In the second chapter of John,
the Author describes Jesus, very early in His Three Year ministry, physically wrecking the commerce going on in the Temple.

In the other Gospels this same event is referred to again…. seemingly in the last week of His
before His Crucifixion.

If it was one event described several times, or if it occurred more than once…….it took place.

It sets a precedent for His followers.

Is there anything going on where you worship which needs to be physically confronted and shut down???

If so, then have the spiritual and physical courage to do so.

I did it once…
after someone complained about not getting anything out of the sermons being preached.

The gentleman left the Church.

I know of someone who did this …
and his actions brought great influence upon a decision-maker and allowed an alternative and better solution than what was going to take place.

Be careful when you consider this and surround your behavior in prayer…because you are subjecting yourself to The Highest Authority when you get into possibly being the vocal element in Gods’ work.

What about the “temple” of your home???
Where you live.

Anything disruptive or simmering just under the surface that is causing you or others in your house to be less than what your Spirit is telling you to or leading you be ?

Is there any activity in your house that if Christ walked in he would take a whip to…???

Are you sure?

As a parent you have the right and
responsibility to check, often,
your children’s phones…
make that the phones YOU pay for and let them use.

As the adult in the house…
and as the “priest of the home”,
you are supposed to lead, example and hold accountable any behavior under your roof.

You are also challenged to be aware…to investigate, as a Physician does when looking for the root of an illness… anything drawing your spouse or a child away from you or the family unit.

Couching it as…
“they are just being teenagers” …
is abdicating your role as the Adult, as the Parent,
as the One who has the responsibility.
What about the last and hardest “temple” to cleanse ?

The Church where you worship is one responsibility.
The home you live in and the family you have given rise to is another absolutely important and essential responsibility.

The hardest ” temple” to cleanse is, and always will be,
the “temple” your MIND and HEART reside in.

It’s the most private.

It’s the easiest one to rationalize.

I heard this phrase from
Larry Taunton…
” to rationalize is to ‘rational lies’ “.

Jesus could have walked into the Temple… spoke with a calm and quiet voice and asked everyone to shut the commerce down and move their tables outside.

That might have been the rational or polite thing.

He did not act with courtesy or politeness.
He was angry and carried out a little wrath.

His behavior was an example of
the phrase…
“be ye angry and sin not”.

Treat with the outmost honor and
accountability the “Temple” you govern the most …..and do not tolerate any thought, behavior, imagination or outside influence to prostitute the purity of this most important  “temple”.

It’s why Jesus acted out of anger and wrath.

He took the sanctity of the His Temple most seriously.

Look at your “temple” in the way.

It’s where we are told by Jesus Himself…. that He resides within us.

It’s where you originate any worship you engage in.

Any and all worship begins in your “inner temple” before you physically enter one of concrete and steel.

It’s the “temple” where more worship and praise occur than any made by human hands.

What is being worshipped and praised in your ” temple”??

Is it something Christ would take a whip to??

Being honest…
we have all abused the sanctity of our ” inner temple” at some point in our lives.

Being honest…
Christ desires that we allow Him
continual access to this most difficult “temple” to keep holy.

As he may have cleansed the Jerusalem Temple more than once… He can,
will,
and desires
to “cleanse” this ” temple” when we open the doors to Him.

But unlike most public Temples where the doors are easily accessible …..
the door to this “inner temple” that you own…has its handles on the inside of the door only to be opened from within.

He will knock…
but, He can only enter
and do the work that only He can do…..if you let him in.

It is incumbent that you allow Him entrance.

How many things in life appear to be one thing….but are really not?

When you were young you may have had a fear of the dark.
As you grew older you came to understand that there was nothing different from what you saw in the daytime…
but for the absence of light.

Most track and field aficionados in the early Fifties felt that the human body could not allow an athlete to run a mile in under four minutes.

Until 1972, women were not allowed to compete in the Marathon at any Olympic Meet. Officials thought the long exhausting event was too strenuous for the female body.

After being introduced by
David Thompson, in his Hall of Fame induction speech, Michael Jordan made a comment, in what was mostly an edgy and competitive speech….  

