In what ways will cooperation make your life / work / relationships more successful?

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What Bible study resources do you find valuable?

“Do not pick up your pencil or turn your paper over until I tell you…”.

“Ready?”

“Answer every question in order and do everything it says…”. 

“Set…”

“Don’t skip any questions…”.

“GO!”

Committed to my game plan, I skimmed through the questions.  I read the words, but the directions of the very first question never penetrated the adrenaline coursing through my brain.  I remember writing some things.  ”Easy“, I thought to myself.  In my peripheral vision, I could see other kids working furiously.  I was determined I was going to win this one!  So I pressed even harder…

“Hmm…”  One of the questions required me to stand up and say the alphabet aloud.  So, I did.  Snickers drifted through the room, but soon, another kid was reciting, then another.  Another question had us say aloud the color of our socks (I think).  ”White…”

Soon enough, all the questions were answered, and I victoriously laid down my pencil, turned my test over, and raised my hand.  With a wide grin, I looked toward my teacher, Mrs. Sara.  Mrs. Sara didn’t look too happy.

Shortly, all the pencils were down, and the testing was complete.  Because I finished first, I would now have my moment in the spotlight!

Mrs. Sara asked me to repeat the directions to the test.  I answered,  ”Um, read every question, work as fast as you can, um, do everything each question said, um, don’t skip any…”

“Eric, turn your paper over, and read to the class the first question.”

Uh, oh….

My stomach sank when I read question one; “1. Do not go any farther on this test.  Please put your pencil down.  The test is over.”  (or something similar- it has been 37 years…).

I missed the first, and most important question of the entire test.  I was the first loser, the first to fail because I didn’t take the time to read and understand the first question.

No glory, no praises.  Only emptiness and failure.

In Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 6, verse 33, Jesus is teaching about worry, and the fact that there is no value in worrying.  The answer we often overlook in the frenzy of life?  ”But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.”

No hype, no glory.  Don’t miss the answer to the first question in life.  Seeking first the kingdom of God will take care of all the other questions.  Eternity, hope, salvation, freedom, anything.  It all starts here.

What areas of your life need to be filtered through Matthew 6:33?

Now for the hilarious part… thanks to the modern marvel of digital technology, the prayer has been ‘songified’.  What is that?, you ask?

Here you go.  No thanks necessary….

I’m not really sure who ‘they’ are, but from where I sit, they are right.  Today, August 9, 2011, Jane and I celebrate 25 years of marriage!  In so many ways, it seems just just a short time ago when we stood at the altar at Hillcrest Baptist Church in Hopkinsville, KY, to exchange our vows, for two lives to become one.  At the same time, our lives have been so active, so full of joy, so difficult, so fun, so challenging, that it seems hard to believe that we have crammed so much living into 25 short years.

Yet, when I look at this picture made on our wedding day, time seems to stand still.  Jane Benson, you still take my breath away.  I am so blessed, as a matter of fact, that I believe some thank-you’s are in order:

To God- Thank You!  Thank You!  THANK YOU!

To George and Frances Benson, thank you for teaching Jane about Jesus and helping her grow in the love and admonition of the Lord. You two made a beautiful little girl!

To Jane- while I would make some decisions differently (Hare Jordan, the Thunderbird, and the Perazzi shotgun come to mind), the decision to spend my life with you is a decision I’d make 1000 times over.

Finally, to all the other guys who wanted to go out with Jane and try and win her heart, just let me say…

you lose…I Win!

I love you, Jane.  Happy Anniversary!

Thanks for noticing that I have taken a short break from writing.  I have been working on tidying up this blog, making it a personal observation, personal stories- type platform, and am developing a separate professional blogging platform for the serious stuff.

Please stand by- with my 25th anniversary on the horizon, I’m sure I’ll have some great stories to tell!

Life is Good!

Daddy grew up on a farm in West Tennessee.  He dropped out of school to work on the farm- at least that’s what he told me.  I’m sure it had nothing at all to do with the fact that he really disliked school.  Really.  Disliked.  School. Anyway, even into his final years, Daddy felt it necessary to raise a garden.  Farming and gardening was in his blood.  He loved working the soil, watching the amazing transformation of seeds sewn in naked, brown, rich earth to hilly, grassy patch, to finally, a grassy patch that had some beans growing in it.  Well- beans, tomatoes, peppers, corn, watermelon and cantaloupes… you get the idea.  Rows and rows of wholesome fruits and vegetables, grown by hand; soil worked in the early morning before the sun was its hottest; rows watered and fertilized to offer the greatest harvest possible.  And by the time you counted the seed and fertilizer and water costs, the time involved, you could actually purchase the food at the market or grocery store for less.   But, nooooo, Daddy wanted a garden.  It was in his blood, you know.

Toward the end of one corn-growing season, Daddy noticed that the raccoons or ‘possoms or some other nocturnal animal was getting in his corn.  He would find cobs, gnawed bare, in piles on the ground, or sometimes even still on the stalk, half-eaten and still dripping with corn juice (Yes, there is juice in corn).  Daddy was convinced the animals were coming across the highway to his garden, doing the damage, then escaping back across to the fields and woods beyond.

