Things I deemed worth noting

Five things worth, or maybe not worth noting - that is probably a matter of opinion.

1. Today I noticed "Benjamin Franklin - the punctual plumber". The company came to the plumbing rescue decked out in a van with Ben Franklin's head on the side. Who knew that Mr. Franklin was known to be punctual? This got me thinking: how do companies come up with their names? How do they decide that the name they choose is going to somehow further the sales and success of their business, product or service? Round of applause to the Benjamin Franklin plumbers. I may be confused by their choice of name but if I ever need a plumber you can bet I'll be looking into them on google reviews. Mission accomplished, Ben.

2. Everyone has their own unique and distinct running style. Maybe you have noticed the wide array of running styles that abound on sidewalks, treadmills and street (ugh - use a sidewalk buddy). If you haven't previously noticed this phenomenon then take a minute and picture runners. They all look different in your mind, don't they? Some twirl their arms in little circles, keeping pace with their striding legs. Others appear to be gliding. Still others look pained and fatigued, as if they might keel before their heel meets the pavement once again. No two runners are the same. Kind of like people. No two individuals are the same. Maybe these two principles are somehow linked? Someone should study this theory. Not me in particular, but someone.

3. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. What one person cherishes will be deemed worthy of demolishing by another. Just watch HGTV for proof. One person sells a home to move across the country for work, leaving behind the home they have made their own and loved. The next owner comes in and tears off the wallpaper, knocks out the kitchen cabinets and paints the dining room bright, flaming red. They couldn't wait to change what had once been loved and carefully selected. To them, it was simply dreadful. To the one who loved it and created the design it was truly beautiful.

4. Every woman needs a little black dress and every man needs a bow tie. These are wardrobe essentials. Don't question me, just go to Macy's.

5. You can't expect to meet friendly faces when you wear a sour expression with a downward cast glance. If you want to find friendliness, you need to give it. If you want to make a friend you need to be ready to be a friend. If you want to meet people you have to take the ear buds out and look people in the eye, and smile. You have to get out of your comfort zone and off the couch. The world is full of friendly people, are you one of them?

In case you were wondering...

This is what's on my mind... in case you were wondering....

1. Don't underestimate the importance (and power) of a good night's sleep. Pam Beasley (from The Office, in case you aren't up on your stupid humor comedy sitcoms) knows the difference a solid REM cycle can provide to the waking hours. When she gets 8 hours of sleep compared to 4 - big difference. So, take a lesson from a show full of utter ridiculous, yet amusing, antics: get your shut eye. The beauty sleep does more than just help the appearance. It clears the mind and puts a cheery light on the whole day. Who knew what happens when we aren't even aware could influence the rest of life in such a profound way? Pam knew.
2. A red front door, designed and executed with style and an eye for design, can be as powerful as the perfect shade of red lipstick. It takes a home from boring, dull and lifeless and makes it a showstopper. A few coats of paint can be the difference between drive by and stop and stare. Like I said: lipstick for the house. Just ask any women with a go-to shade of fiery red. She isn't born with it, it might be Maybelline. But it makes all the difference when getting all dolled up for date night.
3. When you read Jane Austen you will find that your day to day thoughts take on a new accent. Call me crazy, but don't judge until you've read over 300 pages of one of her classics. You begin to think with an English accent. I'm not complaining. Who doesn't love a true Brit speaking with that irresistible accent so captivating that it stops women young and old in their tracks?
4. Do you want to change your daily interactions with strangers, friends, family and even your pet dog? Smile and make eye contact. These simple acts will transform your communication. A smile goes a long way. It conveys openness and invites further interaction. Eye contact shows that you are engaged. Try these tricks of the communication trade and watch the world around you take on a whole new light.  You won't be disappointed, I promise.
5. Cars are a blessing and a curse. Life was simpler before they existed. I wasn't around then, obviously, but since moving to Chagrin Falls I am beginning to get a picture of what that world was like. Needed groceries? You walked. You didn't buy 2 carts full of potato chips and Oreos. You bought what you could carry, aka what you needed. Had to send a letter? You walked to the local post office and bought stamps, probably running into a few of the locals on the way. Communities were close knit. People knew each other. There is something nostalgic and picturesque about that way of life. It was a life grounded on the fundamentals and a simplicity that is missing from society. From now on, I'm going to try to let my car stay parked more often.


Whats on your mind? What have you noticed today?

