If you have lived long enough or have bothered to do something that took a little planning you are probably very familiar with Murphy’s Law, ‘Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.’  There was an another opportunity this weekend for Murphy’s Law to wreck havoc with regards to a dear friend, a dead car battery, a crowded parking lot, and an empty tool bag.  Here’s what happened…

I got a call from a friend who was in our neighborhood shopping and could not start his car.  All symptoms pointed to a dead battery.  (That happens a lot in Arizona – it’s the dry heat they say.)  When I got there I found the friend parked, head in, hood up and with jumper cables attached and ready to go.  It was a Saturday afternoon so the lot was full with a lot of activity and no spaces close by, so I had to pull over and park in the driving aisle, blocking a couple of cars.  (Potential problem if I have to move with cables connected.)

It was apparent that his cables weren’t going to reach.  So another potential problem, but I had a pair with me – that bullet dodged.  We linked them and although the car sputtered and made beeps and dings it still would not start.  Now what?  Google ‘Auto Repair’ and found Goodyear up the block.  But of course, they don’t sell the special battery we need.  Dang!  But the dude tells me to try AutoZone about a mile up the road, and yes! They are open.  And yes! They have the battery!  This could actually happen!

Now we just have to swap batteries.  I check my tool bag in my trunk, certain I have the pliers, wrench and maybe screw driver we would need, but, what??! They’re gone!  No tools!  (I later remembered that I gave them my favorite daughter the last time I asked her if she had any tools in her car.  ‘Tools?  Why would you need tools in the car?!’)  Now my friend, double checks his car and he finds a small wrench, a vise grip and some wet ones.  OK now we have something to work with, because if we can’t loosen the nuts holding the terminal cables I’m making the R/T home to get tools!  But wait!  Eureka!  With a little effort and Continue reading →

I’m not an easy guy to shop for.  I’m the guy on your list that usually has a question mark next to his name.  And when I think about it, it’s a good thing.  I have certainly been blessed with what I need in life – great family and friends, good health, a roof over my head and food on the table.  But if I had to make a list of what I would like under the tree this year it would go something like this:

I would like that those of us that participate in this holiday to do so with the acknowledgement that Christmas is indeed the celebration of the most significant act in the history of this universe, short of its creation.  It is the commemoration of God becoming human in the form of an innocent, vulnerable baby so that we could know His extraordinary love without condition other than our acceptance of that love.  If you don’t believe that just now, then I pray you will someday.  But Christmas is about Christ – first, last and always.

I would really love eight hours of good, solid sleep without having to get up and pee.

I would like mankind to reject the god of ‘me’ – the belief that everything revolves around ‘me’ and that I should spend my life satisfying my particular needs.  Taken to the extreme, this worship of self convinces us that we have no need for our loving God and that if left to ourselves, we alone will find fulfillment in discovering our inner self and live happily ever after.  (Let me know how that turns out.)

I would like Trump voters and Clinton voters to realize we are all of God’s children, brothers and sisters, and we all are citizens of one country.  To understand that we have a heck of a lot more in common, than we do not.  To accept that every election result is final, but not permanent, and that thanks to the brilliance of our forefathers (and mothers) we can change the stuff that doesn’t work – peacefully and without cursing people out.

I would like to have one single remote control that operates all of the stuff on my television including Apple TV.

I would like that all people (women and men) come to the understanding that all life is sacred because its source is divine.  To see that the truth is whether it is a few cells in a test tube, an unborn baby in a womb, or a convicted felon in a prison cell (and regardless of any law made by man) we have no right to end what God has created.  I would like any person considering abortion to consider also all those who desperately pray each day for God to deliver them a child, and that maybe, just maybe, your destiny was to serve God’s will and give a child to someone that could not have one.  (What greater service could a person provide?)

Like Rodney King, I would like for people to just get along – regardless of our beliefs, persuasions, origins, pigmentations, or orientations. Jesus Christ Himself would have each of us sit at His table as brothers and sisters.  Get over the thought that by some misguided BS you picked up somewhere that you are better or worse than me.

I would like us all to understand that although my religion may not be your religion, we all share the very same God, because there is only one.  And to accept that Continue reading →

So, this growing need to express gratitude hit me again, big time, today.  It is, after all, Thanksgiving Eve.  I was taking a hot shower and there in all my naked glory (OK, maybe glory is an overstatement) it struck me how blessed I was just to be standing under a running shower head.  There I was enjoying clean, hot water washing over me for as long as I wanted, and wondering how many millions of people around the world were not, and would not for who knows when, if ever.  I mean, is it possible that there are people out there that have never been able to take a hot shower??  Is it possible of the 7 billion humans on earth, there are thousands, tens of thousands – maybe even millions of souls nowhere near a hot shower?

