7/31/2020 0 Comments Some days the best thing to do is just that - grab that bucket and start watering.While I was running yesterday, I heard a Lori McKenna song - The Rose of Jericho. I'd never heard it before. When I heard the very last line of that song, I had to play it again. And then again.
For the rest of my run, that last lyric played over and over in my head: "You can't always count on rain to water what you need to grow." When I was young, we had a fairly large yard in the country. My dad liked to fill it with trees. When the summer days got dry, no rain in sight, I had to spend part of my days dragging a hose from tree to tree - watering every one of them. I wasn't a big fan of those trees. I liked droughts even less. Most important of all, though - my dad wasn't a fan of waiting on rain to water what he needed to grow. As that kid, I spent a lot of time hoping for rain. As an adult, I fear too many times I'm still spending a lot of time praying for rain to water what I need to grow. If you're into growing things, a garden or trees or flowers or a lush green yard, rain makes life a whole lot easier, doesn't it? We can stand at the front door and watch it pour down and bask in the relief of not carrying that water bucket around in the heat. I think sometimes we're waiting on rain in other areas of our life as well. We've got these spaces in our lives where there is a devastating drought going on and we're waiting for God to come through with the answer. Well, maybe God is saying quit waiting on the rain. Running has taught me this lesson well. Not one finish line has ever come without me taking the first step. And not one race where I wasn't actually able to make it to the finish line - there have been a few - has ever stopped me from being able to take the first step toward the next finish line. Running has taught me that whatever the struggle is in my life, waiting on rain isn't the answer. Sometimes we have to grab that stinking water bucket and start watering what we need to grow. Whether it's a job situation or a relationship struggle or this person I'm dreaming I can be - whatever the drought is in your life - crossing your fingers and doing rain dances isn't going to end the drought. In the book of Ecclesiastes, in chapter 11, we find these words: If the clouds are full of rain,they empty themselves on the earth,and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.He who observes the wind will not sow,and he who regards the clouds will not reap. Yes, clouds bring rain. Winds blow over trees. But if you stand around watching and waiting for either of those things, nothing in your life is going to change. Life is hard sometimes because we don't know what the answer is, we don't know what to do to end this drought in our lives. But maybe what makes it hard is our focus on what we don't know? Because we DO KNOW something for sure. We know doing nothing will change nothing. We know while we're waiting on rain to water what we need to grow, that thing we need to grow is dying a little more each day. So what something should I do? I have no idea. All I know is in running, no finish line has ever turned out quite like I imagined. But I got to every one of them the same way. By taking a step toward them. Some days without having any idea how I'd get there, I just took a step. And then another. And then another. There comes a day when you just say I'm tired of watching the clouds, I'm tired of standing around worrying about this wind. To do either is simply standing around watching life pass you by. To do either is to go on avoiding that bucket. Some days the best thing to do is just that - grab that bucket and start watering.
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7/30/2020 0 Comments Jesus loved taking advantage of every chance he had to say I have one group: people.Some of you know one of my favorite bible stories is about Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Just so many lessons and messages in that story.
As the story goes, in his travels, Jesus finds himself at a well asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. This catches the woman off guard, because Jews and Samaritans were two people groups who didn't do well together. Additionally, Jews had less than ideal appreciation for women at that time. So when Jesus asked the woman for a drink, the woman responded: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” In the context of these scriptures, you'll understand what she was really asking here is, why is it you are willing to talk to me? In today's times, I think more than ever, even more than back in the days of Samaritans and Jews coming together at that well, we strongly identify with our own people groups. Whether those groups are separated by color or religion or political affiliation or professional network, we are a people who love clinging to OUR people. It's where we find our comfort. Sometimes I'll scroll through Facebook and see an online conversation taking place. I'll see the participants and think - now that's an unlikely pair interacting there. It's an instinctual response to seeing people interact from different people groups that, for at least a moment, doesn't make sense. Jesus got that all the time. People often quietly wondered and even at times asked out loud - sometimes it was his most loyal followers - why is he hanging out with those people? Sometimes I think Jesus accepted those questions as a badge of honor. I think the more people wondered why he was talking to someone, the more fired up he got to talk to more of those someones. I think in Jesus mind, the more times people questioned why he was talking to people in a different group, the more opportunities that gave him to demonstrate that he didn't divide people into groups. Jesus loved taking advantage of every chance he had to say I have one group: people. Jesus was so radically getting involved in all lives - sometimes going out of his way to end up at a well in Samaria where he didn't need to be, to engage with people most thought he shouldn't be anywhere near - that he never once had to say the words all lives matter. I think Jesus is challenging us with this story - who is it that needs to ask you - why are you so willing to talk to me? The beautiful thing about that story - because the Samaritan woman was so intrigued by why Jesus would show the kind of interest in her no one else would - she listened to him. She put value in what he was saying. Because Jesus took time to know her when no one else would, she wanted to know all she could know about him. Too often we surround ourselves with people who will allow us to believe we know all there is to know. With this story, Jesus is reminding us we have a lot to learn, and it probably starts with someone asking you - why are you willing to talk to me. 7/29/2020 0 Comments July 29th, 2020I wasn't having the best of days yesterday. It was just one of those days. Then I came home and I'd received a box in the mail from a dear friend. I opened the box. Inside there were two pairs of used shoes she wanted to donate to Soles4Souls.
