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Chapter-a-Day

Simple Pleasures

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Eat, Drink, Enjoy.
Eat, Drink, Enjoy.

A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God…. Ecclesiastes 2:24 (NIV)

Wendy and I are decluttering our house in preparation to sell. With it we are going through a decade of stuff. I’ve found it fascinating to go through my drawers and discover the old cell phone covers, web cams, computer software and other sundry technology do-dads that have accumulated over a decade of living here. Things that were cutting edge technology necessities just a few years ago are woefully obsolete and seem almost silly today.

I’m struck by the pace with which technology amps up the world around us. Always connected to our network, we have things pushed, tweeted, shared, linked, texted, e-mailed, and messaged to us non-stop. Personally, I love all the good things that technology affords us. Last night we had a 42 minute video chat with Taylor from her dorm room at the University of Edinburg. She’s in SCOTLAND and we got to see her sweet face, read her expressions, and take a tour of her dorm room. How cool is that?

At the same time, I wonder what effect this is all having on us as humans. In a world that is always pushing the envelope for greater highs, faster speeds, the latest, the greatest, the newest, the coolest, I increasingly believe that there is something to be said for finding contentment in simple pleasures. I think wise King Solomon’s ancient words may be more relevant today than ever.

Simple pleasures I enjoy:

  • A good food, good wine, and dinner conversation that goes on for hours.
  • Sitting on the deck at the lake with Wendy (and family/friends!) as the sun goes down (even better if sipping a cold pint and smoking a Davidoff cigar).
  • Scoring a baseball game as I listen to it on the radio.
  • Playing a guitar and terrorizing the neighbors with my singing on the back porch.
  • Reading a good spy novel in bed before I turn out the lights.
  • Hot coffee, pondering a chapter, and quiet heart conversation with God in the early morning.
  • Watching a sunrise, a sunset, or a big harvest moon rise.
  • Reading an actual newspaper in the morning with Wendy, and solving the world’s problems together (If the world leaders would only stop by and listen to our wisdom, what a better world we’d live in!) 🙂
  • Discussions with Wendy like the one we had in the car the other day in which we considered traitors as an archetype. If a seemingly good character betrays a good cause he or she is a traitor/villain and is guilty of treason. If an evil character betrays evil, is it always an act of redemption? What a great conversation.

What simple pleasures motivate you to unplug and enjoy?

Chapter-a-Day

What Really Matters

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Crazy Family LR

For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.
Philippians 1:10 (NLT)

This Fourth of July holiday weekend was spent with a good number of our family members at the lake. As children grow and spread out on their own path, it becomes more and more rare for many of us to gather together. Even during high holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas our gatherings become more and more limited. We share a meal. We have an hour or two together before various members begin to scatter to their own personal schedules and priorities. Such is life.

So, Wendy and I headed to the lake last Wednesday recognizing the rare opportunity for family members to have three full days and four nights cloistered together. My parents, my sister, her husband and two of her three kids, our two daughters, our son-in-law, along with Wendy’s youngest sister enjoyed eating, playing, talking, resting, and laughing together. We celebrated Taylor’s 23rd birthday on the Fourth. We celebrated Scott and Jody’s 25th wedding anniversary. We celebrated life together.

On Saturday night the entire crew gathered around the dining room table to play a game of Quelf. It’s a little known game with no real objective other than to inspire and motivate corporate silliness. I have a great photograph of Wendy with tears of laughter streaking down her face as she attempted to quell her laughter long enough to read one of the game cards. Someone at the table remarked that what we were experiencing together that night would become family legend. Twenty years from now when we gather together for a meal with children and grandchildren out will come the stories of the Fourth of July weekend at the lake when Taylor and Clayton made masks out of paper plates, when Grandpa acted like a woman, and when Grandma introduced us to Wendy the sock puppet. Long forgotten will be the work deadlines that stressed me out so much over the past few weeks.

The further I progress in my life journey, the more capably I believe that I am able to discern and refine my understanding of what really matters. So much of that with which we concern our daily time and energy does not really matter in any significant, eternal sense. We rather become entangled and distracted. We pour time, energy and resources into those things which drain our lives without providing any worthwhile return on the investment.

Today, I am thinking about what matters, and what does not. God, grant me the wisdom to know the difference between the two and the grace to concern myself with the former as I increasingly divest myself of the latter.

