.

As Christians, we’ve been called to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. Just like our DNA can be traced back to our ancestors…as Christians we should be able to trace our DNA back to Christ’s.

Being true to Christ’s DNA is what we as individuals and as a church are called to do.

How Do You Measure Success in Your Life?

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Things Almost Always Look Better from the Outside Looking In

As we go through life, most of us try to present the best version of ourselves to the outside world. We want to look like we have it all together, whether we do or not. This is not to say that we shouldn’t try to be our best. We just need to be careful why we’re doing it.

We live in a very materialistic world. We see people and think, “Wow, if I just had their life, things would be easy.”

When looking at other people’s lives, most of the time, we only see what they want us to. They try to keep the ugly parts hidden.

In the rat race to succeed, we often forget who we are and whose we are.

Here’s a story about someone who forgot. (Excerpt from the book Uh-Oh by Robert Fulghum)

There’s a man in my neighborhood. He’s always in a hurry—and always late. I’m not exactly sure just what he does for a living, but it seems to involve buying and selling something downtown. He’s a businessman. His choice of appropriate transportation for his coming and going is a brand-new Range Rover, a vehicle built by the British for high adventure. It is equally capable in steep canyons, quicksand, and blizzard conditions. It can outrun a lion and take a rhino charge head-on. This vehicle is equipped with a winch, a gun rack, and a CB radio, as well as an impressive stereo system, two cellular phones, a fax machine, and a coffee maker in the glove compartment.

Mostly my neighbor takes his Range Rover as far as downtown. So far it has faced the dangers of the underground parking ramps of the First National Bank, and the hostile natives at a car wash. As for animal encounters, rumor is he backed over either a cat or a squirrel. Maybe both.

Daily I see my neighbor rushing out of his house, burdened with the impediments of high adventure. Carrying golf bag, gym bag, lunch bag, raincoat, umbrella, coffee cup, a sack of garbage for the dumpster, and his briefcase. On the day I shall describe, he has two little pieces of bloody toilet paper stuck to his chin from a hasty encounter with his razor, and a knitted brow from a hasty encounter with his wife. So far, it has not been a good morning.

About the briefcase. It is made of the purest, unblemished belting leather, a quarter of an inch thick. The best part of the hides of four carefully selected cows, who gave their lives that he might carry this talisman of success. Solid-brass hardware, combination lock, lined with watered silk, and his name embossed in gold. By itself, empty, the briefcase weighs maybe ten pounds. Twenty pounds full. A heavy item in every sense of the word.

So it’s a Tuesday morning around seven o’clock on a fine day in June. A neighbor lady and I hit the street headed for work about the same time. She’s a social worker for the Episcopal Church and drives an eight-year-old Ford Just-Get-Me-There-and-Back-Please-God sedan. And I drive a 1952 GMC two-ton Go-Ahead-and-Hit-Me panel truck.

At the same time, the owner of the Range Rover rushes up. His life is leveraged to the max these days, and his mind is in three continents at once. Time is of the essence. He is in no mood to make small talk. He grunts at us as he loads his lorry for the expedition downtown, leaps into the front seat, and cranks the mighty engine in the spirit of a holder of a pole position at Indy.

Uh-oh—he has left his coffee cup and briefcase on the roof of the Range Rover, and there they remain as he rolls away.

To the rescue comes the nice lady social worker for the Episcopal Church in her old Ford. She chases after him, urgently honking her horn, which he ignores because he is already on his cellular phone talking to London. As a pin affects a swollen balloon, so does her unceasing honking affect his existential circumstance. He throws the phone to the floor of the car, leans out the window, and displays the middle finger of his left hand to the lady. But the lady is focused on her rescue mission and honks on while waving him to stop.

I, in the meantime, driving close behind as a kind of third float in this little parade, likewise try to get his attention. Mine is an “aaaoooogaah” horn salvaged out of an old Model A. The combination of “HONK, HONK, HONK” and “AAAOOOOGAAH, AAAOOOOGAAH, AAAOOOOGAAH” is too much. He jams on his brakes, flings open the door, and tries to get out—without first unlatching his seat belt.

At the same moment, his morning cup of coffee slides off the roof, bounces across the hood, and smashes into the street.

Followed by his brassbound briefcase, which crashes onto the hood, scrapes across the paint with a fingernails-on-blackboard screech, and flops into the street on top of the broken coffee cup.

The dear lady, mission accomplished, coasts slowly around the scene of the accident, smiles, waves, sings out “Have a nice day!” to her neighbor dangling from the car in the clutches of his seat belt.

Fulghum, Robert. Uh-Oh (pp. 155-159). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

We don’t know this man’s back story. What was going on in his life. What kind of stress he was under that morning. What we do know is that in pursuit of his “successful dream life”, things weren’t very successful that morning.

Often people who seem to have everything feel that they are failures.

It is easy to get caught up in the material world of chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, forgetting where our focus should be.

God doesn’t want us to be failures. He wants us to be successful!

Success will come if we are focused on the right things.

