​My wife comes into the room and says to me, “Todd, the next two weeks are going to be really tight financially. We’ve got two big medical bills, and two of your daughters have college tuition due.” I reply, “It’s really only 11 days, not two weeks.” Brilliant. Or, this fictional jewel taken from the Laughlab at the University of Hertfordshire in England, submitted by Geoff Anandappa.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are going camping. They pitch their tent under the stars and go to sleep. In the middle of the night Holmes wakes Watson up: "Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you deduce."
Watson: "I see millions of stars and even if a few of those have planets, it's quite likely there are some planets like Earth, and if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life."
Holmes: "Watson, you idiot, somebody's stolen our tent!"
Or, this taken from Twitter (by way of https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-people-missed-jokes/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic)

​I’m not sure why most people do it.  I think in my case it’s probably a mixture of being easily distracted, possibly not wanting to discuss the topic at hand (see the conversation with my wife above), and even willful stubbornness.  I hate to admit those last two, but I’m just being real. 
 
This topic came to mind as I was studying the Bible yesterday.  I was reading John 5:1-24.  It tells the story of Jesus healing a man who had been sick and unable to walk for 38 years.  The man had lain near the Pool of Bethesda inside the city of Jerusalem for 38 years!  Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed.  When the man told Him that he wasn’t able to get into the supposed healing waters of the pool due to his handicap, Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”  The man stood up, got his mat and happily walked away from the pool.  This man who had languished at this pool for 38 years, desperate for help, healing, a chance…. Now, this Rabbi comes along and restores his health and he is able to stand up, get his mat, and walk.  What a perfect way to celebrate a Sabbath day.  He could walk over to his parents’ home who haven’t seen him walk since he was a young man.  What a joy that would be for them!  Not so fast.  In a move I believe to be astronomically worse than my “11 days” statement above, some religious leaders see this man that they had undoubtedly seen at some point over the last 38 years. 
“You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”
 
Talk about missing the point!  Instead of awe, joy, and a desire to go learn about the Source of this miraculous healing, these guys were fixated on their own misunderstanding of the Sabbath.  This was an “Aha!” moment for me.  I asked myself how many times has God been at work in my life, or in the life of someone I love, only to have me miss the point completely.  It manifests itself in a variety of ways.  Sometimes I rationalize the “natural” ways that it could work itself out.  Sometimes I don’t even realize something has happened.  This is usually because I’ve allowed myself to get too busy with things that aren’t nearly as important as what God has just done.  Again, just being real here.  I’m ashamed of this.  I repent of it even as I am writing.  This is unbelief and an ungrateful heart.  God is real.  He is working.  I don’t want to miss it.  My prayer for myself, my family, and the Big “C” Church, is that God would give us eyes to see Him at work, that we would be grateful, and energized and empowered to go make a difference in our little chunk of the world.

​My uncle, Albert Earl “Rip” VanWinkle served and ultimately retired from the United States Army.  He is as good a man as you’ll ever meet.  When I was in the 6th grade I interviewed Uncle Rip for a class regarding his multiple tours in Vietnam.  I remember being awed by the small bits he shared.  Uncle Rip made it clear that he would limit the amount of information he shared as it was too painful and out of respect for those who paid the ultimate price.
 
In May 1868, the United States celebrated the first “Decoration Day.”  The idea was to make this a day of remembrance and honoring of those who had served in the military and had passed away during their service or following it.  This first one was initiated by General John A. Logan of a Northern Civil War Veterans organization.  That first observance of what we now call Memorial Day saw 5000 participants decorate the graves of 20,000 Confederate and Union soldiers.  Smaller observances continue in many Southern states for Confederate Memorial day to this day.  However, after World War I, though many of the Confederate remembrances continued, there was a merging of the Northern and Southern states in honoring our country’s fallen veterans.
 
I am very grateful for the men and women who have served our country over the years.    Across the country there are people who have lost sons, daughters, husbands, wives, Dads and Moms.  As an American, I want to thank you and the soldier you lost as they defended our country and the freedoms we enjoy.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
 
Freedom.  I think this word is often misunderstood.  Freedom is not free.  It costs a lot.  In many cases it costs everything.  Sometimes people think of freedom as a license to “do whatever I want.”  From a Christian perspective it definitely means something else.  Jesus death on the cross and resurrection gives me the ability to be freed from my sin and freed from eternal death.  Before I placed my faith in His sinless life, death, and resurrection, I was enslaved to my own passions.  In essence, I needed freedom from me!  In our country I think we often have a similar misconception of what freedom means.  We often love the idea of freedom without the corresponding responsibility that freedom requires.  This day is a day for us to take a step back and think about what goes into the freedom we enjoy.  It’s a day for us to express gratitude to those who served and to our God.
 