“Never say never…limits, like fears, are often just an illusion”.

As soon as he said that I had to write it down.

Like many Scriptural verses, which I have read,
like several of Tolkien’s words that he had Gandalf speak, like about half of what William Buckley has written, and like so many C.S.Lewis phrases my eyes have scanned.

I knew Michael’s was a comment I had to transcribe and commit to memory.
“Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
Read that again and consider it for a moment.

I do not believe Michael was attempting to channel
Tony Robbins…
but, that is a incredibly motivating sentence.

Before the committed effort by the United States government to land a man on the moon, space travel was a science fiction fantasy.

When I was a boy….
a comic book character named Dick Tracy had a phone on his wrist. 

Multiple times in the development of the three i-products he brought to the public, Steve Jobs had to drive his Apple team to the edge because they would tell him they could not get something done or complete it by his deadline.

So many “limits” are self-imposed.

Steve Jobs drove them to distraction, but his drive made them push through their “limitations”,  and now the world is different because of the very device I am writing on, and you are reading on at this moment.

A great many limits, and done fears are imposed on us by parents, friends…who are attempting to be thoughtful and considerate because they want to protect us from failure.

In 1985,
when I told my Mother I was leaving the teaching profession to enter the financial business….and mentioned the monetary possibilities… she said,
“you don’t want to do that !”

She thought, at the time,
making more money might make me different.

She was fearful it would lead me toward negative consequences.

It presented me so many positive opportunities …
and she came to see that.

Those same parents put you on a bicycle, maybe with training wheels first….then they removed them…and pushed us down the sidewalk as we wobbled and eventually gained our balance.

We broke through that limitation and maybe the fear of falling.

Push against that envelope.

So many barriers can be overcome by commitment, perseverance and time.

In the television series….
“The Men Who Built America”…
Vanderbilt, Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford dealt with extreme limitations and roadblocks and the fears of a slow moving society, to achieve great fame and fortune while constructing the infrastructure of what would become the greatest nation and economy in the history of the world.

Are you allowing yourself to be hemmed in by a self-imposed barrier, fear or limitation?

Did you give your best effort last year?

Many people have mental
“audio tapes” from the past that they hear over and over.
Those old “eight tracks” have played too long.

Erase and Replace those confining commentaries with a new vision of potential and possibilities.

Examine the fearful or limiting illusion in front of you and your progress…… 

and either remove it, see through it, or destroy it with your commitment and perseverance.

Limits are barriers meant to be broken through.

Fears are confinement’s to be overcome.

It’s how progress is achieved.

The dark is nothing but for the absence of Light.

Get a flashlight.

The mile is no longer has a four minute barrier.

On Christmas afternoon I thought this through     but wrote nothing down.

The Grand War of Aggression was declared and the initial “shot across the bow” was levied on the day we celebrate with gifts and mirth. A day in which we remember and hopefully elevate the central figure in the Aggression.

He has most times been portrayed and pictured as a mild person, with a probable soft nature. The world has framed Him as almost effeminate. He possessed carpenters hands yet the world has painted Him to have a grandmotherly nature. Most movies have shown Him as one one who could be run over easily.

Yet He is not.

He is none of what the preceding  paragraph refers to.

He came not to attack you. 

He came to attack no one and no thing He had a hand in creating.

He came to wage a War of Aggression against the one who wages aggression and destruction against those who have been given life and breath and blood by His Hand.

When you read of Him you read His Words of Peace, Love, Forgiveness, Optimism, Opportunity and Joy. His Words to His Creatiion are intended to breed those traits and lead them to live as He lived.

And lives.
Understand this though, He is a warrior Who came  to destroy completely the the one who rose against  Him, the one who tempted Him and who tempts you.
He came on the day we celebrate to bless and encourage the created ones but to “draw and quarter”  the one who seeks our destruction.

In Rome, every statue of Saint Peter has  a set of keys in his hand. Every statue of the Apostle Paul  has him grasping a sword.

What did Paul write that the “sword”  represented?

He wrote, “The Sword of The Spirit which is The Word of God”.