Someone who would not have been considered a success by worldly standards was John the Baptist. Here’s a man living in the wilderness dressed in camel’s hair preaching and baptizing. But John was focused on the right thing. In John 1:28-34 we read that, John saw the Spirit come down from heaven like a dove and rest on Jesus. This sounds pretty successful to me.

It’s easy to get sidetracked and focused on the wrong things. This is made clear to us in Matthew 16:24-26. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?

The price for the wrong kind of success is very expensive.

Making money and having things is not bad. The key to unlocking success is what you focus on. Who are you focused on…yourself or God? How are you living your life? How do you measure success?

Measure it the same way God does and live your successful dream life.

Epiphany is More Than Just a Day on the Christian Calendar

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It’s About Seeing What’s Going on Around Us and Doing Something Good with It

The word Epiphany comes from the Greek work epipháneia that means manifestation or appearance. It’s the celebration of the awareness of the physical manifestation of Jesus. It commemorates the Magi coming to visit Him after His birth. It also celebrates the beginning of Jesus’ ministry through His baptism by John.

Traditionally the date for Epiphany is twelve days after Christmas on January 6th. There are a lot of variations of dates and celebrations for Epiphany around the world. But one thing is consistent when it comes to Epiphany…it’s based in the Christian belief that God came to earth as a man.

Epiphany is not as “big of a deal” as Christmas but is every bit as important.

Another use of the word Epiphany is a moment in life when a person experiences a new revelation or a new perspective on something that jolts them out of their current state. Most people have at least one these experiences.

This moment of realization, when a person sees reality in a new light, is called an epiphany.

Here are some examples of normal people epiphanies that had extraordinary results –

First – There was a young man name Ole in Milwaukee, Wisconsin who was smitten by a pretty young girl named Bess. Ole wanted so much to impress Bess that he invited her and some friends to a beautiful spot on the other side of Okauchee Lake for a picnic. When they had finished the meal and were cutting the pie for dessert Bess said that it was too bad that they didn’t have ice cream.

Ole responded by getting in the rowboat and going back across the lake to get some ice cream. The problem was that by the time he got back across the lake, the ice cream had melted. This was a good laugh for everyone but Ole.

After rowing across that lake Ole Evinrude had an epiphany and built the first practical and reliable outboard boat motor.

Second – A young boy named Benny and his brother were being raised in Detroit by a struggling single mother. Benny was having a difficult time in school and was falling behind. He was angry and began lashing out, even once trying to stab a friend.

Their mother was determined to do something about this. She limited their time watching television and required them to read and write book reports on two library books per week. She would grade these reports even though she could barely read herself. Benny began to excel in school, went to college and then to medical school.

After seeing the sacrifices his mother was willing to make Ben Carson had an epiphany and turned his life around.

He became a neurosurgeon that separated conjoined twins, who had been joined at the back of the head.

Third – 1927 was a pivotal year for Richard. His daughter had died in 1922 just before her 4th birthday. Richard dwelt on this and blamed himself for the poor living conditions. Then in 1927 he lost his job. They had no savings and the birth of their new daughter in 1927 added to the financial challenges. Richard drank heavily and reflected upon the solution to his family’s struggles on long walks around Chicago. During the autumn of 1927, he contemplated suicide by drowning in Lake Michigan, so that his family could benefit from a life insurance payment

Then on one of these walks Richard experienced a profound incident which would provide direction and purpose for his life. A voice spoke directly to him, and declared:

“… You think the truth. You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to the Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others.”

After his epiphany Richard Buckminster Fuller resolved to think independently and went on to become an architect, systems theorist, designer and inventor.

He developed numerous inventions with 28 US patents and architectural designs including the geodesic dome.

These three men could have chosen to ignore or overlooked their epiphanies, but they didn’t.

We need to remember what the Christian holiday Epiphany is and celebrate it all year long.

We all have or will experience epiphanies.

The question is what will you do with yours?

How Will You Live This New Year? It’s a Choice You Will Make

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Don’t Live Your Life in a “Leftover World”

There was a comic strip cartoon of a man and his wife in a new car show room. There was a year-end sale taking place. The husband was sitting in a chair looking a little tired and grumpy. Above him on the wall hangs a sign that says, “Leftover model”.

Do you feel like a leftover model as we end 2022 and begin 2023?

As we look back on this past year, we can focus on all the negative. This can make us feel like a leftover model. Or we can choose to look forward to the opportunities and possibilities of this new year.

It’s normal to have things left undone at the end of the year. The thing to remember is that we are the ones who choose what we wanted to get done. We get to choose what we will put on the “to do list” in this coming year as well.

We often read mystery books in our book club. Like all stories, they have a beginning and an end. What makes some better than others is what happens in the middle.

Life is like this. It has a beginning and an end. It’s the story we write in the middle that makes the difference.

Here is The Dash, a poem written by Linda Ellis, that speaks to this point.

