Don't Knock It 'Til You Try It

What's the strangest food combination you've ever eaten? When growing up I learned to like liver and cooked carrots by dousing ketchup all over them. I like peanut butter on my waffles, crunchy of course. When I eat my peanut butter sandwiches I sometimes put the potato chips on the peanut butter in the sandwich.

My father-in-law liked onion on his apple pie and my mother loved a glass of buttermilk with cornbread crumbled inside. And who hasn't enjoyed a tasty Miracle Whip sandwich or a slice of pineapple dipped in horseradish sauce.

But my grandfather had one strange combination I had never heard of and have yet to try. He liked peanut butter and mashed potato sandwiches. Then I heard of people who have peanut butter and mayo sandwiches, pickles on their peanut butter sandwich and even ranch dressing and peanut butter.

My uncle used to make fun of his step-dad and the peanut butter and mashed potato sandwiches. Then one day my grandfather told him, "Don't knock, 'til you try it." So my uncle jumped off the deep end and tried it. And you know what? Right! He liked it!

I see people go through life always knocking what other people like before they've even tried it themselves. I hear people criticizing churches whose doors they have never entered. They judge people without even knowing them.

I'm reminded of the story of a man and woman who moved to a certain neighborhood. Whenever the couple would visit peoples homes the husband would always stay close by his wife. He would never let her leave his side even for a short time. After a few years the couple moved and the families they left behind began to criticize him. They would talk about how much of a chauvinist he was and how he acted so much like a tyrant to his sweet wife. Finally, a fellow neighbor who knew him better than everyone else spoke up. "What you don't know," he said, "is that his wife is a kleptomaniac. By keeping her by his side he was both protecting her as well as your belongings."

So before we become judgemental of people. Before we criticize this or that. Before we present ourselves as being disgusted over someone or something. Let's take the time to know what we're talking about.

Chances are it will change our entire view of things and we just may like it!

War Close To Home

Luis Draco formerly KBR IT and currently ITT recently died at the hands of cowardly terrorists. Cowards who lob mortars and rockets (aka Indirect Fire-IDF) into camps congested with unarmed civilians. I lost a friend this way in the Green Zone. I can’t think of anything else so cowardly! C3 Warhorse is located approximately 35-45 miles northeast of Baghdad on Baquba Airfield.

The above was information from a friend of Luis', Darick Knight. When Luis was killed his daughter, Nev, became an orphan. Nev's mother, Hope, passed away in 2003. Hope was my niece and Nev is my great-niece (grandniece). It is now up to the courts to determine where this little 12 year old girl will live.

It reminds us that the tragedies of grown-up wars too often end up being devastation for the innocent children who have no idea what's going on. It's also a reminder that each of us is only a phone call away from finding out someone we know is a victim.

We don't know where Nev will end up. We must trust in the wisdom of God to help those decision makers make the choice that is best for this little girl.

When you go to bed tonight, say a little prayer for Nev.

Next time you pick up the paper and see that someone has been killed in a war or accident, or that someone has died from a disease or sudden illness or for any reason for that matter, remember that somewhere someone is hurting because they have lost a loved one. Too often they are the tears of innocent children.

Cornbread

When Kathy and I first got married we lived in a little house on Orange Street in Abilene. We didn't have much. She was working for $50 a week at the Public Relations department at Abilene Christian. I was going to school and working part-time at Gibsons Discount Center.

We didn't have a lot of bills, but it was enough for a young college couple, I was 21 and she was 19, to have to struggle to make ends meet. Our rent was $60 per month and we were paying one of our old high school teachers $50 per month for a used car we had bought from them. I was able to purchase an old window air conditioner for the bedroom. We also splurged after the first six months and got a telephone. The biggest mistake that probably put us in a bind was buying a stereo and charging it. That was an extra $10 per month that we put out. Now days that doesn't sound like a lot of money, but remember to us that was a full days pay for Kathy or a couple of days of my part time pay.

