Walking With Hershey

An Arkie's Faith column from the May 31, 2017, issue of The Mena Star.

While friends of ours traveled out of state to attend a wedding, we took care of their dog. Hershey is a beautiful chocolate lab. His sleek coat and strong muscular body make him a very handsome dog. He loves to come to our house because my wife spoils him and he is accustomed to being spoiled.

Hershey’s favorite foods are graham crackers and cheese. He knows that my wife is a soft touch, so he will go to her and put his head in her lap and look up at her with his big brown eyes as if to ask, “may I please have some cheese.” It works every time. Hershey likes to spend time on the sofa. He has a special place on the sofa with a blanket.

Although Hershey is a big strong dog, he is afraid of many things. He was frightened when anyone would come to our house. When we got home from work in the evening, he wouldn’t come downstairs until we would go upstairs and talk to him. He didn’t like the sound of a bouncing basketball. After the neighborhood kids had been playing basketball, he didn’t want to go out the front door because there might be someone bouncing a basketball. One day as he and I were walking down the street he suddenly noticed the neighbor girl playing in her driveway and almost pulled my arm off as he rushed to get away from her.

Every morning Hershey and I went for a mile long walk. He loves to take his time and sniff every bush along the way. When he sees a squirrel, he frantically tugs at his leash. I would love to be able to walk with Hershey without having to put him on a leash, but I don’t dare do it. I couldn’t trust him to stay near me and not run off.

One day as I was walking with Hershey, he spotted another dog. He pulled and tugged at the leash wanting to get away from me. I wasn’t sure of his intentions toward the other dog, but I didn’t want to find out. I shortened up the leash and held on tight. “Crazy dog,” I thought, “he’s got it made, and he still wants to run off.”

Hershey isn’t that different from you and me. As I was trying to get him back under control, I thought of the passage in the Bible that I had read earlier in the morning. “This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow. Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.’” Isaiah 48:17,18 (NLT)

“Consider this: The Father has given us his love. He loves us so much that we are actually called God’s dear children. And that’s what we are.” 1 John 3:1 (GW) We are the children of God. We have access to Him and His wisdom twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. He gives us His protection and has promised to fulfill our needs. “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 (RSV)

We have it made, living with God. We are spoiled. “He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.” Ephesians 1:7 (NLT) But, like Hershey, we want to roam, to be on our own, and leave the presence of God. We want to make our own decisions and not listen to God’s instruction. The Bible warns us about going our own way. “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12

As long as I spend time each day with God by studying the Bible and praying, it is easy to stay connected to God. If I decide that I don’t have time to spend with Him, before long I don’t feel close to God. I run off and go my own way even though God has spoiled me with His love for me. Before long, I realize that I am lost and want to go back home to the safety and peace of living with God. I like to think that I am a strong and capable Christian, but when I run away from God, I realize that I can’t do it in my own strength.

Gentle Reader, what about you? Do you occasionally run away from God and roam the world on your own? It is my prayer that if that happens, you would quickly run back into the safety and peace of living with God. We need to go back home to where we’ve got it made! God wants us to walk with Him. In Micah 6:8 (ISV) God asks us to, “to act with justice, to treasure the Lord’s gracious love, and to walk humbly in the company of your God.

Are You Thriving?

I love reading history and learning new things. Recently I came across a historical person I had never heard of before. As I learned about him, I became quite fascinated with his life. His name is Frederick the second.

Frederick II was a man of extraordinary culture, energy, and ability. He was king of Sicily and Germany during the first half of the 13th century. He was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1220. Frederick is considered by modern historians to be the most gifted of the medieval Holy Roman Emperors.

Frederick astonished his contemporaries who called him Stupor Mundi, ‘wonder of the world.' His court blended Norman, Arabic, and Jewish elements. He was witty and entertaining in six different languages, Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek and Arabic. Frederick was a man of intellectual distinction, and he was friendly with Jewish and Muslim scholars. He encouraged scholarship, poetry and mathematics, and original thinking in all areas.

Frederick’s openness to ideas kept him at odds with the Roman Catholic Church. His demands that the Church renounce its wealth and return to apostolic poverty and simplicity did not sit well with the papacy and its supporters, who called him the Antichrist. He was excommunicated not once but four times.