Having had enough of losing corn to the local wildlife, Daddy devised a sure-fire plan to scare off the marauders, and save the corn crop he could have purchased for less at Kroger.  Daddy’s plan was brilliant and simple: in the evening, he would put a two-way radio inside an ice cream bucket, and leave it in the garden next to the corn rows, power turned on.  During the evening and night, following each hourly trip to the, um, library, Daddy would transmit from the radio’s twin some kind of banshee scream followed by something like, “You’d better get out of my corn, you dadgum, good-for-nothing, theivin’ peckerwoods, or I’m gonna come down there and gitcha!”  This would happen several times a night, because, uh, Daddy read a lot.  There was one tiny flaw in the plan-though I’m sure that through eons of evolution, by now all the animals in the forest have learned to understand english, would obey the threat, and maybe apologize on the way out.  The flaw was that the ‘coons had been stealing from that garden for a long time, and would not be deterred by an old man’s voice coming from an empty ice cream bucket, no matter what the voice said.

Confident and committed, Daddy put his plan in motion- one ice cream bucket, empty of its intended contents, and replaced with a Motorla Two-Way radio, lid open ever-so-slightly.  Bucket placed near the rows of corn.  Power, on….

During the night, on several occasions, Daddy yelled into the radio his prepared threats.  Several times, Mrs. Jean cringed.  The last time, however, she laughed….

The next morning, my Dad went hurriedly down to the garden to check his crop.  Confident his plan worked and he would find his corn intact, he went straight to the stalks for the examination.  He didn’t consider, however, that my clever and sneaky step-mother had been paying attention to the operation of that little radio transmitter.  He didn’t consider that she enjoyed a joke as much as he did.  And just as he reached the corn rows to check the stalks, my sweet Mrs. Jean let out a banshee yell of her own into that little radio and then shouted, “You’d better get out of my corn, you dadgum, good-for-nothing, theivin’ peckerwood, or I’m gonna come down there and gitcha!”

For several moments, time stood still for Daddy.  Frightened and confused, he looked around to see who was yelling at him.  That’s when he saw the ice cream bucket, lid cracked, and heard Mrs. Jean laughing like a little school girl.

A grin and a knowing cackle escaped the corner of his weathered mouth.  He had been had by his own better half!  Played by his own team!  What’s worse, his brilliant plan failed- the raccoons had gotten his corn again, despite the radio rants during the night. Foiled again!

In my mind’s eye, I can see Mrs. Jean, eyes sparkling and smile gently bending the corners of her mouth, watching dad drive down the road and pull in next to the garden.  I can see her, waiting for just the right moment… waiting… and suddenly giving Daddy quite a shock!  I can also see my dad, that look of clueless surprise he often pulled out- just for fun of it, when he first heard the radio crackle to life; then, the knowing smile and high-pitched laugh that came so often and so easily to him.

No value can be placed on having those kinds of relationships.  I cherish the thoughts of my Dad and Mom, and precious Mrs. Jean and how they have helped shape my own life.  I want to live my life so that someday my wife and kids, my friends and family will remember my easy smile, my silly laugh, and deep compassion for them, and for others.

Happy Father’s Day.  Now, go out and make a memory.

P.S.  You’ll never believe where the raccoons were really living…. but that’s another story for another time….

What are your favorite memories of my dad?  What are your favorite memories of your dad?

But I digress.  One of the benefits of playing organized sports in high school?

Our team had cheerleaders!

All the cute girls with long, flappy hair and perfect teeth and perky personalities got to be cheerleaders.  Sometimes, they rode the basketball bus with us players, but mostly, they were driven to and from games in private cars.  They were special.  And they were loud!  Forcefully out-yelling a gymnasium full of screaming fans is no small feat; but they did it and did it well.  As a team member, I was so glad to have someone on the sidelines cheering for my team.  For one thing, they were all easy on the eyes; that always helps.  And when they cheered, they seemed to help us players summon an extra measure of stamina, of skill, of commitment to the team.  They cheered us on to go further, to do more, to work harder than we could do on our own.

Today, I believe we need cheerleaders more than ever.  As a matter of fact, I believe everyone needs a cheerleader.  Someone to encourage us, to motivate us, to rally us to achieve a specific victory or goal or accomplishment.  Someone to keep us accountable to others as well as ourselves.  And, I believe we all need to be a cheerleader for someone else.

Barnabas was a cheerleader of sorts.  A cheerleader to Paul, Barnabas’ name means “Son of Encouragement”.  Barnabas’ gift was to encourage others to stay away from sin, to complete the task, to achieve the goal.

Everyone needs a cheerleader; everyone needs to be a cheerleader for someone else.

Even when we miss an easy shot…. When we fail an easy test….  When we struggle down the stretch….  When we are tired and stressed….

Be a cheerleader!

Who has been a cheerleader for you?  Who can you cheer for?