Think About It

One of the more interesting books in the Old Testament is Judges. Not only is it full of very colorful stories, it provides us with an interesting look at life. Basically, the story told in Judges is simple: God’s people practice evil … God sends a hardship on them … the people repent … God sends them a deliverer … they clean up their act for a while … then, God’s people practice evil … God sends a hardship on them, etc. From a historic perspective, it seems pretty plain that the Israelites could have avoided a lot of heartache if they would have just done what was right in God’s sight; but they didn’t – so the merry-go-round kept spinning. As I thought about this the other day, I was reminded of another passage of scripture that states, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools …” (Romans 1:21-22). Does this sound familia...

A couple of weeks ago I was dealing with a physical malady. In all honesty, I didn’t feel bad and it really didn’t stop me from doing what I wanted to do – I just kind of felt bad and I was tired of it. I recently heard someone say that if you treat a cold, you will feel better in seven days – and if let it go untreated, you’ll get well in about a week. Honestly, as it turned out, that was pretty much what happened. I tried to medicate myself to help speed up the recovery, but I don’t know that it helped all that much. About a week after I started feel bad, I started feeling better. As I thought about this inconvenience, it reminded me of how tempting it is to try to do things as quickly as possible. We want to fix our issues fast – and we want to limit our exposure to inconvenience to as little as possible; however, for a lot of things in life, they just take time. We can try a lot of quick fixes, but often the thing that makes things better is time – and patience. There ...

Are you in the midst of a lot of drama? Does it seem like that is always contentious activities around you? Have you ever thought about why? The other day I was reading through the Old Testament book of Proverbs and I came across the observations, “For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no gossiper, quarreling quiets down. Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious person to kindle strife.” (Proverbs 26:20-21). As I thought about this presence of conflict in our lives I got to wondering how we can quiet it down. It appears that the easiest way to do it is to remove the catalyst. No, we may not be able to change the situation, but we might be able to extract the person that keeps things stirred up. If we want to enjoy more quiet time, we may have to make sure to surround ourselves with calmer people. However, what happens when that doesn’t work? Could it be that we are the stirrer? If everyone around appears to be on an even keel; but dra...

One of the things that I have noticed about growing older is that I am exposed to a lot more death. On the surface this might seem a bit odd, but when you think about it, it’s pretty understandable. First, the older I get the older my friends and acquaintances get – and the older they get, the more apt they are to die. Another reason for a higher number of deaths around me is the fact that the older I get, the more people I know and with that comes more exposure to death. I always thought it odd that older people talked a lot about sickness and death – now I understand it why. While being around death can be a challenge to us, it doesn’t mean that we are on our own to deal with it. In fact, Jesus seems to offer us hope early in His ministry by saying, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4). While this is a nice sentiment, have you ever thought about how this will be accomplished? I think the comfort promised by Jesus comes in a couple of forms. ...

What does it take to be successful in the world? If we are able to hold our own in an argument with people who disagree with us – will we be the winner? If we are able to embarrass those who think differently than we do – will we be victorious? If we are so committed to our principles that we are able outlast those who confront us – does that make us triumphant? While being proficient and tenacious can be beneficial, the thing that makes us impressive is what we believe. You see, being opinionated isn’t in-and-of itself important, it is holding the right beliefs. The early church was reminded, “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (I John 5:5). In essence, it isn’t how well we can express our opinions, it is developing a reliance on our Lord and Savior. Let’s not get too reliant on our ability to win. Let’s just make sure we are on the winning team. Think About It!

Have you ever had someone expect from something some you – but they never told you what they expected? When this happens (and they get upset with us), we usually have a snippy retort, “Well, I’m not a mind reader!”. While this is true, it is also a good reminder to us. You see, they aren’t mind readers either. It is easy for us to know what we want people to do – and just as easy for us not to tell them. Whether it is that we expect them to know what we want from them or we fail to explicitly tell them what we hope from them, it is easy for there to be a failure to communicate between us. The problem with this type of situation if two-fold: First, what we want to get done doesn’t get done; then, second, there are apt to be some hard feelings. The best way to avoid this problem is through simple and direct communication. By telling people what we expect from them and, if necessary, reinforce it or restating it again in the future, we can avoid a failure to implement and a failur...

One of the blessings of living in a democracy is that the law is applied equally. It doesn’t matter who you are, you are held to the same accountability as everyone else. One of the challenges of a democracy is holding everyone to the same standard as everyone else. Interestingly, as simple as this sounds, it isn’t always applied across the board. Sometimes because the system plays favorites and other times because we vacillate between equal justice and equitable justice. Through the years our nation has struggled with this challenge – and modern times are no different. However, rather than blasting our nation, what if we all took it upon ourselves to do what is right? Rather than excusing our inappropriate behavior because we are too rich or too poor … or because I didn’t know any better … what if we just followed the law? Sure our legal system has the responsibility of applying the law justly, but we could make it a lot easer on everyone if we just committed to being law-...