Sunday, December 29, 2013

Reverence

The Lord led me to read the beginning of 2nd Samuel the other day and I want to share with you lovely people what I found.  It has to do with reverence of the Lord. A reverent heart is something I lack sometimes but I think it is something every christian can work on.

Second Samuel 1 is where David receives word that Saul and Johnathan are dead.  There is a song thrown into that chapter plus a lying servant as well but that is generally chapter one summed up.  Up to this point in Davids story, he has long been next in line for the throne.  Saul, the former anointed one, has chased David all over trying to kill him.  David trusts that, when it is Gods time, He will be given the throne of Israel.  So Saul, the now former king and only obstacle to David ruling, is dead.  Sounds like a good time to ascend the throne.  David, though, waits another seven and a half years to take the throne.  Why?

I have heard David cited for his patience but his reverence for the Lord, His timing, and his own anointing is on another level.  David was a consummate servant of the Lord.  David followed the Lord all around the wilderness alluding capture for years.  He was afraid at times, as the psalms written during that time show, but he never stopped trusting or fearing the Lord and his plan.  Even in the moment that he had been waiting for since the Lord anointed him to be the future king seemingly come true, he still waited because the Lords timing and plan was better.  I believe it takes a reverent heart for the Lord to be this patient.  What is so amazing about David to me is that he rarely moved without the Lord telling him to go.  He feared the Lord and all that He is.  Our Father and Lord in heaven is far more holy and wonderful than we can comprehend.  His ways and thoughts are higher than ours.  His plan is complete and perfect. He is at all times completely just and righteous in His judgements.  His love is perfect, lacking nothing, and is the only love that knows the furthest reaches of eternity.  He is the perfect King and David understands this in his heart.  His patience in ascending to the throne of Israel extends from him recognizing how small he is in the presence of the Lord and, at the same time, recognizing that God, infinite in every way, has a plan that he is executing perfectly because that is the Lords nature.

I hope that all makes sense.  It is my prayer to not lose sight of the Lord and how incredible and beautiful he is.  I think I often commit silly sins I should not because my eyes come down from the brilliance of God and becomes enamored with something far less beautiful.  I want to live constantly aware of how small I am and how big God is and, because of that difference, live aware of how beautiful it is that the Lord has a plan for me that he is perfectly executing because of His great love for me. God bless.

5 Things I Like and Don't Like

1. I believe that their should be someone who is the facial hair police or something of the like.  Sounds goofy I know.  But only certain kinds of facial hair should allowed.  If you cant grow it, dont. (No shave November is different) There are too many neards in the world.

2.  I love cloudy and rainy days. If it was sunny only two days out of the week I wouldn't complain.

3. I do not fans of the following teams or the teams themselves: Yankees, Phillies, Mets, Heat, Lakers, Panthers, Saints, Patriots, 49ers, Auburn, Ga Tech, Florida, South Carolina, Clemson, Florida State, Ohio State.

4. I love the ocean. I see God in the ocean and can just begin to understand what eternity looks like by looking at the ocean.

5. The MLB season needs to either be shortened by 80 games or the game itself needs to be spiced up.  For instance, if no one has scored after seven innings, the mound needs to be moved closer, base runners forced to wear clown shoes, and second base removed. I would watch that.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas Day

Well, I said that I wanted to try and blog everyday of break but that has not happened. It has given me a week of thinking and reflection on the past semester, family, friends, and the coming year. I am going to use the first part to talk about something that is on my heart.  The second part will be borrowing from one of my favorite writers Zach Lowe over at Grantland where I will be doing something called 5 Things I Like and Don't Like.  He does ten things but he also writes that part once a week.  Here goes, hope you enjoy and share.

I have been reminded this break the importance of communication and, a step further, meaningful communication.  Lack of communication has often been the Achilles's Heel of my family and I would imagine it is for a number of families.  It is something we have been improving on in the years since we were healed but it still is a work in progress.  I often joke that I am the last to know anything in my family and with good reason.  The lanes for communication just are not there all the time though, I will admit, it is getting better. There are reasons for these break downs.  Some are relationship specific (e.g. brother-to-brother or parent-to-parent), while others are just mistakes made we make when attempting to communicate. I want to to unpack a few of these.

The first is brother-to-brother.  My brother and I are very different communicators.  I am the more outspoken one between the two of us.  I yell and stomp and get in people's faces. My brother on the other hand rarely verbally says how he feels but he wears it on his face and in his posture.  Non-verbal communication is not good for much though.  This is not to say that my brother and I do not have an unspoken language.  Best friends and siblings are just like that. Non-verbal communication though should not be the chief form of communication.  This is something I am working on changing in my relationship with my brother.  Few things are more important to me than my relationship with him and I firmly believe that he is one of my biggest allies I have on this earth. Non-verbal communication relies on assumptions based on your knowledge of the other person.  It is impersonal though and leads to numerous mistakes.  My prayer is that one day their will be healthy, two-way communication between us to go along with all the non-verbal stuff that we are so good at. 

Tone is important when communicating with someone.  Tonee communicates much to the person who is being spoken too.  The quickest way to eliminate quality communication is by adopting an accusatory tone.  I have noticed that this tone runs in my family.  Common responses to questions or questions themselves become strange accusations.  Once offense is taken, quality communication goes out the window.  Being in my family, I have come to realize being a good communicator means not taking offense easily which means loving a person even when they are being crazy or are just being plain mean.  Becoming offended accomplishes little so I try to limit how often I take offense.  While I believe the world would be better off by practicing my take-little-to-no-offense method of life, I must also admit that I am not perfect at these things.  I take offense and get mad with the best of them.

There is grace though and I am thankful for it because remembering to give grace is key to being a good communicator.   Grace is important because without it, we would all just walk around bitter at each other.  People are obnoxious sometimes but everyone is obnoxious sometimes so that really is not saying much.  It helps me to place myself in other peoples shoes because it provides another perspective for me to examine myself by.  Having grace can negate offense which allows for smooth communication.

I realize that i may have oversimplified some of these things but I believe there are simple solutions to problems if we are willing and humble enough to seek them out.  This topic could be expounded upon many times over but they will not here.  Feel free to share what works for you or things you have learned in your journey to communicate with people. On to the 5 Things I Like and Don't Like!

1. I like Basketball.  National Basketball League mind you, not collegiate.  I am enamored with the NBA.  I also love all of the analytics that is now a thriving part of it.  About a year ago I embarked on a journey to understand basketball on both a nuts and bolts level and a historical level.  What a year its been! Seriously, the NBA is the best of the major sports in America and its not close.

2. Speaking of collegiate basketball, I do not like it.  I cannot think of a bigger waste of time other than the WNBA. Until NCAA players are required to stay in college, get a degree, and develop their skills further and mature as players and adults, I will not be a fan of NCAA basketball.  The one-and-done rule is stupid and makes a mockery of the "student-athlete" title.  Offenses are often slow and have very little creativity built in, at least from my eye.  Offenses are little more than a few pick rolls while the ball swings from side to side while the players look for a lane to dribble drive and pass out. 

3. I love to serve people more than I probably let on a lot of time I think.  It is literally my favorite thing to do things for people.  I never want anything in return. I just like to help. 

4. I don't like people who take a lot of selfies.  Not bad some times. But lets be real, if someone were to scroll through someones Instagram and Twitter and more than 15-20% are of your face, you need something else to do with your time. 

5. Celtic music holds the key to my heart.  Something about it transports me somewhere else.  I really cannot explain it.

Thanks for reading guys. God Bless