a new paradigm

I listened to a sermon preached on Jan 1.  Part of the topic was, "finding a new paradigm in a new year."  I have thought about this.  Well, to find a new paradigm, we have to be aware that we actually have one.

We have to be aware that we have a paradigm, we have a certain way of seeing the world.  For many humans, we have seen the world as we see it for so long, that we don't even recognize it as one way among many ways to see the world.

What if our paradigm is wrong?  Then those dark lenses distort everything else in our lives.  What if what we were taught in our childhood was wrong?

I was taught a faith that was based on fear.  I was taught that children were to be seen and not heard.  I was taught that you do not question authority.

Some of the most difficult changes that I have had to make in life have revolved around the questioning and the changing of my life paradigm.  And I will say, among the most rewarding changes that I have seen in my life have resulted from the discovery of a new paradigm.

To be open to a new paradigm, we must see that we have one in operation.  Then we must be brave enough to question it.  Then we must consider the other options.

Oh what fun!!!

Because I have opened my paradigm, my new beliefs include:

-there are good people in both political parties.
-the Oakland Raiders are not necessarily bad humans
-God actually does love us
-living a life of love is more important than believing the right things.
- I don't have to be threatened by people that think differently than I do.

What is your paradigm?  Is it healthy?  Do you give yourself the freedom to question it?  What a great start to a new year... how about some new ideas for our brains???  That just might be the beginning to a healthier, happier you.

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

Pat answers

We humans have created pat answers for difficult situations.

A pat answer is "A very simple, concise, or straightforward answer, especially one that fails to fully or adequately explain or respond to something."

Pat answers may make us feel like we said something helpful, but they are rarely helpful.

It was his time.  Not helpful.

Everything happens for a reason.  Not helpful.

I remember in one of my worst life moments, my mother said to me, "it will all work out."  UGH!  In a moment where I needed more, much more, she said that, and then turned around and walked into the house.

The problem with a pat answer is that it pretends to cover the issue, but completely ignores and glosses over the real pain and struggle of a situation.

Please don't give pat answers.  Instead, listen to others.  Take time and deeply listen.  Sometimes, all people want is to be heard.  Your gift of your presence and your listening ear is the much more important than any words that you might say in a difficult time.

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

For a reason, part 2

If you want to believe in a God of love, then you cannot believe that everything happens for a reason.  If you believe that everything happens for a reason, then we have no real free will.

If everything happens for a reason, then we are marionettes on the stage of life.

If everything happens for a reason, then God is cruel.  The next time you are around someone whose child was just diagnosed with cancer, tell them that everything happens for a reason.  They will punch you in the face as hard as they can.  It is one of the most cruel and hurtful things that we can say.

I believe that God loves us, and that he gives us free will.  I believe that our choices matter.  So, some things in life are random.  They are the results of the choices that we make.  Things happen because we make choices.  Things happen for reasons beyond our control.  

Since God is not out there causing bad things, then I can still believe that he is a God of love.

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

For a reason...

I heard it said again recently, "everything happens for a reason."  Rubbish!  Ugh.  UGH!!!

"All things work together for good."  Romans 8:28 

This thought is very different than, "everything happens for a reason."  While the phrase, "everything happens for a reason" paints God as an ogre who places random hurts into our lives, the phrase, "all things work together for good" is a reminder that no matter what the cause of a thing, there is always something that we can learn.

Everything happens for a reason is a cruel thing to tell someone who has had a problem,  I still believe that we can learn something from everyone, and from every circumstance.

• From moving to Florida I learned that friendships are very very important.
• From moving to Cape Coral, I learned that we cannot walk into a situation with certain expectations.
• From watching my daughter move to Chicago, I learned that we cannot control everything.
• From hearing my son being diagnosed with a tumor in his bladder in 2003, I learned that we are very fragile and that life is beyond our control.

On and on I could go.  Everything happens for a reason, no, the Bible does not teach that.  Jesus never says that.  But learn from what happens to us, yes.  We can learn from the painful things of life, if we let life teach us.  

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

More on Imigrants

Jesus was a refuge.  An angel told Joseph to go to Egypt to save the baby.  Most of us would not need an angel to tell us to take our family somewhere that they can be safe.

That is why so many people want to come to America.  Life is better here.  We can be safe here.  Poor people in America are better off than most people in other countries.

And so they come.  And they come at great risk to themselves.

