"I'm sorry, I forgot your name."

     How do you handle this dilemma?  The most honest and forward way to do so would be to say, "I'm sorry, I forgot your name."  It's not what we do though.  That may be what we do as a last resort.  Sometimes we forget the name of someone very close to us.  More often it's an acquaintance or a friend who is the brunt of our mental lapse.  Dealing with this problem can be educational and refreshing or the honesty can be embarrassing.  Mine falls into the later category.
     We don't like how people forget our name.  That alone should provide the impetus for us to work on remembering theirs.  The truth is, we only remember that which is important to us.  Sure, everything goes into our brain but not everything has a bookmark!  We can excuse others for not remembering our name and often do.  Sometimes though, our minds are elsewhere and, like me, we forget the name of our wife.  Worse yet, we call them by our ex wife's name!  Now not remembering has become quite a problem. 
     Then there is the all encompassing general response to our forgetfulness.  "Hey, what have you been up to?"  Just who is "Hey!"?  Hey is our favorite person in the whole world.  Hey is related to "Hey you. How are you doing?"  It's followed by "You know,..." and then "Whatshisname..."  You can hear the toilet flushing as we give up on remembering.  I once read a book on remembering things from peoples names to citations from various books and seminars.  You know what happened!  Yep, I forget anyway. 
     We ask others what someone's name is as a means of escaping the embarrassing moment.  The quick look at the name tag or the inquiry to our companion for the event is next.  We even eavesdrop on conversations in order to hear the persons name.  When we do finally come to the end of our excuses, we face the music or leave the event.  Often avoidance is the only choice in our mind when we forget someone's name.  We're trying so hard to remember that we cannot.
     There are billions of people on the earth.  Many of them I do not know.  Yet, God knows each one.  He remembers us by name.  How can that be?  In the Psalm we read that "Knit us together in our mother's womb." Then in Revelation we are told that "He will give a new name to those who overcome."  I believe that the two are connected.  I believe that the name he gave us when created is the name that is bestowed upon us when we enter into heaven and His presence. 
     Instead of "I'm sorry, I forgot your name." those who enter heaven will hear "Steve!  Well done thou good and faithful servant!"  WOW!  You won't hear me saying "I'm sorry, I forgot your name."  We remember what is most important at any given time.  Remembering and recalling are two different things.  We call that which we have remembered.  We remember their names but don't have the present ability to recall them.  So, the best choice is to just be honest and ask.  We're not God you know!

For just a minute...

     When has "wait for just a minute" ever turned out to be "just a minute"?  We intend on this diversion to be only a minute but it turns out to be five or more.  "I'll be ready in a minute."  For many, this isn't a mistake but an outright lie.  Fifteen minutes or more later we are out the door late again for church or whatever else we had scheduled with a specific start time.  We've lived through these moments and gone on to do the same over and over.  We come to the place where our MO (modeus operandi) has become not only expected but planned around!  
     Pretty much all of my life I've been focused on being there 10 to 15 minutes early.  One specific time I arrived on time and rang the doorbell.  The wife came to the door not dressed for the dinner in her home.  She said, "No one is on time in California."  She did let me in.  True to form the other guests began to trickle in 10 to 15 minutes late.  I haven't been able to give up my desire to at least be on time.  Apparently others haven't bee able to give up their desire to always be late.
     There is a repeated phrase in the Bible I've kept in my mind when I think about God and his understanding of the situations I find myself in.  The Bible says: "God, at just the right time..."  You can fill in the blanks.  A curious story is the one of David and his men fleeing from King Saul.  Backed into a canyon with no escape David prayed for Gods intervention.  To his surprise quite suddenly King Saul and his army turned around an vanished towards home.  David was later to find out that God had intervened.  A messenger had come to King Saul and told him the Egyptians were attacking the kingdom from the south.  You might think that this was all there was to the story.  Not so. 
     The messenger had been on foot and the journey to warn King Saul in the northern part of the kingdom would have taken about 2 weeks.  Two weeks before David prayed for intervention.  Prior to that God would have needed to create whatever was necessary to motivate the Egyptians to attack the Israelites from their border. 
     I hope you see the magnitude of the elements necessary for God to bring about the salvation of David and his men.  In order for all of this to happen God would have had to know that the event was going to happen.  The Bible tells us that "God is answering our prayers even before they pass over our lips."  God knows what we want and need.  He is planning on a path of taking care of our prayer requests even before we pray them! 
     God never says, "In just a minute."  Why?  Because he is ahead of time taking care of things before they become prayer requests.  WOW!  God is never late nor does he tarry.  The next time you tell someone "for just a minute" remember how God views our time and it's importance to be on time.   A minute should never be longer than a minute!

