A Change for the Better

Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad! Let your gentleness show in your treatment of all people. The Lord is near. Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. Practice these things: whatever you learned, received, heard, or saw in us. The God of peace will be with you.   

--Philippians 4:4-9

 In my previous blog, I wrote about challenging assumptions that drag us down and keep us from achieving the kind of future that God envisions for us.  We need to go one step further.  We do not need to just challenge and put aside our false assumptions, we need to embrace something different.’’

Paul describes a life to the church at Philippi that focuses on the true, holy, just, pure, lovely, and worthy of praise. He encourages the church to rejoice and to be glad even in the face of hardship and persecution.

Why should we be so concerned about feelings?  Does it matter how we feel as long as we are faithful? Actually, it matters a great deal.  How we feel directly impacts the decisions we make and our ability to think creatively.  Robert Quinn, in his Deep Change Field Guide cited Barbara Fredrickson’s research into the impact of positive emotions on openness and learning.  She described something called a “positivity ratio” which is the frequency of positive feelings divided by the frequency of negative feelings for a specific period of time.(DCFG 132)

“Fredrickson found that there is a tipping point around with the effects of the positivity ratio change dramatically.  When we experience fewer than three positive feelings for each negative feeling, we tend to spiral downward and become increasingly rigid…Above the ratio of three to one, we are pulled upward…[becoming] increasingly open and creative.” DCFG 132

For those of us who are naturally cynical, this can be quite a challenge.  What can we do?  I know people who keep folders of positive notes and cards they receive to read when they need a lift.  Others take time to journal a specific number of things each day in which they have been blessed.  Imagine if, as part of a mealtime routine, we shared the blessings we anticipate for the day or the blessings we received!  Small steps help us to see that God is at work and that God is Good (All the time!).  It reminds me of an old hymn that I miss being in the United Methodist Hymnal called Count Your Blessings:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?

Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,

And you will keep singing as the days go by.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged, God is over all;

Count your many blessings, angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

Refrain:

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your blessings, see what God hath done!

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

--Public Domain

Let’s open our eyes and see the ways in which God is at work today.  How God is using all things, every thing, for good.  Then let us rejoice that we are constantly surrounded by God’s…

Grace and Peace,

A Tale of Two Gardens

I found these stories about two very different gardens to be enlightening:



Story One

This year's garden has to be the best one we've ever had. Everything is growing like weeds (except the weeds are actually under control). The radishes came in much faster than we expected, and now the harvesting has begun. Cukes, squash, and basil are already coming in (with a few hopeful basil plants from seed that look forward to a new spot in the garden). The tomatoes are loaded! The green beans are full of blooms, and the okra is just where it needs to be. We have not had to water at all because the rain comes just in time.
Even better is the fact that we have been able to share the garden with others. Just yesterday, we had fresh herbs and veggies for supper with friends and were able to make a couple loaves of zucchini bread -- YUM! Friends have also made the garden easier to manage this year as we have had help from people hailing as far away as India, China ... even KENTUCKY! Even if we get nothing else from our garden, we have already been truly blessed.

Story Two

Wouldn't you know it, our garden is just a mess this year. Grass is EVERYWHERE! I wish I had weeds because they are easier to pull up than this infernal Bermuda Grass. I think that's part of the problem we've had so far this year. Of course, the radishes came up -- so hot that no one has been able to eat even part of one without gasping for breath. But along with the radishes came the grass and the bugs -- THE BUGS!!! I have already found squash bug eggs on the zucchini, and my wife and I have both found Mexican Bean Beetles on our green beans (they ate all the green beans before we could stop them last year). We might be able to keep the grass under control except for the rain. Every time we have the opportunity to work in the garden, it rains just hours before.
What's worse is that our kids show little interest at all in the garden this year. We use weeding (actually pulling grass) as a threat for punishment. Doesn't matter though, I seem to be a little "gardening impaired" this year, anyway. I have broken okra off at the ground, chopped down bean bushes, driven stakes through soaker hoses....I did not plant the peppers in a place for them to thrive like I wanted, and the few basil seeds we sowed that actually came up are going to die in the shade of the tomato plants. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had forgotten this crazy idea of a garden!

Here's the part I like: both gardens are the same garden! That's right. Both stories easily describe the little slice of Eden/Hades that I have intentionally planted beside the house. Each story is true, depending on the way I choose to look at the world and my place in it. Honestly, there are days when 'story two' tries to creep into my mind. The discouragement, the pessimism, and the cynicism are always ready to leap into service even before I call their names. But the Apostle Paul, I believe, would like 'story one' the best. In Philippians 4:8 he wrote,

"Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse." [The Message Translation]

Yes, things can be difficult, but God is with us and works for good in our lives (Romans 8:28). There is always more to celebrate than to commiserate. There is more given in grace than given for grumbling. There is always more life in Christ than loss in the world. So, I choose, today, to walk in the first garden -- the vision of things the way that God intends them. I will see the goodness, the grace, the extension of friendship and fellowship, and thank my God who provides them all (James 1:17).

Grace and Peace,

It could be worse

Just as I find myself in the midst of sermon preapration, housework, charge conference paperwork, Disicple Bible Study preparation, pastoral care calls, etc., I remind myself that it could be worse. Take this letter from a number of sources on the internet:

Dear Mom,

Scoutmaster Webb told us to write our parents in case you heard about the flood and got worried. We’re all okay. Only one of our tents and two of our sleeping bags got washed away. Nobody drowned because we were all on the mountain looking for Chad when it happened. Oh yeah, please call Chad’s mother and tell her he’s okay. He can’t write her because of the cast on his arm.

I got to ride in one of the search-and-rescue Jeeps! It was neat! We never would have found him in the dark if it hadn’t been for all the lightning. Scoutmaster Webb got mad at Chad for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Chad said he did tell him, but it was during the fire, so he probably didn’t hear him.

Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can will blow up? It was so cool! The wet wood still wouldn’t burn, but one of our tents did, and some of our clothes. Boy, Johnny is going to look weird until his hair grows back!

We’ll be home Saturday if Scoutmaster Webb gets the car fixed. It wasn’t his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked good when we left. But he said with a car that old you have to expect something to break down. That’s probably why he can’t get insurance. We think it’s a neat car. He doesn’t care if we get it dirty, and if it’s hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the tailgate. It gets pretty hot with 15 people in the car. He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolman stopped and yelled at him.

This morning all the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scoutmaster Webb wouldn’t let me because I can’t swim, and Chad was afraid he would sink because of his cast, so he let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood. And Scoutmaster Webb isn’t crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn’t even get mad about us leaving the life jackets behind. He has to spend a lot of time working on the car, so we’re trying not to cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We passed our first-aid merit badges. When Dave dived into the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. Also, Wade and I threw up. Scoutmaster Webb said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. He said they got sick like that with the food they ate in prison. I’m so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster. He said he figured out how to do things better while he was doing time.

I have to go now. We’re going into town to mail this and buy some bullets and more gasoline. Don’t worry about anything. We’re doing just fine.

Love, Your son

—Anonymous (various Internet sources).

IT is so easy in life to focus on all the ways that things have gone wrong; to see the negative in life. In the middle of even the most difficult of days, God is at work. I am reminded of the old hymn "Count Your Blessings."

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

I am more blessed than broken. I am more hopeful than helpless. I see more future than failure. I just wish that my first thought would have been, "Oh, how I am blessed" rather than "It could be worse."

Gracious God, turn my eyes and thoughts toward the countless blessings that I have. Help me live a life of overflowing gratitude that my thanksgiving may match your grace given to me. Amen!