Smoking Turds

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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    My poet-biker buddies like to say, "Life is too short to smoke turds."

    So as long as we have the freedom to be who God designed us to be which never inhibits others from being who God designed them to be because God is not double-minded like us, we're obsessed with driving what we want to drive, eating what we want to eat, wearing what we want to wear, inking if we want to ink, and exercising our Constitutional rights punctuated by its amendments.

    Confessionally more than parenthetically, I'll always be an iron pony and truck guy, never eat stewed tomatoes because they look like blood clots, resist the kinds of church clothes and clergy egotisms mocked by Jesus in Matthew 23, wear tats around my neck than on my skin because I'm a weenie, and die for America's Constitution inspired by Christocentrically Biblical principles.

    Which brings Ken Burns, Colin Kaepernick, the Steelers, and...to mind.

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    Until PBS teamed with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on The Vietnam War with great musical backgrounds and undertones choreographed by Nine Inch Nails and others, I'd almost forgotten why I liked JFK so much yet loathed LBJ and RMN. 

    JFK had fresh idealism like President Obama accentuated by Matthew 10:16 common sense and oratory eloquence cradling as well as communicating substance. 

    LBJ and RMN were dirty rotten scoundrels who lied in secret, on tape, and wherever two or three are not gathered in His name.  They sacrificed nearly 60K Americans and millions of VC and their country's citizens at the altar of personal pride and ambition.  I cannot imagine how they will explain Matthew 25 to Jesus.

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    Until Colin Kaepernick and his comrades like the Steelers decided to disrespect what our flag represents - mostly out of ignorance not intellect like sheep not being led to salvation - I'd almost forgotten that professional sports are legal narcotics that mean nothing in the end while providing a temporal escape from life's meanness, madness, misery, and miscreance in the meantime.

    I've always applauded sports as a way for people to come together and overcome their color, class, and cultural discriminations, segregations, and degradations as they cheered and celebrated common identity as fans.

    While there's not much that I can add to the cacophony of comments about their behaviors on the sidelines of America's teams and values, there may be one word to describe responses to these overpaid-for-playing-kids'-games-spoiled-and-entitled-anti-American-heroes who have trashed and maybe destroyed the one place where all Americans found unity amid diversity and increasingly hostile partisanships.

    Idolatry.

    We've always idolized our professional athletes; and we've looked the other way so often at their immature and often criminal behaviors.

    Yes, most professional athletes are not better or worse than vous or moi; but there are too many of 'em who have proven to be money-grubbing-women-groping-dope-smoking miscreants who would be abhorred if not so adored by their idolatrous fans.

    Idolatry is taking away the attention, affection and allegiance due God alone and giving it to someone or something else; which explains people wearing more team jerseys than crosses and spending more time, energy, and cash on their idols than God.

    Idolatry causes us to look the other way even when our idols ignore, defy, or labor to undermine and destroy principles, values, and matters eternally as well as existentially more important than...games.

    Idolatry causes us to rationalize the lies and sins of LBJ, RMN, CK, the Steelers, denominations, Democrats, Republicans, reflections in all mirrors, and...

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    What's next?

    I don't know.

    Frankly, there are many more important things going on around the globe and country than...children's games being played by adults who really think they're some kinda warriors who deserve to be paid more than people who are doing a heaven of a lot more for people than entertaining and anesthetizing from what's real, crucial, needed, and...Christlike.

    So now that the idolatry has been exposed, maybe there will be a shift of attention, affection, and allegiance along with time, energy, and cash from them to...

    We'll see.

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    If you get it/Him, don't hold your breath.

    If you don't, better hope He does.

    As for me, I've got to deal with my first reaction to the events of last Sunday and since: "Well, at least the Yankees and Cubs weren't involved."

    Hmm.

    Idolatry is insidious.

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Blessings and Love!

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Shatter the sound of silence!

Wake up!  Look up!  Stand up!  Speak up!  Act up for Jesus!

Salt!  Shine!  Leavenate!

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Why Jesus Likes SSL

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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"How wonderful and beautiful when people get along and live together!"

Psalm 133

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"God doesn't show partiality to anyone because God doesn't have favorites...Words

like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider,

uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing.  From now on,

everyone is defined by Christ and everyone is included in Christ."