And there was a card. The card said many kind things. But these words are the ones that moved me: "I am so proud to call you my friend for many reasons...." What is it about two pairs of shoes and a simple sentence that can turn a day around - that can completely fill a heart with something that seemed so inescapably missing just seconds earlier. I responded to my friend with a message. I said: Only God could arrange the delivery of shoes from just the right person with a card that said just the right words on just the right day and time. More often than you know you come through in my life like an angel. I've been thinking about that this morning - angels. I looked up the definition of an angel this morning. I loved this one: A person who performs a mission of God or acts as if sent by God. By that definition, I believe we were all created to be angels. Consider these words from Paul Tripp - We weren't created to be independent, autonomous, or self-sufficient. We were made to live in a humble, worshipful, and loving dependency upon God and in a loving and humble interdependency with others. Myself, reflecting on those words, I'm wondering if God doesn't want me to be so humbly dependent on him so that I can fully know how humbly dependent I am on others. I'm wondering if God doesn't allow me to be instinctively overcome with joy at the words "I am so proud to call you my friend" so I'd for a moment feel how God feels when I tell him "I am so proud to call you my God." In fact, just in case God feels anything like I felt reading that card yesterday, I started my morning prayer with just those words this morning - God, I am so proud to call you my God. Times are tough we are living in. People are facing challenges in their lives that may look different from each others' challenges, but I believe more people than ever are experiencing challenges at the exact same time. I think maybe we are all looking for angels. But maybe we're going to stay stuck in these challenges if we keep looking around for angels. Maybe the way out is focusing on being an angel. Because I do believe, we were all created to be angels. We don't need wings and robes and white heavenly glows. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of pair of used shoes and a card. Sometimes all it takes is a love so dependent on God that we can't help but know others are depending on our love. 7/28/2020 0 Comments Love enduresIt's been over 20 years since I got that phone call, but I remember it well. At the time I knew the call impacted me. Today, I know it helped me understand life in ways I never would have without it.
The young man's name was Will. Will was 12 when I first met him; he was 17 the day he called me. In many ways, Will was the reason I decided to work with kids. I met him when I visited the program I'd eventually work at. At the time, he was as difficult a young man to understand and be around as any person I'd ever met. I was going to take that job and help Will. I was determined to make Will my "if I only change one life it will be worth it" kid. I spent a year working with Will. The day he left I remember thinking "well, that didn't go so well." When I first met Will I thought he was the devil's child. After working with him a year, and watching him only get worse, I decided I was wrong. This was not the devil's child. This was the devil himself. When Will walked out the door of our program I considered him my biggest failure ever. I came to work with Will, and nothing I tried worked. Nearly 5 years later, I was sitting in the office when I got a call from Will. I hadn't heard from him since he left. Eventually I'd quit beating myself up over not saving him and had long forgotten him. Will was on a payphone outside of a detention center in Florida. He'd just been released after spending some significant time there. He told me, "I don't have much time, but I needed you to be my first call when I got out. I know you think I didn't listen to you all those years ago, but I did. The last couple of years I've thought about every word you said when we were together. I'm going to change now." Will hung up. To this day, I've never heard from him again. Before that call, I would have needed to hear from him. I would have needed to know if he'd changed. After that call, I was reminded that we have no idea, many times, if what we are doing is working. We just have to have faith what we're doing is somehow going to last. The bible says that love.. Bears all things. Believes all things. Endures all things. The bible says that love never fails. Sometimes, we are too "what are you doing for me now" about our love to see that it endures further and longer than we know. Sometimes we are too worried figuring out if loved worked to know that the purpose of love isn't to work, it's to help us bear things and believe things and help us endure through all things. It's about planting something in someone's life that will never fail. It's a way of living on in someone's life long after you think you didn't make a difference in their life at all. There are a lot of days I pick up the phone and I call Jesus. I say to him, I know it's been 2000 years since you were here. And I know you probably think I don't listen to a word you said. I just need you to know that I do. I have heard every word. I need you to know I'm trying to change. I want you to know most days it probably looks like your love didn't work in me. But I want you to know, Jesus, your love has lasted. Because it did, I want mine to last as well. 7/27/2020 0 Comments July 27th, 2020Last week, I had a chance to volunteer with a young lady who'd recently graduated from college. I asked her what she wanted to do now. A puzzled look of sorts came over her. Then, after a little thought, she gave me a moderately long list of possibilities.
