Crying Out for Help - Not a Dream

It was the fall of 1988 and I thought my life was breaking apart.  I worked in a Christian corporation and events beyond my control had forced me to take some steps I did not want to take.  After several weeks of keeping my thoughts inside, I went to the woods to be alone.  In a small clearing in the center of the woods, I screamed out to God at the top of my lungs, “Why?  Why?  Why are you allowing this to happen?” 

I was hurting, and angry with God for not doing something about the situation.  For the next few minutes I began to tell God what I thought He should be doing and told Him how much I had done for Him in the Christian corporation. 

When I stopped crying out in pain and tears, I waited for the Lord’s reply.  No booming voice from the sky.  No rumble of thunder.  Just a couple of blue birds singing and a gentle breeze.  At that time I slumped to the ground and leaned up next to a tree.  After the tears subsided, I noticed an anthill to my right.  Unknowingly, I had kicked their mound and tore up their nest.  Instead of getting angry or crying out, they just began working that much harder to rebuild their nest.  It was then that the Lord spoke through my thoughts to rebuild my life.  I realized that I had built my life on those accomplishments for the Lord and the world while not focusing on my relationship with the Lord.

Think about the times you experience the most pain in your life.  It may be your finances, your home, relationships with others, your job, loss of a loved one, or your spouse and crying out to God will be a healing part of the situation.  He understands.  He loves you.  He wants to care for you. 

Look around you and ask the Lord to show you His plan for your life.  It may be a lifestyle change.  It may just be an attitude change.  Or it could be just a heart change to realize that you have done it on your own for such a long time that you need to really depend of the Lord for your daily strength and guidance.

From personal experience, the Lord WILL deliver you out of your troubles.  As I look back at 1988, I realize that if I had not experienced the situations, then I would have missed the best relationship possible with the Lord and then with other people.  Don’t be angry with God for the situation that may have your life turned upside down.  Talk to Him.  Listen to Him.  Then discover what great things He has in store for you. 2011 is going to be a GREAT Year!

 Psalms 34:17 - When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.

Getting Rid of My Big But

Yes, it's confession time, I have a big But.  It's hard to say when it comes to buts yet here it goes.  In fact I have several Big Buts.  There are times when I make excuses for  not doing something.  I know I need to read the Bible, "but I need to do Farmville, but I don't have time, but I need to Tweet before I forget it, but its boring, but I can't get motivated, but that's somebody else's fault".  The list could go on and you get the idea of how big my but is.  And that's just on one book.

Here a But, there a but, everywhere a but but.

So it is the beginning of the year (or at least its close) and like many New Year's resolutions I am determined to get rid of my Big But.  Ugly as it is, I have to get rid of saying, "But I don't have time today".  Managing time is tough for a Dreamer and realizing that a determined discipline is the only way to take away the big But.

I don't want to get too personal, except what about your Big Buts?   For me I don't have to go to the gym every day or stand in front of a mirror shaking my head.  I now can see my buts when they come flying out of my mouth.

And at the beginning of this blog you though I was going somewhere else.  Or that I had really bad spelling.  this is what a Dreamer thinks about.   Hmmm . . . .

The "Wait " from my Prayers

Have you ever prayed and thought your prayers never made it above the ceiling?  God are you deaf today, are you off helping someone else, or just testing me to see if I am persistent?  

I love the prayers where I get the quick "Yes"  that bring instant  praise to the Father.  I also accept the "No" prayers because He knows what is best for me.  It's the "Wait" responses that drive me up a wall.  Being who I am, it is rough to wait.  Psalms 130:5 -  "I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope" says it best in that I have learned to reach for the Word of the Lord to give me direction during my waiting period.

One area I still struggle with is when is the answer "No" and when is it "Wait"?  

Maybe I am the only one in this arena but when we lead anything or any group or organization, decisions must be made and be decisive.  In college we had experiments with the Yarsini Pestis water maze where we put a rat at the beginning of a "Y" maze.  Food would be on a platform at one end of the "Y" and a shock at the other end.  If the rat got shocked on one end it would retreat and get food on the other side.  We had random rotation of the shock and food so there was no clear cut path.  After about 40 times in completing the maze by the rat, that rat would go to the split of the "Y" and freeze.  For two days it would never take a chance for a food reward because of it's fear of the shock.  Our professor said that the rat would drown before taking a chance to get food.

In our lives many of us never take a chance because of the pain that may be at the other end.   We get to the point of freezing our lives in a comfortable space only to not experiences the riches that the Lord has waiting for us.   So in my waiting for the Lord, I study more and spend more time in prayer.  Yet I refuse to sit at the division of the "Y" and do nothing.  

Do you feel in a frozen state in your life?  In your troubling world and economy, do you hold tight and wait and see what "just happens by"?  Or have you ever thought about talking to the Lord without the need for a Yes, No, or Wait  response?

