Month: May 2018

What is your favorite thing to do? Next question, is it the same as when you were a kid? I wonder how many people would answer yes. I guess my problem is that I do not remember what my favorite thing was before I was in 4th grade. But after that it was basketball.

I was always tall for my age and the Catholic grade school I attended had a good basketball program. There was a junior varsity for kids 5th and 6th grade. And there was a varsity for 7th and 8th graders. This school was regularly scouted by local high schools who were looking to get them a freshman that could bolster their programs. Most kids who were really good ended up going to one of the local Catholic high schools and became stars. It was the way it worked back then in Chicago and probably a lot of other big cities.

Being a tall kid in 4th grade the man who was the schools coach for both JV and Varsity tried to interest me in the sport. What he did not know was that I was tall alright, but I had to be the clumsiest kid in my class. I had the proverbial two left feet. That along with growing spurts that measured in inches made me an unlikely prospect. And the truth is when I decided to try out for the team once I was in 5th grade, I was terrible.

I remember him trying to teach me the basics of dribbling, shooting and rebounding. I was so bad his advice was I get involved in the intermural program we had at the school and see if I could improve. That is what I did. Throughout 5th grade I played every Saturday morning. I really began to love the game and was determined to be good enough to make the team the next year.

That did not happen either. Tall and skinny, with better skills I still failed to make the roster in 6th grade. But, boy, did I practice. My dad put up an old rim and backboard on the garage. It was rickety and if I remember right fell off a few times. But I spent hours in my driveway honing my skills.

It worked! The next year I made the Varsity team and even though I sat on the bench most of the year, I kept improving. By 8th grade I was 6th man and some of the high schools showed interest. I never attended any of them. Instead I ended up in a Catholic seminary, where my love of the game continued to grow. By my Junior year I had spent so much time practicing and working that I was good enough to make honorable mention for small schools.  An honor for those who had stand out stats but not good enough for the all city teams. Hard work and love of the game paid off.
The thing I see, looking back at my love of that game was it made me a better player and really an over-achiever. Since I have come to serve Jesus Christ, I often wonder why I don’t have the same zeal and persistence as that kid who spent hour upon hour filling his life with all the things he needed to be as good as he could at the game. As a Christian, most of the time, I am willing to settle for good enough.

I am certainly not suggesting that I can work my way to heaven or do I believe if I try harder good things will happen. No, I am talking about love here. Why don’t I have a love of Jesus Christ and being a follower of His as I did for a game that in the end means very little? My simple answer is I love this world way too much.

Think of it in your life. How many times do you rush home to see that favorite TV show or watch that game you just can’t miss? How about your job. Hours upon hours dedicated to it. Yeah, you can say, “I got to make a living!” I won’t argue with that. But do you or do I love this world and spent all our efforts to become the best ‘worldly’ person we could be, or do we make the decision to be the best person the Holy Spirit living in us can be?

Listen to this from the Apostle John, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievement and possessions. These are not from the Father, but of this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (1 John 2:15-17) Today I want to take this to heart. To seek to spend my time pleasing God with all the love as His Son did on the cross. How about you?

I still like basketball but my love of it has faded. So, no it is not my favorite thing anymore. I pray these days that by the leading of the Holy Spirit, I will spend the rest of my days in hour upon hour immersed in the Word and prayer, then show the world I am, through that Holy Spirit, and over-achiever for Christ. Yeah, I got game!

Blessings and Happy Sabbath, John

5/4/18

“What is it all about?” I mumbled to myself at one of the lowest points in my life. I was sitting alone at a bar in Provo, Utah. My latest marriage was in shambles and I had heard from my brother that my son was trying to locate me, but I was still in hiding from those in Washington state where he lived that wanted money or my head and didn’t care which they got. I could not get in contact without endangering me and maybe him too. So, as I sat there all the failures of my life piled up and wanted to bury me.

I could count them. Two marriages and even more affairs all failures. A son who I hadn’t talked to in 5 or 6 years. If that wasn’t enough just 6 months before my second business venture went in the tank. I now had a good job as a general foreman, but I was sure it was a dead end too.

Taking a gulp from the drink in front of me, I could not remember how many I had already downed. I called Mel the bartender over and asked him, “How many of these have I had?” He shrugged and said, “Too many, but what else is new. Just another day in the life, huh, John?” I shrugged back and downed the rest of my drink. Holding up the glass I said, “What am I doing here, Mel? What is all this about?” He gave me a tired expression and I knew he had heard that question many times before. Pouring me a fresh whiskey he said in an almost mechanical tone, “Life is tough and then you die! This is it buddy boy! So, drink up and get your head out of your backside.” Of course, he used a different word, but you get the idea. I so wanted to hear something, anything but that. But I knew he was right. Or at that time I was sure he was.

I left the bar that night so blitzed I could barely walk to my motel room across the street. I was so alone and for a moment I thought how nice it would be if I could just end it all. But as I fell on to the old bed in that musty room something was still alive in me. Something said, “Hang in there!” It would take over twenty years for me to know who had whispered in my ear that night and on many other nights like it. Also, to understand why He was with me.

I know there are many who read this who have asked that age old question, “What is it all about? Or maybe, “Why am I here?” I know that I did for many years and even though I never got an answer. I now know why. I was asking the wrong guy. Or maybe the wrong spirit is a better way of putting it.

It is my belief that when I did not know Jesus, there was another who kept giving me the hopeless feelings and answers that kept me in bondage and close to death. His name is Satan and he really likes it when we ask those questions without hope. But in my case even as he would answer, and I would believe him, I know there was another who kept wanting me to have hope and see the one who gives all hope. The Holy Spirit was the one who whispered, “Hang in there!” and I also know that it was the prayer of others for me that gave him permission to save me, even when I did not know or maybe want to be saved.

I know now that there were people, some of whom were strangers that were lifting me in prayer and as the years went by more were on their knees and with the words of Jesus to Paul, prayed like this for me, “….open their (his) eyes, and to turn them (him) from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they (he) may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:18) (parentheses are mine) I know a particular grandmother who prayed these exact words daily. And even though it took years I found the answer to those questions and it isn’t a ‘what’ or a ‘why’ but a who, Jesus Christ!

Today I am the one who prays daily for others who have no hope but the shifting sands of this world and the hopeless words of Satan. I believe so thoroughly in the power of prayer and trust so earnestly what Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7) I know the Holy Spirit will whisper to those whom I pray for to, “Hang in there.” And one day the door of their heart will be open.

If you are reading this and need this hope today, I am lifting you to the One who saves completely and, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15) I pray you will listen. If you who are reading this and are praying for another, do not lose hope. Pray the prayer of Acts 26:18 and know God is working. I wouldn’t be writing this if it weren’t true.

Blessings John

5/2/18