Operation Shoebox

WOW... I have to say we had the most amazing experience ever. We had the opportunity to be an intregal part in the ministry of Operation Christmas Child. The boxes we handled were shipping to Zimbabwe, Lebanon and Bangladesh that night. The hundreds of volunteers in just the one shift we worked were able to process 106,000 shoeboxes out of the Charlotte, NC distribution center. It was an incredible experience to know that our hands touched part of a package that a child will open and be blessed with it's contents. What an awesome way to celebrate the reason for the season!

We were all truly blessed to be part of this program. Not only was it a great time sharing the experience with each other, but just knowing that thousands of children and their families will be blessed this year when they get one of these shoeboxes. Praise the Lord!

Schedules and Comfort

Okay, so I haven't written in ions or so it seems. Not that I haven't had any ideas mind you ... it's just that, well I've been on a tight schedule lately. You see, I felt like I was wasting a lot of my days not doing anything constructive. Not that I feel writing is not constructive, it is very constructive in my own little mind. But, I just felt like I wasn't getting anything done and the things that I did get done didn't really make me feel like I had accomplished anything.

I started this little regimen that came from the discipleship ranch facility that our church offers. Let me just say when I first decided that I was going to do this, I thought I could do the men's ranch schedule because it looked to be so easy. Big surprise, it is not easy and the women's schedule for the day starts an hour later than the men's. There is a lot of Bible Study time and a lot of work details (I gave myself writing as one of my work details today).

My heart goes out to the women in the ranch. God Bless those women that stay in the program. I have no addictions to speak of and it is hard for me to stay on the schedule that they work on. I also make a list of my own chores and work details for the day. I have no idea what their chores or work details are, but I know some of the ones I give myself, at the end of the day ... I'm tired. It gives me great satisfaction at the end of the day to look at everything I have accomplished. It has also made me realize how important our time on earth is. Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Since I have been on this schedule and taking the time throughout my day to study, I find that things that used to bother me, are trivial. I used to watch one soap opera every day and I gave it up in order to do this regime effectively. When you become comfortable in any situation, that is when you know it is time to get uncomfortable. Change your schedule. Truly, it makes a world of difference and will give you greater appreciation of the things you have.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

I bet this is Stephen King's favorite week of the year. The week when all the creepy crawlers come out from under their rocks. Too bad there wasn't a full moon this week to add to the drama. I used to love reading Stephen King (OK, I still do) ... he could scare the living day lights out of a young teenager. That was back in the day ... do teenagers read books now?

What scares you? You ever notice how some people do things just because it scares them? Ride a roller coaster, bungee jump, para sail, etc.? I can do the roller coaster thing, but bungee jumping and para sailing ... I don't think so. Some things that we are scared of we are able to tolerate and other things are just too frightening. I don't care for high places. In fact, they terrify me. Four steps up a ladder and I'm ready to climb back down. I can't go downhill skiing because the chair lift ride to the top of the mountain is too traumatic. (Not to mention that in the past when I did reach the top of the mountain I came down on my butt and not on the skis).

As I am writing this, I think of things that I consider myself to be afraid of. Spiders, confined spaces, the dark, heights. As I'm thinking about it, the only thing that really physically affects me (I mean cold sweat, shaking, tears running down my face, peeing my pants kinda scared) is heights. I can't do them...it's too much for me. Spiders, I don't really like, but just step on them and splat, they're gone. The dark, well, turn on a light, unless the power is out and then light a candle. Confined spaces, well I know I don't like them so I stay out of them. But I am pretty sure they would cause me to react the same way I react to heights.

We watch movies that make us jump. We read books that make us draw the covers up close to our chin. It's the adrenaline thing am I right? What are you scared of? Everyone is scared of something. Is it as placid as heights, confined spaces, spiders, snakes, or is it more zealous, like the fear of dying? What do you think happens when you die?

It's Scary

It was a dark and eerie night and the wind was howling. Tall Cool One was at a conference and I was home alone. He had been gone for a little over an hour. The wind was really howling outside and there was a fire burning in the wood stove to keep it warm and toasty inside. Suddenly the power blinked. I thought, "Oh no, this is not going to be good." Immediately I went searching for the emergency candle we had stashed and I located the flashlight and my favorite book.

