Mall-Walking

 Good morning !!

 During very hot or very cold weather, in order to get some kind of physical exercise I often will go to the mall that is nearest our house.  It’s also on the way home from work, and I will sometimes stop there in the late afternoon to get my walk in for the day.  The walk around the inside perimeter of the mall is right at a mile.  I only do the circuit once as I can’t go much more than that due to some physical deficits.  But that mile seems to be enough to keep me in some kind of physical condition better than nothing.

Towne West is a mall in decline, as many places like that are.  There are still a couple of anchors there…J C Penney and Dick’s Sporting Goods.  But Dillards has left, as well as Sears.  There are quite a number of empty store spaces in the mall, and during the weekday, there are usually as many or more walkers than there are shoppers in the public areas.

As I make the circuit, I notice when a new business has leased space and is remodeling the area so they can eventually open.  That happens at times, and it’s interesting to see what goes in.  I also notice when a business pulls out and is there no more.  The kiosks in the public areas will sometimes come and go as well.  And the holiday season brings out temporary businesses and kiosks, hoping to capture some of the holiday business.

Some businesses are open only certain days of the week.  Some just certain hours of the day.  No doubt that’s due to the limited customer base during the days and times they aren’t open.  I would think that would be kind of a self-fulfilling thing, however.  If businesses aren’t open, customers won’t come.  If customers won’t come, businesses aren’t open.  Seems to me to be sort of a round-robin type of thing.

Some places, though, seem to do a fairly good business regardless.  There’s a barbershop in the mall that always has customers, it seems, and more than one barber many times.  One of the jewelry stores seems to have customers who are doing more than “just looking” more often than not.  A massage business seems to always have one or more customers receiving what looks to me like very soothing massages.  And there’s an “outlet” type of store which is apparently doing fairly well.

A temporary business has moved in for the Halloween holiday, occupying a lot of space and having a lot…and I mean a lot…of Halloween-type stuff.  There seems to be a steady stream in and out of the store, so I’m thinking that it was something that was probably a good idea, at least for those who opened the business.

OK, so why am I talking about the mall, the businesses in it, and my walking in the mall on a routine basis?  Sometimes, I will start some music on my phone, which is connected via Bluetooth to my hearing aids.  I can hear it, but no one else can.  Most of the time I will either play a classical piece like Canon in D or Bolero, or something from Handel’s Messiah.  Yes, I know.  I’m an old person, and don’t have much appetite for some genres of music that others may like.

I was in the mood yesterday as I was walking for some of that music.  As I listened to the last two arias of The Messiah, I started looking around at the mall, the businesses, the people, and the environment.  There was, it seemed, a great disconnect between what I was hearing in “Worthy” and what I was seeing in the mall.

What was I hearing?  Handel pulled the words to “Worthy” out of Revelation chapter 5.  Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.

The majesty, glory, and unmatchable power of God in Jesus Christ outshone all that glittered and enticed in the mall at that moment.  A desire for things, a consumer economy, and other temporal things found in a mall setting are no comparison.

Paul the great apostle of the early church, in his letter to the Philippian church, rattled off a list of his accomplishments as a Pharisee and Jewish leader, along with his genealogy, which was of vital importance to the Jewish people.  He then said this about all that he was and all that he accomplished in life.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

There is nothing wrong with shopping at a mall, or a stand-alone store, or on-line.  There is nothing wrong with having money or a comfortable home.  There is nothing wrong with going to a barber or beauty shop.

The problem comes when we place these things front and center in our lives and live for the next consumer “fix.”  We forget that one day we will stand before the God who created us and account for our lives.

OK.  Enough preaching.  I encourage you, though, to be certain your priorities are in the proper order and you understand and embrace what is truly important in life and living.

May you be blessed this week and this weekend as many of us take some time off and stand down for a short while to reflect on the bounty and blessing that is ours.

 

Blessings,

A Biological "Reboot"

 Good morning, and welcome to the Thursday Thought.

