Things left undone…

June 13, 2020

Each week in our church service we start with a prayer of forgiveness in which we ask God for His forgiveness for our sins – the things that we have done AND the things that we have left undone. For most there are probably just a few things (if any) that we have done for which we should seek forgiveness; however, for all there are probably many things that we have left undone. For many it may be passing by on the other side, instead of stopping to help (see Luke 10:25-37). Forgive me for things left undone.

We may think we are too busy to stop and help or perhaps we think it is none of our business and we don’t want to get involved when we see an injustice or witness things like bullying, domestic violence or police brutality. Some may stop to record the event on their phone, which is what we see on the nightly news. However, what is often left undone is the intercession to offer help. Being a witness is not the same as helping. Sitting on the sidelines and going “Tut, tut, that’s terrible” is not the same as jumping in to help or joining the protest march. Forgive me for things left undone.

Sitting at home and watching events unfold on the nightly news is another example. When protesters are marching and demanding change in our society, being an observer from the comfort of your home is leaving things undone. Watching a protest march on Facebook live is not the same as being there. Even “Liking” or commenting on a post to agree with the position being  taken is not the same as making your own post or expressing your own feelings. Forgive me for things left undone.

The things that we don’t do aren’t all about negatives. Many are actually very positive things that we leave undone because we just don’t make the effort. Smiling at the person you pass and saying ”Good morning”, or perhaps simply opening  the door for the person behind you at the store are examples. It isn’t that we don’t care, it’s usually that we just done think about it. We are so focused upon ourselves and what we see as important in the moment that we don’t notice the opportunity to show kindness to others. Forgive me for things left undone.

One may think that they are busy trying to do the right things themselves and don’t have time to worry about others, but that is not what God wants us to do. Look at just a few of the times from the Bible that we are told what is expected of us –

“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:4 )

 “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)

 “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Isaiah 1:17)

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17 )

To which we are left to say – Forgive me for things left undone.

Perhaps the advice that we should heed is found in the Nike slogan – Just Do It!

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Posted by Norm Werner

Life goes on, just like this…

May 31, 2020

In his blog, Jack’s Winnng Words, Pastor Jack Freed used this quote recently – “Life is a series of commas, not periods.”  (Matthew McConaughey) 

What McConaughey (and Jack) was alluding to are the pauses that we occasionally encounter in life, like the pause that one makes upon encountering a comma in a sentence. It is not the end of the sentence, just a pause before the sentence continues. Sometimes, life takes off in a new direction after the pause; but most of the time it just continues.

The current Corona Virus Pandemic has certainly thrown many commas into our lives and maybe sent us off in new directions. We hear about “the new normal” and see all around us the impact of the changes that have occurred. Life will never be the same. There is no going back to the old normal. That has actually always been the case; it’s just that change normally takes place over longer periods of time and occurs in different areas at different times. Businesses come and go all the time; it’s just that so many usually don’t go at the same time. Big events that were cancelled in the entertainment and sports world caused disappointment, but changed little in most lives. The economic disruption is both real and painful, but it too shall pass. Comma, comma, comma.

The pandemic has caused disruption in most lives and destruction is some lives; but, for most, there is more life ahead, after this comma. Our challenge is not to be stuck on the wrong side of the comma; not to let ourselves be bogged down in lamenting what was, but to get on with what will be. We cannot change what has already happened, but we definitely can change what will be – what is on the other side of this comma.

It is time to acknowledge this comma in our lives, time to pause and take a deep breath, and time get on to the other side of the comma. This is not a time to let frustration and anger rule our lives. It will take all of our focus, energy and creativity to adjust and flourish in” the new normal”.  We don’t have time to waste railing against the change or lounging for the way things were.

Perhaps you can use this pause in you r life to also to also revisit, and maybe revitalize, your faith. If you have so far been spared the agony of this disease or maybe have gone through it and recovered, you can take a moment to thank God. You can also pray for God to give you the strength and determination to continue on the other side of this comma. God is the one constant amidst all of this change and can serve as your touchstone as you seek to move beyond this comma in your life.

What is on the other side of this comma for you is yet to be determined. Maybe it’s? Or maybe it’s!

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Posted by Norm Werner

Now is not the time to disobey…

May 27, 2020

Two quotes that I’ve saved from past posts to the Jack’s Winning Words blog (one from today and one from several weeks ago) seem to point to it being OK to disobey the rules, to even encourage civil disobedience .

