Stop, Look, and Listen

Nancy Claster, who will forever remain Miss Nancy in the hearts and minds of her loyal fans as television's original "Romper Room" teacher, died this past week of cancer. She was 82.

Do you remember Romper Room? Daily televisions were turned on to find a friendly woman who seemed to be able to see us while we were in our living rooms using her Romper Room Magic Mirror.

The Romper Room hostess finished each program by gazing through an empty mirror frame and reciting the names of the children whom she pretended to see watching the program (a different list of names each day). For example, “I see Tommy and Cathy and Joe and Vickie and Stan and all you boys and girls out there.”

 

During the show, simple life lessons were taught on things like manners, kindness, and waiting your turn. Sometimes other life lessons like Stop, Look, and Listen.

That particular message was pretty simple: When you come to a railroad track, you are supposed to stop, look, and listen until proceeding on. The goal was to prevent being run over by a train.

As I said, the lesson was simple; so simple that it was taught to elementary students; which is funny considering the application wouldn't be applied in their lives until ten years later when they were drivers!

Yes, the lesson was given specifically for when one comes to a train crossing. But; and hopefully you figured this out yourself, the lesson was taught so that it could be applied to other situations in our lives.

And yet, lately, I have been thinking that many adults seem to have forgotten that lesson when they got older. I observe too many adults who are doing way too much talking instead of listening.

I see way too many people in situations in which they are metaphorically about to be run over, and, they hit the gas instead of doing what they were instructed to do:

·  STOP when you are entering a dangerous situation.

·  LOOK at where you are about to enter

·  LISTEN (that means that you have to stop talking)

Too many people who fail to see they do not have to voice their opinions on everything they see posted by others.

Too many people who then pass on their opinions to all of their friends in the form of a post or video.

Too many people who simply need to stop posting, stop ranting, stop forwarding, stop insisting that their way is the only way!

Too many people who simply need to look at who might be reading their posts, look deeply with eyes of compassion and empathy at those with whom they have a differing point of view.

Too many people who simply need to listen. This, of course, implies that one needs to stop talking (including texting, tweeting, or posting) to do so!

You might be surprised just how much you have in common with someone you see as your opponent.

⁹ Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; ¹¹ not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; ¹² rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; ¹³ distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. ¹⁸ If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. ¹⁹ Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

All Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

I Don’t Understand

We all been there. Someone is trying to explain something to you and after going through an explanation you respond with; “I don’t get it.”

And, so, with all of the confidence of an American Ninja Warrior trying to run up the “warped-wall” one more time, they take another shot at it.

And you respond once again; “I still don’t get it.”

And they respond by trying to explain it to you again and you end up being even more confused and dazed; or was it the other way around…

So how do you feel? Lost, confused, ashamed, stupid, wondering what is wrong with me…all the above?

The problem is that much like anything else that is explained to us, we don’t always grasp what is being said simply because we don’t always have the same vantage point as the one who is trying to teach us or explain something to us.

In Luke 18:31-33, we read a story when Jesus is telling His disciples for the third time how He is going to die and then be resurrected.

These are men who had been with for three or more years. These are men who were with the greatest Teacher to have ever walked the earth. These are men who at any time could ask Him anything! These are men who were hand selected to be a part of His team…

 

And Jesus is trying to make another attempt to get them to understand something very important.

“Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.  For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.  They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”

And yet, as we will read, after all the teachings and all of the time that they spent with Him, they still don’t understand what He is talking about.

V.34 “But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.”

After all of the teachings and all of the time that they spent with Him, even they still don’t understand.

I guess that means that we also are qualified to be a disciple of Jesus Christ; right?

Yes….But, let me remind you, the problem is that much like anything else that is explained to us, we don’t always grasp what is being said simply because we don’t always have the same vantage point as the one who is trying to teach us or explain something to us.

I like how Oswald Chambers puts it:

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed absolute disaster. And Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death, leading every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken.

His life was an absolute failure from every standpoint except God’s.

But what seemed to be failure from man’s standpoint was a triumph from God’s standpoint, because God’s purpose is never the same as man’s purpose.