There was one month that we got down to the last couple of days and we were out of funds. The bills were paid, but we had absolutely no money to buy food and it was a couple of days before either of us got paid. We had very little food in the house. There was notmeat or vegetables only a few eggs, a little milk and cornbread. So I remember the night before we got paid the next day, our supper was simply a plate of cornbread. That's it. There was no meat, no vegetables, no desert only cornbread and water to drink.

As I look back I guess we could have called our parents and gotten some help, but we didn't. We could have gone to the church and I'm sure they'd have helped us out, but we didn't. We even had friends that would have fed us, but we didn't ask. We even could have gotten an advance on her paycheck, but we didn't think of that either.

I guess we were college student poor. But you know, I believe that those were some of the happiest times of our lives. Happiness wasn't centered around the things we had or didn't have. Oh we wanted these things, but weren't obsessed with obtaining them. I was going to school to be a preacher. We wanted to share Christ with the world. We had cornbread, but more importantly we had each other.

When our priorities become the things of this world we easily lose focus on the things that are important. Our wives, our husbands, our children, our families are much more important than the physical things of this world. They are our treasures. Happiness comes, not from the riches we can obtain in this world, but from the loving relationships that we can grow with each other.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matt. 6:19-21

Sometimes in my hectic world I think it would be nice to go back and have cornbread for supper.

The Empty Room

Well, for the first time in 36 years Kathy and I stayed at home without anybody but ourselves. For 18 years it was the two of of us with our two boys and the dog. When our youngest went off to college that left us with just our oldest, who has cerebral palsy and our two dogs. Two years ago one of our dogs died and a few weeks ago our second dog died. That left the three of us.

Last week our oldest developed pneumonia and had to be put into the hospital. With him in ICU we came home to a dark quiet house, no kids, not pets. It was just the two of us. It was an eerie feeling to walk into the boys' room and know nobody would be sleeping there that night or the next few nights for that matter.

I turned off the monitor in our bedroom for the night for the first time in years. There would be no getting up 2 or 3 times a night to check on our son. There would be no dog scratching the side of the bed in the morning to take a trip outside. There would be no feedings of son or dog during the day. The TV would remain quiet. Fewer clothes would be washed. It would be quiet for the next several days.

But, you know, it really wasn't peaceful. You'd think that it would be nice to be in the quiet atmosphere without as many responsibilities as before. The nights were filled with concern for our sons. Our youngest was in the middle of a move and he and his family were all sick. The oldest was lying in the hospital. We'd come in late and arise early to get back up to check on him.

I believe God's kind of like that. There is really no rest while his children are hurting. He lives with a constant concern for them and their well being. He cares for us every sleeping and waking hour that we live. David wrote in the Psalm 55, "Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice."

Jesus talked about the rooms in His Father's house in John 14, "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you".

It's comforting to know that God will never rest as long as there is an empty room.

Last night I slept better. The monitor was on and the room was no longer empty.

Peacock Feathers

Growing up my brother and I would at times do things we shouldn't. Well, maybe more often than sometime! This however was one of those incidents that bordered on being mean and cruel. However, out of our innocence of being elementary school boys it at the time was just a simple experiment.

When we lived on 21st street in Plano we knew pretty much all the neighbors on our street and those across the alley as well. One family with whom we went to Sunday services came over frequently for a cookout. It was at one of those cookouts that I was in the room when a certain conversation took place.

It seemed that their daughter who was my age was highly afraid of feathers. An incident had occurred when she was young where here grandmother had rung the neck of a chicken for dinner and the dead fowl had flopped around and onto her sending her into a panic. From that moment on she was terrified of feathers.

Well, I told my brother and we could not understand how anyone could be so scared of feathers. It just didn't seem logical to an 8 year old. Soooooooooo, we decided to put it to a scientific experiment. My mother had two long peacock feathers in her closet. The plan was that my brother then 6 when get her into my mother's bedroom and I'd tickle her with the feathers. It went just as planned, my brother lured her in and I took the feathers and lightly touched her face.

