On behalf of God, thanks!

It seems audacious to title this blog as I have. But essentially that is what I want to do in this brief note. I want to thank you for your faithfulness in giving over this past year knowing that all we give really is for God and His Kingdom. And since God is not writing a blog these days, I thought I would thank you on His behalf.

Our Summit Sunday is coming up on the Sunday just before Thanksgiving. It's that one time of year where we conspicously talk about money because we are working away at paying down our mortgage as quickly as possible. On that Sunday everything we give (except for missions and special needs) goes to pay down the principle. On our website is a link you can click to see who much we have already saved in interest and how much more we can save still.

We think about giving in a lot of ways. For some it’s all in the numbers, objective raw data. For some it’s a matter of discipline or routine. And for some it’s about joy or faithfulness or gladness or blessing.

Over the years I’ve come to think about giving as doing something beautiful for God. When our children are small and can think of no way to express how much we mean to them, they will come to us with a water color painting still dripping wet … or a crayon colored figure with a big smile with their name proudly and crookedly printed below it.


I just got a big envelope from Indonesia from my grandkids (that's them in the pic!)that was packed with their artistic renderings ... each one with a "I love you Papa" or "I love you Mimi" on it. We have already plastered them all over our fridge. Like all kids, they just want us to know that they notice us. That they value us. So they do something beautiful for us. As beautiful as they know how to do.

So when we give to God we are doing something beautiful for Him. It is our water color. It is our crayon masterpiece. It is our way of saying that we notice Him and all that He means to us. And you know what? He is genuinely grateful.

So this note of thanks is my small way of saying that the beautiful thing you have done for God already this year is probably already hanging on His fridge. And what we all do on Summit Sunday will probably make it there too. Like all good fathers ... and mothers, His heart is gladdened by what His kids do for him. So on His behalf, thanks!

...just thinkling

Of all things March...

And so it is March. March Hare. March Madness. March Break. March of Dimes and March of the Penguins. March is the month that gives us Fat Tuesday on the 8th and Ash Wednesday on the 9th. March gives us St. Patrick’s Day on the 17th and National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day on the 24th. March gives us National Potato Chip Day on the 14th and not to be outdone, National Potato Chip Dip Day on the 23rd. March just seems filled with notable days.

March. Will it come in like a lion or a lamb is not our biggest question about March, I think. The big question is when will it be over? Because it seems to me that March is a month of waiting. Waiting for Winter to be finally and fully done. Waiting for Spring to muscle it’s way out of the ground and out on a limb. Waiting for warmth to take such hold of our days that we forget what real cold feels like. Waiting for yesterday to be folded up like a lawn chair and tomorrow to unfold like the arms of a child reaching up to you.

So it seems that March yearns ... for fresh starts and new beginnings, for the implied promises of the season to be kept. March is a leaning forward kind of month, always straining ahead to see what is coming. And what gets missed in all this? March.

There are 31 days in March and every one of them is gift from God. But if we keep looking beyond them for something yet to come we forget to unwrap all the 31 gifts that are March. Perhaps we should sit back, settle in, pour a cup of coffee and simply be at home with March. Spring will find us when it’s ready. But March is here now for the taking. So take it.

…just thinkling

Thanksgiving in February

Ah, February. Why is a month so short feel so long? Maybe it’s because February cannot make up its mind. February has a squeak to it because it’s “a hinge month”…Winter still holding on and yet Spring struggling to emerge. The squeaks of February are the sound of a car door opening on a cold morning, the sound of snow underfoot, the sound of the cat who was just let out wanting right back in. All because it’s February.

But two things give me hope in this confused and dreary month. Two things give me cause for thanks. One is Punxsutawney Phil, the celebrated ground hog of Ground Hog day. Apparently this year Phil did not see his shadow on Ground Hog day which apparently means an early spring. (I saw my shadow and my Marilyn says it’s a bigger shadow than it used to be, but that’s a story for another day!)

Yet no matter how cold or wet or snowy it is today, no matter who saw their shadow on Ground Hog day, the blessed truth is, Spring is not far away. God planned it that way. Isn’t it great that the Lord of Creation gave us Spring to look forward to and rejoice in!? I would despair if February was followed by another February all over again! I can wrap a lot of gratitude around that thought.

My second cause for thanks is Valentines Day.
(BTW, did you know that St. Valentine is by tradition, the patron saint of lovers and epileptics, travelers and bee keepers? Bee keepers?! Makes me wonder why honey is not the sweet of the season instead of chocolate, but that too is a story for another day!)

Let’s be certain of one thing, Valentines Day is totally a manufactured event, a reason for Hallmark to sell greeting cards, florists to sell roses and corner drug stores to sell chocolate.

So yes, to be sure, much of the love that is at the center of Valentines Day is sentimental, guilt driven, mostly vacuous and truly commercialized. But only if you let how the culture marks that day shape how you mark that day. Can it be kept in some authentic way we haven’t considered before? Why simply write it off when you can leverage it for something of real value?

St. John of the Cross, 16th Century, a truer saint than Valentine will ever be, wrote that “If you put love where there is none, then love is there.” So if Paul was right in I Corinthians 13 (and he was, btw!) that the greatest of all Christian virtues is love, then putting that love in someone’s life, has greater power than chocolates or flowers or any other sentiment to move hearts.