This bewildering call of God comes into our lives as well. The call of God can never be understood absolutely or explained externally; it is a call that can only be perceived and understood internally by our true inner-nature.

The call of God is like the call of the sea— no one hears it except the person who has the nature of the sea in him. What God calls us to cannot be definitely stated, because His call is simply to be His friend to accomplish His own purposes.

Our real test is in truly believing that God knows what He desires. The things that happen do not happen by chance— they happen entirely by the decree of God. God is sovereignly working out His own purposes.

If we are in fellowship and oneness with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, then we will no longer strive to find out what His purposes are.

As we grow in the Christian life, it becomes simpler to us, because we are less inclined to say, “I wonder why God allowed this or that?” And we begin to see that the compelling purpose of God lies behind everything in life, and that God is divinely shaping us into oneness with that purpose.

A Christian is someone who trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own abilities.

If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God.

So the next time that you find yourself in a quandary because you don’t understand, remind yourself that you may not be seeing the fuller picture.

Remind yourself that you are in great company and let the Lord take you to place of retelling you what you need to know as you once again say; “I don’t understand.”

Hockey goalies; you either love them or hate them.

You LOVE them when they show up and are willing to: carry in all their gear, put it all on, and then stand in front of a net so that players can shoot rubber pucks at them at speeds up to 105 miles per hour!

NOTE: At the time of the writing, the current NHL speed record belongs to Zdeno Chára of the Boston Bruins, whose slapshot clocked 108.8 miles per hour in the 2012 NHL All Star Game SuperSkills competition, breaking his own earlier record.

Oftentimes the pucks will bounce off their facemasks or other sensitive areas of their bodies.

And then, at the end of the game, they pack up and carry all their heavy, wet gear all by themselves to the vehicle and are willing to do it again next week.

For this we love them and often don’t charge them to play in a league (if they show up each week and let us takes shots at their heads).

When they play great we LOVE them. A great goalie can make the difference between winning and losing.

When they don’t win, we don’t love them so much…unless they happen to be playing for the other team, then we LOVE them!

Some of this love-hate relationship has to do with how hard it can be to score on goalies; especially in the five basic scoring zones: The five-hole (which right between the goalie’s legs). Stick side low. Glove side low. Glove side high. Stick side high

To work on being able to score at any of these five spots, coaches will attach some sort of hockey goal shooting trainer to the outside of a net.

In practice, hockey players will take shots at the net attempting to make it into one of the five areas. Ideally, the lessons will include shooting at all five of the areas.

The goal is to be able to dial in and control where the puck goes and ultimately score more goals.

Simple, right? I have seen elementary school age children working on this skill and succeed in making goals.

And yet, I have seen grown men freeze up when using this tool in place of a goalie and not be able to score any goals.

This happened during a recent game in which only our goalie showed up to play. To make up for the opposing team missing goalie, a plywood hockey goal shooting trainer with five holes was attached to one of the nets.

Instead of a real, live goalie, they had a plywood goalie.

Simple, right? And yet the same teammates who scored multiple goals in multiple games froze up and couldn’t score on a hockey net covered with a piece of plywood.

Many of my teammates complained (when on the bench between shifts) at how hard it now was to score a goal. We didn’t like the fact that the other team’s goalie didn’t show up and it was hard to score a goal.

My only complaint was that the “goalie” was way too stiff. (pun intended)

Another reason players HATE goalies is because of an NHL Rule that pertains to goalies.

Rule 27.1, 27.2, and 27.3 to be exact.

This rule states that if a goalie incurs a penalty (minor, major, or misconduct), they don’t serve it themselves.

INSTEAD, another player on their own team SERVES the penalty for the goalie! Another teammate takes the goalie’s place.

In other words, no matter what penalty the goalie gets, they don’t serve any time in the penalty box-a teammate serves it instead.

How is this fair; it isn’t! Especially since ALL other players must serve their OWN penalties.

For this, along with other reasons, some players don’t like goalies.

And yet, this rule is a good segue into explaining what Jesus did for each one who will receive His saving grace; His free gift.

