Waiting and Anticipating on God’s time…

I remember when the first Star Wars movie came out, I stood in line for an hour or more at the theater. I was excited and did not really know what to expect. Friends who had seen the movie had talked about the special effects, action and all the amazing characters. Even though I had never stood in line to see a movie before I was there with thousands of others around the country waiting and anticipating.

A few years later I was in line again. This time to see the Empire Strikes Back and my very young son was with me. He was even worse at waiting in line then I was. Constantly asking when we were going to get to our seats, fidgeting and even crying. To tell you the truth, if I wasn’t such an adult I would have been doing the same thing. Waiting and anticipating is not something I was good at.

But the fact is that I have spent much of my life in anticipation. As a child waiting for school to begin as the summer faded away. At Christmas counting the days with excitement with results that never lived up to expectations. Later as an adult I wasted many hours sitting in cars waiting for my drug dealer to show or when dealing myself waiting on a buyer. Anticipating that next big job, sure I would score the big bucks. There I was always waiting and anticipating. Life seemed to be one long line at the movie and I was always at the end around the corner and eight blocks down. Fidgeting, crying and saying, “Are we there yet?”

I don’t think I am that much different than anyone when it comes right down to it. We live in a world of immediate gratification and faster is better. Waiting for anything is just not acceptable. My problem is that I thought once I accepted Jesus and the Holy Spirit began to transform me all my angst against waiting and all my anticipation would vanish. I would become this patient persevering guy that is at peace 24/7. Well, it didn’t quite happen that way. Or at least not in the way I had expected.

What I hadn’t expected was that anticipation is not a bad thing or is waiting inherently evil. It just depends where my focus is. In other words what I am anticipating. Let me see if I can explain it better.

Most of my life what I was anticipating was what I like to call a ‘give me’. Something that would bring me temporary pleasure. The remainder of my time would be fearing what I call ‘scary things’, test results, money woes and the list goes on and on. And, of course, just accepting Jesus as my Savior did not change any of these things. It was only when I was ready to recognize and surrender all things to Him that my focus on all of them changed. The ‘give me’ stuff no longer held the luster they once did and the ‘scary things’ were not as frightening. Through prayer I found waiting on His answers was a whole different process.

That took a long time. Because even though I started to pray early in my walk with the Lord. At first, I just transferred all my ‘give me’ and ‘scary things’ into prayers and expected a vending machine answer. Plop, out comes the result as I pressed the prayer button. But it did not work that way. What did happen was I started to see results I had never even imagined. Better things than I had anticipated. Then I saw I could trust the apostle Paul when he said, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. (Philippians 4:6-7) I saw I could wait and anticipate but now on ‘God time’, knowing He would answer.

I still do not like standing in lines. RuthAnn will tell you if we show up at a restaurant and there is a line, it is my inclination to find a less populated and popular place to eat. But I know my prayer life has changed, I guess you could say matured. Like the psalmist I believe I can, “Wait for the LORD, be strong and let your (my) heart take courage, wait on the LORD. (Psalm 27:14) I do trust His answer will be just right. I anticipate and wait but with hope and joy because I trust another promise, Jesus is coming soon! On that day all the waiting will be over and even if I am at the end of the line in the New Jerusalem, I won’t care one bit. In fact, that is one line I am looking forward to.

Blessings John

Love without labels…

In my career as an Ironworker I always hated man camp jobs. Projects that were so far out in the boonies that it was necessary for the crew to actually live onsite. Most of the time I avoided them. The reasons were simple. First, it was hard to get a hold of daily needs such as booze and drugs. And secondly, living with a bunch of guys 24/7 was never my idea of a good time. Way too much testosterone!

The only problem with this was, camp jobs payed big money! And as I have stated here before money was what I worked for and pretty much lived for. So, every now and again I would head into the wilds to get the big payday in as short of a time as I could.

