Decisions: Good And Bad

 We are faced with many opportunities to make decisions every day.  Most of them are not serious or world-changing.  What’s for supper? Which outfit do I want to wear to go to work/shopping/church?  And others like that.  Some are more serious, like choosing a career.  How about choosing the person you want for a spouse to share the rest of your life with you?  That sounds kind of cold blooded, but that is what we do.

We can also make a decision to do something wrong or even evil.  Perhaps it is stealing from someone or your company.  Or maybe cheating on that spouse who thought life with you was going to happen.  How about plotting revenge?

I’ve made both kinds of decisions, good and bad.  Marrying my wife was definitely good.  Choosing to spend more than 20 years as a Navy pilot was also good.  One decision that was bad was choosing to spend more than 15 years as a catastrophe insurance adjuster.  The money was very good, six figures most years.   What was bad was being gone for months at a time.  I thought I needed to do that to maintain a certain lifestyle.  My wife asked me to stop many times and find a different job but, as a brother said, I was in love with the money.  Why was that bad?  I missed anniversaries, birthdays, holidays and just being home with my wife.  When the assignments stopped, I was slowing down at 75.  I looked back at those years and apologized to her many times and admitted that it was one of my worst decisions.

That was my choice to do that to both of us.  God gave all of us the gift of free will.  We can choose to do good or do bad, even fooling or lying to ourselves that the bad was good.  God will try to point out the bad ones, like hints or events, or outright requests.  He also lets us know when we have made a good decision by rewarding us in some way.  Perhaps it is a person who leads us in a good decision, like focusing on a better job or maybe a church that will feed us spiritually.  Or how to spend better time with that for-ever spouse.  He isn’t going to post a banner or billboard proclaiming our good ones.  He will let us know in subtle ways.  We will know that good things are now in our lives.  We may not realize how God put his hand in it.  That’s okay.  If we do, we need to thank him.  In my case, I have a job in retail.  I enjoy dealing with the customers and solving their problems.  The money isn’t even close to that adjuster job, but I am home every night, even just quiet ones.  God knew what I needed to do to get on the right path.  Then he opened up a Christian men’s group to feed that need.  And, lastly, a church I enjoy attending. 

Do you see yourself in your current life?  A good job?  A loving spouse, and children if that is part of it?  A church of some denomination that feeds your soul?  Then people who enrich your life, whether long term or just for a little while?

God is there for us 24/7.  He will help us go through life in the best way.  He also forgives us when we make a bad decision, no matter how long or serious.  Do you ask him for guidance when you need to decide something?  If not, start the next time.  He used my wife to “nudge” me to apply for this current job and I’ve been there for six years.  He may just whisper in your ear.  Or, send a person or event to show you the right way.  He is on your side.  Are you going to make a good decision by listening to him or are you going to make the bad decision with the consequences? 

It is your free will.  So, good or bad?  Choose.

No Sail, No Rudder

No Sail, No Rudder 

The pastor of the church I have been attending has been talking about structures.  Structures like tall buildings and bridges.  He had illustrations of them and showed and explained how they were constructed so they could stand tall and strong.  He also showed a photo of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state.  It was poorly constructed and collapsed only four months after it was completed.  His message was how we need to construct our lives, both spiritually and how we lived our lives and our families.

 He also had a picture which showed how Noah’s Ark was constructed, its different decks that held thousands of animals he saved from the flood that God sent to cleanse the Earth of sin.  That brought to mind a presentation I watched many years ago on one of Joyce Meyer’s daily programs.  She said she had recently realized that the Ark lacked two important features: it had no sail or oars to propel it and no rudder to direct it.  God was the propelling force and he was the rudder directing it.  Surely Noah knew this since he built it.  Undoubtedly, he asked God about these lacks.  And God told him that he, God, was the power that moved the ship and the rudder that directed it in the direction he wanted it to go.  Noah trusted God throughout the whole process of building the Ark, provisioning it and bringing all manners of animals aboard.  So he certainly trusted God still more about what propelled the ship and what directed it.

 The number 40 is found throughout the bible more than 100 times, so the 40 days that the Ark floated on the sea was in keeping with that God’s custom.

 Noah’s trust and belief in God’s plans are the ultimate example of man’s trust in God.  Did he question God?  Certainly.  But that faith saved him and his people and all of the animals with which to repopulate the Earth.  That belief and trust in God is truly awesome!

 Would you have done it?  If God asked you to do something so outstanding, would you?  Maybe not on Noah’s scale, most certainly not.  But there are many examples of people who turned from one level of life and became what God needed.  I am a very, very small example of that.  When I started writing these in 2012 and created this blog in 2014, I had no idea what God wanted me to do with the words he put in me to write these.  This is the 120^th writing in this blog, all about us and God and the messages he wants me to tell.  I did not know if anyone would read these or the blog.  From time to time, I told people about it, less than 50 most likely.  When I was writing this article, I looked at the totals for the entire period and it is over 17,000 views in 19 countries.  I had no idea what God had in mind in 2012, but he did.  I certainly did not tell that number of people and I do not know how all of these people found this blog and read some of these writings.  God does.

