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.

 

 

 

Suffering (Submission Part Deux)

                The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth               comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:16-18 ESV

 

Suffering is the ultimate submission.

If we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, then we will suffer with Him.

Usually, this is assumed to mean some sort of religious persecution. Often times it is. In 20th century United States, it is not. I repeat, it is not. I do not suffer persecution daily for being a Christian. At most, someone may think less of me, but I really don’t think that counts. Does it?

What I have realized this to mean, fairly recently, is that we are to do this. Take suffering upon ourselves, as Christ did for us. Voluntarily. To daily choose suffering instead of comfort, in to suffer along with our Christ.

Its not easy, to choose suffering. It goes against everything. Submit yourselves to everything, and suffer with Him.

 

                Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. - James 1:2-4 MSG

               

 

 

Submission

                He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

                Isaiah 53:7

 

I don’t have a perfect marriage, because it's made up of two imperfect people. It works, because we both make every attempt to be humble before each other (and God). We submit to one another.

                But wait, I don’t see anything in the Bible that says a man should submit to a woman, that’s preposterous! Inconceivable! What about Genesis 3; "and he shall rule over you"? The man is the lord of the house, and all that.

                Well, that is true. It does say that in Genesis 3. But lets look a little deeper into that. What is God saying to Adam and Eve in that section of Genesis? He is cursing them for their disobedience. He curses Eve with pain in childbirth (and child-rearing, in my opinion), and he also curses her with the desire to rule her husband. In turn, he curses the man with the curse that he will rule over the wife. So its not a command, it's not even a suggestion, it’s a curse. We are cursed with sinful desires; Jackie wants to be in charge, and so do I. It's part of our sinful nature.

                How do we deal with it? By being submissive to one another. It works, because we both do it. It works because that is how God intended it to work. But it all seems so backwards, doesn’t it? How can no-one be in charge? No one is in charge, because God is in charge.

                Dietrich Bonhoeffer said (I'm paraphrasing) that we only have one relationship as a Christian, and that is to Christ. All of our other relationships are mediated through Him. I don’t interact with my wife, I interact with my wife though Christ, because I am Christ and He is me.

                It also works because it was designed to work in another way. Back to Genesis, now.

                Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit               for him.” 2:18

Helper here means something more like ally or comrade, not like assistant. But the key word is 'fit for'. The Hebrew here means complimentary. My wife and I are two halves of a whole. I don’t pretend to know it all, and neither does she. We both submit to someone greater than ourselves.

 

Indifference

Politics.

 

Anymore, I care, but I don’t really care. I get fired up about issues that are important to me, like anyone else. I have those that I support, I diligently research my vote. I advocate my position when asked. I think it is important to be informed about politics, because you are involved whether you want to be or not.

 

But overall, I just don’t care anymore.

 

I have more important things to care about.

 

“There are some Brothers who, in preaching, are as timid as mice—but on a political platform they can roar like lions! Had not

they better take to what they like best and give up the work at which they are not at home? For my part, I believe that I am like

Paul when he says that he was “separated unto the Gospel of God.” I am set apart unto the Gospel, cut off from everything else so

that I may preach the glorious Gospel of the blessed God to the perishing sons of men!

—C.H. Spurgeon. 1892, Sermon #2257