I think my least favorite of these jobs was outside of Pembina, North Dakota, not far from the Canadian border. The job itself was not bad being that it was a coal fire power plant. Lots of work, with over 500 guys ‘camping’ onsite. It was kind of a city in itself. The problem was and I did not know it before signing on, there had been a lot of trouble among the men. As happens even on regular sites carpenters and Ironworkers were at each other’s throats. But on this job, it had expanded into all-out war. Upon arrival I immediately heard that ten guys had been given their papers and sent down the road. The place was really like a war zone.

Again, I ended up on one of my favorite structures. I was assigned to a ‘slip form’ crew that was working on one of the 120’ stacks that would tower over the landscape. Most guys did not like the endless work involved seeing that on this type of construction the rebar and concrete work are continuous. The form keeps raising without stop until it reaches the top. For me I liked staying busy. But I did not know that I had entered into the ‘front’ of the battle that had been going on.

It did not take me long to be drawn in. My crew boss stated in no uncertain terms that the carpenters were the enemy and if I was caught fraternizing with them, there would be consequences. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with this. I had no need to be friendly with anyone, including the carpenters. That is until there was a fly in the ointment. A guy by the name of Jerry Reed.

Yeah, I know what you country and western folks are thinking, but no it was not THAT Jerry Reed. No, this guy was one of my true friends whom I had known since my days living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We had fly fished together, he had been one of the guys who had stood up at my wedding. Carpenter or not this was one of the most stand up dudes I had ever known. And there he was before me, big as life, grinning ear to ear. As happy as I was to see him, I knew this was not going to be good. Was I going to honor the battle lines or extend my hand to a best friend?

Every day we have choices to make. There are lines of conformity that our affiliations demand. Republican or Democrat. Conservative or Liberal. Atheist or Christian. The list is really endless. But the truth is the labels we allow to define us are also the chains that tend to bind us.

What is it today that really decides who and what you are? For so much of my life I hid behind the very labels I am talking about. And it was not until I met Jesus Christ that I was able to see that no matter what side of a line I stand on the person on the other side, is not an enemy. He or she is not someone to be ignored or chastised. They are to be seen through the eyes that see all of us the same, Jesus Christ.

I know this sounds very ‘Kumbaya-ish’. We all gather in a circle holding hands and sing. Kind of like a Pepsi commercial. But that is not what I mean at all. The difference should be that a person who claims to follow Jesus should, through him living in us, see not the label or the hated thing, but the heart.

Of course, this is easier said than done. The preacher DL Moody said, “We have to be emptied before we can be filled.”  And the Apostle Peter said this, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;” (1 Peter 1 22-23) It is a choice only we can make and only God can do. Choosing to submit in obedience to HIS truth we can find true brotherly love that supersedes the world of conflict Satan wants us to live in.

I made the choice back then to shake my friends’ hand. Not out of Christian love. I did not have that in my heart back then. But simply because he was a good guy. I paid the price. Harassed by my boss and sniped at by my co-worker’s day and night. I did not last long on that job. Both Jerry and I ‘drug up’ on the same day. As we sat in the parking lot drinking a beer, he said something I still remember, “I wasn’t sure you would shake my hand that day. But I am glad you did. There will always be another job. But a good friend is hard to find.” I shook my head and agreed. We parted and went our separate ways. The war on that job went on until there were wild cat strikes and some real violence. Kind of a microcosm of our world today. I still struggle with it all but am blessed to have a Savior who does not. Try shaking the hand of a person you have problems with today. Let the love of Jesus override the conflict. You will find your heart is better for it.

Blessings

John

8/26/19

 

Thoughts on the moon and more…

I was reflecting the other day on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. I am sure that if you were alive in 1969 you know exactly where you were on that day in July when Neil Armstrong left that LEM and stepped on to the surface of the moon, saying those now famous words, “That’s one small step for [a] man and one giant leap for mankind.” I sure know where I was! A little background first.

My mother was born in a little town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan called Ishpeming. Just so you know the UP, as it is known to its residents, is the part of the state that is north of Wisconsin and is only connected to ‘lower Michigan’ by the Mackinaw Bridge. It is beautiful country. Filled with cold water fishing streams and forests, which if not what they once were, are still massive and majestic. You are probably thinking what does this have to do with Apollo 11 and the moon? The thing is, we, meaning my family, spent most of our summer vacations in Upper Michigan and that is where most of us were on July 20, 1969.

