Tag Archives: God

What Matters Most?

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Think before you act

That weird thing by my ear is a pop stopper on a mic stand

In a continuation on the series about things I’m learning about maturity (as I originally posted here) I’d like to talk about what matters the most.  You see I hadn’t figure this out in application until recently.  What matters most hasn’t changed, but the application of that has become much, much more important to me.  What matters most to me is my relationship with my Lord and Savior and that relationship being reflected in my day-to-day life.  My friend Craig told me recently in a conversation that he could tell a difference between Randy 2 years ago and present day Randy.

I used to run my mouth a lot (OK, I probably still do).  Maybe it was pride, maybe it was because I’m an extroverted influencer, but I’ve started listening more.  That only took 30+ years to figure out.  Listen more.  It isn’t as if James hadn’t told us in his letter to the diaspora of the church at Jerusalem that they should listen more.  It isn’t that I hadn’t read that letter tens of times.  It is that I didn’t realize I wasn’t listening.  Do you ever think that you are listening but you’re not?  I am learning to listen more.  The problem is that it takes discipline to listen.  It takes discipline to shut your jaw muscles down and just listen.  I’ve met good listeners and when they listen to me I feel loved.  I need to love by listening more.  Craig told me that during a series of tasks with him that I wasn’t talking as much.  I was working more, but I was also listening more.

A week or so before that I had another friend, Jim, suggest I listen (there’s that word again!) to some lessons by a mutual friend, Jeremy Thomas, who is the pastor at Fredericksburg Bible Church.  As I listened a yearning for a deeper understanding of God’s word just dominated my thoughts.  I have been insatiable in my appetite for what matters most: knowing my God more.  Jim also suggested I re-listen (and finish listening to) the Bible Framework series by Charlie Clough.  There is so much good material in that series.  The series is about thinking.  I know, that’s goofy, but its over 200 lessons on thinking as a Christian rather than just being a thoughtless Christian (that’s kinda blunt, but I don’t know how else to put it).  Craig is a good thinker and when he mentions that he thinks I’m changing it means a great deal to me.

What matters most (my relationship with the Godhead) impacts my work, my family, my friends, and my church.  At work I want to do an amazing job, but this change in my focus means that I actually pay more attention to details (which probably thrills some of my co-workers to no end).  My family has been getting a lot more of me praying and looking for teaching opportunities [and hopefully more listening].  My friends will hopefully find me a better listener – I’m sure praying a lot more for them (even if they’re agnostic or atheist).   At church I’ve been trying harder to pour myself into preparation for my lessons (not that I spent only a few minutes before).  I want my brothers and sisters there to hunger more despite being fed more, to listen more, and to grow more.  I want them to know I love them.  Not to be a creeper, but I want you to know I love you.  When Craig tells me he’s seeing changes he’s telling me he loves me and he’s been listening and watching.  I’d hate for that message (of love) to stop with me.  Listen to someone else today; love them through listening.  It is amazing what you’ll hear.  It is amazing what you’ll learn.  It is amazing how you will grow.

A Challenge to the Self Control Handicapped

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Disclosure: I’m registered independent/undecided with the state of Colorado.  I tend towards conservative voting, but this political post is intended to be one where I call out bad politics as bad politics.

I want to challenge my dyed in the wool Republican friends and my dyed in the wool Democrat friends to please explain to me why it is OK for either party to try to justify the use of the word ‘retard’ or ‘retarded’ (with or without the f-bomb) to describe the other party or parties members?  I sometimes slip the word retarded into my sentences and once its out I think, “shoot, that’s not a good word to use.”  I have a personal story that ties in with the potential of possibly having ended up mentally retarded because of meningitis at 13 months old.  God spared me that consequence, but I don’t take it lightly.  Life is a blessing – handicapped or otherwise – and so I’m going to own my own foolishness – I don’t say it often and will attempt to not use it ever again [out of proper context].

Why is it OK for humans to talk of one another that way?  Because we have freedom of speech.  Yeah, that’s it.  They do have the freedom to say all sorts of things.  But it doesn’t make the politicians look like competent representatives of the people.  Are you a hired or appointed official?  You represent the people: don’t use the words of offense to describe others without serious contemplation.  If you don’t you’re just a loud mouthed individual without self control.  Are you leaking national secrets?  Maybe not, but if you lack self control over your mouth in public I’m far more afraid of your private mistakes.  Are you a nationally syndicated talk-show host?  I know you get ratings, but if you refuse to censor yourself to the point of describing a wide swath of your co-citizens, you’re probably not doing a good job communicating real content.