Becoming "beautiful"

Think back 365 days from today. Where were you? What were you doing? What were your plans for the day, the week, the month? Do you even recall what was happening in your life those days? Or has the past faded with the setting of each sun? Has the past become a hazy patchwork of circumstances that have formed you yet alluded your detailed memory?
I don't remember what I did 365 days ago. Maybe I went out and had lunch or took a shopping trip to TJ Maxx. Those sound like plans I would have embraced a year ago. I still embrace days such as those. Although I don't remember the specifics of my day I do remember the circumstances surrounding my life at that time. I was sick and searching for answers. I was waiting for results from the IBS Treatment Center in Seattle, WA; all the while scouring the internet for any answer, any explanation for my suffering.
At that time I was in a state of utter confusion and questioning. I didn't have answers but I wanted them badly. I was searching and reaching. I felt stalled out and at a loss for a future or a way out of my predicament. Each road seemed to lead to a dead end. Every medical condition that seemed to fit my struggle only fit half way. The other half didn't even come close. I was coming up empty handed. It was about this time 365 days ago that the results came from Seattle. Still, no answers.
My search continued.
I don't need to rehash the saga of how I ended up back in Erie at a chiropractor to find answers from a Christian man of God who believes whole heartedly in the bodies ability to heal itself and God's desire to heal us with tools he has provided right here on earth. The saga would take much more than a single blog post to cover it adequately. I don't have the time, space or desire to go through the whole process. But it was a journey. It took me from coast to coast, Washington to Florida, California to Cleveland. I went everywhere, tried anything and had the scans and MRIs that should have shown something, anything or in my case, nothing.
In those days I couldn't see what God had for my future or how he was going to use that trial to shape the person I would become. There were nights I didn't know if he would take me to be with him right then and there or if I would live to see (and suffer) another day.
I remember one night where I laid in bed with one of the worst hot flashes I had experienced to date. I was sweating, my heart pounding and my mind racing. I was nervous and afraid for my very life. Tears started to form in my eyes - a rarity for me. I couldn't suppress them and for once, I didn't want to. I let them flow as I cried out to God: "If you want to take me, okay. I'm yours and I'm ready. I am going to sleep now, trusting that whatever happens is your will. If I wake up tomorrow morning it is because of you alone, you have sustained me. You have given me another day because you aren't finished with me yet."
Needless to say I woke up.
He wasn't finished.
He isn't finished.
From that moment in July of 2012, to today, February 18, 2013, so much has happened. God has taken me to places I never thought possible and never anticipated. He has brought me here, to Chagrin Falls, Ohio to the Starbucks that I walked to from my house just 5 short blocks away - the house I live in, the house my parents generously purchased for an investment and for my home. The road here was twisted and winding. I couldn't have fathomed it while I was walking it but that is the mystery of God.
When God is leading every day is an adventure and every trail is not just a mere shortcut. God takes us down the scenic route for a purpose. He wants to show us something special. My scenic route didn't feel scenic at the time. It felt like I was on a road to nowhere, spinning my wheels. I felt despondent and depressed until I released my agenda to God. My own plans weren't evil or inherently wrong, but they were preconceived and, most importantly, they weren't God's. I wanted to be healthy and I wanted it yesterday, not tomorrow. God didn't have that in the cards just yet. He wanted to keep me where I was physically so he could grow me spiritually. He still hasn't brought my body back to full health but he has given me enough to go forward with dreams and service that I wasn't capable of in my darkest hours.
Now I am here in the midst of beginning a whole new life. It is unknown and exciting at the same time. I don't know where the road here will lead but I know who brought me here. In life that is what's most important. We aren't meant to know our future - where is the fun in that anyway? We are to be confident in the one who got us where we are and the one who is taking us where we are going. If our confidence is in God and his providence, perfect timing, and perfect plan then we don't need to fret about a single step that is to come. When we have confidence in him we don't need to have confidence in the ways of the world or our own ability to plan and plot out our future. We must wake every morning and close our eyes each night asking God to direct our paths, while we live in obedience to his laws and commands. There will be days we deny our own desires and human pleasures because they aren't God's. Don't despair. Although it may feel like a hardship in the moment it is moving you closer to the road God has set forth specifically and specially for you.
When you hand your life over to God's providence wholeheartedly he will do amazing things. He will take you places you didn't even know were possible. He will exceed your dreams. You have to submit. You have to take that first step. It may hurt. It will feel like pruning. Remember you are clay in the potters hands. You are being molded, formed and shaped into something beautiful. If he left you as you were when he found you - gray, dull and misshapen - you would never bear the name "beautiful". But if you allow yourself to be changed you will become something marvelous and God will use your life in a way only he could. You can't do it on your own. You can't even understand it as it is happening. But remain steadfast in obedience and he will remain true to his word. He will make your life something miraculous.

