Sleep is a great thing. I love sleep. Not just because I've had a bad day or because I may have been deprived of it previous night. No, for me sleep is a great thing for one very good reason...dreams! I hate to brag, but I am a world-class dreamer. I dream many dreams a night. One or two early on and then about a thousand in the last half hour before the alarm goes off. One dream in particular recurs often...thematically speaking. I dream about flying. Usually it involves me lying on a broken down cardboard box, flying carpet style, and the wind catches me as I soar over my neighborhood, which isn't really my neighborhood just one I dreamed up where most every house has a pool, except mine. At first I have quite a bit of trouble controlling my flying box. Eventually, though, I get the hang of it, and man can I fly. So for me flying is another great thing. Usually.
Recently I was on a flight that was NOT a great thing. After sitting on the runway for a couple of hours waiting for a storm to blow over, we finally took off and flew directly into the storm that just passed us. This particular plane was not a big stable 747 but one that had a guy who was responsible for winding the rubber band enough to get us to our destination. Talk about turbulence.
The reason for the trip in the first place was to visit a soldier with cancer. He looks toward his future and sees storms. Grey skies, lightening, thunder, and very little calm. For him, life is turbulent. You may never get cancer. But you may have marriage trouble, financial trouble, or live in a war zone in the middle of the desert. That's turbulence. And for the one flying through it, it's never fun. Sometimes it's sickening. But that doesn't have to be all there is. For the child of God there are calm skies and sunshine just beyond the clouds.
King David understood turbulence and the peace that follows life's storms when he wrote in Psalm 23, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” Clear skies are just beyond that cloud if you’ll let Jesus fly you there.
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
The Principle of Appropriate Dress
Frankly, I am not a morning person. That's not to say I don't enjoy a beautiful sunrise or the sting of the cold autumn air or the taste of that first cup of coffee as much as the next guy, because I do. What I don't like about morning is it's proximity to last night. No matter how "early" I go to bed, morning kind of arrives "like a thief in the night". And if your mornings go anything like mine, they usually proceed according to a fairly predictable schedule.
0547 - Initial Alarm Sounding
0547 - Initial Snooze Button Smackage
0618 - Onset of Self-Awareness
0619 - Panic at realization that formation is in 11 minutes
0620 - Get dressed and hurry to morning formation with mere moments to spare
0630 – Morning Formation, Physical Training, etc.
0900 – Rest of day spent in sleep deprived haze
The trained eye will note that the first thing I "do" each day is get dressed. If I were a betting man I'd wager you get dressed pretty early on, too. It's an indispensable part of the day. And of course you must dress properly, i.e. warm clothes on cold days and cool clothes on warm days.
A good example of what I like to call "The Principle of Appropriate Dress" is going into battle. No one, except maybe the Cuban Ballet Brigade, enters a battle wearing a shocking pink tutu. Instead, the thinking soldier will wear something a bit more woodsy. If he does not, chances are pretty good he will die.
We dress our bodies in shoes, socks, pants, belts, shirts, hats, gloves, and any other number of items, while many times our spirits remain naked and exposed. The Bible says in Ephesians 6, "Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own." In other words, don't forget to dress appropriately and completely each day. If your spirit is dressed in prayer, meditation, scripture, etc, you'll be prepared for the hassles that normally accompany a day at work, at home, in traffic, at the bank, or whatever.
The world we live in may soon dictate that you or I actually go to war. The question is we ready to fight? Without a doubt! To kill? If necessary! To die? That depends on how we're dressed.
0547 - Initial Alarm Sounding
0547 - Initial Snooze Button Smackage
0618 - Onset of Self-Awareness
0619 - Panic at realization that formation is in 11 minutes
0620 - Get dressed and hurry to morning formation with mere moments to spare
0630 – Morning Formation, Physical Training, etc.
0900 – Rest of day spent in sleep deprived haze
The trained eye will note that the first thing I "do" each day is get dressed. If I were a betting man I'd wager you get dressed pretty early on, too. It's an indispensable part of the day. And of course you must dress properly, i.e. warm clothes on cold days and cool clothes on warm days.
A good example of what I like to call "The Principle of Appropriate Dress" is going into battle. No one, except maybe the Cuban Ballet Brigade, enters a battle wearing a shocking pink tutu. Instead, the thinking soldier will wear something a bit more woodsy. If he does not, chances are pretty good he will die.
We dress our bodies in shoes, socks, pants, belts, shirts, hats, gloves, and any other number of items, while many times our spirits remain naked and exposed. The Bible says in Ephesians 6, "Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own." In other words, don't forget to dress appropriately and completely each day. If your spirit is dressed in prayer, meditation, scripture, etc, you'll be prepared for the hassles that normally accompany a day at work, at home, in traffic, at the bank, or whatever.
The world we live in may soon dictate that you or I actually go to war. The question is we ready to fight? Without a doubt! To kill? If necessary! To die? That depends on how we're dressed.
Friday, August 15, 2003
Cow Town
When you're young things can seem bigger than they really are or smaller than they really are, depending on your perspective. When I was young, things seemed huge. The little farming community I grew up in was around 30,000 or so (if memory serves) but I was sure there were at least 100,000 people living there and that it would take a person at least a week to traverse on foot. Cause man, that was one booming metropolis. Then I began to grow and my world began to shrink. I hit my teen years, when there is no such thing as perspective, except mine of course. When you're a teen things generally seem less significant than they really are and you are generally positioned at the center of the universe. I know I was. Having traveled the world (which meant I had walked from College street to West street in only an hour or two) by the time I was 14, I just knew that this little cow town couldn't have more than a dozen people in it and I could probably throw a rock clear past the train tracks. Certainly nothing significant would ever come out of this silly, little, insignificant town. So I grew some more thinking that I was probably the saving grace of that place while everyone else was going to homecoming parades and watching High School football games and musicals and cruising Main street on Friday nights. Boresville…or so I thought in all my glorious arrogance. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts changed that. He attended my old high school. He was a freshman during my senior year at Woodland High School in Woodland, California. And he was murdered in Afghanistan while serving America in Operation Anaconda as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was a Navy Seal…one of America’s real heroes. I wish I’d have known him.
There was another little town with little or no potential. But a great man came from there, too. The town was Nazareth and the Man was Jesus. “What good can come out of Nazareth?” people would ask. He was murdered , too…in support of Operation Redeem Man. I’m glad I know him.
John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Take a moment and introduce yourself to Jesus…a real Hero. I know He’d love to meet you.
There was another little town with little or no potential. But a great man came from there, too. The town was Nazareth and the Man was Jesus. “What good can come out of Nazareth?” people would ask. He was murdered , too…in support of Operation Redeem Man. I’m glad I know him.
John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Take a moment and introduce yourself to Jesus…a real Hero. I know He’d love to meet you.