Guess what! She was deathly afraid of feathers and ran from the room in terror and tears. Our company went home and my brother and I received our just reward for our actions. There was no room for explanations. In addition we had to make a trip to the neighbors and give a personal apology for our actions. Fortunately, the incident did not hinder the continued friendship of the two families and the kids involved.

There are times in our life that we do things we know we're not suppose to do. So why do we do them anyway? Are we just stupid? Maybe. Do we not care? Sometimes perhaps. But Paul gives us the best answer as he wrote in Romans 7, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

Life is a struggle where we have both good and evil tugging at us. It's kind of like the old cartoons where we have an angel on one shoulder and and a devil on the other. What we have to decide is which one we are going to listen to. In the end we can only win the war by listening and acting on what God tells us and not what the world wants us to do.

Nope!

A long, long time ago in a town far, far away the congregation that I was working with decided to have a "gospel" meeting. The meeting was to last from Sunday night to Thursday night and everyone was expected to invite someone to the service. My youngest son was around three or four at the time and on the first night of the meeting sat with one of the elders and his wife while Kathy and I were working with the older children in a separate Bible Hour.

The crowd the first night was decent, but rather disappointing to the leadership. The speaker for the meeting began to encourage everyone to bring someone to the meeting the next night. He talked about asking your neighbors and those with whom you worked. He preached about how it's really not that hard to just ask. They could say yes and come or not come or at worst just say no.

All the time my son was looking down at some papers, drawing as he sat quietly between the elder and his wife. Then came the challenge. The preacher talked about the motivation we have to ask others to come. He ended with the mock challenge, "I'll bet if we gave you a hundred dollars for bringing a visitor to the meeting that every one of you would bring someone, wouldn't you!

My son, head down, drawing, without looking up spoke up loud enough for the preacher and those several rows around to hear, "NOPE!" The preacher was stopped dead in his words and there was a momentary pause before several around broke into laughter, including the preacher.

The preacher turned to the audience and said, "Well maybe not everyone, but I bet most of you would!"

What is it that motivates us to do good works? Does it take a challenge? Does it take a good talking too? Does it take money? Or is it something deeper? Is it something that grows within us and just makes us want to do good?

The answer is simple. We do good because that is what we were created to do! Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

That's really all the motivation we should need. Simply that God asks us to.

(Image courtesy of http://www.clipartheaven.com/)

I Owe 7-11 97 Cents

It was a hot summer night in 1964 when a group of my high schools friends and I were cruising around our hometown of Plano, Texas. Back then it was small and there wasn't really much to do. That's usually when a group of guys does something that they shouldn't and this night was no exception for our group.

Driving down 15th street we decided that a slice of watermelon sounded pretty good on this hot night. Unfortunately, cruising around after 10:00 in 1960's Plano meant that all the stores were closed. That's when we spotted the 7-11.

I really don't remember if it was a 7-11 for sure, but at any rate sitting in front of the store was a big pile of watermelons, unattended and unguarded with a sign stating "97 cents each" on the wall behind them. This is when the group in the car went into a "Mission Impossible" mode. Fortunately, I don't remember who was in the car so I cannot implicate them and besides the "statute of limitations" has probably run out. Anyway, the driver of the car pulled into the parking lot about 10 feet from the pile of melons. His job was to keep the motor running.

I was in the back seat driver's side. My job was to keep my eyes pointed west to warn the group if a car was coming. The front passenger stood by the door looking east for the same thing. The back right passenger,when the coast was clear sprinted to the pile of melons, grabbed the biggest he could see and raced back to the car, watermelon in hand. The melon was tossed in the back seat, the sprinter and two lookouts hopped back into the car and the driver quickly but quietly eased back onto the main thoroughfare heading West. It went off perfectly. It was a successful raid, unnoticed and unknown by anyone but those in the car.

