You know how sometimes you can watch a movie for the 10th time and still find something new in it you hadn’t noticed before? I find that happens to me a lot when I’m reading from God’s Word. There may be a passage of Scripture that I’ve read or heard a dozen or more times, and yet for some reason, when I come across it again, it seems as if it’s brand new. The first Psalm that struck me that way this morning…

Blessed in the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like the chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalms 1

These days, it seems like it’s easier than ever to get drawn into the ways of the wicked. By that, I’m not necessarily just talking about the overt, noticeable sins that can land you on the front page of the Metro Section. It’s the less obvious things that get us… rude behavior, gossip, slander, impatience, lack of compassion and kindness, etc.

Just think about how easy it is to become a rude driver when your temper is stoked by another rude driver. Or how easy is it to lack compassion or patience with a waitress or store clerk that may be having a bad day?

Things as seemingly innocuous as those can put us squarely in the counsel of the wicked, because we are no longer being led by our better angels, but our worst demons so to speak. At the point that we begin to neglect the behavior that we know God desires of us and stoop to a level that would make satan grin, we have strayed into the counsel of the wicked and are standing in the way of sinners.

Think of how those type of things are so vexing to the spirit. And contrast that against the image of the tree planted by the streams… peaceful, being fed, producing fruit. It’s a stark contrast.

I wonder how much all of our lives, mine most definitely included, would be transformed in so many ways if we were to strive to be the man that is described in the first verse, regardless of our external circumstances or present frustrations and annoyances. I’m sure in many ways, our lives would be a stark contrast to what they often are today.

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Last night Corissa and I were watching The Tonight Show, which we often do before going to bed, and George Foreman was one of the guests. When Jay asked him about the problems plaguing the sports world right now – the NBA referee that was shaving points and fixing games… Barry Bonds, the steroids and the inevitable breaking of the home run record… Michael Vick and his dog fights – George responded that all of those situations reminded him of a song, which he began his response by singing the opening line of, “Just a closer walk with Thee… what these people need is Jesus. Sometimes good people get off track and they need someone to bring them back in… they should all come to church with me.” And he said it all with this big Foreman grin that was just so genuine.

It was convicting to me because my reaction to things like that is not always so loving and compassionate. I tend to be quicker to condemn the actions and call for punishment, but here is the former heavy weight champion of the world talking with such kindness and recognizing the real problem that plagues most of society, sports included… we all need Jesus.

I don’t think it’s a normal reaction, or at least certainly not typical, to respond in the way George did, but it spoke to me. I turned on The Tonight Show for some laughs and entertainment, but found the Gospel being preached more than I have in many sermons on Sunday morning… yes, God does work in mysterious ways.
St. Francis is credited with saying “Preach the Gospel everyday, and if necessary, use words”, which is what George Foreman did last night. Foreman didn’t preach, but his words and his actions were testimony of a heart that has been changed by Jesus. And actions like that will always speak louder than even the most artfully articulated sermon ever could.

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It was a groundbreaking weekend for Allison… she discovered one of life’s great pleasures when Mommy shared her ice cream sandwich with her… and it’s probably fair to say that life for her will never be the same…

And she learned that my fax machine has a “paper feed” button, that when pressed will shoot out a piece of paper each time. Needless to say, it has become a favorite activity for her. She’ll keep pressing it until the paper tray is empty…

I guess you never know what discoveries each day will bring. It’s kind of cool to watch her discover new things, even if some of the discoveries can quickly go from cute to annoying. Sometimes I wish I had more of a childlike wonder and quest to discover new things every day.

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In my life there have been so many heroes along the way… people that raised the bar and inspired me to aim higher than before. They are people who exhibited traits that I admired and wanted to emulate. In fairness, there are more people that fit that brief description than I have the time to honor on the following link, but I have to draw the line somewhere. So I’ve limited the list to people that were my heroes as I grew up… with a few late additions thrown in. They are almost all public figures, many of which I’ve only met through television, although I have been lucky enough to meet five of them in person. The everyday heroes I’ve come into contact with in my day to day life are for another list and another time.

For now, I present to you My Heroes…

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Just as I as finishing up mowing my lawn yesterday afternoon, Corissa walks out to me with the phone in her hand. It was Michael calling the bullpen to see if he could bring in the relief mower. Turns out his mower isn’t as young as it used to be, and mowing the whole yard just turned out to be too much for it to tackle. So he headed on over to borrow our mower to finish the job… which should’ve been a simple thing, since he lives about 45 seconds away in rush hour.

