If you’ve ever spent tyme in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, you know that the weather patterns are not really patterns, but rather a series of guessing games. Perhaps that’s true for other areas as well, but here in the Valley we make speculations rather than predictions and we don’t put much trust in any of it. Someone asks, “Will it rain?” Someone asks, “Will it snow?” We just answer “it depends on the whether…whether it does or whether it doesn’t”.
I remember one early December day a few years ago that kind of shocked us Shenandoah-ians. The temperatures were on the warmer side for the tyme of year, so no one expected to wake up to six inches of snow. Now, it wasn’t just any snow; it was that wet, heavy, hang on the trees, great snowball making kind of snow. It was really quite beautiful, which is saying something coming from a warm weather person like myself.
Now, because of the warmer temperatures, the roads were easily cleared and drivable far earlier than on a cold day, so I decided to go on an outing. I called up a friend and by early afternoon we were headed south to view Falling Springs Falls just outside of Covington, Virginia. The drive was absolutely gorgeous and, being aspiring photographers, we got some wonderful shots along the way.
As we drove along, we stopped at picturesque locations, all the while remarking about the fact that we were looking at six inches of snow, but barely needed a jacket. We did not, however, make such comments when we arrived at our destination. In fact, our remarks were quite the opposite. The waterfall was only an hour and a half down the road, but clearly it too far from the Valley to be embraced by its balmy temperatures.
Now bundled up with every piece of clothing and winter accessory we could find, my friend started down the path to the overlook. I decided to do some exploring elsewhere, something that did not last long due to the glacial-like temperatures. I met up with my friend and we proceeded to take pictures of the booming waterfall. We snapped shots, working for interesting angles while being mindful of our slick surroundings, until our fingers were too numb to push the buttons on our cameras.
Moments later we were back in the car, thanking the Lord for a working heater and headed back to what we hoped would be our unseasonably warm Valley. As we journeyed home, we decided to call our respective families to inform them that our trip was successful and we were safely on the highway, headed home. As I reached for my cell phone, a phone I had just weeks before purchased, a moment of panic swept through me. It was not in my pocket. I thought for a moment and tried to recall the last tyme I had it and what I did with it. After serious contemplation I was faced with the realization that on my wayward excursion, I dropped my new phone.
By this tyme darkness had set in and the hopes of retrieving my phone were gone. I have to admit that I went through a series of emotions on the matter, but, shortly there after, I moved on and didn’t think much more about it, at least not until nearly ten months later.
It was September of the following year and unfortunately, the fall foliage around home was somewhat drab. The summer had been dry and in turn, the trees did not produce their usual, vibrant colors. Determined to get some stunning fall pictures, I decided to go on a quest for beautiful foliage. I called up the same friend that went with me the previous December and away we went.
Curious about how Falling Springs Falls would look in the Fall, we drove back down to Covington, Virginia. As we neared out destination, we recalled the details of our last visit and I got it in my head that, just for fun, I would try to find my lost phone.
Upon our arrival, I learned that nearly a year’s worth of tyme can really alter a landscape. I tried to follow the path I’d taken in the winter, but everything was grown up and nothing looked the same. I searched for a bit and decided it was a lost cause. Just as I was about to give up, something told me to look in a different spot. Wouldn’t you know it, there laid my phone, seemingly unscathed by the elements. I looked it over and aside from a little dirt on the outside, my LG flip phone had survived more than a collective five feet of snow, inches of rain and every other bit of weather we’d received throughout the year. I was flabbergasted!
When I got home, I pulled out the phone’s changer and plugged it in just to see what would happen. I hit the power button and…the phone actually worked! Again, I was astounded!
I never went back to using that phone; instead I keep in on my dresser as a daily reminder of God. How does my cell phone remind me of God you wonder? Well, I realized when I found my phone exactly where I had left it that God is the same way. Whether we intentionally put Him aside or we inadvertently walk away from Him, He will always be right where we left Him and He’s going to work when we go back to find Him.
My phone never left me, I left it. God never leaves us, but we leave Him. We stumble, we stray, we fail, we falter, but God never stops working for us. I felt lost without my phone. I couldn’t get in touch with my family and if something went wrong, I couldn’t have called for help. Such are the feelings of a wayward Christian; lost and out of touch. The difference is, I had to drive back to where I lost my phone in order to find it, where as God, He is always just a prayer away! All we need to do is call His name and we can be back in His hands just like my phone was in mine.
So, if somewhere along the way, you lost God or intentionally put Him aside, stop and give Him a call; He’s there, no phone required!!!
~LK~
Monday, August 8, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Comparisons
Comparisons
Have you ever heard the song, “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better”? It’s been used tyme and again in various television shows like The Nanny and a variety of other entertainment outlets from comic strips to video games. My latest encounter with the song however was when I attended a High School production of the musical, “Annie Get Your Gun”.
While the students and the teachers put on an excellent performance, one of the most memorable things about the play was this song. Initially I was shocked because, having heard it here and there, I was not aware that the song was originally written for a musical, let alone a western like Annie Get Your Gun. The second wave of shock came when I considered what the song was really about; comparisons.
In the song, the players go back and forth, trying to out do each other on a variety of challenges from shooting to singing to shopping – oh my! It’s an outlandish battle of conceit, fought to determine who is “best”.
Now, you might be thinking that it was just a play and all in the favor of amusement. While that’s true, the underlying theme of the song is one that is so true to life and a constant struggle for many. I mean really, who does not want to be the best at everything he or she tries to do? I’m rather certain that most people do not set out to do something, hoping to be horrible at it. No one enters a contest with the intention of coming in last. It’s human nature to want to be good at what we try, but a lot of tymes our efforts fall short or we don’t even try because we focus on “our competition”. By doing so, we either lose our nerve or convince ourselves that we’re not as good as the person standing next to us, so we shouldn’t bother trying.
How many blessings are missed because we overlook the main point and focus on trivial nonsense?