I ask soon to be college graduates that question all the time. What's next? To be honest, I'm always more hopeful for the ones who say I don't have a clue. Don't get me wrong, I think there's value in having direction and goals. But I find these days that young people who get so narrowly focused on their desired outcome in life - some clear picture they've established of how life is going to go - are inhibiting themselves from discovering new possibilities along the way. I actually find that's true of all people. I guess I've just experienced life enough to know that my plans rarely go as I plan. I've also discovered that when I try to align what I WANT TO DO with WHO GOD WANTS ME TO BE, my plans usually turn out much better than anything I could have come up with on my own. Before I sat down to write this article this morning, I had the same brief conversation with God I have every morning when I sit down to write. I don't ask God to tell me what to write, I simply ask God to use what I do write as some small chapter in his story. And I heard God say what he always says: well be quiet then and get busy writing. I hear that through the day too. I hear God saying get busy doing something I can use. Sometimes I picture God in the kitchen cooking. I never have any idea what it is he's cooking, only that it will be something I've never tasted before, and it will simply be the most delicious thing that's ever crossed the borders of my mouth. I always picture God reaching for the ingredients for this dish. There's just something missing, he seems to be thinking. More and more, I try not to focus on what that dish will be, or what it will taste like. I simply trust and believe it's going to blow my mind away. And my taste buds. What I try to focus on is this: is this next thing I'm doing in my life - is it possible this can be an ingredient in God's masterpiece? When God is reaching for that next ingredient - how many ingredients from my life am I sliding across the counter toward where he's cooking his masterpiece. I long ago gave up on the idea that I'm going to cook a masterpiece in life. And believe me, that comes with far more hope and confidence than it sounds. You see, I'm all in on the idea I can become an ingredient or two in the greatest masterpiece ever created. It doesn't get more hopeful than that. So I'm with you young lady. I have no idea what I want to do either. I just know what I want to be a part of. 7/26/2020 0 Comments Comparison is a punkFor the first year or so of my running journey, I couldn't run very far without having to stop and walk. To cover any distance at all, there had to be a lot of walking involved. I felt like a constant running failure. Surely my "real runner" friends aren't out there walking.
Then one day, quite out of the blue, someone sent me a book in the mail. It was a book on the Galloway run-walk-run method. While reading it, I discovered I'd been doing some form of this run/walk method my entire running life. To discover thousands of other runners were out there doing the same thing - a thing actual books are written about - was liberating. From that moment forward, running became more enjoyable and more meaningful to me. Nothing in my life changed because I started doing anything different. It changed because I stopped letting what others were doing suck the living life out of what I was doing. I quit getting punked by comparison. I wonder sometimes if it isn't comparison that more than anything else - with relentless determination - insists that we feel inadequate. I wonder sometimes if it isn't comparison that keeps us from being all that we can be. I've had a lot of friends lately who've expressed awe at this virtual race I'm running (run/walking 😜) right now. I don't know how you're doing it, they say. Well, the answer is this Covid crisis. It's given me unexpected flexibility to run more. Being able to do it is as much about timing in life as anything else. You want to know what amazes me? The moms with 3 young kids at home in this same crisis. The moms trying to work from home and teach from home and hold the home together in a home that's more unpredictable than ever. The moms leaning on every ounce of faith every minute of the day just to keep life moving. That's my "I don't know how you're doing it." We are NOT great measures of each other's worth. We are even worse measures of each other's faith. I don't know why it is, but when we try to measure either of those things by comparing ourselves to someone else, we always choose to compare ourselves to someone who is going to make us feel less than. There is a story in Luke that I love:_______Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”_______ That story has a lot of applications, but when I read it, I see a Jesus who knows when we are giving it all we have. Jesus looks straight into out hearts and knows how much of our heart is committed to serving him - and how much of our heart is pointed elsewhere. At the end of this day, when I crawl into bed and the room is dark and I consider my day, if any of that consideration is based on what someone else did today, well that's a wasted reflection. At the end of this day, when I crawl into bed and the room is dark and Jesus looks down on my day, he'll be asking how much did you give me today? He'll be looking down as I drift off and he'll gauge the direction of my heart. Jesus is interested in direction. Our direction. He doesn't care what direction our neighbor is going when he looks at us. He doesn't care if we run the whole way or use the Galloway method as we run toward him. He's only interested in knowing how much of all we have is directed toward him. Jesus knows every leap of faith looks different. He just wants them pointed in the same direction. It's hard to imagine a king saying those words: I've seen it all in this world and it's nothing but smoke and spitting into the wind. But at the end of his life, that's what one of the wisest men to live was wrestling with.
