New Life'n

No wings? You can still fly (sort of)

Clicks

I just spent a few minutes looking at THESE NUMBERS.  Sat and stared and watched them change.  Click-click-click.  At one time, I was one of those clicks.  A lot of prayer and caring and behind-the-scenes efforts in heaven and on earth went into my click.  But, I haven't done much myself recently to contribute to clicks in the future.  That makes me kinda sick.  I'm thinking about something like THIS:

They are a group of believers who have banded together for a season in life to reach the lost, minister to the hurting and each other...but this fellowship is specialized in that it usually exposes unbelievers to a group of fun, Jesus-loving people...

To whom it may concern

This is part of an email I recently sent to someone very close to me in response to some fear and uncertainty they were going thru.  While it was personal at the time for me and for them, I'm thinking right now that it may also be personal for you:

Of course you can't control what you feel, but you can control what you think -- I'd be careful of playing the 'what if' game.  Watch your inner announcer -- you may need to steer your thoughts and correct them a bunch of times, but you CAN and you should.  You want to look back on today and tomorrow with no regret over your reaction

You know where to go.  You know what to do.

I don't know why, but I'm thinking of a song I used to listen to BEFORE I became a believer.  It was on an album Brenda had -- I loved the song, but didn't know why.  Here's the words:

    HE GIVETH MORE GRACE

    He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
    He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
    To added affliction He addeth His mercy;
    To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

    When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
    When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
    When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
    Our Father's full giving is only begun.

    Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
    Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
    Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
    The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

    His love has no limit; His grace has no measure.
    His pow'r has no boundary known unto men;
    For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
    He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!

       -- Annie Johnson Flint

    

Randoms 2

How Jesus measured spiritual maturity -- it's probably not what you think

Are you a multitasker? -- maybe it's not really working...

“Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes"...Check e-mail messages once an hour, at most. Listening to soothing background music while studying may improve concentration. But other distractions — most songs with lyrics, instant messaging, television shows — hamper performance...

And, 10 great reasons to have another child

Sometimes the resurrection is televised

God did us a favor when he invented sports.  He showed us that, as in eternity, there are two opponents and there is a winner and a loser.  And occasionally, he gives us a peak at the incredulous joy of experiencing life after death.  Burton College is in North Carolina and they were dead at the end of their championship game last weekend.  Then one player scored 10 points in the last 45 seconds...

The power of meek

       Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth -- Matthew 5:5

A.W. Tozer -- Pursuit of God:

"The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life.

He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto.

He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring. He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His own values. He will be patient to wait for the day when everything will get its own price tag and real worth will come into its own. Then the righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father. He is willing to wait for that day."

Randoms

Dog saves owner with Heimlich Maneuver -- maybe he just wanted the apple

How astonauts talk to their kids about their jobs --

"Laura, Daddy had a very dangerous job," Evelyn Husband told her daughter..."She gave me the strangest look. 'He did?' I realized then that Rick and I had protected Laura and (her 7-year-old brother) Matthew from the stark reality of his job."

How to read a lot of books in a short time -- OK, he gets a little carried away, but it did help me come up with a quick way to to decide if a book is worth reading -- partly from what he said and partly from another idea I'd heard somewhere.  So, standing in the bookstore, in less than 10 minutes I can:

1. Skim the table of contents, glossary and index
2. Read anything in bold, titles and subtitles
3. Pick three random places in the book and read one paragraph in each place

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AND, if you feel like you're carrying the weight of the whole world on your shoulders, click HERE -- we're the third one from the left.  Still feel heavy?

What friend you

Visiting our grown daughter's adult Sunday school class, I ended up sitting with her at a table with her friends -- all women.  One guy was there; me.  The teacher (my daughter's husband), wrote a question on the board and asked the class to take a few minutes to discuss it.  Immediately the women ignored the question and began catching up:

Well, my son had his first trip to the ER...

People are so rude to you when you call them for surveys -- I'm looking for another job...

Wow, 9-years old?  We'd made 2-3 trips by that age...

This coffee cake is delicious...

Staples -- not stitches; he thinks it's so cool to have staples in his head...

And, etcetera.  My daughter leaned over and said, Sorry you got stuck at the table with all women.  It was a little creepy, like I was an invader on the surface of this world that guys are only supposed to see from high in orbit.  It didn't matter that they had a teacher's question to answer or that an alien was at the table -- these women needed to connect and nothing was going to stop them.

At The Purple Cellar they're talking about women's friendships this week:

Women are uniquely created to enjoy friendships with one another. Sadly, as is the case in so many other areas, our ideas of what friendship means have been thoroughly distorted by the culture in which we live. In our self-driven society, a friend is often someone who is essentially a copy of me, with whom the chance of disagreement or conflict is minimal. Some friendships are purely recreational, providing a convenient side-kick so that one doesn't face the unthinkable trauma of shopping for shoes or seeing a movie alone. Other friendships are sentimentalized...we fantasize about the perfect bosom friend who will meet all of our emotional needs...Is this what we're looking for in the church?

All that reminds me of the conversation I had with the same daughter a few months ago, posted below.

Lunch with my daughter at Carolina Cafe

The table in the booth was wide, which I like, and which it has to be so your words don’t jump right out of your mouth and pop the other person in the face.  They have to have a moment to float, gathering gentleness and weight as they go. 

She said she didn’t really have any close friends.  She said she seemed to attract people who were “needy.”  It was good to help people, but they weren’t usually the ones you picked to get real close to.  And she would meet the new ladies who didn’t know anyone and help them get settled.  But, again, there wasn’t that girl-to-girl connection.

Her husband had lots of friends.  Some of them went back to high school and college days.  They might not be constantly in touch, but they hooked up once or twice (or more) a year and picked up right where they left off.  She watched how he did it when he made friends.  They’d move to a new area and he’d lay back for 6 months or a year and just observe.  Then he’d actually pursue the guys he’d “chosen,” and they would end up in a men’s group or a Bible study, or they’d just hang out.  She told him she noticed how he did it, and he said, yeah, doesn’t everybody—isn’t that the way it’s done?

So she asked him to pick some friends for her.  He immediately rattled off the names of 3–4 women.  They were mostly the wives of his men friends.  During his “research” he had also noticed the women.  But they’re the most spiritual women in the church and they already have tons of friends—they don’t need me.  He said, they’ll love you, you’ll get along great.

She wasn’t about to go after them.  That just isn’t me.  But she promised if any of them ever invited her to do something, she wouldn’t hesitate.  They did.  She didn’t.  We’re going on a cruise, wanna go?  She was scared, what if they don’t like me?  I don’t really know them.  Every usual reason to give the usual I’m busy.  By faith, it was yes.  Then more invitations, more yesses. 

So how has it worked out?  They love me!  We get along great! 

We walked across the parking lot to Barnes & Noble.  She bought this, I bought this. 

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