Case in point:
I recently went back to the gym after months of absence due to physical and emotional burdens. I enjoy running on the elliptical and cross-training machines; treadmills and my back do not get along. Before my absence, I had trained to the point where I could meet my tyme and mileage goals with a certain ease. After my absence, well, suffice it to say that the ease was gone, replaced by unwelcome difficulty. I realized that I put on some weight and my stamina was definitely not what it used to be.
In my first week back, my tymes were up by a good twenty seconds a mile and I got very frustrated. When I shared this frustration with a friend, she verbally whacked me in the head by informing me that I was missing the point. My slower running tymes were the trivial nonsense. The fact that I finally felt well enough to go back to the gym was the major blessing.
I was too busy comparing my current tymes with my past tymes to realize that I overlooked the fact that I felt better than I had in a long, long tyme. That happens so often in life. We compare ourselves to who we used to be, to who the world thinks we should be or to other people and we miss out on the blessings that God so greatly desires to give us. God isn’t concerned with whether or not I run a 6 minute mile, all He cares about it the fact that I’m taking care of myself and I’m grateful to Him that I can put on foot in front of the other.
God isn’t concerned with whether we win first place in a singing contest, but rather that we are choosing to honor Him with our voice. It doesn’t matter if we’re not “the best” musician, photographer, carpenter, volleyball player or whatever. All God wants is for us to do our best and use the talents He gave us to glorify Him.
I am convinced that without Jesus I am nothing, but with Jesus, I have no need to compare myself to anything or anyone, including myself. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made. We are all unique, specially designed by God and loved equally and individually by Him. It might not be easy (trust me, even though I know it, I still struggle with it), but if you’re letting something or someone prevent you from using the talents God gave you, STOP!
God wants you to use your gifts, whether polished or not, and if you’re using them to please Him, nothing else matters! To Jesus you are one of a kind and if He doesn’t compare you to anyone, why should you?
~LK~
Have you ever heard the song, “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better”? It’s been used tyme and again in various television shows like The Nanny and a variety of other entertainment outlets from comic strips to video games. My latest encounter with the song however was when I attended a High School production of the musical, “Annie Get Your Gun”.
While the students and the teachers put on an excellent performance, one of the most memorable things about the play was this song. Initially I was shocked because, having heard it here and there, I was not aware that the song was originally written for a musical, let alone a western like Annie Get Your Gun. The second wave of shock came when I considered what the song was really about; comparisons.
In the song, the players go back and forth, trying to out do each other on a variety of challenges from shooting to singing to shopping – oh my! It’s an outlandish battle of conceit, fought to determine who is “best”.
Now, you might be thinking that it was just a play and all in the favor of amusement. While that’s true, the underlying theme of the song is one that is so true to life and a constant struggle for many. I mean really, who does not want to be the best at everything he or she tries to do? I’m rather certain that most people do not set out to do something, hoping to be horrible at it. No one enters a contest with the intention of coming in last. It’s human nature to want to be good at what we try, but a lot of tymes our efforts fall short or we don’t even try because we focus on “our competition”. By doing so, we either lose our nerve or convince ourselves that we’re not as good as the person standing next to us, so we shouldn’t bother trying.
How many blessings are missed because we overlook the main point and focus on trivial nonsense?
Case in point:
I recently went back to the gym after months of absence due to physical and emotional burdens. I enjoy running on the elliptical and cross-training machines; treadmills and my back do not get along. Before my absence, I had trained to the point where I could meet my tyme and mileage goals with a certain ease. After my absence, well, suffice it to say that the ease was gone, replaced by unwelcome difficulty. I realized that I put on some weight and my stamina was definitely not what it used to be.
In my first week back, my tymes were up by a good twenty seconds a mile and I got very frustrated. When I shared this frustration with a friend, she verbally whacked me in the head by informing me that I was missing the point. My slower running tymes were the trivial nonsense. The fact that I finally felt well enough to go back to the gym was the major blessing.
I was too busy comparing my current tymes with my past tymes to realize that I overlooked the fact that I felt better than I had in a long, long tyme. That happens so often in life. We compare ourselves to who we used to be, to who the world thinks we should be or to other people and we miss out on the blessings that God so greatly desires to give us. God isn’t concerned with whether or not I run a 6 minute mile, all He cares about it the fact that I’m taking care of myself and I’m grateful to Him that I can put on foot in front of the other.
God isn’t concerned with whether we win first place in a singing contest, but rather that we are choosing to honor Him with our voice. It doesn’t matter if we’re not “the best” musician, photographer, carpenter, volleyball player or whatever. All God wants is for us to do our best and use the talents He gave us to glorify Him.
I am convinced that without Jesus I am nothing, but with Jesus, I have no need to compare myself to anything or anyone, including myself. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made. We are all unique, specially designed by God and loved equally and individually by Him. It might not be easy (trust me, even though I know it, I still struggle with it), but if you’re letting something or someone prevent you from using the talents God gave you, STOP!
God wants you to use your gifts, whether polished or not, and if you’re using them to please Him, nothing else matters! To Jesus you are one of a kind and if He doesn’t compare you to anyone, why should you?
~LK~
Rose Colored Glasses
Something happened this week that brought to mind a song titled “Rose Colored Glasses”. The version I’m thinking of was written by George F. Baber and John Conlee and performed by the latter of the two. The song entertains the emotional battle of a man trying to understand a relationship in which he invested a great deal tyme and effort only to have it go awry. As he analyzes the life he has with his girlfriend, he basically concludes that breaking ties is the best thing for both of them, but he always finds a way to refute his deduction; his rose colored glasses.
“These rose colored glasses that I’m looking through,
show only the beauty ‘cause they hide all the truth.”
Those two short lines are rather significant when you think about it. A lot of tymes we see what we want to see instead of what is real or what is right in front of us. Our judgment gets clouded by our thoughts of the way something should be and by the tyme we’re finished, the old rusty tractor in the front yard is the latest model, fresh off the assembly line. Point being, the color of a rose can beauty up even the worst of situations.
