Living Hazzardously

Little pieces of our journey with Jesus

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So LAZY! A cold winter’s day.

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Short update, Jess has a cast on from a slip on the ice and a fractured wrist, She is doing her best to help out around the adventures of “Livinghazzardously”

Al has bacterial Pneumonia, and will be home this week.

I have pig, chicken, and dog care. Snow Plowing/shoveling duties. Cooking, dishes and laundry. Installations of heating equipment, no heat calls and servicing furnaces. Plow truck is dead in the driveway at minus 9 degrees… The list is interesting BUT God provides for us just what we need, when we need it… it’s an exercise in faith. I’m tired, but so glad I have everything I need to be able to provide for my family. 

Let’s take a tour of my cold winters bleak… 

I am a bit of a Tim Taylor kind of guy, I call it being “lazy”… I think the guy that fills his leaky tire everyday before he goes to work is less lazy than the guy that fixes the tire as soon as possible…. Why?  Simple, the guy that constantly fills the tire, day after day after day works much harder and for more hours than the guy that fixes the tire and doesn’t have to fill the tire more than once… I am told that I’m not lazy, what do you think? 

My pigs require water, the chickens require water too… in the mid winters bleak this becomes a serious challenge, you need water that doesn’t freeze, or you fill the water every day, sometimes three times a day. ENTER CHARLIE, THE LAZY! I really don’t want to go out three times a day, or even once a day, I’m way too lazy for that! So I sit and think of ways to make the water systems I have work better.

The first try was a “Drinking Post” that worked great until I discovered the water table is too high and it wont drain to prevent freezing. I tried adding a small fan powered heater, and a few modifications (what I mean is a bunch of mods) … NOPE, don’t buy this unless you live in a warm climate and have clean critters! The drain plugs up from pig food from the mouths of pigs and it freezes, freezes and freezes… The company was so unapologetic, they made the sale and now I’m on my own… money spent, gone forever, when will I learn my lesson and not try gimmicks, no matter how good the seem to be?

Another attempt was to simply add a heater to a tank of water that the pigs can get into from the top. That was my first step, it worked “OK”. but the water evaporates and is consumed pretty fast. If you know anything about pigs, they drink a lot of water and can’t reach over the top of a tank to access the water, so I was filling everyday, remember, I am lazy, I don’t want to go fill water every day…  

So my pursuit of becoming the laziest farmer continues!

I got a tank made for pigs, a tank designed for pigs! It has a valve that keeps a lower dish full of water and fills it from a large heated tank that is integrated. That works better from the perspective of volume (it’s a week’s worth of water) and keeping the tank clean (the pigs only drink out of the lower bowl and not the tank… ) but it too has a downside, heating the tank wont keep the lower bowl from building ice. Now what! Reptile heating pads are only for dry locations, I can fabricate a heater to attach to the bottom of the bowl but I am concerned the pigs’ curiosity will kill them or at least hurt them from a shock…

MINI FOUNTAIN PUMP! What a great idea Charlie, add a mini fountain pump to the bowl, a few holes drilled in the right locations, run some tubing from the pump back into the tank, add a line to circulate the bowl!  VIOLA! HEATED WATER, CIRCULATED INTO THE BOWL… my best invention to date, lets see if I can get a patent on this, well first, how long will this hair brained idea actually last?

My next invention? How can I provide pig feed via a WIFI app? Jess sits and gives me praise for my inventions, many work really well, but the water for pigs and chickens have been my biggest challenge to date. Maybe going with no chickens can be next, but have you seen egg prices?

I stop and think on days like this, how many different ways does Satan try to get us to do what he wants, gimmicks, laziness, no-self-control… I think of all the lies told to us by the media, big networks and platforms… Satan loves chaos and infighting, he loves to see the Church divided on things God has clearly spoken… Satan loves to see friendships forsaken, families destroyed and lies believed. 

We need to be so careful to not forsake the ones we love because of a misunderstanding or as I like to put it…. PRIDE. I can think of no sin that does not start with pride, it’s either blatantly prideful or it’s subtle. Either way, God has already revealed all truth, we become prideful when we reject HIS truth for the truth we prefer… either way, I can’t see any sin without some element of pride. 

The spirit of pride will convince a person they are right, or that somebody else is wrong… regardless of truth… I have heard both sides in politics lately, both sides are demanding they alone hold the truth, both sides are fully convinced there is no rational opposition… I have one thing to say on this, listen carefully:

You can not have two opposing views of the same concept in the same relation and both be correct… but they can actually both be wrong! 

I like numbers, they can’t lie, they can be manipulated by words, but they can not lie or be wrong. There is literally only one truth claim that is actually the reflection of reality, but there can be many truth claims that are not a reflection of reality… let that sink in! 

There is Truth! “Truth (big “T”) is reality as seen by GOD”.

There is truth. “truth (little “t”) is not reality but rather it is opinion as seen by the father of lies”

I hope as this “SUPER BOWL” Sunday progresses, we can see more truth and less lies. I pray this nation sees healing, I pray God will be glorified this day and the eyes of the blind can see. I pray for you my friends! 

May God bless you this day and may your team be the one that glories God..

Truth or Trust Fail

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I saw a movie trailer the other day starring Kevin Bacon and  Amanda Seyfried. Kevin made a claim “You broke the rules, there are no more rules anymore” This really struck a chord in my life… On one hand, we need to build sound and safe parameters to our lives for our safety and the safety of those we love. As a man, we have been given the responsibility of the protection of our families. Protection? From what? Maybe the horrible scene playing out in the Carolinas? Maybe from the fires in Maui? Maybe we should be testing fire hydrants in Cali?

What areas of protection do you see lacking in your world? Do we provide protections for others? WHO IS OUR CHARGE OF PROTECTION?

