Golfing with Dad

I got to go play golf with my father-in-law today.  I haven’t played much lately, except for the debacle at the Andrew Allard Memorial Golf Tournament earlier this month.  It’s probably been 2 years since I’ve been out there.  I did fine, made some good shots and some bad ones.  I opened with a par and finished with a birdie, some of the holes in between were a little dicey, though.

I count it a great blessing to be able to golf with my father-in-law, Ken.  We’re both pretty quiet guys so there isn’t a lot of chit-chat.  However, it’s fun for me to be out on the golf course with him.  My dad passed away when I was in 6th grade and I haven’t had many (if any) father figures in my life since then.  Now, I will admit that I am the biggest reason that there hasn’t been a father figure, because I haven’t opened up and let anyone take that place, but it’s a little different with Ken.  I do look at him as that father figure I’ve been missing for such a long time.  He is a great guy and has taught me a lot of things about a lot of things.  

So, I’m looking forward to some more rounds of golf before the season ends and I know I’ll enjoy them regardless of the score I shoot.

Pembroke Old Home Days

We had a great day Saturday at Pembroke Old Home Day.  We had an incredible float in the parade; thanks to all those who worked on designing it, building it, and riding on it.  (There are too many names to mention, I’m sure I’d leave someone out.)  

We also had a lot of fun and sold a lot of snow cones at the boot at Memorial Field.  Again, thanks to all the volunteers who came to work, sell snow cones, and share the love of Jesus with folks at the event.  If you didn’t volunteer, you missed a lot of fun.  This is by far one of the most fun events we do throughout the year.  Don’t worry, though, we’ll do it again next year!

 

Selling snow cones!

And, we sponsored some of the inflatables that the Old Home Day committee had for the young guys.  This seemed to be a great attraction for the little ones who need more than yummy fair food to keep them interested.  

 

Bouncy fun!

So, once again; THANK YOU! to all the folks who helped out and supported us this year.  You are the greatest group of volunteers a guy could eve ask for!

Faith is a verb, too

So, God tells Abraham to leave Ur and go find a land that God has chosen for him.  It was so long ago, I don’t think too much about how Abraham felt.  After all, this was way back there when people weren’t all that civilized and not at all educated.

But wait, God told Abraham to leave Ur and move to a different land.  Ur was a place that Abraham had roots; where he had family and friends; where he grew up.  This was a long time ago, so world travel wasn’t all that big yet.  People didn’t jet-set from one place to another in a few hours.  I think people probably never traveled more than ten miles from the place they were born.  People were pretty settled in those times, I’m pretty sure.

But, God told Abraham to leave Ur and move to a different land.  And, Abraham did it!  Abraham packed up all his family, all his stuff (he was a rich man), and moved just because God told him to move.  Abraham had enough faith in God to do exactly what God told him to do.  He didn’t just say he believed God and say that he would follow Him, He backed it up with action.  

We say we believe God.  We say we have faith that He has our best interest at heart; but we sure hope He doesn’t move us outside our comfortable spot.  My wife, Kathy, just finished reading a book by Kay Warren titled “Dangerous Surrender”.  As she told me about the book, I was thinking about the title and I wondered what ’safe surrender’ would look like.  Then I thought that ’safe surrender’ is not really surrender at all and that ‘dangerous surrender’ is the only kind of surrender.  Yikes!

Excellence

The US men’s and women’s Olympic 4×100 relay teams were both disqualified from their races because they dropped the baton.  They had some of the fastest, most highly trained runners in the world on their teams but they couldn’t finish the race because they dropped the baton.  The finest training in the world, the best conditioning in the world, and they couldn’t finish because they didn’t execute the handoff.

Lot’s of things work that way. Talent can carry us a long way, momentum works well, training and repetitions are all great things, but if we don’t execute the little things like passing the baton with excellence, then it can be all for naught.  

Sometimes, we criticize when people strive for excellence.  We think they are either really nit-picky or they are striving for perfection.  However, I think excellence is neither; it’s being good at the little things so the big things can be completed well.  It’s knowing that you can’t be perfect, and trying to be your best anyway.

I’ve gained a new outlook and respect on excellence myself over the past year or so.  I’ve never been a real ‘detail person’ but now I can better see the rewards of excellence; like finishing the race well instead of dropping the baton!

Love is a verb

In 1 John 3:18 I read, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongues but with actions and in truth.”  We live in a culture that teaches us that love is all about how we feel.  If you love someone, you feel it in your heart.  If you stop loving someone then ‘you’ve lost that loving feeling’ and you can easily just walk away.  

God shows us how to love in a different way, though.  He tells us that love isn’t how we feel but it’s what we do.  I’m sure the old man who cares for his wife of 55 years in the nursing home doesn’t ‘feel’ like cleaning her up and taking care of her, but he does it anyway.  I’m sure young mothers don’t always feel like cleaning up their baby’s poop and puke, but they do it anyway. They do it anyway because they love with their actions, like God tells us to love.  You see, true love is acting out our love even when we don’t feel like it.

I want to love like this, but I get tired, discouraged, or angry and don’t ‘feel’ like loving sometimes.  I need to remember, though, that love is bigger and deeper than how I feel and love anyway.  For me, winning in life is loving people like Jesus does.  That means I have to love them even when I don’t feel like it.

