QUESTION OF THE DAY #40: What do you wish you knew when you were younger?

Today I built an oak file cabinet.  It was from a kit.  As I put it together, I followed the pictures, but when I got done, I found a bottle of dried up glue.  It turns out I should have used glue.  I wish I'd known that when I started, but I didn't, and it will have to just stand as is for the time being.

Such is life!  The saying goes, "If I'd only known back then what I know now."  This question can open a whole can of worms.  It's true. For myself I wish that I had cared less about what other people think, and been less afraid of failure.  

There could be a whole lot of regrets, but one thing I find is that people, when they are younger, might not fully realize how good things can be later on.  God has good things in store.  I think that the surprise can actually be part of the fun.

1 Corinthians 2:9 (ESV) 

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

QUESTION OF THE DAY #39: What would your motto be?

There are still plenty of mottoes around if you look hard enough.  Some of them I really like.  Cicero's famous quote is also the motto of South Carolina, Dum spiro, spero. (While I breathe, I hope.)  The motto of the Order of St. Patrick is a good one, too, Quis separabit? (Who shall separate?)  It comes from Romans 8:35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?"

Since I'm writing this on Reformation Sunday, I can't help but think of the Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, and Sola Scriptura of the Reformation (Grace alone, Faith alone, Scripture alone).  God forgives us and brings us into a good and holy relationship with Himself only because of His undeserved love for us.  We are brought into this relationship through faith, by believing and trusting in the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Finally, the Holy Scriptures are God's Word and teach us about His love and about Jesus our Savior.

Speaking of God's Word, after digging around a little bit, I found my motto.  It comes from 1 Peter 2:16... "Live as people who are free."  It doesn't speak about political freedom, for it was originally written to people in all kinds of situations, including slavery.  It is about our freedom in Christ, a freedom that comes to us because "by His wounds you have been healed."  (1:24) It is not an excuse for doing whatever we want, either, because it describes our entire life of honoring others while living honorably.  That's the meaning of Quasi Liberi (…as people who are free).

QUESTION OF THE DAY #38: In addition to wedding rings, what is your favorite piece of jewelry? 

There is a lot of really good jewelry, to be sure, but since I'm a guy who's pretty hard on things, most of my jewelry just hasn't stood the test of time.  Rings have been dented.  Pendants have been broken.  Watches have been lost.  Metal has been tarnished, and since I don't have any piercings, that rules out a whole category. 

I do have a pendant that I wear.  I bought it last year, and it's still sticking around.  I got it at the Mall of America, in St. Paul, Minnesota, at one of those vendors in the middle of the place.  It has a good solid chain and heavy duty clasp.  Attached is a metal figure of a cross entitled "love as strong as steel."

I think of the Roman soldier, a centurion no less, watching over the crucifixion.  He surveyed the scene and cried out, "Surely this was the Son of God."  He recognized the strength on display--even and especially in the death of Jesus.  The cross, back then, was not jewelry, of course.  It was a hated, dreadful thing.  Roman soldiers were frighteningly skillful at making death as drawn out and as painful as possible.  The cross was their torturous tool of choice. 

And while, in its original form, the cross displayed all the ugliness of the depths of human experience, now it has been transformed.  The death Jesus died on a cross stands for all time as the payment for our guilt.  So now we trust in our risen and living and triumphant Savior, Jesus.  The cross is now a reminder of the depth and width and height of God's strong love.

Ephesians 3:17–19 (ESV)
...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

QUESTION OF THE DAY #37: What is a fun and easy family thing to do together?

This answer can be unique to each family!  Some like an impromptu drive in the country.  Some like a picnic, or, literally, a day at the beach, paddling a boat, building sandcastles!  Fishing is great, too, one of my all-time favorites.  What about a trip to the zoo?  Even flying a kite is an adventure.  It doesn't have to be fancy.  A simple walk will do. Sharing a meal together--and maybe even cooking it together--is wonderful!  

Board games are great, and so is watching a movie.  Break out the guitars or the piano and sing!  Even in the coldness of winter in Wisconsin, where I live, there are a lot of things to do!  Bowling is always fun, and that always works well for my family!  For more to do, try ice skating, skiing, sledding, or even just making a snowman!

You get the idea.  There is a lot of stuff that can be done, and whatever it is, may it be done in love. 

"And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." Colossians 3:14

QUESTION OF THE DAY #36: What is your favorite vegetable?

Tomatoes count.  Yes, technically they are fruits, but since they have a lower sugar content than most fruits, they are, from a cooking perspective, vegetables, that is, unless you are trying to can them.  Then they're fruits.  Did you know that all this can be said of eggplants, cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchini, and squash?  Potatoes also count, though diet-wise they may be considered a starch.  I think corn is like that, too!  Finally, rhubarb counts.  Although, and here is a strange thing, according to U.S. law, it is a fruit.  The logic is that it is used as a fruit.  I don't understand that one bit, but, in the end, the taxes on it are lower than vegetables.  So I'm all right with that.