Paul

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"God loves the world."

Jesus

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    Having developed academic proficiency in Latin, German, and French while picking up some parchments in America and Europe, I said to the seminary's academic dean, "I think Spanish will be a lot more helpful to me in ministry than Hebrew.  I can understand the need to take Greek because it's more complicated than Hebrew and I'll really need it.  So I'd like to take Spanish instead of Hebrew because I think it will be more useful when I'm a pastor."

    The dean smiled and said, "Mr. Kopp, I appreciate your prophecy; and you can take Spanish...in addition to Greek...and Hebrew."

    Over four decades later, I still use Greek, forget most of what I didn't learn in Hebrew, and wish I would have taken some Spanish lessons.

    Aside from feeling more than a little embarrassed when encountering a 2nd grade Hispanic who can speak English as fluently as Spanish and reminding me that I'm not as "educated" as my many worthless degrees presume along with missing many opportunities to bridge relationships, I've come to admit America is a bilingual nation and being pig-headed and refusing to learn the other language - It goes both ways! - inhibits communication enabling cohesion.

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    Parenthetically, I'm reminded of two conversations.

    John Robertson, pastor of Belvidere, New Jersey's First Presbyterian Church and my field education supervisor while I was the student pastor aka temporary supply of the neighboring Delaware Presbyterian Church, said not long after we met, "I hope ___ doesn't ruin you by separating you from God and His people by degrees."

    Then there was Jim Stobaugh, my assistant when I was pastor of Clark, New Jersey's Osceola Presbyterian Church, who was asked by someone interviewing me for a "big" church in Kansas City, "How do you think Dr. Kopp will do in our Country Club District?"  Not knowing the Country Club District was just a part of the town and not primarily indicative of its attitude, he snapped, "Well, he went to ___; so I guess he can be about as snobby as anybody else!"

    Come to think of it, it's kinda snobby not to humble ourselves before others and not try to do more to "get along and live together."

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    Fast-tracking to September 15, 2017, I had a dream sometime after midnight about the need for me and others like me to start learning Spanish.

    It had to have been prompted by a meeting of the local Salvation Army Advisory Board on September 14.

    I've been on the board for over eleven years; and it's been a privilege to serve with so many authentically Christian women and men.

    Captains Martha and Tomas Valladares have epitomized the best of clergy who get it/Him; especially when it comes to meeting the existential needs of people while taking every opportunity to talk about eternal security by grace through faith in Jesus.

    Anyway, I've always been salted by their ESL classes (English as a second language) for Hispanics; wondering why none of our cracker churches in town offer SSL classes (Spanish as a second language).

    Yes, I know there are those who...you know what.

    I'd rather not talk about that because it shows the worst side of...you know who.

    Besides, Jesus wants people to humble themselves before others as before Him according to the red letters and apostolic confirmations; and I'm tired of debating with bigots.

    As MLK, Jr. often said, especially on the night before going home to Jesus, "I just want to do God's will."

    Getting to the point before I really go off homiletically, it/He hit me!

    We need to offer a SSL class in our family of faith on the corner of Lincoln and Main to prove we're really inviting, welcoming, including, and agapeing.

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    So I sent out an e-mail on September 17 to get it going: "Friends, as our brown population expands and we seek to model Someone better on the corner of Lincoln and Main to invite, welcome, include, and agape, I have a vision for a SSL (Spanish as a second language) opportunity at First."

    I outlined some suggestions for when we could do it and described it as a "conversational-not-grammar-police-oriented" opportunity "to be led by someone who will be patient as well as committed to a long-term-low-key class to increase positive communication in our community and county."

    I said we'd begin as soon as someone is found who can do it so we can do it.

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    As with all of my visions, some are inspired while others are indigested.

    Gamaliel comes to mind; and if I can be shown the error of this vision by Jesus, Holy Scripture, and common sense, I'll go back to the bigotry of thinking English only now and forever.

    I guess if some churches can still live in the 16th century and pray in Elizabethan English, why not not?

    Yet, the closer that I get to Jesus, the closer that I want to get to all of His children.

