my favorite things

Here are a few of my favorite things.

To see you walk into church.  To look into your eyes.  To see you smile.  To take your hand.  To go on a bicycle ride.  To have a talk about life.  To listen to music.  To sing along with good songs.  To hug  you.  To feel like we are becoming friends.  To think about how much I love you.  To lose weight.  To swim.  To drink clean water.  To joke with you.  To become better friends.

My my.  I am blessed.  There are so many people that I know and love in this life.  Thank you for being one of them.  Always take time to appreciate the people who are a gift in your life.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

permission

My friend Jeanne asked if they could use or quote something that I posted on this blog.  The short answer is yes of course.

The Old Testament book Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun.  That means that there is no thought in my head that has not existed before. There is no sermon idea that is original to me.  So everything that I think, everything that i write, everything that I say, has been written, thought or said before.

None of this belongs to me.  Nothing belongs to me.  Nothing belongs to you either.

So sure, of course.  Use it. If you like it, take it.  And be sure to share anything that you have with me.  Life is short and we all need help.  I get by with a little help from my friends.  Someone said that I think.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

when I was a child

There are many things that exist today that did not exist when I was a child.  Actually the list is long.

Body wash.  Computers.  Zero degree turn mowers.  Cell phones.  Bottled water.  CD's.  Video games.  Cassette tapes.  Some of the new things in this world are now old things.

More things that did not exist when I was a child:  color TV.  Cable TV.  Weed whackers.  MRI machines.  Sleep number beds.  VHS tapes.  DVD's.  Answering machines.  Cordless phones.  Jump drives.  Cruise control.  Intermittent wipers.  Remote controls.  Drip coffee makers.  Single cup coffee makers.  walkman.  wireless microphones.

On and on the list goes.   Add to it if you like.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Lions Den Man

Lions Den Man is a friend of mine.  A really good friend of mine.  I miss him a lot.  He is great at being a father, a husband, a music lover, a canoeing person, a story teller, and a kind soul.

When I am tired, or empty, he posts on this blog for me.  I really appreciate that and I need help from time to time.  Everyone needs help from time to time.  Chicago sang, "everybody needs a little time away, I've heard it say."

When he posts, he may or may not end with the line, "it's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good." That is up to him.

So just know that everyone needs someone to have your back, and he has mine and I love him.  I miss you buddy.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

it's official

So after 4 trips to the DMV I finally have Florida plates.  $380 later I have Florida plates.  I also have a sun pass for the toll roads.  Life is good.  Its hard to adjust to a new state,but the weather is great and the swimming is very nice.  I have met some wonderful people.

If you live away and you want a vaca, come see me.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

eating what we should not

Oh there are so many things that we eat that we should not.  We all complain about our weight and being in shape or not, but we still eat all the bad things.  Reeces Peanut Butter cups.  Hershey Bars.  Ice Cream.  Cake.  Pasta. Donuts.  Hot Dogs.  Greasy Hamburgers.  Pizza.

So I was in the store the other day and I saw these pecan rolls.  I hate to blog about them because it makes me think about them.  It makes me want them.  Oh I love them.  I have eater three boxes in one setting at a time in the past.  I have to really use my will power to say no to pecan rolls.

Please do not buy me any or bring them to church.  I am trying to be strong.

I am working hard to not eat the things that are bad for me.  It is painful, but we have to keep pressing on.  The right thing to do is the right thing to do.

And its a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.

junky car

I  used to judge people whose cars were full of junk.  Hoarders they were!!

Well I don't know what happened to me but my car has become a recycling center.  There is junk everywhere.  Empty water bottles.  Receipts.  Bags of stuff.  No one knows what is in there.

If we are going somewhere and I have to drive, it is going to take me a few moments to prepare my junk mobile.

Be careful about judging others.  Someday you may find yourself being the junky car person that you used to sneer at.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, except in my car.  Be sure to see the good.

a crime

I witnessed a crime not too long ago.  It was sad. Someone I know was in a wonderful place. They were invested in the moment. 100% all in. They were sharing something they enjoyed with the hope that the joy they felt would be felt by those there in that moment of time, too. Then it happened. One of them was somewhere else and their thoughts were focused inward. They did not see or feel the joy. And with that, the gift of the moment, the joy, was taken, robbed from all the rest. That is a crime.

