TEVYE HAD THE RIGHT IDEA

What was his good idea, you ask?

Talking to God.

If you've seen the movie "Fiddler on the Roof" you know what I'm talking about. His first person commentary/narration was partly the breaking of the 'fourth wall' and partly relating to God all of his troubles, whines, and thank-yous for being one of the 'chosen people'. A constant pouring out of his heart into the one ear who had all the time in the world to listen.

Understand, for a peasant farmer/dairyman in Czarist Russia, he was learned, at least about the history and tenets of his faith. He knew his was a history of 'Us against the rest of the world', and being poor was a way of life. Perhaps not the best way of life, but...

But he talked, prayed, if you will, constantly, about the big things, certainly, but also about the small things. He even had the kind of relationship that would stand up to wisecracks.

Do you have that kind of relationship with God?

After getting home from work this morning, I looked over the whole of the household, asleep, and started talking. Okay, since I was talking to the 'Big Guy' we can call it praying. But not that formula you were taught in Sunday School, but just an outpouring of one's soul to one's friend. He and I don't often do that. That is to say, I don't often do that.

I'm too caught up in the middle of the flurry of the moment, or the weariness of the world to take the time to just talk to God, much less listen to anything He has to say. And I need to take the time, like I did this morning. Time to read, time to attend worship, time to listen. Time to talk, like a son to his Father, and shake things out, and gain some perspective.

I apologize, but today's blog seems to be all about me. But, perhaps, I've touched a sore spot. My wife is in the other room, listening to a Bible reading, and reading along with it. It is well past midnight. My primetime, her sleeptime. We'll muddle through.

And tomorrow we hit it again.

Tevye had the right idea.

Time to take some time to talk with God.

Yes, I can.

Tiger Woods

(link: Tiger Woods Apology commentary)

Now that I have your attention, I wish to point out that what has happened to Tiger can happen to anyone. "How the mighty have fallen," is the phrase applied to such cases as Tiger's. If you Google that phrase, you find many people's take on the mighty, usually someone above the author's station, being taken down a notch or few.

While these people are the most visible, due to their success, I remind you that theirs is not an exclusive malady.

We are all prideful. We all wish, at one time or another, to be up on that pedestal of fame and glory.

In Tiger's case (from the news this morning), he will be taking some time away from golf to put his life back together.

Think of that, those of you who think that money buys happiness. A person whose personal success has brought him a 7- no 8-, or is it a 9-figure income needs to put his life back together.

So, what does a rich person like Tiger need to do to put his life back together?

The same thing you (and I) need to do: ask the person in the mirror two questions:

1 - What is the most important thing in my life?

The answer to this question is not "What I tell people on Oscar night...". No fibbing, stretches-of-truth or out-and-out lies allowed.

2 - What should be the most important thing in my life?

There are many good-sounding answers to this question. Many such answers are the stuff of Oscar night, or beauty pageant personal statements. They are the sweet-sounding lies we tell each other and ourselves when we get backed into the corner. Sometimes we ourselves believe them.

But, I'm asking for honesty here. The questions demand it, as our souls and our happiness depend on the answers.

My answers to these questions are ..., but wait a moment.

My play list needs to be updated. Most people listen to their favorite music in the background. Me, too. But, I also listen to old time radio, stories, history, philosophy, quite a number of things besides music. I haven't changed the list in a couple of months.

"So what?" I hear you asking.

Well, when I sat down, a reading of Locke's words was playing. Now, fittingly, it is the Mercury Theatre's rendition of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Perhaps you've seen or heard a rendition of the story this past Christmas season.

If Scrooge were asked these questions before his visitation of spirits, how would he answer, do you suppose? And on the following Christmas morning, how would he answer?

And the most important question - and answer - is:

What difference does it make?

Well, does make a difference?

Mr. Woods has had his own version of the ghosts visit. This reminds us of a lesser-known, but no less important, quote:

"Be sure your secret sin will find you out."

Some of us don't believe in sin, secret or otherwise. Many of us live in fear of it, harboring the guilt. A few of us live timid lives because of such a fear. The secret sin often occurred because the answer to the first question differed from the the answer to the second.

For some of you, the concept of sin is a non-starter. Let us call it the ethic of the Golden Rule: would you be happy if someone had done such a thing to you?

Yet, this still answers the first question badly, because it answers the second question badly; the focus is inward, not outward.

So, chuckle up your sleeve, whisper down a well, and, alone, face that person in the mirror:

What, in your heart of hearts, is the most important thing in your life?