There is a scene in Amazon Prime's Jack Ryan.  Season One, Episode Six, where a mother and her daughters are trying to flee the war in Syria and get to Europe.  It is terrifying what people will go through to be safe.

They are waiting in a long line to get in a flimsy boat to traverse the Mediterranean.

If you and I were brothers, or brother and sister, and we lived in a terribly poor country, I would do everything in my power to get you to America.  I want you to be safe.  I want you to be healthy.  I want you to have opportunities.

Remember friends, we were born in America by chance.  Luck.  No matter our stance on immigration, I pray that we can all have some compassion and understanding for those who want to come.  If the tables were turned, we would be in the caravan as well.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, especially if you live in America.  Be sure to see the good.

It's Monday Night Football

It's Monday Night Football.  Bills vs Bengals.  A big showdown for dominance in the AFC.  A big game for Kansas City fans as they hope the Bills lose so that the Chiefs can regain homefield advantage during the playoffs.

There is the tailgating.  There is the pregame show.  There is the Monday Night Football music.  And the game starts.

And then, suddenly, it wasn't MNF anymore.  One of the Bills players, Damar Hamlin, had a cardiac arrest on the field.  His heart simply stopped.  People get hurt in football all the time, injury timeouts are common.  But you don't expect an ambulance on the field.  You don't expect to see a 24 year old player receiving CPR on the field.

We stopped being football fans and became human again.  We were no longer Bengals, Chiefs, Bills, or Raider fans.  We were all human.  Our hearts went out to Damar and to his family.

We knew that this was serious and that the game could not continue.  It was postponed.  Players gathered to pray.  Players made their way to the hospital to check on their friend.

Dear Friends, in one swift moment, we can go from "life normal, business as usual," to remembering why we are really here on this planet.

Let me take this moment to say that every person matters.  We did not know, nor care what race this player was.  We did not consider his politics, his religion or his sexual preference.  Our hearts just went out.  Black, white, red, yellow, old, young, and all.  Every person matters.  We are here to see and care for people.

Let us not get so caught up in winning and losing, in  "my dog is bigger than your dog," that we forget that we are here to love people.

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

preferring one another

I don't want you to be a doormat. I don't want you or me to behave in unhealthy ways. But I do think that we could all take some steps in the department of putting others first.

Romans 12:10
"Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another."

In a society that teaches us to take, take, take; in a world that says "look our for #1," God asks us to care for others and put them first.

• turn the other cheek.
• Go the second mile.
• Take in the stranger.
• Visit the prisoners.
• Feed the hungry.

I said it yesterday... I think that Biblical Christianity invites us to place the comfort of others before our own. In honor preferring one another.

Real Christianity is about much more than going to church and wearing a tie.  Jesus loved and cared for the broken.  Followers follow.

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

refugees

Refugees, immigrants, illegal aliens, we call them many things.  What does God call them?  

I think that the Bible makes it pretty clear that our comfort is less important than the comfort of strangers.  We are called to welcome the broken, the lost, the least of these.

Yes, I understand that our borders are overflowing with people wanting in.  I understand that it causes stress to our systems.

We have spent hundreds of years building a nation that people want to come to.  That is a good thing.  People want to come here.  Would you rather live in a nation that people did not want to come to?

I understand that obeying the laws and the importance of that.  But if we ship out the immigrants, who do we think will be doing the yard work?  Who will be putting on new roofs?  We love affordable prices, but we forget that cheap labor is the result of having migrants among us.  And for that matter, the last time I was at the Doctor's office, most of the doctors in our group were immigrants.

Maybe I don't want my nation overrun by foreigners.  Neither did the American Indians.  All white people are either immigrants to North America, or we are the children of immigrants.  Otto Von Brinkman came to America from Germany in the 1800s.

God wants us to love strangers.  Yes I know that it messes with our brains, but I think that we need to open our perspectives about "outsiders."

This is our Father's world.

thoughts on trying to be a good person

I have always tried to be a good person.  I have tried to be the best person that I could be.

Unfortunately along the way, my efforts, at times, were not successful.  Even though I was trying, even though I was doing my best, I still sometimes failed.

Sometimes I did not see the hurt I was causing, sometimes I was on auto pilot, sometimes I was busy.  Sometimes what I thought was good was not really good.  Sometimes, my assumptions got in the way.