Peace,

Lion’s Den Man

artwork

A week or so ago the ESPY awards were on. A news reporter, Craig Sager, who is battling cancer, was given the Jim Valvano award for Perseverance. In his acceptance speech he said this:

“Each and every day is a canvas we need to be painting. An opportunity for love, for fun, for living and for learning.”

It was a timely message for me to hear. What canvas did I paint yesterday, last week or today?  Was it good for others to see? Did I make the best of the day given me or did I waste it? Did I reach out to make someone else’s day better or did I make it worse? 

I could say that would be tough to do those things every single day and I would be right. Tough but not impossible. It is about placing value on the time I have here and making the best use of it.

Mr. Sager went on to say, “Time cannot be bought. It cannot be wagered with God and it is not in endless supply. Time is simply how you live your life.”

No time like the present.

Peace,

Lion’s Den Man

worth believing

I caught the tail end of a movie the other night that I had seen before. I forgot how much I liked the message it had to share.

“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most: that people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; that love, true love, never dies... No matter if they're true or not, a man should believe in those things because those are the things worth believing in.” – Secondhand Lions

So I applied this line of reasoning to my faith by asking myself these questions:

Q- When I try to live my life by the teachings of Christ (outwardly) how does it feel?

A- It feels purposeful and of value – it has meaning.

Q- When my life becomes more about me than others how does it feel?

A - It has short term gratification, followed by emptiness.

Those are truths and they are worth believing in….

Peace,

Lion’s Den Man

Ron Page

Rev. Ron Page has passed away.  Ron was a friend of mine and served several churches in Missouri.  I knew him the best when he served in Lexington.

I want to honor Ron's life.  I loved him.  One Sunday when I was in a very low spot in my life, Bruce Letner and I happened into the Lexington church for Sunday services.  We had been on a camping trip and were sunburned and late to the service.  Ron's sermon was exactly what I needed to hear and it helped me to turn a corner in my life.  I will never forget that day, that sermon and that man.

Thank you Ron for the gift of your life.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

iris

I have always loved iris.  My mom grew them and my friend Jonnie Wells kept me supplied when I lived in KC.  Well when I got to Cape Coral, a package was waiting for me with a bunch of iris rhizomes.  They came anonymously, but there were a couple of notes attached.

One of them quoted Eccl 3 "there is a time to plant and a time to uproot."  The other note said

, "bloom where you are planted."  I had preached from Eccl 3 in May and I wonder if that was on the sender's mind.

I am not sure if it came from someone in Cape or someone in KC, but I assume KC since folks there might know that I like iris.  Whoever sent it, I want to thank you for the message.  There is a time to plant and a time to uproot.  Uprooting is never very easy, but we do need to learn to bloom where we are planted.  I think the trick is to remember that we are created to focus not so much on being uprooted as the blooming.

Bloom today.  Show the world your beauty.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Mom

Today is my mom's birthday.  If she had lived, she should have been 82 today.  She died two days shy of her 62nd birthday.  It was July 17, 1995.

I think of her often.  Her joys.  Her pain.  Her struggles.  How hard she worked to provide a normal life for her kids, especially because hers was less than idea.

When mom was little the great depression of the 1930's was raging.  If a rabbit ventured into the yard, it was dinner.  She was routinely sent into the yard to dig up dandy-lion greens for the nightly vegetable.  Deep poverty and lots of troubles.

Sometimes we have more empathy and understanding for people when we think about  what they must have faced and struggled with.  We all have our struggles after all.

I thank God for my mom's life, brief as it was.  Every day is a treasure friends.

It is a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

bank

I had to call my bank in Kansas City and talk about closing the account.  Talking on the phone with them made me miss my friends at the bank.  You know we never went to lunch, we never did anything other than talk at the bank, but they were/are so very kind.  I will miss them.  I wish them well.  You can tell something about the culture of a business by the happiness of the employees.  If you are looking for a good bank in Lees Summit, there are some great folks at Morrill & Janes Bank on Lakewood Blvd.

