DailyConnections.net

FRIDAY THOUGHT 5/30/08

Fear of God

My mother periodically used to threaten to put the Fear of God in me, which I got the impression was going to be a fairly forceful process.  Still, I kind of always knew that what she was referring to was the Fear of Sally rather than the Fear of God.  But  I always knew that the Fear of Sally wasn’t a quaking-in-my-boots kind of fear, but more an if-I-didn’t-love-you-I-wouldn’t-do-this-to-you sort of threat.
 
Same with the Fear of God, which I slowly began to understand (I think) over the years.  Not that I’m a doctor of theology, but it seems to me that Fear of God is about awareness of and respect for God’s laws and God’s ways.  Just as important, it’s about trusting in God and believing (knowing beyond knowing) that His ways lead to balance, joy, purpose and spiritual abundance. 
 
My point:  Not sure, other than that I’d rather face the Fear of God than the Fear of Sally any day.  But maybe the next time life smacks you  along the side of the head, try to remember — as hard as it may seem at the time — that God wouldn’t be doing this if He didn’t love you.  God bless and enjoy the blessings of the weekend.  — jri
 
“Humility and fear of the Lord
    bring wealth and honor and life.”
            –    Proverbs 22:4
 

THURSDAY THOUGHT 5/29/08

Fighting Demons

From alcoholics to drug addicts to dieters struggling with food addictions, and worse, I’ve seen people wrestling with demons that keep pulling them back — time and time again — from the gates of heaven into the prison of their own personal hell.  Victory brings fear of the next assault, like stragglers huddling around a campfire watching the hungry eyes just outside the ring of light, relentless and ready to move in at the next opportunity. 

I suspect that nobody chooses to fail, even when they make choices that lead to failure.  We all struggle with weaknesses, wrestle with demons.  We can tough it out.  Or we can give it over to God.  It seems to me that He is the light that can keep the demons at bay.

My point?  On one hand, be patient with those among us who wrestle with demons and sometimes (or perhaps often) fail.  On the other hand, if you are a demon wrestler, get God into the fray and make it a tag-team match. And rejoice in each day’s victories, even if it is just the victory of surviving failure.  — jri   

“When an evil spirit comes out of a man,
it goes through arid places seeking rest
and does not find it.  Then it say, ‘I will
return to the house I left.’  When it arrives,
it finds the house unoccupied, swept
clean and put in order.  Then it goes and
takes with it seven other spirits more
wicked than itself, and they go in and
live there.  And the final condition of
that man is worse than the first.”
        –    Jesus Christ
               (Matthew 12:43-45)

WEDNESDAY THOUGHT 5/28/08

Ah, for a Good Mustard Seed!

 I sometimes think that faith is like sex in high school.  (Hang on, let me finish.)  When I was in high school, I thought everybody else was having  sex, and I was the only one who could barely get a good kiss, let alone…well, you know what I mean.

I think it’s the same with faith.  I have some faith, but not enough to move a mountain or even plant a mustard seed.  So, when I look around church, I  imagine that everyone else knows something I don’t.  But I also have a strong suspicion that they are as lost, hopeful and uncertain as I am – cracked, broken, imperfect vessels. 

My point:  It seems to me that faith is not about being smug or sure, but about being hopeful and unsure. It’s okay to doubt and to screw it up.  Faith is about hoping when we really have not a clue. Enjoy and rejoice in faith that goes beyond our common sense or what we know for sure.  –jri

“But Jesus said to him, ‘If thou canst
believe, all things are possible to him
who believes.’  At once the father of
the boy cried out, and said with tears,
‘I do believe; help my unbelief.’”

        –    Mark 9:21-23

TUESDAY THOUGHT 5/27/08

Nation of Whiners?
 
Rumor has it that we’ve become a nation of whiners.  I think that’s because the media and certain political groups feel they must promote victimization to keep their audiences. 

