LENTEN HOPE

LENTEN SEASON, JUMC, Jamestown, NC

The worst thing is never the last thing

As I was preparing to drive to our weekly mission for elementary students where I volunteer each Monday afternoon, I was wondering if my time and efforts were making any difference at all.  We had been having informal conversations about how to keep the kids settled down so that we could actually make a difference in their lives by mentoring and sending them home with a hot dinner.  Maybe our presence meant nothing at all.

Our leader started the free after school program with a singing rehearsal to prepare the students for a short program this Lenten Sunday at our church.  I sat at an empty table across from them and watched them sing.  Then a small third grade girl slipped up beside me and softly asked if she could talk to someone.  I noticed that she seemed distressed as her head was bowed.  I looked down and said “Of course, what’s the matter”, not really expecting anything too troubling.  She put her small arms around me and whispered something so soft with the singing in the background that I couldn’t understand her.  I leaned down to make eye contact with her teared-up eyes and saw the grieving tears slowly trail down her cheeks.  She ever so slightly raised her voice and said, “My grandmother died yesterday.”

I was totally caught off guard and could only reply “Oh, I’m so sorry.”  We just stood there as the other children continued their rehearsal and hugged for a minute.  Two other helpers comforted the girl and then I directed her over to an empty table and let her pour out her pent-up emotions before I spoke again.  It occurred to me that she may have just come to the realization that she would never see her grandmother again and that they must have had a very loving relationship.

I mentioned to the little girl that both of my grandmothers had died, but I knew they were safe and happy in God’s heaven.  And I was certain that they were OK and even sometimes watching over me too.  That finally seemed to provide some hope and reassurance that everything would eventually get better.  When the singing was finished and an activity time had begun, two of the other children asked what was wrong and to their credit, immediately invited the little girl to join them.  Soon she was smiling again.

Defeating death on that Black Friday afternoon over two thousand years ago and rising from the empty tomb is the great hope for all mankind.  That eternal truth once more revealed itself to me through the tearful eyes of a young child this Lenten season.  And I knew that I had made a difference today.  

ROBO REVENGE

NEW MESSAGE WAITING, Jamestown, NC

Finally, it was good to hear that the major cell phone service providers are about to release programming that will stop the billions of unsolicited, harassing, irritating, automatic, robo calls that have plagued all of us for years!  I just happened to be sitting in the kitchen killing time while the oven was warming when another call number appeared on my TV screen.  I had seen this number so many times lately that I recognized it was a company trying to sell miracle knee braces to Medicare recipients so that the government would pay for them.  First of all, the government doesn’t pay for anything.  We taxpayers, even those of us on Medicare, pay for everything!  Second, I almost knew their pitch by heart since they had been trashing my answering machine for literally months.  And third, I’ve had both knee joints replaced after using worthless knee braces and I have no need for a freebee brace at my taxpayer expense.

So, since I’m retired and have time on my hands, I considered it was payback time!  I picked up the phone and heard the repetitive message that this was my final chance to dial “1” for assistance, dial “9” or “2” to be placed on their “Do not Call List”.  I have dialed both “9” and “2” on more than one occasion and I am still getting one last chance to buy these free worthless knee straps!  Obviously, this is just a ploy to register what times I’m available to answer the phone. 

But today was different and I dialed “1” for assistance.  Of course, I was placed on hold with the requisite elevator music.  Finally, after about ten minutes a female voice came on the line and asked “Who am I talking to?”  That was my cue!  Since I had time to rehearse my lines, I began in my best big man anchor voice, “This is your last chance.  If you would like to speak to a customer, please press “1”.  If you would like to be placed on our “Do not Answer List”, please press “2” or “9” and we will ignore your request.  You MUST make a choice or we’ll send somebody over to poison your dog!  (Actually, I didn’t say that but it would have been fun).  If you would like us to call and harass you for the rest of your life, please leave your name and phone number.”

And from the other end of the line somewhere in distant Haiti or India, I heard an exasperated voice say “Oh Good Grief” and she actually hung up on me!     Ah, sweet revenge.

EASTER PEOPLE

Buzzing Bee, Jamestown, NC

Welcome the first day of Spring! 🌸🌸🌸

The honey created by buzzing bees is symbolic of God’s favor to his children.🐝🐝🐝. The promised land was said to be flowing with milk and honey.  And the Lenten Rose is a harbinger of spring that ushers in the Lenten season of spiritual self-examination and hope! 