The happening this week, however, made me wonder if the opposite is true as well. Now, what the opposite of rose colored glasses might be in similar terms, I’m not sure; thorn colored glasses perhaps? The concept however would be that when wearing ‘thorn colored glasses’, we see something as far worse than it really is.
To better relay the situation, allow me to offer this background. There are two men in my acquaintance that have very dissimilar outlooks on practically every aspect of their existence. It’s probably safe to say that their accounts of agreement in their fifty plus years of association are of percentages smaller than that of an atom. Up is to down and east is to west when it comes to both the personalities and mindsets of these men.
Now, perhaps you think me a bit overdramatic, but in all honesty, drama seems to be the key ingredient in the dishes that these two men offer on the menu. I cannot describe it, but the animosity that exists between them is incomprehensible at best and at worst, well, I don’t think I want to venture down that destructive path. Suffice it to write that over the years the differences between them have constructed a wall of abhorrence that no one can scale, though many a good person has tried.
So this week when both men were party to a particular function, you can only imagine the arrows of hostility soaring through the room and the rumble of under the breath, back handed comments that ensued. It was really a sad display of humanity or perhaps a lack of humanity altogether. I think the worst thing about it though was how it affected everyone else in the room. I watched people tense, hang their heads, shield their eyes and some I think sat in earnest prayer as the mood of the room blackened with every angry word spoken between them.
The incident was disguised as a current issue, but as I listened to the irritation behind the words, I knew there was more to it that what was being said. Looking back, I wish I’d asked the Lord for the courage to call both men out on the underlying issues instead of trying to defuse the one that was about to explode in front of me, but as the old adage says, hindsight is 20/20. It’s that hindsight however that prompted me to my theory of “thorn colored glasses”. Truth be told, the current “issue”, while important on some level, was being clouded by years and years of ill will toward each other. I then had to ask myself, were these two men viewing each other through clear eyes or were they so jaded by the past that even the smallest issue seemed so problematic that it warranted World War III?
There was a point when Moses was struggling to keep the Israelites in order and finally in Deuteronomy 1:12 he said to them, “But you are such a heavy load to carry! How can I deal with all your problems and bickering?” The truth is, only Jesus can bear such a heavy load as two men who refuse to deal with their problems. I know now that I cannot change either of these men, nor can I make them see things any differently. I can pray for them, but in the end, only Jesus can perform the necessary eye surgery and eliminate their desire to wear “thorn colored glasses”.
~LK~
“These rose colored glasses that I’m looking through,
show only the beauty ‘cause they hide all the truth.”
Those two short lines are rather significant when you think about it. A lot of tymes we see what we want to see instead of what is real or what is right in front of us. Our judgment gets clouded by our thoughts of the way something should be and by the tyme we’re finished, the old rusty tractor in the front yard is the latest model, fresh off the assembly line. Point being, the color of a rose can beauty up even the worst of situations.
The happening this week, however, made me wonder if the opposite is true as well. Now, what the opposite of rose colored glasses might be in similar terms, I’m not sure; thorn colored glasses perhaps? The concept however would be that when wearing ‘thorn colored glasses’, we see something as far worse than it really is.
To better relay the situation, allow me to offer this background. There are two men in my acquaintance that have very dissimilar outlooks on practically every aspect of their existence. It’s probably safe to say that their accounts of agreement in their fifty plus years of association are of percentages smaller than that of an atom. Up is to down and east is to west when it comes to both the personalities and mindsets of these men.
Now, perhaps you think me a bit overdramatic, but in all honesty, drama seems to be the key ingredient in the dishes that these two men offer on the menu. I cannot describe it, but the animosity that exists between them is incomprehensible at best and at worst, well, I don’t think I want to venture down that destructive path. Suffice it to write that over the years the differences between them have constructed a wall of abhorrence that no one can scale, though many a good person has tried.
So this week when both men were party to a particular function, you can only imagine the arrows of hostility soaring through the room and the rumble of under the breath, back handed comments that ensued. It was really a sad display of humanity or perhaps a lack of humanity altogether. I think the worst thing about it though was how it affected everyone else in the room. I watched people tense, hang their heads, shield their eyes and some I think sat in earnest prayer as the mood of the room blackened with every angry word spoken between them.
The incident was disguised as a current issue, but as I listened to the irritation behind the words, I knew there was more to it that what was being said. Looking back, I wish I’d asked the Lord for the courage to call both men out on the underlying issues instead of trying to defuse the one that was about to explode in front of me, but as the old adage says, hindsight is 20/20. It’s that hindsight however that prompted me to my theory of “thorn colored glasses”. Truth be told, the current “issue”, while important on some level, was being clouded by years and years of ill will toward each other. I then had to ask myself, were these two men viewing each other through clear eyes or were they so jaded by the past that even the smallest issue seemed so problematic that it warranted World War III?
There was a point when Moses was struggling to keep the Israelites in order and finally in Deuteronomy 1:12 he said to them, “But you are such a heavy load to carry! How can I deal with all your problems and bickering?” The truth is, only Jesus can bear such a heavy load as two men who refuse to deal with their problems. I know now that I cannot change either of these men, nor can I make them see things any differently. I can pray for them, but in the end, only Jesus can perform the necessary eye surgery and eliminate their desire to wear “thorn colored glasses”.
~LK~
Saturday, January 15, 2011
About Face!
If what ‘they’ say is true and what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, I think, what with all the ammunition coming at us, we should be able to over power superman. It’s tough enough to go through difficult tymes, but it’s even harder when we know that it’s our own, obtuse mistakes that created our pangs of despair. We long for the opportunity to go back and make different choices, proving true the old adage that hindsight is 20/20.
Pam Tillis recorded a song back in 2001, written by Craig Wiseman and Lisa Drew, called “Which Five Years”. The second verse of the song starts with the line; “Now there were some things, if I had a tyme machine, I’d have done them differently...” I think everyone, to a point, could say that line is true. We all have things we wish we could change, things we want to go back in tyme and do over, especially if we could take the knowledge with us that we currently posses.