 What is God telling you?  What direction is he asking you to go?  Do you hear that tiny whisper in your ear?  Or maybe he will send a messenger, someone to make a comment or suggestion that catches your attention.  Maybe it will be something you see that will tell you what to do.  God has a plan for each of us, just sometimes we have to listen and believe.  I could have tried to ignore him in 2012.  I didn’t and now 14 years later I am still doing what he directs me to do.

 Are you listening?  Are you seeing some visual clue?  He will wait until you are ready for the task.  Noah didn’t start building the Ark until God was ready to bring the flood.  I was 67 when I started writing these.  Just be open to the message he sends to you.  He will send you in the direction he needs you to go, provide the propulsion with his grace, and keep you on the path.  No sails, no oars, no rudder.  Just God using you to accomplish his goals.

 

Without A Washer

 

Without A Washer

Dan Lane

 

I recently bought a new fire pit for the patio.  It came with those fearsome words, “Some assembly required.”  What was supposed to take one and half to two hours took four and one part was not done, a glass windbreak around the pit part where they put the burners and rocks.   That looked easy, just an hour so.  Nope!  Getting it put basically together was easy enough.  Adjusting the corners so they looked right was another two to three.  They had to be level and, because the screws were touching glass, they kept slipping around.  Then there was the propane tank.  I went and bought a four- foot-long hose.  Instead of the usual black knob, it was supposed to screw into the tank nozzle.  Nope!  Wrong thread.  So, I went back to Lowe’s and got a 20-inch-long hose with the regular knob.  Then it was a struggle screwing it onto the pit fitting inside the pit, with very little room to work inside of it.  It worked at last and fired up as it was supposed to do.

 

Along the way, I had to attach the latch for the propane door and the control panel.  The instructions and diagram showed using the supplied screw and washer, one for the door and four for the panel.  The pit has a basket weave covering all over of it.  Try as I might, I could not get the screw for the latch to engage.  The screw and washer were on top of the weave.  No matter how hard I pushed, no luck, it just wasn’t long enough.  I finally took off the washer, and the screw engaged the threads.  Now on to the control panel.  Same problem with those screws.  So, same solution, remove the washers.  Once that was done, all four screws caught and the panel was mounted. 

 

Finished, done, and it works as it is supposed to do, and it looks nice.

 

Sometimes when we want to talk with God or ask him to do something, the usual method doesn’t feel right, or things or people keep getting in the way.  It doesn’t matter how much you try; they just won’t give you the time and opportunity.  Maybe you have always done it a certain way, a certain prayer format or sequence.  It’s just that darn old washer on the short screw.  Take a look at what you are doing and how.

 

Are there things getting in your way that are preventing you or stopping you from talking to God, praying to God, or living the way he wants you to live?  Maybe a friend, a job, a hobby, even the wrong person.  Just as I had to leave out some washers in order to get those screws to grab hold, maybe you need to leave those people or things behind which you are allowing you to not be close to God.  It may not be comfortable or painless.  It may take a lot of effort and determination.  But!  The prize is worth every bit of it.

 

So, how about you?  Are there “washers” in your life?  Are you going to try to keep them and not get close to God?  Or are you going to throw them out and enjoy all that God has promised you?

 

 

 

A Wing Wants To Fly

 

A Wing Wants To Fly

Dan Lane

Back In January of this year, 2026, I started going to a Christian men’s group at Elevate Church in Frisco, Texas, every Saturday.  The man who leads the group is a Navy Seal (there are no “former” or “ex-“ Seals) named Garrett.  On average , there are about 300 to 400 men there each Saturday morning.  In his introduction each time, he tells us that God made each of us for a particular purpose.  He uses as a metaphor a hammer and a nail.  The hammer was made to hit the nail.  It has no other reason or use.  A hammer that doesn’t get to hit a nail is frustrated simply because it is not striking that nail.

I am a Navy pilot.  I don’t think in terms of hammers, although I have used one on many occasions.  I think in terms of wings.  A wing wants to fly, to feel the flow of air on its upper and lower surfaces.  It wants to feel the power of lift, of defeating its enemy, gravity.  If you think of that as the first order of sentience, then the wing wants the next order.  It wants to lift and carry a load from one place to another.  That load may be people or cargo or a mix of them.  It is doing the mission for which it was created, that makes it feel happy and fulfilled.

