With this Sunday being Mother’s Day I thought I would share a couple of the valuable life lessons my mother taught me.

1. Humble Service – Mom has rarely been a formal leader. She spends most of her time quietly serving other people. She takes care of dad and her children. She helps out at Church (usually in the kitchen). Her life is marked by doing far more than public title or recognition.

2. Timing is Everything – She taught me to hold onto some information until the appropriate time. Things like, “We will tell dad that when he is in a good mood.”

3. Give Generously – My mother gives us produce, jelly and freshly made noodles. She has offered money to help all of her children. She gives generously to the Church. I can never recall a time I felt like she was stingy or unwilling to give.

4. Marriage Commitment – I know living with dad has not been easy (he is hard-headed like me), but they have remained together for 55 years. Through the years I have watched their marriage change with each new season as they have grown old together.

5. Aging Well – My mother has a gentle and caring spirit that just gets sweeter with time. She has not turned into a bitter old lady or a speechless mouse. Instead she has grown in kindness, love and grace.

These are obviously not all of the lessons that my mother taught me through the years. She has shown me that it is okay to taste a little of everything to make sure it is fit to eat. She has shown me that spilling food on your shirt is nothing to get excited about. She taught me that the French language has some colorful words and I should “pardon her French.”

Through the years she has made me smile and laugh all while keeping a good heart. I thank mom for the lessons she has taught me and the model she has been as a person.

I hope this weekend you will thank your mother for the life lessons she taught you.

A few years ago I sat down with an investment counselor who walked me through my options as I prepare for retirement. He stated that there are two ways to invest. One is short-term with low risk but minimal rewards. There is also high risk with the possibility of great returns, but there might be some big drops along the way. With me being a long way from retirement I chose to take the high risk, high return option. Through the years I have watched my portfolio grow and drop and grow and drop. Anytime I have talked to my investment counselor about the situation, he has reminded me to take “the long-term view.”

I have been thinking about these conversations as I process my investment in people. Do I invest myself in people for the short-term or the long-term? The short-term has some immediate gratification. You can see someone learn something new, maybe they can recite some facts and they might even make some changes. The long-term investment in people is hard. You see people grow and then stop. You see people learn something new and life changing and then they forget it. It is tough to watch people only make incremental growth year after year.

Here is the interesting part to me, I take the long-term approach naturally with my kids (or grand kids). I know I have 18 plus years to mold and shape their lives. Then I go to Church and I expect people to change immediately and become discouraged when it doesn’t seem to happen.

How would your life be different if you saw your investment in other people as a long-term investment in their lives? As my counselor said, “You need to take the long-term view.”

I recently read a blog post that has been stuck in my brain and will not let me go. I thought I would basically rewrite a shortened version for you today.

In the book of Daniel there is a story about Daniel and three of his friends named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. You may know the story of Daniel chapter three where they will not bow down to the image created by king Nebuchadnezzar. The result is that they are to be thrown into the fiery furnace. Within this story is a great line about the faith of these men.

Daniel 3:17-18 “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. (18) But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

The men firmly believe that God can save them from any situation, but their faith is truly seen when they declare, “Even if he does not.” Real faith is stepping out to follow God into any situation knowing that He might come through in a big way or He may not. A miracle may happen or it may not, but that does not mean that God does not care or is being mean. It simply means He has another plan.

True faith is trusting God even when we know that He may not show up the way we want Him to.

A hero is defined as someone who is admired for their brave deeds or noble qualities. We often think of heroes in terms of those who do an amazingly significant event. They pilot a plane full or people to safety or they fight a battle that saves hundreds of lives. But I am convinced that most heroes exhibit their noble qualities in much smaller ways. They make daily sacrifices for others while making brave decisions that can change people’s lives.

Why do I say all of this? Because I am celebrating the heroes of my life.

First – today is National Teacher Day. My life has been molded and shaped by teachers. I have encountered some great teachers in the public school and in the college I attended. They have molded not only my life, but also the lives of my children. I am thankful for the hours they put into their work and their willingness to share their lives. Many of them or my heroes.

Second – today is my Dad’s birthday. Freddie Lewis Harris was born on May 5, 1935. That makes him 80 years old today. One month ago I didn’t think we would see this day. He had a stroke and the initial report didn’t sound good. But now he is home and watching a movie, because he demanded no more doctors visits today. His life has been marked by sacrifice for his children, love of his wife and service at his Church. He is my hero.

All of us have heroes in our lives. Those people who give, love and sacrifice themselves for the good of others. Today I send up a prayer of thanksgiving for you. I hope that you would do the same for the heroes in your life.

Last week I helped my dad plant his garden. After working the ground with his roto-tiller I took out a very special tool. He has had this one tool for years, but it only gets used one week of the year. It is a single wheeled tool that makes a furrow to plant the sends in a row. It is not a tool that is used everyday but is very necessary toward the end goal of a growing healthy garden. I do not know what it is even called.

This got me thinking about tools. Not tools we use to plant a garden or even make a repair, but tools necessary to achieve the end goal of a growing spiritual life. These tools may not get used everyday, but they are important tools to the Christian life.

1. A good readable Bible – I suggest the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New International Version (NIV). The New American Standard (NAS) is a good translation but is not easily readable. The King James Versions is one of the oldest, but in my opinion, is the hardest to read. Personally, I like a Bible with no notes or “helps” anywhere in the margins. I like the plain straight forward word of God for my personal reading. What do I think it says?