On being rich!

    I love being rich!  Being rich changes everything about life and the life I enjoy.  For those who know me this relates to my being Christian and not rich money wise.  The question is how we handle either form of being rich.  What motivates us to seek the riches of this world versus the riches of God?  Why does that matter? 
     Motivation for anything in a Christian's life is key to our happiness.  That is what it's all about really.  Happiness is dependent upon our motivation.  In the world's form of richness that means seeking only to increase ones own position, power, and aloofness (nice word, huh!).  While we may live a life of less because of our particular story; we still look forward to better and more.  The motivation may even be altruistic as we want better and more under the guise of doing this or that for our families, friends and of course those in need.  Any motivation, other than God telling us, is essentially selfish and without love. 
     There are so many Christians whose riches account with First Heavenly Bank is empty.  Thinking is based on several things.  First, we are taught how we look at riches and who has the riches.  Growing up I didn't know anyone who was materially rich.  There was no goal of being rich in either way for our family.  Today, social media, public outcry, and the neighbors in "that" neighborhood provide the focus on what we have and don't have.  And so the motivation for riches is tainted with selfish desires. 
     Here is the tricky part.  There can be no heavenly riches unless we have our focus on Jesus.  Jesus is really clear in his teachings that the riches of this world mean less than the riches in him.  We can only see our need for Christ if we look at what's missing from our lives.  We can only see our need for the riches of the world if we look at what others have.  Focusing on the riches of others will never make me rich.  Focusing on the riches of Christ makes me already abundantly rich! 
     The Bible says the streets of heaven are paved with gold.  Quite the contrast with what the world thinks about gold.  Again the difference is dramatic as we cannot take the riches of the world with us.  The riches of being in Christ are immeasurable.  Think of how many people have come to know Christ as a result of God's answer to your, mine and others prayers.  We have riches from blessing others.  Heavenly riches don't tarnish or fade away.  In the world the riches come and go with the switch of the market value or the whim of a corporation.
     In heaven the riches we have fade from our focus as we look at being unselfish in our love towards God and others.  Many of the Christian rich live a world of poverty in the world's eyes.  We are rich by what we know matters most and not what we have.  It's just the exact opposite in the world. 
     One final word.  Well, maybe one more paragraph.  What matters the most for you as a follower of Christ?  It's not riches.  What should matter most is surrendering our lives (and concept of richness) to Jesus.  The more we surrender, the richer we are.  Did you get that?  The riches the Christian have is a mark of how surrendered to God we are.  It's amazing that the Christian life can be so simple.  We try and try to make it something it is not.  God doesn't care about your "Sunday best" as much as your enjoy the best of Sunday when his Son arose completing the work for your salvation.  That is the richness of God. 

