Power washers and fences

I borrowed a power washer from my good friend Mark Pitman the other day. What an incredible tool! If you have never used one, I would seriously suggest that you consider buying or borrowing one before the weather turns bad. (I assume they are not as fun a 10 below zero).

This tool is an amazing invention that delicately rides the fence between work and entertainment. (If you are looking for a cheap night of fun for the family... May I suggest varying combinations of a power washer and the family cat... or a stray... or the neighbor's cat for that matter).

We used the power washer initially to "carve" the dirt off of our patio. Then the fun spread to the grill... then the garage door... then the car... then it began... THE FENCE!

You may have heard the wise, old sages say "never start power washing a fence"... now I know why! Once you wash the unbelievable grime off of one board you MUST go on to the next... then the next... and the next... WHERE WILL THE MADNESS END? You can't just stop... you can't leave one board living in a grime free existence and the next lying in its own filth can you? Once you realize how dirty it is, you feel surrounded by a 6' tall privacy fence of filth! GROSS!

As I looked feverishly for a stopping point (lazy man's way of finishing the job), I thought of about a million insights into my own life and spirituality.

• It is so easy to never start revealing the mess. It is so easy to never start letting God clean up and to rationalize who I am, how I feel and to make my own perspective rule the day. We MUST let God do whatever he wants in our lives... our way has gotten us nowhere!
• One board leads to the next. Once God reveals sin in one part of my heart... it usually leads to more. We MUST let God reveal whatever he wants.
• Cleaning up is an abrasive action. It's never comfortable for me to let God work on my heart - in fact, if it's going to be uncomfortable - that's likely proof to me that God needs to do it.
• One clean board stands out in the filth. God calls me to be a light in the darkness - a city that stands out on a hill. There are 2 key components here - light (that is supposed to be me) and darkness... the key relationship is the light IN the darkness... not a light pointing out that there is darkness to other lights... not a light that looks just like the darkness... a light that is in the darkness pointing to the Light.
• The stains run deep. There are some things that are tough to get rid of. Some sins where forgiveness covers the sin but the guilt, the pain, or the repercussions still remain. Forgiveness is just the beginning of God's role in healing. God is not just there to forgive and forget, He wants to love us through the guilt to complete recovery. WOW!!!!!!
• It's a Privacy fence. It is so easy to hide our sin in the compartmentalized privacy of our lives. It's easy to keep "out there" the public face of our faith and "in here" the filth of our lives. We MUST let God justify more than our relationship with Him - we need to let him reconcile our worlds... that is the true mark of integrity and authenticity.
  

My prayer...

Lord, help me to let you in to the privacy fence I call my life. Help me to be sensitive to the places in my life where your Holy Spirit wants to clean up. Help me to be consistent in depending on you to sustain me once you forgive me. You are all that I need - I know that - I just don't want to admit it.

Jeremy

GPS

Right now, I am typing this in the hotel while 21 of our highschool students are roaming around (a few trying to pick up the "digits", I am sure). We are in Nashville on our way to New Orleans for a missions trip.

God spoke to Job in a storm - to David in a gentle whisper - to Moses in an audible voice... so where does that leave me?

While we were driving, I was totally struck by something:

Sometimes God speaks to me like a GPS.

Driving down the road - music blaring - watching my upcoming Sophomores "Krunk it up" in the back of a 15 passenger van. Gently - with no effort to surpass the volume of the van, the small navigation device told me that I was to take the exit ramp on the right. Do you think I could hear it? NOT A CHANCE!

20 minutes later when I got back on track - I was hammered with the reality that God talks just like that. He won't force me to listen... He won't shout or scream... He won't try to drown out the noise of life... just a reminder. Maybe a verse - maybe a feeling - maybe a blog. Not loud - just right.

What is the noise in my life that is making it difficult to hear where God wants me?

Jesus TV as punishment - I knew it had a purpose!

Ok - maybe making your kid read Proverbs as punshment for talking back might be a bit much, but this is a good use for an otherwise useless medium... (btw - this came from my good friend Todd Rhoades' blog Monday Morning Insight)

Knoxville, TN- Cable Pro of Knoxville has for years had to put man hours and money into the problem of cable company clients who were delinquent in their payments. The practice has traditionally been that cable customers who persisted in not paying their bills would, after three notices, have their cable service cut off until their account was settled. While this practice has been successful in rooting out non-paying customers, it still costs the company an estimated $60,000 per year in lost time, and man hours.But recently Cable Pro president, Larry Maezell experimented with a new idea that has so far been very successful.

Now, instead of canceling a person's service, or sending him or her repeated notices of delinquency, Cable Pro simply changes a customer's subscription preferences resulting in his or her service becoming 24 hours of the Trinity Broadcasting Network on every channel."It's worked beautifully" said Maezell. "In the past we'd have to try and try to get in touch with the people who weren't paying, try and get our man out there to cut off their service. It was just a big hassle. Now, they call us!"

Cable Pro customer Chris Kjos was one of the first to experience Cable Pro's new policy."All I wanted to do was watch a little golf on Sunday afternoon" said Kjos. "I turned on my set and all I saw was this lady with big poofy hair singing. I just thought the cable company had switched up all the channels again. So I changed the channel, and it was the same thing on every channel. When I called the cable company they said I hadn't paid up my bill in over a month."

Now, "like clockwork" customers who are behind on their payments for cable services usually call the company within 24 hours wondering what is wrong with their cable service, only to told that they must pay up if they wish to have any channels other that TBN."This is the greatest idea we've had in a long time" said Maezell. "We've literally saved thousands of dollars. And last week when TBN ran the non-stop Benny Hinn marathon people were calling in so fast we couldn't keep up."

While a number of cable customers have complained that Cable Pro's practice amounts to "cruel and unusual" measures, Maezell has no plans to change."The rule stands" he said. "Either pay your bill or all you'll be watching is TBN, twenty-four-seven."

Leverage

I heard a guy on the Radio today read this passage.

It's a familiar story to me about the Biblical character Esther. Maybe it's familiar because of Sunday School stories growing up - - or maybe because of the Veggie Tale's animated video... who knows.

What stuck with me wasn't the story of Esther and her correspondence back and forth with distant family... it wasn't the ongoing saga of the Hebrew people... it wasn't even the deep meaning of the passage.

What stuck with me was the simple phrase "for such a time as this."

Think about that one... Here is this chick - one girl - in a kind of influential place. Not that she has the King's ear - in fact, if she just walks into the room where he is, she is positive she won't walk out to tell the story. Seriously - she hasn't even been in to see the guy in a month and her cousin wants her to step out on a limb for the Hebrew people? That is a pretty flimsy limb!

The bottom line for me was that phrase... it stuck... because of what was just before it. "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

It hit me: God has a plan. I mean think about it... here is this girl who is not even influential enough to walk uninvited into the room with the king and she is exactly where God wants her to be to do exactly what He wants her to do. WOW!

How often do I think... "well, I don't really have the influence to make that kind of difference." The truth is that I would rather complain and moan (less kind words substituted for paletability) about how things are going than just nut up and do something about it (kind words not substituted for effect).

My First Post

So, I'm new to this... It's really interesting to me that someone like me could have so much to say, yet so little to write. I am really pumped about the idea of fleshing out some of my thoughts stuff... even if I am the only person who ever reads this - it seems healthy (and we all know how into healthy things I am :-)

Jeremy