Here’s a perfect example of acting out perfect love:  ”while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us”.

Peace

More on ‘fear not’

Jeremiah said, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.  He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; it’s leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

The key to prosperity, and therefore peace and freedom from fear must be ‘trust in the Lord; take confidence in Him’.  Once we learn this lesson we will bear fruit, even in the drought, we will have green leaves that are full of life and we will be nourished by the waters of living streams.  Why worry?

Another scripture about fear that has come to my recent attention.  I think He’s trying to show me something, I’m just not sure what it is.  He supplies my needs.  His provision for me and my family is a testimony to His ability to make me flourish and be fruitful by the living streams that He provides.  So, I won’t worry regardless of what comes my way.  I’ll do my best to make life’s decisions based on a confidence in Him and His living streams that supply my needs.

Only in Africa

I just got off the telephone with a good friend of mine from Rwanda.  He and his family are missionaries there and are doing some great work.  It’s incredible to consider how technology can put us within earshot of each other, but that’s another blog for another day.  

He told me that his power has been off and his Internet service has been down for a couple of days now.  He’s not sure why they’re down and says it’s probably because they are doing some work on a transformer or some other equipment.  He says, ‘it’s Africa, nobody tells anybody when things like this are going to happen.’  He also says that all he can do is laugh, because there is nothing else to do.

He’s learned how to be joyful in all circumstances.  He and his family sold all they have here in the US to go to Rwanda to serve God and the Rwandan people; they pay over $8.00 a gallon for diesel, the sun is hot, the rains are drenching, and their power is, at best, sketchy.  Yet, he says he can only laugh because there is nothing more to do.  

I was blessed when I hung up the phone.  Here is a man who has devoted his life to live uncomfortably just so he can serve and love the street boys, hospital patients, and the poor and needy of Rwanda and he’s one of the most joyful people I can ever imagine.

Oh, that I can learn to be so joyful!

Rwandan Orphan Village

Walk on water

This idea of being fearful (actually of NOT being fearful) keeps gripping me.  I can’t seem to shake it from my consciousness.  God tells us over and over again in His Word that we shouldn’t be fearful.  We know He takes care of us like a father and that we have nothing to fear.  But, we fear anyway.  

We ignore God’s calling on our lives because we’re afraid to step out.  We know God is powerful and we know He tells us not to be fearful.  It’s like Peter when He was called out of the boat to walk on the water with Jesus.  Jesus called him out so he didn’t need to fear the wind and the water, right?  But, he started to sink.  Notice, though, when he starts to sink that he calls out to Jesus to save him.  Peter didn’t lose faith in Jesus!  He lost faith in his calling.  It’s almost like you can see his thoughts, “did Jesus REALLY call me out of the boat?”; “hey, I’m not good enough to be walking on the water with Jesus”; and on and on.  He forgot that Jesus called him out of the boat.  And, if Jesus calls us out of the boat there is no reason to be concerned about the wind and the waves.  

So, when Jesus calls you out of your boat – go for it!  If he calls you, he will equip you.  If he calls you, there is nothing to fear!

Peaceful heart

The world, it seems, thrives off of fear.  We always want to have an enemy.  We used to be afraid of Communism and the Soviet Union. Our parents were afraid of rock and roll music.  Now it seems that we are supposed to be afraid of Global Warming and the impending ‘climate crisis’ (I didn’t know there was a climate crisis until I saw an ad on TV last night).  We’re afraid of terrorists and terrorism.  Jesus, though, told us many times to ‘fear not’.  He tells us that our hearts should not be troubled.  He knows that our hearts, focused on him, will not be troubled and we can rest in the peace of knowing that he is in control and will care for us better than we ever imagined.  

I grew up in fear of the Soviet Union and their threat to take over the United States before our bicentennial in 1976.  After my father passed away when I was 11, I was fearful for our families finances (my mother, though, was a great provider and I had all my needs met all the time).  I was afraid of Libya and Iran in the ‘70′ and’80’s. 

Now, I know the peace that Jesus can put into my heart.  I can lean on him for comfort.  I can rest assured in his promise to settle my heart as I lean on him more and more.

Opening ceremonies

The Olympics opened last night.  I get bored watching all the pomp and pageantry but I love to watch the parade of nations where all the athletes come into the stadium in a sea of humanity that is all there to compete with each other.  It was cool to see the Rwandan team come into the stadium; I love that country!

You know, though, a huge majority of those athletes have no chance of winning any type of medal.  They are there because they love to compete, they love to push themselves to beyond what they think their bodies can withstand, and they love to represent their country.  

That’s what the Olympics mean to me.  That’s why I love to watch them.  I lose interest in medal counts and hearing whether the home team is going to have more medals than the Americans or any other teams.  I lose interest in a lot of the TV coverage because it is so focused on Americans and on how many medals the American team can get.  

I just love to see the competition; I wish we could see more lesser known athletes from lesser known countries and see how cool it is when someone competes and pushes their own bodies for the sake of the competition, for the sake of bettering themselves, and for the sake of bringing humanity together.