Brother, Are You Ready?

Scott and Andrea were planning a trip to Rome over Spring Break.  The third week of March, every year, they go on a great big, fabulous vacation.  My wife, Carol, goes down to Phoenix that week, each year, to spend time with her elderly parents.  She relieves Andrea, her sister, who takes care of Mom and Dad the rest of the year.

Sometime near the end of February we heard that Scott was completely packed, ready for the vacation. Totally packed.  His suitcase was full, zipped up, by the foot of the bed, ready to load in the car and head for the airport.  Then we heard, just before vacation, that Scott unpacked his suitcase, took out the shirts, ironed them, and then repacked.

Now if that isn’t being ready for the big trip then I don’t know what ready is.  They say that perhaps the best part of a vacation is the anticipation and preparation.  But Scott took it to the next level.

Those of us who know Jesus as Lord and Savior are planning for a big trip, too.  We are going to be resurrected or raptured, caught up to be with Jesus when He returns (I Thes 4:14-18).  Some of us will be able to anticipate our death and prepare our heart to meet the Lord. But many of us will meet Jesus unexpectedly, either in a sudden unexpected death, or in the rapture.  Any way it happens for me is fine, but it would sure be amazing to be caught up into the air to meet the Lord when he returns.

I asked a group that I was teaching, recently, how many of you are ready to stand face to face with God.  Not one of them could say they felt ready.  Not one of them could say that they were anxiously awaiting that encounter, like Scott looking forward to his vacation.  I was somewhat shocked, thinking the response would probably be about fifty-fifty.

I regularly read and evaluate writings and speculations concerning end times. And I am growing more and more secure in saying that the Lord’s return is “right at the door” (Mt 24:33).  We cannot be careless and carefree about our eternal destiny, living as though His promised return is nowhere near. That is sheer foolishness.

Are you ready to meet Jesus? Or are you living independent of God, selfish and aloof?  Are you so full of guilt and shame, even though you try hard to be “righteous”, that you are afraid to look him in the face?  If so, relax, and trust His love and grace, walk with the Spirit, trust a friend and live in light rather than hiding.  Then, even though you may still stumble along the road of grace, you will be ready.

Do you have your bags packed?  Are you ready?

Fences Make Good Neighbors

Was I ever stupid!  My neighbor’s carrots and beets were wilting, and there was no hiding the evidence that I was the culprit.  I can’t hardly remember a more humiliating moment.

I sprayed the weeds in my yard periodically.  Dandelions mainly, plus a few other pesky weeds.  But my neighbor didn’t do anything with her weeds.  And I was sure that her weeds were the source of my weeds.  Those little fluff-ball dandelion seeds were blowing through the chain link fence over into my yard, sprouting, growing, and giving me grief.  So the only way I was going to control my weeds was to reach over the fence and spray her weeds, too.  So I thought.

But she had a garden growing over there, too.  And she must have been an early purveyor of organic gardening.  She let the weeds grow in the garden just as much as in the yard.  So my dilemma was that I wasn’t sure how close to the vegetables I could spray and still be safe.

In about four or five days the truth came out.  The over spray was wilting her vegetables.  Lots of vegetables.  And it was obvious what caused it. The weeds were wilting, too, just like the vegetables.  They both had the same chemical sprayed on them.

Was I ever stupid!  Fences have meaning, they serve a purpose.  They define a very important, personal boundary.  If I wanted to be fastidious about my weeds, that was one thing.  But for me to reach over her fence and presume to make her be and act like me was so wrong.  It taught me a life-long lesson, that whatever may bother me about other people is usually not of much consequence.  Not at all.  And to breach the personal boundary, the fence, and try to make them be like me is horribly offensive.  That is what Paul meant when he wrote at length to the Romans, “Accept one another” (Romans 15:7).

Maybe the worst part was that I had never befriended this neighbor, never talked to her much, never praised her for her garden, never helped her with anything.  Which made the confrontation all the more difficult when my incredible insensitivity became obvious.  I may have even been so stupid as to not even apologize, but try to put the blame back on her.  Like I say, “was I ever stupid”.

There’s another life lesson here, one which I have been so slow to understand..  Whenever I see someone who needs to address something in their life, I have no right to fix that person, nor any hope of helping, if I do not first have a trusting, loving relationship.  Otherwise I come across only as arrogant, harsh, demanding, corrective, or condescending.  That’s true with my friends, my neighbor, my kids, even my wife.  Relationship over position.  Love before advice.

God is the same with me.  He doesn’t try to fix anything in me until he knows I am trusting His love.  Relationships are far more important than having everything fixed or perfect.

Love changes hearts.  Truth changes direction.

Siesta

It was hot dirty work, and I needed a rest.  I knew a short siesta would give me enough strength to then get the job done.  We were a bunch of gringos in Monterey, Mexico.  We were putting a new roof on a widow’s home way out in a desert canyon village.  She was very poor, not able to have a concrete and stucco home like most.  Her house was just one large room about five meters wide and seven meters long.  The walls were mud bricks covered with stucco.  The roof was made of long poles with some kind of native plants laid over them, more to keep the sun out than the rain.

The poles had rotted and were caving in, one by one.  The local pastor asked us if we could afford to buy lumber to replace the poles.  Lumber in Mexico is a very precious commodity.  But we bought twelve boards, two by fours, 16 feet long, costing about $400. Mucho dinero!

We brought them to the home, along with a crew of five guys.  First we had to remove all the tree branches from the roof, setting them aside to replace them after we put up the new roof rafters.  That was the dirtiest work ever, and the dirt stuck to our sweat.  Pretty soon we couldn’t tell who was gringo and who was Mexican.

By early afternoon I was pretty exhausted.  The young guys wanted to keep working, putting up the rafters and anchoring them to the top of the walls.  I found some shade and laid down to take a little siesta.  I knew what their response would be, but I could take the ribbing.  But soon I overheard the Mexican pastor say to the young guys, “I want you to know, you have a very wise pastor.  You should pay attention to him.”

I marveled at his statement and wondered why he would say that.  It caused me to reflect on the Mexican custom of taking a brief siesta in the afternoon.  Was it a lazy practice?  Or was it wise?  What do we prove by working long and steady without taking a break or a rest?  And how productive is our work, really, when we strive against the heat of the day, against weariness, just to get done earlier, or out of envy of our neighbor, or perhaps to impress others with our work ethic?  Yes, of course, we all know the Biblical warning against laziness and slothful idleness (Proverbs 6:9-11).  But what about rest and renewal? 

I know how weary and unproductive my body becomes when I press on relentlessly.  I also know how desperately my heart and soul need rest and refreshing, too.  A siesta is a wise thing.  Rest is good for the body, good for the soul.

“So on the seventh day God rested from all his work.”  (Genesis 2:2)

“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31)