"I Love My Lips!"

 

“If my lips ever left my mouth,

Packed a bag and headed south,

That'd be too bad, I'd be so sad…”

“Dad, why do we have lips?”  My youngest daughter queried.  She has strange fascinations and this evening; lips were percolating through her grey matter.

“Well, lips help us say certain sounds like ‘P’ and ‘B’ and ‘M.’  It is really hard to say, ‘Mom is probably making bubbles, popcorn, and mustard,’ without using your lips.”

I hoped this was helpful.  I did go to medical school, but I have a feeling I missed ‘lip day’ and so I feel a bit deficient on the subject.

“If my lips said “Adios,

I don't like you, I think you're gross.”

That'd be too bad, I might get mad...”

“Do dogs have lips?”  Elise asked, moving onto a subject that I knew even less about than human lips.

“Of course they do,” I said easily.  “Look at Cosmo over there smiling like anything.  How would he do that without his lips?” 

Cosmo of course was looking as glum as usual.  He maybe as happy as a clam, but he isn’t one for giggling, chortling, or even smiling.

“You’re being silly, Dad,” Elise said.  “Cosmo isn’t smiling at all.  He’s a dog.  Dogs don’t smile.”

“If my lips moved to Duluth

Left a mess and took my tooth.

That'd be too bad, I'd call my Dad…”

“You know, Elise,” I said, trying to move the conversation to more firm footing for me.  “There’s a kind of flower that I heard of called a Two-Lip.”

Elise screwed up her face, thinking about this odd floral name.  “That’s not the way you say that, Dad,” she said at last.  “I think you say it TAU-LIP.  Anyway, it doesn’t have anything to do with lips.  If you eat food, will it make your lips get bigger?”

“I love my lips!”

These are the sort of conversations one has with a six-year-old, who understands that things exist, but is uncertain of the “why” behind them.  While I have studied a lot of different things, I don’t always know the reason why.

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” (Psalm 139:14)

Even if I don’t know the reason why I have lips or why my lips are shaped the way they are, I know for certain that my Heavenly Father created them exactly the way they should be.  I am afraid that these days, many people aren’t satisfied with their lips.  They get injections into them to make them bigger or use special creams that are supposed to make them plumper.

It makes me a bit sad, because God knew what He was doing when He made us.  The important thing is not to meet some unattainable standard of beauty, but rather that our lips smile, sharing with others the joy we feel and that they help us speak praise to the God who knew us before we were born and made us perfectly.

Did I mention that the Polish word for lips, is ‘usta?’

The Bad Old Days

 

 

Lo, one day it came to pass that I did wend my way to a small edifice in the town of Brookneal where I do practice the healing arts for the inhabitants of the County Campbell.  It so happened that a man of great age passed through said doors to have me spy out a cure for the dread malady, Bronchitis.

With great care, I listened to his Account of how his grandchildren had brought Germs into his home from the local institution of learning.  More, how that which he coughed up had changed in colors and how he could remember seeing all hours of the clock through the night due to his Great Coughing.

Further, I listened to his chest with a Scope of Stethe and even ordered a Radiograph to discern if such infection had descended from Bronchitis to Pneumonia.

After all this, I returned to Speak with Him.  “What thou hast,” I declaimed.  “Is the ailment, Bronchitis.  In the Bad Old Days, a doctor would have bled Thee till Thou wast better or in the ground, but I have a New Fangled Invention called an Antibiotic and it is more effective than bleeding and it hurts less To Boot.”

“Canst Thou not give me a Shot?”  Henry asked me.  “For, verily, I remember that the Medics of my youth used to give a Shot and while it hurt muchly, it granted healing Real Quick.”

“It might be that that was so,” I spake, as one doling important information to one greatly deficient.  “But penicillin doeth very little for the Resistant Bugs we see now adays – mostly because doctors over used it in ancient days.”

“Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10)

I have found, through my half century of experience that many look fondly on the Good Old Days, as they speak of them.  They were the times when kids didn’t have Smart Phones and most folks didn’t have Air Conditioning and doctors gave penicillin shot for What Ailed You.