Now, it wasn’t till about three years ago we began giving thanks (or saying grace) regularly before dinner.  Before that we would do it more off and on, depending if we remembered or had guests over or, of course, if it was Thanksgiving.  But now it has become automatic.  (Not robotic, but customary.)  I’m not sure how that happened; maybe it was Ellie prompting me before she finished putting the meal on the table?  Or perhaps, as down-sizers, we have a little more time to acknowledge our many blessings?  Maybe it’s simply our Christian faith finally taking hold and manifesting itself in clasped hands and bowed heads.  But regardless, if you have a faith, if you have a belief in a Creator God, or if you are not even sure there is a God, you do have something to be thankful for – right?  Today, for me, it was a hot shower.

And, if you agree that you too have some things for which to be grateful,   consider it a moment more and take that time to Continue reading →

Like most of you, I am finding it extremely difficult to come up with some reasonable argument that I could use to convince myself to vote for one of these two presidential candidates.  I keep on hearing how it is my obligation to swallow hard and make a choice, but  it’s still against all I have been trying to align myself with these last few years – a Christ-like life.  I am being told to forego that little voice in me that I struggle at times to hear, and make a choice.  But, in this case, that little voice is screaming for me to run for the hills!  Run and don’t look back!

So I pray for guidance and what I get is an image of Christ on trial.  He stands before a rowdy crowd of Jewish citizens.  (As we know, many in the crowd have already been coerced by Caiaphas, the corrupt high priest and patriarch of the Jewish religious establishment, so the trial is rigged.)  Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, is trying to do the right thing and save this innocent man Jesus from a horrible death, a death meant for the true criminal in Pilate’s prison, Barabbas.  Barabbas is a well-known criminal, a robber, accused of murder and rebellion against the Roman Empire.  He is a long history of making trouble for sure, and someone who both the Romans and Jewish hierarchy want to make go away.  So, when Pilate offers the crowd the choice of freeing either Jesus the innocent, or Barabbas the guilty, well, it’s pretty much a lock for Jesus in Pilate’s mind.  But as I said, Caiaphas, ever ambitious, sees Jesus as the bigger threat to his power and the fix is in.  The crowd chooses Barabbas and the rest is history.  (Of course, God’s will is done because ironically it is by Caiaphas’s own doing that Christ is raised to the right hand of God and Christianity is born.  God loves irony.)

Back to now…how does this help me come to a decision on this election?  Well, this is my take.  I am seeing Trump as Barabbas, a fairly well-known guy, in and out of trouble; pretty much you get what you see.  He probably has some good intentions, is a good leader, and maybe uses some sleight of hand here and there to get it done.  A bit of a loose cannon, but definitely an agent of change.  And maybe with the right people around him, he’s someone that could be convinced to do the right thing, because looking good in the public’s eye is something that egomaniacs tend to enjoy.  (I have to imagine that most rebels are egomaniacs.)

Well that leaves us with Mrs. Clinton.  What role does she play?  Jesus?  Hardly.  I’m thinking more like Caiaphas.  A bit of a hypocrite, probably thinks she is doing the right thing, as long as it benefits her.  Probably thinks she’s better than you or me.  She’s a major leader of the established ruling class and lives to maintain the status quo. Looks good and talks good on the outside, but Continue reading →

Here’s a thought.  It was a full moon recently and I was struck with the image of the sun in space shining on the earth so that looking from space you would see one half of the earth in the light of the sun and the other half not in the light of the son.

I then remembered that the only sun light that the side not in the light of the son gets is reflected (by the moon). And, that the source of this reflected (moon’s) light is actually the Son’s light reflecting off of each of us in the light, to those in the dark.  So the next time you see a full moon consider yourself a ‘little moon’ if you are reflecting the light of God’s Son on to those not yet in the light.

Would you say that it is more or less likely that:

• you will become even more disappointed in this presidential election?
• you will vote for someone that you cannot fully support?
• you will not agree with all of your candidate’s positions?
• you will need to compromise your own moral standards to vote this year?
• you will be somewhat disappointed regardless who is elected?
• Any real change for the better in your life or the lives around you will not occur as a result of who is elected?