Frederick was a patron of science and the arts. He had an unlimited thirst for knowledge and learning. He considered himself to be an equal of the greatest scientific minds of his times. Frederick carried out some cruel experiments on people.

One of his experiments used babies. The purpose of the experiment was to discover what language children would naturally grow up to speak if they were never spoken to. So King Frederick took babies from their mothers at birth and placed them in the care of nurses who were forbidden to speak in the babies hearing. Along with the prohibition on speaking, the nurses were not allowed to touch the infants other than to clean or feed them.

To his great dismay, Frederick’s experiment was cut short without finding out what language the babies would speak. The babies grew up to speak no language at all because they died. In the year 1248, an Italian historian named Salimbene di Adam wrote, “They could not live without petting.” The babies died for want of touch.

Modern medicine calls this phenomenon, “failure to thrive.” For some reason, humans flourish under the influence of love, and we gradually die without it. Dr. Dean Ornish in his national bestseller, “Love and Survival,” presents study after study demonstrating that love is a chief influence for mental, emotional, and physical health. He says, “The scientific evidence leaves little doubt that love and intimacy are powerful determinants of our health and survival. Why they have such an impact remains somewhat a mystery.”

Modern science is now proving through controlled studies that human beings are engineered for love. We are made for love, as if our DNA contains the message, “You must love and be loved to survive.”
The problem for many scientists is that they are trying to understand the human need for love within the context of Darwinian evolution. Evolution begins with a survival-of-the-fittest premise; it states that self-preservation is the highest law and the main factor in our survival. Love is self-giving rather than self-preserving, and, therefore, makes no sense in the evolutionary context.

If evolution is the truth of human origins, then human beings are merely biological animals, and there is no such thing as love. And yet, here we are; creatures who thrive on love and are utterly dependent on it. Every human has a desire to love and be loved.

In 1 John 4:16 the Bible tells us that “God is love.”  And in Genesis 1:27 it states that “God made mankind in His own image.”

Scientists may feel that the reason that love and intimacy have such an effect on our health and survival is a mystery, but I don’t. God made us to love and be loved.

We will never thrive until we learn to express and receive affection. But we have another need—one that may seem counter-intuitive: we need to have a healthy love for ourselves.

In Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” What Jesus meant is that a person’s love ought to reach in three directions—upward to God, outward to others, and inward to self.

You would probably agree that loving God and others is important, but is loving yourself important? Self-love is often associated with pride and self-centeredness—and there are plenty of both in our world. However, that’s not what Jesus meant. He was saying we should recognize and appreciate our worth. God created us in His image so we could have a relationship with Him. Jesus died for us so we could be forgiven and reconciled to the Father. Since the Lord values us so highly, shouldn’t we love ourselves? I’m not talking about a boastful attitude, but a quiet peace that comes from knowing we’re deeply loved by our heavenly Father.

A healthy self-love is essential. If it is missing or in some way incomplete, we can’t love the Lord or others as we should. A nagging sense of unworthiness leaves us empty and prevents us from looking up to God in devotion and reaching out to others with affection. God does not want us to have low self-esteem. He wants us to thrive. To thrive, we need to love God, to love others, and to love ourself. We also need to be loved by God, others and ourself.

The Bible has many passages that tell us what God has to say about our worth and our value in His eyes. Genesis 1:26-27 says “’Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
You were made in the image of God.

Psalm 139:13-14 says “You made my whole being; you formed me in my mother’s body. I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way.”

God made you in an amazing and wonderful way.

Ephesians 1:4 says that “God chose us before the world was made so that we would be his holy people—people without blame before him.”

God chose you even before the world was made.

In Romans 5:8, the Bible tells us that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus died for you not because you were good enough, but because he loved you.

John 3:16,17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

God loved you so much that he sent Jesus not to condemn you but to save you.

If we focus on how much God loves us and the price He paid to redeem us, we’ll come to see ourselves as God sees us, and that will help us understand just how much we’re worth as children of God.

Too often our self-worth is based on what other people tell us about ourselves. The one, true authority on our self-worth is Jesus Christ, and since He gave His life for us by dying on a cross, that should tell us just how valuable we are.

For us to thrive, we must be fully aware of just how much God loves us. When we fully accept God’s love for us, we’ll have a healthy appreciation for ourselves, an ever-growing love for Him, and the ability to love and care for others.