Finally, just a word about safety and freedom.  Freedom isn’t safe.  Bad things can happen when we’re free.  That’s why it makes sense to me that in defending and protecting our freedom, bad things can and do happen.  Even as we navigate our current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, I think the balance of freedom and responsibility are important factors to keep in mind.  Likewise, if we think that we can have guaranteed safety in a free society we are fooling ourselves.  A close friend of mine grew up in Soviet-bloc Romania.  She and her husband grew up in a world where freedom was a foreign word.  Since immigrating here, my friend went through the process of gaining her United States Citizenship.  I still remember the day she called me from the road driving home from Atlanta where she’d been sworn in as an American citizen.  Recently I had a conversation with her and she said something that made me pause.  As we were discussing politics she said, “It is unbelievable to watch as people vote away their freedoms.”  We continued our conversation and it wasn’t until later that I really recognized the profundity of her statement.  I began to think about what she had said and  through the all important question of why a free society would vote away our freedom.  I think that the false idea that we can be free, safe, and live without any personal responsibility is at least part of the motivation for some of these political decisions.  One of my best friends is an avowed pacifist.  He has really thought through his rationale and I respect him for it.  Personally, as a Christian, I understand a lot of where he is coming from.  Still, I know that there are a number of Christian soldiers who have also wrestled with conscience and come to a different conclusion.  One thing that I am certain of is that this is a broken world.  There are a lot of people around the world who’d like to harm America.  America is not without horrible blemishes in our history.  Still, over the course of human history, our country has played a big role in reversing many of the world’s most egregious human rights abuses.  We are still able to worship and speak freely.  In the world we live in today, I am confident that without someone defending those freedoms, we would lose them very quickly.  For that, I am grateful to those who have defended us.  Happy Memorial Day.

​My sister Jessica is one of the best people I know.  She is kind-hearted, loving, extremely intelligent, well-educated, a great wife to her husband, and an amazing Mom to her four children.  She is a great sister and friend.  She also has a penchant for saying really, really funny things.  As I said, she is very intelligent, yet, occasionally, she will say something before she has fully thought it through.  To be fair, I think we all do the same thing from time to time.  I think her sweetness and innocent persona are part of what makes it so amusing when she says some of these things.  It would be par for the course for someone like….um, me!
 
I have heard great things about the Emmaus Walk.  My mother and Jessica have both told me great things about their experiences while participating in the walk and over the entire weekend.  The Emmaus Walk is designed as a three-day immersion into a deeper, more grace-filled, intimate relationship with Jesus and with other participants (the church).  There is singing, discussions, reflection time, time in small groups, communion, and lots of fun and laughter.  Sometimes there may be even more laughter than originally intended.
 
For the three days that Jessica participated in the Emmaus Walk journey, one of the themes that really resonated with her was the idea that God is the Potter and we are the clay.  There are several references to this in Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and in the New Testament, Romans.  Here is one of those references.
 
“Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.  Jeremiah 18:6
 
One of the people who spoke over the weekend referenced the fact that God called Himself the Potter and us His clay.  She said that as much as we want to be perfect, there are often cracks or flaws, but that God uses these “cracks” to allow His living water to seep out to others. 
 
Toward the end of the weekend, Jessica was asked to share with the group.  There were about 150 people in the audience.  Jessica, like many people, is not a huge fan of speaking in front of large groups.  But she knew that God had really impressed on her the need to be vulnerable.  She really believed that in sharing our weaknesses and being transparent, that we could really be a conduit of God’s grace to others.  So, when it was time to deliver her inspirational message she stood before 150 fellow Emmaus Walkers and said, “We all need to show our cracks!”  There was audible laughter around the room as she realized what she had said.  She re-phrased it and made her point eloquently from there on.  That said, I believe that the group probably remembered her message much better as a result of her unique delivery.
 
Jessica was on to something though.  We do need to “show our cracks.”  How many people never want to step foot in a church because they believe that everyone there “has it all together.”  Or, worse yet, people there act like they have it all together, but everyone else knows it’s not true.  I know that for me, when I realize that I’m not the only one who often struggles, it is very freeing and encouraging.  I’ve often told my family and friends, “God isn’t shocked at our sinfulness.  He gave Himself up for us knowing full well who we are and what is in our hearts, and the things that we would do.
           
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8
 
The Bible teaches us that healing can come when we confess our sins to one another.
 
