Noah, why a vineyard?

 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" Hebrews 12:1

Most people know about the story of Noah and the flood but not so many know about the story of Noah and the Vineyard. It is a strange story with disturbing hints that are really uncomfortable. I'm not going to look at what happened between Noah and his son but instead ask a question, "Noah, why a vineyard?"

Some might say that after being in a boat with a bunch of animals and his family, he might have thought, "I need a good stiff drink." However, it takes time to grow a vineyard and it takes time for grape juice to become fermented enough to produce wine. According to my research, which wasn't deep I admit, it can take three to five years. So it took a lot of work to get that drink.

Could it have been that since he hadn't drunk in a while he got drunk and passed out before he realized what was happening?

These questions we don't have the answers to, but I will look at them in light of Hebrews 12:1. What if Noah had a problem, a weakness, and decided after everything he had gone through he had the right to indulge a little? (Sure, none of us would do anything like that, or maybe we would?) 

The truth as I see it is there are many times when we finish a big project or complete a challenging task we excuse ourselves and give in to those things which may not be the best for us. Like eating out at a buffet after losing some weight, it may not be disastrous but it works against what you have been striving for. On top of that, we often feel like we deserve to "treat" ourselves, but is this really treating ourselves or simply an excuse to give in to something we know we shouldn't do?

Noah spent a lot of time preparing to enjoy himself, but I wonder if later he wished he would have done something else? For me, this is a reminder to guard your life, especially after a victory.

Photo by Annie Lang on Unsplash

Potential

Or NOT!

 I just finished listening to Jon Acuff’s Podcast “All It Takes is a Goal.” He was talking about his new book about living into your potential. Thankfully what I was hearing so far was good and realistic. Nothing about how everything will be perfect and if you’re living into your potential the universe will realign to meet your needs. He never does that kind of cheesy stuff, even if he is a queso guy. Do I agree with everything he’s ever said, no but that’s okay as I find his style motivating for me. Well, enough about Jon, I want to think about potential.

Potential is a confusing thing. For most of us in the West we think living into your potential is running three or four businesses, making money hand over fist, and chasing all of your dreams. The truth is that is a lie for most if not all of us. Potential is not workaholism or even what others think you ought to do. It’s related to what you can really do.

For a mother of three on a limited income, living to your full potential for this week may be keeping the kids fed and cleaned and having the self-control to not buy something just because you have the credit to do so. For an older person with disabilities in the nursing home living into your full potential might be getting up, eating in the dining room, and not yelling at that neighbor who never quits complaining.  

I’m just posting a blog today, but I want us to realize potential is related to what we have, not what we wish we had. For me today writing an okay blog post is part of fulfilling my potential. If I continue to work on my writing it may someday include writing scholarly papers and great world-renowned books, but that is only if I work on what I have today and strengthen it.

There are some things that I have decided are possible for me to do. I have the potential for it, but I’m choosing not to do it. Like I have the potential to be a great, which means terrible, alcoholic. However, I believe that is not a good place for me to go. There are things that people may tell you that you need to invest your potential in but it may be just as bad an idea as me becoming an alcoholic. You have to decide. What are you going to invest in? What you invest in be that reading, writing, drinking, working, etc. is where you put your potential because, at the end of the day, your potential is tied up in one thing. How you spend your time and energy you have.

So are you spending your time and energy on what is important to you, your family, and to God? If you’re not then you are wasting your potential.

Side note: Resting isn’t wasting potential, it’s renewing it, but that is a conversation for another blog. 

Vengeance is Mine!?

 

Vengeance is mine!

I have a right to revenge!

Well, not if you're following Christ. Throughout Scripture, the admonition is to be one that trust God to deliver vengeance. However, this is hard. We do feel that we have the right. The question I have been asking is “Why?.”

Why do we think that we have to get even? Why do we think we need to “Make it right!”

One reason is that we feel we need to be God or at least a god. This goes back to the original sin in the Garden of Eden. We want the right to judge good from evil, right from wrong, for ourselves (and though we often don’t want to admit this part but for everyone else as well). Christians, however, are supposed to have made God, well, God in our lives.  The logical conclusion is that this may be true for some but it isn’t the reason for everyone.

The second reason is a matter of trust. In Mark 9, the man with the son with a demon was asked, “Do you believe?” The man wisely responded, “Lord I believe, Help my unbelief.” Christians and others believe God will give final judgment, but we doubt it will be enough or soon enough. If we believed that someone would soon die if they hurt us or someone we loved if we did nothing, would we feel the need to attack them? Probably not. Especially once one or two dropped dead not long after doing it. However, we don’t often see God’s judgment fall in this world, and more often than we would like people don’t even face prosecution in this world. Therefore, I can’t help but think, we believe they are actually getting away with it.

As I see it, for most people the idea of revenge is rooted in the idea that the person who has wronged you is going to get away with it. We don’t really believe they will face justice. Perhaps then when we are faced with the desire for revenge we need to go to God and say, “God I believe that you are the righteous judge, I believe that people will face the consequences of their actions. However, God… help my unbelief.”

 

Side note: I am not saying that we shouldn’t seek justice or let people get away with wrong. We should stand up against injustice and prosecute wrongdoers. However, our attitude needs to trust that God will ultimately make things right. 

All Things?

