Do I really look that suspicious? Really? Somebody thinks I do. It all started the other day when I had to stop by Wal-Mart to pick up a few basic things. I wasn’t inside too long before I was checking out and then heading out the automatic doors into the parking lot; however, as I exited the store, an armored truck guard must have also exited at the same time as me through the doors right next to me. We were now walking kind of parallel to each other. I finally noticed him because he was eyeing me. At first I did not realize who he was, but as soon as I saw him carrying a bag (probably full of money) and sporting a gun, I assumed he was not your friendly Wal-Mart greeter. I think what threw him off was the fact that I reached into my back pocket to retrieve my phone, but he must have assumed from my lighting fast moves that I was packing heat! His step quickened and the heavy truck door was thrown open and he disappeared into the great unknown…keeping his eye on me until the very last moment. The only thing that could have possibly made me look suspicious is the fact that I have a beard and was wearing a TOMS Shoes hat because all thieves have beards and wear hats!

I really hate it when people look at me suspiciously, especially when I know I haven’t done anything wrong. If I have done something wrong, that’s a different story. In my opinion, Christians are often on the suspicious list.

In your opinion, what makes Christians look suspect?

We recently committed “cell phone provider adultery” by leaving Verizon Wireless, whom we have been with almost a decade, and going with their bitter rival, AT&T. The first few months have been an adjustment – new phones, new customer service, and a whole new process to learn. One of the things we did not anticipate in our initial switch was that most of our family still has Verizon as their service provider, so we went over our minutes in our first month because we lost our free mobile to mobile minutes. On the last day of our billing cycle I checked our minute usage and we were already 50 minutes over, which would have incurred more than $20 in overage charges. Maybe that is not a problem for you, but I HATE paying overage charges for anything! On a whim, I contacted AT&T customer service and explained my dilemma and the gentleman was very kind in listening to my predicament. As I was talking, I was thinking, “This guy probably thinks I’m an idiot! There’s no way he is going to respond to my request.” To my surprise, the AT&T customer service representative understood and told me that he would add 200 minutes to my account and that if I didn’t use those extra minutes this month, they would roll over to next month.

I learned something through that process – asking must precede receiving. Without asking, you’ll never receive. Maybe the reason you have not yet received something is because you’ve never asked. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

My eyes burst open and I quickly looked at the alarm clock on my nightstand; although I cannot remember the exact time, I’m certain the clock revealed that it was well after midnight. The sound of the front door opening had been enough to thrust me out of sleep and into ninja mode (whatever that is). Most people would have sprung out of bed, but not me. Still half asleep and lying in bed, I slapped both of my arms down on either side of me as if to brace myself for what was about to happen. Listening more intently to the sounds coming from downstairs, I then heard the pitter-patter of my dog’s paws walking through the hallway. “Great,” I thought. “The thieves had broken into my house and were now taking my dog captive. They must have muzzled her, though, because I never heard her bark.” As all these thoughts were running through my mind, I glanced over in order to see if my wife was hearing what I was hearing; however, she was not there. I then became extremely alarmed because I would normally send her downstairs to check out any unfamiliar noises. Who was going to do it now? Gradually, I came to my senses and realized that the reason my wife was not in bed was due to the fact that she was letting the dog out to use the bathroom.

The mind has a tendency to play tricks on a person, especially those who are absorbed with guilt. The wisdom writer reminds his readers of this truth when he says, “the wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions” (Proverbs 28:1). Hidden sin and unresolved conflict can result in a person living their life in fear of getting caught, even when no one else may know what they have done. A guilty conscience tends to have a misconstrued view of reality, while the clear conscience can experience a life of freedom. I think I’d rather spend my days being bold as a lion instead of feeling as if I am being chased by them. How about you?

Here in Ohio we have trash stalkers, at least that is what I call them. Trash stalkers are people who spend their evenings/nights stealthily cruising through neighborhoods on the eve of trash day in hopes of finding treasure in someone else’s curbside junk. On more than one occasion, I have personally spoken to one of these stalkers because there must be an unwritten rule that if they get caught digging through your trash, they must ask for permission to assume ownership of it. They typically say something like, “Is it okay with you if I take this?” Since I have an insatiable desire for sarcasm, I am tempted to respond by saying, “No you can’t. That tricycle with only one wheel is going to be used for a lawn ornament.” In reality though, I usually panic when they stop at my house thinking that I possibly chucked something of unrecognizable value or maybe the mirror I am tossing out contains an original copy of the Declaration of Independence behind the glass. I really do not want to end up in national headlines as the idiot who threw away thousands of dollars in his trash because he was blind to an item’s true value.

