Facebook

I have been fasting Facebook for the past two days. It is not some cool spiritual growth attempt, my account simply will not sign in. Others have told me they cannot access my account on line. When I try to get to my account I get a message that says the account is not available due to some server maintenance, that it should be available in a few hours, and that they are sorry for the inconvenience.

Wow - this leaves me only one choice -

Go live my life in the real world!! Scary... Maybe I'll see you out there?! Sorry, don't want to make anyone nervous.

Maybe I should calculate how much time I spend on FB and give that to some more worthy cause. Can any of you suggest something - anything - more worthy than the time we all spend online? Yeah. OK. I'll get back with you on that.

Have a great weekend. If you are anywhere near Ventura, come check out our "Trunk or Treat." It is a family friendly festival. Free admission, live music, candy for everyone, food is available for a few bucks - come have some fun. I'll be dressed as the guy who can't get on Facebook.

The Drill

The drill.

I was sitting in a small group meeting last night, and we were watching a DVD by John Bevere from the "A Heart Ablaze" series. He mentioned that the church today seems to be selling a 'great cover-up.' Seems we offer Jesus at the altar in much the same way that a used-car salesman offers a 'deal.'

"Come to Jesus and He'll give you peace, joy, happiness, money - everything you want need desire."

But that's not what happens. In reality, the deal works something like this: Come to Jesus and He will give you the power to serve Him. Your life will be complete, but it will be that way because you will be working the way God designed you to work - and that does involve a new lifestyle. Faith without works is dead, as Paul tells us, so why are we producing a generation of Christians who seem to think that "serving God" equals getting?

Bevere gave several good illustrations, but one really hit home. He said that many of these new-fangled Christians keep living a life of sin even after committing to God at an altar. They offer the excuse that "God knows my heart."

He said something along the line of, "if you have a tree in your yard you don't have to take a drill and go drill a hole into the center of the thing to probe around and find out what kind of tree you have. If the thing is an apple tree, you'll know it how? Because the tree will produce Apples."

Great series. Check it out. Keep your Bible close by, but get motivated to a lifestyle which reflects who is the Lord of that life.

What fruit is your life producing?

Soft Button

Soft buttons are all the rage. I sell hot tubs, and they have a new control panel which contains a Gooey, or GUI, or "graphical user interface." It is a small screen with nice color, and nice graphics. And around it are four buttons. Around that are four more. The outermost buttons are called "hard buttons" because the purpose for each of them is hardwired into the system. One of them is labeled "Jets" and anytime you press it you will turn the jets on or off according to their current status. There is a button labeled "Light" and another labeled "Back." They always do the same thing.

But those inner four buttons are soft buttons, meaning that they are controlled by the software, and can do anything the software tells them to do. So one button can raise or lower the water temp if you are on the temperature settings menu page. If you are on the system control page that same button may change the color of the tub's lighting system, raise the volume on the stereo, or even engage a timed interval of filtration called the "clean cycle." Same button.

This is certainly not exclusive to Hot Tubs - computers have soft buttons, GPS units have them - some of them are on-screen and are touch-sensitive. I would be willing to bet that you have already come in contact with some form of soft button on some piece of technology. If not, you will. I have a nine-year-old car, and the big knob on the front of the stereo is a type of soft button. It is normally the volume. But if I tap the "treble" button, that big knob now controls THAT function. Tap the "bass" button, and that large knob is now the bass control. One knob, many functions. All controlled by the software.

So - who wrote the software for our lives? Well, I would contend that God did. He created us, and he has a unique design for each one of us. So how is this concept of a 'soft button' related to us? Well - I am a father. I am a husband. I was a son. I am a brother. I am a board member at my church. I am a business owner. I am many things even though I am just one person. But the way God chooses to use me can vary from circumstance to circumstance. I have to only be wise enough to set my preconceptions aside long enough to be used. If I am a 'hard button, ' I may do a very good job.

One very good job.

Only one very good job.

But God may have fourteen good jobs for me to do. Today I may have to lead, tomorrow follow. Today I may need to be very strong in my convictions and take some unpopular stand. Tomorrow I may have to set those convictions aside to reach out and touch the life of a person who is deeply involved in the very thing I despise. Wow - that could make most of us cringe.

Or, it could make us very, very useful.

