This is all about nothing...

I am sitting here looking at the screen trying to come up with anything else to do but write. I need to do it now because of schedules, mine, Sandra and Emily’s but I don’t want to.

It is funny how we are surrounded by words and sound all day, each and every day. Many people long for an opportunity to speak and be heard. Now more than ever you can blog, tweet, facebook, e-mail and a whole host of other “social media” about anything and about nothing. Speaking of nothing, the show “Seinfeld” (a show about nothing) still earns Jerry Seinfeld about $450, 000 15 years after it went off the air. Now that is NOT nothing in the bank. Nothing makes money for some and just wastes time for others.

Consider the mail, how much of what you get delivered from the post office is really nothing? Even the “something” turns out to be nothing. If it weren’t for the “nothing” mail the post office would not be able to stay in business. Oh, wait a minute they are having trouble staying in business now even delivering “nothing” mail. E-mail is not any better, really it is worse. I have multiple accounts with one being just for the junk. That’s the address I use when I sign up for a contest or give-a-way. I know they will “share” my address with anyone that comes along so I give them just any e-mail address.

Here I am going on about nothing really. None of this is important. Oh sure, I could make it sound important by adding impassioned pleas etc. but it still would not be important. That’s the way it is. We take our words way to seriously. Consider this, opinions are like rear ends everyone’s got one and most of the time we need to sit on them. We have opinions about nothing and what we thought was so important is nothing at all. We take ourselves so seriously making us so important. The Psalmist had this to say;

Men are only a vapor; exalted men, an illusion. Weighed in the scales, they go up; together they are less than a vapor. Psalm 62:9 HCSB

James echoed the words of the Psalmist;

You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. James 4:14 HCSB

There is only One who really is something. James brings this into perspective in the following verse.

15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:15 HCSB

I/we really are nothing apart from Christ. So much of what I think about is really nothing. I won’t get paid for it. I didn’t want to write and here I am at the end. I just needed to get started about nothing and here Christ makes it something as I focus on Him.

Let us set our sights on the prize Christ Jesus. He IS something!

In His Service and Yours

The Rev

I thought long and hard...too hard about it...

One afternoon this week a second grader asked me a question. A young lady, she asked which country was smarter. Then she quickly said state. I was now confused and quickly confused her until she said again which state. I began to think, a problem for sure, how would you evaluate which state is smarter? Do you count places of scholarship, percentage of the population in MENSA, SAT score for the population which is it? That confused the child even more as she repeated her question, “Which state is smarter?” I quit and told her I don’t know. She answered Alabama with 4 A’s and 1 B the answer. I rolled my eyes and laughed a little.

That’s how it is with us. We see or experience a simple problem or situation and then our mind goes to work thinking about all of these possibilities to the point that we are parallelized by the complexity of a simple question. This process of over thinking is called worry. 

A simple problem mostly out of our control to change or affect becomes with way to much thought an out-of- control -nightmare. It keeps us awake at night or wakes us up from the soundest sleep with a burning in our chest so intense that it would kill a fire eater. You try to avoid it but you can never get away. What was a simple question becomes a monster in your own mind. Worry does that to you. The saddest part is it is really you doing it to you when you over think the problem.

Jesus speaks to our worry in Matthew 6:25-26 HCSB.

The Cure for Anxiety
²⁵ “This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear.

·         All of those things are important

·         There is some uncertainty about how it will work out

·          You still don’t have to worry about it.

“There is a way to face the uncertainty of tomorrow and NOT worry about it today.”  Andy Stanley

Look at bigger picture

Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?

·         Would you define life as equaling: retirement, child’s degree, marriage, good health?

²⁶ Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow, reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?

Worry is like looking through the lens of a camera. If you close your other eye all you see is what is included in that barrel of the lens. You might miss the best picture because it is in a wider view than you can see. When we focus on a problem and worry all we can see is a very small piece of a bigger picture. Jesus says look at the bigger picture of God’s provision and love for us. Children made in his image.

 Before me was a simple question with what I should have known by the questioner was a simple answer. In a split second over thought my response so much so that I missed the simple humor that was perpetrated.                          

In His Service and Yours

The Rev

I thought an update was in order...

Several weeks ago I told you of our building progress, how we had been 2 ½ years in the process of approval and confirming agreements, how in 4 days our building and 50+ yards of dirt were on our site unexpectedly. Well I have more, following a two week lull of sorts now our structure is assembled, supported, and anchored down on the pad in the hayfield. Our next steps include acquiring a remodel permit, some structural information and possible modification and then doing the work. Thank you for your prayers and inquiries over this process.

Regarding my son Geoffrey, I want you to know he is better after beginning a medication. All of the tests have found nothing wrong, so improvement has not meant answers.  We do know a lot of things he does NOT have. Still, he is better just not well yet. We look for some minor adjustments in his medication to improve his condition with the hopes of getting him back into normal activities and involvement in living. On Barbara’s behalf, I thank you for your prayers, inquiries and concern over this past year and a half. We are thankful for improvement and look forward to more and life back to “normal” for him.

This past week several conversations have shared a common theme and subject. They centered on a difficult time in one’s life. It may have been personal, family, children or work the faces were different but the difficulty was the same. To the person the one experiencing the issues spoke of feeling they were the only ones, alone and isolated. They felt like no one understood and they were all alone. It sounds familiar doesn’t it?

That is how evil attacks by separating and isolating its prey so that the next suggestion goes to the heart and the heart of the matter as evil accuses God of deserting us and leaving us. Honestly evil doesn’t care about us and our pain. No, evil desires to hurt God and will do so by hurting what God loves, US. Once we agree with the first lie, that no one else understands then the second is easier to believe and then evil has made a beach head in our lives and becomes that much more difficult to get rid of. Lies are best ended by truth.

The truth is Jesus knows all of our afflictions and faced each temptation and trial we will. He overcame all that this world has to throw up. Then promises he will be with us never leave us nor forsake us. It becomes a matter of trust. Do we trust him when we cannot see him? DO we trust his word when days are darkest? Do we expect him to be faithful?

Are we counting on HIM to come through?

Easter is our update!           

In His Service and Yours

The Rev