Puzzles

How do you deal with anxiety and stress? Retail therapy? That used to be my go-to shrink. When I was upset and down in the dumps I hit up the TJ Maxx and Marshalls and browsed away my feelings of despair. It was effective, although not the most friendly to my checking account. Back in high school I went into crying mode and a total lack of appetite. I think the two are related: when you are a complete blubbering mess you can't properly chew and swallow food. If you are looking for a diet plan this might be up your alley if you are quick to cry uncontrollably.
But, as I've grown up and matured - I hope - I've developed new coping mechanisms for life's bumps, troubles and trials. Actually, to be more specific, I've developed two mechanisms that have both proven to be wildly effective and not at all detrimental to my wallet or waistline. They are coloring and jigsaw puzzles.
Childish you say? Think again! These two forms of self-therapy are perfect for freeing the mind and refocusing negative energy and emotion. Coloring is for the really tough times. It is completely mindless. You complete a picture in a short amount of time and can be happy with your sad attempt at art. You can choose happy colors that reflect a mood you wish you were feeling. Even if things are gray, gloomy and dark you can paint a picture of yellow flowers and fluttering butterflies. The picture doesn't have to match your circumstances, in fact it shouldn't. It should be an uplifting reminder of bright days ahead and good memories from the past. And the best part? Much cheaper than a therapist.
Once you get through the worst of your trial puzzles can become an effective tool to dig out of the hole of despair. Puzzles are a bit more challenging and require more patience. It will take days (maybe weeks if you choose something with tons of pieces and an abstract image) to complete. You must wait and stick with it to see the final product. But when you complete your puzzle you feel a slight sense of pride, maybe even an overwhelming sense of pride, at the image you've constructed. As silly as it may seem, you feel a level of accomplishment that you didn't have before you fit all those pieces together perfectly. Maybe at the end of the puzzle your life is still in a place of disarray, but the pieces in that puzzle are not. There is a satisfaction in that. If a puzzle, that was once a thousand multi-colored pieces, can turn into a beautiful picture, then can't your broken and twisted circumstances do the same?
Puzzles show us the possibilities of even our most trying times. They may look like a mess. We may not see how any of the ups and down are going to turn into anything positive or stable. Yet, there is hope in the formation of the most complicated of jigsaw puzzles. There is a solution. It may take a long time to see the final result. Patience will undoubtedly be required. But if you stick with it, if you don't lose your cool and you don't give up and throw the pieces back into the box, there can be a beautiful picture that comes to light in the end.

Patience 101

Maybe I'm just a slow learner, but it seems that God continues to repeat his lessons over and over again. I think I've learned the creed, the principle and then God challenges me again and I begin to wonder: why do I need to keep being taught the same thing? God, don't you think I understand it by now?
His answer is always, no. There is more to know, more to learn - room to grow. His favorite lesson is Patience 101. He brings situations about that require my utmost patience if I want to remain obedient and faithful, spiritually speaking. If I lose my patience I separate myself from God and that has dire consequences. I can immediately tell when I have traded patience for frustration. Instead of feeling peace I feel anxiety. Instead of an overwhelming sense of calm, I end up with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Sometimes I fail the test. I give in to the human failings in me that want my way in my time. Yet, God is pushing me to the end of myself and the end of my human desires. He is asking me to abandon my preconceived notions of how life "should" be in return for the promises of contentment, peace, and salvation that are only found when all trust is put in Him.
For years my patience has been put to the test. I must admit that I was an utter failure in the beginning. I would cry, lament, moan, complain - you name it, I did it. My patience was miniscule and was entirely based on my circumstances. But God broke me. He challenged me to give up on my own way and trust that His timing was better. He wanted me to believe that He knew best, even if through my own human eyes I couldn't understand all the details. Through tears I relented. I remember one night in particular that I laid in bed, feeling that my body had come to the end of itself and could give out at any moment. I laid in my bed and cried out to God, telling Him that I was His to take or His to save. If He let me suffer I suffered for His name's sake and if He healed me then He healed me for His glory. I released my tight grip on my future and let Him have His way. Within moments I was asleep. God had given me a calm and a peace that I couldn't manufacture on my own. He had to do that work in me and that night He did just that.
I woke up the next morning knowing that I was being sustained not my food, a doctor or my own will. I knew at that moment that I was being sustained by God's almighty hand. He had been carrying me all along but I had been reluctant to allow myself to fully grasp what that meant. I wanted to keep a hold on the situation when really, I never had a hold of it to begin with. I never had the power to sustain my body through the health trials, low weight and sickness. God did all that.
Since that morning I've been faced with more circumstances that require my patience and my trust in God's providence. My trial has lasted for years now and I don't see an immediate end in sight. But I don't need an end to know that God is in control. He isn't obligated to provide a date at which this whole ordeal will be over. He could let it go on for the rest of my days on earth if that is His intent. He doesn't owe me relief. But I do owe Him my life. I owe Him my trust, obedience, commitment, faithfulness and patience. He has saved me from my sins when I was deep in the midst of worldly living. I didn't deserve and couldn't obtain the forgiveness that He provided. Without my asking for it He sent His son so that I could enjoy the freedom of a life not run by sin and satan's power. All I had to do was accept the gift. How could I ask for anything more? He has given me the greatest and most precious gift I could ever imagine. Health, wealth, happiness - they are all fleeting in comparison to the salvation found in Jesus that promises eternal life in Heaven.
No matter what I suffer here on earth, it is temporary. There is no reason to have anything but patience. Life here is just a blink of an eye. It is not my forever. My eternal home is in Heaven. There I have a life of health and endless praise to the God who has sustained me earth side. Until I get there I will keep asking God for more of His will for my life here on earth - even if it requires much more patience.