Pace yourself

I was walking with my lovely and gracious wife this morning before the sun came up. It was so freezing cold that I wimped out just as we got to a mile and a half. That's the one problem with choosing a route which circles by our house: there is a very large temptation to run in a get warm. I did - and it was a shock for my poor dog that her "dad's" hands were colder than her nose for the first time. The puzzled look as she kept pulling away was priceless. But - once I was warm, I couldn't be talked into going back out for another mile and a half.

Now, before I get emails telling me that "freezing cold" in Southern California doesn't even come close to the bone-chilling cold of other parts of the world, let me just say that I live here on purpose. I like temperate weather. No, there were no snow drifts, no ice on the puddles formed by the various lawn sprinklers which come on automatically at that time of day, no ice jewels dangling from the power lines or tree branches. But when you are used to 70 degrees average year 'round, it doesn't take much of a drop to bring out the babies.

Back to the walk - I walk with two partners - a good friend who is a tall man, and my wife. Walking with these two people has proven to be amazingly good: they challenge me, they keep me from giving up, they push me to do more, and on a cold day like today they block the freezing wind quite effectively. If we walk later in the day, and it gets warm, they can walk in my shadow to stay cool. In fact both of them can fit into my shadow at the same time, but that is changing.

But they have different natural strides than I do. I don't know if my legs are unusually short for my height, or if I was just built closer to the ground for better cornering or whatever, but the fact of the matter is that both of my walking partners have longer legs than I do. And I think that there is more to it than just the length of their legs - they just have a faster pace when they are walking at that comfortable speed which is our natural gait.

So to keep together, they tend to walk in little bursts. They go a bit, then slow or stop to let the old guy catch up. It is most enjoyable to watch, and heartwarming to know that they are so gracious. But I don't want to take advantage of them, so every so often I step it up to match their pace. They instantly know it, because the stop/start is instantly gone and we really get moving. Also I stop talking. I can keep pace with my wife for a mile or so, at the cost of a racing heart and hard breathing. I cannot talk when we are at this pace, and according to exercise experts, that is the best way to do it. They define that as "moderate exercise." If I could talk the whole time, I would not be working myself in a way that is beneficial. If I can talk in short phrases or just a few words at a time, I am getting a better cardiovascular workout - it's a great little built-in indicator. If I fall over and clutch my chest, well that's an indicator that I am getting overly dramatic. It happens.

There are times I wonder if my spiritual life is proceeding along similar lines. I walk at my own pace, and enjoy the grace of God in that He will stop and wait for me. But I have - of late - been getting the feeling more and more that He is calling me gently to try to keep up with Him. Not to die in the attempt, but to keep pace at the expense of ease and comfort. I can tell you that in the physical realm I would rather find a way to stay in my recliner eating sweets while losing weight and buffing out. But we all know that doesn't work. Likewise, in our spiritual journey we have times when God gets just a little ways ahead, and it's up to us to push it a little harder and keep pace with Him.

Well, I am committed to 'pushing it' in the physical. I want to be able to knock off four or five miles each morning, and I want to get to the point where I can keep pace with my wife, then, as I shape up, one day keep up with Tom, allowing him to finally walk at his natural pace and even beyond. At that point I may have to switch to a bike, but I do want to add in more strenuous exercise programs and actually get my wind back.

And in the spiritual? Well as strange as it seems, this blog was one step God called me to. I don't know who reads it or why, in fact I felt the call to do this even if nobody reads it at all! And it has become a part of my prayer life. I know that sounds very Chas (another word for 'odd'), but I pray conversationally just about all the time, and you get to see into that strange world a little bit via this odd collection of thoughts. Beyond that - I want to learn to advance and grow spiritually every day. I have been serving God for a long time now, and it would be easy for me to think I have come to some level, or reached some goal, or accomplished something. But God is so creative, I don't have to worry. If I just keep pace with Him, I will grow.

Lord - I want to match your pace.

Made whole

"Made Whole."

My Pastor had this as one of his sermon points yesterday, and it started a real thought process in my little Chas brain. I was going to say that it may not have been the direction he would have hoped my thoughts would go, but this man is such an awesome pastor that I know he would be glad for any mental growth in any direction, regardless of how he may have hoped it would go. He just hears from God and then lays it out - it is up to us to respond to God, not just to what Pastor is saying. And for me, it all works quite well.

But the part about being Made Whole was such an important point because it was just a first step. We so often want God to give us our daily desires, lead us in the paths of comfort and luxury, while He wants to make us whole instead. That path may be lined with cash and toys for some of you, but I have yet to be spoiled rotten as a way of making me whole.

