Today I am pondering...just wondering. Folks often seem to be intent on what God has for them...they cry, "More Lord"...more of what??? If they really believe then they know He has already given them His all through Christ. They ask, "I wonder what the Lord has in store for ME today?" Hmmmm, what more could He give, and besides He has promised us to never leave or forsake us...He is with us now and always. I keep asking myself what the word, MORE might mean to God...if I were Him I think I'd be offended..."I've already given them My Son, My Life, My all, and they want MORE???...I'm always with them and keep them, and given them My Spirit, and they want MORE??" "I've promised them eternal life, and they want MORE??" Methinks we are most selfish as human beings...after all there are untold millions who have NONE of Him, because instead of reaching out to them, we busy ourselves with prayers of, "More Lord." We chase a feeling and emotional highs, when we already have ALL that He is! What do we say to those who have NONE because we never shared with them????
We're like the little tot, who given something special or who in doing something special for them, immediately say, "Do it again," or "More." Perhaps God will someday get tired of being "SugarDaddy." And oh yeah, Lord, be with all the starving pigmies in New Guinea.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
People or Poo???
My Darling Nora just spent 9 miserable days in the hospital with double (or as is medically correct, bi-lateral) pnuemonia. Thankfully she is now home and on the road to recovery. Of course I spent lots of hours with her both in ICU and IMC. One thing about hospital "patient sitting" is that there is not all that much to do, and when the patient is sleeping most of the time it becomes even more boring. I did get to finish the book that Kelly sent for my birthday, "The Shack." I loved it even though conservative critics are whining because in God's Theophany, He appears as a jolly black lady. Heck, I figure if He is God, that means he can appear as whatever He wants to appear, and I needn't worry my little brain about it!!
Anyway, one day while flipping channels on the TV, we came across a show called, "Dirty Jobs." The particular dirty job featured for that day was a zookeeper, whose specific job was to clean up and dispose of all the different animals' poo. Needless to say I saw more poo, and different kinds of poo than I'd ever seen in my life. I was taught that it was a real art to clean up zoo poo and properly dispose of it! The show moderator, who was interviewing to poo scooper as the show went along, pointed out that this particular poo person had formerly worked in human relations at the zoo before becoming the chief pooper-scooper.
In a sort of reflective tone he asked the chief p-s, if now that he had done both jobs he would rather work with people or with poo. With little hesitation, Mr. Pooper-Scooper smiled and enthusiastically said he'd rather work with poo than with people.
Now at first thought that is a real stretch...choosing to work with nasty, stinky poo, rather than work with freshly bathed and cologned humans. But now that I think about it sometimes we freshly bathed and cologned humans can at the same time be nasty and stinky!! Somehow it comes over to me that as a part of this "human" thing, that I should be bothered that someone would rather scoop poo than deal with me. I think it should bother us all!
In a moment of "rigorous honesty," I can and do recall times when my attitude, my words, and my actions were nasty and stinky! I don't really think it is very becoming of me to have someone think after being around me, "Boy, his attitude stinks and he has a nasty humor." No matter my rationalizations and justifications I'm sure I never first asked myself WWJD? There I go on that thought again!!! Come on now, get honest and admit it...you've been stinky and nasty too!!!
Paul talked about his poo in Philippians 3: 4-8. His poo among many things included those things that he had lost due to his desire to win Christ...."Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law a pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung (poo), that I may win Christ."
Well Paul confessed that he had quite a large poo pile! It seems his pile was stacked high with pride of pedigree, devotion to God, and his long list of works that he had done in the name of God and the law.
A dear pastor bemoaned to me once, "I love pastoring, it's the people I can't stand." Now do I really think this pastor didn't like people? No, I think it was their poo that distressed him. Many young, aspiring people feel "called" to pastor or other ministry, having no clue that a big part of pastoring is having to smell people's poo, and being a pooper scooper! It's kinda like wanting to have a baby but not wanting to change diapers!!