I have friends and acquaintances all over the globe, and some of them look at the US’s citizens’ flippent, sarcastic, affluent, offensive, and selfish attitudes and think, “this is why they are fading out of prominence.”  How can we expect to prod this generation and other generations onto acts of courage, bravery, selflessness, leadership and humanitarianism if what we’re saying, doing and promoting is selfish or insulting?  Why should governments we are at odds with accept our offers of peace if we look like double-standard oriented fools?  This isn’t a nation that was just founded on liberty and freedom of speech, but also an attempt to provide a safe place for citizens to live their lives without oppression.  We had a system in place with public servants.  Servants?  Yes, servants.  Folks who served the people rather than insulting the people.  I don’t want to go back to the good old days – we can only move forward from this sad state of affairs.  However, I do want to challenge anyone reading this: what makes it worth aligning with these two major parties if they have major representatives acting as though their words can’t and don’t have an effect if they’re not on the campaign trail?

Answers I won’t accept:

Because.

Everything evil that has happened to the country has come from party X.

Come on, its not that big a deal.

Internationalism-sminternationalism.

The Toothbrushing Story

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So, if you happen to notice that I happen to get chided by several relatives in California about oral health care (particularly tooth brushing) then you’re undoubtedly curious as to why this it.  Actually, you probably could give a rip.  I’m going to explain it anyway.  Nobody is holding you in front of the screen showing you this, so you can stop reading now if graphic description of tooth decay, tooth brushing, or OCD behaviors upset you.

Who: Me

When: 1991-ish

Where: Philo, CA

What: Tooth brushing insanity

Why: There’s this story.

About the time I estimated above I was in California for a long summer stay at my grandparent’s and aunt and uncle’s place.  There was this odd feeling on one of my teeth that I was sure was the cavity of all cavities.  It sat there on the top of one of my molars calling out to me that I was a moron and didn’t brush enough.  My tongue would brush it over and over again in a nervous tick that wanted to see if it had gone away over night while sleep fixed my tooth.  Why does sleep fix teeth?  It doesn’t, but I was hopeful.

There was a long, thin crack running across the top of the molar that might as well have been the grand canyon in miniature.  My parents were going to be ticked because of the $5,000 in dental work this crack was going to cost them.  So to help prevent other multi-billion dollar molar repairs I began brushing.  Regularly.  For 5 minutes or so.  Several times a day.  Between meals.  Between my teeth.  Flossing irregularly compared to brushing but obsessing on the massive gap, wider than David Letterman’s front tooth gap, in my rear right molar.  I was prepared for some motorcycling stuntman to want to jump the massive span.  Must brush.

And so for weeks I brushed my teeth with a religious zealotry that could only be matched by fervent televangelists who just needed a few more million dollars to complete that mansion that “god wanted them to have.”  I was pretty sure God wanted me to have my teeth.  So I brushed them more.  All while being in California with my relatives.

A while later I went to the dentist with GREAT fear.  Worried that the cavity was going to be much worse than my estimated $5,000.00.  The hygienist looked at my teeth, cleaned them, made me swish fluoride around in my mouth – and then went to get the dentist.  I had an empty stomach, but had I not I think that my Jr. High bowels would have evacuated with fear of the impending doom.  Bring on the judge and jury to sentence my mouth to needles, Novocain, and numbness.

Alas, I had a plastic composite that had been used as a temporary stop-gap because I had a low spot in my molar.  By a dentist some time before.  It had warn out and was just ready to be replaced.  I had no cavity.  Zero dollars in repairs.

I didn’t brush my teeth for a week.

Just kidding, I brush my teeth daily whether they need it or not.

The Essence of Religion

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A quote from my Uncle, Eric Peterman, who puts things in a way I can really enjoy and understand them:

The essence of religion (and there are all colors) is to avoid the necessity of actual grace by contriving means by which I avoid offending God and by which I please God. In short, in that view I try to out-Grace God.

Grace needs to be amazing.  So amazing that we’re in awe of it.  If we try to live the Christian life without ‘using’ Grace we miss the point that it is the very life system by which we operate.