Economically speaking, we criticize Bill Gates and Sam Walton and McDonalds (but, curiously, never Walt Disney), because their companies  make too much money, a simple-minded complaint.  In the 19th century, we called the men who built America’s prosperity — Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Ford, Rockefeller, and Firestone and many more — robber barons, another simple-minded lament.

My point:  Don’t whine.  Celebrate.  We should give thanks for these hard-working, visionary men for making our lives comfortable and prosperous, for making it possible for us to fly from coast to coast, to ride a train, to drive a car, to flip a switch and get electricity, to turn a tap and get clean drinking water,to cook in a non-stick pan, to walk into a store and buy more things than we imagined even existed,  to click on instant access to the world via the internet, and on and on and on.  — jri

“When you’re drinking the water, don’t forget
who dug the well.”
            –    Chinese Proverb 
  

FRIDAY THOUGHT 5/23/08

It seems to me that one of the worst sins is self-hatred, being convinced and convicted of overwhelming lack of worthiness and self-sentenced to self-destruction.

I’ve seen this in the alcoholic hell-bent on drinking himself into a stupor; the addict who, though perhaps physically clean, finds standing in the light of freedom and forgiveness too glaringly bright; the person who, in spite of (or perhaps because of) having everything he or she could desire, throws it away on affairs and other stupid, self-destructive behavior.

On a more cheerful, more positive note:  We are worthy, if only because God loves us.  So, if you are prone to self-destructive behavior, maybe it would be a better idea to let it go and give it to God who, for reasons beyond our understanding, seems to think we’re worth the effort.  Just … let … it … go.  Thank God!  Celebrate the day, enjoy the weekend, and be nice to yourself.  — jri

“Come to me, all you who are weary and

burdened, and I will give you rest.”

            –    Jesus Christ

                   (Matthew 11: 28)

THURSDAY THOUGHT 5/22/08

A Bravado of Faith
 
I’m a John Wayne American and a Christian Capitalist.  (I can already hear the “reply” buttons  — “please take me off your list” — clicking among my social justice friends.)  I see myself more a warrior than a monk; more an individualist than a groupie!  I guess that’s why one of my favorite prayers (recited with proud humility, I might add) is: “Lord, don’t give me mercy; give me strength!”
 
I figure God calls the shots and I can take whatever He dishes out.  (A real tough guy, eh?)  My role is to endure without question or complaint the trials when it seems all uphill (easier said than done; I’m not really claiming to be all that tough) and rejoice with a booming, gleeful “YEEEE HAAA” when I get to pull up my knees and coast downhill into the rush of the wind.  
 
My point:  My bravado is a bravado of faith.  When all the bluster is done, I only know that God knows what we all need, that He’d never give us a load to carry bigger than our backs could bear, and that gives me confidence.  So enjoy the trip, not just the downhill rushes, but the uphill slogs, too.  God bless. — jri
 
“Be strong and courageous.”
        –    God
               (Joshua 1:9)

WEDNESDAY THOUGHT 5/21/08

The Jesus “Elevator Talk”
 
I love this idea.  As a businessman, I have a 30-second “elevator talk.”  That’s a brief summary of who I am, what I do, and why prospective clients should work with me.  So, why not a Jesus Elevator Talk?  (No, it’s not original with me.)
 
That way, when someone either asks why I talk like someone who believes in God’s love, who challenges me at the sight of my cross, or who just seems like someone who is simmering in the pain of life, I can give him or her a half-way intelligent, focused reply.  (Mine has four points.  It’s not brilliant, but better than stammering like an idiot.  For details, check it out below.)
 