When you distill all the answers, what most of us get is a version of: Me, Myself.

The answer to the second question points the way. Many people answer it this way: Others.

The best answer is: God.

The 'Others' answer is the purported message of "A Christmas Carol". And it is a good answer. For those of you who disagree with my best answer on principle, it may be the only answer. But, my God sacrificed Himself for us, before we even truly understood what was going on. If we let him rule, and follow His rules, we cannot go wrong.

His example of loving and giving is the best we have to go on.

Can you do it? Can I?

I will give it my best shot. So must you.

Yes, you can!

The First Commandment

On this website you will see ads for various self-help resources. That is good, as far as it goes. But be careful of what you pick up and read, please. Just because something comes with a label you like doesn't mean you will like what is under the label.

For example, from time to time you will see books by Wayne Dyer advertised. Since I am part of Adword advertising, if I have the phrases self-help or self-improvement, his books will appear. I cannot exclude his books without excluding others (such as the Good News Bible) that I want to keep.

I'm going to pick on Dr. Wayne Dyer for a little bit. I have seen criticism of him and his writings (by an anonymous person with an atheistic standpoint) because Dr. Dyer says God exists. Then I have read, from Dyer's own book, that the god he believes in is more of an 'energy field' that we make requests to. I think the anonymous atheist mentioned above has little to fear from such a god, save for the cringe factor of hearing the word.

Why do I say that?

Our atheist above rails against any belief system that imagines something bigger, and external, to himself. He further rails against any 'rule book' that might be associated to such a belief system. In fact, he rails against any non-human authority, be it Judao-Christian in origin, or Islamist, or, in fact, anything else that might restrict him from doing something he wants to do.

But Dr. Dyer's god places no such restrictions on anybody. it merely does what it is asked.

Right now, some of you are arguing that I have created a straw man, and, in fact, I have. In this particular case I know only that Mr. Anonymous criticized Mr. Dyer, and on the point of the mentioning of God. If I was going to knock him down and say, "Ta-Da!" you would be right to yell at me. (Oh, he may fall, but I am not going to touch him. He will fall, or not, on his own.)

What I'm doing today is apologise to you, dear reader.

As the heading at the top of the page says, I am learning to walk like a child of the King. This King has said:

"I am the Lord your God. You will not have any other gods before me."

All three of us, Mr. Atheist, Dr. Dyer and Mr. Madman Hansen, have put other gods ahead of the One True God. Mr. Atheist has placed the non-god of 'Self', Mr. Dyer, his 'Cosmic Energy Field', which is another way of saying 'Self'. And I, I've placed 'Getting Ahead, Making My Pile, and to Hell with the Rest,' in God's place. In other words: 'Self'.

I am the worst of all, because I should know better.

That is why I should apologise. Every time I've said to depend on something or someone other than the Lord our God to provide strength and help, I've pointed you away from the greatest help you can have.

Oh, I've given God a passing nod: "Make sure you know what He wants you to do." And, as far as it goes, it was good advice. But it didn't go far enough.

Folks, What I want you to do is this: Talk to God. Then: Listen! Do this with an earnestness of expecting an answer.

Yes, even you folks who might have more in common with Misters A & D above, I want even you to do this.

If you are an 'energy field' devotee, you might find your 'energy field' is not so impersonal.

As an atheist, if there is no god, you have nothing to fear in the exercise. You may even get a good laugh out of it.

Myself, I'm hoping that you might encounter a surprise, no matter to which camp you belong.

To tell you the truth, sometimes I'm scared to talk to God, especially when I have an idea that I'm not sure is the direction I should go, but I want to anyway. It's that 'self'-thing. If you fear talking, then listening, to God, do it anyway. I have found, even if the answer is 'No', the alternative is often far better that I would have hoped for. Example: being a loner or marrying my wife (ended up marrying); being a lone couple or adopting kids (adopted two great kids); entering old age quietly or being available to raise a grandkid (yep, more pitter-patter around the house). All of those choices involved me not giving of myself to others, or being a servant.

You get the idea, I hope.

How to earn the money we need ... that I haven't had so much luck with. Scratch that. There is no luck. What I haven't done so well with is listen, or even talk, to God about it. That will change. It has to. With God's help, it will.

With God's help, so can you.

Yes, you can!

PS: on my workstation at my day job (actually, night job, as I work the 'graveyard shift') I have a sticky-note that reads:

What is the point?