Ah, but there’s the rub, at least for me, the longing to go back. I often get so lost in the “what could have beens” that I forget about the “here and now”, or, to rephrase it, I get tangled up in the things I cannot change and overlook those which I have the ‘power’ to alter.
I remember when I used to commute 50 plus miles, one way, to Philadelphia; it certainly left something to be desired. If you have never driven into the city of Brotherly Love, I should tell you that driving the main drag, the Schuylkill Expressway, can be a very nerve-racking experience, especially for a non city girl like myself. What do I mean by nerve-racking? Well, suffice it to say write that there were a lot of accidents on what we tended to call the “Sure-Kill Expressway”.
Each morning, as I got closer to the city, I would listen to the traffic reports to find out, not if, but where, the accident was on that particular day. There was one expression that always caught my ear and struck me funny. The announcer would say something like, “There’s a two mile back up north bound on the Schuylkill due to an accident at the Conshohocken exit and traffic is slowing southbound due to a gaper delay”
A gaper delay. As I think about it now, I am taken by how true that statement is to life. A gaper delay is caused by people slowing down to try and get a look at the accident in the other lane. As they near the site, they stretch their necks forward and as they come upon it they look off to the side and then eventually backwards, trying to catch a glimpse of the opposing lane’s misfortune. This gaping causes traffic to slow and sometymes even leads to another accident in the gaper’s lane.
Isn’t that just like life? We focus so much on what isn’t in front of us. We turn backwards, to the past, wishing we could change something or getting caught up in what did or didn’t happen and we lose sight of the life we have to live, and by doing so, we miss out on so many blessings.
Nothing can change the past; what’s done is done. We do, however, have the ability to affect the present and to clean up the aftermath of the past’s mistakes. All we have to do is call on The Insurance Agent and ask for His help overcome ‘the then’ and help us in ‘the now’.
Now, I’m not saying that we should forget about the past entirely, if fact, I’m convinced that mistakes of the past are like tools in the woodshop of life. We use them to build something, but when it’s all said and done, we leave the tools in the shop and walk out with the finished project.
Earlier when I referenced a line from the song, “Which Five Years”, I only gave you part of the verse:
“Now there were some things, if I had a tyme machine, I’d have done them differently...”
Now, here is the rest of it:
“but now I see that I just can’t see
what to blame and what to credit,
there’s just no way you can edit the shadow from the shine,
you see it’s all so perfectly intertwined.
And I’ve come to the point where I’ve faced the fact,
that it all adds up and I won’t subtract
not a single minute, not a single hour
if I had the power.”
The past can be a good reference when we need to make decisions about what to do or not to do, but we can’t let it draw our focus away from the present. If we do, we’re sure to develop a terrible case of the “shoulda-coulda-wouldas” and the life in front of us will not work out to our satisfaction. When it comes right down to it, the past made us who we are today but today is all we have, and that’s what we need to concentrate on.
Hindsight might be 20/20, but seeing clearly into the past will make you blind to the future. So, if you’re looking back, turn around and ask The Insurance Agent to write you a new policy for the future, because one decision will save you 100% on your life insurance and you’ll be in Great hands because like a good neighbor, Jesus is there!
Pam Tillis recorded a song back in 2001, written by Craig Wiseman and Lisa Drew, called “Which Five Years”. The second verse of the song starts with the line; “Now there were some things, if I had a tyme machine, I’d have done them differently...” I think everyone, to a point, could say that line is true. We all have things we wish we could change, things we want to go back in tyme and do over, especially if we could take the knowledge with us that we currently posses.
Ah, but there’s the rub, at least for me, the longing to go back. I often get so lost in the “what could have beens” that I forget about the “here and now”, or, to rephrase it, I get tangled up in the things I cannot change and overlook those which I have the ‘power’ to alter.
I remember when I used to commute 50 plus miles, one way, to Philadelphia; it certainly left something to be desired. If you have never driven into the city of Brotherly Love, I should tell you that driving the main drag, the Schuylkill Expressway, can be a very nerve-racking experience, especially for a non city girl like myself. What do I mean by nerve-racking? Well, suffice it to say write that there were a lot of accidents on what we tended to call the “Sure-Kill Expressway”.
Each morning, as I got closer to the city, I would listen to the traffic reports to find out, not if, but where, the accident was on that particular day. There was one expression that always caught my ear and struck me funny. The announcer would say something like, “There’s a two mile back up north bound on the Schuylkill due to an accident at the Conshohocken exit and traffic is slowing southbound due to a gaper delay”
A gaper delay. As I think about it now, I am taken by how true that statement is to life. A gaper delay is caused by people slowing down to try and get a look at the accident in the other lane. As they near the site, they stretch their necks forward and as they come upon it they look off to the side and then eventually backwards, trying to catch a glimpse of the opposing lane’s misfortune. This gaping causes traffic to slow and sometymes even leads to another accident in the gaper’s lane.
Isn’t that just like life? We focus so much on what isn’t in front of us. We turn backwards, to the past, wishing we could change something or getting caught up in what did or didn’t happen and we lose sight of the life we have to live, and by doing so, we miss out on so many blessings.
Nothing can change the past; what’s done is done. We do, however, have the ability to affect the present and to clean up the aftermath of the past’s mistakes. All we have to do is call on The Insurance Agent and ask for His help overcome ‘the then’ and help us in ‘the now’.
Now, I’m not saying that we should forget about the past entirely, if fact, I’m convinced that mistakes of the past are like tools in the woodshop of life. We use them to build something, but when it’s all said and done, we leave the tools in the shop and walk out with the finished project.
Earlier when I referenced a line from the song, “Which Five Years”, I only gave you part of the verse:
“Now there were some things, if I had a tyme machine, I’d have done them differently...”