Two more blinks and the power was out. "No problem," I thought, "I have the candle, my book and the wood fire will keep it nice and warm in here." Two minutes later a big gust of wind moved the chimney, or so it seemed and smoke started filling the living room. I panicked. The living room was becoming filled with smoke and soon all of the smoke detectors were bleep, bleep, bleeping. I did not want to call Tall Cool One to come home. I had to get a grip and calm down. I was running through the house, opening all the doors, the windows and trying to remember what he had told me about taking care of the stove. I put on the welders gloves, opened the stove and grabbed the burning wood. I flung it out the front door onto the lawn. I stood there for a minute shaking and getting my emotions under control.

A few minutes later the smoke cleared from the house and the bleep, bleep, bleeping finally stopped. I closed the doors and accepted the fact that a blanket would be the way to keep warm for the evening. Then the darkness really set in. I noticed as vehicles went by, every shadow became three dimensional. The wind blew harder and the noisy creeks in the house grew louder. Every so often a fire truck siren or a police car could be heard in the distance and our blind dog would howl at the sound.

Ever notice how more intense everything seems in the dark? Me being the writer I think I am, should have taken advantage of the moment. It's dark and eerie and storms are about us. Use the experience and write. Instead, my mind goes back to every slasher scary movie I ever saw as a teenager. I think Jason Voorhees is going to come through the window on the porch with his machete. I'm scared to go to the bathroom because I know Michael Myers is standing behind the door and the second I get in there he's going to stab me with his knife. And if I go out in the kitchen for a glass of water, Thomas Hewitt is out there waiting for me with the chain saw. So I stay on the couch, curled up with a blanket tucked tightly under my chin. Pretty vivid imagination, huh?

As if the fictional characters aren't scaring me enough, I start visualizing the real ones. Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, David Berkowitz, Albert DeSalvo, Ed Gein and Ted Bundy are the faces I recognize in my head right away. Most likely because they are the most famous, the ones that the media had field days with. I'm having nightmares and I'm not even sleep.

Five hours of being alone in the dark without power, or phone or anything ... I didn't even have batteries for a radio. Not fun. I was frightened so I prayed. It wasn't long when I realized I was inside, I had my faithful doggy, I was not getting shot at, I was not being hunted, I was safe for the most part. Sometimes we forget that all we have to do is ask. He answered and I am thankful.

Word of The Day: Beautify

Take time to just thank Him for how great He is.

Shortcuts

Yesterday afternoon Tall Cool One and I were out for our afternoon walk with the dog. The dog is blind so sometimes he doesn't notice the things that a normal dog would take after. We jokingly refer to him as our "Special Needs Dog". He really doesn't need anything "special". In fact when we get to the dirt road, we take him off his leash and he does the two mile walk on his own, zig-zagging back and forth from one side of the road to the other. Of course if a car comes, we call him over and make him sit and wait for the vehicle to pass. He then takes off running in the wrong direction (I did mention he was "special") after the car as if he's going to catch it. Silly dog.



Anyways, we were a little less than half way through the walk when Tall Cool One stopped and was looking out into the woods. I didn't say anything in hopes of seeing a deer or some other form of wild life. He then started walking again and I asked what it was. He said, it sounded like a bees nest and he was just trying to see where it was. Just when he said that, I saw where the buzzing was coming from. A deer head, legs and hide in a pile on the side of the road. There was a swarm of flies around the carcus. Thankfully, our blind dog took no notice to the sound or any smell that may have been coming from it. We concluded that someone must have shot a deer and left the parts they didn't want there on the side of the road.



Some people do things to satisfy themselves. They left legs, head, hide, guts, and whatever else that wasn't visible in that heap of carcus. Chances are good that the turkey vultures will have most of the flesh cleaned up by the time we take our walk this afternoon. Too bad people wouldn't strive to do their best and be their best at all they do. Instead they take short cuts or the easy way around. It makes me think of the people that park in the handicap parking when they don't need it.

Protect Your QB

It is 34º outside this morning and the smell of the wood fire waifs through the air. It brings back memories of a certain Tall Cool One skating on the Frog Pond for eight hours playing hockey with his friends instead of hanging out with his girlfriend. Yes, I'm past it but I like to remind him about it every now and again.