And hey, I didn't mind changing diapers for my kids when they were infants and little ones...but at 41, 36, and 28 now I leave it up to them to care for those basics of life!! Now that's a quaint thought...what if we all just took care of our own poo?? After all, we're not animals in the zoo or infants...surely we can manage. We each have all kinds of people poo; there's attitude, arrogance, judgmentalism, self-righteousness, selfishness, anger (yep, that's all poo!), and the list goes on! Yeah, just what if each of us admitted to ourselves and God our poo, and cleaned it up through prayer, meditation, humility, and loving God and our fellow man more than we love ourselves?? Maybe that poor pastor's feeling towards the people he pastors might show incredible improvement!!
One more thing...we say we want to be witnesses to the "world." I wonder if the "world" can smell our poo too????
Well, 'xcuse me now I have to sign off. A little voice in my heart just reminded me of some poo in my life I need to get rid of.......
Anyway, one day while flipping channels on the TV, we came across a show called, "Dirty Jobs." The particular dirty job featured for that day was a zookeeper, whose specific job was to clean up and dispose of all the different animals' poo. Needless to say I saw more poo, and different kinds of poo than I'd ever seen in my life. I was taught that it was a real art to clean up zoo poo and properly dispose of it! The show moderator, who was interviewing to poo scooper as the show went along, pointed out that this particular poo person had formerly worked in human relations at the zoo before becoming the chief pooper-scooper.
In a sort of reflective tone he asked the chief p-s, if now that he had done both jobs he would rather work with people or with poo. With little hesitation, Mr. Pooper-Scooper smiled and enthusiastically said he'd rather work with poo than with people.
Now at first thought that is a real stretch...choosing to work with nasty, stinky poo, rather than work with freshly bathed and cologned humans. But now that I think about it sometimes we freshly bathed and cologned humans can at the same time be nasty and stinky!! Somehow it comes over to me that as a part of this "human" thing, that I should be bothered that someone would rather scoop poo than deal with me. I think it should bother us all!
In a moment of "rigorous honesty," I can and do recall times when my attitude, my words, and my actions were nasty and stinky! I don't really think it is very becoming of me to have someone think after being around me, "Boy, his attitude stinks and he has a nasty humor." No matter my rationalizations and justifications I'm sure I never first asked myself WWJD? There I go on that thought again!!! Come on now, get honest and admit it...you've been stinky and nasty too!!!
Paul talked about his poo in Philippians 3: 4-8. His poo among many things included those things that he had lost due to his desire to win Christ...."Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law a pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung (poo), that I may win Christ."
Well Paul confessed that he had quite a large poo pile! It seems his pile was stacked high with pride of pedigree, devotion to God, and his long list of works that he had done in the name of God and the law.
A dear pastor bemoaned to me once, "I love pastoring, it's the people I can't stand." Now do I really think this pastor didn't like people? No, I think it was their poo that distressed him. Many young, aspiring people feel "called" to pastor or other ministry, having no clue that a big part of pastoring is having to smell people's poo, and being a pooper scooper! It's kinda like wanting to have a baby but not wanting to change diapers!!
And hey, I didn't mind changing diapers for my kids when they were infants and little ones...but at 41, 36, and 28 now I leave it up to them to care for those basics of life!! Now that's a quaint thought...what if we all just took care of our own poo?? After all, we're not animals in the zoo or infants...surely we can manage. We each have all kinds of people poo; there's attitude, arrogance, judgmentalism, self-righteousness, selfishness, anger (yep, that's all poo!), and the list goes on! Yeah, just what if each of us admitted to ourselves and God our poo, and cleaned it up through prayer, meditation, humility, and loving God and our fellow man more than we love ourselves?? Maybe that poor pastor's feeling towards the people he pastors might show incredible improvement!!
One more thing...we say we want to be witnesses to the "world." I wonder if the "world" can smell our poo too????
Well, 'xcuse me now I have to sign off. A little voice in my heart just reminded me of some poo in my life I need to get rid of.......
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