As the cofounder of Sam’s Place, Jess and I talk alot about how we can provide protection, how we can keep our residents safe…  safe, safe from what? I think back to the old movies like “Predator”. How would I protect anyone from that? I’m not a superhero… Well, I’m not super concerned about that type of threat, but I am concerned about other threats that are more realistic. Fires, floods and cold weather are real concerns… Locked doors, cameras monitoring who is “coming and going” are just a couple ways I can address safety, or maybe it’s the new boilers, electrical panels and a new roof? 

These are all great ways to provide protection, but what about the threats that we cant see? You know, the threats from within the mind? A few years back I got the opportunity to learn a bit about schizophrenia… It’s a difficult disorder. Imagine not being able to determine truth, hearing voices, seeing people and not knowing what is real. How do I protect someone from that? How horrible is it to allow a person to go on believing things that are not real? I guess if it doesn’t matter what a person believes then they can just imagine the reality they want? NO! That’s evil! 

I could go deep and prove my point here but in the end, If you don’t believe that objective truth matters, you will believe whatever you want to believe, regardless of facts, truth, reality and reason. If that’s true for you, I hope someone is looking out for you and protecting you from the reality of objective truth.

Back to trust, trust is knowing the person you trust will always do what is best for you in the long run. Trust is about putting others ahead of you and valuing the good outcome for them over your own desires… Think of it like the instructions on an aircraft, putting the mask on those that cant help themselves first is how is wrong and puts everyone at a higher risk of death. Taking care of the caregiver is how you take care of both people. BUT THAT SEEMS SELFISH. Until you are helping that person later, after the crash…

But what do you do when things are “WRONG” ? What do you do when trust is broken? What do you do when the one that is supposed to put you first with the lifesaving oxygen mask puts it on themselves and never helps you with yours, or worse, they put on the mask because they are saving themselves? What if the men in the Titanic got into the lifeboats to help the women and children get in but then they just stayed in the boat and did not help the women and children… 

The Movies are filled with scenes about trust fails, like life, the breach of trust is difficult… it destroys relationships faster than any other situation… 

If the plane had one too few masks, or the Titanic had too few boats… Where do you suppose you would see Jesus? Behind the mask? In the boat? No, he would be high and lifted up on that cross for you. For me. 

I’m so glad to realize that after I put the mask on my boys, help Jess into the boat, and stand at the end of life’s journey, I will always have company… The Men that take their jobs serious and Jesus. They will all be standing at the rails, watching the ones they love floating away to safety. 

Trust is a life’s journey, yet we all fail sometimes. Charlie

 “JUDGE RIGHTLY”

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My wife is the greatest gift I have ever had, but even she comes with “struggles”… I know I am perfect and bring her no grief, struggles or frustrations… I am perfect! Or am I blind?

I have had my struggles in life and some folks may still refer to me as a struggle for them (what? me??). Why does it seem the most demanding relationships are the ones we value the most? The hardest  relationships are the ones we seem to never give up on.. and never quit?

I noticed many years ago that we all have a tendency to view our actions from a perspective of our own intent, yet we seem to view others’ intent by their actions… What does this look like played out in a relationship? Let’s dive into this frustration today, head long and eyes wide shut.

Today we are going to name our characters Jim and Jane. 

Jim walks in and declares “Can someone please stop putting the dogs outside every time I need to get something done? Can’t you just watch them for a minute?”

Jim is assuming the dogs are put outside (Jane’s action) to make Jane’s life easier (Jane’s intent)…  

Jane puts the dogs outside (Jane’s action) to watch how the dogs love to be with Jim during the chores (Jane’s intent)… 

Jim judged her intent from her action.

Jane judged her actions on her intent.

We can easily switch everything, Names, scenarios, intents and actions… But what do we see? The person making the actions will nearly always measure the outcome by intent and the person experiencing the others actions will nearly always measure intent of the actions based on how they experience the actions… How do we come to a common ground? How do we “JUDGE RIGHTLY”

It’s even more complicated when we experience things multiple times, and see common outcomes based on our preconceptions. Is one better than the other? Maybe.. Maybe not… the important thing for Jim is to try to see it from her perspective and remembering that Jane is not his enemy… or maybe she is his enemy and she is not a faithful partner? Do we always give the benefit of the doubt? Should we assume the worst? Should we not care? 

All these outcomes are hard to navigate, and harder to discern! I used to trust everyone, But my naivete has caught up to my reality and I am now a person that doesn’t trust others until they prove otherwise. There was a long time I believed the opposite, I believed that if somebody wasn’t happy in a situation, they would go talk to the other person and “clear the air”. 

When I married Jess in 2015, I was a person of total distrust, I trusted nobody and never gave people a chance to prove otherwise… she has melted that cold hard heart. Now with God & Jess’s help, I can trust again…

I think about the journey I have been on and How God has sustained me, and how I have turned my back on God many times to trust myself rather than trusting in God…. What a long road.

I have found God is able to rightly judge me, my actions, my intent and that of others in my life. This has lifted a great burden from my shoulders. Much like “Pilgrim” from the John Bunyan book “Pilgrim’s Progress”. The amazing thing is like the John who penned the book of Revelation, this John was also in prison when he penned his book. 

If these men (and many others) can find joy, hope and trust in prison, we can find trust in our homes.

Today, assume the person’s actions that caused you adversity were from a place of purely good intent. Assume the person is your friend and is looking for the best for you. Assume your actions can be misinterpreted as the other person experiences the fall out of your actions. Remember, only God can rightly see all that is in a person’s heart, but if our default is to assume our closest relationships are people that only want what’s best for us, we will all be happier, live longer and be deeper in love… 

May the Lord our God teach you to trust.

Charlie