 Of course, the big thing we could be talking about this week would be the very hot temperatures that are being recorded in the Great Plains and surrounding area, due, they say, to what they call a “heat high” pressure area that is parked over us.  I don’t know much about meteorology, but I suspect that this phenomenon is one that has been around for many, many years, but has just in the last few decades become a “thing” for forecasters to talk about.

We’ve had very hot temperatures, along with very high humidity, off and on, for as long as we can know.  I think we’re not quite as tough as we used to be, though, years ago.  And I also think we are healthier and live longer because we don’t have to tough it out in the hot weather department as we did years ago.  So there’s a trade-off there…one I’m willing to take.

But let’s go on to another subject, shall we? 

The house we live in is a bi-level.  In order to get anywhere, we have to either go up or go down stairs.  This can be somewhat of a challenge at times, but most of the time the advantages that are built into the house far outweigh our having to climb or descend steps to get somewhere.  The woods of Pawnee Prairie Park are right behind our lot, we have lots of room, the house is well-built and in good condition, and we are really enjoying the neighborhood.  We have no intention of moving until we have to do so for some reason…such as having to make that final move to the funeral home.

A few days ago, we were going down the steps from the upper level to the garage when I froze about half-way down.  I didn’t go down.  I didn’t go up.  After about a second and a half, I began again my descent down the steps.

What happened?  Well, nothing to be alarmed about, really.  Sometimes my arms or legs don’t always do what I’d like for them to do and I have to do a kind of reset…start over…a reboot, if you will.  Usually, the reluctance of my limbs to comply with my wishes has something to do with my safety in some way.  And that’s what happened then.  I became just a little unsure of my footing, which, by the way, is not unusual for older folks, and my feet, and I suppose also my brain got together and said, whoa…we’re going to just stop everything until we get things straightened out.  It just took literally a second or so to reset everything, and I proceeded down the steps with the wife coming along with me.  On the rest of the way down, she asked me what happened, and I told her.  We saw the humor in what happened, and went on our way.

Now, I could have bemoaned our advancing age and the fact that 20 or 30 years ago this would never have happened.  I could have been upset with myself that my body failed…even for a second...to do what I asked it to do.  I have learned, though, that when things like this happen, usually it’s for a good reason…one that has to do with my well-being and general health.  I’ve come to realize that something inside of me is trying to help me rather than hinder me.  And I’m fine with that.

There are also other things in life now that are different from what they were some time ago.  I used to be an active volunteer in Emergency Medical Services, and was often “on call…” that is, I went about my usual daily activities, but wore a pager or radio that would tell me when someone needed an ambulance.  I had to be within 5 minutes of the EMS garage at all times while on call, and responded as quickly as possible.

The “on call” time also included nights.  I laid out my clothes when on call so I could quickly get into them and out to my vehicle for the trip to the garage.  I prided myself in being able to hear the page, get up, dressed, out the door and into my vehicle in less than a minute.  The garage was about two minutes away if I punched it.  Local law enforcement knew who we were and why we were speeding through town in the middle of the night, and didn’t bother us, so we made it out of the garage with the ambulance in good time.

Contrast that with today.  I rouse up out of sleep, sit on the side of the bed for about a minute getting my bearings, take off my CPAP, and trundle awkwardly to the bathroom, sometimes hitting the door frame of the bathroom as I tumble through it.  Things gradually get better from there, and I’m becoming more ready for the day as the minutes tick away.  But it takes about an hour in the morning for me to be anywhere close to “normal,” anymore.  And I certainly wouldn’t be able to be up, dressed, and out to my vehicle in under a minute anymore.

But, I’m good with that.  While I sometimes still miss EMS, I don’t miss having to get up in the middle of the night to go to a call.  I’m good with the time it takes me in the mornings to do my daily bathroom business.  That business includes getting the morning pills out of their bottles.  I call them my “stay alive” pills, because without them, I may well not be around.  Our family has a history of relatively early demise due to cardiac issues, and I believe these medications are helping me to be relatively healthy, at least in a cardiac sense.  Some of them also make life easier in general by keeping arthritic pain at bay and helping me breathe in spite of my allergies.