Wood fires and seeing your breath in the cold morning air reminds me of growing up with all of the neighborhood kids getting together for a big football game. Of course, everyone wanted to be the quarterback. Who didn’t? The rest of the team’s job was to protect the quarterback. While playing, every now and again an opponent would break through and sack the unsuspecting quarterback but for the most part the QB was well protected. Being sacked only hurt for a minute. Then you get up, brush yourself off and continue playing the game.

Imagine now, being the quarterback and playing the game by yourself. No offense, no defense, you against the other team all alone. There is no effective way to play the game; impossible, right?

When people wake up in the morning and start their journey though life without his or her team members (John, Luke, Matthew, etc.) that might as well be exactly what they are doing. They are trying to play a football game as the quarterback all alone. Of course, they may get a lucky break here and there and may even score a touchdown or two. But eventually they are going to get sacked and without their team members there to help soften the blow, it’s going to hurt … it’s going to hurt real bad. Implore God’s team, they are the best offensive and defensive team members there are.

Mamby Pamby & Mumbly Jumbly

The other night when we were watching the presidential debate, I asked, "What are we going to do about voting on November 4th?"

Tall Cool One tells me, "We are going to vote for the best candidate based on Biblical Values."

You want to know what scares me? I can't tell if either of them have any. You know what else scares me? The people out there that are going to vote based on how they have always voted in the past. The republicans will vote republican and the democrates will vote democrate. Then you have the naive crowd that will vote based on some whimsical reason because of race or gender.

I found these top five classes that scholars take to learn to become a politician.

• Fabricated Speech Class
• Skirting the Issue
• Learning to Abnegate
• Urbane Correctness
• Equivocation 101

Seriously though, you can find any Cock and Bull story online that you want, about the candidates that are running for president. What is important is NOT what you read about what they believe or what they say they are going to do for our country. What is important is what YOU feel is right in your heart. Ultimately there is only one ruler and as long as He is in your heart, it's really not going to matter which candidate wins the election.

I Get It, I Get IT

Okay, so it took me 52 weeks to figure it out, but I get it. Thanks, James.

The Weight of Sin

A flippant youth once asked a preacher, "You say that people carry a weight of sin. I feel nothing. How heavy is sin? It is ten pounds? Eighty pounds?"

The preacher replied, "If you laid a four hundred pound weight on a corpse, would it feel the load?"

The youth replied, "It would feel nothing, because it is dead."

The preacher concluded, "That spirit, too, is indeed dead which feels no load of sin or is indifferent to its burden and flippant about its presence."

Head-dibber

If It Feels Good, Do It!

~ There is a way that seems right to man. But it's end is the way of death. Proverbs 16:25

Have you ever been on a diet? Ever quit smoking? Ever fast for blood tests? Ever sacrifice something for a holiday because of some silly ritual? It is not easy sometimes is it?

People try to justify their sin but putting the blame on someone or something else. They are caught up in the ways of the world and instead of doing what's right, they defend what they know is wrong by blaming someone else. The rapist says, "She deserved it being dressed in those provocative clothes." The murderer says, "If he just let me take the money instead of fighting me, I wouldn't have killed him." The thief says, "If they didn't leave their keys in the car, I wouldn't have stole it." The liar says, "What's one little white lie about my weight? Everyone lies on line, who's gonna know?" The sexually immoral person says, "I was born that way."

You know, the "Slut or Homo" is right. We were all born "that way". We were all born with a sinful nature; the lusts of the flesh; fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Human nature is to desire power, fame, riches. The conscience knows what is right and what is wrong. It's like going on a diet or quitting a bad habit. It ain't easy! But if you ask, if you seek, if you knock, He will be there for you. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are capable of handling and He will always provide you with a way out.

Society will always rationalize certain sins as being "okay". God judges ALL sin.

Hornbook

I recently visited the elementary school that Tall Cool One works at. I was surprised that none of the class rooms have a chalk board.

I asked him, "Where are the chalk boards?"

He looked at me kind of like I had three heads. "Where have you been?" he asked. "They don't teach with chalk boards anymore. Now they teach with a Smart Board."

"A what?" I asked.

"A new technology called "Interactive White Boards".

So I got looking at them and saw these color-coded markers; your basic red, green, blue and yellow. So, me being the hands on kind of person that I am, picked one up and tried to write on the board with it. Nothing happened and I looked at Tall Cool One questionly. "If it's so smart how come I can't write on it?"

He tells me, "It has to be turned on in order for it to work".

"Oh, of course it does", I roll my eyes.