“If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.”  (Katharine Hepburn)

-and-

“Good men must not obey the laws too well.”  (Emerson)

Jack went on to use both quotes to make positive points and not to encourage disobeying the current rules that are in effect to fight against the Corona Virus pandemic.

It is true that some of the rules that are currently imposed upon us all seem to take away the opportunity for us to have fun. We are a society that is used to gathering in large, boisterous crowds to have fun. We love our sporting events, our pool parties and many other activities that we do together. It is just not the same to be watching something alone, when it comes time to celebrate.

No one said life would always be fun. The Declaration of Independence mentions “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, but it says nothing about fun. The Constitution also fails to mention fun as an inalienable right, yet many rail in demonstrations that they have a right to do whatever it is that they want to do to have fun.

Few (though unfortunately not everyone) would argue that they have the right to stand in a crowded room of people and shoot a gun off in random directions; yet, that is what they are arguing for by demanding that they be allowed to stand in a crowd with Covid-19 infected people coughing  (or just speaking) in random directions. The end-effect of people dying is the same.

The statistics show that the percentage of infected people varies by week and by region, but hovers somewhere around 10%, with as many as 50% of those people being totally unaware that they are infected and spreading  the disease. So maybe being out in public without taking any precautions is more like being handed a random gun and being instructed to play Russian roulette with it. You know that there’s a bullet in the gun somewhere, but you just don’t know if the next pull of the trigger will bring a click or a sound that you will never hear. Is that fun? Did you get the last laugh?

Common sense, which seems in short supply these days, would seem to dictate caution over the pursuit of fun. Yet we see news stories on TV almost daily where someone (usually a very young someone) with beer in hand looks at the camera and says, “I don’t care about the virus, I just want to have fun.”  It is left up to our imagination what that same young person may look like with ventilator tubes going down their throat.

Until there is an effective vaccination against this disease, it is not OK to disobey the preventative rules that our health and government leaders are trying to impose for our own good. It is not fun, but the alternative is not fun either. If you need guidance from the Bible to help you understand what you should be doing see –

“Do not seek your own personal interests alone, but also the interests of others,”  (Philippians 2:4)

-and-

“Since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.”  (1 John 4:11)

There will be a time for fun as we are told in Ecclesiastes 3:1,4 – “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under Heaven…a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” That time is just not right now. Now is the time to obey the rules and show your love for others by being safe and helping keep them safe.

Be safe and stay healthy…the time for fun is coming.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Find Your Happy Place…Find God

May 20, 2020

I saw “Find Your Happy Place” on the cover of the Readers Digest that my wife gets. I didn’t read the article in that edition of the Digest, but I did Google “how to find your happy place”. It turns out that there are quite a few places called Happy Place, more than a few of which are bars or liquor stores. Hopefully you don’t find what passes for your happy place in them.

The definitions and advice that comes back when you search on finding your happy place tend to involve doing things to distract and calm your mind, to stop fretting about whatever has been worrying you and focus instead on thoughts that make you happy or that made you happy once. The advice ranged from thoughts of a place that was visually satisfying or remembering an experience that was pleasant. The take-away is that your happy place is a state of mind more than a place.

The process of finding your happy pace is like de-cluttering you r mind; getting rid of all of the thoughts and imagined bad outcomes of whatever you are facing and focusing instead on thoughts that bring happiness into focus in your mind. I have opined here many times about how our imaginations, as wonderful as they are, can take us down rat holes of implausible, yet scary, outcomes to our problems. If we let our imaginations run away with us, we end up depressed about, or terrified about, things that will never happen.

The more that I thought about the advice that was available on finding your happy place, the more that it became clear that  what you were really doing is finding your way back to God. The techniques that are recommended to clear and clam the mind just allow one to get rid of the things that were keeping them from seeing God in their life and reaffirming their trust in Him. Being in one’s happy place allows one to let go of those problems and give them to God. It is a state of mind that allows one to pray, “Not my will, but thy will be done” and to give up ownership of the problem.

In the midst of the worst situation that any of us could have imagined, it is particularly important that we make the effort to find our happy place and re-engage with God. None of us is going to solve this problem by ourselves and for many it will be the most terrible thing that they have had to endure. Yet, waiting patiently in the background, in your happy place, is our God. Find Him and you will be at peace, in your happy place, unafraid of the future.

Find your happy place today…Find God.

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Posted by Norm Werner

A test of patience and resolve…

May 12, 2020

The Jack’s Winning Words blog used this quote today – “How long is a minute?  It depends on which side of the bathroom door you’re on.” 

