What do You Carry?

I’ve never been one to carry a purse.  Doing so is girly and while I am a girl, I am not the girly type girl.  Aside from the girly-ness of it, carrying a purse requires a more concentrated memory than I seem to possess most moments of any given day – if you take your purse in with you, you have to remember to take it out with you. Yeah, I’m not so good at that second part. So, the bottom line is I don’t like to carry a purse. 

While the personal choice not to carry a purse is not an earth shattering one, it does tend to create some issues as far as what to do with the stuff I need on any given day. Now, I’m not one that needs all the bells and whistles so to type.  In fact, I’m not really sure what most women carry in their purse to make it a necessity. I’m usually good with my wallet and my camera, but there are tymes that I find I need other things like the case for my glasses or a granola bar or a pack of gum. Then there are tymes that I decide I should carry my Leatherman or a pocketknife, because you never know when either, or both, will come in handy – and really, tools just are cool.

Of course what I have to carry also depends on where I’m going, how long I’ll be gone and the activities I’ll be doing while I’m there. All of these variables seem to advocate for the carrying of a purse, but still, I don’t care to carry one.

Over the years this battle of “need to/don’t want to” has been a trying one, but recently I’ve discovered something that really helps my struggle rather well: cargo shorts!  It’s amazing what you can carry, store and fit in the pockets in cargo shorts.  They can store any and everything I need to take with me on pretty much any outing. They can hold my wallet when I have to go, yes, have to go shopping – I’m not a fan of the process.  Cargo shorts can hold my camera wherever I go, because you never know when you going to cross paths with “the perfect” shot. They can even hold a rather large bottle of water when on a hike. Bottom line, cargo pants eliminate my need for a purse.

The other day my aunt came to town and wanted to go to a few local stores and shop around. Ha, the things I do for family.  As we walked around the farmers market I started to feel weighed down.  Then I realized my “purse” was rather full. My wallet, car keys, camera, glasses case, foundation compact, Leatherman, and cell phone all filled my pockets and added considerable weight for me to carry around and frankly made me feel the need to constantly pull my shorts back into a comfortable position.

When I got home that evening I went to get ready for bed and when I changed into my cotton shorts and tank I couldn’t believe the weight that was lifted from me.  At that moment it occurred to me that it isn’t just the physical weight that we tend to carry around with us every day.  What about the pockets of our emotional cargo shorts?  What do we put in to those?  Pain from relationships, harsh words, failed endeavors, depression, feelings of worthlessness and an array of other negative thoughts and emotions can all fill our poignant pockets to capacity and add to the weight of our emotional baggage.

What would it be like if we if we changed out of those emotional cargo shorts and stopped carrying around all the heavy pain and negativity?  I have a feeling that our hearts and minds would be a lot lighter and it’s likely there’d be a renewed spring in our step.  Of course having the idea to change and actually accomplishing it are two different things.  While it’s easy to fill my tangible cargo pockets with the things I need, it’s difficult to keep my emotional cargo pockets empty of the things I think I need, but really don’t. 

I don’t need to hold on to the mean words said to me, but yet I tuck them away so I can pull them out later and feel bad again. I don’t need to keep the feelings of a relationship gone wrong, but still I hang on to them so I can relive the pain later.  I don’t need to remember the bad things that happened that make me feel sad or ashamed or disheartened, but still I pocket them away for future pain.

If you think about it, the only thing we really need to carry around with us takes up no room at all, yet fills us completely; weighs nothing yet bears the weight of all our burdens, sorrows and sins; Jesus Christ.  When we fill our hearts with Jesus, there’s no room for the things we don’t need to carry around.

So if you’re like me and feeling weighed down by the things that don’t matter, let’s try to clean out our emotional cargo pockets and give the contents to the Savior.  It might be a process we have to repeat often for a while, but I think eventually we’ll find that we stop hoarding the bad stuff and start keeping only the things we need like mercy, grace joy.

Puzzling Thoughts

The Puzzle of Life

There’s something about the long nights of winter that create a puzzling feeling in me. Oh, not that I’m confused mind you, well, no more so than usual, but rather I’m filled with an urge to reassemble a picture that’s been chopped up into a thousand pieces. The concept of jigsaw puzzling is really quite bizarre if you consider it thoroughly, so I try not to. I just look at it as a way to pass the series of dark, cold hours that come packaged at the end of each winter day.

Like any task that has a lot of steps or pieces, there’s a format or an order in which to accomplish them; jigsaw puzzling is no different. I try to follow a regimented process to ensure the least amount of anxiety to a daunting mission.

Step 1: Preparing the Surface.