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.  James 5:16
 
The context for this verse is in regard to praying for healing and other aspects of effective prayer.  One of the things that is necessary for this healing to occur is the confessing of sins to one another.  Apparently, there is something really important about being without pretense when we come to God, and to others with whom we have relationship.  Paul made it a point to let those to whom he wrote know that he too struggled with sin, calling himself the “chief of sinners,” (1 Tim. 1:15).  He also wrote the following that I think anyone of us could have written regarding our own struggles.
 
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.  Romans 7:15, 19
 
So, I want to encourage you as Jessica encouraged me, to put aside any pretense of “having it all together.”  With discretion, choose people who can be trusted and get real.  For real healing, growth and freedom to occur we’re gonna have to let our cracks show.

Earlier today I read a quote from Eugene Peterson’s book, Leap Over A Wall:  Earthly Spirituality for Everyday Christians.
            “Pain isn’t the worst thing.  Being hated isn’t the worst thing.  Being separated from the 
            one you love isn’t the worst thing.  Death isn’t the worst thing.  The worst thing is failing 
to deal with reality and being disconnected from what is actual.  The worst thing is trivializing the honorable, desecrating the sacred.”
 
There is a lot to unpack in a statement like that.  Beyond our knee-jerk reactions to the initial onslaught of really bad things he mentions, we are left with those last two sentences.  Those sentences make me uncomfortable.  Not because I disagree or don’t understand them.  They make me uncomfortable because so often I know that I allow those first things to actually be more important than the last.  When I do that, I am in essence creating idols by taking things that are gifts from God that are good and important and making them supreme.  Pleasure is preferred over pain or discomfort.  Sure.  But I don’t need to make the avoidance of pain my primary aim.  Heck, just about every important life lesson I’ve learned involved some kind of pain.  Being hated?  Oh man.  I feel like George Costanza in an episode of Seinfeld Season 5, entitled The Masseuse.  In the episode, George and Jerry double date with George’s current love interest and Jerry’s masseuse girlfriend who doesn’t like George.  It drives George nuts.  I totally relate.  Take a quick look.

Being separated from the ones I love…I’ve kind of learned over 25-plus years of marriage that that is going to happen.  So, that one, I can usually handle.  Death.  That’s a big one.  I think that I am relatively at peace with that one if it is my own demise we’re talking about.  However, death to someone close to me?  That has been a challenge at times.  There have been difficult times regarding the health of a loved one that I am pretty sure I was at least on the edge of making that most important.  
 
But what of Peterson’s “worst thing?”   
 
The worst thing is failing to deal with reality and being disconnected from what is actual.  The worst thing is trivializing the honorable, desecrating the sacred.”
 
Reality is rooted in the God who created the world.  Reality is rooted in truth.  God is good.  God is true.  The entirety of Peterson’s quote goes on to describe the importance of dealing with loss and grief in the context of God’s sovereignty as opposed to seeking to run from, avoid, medicate, excuse, etc. the pain of living in a fallen world. 
As a Christian I can deal with the reality of the world because I have a true North.  I have a foundation.  But, as a person living in a fallen world, I sometimes catch myself adopting a bit of the thought processes of someone not living in reality.  What I mean is, if there is no God, if we are “gene machines,” as the famous British atheist writer and biologist Richard Dawkins once said, then any meaning or purpose that we have in this life is only that which we create for ourselves.  And, while most of those who call themselves atheists that I’ve known are kind, respectful, caring people, there is no real reason or purpose for that.  They’ve just determined that their life will be better because of it.  That being said, if it’s ultimately just about what makes our life more pleasurable, who are we to judge if someone else’s morality conflicts directly with ours?
 
Bottom-line?  If we don’t have a foundational basis for reality, goodness, morality, etc., we are left with the responsibility of assigning it for ourselves.  To a large degree, this is where we have arrived from an American cultural standpoint.  The inability to recognize the Reality that we have an authoritative Lawgiver, Creator, Source of all that is good, who is Love and is the source of all love, means we have begun to trivialize the honorable and desecrate the sacred.  As a believer, I repent of my tendency to do this.  I pray for myself, my wife, my children, and our nation that we would not be disconnected from the actual, but instead we’d follow Paul’s admonition to the Roman church.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  Romans 12:2
​

​Beach trips.  I’m on one right now.  Why do we pack up and go to the beach?  We can sit in an easy chair in our backyard, in our front yard, in our den, in our basement, or on the beach.  What inspires us to save money, then spend that money to rent someone else’s house to bring our lawn chairs to their house to sit and relax?  The economics are actually not the interesting part of this transaction to me.  Rather, the idea that changing my geography may benefit me on some deeper level.
 
So, what is it?  Where did the idea of a vacation or “holiday” begin?  I think the easiest place to start is the beginning.  The beginning…or I guess I should say The Beginning.
 
