Consider This – Page 10

The Hostess

Feb 102010

The Thai Cuisine restaurant was a great place to eat. I discovered it years ago right after it opened. They had good food at a good price so I went often. I told others about it. After a few months, the place got busier and it became harder to get a table. They had a thriving lunch-time business, and rightly so. But something must have happened. Yesterday I noticed the restaurant was closed. I wonder how long it has been that way? How long has it been since I was there? 10 years? Why did I stop going? Perhaps one reason is that I found a better place.

The better place is a little grill called Pickles. I meet my wife and kids there for lunch. My son grew up doing his home-school work at the restaurant table, while waiting for me to take my lunch break and meet them. The people know me. They know us. When I walk in and sit down by myself, the hostess asks if my wife and son will be joining me. She even seems a little dissapointed when they don’t come. She asks about them, and tells me about her kids. How are they doing in school? We talk and get to know each other a little better each visit. Today I learned that she doesn’t like snow. She had her fill of it when she lived in Connecticut. I also learned that her home country has weather much like Florida. Mildly cool winters in the north, warm all year in the south.

No matter how busy the lunch hour, the hostess always makes time to talk to me. She and her husband own the place, and I am her favorite customer. Me and just about everyone else that walks in the place. At Pickles, you pay for the burger, but friendship comes free. Perhaps that is one reason they have outlasted the Thai restaurant. They know one of the secrets of life: It’s about people.

And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. . . . and they did eat and were filled.
– Mark 6:34, 42

Devotion

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Feb 042010

My dog has devotions with me almost every morning. I wake up and drag myself down the hall to the living room where I sit in a chair. In that chair, I read my bible and talk to God. Most mornings, before I even get there, my devoted dog has already made her way to the living room and is laying in front of the chair, waiting. She knows I will be there, so she waits faithfully to be with me. And so does God. How privileged I am.

A Mile or Two

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Jan 262010

A Christian co-worker had a wreck. Somebody hit her from behind. The guy that hit her pleaded for her to let him fix it without turning it into the insurance. He had his own shop, he said. He could fix it, he said. She agreed, and left her car by the road. He would send a truck to pick it up, he said. He wrote his contact information on a notepad. Continue reading »

Lady Liberty

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Jan 212010

I saw Lady Liberty smoking a cigarette while standing by the road. It wasn’t exactly the Statue of Liberty. It was more like a grizzly dude in a costume that was a really bad caricature of the Statue of Liberty. I think he was supposed to be catching my attention and pointing me in the direction of a tax service that used the statue as a logo.

He got my attention all right. With the top of his costume pushed half off his head so he could deal with the cigarette in his mouth, I suspect this Lady Liberty poser did not portray the image the tax company had in mind. But then, I don’t think this guy was overly concerned with his image. Else why would he dress in a green robe and encase his head with a giant foam likeness of Goldilocks? He made me laugh as I drove right on by. Continue reading »

What is a Furnace?

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Jan 112010

It’s 19 degrees outside. Cold. In this weather, the electric and gas meters are moving even faster than me making a barefoot run to the mailbox. The world can be cold and bleak at times, but my home is warm because the One who lives there insulates my heart, and keeps the fire burning. Life may be a little more difficult when it’s cold on the outside, but it sure makes you grateful for the Furnace on the inside.

Furnace: an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced to heat buildings, destroy refuse, smelt or refine ores, etc.
– worldnetweb.princeton.edu

Not That Bad

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Jan 082010

The movie we watched last night was not that bad. The trailer looked funny and cute, so we thought we would watch it. There were a few four letter words, and I think I heard God’s name used in vain a few times. But it wasn’t that bad; nothing you wouldn’t hear in the street any day of the week. I guess there was an adulterous bedroom scene, but it didn’t show anything you couldn’t see on the beach, so maybe it was not that bad. Of course there was some lying and deception, but what can you watch these days that doesn’t have some of that. I’ve seen worse. Perhaps this was not that bad. In the end, most everybody got what they really wanted despite it all, and went on with their life. A typical Hollywood ending. Really not that bad.

When did I start measuring things by “how bad they are not” instead of “how good they are?” I don’t mean to sound like a prude. Really, it’s quite the opposite. I’m reluctantly admitting I sometimes watch things on TV that I shouldn’t. It just kinda draws me in to its not-that-bad standard.

I wonder, if Jesus came now instead of over 2000 years ago, would he even own a TV? Would he find much of anything worth watching? Anything that would meet his standard? I doubt it. It’s not that good.

Treasures in a Sack

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Jan 052010

I read this morning about Joseph’s brothers. They traveled to Egypt to buy grain. When they got there, Joseph recognized them, but they did not recognize him. They bought their grain, then Joseph had their sacks filled and loaded on their donkeys . . . with a little surprise. Continue reading »

Watching the Calendar

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Dec 312009

It’s the last day of 2009. A day when we reflect on the past year and make resolutions for the next one. A day when we all become acutely aware of the passage of time. What dopes we all are. Today is just one day. And while we are all settling back into a comfortable 2010, satisfied with a calendar full of pages, Life Happens. Don’t waste it.

Where’s the Remote?

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Dec 292009

I just hate it when the remote control for the TV is lost. I start yanking out sofa cushions, sliding furniture around and accusing family members of negligence. This scene played out this past Sunday night with an unexpected outcome.

One thing I have learned when going on a remote control search: Even if you have searched through the sofa and you are sure it’s not there, look again. It’s probably in the sofa. We lost the remote control for the VCR one time. It was missing for a year. We looked through the sofa multiple times during that year. Then, a year later, while moving the sofa, we found the remote. In the sofa.

Such was the case this Sunday night. As I fumed about the missing remote, Sam came down to help look. He started looking in the sofa. “I’ve already looked there,” I said with frustration. Knowing “the one truth about missing remotes,” he just kept looking in the sofa anyway. And sure enough, we finally found the remote . . . in the sofa. But not before finding a car key, a Fisher Space Pen, and a cell phone with eight missed calls on it.

I never promised that everything I write about will have some spiritual meaning. Perhaps this little incident was just what it was: A search for the remote control. But I was reminded of it this morning while reading about the Prodigal Son. He was lost, then found. Perhaps in some small way, the world is like a giant sofa. We are at times like the lost remote. And Jesus, like Sam, just keeps on looking in the sofa until He finds us.

Luke 15:24 ‘for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ . . .

Christmas Eve Excitement

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Dec 242009

As Christmas Eve winds down, I think about all the excitement and wonder in homes all over the world. Anticipation is everywhere. How incomparable the excitement, wonder and anticipation must have been on that very first Christmas Eve. All of Heaven’s eyes glued to the scene in a little town, as the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

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