The criminals headed west to the city park. We pulled up to a picnic area, took out the melon sliced and ate. It was the worst tasting watermelon that I had ever eaten. Not because it was a bad melon, but the guilt I felt for having done something I knew was wrong was so intense, I just didn't feel like eating the prize. I never did it again.

Paul wrote, in 2CO 1:12 "Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace."
To live like Christ we must have a clear conscience, one that listens to God and not the world. God gives us a conscience to help remind us of what is right and wrong. Because of this it's important that we learn to listen to our inner being, which is constantly reminding us what we were taught.

Ninety-seven cents isn't much from a monetary standpoint, but it's a fortune from a Godly standpoint. You see, it's not the amount that made it wrong it was the action. My conscience was telling me this that night in the park over 40 years ago and it reminds me of it even today.

The Peach Tree Incident

When I was in elementary school my mother planted a peach tree in the back yard. That was the time when during the summer months all the kids played outside in either your yard or some neighbor's yard. Ours was no different. It was a football field, baseball field and golf course.

There were clotheslines with Yellow Jacket nests in the ends of the poles. There was a swing set, part of which worked. We had a chain link fence with a gate to the alley and Honeysuckle vines growing the entire length of the fence and of course more Yellow Jacket nests mingled with a few honeybees.

One spring my mother decided to plant a peach tree in the backyard. Since the backyard is the domain of every young boy the tree was actually in the way of several athletic activities. It covered the end zone and made us move the baseball park to the other end of the yard.

One summer the tree looked much like the one in the picture above, well shaped with full leaves and blossoms starting to emerge. As you know summer is baseball season and with baseball season comes gloves, balls, bats and bases. The peach tree was third base.

Then that summer came the incident. I'm not sure what made it transpire but nevertheless it happened. My little brother, baseball bat in hand, proceeded to take the peach tree apart, limb by limb, top to bottom. By the time he was through one whole side of the tree was completely gone. It looked like a buzz saw had gotten hold of the north side of this little peach tree. About that time my mother exited to the back yard form the screen door. I'll leave the rest of this incident to your imagination.

Mother was crushed that this had happened. Her beautiful tree now looked rather lopsided to say the least. Somehow it made it through the summer, winter and then in the spring it began to bring on new life. The limbs on the victimized side began to sprout and before you knew it the tree looked as if it had never gone through any trial at all. In fact after my brother's carefully planned pruning job the tree came out better than before producing peaches that same summer.

Life is much like the peach tree. We can go on day to day with things looking and feeling just great. We grow and blossom and enjoy the world around us. Then one day something happens and it seems like the entire world comes crumbling down around us. We wonder "how can I go on after this?" We retreat to a shell or become angry at the world and wonder again "why me, Lord, why me?"

But God in the midst of our trials still says "I love you" and puts his arm around you and helps you make it through those tough times. It may take a while, but eventually you can overcome the devastation and once again grow back to being the person you were before, but this time better for having weathered tough times. Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 41:10, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." And Jesus told us in Mt. 28:20, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

So next time you feel like someone has taken a baseball bat to your life and heart. Just remember that God is still there beside you nourishing you and encouraging you to not give up and reminding you that you'll bloom again.

Last Place Team

Growing up in a small town, the big summer event was Little League baseball. As they reached the age of around 12 the boys in town would anticipate the summer when they would first be picked to play. Baseball was big in the '50's. In Plano the boys would be anxiously waiting by the phone the Saturday the teams were picked to see to which team they would be assigned. We had four teams in our league, the Colts, Sports, Athletics and Lions (If my memory is correct on the last one).

Every boy wanted to play for the Colts. They were the best team for several years. They were winners. They had the athletes from the prior year who would carry them to the championship again so that's where the new recruits wanted to be as well. Like the others I waited in anticipation for the call with hope of being a blue and white Colt the that first summer.

The call came from one of my friends. "Danny," he said in a tone that I could tell even hurt him, "you were selected to the Sports." When I hung up I was devastated. Not only did I not make the Colts, I was on the worst team in the league. It was the team that had not won a single game the year before and was the worst in the last several years. The Sports, could it get any worse? The answer was a definite, "Yes".

