He Can Relate

There are a lot of things in life that I just cannot relate to.  I cannot relate to what it feels like to be an Olympic Champion…in fact, I cannot relate to what it feels like to be an Olympic athlete.  This doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have enjoyed knowing what that felt like.  I have not experienced childbirth…this however, DOES mean that I NEVER want to know what that feels like.

I cannot tell you what it is like to be a millionaire, nor can I tell you what it is like to skydive or bungee jump.  I cannot relate to anyone who has hit a “hole in one,” or gone on cruise.  I have never hunted Elk or Moose or Alligators or Hamsters.  I have never been to Paris, New York, San Francisco or Canada.  I have never fished for Salmon or sailed on the Ocean or panned for gold.

I do however; know what it is like to send a child off to college. I will be launching my third child just two days from now.  I know what it is like to stay up late rocking a sleepless crying child.  I know what it is like to clean up vomit off of the floor and excrement from a crib.  I know what it is like to have vehicles break on the side of the road, strike deer with a car and to be bitten by a squirrel.  I can relate to the grief of sending a child out of state to begin their career and the grief of losing a close relative and a close friend.

I know what it is like to burn the supper and then eat the same said supper.  I know what it is like to fall from a tree stand, to break bones, to have my body ache and to experience stress, anxiety and fear.

I often find it easy to overlook the struggles that others may also be dealing with, suffering in, and struggling through.  The more I learn about Jesus from the Gospels the more convinced I become that despite being “fully God,” he knows exactly what it is like to be “fully human.”

I think we find one of the most revealing moments of this in Jesus’ life when we encounter his time in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

It is the night that Jesus will be betrayed and arrested and we see his full humanity, his full anxiety, his full struggle with what is about to come.

Out of the several amazing truths in this passage, Matthew 26:36-46, I am exceptionally enamored with the reality that Jesus can fully relate to all of the struggles that we face as humans.

May we come to see that Jesus knows what we are going through…no matter what we are facing. May we also, seek to respond in the manner that Jesus responds…on our face crying out to our maker.

 Broke

I shared recently about all of the things in my life that are broken and are in need of fixing.  I am pleased to say that a number of those items have been repaired.  The brakes on our Ford were finished…twice, (yep…had a little issue), the headlight was repaired, (only to have the bulb on the other side go bad immediately upon completion), the hull of the boat and the lower unit have been successfully sealed and the broken clock has been fully restored.

A lot of people may have just taken the clock and thrown it away, but the clock held value to me.  This specific clock is 30 years old and it is a piece that I handcrafted myself and gave to a certain young lady when we were both still in college.  In fact, it was the first hand made gift that I had given to the woman who would eventually become my 1^st wife.  (Before you panic…she is my first…and only wife). The clock has hung in our home safely for our 26 years of marriage until about a month ago when it was inadvertently knocked off of the wall where it fell to the floor and exploded into about a dozen pieces…I blame the craftsmanship of my 20 year old self. 

Because the clock held value to me, it was worth repairing in my eyes.  I brought the piece into my shop and carefully removed fasteners and hardware, taking the clock back down to its most minimal state.   I then began some repairs on the broken wood, using glue and clamps. I was careful to avoid any further marring. I cleaned the joint areas so that they could receive glue again and then I started to reassemble.

As I finished the clock, I had a thought that paralleled my life.  Here I am, a mere piece in the hands of my creator.  One of the major differences is that I fall off the wall far more than once every 30 years.  Perhaps once every 30 seconds is more accurate.  Yet, God is doing a work…a good work…of restoration in my life, despite my brokenness. In fact, it is because of my brokenness that he does his amazing work of restoration.  Matthew 26:31-35, 58-75, we find the disciple Peter in a similar state.  Peter finds himself in a desperate need for restoration.  It is a restoration the he didn’t think he would ever need…and yet there he is.  Jesus does that which he promises to do, he restores him, (as recorded in John 21:15-25).

May we come to see, that Jesus sees us as valuable and though broken, he deeply desires to restore us!

 The Last Supper

My father-in-law, used to collect displays of Leonardo DaVinci’s The Last Supper.  He had several of them arranged around their home in Michigan and whenever he made the trek to Minnesota, he would hit the local antique shops looking for other unique opportunities to expand his collection.  His assemblage included paintings, printings and wood carvings. 

The image is iconic.  It is the depiction of what is found in Matthew 26:14-30. Most people can recognize this famous work of DaVinci at a mere glance.  Yet, I wonder how many people would be able to actually name and identify each character in the piece?  When I was in college, I was required to write an extensive history paper on the painting of The Last Supper.  In doing so, I had to identify each character and assign reasoning as to what they may have been thinking, saying or acting at the captured moment within the painters mind. 

Even to this day, I remember…absolutely nothing…about what I had learned.  In fairness, most of my research was probably done in the final 24 hours of the deadline and I deserved every bit of grace I received to get a C- on the assignment. 