My point:  Just as you might do in explaining what you do in business or on the job, map out and practice your own Jesus Elevator Talk, and then plan to give it at least once a day — to a friend, a neighbor, a relative, a stranger at the bus stop.  You just might be amazed at what comes of it.  God bless and enjoy the wonders of this wondrous day. — jri
 

“These twelve Jesus sent out with the following
instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles,
and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go
rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, proclaim the good news, The
kingdom of heaven has come near.’”
        –    Matthew 10:5-7

My four-point Jesus Elevator Talk:

MONDAY THOUGHT 5/19/08

Dropping the Second Shoe

I’ve spent a lot of time waiting for that second shoe to drop.  I mean, I’ve been a serious Christian for years, always trying (and succeeding about 17% of the time) to not just talk the talk of faith, but to walk the walk.  However, to be quite honest, I’ve always kept looking over my shoulder, waiting for God to kick me in my butt when I screw up again.  It was, I confess, to a large degree, a faith of fear — no, not intentionally or even obviously most of the time, but there was always that angst about when the second shoe would drop and God was gonna get me.
 
I realized I saw Jesus as Lord, God, Master.  Then, gently one day last week, in a silent mood — with a hush like a Tiger Woods putt rimming the hole and then matter-of-factly dropping in — I realized that Jesus Christ is my loving brother and my dear friend, not out to catch me when  I screw up, but there to laugh with me, share with me, guide me, and pick me up and help me on my limping journey down the road of life when I get discouraged or the pebble in my shoe (there’s that shoe analogy again) starts to feel like a boulder.  It’s pretty cool, really — a buddy and friend who loves me and cares unconditionally.  And with that simple realization — as the putt clinked into the hole and reverberated through my soul — my entire view of God and God’s love shifted so dramatically and so profoundly that I have to laugh and smile like a darned idiot.
 
My point:  God loves us.  Honest.  No kidding.  He’s not out to get us or trick us or punish us.  So, the next time you hear that corny old song, “You have a friend in Jesus,” say, “yeah, yeah, yeah, I finally get it.”  God bless and celebrate the joy that God — and ONLY God — can bring into your life.  — jri
 
“The only desire that is infallibly fulfilled
is the desire to be loved by God.”
        –    Thomas Merton

THURSDAY THOUGHT 5/15/08

People Do Notice Us

We are examples, like it or not.  If we are selfish, self-centered, arrogant, egoistic, people notice. 

They also notice if we are kind, forgiving, loving, gentle, ever-prayerful, or just honestly doing the best we can.

I believe (and no, I rarely succeed, but I do keep trying) we should live every day as if it were our last, as if tonight we will fall asleep and not awake, but instead meet our maker and be asked to explain our life.  Hopefully, we will be able to say, “Hi, God,” rather than “Oh, no, can I get back to you?  I have some unfinished business.”  God bless and enjoy this glorious, wondrous day. – jri

“Be careful how you live.
You may be the only Bible
some people will ever read!”
 –Source Uncertain

WEDNESDAY THOUGHT 5/14/08

Though he once tried to kill me as a child (a story for some other time), my brother, Lou, and I always had a terrific, fun-loving relationship as adults.  We would think nothing of “borrowing” each other’s wallets or car keys or clothes, sending dead animal parts to each other in the mail (the goat horn really threw him for a moment), or spoiling a going-so-well pickup in a tavern by wrapping his arms around me and saying, “Oh, Stud Muffin, please come home.  I was wrong and I’m so sorry “  We tormented each other and argued like brothers, but he is my best friend.  (I used to tell him he was my favorite brother…until he figured out that he is my only brother.)  We’ve seen each other through a lot of tough times.  But I never in my life truly imagined how much he loved and trusted me until about 10 or 12 years ago, when Lou thought I may have taken $50,000 that had been entrusted to me as part of our inheritance, and he never said a word to me about it.

Handling my father’s affairs after he got sick, I would provide written reports to my brother periodically.  Somehow, I “lost” an account worth about $50,000.  It was still there, but it fell off my ledgers.  I was going through a challenging divorce (like there are fun divorces maybe?) so I can see how it might have happened. When I “found” the account about a year later, I was all excited when I told him.  Lou’s reply:  “Oh, yeah, I knew about it.  I just figured you needed the money, so I saw no reason to bring it up.”