How much are you and I truly worth? What value should we place upon each other? Often we'll look at what someone is doing, and if they're doing a poor job, making mistakes; then we view that person as of little value. But is this the correct way of seeing value in someone?

If we truly saw the value of people as God does, would we still treat each other the way we do? Mathew 25:45 tells us, “I tell you the truth, anything you refused to do for even the least of my people here, you refused to do for me.’”

The key to seeing and understanding the value of you and me and all other people in the world is to see our value in light of what Jesus did to save us!

Are there people in our sphere of influence who are failing to thrive because we are not showing them the love that they need? It’s not enough for others to know that you love them – you must show that you love others! Love is not an abstract idea. True love is not just something you feel – it’s something you demonstrate!

We all need to grow in this area because everybody needs to know they are loved. You especially need to know how to show love if you are a follower of Jesus because He said, "All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other." John 13:35

1 John 3:17-18 the Bible says, “What if a person has enough money to live on and sees his brother in need of food and clothing? If he does not help him, how can the love of God be in him? My children, let us not love with words or in talk only. Let us love by what we do and in truth.”

We show our love through our actions.  God has asked us to love others to help them thrive. There are so many people in this world who are failing to thrive. Are there those that we know who are failing to thrive because we do not love them – by our actions. Words alone are not enough.

God's Word is His love letter to us. The love of Jesus waits in each page! Don’t leave your love letters unopened and unread. God loves you, and he wants to tell you just how much. Open his love letter to you and listen to what he has to say to you.

The greatest love poem found in the Bible is in John 3:16,17. “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

What beautiful words. We need to keep in mind that it is the world that God loves, not a single nation, not a single race. Not just the “good” people, not just the people who love God back. “God so loved the world.” This includes the lovable and the unlovable; those who are popular, and those who have no one else to love them; the ones who love God, and the ones who never think of God.

Reading God’s love letter to you is the only way you can learn to love others. In the Bible, we have the example of Jesus. As Christians, we are to follow in his footsteps. There is a popular Christian song titled, "The Proof of Your Love."  The lyrics to the chorus are:  "Let my life be the proof, The proof of Your love.   Let my love look like You and what You're made of.  How You lived, how You died, Love is sacrifice. So let my life be the proof, The proof of Your love".

Gentle Reader, let’s remember how valuable we are in God's eyes! All of us! God wants you to thrive. He also wants you to help others thrive. May our lives be the proof of God’s love.

Keeping the Lawn Mowed

An Arkie's Faith column from the May 24, 2017, issue of The Mena Star.

Spring is a wonderful time of the year. One of the reasons that I moved from Colorado to Arkansas is that I don’t like to be cold. Spring brings with it warmer weather and the end of winter, so I look forward to spring every year.

There are many things about spring that I enjoy. When the redbuds and the dogwoods bloom, they remind me how much I enjoy living in Arkansas. I love to take a ride on country roads just looking at the trees and wildflowers. Driving through town when the azaleas are blooming is great. When spring comes, there is something else that we can look forward to. The grass begins to grow.

When the grass begins to grow, it means that the yard has to be mowed. In my business as an auto glass installer, I get busy during the mowing season. Lawn mowers and weedeaters break a lot of glass that has to be replaced.

In the past, it has been my responsibility to keep the churchyard mowed at my church. We have a large churchyard, so it takes quite a few hours to mow. I had to mow during the evenings after I got off work. It took two or three evenings a week to keep the churchyard looking good. I enjoyed mowing with the riding mower; it was just difficult to find the time. Finding several evenings a week to mow was never easy. I was relieved when it was no longer my responsibility.

Riding on a mower gave me time to think. What else would I do while riding back and forth across the churchyard? One evening while I was mowing, my mind started thinking about how my devotional time with God and my mowing time were similar. In my busy life, it is difficult to find the time to spend with God, just like it is difficult to find the time to get the mowing done.

The Apostle Paul knew that it could be difficult to find the time to spend with God. When he was writing to Timothy, he warned him about becoming so busy that there wasn’t time for spiritual exercise. In 1 Timothy 4:7,8 (AMPC) Paul gave Timothy this inspired advice. " Train yourself toward godliness, [keeping yourself spiritually fit]. For physical training is of some value, but godliness (spiritual training) is useful and of value in everything and in every way, for it holds promise for the present life and also for the life which is to come.