I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on the tombstone
from the beginning…to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth
and spoke the following date with tears,
but he said what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
that they spent alive on earth.
And now only those who loved them
know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own —
the cars…the house…the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard.
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
to consider what’s true and real,
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
and show appreciation more,
and love the people in our lives
like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
and more often wear a smile,
remembering this special dash
might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
with your life’s actions to rehash,
would you be proud of the things they say
about how you spent YOUR dash?

As the new year begins, a lot of people will be taking down their Christmas decorations and moving on to the next thing. We shouldn’t be in such a rush to leave Christmas behind. Christmas is the celebration of God coming to us as a human.

Jesus is called Emmanuel. Translated, this means God with us. He is not only with us for a few weeks at Christmas time. He is with us all year long.

Don’t live your life like it’s a leftover but be intentional and choose to live it to the fullest.

Remember to write your story well and include Jesus in it every day.

Write a great story in 2023!

Let’s Remember to Celebrate This Christmas Gift All Year Long

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Babies are One of the Biggest Little Gifts There Are

“A child is born to us, a son is given to us, and authority will be on his shoulders. He will be named, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 CEB version.

This sounds like a lot of gifts in a little baby doesn’t it.

Anyone who has held a newborn has experienced the wonder of this new little human. I remember when my first son was born. When I held his head in the palm of my hand, his feet came to the inside of my elbow. It was mind blowing how God had given me this present.

We have seen how language is always changing. A medical example of this is that in some places now babies are called “obstetric products”. I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is going to work for me. I don’t think a baby is something that has been manufactured or refined by a doctor’s office.

Babies are little human miracles. They are gifts from God. Babies are amazing.

This is especially true for the baby born in the manger of Bethlehem.

Christmas has come and gone for another year. It’s easy to get caught up in the season and then we move on to the next big thing once all the presents have been unwrapped. After all, there’s a life to live and we’ve got to get back to it.

Just like any Christmas gift, if we don’t use it, it’s no good to us.

The Baby Jesus is the same. If we don’t use Him, He is no good to us.

In times when we are down or sad, a child’s hug can make us feel better. It helps us to put things in the proper perspective.

When Winston Churchill came to America asking for help with the war, it was Christmas time. He was extremely busy meeting with people. He was staying in the White House and, at the same time, the daughter of one of the President’s advisors was staying there.

It was Christmas and after Winston had gone to his room, he was missing his family. He asked the staff if they could bring the little girl to his room. They did; he gave her a hug and sent her back. It was the closest thing he had to his own granddaughter.

A child’s hug can work miracles.

God sent His Son to earth as a baby. This baby is the biggest Christmas gift we’ll ever get. But it won’t be any good to us if we don’t unwrap it and use it.

There is a Charlie Brown story where he breaks his piggy bank to find he has $9.11 to do his Christmas shopping. Lucy tells him that it’s not enough. He says he will spend it all. She told him they wouldn’t be very expensive gifts. Charlie replied, “They are if they cost you everything you have”.

This is what God did for us.

Remember the gift God has given us and its cost.

The true value of gifts is not about how many dollars it costs. It’s about the joy that comes from using it.

We Know That Being Too Comfortable and Complacent is a Recipe for Disaster

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So why is it That We Continually Do It When We Know Better?

Comfort and complacency seem easier in the moment. “I can sit here and build my own little world just the way I want.” The problem is this kind of world isn’t real. It’s just a way of avoiding the discomfort of the real world.

We convince ourselves that our story is a good story, and maybe it is. But often, it’s just fantasy. Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy. But fantasy isn’t real.

The “here and now” kind of easy isn’t so easy later, and it usually comes with consequences.

The Scripture used in the sermon this past Sunday was Matthew 1:18-25. This passage talks about Jesus being born as a baby to a young couple just preparing to start their life together. This was not what the Jewish people expected for Jesus’ coming. They were looking for a powerful ruler to swoop in and be their hero.

Pastor Lee said that if he had been in charge of Jesus’ coming, it would have been different. It would have involved loud explosions, bright flashes of light and maybe even some erupting volcanoes. It would have been a grand production…

It was the coming of the Savior of the world after all!

We’ve all heard the story of Jesus being born in a manger in Bethlehem to this young unknow couple. We’ve heard it over and over, probably a thousand times.

It isn’t a very dramatic entrance, and this is where our complacency begins to creep in.

It’s a little like the man who loved to play chess and got an electronic chess game for Christmas. He played and played with this game, constantly losing…and nobody likes losing, especially to a machine.

One day he got so mad that he threw the game across the room and accused it of cheating.

Later he said that the game hadn’t cheated. It had just made a small unexpected winning move early and the man had missed it.

This is what God did when he sent Jesus as a baby. It was a small, unexpected move and a lot of people missed it then and continue to miss it now.

If we allow comfort and complacency to enter our lives when it comes to Jesus and the Bible…we are setting ourselves up for disaster.

Don’t get comfortable in the routines of life, wanting things to just stay the way they are. This is where complacency sets in, and we close ourselves off to the small miracles that have a big impact.