Older age can be a time of melancholy, thinking of our past and wishing we were still 30 years old.  Or it can be a time of gratefulness and thanksgiving because we have the blessings of longer life and a better quality of living than many had in those past times.  I choose, although some days it’s more difficult to make this choice than on other days, to be grateful.  I hope you do the same, regardless of your age.

 

Blessings.

A Daily Day

 Good afternoon.  Welcome to Thursday Thought.

 Working in a downtown church such as RiverWalk has, as most vocations do, it’s ups and downs.  The work is interesting, at times demanding, and often makes necessary a sudden shift in priorities as the day unfolds.

As I entered the building this morning, I thought of things that needed to be done or checked on.  One of those things was the re-arranging of tables and chairs to accommodate the weekly Thursday morning Bible class that began at 10:30 today.  That class uses a room that is also used by several other groups during the week, and needs to be reset for the class.  Most of the people who attend the class are older, and many are no longer able to move the tables and chairs into place as needed, so staff tries to get that done for them.  I decided to check on that a little later, and went to open up the office.

As I entered my office, I noticed the notes and papers from last evening’s Missions committee meeting, which reminded me that I needed to do a couple of things regarding decisions made in committee.  I’m a member of the committee, and was here last evening for the meeting.  I determined to handle those items a bit later, and logged in to my laptop to check email.

There was nothing of great magnitude in the email.  However, I replied to a couple of them and cleaned up my inbox.  Linda, our office manager, came into the office about that time.  I was happy to see her as she is the first contact for phone calls and people at the door.  I knew I no longer had to watch those two items and could get some other work done.

As I was going to rearrange the chairs and tables for the Bible study, I ran into CJ, our youth minister.  He was coming from the classroom area where the Bible class meets, so I asked him about arranging the chairs.  He said he had already done that, so that was taken care of.  I went back to the office.

Shortly after I came back, I was told that the ice maker in the kitchen was not working.  We’ve had it serviced several times in the last few months, and I no longer am sure what to do with it.  I haven’t called the repairman yet, but will probably do so later.  There was enough ice in the machine for the lunch that was going to be served at noon today.

One of the people who comes to the Bible class on Thursday mornings came to my office and said the lights were too bright in the class room.  We had recently replaced the old fluorescent lighting with the new LED panel lighting, which is indeed brighter.  She said the lights were dimmable and wanted to know where the dimmer was.  We did not install dimming capabilities for those new fixtures, so I told her that they were what they were.  We had received no other complaints on the brightness of the new fixtures, so I am presuming that it was just her preference to not have them so bright.

I completed the tasks given me by the Missions committee by writing a check to send to someone we support in missions, and sending an email to another ministry we support asking for some information the committee wants.  That didn’t take long, but did take a little bookkeeping for the check.

By this time, the Bible class was ready to begin.  My wife and I had invited a friend who normally doesn’t attend our church to the Thursday morning Bible class a few weeks ago, and she came last week and promised to come again this week.  I went into the classroom to see if she was there yet.  She was, and I made it a point to greet her.

I took some time to visit with Linda about a couple of things that needed discussion.  I filed some paperwork on the fire sprinkler system inspection we recently had completed.  I checked email again and answered a couple more of them, made two appointments for this afternoon, and got some water to bring to my desk. 

Finally, an older gentleman came to the door and asked to speak to a pastor or assistant pastor.  Since I was the only one in the office, it came to me to visit with him.  He wanted to know if all Churches of Christ were the same, and what our general tenants were.  He didn’t ask those questions specifically, but that was the information he was desiring.  I visited with him and answered his questions as best I could off the cuff.  He was satisfied with the responses and asked about our worship services.  I told him about that, and he departed.

In between these things, I managed to check my email, take a quick tour of the building interior just to be sure things looked OK, answer my cell phone a couple of times, get some refreshment, and take care of some additional paperwork.  I also started on this Thursday Thought.  It is now after lunch and I haven’t yet had the time to open a book to read, to study for an upcoming class I’ll be teaching, or engage in deliberate prayer.  Hopefully, some of that will come this afternoon as I await a 3:30pm appointment.

