our problems solved by Mr. T

Today as I was eating lunch (home-made split pea soup, thank-you-very-much ... patting self on the back), I turned on the television to keep me company.

I ended up seeing a show where Mr. T was solving a family's relationship problems.

Hmmm ... fascinating.

Of course, the scoffer in me rose up to comment.

But before it did, I had some other thoughts.

How many situations in our relationships really don't require intensive therapy, or professonal intervention? How often would an outside observer, who had our best interests at heart, really be able to give us a clear picture of what needed to happen? It could be Mr. T (though I'd prefer no television camers!), or it could be a good friend, or an elder from church, or a stranger's offhand comment.

Recently I was visiting with a friend, who mentioned she heard an overseas missionary say that Americans are noted for their easily-wounded emotions ... that it's nearly impossible to give us constructive criticism without it being taken as an offense.

Oddly enough, this same friend mentioned this in the context of discussing how she'd been wounded by a rebuke.

It's one of the things Christians are supposed to do ... encourage one another to love and good works, and how often that requires going out on a limb, and saying something that might not be easy to hear.

Yet, if it's done in love, it can precisely the conversation that turns our life in an entirely new, and God-ward direction.

Doing it properly, giving these exhortations, is not an easy thing. Much prayer, and self-examination needs to happen. "Am I really seeking this person's best? Or is this particular issue just something that happens to annoy ME?" "Is this really a sin issue? Or is it just a personal preference with which I don't agree?"

And receiving it properly is also not easy. "Do I really believe this person loves me and has my best at heart?" "Even if this doesn't ring true for me, is there something that God wants to say to me through it?"

The Scripture that says we're to "bear with one another in love" is one that needs a great deal of application, because there are times when we're simply unbearable! But there are also times when the love of an honest brother or sister can make us easier to bear.

Just pondering. Maybe I'll turn the tube back on and see if Mr. T. solved things. :) He's not such bad company when one's folding laundry!

a nice fall walk

Had a beautiful walk tonight, and thought to take my camera along. I thought I'd share some of the pictures!

ruined lives

This fellow yesterday who shot up a school in Lancaster in recompense for a 20-year-old grudge of some kind ... he has me thinking.

It is SO easy to carry bitterness around, and it grows ... all out of proportion to the original offense. It doesn't matter how awful the thing was that happened ... our lives are only ruined by it, if WE choose it to be so.

If we, rather than choosing bitterness and introspection, choose to present the ugliness to God, He can make something out of it ... He can take the worst offense, and change it to bring good from it.

Locked in a Nazi concentration camp, and watch your sister die from the conditions there?
God can make you into a Corrie TenBoom.

Break your spine in a stupid teen-age jump off a bridge?
God can give you Joni Erickson's ministry and influence.

Born blind?
Give it to Him, and you can write hymns that bless generations like Fannie Crosby.

And it's not just a few well-known examples ... I can think of dozens of people whose faces and stories are well-known to me, who have given their tragedies and pain, and handicaps to God, and He has made them something glorious.

OR

There's always the natural alternative. You can blame God, and blame others, and never allow yourself to move beyond the pain ... and rather than blessing those around you ... the bitterness can fester until it destroys everything in its path. Lancaster saw a vivid picture of this yesterday, but it happens ALL the time - maybe not with the physical taking of lives, but with smearing reputations, and destroying relationships, and sucking away hope.

hmmmmmmm ... on a totally different line ........

I've been meaning to blog about an advertisement I've seen lately for a local indian casino. (Kewadin, I think).

It shows a man in a company break room, and he starts to buy a sandwich from a machine, and they just keep spitting out at him. Then the casino logo comes up, and it says that it might be a lucky day for him to gamble there. (obvious paraphrase ... "gamble" is never used ... lest people realize what they're REALLY doing there).

I thought this ad was very telling. Because the person who's obviously NOT shown is the fictitious small business owner who stocks the sandwich machines in the fictitious break room. So this man's "luck" was breaking someone else's pocketbook.

Isn't that just what casinos are doing? One or two people may win money. Others may (for some odd reason) go and just enjoy losing theirs. But how many lives are negatively impacted by it? How many people develop addictions they can't shake? How many children are impacted by having an immoral atmosphere dragged into their communities? But the only thing that gets publicized is the "one who gets all the sandwiches."

****************

OK - on to exercise - got to the gym last night, and walked in the morning before work. Having the treadmill down in the condo basment is proving to be MOST helpful!