Just like it is important for me to find the time to get the yard mowed, it is also important for me to find the time for what Paul calls spiritual exercise. What was Paul talking about when he said that spiritual exercise was important? Spiritual exercise is Bible reading and study along with prayer. That is talking to God through prayer, and listening to him through reading and studying the Bible.

In Colossians 3:1,2 (NRSV) Paul says, “if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”  There are many ways to focus your mind on " the things that are above.” Just like different people have different ways to exercise, there are many ways to exercise spiritually.
For physical exercise to be effective, you need a regular plan. The same is true for spiritual exercise. Have a plan for your time with God. Don’t just exercise if you have a few extra moments. There is no set amount of time that is proper for personal devotions. You have to decide how much time you can realistically commit to each day. Make sure to include prayer in your spiritual exercise plan.

Prayer is simply communication between you and God. Talk to Him, tell Him about your problems, tell Him about your needs and desires. Don’t just pray for yourself, be sure to include prayers for the needs of others. “Pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.” James 5:16 (WEB)

Our spiritual exercise needs to include more than just asking God for help. God created us to praise him. Psalms 106:1 (NKJV) urges us to, “Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Another aspect of spiritual exercise is listening. Some Christians don’t realize that prayer includes listening. “My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words.” Proverbs 4:20 (NLT)

Gentle Reader, have you noticed what happens when a yard misses a mowing or two? It begins to look bad. The same thing can happen to our spiritual life. If we miss our spiritual exercise, we begin to get flabby and out of shape. Like a yard that hasn’t been mowed our life begins to look out of control. The longer we let it go, the worse it gets. For a neat and trim life, regular devotional time spent with God is a must. The next time you are mowing your yard, (I know it will be soon), think about your spiritual life. Are you spending enough time with God to keep your life neatly trimmed?

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

While The Wall That Heals was in town at the high school stadium, my wife and I stopped by to see the exhibit. The traveling memorial wall is a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Since 1996, the mobile wall has visited more than 400 communities throughout the United States. According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the sponsors of The Wall That Heals, “bringing The Wall to communities across the country spreads its healing legacy to millions.” This year The Wall will be displayed in over forty communities. I feel very fortunate that I was able to visit the exhibit and help honor the over 58,000 Americans who gave their lives for their country in Vietnam.

As my wife and I viewed the mobile Education Center that is part of the exhibit we were carried back to our childhoods. The exhibits told the story of the Vietnam War, The Wall, and the American experience in Vietnam in a historical and cultural context. Both my wife and I were in school during the Vietnam Era. Although neither one of us had any close family members that were casualties of the Vietnam War, anyone who lived through that period knew people who were affected. Every Vietnam veteran that I have met has been profoundly changed by their Vietnam experience.

While we were viewing The Wall, there were people of all ages at the site including a busload of senior citizens from an assisted living retirement community and families with children and teenagers. Everyone viewed The Wall quietly and respectfully. Many of the people there were looking for specific names. I overheard parents talking to their children about friends and loved ones who had died in Vietnam.

The local VFW Post hosted the exhibit, and many of the volunteers on site were veterans. I could see how meaningful the memorial was to them and how much they appreciated those who were respectfully viewing The Wall. The exhibit has an impact on those who visit it. Many people find the visit a healing experience. To be able to honor someone, to be able to reach out and touch their name is cathartic. Just knowing that these names will never be forgotten because they are permanently etched in stone is important to those who remember them.

A memorial is something that serves as a focus to help remember an event.  Are there memorials in the Bible?  There is a memorial right in the Ten Commandments.  Exodus 20:8-12 says,  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it”.

What are we to remember when we keep the Sabbath?  That God created the heavens and the earth. When did God set up this memorial to creation?  Genesis 2:1-3 tells us, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made”.

On the seventh day of creation, God blessed and sanctified the seventh day.  It is a memorial of creation.  Many people no longer believe that God created the world in seven days.   If we deny that God is the Creator, we have no reason to worship God.

One of the main topics of the book of Revelation is worship.  The first angel’s message in Revelation 14 includes a call to the world to worship God as our Creator.  Look at Revelation 14:6,7.  It says, “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.’”  God wants a people who will worship Him as Creator.

To reject the literal account of creation as found in Genesis is to reject not only Old Testament worship but New Testament worship.   In Romans 1:24,25 the Bible says,  “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

When we deny God’s creative power we end up worshiping the creation instead of the Creator.   Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”  And Hebrews 11:3 tells us that, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible”.  Faith is important to the Christian, and by faith we understand that God created the universe.