Each and every one one of us have sinned and deserve a to serve time in the penalty box; which theologians would say is eternal separation from God…Eternity in hell.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

The Bible tells us that someone had to serve the penalty for OUR sin!

“For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23a)

Jesus WILLINGLY went to the penalty box (the cross) on behalf of us.

“…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23b)

We have a LOVING Heavenly Father who made a way for His son Jesus to serve our penalty for us. Jesus served OUR time in the penalty box. 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

So how does your life look at this moment? Are you still trying to serve your own time in the penalty box for your sins?

God wants you to stop, turn to Him and to let Him make things new.

God says in His Word (the Bible) that He will make us new when we come to Jesus.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) 

Jesus simply wants you to acknowledge that you have committed an act worthy of a penalty (penalties). God promises:

“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13)

Need some help? Call Toll-Free: 1-877-2GRAHAM (1-877-247-2426)

Special thanks to Reverend Bill Butters of hockeyministries.org for this insightful illustration of the Goalie’s Penalty

All Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Washing The Truck

My Saturday morning task was simple; wash our pickup truck. In a few hours, we would be heading to a family gathering out in the country and I saw this as an excuse to clean our truck.

 

While gathering the tools needed, I decide to wash and wax the exterior of the truck and “Armor All” the interior.

 

It was a task that shouldn’t have taken so long except for the fact that the bottle of wax was empty. So, I decided to head up to Target (yes, some of us still shop there) to purchase a new bottle of wax.

 

I also decided to stop at the Holiday Gas Station to fill up the tank for the long road trip. I returned to my scene of the washing one hour later.

 

As I washed and waxed the truck and cleaned the interior, I noticed that our other vehicle probably should be cleaned as well…which means that I ended up washing and waxing both vehicles and “Armor All” the interiors even though we would only be driving one.

 

Start to finish, the whole process used up several hours of my time. But, BOTH vehicles glistened in the sunshine and reflected everything surrounding them; that is until one day later.

 

Have you noticed that clean vehicles seem to get really dirty really fast? The next morning while getting in the truck to go to church, I noticed that even though it rained the whole time that we drove home from the party, the dust from the county roads still caked the outside of the truck.

 

In my opinion, the truck looked even dirtier than before I had cleaned it twenty fours earlier. One dusty road; one rainstorm was all it took to go backwards!

 

I suppose I could have put the vehicles in a garage or covered them with a tarp of some sort, but eventually, they would return to their former state of dirtiness.

 

All that to say this: Relationships are like that. We put so much effort into building, cleaning, repairing; and one misunderstanding; one conflict seems to make the relationship worse than before.

 

This was my mindset as I sat in church one Sunday when I felt as though I wasn’t on the same page as Cathy. We had migrated back to where we were before we had done some concerted efforts to move the relationship forward and make it stronger. And being a “fixer”, sitting still wasn’t an option and yet that is where I was at. Distant and detached and wondering what she needed to get us back on the same page again.

 

The worship team was leading the congregation in the song; “Oceans” by Hillsongs. And the words jumped off the screen to my heart.

 

And faith arose.

You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

 

I always thought of that song as pertaining to moving mountains and believing God for a miracle; not mundane things like reconnecting relationships.

 

And yet the song proclaimed that His grace “abounds in deepest waters” and that His “sovereign hand will be my guide where feet may fail and fear surrounds me”.

 

And I thought of the truck; beneath the layers of dust and raindrops there was a fresh coat of wax. All it would take to get it back to the mirrored finish of yesterday was to wash it off.

 

The song shouted out to my heart: “You've never failed and You won't start now!”
 

Similarly; I needed to call out to the Lord to remove the relational dust and raindrops to reveal what was below those layers: A relationship built upon all of the hard work we had done before the dust and raindrops of misunderstanding and bad communication.

 

My response was to shout back to my troubled soul that was longing for help:

So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

 

So I responded to the hand held out to me and cried out in my spirit:

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior

Oh, Jesus, you're my God!

I will call upon Your name
Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace
I am Yours and You are mine

 

Grateful that the Lord responded with His grace to soften two hearts eager to once again go forward. together.