The Cracked Door

Imagine for a moment that you have inherited an old house, something that has been in your family for generations. It is a house you have not visited in the past and have seen only old photos of it, the faded black-and-white kind. Now is it yours. You have received a set of keys in the mail along with directions on how to get there and a title with your name on it. With a mixture of trepidation and eagerness, at least a small amount of it, you set out on the quest to visit this dubious surprise which was left to you by an unknown relative.

Think old Southern mansion, with the tall white columns, wrap around porch, old dirt driveway winding up through the trees. The paint is cracked and faded, a couple of windows have plywood instead of glass, and it is definitely less than inviting on the first look. When you look through the dirty windows, you half expect to see a ghost or two coming down the staircase to greet you at the door. So, what you do is put that key into the lock, twist it, and push on the door. It opens, but just a crack. Here is your opportunity to get inside, to see what is waiting for you, and the door is barely open and won't budge any further. What you do next will determine whether you discover what trash or treasures are waiting for you inside.

As I am sure you have figured out, the mansion is life. It is full of surprises, good and bad, and just when you think you have it all figured out, you realize you don't. Some surprises are good ones, like gifts for Christmas or your birthday. Others are not so nice, like the pink slip you received when you held that dream job that was going to last all the way to retirement. So, what next, you ask? Maybe it depends on who you ask. Maybe the "who" is God, the creator of all surprises. The trick is recognizing the answer and deciding what you are going to do with it.

Many times when we ask God for something, we have a specific something in mind. Just because it is in our mind, does not mean it is also in God's mind. Sometimes what God gives us is an opportunity. Like that stuck door above, it is up to us to figure out the opportunity and then to pry open that door. Sometimes God's plan comes in several steps or stages and we just have to figure them out or to take advantage of them, even when we don't recognize them for what they are. Many years ago, I told God the kind of woman I wanted to marry. I had in mind what she should look like, her personality, and other characteristics. No one I was dating at the time fit into that mold. So, I told God what I had in mind and asked for his help. Some time after that, I was laid off from my job. After months of looking and interviewing, I landed a job with a government contractor and shortly after starting, I had to go to a conference in San Diego. I thought about whom I still knew there and came up with a couple I hadn't talked to in years, so I called them just to say hello. When the lady answered the phone, she told me they had separated. So, I suggested we get together. We did. One thing led to another and 11 months later to the day, we were married. She was just the lady I had asked God to find for me! He cracked opened the door for the opportunity for us to get back together and I pried it open to find the treasure behind.

All too often, we ask God for something and expect it to come completely assembled and gift wrapped. In my experience, it doesn't usually happen that way. God offers the opportunity and it is up to me to see it and take advantage of it. Sometimes I have seen it and other times I have not, usually to my misfortune. I am sure you have had the same experience of asking and not seeing the cracked open door he has created. He doesn't usually put a big sign out there with an arrow pointing the way.

What are you asking for? What are you expecting God to give to you or do to you? Are you ready for his response? Are you ready for the unexpected answer? Remember, he operates on his rules, not ours, and he knows the best way to give the best things and opportunities to you. It is up to you to accept his gifts.

The Golf Cart

I was walking through the parking lot this morning on the way to my office and saw a golf cart pull into the parking lot. It was the roving patrol guy driving through to check out the cars and people to make sure everything was okay and safe. It is part of his job to make sure there are no problems or threats to our cars and to us. It is just a quiet, and I am sure, boring job, just driving from parking lot to parking lot in this business complex, to see what there is to see. The owners of the complex pay him to do his lonely job for our benefit. I haven't been working in this complex for very long, but have not heard any rumors or stories of car vandalism or other problems with people who do not belong there. He is there to protect us and our cars, just another silent sentinel going about his job.

God has his own silent sentinels who also watch over us and protect us. He has his angels who take care of us. Sometimes it is something that happens directly to someone, like the baby who falls out of a multiple story building and lands on concrete without an injury. Maybe you start to make a turn or drive forward in your car and suddenly pause for some reason, just in time to see another car that would have hit you. Are you tempted to do something you should not do and something or someone else is there which causes you to rethink that action?

God realizes that we don't always listen to those subtle cues, so he may take an indirect route by using someone else to be there at the right time to save us or stop us or make us pause to reconsider what we are about to do. He is not only the supreme being in whose image we were made, he is also our greatest protector. After all, we are his greatest creation and he has a definite vested interest in making sure we are safe so we can eventually spend the rest of eternity with him.