Listening versus hearing

Most of my career moves have placed me in vocations where it was essential to listen.  Not listening could have dire results if I didn't hear as well.  Take for instance the situation where you are talking to someone who has a deer in the headlights look on their face.  Nobody hearing there.  How about your child listening to you chatter (what he/she actually hears) on about how they should be nicer to their sibling.  They may be listening but they aren't hearing.  Here's a good one; how about listening to a politician?  Yes, we listen but first and foremost we have a stereotype of the politician that tells us to not hear their pleas.  Crying wolf is a common outcome of the "I can't hear you." syndrome.  Often we come into a conversation with our hearing conditioned to hear only what we want to hear.  We bring our prejudices and biases along with our selective social upbringing.  I was once in the deep south and after talking for a couple of minutes the person I was talking with said, "You sure have a funny accent."  He didn't hear a thing I said.  He listened to my voice and determined that I had a "funny accent" but nothing further.  Some people have vocations where they are public speakers.  For instance teachers, preachers, medical professionals, professors, and the list could go on and on.  The responsibility that they carry to the podium is great.  Dwight Moody, the great revivalist preacher, was preaching in Chicago one evening.  The Spirit was moving amongst the people and at the end of the service Reverend Moody told the audience he was not going to give an altar call but that they should go home, search their hearts and tomorrow night give their lives to Christ.  That night would be disastrous with the Great Chicago Fire that took many lives.  Reverend Moody made the decision right then that he would never preach again without providing the people time to give their lives to Christ.  Speaking to an audience who are listening and hearing is a great responsibility.  There are consequences that come about when we don't have an audience that first is listening, second hearing and finally responding.  Salesmen and women are seen to be the bottom of the bottom right next to lawyers.  Car salesmen and women, lawyers and politicians come close to those who have a motive other than your best interests.  We come with a preconceived idea that these people will do anything to win, get their way, defeat others and in order that their wants and needs are granted.  Should I come up to you and say, "Hi, I'm Steve and I'm a Christian." you shift gears in your listening and hearing.  How about, "Hi, I'm Steve and I'm a police officer."  Another stereotype.  Maybe, "Hi, I'm Steve and I'm a mortician."  You get the picture.  Outside of, "Hi, I'm Steve." people shift their listening and hearing to fit what they know or have experienced.  It's like the game where one person whispers to another person a sentence and that person passes it on until the statement comes full circle.  It's often nothing like what started.  My speaking (or typing) is valuable most of the time.  I don't always listen and hear as well as I should.  Anyone else have that problem?  One last criteria I'd like to discuss is our level of respect for the speaker as well as the subject matter.  How can we become listeners that hear when we don't respect someone.  It's not a secret.  We can filter what they say, how they say it, and why they say what they do. I can listen and hear others even though I am diametrically opposed to what they believe.  Listening and hearing don't automatically mean I have to "buy in" or subject myself to an idea or thought I disagree with.  I'd like us to think about one final dilemma.  How we listen and how we hear dictates how we speak and vice versa.  Jesus has provided us with the example of how to be consistent in both worlds.  He came representing all that the Father desired that we the people should hear.  When he spoke, some listened and some didn't.  Jesus told us to bring the Gospel to all the world.  Is your and my world listening AND hearing with action as a result?  When we submit to the Holy Spirit we are now representing God in all things.  When I don't submit to the Holy Spirit all people hear is Steve.  Today I will try to listen and hear from God's point of view.  I won't be perfect at it but I will try.  

May I introduce Helen...

