Ho, Ho, Ho

To quote Uncle Albert, “I love to laugh”.  The other day, on my way through airport security my carry-on luggage was flagged for further inspection.  The suspicious article that showed up on the x-ray was my shaving mug and soap.  When I was trying to explain what it was, and that it wasn’t a liquid or gel, I noticed the lady who was questioning me kept glancing at the mug and at my mug.

Trying to ease the situation I said, “You’re probably wondering why I need shaving cream.”  To which she replied without missing a beat “Oh, I know why you need it, I just don’t know why you have it.”  And then she laughed and I knew all was good.

The Bible tells us that laughter is a good medicine. And the great thing is, that unlike most medicine, it’s cheap, you don’t need a prescription and there are no side effects.  And laughter is readily available, but only if you want it.  And if you feel that you’ve lost your laughter then the promise of Job 8:21 is for you,  “He (God) will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”  Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but He will fill your mouth with laugher again.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Seriously

It was one of those newspaper articles that made me go:  Seriously?   Garage owner Chad Rankin is appealing a court decision that found him to be responsible for an accident involving two teens in 2006.

The teens, who had been drinking and smoking pot, trespassed onto Rankin’s property and stole a car that had been left at the garage. The driver had never driven before and ended up crashing the car leaving his passenger with horrific head injuries.

The injured passenger, who was fifteen at the time, sued the driver, the driver’s parents and the garage owner for negligence.  And won!

The court placed most of the blame on Rankin, saying people entrusted with motor vehicles “must assure themselves that the youth in their community are not able to take possession of such dangerous objects.” 

The rationale was if the garage owner hadn’t left the car unlocked with the keys in the ashtray the teens wouldn’t have been placed in a dangerous situation.

The garage owner was found to bear 37% of the blame while the teen who stole the car was only assigned 23% of the blame.

The Word of God tells us that ultimately our sins will find us out and at that point it will be all about grace and not about blame.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Where'd it go?

The mail always gets through, eventually.  I read a news story a number of years ago about a post card that arrived in Aberdeen Scotland from Brisbane Australia a little late.  In most cases surface mail from “Down Under” can take up four to six weeks to make the journey to Scotland.

The problem was that the card wasn’t sent six weeks before, it had been sent 5,830 weeks before.  That’s right, the post card had taken a tad over a hundred and twelve years to travel 16,197 km. 

Aberdeen postmaster Peter Smith said, “We have no idea where it’s been.”  Really? No idea? 

Do you ever feel like your prayers have gone wherever Colin Wadrop’s postcard had been stored?  We need to remember that unanswered prayers aren’t unheard prayers.  The problem in my life is that unless God answers the way Denn thinks He should, then it’s was considered unanswered prayer.  Gradually I’m learning that God is smarter than Denn and that not everything Denn asks for in prayer is always in Denn’s best interest.

And there is a remote chance that if God is smarter than Denn, He might be smarter than you.  And so maybe your prayers have been answered, just not in the way you expected.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Let us Pray. . . I mean Play

I read the other day that 58 % of sport fans pray that their team will win. I'm not sure what to make of that, other than wild speculation concerning the spiritual condition of Atlanta Falcon fans during this year’s Super Bowl. 

Think about it, 58 %, so how would, or more importantly, how should God respond to those prayers? Is the outcome of professional and amateur sports dictated not by the warriors on the field but instead by the warriors on their knees?

I know that God cares about us and the Bible even tells us that He cares about the sparrows, but I'm not really convinced that He cares all that much about sports. 

I realize that God has an infinite ability to answer prayers but I sometimes wonder if believers have a limited ability or desire to pray. And if that is the case maybe the reason some folks find it hard to pray for the safety and salvation of their loved ones and for their church is because they’ve spent all their prayer resources on hockey games and weather.  I don’t want you to stop praying, but maybe we need to refocus our prayers where they have eternal consequences and let the players actually win the game.

Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.