About two minutes later, he pulls up in front of my house (he must have taken the scenic route). We load up the mower in the back of his Tahoe and I start heading in for my shower and dinner… when I hear a strange click type sound. Turning around to investigate, I discover that his truck is deader than a doornail – which is an expression I’ve never really understood, but I’ll use it anyway… I mean, what point is there in comparing something to a doornail anyway?

But since Michael and I are such handy, manly men, it seemed like a simple enough deal. Just pull out my truck, hook up the jumper cables and he’d be on his way. But after about 30 minutes of trying that approach, it turned out his battery was in cahoots (I’m just full of fun expressions today, aren’t I?) with the lawnmower and wasn’t cooperating in the least. So we decided that we needed to head on over to Pep Boys and get him a new battery. So after what should have been a simple lawnmower loan grew into a 2 hour delight, we finally got him on his way with a new battery.

Now, I titled this post It’s the Little Things, and there has to be a reason, right? Well, knowing me, of course there is, and it’s this: In the midst of what could very easily have been construed as frustrating evening, I saw a lot of blessings. The first was that we live close enough together that coming over to borrow a lawnmower, or anything else for that matter, is possible…. blessing number one. We had the resources to fairly easily solve the problem of both the dead mower and the dead battery… blessing numbers two and three. The Tahoe died in front on my house, instead of on some busy highway or even worse, when Julie was out in the middle of nowhere by herself… blessing number four. The list could go one, but by now I think you’re getting the idea.

My point is simply that so often we overlook the little things… the almost invisible blessings we get everyday. Sometimes we are so busy either looking for the huge blessings or blinded by the little frustrations that we miss the blessings all around us. Just imagine how much happier we would all be if we could recognize and be thankful for the little things more often…

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —
It’s been over 200 years since those words were written by some very brave and passionate men that committed their support “of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The first thing I’m struck by as I read that is that men don’t talk like that anymore. Not just in the grammatical sense, but also in principle. I doubt that there is a politician alive today that would pledge his life, his fortune or his sacred honor for anything, even something he really believed in. Come to think of it, I’m not sure how many of our leaders truly believe in anything other than themselves, but that is another story for another day. It’s just somewhat sad that there don’t seem to be the character of men leading us today that the founders were. Undoubtedly, there are still people like that today, they are just harder to find.

I also notice that in both of those lines they relied on God for their position and their survival… and as a side note, anyone who says that this country isn’t founded on Christian principles, with a desperate reliance on God is just kidding themselves.

I’m also struck by how much those men were willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of what they believed to be right. I wonder what they would think of what has become of the nation that they fought so fiercely and sacrificed so much to found.

I, for one, am thankful that those men took a chance and stood up to the tyranny of English rule and founded what I still think is the greatest nation on earth, even with all of it’s flaws today. I’m also thankful to the countless men and women who have carried our flag into battle in the last 230 years, not the least of which are those currently in uniform fighting a war on terror.

If there are still people in our country that have the same heart, soul and passion as the men that signed the Declaration, they are most certainly in our Armed Forces, literally pledging their lives to defend our way of life. And we owe them all our deepest thanks. And not just the men and women doing that today, but also all the ones that came before them.

We are so blessed in this country, and there is no other place I would rather live… God Bless America!

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Way back when I was in high school – which sometimes still seems like yesterday, but at others also seems like a million years ago – I remember often having that feeling that life just was about as good as it could get. By my senior year, I know I often felt like I was so cool, and life would just bend to my command. I had greats friends, I was getting good grades, I was playing varsity football, which felt like such a big deal back then – that’s me in the photo, the little guy on the line, #50 playing center… playing against my parent’s alma matter, Travis High School, in 1990 for a spot in the state playoffs

(of course we beat them handily, 28-8 as I recall… and the fact that I felt no small measure of satisfaction in beating my dad’s old team just seems silly now)

Anyway, looking back on that time now, it’s amazing how much your perspective on just about everything in life can change in 15 years. Back then, I had no idea just how much I didn’t know… or how small my view of the world was… and how narrow the scope of what I cared about was – which, let’s be honest, was pretty much limited to girls, football and our plans for the weekend.

As amazing as the change from then to now is for me, it makes me wonder how my thoughts, attitudes and philosophies on life will change in the next 15 years… or the next 30 for that matter. It hit me the other day as I was making a video for a friend of mine from high school who’s dad was turning 70, that short of an unexpected event of some kind, the likelihood is that I’m not even half way through my life. I’m still just a pup in the grand scheme, with so much left to learn and experience… I wonder how much more I will come to realize I still don’t know now when I look back in another 15…

food for thought, I guess…

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