    Forgive me for being so syrupy sentimental on this; but I think Edward Estlin Cummings aka e. e. cummings got it right or, rather, got it from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: "I am blue,  You are yellow.  Together we make green.  And green is my favorite color."

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    God loves unity.

    Anybody who doesn't know that is Biblically illiterate as well as humanly discriminating, segregating, demeaning, and degrading.

    God doesn't favor one people over another people.

    Anybody who doesn't know that is Biblically illiterate as well as humanly discriminating, segregating, demeaning, and degrading.

    God loves the world.

    Anybody who doesn't know that is Biblically illiterate as well as humanly discriminating, segregating, demeaning, and degrading.

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    Jesus wasn't a pride-filled, discriminating, segregating, demeaning, and degrading bigot.

    Again, He said God loves the world -  you, me, and all of the below.

    He came to save it/us/everyone.

    So if Jesus loves 'em and we love Jesus, we know what that means.

    Let's spell it out.

    It means we will do all that we can to nurture that love; including learning how to speak their language as they learn how to speak our language so we can "get along and live together."

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    God knows nobody gets along and lives together without...communicating.

    Think about it.

    Holy communion.

    Get it/Him?

    When we learn how to say that/Him in every language, then it will be on earth as it is in heaven.

    That is how He taught us to pray.

    That's why Jesus likes...

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Blessings and Love!

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Shatter the sound of silence!

Wake up!  Look up!  Stand up!  Speak up!  Act up for Jesus!

Salt!  Shine!  Leavenate!

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The Mercy Papers - 6

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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Reclaim the Bow

Discovering Original Mercy

COPYRIGHT RESERVED, 2017

The Mercy Papers (6)

            It’s not natural to love through grace and mercy.

            Nothing has changed since the garden.

            It’s natural to be selfish, self-righteous, discriminating, segregating, and degrading.

            We are the Adamsons at natural birth.

            There hasn’t been anything original about sin since the genesis of humanity.

            That’s why Jesus insisted rebirth/regeneration is the only way to know Him and prove that relationship by loving like Him with grace and mercy to love Him.

            That’s why talk of renewal is so often intellectually dishonest as well as spiritually impossible; for no one can be renewed unless newed previously.

            Naturally, it is impossible for us to love Him by loving like Him with grace and mercy.

            It’s not in our natural make-up/DNA/genes.

            We must, as He insisted, be born anothen (again from above) to replace naturally miscreant instincts with supernatural love through grace and mercy.

            Evidence/proof/fruit of intimacy/closeness with Jesus, as Paul listed, are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, humility, and self-control.

            Those Jesus-honoring traits are not naturally in/through us but rather result from an intimate/close relationship with Him – a supernatural by-product/result of intimacy/closeness with Him.

            Succinctly, loving Jesus by loving like Jesus with grace and mercy is only possible after the supernatural supersedes the natural by being born anothen in/through then for Him.

            Supernaturally being born anothen supersedes the miscreant instincts of natural birth as Jesus fills our heads, hearts, and guts and pushes out the original sin in favor of original love through grace and mercy; causing the rebirthed/regenerated to exclaim with Paul, “It is no longer I who live but Jesus who lives in/through me.”

            In other words, the desire to be more like Jesus becomes incarnate as our natural birth with its original sin yields to our supernatural rebirth/regeneration with His original love through grace and mercy.

            How can people move from their natural to His supernatural selves?

            It begins with a simple request, “Jesus, please come into my life as my Lord and Savior.”

            If the request is authentic, the results begin immediately by rebirthed/regenerated confession, conduct, and countenance.

            The sanctifying or process of increased intimacy/closeness with Jesus accelerates as we exercise spiritual disciplines beginning in worship; recalling David’s assurance, “God inhabits the praises of His people.”

            Worship is praising and thanking God for who He is and what He has done for us and our salvation by grace through faith in Jesus with attention to increasing fidelity according to the example of Jesus as explained in Holy Scripture and conscious dependence upon Him here and now and forever.

            Worship – the only indispensable discipline of Jesus-followers and best way to love Him and kindle love for Him by loving like Him - is complemented by continuing education founded upon and filtered through the Bible, meditative retreats, frequent trips to the table of Holy Communion, intercession, fasting, fellowship with believers, mission, personal/corporate stewardship, and all activities intended to honor Him as Lord and Savior.