In John 1:1, he also wrote,…..”In the beginning was The Word and The Word was with God…and The Word was God”.

“The Word” Paul writes of is Jesus.

Jesus is the SWORD.

He came as a SWORD to cut the heart and life out of and away from our common enemy and to embarrass, defeat and expel the foe from the place made for us and damn the foe and His like to the darkness and despair made for them.

If you think He came to speak nice and peaceful words….He did speak prolific and life-inspiring words.

But, know this, as you breath the air He made and allows you to take into the lungs He created for and placed within you…

He is The Weapon of Aggression 

He is The Weapon which the enemy fears.

He is The Weapon we must wield.

His Purpose was and is to empower us, His soldiers, and to lead and example the way to wage Aggression against the Foe.
And He means to wage Aggressive War.

He did when He was tempted.

He did when He was laid in a tomb.

His death was strategic to trap His enemy and His Resurrection was the defeat that signaled the War would soon be over.

Similar to the game last Monday night…..the winning team struck the death blow … yet one second remained on the clock. It was a short delay of the inevitable.

We are walking in that short delay.

We are to be trained soldiers continuing the Aggression.

Walk in the Words and Strength of Example He gave and gives us.

Wield the SWORD.

Wage the Aggression.

Always came down the alley to get there. 

The street in front of 813 was a bit busy, as it was a main road in Woodlawn.

Up the five or six steps to a small landing and in the backdoor.
A wide dog trod hallway went through the middle until a wall went up next to the main bedroom.

One of my earliest memories is running down the front steps, falling and busting open my bottom lip.

The scar is there still.

Old gas space heaters sat on the floor in each room. I can remember standing in front to get warm as I listened to the adults speak.

The high ceilings prevented it from ever getting really warm.

An egg-shaped empire table sat in the entrance hallway. I remember it as the telephone table as I grew up.

That same table sits in my house today….

it carries a great deal of character and if it could speak it would tell tales.

East about five miles was 7721.

Five large oak trees lined the front of the yard by the street.
The lot was about 50% larger than the others on the block, sitting on the corner.

The large front porch was the center of activity whenever the family gathered.

My grandfather would sit in his rocker, beat all my uncles at checkers…and then tell the grandchildren he would give them a chance. 

We thought we had one because he would play left-handed.

The phone was a “party line”.

If you are over 55 you understand that phrase.

My grandmother was forever cooking. 

She gave of herself to so many people. I lived with her as I finished college, after my grandfather passed away. She had never paid a bill nor written a check.

Many times she looked lost when I would help her pay the bills.

She was the most giving woman I have known, outside my wife.

When she was 80….I had to tell my mother that her mother was beginning to see and imagine things. She told me one evening that “the kids” we’re coming to dinner. She had cooked a meal for 8 people. 

I was the only other family member in town.

We sat there and I saw the confusion rise in her eyes as no one came and it got to be 8pm.

When I was 8, I stayed there, at 7721, one summer and would bounce a rubber ball off the high side of the house to catch flyballs…. 

many years later when my youngest brother did the same thing I realized how loud and annoying it was.

They never told me to stop.

When I was young I wanted to buy that house. I still drive by it once a year or so.

My grandfather sat outside with me
that Summer, next to his grape arbor, and told me about his life.

There was no air conditioning.
I never remember it being oppressively hot.
There was a large window fan and with the windows cracked a bit…it cooled the whole house.

These spaces hold memories that fashion my thoughts and life. 

In traditional Southern Literature…

place, holds great meaning and affectation.

These places do.

At 813, death came to my fathers mother when I was eight months old. 

It was hard and drawn out and caused all of my uncles and aunts great pain and hurt. I 

I heard, once in a while, about the pain he felt during that time from my father.

He carried a sense of guilt and insufficiency because he could do nothing to ease his mothers pain.

It affected him the remainder of his life. 

It has affected all of them.

Out of the pain and loss in that house came lessons that have given rise to accomplished athletes, teachers, principals, ministers, coaches, leaders, successful businessmen, authors, decorated military officers….

and a family and families that are glued together by the love and character which developed within those wooden walls.