The Value of Life

This world in which we live becomes all the more distressing with each passing day. Friday morning twenty children and six adults were shot in cold blood in an elementary school. This kind of tragedy is horrific and beyond human comprehension. It is the most unthinkable of evils being perpetrated on the most unsuspecting and innocent. What the parents and families of those deceased must be going through is more devastating then words can describe.
The small, idyllic community of Newtown, CT has become a hotbed of media attention, overtaken by swarms of news reporters, TV cameras, journalists and ambulance chasers. Not to mention the investigation teams and federal officials who are now burdened with the task of trying to make sense of the senseless. Every news station is a non-stop reel of videotape that shows kids being escorted from their school building with looks of confusion and terror, parents pacing in the parking lots of news conferences and families holding on to each other for dear life.
Where have we seen this before?
The days following the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting, the days following the shooting in Tuscon, Arizonia that shot a House of Representatives member, the weeks after September 11th, and the days after the Virginia Tech school shooting. Each produced  similar results: mourning painfully displayed on every TV station, magazine cover, newspaper article and internet post. The grief and pain is shown in brilliant color for all to see. But what can any of the viewers or readers do? Can we comfort these people or lend some kind of emotional support? Other than prayer, we are at a loss. We have nothing to offer and nothing to give. These people don't need or want our money. They want their children back. They want their husband, wives, brothers and sisters back. Yet, with each tragedy comes another media storm and we all watch in numb frustration. We have seen it before and the utter devastation of the evil is undeniable. Yet we become immune to the true pain it is causing because it feels like a repeat of the last tragedy.
I don't mean to sound callous or insensitive. What happened yesterday and in all the other cases of mass killings is beyond horrific and tragic. I cannot even comprehend the loss each and every one of those families is dealing with. Death is never easy, especially when it is unexpected and especially when it befalls the innocent by violent means. Everyone, it seems, questions why and how? How could someone do something so evil? Why did this happen and how could it be avoided in the future?
While I ponder these questions like most, I have a whole other set of questions rattling around in my mind. Such as, why are we surprised that this has happened? Just look at our culture. We have taken the act of an abortion and made it into a simple choice, a realistic and acceptable option in the course of a pregnancy. We have deemed the taking of innocent life in the womb as nothing more than a woman's right to make a decision, yet the killing of children out of the womb is a tragedy. We are right to call the killing of those kids a tragedy, don't misunderstand me. But we are wrong to assume that the ending of life in the womb isn't just as tragic. It is a travesty that is being carried out across America each and every day. Over a million abortions are performed in the US alone every year. Where is the outcry over such a massive loss of life? Where is the mourning for each child that never got the chance to even begin kindergarten in the first place?
The value of life is not ours to pick and choose. We cannot decide that just because we can't see and hold a baby it does not have value. That is not ours to determine. If God has given life it is never ours to take away. Most people realize and believe this when they can see, touch and feel the person in front of them. Somehow, when that person is still in the comfort and security of its mother's womb many people struggle to see the value of the miracle being formed. Millions of people don't see that the human being that is growing every day in the womb is actually a living being. They want to devalue the life by calling it a "fetus." But it is not some alien being that deserves a foreign name. It is a person with lungs, kidneys, fingers, toes, skin and physical characteristics totally and completely unique to that special and precious child. Someday, if given the chance, that child will go into the world and attend school, make friends, be in the Christmas play, learn to read and play on the playground. That isn't a fetus. That is a child in the earliest stages of development. That stage isn't unlike all the stages to come. The only difference is this: the earliest stage of development happens in the comforting and protective environment of a mother's womb.
But one million + babies will never get to develop any further. Their lives will be cut short by the choosing of the one person who is supposed to protect and nurture them at this critical time. Their mother will allow their life to be cut short.
We condemn with rage and anger the actions of a gunman who bursts into a crowded school, taking the life of the innocent, yet we protect the mother who ends the life of a baby in her care. How do these two coexist? How can we have a world where we pick and choose when life is precious and when it is disposable?
The answer is this: when we, as a nation, decide that we hold the value of life in our own hands, we devalue it greatly. We take something sacred and make it a matter of opinion, just another matter to be legislated and debated. It takes a work of God and makes it a work of man. And what man creates, he has no trouble destroying. But what God creates and sanctions is holy and sacred. When that is the value put on life we will see a world much different, and far greater, then the world we see now.