All creation is resurrected with new life at springtime as Easter People celebrate the sacrifice that secured their forgiveness and the promise that death was defeated, so that we may experience an eternal life on the other side in a beautiful forever.

DON’T LET THE OLD MAN IN

Working Out, High Point, NC

I was driving to the gym this morning with a country music station playing in the windmill of my mind when one of those “gotcha” songs permeated my foggy brain and I snapped to attention!  The relatable lyrics stayed on replay throughout my workout, so I walked back into the locker room and retrieved my iPhone and went back out to one of my regular machines.  A young woman had just finished nearby so I asked her for the favor of taking the accompanying photo.  I explained that I write a blog and was certain that I could work with a song I had just heard titled “Don’t let the old man in”.  Since she had just witnessed me sweating in the gym, I got a knowing smile and she graciously took the photo.

When I got home and googled the song title, I ran across the genesis of the lyrics.  It seems Toby Keith recently found inspiration from a casual conversation with Clint Eastwood on the golf course in California.  Keith asked the 88-year-old actor “What keeps you going?” and he replied “I get up every day and don’t let the old man in”.  After downloading the song on iTunes, the lyrics must ring true for all of us seniors playing in the last quarter of an average lifetime.  We have the choice of believing we’re a hostage of the unseen and uninvited but inevitable aging process, or we can work on being almost as young as always, understanding there are some very real health issues that can be a challenge.

 

Toby sings “can’t leave it up to him, he’s knocking on my door.  Ask yourself how old would you be if you didn’t know the day you were born?  When he rides up on his horse and you feel that cold winter wind, look out your window and smile.  Don’t let the old man in.”

Yeah, old age ain’t for sissies, but it’s a gift that’s denied to many.  So, “get up and go outside”!  Celebrate all the full moons that you’ve experienced on a cold winter’s night as calling wild geese fly by.  And “toast each sundown with wine.  Don’t let the old man in.”

BURNING SHIPS

Burning the Fleet

TOTAL COMMITMENT
TEAMWORK

When the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez landed at Veracruz, Mexico, in 1519 with 600 men, he ordered his fleet of ships burned!  He was totally outnumbered and total commitment from his men was the key to success.  Destroying all means of turning back without any exit ramps eliminated all options except total commitment.  Two years later that totally unorthodox action resulted in the success of his mission to conquer the Aztec empire in his quest for gold in the New World.

I can remember installing new processes in business where total commitment was absolutely necessary to move forward into our own new business worlds.  Our leaders made it very plain that the ships of the past would be burned into a watery grave as we installed these processes with no looking back.  Business leaders need to make clear to everyone that the ships that got us where we are today will not remain in the harbor, but will be fully involved in flames the second the new process goes live on-line!

I’ve always liked and used the analogy of a breakfast of bacon and eggs.  The chicken is involved but the pig is totally committed!

Embracing this “all in” mind-set not only applies in warfare and business but in our personal lives as well.  I just finished a book by Nathan Jorgenson titled The Mulligan.  A Mulligan in golf is simply a second chance or “do-over” after an initial bad shot and that first errant shot is forgotten and now out of play.  The universal second chance for just about everyone will always lift your spirits and give you renewed hope for redemption on the next shot!

Joe Mix is a middle-class man in Minnesota who is unhappy and unfulfilled.  He’s a man living the American dream.  But he slowly and painfully comes to terms that his marriage, life choices and career are an unbearable façade and a charade.  After many years of tolerating an intolerable spouse and a successful job he hates, he finally resolves to a total commitment to pack his basic belongings along with $8,500 in cash into his old familiar pickup truck and leave it all.  He calls his younger brother who’s conveniently a lawyer and instructs him to begin divorce proceedings and give his wife everything including the house, savings and his dental practice.  When his brother incredulously objects, Joe simply replies “This isn’t about money; it’s about everything else BUT money, I guess.  Now, somewhere out there, I plan to find some meaning.  Will you just help me dispose of my old life?  Please?  So I can get on with it all.” 

Joe knows the road ahead is extremely uncertain for a man his age, but he also understands that the only way he will find his way will be by embracing a total commitment to life.  He leaves Minnesota with burning ships reflecting in his rearview mirror.  Perhaps all those ships could have been spared if everyone had only resolved to a total commitment on that first shot at life, but who’s to say?  Most times it’s truly a team effort for everybody that’s on board in life.

And sometimes we need a mulligan.