On to vegetables proper!   You have the classics, like broccoli and cauliflower.  You have green beans, peas, parsnips, peppers, cabbage, beets, asparagus, and what would we do without onions?  Then there is spinach.  When I was little, I watched Popeye and thought cooked spinach out of a can would be a great thing to try.  I was in for a surprise.  Can you say spinach-face?  I love spinach now, though! 

There is the lowly Brussels sprout, which I believe is Cavolini di Bruxelles in Italian.  It sounds much yummier that way!  Though I like it just the same!  I never met a vegetable I didn't like!  I'd have to say that my favorite, though it's oh so hard to pick just one, would be the carrot, because it tastes so good cooked or raw, and it is always around our house for a quick snack!  What is your favorite vegetable?

All of this shows that God made the world with an incredible amount of variety for us to enjoy.  This variety extends to people and the things people like to do and are good at!  Never feel you have to pretend to be someone else.  Avoid being limited to a "category".  God made you wonderfully.  And you have unique talents and abilities that can be cultivated in your own special way your whole life long! 

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made..." 

(Psalm 139:14) 

"Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them..." 

(Romans 12:6)

QUESTION OF THE DAY #35: What is your favorite cartoon?

Some people think of Saturday morning TV cartoons: Smurfs, Bugs Bunny, things like that.  Others think of comic books: Superman, The Green Lantern, and Spiderman!  I think of the Sunday morning newspaper cartoons.  I could name a couple, but my own favorite would be "Peanuts" by Charles Schultz.  Yes, that's Snoopy up there on my computer screen!

Incredibly intelligent and poignant, still relevant (think of the phrase "wishy washy" for example), and beloved for the television specials, what makes "Peanuts" so interesting for me is how it grew out of Charles Shultz's own childhood.  Promoted one grade after another, he found himself having to cope with peers who were much older.  He felt like an outsider.  He felt like Charlie Brown.  Good grief!

I think for all of us who can relate to feeling like an outsider, Charlie Brown was a hero.  He let us see that lonely part of ourselves in a new light.  We weren't alone in our aloneness any more.  This, of course, is nothing new.  Consider this "good grief" statement of Jesus: "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." (Matthew 8:20)  Jesus endured loneliness so that in Him, we need never be truly alone.  He has endured all of our griefs, and we can give Him all our burdens, even Charlie Brown-like ones!

 

QUESTION OF THE DAY #34: If you could build your house into any shape at all, what would it look like?

A country cottage  is a nice way to go.  There are castle-houses, and houses built like Gothic churches.  There are dome houses and beach houses.  There are A-framed houses and tree houses.  Oh, and lighthouse houses!  What would yours look like?

You can get even more fanciful, like a "hobbit" house or a house made to look like a mushroom!  There are houses that use nature to provide many of the necessities, an Eco-friendly, energy-efficient house, or maybe you have a dream house, featuring a walk-around porch, or pillars, or both!  Finally, there are plenty of people who like their own  house just fine! 
 

I have two choices for this one.  The first is a log cabin!  Simplicity rules the day, there!  The second would be in the shape of a basketball court, with a basketball court on the upper level and living quarters underneath--with a music studio.  That would be living!

In the Old Testament, God chose a tent for his house, and then He gave the blueprints to Moses!  Every part of that house was portable.  It had to be, because the Hebrew people were wandering through the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land.  God certainly goes with us, too, on our journey through life.  He's with us wherever we live.  He's there when we get up and lie down.  He's there in every season.  He's there for the long haul.

As believers in Jesus, we have a permanent home in heaven with God.  This world is temporary, but this world is not all there is!  Jesus said, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?"  (John 14:1-2)

QUESTION OF THE DAY #33: What is one thing you want to remember forever?

So many things yearn to be remembered forever, a kindness shown, a great accomplishment, a feeling of happiness and contentment, the day you met, the day you married, the smile of a brother or a sister, a special night with friends, a meaningful conversation you never want to end, seeing the birth of your child and all the steps they take along the way, parents, grandparents, a singularly beautiful day. 

It seems I've forgotten so many things along the way.  Time has a way of just carrying a person along.  It's good to take time to remember, to hang on.  Sometimes it's difficult, like remembering a lesson learned, or realizing, in a bittersweet way, how far you've come, or, on the other hand, when a memory of days gone by leads you to want to reconnect with the past.

One thing I never want to forget is that I am loved.  Who knows?  I might one day forget the names of others, and even my own name.  I might forget what day it is, or even what year it is, but I still want to hang on to the simple fact that I'm loved.  How many times haven't I visited with someone who forgot my name, but could recite the 23rd Psalm with me perfectly?