I tell you all of this to say that this kind of a day isn’t at all unusual for me.  What may be a little unusual about the day is that I haven’t yet seen anyone who has a benevolence need.  There aren’t many days pass that don’t have at least one benevolence need that comes our way.  However, the day isn’t over yet.  I trust your day is a good one…one in which you walk with God, whatever your vocation…whatever your circumstance or situation in life.  Sandi Patty wrote a song some time ago called “The Stage is Bare,” which speaks of daily life and living when there are no crowds, no one to sing to or for.  Speaking to God in the song, one of the lyric lines reads, “Tomorrow's such a daily day; And I so need to feel you then Holding my hand.”

Most days are “daily days” for most of us.  May your daily days be filled with the presence and love of God.

 

Blessings,

Sorting Things Out

 I began this Thursday Thought video series over three years ago after COVID hit the world in an effort to maintain some form of communication with you, since it would have been difficult or impossible at that time to engage in more personal forms of communication.  Over that time, I’ve talked about many different topics and have offered, admittedly unsolicited, my opinions on various issues of the day.  I don’t have many followers…in the single digits is the norm…but I don’t do this so much for them as I do for myself.

Writing the script enables me to put my thoughts together into a more cohesive form than they otherwise might be.  I can look at what I’ve written.  I can re-write it.  I can change the wording.  I can eliminate it entirely.  I can do that before anyone else ever sees my thoughts and opinions.  I want to be certain that what I am saying is what I intend to say, rather than having to clean up some mess that I’ve made by saying something I might later regret.

And, when I read from a script, I don’t go off on some kind of improvisional tangent, saying something that doesn’t fit with the rest of what I’m saying, or which in some way is not appropriate.  I tend to stay on track a little better than I normally would otherwise.

I recognize that not everyone benefits by writing like I do.  People have many and varied ways of formulating and organizing their thoughts.  Some like to talk it out with someone else they trust.  Others may go to a quiet place and meditate on their thoughts for a time.  Some may want to be busy with a hobby or some other distraction while their thoughts gel into something useful.  Still others may want to literally sleep on it, as that seems to be helpful at  times.  There are many ways to “gather one’s thoughts,” so to speak.

My own thoughts have been a kind of a mess recently.  That may be one reason why I’m speaking in this post about putting thoughts together rather than on some other topic of the day.  Everything from the troubles of the world to who to vote for in the Wichita mayoral race this fall are part of my thought process today.  And included in that process are issues such as the state of public transportation in Wichita, the schools starting up for the 2023-2024 school year, the ever-increasing prices of necessary food and commodities, natural disasters such as the fires in Hawaii and flooding in other parts of the nation, the future of the church in this culture, those of our church family who are battling chronic illness, the specter of ignorance and want (think Dicken’s A Christmas Carol) growing in our society, the hijacking and politicizing of the Christian Evangelical movement, and a host of other topics.

Living in this culture, with instant access to the world through the Internet and social media has it’s upsides, but it also has its issues and problems.  The sheer number of things instant knowledge tells us that we are supposed to be concerned about as good citizens of the human race overwhelms us as we struggle sometimes to just put food on the table and get the kids to school on time.  Our normal methods of sorting out those things we need to be concerned about and leaving for others those things we can’t address quickly become overwhelmed and virtually non-functional.  We begin to see the world with a doom and gloom lens and believe there’s no way out of the despair.  Mental and physical health suffer.  Relationships suffer.  Individuals suffer.

It need not be this way.  We can find ways to remodel, so to speak, our issue filters and methods of sorting out those issues.  We can look for things in this life that can help bring us calm and peace even as the world around us seems to become more chaotic and disorganized.

Look for the beauty and incredibly intricate design in the universe.  Look for, as Mr. Rogers famously said, “the helpers” when bad things happen…those who rush in to mitigate the bad things.  Create new relationships with others and enjoy their company.  Take advantage of healthy habits and activities of both body and mind.  Stop, and, to use a well-worn phrase, “Smell the roses.”

Above all, seek relationship with the God who created you, loves you, and desires the best for you.  Rest in His love, grace, justice, and forgiveness.