King Solomon had indeed seen it all and HAD it all. In his words, anything he'd wanted in life he simply went and took it. And yet, as he was old and life was slipping away, he began wondering - what good was any of it. Reading about King Solomon this morning - I have to look at my calendar. I have to look at my to-do list for the week. And I have to wonder, how much of it is smoke. How much of what I look to do this week will be spitting in the wind? I think it starts with the question, what do I want out of this week? The only way it's possible to answer that question is if I'm pretty clear about the answer to the question - what do I want out of my life? I think if we're not careful we can all get caught up in the Solomon life - chasing all that pleases us without stopping to ask if any of it adds value to who we want to be. Because in the end, I think it's going to matter far more who we are than what we have. Solomon spent a life chasing it all, getting it all, and then had a chance to take a look at it all. He concluded, this was all a waste of time. This is all smoke and spitting in the wind. In the end, he could take an accounting of all he had, but he had no idea who he was. What do I want? That is a powerful question. I think the more the answer is defined by "things" we can have here on this earth, things that have been proven over and over again to disappear without notice, the more likely it is we're going to get to the end of our life and feel exhausted from having hung out in smoke filled rooms and spitting into the wind. For Christians, we shouldn't have to think about that answer too long. What do I want? I want to be Christ-like. Some folks asked Jesus that once in a round about sort of way. What do you want out of life, Jesus? He said I want to love God with all of my heart and mind and soul and strength. And likewise, I want to love all of you like that as well. What do I want out of this week? Is it to be one dividend closer to retirement, or is it to be one relationship closer to loving everyone with all we have? At the end of the week, I think one of those answers will leave us feeling like we spent the week spitting into the wind. Solomon's biggest worry at the end of life was that someone was going to get all of the stuff he'd worked for all of his life. It ate at him to the point he couldn't sleep. Jesus, at the end of his life, a life perfectly devoted to loving other people, he said in his dying words to a thief next to him on a cross, today my friend you, and I are going to be hanging out in paradise. What do you want out of this week? 7/24/2020 0 Comments Catch them doing something rightI'm sure I've shared this before, but an early piece of advice I received when I was working with young people was "catch them doing something right." Anyone can point out their flaws, this person told me. That doesn't take anyone special. But catching them doing something right, well that is often something they've never experienced before. That is special.
It became sort of a game for me. I'd walk into the most troubled and rugged group of kids and I'd make it a mission to find something good about the roughest of them all - something everyone else was overlooking. That game changed me more than it ever changed any kid. It built an attitude in me that far outlasted that strategy as a way to help young people. The world looks different when you go through it determined to find something good in it that other people are missing. My friend Beth Royal may be one of the best at this that I've ever seen. She's constantly sharing stories about the good she discovers in her daily adventures. She lives with an unrelenting stubbornness that she is not going to miss a single chance to look upon beauty. Some days, I can hear God saying to me, "catch me doing something right." He says that not because he's looking for an "atta boy God" directed toward Him, but because he knows that's the perfect lens for me to look through to discover the best me. Because make no mistake, we are at our best when we are looking for goodness. Tons of surveys and research tell us our society is as unhappy as it's ever been. There are unprecedented levels of suicide and depression and addictions and just general unhappiness. There are unprecedented levels of people not finding the goodness in the land of the living. You know one thing I noticed when I started playing that game of catching them doing something right? I noticed the kids and other counselors started playing the game too. People want to be around someone who is determined to find the good in unexpected places. People want to BECOME someone who can find good in unexpected places. The key to the game is intention. What do I intend to find? We will all take this day on. How do I intend to approach it? Will I just take what comes without even thinking about how I'll approach it? Will I go through this day committed to finding every little thing that is out of place and not a good fit for this world? Or will I go out the door with the intent to find goodness? And when I feel myself being drawn away from that intention, will I hear God whisper "catch me doing something right?" What will you find right in the land of the living today? I'd love to hear it. 7/23/2020 0 Comments Fear is a liarMaybe you've heard the Zach Williams song Fear is a Liar.
