Brett walked in the front door after teaching freshman speech class.  The wind had blown his slightly too long hair in various directions and he looked tired.  “So how did class go today?”  I asked.  He sighed, ran his fingers through his hair and told me the following story (in his owns words):

“I have lost all faith that there will be any of kind of future for this country because all my college kids are idiots.  I gave them three little things to do for their speeches.  Three simple little skills that an eight year old can do.  I told them verbally, I wrote them on the board, I made them say the skills back to me.  Everyone agreed they were easy to do and should be done.  After six speeches, no one has done them.  It’s like, as soon as they begin speaking, all memory of what they learned and agreed to vacated their mind.  They were giving their “Demonstration” speeches today.  I repeated the simple instructions for the speech and I ended it with this phrase, ‘Above all else do not end your speech with this oft-repeated phrase: Aaaaaand I guess that’s all there is.’  All of the class agreed, they would not, could not, and should not say that phrase at the end of their speech. Not just the demonstration speech, but any speech they would ever give.  One by one the students took their turn in front of the class room to give their speeches.  Only one student applied all of the instructions.  Everyone else left out various instructions and without fail, all except the one student, ended their speech with the forbidden phrase;  Aaaaaand I guess that’s all there is.  I give up.  These children cannot be taught.  We need to stockpile food and water now because the end of the world is coming as soon as these college kids are released into the world.”

When the Israelites left Egypt the Egyptian army followed them and they were caught between a large body of water and the Egyptian army.  Despite their complaining God parted the body of water and the Israelites crossed to the other side in safety.  When the Egyptian army tried to follow them, God removed His power that held up the water and the army drowned.  The Israelites learned many things on the way to Canaan, the promised land.  God gave them the Ten Commandments.  He provided them with manna and water from a rock.  God gave them instructions and faith building experiences, but when they arrived to the edge of the promised land they didn’t want to enter.  Why?  Because they had sent spies into the promised land and they had seen giants.  Giants too big for them to over come.  Surely if they entered the promised land they would all die.  They wanted to stone Moses and find someone to take them back to Egypt so they could become slaves again.  How quickly they forgot God’s instructions and how He had taken care of them.

The Israelites had followed the glory of God in the fiery cloud whenever it moved.  They were waiting to go into the promised land.  But, when God said, “Follow my glory into the promised land.”  They looked past His glory and His power and saw the giants.  They quit looking at the power of God and said, ‘The giants are so big and we are so small, they will crush us.”  Their lack of faith crushed themselves.  The fear of the giants crushed them and they didn’t even have to cross into the promised land for it to happen.  Their pride allowed fear to block their view of what God promised to do for them.  Pride said,  “You are in charge here and there is no way you can conquer those giants.”  They let their own reasoning, their own intellect tell them they knew more than God.  Their intellect out trumped the power of God.  God wanted to show what He could do for His people who humbled themselves and said they couldn’t but He could.

The Israelites had it backwards.  They didn’t have to be afraid of dying in the promised land, they needed to die before they entered the promised land.  They needed to die to self, die to pride, believe that God would take care of them despite the giants.  When we have that kind of humility we can walk unafraid into the land of the giants and God will turn it into the promised land. Follow the pillar of fire, pursue God’s glory today.  Don’t worry about whether or not you can do it tomorrow or next week because it might be too hard.  Just follow it today, right now, for the next minute and when you keep your eyes on His glory you won’t even see the big rocks or giants in the way because God will make a way through them or around them, just keep your eyes on Him, His power and what He can do.  Follow His instructions and do His promises.  Let’s not be like Brett’s students and agree with everything he says, but when it comes time to put it into practice we seem to forget everything we know to be good for us.  Just remember though that when we do forget, God will forgive us.  His love for us never ends, it flows on forever.  Jump in the current of God’s love and let it carry you to your destination.