            Simply, Jesus dominates the thoughts, words, and actions of those who claim Him as Lord and Savior; or as Paul put it, “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

            Christians pray and labor to say things that Jesus would say and do things that Jesus would do; so that, again, Paul’s joy becomes ours: “It is no longer I who live but Jesus who lives in/through me.”

            As intimacy with Him broadens and deepens, that desire/prayer for expressing love for Him through grace and mercy becomes increasingly passionate; or as Brother Lawrence described in The Practice of the Presence of God, it is possible to focus our desires and passions on God so much that He permeates all thoughts, words, and actions: “We should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s presence by continually conversing with Him…All bodily mortifications and other exercises are useless, except as they serve to arrive at the union with God by love…Our sanctification does not depend upon changing our works, but in doing them for God’s sake which we commonly do for our own…Do your common business without any view of pleasing men, and purely for the love of God…Times of any business or any work do not differ from the time of prayer…”

            A saint once said, “Nothing can happen through you that has not first happened to you.”

            Unless the natural is superseded by the supernatural by being born anothen, we enable the world’s meanness, madness, misery, and miscreance. 

            When the natural is superseded by the supernatural with evidence/proof/fruit of being born anothen, the bow is reclaimed and original mercy has been discovered and extended with lavish inclusion.

Evolutionary Update

               TMP (6) contributors are B&B.

               Praising and thanking God for the initial gift to get moving with merchandise to attract inquiry of $200, we need at least 5K to begin production and related costs of the movement.

               Please pray with us for the release of support; and send your tax-deductible gifts to The Grove (4210 Countryside Estates, Poplar Grove, Illinois 61065) or First Presbyterian Church (221 N. Main Street, Belvidere, Illinois 61008) and write “Reclaim the Bow” in the memo.

               We encourage you to forward, duplicate, and disseminate TMPs.

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Blessings and Love!

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Shatter the sound of silence!

Wake up!  Look up!  Stand up!  Speak up!  Act up for Jesus!

Salt!  Shine!  Leavenate!

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Traveling with Bikers and...

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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Traveling with Knowledge and Wisdom

(Proverbs 3:21-26)

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“We get disturbed because we have not been considering Him…The

only impression left by a Christian is that of the strong calm sanity

that our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him…When the

crisis arises, you realize that things cannot touch you as before.”

Oswald Chambers

(excerpts from My Utmost for His Highest)

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          Just like I Just Wanna Ride that you can still buy via www.amazon.com with no royalties headed my way and trailing anything written by the toothy guy in Texas by about a trillion to one in among the

most humiliating realities of my life and ministry, this inspiration or indigestion according to your indiscretion from the road avec my biker buddies is a metaphor for matters much more important than, for example, wondering if Taylor Swift and Katy Perry will ever patch things up.

          If you think that paragraph was cumbersome and complicated, just wait until…

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August 26 – September 3, 2017

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          Thinking of Ghostrider and missing Wingman with an always open invitation to Deadeye and other authentics, Audio, BC, Packman, Pastor Paul aka Digger, Judge, and Daktari aka Sheepdog – road names for Rainmakers MC that is a notch above Wild Hogs and thusly named because it always rains when we ride except this time – rode 3007 miles through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and New York on the cited date above.

          Highlights included life’s best and worst day for everybody as Daktari/Sheepdog hosted a pizza party at Serpico’s in Wilkes-Barre to prove what he’s boasted foruhever, the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania, Green Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, Niagara Falls where no one held hands for a group photo, Maine’s Cadillac Mountain, close-ups of the Zumwalt Destroyer Series at BIW, and Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame despite Mountain missing and Tupac Shakur polluting the culture.

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          After the first day’s hard ride of nearly 700 miles, the breakfast table at the inn was transformed into His table for worship avec sacrament.

          Noticing some folks listening in to an abbreviated exposition of Proverbs 3:21-26, Daktari/Sheepdog asked, “Hey, do you guys love Jesus?”  They said they did and joined Rainmakers MC for worship; reminding everyone that God doesn’t like denominations and other clubby Christians who discriminate, segregate, degradate, quarrel, and divide over everyone and everything for Christ’s sake.