At 7721, there seemed to always be laughter and fun. Playing games, seeing my family members dress up, be loud and embarrass my grandmother. There was no alcohol, but plenty of outrageous laughter and behavior.

There was love and learning there, at 7721…..

but not with the lessons of 813.

There was laughter, but always a lesson…at 813.

Once, my father and I were sitting at another large empire table in the dining room with the ever present sugar bowl my grandfather always kept full. 

My grandfather was sitting there also.

I stood to warm myself in front of the space heater as my father said something rather direct to me. 

My grandfather spoke to him and said….”Don’t talk to my grandson that way”.

My father replied…
” Daddy, he is my son”

To which my grandfather answered,

” Yes….and you are still mine.”

I said not a word.

These spaces and places taught me who I was and where I arose from.

Any character I possess today has grown out of the balance between these two houses.

These two houses were about five miles apart but in the mid-twentieth century they were not easily accessible to each other.

No young person had a car.

The “right to drive my car at 16” had not become a teenage prerequisite…..

therefore my parents wrote long and involved letters to each other from those houses, when they were in school and dating.

I read them after my mother died.

Their writing was full of longing and hope.

The letters were in today’s terms, mushy and romantic to the hilt.

Because everything was not at their fingertips…….they had to stretch themselves and reach out toward their hoped-for future.

They did not talk on the telephone, they were not easily accessible to each other.

Because it was not easy to be together, they built their romance on the pillars of dreams and longing …things did not come easy then.

Things DID NOT come easy then.

Delayed gratification developed a committed relationship.

Commitment was slowly grown out of longing and hope and it forged a relationship that was solid…

their every whim was never answered early. 

It had to develop.

These people and places are mine.

Everyone has them…if you can remember.

I urge you to recall and remember. 

They will better help you define and understand who you are.

Because of these earlier places my life occupied at times….I trust the place  I now live in is the better for it.

The lessons from these other places make my life what it is today.

I trust that I can contribute to someone an ounce of what was given earlier to me from the people in those places.

Thirty three years ago tonight the man who brought me into this life…. exited his.

 At a Christmas banquet in Montgomery,
 listening to a speech delivered by a friend of mine, Jim Bethea leaned forward onto his lap and silently passed away, sitting next to my mother.

A man of great influence and assertiveness left this life in a quiet manner. 
The paramedics arrived shortly thereafter, but to no avail. 
 If he had any decision in the process…
 he was going to Heaven…he was not going to struggle to remain here, regardless of how much he loved my mother. 
 For his life, after the age of 37,
was given over to the service of Our Lords Work.
 It bothered him that some of his friends, also in
 full-time Christian service, worked at their jobs daily, but seemed to forget for whom they worked. .
In the middle of his frailties he worked to live the life of Christ, and was seeking even to pursue another level at the time he actually went to meet  his real Employer.

 When he died he was 55 years old.

He had engaged in his real calling for less than
20 years. He would admit that he ran from and refused it for about 10-15 years before that.
 While serving as a deacon and assisting in leading his Church, he knew there was another calling on him….but was rationalizing that he had a family and was too old to begin. 
 He was not too old.

 He attended seminary from 37-39 and began work in his first Church about the same time he turned 40. 
In the last 15 years of his life he influenced many young men and accomplished more than he thought he would ever get done. 
Even today, my brothers and I will come into contact with guys between 40-50 years old who
attended or worked at the Summer Camp he ran outside Talledega from 1974-1983. 
They all have the similar comment.

“Your Dad was the greatest influence on my life, other than my own father”.

He was a 17 year veteran of the Marine Corps and Reserves. He raised me like I was a recruit. He was about the same with my two younger brothers. Not quite though. 
He ran the Summer Camp the same way. He played revelry every early morning, he played taps at night. The staff and campers were held strictly accountable. He pushed them beyond their comfort zone. 
And they loved it.

 They responded to the leadership.

 Most young men, although they do not volunteer for it…. like discipline. 

They like a coach who pushes them to their better efforts. They respond to accountability. 
That is what these now-middle-age men tell my brothers and I that they loved about my Father. 
It has worked to make me a better Man, as well.

