Thursday, June 28, 2007


The Bath Towel, A Safety Pin and Superman

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways. (1 Corinthians 13:11)

Take a bath towel, a safety pin, and and make yourself a cape. Stick your arms straight out in front of you and run around your front yard saying:
"Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful that a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!"
"Look! Up in the sky!"
"It's a bird!"
"It's a plane!"
"It's - SUPERMAN!"

Today, your neighbors, as they look out from their windows with locked and barred doors, may think you are a little "off", but back in the late 1950's to early 60's they wouldn't have minded, because....well.. you were a little kid back then!
In my very early childhood, I discovered the t.v. reruns of the 1951 t.v. show "Superman".
An actor (George Reeves) wearing long underwear with a big S stitched across the front of his chest rescued people in distress, leaped over tall buildings and subdued all the bad guys he happened to meet. He was bullet proof and most of all he could fly! Wow!
So, out in the yard we went with our towels as capes and "swoosh" we "flew" around the yard playing superman. We leaped over tall buildings (well, cardboard boxes), stopped parked cars in the driveway, were impervious to plastic dart guns (well, at least everywhere but the eyeball!), and were faster than anything in our imagination.
We were kids and we played, well, like kids.
We thought like kids. Remember John Glenn, Alan Shepard and the astronauts? Of course! Let's play astronaut! We need to train to be one! Let's get up on the roof and practice reentry!
The thinking process of a child. 1) Don't think through what will happen. 2) Just do it. 3) Turn any object into what it isn't. 4) Imagination run wild.
A simple scary show on t.v. could keep me up for minutes at night, worrying about the hidden dinosaurs in the heating vent? Remember, I was just a kid.
Then times changed. I became older. I started reading other things than comic books. History, current events. I started watching the news instead of Popeye. I became older and different. I grew up and the towel is now used to keep me dry, not help me fly.
Read what Paul wrote above. When I became a man I gave up my childish ways.
I seriously do not like the expression: "He/she never grew up. They still act like child." "Discover your inner child." "Look at the world with childish eyes."
Anyone who knows children, know they do not look at the world like we do. Their perception is very different, and often at times very wrong. We do not have to take an adult and yell, "don't touch the stove!" But you do with a three year old. We do not let ten year olds drive, and for good reason. You have to be eighteen to vote. We recognize the importance of maturity.
So why do we insist on acting like kids?
Jesus pointed out to us:
Truly I tell you, whoever doesn't receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never get into it at all." (Mark 10:15)
This is not a commandment to start acting like a kid again. This is a commandment to be like a child as you completely trust in the Lord, your Savior. To come, like a child to her father asking for forgivenss for the deed they did, to ask GOD to save you.
Because children are so dependent on their parents, God wants us just like them, dependent on Him. To be mature enough to realize that we cannot live our life in a vacuum. We need Him to guide our way. To watch out for us. To help us. To save us.
We don't need to act like a child. Reread what Paul wrote. We grow up in Christ, we mature, we leave the milk behind and dine on the meat.
We will always be God's child. He will always be there.

Until next time on my front porch.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

For the love of money is a root of all evils, of which some having lusted after, they were seduced from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
(1 Timothy 6:10)

Coming home the other day from work, I was listening to a radio show called "Talk of the Nation".
On this late afternoon radio show, the host was interviewing the author of a book called Richistan,
by Robert Frank.
What kept my attention to this show was the conversation about how the rich of this nation view themselves, raise their children and spend their money.
And the item discussed that really caught my attention was this; when asked about how much money they would need to be financially secure, the amount always doubled. When a millionaire was asked, their replay was two million, if the person was worth ten million, yep you guessed it, the reply was 20 million.
And the rich are not the only ones to do this. This has been found to be consistent across all financial levels.
The point of this article is to not denigrate the rich, but to illustrate the illusiveness of money.
The scripture of the title, says it all, quite obviously. But this scripture has been distorted many, many times into, "money is the root of all evil". Quite a difference isn't there?
Remember the rich man and his barns? "And he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and I will store all my fruits and my goods there. "(Luke 12:18)
And then in the middle of the night, "But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul shall be required of you, then whose shall be those things which you have prepared? "(Luke 12:20)
Money is not the root of all evil, it is the love of that money. Money can do so much good, feed the poor, help the helpless, build hospitals, are some of the things it can do. The Bible does not condemn the man who makes money, just the man who loves it.
Quite a difference isn't it?