Store

Our Sunday School lesson today was called "Store." All through the movie it kept showing all the things that can happen at the store to make you angry... the buggy with the bad wheel, the product you want is all gone or you can't find it, kids that don't behave, bags that break, people with too many items in the wrong lane. We've all experienced them. But Rob Bell had some great points to make about the things that make us angry and why they anger us.

The first thing that really struck me was his identification of the root cause of most of our anger. It happens when something blocks our will and we don't get what we want. We want to go 60 and the car in front of us is going 45. We want speedy service at the restaurant, and we have to wait longer than we think we should. I could go on and on. So the root of anger is really selfishness, wanting what we want when we want it.

Rob went on to say that we get angry about these things as if they really matter. Isn't that so true? How many of the things that make us mad are totally meaningless? And how often do we behave badly to someone else about these meaningless things?

Next, Rob went on to say that we get angry about so many things that don't matter, and then we fail to get angry about the things that do matter. This is Jesus' example to us. He got mad about things that were important. He raged at the merchants who defiled the Temple. He challenged the Pharisees and their hypocrisy, especially when it came to His healing on the Sabbath. He was passionately enraged when the poor and the oppressed were dealt with unjustly. These are the things we need to be angry about. And then we need to channel that anger into making a difference in the world.

Finally, Rob challenged us to think of a time when we said, "This (whatever this is for you) is not right. Someone should do something about this." If you feel this way in some area, maybe it is God telling you, "You are the one who should do something about this."

"The Thrill of Victory...The Agony of Defeat"

If you're old enough you, you remember watching the Wild World of Sports on Saturday afternoons.  I am posting the opening of the show on my FB wall.  I got to thinking about this today while I was at the Science Olympiad with my middle school students.

I love competition.  I always have.  I really enjoy exposing my students to academic contests.  And what I love about competition is the drama.  Today was no exception... there was drama.

My boys have worked really hard on building model planes.  They have been working with them all year long.  So today's contest was the culmination of a lot of time and effort.  They were well prepared and I was confident that they would do well in this event.  They had an hour of prep time and practice before the actual event.  We had three planes that were making good flights.  Then it was time for the actual competition.

First, we found out that each team could only fly one plane so that put one plane out.  That was OK.  Next, on its last practice flight one of the planes lost a small piece of wood and when the boys replaced it, it didn't get back on just right.  So, when they flew their official flight, it went no where.  The boys almost cried.

Then it was time for our other plane to fly.  They wound it up and let it go and it took a nose dive.  Now the way it works is that you have 8 minutes to make 2 official flights.  They had to rewind and reset, look it over for any adjustments they needed to make and then fly again.  The boys launched it again and it flew up in the air but it did not fly in a circle.  That meant the plane flew straight into the wall.  But it didn't fall.  It bumped the wall and turned and began to fly in a circle once again.  However, since it was not in center of the gym anymore, every time it completed a circle, it ran into the wall once again.  Every time it headed toward the wall, the crowd held its breath.  And when it banged the wall and continued to fly, the crowd cheered.  It ended up being their best flight ever... one minute, 23 seconds.  So our two teams finished 1st and 3rd in that event.

We conquered today with our sheer numbers.  We had two teams with 13 people on each team.  In some of the events, our two teams were the only two teams.  That made for some great head to head match ups.  In the Ornithology event (all about birds), we had a team of boys and a team of girls.  When they finished the event, the boys came to me and said, "That was so hard.  We didn't know a lot of that stuff.  I don't think we did too good."  The girls were right behind them and came up to me and said, "We loved that!  It was our favorite event we did today!"  So funny to hear such different perspectives.  Just so you'll know... the boys won the Ornithology event.  They said, "We stunk, but the girls stunk more."

We have learned lots of good things in preparation for the Science Olympiad.  And we got to enjoy the drama, both good and bad.  It was a good day.

Names of God

Since I had been posting comments about the Purpose Driven Life, I could not keep up my posting here. But now that book is finished and I will take this up again.

This weekend I attended our ladies' retreat and our lessons were about the names of God in the Old Testament. In my small group I showed pictures of banners that some churches have that depict the names of God. Then after we had studied a name, I asked the ladies to draw an image that reflects that name for them. This lead to some wonderful pictures, and some great stories to share. I will post my own pictures here and explain what they mean to me.

My Adonai - This name for God means "Master." I think of being a slave. I was a slave to sin and God set me free. I love the song that says, "My chains are gone, I've been set free." In the Old Testament the law said that slaves were to be freed every seven years. It further stated that if a slave chose to remain with his master, his ear would be pierced to show his choice to remain with his master. So in my picture, my ear is pierced to show that I will remain with the One who has set me free.Jehovah-Nissi - "God is my banner." A banner was used in battle as a focal point, or as a rallying point to return to. I chose the later. A rallying point that I often return to was the change in my life that took place after Mike Barris came to speak at our church. He was from Australia, and he had a bull whip. It will always be special to me that God sent a man all the way from Australia just to speak to me. My life was never the same after he came.

Jehovah-Shalom - "God is my peace."

I used this illustration with the kids in Kid's Club. I have always been afraid of bees, which makes it ironic that I married a beekeeper. As a result, I have sometimes had to help him with the bees. When I don the bee suit, I can have peace and calm in the midst of the bees. Even though they may still try to sting me, they don't have the affect of making me fearful. This is how I want to think of God as my peace. Even though the troubles come and try to "sting," I can have confidence in my "Jehovah-Shalom."

Jehovah-Rapha - "The God Who Heals Us"

I cannot think of this name without thinking of Will. He has had heart problems since he was 12. We will be going to Nashville on March 9-10 to try once again to have a procedure done that will heal his heart. We are praying that He will be "Jehovah-Rapha" for us. Although we know He has the power to heal, we defer to His unending wisdom and say, "Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done."