I know what the point is, the note is merely there to remind me:

I am here to serve.

Not very glamorous, perhaps, but ...

In service, we do our greatest work.

Yes, we do.


PPS: A new edition of my e-book "Yes, You Can!" will be out in the near future, edited and rewritten where necessary to reflect the above truth about God.

Look for it, soon! (As before, it will be freee.)

Is Poverty an idol?

And do we take pride in being poor?

I have an acquaintance that I run into every now and then, that kind of exemplifies this. I won't mention her name. She claims to be of the Franciscan Brotherhood, and, since I've known her to be trustworthy, I trust her.

Yet, when she visited me some time ago, I got the idea that she was proud of her hand-to-mouth existence, thinking herself holy because of it.

While I understand the Franciscans do take a vow of poverty, I believe they do also believe in working for their bread, or providing some sort of service or labor.

My wife and I tried to counsel her along the lines of finding some sort of work, but we didn't get very far. I asked her, "What can you do, what skills do you have?" Her reply was, "I might be a ____, if I go back to school for it, or I might be..." going on to list the different possibilities, never once truly addressing my question. These answers, I felt, might have been all right twenty years before, when I knew her in college, but I felt, that at this point, they were the answers of a drifter, one who lets life happen to them.

We all can fall into that. For some of us, it's called the rat race.

There's two ways, money-wise, if you're going to trust God implicitly, and both require you to talk it over with God first, and remembering to listen.

A) you can be like my Franciscan friend. No, that's wrong. You can be like George Mueller. He's the person who provided homes and shelter for 500 orphans (as his ministry grew), and his needs, and the needs of the children were fulfilled entirely by God through prayer.

I'm not that brave, by the way.

or,

B) you can strive to make the money, tithe and be generous, be wise in your investments of your money, time and talents, and be productive. That way, you can help the George Muellers of the world.

I'm learning to be that brave.

Both methods require you (and me) to turn our hands to some productive endeavor. I don't think God blesses idleness. If someone can point this out to me, I'll be glad to stand corrected.

And both require you to get it straight what you're supposed to do.

God doesn't care if you're rich or poor, as far as what you do. He just wants to be first in your life, whatever you do.

That's the heavy topic of today. It's time for something lighter.

I should have warned you, this post is going to be all over the map, since it's been so long since the last posting.

Encouraging words: there was a scene from Good Will Hunting (never saw it, so I'm trusting other eyes) that referred to a college student who came in late to a statistics class and hurriedly copied down two formula on the blackboard, thinking that they were an assignment. He didn't know that they were supposed to have been impossible, so he worked on them and solved them.

Some weeks later, his professor congratulated him on solving the insoluble, and made sure he got proper acknowledgement for his work. True story. That man was George Dantzig. Feel free to click his name to bring up the Wikipedia article.

One more, just for fun, is at www.cowboyfun.com/cantbedone/ Just click it, and you'll see. remember it when people say it can't be done. And grin.

Yes, You Can!

(By the way, Happy New Year!)

"My weapons are..."

It's funny what occurs to a person in a half-doze.

I was laying on the couch, trying to encourage our little one to go to sleep, watching Disney's Pocahontas (historically inaccurate, but more on that another time). I was succeeding in dozing off myself, while little one was still a bit restive.

While dozing (and I'm sure this phrase is not in the movie) these words came to me: "My weapons are light and love."

Odd weapons, don't you think?

But not so odd, when you realize our mission in life is to bring people together.

"A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love, one for another." - John 13:34,35, (Madman's paraphrase).

Strictly speaking, these weapons wage war on our true enemy, the powers of darkness. They negate the powers of darkness, and allow those who have been bound by them to see the light and feel the love. However, it can take a lot of loving to break through the walls of darkness and let the light shine in on a person's heart and soul. And we risk much hurt along the way.

But isn't it worth it? When you were reclaimed, wasn't it worth it? I thought so.

So use the weapons of light and love to defeat the true enemy, and win a soul to freedom.

With Christ's Help,
Yes, You Can!

Promised Land

This is Easter weekend.

How many of you fully appreciate what that means?

In true Shakespearian fashion there’s a story within a story here. The redemption of the Children of Jacob (Israel). And the redemption of Mankind.

In both stories redemption comes from the Hand of God, working through the hands of a man.

Let me tell you what I mean.

Moses, a man who means well, kills an overseer who was abusing a slave. Knowing what he has done is wrong, albeit done for the right reasons, he takes off to go into hiding, spending forty years in the land of Midian, and building a new life.

