Back to Ordinary life.

I like to tell stories about my family because they have a special place in my heart and sometimes they bring a smile to my face.

This one is about my sister. I will start by telling you that she has red hair. It’s not strawberry blonde, it is RED! She has always been an overachiever. When she was born, my brother and I fell in love with her. After all, she was our first sister, and we really loved her.

One day my mother received a phone call from the store on the corner of our block. In Detroit in those days, there were lots of mom and pop stores around for families to pick up a few things that didn’t require a shopping cart or a car. A jug of milk or a loaf of bread. If we were lucky and the ice cream truck wasn’t in the neighborhood, perhaps an ice cream for very good children. As you can imagine my brother and I didn’t get as much as we would have liked.

So, the phone call. My mother answered and it was from the folks at our corner store. She asked my mother if she had a young child with red hair. My Mom replied “Yes, she did”. The women then said ” Well, you might want to come and get her. She is here at the store and by the way she has no clothes on. Dropping what she was doing we all rushed to the store and found my sister naked and just walking around looking at things in the store. By now, my Mom was a little embarrassed and my brother and I were laughing hysterically. I don’t think I had ever seen my Mom run so fast to get to the store to get my sister. If life is a journey my sister has had many interesting ones. But none as funny as her first trip to the grocery store. Sometimes a trip to the store can bring a new perspective to a day. Thanks Cha Cha for being who you are. I’m glad we get to go on this journey called life together. It has been a blast!

Cancer

I’ve had cancer for a couple of years now. Unending treatments and assurance from doctors that they are doing all they can to slow it down. It is an ugly word and at times it causes me to have a certain amount of depression. But then I remember what Christ has done for me. Becoming a man, dying on a Roman Cross and raising again for my salvation. This brings me some joy. In our human state finding lasting joy is hard.

44 radiation treatments and a botched surgery have not helped this cancer. Now Chemo by pill to slow it down doesn’t seem to be an effective answer. Pain and problems the story of life continue with me in a very real way.

Herbert Booth penned these words that bring me comfort:

I bring to Thee my heart to fill;
I feel how weak I am, but still
To Thee for help I call.
In joy or grief, to live or die,
For Earth or Heaven, this is my cry:
Be Thou my all in all.

Christ is all, yes, all in all;
My Christ is all in all.
Christ is all, yes, all in all;
My Christ is all in all.

Around me in the world I see
No joy that turns my soul from Thee;
Its honours fade and fall;
But with Thee, though I mount the cross,
I count it gain to suffer loss,
For Thou art all in all.

I’ve little strength to call my own,
And what I’ve done, before Thy throne
I here confess, is small;
But on Thy strength, O God, I lean,
And through the blood that makes me clean,
Thou art my all in all.

No tempest can my courage shake,
My love from Thee no pain can take,
No fear my heart appall;
And where I cannot see I’ll trust,
For then I know Thou surely must
Be still my all in all.

When I need him He is in these words. In depression the words of the fourth verse come to me. And where I cannot see I’ll trust, for then I know Thou surely must, be still my all in all.

In pain or in happiness, Christ is all!

Breath of God

There is a song in the Salvation Army songbook written by Edwind Hatch

1 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what thou dost love,
And do what thou wouldst do.

2 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with thee I will one will
To do and to endure.

3 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Till I am wholly thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with thy fire divine.

4 Breathe on me, Breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with thee the perfect life
Of thine eternity.

This song brings to mind Genesis 2:7

” Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

It seems that man is always looking for the next thing. The next I-phone or car model. But never understanding that what we are really looking for. In our modern world, most don’t know what it is that they are looking for.

In reality the phones get replaced and the cars end up in the junk yards and most of our lives are spent looking for the things that will last but never do.

The desire of the eternal is always just under our search for satisfaction. What an experience to be born as God breathed into Adam and he became a living being with the eternal breath of God in him.

This world is a mess because we have been distracted by the call to the next thing not understanding that there are eternal things that call us because the breath of God is our inheritance. Whether we know it of not it is there. Instead we chase the here and now and miss out on the things of God that are truly satisfying. It is my prayer today that you would seek God and desire the things described in the song above.

The prize Fight

The Prize Fight

Whether we like to admit it or not, most of us live in a daily mundane routine.  While this can bring some sense of comfort and make us somehow think that we have control of our lives.  Taking advantage of the mundane can make a huge difference in our lives and the lives of others.