Our recent collective experience with the COVID-19 pandemic has really been a test of our patience and resolve as a people and many have failed that test miserably. For many it really depended upon which side of the economic-impact “door” they were on when the crisis hit. Some had the wherewithal to withstand an interruption in their normal revenue stream and others did not. Many entered this crisis already in “barely hanging on” mode in their business or life and for them any interruption was bound to be devastating. Others either had sufficient reserves to whether the storm or they were able to work from home without an interruption of their pay.

The problems caused by the business interruptions was exacerbated by the almost total failure of the systems that state governments had in place to deal with job loss benefits. Michigan was particularly ill prepared and its unemployment system failed the State’s population miserably. The effort at the Federal level was similarly flawed as many still await their so-called “stimulus checks” over two months into the crisis. The bright spots that have been reported, such as community food banks stepping up, were primarily driven at the grass-roots level and not by any government actions.

Further straining our patience and resolve were the cretins who came out from under various rocks to put forth their conspiracy theories and claim that the whole thing is a hoax. It wears one down to have to continually deal with such stupidity, but it provided all of the cover that many needed to justify their defiance of the advice of health and governmental leaders. Most of them were on the other side of the economic door to begin with and needed only a little push to join the dark side.

One of the things that it was very easy to get impatient with is the messaging that we are bombarded with in the media. Everyone is here for us. We are all in this together. These are uncertain times. This is an unprecedented experience for us all. Yada, yada, yada. You would think that someone in those high-priced ad agencies could come up with a different message – one that doesn’t sound like a repeat of what everyone else is saying. Just say, “This sucks” and then provide a message of hope and patience.

We have now entered the “re-opening America” phase at the national and most states level. We will soon see stories of the virus reappearing and new “hot spots” developing in states that reopened first. Have we become conditioned, perhaps numbed, to a nightly body-count report and impatient enough to accept that report and the risk that we will become personally involved in the statistics? We have been through this kind of numbing experience and loss of national resolve before as a nation – the Viet Nam war comes immediately to mind and more recently the wars in the Middle East. We’ll probably even see some entrepreneurial merchant start selling “I survived COVID-19” t-shirts this summer.

As has happened in our national politics, we have quickly separated into the two camps. There are those who are cautious and concerned about the disease, willing to head the advice to stay away from others until it subsides ; and those who are impatient and perhaps unconvinced that the disease is a real threat and who want to (they say need to) get back to work. It is unfortunate that the camp that is willing to take that risk is able to do so only by putting us all at risk and finds comfort and support in messages from our Head Tweeter in Charge.

We all have a choice to make, again. One can regain their resolve and re-set their patience to wait this thing out in safety or one can go get a haircut and join the crowds at the newly reopened malls and hope that it was all an overblown hoax. It must sadden (perhaps anger) the brave men and women in the health care industry who have lived through caring for the first wave of this disease to see the second wave so eager to join the statistics.

The choice is yours to make. As for me, I’ll be at home praying for you to be safe.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Who’s in charge here?

May 11, 2020

In today’s post to his blog, Jack’s Winning Words, Pastor Freed used this quote – “I’m telling you, things are getting out of hand.  Or maybe I’m discovering that things were never in my hand.”  (Gordon Atkinson)

For many, if not most, the situation that we find ourselves in right now is a humbling experience that demonstrates to us how little we really control in life. For a few, this leads to frustration and anger. You see them yelling and demonstrating on the news shows, all without masks, or you see them congregating in groups, again without taking any precautions.

We are tempted to ask, “who’s in charge here”, but we already know the answer – God is in charge. The only things that we have any control over is how we react to what is happening. It is that realization that allows us to revisit our faith and put our trust back in God. That is not to say that we can then act stupidly and go out without taking precautions, just that we revisit the faith that allows us to say , “Not my will, but Thy will be done.”

Once you gain (or regain) the insight that you are not in control of the situation that you find yourself in, no matter what you do, you can move on to focusing upon the things you can control – your reactions to it. Taking steps to decrease your personal exposure is the first things that you can do – staying home, washing your hands and practicing social distancing when out. If you are able physically and financially, another thing you can do is to help others – volunteer to shop for food or necessities for someone, volunteer to mow the lawn for someone who cannot do it for himself or herself, help load up and distribute food at a local food bank – many people need help.

