Losing Teeth

Vince has started losing teeth.  I don't actually know where or, exactly when, he lost either of the first two.  I just know that one evening they were loose and the next day they were gone.

It is an expected thing to lose teeth -- the only way, I suppose, to gain your adult teeth.  Yet, for some children the process is fairly traumatic.

This is the way of things.  For everything we lose, there is something gained.  This is part of God's plan and often, it is not the same thing that is gained that is lost, unlike teeth.

Often, it is difficult to see the thing gained.  When I lose a night of sleep doing a delivery, the next day the only thing I know for sure that I have gained is a whole lot of fatigue.  But, if I am honest with myself, there is a bundle of joy in a mother's arms that is worth many a sleepless night (as she will soon find out).

Most often the things gained are intangible.  When I am stuck in traffic, I lose time, I (hopefully) gain patience and hopefully do not lose my temper.

I will gladly lose things that I couldn't hold onto anyway, in order that I might attain.  For, I have learned that it is only as I truly give up myself that I can gain Christ and He is more than all the world to me.

Gardening Catalogs

We have received five or six gardening catalogs in the last week.  They are full of beautiful photos of tall trees, full shrubs, and other quite happy-looking plants.

Over time, I have purchased many things from these sorts of catalogs.  What I have discovered is that the plants that they send don't look like the plants in the photos.

Of course, I understand why they send a two foot tall apple tree instead of a ten foot tall one.  However, it takes a long time before any of these plants are close to full grown.  I have an apple tree that I planted five years ago.  It is probably nine feet tall now, but I still haven't seen an apple from it.

Not only does it take time for these plants to reach a stage where they bear fruit, it takes a lot of care.  Maybe there is such a thing as a person with a green thumb, but I think it more likely that those are folks who spend more time weeding, pruning, fertilizing and watering than the rest of us.

Most of life requires time and care to see growth.  Whether it is in my own life, or the lives of my children, things don't magically come to maturity on their own.  I know that with appropriate care and the investment of time, even two year olds can be raised to an adulthood of service in God's kingdom.

II Corinthians 9:6 "The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. "

Happiness

I just finished reading the story "A Little Princess" to my children.  It really is a wonderful story about a wealthy girl who loses everything and still remains noble and kind and good.

One of the things the girl, Sarah, does frequently in the story is to imagine better surroundings than her poor attic room and bed.  Somehow through her imagination, she is able to conjure up happiness in the worst of circumstances.

I suppose in some sense, it is good for us to look on the bright side of things, but there is something more.  A man named Matt Killingsworth has been looking at what gives us happiness and found that humans are happiest when they are able to focus themselves on the thing they are doing -- even if it is something they don't enjoy.  On the other hand, they are much less happy when they allow their minds to wander away from the task at hand, even if it as boring as a commute to work.

The verse comes to mind:  "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might..." (Eccl. 9:10).  It is a command to do all things well, to do everything to the best of my ability.  I know that it is important for me to do this -- to please God -- and for my own happiness.

Too Old for the Olympics

The Winter Olympics are here again, full of stories of amazing feats of physical prowess and for the most part, they are feats performed by quite young people.  Female figure skaters are in their mid teens and most of the other sports are performed best by athletes in their mid to upper twenties.

In the midst of this, I read a story about Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who became the oldest athlete ever to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, when he won a gold medal in the "10 km sprint" (biathlon) this year at Sochi.  Maybe this should have made me feel better, since I am still younger than he is, by several months, but it made me realize (once again) that I am now very unlikely to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.  I am just too old (among other reasons).

Yet, it made me realize as well what a blessing it is that God doesn't give up on us when we turn thirty.  The reality is, that in the kingdom of God, there is no age at which we stop being useful.

I am reminded of Moses.  At the age of eighty, he was herding sheep for his father-in-law in the desert.  It was a dead end job, if ever there was one -- until he saw a bush in flames and heard a call to shepherd the Israelites out of Egypt.