          Catch the pointed sarcasm?

          Though sermonettes most often produce Christianettes – like people who devote three minutes or less to Our Daily Bread expecting increased intimacy with God because it’s better than nothing while forgetting it’s next to nothing - the little homily on Proverbs 3:21-26 provided counsel for the trek and a metaphor for traveling through life.

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          While there’s a lot of thematic/theological/spiritual overlapping in these verses that inhibit a neat outline, Solomon tells us about the knowledge and wisdom that will help us to survive even thrive when we travel through life.

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          Parenthetically, I really like Peterson’s paraphrased translation of this text in The Message.

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God through Solomon: “Dear friend, guard clear thinking and common sense with your life; don’t for a minute lose sight of them.”

          When “clear thinking” or knowledge (education and experience) is coupled with “common sense” or wisdom (enlightenment produced by intimacy with God), safety, serenity, and security are enhanced.

          You’ve heard/read it before: “Know God.  Know peace.  No God.  No peace.”

          Solomon lists the results of coupling knowledge and wisdom while traveling: “They’ll keep your soul alive and well, they’ll keep you fit and attractive.  You’ll travel safely, you’ll neither tire nor trip.  You’ll take afternoon naps without a worry, you’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep.”

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          Echoing his daddy David who often wrote/spoke/sang about intimacy with God enabling us to overcome the meanness, madness, misery, and miscreance that inevitably challenge everyone – recalling how Jesus said it rains on everyone and how bikers echo the desert fathers who spoke about life as being in a challenge and coming out of a challenge before moving into the next challenge ad nauseam by saying we’re either in rain or coming out of rain before going back into rain – Solomon says there is “No need to panic over alarms or surprises or predictions that doomsday’s around the corner, because God will be right there with you; He’ll keep you safe and sound.”

          No matter what rude road being traveled with so many bumps and potholes and careless/reckless cagers on cell phones and mugs doing make-up in their mirrors, God will deliver or safe us sooner or later and usually sooner than later and definitely in the end.

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          I’ve always liked the story about the little boy on a ship during a horrific storm.

          He was sitting calmly on a deckchair.

          Another frantic passenger asked, “How can you be so cool and calm during such an awfully life-threatening storm?”

          The boy answered, “My father is the captain of this ship.”

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          I think of Bert Atwood who often urged mush-brained seminarians like me, “Trust Jesus and, in everything else, hang loose!”

          He got it from Jesus who said, “I am with you always.”

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          Traveling with my biker buddies around the nation has taught many lessons; like the ones that you haven’t read in I Just Wanna Ride.

          Actually, here’s what I’ve learned in a sentence.

          Traveling is often treacherous but everyone can make it home safely sooner or later and usually sooner than later and definitely in the end by staying close to Jesus.

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          Now read Proverbs 3:21-26 again.

          Add Matthew 7:24-29.

          Or as we sum up every Sunday at the beginning of worship on the corner of Lincoln and Main to remind ourselves why we worship: “Before you were born, God knew you.  Then God made you.  He knit you together in your mother’s womb.  God loves you very much.  So He sent His Son Jesus to save you.  And now God wants you to be His.  Let us worship God!”

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Blessings and Love!

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Shatter the sound of silence!

Wake up!  Look up!  Stand up!  Speak up!  Act up for Jesus!

Salt!  Shine!  Leavenate!

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More on Retirement

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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    My friend Bob Andrews has something to say about retired pastors.

    Scroll down...

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I think I should send this to Presbyterians Today ---

From the Monthly Diary of a Retired Pastor

Monday – ate two boxes of Ring Dings

Tuesday – watched South Park

Wednesday – ate a bag of potato chips

Thursday – washed the dishes, twice

Friday – watched a rerun of Joel Osteen and corrected his sermon delivery

Saturday – folded the laundry

Sunday – woke early, gathered up our daughter’s old stuffed animals, and put them on the table.  They enjoyed the sermon I preached to them.

