Living Hazzardously

Little pieces of our journey with Jesus

Pages

The Decision Game.

by

Why do we do things we later regret? Is it because we get smarter? Do we learn new insights? Are we enlightened? Or do we simply make a decision based on our emotions and then process over time using our intellect to evaluate that decision?

Paul wrote the “DO DO” verse (Romans 7:15-20)  where he talks about doing what he does not want to do and not doing what he should do… I think he was reflecting on my life when he penned that letter! 

Doing something that leads to regret is an experience we have all had and we all live with our secret regrets as well as the public regerts(intentional miss-spelling). I have plenty of my own… but some things I thought were so big, so ridiculous and so obviously a knee jerk, emotional decision that I made a fool of myself…. 

Let’s look at a decision I have made recently, Buying a hospital… This was huge, but I haven’t felt a moment of regret, and may I say, neither has Jess! Although I did find regret in keeping my thumb in a location where I also had allotted for a hammer head…

How did we not feel a little regret? Why was this such an easy decision? What was different about buying a hospital versus when I bought a red one ton truck that the engine failed in the first week? The red truck I know was an emotional purchase, I knew it had a high level of failure, I even anticipated the reality that I may need to replace the engine in the future… but this red truck is full of REGRET! But the hospital (Sam’s Place) has zero regert. 

Why are these two decisions so different? I can honestly look back on the red truck and say “FOOL” I made a mistake, I broke one of my cardinal rules and bought this without sitting and waiting for 72 hours before I buy anything over $500.00… This waiting period has served me well my entire life, but it seems every time I violate this rule, regret is waiting for me in all its splendor, just on the other side… 

How do we connect our heart to our head? I don’t want to dismiss my emotions, but I do want them to stay in submission to my intellect. Emotions are so valuable, they can motivate us to action, but they can also lead us into inaction, being scared to make a bad decision…

I really believe we need to reel in our emotions when it’s time to make a decision, stop and let our intellect lead the way. Our emotions (sometimes referred to as “follow your heart”) is the true path to regret. If we stop, wait, think, reflect, just give it 72 hours to call our emotions into check, we will make great decisions, with less regerts.

Sam’s Place has been a decision with no regrets, and God has been blessing this move every step of the way, we still have a very long way to go, but a long path in the right direction, following God’s leading, we really can’t feel regret, in “HIS will”.

So, I ask you this question, is God leading you to take a step of faith? A leap off the safe cliff into the clouds of His will? Paul said it in Romans… he has regrets for not doing the things he ought to do, he does differentiate a greater regret for doing things he ought not do, but alludes the reader to see that not doing has as much regret as doing the wrong things. 

I now ask you a final question, would you consider talking to God today? Ask him how you can help someone in your influence, and ask him to guide your decisions?

With a deep concern for you. Charlie

Completed in the future

by

Have you ever given time travel any thought? What would it be like to travel in time forward to see what’s already done… coming back from the future and knowing who is president? Knowing how long it will take for that Amazon package to actually arrive? Or maybe knowing what investments will pay out so your retirement is actually able to sustain a comfortable lifestyle into your 90’s? 

Yesterday at our family devotional (our kids zoom a bible study every saturday morning from around the world, just to stay connected) we read in Micah a verse about “going out before them” (2:13) and Spurgon got into his devotion about how God has already beaten your enemy, beaten death for us, we have nothing to fear because God has already accomplished victory for us, we do not need to “fight” as he has already done the fighting…..

What confidence should we have? The creator of the universe has already beaten every foe of ours! HE has won the battles, HE has beaten the enemy, everything that can defeat us has already been neutralized before we even arrive. Every war, Every conflict, Every “thing” is done already in the future… but why do I struggle and always feel like I am losing the battle? Why did my son die if the enemy is beaten, in the future? 

What do we say? What do we know? What is the answer to the question… If God is good, truly good, then why is there evil? Is it because God is not all powerful?… If an all powerful God is not good, that would explain evil… OR… If a good God is not all powerful, that also could account for evil… but an all GOOD? all POWERFUL? God? How can evil be in the world?

Imagine assigning our human limits to God, he would be our creation rather than our creator… would our creation stop all evil? Would evil simply vanish? Would our ability to do wrong suddenly disappear? Would we only be able to make perfect choices? Never sinning? 