“I’m hungry, I want lunch,” Aspen whined.  I pulled some tomatoes out of the fridge to make salsa for lunch.  I heard my neighbor’s voice from the foyer asking, “Where are you?  Can I come in?”  “Sure, come on in, I’m in the kitchen,” I replied.  Aspen stood expectantly looking at us.  “I have a secret,” my neighbor said.  I looked at Aspen and told her to leave us alone for a few minutes.  Aspen reluctantly left the kitchen.  My neighbor whispered  she was taking her kids to an orchard and Aspen was invited if she wanted to go.  I was invited also if I could go on such late notice.  My plans for the afternoon changed instantly.  Fixing salsa for lunch and helping Brett for the afternoon were erased and replaced by a few quick peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and an afternoon at the U-pick orchard.

We piled into a couple of cars and a short drive later pulled up to the orchard.  The aproned woman working the farm store told us we were too late in the season for  apples or raspberries, but she did have some pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.  We were disappointed, but didn’t let it deter us from enjoying a perfect fall day of 75 degrees and sunshine.  We sat down at the picnic tables, pulled out our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and dug into the chips and dips.  After eating, chatting, and watching the kids play on the playground we all wandered through the butterfly garden on our way to the pumpkin patch.

Bright orange pumpkins dotted the brown fields and a foul odor wafted across the air.  When we got closer we could see that many of the pumpkins had begun to rot.  The kids began their hunt for the perfect pumpkin.  Some pumpkins were obviously rotten, sporting gaping brown holes in their sides.  Others looked fine until they were picked up for closer inspection.  Even more appeared fine on the outside, but had soft spots to the touch indicating they were beginning to rot on the inside.  The kids finally found their pumpkins and we checked out at the farm store, adding fresh pressed apple cider to our wheel barrel of pumpkins.

All those pumpkins sitting in the pumpkin patch reminded me of us.  Some of us are quite obviously rotten, others of us look fine on the outside but have varying degrees of rottenness on the inside and then there are those who have not rotted, but have remained firm.  All the pumpkins received the same amount of sunshine, fertilizer, rain, and time, but some began to rot while others remained firm.  Some rottenness started from the outside, while others looked fine on the outside but had started to rot from the inside.

I was also reminded of Jesus disciples.  They all spent time with Jesus.  The sunshine, fertilizer and rain of His presence grew their characters.  But Judas, while appearing fine on the outside was rotting on the inside.  John 12:6 says he was a thief and as keeper of the money bag helped himself to it.  Instead of letting the presence of Jesus change him, he held onto his sin and ended up like the rotten pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.  Eventually his rottenness spilled out for everyone to see and the putrid odor of his actions filled the air.

No one wants to be a Judas.  His name has gone down in history with infamy.  Take a look inside your heart today.  If you were a pumpkin sitting in a pumpkin patch what kind of pumpkin would you be?

“God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, He forgives them and cleanses us from everything we’ve done wrong.” 1 John 1:9 Gods Word Translation 

I sat next to Brett at the sound equipment table watching the wedding guests arrive and take their seats.  Brett and I chatted while waiting for the ceremony to begin, but I became distracted by a couple who wandered in front of me looking for a place to sit.   The wife noticed a coffee stain on her husband’s light grey suit jacket.  She pointed to it and said, “Oh honey, remember you got that stain last time you wore it and we meant to take it to the dry cleaners but forgot.”  The husband looked down at the stain and took off his jacket.  After watching the exchange I looked back at Brett and said, “What was that you said?”  Poor Brett was slightly miffed that I had ignored our conversation while listening to someone else’s.

I picked up my devotional journal today and happened to open it to a dream I had several months ago.  I dreamt I had a beautiful red dress laying on some butcher paper on the floor.  Then part of the dress turned to sawdust.  The dress was no longer useful, so it was rolled up in the butcher paper and thrown out.  It made me think of yesterdays conversation about the coffee stain on the jacket.  The suit jacket the young man was wearing was cut in the latest men’s style.  But, when he discovered it had a stain on it he no longer wanted to wear it.  It was useless to him.  Just one small stain and it was no longer wearable.

I wonder if the prodigal son shocked his neighbors and fellow church members when he asked for his inheritance early and left home to live on his own.  His suit jacket looked fine until upon closer inspection the coffee stain of pride could be seen.  He didn’t need his dad or his family, he could do it on his own.  The little coffee stain didn’t seem to bother him though until he tried to wear it while feeding the pigs.  By then he had spilled all kinds of stains onto his jacket and just wanted to go home and take it off.  He didn’t even want a new one cut in the latest style.  A servants uniform would work just fine for him.