Have you ever had a time in your life when you really needed someone, anyone, to guide you through tough places?  Being male doesn't help me in that "asking for help" department.  Thus it was until I met Helen.  She has a unique ability to give me directions that bring me to my sought after goals in life.  Now I wish I had known Helen years ago.  Swallowing my pride and asking for help wasn't the problem or the solution.  The solution was turning a control area of my life over to someone else.  Who better to do so than Helen who has more knowledge that Google?  You see where I am going with this.  Helen has saved me several times with her advice and never tires of my making the wrong choice.  Helen has an innate ability to anticipate my doing this or that where I should have just trusted her wisdom.  The only other place where I have seen such a thing is with God.  God always has a plan A for me.  Plan A is always the best plan.  Plan A always leads us to a better place and time.  Plan A doesn't ever have regrets or guilt.  Plan A is the ultimate compliment from God.  "Well done thou good and faithful servant."  Helen doesn't go that far.  Thank you God.  Whenever I make a choice that isn't plan A, plan B takes hold and eventually brings me back to a place where God can put before me His plan A once again.  Helen isn't that persistent.  Nor is she as subtle as God when it comes to gently nudging me back onto track and Plan A once again.  God, who created me, knows me and knows what works to get me back on track and what doesn't.  There have been times when I was about to make a plan B choice and God intervened aiding me in staying with plan A.  God knows all my choices for the rest of my life.  With Helen I have a specific destination with a general knowledge of how to get there.  With God the path is clear and always for the best.  Communication is a big thing with God and Helen.  The more I shut up and listen the better it is for all involved.  Listening should always be there before we talk.  Using common sense is a good rule.  Surrendering our listening to God is the best rule.  It takes practice to be able to really listen to God.  It also takes desire to listen to hear his voice.  Worst case scenario, I can always tell Helen to go away.  She will.  Best case scenario, I tell God to go away and he doesn't!  He says, in the Bible, that he will never leave us nor will he forsake us.  That's great news for me!  I've tried his patience and plan A for so long that he must be tiring of my disobedience.  But...there's more!  Helen, like God, has a destination for me.  Helen, unlike God, has no destination that stretches into the future.  God has a future destination in Heaven where he has been preparing a place for me for years.  God says he will take me to that place one day even if Helen were to disappear.  He promises to take away my pain and give me rest...eternally.  Helen can't do that.  He promises that we will be in sweet communion for the rest of eternity.  Helen cannot do that either.  Helen has fixed limitations whereas God has no limitations.  So, today I will choose to follow God and his plan A.  Helen will also be there to aid me in getting from point A to point A.  Should you wonder who Helen is, she is my GPS unit.  But then you probably already guessed that.  We can only go on what we feed into the equation.  God wants us to have the ability to rely on him for guidance.  Helen merely re-routes me when I turn left where I should have turned right.  That's good; don't get me wrong.  With all the missed opportunities in my life due to my choice, I need all the help from God that I can get. Have a great day!

It's common sense!

Common sense issues are relegated by all kinds of factors.  In some parts of the country you would be exercising common sense stopping for road kill if the kill was recent.  While that may be true of one part of the population, it's not necessarily true for all.  In Arizona there is on Route 66 a place named The Roadkill Cafe.  Common sense dictates our doing one thing and not doing another.  The greater the degree of risk; the less common sense comes into play.  For me bungee cord jumping off bridges is not only way past common sense but insane!  Kind of like eating road kill.  But then I digress.  Common sense says eat this and don't eat that.  Common sense says think before you talk and then sometimes don't talk.  Common sense says that we are sane by someones standards.  When my son Benjamen was 4 years old we were watching a show when he suddenly said to me, "Know what I want to do when I grow up?"  I asked him to tell me.  He said, "Everything!"  He's about to graduate high school next year and has plans in place that allow him to do just that.  Historical common sense would have had me urging him to choose a life path and then going in that direction.  My urging him to "do everything" is outside what some would call common sense.  Not only is common sense different in the various parts of the country; it's also different amongst different people groups.  Common sense means taking care of your health, avoiding stress and having balance between your time off and work time.  It would follow that less we engage in stress related activities the more common sense we have.  Not necessarily true.  If there weren't people who risked greatly we would be without so many of the inventions and concepts that were birth out of labors of love and what most people would have termed a lack of common sense.  Man cannot fly!  Watch this key on the string of my kite in this storm!  Horseless carriages?  Who ever heard of such a thing?  Are we much different today?  Generations have standard common sense beliefs that they try to pass onto their next generation.  Sometimes it takes and sometimes it doesn't.  We often hear about common sense when there is something negative.  "If he had used common sense God gave a mule he would be alive."  Interesting point.  "It's just plain common sense to do it this way."  "He didn't have a lick of common sense."  So, what does constitute common sense?  What makes this one common sense and that one not?  Just when you get a grip on what common sense is the world changes the definition.  It was alleged common sense that sparked the Salem witch deaths.  It was common sense that we pass this law or that law to bring about the equality that eventually took away a freedom.  I had a friend who told me that "The more things change the more they stay the same."  Sounds like common sense.  Status quo doesn't mean we exercise common sense.  It's a common sense way of not rocking the boat.  What does God have to say about common sense?  The Bible has so many Scriptures about common sense that I couldn't list them here if I had all day!  What we need is a middle ground that guides us to use common sense in all of our life.  Common sense has to be birthed somewhere.  What is the etiology (study of first things or causes)?  When Jesus was asked about the law of God he answered that there were only two laws.  Under these two laws of common sense all of life would take shape in a positive and encouraging way.  With the two laws as part of our individual and corporate lives living would be better.  What was Jesus talking about?  Jesus said that we needed to exercise only two common sense issues.  First, we are to love God.  Secondly, we are to love one another.  That's it.  When we accomplish these two all that we do is Godly common sense.  You see, if I use these two commands in my life, I will automatically be using common sense that God gave to us.  Even if we are stubborn as a mule, we can exercise this common sense.  When we focus on the goal rather than the journey, the journey takes place anyway.  Why not have God, with his commons sense, direct our lives?  It's common sense.

