Worship "Quick-Time"

We enjoy our conveniences; they speed things up. Imagine how much time you save each morning with your automatic coffee maker, blow dryers and Toaster Studdels. How did the world survive without drive through hamburger joints? Communication is now so much faster with texting taking the place of emails which took the place of typed letters and so on. While I am writing this with “tongue in cheek” I do appreciate those things that do help up save time and make our lives more efficient.

However I do not think some things were meant to be stream lined. There are those things that need to be given attention. Talks with those you love, that lingering look at the sunset just cannot be shortened and still be effective.

Recently I was driving to Fort Worth and a church caught my attention. It wasn’t the architecture which was unusual but a gigantic banner that hung across the front that made me wonder if it was speaking to me. The banner read:

30 MINUTE WORSHIP SESSIONS

If we who call ourselves “people of God”, “followers of Christ”, “devoted Christians” cannot find in our weeks more than thirty-minutes to put all things aside and worship the God who created and loved us enough to give Himself for our eternal salvation then something in our “devotion” must be wrong.

I know how I felt when I saw the banner. I wonder how God felt when it was hung or how he feels each time people enter into His house with just thirty-minutes to give.

I know, nowhere does it say how long worship should be. But, still, it just hits me wrong!

Important Stuff

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to represent First Baptist Church Cotulla as a messenger to the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Fort Worth. This was about an 8 hour drive from Cotulla. After the meeting I was able to visit with my mother, step-father, brother and niece for a night. Wednesday morning found me making the long drive back to South Texas.

One of the great things about long rides alone is that you have a lot of time to sing with the radio or think. I usually think, although I do enjoy singing, but thinking seems to be more productive. I got to thinking about all the people I reconnected with at the convention and the fact that we are now the “older” guys of the religious “establishment”. I thought about the things (however few or eternally important) I had accomplished in my career. Ultimately I felt that most of those were not as important as I thought they were while working to accomplish them. I have come to believe that when all is said and done I desire to know that I have the respect and love of

My Parents
My Wife
My Sons

To know that when we are together and are walking in public they walk with some pride because they are beside me; that is most important! Ultimately I believe at some point in life this becomes the most important thing to us all; Parents, spouse and children.

If that is the case then let me give my part.

Mom. . . I can never repay what you have given for me. I can only start to understand the sacrifice you made for us in the “days” you had to bring up two young hard-headed boys. Thank you

Debbie. . . Never could I have asked for a better partner in this life! It has not been easy and you have made my mistakes look good. We raised two great boys and I am not sure we could ask to do more!

Landall and Shawn. . . Dirt and Water, Dark and Light, Sun and Moon. . . as opposite as two could be but both vital to my existence and identification. You do not yet know what you have meant to me. You both have found what it means to chase a dream even if that dream cost. I am proud of you both!

I cannot say that if you did not make the list you are un-important to me. . .but ultimately these are the smiles and nods of approval I desire!

Skeeters

In August this year I experienced an phenomenon that I had never before. When we moved to South Texas (Cotulla) I noticed one evening that there were no “skeeters” (to some you would say “skeetas”). In every place I have ever lived I have had to deal with the little blood sucking, buzzing in your ear pest. They have always seemed to be very attracted to me and can find me in a large crowd. But I begin to notice there didn’t seem to be any around here. I was told that it was due to the dry climate.

The funny thing was that when we moved here they received almost a solid two weeks of rain. Dry? Well maybe it was a relative statement. It was not long that I began to understand their meaning of dry. It really got dry and it stayed hot! But, there were still not skeeters. I was liking this.

Now that Fall has fully come in South Texas (the daily temperatures are all the way down to high 80’s now) it is still dry but cooler and guess what? Skeeters! These are not the “carry your cow off” size that we had in the panhandle but they are the size of gnats and they are so fast you can’t swat them, but they can bite you. Not only do they bite but they leave these huge itchy bumps. Between your fingers, on your elbows even the soft spot behind your ear. They can get you!

Once again I have tubes of Cortisone everywhere and convinced that to taxes and death we should include SKEETERS.

My Boys

Things happen sometime that either remind you just how much your life stinks or just how fortunate you are. Funny thing is that sometimes both can happen with a few minutes of each other. However, on this day I have been reminded several times of just how fortunate I was (I will not speak for Debbie but I am sure she will agree) with my two sons.

I have probably written five different “blogs” to simply say this. Landall, Shawn your Dad is proud of you. Both of you have faced different situations and have proven that your are fighters. I have all the faith that both of you have “what it takes” and will find your place.

I love you!

Hills and Winds

The hills that I used to ride my bicycle over “back east” were sometimes pretty tough. However, with those hills there was always a top to focus on. Even if you could not see it because it was around a curve you knew that it was there; an end to the pain and screaming in the legs. One thing you had to learn though was sometimes what you thought was the top was actually just short of it and if you let up you could loose momentum that you needed. The answer to that was to “ride over the top”. You needed to keep pedaling, no matter how relieved you were that you had made it to the top, until you were changing gears indicating that you were truly on the level or maybe even descending. The point of all of this is that no matter how tough the hill was you knew that somewhere fairly close there was some relief.