Once a pastor was visiting his sister’s family when a bad snowstorm stuck. For days they were stranded until finally they all showed signs of hypothermia and the two youngest children went to sleep for the last time. The father was in denial of their situation and tried to look on the bright side and ignore the looming truth. The eldest son had a mental breakdown and sat rocking back and forth muttering the Lord’s Prayer under his breath and completely disconnected from reality. The mother and the pastor then got into a debate, the pastor said that, in the long run, no matter what happened to them it would be a good thing because God works everything together for good. The mother disagreed arguing that the deaths of three children could never be good and even if God had a plan, they were to suffer a cruel fate.

When they arrived at the kingdom of Heaven the two little children were greeted by God first, their innocence and purity shining like stars and they laughed and ran off to play. God greeted the elder brother next, taking away the anxiety that had plagued him since birth and revealing the brave young man he had always been. Next, God greeted the father, who wept and God whipped his tears away and showed him how he had lived the life of a righteous man who never stopped having hope. The pastor was next and he fell before God, knowing all his unworthiness and all those whom his ministry hadn’t reached, but in his love, God showed him all the souls that he had saved through his lifetime of service and all those who would yet still join them in paradise due to his efforts.

Lastly, the mother stood all alone having seen her family enter. “Why am I here?” She asked, “When push came to shove, I doubted You. I doubted in Your plan, and I doubted in how You make all things good.”

“Beloved,” God replied, “My own Son, who I love, doubted that I was with Him on the cross. You asked how the deaths of your children could be good, it was not good, it was a tragedy. But I will turn that tragedy into a miracle to soften the hard heart of your mother, so that she too will one day enter into my kingdom. Doubt doesn’t mean you don’t love Me, it means you’re human.”

My youngest daughter recently had a dream that served as the inspiration for this story. As my youngest daughter wrote this, she is suffering from a disease that makes her life miserable and has for years and is also has gotten worse. She lives at home with her mother and me and is unable to keep a job and often unable to get out of the house. She often wonders in the middle of the worst times of this disease if it would have been better if she hadn't been born. I am sharing this to let you know this wasn't written by a person who is just sitting behind a desk with perfect health and a well-paid job, it wasn't.

Did Jesus fail? (No)

Did Jesus fail when he appointed Judas an apostle or did he give Judas the opportunity to be something more and Judas chose otherwise? Sometimes we fail, and sometimes we don't fail but situations and people cause unexpected results.  If we were doing the right thing, maybe an unwanted result is not a real failure. Jesus did all the right things. He had all the right motives. He actually had the best in mind for Judas, but Judas chose otherwise. When we examine our lives we need to be willing to take a chance knowing that we can give our best and things not go as we wanted. This isn't a failure, it's life. Isn't it the fact that Jesus had a failure? Maybe not, Jesus offered the right path, but Judas had failed. Jesus had success with all the others. We don't look at Jesus as being a failure because of Judas so why do we give ourselves such a hard time for a failure?

Decide now how you're going to respond to negative comments and criticism because they are going to come. If you're not prepared you'll probably react badly. Choose now to act like Jesus not to take offense and to continue to do the right thing 

A Very Small Chapter

Just for the fun of it. I have decided to place here a new chapter I wrote for a story I thought was mostly finished. It is being dropped in a place where there is a slight drag in the story.  

 Conquest (leader of the renegade gorillas) sat a little ways from the camp keeping watch. His brow furrowed as he listened to the sounds of the forest. The group he had with him was still close enough that Conquest could still hear the sounds of the large birds in the trees not far away waiting till morning to continue feasting on the dead. Other sounds were moving in the direction where they had come from reminding him that these birds weren’t the only creatures who fed on the dead.  

Conquest straightened his back, lifted his head, and whispered “Let them do what they will, soon we will give them even more to feast on. I fear nothing.” His final words had a slight quiver in them. Conquest in spite of his words was afraid.

“Soon everything will be in place.” Conquest paused but looked out into the dark as if inspecting something only he could see. He could see it in his mind everything laid out and prepared. He looked over to where Link slept. “Little spy you don’t even realize you’re sleeping next to one of my newest weapons.” With those last words, Conquest focused on Max.  

A smile crossed Conquest’s face. It wasn’t a happy smile. It was a smile filled with meanness. If Max or Link had seen that smile, they might have run in fear or just shook falling to the ground. “As promised,” Then Conquest's smile became even wider, “I will become Master of the forest.”  

It was at that moment even I the teller of this story had to look away. When I looked back it was as if Conquest’s eyes reached across space and meet mine. I was afraid. How could Conquest see a person writing a story far, far away? I nearly quit writing leaving this tale unfinished but then it happened.

“Not even the Creator can stop me,” Conquest said through gritted teeth.

The spell was broken. Conquest lied and deep down inside he knew it.

Illustration by Don Lee. 

Walking Between The Types (the personality types that is)

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT

Jesus did a lot of intense ministry. However, if you read carefully, you see a pattern of rest. You see him taking time to go to parties, going off alone, and sleeping when others couldn’t. We do have times where the Bible specifically says he prayed all night but other times he went off alone or went off alone with his disciples. Yes, he did the occasional miracle on the Sabbath, but other than that he didn’t break it even by the Pharisees' standards.  I don’t see it as unscriptural to say he took days off and made sure to get a good night’s sleep. Looking at the number of times God commanded rest and feasts, I believe Jesus would not have been called a driven person but neither could he be called a type-B personality either.

So how does that apply to us and this scripture? Jesus lived the yoke he called us to wear. He worked hard, rested well, take time away, and when the time is right have a party. So maybe we should go and do likewise. 

This might not make you laugh, but it should make you smile because you can relax a little.