My point?  If you are blessed with that kind of unconditional love, count your blessings long and often.  Oh, and if you think you may not be (oh, darn, he’s gonna turn this into some kind of Jesus Freak thing!), how about God?  He loves us, even when we haven’t done a darn thing to deserve it … and he probably won’t try to steal your wallet, either.  Count your blessings.  Enjoy this day.  Tell people just how much you love them. — jri

“God loves you anyway.”
        –    Bumper Sticker

TUESDAY THOUGHT 5/13/08

Why do people succeed — become rich, become famous, become happy, become anything?  Because they do not give their “most.”  They give their “all.”  They commit and devote 100 percent to what they want.

Imagine if percentages were miles. One person drives 100 miles per hour (gives 100 percent), while another drives only 99 miles per hour.  After ten hours, that person who was giving his most, giving 99 percent, will be left in the dust, ten miles behind the one who gave his best, his 100 percent. 

My point:  We’re put on this earth to strive, to give our all, to be our best in all that we do — in work, play, faith and love.  Enjoy, and give it your all.  Jri

“Good is the enemy of great.”
  –    Len Coffey

MONDAY THOUGHT 5/12/08

I have a confession:  I have always been a bit of a wanderer and, though wanting a home, have not found it easy to set down roots.  I think it’s safer when you keep moving — makes it harder for people to get a bead on you!

But in the last few years, I have found a wonderful faith home, a faith family at my church that is accepting and embracing, loving and, yes, sometimes forgivingly tolerant of my stiff-necked ways.  Through my church and the diverse, wonderful people, I have grown to feel “safe” enough to be myself — willing to not only give love to others, but also to let them in and to accept love from them.  It is a church of people not just from Sturgeon Bay and Jacksonport, Wisconsin, but of men and women throughout the diocese and the state and even as far away as England.  Most of all, it is a church of Christ’s love, filled with broken vessels, hopeful sinners, and honest seekers, a church of the clayfooted and the forgiven — folks just like me. 

My point?  Gratitude.  Appreciation.  I know this is not my most dazzling writing, but sometimes one has to just grunt out the “thank yous” and trust that the message is understood.  God bless and thank you to all the wonderful members of my faith family.  You are all balm on my nicked and battered soul — jri

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of
many parts; and though all its parts are
many, they form one body.  So it is with
Christ.  For we were all baptized by one
Spirit into one body — whether Jews or
Greeks, slave or free — and we were all
given the one Spirit to drink.”
        –    St. Paul
               (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

THURSDAY THOUGHT 5/8/08

I have some friends who look at God as a soccer mom who dropped the kids off at the beginning of time and will pick them up later, at the end of time, driving off with the admonition, “Play nice.”  They see God as a remote figure who does not interfere in the world.  Mostly, they think miracles were a thing of the past. 
 
I see it a bit differently.  Not only have I witnessed miracles in my own life (I mean some big, incredible ones, as well as little, turn-and-they-are-gone wisps), but I have a very strong sense of God’s immediate presence … not all the time, but very often.  I see His guiding hand in so many places and lives, but when I point to them and say, “See?” my soccer-mom theology friends look about languidly (I like that word), shrug and say (often condescendingly), “No, but you keep looking, John.” 
 
My point: I don’t know much, but I don’t think miracles lead to faith.  Instead, it seems to me that faith leads to miracles, as well as the ability to see the ones that are taking place right before our eyes.  Enjoy the miracle of this day.  It is a sight to behold. — jri
 
“When evening came, many who were
demon-possessed were brought to him,
and he drove out the spirits with a word
and healed all the sick.”
        –    Matthew 8:16

WEDNESDAY THOUGHT 5/7/08

In my youth, I had two secret weapons — Stella and Tessie.  (Stella was my grandmother; Tessie was her sister-in-law.)  Looking back over the years, I am convinced that their relentless prayers are the reason all the freight trains and whizzing bullets of my sometimes foolishly spent youth missed me every time. They said little, mostly in Italian, went to church pretty much every day together for years, said the rosary each evening, and prayed relentlessly for their children and grandchildren.  Heavyset, with long silver hair braided curled on top of their heads (I only once saw my grandmother’s hair undone, and it streamed down to her waist), they used to pass my cousins and me around the room by our faces (which explains the family jowls). 
 