Now, here is the rest of it:
“but now I see that I just can’t see
what to blame and what to credit,
there’s just no way you can edit the shadow from the shine,
you see it’s all so perfectly intertwined.
And I’ve come to the point where I’ve faced the fact,
that it all adds up and I won’t subtract
not a single minute, not a single hour
if I had the power.”
The past can be a good reference when we need to make decisions about what to do or not to do, but we can’t let it draw our focus away from the present. If we do, we’re sure to develop a terrible case of the “shoulda-coulda-wouldas” and the life in front of us will not work out to our satisfaction. When it comes right down to it, the past made us who we are today but today is all we have, and that’s what we need to concentrate on.
Hindsight might be 20/20, but seeing clearly into the past will make you blind to the future. So, if you’re looking back, turn around and ask The Insurance Agent to write you a new policy for the future, because one decision will save you 100% on your life insurance and you’ll be in Great hands because like a good neighbor, Jesus is there!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Traditions
“It’s most wonderful tyme of the year…”
It’s very strange, but I, me, the family deemed Scrooge, cannot stop singing Christmas songs! In fact, the other day I just about caused my mother to faint when I actually REQUESTED she put on some Christmas music. Just for the record, I was poised to catch her before I let the words escape my lips. She gladly put in a CD and I think it made her happy to see me with at least a modicum of Christmas Spirit.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love what Christmas stands for, the birth of Christ, but the whole hullabaloo that goes with it, well, if I’m honest, it reminds me of some very miserable tymes from the Christmases of my childhood. Oh my, just typing that now dampened my spirits a little. Suffice it to say that Christmas at my house was probably the most miserable tyme of the year, and trust me, most every day of the year was miserable.
Okay, so, moving away from troublesome thoughts and back to the fact that my Scrooge-like self this year has the uncontrollable urge to sing Christmas songs. Well, no, I guess there is a bit more of a background story you will need to understand the WOW factor of my melodies. It’s been six years since I moved away from the source of my ill Christmas memories and you would think that with tyme it would get easier to enjoy the holiday season. I think in a way it has made it easier, but I made one fatal mistake when I moved; I got into retail.
There’s no worse place to work during the Christmas season than in a retail store, especially one that cares far more about its bottom line than its employees, which is most every one, and one whose manager is the epitome of Ebenezer Scrooge. Retail will take any ounce of Christmas spirit a person has and exploit it until said person no longer possesses any desire to deck a hall or sing one more fa la stinkin’ la!
Sure, most people think that the stores are so pretty and the deals are so great, but what they don’t realize is that the employees are forced to get a certain number of credit applications and a certain amount of sales in order to maintain their rate of pay. How can anyone sustain a cheerful attitude with that hanging over his or her head? Not to mention being forced to listen to the same horrible versions of the same secular “Christmas songs”, (because Heaven forbid they play a song that mentions Jesus and “offend” anyone) over and over for eight hours a day. I mean really, how many tymes can a person listen to Jessica Simpson destroy “Baby it’s Cold Outside” before they want to take a battle axe to the radio speakers? Can you see where I’m going with this? Getting into retail was not the place to be in order to heal my Christmas tyme woes.
Now, part of me thinks that, deep down, I desperately wanted to shake my ‘Scroogeness’ because about two years ago I developed a sheer fondness for Christmas movies. Yes, it’s true and you know the movies mean. I thoroughly enjoy the ones where people find their Christmas spirit, where they learn about family and giving and everything that’s important and yes, I especially delight in the ones with cheery conclusions, where the characters find true love and happiness at the end. Alas, I am a hopeless romantic to the nth degree. In fact, the day I find a man like the ones they write in Hallmark movies is the day…well, I digress.
So, the fact that I have this Christmas movie partiality and my current need to sing Christmas songs, oh, and the fact that this year I am actually excited to go get a tree and decorate are a new found assurances that I am not a lost cause when it comes to holiday spirit. Such assurances however prompted me to think about the people that were blessed to never question their holiday spirit, the ones that have are set in their activities and traditions.
Tradition is like a pack of batteries; it has its pluses and minuses. I know people that absolutely have to do it like they’ve always done it. They have to visit this uncle on this day and they have to take this particular dish to that particular party. They have to put this decoration here and that decoration there. They have to attend a particular function, not because they want to, but because it’s what they’ve always done. It just has to be the same or, to them, it just isn’t Christmas.
Now, for me, the one with the Scrooge-ish tendencies, well, I don’t really have that many Christmas traditions. Sure, there’s a tree and some decorating, a party or two and some favorite foods, but honestly, nothing is mapped out and specifically detailed. So, tradition or no tradition? That is the question.
Well, if I were Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof I would be advocating tradition, tradition and trying desperately to control my daughters, but would I be right? Is doing something just because that’s the way it was always done really a valid reason for doing it? I really don’t think it is. I think that doing something because it is the right thing to do is always a good reason for doing it, but to do something because tradition demands it, well, I think there has to be more to it than that.
The Bible warns us about living in the past and, in a way, I think that is what traditions force us to do. By doing what we’ve always done we’re forced to look at what’s gone by and we fail to live in the present. I’m not insinuating that traditions are wrong or that drawing from examples or lessons of the past is bad, but I do think that letting traditions control how we live is not right.
I mean think about it, if Thomas Edison let tradition control him, we wouldn’t have the light bulb. Edison did not say, “well, we’ve always been in the dark, so we should always stay in the dark”, instead he moved forward and gave the world some fantastic inventions. In the same respect, Jesus’ disciples threw tradition to the wind when they gave up everything to follow Him. The fishermen were undoubtedly following in their father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, but when Jesus said, “follow me”, they moved forward and, eventually, became great evangelists. Imagine if they would have said, “sorry Jesus, we’ve always caught fish and we’re going to continue to catch fish, but thanks for the offer”. What a thought.