It is not difficult to see the disappointment we are all experiencing, as a nation in general, and as Christians in particular with this Presidential election.  Several friends (believers and not) have expressed the extreme difficulty with which they are confronted in making this choice.  They feel the obligation to vote, to participate, to be heard, but are not enthusiastic about doing so.  It is quite pitiful.  Some even evoke the standard Christian go-to and ask, “What would Jesus do?”  But even that doesn’t immediately point to a clear choice.  And even when you seek the counsel of scripture you are confronted with the quandary of meeting your obligation to participate in doing what is right, while being presented with choices that are obviously less than righteous.  For example:

“Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” Exodus 18:21

Yes we should do it, but the system we ourselves have created does not allow for able men (or women) who meet those qualifications to participate, or more likely, have scared off those that are qualified, but are unwilling to compromise those values and step into such a bankrupt and corrupt process.  So what is a Christian, or any other righteous individual to do?  Well this is my take, probably not unique in its proposition, but nonetheless, something I can live with.

My goal will continue to remain less invested in the things of the world and participate on occasion where there is potentially a significant payoff in terms of benefiting those in need or a cause that I feel a spiritual connection to.  (Here is where voting may come into play.)  My primary focus will be to otherwise seek investments directly into individuals that God places in my path that can use any help I may be able to provide.  I will continue to pray to God for guidance, and sadly, accept that my vote is never going to solve all of the world’s woes and pray that it improves something, anything, and then get on with my own work here as an agent of change for the better in someone else’s life.  I have come to believe that the real and true work we have here on earth does not happen in the voting booth or in the halls of congress, but is set out right in front of us, in those people that we meet and come in contact with everyday, and the conditions of hurt, sorrow, grief and need that we each can relieve; not relying on government to do the work that we as believers have been commanded to do by our God as a sign of our gratitude for what He has done for us.

So bottom line is to get on with this messy business of electing someone, regardless the distaste it gives us, trust God’s will, and accept that the solution is not and will never be the President or the government that is in power at the time.  And let’s get back to doing exactly what Jesus did do as an individual: serve those in need around us as best we possibly can with all of the resources and gifts God has given us.  If we all would just do that, I’m pretty sure that in the long run we would improve the world so much more than any President has in our history as a nation.  In closing, let’s keep our perspective and understand that voting on election day may not be the most important thing we do that day, depending on what or who God puts in our path, and how we respond to that challenge.

I went to a seminar this week about ergonomics and the importance of balancing the amount of time we spend in our day sitting, standing and basically moving.  The statistics were quite alarming.  Some of this you all may know but here are a few of the ones I wrote down:

• The percentage of people globally who have type 2 diabetes has risen from about 2% to 9% over the past 30 years
• The percentage of people considered clinically obese in the US has risen from 10% to 30% since 1990
• Most Americans sit 13-14 hours a day
• All things being equal one hour sitting in front of the TV instead of being moderately active will shorten your lifespan by 22 minutes; smoking a cigarette will shorten it by 11 minutes

The lecturer, Dr. Alan Hedge, a PhD professor at Cornell University, was also quick in demonstrating that only a small change in our daily routines could go a very long way to getting us all on the right path to a healthy lifestyle.  Again, you may know this but it helps to hear it one more time:

• If you do sit at work a lot you should get up every hour for about 2-5 minutes and move around or just simply stand
• You should do some light activity, like take a 15 minute walk after a high calorie meal
• Changing your posture or position 16 times a day – sitting, standing, and moving – will allow your body and mind to remain invigorated.
• A simple reduction of about 50 calories a day (third of a coke) from your present daily intake will create an average loss of 4 pounds a year or 40 pounds over 10 years. (Unfortunately the opposite is also true.)

Now, of course it does take discipline to maintain these healthy habits.  But in the end it is discipline that gets us where we want to be…where we need to be.  Anyone that has started an exercise and / or diet program gets this.  Somehow though, most of us left on our own succumb to our human nature and our human weakness and before we know it we slide back to our bad habits.  You know, two steps forward and one step back.  There is some very credible evidence however, that when we embark on this type of life changing activity, doing so with one or more like minded people increases the likelihood of our success.  The old buddy system still has some merit when we are trying to accomplish the seemingly impossible.  The knowledge that you are not alone in your struggles and that you have someone to lean on, confide in or just bitch to has a very positive impact when attempting to just make it through another day, or meal, or 20 minutes on a tread mill.  Doing stuff together is easier than doing it on our own.