Surely, there was much good in Those Days.  And yet, there was evil then, just as there is evil today.  For the heart of man, without God, tends towards darkness and many were the families who suffered as a result.

If I would say that the 1990s are better than these Crazy Days in the 2020s, it is simply that I was younger then and further, that my forgetter has worked over time in dis-remembering the Negatives.  For even then, there were Wars and Rumors of Wars, Famines and Earthquakes, and yeah, even Hurricanes like Andrew and Hugo.

It is best to look forward, glad for those past moments, but attempting to make the Lives Around Us better.  For, the question is not really whether a Shot of Penicillin is worth Thirty Pills of cephalexin, but what is best to make tomorrow night restful and free of coughing and for that, dwelling on the past has little efficacy for improving the future

Everything Wears Out

 

 

“Why isn’t the water getting hot?”  My son asked as he held his hand under the stream of water coming out of the faucet.

I moved my hand to check the water.  It was luke warm and seemed to be getting colder rather than warmer.  I shook my head.  “The hot water heater is probably going out,” I said.

“What does that mean?”  Elliot asked plaintively.

“Shorter showers?”  I suggested.  “Or baths that resemble the experience the people jumping off the Titanic got?”

“I’m going to warm up water on the stove and use that for my bath,” my eldest daughter said, definitively.  “It may be old school, but it beats having to choose between freezing and being filthy.”

Last week was a bad stretch for our home.  Our hot water heater went out, our dishwasher stopped working, and our gas fireplace ceased lighting.  I thought about all of these gloomily and wondered what the next item was to go on the fritz.  I hoped it wouldn’t be the coffee maker.  That truly would be a catastrophe that would rival the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in scope.

“Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.  They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” (Psalm 102:25-27)

Everything on earth is gradually wearing out.  Some things, like cell phones, wear out faster than others, but eventually Father Time remains undefeated and all things will grind down.  All things, that is, except for the Almighty.

It is such a blessing that our Heavenly Father is dependable and that He never wears down, never gives up, and never fails.  More than that, His love is just as changeless and though all of the rest of the Universe grinds down, His matchless love won’t.

It is easy to feel discouraged when your daily shower doubles as an ice bath, but maybe that should simply get us to count the blessings of serving a God whose love doesn’t take weekends off, even if our kitchen appliances do.

A New CD

 

 

I settled myself into the seat of my truck and backed out of my parking space.  Only fifteen minutes to home.  I had a lot of things to do – I needed to check on the garden, weed a bit and even do some writing.

As I merged onto State Route 29, I noticed that my truck had a CD player.  Now, I must confess, I own CDs, but I seldom listen to them as I have moved onto using streaming services. 

I contemplated idly how hard it would be to take the CD player out and install a player capable of playing the original discs – long play, vinyl records – in its place.  I imagined it would be difficult and not terribly useful.

I would have to tell anyone riding with me, “Sorry, you can’t sit shot gun – that’s where my record collection is!”

I pushed the eject button on the CD player and out popped a disc – it was the first CD of the Pimsleur Language Thai course.  I had owned the truck for a full four years and had never realized that the first sixty-two minutes of my journey to fluent, conversational Thai language had rested in my CD player the whole time.

In the few days since I discovered this amazing compact disc, I have proceeded no further in my attempts to communicate with people from Thailand.  I suppose this is mainly because one CD doesn’t feel like much of a start – it is like trying to cross the Mississippi River with a single stepping stone.  Smart as I am, I think I’d need at least three or four CDs before I attempted a conversation with a Thai speaker.

It does strike me how we can live with something – someone for years and never really know them.  I spend a lot of time in my truck, but I had never known about this CD’s presence in my truck.

The Apostle Paul told the Philippians, “Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.” (Philippians 2:4)

Whether it is a conversation or a relationship, things will go so much better when we begin to focus on the other person, rather than simply on ourselves and our responses to the person we are with.  Love is about listening and observing how the one we love is doing. 

It may take years to discover things like the presence of a Thai language CD in the truck you drive every day, but it shouldn’t be for lack of trying.