So, it comes down to this. As we deck the halls, go to parties, visit family and a sing those Christmas songs, let’s not let tradition dictate the holiday season. Let’s take things as they come, enjoy the moment, live in the present and make new memories because trying to recapture the past is an exhausting tradition and after all, Christmas…“it’s most wonderful tyme of the year”!
It’s very strange, but I, me, the family deemed Scrooge, cannot stop singing Christmas songs! In fact, the other day I just about caused my mother to faint when I actually REQUESTED she put on some Christmas music. Just for the record, I was poised to catch her before I let the words escape my lips. She gladly put in a CD and I think it made her happy to see me with at least a modicum of Christmas Spirit.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love what Christmas stands for, the birth of Christ, but the whole hullabaloo that goes with it, well, if I’m honest, it reminds me of some very miserable tymes from the Christmases of my childhood. Oh my, just typing that now dampened my spirits a little. Suffice it to say that Christmas at my house was probably the most miserable tyme of the year, and trust me, most every day of the year was miserable.
Okay, so, moving away from troublesome thoughts and back to the fact that my Scrooge-like self this year has the uncontrollable urge to sing Christmas songs. Well, no, I guess there is a bit more of a background story you will need to understand the WOW factor of my melodies. It’s been six years since I moved away from the source of my ill Christmas memories and you would think that with tyme it would get easier to enjoy the holiday season. I think in a way it has made it easier, but I made one fatal mistake when I moved; I got into retail.
There’s no worse place to work during the Christmas season than in a retail store, especially one that cares far more about its bottom line than its employees, which is most every one, and one whose manager is the epitome of Ebenezer Scrooge. Retail will take any ounce of Christmas spirit a person has and exploit it until said person no longer possesses any desire to deck a hall or sing one more fa la stinkin’ la!
Sure, most people think that the stores are so pretty and the deals are so great, but what they don’t realize is that the employees are forced to get a certain number of credit applications and a certain amount of sales in order to maintain their rate of pay. How can anyone sustain a cheerful attitude with that hanging over his or her head? Not to mention being forced to listen to the same horrible versions of the same secular “Christmas songs”, (because Heaven forbid they play a song that mentions Jesus and “offend” anyone) over and over for eight hours a day. I mean really, how many tymes can a person listen to Jessica Simpson destroy “Baby it’s Cold Outside” before they want to take a battle axe to the radio speakers? Can you see where I’m going with this? Getting into retail was not the place to be in order to heal my Christmas tyme woes.
Now, part of me thinks that, deep down, I desperately wanted to shake my ‘Scroogeness’ because about two years ago I developed a sheer fondness for Christmas movies. Yes, it’s true and you know the movies mean. I thoroughly enjoy the ones where people find their Christmas spirit, where they learn about family and giving and everything that’s important and yes, I especially delight in the ones with cheery conclusions, where the characters find true love and happiness at the end. Alas, I am a hopeless romantic to the nth degree. In fact, the day I find a man like the ones they write in Hallmark movies is the day…well, I digress.
So, the fact that I have this Christmas movie partiality and my current need to sing Christmas songs, oh, and the fact that this year I am actually excited to go get a tree and decorate are a new found assurances that I am not a lost cause when it comes to holiday spirit. Such assurances however prompted me to think about the people that were blessed to never question their holiday spirit, the ones that have are set in their activities and traditions.
Tradition is like a pack of batteries; it has its pluses and minuses. I know people that absolutely have to do it like they’ve always done it. They have to visit this uncle on this day and they have to take this particular dish to that particular party. They have to put this decoration here and that decoration there. They have to attend a particular function, not because they want to, but because it’s what they’ve always done. It just has to be the same or, to them, it just isn’t Christmas.
Now, for me, the one with the Scrooge-ish tendencies, well, I don’t really have that many Christmas traditions. Sure, there’s a tree and some decorating, a party or two and some favorite foods, but honestly, nothing is mapped out and specifically detailed. So, tradition or no tradition? That is the question.
Well, if I were Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof I would be advocating tradition, tradition and trying desperately to control my daughters, but would I be right? Is doing something just because that’s the way it was always done really a valid reason for doing it? I really don’t think it is. I think that doing something because it is the right thing to do is always a good reason for doing it, but to do something because tradition demands it, well, I think there has to be more to it than that.
The Bible warns us about living in the past and, in a way, I think that is what traditions force us to do. By doing what we’ve always done we’re forced to look at what’s gone by and we fail to live in the present. I’m not insinuating that traditions are wrong or that drawing from examples or lessons of the past is bad, but I do think that letting traditions control how we live is not right.
I mean think about it, if Thomas Edison let tradition control him, we wouldn’t have the light bulb. Edison did not say, “well, we’ve always been in the dark, so we should always stay in the dark”, instead he moved forward and gave the world some fantastic inventions. In the same respect, Jesus’ disciples threw tradition to the wind when they gave up everything to follow Him. The fishermen were undoubtedly following in their father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, but when Jesus said, “follow me”, they moved forward and, eventually, became great evangelists. Imagine if they would have said, “sorry Jesus, we’ve always caught fish and we’re going to continue to catch fish, but thanks for the offer”. What a thought.
So, it comes down to this. As we deck the halls, go to parties, visit family and a sing those Christmas songs, let’s not let tradition dictate the holiday season. Let’s take things as they come, enjoy the moment, live in the present and make new memories because trying to recapture the past is an exhausting tradition and after all, Christmas…“it’s most wonderful tyme of the year”!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Protest into Praise
Studies are often conducted about the percentage of people who go to college and earn a degree. A lot of tymes the outcome of such studies is not impressive, but I am of the opinion that 99.9% of people on this earth, myself included, would have at least a bachelors if not a doctorate if the Universities would offer a degree in complaining.
If you think about it, we all do it. We complain when it’s hot and we complain when it’s cold. We complain about the slow moving vehicle in front of us and we complain when cars fly passed us on the highway. We brook no tolerance when we have to wait in line at the grocery store checkout and we have less than positive things to say when people in line behind us express their impatience.
