Too Small

I have a young friend, age 7, who has roots on three continents. He has only been speaking English for a little over a year. While his accent is more or less American, he speaks with a precision that is seldom found in our young people.

Yesterday, I was speaking with him after school. He was enjoying a yogurt drink. He threw the cap in the trash. (Our school collects plastic bottle caps which get recycled and the proceeds are donated to provide wheelchairs for children.) I said to him, Don’t you want to save that for the collection? He gave me a look like it would be way too much trouble to fish it out of the trash and carry it (20 steps!) to the kitchen.

I said, They use those for wheelchairs for children.

He said, in his precise English, What is a wheelchair?

It’s a chair for children who can’t walk. Like Isaac (my son).

He said, No they do not! That is too small!

I explained to him that they don’t use the actual caps, but the money they earn from them to help provide wheelchairs for children.

It was a funny moment, but it made me think. How often do I think that things are too small to bother with. My little bottle cap makes no difference. I might as well just throw it away.

Not true.

Not true with things. Not true with people.

What I have and what I am is enough. God promised me so. I just need to give it faithfully, diligently, even when 20 steps feels like too much of a bother.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:

 Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little. – Edmund Burke

Here’s another:

I do it for Jesus. - Mother Theresa

 

A-Z Things I Love

Alphabet, Books, Cucumbers, Digital Cameras, Ezri, Frogs, Gardening, Hats, Isaac, Jumprope, Kites, Lazing around, Moonlight, Nature, Owls, Paper, Quiet, Robb, Shyanna, Thinking, Umbrellas, Vacation, Words, Xmas, Young people, Zeal.

 

Owner’s Manual – part 2

If you missed part 1, go here.

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ -Jeremiah 33:3

Here’s the thing. It’s not that I think the analogy of the Bible as our “owner’s manual” or “rulebook” is wrong; it’s just that it’s so limited.

We want order, instructions, procedures, guarantees. If we follow the rules, we want our lives to “work out”. We want to put tab A into slot B and end up with a nice little box for our animal crackers. But, what if God wants to scatter your animal crackers across the sea? What if, for your good, he wants to let them get a little chewed up and broken? What if he gives you way too many animal crackers for your neat little box? What if he just gives you one, special one, to cherish close to your heart? (whew … talk about taking an analogy too far …)

I’ve seen people ask a question and close their eyes and point with their finger … like the Bible is a magic 8 ball. It’s not that I don’t think God can work in that way … but it is so self-focused. How do we know we’re asking the right question? We might be having a problem with a co-worker, and be so focused on that that we miss the “great and unsearchable things” God has for us.

The Bible does have guidelines for how to live, but, I think the secret to learning them, to living them is going deeper into him. If we simply look for procedures, but miss the relationship … it’s going to be mighty hard to follow the manual.

We follow, not because it’s right, but because he loved and he gave … out of love and gratitude for who he is and what he’s done. The more we know him, the more we know how.

So, maybe the right question (or at least a good question) is, may I see you in my reading today?

What do you think?

 

Owner’s Manual for Life?

Every once in a while I hear the Bible described as an owner’s manual. Every time I hear it, it makes me cringe. I understand that analogies have their limitations, but this is a particularly puny description of the Bible.

Here’s what I mean.

The Bible is a mystery. Have any of you ever read a passage and it spoke to you one way; and another day the exact same passage speaks to you in an entirely different way? I have. A lot. How many owner’s manuals do you have that speak to you differently according to your needs?

Me neither.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The Bible is a love letter. The Bible tells us how our Creator and Father feels about us. The whole thing is a record of how he made us and how he loves us and how he made a way for us to be restored into a relationship with him. Do you have any owner’s manuals written by someone who loves you and wants you to talk to him everyday?

Me neither. 

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

The Bible is a story. It’s a story about Jesus. It’s about how Jesus made us, made everything for us, and then came himself to show us how to live. It’s about what happens when we try to live without Jesus. It’s story after story that point us to Jesus, overtly and obliquely. (There’s a better explanation of this here.)

An owner’s manual is a list of instructions for optimal performance. It doesn’t challenge us to think, cause us to love, or inspire us to live well.

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

The Bible (and by the way the Christian life) is not about a list of rules: do this, and don’t do that, and you’re life will be easier, better, more productive and successful (you’ll drive a newer car and look like the models on TV). The Bible (and by the way the Christian life) is about a relationship, between Creator and creature, Father and child, Lover and loved.

Note: All italicized selections are from the Bible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Friends Like These …

 

I was at the market with my friend Maria when I admired these beauties. I think I said to her, Aren’t those cool? At which she promptly bought them for me.