A couple of days ago I went for a fairly long ride that went straight up Interstate 35 North on the access rode. I was planning on riding about 20 miles or so and then start looking for a turn around to head back to Cotulla on the other side of the interstate. The big issue was there was a wind coming out of the North at about 20 – 25 miles an hour. It was constant and unforgiving and the more I squinted to see I could find no relief in the long straight road ahead of me. Finally at about the spot that I had planned to make my turn around I began to see the rise of an overpass that indicated my chance to turn around and get that wind in my back. IT WAS NICE!

I have found that life is like both of these rides at times. There seems to be times that the terrain of our everyday life is short tough hills. We expend a lot of physical, mental and spiritual energy but we are usually able to see an end and therefore buckle down and ride to the top where we find some relief and peace. Then there are those times when we simply face a heavy head wind that seems unending and relentless. The harder we look the less we seem to see an end to the effort we are expending just to survive. It seems like all we can do is put our head down and keep our path as straight as possible.

I am not exempt from either ride and neither are you but we one who goes along with us. In fact His word promises that he will never leave or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV). In fact it is often those hills and rides in the wind that make the other times so wonderful and those small hills or slight winds so much easier to handle.

Thank you Lord for your guidance and presence when life’s ride starts becoming a challenge. Give me the strength to keep peddling through those times. I will give you all the praise and glory.

Moths and Mouths

Her head jerked back with this awful contorted look on her face. I almost immediately knew what was happening. “Got a Bug? I casually asked.” All she could do was spit and cough and make this really weird sound from deep in her throat. Evidently, not only did she get a bug in her mouth, it must have been timed perfectly with a big inhale. It was deep; it was going to take some patience to get through this. I just hoped she didn’t fall off her bicycle as she was spitting and sputtering with her eyes closed, mouth open and tongue clawing deep to get rid of the intruder.

It was Debbie’s third ride on her new bicycle. I had decided to take a longer circuit on this day and she was doing great. A few remarks about her legs hating her at this moment, and an occasional big breath, but all in all she was stomping on her pedals like an ol’ pro. This is new territory for us and the road we were on was really rough which made it a little more difficult and the butterflies (I think they are from the “army caterpillars”) were really thick. I had made a mental note to try to breath with my mouth shut but did not say anything to Debbie. She had just remarked about how good she was doing considering we were probably about ten miles farther than she had ever ridden before. Just as she completed the sentence the she breathed in and the show started.

At first I thought it was just going to be a cough and spit and clearing of the throat and all would be OK. Who has not eaten a bug on a run or ride before. But this one was not just eaten; it was going to be digested. I almost looked on helplessly as she stayed upright on the bike and found her breath.

Sometimes life is like that. We are riding along, extending our prior records, feeling pretty good about how good we are doing and all of the sudden our eyes close and we spit and sputter as a bug of life just found its way into our balanced existence. The people around us will have various responses. Some will be amused at our reactions, others will want to help but realize they cannot. One thing we can be sure of in these moments we do have a help in God who is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Just like Debbie’s situation, while it could have been bad she was soon over it and looking back on the experience. With the bad taste and just the thought of eating a butterfly she found her stroke again and rode toward her destination. May we have such strength with our “bugs’ in life.

Flypaper

One thing I had forgotten about since we left Texas in 1985 was the "Fly Strips" that used to hang everywhere. I have not seen one since that time. The other day we were in the store and I was looking for the "once-and-for-all" Fire Ant killer and came across a box full of the strips. It immediately took me back to my childhood and the Cotton Gin that took up much of my youth. There in one corner, just behind one of the domino chairs hung a yellow strip of sticky (I would assume sweet)material that baited flies to land and get stuck and never again tickle the nose hairs of the napping farmers in the gin office.

I remember always being amazed that the strips would last until there was no more room on them. Flies are pretty stupid I guess. Couldn't they see that their brothers and cousins, their mothers and fathers, their sisters, aunts and uncles were all stuck and couldn't free themselves. Wasn't there some kind of Fly Strip warning signal. Evidently the sweet allure of the bait was to much to ignore and every fly that was stuck, buzzing and flapping wings in effort to free themselves were the very ones that would "get away with it". Sound familiar?

Maybe humans and flies have some things in common. How many times do we get caught in the sin trap. Maybe we just look at the sweet bait and ignore the glue (they always go together). Why don't those who are stuck already warn us (they probably do in action if not in words). Could it be that some of them love the company so no warning is given? Could it be that some are still so enticed by the sweet bait that they have yet to recognize they are stuck in sin?

Where is the "Fly Paper" in your life? Before you answer too quickly remember one of the characteristics of the paper may be the rejection of its danger. The truth is you cannot free yourself. Go ahead and try. . . pull and flap your wings all you want but you will find you need help. That is where Christ comes in. I John tells us that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1:9 NIV) The only way off the strip is to be pulled off and only Christ can do that!