Thy Will Be Done

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,

The power, and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen.

The Lord's Prayer is a traditional church reading. In contemporary churches it is becoming a memory, one of those rituals lost to the modern culture of emotional worship. But the Lord's Prayer is so much more than a jumble of words repeated in monotone voices, echoed from a stiff and uptight congregation. The Lord's Prayer is the inspired Word of God. It is a mandate from the Lord himself. This is how you are to pray. It is the blueprint for communication with Holy, Father God.

Still, when it is spoken in church it is often simply glossed over and rushed through as nothing more then a doctrinal ritual, a task to be crossed off the list. How often are the words really meditated upon, pondered and contemplated? Do we even know the gravity of the words we are speaking?

As I was reading through the Lord's Prayer today I was struck by the simple phrase, "Thy will be done".... It is so basic. It is a sentence that, upon first glance, doesn't shake the earth or stop the reader dead in their tracks. At least it didn't do that to this reader - until today. It was not until today that I realized the importance of those words that I have prayed a thousand times. Since I was a young child I've repeated this prayer and yet I have never been so impacted by its words.

Each time I've prayed that prayer I've asked God to do his will. I didn't ask him for my own. This prayer isn't about the requests of the flesh or the personal desires of the human heart. No, this prayer is about fulfilling God's purpose. It doesn't seek to know what that purpose is, it simply trusts that God has a will and a plan. That plan and that will aren't always going to be revealed to us in our own timing. In fact, more often that not, it will feel like a great mystery that we wish we could unlock. But God doesn't work in the ways of his children. He doesn't give them answers when they think they should have them and doesn't chart out the path they expect or might think they want. He has his own plan and it is always better than our own. 

Maybe by human standards the path God takes us on will look twisted and confused. By earthly standards it might seem to be a complete mess or at least undesirable. God's will might not include a fancy house, luxury, good health, physical comforts or honor in the public eye. God's will might mean persecution, sickness and struggle. But we must remember what we prayed for. "Thy will." 

God's agenda is not our own. His agenda is not that his children have earthly gems and worldly success. His agenda is that his kingdom be glorified and magnified. Sometimes, in order to achieve that end, suffering must enter in. Jesus is the ultimate picture of this. He came to earth solely for this purpose. His entire life mission was to die so that others could know God personally and intimately. He lived so that others could be freed from the burden of sin that trapped them in a life separated from their Heavenly Father. He had to come as a baby, be raised in a world full of human failings and ultimately had to die the worst death imaginable: a slow, painful death on a cross. And this was all God's will. 

Why? How? If God loved Jesus and if he loves us how could he possible let us suffer? So that his kingdom can spread. So that others can be brought into fellowship with him. In our eyes this might make little to no sense. It doesn't fit into our neat little box of "logic." And good thing, because God doesn't want it to. He doesn't want to be understood in earthly terms. He is so much greater, that our earthly understanding doesn't do him and his power justice. 

This side of Heaven there will be many circumstances and situations that we don't understand. But God does. He understands them because he orchestrates them if we allow him to have that power in our lives. If we earnestly seek him and sincerely desire his will, he will lead our lives down a path of righteousness for his name's sake. Not for us. Not to glorify or magnify ourselves. Not to lift ourselves up. No, we will be humbled, persecuted and tried in this life. Yet, even in the midst of that suffering, God can be glorified. It is in these times when God can be glorified higher then in any other. When life is humming along with little resistance and no struggle it is easy to forget to look to God and to see him working. Instead we become lost in the comfort of an easy life. When things get tough and the road becomes bumpy we can see God at work. We see him in the peace he gives, the circumstances he can engineer, the lives he can touch and the hearts he can change. 

His will is not our own and still we pray for it.  We pray that it will be done in our lives and on this earth, just as it is in Heaven. We pray for his will so that his kingdom can come. We pray for his glory and his power, for ever.