What happens to people when they become whole? Amazing things. I was a pastor to a singles group for a number of years, and I can't imagine how many times I would tell a single that they should find wholeness in Christ before they looked for a mate in life. Two half-people do not make a whole. No, in God's economy, it takes two whole people to make a successful relationship. One plus one, in this case, may not make two. One plus one can make many- He is in the business of multiplying his blessing, so a relationship formed of two whole people can positively impact a whole generation.

So often these wonderful folks would look to find wholeness in marriage or in relationships, but their need never went away because often that need was what defined them. They often didn't see it. A good education, a good job, a home, all the wonderful things that our world can afford gave them a false sense of themselves. And yet they longed for something. They just didn't know it was wholeness in God they yearned for. Look at the high failure rate for marriage in and outside the church today: so often the lament is that the spouse, "didn't give me what I needed," or "never cared about my needs." God alone can make a person complete, whole.

What else happens when people become whole? They have more to give. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. It takes a full heart to speak at all, but it takes a heart full of Jesus to speak peace, healing, health, support, love, concern for others, or anything other than selfishness or self-motivated things.

A heart full of bitterness will speak bitterness. It may be very well camouflaged, it may even sound wonderful, but it will be bitterness which comes out of bitterness. So many great songs have been born of pain, and the reason some of them become big hits is that we can hear the pain and connect or identify with it. But if it is where we live now, it should act as a wake-up call. If it is where we were in the past, then use it as a reminder to thank God and keep moving.

A heart full of anger will speak anger. I don't know how much farther I need to go on - there are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of things a heart can be full of - and so many of them can lead to wonderful Godly lives. Lives lived to the fullest extent of God's plan for you and me.

Ask God today -

"Show me what is flowing out of my heart. I want above all to become a whole person in you, and as a start, I want my heart to be full. Not full of wanting, or full of a huge black hole, but full of the thing YOU want to place there. Let me be a source of Godly change to the world around me as you fill my heart to overflowing with the things people around me need. If you can get it into my heart, you can get it into the lives of the people around me."

Amen.

Five miles. Yeah right.

OK - it's official. I have injured my knee. I know!! I was just as bummed about it as you! The fact is I might have been pushing it a bit too hard. I have been walking X miles per day, five days per week, and running up and down the stairs at work all day. The "X" is there because the three of us who walk various routes around my home cannot seem to agree on the exact distance. My wife likes to understate things - a reasonable way to live since it is always better if people find you have more or did better than you claim as opposed to the opposite - whereas I am the type who likes to round up. If I walk 4.9 miles, I will simply say, "I walked five miles today."

I am going to try to start taking her approach because I have given it some real thought over the past month or so, and it really seems to be more Christ-honoring to do it the way she does. So - I have NOT been walking five miles per day, I have been walking 4.9 miles, and there is one corner I sometimes cut which can drop it to as little as 4.85 miles. Oh the scandal of it all! I can see the headline:

"Ventura man confesses to overstating his mileage by a factor of .1 every day for the past three weeks. Federal inquiry to be launched by the Justice Department soon. Film at 11."

Oh- and in keeping with this new desire to understate, I must quickly add that the x-ray I have posted today is not my knee. It is some random knee, from some random person who has some random keen problem. It seemed like a nice eye-catcher so I posted it. OK? In fact, my knee is only sore, and I have great hope that taking Saturday and Sunday off from walking (and running the stairs at work) will allow me to get back out there on Monday morning. I normally don't walk on Saturday and Sunday (my Physical Therapist told me five days a week was sufficient for a man of my advancing years, coupled with my, uh, "widened horizons..."), so really, this sore knee is a bother, but hopefully will not be a setback in the battle of the flab.

So if you are at all interested in the inane ramblings of a soon-to-be-skinny guy with a temprary limp, I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I am going to milk this for all it's worth. I'm going to go into work late, see if Tom will come over and mow my lawn, and have my wife bring me the remote. I'll let you know how that goes, as well.

Limp on!

Thanks

I am sitting here waiting for my wife to get dressed to go for a morning walk. The sun is already climbing in the sky, the dog has been fed and I am ready to go. I want to say that I am so blessed with people in my life. People, some related, some not, even some I created - people who give to me in many different ways. Some of them give to me just by needing me. That seems backwards, but think about how much we as humans need to needed, to feel that we have something to contribute to the lives of the people we love.

So - thanks.

Oh! She's ready to go - and the fact that she is working with me on this new exercise regimen is great too! This kind of support could add years to my life.

That's it - just thanks for being one of God's gifts in my life, all of you.