So, while I am giving up on the idea of winning a gold medal in the skeleton at the Pyeongchang Oympics in 2018, I am not giving up on the idea of being useful to God.  For, in God's kingdom, age really is just a number and forty is just a beginning.

The Secret Ingredient

"What is your favorite kind of bread, Anna?"  I asked my daughter.

"Oh," she said.  "Any kind of bread -- that you make."

Anna is a bread eater.  The verse may say that man doth not live by bread alone, but Anna would be glad to try, but only if it is home made.

I'm not totally certain what it is that gives a home made loaf its extra flavor.  Maybe it is the lack of preservatives.  Maybe that it is made in small batches -- artisanal, you could say.  Perhaps it is just that it is fresher than anything you would find in a store.

I do know that part of it is that I have practiced quite a bit.  The first couple of loaves of bread that I made were terrible.  They didn't rise more than a quarter inch and after they were baked, they were hard enough to function as weapons.

I suppose it is a lesson in perseverance more than anything else, that Anna actually likes the bread that I bake.  There have been plenty of loaves that had to be thrown out, they were that bad.

In the end, though, the biggest thing all my bread has over Aunt Millie's or Bunny is that it is baked with love.

Change

We just had a software upgrade at the office.  At least, that's what the medical record software company said it was.  It was hard for me to call it an upgrade when they took away several functions and made a number of other things more difficult to do.

Of course, the key to an upgrade is that everything looks different.  Even if things work the same, it is important for the programmers to change some fonts, or the locations of certain buttons with each upgrade to keep me on my toes.

I wonder what the purpose behind these things is.  To fix things that weren't broken?  Or maybe, to show us that the programmers have really been working hard.

I know that there are many people who like changes -- for the sake of change.  It is one of the reasons that my bathroom is now a tan color and not blue.

I am not one of those people.  God is definitely not Someone who changes just to change.  His goals have remained the same since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden.  While the redemption of humans is a large goal, He desires no less.

Day in, day out, He works to bring His ends to pass.  And the will succeed.  For, there is no failure with the Almighty, nor any system's crash that can upset His plans.

The Original Diet Drink

We had finger foods at our church last Sunday.  Elaine and I were helping with the food and for drinks, that evening, we had Sweet Tea, Tang, Hot Chocolate and Water.  As I poured drinks for folks going through the line, I realized that something like ninety percent of the people took something other than water.

Of course, you could argue that the main ingredient in all of the drinks mentioned is water.  You would be correct.  Still, it struck me how hard people work to get their water to taste like something other than water.

Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I like the taste of water -- I prefer it to any other drink.  When I am thirsty, there is no other drink that will assuage my thirst like H2O.

I am reminded of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, in John chapter 4.  Jesus offered her water -- living water and once she figured out what He meant and tasted it, she shared it with her community.

The simple water that Jesus offered this unnamed woman two millennia ago, is still available today.  Yet, I am afraid that too many people feel the need to doctor the water of life -- to make it more palatable or culturally relevant.

In the end, we must do nothing to change the gospel, or its simple truths.  For, while Gatorade and Tang may taste better to many people, Jesus came to bring us living water that will quench the deepest thirsts within us.

Complacency

I watched the squirrel dart out from the edge of the woods and rush head long for the road.  I just had time to touch the brakes on our mini van as the little creature darted just in front of our wheels, headed for the trees on the other side of the road.

It reminded me of a joke.  "Why did the squirrel cross the road?"

I don't really have an answer.  Why do squirrels do anything squirrels do?  To me, the trees on the other side of the road looked just about the same as the trees on the side of the road where the squirrel started.  Whatever else I could say about him, I do know one thing:  he was not a complacent squirrel.

It seems as though complacency is something that keeps us from moving on.  It is the feeling that life is good enough here, things aren't great, but they are OK.

That is probably OK in many areas of life, but it not acceptable when it comes to my walk with God.  Yet, it is all too easy to feel good about where I am and not strive for more closeness to Him.

To others, this effort might look as silly as a squirrel scampering across the road, but to me, it is a far more dangerous thing to be satisfied with where I am.