The More Famous John Waldron

 

“You know, the Waldrons were horse thieves who fled Ireland because they would have been sent to prison if they didn’t run to America?” I asked my family.

“Where did you hear that?”  My beautiful bride asked, somewhat skeptically.

“Well, my great uncle was doing research on ancestors and such and that’s what my grandfather told him.  I think he was just being silly though,” I said.

“I don’t think I’d like to have ancestors who were horse thieves,” Victoria said. 

“True,” I said.  “Most people look for royalty and fame in their family trees and brush over the black sheep.”

“I wonder what sorts of horses they stole?”  Elliot asked.

“Let’s ask Google,” I said.  Google listened to my query and then told me that while horse thievery was common in Ireland, there was no evidence that the Waldrons stole more horses than anyone else.  In fact, Dr. John Waldron of County Tuam bred a famous racehorse name Faugheen.

I was impressed.  I didn’t actually know if I was related to this other John Waldron, but clearly we had much in common – other than the racehorse thing.

I know a lot of people explore their genealogies, what I have noticed is that mostly they are looking for famous people that they are related to.  Somehow it is better to be distantly related to a baron in Upper Silesia than an excavator in lower California.

“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”   Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” (I Peter 5:5,6)

Most of us want to be known by others.  If other people won’t blow the trumpet for us, we are forced to toot our own horn.

The Bible makes it clear that if we are humble, God will elevate us in His own time.  On the other hand, He resists and brings down the proud men and women of this world.

It is hard to be humble, hard to acknowledge our weaknesses and struggles, but it is far better to do that than to pretend that we are something we aren’t.  At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter if we are related to horse thieves or a famous horse breeder, what really matters is that we know Jesus and the power of His appearing.

Awesome Descriptions

 

“Look, it’s a catalog!”  I said, holding up the mail for my family to see.

When I was a boy, we got lots of catalogs in the mail.  There was the Oriental Trading Company – which had catalogs of cheap items photographed in such a way that they looked worth buying.  Then there was the Sharper Image which always had sci-fi appearing devices for purchase that were supposed to make your life better.  On top of those, there were companies like Montgomery Ward and Sears whose catalogs were mostly filled with clothing.

These days, the only catalogs I get are from nurseries and seed companies.  When they start to arrive, it is an indication that spring isn’t too far away.

Of course, all of the seeds sound like they produce amazing vegetables.  The description for each variety sounds as though it will produce the sweetest musk melon, the biggest pumpkin, or the largest harvest of green beans.  I often wonder if the folks writing the descriptions have actually raised the varieties themselves or if they are simply men and women who are experienced in writing advertising copy who decided to ply their trade in the direction of selling gardening supplies.

“Listen children,” I said to them as I opened the catalog.  “This is a ‘burpless’ cucumber.  This is what we have been waiting for all these years!  You have no idea how disgusting it is to go down to the garden to weed and have to listen to those cucumber vines burping away!  Oh, and this muskmelon says that it has succulent and melodious sweetness – I don’t know what that means, but I guess we should get it to find out!”

Most of us try to put our best foot forward when we interact with other people.  It isn’t that we lie about who we are, but whether we are interviewing with for a job, or talking with people after church, we want to look and sound our best.

The problem is that we end up hiding the areas of our lives where we are struggling.  It could be finances, or struggles with one of our children, or even just feeling emotionally worn down, but since we love Jesus, we somehow think that means we should have it all together.

“Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)

As I think about the meaning of this verse, it strikes me that in order for other people to help us bear our burdens, we have to be transparent enough that they are aware of our struggles.  It isn’t about trying to look like we are overachieving but rather sharing honestly – at least with some people – about areas where we need prayer.

It may feel good to act as though, like those who are home on the range, we seldom hear a discouraging word, but the reality is often far from that.  Telling others that we only deal with “melodious sweetness” in our homes may feel easier than being honest about the real struggles, but each of us needs help carrying burdens and the beginning of that is honesty with a community of believers – not ad copy about how awesome we and the people around us are.