He was hard on me. Excessively at times.
But it worked to my betterment.

Being pushed and having discipline does not harm a boy….it most times creates a strong Man. 

Because life, many times, pushes and disciplines all of us as we make our way through it.
 

I would say my Father prepared me for that.

 In my years I have been blest to accomplish a few things. But, I will never have the influence my father exerted.
 My two brothers have had great influence as they have taught and lead young guys for over 25 years in Montgomery.
There was recently a long and fantastic article in the Montgomery Advertiser about them and their influence on the young men there. The author called me to get input on them.
He made the comment that he was leaving Montgomery for employment at another paper…
 but that before he left, there was a story that had to be written… 

the story of my two brothers. 
 That…. more than anything I have done… is a testimony to the life of our Father.

When I see or talk to family members, they tell me they see my Father in me so much. I was much taller than he was and I look nothing like him, for I favored my Mother in appearance. 

But I do have him in me.

Many of my actions and expressions come from him. It tend to touch and rotate the rings on my fingers as I speak, as he did. My firm opinions follow his tendency as well. He was the most consistent person, in his instruction to me, that I have come into contact with. He called me “little man” one time when I was 10 years old and I can recall and take you to the exact place in Miami, Florida on 117th Avenue South where he said it. It made me feel 10 feet tall. 

I have outlived him.

But I will never out do him.

Terry

December 20, 2016

Think back, if you are over 30,
to what you wanted to be…
” when you grew up”.

Remember the thoughts and dreams you had almost daily of becoming that which you held in the front of your mind. Plans were made, practices were
gone through.

At one point I wanted to be a professional athlete in whatever sport was in season at the time.
As a young boy I was aspirational without the understanding to facilitate those dreams.
I saw the desire with my eyes and felt it, even deeply in my heart… without any understanding in my brain.

There were some achievements and successes …but they mostly failed to reach the earlier aspiration.

Browning wrote…
” a man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for”.

As we grow and mature we see many of those younger-life hopes and dreams expire. Practicality and sometimes life itself bring different and varied results and circumstances can dictate where our steps take us.

One thing I have seen
as a grown Man,
one thing that is, to me, essential to always growing and getting better….
and I have seen that it pays great dividends and brings continual Light into life…

it is essential for a continually growing and energized life…

to always be Aspirational.

No matter ones age,
No matter ones station in life.

Be continually aspirational.

Hope for a better year this than last.
Work toward it.

Always be teachable,
and seek to learn new or deeper things.
Take the steps, read the books, attend the meetings…..
to get better.

To improve.
To increase your abilities.

To be the fullest of whatever you can be.

In an earlier writing I quoted
TD Jakes as he answered an interviewers question.

He was asked why, after having such great success, was he now expanding his ministry, getting into so many new things…

Jakes answered…..

” I want to see what’s in me”.

He is 59 years old.

I know exactly what he is saying.
And, I agree.

If you are 25 and seemingly have your life ahead of you…
you might think a 59-60 year old would be ready to retire and ” get off the stage”.

Yet, TD Jakes wants to push himself to greater things.

It is, indeed, a process.

Aspiration.

You might not be young ….
but you can keep a youthful and
hopeful heart and mind if you continue to pursue greater things… seek more out of life and faith,
and aspire to “see what’s in you”.

It creates an attitude of youthfulness and energy.

Continue to make plans and look expectantly forward.

I hope to have a deeper walk with my Lord….going forward…and will read His Word daily to do my part.

I will work to be better at my craft in my 32nd year than this my 31st.

Tomorrow may be my final day of life…but I choose to live today with an aspirational heart and spirit.

My hope for you is that your dreams will still exist and your reach will always exceed your grasp.

Hope for deeper and better things.
Work toward them with all of your gifted talents and abilities.

We may be older and wiser than when we had a lower number for an age…

but that does not negate a youthful, energized and hopeful heart or mindset.

Hope.
Dream.

Aspire.

Forever.

In almost any situation, the white dress shirt upgrades a man’s look.

Along with a suit, tie or not, the white dress shirt gives a man a look which is correct in the Boardroom or any business or semi-special occasion.