What has struck this week, as I have reflected on that famous painting of the 12 men with Jesus, is that from a distance, Judas could have been any of them.  As you get closer to the work you can identify Judas by the money bag in his hand but you still cannot see what is in his heart.  In truth, who’s to say that the betrayer couldn’t have been any one of them?  A quick look reveals nothing about what’s in a person’s heart. Of the 13 images in that picture, only Jesus knew who the betrayer was and what was in his heart, but for the rest of us…it could have been anyone.

We know that it is Judas, I am not arguing that.  What I am saying is that, who’s to say that, I wouldn’t have the same tendency within me.  The same could be said for Thomas, Matthew, Peter or even John. 

Each one of us is born with that nature…the sin nature…within us.  We are born to be betrayers…but Jesus changes all of that.  He takes me…a sinner…a betrayer…a denier, and he covers me in his goodness, not because of what I have done, but rather because I have said yes to what He has done.

May we come to see how the goodness and grace of Jesus can cover all of our depravity.

Alabaster Jar

It is difficult to know what exactly makes us the way that we are. Certainly, there is some God created science behind our height, skin color and hair quantity, but what about the things that we like and dislike and the things that value and the things that we demerit? For example, my wife greatly values traveling.  She grew up going on vacation to different states and enjoying such experiences.  I on the other hand have mixed memories of vacations that include broken down trucks on the side of the road and riding 30 hours to Florida in the hatchback of a Chevrolet Chevette…notice that it only “rhymes” with Corvette. 

One area that my wife and I both share is that of frugality.  I have been called, “cheap” by a number of acquaintances over the years, but I prefer the term “hyper-thrifty.”  I am generally a very “non-wasteful” person, so much so, that I tend to repel wastefulness. My mother has learned to either discard leftovers out of my sight or simply offer them up to me to take home after our visit.  Here lies my dilemma. When I read Matthew 26:1-16, I find that I most likely would have sided with the disciples in their rebuke of the woman with the alabaster jar.

I kind of feel humbled and even ashamed by the reaction that I know that I would have had.  So here is what I am learning.  I am learning that I tend to value the items in my hands more than the greatest treasure the world has ever known. 

The incredible act of this woman reveals that her heart has been transformed by Jesus.  She is the one who sees the true value of Jesus, more than the disciples and certainly more than me. 

May we all come to see more clearly the great value of Jesus and then respond to him as extravagantly as he deserves. 

 Dad Can Fix It

Just as my daughter was arriving home from work this past week, her passenger side headlight assembly fell out of her car.  The unit dangled from the “eye socket” of her right fender, being held by the minimal optic nerve of the wire harness. The lens bounced and rattled on the outside of the fender until it finally fell off and was crushed under her front tire…and then pulverized beneath the rear tire.  All the while, her mother was calling to her to “stop, stop,” while I was in the house watching and yelling, “Why aren’t you stopping?”

I immediately pulled out my laptop and ordered a new lens from Amazon.

This seems to be a crazy pattern in our lives, so much so that it feels that we are living within the spin cycle of washing machine of destruction.  Recently, as I was performing a simple oil change on my son’s truck the oil filter collapsed as I was wrenching it off. Even after completely destroying the filter and hammering endlessly with my air chisel, I failed to find success.  After 2 hours of hammering and frustration I towed it to the local mechanic who removed it in about 25 seconds for $25. That translates to about a dollar a second…I am a cheap man…but that was worth every penny,

The air conditioner broke this past Tuesday, (hot week for that, I can tell you).  Fortunately, after paying 3 times the fair market value for a new capacitor, at a local establishment, the AC was up and running again in a matter of hours. 

It seems that I am constantly fixing everything around me. I am currently needing to fix; a clock, boat motor, boat hull, boat transom, house shingles, roller shades, brakes, idler pulley, lawn mower deck and a list of other things that I can’t even remember.

As a dad who is too cheap to hire most things out and tends to be a lifetime learner…I end up being the one…mostly by choice…who inherits the role of Mr. Fixit.  I know that I am not alone in this. 

Because I take this self appointed role of fixing the family dilemmas seriously, it becomes particularly difficult to find your children off to college, hours from home with broken vehicles.  It has happened to both our oldest daughter and our son. 

A couple of years ago our daughter found herself with a flat tire and could not find a place that was willing to fix it for less than $300.  “Great Scott! Hannah! You can’t pay that much!”

“I know Dad! But what am I supposed to do?”

“If I was there I could deal with it for you!”

“I know, but you are not here.”

I called my sister and brother in law who lived relatively close to our daughter.  “Matt, would you be willing to take a look at Hannah’s tire and see if it can at least be plugged, so that she might be able to get home I can deal with a more extensive repair?”

In a matter of hours, my brother in law, had the tire plugged and holding air. 

Matt’s willingness to help out his niece was an act of service directly to me. 