I’m reminded of the words of an old Christian hymn by Fanny J Crosby…they go like this:

 

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of his love, and covers me there with his hand,

This Man...THIS MAN

 One of my social media friends, a Christian, posted something recently about religion and what immaturity in one’s spiritual life can do.  I believe he quoted someone else, but didn’t give credit for the quote in a way that I could understand.  Here’s part of that post.

When religion remains at an immature level, it tends to create very violent people who ensconce themselves on the side of the good, the worthy, the pure, the saved. They project all their evil somewhere else and attack it over there.

Something has to be sacrificed. Blood has to be shed. Someone has to be blamed, attacked, tortured, imprisoned, or killed. Sacrificial systems create religions and governments of exclusion and violence. Yet Jesus taught and modeled inclusivity and forgiveness!

I think you get the idea.  Religious immaturity, it is said, leads to division, taking sides, and violence in the name of what is perceived as being right and pure.  Religious maturity, however, according to the one saying this, is known by its inclusivity and forgiveness.

When I read that quote the first time, my eyes zeroed in on that last statement…Jesus taught and modeled inclusivity and forgiveness…  That statement is often said by those who want to justify their support for many of the societal issues of the day…abortion, gay rights, immigration, and other issues of the day.  Those issues are sometimes argued in terms of what Jesus did some two thousand years ago in modeling how mankind should live, and emphasizing the idea that Jesus modeled inclusivity and forgiveness and asks us to do the same.

That statement is indeed true.  Jesus DID model inclusivity and forgiveness.  He did befriend the friendless.  He did give dignity to the downtrodden.  He did forgive those who many in the society of that day would have written off as incorrigible.  He indeed included everyone…and I mean everyone…in His call to follow him and his example.

So, what’s the problem?  Why am I even talking about this?  Because when we zero in on just this aspect of the life of Jesus, we get a warped picture of the Son of God.  In this scenario, we tend to see Jesus as a meek and mild itinerant preacher walking down a dusty trail with a rag-tag group of followers on to the next village so he can speak his message of inclusivity and forgiveness there.  And that’s the ONLY picture we get of him.  But there’s so, so much more to the Son of God than just the itinerant preacher picture.

Jesus never encountered an unrepentant sinner and said anything to the effect of, “Aww…it’s OK.  Don’t worry about it.  All is forgiven and forgotten.”  Jesus never told Zacchaeus the tax collector that he could continue to fleece the populace and all would be OK.  He never told the woman caught in adultery that she could go back to the adulterous relationship.  No, Jesus insisted on some kind of heart change…some kind of change in thought and action.

We need to have a more full picture of this person Jesus…the Son of God…the second person of the Trinity.  We need to understand that the Son was present at the creation of the cosmos.  “Let US make man in our image…Genesis says.”  And that to this day the Son continues to uphold the creation he fashioned by his powerful word, according to the writer of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament.

We need to get the picture when we hear Isaiah talk of Jesus as the “Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.”

We need to understand what was happening when Jesus made a whip and drove the merchants out of the Temple, calling the Temple "My Father’s House.”

And what about when Paul the Apostle says in his letter to the Phillippians:  Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Or what about the Jesus who John said he saw in Revelation chapter 1, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.  The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.  His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.  In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.  No wonder John says he fell to the ground as if he were a dead man when he saw Jesus.

And lastly, what about the Jesus who is recorded as saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.  I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

We dare not place Jesus into what for us is a comfortable box that allows him to only be “inclusive and forgiving.”  The Jesus who indeed is those things is also the Alpha and Omega.  He is the one clothed in a brilliance that will make us fall down as if we were dead.  He is also the one to whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess Him as Lord.  He is the Mighty God…the Everlasting Father.  And He…He is the one who upholds all of creation simply by His powerful word.

And if that isn’t enough, listen to what John says toward the end of his apocalypse  regarding Jesus. 

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.  His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns.  He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.  Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.  “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”  He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.  On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:  King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

This man…this man is the Jesus Christ of the Bible.  May we always confess Him as such.

 

Blessings.