At any rate, I wake up at the tender age of 65 and realize that I still have work to do.  There is no point to dwell on one's failures.  The past is the past.  What we can do however, what we must do if we aspire to live a meaningful life, is to continue to pursue our best.  Get up, dust off your boots and keep going.

I am going to keep at it.

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

A Day in the life...

Ok, so some people ask me what I do with my time when I am not formally working.  In other words, if I don't have handyman work or if I am not travelling with the construction company, what do I do with my time?

First of all, I make lists.  I wake up in the morning to a list every day.  Here was my list from Friday, Dec 29th.

• take out the trash
• wash the car
• buy a Powerball ticket
• Walmart a case of water, mt. dew and exchange propane tank
• Carol's house for that small gutter job.
• pick up prescriptions
• thank you letter for Christmas gifts [when I was a kid you could not use the gift until you had sent the thank you note.]
• belated b-d card for Arlene
• trim palms at Claire's house [neighbor whose husband just passed]
• order coffee pods
• Sam's club run
• cut stones for small retaining wall/finish wall

I cut the stones to size and to the correct angle.

Finished wall.  Note the circular cut on the far left!!!

I got all of the list done, except for Claire's palms.  I will keep that on my list until it is accomplished.  So, I stay pretty busy.  It makes me happy to work and to try to keep things running and make the world a better place.

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

Jesus and Paul

A couple of days ago I posted about Jesus and Paul.  My Friday group friends evidently had some questions about the post.

Let me say a few more words about all of this.

What prompted the post was a discussion I was having with a nice Methodist lady about how some churches are disaffiliating from the denomination.  She asked me if I would be leaving the denomination.  I told her no, and she asked why.

Well, there are a number of reasons that I am not leaving, but one of them is that I am not leaving because I am no longer hung up on issues regarding homosexuality.  There are several reasons for this, and most of them fall back to how we understand scripture.

I would begin with this question.  When we make our arguments about human sexuality, are we quoting Paul or Jesus?  The answer is Paul, because Jesus says nothing about it.

There are a number of differences between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Paul.  It is not the case that the Bible provides a unified, uniform approach to the topics of the day.  Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, but Paul appears to be against it.  [or Paul is against random Roman sexual practices that we have translated into homosexuality.]

At any rate, I told my friend, that I would rather stand with Jesus, who welcomed everyone, than to stand with Paul who was commonly pointing out who he thought the good ones and the bad ones were.

I hope that helps.

It is a beautiful day in God's world, especially if you are included.  It is a more difficult day if you are excluded.  Jesus took everyone in, so if we can follow suit, it is a beautiful day for us and for all others.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!

My plans for the new year include a trip to the Holy Land and Egypt, a trip to California to see my sister and a couple of cruises. Our second grandchild is to be born in April. I hope to continue working as I enjoy that very much.

What are your plans for 2023?

And then I remember the scripture passage...

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” 14 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”   James 4:13-15

Ahh, so we can make plans, but God may laugh at them. If it is in God's plans, I hope to do all of those things that I listed in the first paragraph.

We are here on this earth at his behest and for his purpose. If it is his will, I will take those trips. And hopefully I will show some kindness along the way.

May we all remember that our lives are not our own. Every day and every moment is a gift from our Father.

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

Karma

Some Christians are averse to the term "karma."  I think that most folks know that it is a Buddhist term that sort of means, what goes around comes around.

Although some Christians think Buddhism is bad, I would suggest to you that Jesus, being an educated person, knew all about the great religions of his day.  He would have studied them, and since the middle east is on one of the main trade routes, he would have met folks of every variety of faith.  The fact that kings of the East visited him at his birth is an interesting part of Jesus' story.

We may or may not be comfortable with the word karma, but we are definitely understanding of it's meaning, and it comes straight from the Bible.

You reap what you sow. Gal 6:7
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8:7

My point here is two fold...

• There are many crossover points/truths between Christianity and other religions.
• Jesus was very familiar with other religions.
• Karma or reaping and sowing is a real thing. Sow good, sow kindness, reap it. Put your best foot forward and see what happens. Make the effort to see the good and see what happens.

I guess that was three points.

Anyway, what goes around comes around.  Plant good seeds.

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

Jesus or Paul

I have talked about this before... but it came up yesterday in a conversation with one of my clients.  Are we following Jesus or Paul?  Is our faith about the teachings of Jesus or the teachings of Paul.

They are not the same thing.

