Two Lists

What Doesn't Matter!

What I eat

What I drink

My clothing

What I look like

My hairstyle

How straight my teeth are

My weight

The music style I  prefer

What language I speak

If I have a funny accent

The people around me

The color of my skin

My gender

What my neighbor is doing

What Congress is doing

My political beliefs

The local news

The national news

The world news

Where I live

My nationality

What church I go to

My job (or lack of)

How fast I can type

My vocabulary

My sports ability

My public speaking skill

My age

My parents

My spouse

My child(ren)

My perceived maturity

Having a college degree

Having multiple college degrees

Not having a high school diploma

What I have done in the past

What other people think of me

Anyone else.

 

What Does Matter!

That I love the Lord my God; with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

That I love my neighbor as myself.

That I take up my cross, and follow Him.

 

 

 

 

Seussical Wisdom

The day before today, One day, making tracks
In the prairie of Prax,
Came a North-Going Zax
And a South-Going Zax.
And it happened that both of them came to a place
Where they bumped. There they stood.
Foot to foot. Face to face.

“Look here, now!” the North-Going Zax said, “I say!
You are blocking my path. You are right in my way.
I’m a North-Going Zax and I always go north.
Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth!”

“Who’s in whose way?” snapped the South-Going Zax.
“I always go south, making south-going tracks.
So you’re in MY way! And I ask you to move
And let me go south in my south-going groove.”

Then the North-Going Zax puffed his chest up with pride.
“I never,” he said, “take a step to one side.
And I’ll prove to you that I won’t change my ways
If I have to keep standing here fifty-nine days!”

“And I’ll prove to YOU,” yelled the South-Going Zax,
“That I can stand here in the prairie of Prax
For fifty-nine years! For I live by a rule
That I learned as a boy back in South-Going School.

Never budge! That’s my rule. Never budge in the least!
Not an inch to the west! Not an inch to the east!
I’ll stay here, not budging! I can and I will
If it makes you and me and the whole world stand still!”

Well…
Of course the world didn’t stand still. The world grew.
In a couple of years, the new highway came through
And they built it right over those two stubborn Zax
And left them there, standing un-budged in their tracks.

 

 

The Zax

Dr.  Seuss

 

 

 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them,

but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.

But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 

~ Nehemiah 9:17 ESV

 

Adaptation

It's amazing how quickly we get used to something.

It’s even more amazing how quickly children adapt.

 

My wife left early Saturday morning, before anyone else was awake. When my daughter woke up that morning, she had daddy instead. We kept to the usual routine, but she knew something was wrong. She wandered the house, looking for momma. It was cute, and slightly sad, because I knew how confused she must have been. You can't really explain things to a one-year old.

The rest of Saturday went…OK. By Sunday, she was used to just having Daddy. There was a bit of drama in the nursery at church, but I expected that. Monday was a perfectly normal day.

I was burnt out, she was fine. She did a much better job than I did.

Why? I had expectations, I had wants.

My daughter didn't. She knew that everything would be alright, and she just had to get used to it. She didn't expect anything, she didn’t want any more than she needed.

                Sometimes you hear [people] say, “Ah, I’m going through burnout.” Burnout, what are you       talking about? You don’t get burned out by doing work. Plumbers don’t have burn out. Ditch            diggers don’t have burnout. People who work hard don’t have burn out. Burn out means you have unrealistic expectations that aren’t being met. You think you deserve more than you get. That’s because you think you deserve something and you deserve nothing

                ….Well if we got treated the way we should be treated we'd be sent to hell, wouldn't we? It's essential to contentment to have a sweet reasonableness that doesn't demand anything, doesn't expect anything, and, therefore, anything that comes is received with surprise.

                                -John MacArthur

 

 

 

Choices

I take a seat inside my miniature plastic fort. I remember the folder 'forts' we used to make in elementary school when we took tests.

I grab the paper. It's heavy, almost like cardstock, but not quite. Its also legal size, which I hate. That’s just too big, its awkward and always gets in the way.

I quickly scan the paper. Making sure I understand it.

I've made my choice, but I hesitate, as if that extra 5 seconds might offer some sort of epiphany. It didn’t.

I blacken the oval. I stand, and feed my paper into a machine that thanks me and tells my its been accepted. Somehow I don’t quite trust it.

 

 

Sometimes we are forced to make deliberate choices. Most of the time we make choices without realizing we have made them. But that doesn’t mean we haven't chose. We like to think we are able to choose everything, and nothing.

We want to mark all the ovals with a shade of grey. If I had done that, the machine would have rejected my ballot, and those nice lady's would have explained to me how it all worked, and I would be allowed to try again. "This time, choose only one", they would have said.

You can't choose Jesus and anything else.