Be looking for good folks in life.  They are all around if we just pay attention.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

kindness

I have noticed something recently that I think has been true for a long time.  I am attracted to kind people.  I mean I enjoy them.  I am drawn to them.  That is why I like Betty Perkins, Joni Horn, Amy Bartlett, and many many others.  I am meeting many kind people in Cape Coral.

I was raised by German Lutherans and it was sometimes oppressive and painful.  So I am just drawn to kind people.  I am also for some reason drawn to people with ornery bad senses of humor like David Harris and Chuck Ouvry.

Make every effort in this life to be kind.  Ornery is optional, but I enjoy that as well.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

get this

Get this:

I love you.

You.  I am talking about you.  I am talking to you.  Do you hear this?  Can you accept it?
I love you.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

cards

I finally opened my cards this week. Cards for my birthday, cards saying goodbye from Woods Chapel, and cards welcoming me to Cape Coral.  They were all awesome!!!

Based on how I feel after reading them, we should all write more cards.  We need to work on making sure that everyone knows how we feel about them.

So let me tell you how I feel about you.  I LOVE YOU!!!  Life is good.  All is well.  Thanks for the well wishes.  God bless you all.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

a short sermon

I have been tempted to do this on several occasions.

So I have heard a story about a preacher you stepped up to the pulpit for the sermon.  People were expecting 25 minutes of whatever.  The preacher paused, open his or her mouth and said only this, "love your neighbor."  Then he or she sat down.

The shortest sermon ever.  I love it.  So simple, so true and yet so needed.  If we can't do that, what do we think we are doing?

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

permission giving

I get questions from time to time about what is a permission giving church.

Many organizations operate in a top down fashion.  The board or CEO decides the priorities and those priorities trickle down to the rank and file.  The problem with this in the church is that people end up doing ministry because someone else decided what they should be doing.

In a permission giving church, people are taught to hear God's call.  Everyone is called by God.  What is God calling you to do?  Staff and leaders then, simply help direct and launch what others feel called to do, helping them to take responsibility for, and lead their ministry.  The result of turning people loose to follow their call is that suddenly, there are many things going on in the church, and you can no longer keep track of it all.  Ministry is a grass roots level up thing, no longer a top down thing.   Tom Bandy wrote a book called Christian Chaos.  It is about what happens in a church when everyone is listening and responding to God's calling.  You can no longer manage it, you can no longer control it, the Holy Spirit is just working and you have to stand back and say Wow!

I want to encourage everyone, everywhere to hear God's call and look for ways to live out what He has placed on your heart.  The most exciting part of being a Christian is being in ministry, and its not just for pastors.  God calls us all.

For more on permission giving, here is a YouTube video with some more permission giving propaganda.

click here for video on permission giving

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

vision

Someone asked me about vision and the church. Sometimes folks expect you to come in and climb to the top of the mountain and shout a vision. That is certainly one method of leading.

I subscribe to the Rick Warren school of vision. Here is what he wrote in his book on the purpose driven church:

Very little of Saddleback’s ministry was preplanned. I didn’t have any long-range strategy before I started the church. I simply knew God had called me to plant a new church built on the five New Testament purposes, and I had a bag of ideas I wanted to try out. Each innovation we’ve developed was just a response to the circumstances in which we found ourselves. I didn’t plan them in advance. Most people think of “vision” as the ability to see the future. But in today’s rapidly changing world, vision is also the ability to accurately assess current changes and take advantage of them. Vision is being alert to opportunities.

You don't change the direction of a child's life by telling them some overarching principle and insisting that they follow it.  You shape the direction of the life of a child by continually speaking graciously into the fabric of their lives, when and where it is needed.

Vision is about sensing what needs help, and providing the needed care and direction.  It is applying your strengths to the things that you can help.  And you just keep doing it over and over and over.  Little by little, great ships are turned.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.