God gets his attention and sends him back to rescue the nation of Israel from bondage to Egypt and Pharaoh.

Pharaoh isn’t having any, considering the impact of the loss of labor on the Egyptian lifestyle.

God visits a number of demonstrations on Egypt, leading up to the killing of all the first-born in the land, except for those who have chosen to follow Moses’ instructions in a ritual that has come to be known as the Passover, because the Angel of Death passed over the houses marked with the blood of a lamb.

Pharaoh sends them away, but has second thoughts, and tries to capture and/or kill the Children of Israel by main force. Moses, directed by God to stretch out his staff, parts the Red Sea, the Children cross over and Pharaoh’s army drowns in the sea when it rushes back into place.

(A little side note: there’s a story about a man who asked a Jew, “Do you really think that God parted the Red Sea to let you cross over?” To which the Jew replied, “Well, here we are...”)

Now, fast forward a millennium or so. Jesus, a man who has made something of a name for himself by generally doing good deeds, has also managed to raise the hackles of the religious leaders of the day. They scheme for a way to eliminate him and return to a comfortable (for them) status quo. That’s their view of things.

From Jesus’ standpoint of being a man, but also the Son of God, he sees it as the reason He came to earth: to become the Passover lamb for the world, allowing anyone who would to take His blood upon themselves, and thus escape the eternal death.

He proved it, not by dying, but by returning from the dead.

Thus Easter is a second Passover, writ large on the canvas of the entire world, and for all of time.

Satan, like Pharaoh, is not content to let his captives go, even after the battle is over. He continues to strive against us, lying to us, turn us one against another, causing us to try to harm each other.

That’s the only way Satan can get his licks in.

Like Pharaoh, Satan will meet his end when the portion of the human race that chooses to passes through the Red Sea of death into the Promised Land of eternal life at the end of time.

Do I really believe this?

Well, He rose. Eleven men, plus Paul (formerly known as Saul the Persecutor), staked their very lives on it. If Jesus had not risen, the scattered followers would have remained scattered, and this would have been a curious blip in history.

Can you believe it?

Yes, you can!

(Will you believe it? Only you, and God, know.)

HOW WELL THEY KNOW ME!

The same email came from two different directions and into my inbox on the same day:


Today Is National Mental Health day!

You can do your bit by remembering to send an email to an unstable friend.

(Well...my job's done!)

Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints

How well they know me!

And, as I like to say, a little insanity can be a healthy thing. IF it can make you smile somewhere along the way.

And a good suggestion from my wife, a very wise woman, is to sing songs of praise, even when you don't feel like singing anything. It's easy to sing praises when we feel on top of everything. But the time we need to sing praises and be in our Father's arms is when everything is on top of us.

And I may have just offended some of you.

Those of you who don't have some sort of relationship with Creator God just now felt slapped in the face. I'm sorry, as it was NOT my intention to offend. But, part of this blog is to tell you what works for me. If you don't have such a relationship it may not work for you. The odd thing is, though, God meets us where we are, He comes more than half-way: He comes all the way. If you start to sing praises (or, if you feel like you can't sing, merely speaking will do), even if you don't feel like it, He will come to you. You may find that it is an experience you want to repeat.

Despite what you may have heard, God is not willing that any be apart from Him, but He is also respectful enough of our feelings that He will not force His presence on us if we do not want him around. And even Christians push Him away. Or put Him in a box they take out on Sunday.

Hence, my depression cycle: I did that very thing.

My wife is wise. She told me that even if I only sang that simple children's song we are teaching our little one, it would be enough to start the process:

Jesus loves me, this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little ones to Him belong;

We are weak, but He is strong!

Yes, Jesus loves me,

Yes, Jesus loves me,

Yes, Jesus loves me,

The Bible tells me so!

It's not so much a 'Belief' as it is a 'trust'. If you need verses to back up the song, here are two:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." - John's Gospel 3:16-17 New International Version (NIV)

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" - Paul's letter to the Romans 8:1 (NIV)

Christianity is not so much a system of rules (though many think it is) as it a relationship with someone who has an interest with you. It is true that if you live by the 'rules' of Christianity you will generally be considered a 'good person'. Remember, though, that's what the Pharisees thought they were doing, and along the way they lost the love for God, and missed experiencing the love of God.

Anyway, I've wandered a bit. The idea is to find that smile that belongs to you. Even more, to find that joy that belongs to you.

God Bless, and,

Yes, You Can!