Evil entered a perfect creation because we wanted to be “equals” yet we cant be equals, God loves us but he also wants a relationship with us… he could have made us to be little toy solders, doing only what we are programmed to do, can a computer sin? Of coarse not, a computer can only do that which its creator has programmed it to do. Humans are a bit different, we can choose to serve God, we can be in relationship with God. Does any sane person believe that a computer can replace a real relationship? No, no sane person would believe that.

There is a verse in the bible about how man makes his own God, he sits down after cutting a tree, cooking his food with that wood he cut and then taking a spare chunk of wood that is left after cooking and carving a God, well actually he carves a god, not God. Does this fool believe this god is greater than the one who carved it? Does this fool really believe this is a god? Does this fool believe this chunk of wood is somehow formed into an image that is greater than the one who carved it?

Every step of the way in creating “Sam’s Place” we see God blessing us, we don’t see us making this building into a god, we see God’s blessing in this endeavor.

It’s not until we truly surrender our will to God that we can see God in our life, until we step aside and let God lead us, we can’t see how the creator has already won our battles. 

God did not time travel to win our battles, he rather created time so we can see how he has already done great things before the time has come. We can not see this because we are in time, God is outside time, God is so much bigger than our battles, so much so that we can not fully understand the greatness of God.

Speaking of time travel, Its time for me to travel to church now, With great love and admiration I leave you with this:

Do you know God or do you know a god?

Does God know you, or does God know of you?

Charlie

The invisible old mancub

by

The invisible old mancub

I think a man becomes quiet as he ages for many reasons and perhaps the saddest reason is respect. When  a man lives a passionate life and cares deeply for others, he may come across as “BIG” or “in your face” or “boisterous”, but maybe we misinterpret that energy for a bad thing like “controlling” or “obnoxious” or “rude”… have you ever thought maybe this man is passionate about you? That he wants the best for you? Or maybe he wants to “protect you from all the bad” in the world?

 This morning I was reading about the three men in Colorado who gave their lives protecting the women they love in a movie theater… three men dead, three women alive! It doesn’t matter much what you think of these men, they are true heroes… dead yes, but to lay down your life for another is in fact the highest and most honorable thing a man can do! 

I remember years ago having the “date talk” with each of my three boys, it went something like this:

Son: “Dad? Can I take this girl to the dance at school?”

Dad: “That’s a great question son…Who are you planning to take? And before I can give you my permission, I have a question for you! ”

Son: “Well her name is (fill in the name) and she already said yes! So I kinda have to take her now or I would hurt her feelings…!” (they always thought this appeal was a slam dunk, as I never allowed them to back out of their word)

Dad: “Are you ready to step in front of a gun? Get shot to save her from any harm? Even a little scratch?”

Son: dead silent….

What is it about men that they feel this need to protect others? What makes a man flop down on a live grenade to save those in the foxhole? What makes a man jump in front of a former president that was just shot at? Is he looking for eternal fame? Is he looking to get a paycheck? Is he looking to be a well known dead man?

I think the older a man gets, the more beat up he becomes, the more opportunity he sees to be disrespected and the more he wants to be “unknown”… Don’t be mistaken by the “silent man”, or a “quiet man” an “invisible man”! They are deadly and compassionate, dangerous, fierce… don’t be fooled either by your measurement of a quiet man, a man may look loud to you,  but he may be silently ready to strike at the head of the serpent. (obviously this is generalizing, because but not all will protect)

A man experiences disrespect over time, it may be a wife, a child, a coworker, but don’t be fooled, a man will always gravitate to the area of respect, it’s what a man needs more than air or food or water… respect to a man is the literal life in his bones.  

Old age shows him his own hypocrisy in life, as he accumulates knowledge of his hypocrisy, he learns to shun away from those things that generate disrespect…perhaps this is the all elusive wisdom we read about in the Bible? His “secrets”… his “Kryptonite”… He becomes a secret himself and tries to become invisible from those things that bring disrespect,  hiding until death. Perhaps he now just “gets by” without truly facing the crimes of his past, perhaps even to his own destruction. Or perhaps he has come to peace with his past and is reaching into the void of conflict to find a contentment in a quiet existence… Calm… but sell this man not short of his potential, when he is needed, a real man will bite the head off the serpent that approached his family, he may die from the venom, but not until he is done protecting. The Lion in a “real man” may not go out roaring throughout the countryside, but he knows when, where and how to make his presence known, watch that man, he is dangerous.