Doing It Right the First Time

Have you ever regretted not doing the "right thing" the first time? You change course because you think there might be a better way, an easier way, a cheaper way? We bought our current home almost two years ago. We had two rooms (dining room and master bedroom) that had wallpaper across the bottom 3 ft of the rooms with a chair rail and a wallpaper border above that. Before we painted these two rooms we sprayed texture over the wallpaper in the dining room but at the last minute chose not to do so in the bedroom. Instead, I stuccoed over the border and painted the stucco and wallpaper white and painted the rest of the walls a different color. The first color didn't work so well so I repainted it. Now, more than a year later I am removing the stucco by scraping off the paint and sanding down the stucco in attempt to re-create the image of the room. Our plan? To have the texture guy come back and spray over the old wallpaper so that I can paint the walls (floor to ceiling) yet another color!

This is one of those projects where we might be tempted to ask, "Why didn't we just do this in the beginning? Why didn't we stick to our original plan and just do the right thing?" Could the same question be asked of your spiritual journey? Perhaps you heard about Jesus when you were younger - maybe even attended church growing up. But then you got a bit older, began to have some questions (or maybe you were just bored with church?) and had a great idea to try another way - an easier way. This easier way eliminated church, eliminated the Bible, and likely even eliminated Jesus for a "religion" of your own creation. In your own way you repeated what the ancient Israelites did early in their history. "

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. Judges 21.25

We would like to think that we can live and worship any way we choose - and to a certain extent that is true - but we are mistaken if we think that it doesn't matter how we live and worship. God is holy and will not tolerate the worship of other gods. When we finally recognize the truth in that we endure quite a bit of scraping of the painted facade of pride and confidence and the sanding down of the stucco of self-will and arrogance.

Why can't we see this in the beginning? Why must we - like the ancient Israelites - go through a process of following God, turning from God, and then returning to God? For some of us this process is necessary for us to humbly recognize the joy of following Jesus and serving him. It's the battle of submitting our will to his. Somehow we just think that we can mold ourselves into a better person than God can so why bother worshiping him at all?

While I'm scraping down stucco I will be thinking about the bumps and high spots in my life that God is smoothing off. Sometimes painful, often stubbornly resistant, I know that the end result in my life (and with my painting project) will be worth it as he re-creates in me the image of his Son. And I will have to admit, it would have been easier to do it right the first time.

A Good Friend

Today I had the privilege of spending the afternoon at a Twins baseball game with Jay Kendall. I first met Jay at Bethel College in the late 70's. We volunteered at Trout Lake Camp together, went to the same church, even went on a spring break road trip to Florida together with a third guy named Tom Zdrazil. It was Jay that nudged me to ask Julie out on our first date. Just 370 days later, Julie and I were married on Bethel's campus and Jay was one of our groomsmen. That was 30 years ago. While Jay has stayed pretty close to the Twin Cities, Julie and I have roamed the country. We lived in Missouri, Massachusetts, Idaho, and Washington state (with a few stops in Minnesota mixed in along the way). With all of that roaming it was easy to lose touch with friends like Jay, always thinking that you'd be back in town some day and would catch up then. But 5 years turns to 15, and 15 years turns to 25. Jay and I have talked and handful of times over those years - usually at events on Bethel's campus that I had returned for. We had recently 'friended' each other on Facebook and 'followed' each other on Twitter and had begun to slowly catch up on each other's lives. Today was different. With the pastoral backdrop of a Twins-Indians baseball matinee at the Dome we talked about our wives, our kids, our work, and what God has been teaching us recently. Jay and I talked about what it's been like for me to sit in the second chair and asked me what God has taught me there. I had the joy of telling him about the great staff team that I get to serve with and the developing trust and partnership that I enjoy with my 'first chair' boss. We've lived very different lives and have pursued very different interests but Jay and I both worship the same God. We both want to grow in our faith and obedience to Jesus. We both want to be the best dads and husbands we can. When Jay dropped me at my car at Bethel we stopped to pray for one another - thankful for the way our paths had crossed through the years and had brought us together for a few hours on a classic Minnesota summer afternoon. In many ways it was if we were still students on Bethel's campus and that the conversation had not taken breaks of several years. I'm grateful for the technology that spurred our reunion but am even more grateful for enduring friendships. Today I was reminded of the value of a good friend.

The Noticer – A Book Review

As a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson I get to read a variety of books that I might not otherwise read. The Noticer was one book I had heard of but knew very little about. This was my first read by Andy Andrews but it won't be my last! He has a great ability to teach good life-transforming principles through the vehicle of fiction. The main character is a mysterious and charismatic older man named "Moses." He has a knack for appearing at just the right moment to speak truth into people's lives in a loving but surgical manner that cuts to the heart of the matter. I was especially gripped by the description of how Nobel Prize winner Norman Bourlag's hybridization of corn and wheat for arid climates has saved an estimated 2 billion people! But, Jones asks, should he really get all the credit? Perhaps Vice President Henry Wallace should have shared in the honor. Then again, maybe George Washington Carver or a farmer named Moses from Diamond, MO should have. What do these people have in common? For that, you will have to read the book yourself! I recommend this book to people of all ages who are wrestling with issues of personal significance, marital conflict, worry, finances, answers to life's questions, etc., in other words: everyone!