These comments are somewhat societal and cultural, using clothing as the expression.

About twenty-five years ago, the United Way had the idea to increase donations by encouraging management to allow for CASUAL FRIDAY if their particular organization met their fund-raising goals. 

Casual Friday was the beginning of the downfall of proper business attire.

Many Human Resource Directors agree today that the issue of proper attire is one of their headaches.

When I was in college there was a guy who always wore a white dress shirt. 

He always looked right.

During the 60s and 70s wild colors were in vogue in men’s clothes…..

and I wore them.

But, to quote the Apostle Paul,

” when I was a child I thought as a child…. but when I became a man I put away childish things”

If you think I am comparing wearing a white dress shirt to acting like a man… 

you are on the right track.

Do the men and boys at your Church dress like the men and boys dressed when you were young and growing up?

If you are honest….the answer is no.

This might be a stretch….
but the way one dresses can affect
the reverence with which one approaches worship

The slouching of standards and codes can, over time, cause a slouching of attitudes and thought.

If you knew Christ would physically be at Church…

would you dress casually….. ????

Would you allow your son to wear shorts?

It is about the inner man…

but how one readies for worship
can impact that worship.

The words “Sunday Best” meant something up until a few years ago. 

And…it’s not a bad phrase.

Formality in business attire was a standard as well, until the “Casual days” became everyday.

I am not espousing wearing a tuxedo everyday.

But I am asking you to consider
the approach to your dressing 

and the attitude which can follow it.

Everything is not formal.

And, everything is not casual.

The way one dresses for an occasion many times can speak non-verbally about the value they place on that event.

The white dress shirt lends a particular look to ones attire.

It’s classic.

There is nothing wrong with dressing up …. 

even a bit.

Nowadays a white dress shirt almost sets one apart. 

Unless you are in the woods… it probably sets one apart to the positive.

Or, like properly cared-for shoes…
it might not be so great a positive…
but it’s never a negative in a social or business setting.

If we, as Men,

are to set standards and examples…

one simple, non-verbal way would be to put to work the traditional and classic white dress shirt.

Lightly starched.

So many people say one thing and do another. While looking as though they care, they are self-serving and could care less about your interests.
Most likely, you have known people who smile at your face but cut you to shreds when your back is turned.

There are those you reach out to who refuse to get along.

One or two, or maybe more people come to mind as you read those words.

Other people would give you their last dollar. Some people would help you even when it was to their detriment to do so.

You can probably recall kindnesses done your way.

Why though, does it seem that so many people tend to focus on those who wrong them… not those who have treated them well.

Hurts are remembered and grudges seem to grow worse over time.

In thinking about all of these people..
those who would treat you well and those who seek to do you harm, or those you just have difficulty with… look at them, consider their actions and see them for who they are….

 

every one of them is a soul who Christ died for.

 

Each and every one is forgiven by The One Who died for and forgave you.

 

See them for who they are.

All human beings who walk this earth, today,
in the past,
or in the years to come,
are equally loved, forgiven and sought after by The Son of God.

The Word of God was written to and for them, as It was for you.

We are all on equal footing there.

The inequality comes in the next steps of acceptance and communion.
While everyone has been forgiven, not all have walked through repentance and accepted the Great Gift.

Therefore,
let us look through any difficulty,
through any conflict,
and know that the other person in the mix is one to whom Jesus spoke. and speaks to and seeks after.

Paul wrote his letters for them to read.
Davids’ Psalms and Proverbs hold equal meaning and opportunity for those who read them as for those who ignore them.

Pray for these people ….
that they would be drawn to Christ as you were.

Pray for those who have spoken ill of you, for those who are difficult… just as you do for your best friend.

Christ gave His Life for them.

Seek to have the eyes of Jesus and see these people you have trouble liking, as He sees them.

See them for who they are.

Terry
November 2016

Thankfulness did not originate in New England with the Pilgrims.
It did not grow out of a holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.

Thankfulness might have originated in The Garden when Adam saw Eve.
God Himself created and fashioned her, so she might have been one to be thankful for. And, there were no others around.

