The Benefits of Evil

Have you ever heard someone argue it is impossible for a loving God to exist when there is so much evil in the world?  I believe the opposite -- the existence of evil is necessary for a loving God to exist.  Imagine what life would be like if there was only one football team, one political party or one religion.  Without evil, there is no conflict.  No contrast.  No free will.  Here are the benefits of evil:

1. Evil cannot hide.  When you follow the paper trail, everything points to bad choices and wrong turns.  Evil provides the road map leading us away from all that is good.  Avoid these perilous roads and you will find all that is good.
2. Evil is like a barometer.  It tells us what is ahead.  The more it rises, the closer we are to the climax.  
3. Evil uses dirty tricks to fool its followers.  Injured players are carted off the field believing their life is over due to the consequences of their actions.  When these players go through rehab and recover from their injuries, they discover free agency and find new life.  These reformed players who come from the dark side teach us the best lessons about evil.
4. Evil is God's best cheerleader.  It may be pretty good at tempting others to follow, however, when the fans are wallowing in misery, the other side looks like the better team.
5. Evil provides us with a choice.  It offers a band wagon for those who prefer to go in a different direction.  When the wheels start falling off the cart headed for Hell, disgruntled fans can switch teams.  God's bandwagon is for followers who believe in winners and everyone is welcome.

How To Find Your Holiday Spirit

Got the Holiday blues?  Maybe you find yourself shouting "Bah, humbug" this time of year when your ghosts of Christmas past, present and future haunt you like a bad nightmare.  Black Friday crept past its boundary lines and invaded Thanksgiving, transforming it into a game of tackle football we play at the mall while the turkey is still digesting.  Here are some ideas to help you find your Holiday Spirit:

1. Keep it simple.  Spend time with the ones you love.  Gather around the fireplace and let others know how much they mean to you.
2. Tune in to a Christian radio station for the next thirty days and pay attention to the lyrics.  The marketers want you to believe it's all about Black Friday.  God wants you to believe it's all about His Son.
3. Do some inside decorating.  There is a space inside you where Jesus wants to live.  Ask yourself, "am I giving Him enough room?"  Get rid of all the clutter inside you and allow the Holy Spirit to bring in the Holiday cheer.
4. Christmas is not about getting... it's about giving.  Your Holiday Spirit will roar like a bonfire when you share your gifts with others who need some Holiday cheer.
5. The best way to say "Merry Christmas" is with your actions rather than your words.  The world may try to take Christ out of Christmas.  This is impossible as long as Jesus is living in your heart.  He will always be the source of your Holiday Spirit.

My First Freeze

The outside temperature last night was 17℉, the same number as our youngest son's age.  I wonder if our daughter's prayers for a white Christmas have anything to do with this.  My wife surprised me with an early Christmas present to celebrate the change in weather.  The new microfleece hood looks like something the knights wore during the Middle Ages.  This gift is on my top ten list of things I'm thankful for.

The odds makers are wondering if this family will survive our first Iowa winter far away from the beaches of Southern California.  I have a secret weapon to keep my heart warm.  Her radiance heats up even the coldest room.  She makes me feel like her knight in shining armor, especially when I'm donning my new hood.

Recipe for a Happy Thanksgiving

When our oldest son was old enough to talk, he would rush into our bedroom at sunrise and say, "sun up, daddy up."  I never needed an alarm clock.  Every day was like Thanksgiving.  We taught our children that grumpies are not allowed in our home.  We set up a ritual for exterminating grumpies on rare days when they invaded.  No matter where we were, if the grumpies showed up, our children had to wave good-bye to them.  At times, they were stubborn and didn't want to leave, but my wife and I were more stubborn.  We were the ghostbusters of the grumpies and we didn't care how foolish we looked in public.

Holidays can be tough for people; there may not be anyone around to say, "sun up, daddy up."  It's so easy for the grumpies to attack us.  Follow this recipe to put the Happy back in your Thanksgiving:

1. Your mind, body and spirit need the right amount of ingredients to be happy.  Give them the same care and attention you give your turkey.  Allow your body to get 8 hours of sleep every night.  Exercise 30 minutes per day.  Read something uplifting every morning when you wake up. 
2. Give something away to someone who has a case of the grumpies.  The best gifts are your time, your talent or your treasure.
3. Make a list of 50 things you are thankful for and read it to your family when you sit down for your Thanksgiving meal.  Encourage your family to make their own list.  Click here to see my list from a blog story I wrote at the beginning of the year.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.  I'm thankful you visit when you get the opportunity.  If you have a recipe to share about how you put the "Happy" in your Thanksgiving, please share in the comments section.