You are probably wondering why bad things happen to either you or someone else if God is there to protect us. Bad things do happen. Sometimes it is just random chance; sometimes it is due to someone else's actions; and sometimes it is just God's way to help us to grow. If you have read many of my prior writings, you know I bring up Job and the trials he went through. God does allow us to be tempted and tried. It is part of his plan to help us grow and develop our spiritual strength. Not only does that serve us, but it puts us in the position of helping and protecting others with what we have learned. In that sense, God uses us to drive his golf cart around on our journey through life. We get to be the ones who watch out for threats to the rest of his people. We get to patrol God's parking lot and make safe those who visit there. We, you and I, get to be God's silent sentinels.

Bacon And Eggs

When I was growing up at home, my dad had the same breakfast several times a week. Mom would put some bacon in the frying pan and cook that. Then she took a couple of eggs, put them into the bacon grease and basted the eggs with the hot grease: sunny side up and basted. I can still smell them in my memory and see Dad sitting there enjoying it. Many years later, that pleasure had to change due to some health concerns, but he would still indulge from time to time. I don't cook them that way for myself, but the microwave does bacon just fine and zapped scrambled eggs are an acceptable substitute, especially between a couple of flour tortillas.

I am sure you have your favorite way to start the day with your favorite foods. When I was flying Navy airplanes, we kidded that the Naval aviator's breakfast was a cup of coffee and a couple of doughnuts. What is your favorite way to start the day? Maybe you are one of the oatmeal crowd or fruit is your thing. Perhaps you are one of those people who skip breakfast despite the medical advice that it is the most important meal of the day because it gives you the energy to make it through the day. How do you start your day in the food department?

How do you start your spiritual day? You know, the part that includes God. Some folks read a passage in the bible or they get a daily devotional on their cell phone. Others listen to a preacher on television or attend a study group at their church once or twice a week. Maybe you spend some time on your knees just talking to God about what you are going to be doing today or some of the victories or concerns you may have. Or, maybe you are like the people who skip a food breakfast and you skip the spiritual one as well. Just like starting the day with food, starting the day with God gives you the spiritual energy to get through the day.

So far, I have just talked about you as the individual. How about anyone else in your household? Jesus told us that wherever two or more are gathered in his name, he is there. Do you gather together and pray together? Do you let each one share with the family or group the joys and problems of the coming day? What can you do or what can you change to better start your day?

The Jigsaw Puzzle

Are you a big fan of jigsaw puzzles? Many people enjoy taking a box full of cut up pieces of cardboard with a part of a picture on it and figuring out how they fit together to form a complete picture. The ones we give to our little kids may have ten or twenty pieces so they can get a concept of shape and completion recognition. Then there are the ones for the adults, which can range from little ones with 500 pieces up to complicated monsters with thousands. Personally, they are not my friends. I have put them together with helping friends and by myself. As far as I am concerned, I don’t have to submit myself to that level of frustration again. I remember the last one I tried to work. It was a photo of a bunch of eggs in an incubator with a heat lamp shining down on them. The only variation was the amount of red light on the eggs from the heat lamp. After three weeks, I gave up in utter frustration at a puzzle not even a third completed, boxed it up and gave it to a friend. A few days later, she told me she really enjoyed the puzzle and it was difficult. She said it took her almost four hours to complete!

Life is like those jigsaw puzzles. Now, isn’t that a nice-sounding, obvious cliché? When we get dumped into this world, we are a loose collection of pieces, somehow moving in the same direction and at the same time. Over time, the pieces start to be arranged to make the beginnings of the picture. When we learn to walk, some of the pieces are set; when we start to talk, still more. As we begin our education, more pieces are added to the whole. Down through the years, more and more of the puzzle is added. The puzzle may not be completed until the very end, but as we look over the puzzle, we may see that a piece of it is missing. It is piece near the center and it is vital to the formation of the picture. A search through the other pieces on the table does not find it and neither does a search of the floor and under the furniture. An exhaustive search still yields the same result: it is missing. Without it, the puzzle can never be completed. At last, a search of the box itself shows that it was intentionally stuck to the interior of the box. It was not designed to fall out with the other pieces of the puzzle, but to be added deliberately. It is only after that piece is inserted, that the center is finished.

So what is that piece that was so special, so unique? Remembering that the puzzle represents our life, that piece represents the presence of God in our life. While God is part of us from the moment of our conception, it is he who breathes life into us; it is still a part that has not been recognized for its utter importance. Until we find God for ourselves and intentionally insert him into our lives, we cannot be complete. Without God in our lives, the picture is flawed and there is a hole that can be felt.

How about you? Have you searched and found that central piece? Have you maneuvered it and set it firmly into the center of your being, or have you just kind of nudged it around so that it sort of fits. Have you made God a snug fit in the way you conduct yourself and your relationship with him, or have you left it haphazardly alone?