And it’s not given out of guilt. It’s given out of the will to love. Who in your world needs to be loved? Into whose life could God be prompting you to put love? Because if you would put love where there is none…where it is lacking or missing… then love would be there. Not the hollowed out sentimental kind. But muscular love…the love of God filling the human heart being put where it is needed most.

So am grateful that February offers me a day to consider who needs something of the love God has poured into my life, put into their. Maybe this February would be considerably warmer if we hijacked the sentiments of Valentine’s Day and instead, put real love where there is none. Because then, love would be there.

…just thinkling

A timely word ...

When God…

When God wants to drill a man
And thrill a man and skill a man,
When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part.
When He yearns with all is heart
To create so great and bold a man
that all the world might be amazed …
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
those He royally elects!
How he hammers and He Hurts him,
And with might blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which only God can understand;
While his tortured heart is crying
and he lifts beseeching hands.
How God bends but never breaks
When man’s good He undertakes;
How he uses those He chooses
And with every purpose fuses him,
By every act induces him,
To try God’s splendor out-
God knows what He’s about!

Anonymous

That Unforgettable Christmas...

Growing up in the north, there was really only one sport that mattered to us kids: hockey. And if you didn’t get a hockey sweater or a hockey stick for Christmas, you were considered seriously deprived. Well, imagine getting both! Pure glory!!

I was about 5 at the time it happened. My father had received some kind of bonus from his work at the steel mill. There was lots of talk about it in the house. But still, with an older brother and sister and a baby in the house, none of us kids were getting our hopes up.

Christmas Eve came and we got our stockings special delivery as usual. My Aunt Mary did them up for us. She used real socks with the second sock tucked inside. (What every kid hopes for Christmas, right?! A pair of socks!)

No matter… there was always an orange in the toe of the sock, an apple in the heel, lots of hard Christmas candy in between and usually the kind of nuts you had to use a nut cracker to open. And I don’t know how many Christmas mornings I awoke with a candy cane stuck to my pillow.

But that Christmas morning stands out among all Christmas mornings for me…and it was clearly reflected under the tree that year. I had never seen so many gifts. And since hockey sticks were never wrapped, I spotted mine right away and immediately thought how great it would be to get a new hockey sweater, too. I had a hand-me-down one from my older brother Peter, but never a new one. Could this be the year?

Well, a picture speaks a thousand words, doesn’t it? It was the Christmas of my dreams, the one to remember forever. Across so many years and so many Christmas’s it’s funny what stands out. But I think I’d trade all the Christmas’s I have ever known for that great one in 1956 when I got the stick and the sweater.

So from my Marilyn and my household, may this year be your year to remember! May it be filled with lasting memories for you and your household. And I hope you like your hockey stick!

And by the way...I'm the adorable one on the right! ;-)

just thinkling

Leave it to George...

I have always admired the art of Norman Rockwell. He expressed so well the fabric of life in a America in his time. It's hard not to warm to his images of Thanksgiving.

But long before him, our first President framed it so well, perhaps none of us can add to the wisdom of his thoughts on Thanksgiving. Can I offer it to you as a worthwhile expression of thanks that would be helpful to reflect on as Thanksgiving day draws near?

Giving Thanks for Thanks Giving

“Whereas, it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; Whereas, both the houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now therefore, I do recommend next, to be devoted by the people of the states to the service of that great and glorious being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country.”

George Washington, 1779

What struck me as I read this the first time was the clear focus on God and on prayer. I was remined that when we are thankful, we honor the Source of our thanks: the Living God. But we also take note of the vision of good men and women who saw the power of thanksgiving to shape the human heart with humble thanks to God. So as we pray during these days, let us thank God for all He is and all He has provided for us in this land.

...just thinkling

What the Bible Doesn't Say Is Important

What Matthew 5:3-12 does not say:
Blessed are the overflowing in spirit, the always ‘up’ people, the always bright and smiley crowd who never seem to be down but always overcoming … for theirs and only theirs is the Km of heaven.

Blessed are those who are bubbling over with joy, who have story after story to tell of how great their experiences of God are and how wonderful their life is going and how things could never be better … for they and only they will know comfort.

Blessed are the strident and the important and the powerful people who write all the books and teach all the seminars and travel the Christian speakers circuit sharing their great wisdom and insights and five easy keys to success… for they and only are obviously the ones who will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the latest technique or the latest teaching or latch onto the latest trend or have read all the newest books that give them the inside track on becoming spiritual giants or finding personal significance … for they and only they will be filled.

Blessed are the triumphant and the winners who go from victory to victory, who need no help and show no weakness and never let God down … for they and only they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are those who do lots for God and never miss a meeting and have their kids in line and their answers all lined up for any question that may arise, who always make a good impression and project the best of Christian conduct at all times … for they and only they will see God.

Blessed are those who are right all the time and “in the know” and have verse for it and can stand head and shoulders over those who are obviously in error in their Christian understanding of truth or practice … for they and only they will be called the sons of God.

Blessed are those who never seem to wrestle in prayer, who always walk on the sunny side of the faith, who are well liked, who have their choices constantly affirmed by those around them and their deeds praised in the gates … for theirs and only theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

And blessed are you when people think you’re the best thing since sliced bread, when they accord you status and glory in who you are and what you have accomplished in life, and wonder aloud how the Kingdom of God ever got along without you up ‘til now … because you and only you will be rewarded in heaven like all the other really significant Christians who are dead and gone but were just like you.