DECLUTTER AND SPARK JOY IN THE NEW YEAR

Minimalism, Jamestown, NC

As we turn our planners over to another new year, I’ve always noticed an underlying sense of mild anxiety whenever I have been so busy and focused on a project deadline that clutter has invasively entered into my life.  That goes for both the mental and environmental elements that shape daily life.  And many of us always seem to find that rectifying this situation is a very responsible and priority item on our New Year’s resolutions list.  Then life happens all over again as we blast off on yet another trip around the sun!

As I was preparing the house for holiday guests, I found all manner of clutter that had accumulated around my life in the form of an excess of magazines, books, unnoticed canned goods past their expiration dates, household accessories that had reproduced in the dark hours of the night, clothing articles hanging innocently inside a walk in space which had not been selected in over a year ( and some that had their seams taken in overnight by woodland elves named calories), dust bunnies that were producing offspring faster than their mortal namesakes, bedding and bath textiles that had been replaced by fresher linens but retained on unvisited shelves, unfiled paperwork in my office that rose to new heights of unorganized stacks, etc.  There’s no need to even mention the storage room and the garage space, although I had methodically carted off numerous items to charitable groups all year.  But apparently its been observed that drinking and priming has deleterious consequences that manifest themselves on your doorstep in the form of those ubiquitous Amazon boxes that occasionally attract those pesky porch pirates.

Unbeknownst to me, all of this clutter had crept into my life generating this undercurrent of unconscious uneasiness.  Fortunately, clutter is one of the easiest life stressors to fix!  The attributes of Minimalism focus on simplicity, clarity, and singleness that motivates us to intentionally retain those things that bring joy to our being and enables us to release all the other things that do not.  It clarifies our vision to see the deceit of our consumer culture and opens up the possibility of redirecting our attention to nurturing relationships and our very own souls.  Jesus taught that we should not store up treasures on earth but in heaven, for where our treasures reside, there our heart will be also.  This eternal truth also applies to how we spend our time.

The Japanese traditional culture of Zen philosophy centers on simplicity.  Their principle of Ma refers to empty or open space and reduces everything down to just the essentials.  Marie Kondo has made an international name for herself with her method of decluttering and organizing which she has dubbed “KonMari”.  She promotes only keeping those things that “spark joy” in our lives.  And joy trumps life stressors every single time!       

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

God's Peace, Greensboro, NC

A Toddler's Joy, Greensboro, NC

I wrote a blog titled The Message about a spiritual moment that occurred just over ten years ago which my wife of forty years and I experienced at a relatively small garden park here in North Carolina.  Strolling through the park was a nice break from the rigors of fighting breast cancer and we both had come to terms with the reality of our mortal existence.  Karen had finished the rigors of an experimental cancer drug which she had volunteered to take in the interest of a miracle cure and research for future patients after the cancer had metastasized.  She remarked that she didn’t have the strength to walk far, so we rested on a park bench near a blooming Magnolia tree.  The July weather was perfect for forcing open the beautiful white blooms and the early morning dappled light filtered through the delicate petals. 

I walked over to the blooms to photograph various stages of life and in the process came upon a blossom that must have just opened that morning.  I returned to the bench where we both marveled at its flawless beauty and found a calming peace in its message for us.  It was a message that sustained us for those final fifteen days which followed in the hospital.  The memory of that day and the special place the garden park held for me remained in my heart but I did not return to the park again until last Christmas week. 

My visiting son-in-law and I drove to the garden park while my daughter met a friend for breakfast.  Our primary mission was to entertain and exercise my almost two-year old grandson in a space that was conducive to fresh air and open pathways.  And this park was ideal for such a venture!  He was actively enjoying all the circuitous walkways and it was all that we could do to keep up with him as he exuberantly ran through the park.  The Magnolia tree was still standing, but there were no blooms in late December.  However, we twice passed a tall serene black man in a black overcoat that walked by with a smile that indicated he was observing and enjoying the young toddler’s zest for life as much as we were embracing it.  When I said “Good Morning” with each passing, he only made eye contact and slowly smiled, but his demeanor was unmistakably different from the other strangers we met that day.  And that enigmatic smile has remained with me.

I’ve often mused that although Karen has not been physically present to experience the joy of our grandson, somehow there may be some means for her spirit to do so.  I have the confidence that we will all meet again in a beautiful forever and that promise is certainly enough, but I also know that the magnolia was conveying a message not of words, but of an image of our creator in all that is good.  And I also believe that he uses messengers such as winged butterflies and worldly looking beings to let us know that all is well—especially at Christmastime.