As a child, I had a sense that Grandma and Tessie were close friends of the Virgin Mary.  (I think that had something to do with the three-foot statue on my grandmother’s dresser of Mary, with a very similar smile to that of S & T.)  These days I am convinced of it.  When I pray for my family, I often find myself imagining the three of them, and now my mother, too (a fearsome and powerful foursome), laughing quietly and going over a list of who needs to be spiritually (and physically sometimes) yanked back from the brink of one precipice or another.   
 
My point?  I have been blessed with gentle, strong women in my life who understood the true source of power, and who have loved me unconditionally and laughed forgivingly at my screw-ups.  And because of them, I am convinced, I now have the opportunity to give thanks and pray for others in my turn.  So, look carefully and slowly around your own life for those awesome secret weapons who have been and still are there for you.  God bless and rejoice in the many gifts of this wondrous day.  — jri
 
“The women who had come with Jesus from
Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb
and how his body was laid in it.  Then they
went home and prepared spices and
perfumes.”
        –    Luke 23: 55-56

MONDAY THOUGHT 5/5/08

“I pity you.  You have had such a horrible life!”  These were the words a friend had heard from another person, and they baffled her.  Yes, she had had hard times.  Among the lowlights: buried two husbands and lost two others along the way; been wrongly convicted of a crime and spent several years in prison, which in turn meant she lost her law license.  She had certainly seen some tough times.
 
But she was stunned by her friend’s words.  ‘” have had some horrible things happen to me,” she shared, with a loud, cheerful voice.  “But I have had a wonderful life.”  Though she bears and wears the scars of many challenges, what comes through is that she is a woman of deep faith and much joy, with a singing voice that turns heads in church (unlike mine, in a good way).  She has a loving, indomitable spirit, a quick mind and a sharp tongue.  She never seems to count the setbacks; only the blessings, of which she claims to have many.   
 
My point:  We all have troubles.  Some of them are biggies.  Still, celebrate your many joys and blessings.  Celebrate your life.  Celebrate each and every day. — jri
 
“Be strong and courageous.  Do not be
terrified; do not be discouraged, for the
Lord your God will be with you wherever
you go.”
        –    God
               (Joshua 1:9)

DAILY THOUGHT 5/2/08

God has amnesia.  (No, it’s not my brilliant realization, but that of Bishop Desmond Tutu.)
 
No matter how many times we screw up, (A) God loves us and (B) we are forgiven.  Pretty cool.
 
Enjoy this day knowing that there is nothing you can do — NOTHING — that can make God stop loving you.  — jri
 
Human:  “Lord, I did it again.” 
God:  “Did what again?”
 
        –    Bishop Desmond Tutu

DAILY THOUGHT 5/1/08

Don’t love what you do.  Do what you love!  When I first started my business nearly 25 years ago, I would leap out of bed every morning at 5:30 eager to get down to work.  I loved it.  Well, I admit that over the years, there were some long stretches when I found myself bored, restless, trapped.
 
The good news is that I always found a way to reinvent myself — branching out into new areas, introducing new products, changing the entire direction and structure of my business.  As a result, these days, I still manage to wake up many mornings feeling like it’s Saturday, a day of relaxing fun, because I love what I do…again. 
 
My point:  Re-invent yourself if necessary, but do find a way to keep your heart and your attitude revved up and super excited about what you do, even if you have to turn things inside out now and then.  Work hard. Make money.  Most of all, have fun. — jri
 
“The secret to success is making your
vocation your vacation.”
        –    Mark Twain