Monday – waited by the phone in case someone phoned

Tuesday – looked out the window for the UPS delivery

Wednesday – a good day:  I put pants on

Thursday – refiled my old sermons

Friday – rearranged the cloth napkin drawer

Saturday – rearranged my copies of Bible commentaries

Sunday – took pleasure in turning the TV off when Joel Osteen began to preach but felt sorry afterwards

Monday – counted the shopping bags in the pantry

Tuesday – googled the satellite image of my church

Wednesday – ate another box of Ring Dings

Thursday – sorted the spice cabinet and removed those past date

Friday – dusted the light bulbs

Saturday – decided to change my underwear

Sunday – counted the cars driving past my house in the morning

Monday – waited by the phone hoping for a call about problems with my computer

Tuesday – made sure all the toilet paper hung down from the front

Wednesday – watched to make sure the kids didn’t walk on my lawn on their way to school

Thursday – ate 12 doughnuts to soak up the bottle of bourbon

Friday – replaced all the batteries in the remote controls

Saturday – watched my wife pack her bags and leave

Sunday – brought the stuffed animals into the kitchen and baptized Kermit the Frog

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Scratching the Surface

of

Retirement

(A Brief and Incomplete Guide to Considering Retirement)

Should you retire?

Maybe.

As you pray, reflect, and consult about it, you may want to factor some things into your decision.

Biblical Principles of Work/Vocation/Call

There are no explicit guidelines for retirement in the Bible.

I don’t know why for sure.

However, I can speculate.

Retirement is a recent luxury of wealthy civilizations: work hard, save up, quit/retire, and then, uh, do whatever you’d rather do because you don’t really like what you’re doing or aren’t able to do it anymore.

If a person is doing what God has called her or him to do and remains able regardless of age, she or he is happy doing what God has called her or him to do and retirement is not on the radar.

Really, if you’re doing a good job and like doing it and don’t have anything better to do by God’s providence and gifting, why in the name of anything but heaven would you quit/retire?

Assuming God breathed knowledge and wisdom into Paul, he said, “To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

Succinctly, our work/vocation/call honors God by helping people; or as Jesus emphasized, “As you do it for them, you do it for Me.”

Paul also wrote, “We each have different work to do.  We belong to each other; and each needs all of the others.” 

It’s axiomatic: the whole is equal to the sum of its parts.  God has made us dependent upon Him; and that dependence upon Him is reflected in our interdependence upon each other by His design and gifting.

When It’s Time to Quit/Retire

Admittedly, some people who can’t stand/stomach their jobs can’t quit/retire because they can’t afford to quit/retire.

Bills have to be paid; and lottery tickets or trusting governments to take care of our needs are not good retirement plans.

If you don’t like what you are doing and have saved up enough to cover future costs of living so that you really don’t have to do it and dread showing up to do it and are consistently cranky, contentious, contemptuous, counter-productive, and complaining about what you are doing, then don’t do it anymore!  Quit!  Retire!  You will be happier along with the people who are the targets of your transference.

If you don’t have to do what you’re doing, quit, retire, and sing, “Take this job and shove it!  I ain’t workin’ here no more!”

Life is short.

If you don’t like what you’re doing and don’t have to do it to survive, quit/retire!

Life is short.

If you like what you’re doing and can still do it and don’t have anything better in mind, why quit/retire? 

Quitting/retiring makes no sense if you don’t have something to do that you’re called to do and want to do for God’s sake.

People who quit/retire with nothing better to do usually end up listless, lifeless, aimless, and miserable; singing with John Cougar, “Oh yeah, life goes on long after the thrill of livin’ is gone.”

That’s why Mark Twain quipped, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

If you know who and what God has called you to be and do and never quit/retire from it, you will be happy, strong, calm, peace-filled/overflowing, and joyful until your last breath.

When I was in 8^th grade, a high school senior wrote this in my yearbook: “May you live as long as you want to and want to as long as you live.”

Quit/retire from doing what you don’t want to do if you’ve saved up enough to quit/retire.

If you like what you’re doing and can still do it, then don’t quit/retire for God’s sake.

If you’re still whistling not whining while you work, don’t quit/retire!

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Blessings and Love!

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Shatter the sound of silence!

Wake up!  Look up!  Stand up!  Speak up!  Act up for Jesus!

Salt!  Shine!  Leavenate!

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