Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Spider's Web

Last weekend I had a few minutes to kill before an appointment and decided to stop at a garage sale that featured many boxes of books. I picked up a couple that immediately caught my eye and ultimately one more as I saw a small paperback book entitled "Spiders and their Kin." For $.50, I had to have it. I wanted to know more about the eight legged friends that had made their home just outside my garage.

As I was getting into my car a few days earlier, I noticed that a spider had built its web just outside my garage door. Unfortunately for this spider, the web was directly in the path of my car as I backed out. My car took the beautiful work of this spider with me as I left for the day. The next morning, however, as the garage door went up I was pleased to see that the spider had reconstructed its web and it was better than the one before. Plus, the spider had learned its lesson and moved the web closer to the house and out of the path of my car. That web is still there today as it continues to collect the bugs that are trying to make it into my house.

The beauty of God's creation never ceases to amaze me, and in this case, I had to stop and appreciate the spider's ability to persevere, and more importantly, its ability to learn. Instead of spinning the web in the same spot, the spider moved the web to a better location. It may seem presumptious to think that a spider can learn, but even if you categorize it as instinct, it is still worth our admiration.

This is especially true when we consider that nature's instinctive learning compared to a human's spiritual learning skills can sometimes prove to be a mismatch (not in our favor). How often do we experience stress, anger, regret, grief or other emotions as the result of our own doing only to repeat those same actions, which later result in the same consequences? Too often. The Bible and the rest of history tells us that we are poor learners. We love learning the hard way - over and over again.

Th book of Proverbs reminds us that we must constantly be learning in order to grow in our relationship with God. "Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights." (Prov. 18:15) The next time I experience a set back in my spiritual journey Iwill remember the spider's web. And as I move forward, I will hopefully move the web closer to my home.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Did you forget me?

On Saturday we all witnessed a game that was less than competitive. Despite their efforts, the Huskers were no match for the Trojans. The game reminded me of a soccer game I officiated two nights earlier. It was an under 10 contest that featured two teams which were very different from each other. One was quick and skilled, while the other was not so quick and still learning the game.

Within two minutes, the skilled team was ahead. After 10 minutes they had three goals. At half time, it was 6 to nothing. As I watched this unfold, it was tough to see eight boys celebrate their dominance while eight others wondered if they would ever have something to cheer about. At the final whistle, it was 12 to nothing. I did my best to console the boys and their coach and reminded them that things would get better.

For us, sometimes we find ourselves watching other people celebrate great things and wonder if God has forgotten us. In Psalm 13, David asks that very question, "how long will you forget me?" I know that I have prayed that before - God, have forgotten my needs? Will you ever give me my moment of celbration.

But as David puts it at the end of Psalm 13, God's love is unfaling. That means He won't forget us. And we can trust in him. And we will have our time to celebrate.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Last Thursday I traveled to Holdrege to pick up Jackson from his Aunt's. I arrived at dinner time so we enjoyed a pizza hut feast before we left. I thought I would let Jackson play a while longer before we took off, but the weather had different plans. Shortly after dinner, it started pouring outside. I had not checked the forecast and my family didn't have TV yet, so I made a split second decision - leave quickly and try to get ahead of the weather.

Once we left Holdrege, the rained stopped and I thought my strategy worked. However, once I reached Kearney, the sky began to look very scary. I stopped for gas and ran in quickly with Jackson for a pit stop. On my way out I heard the clerk's radio and the storm warning identified the monsoon just outside of Gibbon. I knew it would be close, but pressed on.

Twenty minutes later, the storm had slowed traffic to about 50mph. The hail and wind kicked in and forced me and other drivers to the shoulder for more than a few minutes. When I first pulled over, I turned to Jackson (who was finding it impossible to go to sleep) and told him to pray to Jesus for help. He did. And with every question about the rain and when it would stop, I asked him to pray, and he did. Before long, Jackson was praying without my prompting, and it became obvious that he was calmer than I was. I know he was unaware of how bad the storm was, but I was still amazed. His childlike faith was growing right before my eyes and not only did it comfort me, but it inspired me. No matter what the storm, I hope my faith can be 2 years old a lot more in the future.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Contemplating Yardwork

First off, the answer to last week's question - 3500 (according to Mythbusters).

Yesterday I spent a few hours, as I do every week, mowing and trimming my yard. Plus, I had a few other chores that I came up with to make sure the lawn was looking swell. After I was finished though, one thing was clear; my front yard looked twice as good as the back yard. Because of the abudance of shade and my preference to keep up the front more than the back (expecially with trimming), the back yard as suffered a bit. Fungus has attacked the lawn in the back leaving unsightly brown spots and weeds have crept up along the back fence. But I continue to do just enough with the back yard since I know that less people will see it, and frankly, I am tired of keeping up with it.

It really made me think about our spiritual lives. We all have the areas that are easier to take care of and more visible. Maybe our work performance or our relationship with our friends. Then, there are the things that require more attention and are tougher to keep up with; our family life, our daily time with God, and managing our finances properly. These things will only be seen by a few so instead of doing our best, we are tempted to just get by with the minimum.

The cost of neglegance to our spiritual and home life is much greater, of course, then neglecting our back yard. But I have to say that it is just as easy for us to allow this pattern to develop. If we allow things to go for too long, the results can be disasterous. Jesus told the Pharisees that they were "white washed tombs." That is, they were shiny clean on the outside, but dead on the inside. We should do all we can to avoid this label.

We are usually neglecting something in our spiritual and family life. The only question is, what are you going to do about it? I have recently been asking myself that and doing the hard clean up work necessary to make sure the outside and inside (or front and back yard if you like) match up. The time, energy, and emotion aren't easy to spend, but the price is worth paying if you want your whole life in God's hands.