Oh No! It's PIANO!!

Ok, for those who may not know, I was born and bred in the Church of Christ. What that means is that I'm not supposed to listen to women talk about the bible, and Piano is a four letter word with "o" as an accessory vowel. I come from a church where women can pass communion trays side-to-side, but not from front to back. These churches are autonomous, until one of them does something that the others disagree with. Clapping your hands in the worship service is permitted when someone places membership, but not when trying to keep rhythm during singing. Oh, did I mention that "Mechanical Instruments" (also known by some as "IM's", don't ask... i have no idea how that got that one backwards) are not allowed during Sunday morning worship. Yeah, I'm not clued in on that one either.

How did we get in the business of telling people what they "can't" do? The Old Testament started with the 10 commandments. Ten. That's it. Now I know that there were many things implied in those ten, but there were just ten. Then the Levites came along and added stuff about bodily discharges and mildew. *yuck!* What happened to the ten? I'll tell you what happened. Jesus came and whittled them down to two commandments.

Mark 12:28-34 (New International Version)

The Greatest Commandment

28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[b] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[c]There is no commandment greater than these." 32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

So, Jesus comes to earth and brings us down to two commands and we start adding our own again. I think the part of this that amazes me the most is that we are only making things harder for ourselves. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

A runner I am not!

Jogging is working though. :) This week I've started dieting and exercising. I've never done this before, I never needed to. I used to have the metabolism of a 12 yr. old. (and the height) However, as soon as I hit 31 it all came to a screeching halt! In the last 2 years I have gained 25 pounds at least. Needless to say, I can name a few more salad dressings now.

I've also started running (half jogging/half walking) 3 mornings a week. What is it about being awake at 5:30? Why do I automatically feel like I'm cooler than the rest of the neighborhood? Suddenly everyone else is a slacker. I'm reminded of a friend of mine in upstate NY. He was raised on a pig farm and found it rather easy to get up early. This wasn't a problem until he bought a snow-blower and decided to clear his driveway at 6 in the morning. I now know why he wanted the rest of us to be "morning-people". It's lonely. I mean, I'm sure that there are people awake, but most of them are still in their undies.

Anywho, I found it strange that as I try to better my life I'm consumed with others following in my footsteps. Why am I drawn to try and make others share my convictions. What I need to do is live my own life and let others do the same for themselves. Like when I quit smoking. Man, I wanted the world to know. And when I met someone who still smoked, I would tell them that they needed to do exactly as I did. However, they are not me. And just because something works for me doesn't mean that it will work for everyone else.

I'm not Jesus (duh). I shouldn't be in the business of trying to get people to act like me. (and neither should you) I need to be showing people what Jesus did and stop trying to get others to pat me on the back. I mean come on, even though getting up and running around the neighborhood is a huge accomplishment for me...

it's no miracle. :)

*listening to: "Boy Like Me, Man Like You" - Rich Mullins*

In the case of an emergency...

Ok, so I've flown many times in my life. My father was in the Navy for 23 years, and the Navy never moved us to the next town over. We went from Hawaii to Florida for our first move. Talk about a flight! In my entire life, I'd say that I've been on at least 50 flights.

On to my point... During all of my trips, the airplane crew goes through a ritual. They spend a good 5 minutes telling the passengers of their possible doom. They actually talk about the plane crashing in a couple of different ways. They actually call one of the a "water" landing. Please! Landing? More like death plunge.

On my last trip back from Portland Oregon I was forced to pay attention to their little speil. The put it on a screen on the back of the seat in front of me. (I have a hard time ignoring TVs) :) Then it hit me. What if we got the "danger" talk everywhere we went? What if you went to your friends house for dinner and before you began eating his wife said, "in case of poisioning...". There's no way that you would eat her food. Or what if whenever you got in the car with your friend he said, "in the case of a head on collision, kiss you butt goodbye!". Man, I'd never get in the car with them again.

Can we really be this inconsistent? Why do we ignore the threat of an airplane crash, but value a warning of a car crash. How many warnings do ignore? There are many warning signs in our daily lives. A two-year-old's rebellion can be seen as cute to their parents. However, I would imagine that there are a lot of parents who would go back and make some major adjustments in their childs attitude.

Proverbs 22:3A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

I recently noticed that the underside of my child’s car seat had a warning that reads, “Do not use this seat after December”. “Which December?” I blurted. What an obscure notice. I tried to find out if there was a date printed anywhere on the seat, but found nothing that gave me any help. I looked at the other seat that looks identical, and found no such notice. This confused me even more and left me wondering what to do. Well, I placed the seat back in the van and made plans to use it until our youngest grew out of it.

You may be thinking, “are you serious?”. “What if you get in an accident and some unforeseen event causes the seat to crumble and leave your child unprotected?” I mean, come on…what could go wrong? It’s a solid piece of plastic, right? Am I as strange as it might seem? Consider this; How many times has a fire-alarm gone off in a department store and we continue to shop with no regard for our safety? How often do we see warning signs in our relationships with our spouses and our children, and put off action until the timing is better or when we’ve got less on our plate? I would have not seen the warning sign on the seat had I not looked for it. But what good is the warning if I don’t follow it.

Look for the Danger signs in your life. God is faithful and if we look for His direction and remain in His shelter; He will hold to His promises and keep us safe and secure.