We are born with the stain of pride on our hearts.  It touches everything we do.  We are so used to it being there we don’t notice it and wear it everywhere we go.  God created us His children.  He sent our brother Jesus to this earth to die for all the stains on our jackets.  When we run home to our Father in heaven it’s like taking our jacket to the dry cleaners only better.  Just like the prodigal son’s father gave him a new robe indicating he was a part of the family and not a servant, our Father in heaven takes our stained jacket and gives us a new robe.  A new heart.  A new life with new actions imbued with the humbleness of our brother Jesus.

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”  Luke 15:22-24 

I stood in front of the mirror with one arm raised in a biceps pose.  No, I wasn’t admiring my muscles, quite the opposite.  I took my other hand and pushed on my triceps then let go.  My triceps waved at me.  Maybe I should have been thrilled my triceps were so friendly, but I wasn’t.

My Quinquagenarian (50th birthday) arrives in less than a year and the results of my lifetime of laziness stare me in the face.  My results don’t flinch, but I do.  I have read books written by fitness experts about how great exercise is for my health, but until I put into practice what I have read my triceps will continue to flap and I will never run a marathon from my living room chair while reading a book.  In the meantime, I half heartedly do a few arm exercises when I think about it and wear longer sleeves.

It’s easy to read the Bible like I read an exercise book.  I whole-heartedly agree that what I read will make my life better if I put it into practice.  But, instead of putting it into practice I look at the time and rush off to take care of my needs in life; what to eat, drink and wear and everything that goes along with those three things.

Jesus tells us to seek His kingdom first and He will take care of what we need to eat, drink and wear.  But, we live life backwards and seek first to satisfy our temporal needs rather than our spiritual needs.  There is a  problem with satisfying our temporal needs first, it will never lead to satisfying our spiritual needs.  But, if we seek first the kingdom of God, He will take care of everything else.  Seeking the kingdom of God first doesn’t come naturally, just like most people weren’t born with the desire to rise early and work out, most people aren’t born seeking to be dependent on God for all their needs.  We don’t have a problem recognizing we need to depend on God for our spiritual needs, but we don’t want to give up taking care of our physical needs.  It’s a little scary to give that part of our lives up to God.  What if He wants us to drive a mini-van when we would rather be driving a Mustang?  It usually doesn’t take much longer than a moment of thought to conclude that it’s best if we pursue taking care of our own eating, drinking and wearing.

Just like I use long sleeves to cover up the waving triceps, I go to church and look like I’m seeking God first, at least for a few hours. But, then I go home and work on receiving those blessings God says He will provide for me.  For the rest of the week  I seek the blessings first and wonder why it feels so empty, why I’m never satisfied with more stuff, better stuff.  Several years ago I went to a yard sale in Las Vegas  and overheard the woman running the yard sale say she had three storage units of stuff. But, did she have three storage units of stuff because she sought God’s kingdom first?  Or did she have three storage units of stuff because she sought to fill her own needs first?  She was constantly flitting from one desire to the next, never satisfied and always needing more.

Is God egocentric because He asks us to seek Him first?  It could appear that He is self-centered by wanting all of our attention.  But, let’s look at it in a different way. God created us His children.  There is no greater love than that of a parent for their children.  God loves us that much and more.  From our side of it, God is our Father.  We were created to love Him as our parent.   Jesus says we are to become as little children.   Little children love their parents more than anything.  They want to copy everything their parents do.  They want to vacuum, or mow the lawn, or apply make up and wear high heels or dress in the uniform dad wears to work.  That is the type of relationship God created us to have with Him.  But, most of us don’t want to become as little children.  We create our own gods to worship, money or the things money can buy.  We seek those things like we should be seeking our Father in heaven.

Jesus  tells us to take a look at the flowers of the fields and see how they grow. God made them beautiful and they live their beauty.   When we seek first the kingdom of God we will grow with the same pure simplicity, our faces seeking the Son, and living the beauty He created for us.

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34