When you continue seeking the Lord you will see Him giving you blessings and answering requests where you did not even know that there was a request.  I have found that He does a much better job at leading me when I am the follower.  

Some of my big requests are still "Wait" but I realize that He heard me the first time I asked  Him to answer a prayer need and am confident that He will bless beyond my wildest imagination, in His time frame. 

We have to just keep moving forward and looking up, which is hard for many of us because we are afraid of the fall.  Humm. . .  Walk by Faith--- such a concept!

Good Ole Days

I’m not sure if it is the times in which we live, my age, escaping from the issues of today, or just the memories of the past, but I spend more time now thinking about the “Good Ole Days”.   I have an XM radio with over two hundred channels of radio and no long commercials. When I first got it as a Christmas present my first presets included the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, Gospel, and folk music stations. Singing along with the old familiar tunes brought back memories of being carefree and just being a kid.

Amazingly, I still remember most of the words. On Sunday, Lynnette and I sometimes listen to the old time Gospel singing on our drive to church. OK, Lynnette tolerates this music since she never grew up with this style of Christian music. Whenever 99% if the songs begin, I breakout in harmony from the words of those songs, as I recall my Mom playing piano for our Quartet. 

The “Good Ole Days” were times when we did not have the pressure of life we experience today. We didn’t work 50 plus hours every week to make a living. Our parents took care of our needs and most of the time helped us achieve our wants. We were taught both simple and complex lessons on life.

So why is it so important for us to remember those days?

I believe that for people in my age bracket, it is a way to give significance to our situation in life today. My son is getting so good at helping me in the transition from significance to value in life. When we are together now, he is the first to start talking about things that happened when he was a child and talk about events I experienced with my dad, his granddad.

Now I believe that  most of my successes are behind me so both my children give me value for the future.  I don’t need the Father’s Day ties or other presents that are only used for a short time. Instead the best gifts are the ones where I can sit and talk with my children or listen to their life experiences and cherish our grandchildren.

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They have heard the stories before, but my joy is when they ask a question about those old days. In talking with both my kids recently, I independently heard them talk about working 50 to 60 hours at their jobs which sadly I know that this  lifestyle leaves little time for their families. Even though they learned a good work ethic, I am striving to impart balance between work and their personal life, which continues to be a hard lesson for me to learn. We all have periods in our lives that we would like to forget, but we should strive to look at all our days as life lessons.

In the New Testament, the word “remember” is used sixty-seven times. Can’t you just imagine the followers of Christ recalling years after His ascension times when they laughed, cried, and saw the miracles He performed? It was many of those stories that changed others lives forever. Maybe it is time to listen more to the “Good Ole Days” stories of our family and friends. Many times we will see the impact that the Lord had on their life. 

If we understand what brought them to where they are today in life, we can experience history as relates to our life today. A telephone call to a father,  mother, brother or sister may be the best gift you can give all year. I will never regret the one on one time I was given with my parents and grandparents. Just to learn about the “Good Ole Days”.

Keepin' the Faith

Most of us Dreamers love the excitement of ideas popping into our heads.  Many times we want to share them so other people can "catch the vision" and run with the ideas.  The rough part is when you take a dream and strive to develop it into something that is either a product, a program, a presentation, or getting an idea to take hold.  Then if never goes anywhere.  Don't take it personally!  You are ahead of your time and the right person has not absorbed your "way out" concepts.

With any dream or idea you should do your homework as the idea is maturing in your head and just take a leap of faith to move forward.  It is walking by faith and not by site or reason that keeps a dreamer going.  But you have to learn that not every dream is golden.  A mentor in my first marketing job out of college told me to never lose my dreams of doing things different.  Instead he said realize that if 30% of what you suggest EVER goes anywhere in a corporation, then you will be highly successful.  If a baseball player hits 30% of what he swings at in his lifetime, then he will be in the Hall of Fame.  (300 batting average)

Years later I know that any dream will be successful if  it helps someone to improve themselves, help others, serve more, or relate an experience that lifts someone else up.  So even if you are not a dreamer, consider that the Lord made you successful because YOU have a story to tell to a hurting world which is far from a relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

Keep up the faith!  You will succeed in whatever you say or do and inside yourself you will know that you are successful!  Look for it!  Count on it!   Now,  Dream On!

Scars of Our Lives

Having some medical tests completed, I laid on the table and the technician noted the scars that remain from the removal of my thyroid glands. Our conversation then turned to the reason for the removal of the glands: the result of radiation therapy as a child of 12 and the high potential for cancer.  During the quietness of the tests, I thought about the other scars I possess.  Ones like the rat bite on my hand, the one on my leg from jumping off a hay wagon, Achilles tendon tear, plus many other surgeries, each one having its own story.