But what makes it even more memorable is that on the days prior to and at the exact moment we were not watching it on TV but only had a small radio to follow this momentous event. A couple of years before we had built my father’s dream, a log cabin in a clearing in the woods 100’ from the shore of the Switezer Basin. To me, a kid who lived 5 miles from the newly built Ohara Airport. In the noisy, fast moving suburbs of Chicago, this place was a little piece of heaven. We were ‘roughing it’!

The cabin had 4 log walls, a concrete floor, an old wood cook stove and best of all no electricity. So as Neil Armstrong was stepping off the most modern and sophisticated invention of man so far, I sat near a flickering oil lamp and struggled to hear a weak signal from a transistor radio while most of the world huddled around their televisions and experienced the miracle of our time, a man on the moon. But to me then and to me today it could have not been a more perfect moment. And every part of that memory lives with me even 50 years later. The smell and sound of the wood burning in the stove. The crackling of the already distorted transmission coming from the radio. The excitement in my father’s eyes. Not one thing has faded.

So why do I share this with you today? I guess part of it is my amazement at how the world has changed since that day, not so long ago. Back then in the years before cell phones and the internet we were a different breed of people. After traveling this past summer with two of our grandkids I cannot imagine them huddled around a transistor radio. We have made so many technological advances with many of them finding their origins in our drive to be the first nation to place its flag on the moon. It begs the question, was it worth what has come as a result?

But even more than the reflections of an old guy who sees the goldenness of my youth being sullied by the modern world, I see the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Did you know that the prophet Daniel spoke of this time in a book that was written six centuries before Jesus was born? Listen to this, “But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” (Daniel 12:4) Doesn’t that sound like our world today? People hurrying and seemingly without direction and our knowledge increasing, at least technologically, at a pace so fast that the phone you bought last month is already outdated. In less than 120 years we have gone from horse drawn carts to self-driving cars. I won’t even speak of the environmental and political condition of our world. Isn’t it enough to make you want to take a deep breath and find a place of peace and hope?

I don’t know about you, but I sure feel it! And for me there is only one source that offers both peace in our hectic world and hope that there is more to this life than reality television and Netflix, it is the Bible. Yeah, I know there are a ton of people who can tell you all the things that are wrong about this book. In my years as a ‘God hater’ I espoused them all. But that was before I allow this book to become an absolute part of my daily life. When I was open to that I learned, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105) or that, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) No other book can claim that and no other book has changed more lives than this one that is so scorned by the modern nay-sayers.

My thought is only you can take the time to prove or disprove the power of God’s Word. You don’t even need to go out and buy a Bible. They are free and you can download it on that device you carry with you everywhere. So, if you too see the signs around you and need better answers than you can find on Wikipedia, maybe today you can open the greatest book ever written. Give it a try.

I know this is kind of a strange blog that seems like a bunch of wandering thoughts. But to tell you the truth that is what most of my writings are. I truly cherish the past and love the memories of things like the landing on the moon. But today I cherish even more the idea of the soon coming of Jesus Christ. I want to be ready for that and want you to be also. It is all in the book, what have you got to lose.

Blessings

John

8/20/19

A friend in Christ…

Have you ever had a mentor in your life? I have had many. In my work career I can think of at least three different guys who took me under their wings. They took the raw talent I had and shaped it into a formidable force. I gained all kinds of knowledge under their tutelage.

But today I am not talking about that kind of mentor. Today I want to talk about a spiritual man who has over our short friendship through his quiet, unshakeable faith has been able to show me the character of God in such a powerful way by just being who he is. Today I want to talk to you about my friend Joey Grimsley.

I am sure some of you reading this who know Joey are already grinning. I bet you are thinking about some time when he has done something in your life that has brightened, enlightened or just filled that empty space with a Godly joy. Joey is that kind of guy. For those of you who have not had the privilege of knowing my friend, I guess the best way to share is to tell the story of our friendship.