Chapter-a-Day

Make No Mistake… It’s Personal

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Simeon and Levi Slay the Shechemites (illustra...
Simeon and Levi Slay the Shechemites (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Chapter-a-Day Genesis 34

Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. Genesis 34:13 (NLT)

Being human is so fascinating. I find it interesting how certain things are common to the human experience. I’ll hear people talk about circumstances in our lives as being “like a Greek tragedy” or “Shakespearean.” Yet the the truth is that we make parallels to these fictional stories because those fictional stories are founded on universal human themes. All good stories are simply a reflection of the Great story God is authoring through us, and that is why they become so much a part of our culture and weave themselves into our thoughts and lives.

I couldn’t help but notice the parallels in today’s story with The Godfather. The strong patriarch with a flock of sons and a thriving family business that is dependent on managing a tenuous peace with other powerful families and power centers around them. When the daughter is defiled (remember Carlo beating Connie?), the hot headed older brothers exact their revenge (remember Sonny starting a war?) against the wisdom of the patriarch (remember Vito waking up to find his family falling apart?). Make no mistake, despite Jacob’s desire to protect the family business, this is all personal and it doesn’t bode well for the long term peace. [cue: Godfather Theme]

One more observation is that right at the moment of crisis the pattern of deceit once again creeps its way through the family system. So it is with the human experience. When faced with supercharged amounts of stress and emotion, our conscious choices tend to give way to base instincts and reactions. We’re now into the third generation down from Abraham and each family story carries the familiar theme of deceit. It’s amazing how certain tragic flaws or sinful behaviors can perpetuate themselves in a family system for generations. It takes a person of wisdom and strength to break those kind of cycles and the result can be chaotic for both the individual and the family system.

In fact, get ready. In a few chapters we take up the story of the truth teller: Joseph.

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Chapter-a-Day

Just What I Need in the Moment

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Chapter-a-Day Psalm 69

Save me, O God,
for the floodwaters are up to my neck.
Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire;
I can’t find a foothold.
I am in deep water,
and the floods overwhelm me.
Psalm 69:1-2 (NLT)

It’s been a crazy week, and things are about to get even crazier. Wendy and I are in production week with shows this weekend and next. I have two project deadlines for work this week (one is done, one is not) and have two major client deliveries next week. In the midst of it, Wendy and I had to make a road trip south for two days. You can feel the tension in our house from the sheer anxiety of “Oh my goodness I have so much to do and the task list keeps getting longer while the time gets shorter and I don’t know how I’m going to get it all done and could the phone PLEASE stop ringing because I don’t want to answer it and have MORE things piled on top of the mountain of things that need to be accomplished or I think I’m going to go TOTALLY insane (breathe, Tom, breathe….remember to breathe)!!!!!”

One of the things I love about the Psalms is the way you can read one particular lyric from one particular psalm and it can be packed with so much meaning. Sometimes one line, phrase or a particular verse can speak to you right where you are in a given moment on your life journey. Today is a great example. The first two verses of Psalm 69 leapt off the page this morning because it so perfectly expressed what both my head and my heart are feeling in this moment. It was like a tailor made prayer just for me this morning. I read it and my spirit groaned, “Yes, God, yes. That’s what I’m feeling. I feel like I’m drowning.” [Then, the song Flood by Jars of Clay suddenly became a soundtrack for the rest of the psalm]

The psalm also came with a much needed word of encouragement that is my take-away for today:

The humble will see their God at work and be glad.
Let all who seek God’s help be encouraged.

 

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Deuteronomy 31

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Moses Names Joshua To Succeed Him, as in Deute...
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Then God commanded Joshua son of Nun saying, “Be strong. Take courage. You will lead the People of Israel into the land I promised to give them. And I’ll be right there with you.” Deuteronomy 31:23 (MSG)

The company that my partner and I now lead was founded and led for twenty years by the man whose name is still on the company. The general plan of succession had been well established for many years and the actual period of succession had relatively few problems in comparison to other companies with which I’m familiar. This did not, however, mean that there were no issues. For everyone involved in our small firm there was a period in which emotions ran high, even if they ran high under the surface. I can still remember grappling with feelings of anxiety, fear, and stress as everything changed.