The first thing I do is get out the square board that sits atop the somewhat plush topped card table. Trying to connect the pieces on the plush top is vexing at best; they simply do not join properly, nor do they stay together for any length of tyme. The solid surface is a must.

Step 2: Setting Boundaries

Just like anything else in life, I need to know where the constraints of my task are in order to give me a concise workspace. So, I sort through all the pieces of the puzzle and separate the pieces with straight edges from those without.  Once I’ve sifted through each piece, I setout to form the puzzle’s border, hoping that I was observant and found all the needed pieces the first tyme through; if not, the process repeats.

Step 3: Breaking it Down:

I’ve come to the conclusion that the world is made up of different minded people; a stunning revelation, I know. In this sense of the thought however, I’m not referring to what people think, but rather how they think.  In reference to jigsaw puzzling, some people think in color, some in pictures and some in shapes. Personally, I am shape minded for the most part when it comes to assembling the pieces, but with just the border together, I have to momentarily adapt my way of thinking.  Faced with a box full of jumbled up pieces can be overwhelming, so I consider the image I am attempting to create and I start pulling out pieces by color, pieces that have a good chance of fitting in the same general area.  I usually try to concentrate on the largest span of solid color in the picture because once I isolate a significant amount of those pieces, my shape minded brain can set to work.

Step 4: Organizing the Chaos

Working a thousand piece puzzle on a card table does not leave excessive amounts of space to organize pieces. Not just that, but arranging pieces on the table is not exactly conducive to easy access. You end up having to stretch across the puzzle or walk around the table to try and see the pieces you have laid out. I’m all about stretching and walking when it comes to exercise, but when puzzling it just adds the possibility of error and frankly, it gets old after the first few minutes. Instead, I take baking trays, the kind with raised edges, and line up my pieces on those. This way, while sitting in front of my work area, I can easily access the tray and secure the pieces I need. Not to mention, when this is done, it does well to accent the shapes of the pieces.

Step 5: Focusing - One Piece at a Tyme

Have you ever met someone with an inability to focus? (pick me!) They might almost seem jittery or very face paced, moving from one thing to the next, leaving each task incomplete and, in short, accomplishing nothing. Of this, I am very guilty. While perhaps not jittery, I do have a profound inability to concentrate on one specific task, something that does not lend itself well to the art of puzzling. Still, somehow, when I sit down to a puzzle I find a way to put my brain in a different gear. I know that hundreds of pieces are there, waiting to be set in their correct location, but I don’t concern myself with them.  Even though I’m looking at them, all laid out on the baking trays, I’m only focused on one specific piece of the puzzle, the one I need. To concern myself with every piece of the puzzle would be far too overwhelming to endure, much like life would be if we focused on every piece of it.

In fact, I find that the steps of puzzling do well to liken themselves to the walk of life. In step 1, we found we needed a firm foundation under our puzzle pieces in order to connect them. Just like that, in life, I’ve found that I need Jesus Christ as my firm foundation or my pieces simply do not connect. Jesus is the one Who keeps my pieces together. 

In step 2, we formed the border of our puzzle, knowing that once assembled, all of our work would be within those parameters. Fortunately for us, God has already built the border to the puzzle of life.  He started it with Genesis, ended it with Revelation and called it the Bible.  Everything we need to know can be found inside its pages and therefore, we don’t need to work outside of it to assemble the pieces of life’s puzzle.

In step 3, we broke the down the picture of the puzzle and I noted that even though I like to concentrate on the shapes of the pieces as a way to assemble them, some tymes I have to change my approach. Just like in life, things do not always work out the way we think they should. Some tymes we’re forced to look at happenings or situations in a manner that is foreign to us. Our standard approach of handling, dealing or coping does not lend itself to certain occurrences and our only option is to adapt.  Every tyme something like that comes about however, God is with us as we try the new adaptation on for size; After all, God is the Ultimate Tailor, able to mend that which we tear.

In step 4, we organized our jungle of pieces, laying them out so that we could see each one if we desired. The process not only made us aware of what we had to work with, but also it created an easy way to access our tools. Let’s face it; life can get chaotic at tymes.  We have places to go and people to see and often tymes we feel burdened by our ….oh… so…. many…. tasks.  However, if we take the tyme to lay those tasks out neatly (on our baking trays) we find that each task or at least in each task is a blessing. So, you have to finish the laundry, pick up the kids from soccer, fix dinner and make it to the PTA meeting by 7:00?  How exciting that you have clothes to wear, kids that need you and love you, food to eat and a way to make a difference!  It’s all in our perspective!

