Safety

The conversation still rings in my ear... "Pastor Bobby, I'm just looking for someplace safe, you know?" Wow... safe!
One of the purposes of the New Testament church was to be a place where the love and peace of God reigned. You were to be able to take a breath when in the presence of God and like-minded individuals. However, I'm not real sure the NT church was a "safe" place. They were told to deny themselves and take up a cross. They were to leave father and mother to follow God. They were sent out as prey and even bait, because there was a lion lurking and they were sheep sent to the middle of the wolf pack. The battle raged so viciously that they were warned to not go without armor and a weapon. I could go on, but you get the picture.
The safe place of God's hand is there, but the world (including the church world) is anything but safe. You see, people are imperfect, and will act imperfectly. The place where the like-minded study together is great until one shows up who is not like-minded and doesn't know to study. In a hospital, there are not only the learned and the healers, but there are also the sick. Actually, without the sick, there is no need for a hospital. Such is the church.
Without the sinner, there is no need for the church; but the sinner makes it all "unsafe." This is the battle.
So, safety cannot be defined as all being perfect and pristine. In fact, safety means nothing without the potential of danger. We must be willing to put ourselves out as the vulnerable in order to rescue another from destruction. The safety will never be from offense or hurt, but can be found in the knowledge that God is sovereign. The safety comes not from knowing God will, but knowing God can and that He will only act in your best interest and His divine will.

Scenarios

My son Jonathan deals in scenarios. He is constantly working our potential situations in his head and then processing how he would deal with the issue. This actually moves him to a state of worry at time, but he does it anyway. His latest, heard both by Holly a few days ago and me in the car yesterday goes as follows:

Dad, I really can't catch the ball, but I am going to play football anyway. Dad, if I have a loose tooth I won't play football that day. If I have a loose tooth someone might hit me (then he makes football hitting sounds) and then...

How many times do we work something up in our mind and then fret about it? I would say alot. I can't tell you the number of conversations I have had with others when they were not there. It's easy to put words in their mouth and then think of my response. There is a great piece of advice in an ancient text, "Don't worry about tomorrow..." We need to learn to just let things happen.

Oh my word!

I wrote just a few moments ago about sickness, but I just experienced a moment that made me stop and reflect. Holly and I are sitting in the living room and TLC is on the tube. On TLC... What Not To Wear! Now, I have sat through this show long enough for a few things to happen. Originally there was another man (I use that term loosely) host to go with the woman. He got canned, and a new guy has been around awhile. Secondly, we want to make good on our idea to put Holly in sweat pants and messed up hair then send in a pic so we can get the $5000 of new clothes for her. If you haven't seen the show, it's about fashion and stuff. Here is the moment...
I looked up from my laptop and said, "You know, those colors in that dress would make her look odd with her hair color." The question is... am I still a guy? Not a very good one at the moment I can tell you. I feel so bad about those words coming out of my mouth that I am blogging about it to get it out and then go look at a football website. It's all I got while overcoming the flu.

Unclean

It seems my family has leprosy. While I'm not exactly sure if that disease is spelled correctly, we have been passing around various versions of sickening agents. I have had the flu, my boys are sick and then not in degrees, and Holly is not feeling well. Actually, the past month or so (since Thanksgiving) someone has been sick around our home. Thus, the leprosy.
We are simply sick and tired of being well, you know... I am just taking this moment as a break from the final stomach thing to blog this thing. I will keep up to date, even if I only have the latest throw-up story to tell.
Oh yeah, our youngest son threw up on me today.