Whether it happens in family, church, business, or community, change always creates all sorts of anxiety on a system. There are many kinds of change, but the change from a strong and instrumental leader to his or her successor can be among the most critical. Moses was not only a great leader, he was the leader for his people. While Aaron, and later Joshua, had been by Moses side for many years, it was Moses who led the people out of Egypt. It was Moses who stood up to Pharaoh. It was Moses who led the people through the Red Sea. It was Moses who met with God on top of the mountain. It was Moses through whom God had given the law. It was Moses who carried the staff. It was Moses who spoke with God’s authority. Now, at the most climactic moment since leaving Egypt, the people are standing at the river getting ready for the monumental task of entering and taking the Promised Land. For the first time in over forty years they will face a task without Moses. Moses is stepping down.

Imagine trying to step into those shoes.

It is no wonder that both God and Moses continue to remind Joshua and the people over and over again to be “strong and courageous.” The important piece of this commonly repeated encouragement is not the “strong and courageous” part, but the tag at the end: “I’ll be right there with you.” Moses may die, but the same God who led and empowered Moses would be right there to lead and empower Joshua. Tremendous change would take place in the leadership ranks, but God was the true leader of the nation – not Moses. And, God wasn’t going anywhere.

In times of profound change, when I’m feeling the stress and anxiety of things shifting all around me, it is good to know that God is a solid rock who isn’t changing and isn’t going anywhere.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Matthew 10

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A cup of cold water

“This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.” Matthew 10:42 (MSG)

Like a lot of people, I often find my brain falling prey to our popular and consumerist culture when it comes to doing things for God. The needs are so great and I’m just one more boogerhead on the bus trying to find my way home. I find myself thinking “If I want to do something for God, then it needs to be huge, attract hoardes of people and garner plenty of public attention.” Go big or go home, as the saying goes.

And so, I dream of great things I could do… and do nothing.

I love todays chapter because I can place myself in the shoes of Jesus’ young, inexperienced apprentices (Interesting thought: contrast Jesus instructions with what Donald Trump would instruct). As Jesus instructs them on what they should do, He is talking to me as well. When I read the chapter as if He’s sending me out personally to Otley or Leighton, it takes on a whole new layer of meaning.

When my life feels overwhelmed with too much to do, I often make my task list and focus on starting with one small, manageable item on the list. Then I go to the next item on the list, and then the next, and so on. When I’m overwhelmed by the big picture, I focus in on one small task. I saw Jesus same prescription in today’s chapter. Start with one random act of kindness, one kind word, one opportunity to lend a hand. Then look for another, and another.

Today, I’m looking for one small opportunity to do something for someone else.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Jeremiah 1

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Raod to Pangong Tso 1
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“Before I shaped you in the womb,
   I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day,
   I had holy plans for you:
A prophet to the nations—
   that’s what I had in mind for you.”
Jeremiah 1:5 (MSG)

A friend called and left a message on my phone yesterday. The words were a typical voice mail message, but the tone of my friend’s voice said something completely different:

  • “I’m down“
  • “I’m tired“
  • “The weight of the world is on my shoulders“

When I finally spoke to my friend in person, I discovered the reason for his depressed tone. He fiinds himself walking a leg of the journey that has suddenly become difficult with an overload of cares. Over a few short days his financial stress, work stress and relational stress have skyrocketed from normal to off the charts difficult.

As we talked it through, we came to the same conclusion from our previous experiences. These perfect storms of life are cyclical. We all encounter these times in the journey when seemingly everything goes wrong at once. We get through them. The momentary circumstances change, and the seemingly unmanageable stress of the moment fades.

Perspective is a good thing. Big picture helps put our temporary tunnel vision in perspective. Today I’m reminded that God knew us before we were a glint in our parents’ eyes. He has a master plan for our entire journey.

Don’t get tripped up by the tough road you’re walking today. Look out at the horizon. Press on.

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 42

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Many paths from which to choose. "But I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way, who can't see where they're going. I'll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country. I'll be right there to show them what roads to take, make sure they don't fall into the ditch. These are the things I'll be doing for them— sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute." Isaiah 42:16 (MSG)

There are mornings when I wake up and set out with no clear sense of direction, but with an overwhelming sense of burden. Everything seems muddled and the road ahead seems to branch off in a million different directions. I feel the need to take three or four different paths today because of competing demands. Which way do I go first? Which path should take precedent? If I take that path, will it eventually merge with the others? Maybe this is the wrong way to start.

This is why I regularly find it beneficial to start the day in a little quiet time with God and His Message. I regularly find God speaks directly into my circumstances and my need through which ever chapter we're reading.

I'm headed off into the day, but I know God has a hold of my hand. He is directing me. He won't leave me for a second.

Thanks for the reminder, God. I needed it today.

  Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and wheatfields