And finally, step 5.  Have you ever wished you could see the “big picture”?  You feel frustrated because you cannot see the fruits of your labor or the results of your effort. You wish God would just show you everything so that you could make sense of what you’re doing or going through.  In step 5, with our puzzle, we took it one piece at a tyme, a process that applies well to the puzzle of life. God knows that the whole picture would be far too overwhelming for us, so He charges us with our pieces. When we focus on one piece or one day at a tyme and how it connects with the other pieces or days we’ve already fit together, well, it is far less daunting of a task than focusing on all the pieces at once.

The bottom line is, with a jigsaw puzzle, there’s no right or wrong way to go about it. Some ways might be more organized than others and lighten the load of the task, but as long as you get it together properly, it’s the end result that matters.  The puzzle of life, however, well there is a right way and that’s with Jesus. Just like you can’t put a puzzle together in the dark, you need The Light of the world to navigate through life’s perplexing moments.  As long as you have Him as your foundation, the pieces will fit; perhaps not always where you think they should, but they will fit. You just have to trust the puzzle’s Manufacturer! 

So, the next tyme we set out to put a jigsaw puzzle together, be it in our living room or on the card table of life, let’s remember, instead of pieces, to count our blessings and that, eventually, we will be wowed by the big picture that our puzzle pieces created.

© L.D. Kirklin

Spring into Life

There’s something about springtyme that really makes me aware of change. As the dullness of winter fades away and the newness of life takes over, I see so many wondrous things occur. The world around me seems to brighten minute by minute as the vibrant colors of the season unfold. The willow trees start to green revealing their peaceful presence, when, for a season, they went unnoticed. The forsythia bushes begin to glow, some bright yellow, some golden, giving light to their existence when before they blended in with their surroundings. As the days go by the flowering cherry trees begin to shine with pink perfection and the white blooms of the budding pear trees add in pops of pureness against the unfurling landscape.

As the season matures, a plethora of other trees like maple, elm, birch and oak, begin blossom, offering brilliant shades of green and the mountains, once again, become a patchwork of splendor. Small signs of life break through the tones of the earth as if awakened by the warm temperatures and start to reach up toward Heaven, their leaves like outstretched arms offering praise to The Creator. For months the small bulbs lay dormant under the earth with no symbol life, but with a whisper from God, they return and bring forth a beautiful array of dazzling colors. The yellow of the daffodils, the pink and purple of the hyacinths and the rainbow of tulips, all rise to welcome the season, the season of change.

As much as I don’t like to admit it, I often view change as a negative aspect of life, at least when life is going well. I don’t want my day-to-day to be altered in any fashion in fear that it will spoil my manageable routine. In fact, even when things in my life are not going so well I fear change; after all, change has the potential to make things worse rather than better.

Is it normal to fear change? If you think about it, the unknown is a major component of change and the unknown can be rather terrifying. As a rule, most people fall into schedules and habits out of a need for control or rather the need to know. There’s something comforting in a job you’ve had for years, even if you’re not exactly fond of it. You know what to expect and you know what’s expected of you. In truth, a routine can alleviate a great deal of stress when it comes to life.

When we feel like we’re in control of our lives, or better yet, our destinies, it does a lot to dispel our fears. However, when we don’t know what to expect out of a situation or even worse, out of life, it can be a very disconcerting feeling. Sure, there are moments when we want to drive into the world with the throttle wide open, but all the sharp turns and hairpin curves along the road of life force us to slow down and exercise caution. Caution isn’t a bad thing, in fact, there’s a lot to be said for the sensible thinking that caution brings, the rub is when that caution breeds fear and brings us to a stop.

I have a tendency to let the fear of the unknown stop me. The “what ifs” and the “I don’t knows” that come with change have a way of paralyzing my ability to move on and to make my way through life. I don’t like this about myself and even though I know better, sometymes I can’t seem to get over my fears.

I think of all the great things throughout history that came about because someone or a group of people refused to let the fear of the unknown stop them. I think about everything from David fighting Goliath to Amerigo Vespucci’s explorations that led him to discover America, to George Washington and all the other American’s who stood up for freedom against unknown odds and obstacles. While I’m sure they had concerns and questions, they controlled their fear instead of letting their fear control them. It really bothers me that I cannot do the same thing, but then springtyme comes and I get an awesome reminder from God.

Change is an inevitable part of life, but God is the Giver and Controller of life. He is mindful of the seasons and brings about the beautiful changes we see unfolding around us as spring blossoms and He is just as mindful of us. He wants to see us blossom and change just like the springtyme, not to fear the world around us. Jesus understood the evils and fears of the world, but in John 10:10 He explained that He wants us to have a good, full life.

