Murphy’s Law says, “If it doesn’t move, force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.”
Another maxim is, “Never use a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito.”
We see something and we want it. We go after it. If the person who can give us what we want is slow on the uptake or refuses, we apply the pressure. Too much pressure and we end up breaking the relationship. Once broken, we never get what we want.
We will get what we want more easily through a nuanced touch than through force.
I just had to call Comcast.
Yep, I groaned too. Why do we dislike communicating with these types of service providers? It’s because they make things so difficult. I called in and surprisingly had my call answered by a human. He asked the nature of my call and it was to disconnect phone service. He responded, “Oh, you want to downgrade service. Hold please.” I then waited on hold for twelve minutes. Thank the Lord for speakerphones.
After the twelve minute wait, another man came on the line and I went through the same dialogue. There was the usual discouragement to disconnect. The other packages offered. The attempt to upgrade the services I was keeping. Finally, the long periods of silence interrupted only by the clattering of a keyboard. All in all, twenty-four minutes was spent to do something I could have done myself online in two minutes.
Why do they make it so difficult? They do so in an attempt to keep our business. If they make us jump through a million hoops, we may not even make the call to start with. Maybe they will entice us with a different package. Maybe they can sell the upgrade. In the end, if they do accomplish any or all of those things, they still lose because they made the customer frustrated with the difficulty of the process.
Make it easy and I want to do business with you. Make it difficult and I resent having no other choice but you.
Individuals that work successfully with people are in the habit of extending lots of grace.
We humans are a tough lot to put up with. We lack discipline, are emotional and moody. We make mistakes (sometimes serious ones), and drop the ball. Our backgrounds are so diverse it may seem like we’re from another country. Our communication skills are poor and we have our own interests first.
Given enough time, everyone will disappoint us in some way. It is at that time we will find ourselves shortening our efforts in someone’s direction or extending grace to them.
Another good thing to remember, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
Someday, you’re going to need some grace extended to you.
They are finite.
We can hoard them or put them to productive use.
Some people have them aplenty. Others are limited.
I’m usually on the side of the limited.
I’m petitioning Christian colleges looking for our next staff hire. After counseling with the college staff, some graduates are being instructed to stay after graduation. Why not? Why have just fifty pianists when you could have fifty-one?
Or how about release the students you have spent preparing for the last four to six years to go out into smaller works.
Isn’t that what they came there for originally?
When we accept Christ, it is like we are opening the front door to our life and asking Him in.
The trouble is that many of us want to keep Him in the entryway. We are afraid to let Him in because our house isn’t ready for visitors, especially when the visitor is Jesus. We are afraid that Jesus is going to walk around and criticize us for the mess our house is in. Actually, He already knows what kind of mess the house is in. He knows that the living space is cluttered. He knows about the closets and what they contain. He knows about all the dust bunnies under the bed. He even knows what we have locked away in that drawer. We think if we let Him have free reign to roam the house as He wants that He is going to find things about which to condemn us.
When we feel this way, we haven’t yet noticed that He is carrying a broom. He also has a mop and bucket. We didn’t see the vacuum cleaner, paper towels and windex.
See, Jesus doesn’t want to roam the house to find things to criticize. He is there to help you clean it up. The more freedom we give Him to roam, the cleaner the house is going to become.
By the way, it isn’t like He doesn’t already know what’s locked up in that drawer.
There is wisdom in accountability.
We all have weak moments. None of us knows the temptations we will face. Maybe we will be prepared against them. Maybe not. Accountability gives us that one more reason to do right.
Those who shun accountability should ask themselves why.
I have been attending church consistently for almost thirty years now. Some Christians are married to a partner that is either a non believer or backslidden. As a result, they end up attending church alone.
In my experience, I have seen far more women attend alone than I have men. This tells me one of two things: either, there are more ladies married to non believing men or these ladies are married to believing men who don’t have the character to make it to church.
I cannot grasp the mindset of a man who is a believer in Christ, but will not attend church with his wife.
I have heard the excuses. “I can be as good a Christian at home as I can in church.” Except that your “home” Christianity is in direct disobedience to the Bible’s teaching. It’s kind of like you being a better employee at home than at work or a better husband when you are away from your wife than when you are with her.
“Churches are geared toward women and children.” I don’t understand this sentiment as every church I have ever attended was not so.
May I suggest that the men are indeed in church while those who fail to participate regularly are lacking in manhood.
You see, the makings of a man have nothing whatsoever to do with your benchpress, your tattoos, how much beer you can handle, your axe body spray, your pickup truck or your call of duty rankings.
A man has principles and stands on them. He takes a wife to love, cherish, and protect. He trains his children to love God, be contributors to society and benefit his common man. He himself is upright, honest and recognizes that there is a God in Heaven whose grace allows him to do all of these things.
God sought for a man in Ezekiel and found none.
In Judges 4, Barak wouldn’t go into battle without Deborah holding his hand.
If you want to know God’s definition of manhood, read Psalms 112.
My browser is Google Chrome. Google is the opening page on my browser. It is simple. The name Google followed by a search box. Using Google I can find nearly anything in the world I want to research all by typing what I want in the little box.
A few days ago, Seth brought to my attention that there is no customer service telephone number for Google. I had never thought of it before. Neither have I ever had use for one. After all, if I can’t figure out how to use Google on my own, I probably don’t need to be on a computer. If I have to call someone to figure it out, they may as well do it for me. So they don’t give me the option to call them.
Part of being a pastor is being a problem solver. Folks will come and seek advice for various things going on in their lives. Sometimes there are tremendous problems for which I can only suggest things that may work to help things better, but are not guaranteed. Other times, I can tell them exactly what to do to solve the problem. But I can’t do it for them.
Google makes it as simple as they possibly can to bring all the information in the world to your monitor, but if you have a problem requiring you to call them, they can’t help you.
Some things you have to do for yourself.
I am the product of a public school education in America.
The elementary school in my neighborhood is called Potter Elementary – a Multicultural Global Education. Many of our teachers were from other countries. We were taught French by requirement. One of our teachers, Mr. Schnell, was of German descent and would play classical music as we worked. Mr. Mashni was an arabic math teacher.
One teacher suggested to my mother that I promote from second to fourth grade because of proficiency in the subject matter. I was sent to another elementary school each Monday for their ATP program – academically talented program. There we had unusual subjects such as astronomy, rocketry, backpacking, television production and the like.
For junior high and high school they offered an alternative to my district school based on my GPA. I chose to go and did well.
Today, I see the facebook postings of those I sat next to throughout my school years. The spelling, punctuation and grammar is shameful in some cases. I do not know why this is. It may be because of a learning disability. It may be because of a lack of parental support. It may even have been because they were ostracized by the teaching staff. But there is most certainly some who simply wasted the opportunity. Often these are the ones who complain about jobs, wages and lack of advancement opportunities. It seems the man is always keeping them down.
A completely free education. The opportunity to get into special schools and advanced classes. But no desire to take advantage of the opportunity.
Every day is an opportunity to do anything you want. If you want to squander the opportunity by taking selfies of your latest tramp stamp, by all means proceed, but please stop blaming everyone else for your lack of initiative.
You can’t give out unless you have first taken in. Trying to serve others without first getting spiritual nourishment is like trying to run a marathon without proper nutrition. You’re going to run out of steam, crash and fail to finish the race.
Four sources of spiritual nourishment are: Bible reading, prayer, church attendance and spending time with likeminded Christians.
If we hope to be a help, we must get regular nourishment from these four places.
Joel Stiff's Adventure 