Joel Stiff's Adventure

The things we fear are common to all men.

The ones who are able to overcome the fear enjoy the fruit of their effort.

The ones who cannot do not.

The only difference is a willingness to keep moving forward.

So when I was nine years old, the Arby’s around the corner from my house had a promotion.

If you bought a large drink, (large back then was 16 oz.) you could get a B.C. glass for 99 cents. I regularly read the comic in the paper so I was excited to collect the whole set. It was from these glasses that I used to drink my Nestle’s Quik for years.

After I was married, the glasses came with me to my new home with my new wife. Six beautiful glasses, each with a different full color cartoon of one of the characters. One day, I noticed a glass missing from my collection. When asked about it, my new sweet wife confessed that it had broken while in the sink when she was doing the dishes. It didn’t end there. Gradually my collection dwindled to zero glasses. Well, we don’t cry over spilt milk or broken glasses and so life went on.

I happened to mention this story in church not long ago. It was about a week after, that Shannon told me she had to go pick up a surprise for me. Upon returning I found my set of six collectable Arby’s B.C. glasses from 1981 in our kitchen pantry. Woo Hoo!

To this day I still do not know who hunted these down and purchased them for me, but I am grateful. It may not seem like much to some, but it meant a lot to me that someone would go to such trouble.

It wasn’t just the gesture, but the very personal touch that made it so special.

I want to do stuff like that for other people.

Very pleased to find an open window on our computer today.

My children home school and do all of their work and studying online. Needing to search for something, I woke up the monitor to find my sons schoolwork open. He was working on math which can be a struggle for him occasionally. Another tab was opened on the same window to Khan Academy. It was a video lesson regarding the math problems he was working on at the time. I have been wondering why he hasn’t been asking for help lately. It turns out that he’s learned how to go out and find the solutions to problems on his own. I couldn’t be more pleased. It’s not that I don’t want to help him out. I do. But more than that, i want him to learn how to go out on his own and find the answers he needs.

We live in an amazing time. Anything you want to learn, ANYTHING, can be found with a few keystrokes.

The future belongs to those who can figure out how to google it.

As an aside, if you have friends who ask questions of you that could have been answered in the same amount of time had they just googled it, this is for you.

The final three months of the year are my favorite by far.

January, February and March in Michigan are non eventful. Cold, snowy and indoors for the most part.

April, May and June are a nice anticipation of spring. They get us out of the house and we tend to load the schedule to make up for lost time.

July, August and September are a bit chaotic. The weather is nice, but it is go, go, go for three straight months. On top of it all, any semblance of of a schedule is blown out of the water.

October, November and December are the best. Free candy, family time and Jesus’ birthday make it all grand.

October brings the fall season in with the challenge to get all “fall”. Decor, food and activity keep it moving.

December is its own season with Christmas filling the month.

That leaves November. Calm, relaxing November. One big day and twenty-nine ordinary ones to just sit and meditate.

I like you November. You’re good for me.

People tend to be very grateful and appreciative of those who do kind things for them. They are also thankful for the things in their lives with which God has blessed them. But where we sometimes fall short is in the expression of that gratitude. November is one of those months that helps us hit that reset button of expression. The Thanksgiving holiday compels us to be vocal about that and those for which we are thankful. When we express our gratitude, we have been able in a small way to be a blessing to the one who was a blessing to us.

We all like to hear a “thank you” or an “I appreciate you.”

Another lesson from Naaman. He had two simple instructions: go to the prophet Elisha and dip in the Jordan River. Instead, he meets with his king, they put together an offer of gold, silver and ten new clothing outfits and send them to the king of Israel. He thinks the Syrians are trying to trap him and gets dramatic. Once he finally does go to Elisha, he throws a fit about having to dip in the Jordan. He wants more pomp and circumstance. At the very least, give him a better body of water to dip in.

It’s at this point his servants say to Naaman, if he had told you to do something hard, you would have done it. But because it is simple, you won’t do it.

Many of us take this same attitude. We take a very simple task and complicate it.

The Christian life is simple – love God and love people.

Marriage is simple – stay faithful, express your love and prefer the other person.

Raising kids is simple – make sure they know you love them, keep them from bad influences and teach them that certain behaviors result in certain results.

Managing finances is easy – make some money, save some, give some and don’t spend more than the rest.

Don’t overthink it. Just handle the basics well and keep from complicating it.

If you can say it in one sentence, do so.

It’s a beautiful fall morning here in Michigan.

The leaves have all changed and most of them have fallen. The sky is a dark gray and light rain is falling. The wind is blowing slightly with the occasional gust. The air is cool, some would say cold.

And I love it.

Some people are only happy when the weather suits them. The trouble with that is that I do not have any control over the weather. So if I tie my happiness to it, I am not in control of my happiness. Something else is in control.

Whenever we attach our joy to things we cannot control, we are slaves to that thing. It may be the weather, the time of year, how other people treat us or even the moods of other people. If I allow others and their joy to determine whether or not I have joy, I will rarely have joy myself.

I must then connect my joy to things that are within my control. Incidentally, the only thing in this world I can control is myself.

So I let the world spin and people do as they do, but I refuse to attach my happiness to any of it.

The vehemence with which we interact online is interesting.
People have alway held different opinions on various things.
We used to have sayings like, “To each his own” or “Whatever floats your boat.”
Now we summon as much vitriol as possible and go after the one who holds the differing opinion as though they are a threat to our very existence.
If you pass through a buffet line and do not enjoy a certain dish, you simply pass over it. It doesn’t require you to spit in it or knock the spoon out of the hand of one who does enjoy it.
Just move on. It’s not for you.

God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

Light provides: the ability to see, warmth, encouragement, ability to grow.

Darkness contains: fear, hidden danger, cold, inability to see where you need to go.

Walking with God in the light allows us God’s warmth, direction, encouragement and spiritual growth.

Going it alone leaves us fearful, susceptible to danger, cold hearted, cynical and directionless.

Walk with God in the light.