Sharp Knives and Great Gifts

A couple of years ago I was in Seattle with a very good friend. He used to work on crab fishing boats. I am a big fan of the show "The Deadliest Catch" so I am a big fan of my friend. Those guys are amazing. Anyway, my friend took me to a store where all the real fishermen buy their knives. These are knives they carry in their boots in case they get tossed overboard and are tangled in a rope they can cut their way loose. They are very sharp knives. I bought several. I love them. They are like super sharp steak knives. They are my favorite kitchen instrument. I was using one last night to cut very thin slices of cheddar cheese. It was great. Later I found some chocolate that we had melted for fondue and then saved in the frig. It was cold and hard. I had a hankering for chocolate so I took the knife to it. The knife slipped off the chocolate, through the tupperware and then through my finger. I spent the next couple of hours in the emergency room. I am ok except for feeling remarkably foolish. Here is my point. I love the knife. It is awesome. The best things in my life are like that knife. If they stay in their proper place, their God-given place then they remain a wonderful gift. But if I use them for something they were never intended for they become dangerous to me and they make that switch very quickly. That goes for my family, my children, my job, my health. All these things are great gifts. All of them like knives. If I try to use any one of them to give me worth I will very quickly end up in some kind of emergency room. Only God can fill the deepest need in my soul. Only God can fill the deepest need in yours. Remember that as you butter your toast tomorrow. I will remember it for a while as my poor finger heals. Even the healing is a gift of grace from the true God.

When The Foundations Crumble

It is hard for me to move away from the earthquake in Haiti. Right now rains are falling in California and washing away dreams as houses collapse and people slog through the streets. I watched last night as parents made pleas on television for their missing children who have been buried in a Haitian hotel. My youngest daughter Becca wants to run an orphanage overseas some day. It made me think of how I would be praying and what I would do as a father if she was running an orphanage in Haiti right now. There is a helplessness that can be overwhelming. There is a verse in Psalm 11. It reads, "When the foundations are destroyed, what will the righteous do?" The psalmist must have felt what we feel. He goes on to remind himself, "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord is on his heavenly throne." That is a great reminder. Some of you have had days when the earth moved, when the foundations crumbled around you. In Haiti it happened in less than a minute. I guess that is the way it happens for most of us. A single phone call and life changes and the ground shifts and we feel the swaying in our bones. When that happens to me I will need friends to gently remind me that the Lord is still in his heavenly temple, the Lord is still on his throne. When the foundations crumble we run to the only One who is beneath even the foundations of our lives. I want to be there even before the shaking begins.

Haiti- Pray, Give, Go

Two days ago the earth shook under Haitian soil. We call it an earthquake and it is measure in single digits. This one registered at 7.0. Somehow a single digit number does not match the destruction that I see on TV. When I got in to my office this morning I had an email from one of our members. She said she was passing by the church and was thinking about the tragedy in Haiti and wondered if we had any "eye popping" plans to show the love of God and if so she wanted me to know she was in. I love that on two levels. One that she knows our church well enough to think we would be responding some way and she had high expectations as to the extent of the response. The second thing I liked about it is she was letting me know she wanted to be part of the response. She wasn't just saying, "So, Mr. Minister, what are you going to do about this?" I like that. This is how we are going to start. There are 3 ways we are going to call people to respond. PRAY, GIVE, GO. We are putting it up on our website www.hudsonchapel.org. We will be updating to help all of us know what to pray for. We have trusted ministry partners already in Haiti so anyone who wants to give money to be used for relief can give through the church. Finally we want to know who is willing to GO. Right now we can't get into Haiti. No one can. But when we can we will. Here at HCC we are right in the middle of a Vision series. 2010- The Year of Our Lord. We are dividing the year up into six sections that are 2 months each. Each section we will call all of us to do something more than we have ever done before. This first section is SHARE. We want to Share our faith more than we have ever shared before. Throughout the year we will PRAY, READ, RISK, SERVE, and GIVE. You may need to do some things out of order. This may be your time to PRAY, RISK, and SERVE like you never have before. All I know is that if there is a disaster of a 7.0 magnitude, I want to be part of a church that is willing to muster together a 7.0 response.

So Smart She is Stupid

My dog JoJo is very smart. At least that is what we have always assumed. She is a Jack Russel terrier. That is the kind of dog used on the television show Frazier and in the movie The Mask. They are known for their intelligence. By the way, maybe you are wondering why she is named JoJo. Be careful what you assume. I used to make fun of George Foreman for naming all his kids George. He has 4 sons named George and a daughter named Georgette. I finally met an old boxer who knew George. They had fought each other twice. He told me he had asked George why he named all his kids after himself. George said, "I never knew who my father was growing up. I wanted my kids to know their father's name." I haven't made fun of him since. Any way, I named my dog JoJo for times like this to remind myself it was my idea to get this dog. JoJo has been doing her business indoors, on our carpets, which are white. She is trained to ring a little bell when she needs to go outside and use God's great outdoors as her personal toilet. Up until recently she would walk over to the sliding door, ring the bell and go out. Now she is picking her times. I still think she is smart. She is just smart enough to be stupid. She realizes it is freezing outside and has decided she will do what she wants indoors. But she forgets that ultimately big Joe (that's me) still has power. Now, JoJo has lost her freedom. When we go out she gets locked in the mud room. She sleeps in there now. So far, her loss of freedom has resulted in cleaner carpets. JoJo reminds me of me. There are times I am so smart I am stupid. I know what God wants but decide what I want to do is just so much better. Whenever I do that it ultimately results in a loss of freedom. Jesus said, "He who the Son sets free is free indeed." God gives me full reign of the house if I would only be smart enough to listen to Him. The next time you think you are smarter than God think of my mud room and poor JoJo sitting in there wondering how she got there. Don't feel too bad. She knows exactly why she is there.