After spending more than a decade investing in the lives of others, I’m convinced that many people are guilty of throwing away things which they no longer view as valuable, even though it still holds great value; although, I do realize that some repair may be needed to restore full value to certain things. Most of the time, something which was once valuable only became trash because of improper care.

Yesterday I took my two kids on a bike ride because, well, it is our new favorite thing to do and I believe they enjoying spending some time with me as much as I enjoy spending time with them. Now every day when I get home from work, both my son and daughter beg me to take another bike ride. So yesterday, instead of traveling the normal route around our neighborhood, I decided to take them on a new, exciting adventure in order to explore the unknown – the woods. Hoping there would be a decent bicycle path amongst the tall trees near our house, all three of us set out on an adventure; however, my children had no idea what I had planned. As we approached the deep, dark forest my seven and nine year old became a little concerned about entering a place where they had never been; in fact, they objected and made statements like, “I don’t want to go in there.” I assured them that there had been no recent snake attacks in our area, so we finally proceeded into the canopy of trees. After only traveling a short distance, the trail ended so we backtracked and took a side trail I had spotted several yards back, which ended up leading to another dead end. Determined to find a clear path, I led us along the edge of the trees until we had descended down a hill where we were met with yet another dead end. By this time, my kids were clearly frustrated with me and at one point, my daughter (who is always brutally honest) put her bike down on the ground and said, “I’m tired and I want to go home NOW!” I knew it was time to abandon my plan for discovery and exploration. Dejected and a little frustrated that my plan for exploring new paths had failed, we all pedaled home. Based on yesterday’s failure, I was certain that they would not want to embark on another bicycle journey; however, when I arrived home this evening, they asked if we were going on a bike ride.

Has the person who is your leader (a boss, teacher, parent, or pastor) led your business, classmates, family, or church to several dead ends? If so, maybe he or she needs you to ask to go on another bike ride.

One day Jesus encounters a man who works for the IRS and asks him to change occupations. Instead of cheating people out of their hard earned money by collecting a little extra for himself, Jesus asks this man named Levi (Matthew) to work for Him. Without hesitation Levi closes his office, abandons everything he owns, and follows Jesus (Luke 5:27-28). This is a dramatic life change. After his early retirement from tax collecting, Levi holds a party in his home in honor of Jesus (his new boss) where the who’s who of losers and local outcasts attend alongside Jesus’ disciples (Luke 5:29). The people answering the door at Levi’s house obviously didn’t get the memo about sticking to the guest list because somehow the stuck-up religious people crashed the party accusing Jesus and His disciples of eating and drinking with losers (Luke 5:30). The so-called religious leaders thought that if Jesus and His followers were representing God, they should be a tad more discreet about the company they kept; after all, the scribes (interpreters of the Old Testament law) and Pharisees (group of people consumed with external rules) would never be caught dead befriending such outcasts.

When Jesus got word that the partypoopers had busted up the celebration, He immediately defended Himself and His disciples’ associations saying, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do. I have come not to call those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent” (Luke 5:31 NLT). Jesus’ defense here is simple. Rather than waste His time catering to people who thought they had God all figured out, He would instead spend His days offering hope and life to those who needed it most.

A lot of religious people are more concerned about who they can stay away from rather than being concerned about who needs Jesus.

Some of you may remember a blog entry I posted a little over a month ago called, No Hamster Dance for Us , where I briefly chronicled my reasoning for not purchasing a hamster as a second pet for our family. Most of my decision making was based on input from former hamster owners who, almost unanimously, discouraged me from taking the plunge. Comments such as “they stink” was enough to deter me from driving to the nearest pet store and making my selection from the plethora of smelly hamsters. We already have a smelly dog at home so why would we need to add another competing entity? Needless to say, my wife was not happy with those who negatively affected my determination (she is harmless), but I thought we had mutually agreed to disagree…until the kids called me a couple days later while I was at work to inform me that they had just bought a hamster. So much for the “wives submit to your own husbands” principle!

The first few days, I really didn’t like the thing…sorry, I guess “the thing” has a name, which is Rhino. You may recognize our plagiarized name from another famous hamster featured in the recent animated movie Bolt. But people were right – the hamster sometimes stink (like all of us at one time or another) and he (or she…I’m not sure how to tell) is pretty loud at night; however, after dark he (or she) turns into a one-man (or woman) show. Seriously, this rodent has some major energy to release after the sun goes down and although I hate to say it, I have actually enjoyed watching him (or her) zoom around in the ball, furiously run on the wheel, and crawl through the tunnels in the cage. It’s like having Animal Planet in your home without the price of cable!