Fear, he is a liar. He will take your breath. Stop you in your steps. Fear he is a liar. He will rob your rest. Steal your happiness. Cast your fear in the fire, 'Cause fear he is a liar. The sad thing is, many of us never discover that truth. We never discover the rest and happiness that's waiting for us on the other side of fear, because to get there - we have to take a step toward fear - and then through it. Too often the comfort we feel avoiding our fears seems worth not taking the risk of confronting them. My running journey has certainly helped me with that. Step by step I've knocked down fears and limitations I've placed on myself because of my size and age and everything non-runner about me. I've come to see every step I take in running as an all out war on fear. And I'm winning. Yesterday, I had a cup of coffee with a dear friend. Sadly, it's a friendship that got strained the last year. I strained it. I came to believe not so beautiful things about a beautiful person and I ran and hid in fear of making things right. Quite simply, I got my feelings hurt, and sometimes it's easier to sit with our hurt feelings than it is to tackle them. Thankfully, she battled through her own fears and reached out. You know, there we were in the Starbucks parking lot. She took a step toward me. I took a step toward her. We both took a step toward fear, and in an instant, at the same time, we both smiled. I think we both immediately recognized that fear is a liar. Interesting enough, we spent the next hour or so talking about these trying times. How there is so much for people to be afraid of, and how there is so much fear holding people back from finding the joy in life. Well I walked away from our conversation feeling joy. A whole lot of that joy was being reminded how much I missed my chats with my friend. And a whole lot of it was being reminded once again that fear is a liar. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and self-control. That was God singing Fear is a Liar before Zach Williams got around to it. That doesn't mean there aren't challenging times and situations in life. That's not God saying go live recklessly. Rather, that's God saying don't let challenges paralyze you. It's simply God saying we always have the power to wisely take a step into our fears, and to always love one another through them. That's God saying share that cup of coffee, don't hide from it. All through school I was awful at taking notes. The minute the teacher or professor started talking I was already checked out. Usually I was checked out and into the next thing I wanted to get into in life. And many times, that next thing wasn’t a great alternative to what I could have been taking note of there.
In his latest blog post, Seth Godin says: “Sometimes, we get the chance to hear about someone else’s experience. In those moments, it’s tempting to use the opportunity to explain a situation, to excuse or even to persuade. Perhaps it pays to simply take good notes.” I think there is a connection to my poor note taking skills and my tendency at one time to be too judgmental of people. I do confess, though I’ve come a long way with that, I still have my challenges. The reason I often refused to take notes, if I’m being honest, was because I refused to believe anyone had anything to teach me. The reason I was once too dismissive of other people is because I too often believed they should be far more concerned with hearing my approach to life than wasting my time telling me about theirs. Why would a guy who has life all figured out need to hear anyone else’s story? In my early twenties, I got convicted of drinking and driving. As part of my sentence, I had to spend a weekend at a residential treatment center. And as a further part of that weekend, I had to sit in some “group therapy” sessions. The first night of that experience, I was furious. Why would anyone make a “guy like me” sit in a group conversation with “people like them.” I remember that first night, there was a rugged looking man sitting next to me in the group. I’d noticed him earlier in the day standing outside the building chain smoking cigarettes. I thought to myself, man, does this guy need to be in this place. As we sat there in the group, I was sure the biggest part of my punishment was merely having to sit so close to a life so disgustingly in shambles. But that night, that man told the story of his life. Maybe for one of the first times in my life, I started taking notes. Not on paper, but my mind memorized every word he said. The man told stories about his life that were not unfamiliar to me. The stories of his youth. The stories of his struggles. The stories of his loneliness. When he was finished talking, I realized his was not the only life in shambles. As he talked, I could see not only where I had been in life, but where I was going. He looked over at me a couple of times as he talked, looked squarely at me, as if that were indeed his whole point in sharing his story. He seemed to be thinking - I hope you’re taking notes. I hope I see that man in heaven. There are some people you just want to thank for sharing their stories. You want them to become your eternal friend. There are some people you just want to grab and tell them over and over how often in your life you referred back to the notes you took on theirs. I think one of the endless joys in heaven will be how often we get to discover how our life in shambles made a beautiful impact on someone else. That weekend, I started a lot of journeys in life. I’m still on some of them today. One of them is when I see someone chain smoke outside of a building, I’m far more curious about the story of their life than I am inclined to judge it. I often picture Jesus sitting next to me in that group that weekend. He’s sitting next to me and thinking, you know, your life is in shambles buddy, but I have the best seat in this group. Oh how he has pulled that seat right up next to me many times since.... |
Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
November 2024
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