I bought my red and white baseball cap and headed out to the first team meeting. At the end of the meeting and practice they distributed the uniforms. The Sports' colors were red and white. When the uniforms were handed out they did not have enough of the red ones so two of us got the colors of the old team, gray and green. I was was one of the two who got the "different " one. Not a very good start for something you were excited about to begin with. It could not get any worse, right? Wrong!

My first time at bat was in a practice game with you guessed it, the Colts. Since I was small everyone moved up on me. To their surprise I was a better player than I looked. I connected with the first pitch and got a hit to right field. Then on first base it happened. The pitcher threw the ball to pick me off and I got back to the base, but did not notice the old "hidden ball" trick. The first baseman acted like he threw it back, but instead held the ball. I stepped off the base and was promptly tagged out. I was again devastated. I sat by the fence and cried.

The bright spot was that I received my red and white uniform after a couple of weeks, we tied for second place that year and the following year were tied for the division lead. In addition I was selected as one of the all-stars as the second baseman. Even though the beginning was rough, I never gave up and enjoyed several summers of small town baseball.

The Bible teaches that "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13). Sometimes we are going to face tough challenges. The easy thing is to give up. We can just quit and move on. But giving up accomplishes nothing compared to the rewards that can come our way from sticking through the tough times. It is through facing trials and hardships and defeating the tests that come our way that we become stronger in our spiritual lives. The apostle Peter is a great example of this. He was called down for rebuking Jesus, his faith wavered as he walked on the water and he denied Jesus at his trial. Yet he became the greatest of all the apostles.

So next time life gives you a green uniform and puts you in a last team situation think about the future. Turn that unfortunate circumstance into a winning season of your life.

Clip Art from: http://download-free-pictures.com

The Nickel Incident

To whoever was walking down an alley near Oleander street in Dallas and found the sack with a nickel in it, I'd like to tell you how it happened to be there. It was put there one summer around 1953. My brother was 3 and I was 5. These were the days that you let your kids walk to the store and never worried about their safety. Well, one summer afternoon Gary and I made our way to the Rexall drugstore which was out the back gate, a quick left in the alley for a little ways and another right up the side alley next to the drugstore. We made our purchase and retraced our steps back home.

It was then that the crime unfolded. As my 5 year old mind remembers I was playing in the living room (I don't think we had TV back then) when I saw Gary pushing something under a floor lamp. Curious as to what was going on I went over, lifted the lamp and discovered a half eaten package of Lifesavers. "Mom," I loudly exclaimed, "where did Gary get the Lifesavers?" My mother came in an quickly surmised that her little 3 year old was a thief. He evidently had pocketed the Lifesavers while I was paying for the other purchase at the drugstore.

At that point my mother went to her purse, retrieved a nickel and told me to go back to the store and pay for the Lifesavers. What happened to my brother after I left has remained his and my mother's secret to this day. Anyway, as I proceeded out the back gate and turned left in the alley, my 5 year old mind began to work overtime. I began to picture my little brother getting in trouble. I could see the police coming to the house, handcuffing him and taking him to jail. As my walk continued it distressed me more and more. I turned right up the side alley and the thoughts became so stressful I found myself having to make a decision that 5 year old from time to time must make. Do I go to the store and risk sending my little brother to jail or take other drastic action?

I chose the later. I looked around in the alley and spotted a brown paper sack flattened by the trucks that would come down the pathway. I bent down, opened the sack and slipped the nickel inside. The store did not get paid and may have suffered from not having that nickel. But I know I did the right thing keeping my brother out of jail!

Have you ever been so stressed out that you were caught in a dilemma of what to do? I believe we all are at one time or another. We become anxious and worry about things that may or may not happen. We sometimes become so distraught that we make ourselves sick. In the garden Jesus was in so much stress that it says that he had sweat like drops of blood. But he knew how to get over it. He left it all in God's hands. "If it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may YOUR WILL be done." The easiest way to overcome our fears is to allow God to take over in our lives. Only when he is in control can we find true inner peace.