Some who have the skills and tools to do so have made masks and other PPE for use by essential workers and others. Others may have organized efforts to make PPE or to collect and distribute food. Many have at least made and displayed signs of support for essential workers. All of these people have taken charge of themselves and decided to do something, rather than just sit around complaining or feeling sorry for himself or herself.

So, who’s in charge here?  

God and you – in that order. Give God a hand and take charge of yourself. He’s got a enough to do right now.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Imagine that…

May 8, 2020

From today’s post to the blog Jack’s Winning Words, comes this quote – “The best use of imagination is creativity.  The worst use of imagination is anxiety.”  (DeepakChopra)

It is hard not to be anxious these days. Every unmasked stranger that we pass by, we imagine is a COVID-19 carrier who is exposing us to the virus. Every surface that we touch might have last been touched by an infected person, so we wash our hands or use sanitizer. Every night the reports on the news shows reinforce our worst anxieties. What are we to do?

For one, we can turn our imaginations to being creative about staying safe. We have already seen people being creative about making their own facemasks and many have had to become creative about other things like gloves or making their own hand sanitizer. While we are staying home, we must use our creative side to avoid becoming bored, especially if we have younger children who must be kept busy ot occupied.

We can turn our imaginations towards finding ways to communicate with those whom we cannot visit right now. One doesn’t have to use technology to sit down and write a letter or pick up the phone and make a call to someone that we can’t visit with. Some have used their imaginations to create innovative posts to social media.

So, let’s all use our imaginations in positive ways to get through this crisis. Let’s be creative about how we protect ourselves and others. Let’s create our own “new normal”, rather than just being anxious about it. As Jack pointed out in his blog, we have a God who has advised us – “Be not anxious, for you have a God who cares for you and will never leave you.” 

Imagine that!

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Posted by Norm Werner

Waiting for later is the hard part…

May 7, 2020

In today’s post to his Jack’s Winning Words blog, Pastor Freed used this quote – “If you work hard and run straight, God’s gonna bless you sooner or later.”  (Brian Carroll) He went on to relate about Brian,  who works as a car concierge – a person who will do all of the work to buy a new car for you.

It seems like this current crisis has shown us how hard it is to wait for that blessing. We have become  a nation that is used to instant gratification, sometimes without working at all. We no longer have the patience to write novels; so, we write Tweets. Out “knowledge “is served to us in sound bites, rather than in great lectures. We are not willing to self-quarantine to protect others because what we have to do we feel is more important. For us, waiting is the hard part. We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.

We have also become a nation obsessed with getting on to the next big thing, owning the next new gadget or having the next new experience. That tends to downplay what we already have, what God has already given us, including the fact that we awoke this morning to another day. Rather than be thankful for what we have already been given, we are constantly striving for the next thing. Rather than enjoying the gifts that we have in hand, we are dissatisfied with what we have yet to achieve or possess. We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.

This crisis and the Stay at Home time that was government mandated in many areas should have provided the time to pause and thank God for being alive, for not being sick and for all of the other things that you have. Instead, it has driven many to acts of stupidity or worse. Violence in domestic abuse cases is up, suicides are up, shootings are happening over the lack of a mask in public and armed demonstrators have taken to the streets demanding the right to congregate and get sick. We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.

That’s not how it works. Start with the work hard and run straight part of today’s quote. Basically, that boils down to doing the right things. The right things never involve the anger and stupidity that some are displaying or the violence towards others. Loving thy neighbor as you love yourself does not involve yelling and screaming, or pushing and shoving. We were asked to do the right things by staying at home and practicing social distancing when in public. For many that was easy to comply with, but for a few who don’t have the patience to wait and help stop the spread of the disease, it was impossible. We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.

We now enter a very dangerous phase of this crisis, when economic and political pressures are forcing government leaders to take actions that they know will cause an increase in the number of deaths – projections from models range as high as 400,000+. Government leaders have decided that the potential death toll is an acceptable trade-off to get the economy running again. We will all soon be at greater risk in our stores and restaurants, at our workplaces and in any gathering of people in public. Our scientists medical professionals have warned us and shown us data that says we are not ready to re-open the country. Our reply… We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.

Let’s hope that God takes pity on us. He has forgiven a foolish people before; maybe he will forgive us again. Maybe we should all pray for patience, rather than telling God…We don’t have time for later. Come on God, we have things to; let’s get to the blessings part now.

Lest we not be hypocrites, let’s also remember to pray for those who trespass against us (without their masks) as ask for forgiveness for our own trespasses.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Who are you becoming?

