Lets Talk Snow

Let’s Talk Snow (Pt#1 of 2)

Some people may think it is early but once you get up to or past Thanksgiving the possibility of snow becomes a very real factor to be considered in your daily planning. I know that I am in the minority when I say this, but I really enjoyed this past winter.  So many years we have had to endure the dreadful brown, soaked, worn out earth look from January to April.  Last winter it seemed everyday was filled with snow, shoveling and coming precipitation.  By the end of February I will admit I was tired and pretty set on the hopes of spring and at least a nine month break from the white stuff.  Still, the winter of twenty-ten went fast for me because there was so much to do and often so much to do in a short period of time.

Two things stand out about all of last year’s accumulation: First, the depth of the snow. Karen and I could watch the snow form a pristine white top-hat on our BBQ grill just outside the family room door.  It really was an historic winter for me.  I can’t remember a winter when the snow made so many visits and like an uncaring guest stayed so long....I will remember the depth of the 2010 winter forever.

I doubt any body wants a repeat of last year’s blizzard like conditions. But I must confess I would love to have it.

I always liked the deep snows even if they were a lot of work.  Oh yea a disclaimer may be due on the subject, “The author of this article only speaks for himself and in no way represents the opinion of this communication engine or the snow shoveling public. He does understand the road bound public wants the white stuff only for Christmas and he respects that view.”  

But the deep snow really gets me going.

It says about God in Rom 8:38-39,

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  What a promise that scripture is to be to all of us.  Nothing can separate a Child of God from His love. On top of that there will never be a time when those who don’t know or even care to know the Lord will not be able to reach out to him for his love if they so chose.  That is a guaranteed provision necessary for all of us, ‘the love of our God.’

Now that is deep!

Awkward and a Facebook Fast challenge

No other love risked more awkwardness than Christ’s. 

?Can you imagine God becoming man? ?How awkward is that?  Not only must it have been awkward for God to put on human flesh, but think how awkward it must have been for Him throughout his life.

·   I wonder what He felt when He went to His dad’s funeral knowing He  had raised others from the dead. 

·   I often wonder what He felt or thought when He went to the Synagogue and listened to the Rabbi’s trying to "explain the Bible".......you know....the One He wrote.

·   How did He feel when He became a victim of the very people that He created... talk about awkward.

·   How awkward it must have been to be teaching love to a society that was built on brutality.

His love teaches us that we will also have to risk awkwardness in our relationships with others. Sometimes a relationship will require a major overhaul or more personal attention.  It may need propped up with a pinch of love, or maintained with a splash of encouragement, it may need forgiveness received or pardon given.  The virtues that are needed in life situations can make you feel very awkward.  There is a risk when we step out like that. Every relational breakthrough that I have ever had in my life included the risk of awkwardness to bring about the desired results. Awkward comes in many ways, bashful, uncomfortable, unsure, risking looking silly, having to take the first step and apologize, etc.

Risking awkwardness isn’t something you can do on Facebook or Twitter. You can’t bring healing over the internet, or put your hand on someone's shoulder through email. You can be an acquaintance, but not a true blue friend, that comes from personal face-to-face relationships.  You can’t have ‘through thick or thin loyalty', twittering. It is not possible to abate loneliness on a social network through electronic mail.

To create relationships that are built on love, and to have a 'Love That Lasts’ you have to be personal, be there, not be a number, not an e-address.

Today I am going to ask you to take my ‘LOVE THAT LASTS CHALLENGE’ and participate in a "Facebook Fast". [Don't do Facebook? It also applies to computer/TV/Sports overload/Anything time stealing. 

I’m not bashing Facebook.  I use it, I blog once a week, I email and I text frequently. Social media is great so long as it doesn’t become a substitute for really connecting in a deep and personal way with people. 

In fact, I want to spread the 'Facebook Fast' to all my facebook friends.

One day a week I would like you to fast from chatting or gaming on facebook (or any of the above mentioned "time stealers") to get face to face with a friend, spouse, a someone or a loved one.  It may be having coffee or lunch with them, sitting down and writing a letter, card or making a personal call;  maybe its someone hurting and just waiting for someone - you -  to strike up a friendship with them. 