“The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and that they may have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

If we’re struggling with change or fearing the unknown in our lives, we need to remember that God does not want us to fear, but rather to rely on Him for guidance and answers. God’s desire is for our happiness, not our fear. While we might face difficult tymes, we are never without the One Who is always by our side, Who holds our hand when we stumble and Who carries us when we cannot walk the uneven road.

So, the unknown, change, fear?

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” - Romans 8:31

God? In our corner? What a comforting thought and how wonderful of God to remind us of it regularly!

As the seasons change let’s remember that every blossom of spring, sun ray of summer, fallen leaf of autumn and snowflake of winter are just God’s reminders that He is in control and we have nothing to fear…not even fear itself.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sound mind” – II Timothy 1:7


Blessings,

L.D. Kirklin

The Right Tools

The other day I set out to fix what I thought should be a minor problem with a push mower. How did it go? Let’s just type that by the end of the project I was pretty sure that the broken push mower was going to push me to the breaking point. Suffice it to write, I was unsuccessful at my task. A bit chagrinned by the outcome, I decided that no one would be the wiser of my less than triumphant attempt if I put the mower back together; at least it would look like it worked.

As I worked rapidly to finish the reassembly before anyone arrived to see my efforts, I realized that not only could I not repair the mower, I couldn’t even reassemble it properly. No, somewhere, in the midst of my rummaging about, I managed to lose a bolt in the grass, making it impossible to fully reassemble the broken monstrosity. Alas, it was not my finest hour.

Resolved to the fact that I had to find that bolt, I searched for what seemed like an eternity, but to no avail; the bolt was lost. As I scanned the yard around me, now fully aware that the tall grass was not the best place to work on the mower, I decided that the bolt had no doubt been carried off to the abyss by an assiduous ant or a buried in the unknown by a vexing varmint of some sort. It had simply vanished. Irritated, the frustration was mounting like the pressure just before a volcano erupts and the stress of it all refused to slide from my shoulders, in fact, it wouldn’t even slide off my well greased hands. No, at that moment in tyme, you might say that both the mower and I had a screw loose, but I digress.

Since there was nothing more I could do to find the bolt, I decided to clean up my tools, trying to make myself feel better by at least accomplishing something, albeit the smallest of tasks. As I gathered up the wrenches and screwdrivers, I couldn’t help but recall the trouble I encountered when trying to take the mower apart. I really needed a socket wrench and quickly recalled the numerous tymes I stood at Lowe’s, starting at the shiny, multi-pieced socket wrench sets, each tyme convincing myself that I would never have need of them; never say never.

So, with no socket wrench in hand, I fumbled and struggled with a variety of other tools, each one with a specific use, none of which fit my task. Using the wrong tools, it took me ten tymes longer to get the mower apart than it should have and the whole ordeal was a thousand tymes more frustrating than it should have been. As I gathered up my tools that proved less than accommodating to my mission, it occurred to me that often we use the wrong tools in the jobs of life.

We use sarcasm when we should use compassion. We use criticism when we should use encouragement. We use bitterness when we should use forgiveness and the list goes on an on. Just like at a home improvement store, we have thousands of “tools” at our disposal and while they do not carry a monetary price tag, they do carry an emotional one; and I think most would agree that emotions can be quite costly.

The price can be really steep when we say the wrong thing, react the wrong way or simply avoid something altogether. The fact of the matter is, if we take the tyme to get the right tool, we’ll avoid a lot of emotional spending. Just think of God as the Tool Store and the Bible as the store manager. God has the right tools for us and the Bible will tell us where to find them. Compassion? Aisle seven. Understanding? Aisle fifteen, second shelf on the right, next to Trust and Forgiveness.

Coincidentally, moments after my pondering on the “right tools” theory, I found the missing bolt. It was there, in the grass, the same grass that, moments earlier, I had searched over and over again. I suppose you could conclude that it was there the entire tyme and I had simply overlooked it, but I’m not certain. Part of me thinks God hid it so I would have to seek His assistance. It seems silly to enlist God’s help in finding a bolt in the grass, but the truth of the matter is, God wants us to visit his tool store no matter what the job. Whether it’s to get a complex tool for an involved project or a simple tool for, well, for finding a bolt in the grass, God wants us to come to Him.

So, the next tyme you go to work on a project be sure to use the right tool for the job. It doesn’t matter what day or tyme of day you’re working because God’s store is open 24/7 and the price for everything in it has already been paid. The tools are free for the using, just seek out the right one and you’ll be amazed how much simpler the job will be!

Blessings,

~LK~

God and My Cell Phone

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~

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~

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~