Now, you might be able to justify our cranky habit by calling it an involuntary reaction. We don’t mean to grumble or protest, but society has taught us that we are the ones who know best and that if something doesn’t go our way, we should voice our displeasure. It’s an ironic curriculum, considering that the only way it could work is if everyone had the exact same opinions and ideas; fancy that, we don’t. We live in a culture where new and different ideas are in abundant supply, thus making the ammunition for grievances likewise. There is no shortage of topics, situations or happenings to invoke a criticism from even the most conscientious of individuals, though it seems some people have more access to fire power than most.
Few things are more aggravating than a person who finds fault with everyone and everything and has a particular skill in making his or her dissatisfaction freely known. Every word has a deep, negative connotation. Every breath is taken and released with the fundamental purpose of relaying distaste for a current situation or surrounding. Nothing pleases this person, to the point that even if things were altered to meet every complaint, he or she would criticize the order and manner in which the complaints were met.
Right now you are doing one of three things. You’re nodding your head in agreement because you’ve encountered one of these personalities, you’re breathing a sigh of relief that you’ve yet to cross paths with such a person or you’re jumping up and down, bellowing maledictions because I just trampled all over your feet. Okay, that might be a bit dramatic, but you know what I mean. I think if we’re all honest, our toes are hurting at the moment, because we all know that from tyme to tyme we catch a case the grumbles.
Years ago there was an era, if you will, when the phrase, “What would Jesus do?” was extremely popular; it’s a shame that the era has passed. The question seemed to inspire people to try and respond to a situation in a way that they knew or thought Jesus might have responded. It prompted them to think before they spoke or before they complained. If you consider it, it makes sense. If Jesus could go through all the horrific things that He did without complaining, protesting, whining or grumbling, then perhaps there is a modicum of hope for us.
There are going to be tymes when things don’t go our way, in fact there will probably be a lot of them. There are going to be tymes when we have to wait in line, when we have to compromise on a movie choice, when the weather offers rain when we want it fair, but we don’t have to let it transform us into Grumpy; Sneezy or Sleepy perhaps, depending on the season or the day, but not Grumpy.
There are so many things for us to be thankful for, to the point that if we stopped to count our blessings, we would exhaust our supply of numbers. God never said that life here on earth would be without aggravation, but He did promise to help us through any and all circumstances that we encounter and that is something to smile about.
So, the next tyme you’re less than pleased because your friend chose to take the long way home from the restaurant, instead of a sullen sigh, let your pallet produce praise to God that He blessed you with companionship. The next tyme you’re sitting at a red light, wanting to grumble about the wait, turn that glare in your eye into a gleam because God wanted to spend that minute with you. Then, when you encounter those with the bane of finding complaint, be a shining red light in their darkness, because you might be God’s minute with them. ~LDK~
If you think about it, we all do it. We complain when it’s hot and we complain when it’s cold. We complain about the slow moving vehicle in front of us and we complain when cars fly passed us on the highway. We brook no tolerance when we have to wait in line at the grocery store checkout and we have less than positive things to say when people in line behind us express their impatience.
Now, you might be able to justify our cranky habit by calling it an involuntary reaction. We don’t mean to grumble or protest, but society has taught us that we are the ones who know best and that if something doesn’t go our way, we should voice our displeasure. It’s an ironic curriculum, considering that the only way it could work is if everyone had the exact same opinions and ideas; fancy that, we don’t. We live in a culture where new and different ideas are in abundant supply, thus making the ammunition for grievances likewise. There is no shortage of topics, situations or happenings to invoke a criticism from even the most conscientious of individuals, though it seems some people have more access to fire power than most.
Few things are more aggravating than a person who finds fault with everyone and everything and has a particular skill in making his or her dissatisfaction freely known. Every word has a deep, negative connotation. Every breath is taken and released with the fundamental purpose of relaying distaste for a current situation or surrounding. Nothing pleases this person, to the point that even if things were altered to meet every complaint, he or she would criticize the order and manner in which the complaints were met.
Right now you are doing one of three things. You’re nodding your head in agreement because you’ve encountered one of these personalities, you’re breathing a sigh of relief that you’ve yet to cross paths with such a person or you’re jumping up and down, bellowing maledictions because I just trampled all over your feet. Okay, that might be a bit dramatic, but you know what I mean. I think if we’re all honest, our toes are hurting at the moment, because we all know that from tyme to tyme we catch a case the grumbles.
Years ago there was an era, if you will, when the phrase, “What would Jesus do?” was extremely popular; it’s a shame that the era has passed. The question seemed to inspire people to try and respond to a situation in a way that they knew or thought Jesus might have responded. It prompted them to think before they spoke or before they complained. If you consider it, it makes sense. If Jesus could go through all the horrific things that He did without complaining, protesting, whining or grumbling, then perhaps there is a modicum of hope for us.
There are going to be tymes when things don’t go our way, in fact there will probably be a lot of them. There are going to be tymes when we have to wait in line, when we have to compromise on a movie choice, when the weather offers rain when we want it fair, but we don’t have to let it transform us into Grumpy; Sneezy or Sleepy perhaps, depending on the season or the day, but not Grumpy.
There are so many things for us to be thankful for, to the point that if we stopped to count our blessings, we would exhaust our supply of numbers. God never said that life here on earth would be without aggravation, but He did promise to help us through any and all circumstances that we encounter and that is something to smile about.
So, the next tyme you’re less than pleased because your friend chose to take the long way home from the restaurant, instead of a sullen sigh, let your pallet produce praise to God that He blessed you with companionship. The next tyme you’re sitting at a red light, wanting to grumble about the wait, turn that glare in your eye into a gleam because God wanted to spend that minute with you. Then, when you encounter those with the bane of finding complaint, be a shining red light in their darkness, because you might be God’s minute with them. ~LDK~
Monday, October 4, 2010
Selfish Rehabilitation
I’m not exactly sure why it happens, but no matter how you try to look at it, human beings have innate tendencies of a selfish nature. Even the best behaved and most mildly mannered of children want what they want and with no exceptions. It might be prompted by the want of a specific toy or a desire to watch a certain movie or play a particular game, but whatever its origin, selfishness is palpable. For some reason we are not born with the capacity to think about the other people. We don’t consider their feelings or the desires or opinions they might have, we simply try our best to get it, have it or do it our own way.
