His Perfect Timing

The last couple weeks have been a bit stressful. Lots going on in the family, when isn't there. I was beginning to let it all get me down and yesterday when more was happening and I wasn't handling it the best, I heard the still small voice...all it said was James 1. I knew God was telling me to read the first chapter of James...I didn't get it read. In the midst of more drama today I heard the still small voice yet again, James 1. I came home from work, picked up, showered and then opened my Bible to James, chapter one and read the most perfect words from our most perfect God who has the most perfect timing:

1I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello! Faith Under Pressure
2-4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

5-8If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

9-11When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don't ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that's a picture of the "prosperous life." At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

12Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

13-15Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

16-18So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

Act on What You Hear
19-21Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
22-24Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

25But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

26-27Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

What's That Smell?

As I was cleaning one of my clients homes today I noticed the numerous air fresheners throughout the house and I had a thought, then it turned into a revelation for me. I've seen these air fresheners in her home before, plug-ins, pop-ups, auto-sprayers, cans of freshener, scented candles and carpet deodorizers but didn't give it much thought. After all she has 2 dogs, a cat, she works 80 hours a week and doesn't have time to do deep cleaning and if she does have time that's the last thing she wants to do. That's where I come in, I get to do that for her. Let's face it, if you don't stay right on top of keeping a cat box clean, it stinks. Dogs can also add their own brand of smells. To help with this issue, in between cleanings, she uses approximately 6 different kinds of air fresheners. They are all nice scents but you can still smell the underlying odors that she is trying to cover up. I have to be honest here and I am sorry to say that my first thought was, why not just clean it? Why just try to cover it up? Now I know why, she's BUSY, that's why. Once I got past the obvious, it hit me. It's kind of like our lives. We all have "odors" in our lives. Things we are working on or should be working on but for one reason or another we aren't. Reasons like, I don't have time, it's just to hard, or we are just being lazy. So we "try" to cover them up. It may seem like we succeed but eventually the "odor" resurfaces and we have no choice but to face the stench once again. All this to say, am I covering up my problems, issues, deficiencies (whatever you want to call them) or am I cleaning them up. I think I have some work to do.

Queen of Hives

They have stuck once again! Just before midnight I was woke by the familiar and very discomforting itching on my arms. It quickly spread to my legs. The hives were back! I haven't had hives that bad in a long time. I am not sure exactly what causes these things but I think these were brought on by the new hair products I am using, at least I hope that's it. That's easy enough to fix. If it isn't I hope I am not in for another year stretch of nightly hives.

I Knew Better

I typically do not watch rated R movies, PG-13 is usually my max rating. I went to see the Watchmen today. My guys wanted to see it and I thought it's probably R for the violence, thinking of the usual standard of comic book movies. Oh my goodness should I have checked this out more, totally "my bad" and I hate that phrase. It was long, boring, when something did happen it was horribly GROSS or sexual. I closed my eyes and covered my ears for numerous scenes. Whoever wrote, produced and directed this is obviously obsessed with violence and sex. They did use God's name a lot just not in a positive way, if you know what I mean. For a movie that used His name so much you think maybe, just maybe, you could have seen Him in it somewhere...but nope. In the very confusing beginning of the movie they have several famous scenes that they twist and if you aren't paying attention you miss it. The famous picture of the sailor kissing the girl...they have the girl, the sailor approaching, another girl steps in and she kisses the girl. Pretty much right after that they show a scene of these "watchmen" sitting at a table pictured like the picture of "The Last Supper". The one standing in the middle, like Jesus, was a pregnant woman. This was all in the first 5-7 minutes, I had the notion then that this was not going to be very good, I didn't listen to my gut, oh how I know better. I made it almost 2 hours into it and just couldn't take it anymore, I had to leave. I could care less how it ended and found that it took a good 2 hours to shake off such a horrible movie. I just know that I will never get those two hours of my life back and those images are now implanted in my head. Oh how I know better.

Tough Times Hitting Home

In the last 5 days I have heard of 3 people in close proximity to me who have been laid off or are out of work completely. My Evan was laid off on Friday. He is a helper in the Union for Plumbing and Pipe Fitting. They have apprentices who are "sitting on the bench" who they have to work before he can. A good friend of ours has also been laid off. They may choose to keep her on but at a 20% pay cut, good news for a single mom, huh. The third is another friend of ours whose sister is most likely losing her job and will be moving in with him. These in addition to the news this morning that Monaco Coach has laid off another 2,000 workers. I do wonder how much worse it is going to get before things get better. I read a news story this past week that there are 9,000 foreclosures being filed a day. That number still floors me. That's not just foreclosures to me that is 9,000 families a day who are going to have no place to live. It's all just heartbreaking.