I think that it is times like this that reveal perhaps what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 25:31-46.  Here Jesus affirms those who serve him by serving one another.  Jesus tells us, that it is this kind of service that is as if people are serving him directly.

May we come to have the same heart of Jesus…a heart that loves him and loves others well.

 Investments

I have never been known to be a great investor.  In middle school, I attempted to gather my first “complete set” of baseball cards by purchasing the cards one package at a time.  After statistically purchasing more than 350 packages of cards and consuming 350 sticks of the most disgusting bubble gum known to mankind, I found myself a mere 20 or so cards short of a complete set.  I biked over to the local Card Shop to see what I could do to bring my ultimate card collecting goal to a conclusion.  After spending around $15 on the final 20 cards, I could proudly say that my investment was complete.  All in all, I spent an estimated $200 and collected the entire 716 card set of 1990 Donruss baseball cards  Today, that set could sell for $10-$15. I still own that set…maybe when the market peaks I will sell them.

When I graduated from high school, I decided to invest in a classic car.  I purchased a 1973 Camaro Z28, with the original small block Chevy 350, for a mere $1,200.  The beauty of these cars is that they can’t help but go up in value.  I’ll bet I could have sold that investment today for somewhere between $25,000-$35,000…if…I hadn’t let it sit and rust for 30 years.  Perhaps investments need to be cared for.

A number of years ago, my wife and I began to invest in some retirement accounts.  For a number of years, we tried to set money aside and pay into our IRA as we could. Then…things happen…you have more children, your financial advisor gets replaced with someone you don’t know, the world runs out of toilet paper and the next thing you know you haven’t made investing a priority over the last few years.

This last week, Sarah and I finally decided to kick start our investments again.  I brought our paper work to a new financial advisor…a friend of mine…and showed him what we have and asked for his opinions as to how to move forward. 

The first thing he told us is…“Well…It would appear that your last financial advisor, took your money but didn’t invest your money. “

“I’m sorry…what is that?”

“It looks like whoever did your investing…didn’t actually “DO” any investing. He put it into your account but it has just been sitting there doing nothing.”

It was at this point that we felt affirmed to officially fire our previous investing company and hire the new one.

Jesus speaks of something similar in Matthew 25:14-30. Here he lays out a parable of three servants who have been given resources to invest.  Two of the three servants invest well…and earn returns on their investments.  The third however, does nothing. He buries his money and does nothing with what the Master has given him.

May we come to see, all that God has given to us…and then invest into the lives of others because of the great generosity of our Almighty God.

 Spelunking

I have gone spelunking exactly once in my life, though I have tried my hand at spelling, lurking and catching an occasional lunker, none compare to the act of spelunking.  Spelunking is in no way a combination of, nor has any association with, any of the aforementioned.

Spelunking is the act of crawling around in dark muddy caves.  It received its name from the Latin word “spelunca” which when translated to English means…cave. Very creative.

My one day adventure in the realm of “caving/spelunking” occurred in 1998 when I took a group of High School Students from the Chicago area across the state of Illinois, into the corn and swine infested state of Iowa where we entered into Maquoketa State Park. 

In the midst of the Iowa farmland, there exists an adventurer’s haven, where 13 caves lay waiting to be explored by 15 middle schoolers.  Despite being only 23 years old myself, I knew enough of the dangers of unsupervised middles schoolers, that I laid down some clear ground rules.

Rules:

1.       No one explores a cave alone

2.       No one explores a cave without a flashlight

3.       No one explores a cave without extra batteries

4.       No one let’s Jimmy out of their sight.

Every group has a Jimmy…no further explanation is necessary.

Because we had a Jimmy in our group…we stayed together the entire time.  We entered several caves together, exploring the rock formations and nooks and crannies.  I remember one cave in particular.  The cave orifice-d about four and a half feet off the ground and was only about two and a half feet in diameter.  To enter the cave you had to get a boost from someone below or a pull from someone above.  Once our entire team had made it into the entrance we began to crawl, as there was no space to stand.  After crawling approximately 30-50 ft, the cave opened up into a great expanse where the entire team could stand and wander and explore. It was really quite astounding.

After a few minutes, Jimmy said, “We should all turn out our lights at the same time.”

It seemed a safe enough task, so I agreed. Once all of the lights had been extinguished, the blackness consumed us.  Never had I experienced such an overwhelming and complete darkness in my life.  It was incredible.  Then Jimmy said, “Man! Could you imagine if we were like stuck in here…and we didn’t have any lights at all…and we didn’t have any extra batteries…and we couldn’t find the entrance or find our way out?”

That was a heavy and sobering thought.  We would be stuck.  The idea struck me as an incredibly hopeless situation.

In Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus speaks to the disciples about being ready for his return.  He uses a parable that speaks to the dire nature of what it would be like to find oneself un-prepared for his return.  The imagery of being stuck and unprepared reminds me of how it felt in that cave with no sense of hope.

May we find ourselves to be prepared and ready for the return of Christ and not stuck outside of the closed gate with unprepared lights.