Creation is important; It is the reason we worship God, and the seventh day has stood as a memorial to God’s creative power from creation week until today.

Moonshots

An Arkie's Faith column from the May 10, 2017, issue of The Mena Star.

When I attended school during the 1960’s, I had two passions that consumed me. I loved baseball. I chewed lots of bad gum to collect baseball cards. As much as I loved baseball, what intrigued me the most was space exploration.

My heroes were the astronauts in NASA’s space program. I read everything about them that I could get my hands on. In 1969, my interest in space was at a fever pitch. Everyone was talking about the race to land on the moon. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, the entire world was captivated. Every newspaper covered the story. I soaked it all in. I couldn’t believe what a marvelous world I was living in. The moonshot was a part of pop culture. After watching the Apollo 11 landing on TV, the Moody Blues drummer, Graham Edge, penned the poem "Higher and Higher," which was used to open their next album. "Blasting, billowing, bursting forth, with the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes. Man, with his flaming pyre has conquered the wayward breezes.”

As I listened to these words, I realized even as a boy that this optimism that space exploration would make the world a better place wasn’t the way things would be. I read in my Bible in Obadiah 1:4 (NLT), “’But even if you soar as high as eagles and build your nest among the stars, I will bring you crashing down,’ says the Lord.”

As a Christian, I had always looked at space exploration as a way to learn more about the awesome things God had made. I was excited by the new discoveries and what they could show me about how awesome God is. As I studied science and read about space, I always kept God in the picture.

The Apollo 11 Moonshot was an amazing achievement, but does God care about moonshots? Somebody will always come along and do it better, faster and higher. What God cares about is you. “The Lord your God is with you; the mighty One will save you. He will rejoice over you. You will rest in his love; he will sing and be joyful about you.” Zephaniah 3:17 (NLT)

The term moonshot has entered into America’s vocabulary. Although it refers to the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, it is now most commonly used to mean fantastic, almost impossible to achieve, the best, reaching the highest point. In modern business usage, a moonshot is an ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking project undertaken without any expectation of near-term profitability or benefit. But there is another use of the term moonshot that predates even the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

Meet Wally Moon, major league baseball player. It is 1954 and Wally made the St. Louis Cardinals’ spring training roster. He had already determined that if he did not make the team, he would head back to his native Arkansas and take a teaching job that he had been offered. Wally had his Master's Degree in teaching. He was ready to pursue his second career if baseball didn’t work out. Wally not only made the team, but at the end of the season, he was voted the National League Rookie of the Year.

Wally was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 1959 season. He was concerned about batting in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum because right field was 440 feet away, making it difficult for a left-handed batter. However, the left field seats were only 251 feet away, protected by a 42-foot high screen. Wally adjusted his batting stance to emphasize hitting to left field. He developed a swing that he described as an inside out golf swing, to launch the ball up and over the 42-foot high screen in left field. The results were very successful. Dodger announcer, Vin Scully, called the towering home runs moonshots.

When Wally Moon retired from baseball, he returned to Arkansas to teach and coach at John Brown University. A friend of mine was a student of his. One day as Professor Moon was teaching, two girls were talking in the back of the class. Professor Moon was agitated with them for disturbing the class. He picked up an eraser and with a perfect strike, hit one of the girls on the forehead creating a cloud of chalk dust. They paid attention for the remainder of the class. I think that just maybe we can call the eraser strike to the forehead a moonshot.

What is your moonshot? What is your most important goal? People set goals for different areas of their lives such as careers,  finances, and spiritual growth. Is it your goal to have a lot of friends? To be popular? To be good at your job? To be healthy and happy? It is your ultimate goal that determines the direction of your life.

Jesus gives us some guidance on our goal setting in Matthew 6:33,34 (CEB) “Desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

We are all in pursuit of something. Everyone has a goal, and that goal determines the direction of their life. Paul wrote about his goal in Philippians 3:14 (NCV), “I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.”

Gentle Reader, What is you moonshot? What is your ultimate goal? Just like the Apollo 11 moonshot, we need to put our focus on the heavens. 2 Corinthians 4:17,18 (VOICE) explains what our moonshot should be. “You see, the short-lived pains of this life are creating for us an eternal glory that does not compare to anything we know here. So we do not set our sights on the things we can see with our eyes. All of that is fleeting; it will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on the things we cannot see, which live on and on.”