May 1, 2020

In his Jack’s Winning Words blog post today, Pastor Jack Freed used this quote –

 “With God it isn’t who you were that matters, it’s who you are becoming.”  (Liz Curtis Higgs)

Every day we have the opportunity to start the journey to becoming someone that we would like to be, rather than continue down the path that we’ve been on.  Most don’t stop to think about that each morning, nor do many actually pause to make a plan to start in that new direction. For most, It is just easier to let momentum continue to carry us in the direction that we’ve been going. We accept the status quo as, “I am”; instead of reaching for, “I could be”.  

The society that we live in doesn’t make that any easier for those whose past includes huge mistakes or even criminal behavior. Society tends to pin labels on those people and make it hard for them to become anything else. In some cases we use stereotypes, in most cases derogatory, to prejudge people or to “keep them in their place”.

But, what if you want to become something else and move to a different place.  What if you want to become known as the person that you are becoming and not as the person that you were? We see the occasional story on the news of the ex-con who turned his/her life around in prison and became a new person and headed in a new direction. In many cases they become advocates for change in other people’s lives.

The stories seldom go deep enough to detail the struggles that they went through to make that change, but it wasn’t easy. Our prison system is not designed to reform and help the inmates make life changes into positive directions as much as it is just designed to serve as a deterrent by the example it sets of the punishment for wrongdoing. The few that emerge from the prison experience having made dramatic life turnarounds did it on their own against huge odds.

The key for many, if not most, of those stories was the inmate’s acceptance of God in their lives. The reason that is so critical is that the first step in making the change was to realize that God forgives them for their past. They can then move on to forgiving themselves and from there to committing to becoming a new person – the person that they want to be.

One does not have to be an incarcerated criminal to undergo this process and make the changes in their life that allow them to become a better person – a person who is happier with who they are.  It is important, however, to seek God’s help as a first step. Accepting God into your life and accepting His forgiveness frees you to forgive yourself and move in a new direction – towards the person that you wish to become.

As you pause in prayer each morning, ask yourself what you will do today to become that person that you want to be and then ask for God’s help in accomplishing those things. It’s not an instant thing, but if you make it a consistent thing in your life you make some small amount of progress towards your goal each day.

Who are you becoming? What is your goal for today? Remember that God’s got your back.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Stay Home…Stay Safe

April 24, 2020

From a recent post to the Jack’s Winning Words blog – “It’s our innate tendency to only act when we’re face to face with danger, rather than to try a preventive approach.”  (From Voices of Youth)

The situation that we all face currently in the danger that the COVID-19 virus poses is not necessarily one for which there was much of a preventative approach, but it is one that we could have been better prepared for as a nation. The Stay at Home measures in place now are about as preventative as we can get at this time, and they are in place just to slow down the spread of the disease before it overwhelms our health care system.

The lack of leadership in Washington just exacerbated the fact that we were unprepared. The so-called National Stockpile of ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment  was exhausted rapidly and even states that had emergency plans in place had grossly underestimated the scope and impact of even their worst case scenarios. For the most part the country rose to the occasion, with most state governors issuing executive orders to stay at home to reduce the spread of the virus.

Those who would act to reopen the economy before we have this pandemic under control and a vaccine in place pose the danger now. The pandemic of 1918 actually killed more people in its second wave in the U.S. than it did initially. You can Google that pandemic to read about it. It is the consensus opinion of our best medical professionals and scientists that we are not yet at the point where states can reopen for business, yet the governors of a few states have bowed to political pressure to restart the economies in their states, not matter what the cost in human lives. There is no way to even imagine businesses and people being disciplined enough to enforce the needed social distancing and personal Protective Equipment use to prevent a second wave from developing in those states.

The almost certain apology, “Gee, I guess I was wrong about that”, has already been used by the Mayor of New Orleans and will be of little comfort to those who lose family and friends because of this lack of the political will to do what is right. Even many of the business owners in those states say that they may not reopen just because the state governor says it is OK to do so. They have more sense than to put their employees at risk.

What can we do as individuals? For one we can show support for the courage that the leaders who put the Stay at Home orders in place, instead of engaging in noisy and dangerous public protests. Use safe means, such as emails, to let those governors no that you agree with their decision and continue to support it and them. Then, do your part by continuing to observe the orders, practicing safe social distancing, and wearing personal protection when you have to go out in public.

Stay Home! Stay Safe!

Pray!

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Posted by Norm Werner

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