Even though I’m still not keen on everything about the hamster, I’ve learned to overlook the negative aspects in order to concentrate on the things I enjoy. Three people in my home really love the hamster (the verdict is still out on what the dog thinks) and I don’t want to be the one who spoils it for everyone else. There are some people who thrive on being the spoilers or partypoopers, as I like to call them, and they’re not happy until everyone else is not.

I hope you are not that person.

Okay. So there are no vampires in this story, but there is a bat. Yesterday, several staff members, including myself, were walking through one of the hallways on the second level of our church (main campus) when all of the sudden our senior pastor stopped and inquired about an object hanging where the wall and ceiling meet. I had walked through the same hallway yesterday and noticed, what I supposed to be, a wire or wires hanging from the ceiling. “That’s a bat!” our senior pastor said. At first, I thought he was seeing things (he is getting older) so I decided to turn on more lights in the hallway. Sure enough, he was right! There hanging from the ceiling in our church was a bat. Although it was a nice call by the pastor, our attention quickly turned to removing this vampire bat from the church building; after all, I’m sure we would get some e-mail complaints if we left it there for Sunday worship.

My first thought was, “The only way to get this bat out of the church is to whack it on the head and kill it.” Don’t get me wrong. I love mammals, but not in confined spaces where there is a risk of me getting bitten. After a few minutes of searching around the custodial closets, we located a broom handle and I was elected to wield it, but the pastor reminded me, “You’ve only got one shot and if you miss, that thing is going to be flying all over the place.” Thank you for that voice of reason. The pastor and another unnamed staff member who works with our middle school students stood at a far distance so they could see the outcome. I’m certain they were rooting for me to miss so they could, as the pastor said, “see me scream like a girl and run.”

As I nervously approached the bat with my weapon of choice, I began thinking about what I would do if I missed. I mentally planned for failure. Many people never try anything because they have already convinced themselves that they will fail. Countless plans, movements, ministries, businesses, and dreams have never been realized because they never escaped from the mind. What would you be willing to try if failure wasn’t an option?

Postscript: Custodians arrived. Bat was removed safely. PETA is happy.

“Can I go outside?” my seven year old daughter asked as I sat relaxing in the family room at our home. She loves the swing set in our backyard and spends lots of time swinging on the swings. “Sure. That’s fine with me,” I said as she quickly slipped on her flip flops and dashed into the backyard. A few minutes later, my wife came downstairs after waking up from her Sunday afternoon nap and sat with me in the family room. Before I knew it, my daughter was opening the sliding glass door wanting us to watch her new trick on the swing. Her trick was adventurous. After proving that she could use the rope swing to increase her speed on the regular swing, my wife and I continued hanging out in the family room…until the sliding glass door opened once again, but this time my daughter was crying. “What happened?” we asked. She proceeded to tell us (through the tears) that she had fallen off the swing and now her wrist was hurting. Since my daughter is a thrill seeker as well as accident prone, we took her to the local emergency care center where the x-rays revealed a broken radius (the lateral bone of the forearm). This is the second bone my daughter has broken this year and she just got her last cast off six weeks ago! Also, in keeping with her last broken bone, which she broke on my wife’s birthday, Lexi broke this bone on my birthday. I wonder what she will do for Christmas this year?

Today, when we were waiting in the doctor’s office I told my wife, “None of this would have happened if I would have told her that she couldn’t go outside.” Have you ever had one of those moments where you’ve questioned a better outcome if you would have made a different decision? I know I have. Unfortunately, no matter how bad you question your decision, it is already a part of your past.

Instead of attempting to change the past, fight to reclaim the future.

I’ve been married for a little more than twelve years and I have become totally comfortable with what I call “feminine errands.” Every married man and puppy-whipped boyfriend/fiance is familiar with this procedure and it goes something like this: 1) Woman wants something. 2) Woman tells man to go get it at an “off limit store for men” such as Bed, Bath, & Beyond or any establishment which ends with the words “Crafty Cathy.” 3) Man would never be caught dead in this store browsing on his own, but does does not have the courage to tell the woman “no!” 4) Man disguises himself by wearing his hat pulled way down and a shirt which says something about fishing or hunting. 5) Man reluctantly goes to store to interact with many other men who are also on “feminine errands.” 6) Woman gets what she wants. 7) Man walks away more in touch with his feminine side.

This past weekend I had desperately sought an item at many other stores without any luck, so my wife “suggested” I go to Bed, Bath, & Beyond (Best Buy really needs to open up a “Men Shopping for Women” area). If I had to go, I was taking one of my kids down with me. Unfortunately, my son could not be coaxed into spending some time with his daddy at BB&B, so my daughter went with me. She enjoys smelling the candles and laying on the beds…just adds to the pain!

It’s amazing how an attainable task can be complicated by an unwilling attitude.