Unexpected blessings. The best kind.

 

25 Words of Social Media Wisdom

Connections
Sometimes for fun, sometimes for work, sometimes for news
Let it be what you want it to be
What you need it to be

 

 

This post is an entry in the SOB 25 words writing project.
The picture is my mother’s facebook pic.

 

 

Free From Public Opinion

I was reading here today, and it reminded me of a sermon I heard once in which the phrase “free from public opinion” was mentioned. The phrase stuck with me because it’s always been my struggle to put the things of God before my need for the approval of those around me.

More recently the reminder has been from Galatians 1:10, Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Ouch.

Bob blog suggests to “care what people think, but not be consumed by it.” But I wonder … I’ve seen the narcissist that he describes, who cares nothing for what anyone else thinks of him or his actions and ideas. But I think that maybe the narcissist’s problem is not so much that he doesn’t care what they think … but that he doesn’t care who they are. He may be so busy trying to fit their square peggedness into his round holiness (pun intended), that he doesn’t see their needs, their passions, their gifts, or their talents. He’s the boss instead of the leader; the owner instead of the shepherd.

So, in our zeal to please God and follow his leading, let us not care too much what people think of us … but let us care deeply about who they are and how we can meet their needs, fuel their passions, and come alongside them in partnership to glorify God.

 

Don’t think about it, just do it.

. . .  make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There’s an order to the walk of the disciple of Christ. Peter urges us to build on the foundation of faith, adding in succession goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. He adds that these qualities, in increasing measure will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of Jesus. I’ve been thinking about this passage lately, especially in the context of several conversations that are taking place both FTF and around the blogosphere. I’m visualizing a pyramid that an individual ascends throughout his faith journey. Everyone begins at the level of faith. Some don’t progress much further. A couple steps up you add knowledge and all the higher acheivements build on that, like self-control, perseverance and love.

Here’s my point. In my experience, the American evangelical church is stuck on the third step. We spend so much of our effort and our resources on building our own knowledge and force feeding it to our disciples that we lose track of the higher calling, the self-control, the brotherly kindness, the love. And so, our “discipleship” programs become all about studying the bible and less about learning to live a Spirit-filled, God-honoring, Christ-like life in the meantime.

I don’t have a problem with the accumulation of knowledge as long as it is tempered by love (knowledge makes us proud, but love makes us useful), and I love participating in Bible studies, but, I think we might be missing the point. I don’t think God wants us hanging around opening coffee shops on the third step. I think he wants us to keep climbing.

There’s something my dad used to say to us that I think applies here. “Don’t think about it, just do it.” (Sorry, Nike, my dad said it first.)

And now I’m telling you.

 

Out of Order

I work in a school.

My office/classroom is on the same hall as the bathrooms.

In the basement.

Most of the time this is not a problem. Occasionally it can get a little, shall we say odoriforous.

Yesterday was another thing altogether. I don’t want to get into all the smelly details, but it was really, really bad. Overflowing into the hall-I couldn’t get to my classroom-and wouldn’t want to even if I could-bad. And we were all upstairs, at the other end of the building complaining about the stench. Teachers and students. Well, I needed something from my office. I decided to brave the smell and see if I could get to it.

No good. I got halfway down the stairs and saw that the whole hallway was flooded. And what I smelled made me glad I couldn’t get any closer.

But, get this. Pedro, our PE Teacher/Bus Driver/Groundskeeper/ Maintainance Man was down there, in the mess and the smell and while we were complaining, he was whistling. Whistling! And it wasn’t a dirge.

I asked him about it this morning and he said, “What else can you do when the situation seems desperate?”

Huh.

Makes me think of this.

Psalm 34

¹  I will extol the LORD at all times;
       his praise will always be on my lips.

 ² My soul will boast in the LORD;
       let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

The bathroom wasn’t the only thing out of order yesterday. My attitude was equally out of order. I don’t want to play the part of the afflicted, I want to be the helper, the encourager, the one who causes others to rejoice.

I want to be the whistler.

 

Perspective: It’s the Little Things

This morning I was going through some papers and came across a page of stickers. I handed them to my 9 year old who was standing at my elbow. A few minutes later she stuck one on my shirt, shoulder level.

I kept working.

A couple hours later, the sticker on my shirt caught my eye and I looked at it. I “heart” mom!, it says.

In these early days of the new year, everyone’s talking about goals and resolutions. No matter how much I weigh at the end of the year, or whether I achieve what I would like to academically or professionally, I will have a 10 year old and an 8 year old and a 17 year old who “heart” me. Achievement and ambition pale in comparison.

What little thing will you celebrate today?

This post is one in a series on perspective.