Now, as we grow up, we learn to overcome these tendencies. If we’re fortunate, we have people around us that teach us the virtues of sharing and compromise. As we grow up we learn to get along with others and actually take to heart the old adage that it is better to give than to receive. We learn to love unconditionally which breeds the gift of forgiveness and we’re able to be truly happy when someone else succeeds in their pursuits.
So, as adults, have we rehabilitated our selfish ways and become perfectly giving individuals? Unfortunately, no. While we learned to be altruistic, to a degree, there is nothing we can do to abolish the traits and qualities with which we were born. Sure, we can learn to control them, try to overcome them, but the bottom line is, if we’ve got it, we’ve got it.
So, if we’re born selfish, we’re always going to have an underlying desire to think about ourselves before we think about others. The difference, however, between childlike selfishness and adult self-interest is that as adults we use our selfish tendencies to ‘protect’ the ones we love.
That may seem a little upside down and backwards, but let’s consider what it means.
Have you ever had issues that you thought were specific to you and declared that no one else would understand what you were going through or dealing with? You kept your feelings inside and tucked them away so that no one would be affected by what you were going through. To explain what you were feeling would be too complicated and you didn’t want anyone to have to take the tyme to listen, so you store it in the back of your mind and you go on. By doing so, you committed one of the most selfish acts there is to commit. You prevented those that love you from helping.
Here’s a news flash you might have missed along the way: life is not easy! You are going to have troubles, problems and issues that you simply will not know how to handle. You’re going to have questions and situations that are beyond you and …now make sure you’re sitting down for this one, because it might pack a bit of a punch… from tyme to tyme, you’re going to need some H-E-L-P!
All humor aside, for the moment, God is perfect and He knows everything. From the name of every star in every galaxy to the number of sand grains on each and every shore, God knows it all. You can always talk to God about any and everything that is going on in your life and be assured that He will understand, but, being the all understanding God that He is, He gets that sometymes we need something tangible in front of us in order to understand what He wants us to know.
You might wonder what that has to do with our selfish tendencies. Well, a lot of tyme those tangible things that God gives us are not so much things, but people, people that God puts in our lives to help us along the way. Sometymes these people are friends who have overcome their selfish dispositions and truly have your best interests at heart. Sometymes these people are friends who are dealing with their own set of problems and need to know that there is someone out there that’s dealing with similar issues.
The truth of the matter is, God puts the right people in the right places to accomplish His will and to hide from such is selfish. To conceal your feelings and not let people help you, to not let God help you is selfish and it doesn’t do you a bit of good.
Life is a tough, two-way street, but the good thing is, God is the Master of all intersections and He knows when to change the light to put the right people in front of each other. So, if you have an issue let someone you trust help you because you never know who is going through a selfish tyme and your problem just might be someone else’s solution. ~LDK~
Now, as we grow up, we learn to overcome these tendencies. If we’re fortunate, we have people around us that teach us the virtues of sharing and compromise. As we grow up we learn to get along with others and actually take to heart the old adage that it is better to give than to receive. We learn to love unconditionally which breeds the gift of forgiveness and we’re able to be truly happy when someone else succeeds in their pursuits.
So, as adults, have we rehabilitated our selfish ways and become perfectly giving individuals? Unfortunately, no. While we learned to be altruistic, to a degree, there is nothing we can do to abolish the traits and qualities with which we were born. Sure, we can learn to control them, try to overcome them, but the bottom line is, if we’ve got it, we’ve got it.
So, if we’re born selfish, we’re always going to have an underlying desire to think about ourselves before we think about others. The difference, however, between childlike selfishness and adult self-interest is that as adults we use our selfish tendencies to ‘protect’ the ones we love.
That may seem a little upside down and backwards, but let’s consider what it means.
Have you ever had issues that you thought were specific to you and declared that no one else would understand what you were going through or dealing with? You kept your feelings inside and tucked them away so that no one would be affected by what you were going through. To explain what you were feeling would be too complicated and you didn’t want anyone to have to take the tyme to listen, so you store it in the back of your mind and you go on. By doing so, you committed one of the most selfish acts there is to commit. You prevented those that love you from helping.
Here’s a news flash you might have missed along the way: life is not easy! You are going to have troubles, problems and issues that you simply will not know how to handle. You’re going to have questions and situations that are beyond you and …now make sure you’re sitting down for this one, because it might pack a bit of a punch… from tyme to tyme, you’re going to need some H-E-L-P!
All humor aside, for the moment, God is perfect and He knows everything. From the name of every star in every galaxy to the number of sand grains on each and every shore, God knows it all. You can always talk to God about any and everything that is going on in your life and be assured that He will understand, but, being the all understanding God that He is, He gets that sometymes we need something tangible in front of us in order to understand what He wants us to know.
You might wonder what that has to do with our selfish tendencies. Well, a lot of tyme those tangible things that God gives us are not so much things, but people, people that God puts in our lives to help us along the way. Sometymes these people are friends who have overcome their selfish dispositions and truly have your best interests at heart. Sometymes these people are friends who are dealing with their own set of problems and need to know that there is someone out there that’s dealing with similar issues.
The truth of the matter is, God puts the right people in the right places to accomplish His will and to hide from such is selfish. To conceal your feelings and not let people help you, to not let God help you is selfish and it doesn’t do you a bit of good.
Life is a tough, two-way street, but the good thing is, God is the Master of all intersections and He knows when to change the light to put the right people in front of each other. So, if you have an issue let someone you trust help you because you never know who is going through a selfish tyme and your problem just might be someone else’s solution. ~LDK~
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