I feel better about it now and do not feel my brother will go to jail, so if you don't mind please give the nickel to the nearest Rexall Drugstore (If they still exist) for me.

Is Right Wrong or Wrong Right?

From somewhere in junior high until my junior year in high school I quit "going to church". Then one day I discovered that a girl I liked went to church where I used to. What better reason to start back then being able to see a girl, right? So the next opportunity I could find I dressed up and headed to Sunday night worship. I slipped in to the next to back row and look around. Well, guess what? She wasn't there. Now I was in a dilemma. It wouldn't be right to leave, that would make things worse in case I wanted to come back, so I had no alternative but to listen to the lesson.

I can't tell you what the lesson was about. I don't remember a word, but I do remember that something said really hit home to me. I listened carefully and when we stood to sing the invitation song I told myself, "If they sing the third verse of this four verse song, I'm going forward to rededicate my life."

Guess what! They went right into the third verse. It had been so long I forgot they usually sing all the verses of an invitation song. However, keeping my promise to myself , I stepped out and from that point on my life was changed. I have no idea what would have happened if they had skipped the verse that night.

A few weeks later I looked over and there was the girl. Oh, not the one from the first night. One whom I had never met. She was two years younger than me with dark hair and beautiful eyes. This year we will be married 41 years.

Toward the end of the movie "National Velvet", Velvet's mother and father are having a discussion over monetary offers that had come in because Velvet had won a horse competition. Mr. Brown wanted to take them all. Mrs. Brown was skeptical so they left it up to Velvet. Velvet thought and with tears in her eyes refused, because she felt it wouldn't be right to put the horse through all the fanfare.

Mr. Brown was frustrated until Mrs. Brown posed the thought. The age old question she said is "Is it okay to do the right thing for the wrong reason or the wrong thing for the right reason?"

We are posed with this question every day we live. I think back and know that I did the right thing by going to church, but for the wrong reason. On the other hand sometimes we make decisions to do things that are wrong, but we do them because we feel it's the right thing to do. The thing about it is that God can take whatever we do and turn it into good as long as we're doing the right thing or doing it for the right reason. We'll all face things that we start off doing for the wrong reason and feel great when it all turns out the way it was meant to be. Then there will be the times that we get in trouble because we do something wrong, but not feel guilty, because we know the reason we did it was justified and that God will understand.

Proverbs 2:7-9 gives us Solomon's view of what is right. "He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair - every good path."(NIV)

I Have Two Sons

I have two sons.

My youngest son lives in the Dallas area. He has become successful in business and is turning into the young man his mother and I always desired for him to become. He is kind, loving and generous. He calls or emails us and shares what's happening in his life. He's what his mom and I dreamed of when we planned to have children. He is married to a loving wife and we now have a beautiful grand daughter.

My oldest son lives at home. He will soon be thirty-six and has Cerebral Palsy. Because he is handicapped he needs us to take care of his every need. He cannot talk, walk, sit up and is less than a year old developmentally. He'll never get married, have a family or children of his own. He cannot hug us or tell us he loves us like his brother. He'll be dependent on us for the rest of his life.

I have two sons. One is growing into a fine independent young man. The other is totally dependent on us to survive. But I love them both just the same.

Jesus is the same way. He looks down on the earth and sees all kinds of people. Some are independent and becoming what he expects, while others never quite seem to grow up and so he has to spend more time with them. Nevertheless, he loves everyone just the same.

In Exodus 30:15 God tells the rich and poor to bring the same amount to offer, no more - no less. He's saying that to God no man, woman or child is worth more or less than the person next to them, no matter what their situation may be.

I have two sons. One can love back, the other can't, but I still love them the same. Jesus has many sons and daughters, some love back, some don't, but he still loves us all ... just the same.