There are those people in my life that have let me know that I'm loved, and always will be.  They have encouraged and stood by me.  For that I am truly and deeply grateful. Their love has been a reminder of God's love. 

God gives us abundant reminders of His love.  When I was a baby, my father, a pastor, poured water over my head and said, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  Remembering that I am baptized is a powerful way of remembering God's love.  It is knowing that God always stands by me.  My baptism always points me to Christ Jesus my Savior and what He has done for me: suffering, dying, rising to life, forgiving me, and and letting me know that I truly am loved.

"...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word..." (Ephesians 5:25-26)

QUESTION OF THE DAY #32: "What puts the wind in your sails?"

I wrestled with this question this week.  Leading worship energized me, but then I was tired and had to take a Sunday nap!  Playing football with my son lifted my spirits, but I eventually had to say, "I can't go any longer!"  Being with the people for my Bible study lifted me up, but not every time that I'm with others do I feel lifted up.

Being with loved ones, doing things I love, exercise, work, hobbies, accomplishments, and taking care of my physical body all are important and wonderful and inspiring, but if I rely on any one of "my things" to automatically and completely put the wind in my sails, sooner or later I'll feel let down.  That doesn't mean that any of these things are bad, or that they aren't what inspires me.  It's just that it is an unfair burden to place on activities, on other people, and on myself. 

So as I continued to wrestle with this question today, I stopped by at the House of the Dove, which is a place for hospice care.  I had a visit to make, and as I left the building, I was greeted by a rush of wind, by the golden morning sunshine, and also by a sculpture by a local artist of an angel with a dove.  

Yep, God pretty much hit me over the head with this one.  His Holy Spirit is the wind in my sails! The same God who breathed into me the breath of life also keeps me going through the power of the Holy Spirit! 

"...he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit..." (Titus 3:5 ESV)

QUESTION OF THE DAY #31: What does a rainbow make you think of?

A rainbow is amazing.  If the sun is shining at about a 40-42 degree angle right behind you and there is a rain shower directly in front of you, you have a good chance of seeing one.  How it happens is that as light enters the droplets of water all of the different colors of light change speed and direction at slightly different rates.  This is called refraction.  The light is then reflected back, and as it leaves the droplets of water, it is refracted again!  The water droplets act like a prism and a mirror!

I don't always think about that, though.  Quite simply and honestly, rainbows remind me of when I've seen them before: in the clear, open spaces of Kansas, on the road to my grandparents' house, camping, and even once as I even drove right past the end of a rainbow near a lake up north in Wisconsin.  (Lakes can do interesting things to rainbows!)

The Bible talks about the rainbow after the flood.  It was a symbol of hope and of God's love and mercy.  Never again would the world be destroyed by the kind of flood that took place in Genesis, when God spared Noah and his family.  

That is a powerful message.  I think of it as being connected to the very first thing God created, light itself.  We normally can't pick out all the different colors.  Yet, in a rainbow we can see them!  We are given a glimpse inside the mystery of light.  I am reminded by these things that life itself is a mystery and a wonder, and that there is always hope... especially in Jesus and His love which is freely given to us.  (Just think, a rainbow is free!)

"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him, these things God has revealed to us..." (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

QUESTION OF THE DAY #30: What can you build with your hands?

I've always enjoyed building things.  One of the fun childhood things I liked to do when we'd visit my grandparents was to get out some wood and nails and a hammer and just have at it!  As a youngster, I even got some balsa wood and made a replica of the Wright brothers' first airplane!  When we moved into our home years ago, the first thing I did was to make a wooden railing for the living room.  There's a real satisfaction in building things with your hands, even if it's putting together the furniture that comes in boxes and you have to assemble! 

As I asked people this question, I found that "build" couldn't cover all the wonderful things that people made.  Some people might plant a garden.  Some people might make supper every night, or delicious cakes for dessert!  (I'm still stuck on the desserts!)  Some people made various crafts, like afghans and quilts and toys.  What was most touching was how people were "building" solid marriages and memories together with family and friends. Along with this comes all the wonderful ways that people use their hands and their hearts to show others how much they care.  You don't have to be a mechanic or a carpenter to be able to do that at all!  Whatever you set your hand to, it says in Ecclesiastes, do with all your might.

Jesus' father was a carpenter, of course, and Jesus probably learned from Joseph, but what is recorded in Scripture is how Jesus reached out His hand in love.  Confronted with a leper that no one would go near--much less touch--Jesus was moved with pity, reached out His hand, and touched the man and healed him.  (Mark 1:41)  Can you hear the gasps of the people when they saw this?  I wonder how many turned away in disgust before they saw the healing take place.  

In big and small ways, and maybe in unexpected ways, what can you "build" with your hands today?