Years ago my daughter was in a traffic accident and cut a gash about four inches long on the center of her forehead.  In the hospital before surgery, we could see her skull where the skin and muscle were cut.  But at that time all I saw was my daughter in pain.  Closing the wound and taking away her pain was the only thing on my mind. She was my beautiful daughter.  Years later we talk about the scar and re-live the events of that day but even with the pain gone the results of the accident live on.   

Every one of us has scars and stories to tell the world.  They may be external scars and could be considered by the world to be ugly.  They may be internal scars that we keep hidden for many years, thinking no one can see our imperfections.  Yet keeping them inside makes them get bigger and deeper inside until we take that internal pain and push it on someone else.  Sometimes emotionally and other times physically.

We must set the goal to talk about our scars because this is part of the healing process.  We need to be a “Witness to Real Life” by talking about our failures and imperfections.  It will amaze you how many others have gone through similar experiences.  In doing that we also realize how the Lord has brought us through the pain and His love frees us for eternity.

What scars can you share with others?  What witness to real life can you be today?

Innovative Dreams

Sometimes it is difficult to be a dreamer when you are ahead of your time.  Most of us look at our life and measure success by awards, honors, and money.  But a real dreamer looks at life as an opportunity for something else to pop into our heads that could innovate people and things.

When it comes to successes it is easy to name things and events in our lives, but what about our failures or “yet to be” successes.  We want to forget them but they are an opportunity to grow and learn and help others.

Here are a few of my non successes in ideas that have yet to pan out with some of them going back to teen years. (Notice how a Dreamer has a tough time with the “F” word)   Some ideas today are still in the developing stages so Dreamers will not see them for fear of immediate rejection.

            A hand hoe that adjusts to clips weeds on both sides of the plants in a row;  A parachute that gets air fast for when you jump off a barn roof;  A rotating shelf for aging foods and goods in a cellar;  A replacement material for formed steel that is as strong as steel (I still have samples of these);  A fire truck hose bed that which cantilevers to the ground so it is easy for firemen to re-lay their hose in the back of a truck after a fire;  A consumer Christmas banner and pens that say, “Our Family Celebrates Christmas Because of the Birth of Christ”  (I still have samples of that one);  Taking Wildlife programs and incorporating them into Christian Camp programs;  Professional in training other organizations to use wildlife for training real life issues; Daily devotions on video (Brighter Days did have limited success on TV Shopping Channels)  An Attic Storage and Retrieval System (Still striving with this one); Label identification systems (new and in process); a high intensity contemporary church in Monroe County; a local community park that includes a self esteem training for young girls, GED training, a community center for all ages to build pride and growth in  their lives; and a place that local people can be a part of community; plus two more patent pending ideas.  And that does not even count some way out programs and processes for our church.

The Goal is to never give up on your dreams.  As my lovely bride tells me, I am ahead of my time but I believe that everything is in the Lord’s timing.  Some may never come to reality but I want to encourage you to never stop thinking about the possibilities.  The Lord never stopped encouraging you to your possibilities in life so make sure you never dampen the ideas that come to your head.  Maybe it’s the Lord’s way of telling you to take a leap of faith.

Krispy Creme Religion

What is it about Krispy Kreme donuts that draw the crowd early in the morning and after six at night? When the famous “Hot Now” sign is lit, people have to turn in and buy a donut (or dozen) dripping with glaze. There is nothing like the freshness you find from a hot Krispy Kreme donut.

The problem is that if you let the donuts set in the box for an hour, they are almost just like every other donut. As much as I love Krispy Kreme, I know that there is no long term nourishment to sustain me during the day.

Many people search for a church that offers the best “Hot Now” taste in religion. Some people are drawn to a group of believers because it is the right thing to do “socially”. Maybe it has to do with a program the church is offering. Once the initial excitement is gone, they feel like it is just another church.

They are not connected to friends and just show up for an hour on Sunday. It is sad to think of what they are missing. What we have to realize is that life needs times of freshness, but it will be the enduring development of relationships in our community that lasts a lifetime.

Years ago living in Florida, I was out of town for Hurricane Charley.  Reports came to me from friends and neighbors of downed trees limbs all over my property. Yet the next day I got a telephone call from one neighbor asking me who cut up the trees in my yard.

These quiet friends can never be replaced by a program or a social religion. They are so much appreciated, and I don’t even know who to thank.  It was our Small Group.

If you are just getting involved with a church, jump into a relationship through a Small Group. Find out from the church offices where you can help with many people in need. Right now people may need assistance, and we can not be afraid to ask for help or find out where we can help.

Ruth 2:12 “God reward you well for what you've done - and with a generous bonus besides from God, to whom you've come seeking protection under his wings."