Five Tiny Seeds In My Garden

Many people in my new hometown have their own gardens and they are quick to share a sumptuous tomato with this California transplant.  They probably find my attitude about gardening a little peculiar.  Who in their right mind plants hope seeds?  As a leftie, I argue I'm in a small minority who do operate out of their right minds. I planted five seeds in my garden labeled hope, one for each member of my family.  The seeds sprouted at various intervals and required different degrees of care in order to reach maturity. Here are some gardening tips for anyone interested in trying these seeds:

1. The first hope seed you plant must be for yourself.  The entire garden fails if you do not believe in hope.  Plant this seed in fertile soil and nurture it with love and tender care.
2. The second seed is equally important to your own personal hope seed.  This seed pushed through the ground in my garden like a newborn baby emerging from its mother's womb, eager to be a part of a whole new world.  I will never fully understand the composition of this seed, however, it appears to be deeply rooted in faith.
3. Your decision to expand your garden of hope seeds is limited only by your own imagination.  Hope doesn't need an over-size plantation or an ideal climate.  What it needs is a commitment to nurture every seed planted until maturity is reached.  There were times when my hope seeds behaved more like weeds.  When they rebelled, I talked with them, telling them I knew they never belonged to me, but to the One who loaned them to me.  My job as the gardener is to water each seed with love and encourage each plant to bask in the sunlight.

Jesus talked about the mustard seed, the tiniest seed in the world.  In Luke 17:6, He said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you."  If you can do that to mulberry trees, ponder what you can do with hope seeds.  Plant some in your garden today.

When The Chips Are Down

You don't need to look too far to see an individual or a family in a crisis mode.  That person may be as close as your bathroom mirror.  Uncle Sam wants more of your chips, banks are slower to multiply them and Mother Nature has a way of draining them when she goes on a tirade.  Here are five ideas to help you or anyone you know stay in the game when the chips are down:

1. Take a hard look at how you spend your chips.  It's the small things that eat your budget.  Bring a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to work.  Shop at thrift stores.  Check out garage sales.  
2. Do it yourself.  My new Iowa home needed a face lift and I opted to paint it myself.  I asked the owner for free paint and went to work.  The whole family is pitching in, saving us thousands of dollars.  Hint:  If you decide to paint, use Frog tape for a professional look.
3. Stop borrowing chips.  Your chips will never work for you if you are using them to pay interest.  The best way to do this is to pay cash for everything.
4. Stash a few chips away in the cookie jar every month for emergencies.  Don't raid the cookie jar unless you have a legitimate need.
5. Be thankful for the chips you have and stay positive.  The quickest way to rebuild after a loss is to maintain an attitude of gratitude.  If you think the deck is stacked against you and the world owes you something, it's time to rethink and change your approach.  Life does not have to be fair but it does present you with opportunities to make a contribution to the world no matter how many or how few chips you have.  Make every chip count.

How to Become Wise

Day 1.  I prayed for wisdom.  God sent me a race track filled with hurdles.  Then He said, "run."  The first day didn't go very well.  My leg clipped the first hurdle and I hit the ground hard.  No more hurdles today, I thought while limping home with two bloody knees and a bruised ego.

Day 2.  I repeated my request for wisdom.  Before I could blink, I was back on the race track in a sea of hurdles.  The same voice roared like a lion.  "Run!"  I responded like an obedient Forrest Gump and sped right into the first hurdle, bouncing around like those dummies they use when crash testing new automobiles.  Stupid is as stupid does, I thought while staring at Heaven from underneath the menacing hurdle.  Final score after day two -- hurdles 2, fool 0.

Day 3.  No more prayers for wisdom.  I was done with hurdles.  That's when I discovered wisdom is not just about hurdles -- it's more like a decathlon.  Long story short, I spent the next three decades long jumping dangerous ravines, pole vaulting over challenges, and spearing troubles with my javelin.  I became a master of hurdles, my new best friend.  The scar on my right knee cap is my daily reminder wisdom is not cheap.

Today.  I feel like Tom Hanks in Cast Away.  I'm ready to leave the island, no longer a prisoner of my own foolishness.  For those brave souls who pray for wisdom, I offer one word of advice -- Run!