Causing a Splash

My An Arkie's Faith column from the May 3, 2017, issue of The Mena Star.

My wife and I enjoy visiting Eureka Springs. It is our favorite place for a weekend getaway. We try to go there several times a year. It is a beautiful three and a half hour drive from home. The city has steep winding streets filled with Victorian-style cottages and houses. The old downtown section of the city has an alpine character with well-preserved Victorian storefronts.

Not long ago we spent a weekend in Eureka Springs with my sister and her husband. We try to spend a weekend together at least once a year. As we traveled toward our destination, it started to rain. Before long the weather had deteriorated, and the rain became severe. Visibility on the interstate was very poor. Along with the heavy rain, the big trucks were constantly splashing the smaller vehicles. The bad driving conditions made the trip to Eureka Springs very tense.

When we arrived, it was still raining hard. Our plans were to meet at Mud Street Cafe for lunch.  As we drove down Main Street, there were several inches of water running down the street. After a great lunch, Mud Street Cafe is one of our favorite restaurants; we headed out to do some shopping. That is my wife and my sister went shopping while my brother-in-law and I tagged along. Shopping in crowded stores is not my favorite thing to do, so I was waiting outside the store. Because it was still raining, I was standing in the doorway that was covered by an awning. As the cars made their way down the flooded street, the spray from the wheels would come up onto the sidewalk.

Occasionally a car would drive past going a bit too fast, and the water would splash all the way to the doorway we were standing in. We decided to find another place out of the rain before we got wet from being splashed. The rain became lighter as the afternoon progressed, but water ran down the streets the rest of the day.

The next morning we were greeted with a light drizzle. Even though it was a dismal day, we didn’t let the weather dampen our spirits. The ladies went for massages at Basin Park Hotel, while my brother-in-law and I visited Inspiration Point and Thorncrown Chapel. For lunch, we decided to go to the Aquarius Taqueria. The food there is inspired by the street food of Oaxaca, Mexico. Their specialty is tacos made with fresh ingredients on handmade tortillas. Our server was very friendly. As we were visiting with her, she related a story about something that had happened to her the day before.

When her shift ended, there was still a steady, persistent rain. As she stepped out onto the sidewalk to wait for her ride, a car came speeding down the street creating a large rooster tail spray that soaked her. She was drenched from head to toe. She didn’t have a change of clothes with her, so she had to make the thirty-mile trip to her home uncomfortably wet and cold.

The driver of the car that splashed our server suffered no consequences from their actions. They probably weren’t thinking about how much they were splashing as the drove down the flooded street. They may have never known how much discomfort they cause our server. But as she made the long trip home soaked to the bone, she was very aware of her discomfort.

Our decisions and actions affect others. We never sin in a vacuum; our sinful actions have an effect on the people around us. Sir Isaac Newton's third law of motion states, for every action, there is a reaction. Sin affects the spiritual well-being of the person who has sinned, but it also affects his or her relationship with others. Every sin you commit can hurt someone.

There is some excellent counsel found in Titus 3:1,2 (NIRV). “Remind God’s people to obey rulers and authorities. Remind them to be ready to do what is good. Tell them not to speak evil things against anyone. Remind them to live in peace. They must consider the needs of others. They must always be gentle toward everyone.”

For every choice we make, for every action we take, there will be a reaction. When you are about to make a choice, think of the consequences of that decision and ask yourself, “how will this decision affect those around me?” We should consider the needs of others. We should be gentle towards everyone.

Our sinfulness means we have the capacity to hurt others. We hurt one another with the words we say and with the things we do. Throughout history, human beings have hurt each other. When we sin, intentionally or unintentionally, we are dangerous to those around us. In Ephesians 4:29 (NTE) Paul gives us some good advice. “Don’t let any unwholesome words escape your lips. Instead, say whatever is good and will be useful in building people up, so that you will give grace to those who listen.”

Gentle Reader, we need to be aware of how much our words and actions influence the people around us. Every day we are tempted to make decisions that we think will be the best thing for us but could have a negative effect on others. Before we make decisions, we need to ask ourselves, “will my choice harm other people?” Be careful not to “splash” others as you go through life. “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.” Luke 6:31 (NASB)