I'll get to that tomorrow!

Famous last words!  Yet, this is the procrastinators dream sentence.  Many of us don't think of ourselves as procrastinators and yet if we are really honest with ourselves we will admit we are or at least we do.  I have the perpetual list of tasks that need my attention both in my personal life and in my home.  Sometimes I put things on the list knowing good and well they won't be addressed anytime soon.  But at least I put the task on the list!  That's something, isn't it?  "Don't do today what you can put off for tomorrow."  Sometimes the "thing" we do has no impact on us or the world we live in.  Whether I mow the grass in the winter won't change a thing.  The grass where I live grows but very slowly during the winter...and it rains all the time!  It's on my list anyway.  We set ourselves up to procrastinate on January 1 every year.  This year I'm going to...  Yeah right!   I'm going to lose that weight, exercise more, keep in touch with people more, make peace with my enemies.  The list is endless and usually no later than January 7th we have abandoned the resolution list anyway.  This form of denial is filtered with "words" other than "denial" but mean the same thing.  There are two elements that procrastinators use daily in their lives: justification and rationalization.  Justification tells us that chocolate chip cookies contain at least 3 if not 4 of the food groups so they can't be bad for us.  Okay, there is rationalization in there too!  They go hand in hand.  What does procrastination cost us?  Maybe nothing is the issue is small an doesn't affect anyone.  Perhaps the cost is greater though.  What if procrastination keeps you from fixing that car problem only to have your wife break down that night on a dark deserted highway?  What if that stair you have been intending on fixing breaks and Mom falls breaking her hip?  Consequences of procrastination affect more than the perpetrator.  It's the same in your personal life.  Procrastination may keep you from saying "Hi" to that girl/woman you have a crush on and she is now seen on the arm of your best friend or worst enemy.  Sometimes there is a still small voice that encourages you to risk and just do what you know you are supposed to do.  We try to override the voice with our "logic" and the result is nothing because we have done nothing.  In each of us there is a still small voice that encourages right and good.  That's the voice of God.  I'm glad that God didn't procrastinate coming to save mankind.  I'm sorry that I put off knowing Jesus even though I knew of him.  What that cost me and others is way beyond where my mind can go!  Sometimes that still small voice tells us to "not do" or simply "no".  That is not procrastination...it's a life saving direction and needs to be listened to.  So, let's not pretend that we are in charge and the worlds functions because I do this or don't do that.  Let's not procrastinate when we are asked to believe in Jesus and follow him in all the areas of our life.  Let's count the cost of our procrastination on others and no longer be a stumbling block to them.  Maybe today our list will be replaced with line items that really do count and really do need to be accomplished.