 

In the same train of thought, God made us, each of us, for a particular mission or purpose.  When I started this blog in December of 2014, this was one of the first ones I posted.  It had a simple question: Who made you and why did he make you?  This is the answer:

 

“God made me to love and serve him in this life, and be with him for eternity in the next”

 

God created you and me and every man and woman on this planet.  Millions have come before us and many will follow when we meet God in the next life.  We are, each of us, doing what he put in us to do his work.  Be a farmer, a lawyer, a priest or minister, police officer or any one of thousands of occupations or vocations.  It may take years to discover what we are in order to do God’s work, or it may have always been our life’s goal.

 

God uses us to come to him after our work is done.  Most of us do so as we stumble through the years he has given us.  Last September 10, 2025, an assassin killed Charlie Kirk.  Why?  He was carrying God’s message to millions.  Remember that good can come from evil.  Subsequent to his death, the world has seen a tremendous upsurge in people returning to church or going for the first time.  This is especially true about the youth.  They are coming in droves!  There are hundreds of new branches of his organization, Turning Point USA, being formed at schools and colleges and universities across the country.  I am sure Charlie is with God and they are looking at the results of his death.  I have to believe he would have sacrificed his life for the cause of bringing so many people to God.  While we all miss him, family, friends, co-workers, and those of us who watched him on TV or attended one of his rallies, God made Charlie to further the growth of his kingdom and Charlie answered the call, both in this life and the next.

 

What is your purpose?  What are you doing to bring people to God? Or to keep them there or bring them back?  You don’t have to be on an altar or behind a pulpit.  You just have to do what is your life’s work in such a way that people will see God’s message in you and by your example, want to have what you have, a life with God, here on this Earth and then sharing his eternity.

 

The directive is to seek.  So, is what you are doing seeking God, asking, finding, and leading people to him?  If so, great!  If not, when will you start?

 

It goes back to those words from an early writing, To Love and Serve Him In This Life and Be With Him For Eternity In The Next.

 

Go out there and do it!

The Kid Watch

 The Kid Watch

 The other day as I was driving, I saw a very familiar sight. It was a neighborhood ice cream truck. It was something I’ve seen hundreds of times and had eaten my share of its delightful treats. On the back of the truck was this sign for following motorists: WATCH OF KIDS. Excellent advice for sure since a child was likely to dart out of a house to buy a treat and not think about watching for a car. This same is true about the same child now totally absorbed in eating, or even devouring that delicious melting treat. Either way, that sign on the back of that ice cream truck told me it was my responsibility to make sure those kids came and went safely.

 Children play a large part throughout the bible. David was a young teenager when he slew the giant, Goliath. Then there are the three children thrown into the fiery furnace. Of course, Moses was a small baby when he was found and adopted into that royal Egyptian family. His education and training was God’s way of preparing him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and to the Promised Land. Abraham followed God’s orders and prepared t sacrifice his son. By following God’s orders, he began the journey to found a nation when God rewarded his faithfulness and provided a sheep to be slain and offered up in Isaac’s place. In the New Testament, Jesus told his followers to let the little children come to him, when they would have kept them away. There is also his admonition that unless we are as little children, we will not get to enter Heaven.

 How can you, and me, be as little children? How about not taking our faith, our beliefs, for granted. They are gifts freely given to us by God. It is fair to question what we don’t know or understand, but once we have our answer, then act on it as a child would.

 Do you look at your faith full of questions or even debate? There are many variations of Christianity and beliefs in God. Some even go far as to say if you don’t follow that particular version, you won’t go to heaven. It isn’t up to that version and its followers to determine that. That smacks of Pride, one of the deadly sins. God decides who gets to share his eternity.

 So it is up to you to be a child of God, regardless of the number of birthdays you have stacked up behind you.

 Will you be a child of God? It is his gift and wish. It is up to you to accept it.

The Lamp In The Darkness

 

Matthew 5:15 “Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel” (KJV)

‘It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness (The Christophers)

 Sometimes a piece of scripture sticks in my head for some reason.  It’s usually something that is common, since I am hardly a biblical scholar.  An example of that is the quote above from Matthew’s gospel.  More modern translations use “bowl” or “basket” instead of bushel.  For reference, a bushel is a basket about 18 inches diameter and 12 inches deep and holds about  56 pounds of grain, about eight gallons.  If you put it over a lamp, it will completely cover it and no light will be seen.

 In 1952, there was a TV program called “Christopher Closeup”.  The Christophers are a Catholic organization that put on a weekly program that discussed Christianity.  Their motto is “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”  While that sounds biblical, it is usually describer as coming from a Chinese proverb.  I was curious about this organization and looked it up.  It was founded in 1945 by Father James Keller who was concerned that many people saw the world’s problems, complained about them, and felt powerless to make a difference.  His philosophy was simple:

·       Don’t focus only on what is wrong.