Isn’t it the same way with our faith?  I mean, how easy is it for each of us to get through the day without hearing about some horrific tragedy?  It just seems impossible.  We have all heard about the light at the end of the tunnel, but instead of getting closer, the light just seems to get farther and farther away.  Just when we seem to be making progress like tearing down the Berlin wall, we slide back and 9/11 happens.  It’s been that way throughout history.  We abolish slavery and then we establish the KKK.  We cure childhood diseases, and then we legalize abortion.   MLK delivers his ‘I have a dream’ speech and then he’s shot down.  Jesus preaches loving our neighbors, and then we torture and crucify Him.  It just seems we lack the discipline as a society to stay on track, to keep moving forward, to remain undistracted.  And oh boy, are we easily distracted.  Whether it be an ice cream cone or a Netflix binge, segregation, or world domination, we can’t keep ourselves from choosing what we want instead of what we need.  It all gets back to our earthly predisposition and the sin of satan – self-service – taking care of ourselves first, instead of our brothers and sisters.  And when you give it some really good deep thought, it is only through cooperation – working as buddies – that mankind has achieved anything worthwhile.  And you know what is most ironic?  It is from these spiritual brothers and sisters that we are likely to get the help we all need to realize our greatest achievement – salvation.  Yes, it is through Christ that we are offered eternal peace in Paradise, but for me it is only by the good grace of the rest of you out there that I will ever see it.  Thanks for keeping me less distracted then I would otherwise be.

Inspired by my niece Jennifer Martinez, Pink Floyd and God:

At what point did ‘us’ become ‘them’?  Think about that for a moment.  Unless you’re a twin, the large majority of us begin life in our mother’s womb, all alone, no one there to hang out with.  All we know in that little ocean of the placenta is that all of our immediate needs are being met; oblivious to what waits for us on the outside.  This is our entire universe – being alone.  Then POW!  Here we are: all sorts of lights and noises and sensations – all these strange hands touching us, moving us, lips kissing us, arms holding us.  And, for the most part we go with the flow, because our needs are being met.  We are fed, warm and dry.  Then, supposedly out of nowhere, a somewhat less apparent need raises its head – this desire to be part of something outside of ourselves – to be part of a greater community.  The first expression of this desire, as most parents learn right away, is that, sometimes a baby just needs to be held.

So it doesn’t take long to discover that we are all created as social beings.  It’s the reason, with very few exceptions, that we don’t all live in individual cells or caves cutting ourselves off from all human contact. We need our lives interconnected with the lives of others in some way that we just quite don’t understand…yet.  The amazing success of social media supports this truth.  We have figured out ways to get involved in the lives of other people, some complete strangers, and whom we will never even meet.  But just because we can, we do.  (Don’t you find it fascinating that our need to know drives humanity to hang on every word of the endless tragedies of the nightly news and the rainbows and unicorns of sites like Facebook and Snapchat?  Why is that?)

Back to the point.  I promise there is a point.  We need to belong.  We need to be part of an ‘Us’.  And tragically, we soon come to understand if there is an ‘Us’ there needs to be a ‘Them’.   Now, this does not originate with your Dad or your Mom – your very first ‘Us’ group – not even from your slightly bigoted uncle Ray.  It comes straight from the devil, himself.  ‘Them’ is the antithesis of ‘Us’, just as Hate is the antithesis of Love.  As with all things of satan, he has taken the divine perfection of ‘Us’ and corrupted it profoundly, forever linking it to the stubborn closed mindedness that begets ‘Them’.   It is from ‘Them’ that exclusion is born, along with bias, segregation and persecution.   ‘Them’ is the cause for every war, every holocaust, and every genocide.  ‘Them’ builds walls, it creates borders and it divides peoples.  ‘Them’ is from satan; ‘Us’ is from God.

God’s creation is all about ‘Us’.  First, about God and you, then about God and ‘Us’ / His people, and finally about you and me.  All are ‘Us’ groups.  They are the most fundamental of all of the ‘Us’ groups – more fundamental than our family group because they pre-exist the very concept of family.  It is what drives our need to meet people, interact with strangers, seek the company of others, and yes, maybe even forces us to leave the womb.  ‘Us’ is fixed in our souls and manifests itself as sympathy, empathy and altruism.  ‘Us’ has the fireman rush into the burning building, the donor give up her kidney, and the hero jump in to save a drowning victim.  ‘Us’ will ultimately save this world.   If only we would allow ourselves to believe that we are all born of the same Father – regardless of what we call Him – there is only one God, and that indeed does make us all brothers and sisters.

There really is no ‘Them’ in the eyes of God.  Pray that we can see it as He does…soon.