MuddyPuddles

You know what’s worth a thousand words, don’t you?  Of course you do---a picture; and yet I remember in college when I showed a friend my high school yearbook that he thought some not very attractive people were beautiful and that some very beautiful people were not so attractive.  So maybe those pictures gave off the wrong set of words.   

I think there are two things at work here.  One, some really ugly (physically and otherwise) people can look pretty good in a snapshot.  (I’ve known a few people that I would have liked to turn into snapshots.)  But if you know them in real life you can see behind the pretty smile and the pretty dress and they don’t look so good in reality.  Other people have such a beautiful spirit that all you can see is beauty in them and you are truly blinded to their asymmetrical face and body.  Or you see beauty in someone’s confidence or leadership or humility or grace or humor or thoughtfulness, though it wouldn’t show up in a lot of their pictures.

The good news is that in spite of what we may look like (and believe me when I say I’ve seen what a few of you look like), the beauty that others may see in us is in a large part within our control.  We can choose to be thoughtful and loving and non-controlling and kind.  We can proceed with confidence that we can be what God wants us to be and we can radiate the image of Christ in our lives.  Like the song says, “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”

In looking at pictures of my dad from his childhood I’ve wondered what he was really like.  I’ve always known that he was a very talented and confident man.  I knew he was a good athlete and was handsome.  But until the past couple of weeks I wasn’t sure if, as a nice-looking high school athlete, he was cocky or arrogant or stuck up or mean, as some with those earlier characteristics have a tendency to be.  And to my great relief I found from several that knew him back then that he was confident but humble.  He was gifted but kind.  He was respected and admired by everyone.  He never met a stranger.  And that warms my heart.

Without realizing it, by growing up in the manner he did, he was giving a gift to his children that they wouldn’t receive until more than sixty years later.  Though each of us may have no control over our past, we can, from this point on make a difference in the kind lives we lead and thus in the kind of gift we eventually give our children.  We can live such Godly, loving, encouraging lives that our children will treasure that gift long after we are gone.  It will be like placing the right snapshot of the right person in the right place to lead them on.  God Bless you and me as we strive to be that kind of person for all the right reasons.  Dennis 

When Bonnie and I first got married we lived in Abilene in a mobile home.  We rented the lot space in a little one lane mobile home park off of

So much of life is about perspective.  What makes perfect sense to one person makes no sense at all to another---until you hear their explanation.  Then, even if you don’t agree with their perspective, you can at least understand where they are coming from.  God Bless you this week as you seek to understand other people’s perspective.  (And don’t forget to comment on my last post “Can’t we all just get along?”.  It’s very important.)  Thanks, Dennis   

I just recently spent one of the most luxurious evenings of my life in one of the most luxurious hotels in the world.  The Ashford Castle Hotel, located in west central Ireland, was an actual castle that was first built around 1260 A.D., (about 200 years before Columbus was born).  Several times since then, it has been conquered and extended and bought and sold.  It was first made into a hotel in 1939 and has been upgraded several times since then---most recently in 1998. 

It has entertained such guests as President Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope, Pierce Brosnan, Mel Gibson, Barbara Streisand, Lee Trevino, Brad Pitt, John Travolta and many other famous people whose names you would recognize.  Part of the movie “The Quiet Man” with John Wayne was filmed there.  It is rated one of the top 500 small hotels in the world.  It is the lap of luxury.

One evening we sat in one of the several casual, but luxurious, dining and lounge areas and listened to a musician play the piano, sing and play the guitar as well as give general conversational entertainment.  As I took it all in and actively and attentively enjoyed my surroundings and environment I could not help but be struck by the irony about where I was less than six weeks ago. 

My wife and I spent a week down in Honduras amid some of the most poverty stricken areas in the Americas.  We were there with a small group to check on a missionary and his work as well as checking on some past activities and planning for future ones. 

From being near hunger and filth and disease on the one hand to being in luxurious, spotless surroundings on the other has an incredible impact on one’s perspective.  If you stop and think about it, the difference in living in one extreme or the other is a few pieces of paper that we call money. 

If you have those papers in a sufficient amount you can live in a very nice place with people waiting on you hand and foot.  They will bring you just about any kind of food you would like and entertain you in just about any way you would prefer.  It can even make you feel like you are special, because you have those pieces of paper.

Without those pieces of paper, life and living is hard.  You may live on the street and you may have to dig through garbage to find your food.  Very few people care what you want.  Most would rather not think about you or your plight.  You are often seen as garbage, and you could easily see yourself that way as well. 

If you allow it to, it really gives you pause.  If you strip away all of those outward layers and just look at yourself through unfiltered lenses you are just a person.  You are no more inherently deserving than any other person on earth to have wealth or poverty or any of the other extremes.  There is no need to feel superior or inferior because you are not.  You are just a person that has a soul for whom God sent his son to die. 

So, if you are honest, you can and should treat everyone as an equal in God’s eyes.  The truth is that we all deserve to die, but because of God’s grace and his free gift and his son’s willingness to go to the cross for us we have value.  It’s not dependent on how many of those pieces of paper we accumulate.  It’s not dependent on how smart we are or handsome or beautiful.  It’s not dependent on our heritage or nationality or language or race.  It’s dependent on God and his love for us that was so great that he was willing to sacrifice his one and only son so that whosoever should believe on him should not perish but have eternal life. 

I hope I never look at another person the same way again.  I hope I can see beauty in every person.  I hope I can treat every person with respect and kindness.  Thank you God for blessing me in spite of myself.  Thank you God.