·       Do something constructive, even if it seems small

·       One person can influence many others

·       The media can be used for good as well as for bad or harmful

I remember watching it many times growing up.  It went off of the air in 2012 after 60 years!

 The news media has reported a surge in the number of people going to or returning to the church and professing their Christianity.  Clearly, there are many lamps of faith being lit.  And, like the quote above from Matthew’s gospel, they are doing so in various visible ways.

 How about you?  What are you doing in your own life to be an example of your faith in such a way that others may be attracted to you or are curious enough to seek out a person such as a priest, minister, or lay leader, or maybe you?  Perhaps they attend a service at some church and that leads them to God and his son.

 In my retail job, I am seeing more and more people who are very visibly wearing a cross necklace.  Some of these crosses are plain and some are ornate.  These people are stating their faith to everyone who sees them.  Unfortunately, there are also some people who hide any evidence of their beliefs.  They say that their faith is private and won’t do anything to show it.

 The first group has taken the basket off of their lamps.  Light attracts and their lamp is their declaration of faith.  The second group keeps their lamp hidden or even unlit.  I am sure they meet people who are asking or wondering about God and Jesus Christ and they will be left  searching.  God will eventually lead them to someone who is part of the first group.

 Which group do you belong to?  Do you meet people with your lamp shining brightly or are you one whose lamp is dark and well hidden?  Going back to the Christopher’s motto, it may be that your candle will light the way of someone’s wish to know God. 

 Will you light it and keep it lit?  God is depending on you to help him bring more people to him.  How can you refuse?

The Advantage

 We all have an idea what advantage means. One definition says it is a beneficial factor or combination of factors, superiority of means. A person who is better trained, better equipped, has an advantage over another contestant or foe. There is an old saying, “Don’t take a knife to a gunfight.” The person with the gun has the advantage. But that is no guarantee. Someone who is fast and accurate with the knife has a good chance of winning in a face-to-face contest. 

We are seeing multiple examples of this with boys who claim to be girls. Rather than compete against other boys, they compete against girls. Given the basic physical differences to their advantage, the boys win most of the time. An obvious conclusion is they know they can’t be successful against other boys, so they claim to be girls as their “gender identity” and use this to win where in real life they could not be successful against boys. Unfortunately, there are some states that sanction this. 

Okay, I’ll get down off of my soapbox. 

When God created the angels, some remained loyal and others rebelled. This latter group was cast out of heaven into hell. We refer to them by different names: Devil, Satan, The Great Pretender. While God is superior in all ways, Satan has a certain power and is very sneaky. He has learned how to use this in order to tempt us and recruit us to follow him into his hell rather than go to heaven and spend eternity with God. 

Satan has his wiles, his tricks, his deceptions. Remember Satan’s temptations of Jesus. Jesus, of course, rejected all of them. But it shows just how far Satan is willing to go in his temptations. He will look for your weaknesses, your desires, and use them to tempt you into sin and, maybe, ultimately, into hell. 

Do you have a desire for more money? Then it is no big deal to take a little here, a little there. Say you are working in retail. Just short the till some. “The company can afford it” and “they did not give me that raise that I deserve.” Maybe you’ll get away with it, maybe you'll get fired. Satan doesn’t care. He just won. Or, perhaps you have a weakness of alcohol or drugs or both. There are some people whose DNA makes them more susceptible to these addictions. Satan makes it easy to obtain them. Others become addicts over time and use. He doesn’t care that it destroys families, marriages, jobs. Satan has won. 

And then there is sex. Some people are predators. Children, pornography, and crimes like rape. Thankfully, these are not so common as other forms. Maybe Satan wants you to build up a record. How many times can you score and with how many partners? Or, say you just flirt at work. Satan is going to push you to go further and further until it ends up in bed with someone not your spouse. He will put the thought in your mind that your spouse isn’t as exciting as in years past, You have needs that aren’t being answered, you’re bored, it isn’t great anymore, so you have the right to take care of them extramaritally. Wrong! Broken marriages, loss of trust, divorce, alienation from your children. Satan has won, and he doesn’t care about your problems. 

Satan had the advantage over you in that he knows how to tempt you. There are many other ways and weaknesses and he knows the best ways to tempt you. He has the advantage. 

BUT! You can have the advantage over Satan, you can counter his every strategy. You have a partner, a teammate, one who knows everything Satan knows, and he has the ways to beat Satan. He is God. If you can’t win or are being tempted to your limits, it is time to call on God to add his strengths to yours and guide you in the right direction, and coach you on how to resist Satan and his ways. Satan will never give up, never quit trying to win to recruit you into hell. However, God always bests him. You and God, unbeatable. With your faith and following his coaching, it has a different outcome. You and God win. Satan loses. Every time. 

So, make sure you call on your partner, God, any time. He is always there and is waiting for you to call. 

Final score: You and God – 1; Satan 0.