This story begins in our first command, with a young man who was looking to fill his time volunteering for the Army.

He called, and we set an appointment to meet.  We met and after talking, we determined that the best use of his time would be to drive a bus on Sunday mornings to pick up those who needed a ride to church.

After learning the route and driving for a few weeks I noticed that during Sunday School he would sit outside of the adult class and listen.  My wife asked why he didn’t go in and he said that most of the folks were older and he didn’t feel comfortable.

I asked him if he would attend a class specifically for his age if he would attend.  He said that he would.

Since I was not teaching a class I decided to teach this class.  The next Sunday he and I attended our first class.   He was living with his parents and sister, and his sister soon became curious about what her brother was doing at the Army. Soon we were introduced to her and she started attending.

She became a soldier and her bother an adherent.  They were both becoming more active in the Corps and soon their mother decided to find out what it was that had attracted her adult children to a church called the Salvation Army.

The mother had grown up in church and was a Christian but had not gone to church in a long time because her husband was unsaved and did not attend church.

Some people might say that we had seen a miracle in the lives of these three people, because of a son looking for a place to volunteer his time.

One Sunday morning, the wife approached us and expressed her concern for her husbands Salvation.   The father continually told his family that they were wasting their time coming to the army and that they ought to be home.  The wife invited us to dinner at their home.  She was interested in introducing us to her husband.  She warned us that he might not be too friendly, but we assured her that we would have dinner, a short visit, not staying too long.

The day of the visit arrived, and I was a little miffed at not checking my calendar, there was a heavyweight boxing match that I had wanted to watch that night.   Certainly, a selfish reason not to go, but having made a commitment, off we went for our visit.

Arriving at the home we were greeted and after some small talk invited to eat dinner.  As the conversation went on, I learned that the husband also wanted to watch the boxing match.  After dinner I suggested that perhaps we could have dessert in the living room and maybe  watch the boxing match.

The husband spent no time offering me a comfortable chair and turning the television to the channel for the match.

We spent the next hour or so, watching and talking and having dessert and soon the match was over and after saying our goodbye’s, my wife and I told them that we would see them in church the next morning.

The next morning the wife got up at her usual time to get ready for church.  To her surprise she found her husband fully dressed in his best suit, sitting in his chair.  She asked; “What are you doing?”  To which he replied, “If your pastor can spend an hour watching a boxing match with me, I guess I can go and listen to him for an hour.

I sure he was relived when I didn’t preach for an hour, but from that day forward he attended the Corps faithfully with his family and became a member and a lifelong friend.  We rejoiced as he accepted the Lord and became the man that God had intended for him to be.

From that moment on I never underestimated the power of visiting. Visitation became a priority and over the course of many years we saw the power of God work through simple human interaction in the home.

If there is anything I could say to Officers today, it would be get into the homes of your people and let them really get to know you.   They will love you for it.

 

Christmas is coming.

“Tis the season to be jolly”

So I guess the obvious question is are you?  Are you Jolly?  We live in a world where most people are unhappy.  Christmas brings about a lot of unhappiness and often it is self caused.

What do I mean.  I have to ask another question to qualify my first one.  Perhaps the most difficult question.  Are you satisfied with your life?  A tough one to be sure.  Today in the city where  I live, the high temperature was 46 degrees.  I was able to play golf with a good friend and we talked about how lucky we were to be alive and happy, after all we were playing golf.  Cold, but happy, we continued to count our blessings.  Family pretty well off,  children, grandchildren and wives who loved us.  Yes we are indeed, very fortunate and blessed.  Not having to worry about much and happy just to be alive.

All this being said our lives are not perfect, but guess what, no one’s is. I guess we could both say that we are pretty satisfied with our lives and yes to use an old expression we are pretty “Jolly”.

We are fortunate to live in one of the best countries in the world, not perfect, but certainly  good.   May this season be a time of reflection and counting of the blessings of your life.  If you don’t feel blessed, guess what?  You have the power to change your life.   That is one of the greatest blessings that we can have.  Family, friends, and those who love us add richness to our lives and I am glad to say that you can add joy to the lives of others simply by being a friend.

May Christmas bring you peace and Joy!