It starts months before Joey and I ever met. In an amazing, God-led turn of events in 2016 I ‘met’ RuthAnn on Facebook. I have shared the story here several times. From May through July of that year our only form of communication was through instant messages. Somewhere in July we graduated to actually speaking on the phone. And it was not long after that I first heard the names of RuthAnn’s friends Joey and Robin Grimsley.

I knew very little about them except they lived in a remote part of northern Georgia. A place I had vague and very dated knowledge about because once upon about 3 decades ago I had worked on some TVA dams in the area. Now living a continent away in the wilds of Oregon, none of it rang out solid memories. But the more RuthAnn shared the more I heard about a couple who loved with their hearts, not just their heads. Christians who were really living a Christ like life. I was fascinated that they accepted me as their friend without even meeting me just because RuthAnn was growing in love for me as I was for her.

As the story goes RuthAnn and I finally met in September when she flew out to Oregon. We knew that there was little doubt that God had drawn us together and after a few more meeting in our trans-continental relationship we decided to marry. It was not until the wedding day itself in late December of 2016 that I finally met Joey and Robin.

As I entered the church and was preparing for the ceremony I was approached by this couple with broad warm smiles. They both hugged me like a long, lost friend. I have to admit, I was already in shock. My stable life in Grants Pass, Oregon was about to be exchanged for a life in Georgia among strangers but meeting these two seemed to give me an easy feeling. Maybe all was going to be alright. Maybe this was not going to be as scary as I thought.

Once I was settled into our life, I found that even though Joey and Robin lived 4 hours away, we met often. Normally for birthdays among a group of friends who had been doing this for quite a while. Again, in this group I felt out of place. RuthAnn’s deceased husband had been a member and I felt like I was intruding in a way. But it was Joey who broke through my fears. Yes, all the others were loving and accepting but Joey quietly and so lovingly let me know his friendship was genuine. It was his presence that was my assurance.

Over the next years Joey was there. When I started writing this blog, he and Robin became my most avid readers, encouraging me in ways that only true friends can. When I was asked to be an elder in the Macon church, it was Joey who I turned to for prayer and counsel. When disappointment and discouragement was handed me in that church it was Joey who had simple words of faith that lightened my heart. Believe me, folks, I am not the only one who knows all this about Joey. Whenever RuthAnn and I visited the Blairsville SDA Church where Joey has been an elder and leader, I saw the same love and respect shown by every person I met. I was treated like an honored guest being a friend of the Grimsley’s.

There is so much more I could write. His strong prayer life strengthened mine. His sense of humor brightened dark corners when I needed it, his calming words and genuine love gave me more than I gave in return. Joey Grimsley changed my life in ways that have drawn me closer to my Savior, what more can I say!

Sadly, yet full of hope. Joey is now facing a terrific struggle with cancer. Everyday his body is battling a battle that only allows him so much time to have the strength to be the man he has been for so long. Robin, family and friends have surrounded him in a circle of love. This last weekend we were blessed to be a small part of that. RuthAnn, I and a few friends spent Sabbath in their home. At one point a group of friends from the Blairsville church arrived. They sang, they prayed, and they returned the love to a man who has loved them unconditionally. I saw in that time a bit of what heaven is going to be like. All of it because of the love of Jesus Christ shown through my friend, Joey and his good wife Robin.

Jesus said this, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) I have struggled to live this simple but amazingly hard verse, but I can truly say I know a man who does it daily. I love you, my good friend, Joey. The light of Christ in you has been a beacon for this lost man. Thank You!

Blessings,

John

8/12/19

Moment of Faith….William T

I wanted to share one of those moments of faith today. This one is a little different because it actually happened long before I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I guess it would be a retro blessing or something in those terms. Maybe you have experienced it. Someone from your past that the Holy Spirit brings to your remembrance years later and you know that the person was brought into your life to help show you the way. Yet you were not ready at the time to hear or accept it.

That would be William T Rider. Most called him Ride but I always called him William T. And when I first met the guy, all I could think is, what a piece of work he was. William T. was big and black and some even thought he was quite scary. I definitely fell into that category. When we first met on a jobsite, in of all places, Butte, Montana, I did my best to stay out of his way. But that was pretty hard to do seeing I ended up on his crew and seemed to be one of his favorite butt of jokes.