Thankfulness is present at all points in life. It does not merely exist at a House of Worship, or only when you sit to eat and possibly bow you head in prayer. Thankfulness does not exist only at birthdays and Christmas when receiving a gift.

These are things you know…..
but are you constantly aware of the daily sense of THANKFULNESS we should possess??
Every day there are multitudes of reasons to both feel thankful and to express thankfulness.

The breath you breathe,
the eyes through which you see,
the heart that beats with life,
your Woman who is your Wife.

Many rhymes could be written here, but every day that Light arises from the East there are things to be thankful for.

As the Greeks used to pray to an unknown god before Paul introduced them to his… we can be thankful for some things we are even unaware of.

Do you not think that there are events or occurrences in life which occur for yours or someone’s benefit of which you are not aware?

Being thankful or expressing thankfulness for those things allows us to acknowledge God in His Sovereignty….even when we might be blinded to It, or unable to see It.

Do you SEE Gravity?
You see the effect of It, you cannot lay eyes on It.
As the Wind… the result of It can be seen…but the Wind Itself is unseen. You feel It and experience It without viewing It.

Like Gods Presence.

There are unseen movements and events which have worked to our good… of which we cannot and will never tangibly see.

But we can be Thankful for these even when there is no person to thank.

Thankfulness is real enough to be present when there is no recipient to express It to… in those moments… you thank The Father for His Providence and His Orchestration of Life.

There is a mind behind these unseen things.

Grateful Thanksgiving arises from the heart and mind when we realize this.

Expressing Thankfulness exercises the humility we need present in our life.

Verbally expressing Thankfulness
not only exercises humility within us, It builds up those we speak It to.

In the existence we dwell in of comfort, security, peace and shelter…it can be that we lack the edge to see that those things in themselves…to the degree we experience them…are worthy of great Thanksgiving.

They cannot be taken for granted.

Try going out into the woods in November, naked, without shoes, with nothing over your head but the night sky…. you will quickly long for and seek
comfort, security, peace and shelter.

Because we have them in abundance is no reason to exclude them from expressed thanksgiving.

When we realize and express a grateful heart for not merely the big things… but for those things we have experienced forever…that are so familiar … we begin to know real and true Thanksgiving.

As your heart beats and gives you every moment of your life… be ever thankful for each of those moments.

A true sense of Thanksgiving will outlast the beat of your heart.

Terry
November 2016

 

Mark Price was an NBA player, from Georgia Tech, played mainly for Cleveland….long before LeBron.

He was quite good, played for several years on the Cavs team which might have won a title were it not for a guy in Chicago named Michael.

He told the story to a group of men once of the constant presence, at the arenas, and at the luxury hotels in which they stayed… of beautiful women.

Dressed up.

Always around.

You know what I mean.

He did not implicate any teammate,
but mentioned how the temptation was always present.

He and his wife had an agreement.

After every road game he would call home….briefly speak to his wife and children…before going to eat.

After dinner, upon returning to his hotel, he would call again. He would talk and spend time on the phone with his wife.

The calls were not made out of fear
or anxiety or because his wife was ragingly jealous.

The calls were made for connection.

They were made to remind him of what his life revolved around.

His God.
Home.
His wife.
His children.

He was gone, sometimes for 7-10 days at a time.

As a veteran, he saw in the lives of teammates, the results of traveling and never connecting to home.

When you feel ten feet tall and bulletproof, as most professional athletes naturally do….
Mark Price learned that connection to the foundations of his life were more important than getting temporary affirmation or adoration.

When I thought of this earlier today,
the suggestion came to me that….
whenever we feel temptation, or the
desire to look for the second time,
or when we realize we have held a look too long…
connection to what is TRUE is needed at that moment.

An idea….

when you realize that you are looking beyond merely noticing or thinking about it…

PHONE HOME.

It’s connection.

It’s accountability.

It will stop the thought….
as you engage with your wife and children.

It’s protection and connection.

When you connect to or affirm what is TRUE and Foundational… and when you bring LIGHT into a situation the unimportant slouches back away,
into the dark,
where it resides.

Stay connected.

To what matters.

Terry
November 2016