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.  Gen. 2:2
 
God is the only truly self-sustaining being that exists.  He is.  That is His name, “I AM.”  As such, he doesn’t need anything.  He doesn’t need rest.  But, He took it.  Why?  I think if we ponder that too long our heads may explode.  Still, I think we need to acknowledge that the Creator of everything took a break.  A break He didn’t need.  I mean, He wasn’t tired.  He doesn’t tire.  But, there it is on Day 7.  I think Jesus makes it clear for us.
 
Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.  Mark 2:27
 
So, God didn’t need the Sabbath, we did!  I think this is a good place for us to start with our investigation of the beach trip.  As beings created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), we are creative, like our Creator.  God made us like Himself.  Still as creatures, we have needs.  We are like Him, but we ain’t Him.  We need rest to sustain our ability to be as productive as we were designed to be.  A great example of this is Chick-Fil-A. Huh?  Stick with me.  Chick-Fil-A operates 6 days a week.  Every other major fast-food restaurant in America operates 7 days per week.  Still, Chick-Fil-A averages more per store than every other fast-food restaurant in America.  To be clear, there are restaurants whose overall sales surpass Chick-Fil-A.  In fact, there are 7 restaurants who have far more stores/locations than Chick-Fil-A and therefore have an overall higher total sales number.  But, there are none who match Chick-Fil-A on a per store sales number.  As a matter of fact, if you looked at the top three in total sales and added their average per store sales together, you’d still fall short of Chick-Fil-A’s store average.  McDonald’s ($2,670,320 per unit), Starbucks ($945,270) and Subway ($416,860) the total per store average would be $4,032,450 as compared to Chick-Fil-A’s average per store of $4,090,900 in 2017.  In six days per week, Chick-Fil-A produced more per store than the combined per store average of McDonalds, Starbucks, and Subway produced over 7 days a week.  It makes you think, “Maybe there is something to this Sabbath thing…”  Several years ago, I had gotten WAAAAAY out of balance with my work.  I was basically working 7 days a week.  And, even when I was home, I wasn’t really home.  One day, my wife called me out in a loving way.  She said, “If you can’t take a Sabbath, maybe you shouldn’t be doing this job.”  She continued, “I challenge you to commit to taking a Sabbath and see what happens.”  I took her up on it.  A year later she and I took the “Mother of All Beach Trips,” to Hawaii on a trip for the top sales people in the company.  I’m not saying this to brag.  I’m saying, “Maybe there is something to his Sabbath thing!”
 
I believe vacations, sabbaths, sabbaticals, long-weekends, etc. are an amazing opportunity for us to recharge, refuel, and begin the process of re-creation.  We need it.  God showed us in the Beginning.  If you aren’t able to take a vacation, I understand.  Still, if you have been hesitant to take a true Sabbath, don’t be! You need it.  You will be better for it.  If you can take a week, do it!  The time with your family, or doing nothing, or reading, sleeping, or just being, can be an amazing time of replenishing and restoring that creative part of you that makes you great at your job.  If you can’t take a week, find a way to take a day each week.  God’s way works, I promise.

​Number one, PRESENTS!  Sorry, I couldn’t be spiritual there.  I love birthdays.  My father-in-law is such a Godly man.  I am so blessed to have married his daughter.  First off, I got the smartest, prettiest, best wife a man could ever hope for.  She is the most amazing person I know.  On top of that, I got two more parents who God uses to shape my character and that of my wife and children.  Specifically though, my father-in-law amazes me in his reluctance to accept gifts on his birthday or Christmas.  He is really that much deeper than me.  He would much rather have a nice card with a heartfelt note on it.  Me?  I love presents.  I mean, I go nuts on birthdays and Christmas.  I love tearing open the paper and discovering whatever it is that someone got me.  My wife is one of the great gift-givers ever because she is so thoughtful.  She may purchase gifts for people MONTHS before the big day.  She listens. She cares.  And, I do my part.  I go absolutely crazy!  My mom and sisters do a great job too.  Mom is a big gift-giver.  I think that is one of her primary ways of expressing love.  My sisters and I all have kids and college educations and weddings we are paying for, so we’re bigger on getting each other funny cards that make us laugh.  I love these too.  Now that my 4 daughters are getting older, they’re starting to give gifts, cards, or notes. I guess these show that I’ve got a little of my father-in-law in me.  Just hearing a loving “Happy Birthday Dad!” from my daughters makes my day.
 