Now, let me admit this. I must have been quite the sight back in those days. Tall and skinny, with hair that fell to the middle of my back. A scraggly beard and a constant scowl on my face. Some said I had a pretty big chip on my shoulder. I just thought of it as hating life. But William T, well he thought it was funny.

Every morning when he would come in the lunchroom, what we called a ‘dry shack’, he would spot me and say, “Ahh, there is my little piece of sunshine! Hippy,” (what he always called me, I was never sure till sometime later if he knew my name) he would say, “You are one of the ugliest white boys I have ever known.” Some mornings it would vary but it was always about the same, William T, like to tease me senseless then during the day work me without mercy. I really hated life and the truth be known, hated William T. Rider.

But the one thing I loved back then was money and the Butte job was the kind I sought out and no one, and I mean no one was going to chase me away from the money. So, day after day, I seethed, gritted my teeth and did my job. Then one morning, William T came through the door and said nothing to me. That day he gave me a choice job and at the end of the day sought me out as I was heading out the gate. Putting his big hand on my shoulder he said, “John,” I was in shock, he did know my name! “I got to tell you.” He said, “You, man, are your own worst enemy.” I stopped and turned. All the frustration of the last month was in my heart and now I was going to let this guy know, “Listen, MAN, you been on me ever since I walked through these gates. I work twice as hard as most these guys and you have been trying to get me to drag up since day one. It aint going to work, so don’t come talking to me now. I’ll do my job and you can just get ____” I won’t write the word I said, but it was mean and hard spirited.

William T could have broke me in two, I knew that, but I did not care, nor did I expect what his reaction would be. He lifted his face toward the sky and started to laugh and laugh until tears were actually in his eyes. Finally, he could see I was not thinking this was all that funny and turned serious again. And it is what he said that has stayed with me. He said, “John, I am sorry, I have been ugly toward you. You are right. That first day I saw you I thought, this is one sorry excuse for an Ironworker. I wanted to run you off. It was not just the way you looked. Although, I have to say, that did not impress me. But it was your ugly attitude. It is always guys like you who poison a crew. Complaining and griping, but you did none of it. In fact, you one of the best workers I have ever had.” He stopped then and again put his hand on my shoulder. Beginning again, he said, “That is where I messed up. I should have stopped but I did not want the guys to like you, so I kept on getting on you. So, I am here to say, I judged you wrongly and tomorrow morning I am going to make it right. I am going to admit to the whole crew what I am telling you right now. You see, I believe this, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” Do you know who said that?” I shrugged and had some memory that it must be from the Bible somewhere and said, “Yeah, I guess, it is some Christian saying. But don’t get all religious on me. I get what you are saying and that is enough.”

With that I turned without saying another word. My anger was not abated but William T, was as good as his word. The next day he came in and started with his normal line, “Ahh, there is my little piece of sunshine…” But then told my crew mates the exact thing he had told me. I could see some of the guys were thinking he was joking but as the days went by, they saw he was a man of his word. So did I. I also began to notice that this big man was not scary at all, he did little things I hadn’t noticed before. He would give a guy $50 to hold him over till pay day. Or he would be listening as someone was sharing his troubles. I found out that I had been judging him too. His size, his blackness, his attitude toward me. It changed me a bit even back then. People noticed the chip on my shoulder was not as big. I tried to be a leader and work even harder. For the next three months, I was a better man for being around William T. Rider.

As with all construction life, I moved on to the next job. I never met William T again. I did hear sometime later he was ordained a Baptist minister. It did not surprise me. And I heard not long after that, he had passed away. He faded into the recesses of my mind and I never gave him another thought until one day I was reading the Beatitudes. That verse, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” From the book of Matthew Chapter 7, verses 1 & 2. Even though by that time I had read it countless times, I heard William T’s voice and I saw that look of… love is the only word that comes to mind. I knew that he had made me a better man even before Jesus made me a forgiven one. I am blessed to have known him and blessed to share him with you.

Blessings

John

8/7/19