Take the time that you are abstaining during your 'facebook fast' and put a real live person in its place.......?Starting today and ending on Thursday, January 5th, would you join the 'LOVE THAT  LASTS, FACEBOOK CHALLENGE', with all of us here at The SUB. Let's start a relational revolution!

loving

  We've been talking about love the past three Sundays at ‘The SUB’ and, what can I say, I know that some of you are in some very tough patches.  I just want to remind you that when you start to reach out, or start loving, or re-energize yourself to continue loving someone, and see very little results... it is discouraging and sometimes very hard to take.

   One of the things I love to do is to garden...just seem to be wired that way...I like to grow stuff.  Anyway, there's a plant called the Chinese bamboo. It's really emblematic of the way things sometimes go with us.  To grow this thing, you plant the cutting in the ground,  water it, fertilize it, but you see no growth... nothing for the first year. Then you do the same the second year and so on and so forth for sometimes as long as 6 yrs.  Think about it.  You do all that work and put forth a tremendous effort and you see nothing for five or six years, even tho all this time you're weeding, watering, fertilizing and protecting it.  Finally, somewhere around the fifth or sixth year, "Bam"....it sprouts.  The World Book Encyclopedia records that in a single six week period this Chinese Bamboo plant can grow as high as ninety feet and that it can grow three feet in a single twenty-four hour period. It seems incredible that a plant that lies dormant for that many years can suddenly explode with that kind of growth.

   That's the way it is when we start to reach out. Sometimes the results will be slow, but God has you there to be His hands and heart and to be an Ambassador of Himself. As you reach out and love, the Holy Spirit will give you strength to see you through your assignment.

  Focus on fulfilling the purposes of your love.  Don’t be deterred or distracted.  Keep watering, fertilizing, cultivating, weeding and pruning. God will take your love and place it where He wants it, at the rate He wants for those you are reaching out too.

   God may allow you to labor for years with little visible results.  Don’t be discouraged! Underneath the surface things are happening that you can’t see.  Roots are growing down and out, repairing, and convicting, for what is ahead.  Even when you may not see the wisdom of what God is doing, you must trust God. Learn to live with the assurance that He knows what he is doing and that His love for this person runs deep.  Remember Proverbs 19:21:”Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Garbage

Standing on the deck and looking down on my driveway, I see a beautiful neighborhood, a lovely gigantic pine and an oak tree filled with acorns. What a site!  It's from these lovely trees that our beautiful feathered friends from our community fly into and eat their munchies during the winter months. What a sight they are against the foliage and later the snow (eww - enough of that for now!)  Anyway, while admiring those little critters I look down at the driveway and see a huge mess of "stuff".  Deciding to investigate closer, I went down the steps and saw all the shells from the bird feeders. This junk is everywhere - and lots of it!! -sunflower shells and all kinds of leftover millet.  Those little birds are eating all the goodies and leaving me the waste.  Every couple of weeks I have to clean what the rain and wind won't wash away - which is 90% of it.  My little chickadee is cute but not very tidy, the sparrows are downright messy. At least the blue Jays take the seeds up into the trees.  I guess they figure leaving the garbage after dinner for me to clean up isn't too much to do considering the entertainment they provide. That's a bunch of garbage too, but from a birdies' perspective, I guess.
I turned my computer on to figure out how to make a squirrel feeder and I have to sit through fifty advertisements about how to find available singles, cheap car insurance rates or the newest political poll about Obamanomics. Geez just get me the details about the feeder will ya & cut out the garbage....sorry. When its a computer, its spam. The phone rings and its some guy speaking in broken English I can't understand named Lopiano, who's in Pakistan doing a survey about plastic recyclables for a company in Monroeville...it's another nuisance call...and...of course...more garbage.  I think garbage is filling the earth...its everywhere and in every shape and form...you can't even listen to the neighbering kids because some of them rattle off expletives in multiples so fast they can't even stop to breathe. It is a shame that there is nothing but garbage coming out of their mouths. If you turn your TV on, the word garbage is now a synonym for ABC, SPIKE, WE, NBC,CBS,FOX, ESPN, etc,etc,etc. The TV is entertainment garbage. Some of it is pure fiction so you can expect it to be trash and should end up in the "sin bin" but what about the politicians... they are dead serious about what they are saying and it is still garbage. What a shame. Much of what they promise ends up in the waste dump too and these people are trying to be serious.
It makes me think of Isaiah 57:20  'But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud' (NAU)
Let's bring this to us... In a world full of garbage, as Christians, we should be the real deal. The virtue of God should be exhibited in us......let's remove the garbage and......... "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matt 5:16 (NKJ)