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What’s your politeness proximity?

When you are entering or exiting a building, how close does someone have to be in order for you to hold the door?  A few steps away?  A dozen?  Two dozen?  If someone inadvertently drops a personal effect from a table of the restaurant you are in, how close do you have to be to retrieve it for them?  Next table over?  Two tables away?  Across the whole restaurant?  Does it change anything for you if others are around?

What if?

What if you lived your life without condemnation? Don’t get “disagreement” confused with “condemnation”. You can vigorously disagree with someone without condemning them?
 
Condemnation comes with some level of value judgment or negative character label like “He’s a ________?” Or “She’s just an __________?” Can we have a vigorous disagreement with our spouse without condemnation?
 
Which also leads us to ask can we be intensely angry, and even perhaps violent; and love our enemy at the same time?
 
Jesus went straight to the Temple and threw out everyone who had set up shop, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of loan sharks and the stalls of dove merchants. He quoted this text: My house was designated a house of prayer; You have made it a hangout for thieves.
 
“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

 

I'm gonna slap somebody...

Oh, my goodness.   Tonight La don had to cup my mouth while bending my arm behind my back and roughly escorting me from the Cracker Barrel in Wildwood, FL. The event that precipitated my impulsive and uncharacteristically boisterous behavior was the Halloween display.

It’s August 3rd and the marketers are already hawking Halloween wares? The police need to be raiding such establishments and without trial, parading the guilty through towns all across America to hang them in the town square. Halloween marketing in August is a capital offense? Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? Yes I know, if I was in striking distance you would punch me; right? Oh my goodness; give me a break. My back is just now recovering from the January blizzards; I need another month and a half to entertain any Halloween marketing. 
 
And what is behind all this; money. Yes, money is the root of all evil; and it’s evil to advertise Halloween in August.

Would you share your bagel?

Recently I was on a flight to CA.  It’s a 5.5 hour flight and the only thing you get from the airline for sustenance is a shot glass of Coke, and two wafers made of paper mache.  Knowing this, I planned ahead and purchased a bag of granola and a bagel with cream cheese.

Does Jesus care about your Avatar?

When my son and I create our avatars on the Wii it’s great fun. Neither look like the real us at all. Our Wii men are nominal alter egos of our real selves. And I do mean to make that distinction between the avatar and the real us. Pretend is a powerful part of childhood play. To dress up like Batman with towel cape and swim goggles is a healthy aspect of development as long as we do it before age twelve, and our boundaries regarding reality are intact. 

Sediment.

Next Fall take a stroll through the woods and look for an undisturbed vertical slice of land where leaves have layered up over the years. Just stare at it. You will notice that the top layers are varying fluffy colors of red, green and yellow. The layers compact and become indistinguishable the further down you gaze. Eventually the leaf bed simply fades into dark soil and or sand.

One slice of land like this represents decades of life and death where in Spring the leaves emerge in the joy of new life and in Fall they float to their death. Or do they?
 
As the layers of “decay” teach us, the health of new leaf life is dependent on the contribution of those leaves that have come before them.
 
Here nature gives us another poignant but subtle lesson regarding the natural cycle of human life, and how important leaving a rich contribution is.
 
In the leaf realm, each leaf contributes equally. In the human realm, each human chooses weather their contribution will be rich or paltry. Therefore, the prosperity or poverty of future generations is now on the branches of the human family tree.

Time passes slowly here in the mountains...

According to Christianity, time was a consequence of sin. The Earth and Eden were created in the context of eternity and when sin entered the world time began; hence every second, every hurried moment, every time you apologize for being late, is a reminder of the consequence of sin.

I’m at my In-Laws farm in the mountains of Middle Tennessee and experiencing a micro-glimpse of life before or after sin. I have not worn a watch in three days. I can’t tell you where one clock is in the house, and I’m not sure what day it is. In saving this file I had to find my phone and check the day just to name it. Time passes slowly here in the mountains; if you notice it at all.
 
When is the last time you experienced a little heaven, where time fades and life; moment by moment, is lived? Our Father who art in Heaven…may your will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven.

 

Siamese twins have no choice.

This morning I tried to imagine what it would be like to be conjoined with another human being. I started out thinking it would be pretty easy. I mean, that would be all you knew, and the other person would recognize that both of you had to work together to be successful. Each person would know intuitively that it was in their best interest to love the other as themselves, because they were them self--but maybe not.
 
What if you were a conjoined twin, and one day your other half decided they wanted to live a life in direct opposition to yours. You wanted to eat healthy and they wanted to eat unhealthy. They wanted piercings and you did not. They wanted to abuse alcohol and you did not. They wanted to frequent strip clubs and you wanted to attend worship concerts. They were apathetic to Jehovah God, and you love Jehovah God with all your heart, mind and strength. What if you didn’t have a choice?
 

The Blur.

How much detail of their surroundings do you think a drag racer takes in?  The field of vision must be exceptionally narrow while he speeds down the straight-away at over 300 miles per hour.  I doubt the driver noticed the exceptional relief of billowing clouds just in front and above him, or the most adorable freckles on the smiling face of the 8 year old girl just to the right in the front row of the stands.  Nor did he likely notice the patch of brilliant yellow spring Crocus emerging just to the left in the median of the track.  The faster you go, the less you see.

New Friends.

Let me introduce you to my new friends.  This past week I traveled to a mid-west town to investigate and be interviewed by a school where I might finish my Doctorate.  On Tuesday morning I had a few hours to kill before my meeting, so I did what any contentious American would do – I used my phone app to find a Starbucks.  A funny thing happened on the way to Starbucks, the directions took me across Main Street.  It dawned on me that I was in Middle America on Main Street; there must be a more unique place to burn a few hours.  So I ventured down Main in search of a unique venue, which I found.  In between all the boarded-up store fronts, was a cultural oasis of a coffee shop.  Upon the spring-loaded screen door slamming shut behind me, I wandered through the deserted gift shop to the adorable coffee shop in the back of the telescoped 1940’s building where the barista popped up from behind the counter querying as she rose “Who’s there?”  Apparently surprised to find me, she greeted me warmly and appeared friendly and open to conversation.  Curious, I asked many questions about the town, shop, her and the regular clientele that frequented the joint; verbose in all areas she answered me.

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