Number two is the people.  They really should be number one.  I know that.  But, I’m kind of assuming that they had to be there to get the presents, so, I’m sticking them here.  In real life, if it came down to it, I promise I would pick my family and friends over my presents.  That said, if it’s my birthday and you come hang out, feel free to bring something.  Nothing big is necessary.  Find the most ridiculous card, or perhaps better yet, find me the funniest YouTube video you’ve ever seen and send it to me.  Then, just come hang out and tell stories (the same ones we always tell) and laugh with me for a couple of hours.  Birthdays are a great day to celebrate family and friends who’ve gone through ALL THESE YEARS with me.   
 
Number three.  Birthdays are calorie-free days.  That’s right.  You can eat whatever you want on your birthday and it doesn’t affect your health.  Cake.  Ice cream.  French fries.  Fried Chicken.  Mexican. Repeat.  No problem.  Okay, maybe I’m stretching it a bit here…like I stretch my belt on my birthday!  So, maybe it isn’t a calorie-free day, but it’s definitely a day to enjoy the foods you like.  
 
Seriously though, today is my birthday.  I am so grateful for the 52 years I’ve had to learn to love God and others.  I’m grateful for God teaching me to appreciate His creation and the people He has brought into my life.  I am grateful that He sent people my way who loved me enough to teach me about Him.  I can remember photos from days at 1139 Kawanda Lane with my sister Jessica and our shared Circus Cake, circa 1974, or my 12-year-old birthday at 724 Oak Drive with Chip, Andy, Scott, Tommy, Micah, and others.  I remember my 40th where my wife surprised me with a trip to Las Vegas, and my 50th where she surprised me with about 50 friends from across the years who showed up at my house in Chelsea, Alabama.  I love birthdays because they are a great reminder of what has made my life great.  Thank you to Jennifer, Mom, my sisters (Jessica and Jill), my daughters (Morgan, BK, Alli, and Maggie Leigh) and everyone who has been a friend to me.  I really appreciate each of you.
TG

​As I sat listening to my Sunday School teacher read to us about Adam and Eve’s really bad decision, I couldn’t help but think about snack time.  I was ADHD before it was in the medical textbooks.  When they added it, they could have had a picture of me as an illustration of what it looks like in real life.  But, I, like others with this malady, digress.  Anyway, after I thought about what snacks would be, I zoned back in to hear something about women having a really rough go having babies, and I heard about Adam and other guys having to work really hard to get the ground to produce food.  “By the sweat of your brow…” is what Adam was told.  I was really mad at that snake.  Before that, I imagined that Adam and Eve just lounged around and fruit would fall from the trees or vines into their mouths.  They swam, ate, played, climbed trees, rode dinosaurs, rode elephants, rode giraffes…they rode any animal they wanted to ride.  What a life.  Then, they ate that one fruit out of the entire PLANET that God told them not to eat.  Ah, what could have been.

But wait.  That’s not exactly correct.  Yes, the dinosaur riding, swimming, and tree climbing, those are all true.  It’s the work part that I was wrong about.
                       Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to 
                       cultivate it and keep it.  Genesis 2:15 
Those words, cultivate and keep, are from the Hebrew  לְעָבְדָ֖הּ (le·'a·ve·dah), translated to work, or serve and וּלְשָׁמְרָֽהּ׃, translated to keep, watch, or preserve.  Those all sound like jobs.  So, as I read back through the account in Genesis, I’ve realized that it wasn’t work that was cursed.  It was the ground!  Our work, for sure, now that the ground was cursed would be harder, and sometimes not very enjoyable.  But, work itself was and is, GOOD.
 
So, where does this leave us?  I wrote about finding that thing that when we do it, we can “feel God’s pleasure,” in a previous post (God’s Will Hunting).  But, what about when we just have to have a job?  I have definitely had seasons of my life where I was working in jobs that may not have been the most natural fit to how God gifted me.  I am fairly certain that all of us will have to do jobs at one time or another where we aren’t “in the zone,” or where “when you do what you love you never work a day of your life.”  No.  Sometimes we just have to grind.  So, why did God give man work to do?  There are three great reasons that I see when I look at scripture.1.     God uses it as a means to provide for us physically.  The 2nd chapter of Genesis from which I shared a verse earlier shows us this.The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not [n]eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”  Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17
 
There are several in Proverbs as well.  Here is one.   
Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.  Proverbs 12:11

1. God uses our work to glorify Himself.

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, Col. 3:23
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. I Cor. 10:31

1. God may also have you in a role because everywhere we go, He can use us to bring others to Him.  You may be in a role so that someone you work with comes to know God.  I Peter 2:12 and Matthew 5:15.

So, if you’re in a tough place, hang in there!  God has you there for a season for a reason.  Be as good as you possibly can be in that role.  God may be doing more than you realize.
​