Then he explained that he watched a child grab the letters from the bottom of the screen and move them up on the board and spell out his name.

"Grab the letters and move them up on the screen!" I exclaim. "Huh? That makes no sense to me. How is that child going to learn to write his name?"

Tall Cool One laughs, "Everything is computerized now, no one needs to know how to write."

I know he said it jokingly, but he's so right. What happened to the chalk boards in the world? What happened to the hornbooks? What's next?

The Little Red Hen

One day as the Little Red Hen was scratching in the field, she found a grain of wheat.

"This wheat should be planted," she said. "Who will plant this grain of wheat?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen, and she did.

Soon the wheat grew to be tall and yellow.

"This wheat is ripe," she said. "Who will cut the wheat?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen, and she did.

When the wheat was cut, the Little Red Hen asked,

"Who will thresh this wheat?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen, and she did.

Once the wheat was all threshed, the Little Red Hen asked,

"Who will take this wheat to the mill?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen, and she did.

She took the wheat to the mill and had it ground into flour. Then she asked,

"Who will make this flour into bread?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen, and she did.

She made and baked the bread. Then she asked,

"Who will eat this bread?"
"Oh! I will," said the Duck.
"And I will," said the Cat.
"And I will," said the Dog.
"Oh, no you won't," said the Little Red Hen, "I will do that." And she did.

I really liked this story as a child and just wanted to share.

What is Your Duty?

So my dog is whining because he has to go out and do his duty. Do his duty. That strikes me funny, a dog having a duty. What is a duty? My dictionary says: an obligation that must be performed for moral or legal reasons. The dog knows that if he poops on the floor, the law tells him he is going to suffer repercussion so it is his duty to go outside and take care of that and it is my duty to take him out so that he can. Be right back . . . .

For a dog, taking care of his duty is quite simple. Of course there is the running and rolling around on the grass, playing in his water dish until it's empty and then carrying it around proudly in his mouth after he takes care of his duty. But he knows what he is out there for and what the duty is he is supposed to do. He gets it done before I call him back inside.

I noticed on the calendar that tomorrow is Yom Kippur. A duty that some Jewish people are very meticulous about. I looked it up because I didn't know what it was or what it meant. In the Bible it is referred to as The Day of Atonement. It is the holiest of Jewish Holidays. It is a day of intensive prayer, fasting, and sacrifice of frivolous activities.

I am not Jewish and I don't believe I know anyone who is. But I do remember one time when I was a senior in high school, two of my friends came up with this great idea that the three of us would spend our summer in Boston, Massachusetts working as nannies for these Jewish families with young children. Through our guidance office we were put in contact with three different families in the Boston area. During the week of April vacation, we stayed with the families that we had been coordinated with as a test to see if we would be a good fit with their children. I was three days into my stay when I came to the conclusion that I was not a good fit for changing diapers and I was so confused about keeping the dairy foods away from the meat produce. There were two separate cupboards for different sets of dinnerware. The rule was meat and dairy products do not go together at all. The dishes couldn't be put in the sink at the same time, the foodstuffs had to be kept on different shelves in the refrigerator. Needless to say, I hopped on a greyhound back to Bangor, Maine as fast as I could. Looking back on that experience now, I wish I had taken the summer job. It would have been an educational chapter in my life.

I am not Jewish, but I find what The Day of Atonement means for the Jewish people as far as respect for God and what He has given us (His Son) moving and stimulating. Yom Kippur expands my feeling of duty I have for God. "Sacrifice of frivolous activities . . . no eating, no drinking, no marital relations, no washing, etc." It might be good for people to experience sacrifice. What are today's people giving up? Nothing. We should give things up.

Sometimes things happen to me that I find very weird. As I have said, I am not Jewish. Earlier this week, I wrote a letter to an old friend (whom I had a falling out with over eight years ago and we have not spoken since then). Sometimes God puts things in our hearts and we should always do what He says whether we like the idea or not. I had no idea what Yom Kippur was or what it meant, but as I continued to read I came across this: It is customary to seek out the forgiveness of anyone whom you may have sinned against before Yom Kippur begins. Strange that I wrote that letter with no knowledge of Teshuva and like I said, I am not Jewish. He works in our hearts sometimes and we don't even know that He is.

We all have a duty. If you don't know what it is, sometimes you just have to listen to your heart to do the duty He wants you to do. Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34