Does your version of Christianity have a lot of Paul quotes in it?  Are your favorite scriptures from the writings of Paul?  Or do you quote Jesus?  If you argue with others, you are probably quoting Paul.  If you are quoting Jesus there is not much to argue about.

Jesus taught us to love one another.  He taught us to turn the other cheek.  He taught us to offer grace.  If we are doing anything different than that, then we are probably following Paul instead of Jesus.

Friends, Paul was always supposed to be second string.  Let's get back to following Jesus.  Love one another.

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

turn the other cheek

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.
                                   Jesus in Mt 5:38-42

Have you forgiven them? Have I forgiven them?

Will I be able to do so? Will you?

If we don't forgive them, we will want to hurt them back.  Or we will hurt someone else.

The big question for me is this... can we be committed to continue at least working on forgiving them. Sometimes we can forgive easily. Other times, it takes more work. Sometimes, we have to stay after the process of forgiving.

It is never helpful to hurt back. But if we are holding a resentment because someone hurt us, it is going to come out and spill into our lives in some way or another.  We will end up barfing on someone.

Keep working on forgiveness.

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

don't worry

I think that we all worry too much.  Sometimes things are so outrageous that we know not to worry.  

I recently rented a car for a 24 hour period for a job in NY state.  When the bill came, it was $6,200.  That was impossible.  It was so outrageous that I knew it could not, would not stand.  I spent some time and figured out what happened, and the rental company fixed it.  No worries.  I didn't worry about it.  I knew that we would get to the other side.

There are many things that we worry about that we shouldn't.  Small things that we make into big things.  A week from now, we won't even remember what we were worried about.

Take a deep breath and find your confidence.  Whatever is coming at you, it can almost surely be resolved.  Worry less.  Live more.  It will all work out.

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

The Chosen

I have started watching "The Chosen" on Netflix. I am enjoying it. I will say more about it in later posts.

There is a quote from Jesus in episode 3 where he is talking to a bunch of children... "Everyone has a much larger job than just their trade. And you are more than just students... you’re at school to show love to one another."

I loved this. We all have a purpose, a job that is more than our trade or vocation. We are here to love one another. Period. End of story. Love one another.

Better to be a trash man who loves others than a doctor or millionaire that is self absorbed.  

"A new commandment I give you... love one another."  Jesus in John 13

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

Give me the words

I was on the way to do a baptism.  The groom wanted to be baptized before the wedding.  It has been years since I have done a baptism.  Although I have done many, many in my lifetime, I am a bit nervous because it has been so long.

I say a prayer, "Lord, give me the words."  I realized that I sounded a bit like Sampson, "Oh, Lord, just one more time..."  But, unlike Sampson, I am not dying today.  I just wanted the right words for the people gathered for the baptism.

It all went fine.  I was pleased with it.  I think that they were as well.

Words are important.  Words can hurt, words can heal, words can be soothing, or they can be weird.  We should all choose our words carefully.  How the world might change if we saw every moment as a holy moment and said a prayer for the right words.

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

Merry Christmas

Good Morning.

Merry Christmas!!!

I am often asked what I miss about being a pastor, and what I don't miss.  One of the things that I do not miss, is the incredible amount of work and pressure that is associated with the holidays.  At our height, we had six services on Christmas Eve that worshipped over 2500 people.  The amount of organization and determination that was put in by staff and volunteers was amazing.  And all of this, at a time when many people wanted to be "off."

I don't miss all of that work.  These days, on Christmas and Easter, and for that matter, Mother's Day and other big church days, I can just relax.  I can sit down and ponder the meaning of the day, as we all should.

So from one retired pastor who is sitting around doing nothing today, have a very Merry Christmas.  May your day find time to just sit and reflect on life's blessings and the deep love that God has for you.

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

A time to reflect

The Christmas season, for me, is a time to reflect.  Not just on Jesus' birth, but on life in general.  It is a time to remember what is really important.

It is a time when loved ones come from near and far and we look at each other and say, "I love you!!!"

As I write this, I am thinking of so many of you.  Friends in Cape Coral, friends in KC, friends in Ft. Pierce, friends...........  From my oldest friend, Jean Fisher, to my youngest friend, Aria Carrier.  From near to far, from oldest to youngest.  

I love you all.

I am so thankful to have shared this lovely journey of life with you.

May your days be merry and light, and may all of your Christmases be bright!!!