2. A good study Bible – I use this for a better understanding of the passage I just read and it is especially helpful for teaching. I have an NIV study Bible, a Quest study Bible and a Life Application Bible that I use on a regular basis. These all contain footnotes and passage notes that help me to understand what is being said. I would remind you that these are not inspired and all study Bibles contain mistakes and personal interpretations that I do not agree with completely. Even with this said, these are enormously helpful tools to understand the Bible.

3. A concordance – This is a book that will tell you every passage in your English Bible that contains a particular word. Now, this must match your translation – like NIV, ESV, KJV or NAS. If it does you can look up a word like “lion” and see every passage that contains that word in the Bible.

4. Vines Bible Dictionary – This is a book that contains all the passages that mentions that word, but also categorizes them and will point you toward passages with a similar meaning even if they do not contain the same word. This is a great place to get a bigger picture of a Bible concept. Any Bible dictionary is a great tool.

5. A Bible Encyclopedia – This is an expanded look at concepts, people, places and events in the Bible. These are expensive if purchased in book form but came as a part of my Wordsearch computer program. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) is the best one that I have used.

6. A Bible Commentary – They sell these over individual books of the Bible clear to books that cover the whole Bible (like Haley’s Bible Handbook). These are the authors ideas and interpretations based on study and experience with the scriptures. I use these last in my study. Many are very good and others are extremely biased. Some of them are so technical in their study of the Greek and Hebrew that they leave me confused and others are not much more than study Bible notes in a book form. Inter Varsity Press (IVP) has a great small set and I also really like the College press set.

These are the basic tools I use to learn the Bible personally, to prepare lessons and sermons for preaching. Some of the I use exclusively in digital form. They are much cheaper and space savings to have them on my phone, computer or tablet. In recent years more and more of these tools are being made available online.

The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (NIV) I believe in order to correctly handle the Bible we need to be familiar with the best tools and know how to use them. Hopefully this will help you in some small way.

Last week I heard a man complaining about how awful a particular organization was to him and his daughter. I didn’t know the story so I asked him to tell me the whole episode in some detail. He took about 15 minutes describe a terrible situation and how one leader of the organization had shown no concern, said some stupid things and was generally hostile toward Christians. After he was done talking I said calmly and respectfully, “It sounds like your problem is not with that organization but with this one person.”

He respond affirmatively but also restated that this person was the leader of that organization. To which I questioned him a little further in his thinking and asked, “Are his actions representative of the whole group?” “Does everyone there act the way he did?” Finally, “is the whole group guilty or just one or two people?”

Here is the tension in life. Every group is actually just made of up of individuals and every individual represents that group.

We can say we are mad at Wal-Mart when really we are just upset at how the one lady in customer service treated us that day. We can be very happy with the car dealership when in reality it was just how that one salesman treated us that one time. Your view of every group is the result of how individuals act.

The important reality for each one of us is that this is true of Christians and Churches. Your actions will help people form their views of what it means to follow Jesus. Your actions will make people angry or happy with the Church. What will your actions today or this weekend say to the world?

I was flying down the highway when I saw a lump in the left lane ahead. I immediately thought it was a skunk, opossum or a armadillo that did not get across the road. As I got closer I was surprised to see a turtle. He was moving as fast as his little legs could carry him. The other side of the road offered a grassy area with a large pond and he was on the move to get there. He had already crossed one lane of traffic and was halfway across the other. There was a clearing in the traffic and he had a very real possibility of making it.

That got me thinking about how many animals make it across the road every day and every night. We see their unfortunate friends and family who don’t make it lying everywhere. Smashed, bloodied and dead they are scattered across highways and even city streets. Little reminders that risk taking can be fatal. A casual drive down the road would make you think a journey across the road is impossible. But this little turtle reminded me that it is not.

All this has me thinking about the obstacles in my life that stand between me and my dreams. Sure others have tried to do great things and have failed miserably. That does not mean that it cannot be done. People achieve great things in their work, family, home and personal life everyday. They have marriages that last 50 plus years, children who grow up to follow Jesus, jobs that help their community, and a hundred other little great things. Many of them go unnoticed. Failures make front page news and Facebook posts while success is often done quietly and slowly by those who dare to do great things.

I like to think that turtle made it safely across the road. Right now he is swimming in a big pond beside a grassy pasture and enjoying his life. All he had to do was get across that road. Now what is keeping you from enjoying your life and doing something remarkable?

This is the season for high school and college graduations, but for my family yesterday was a different type of graduation day. At St. Vincent hospital in Indianapolis the day before a person is discharged from the hospital is called their “Graduation Day.” My dad has moved from ICU to a regular room and then to a room on the rehab floor and now he is coming home today. We are to go pick him up in a couple of hours and after a mountain of paperwork he will get to come home. To recognize his last full day in the hospital they celebrated his graduation day yesterday. I am not sure what all they did but when we walked into his room he had on a camouflage cape with a superman emblem on the back. I also know he was given a “diploma” in his information folder that he appeared proud to have achieved. Being an inquisitive person, I searched around and found two more people on his floor that were celebrating their graduation day too.

This experience has me thinking a lot about the concept of “going home.” Dad has had an okay experience in the hospital. The people have been nice and most are very helpful. He has made a few friends in therapy who all call him by his birth name of Freddie. There have been no majorly bad encounters during the last three and a half weeks. But still, it is nothing like being at home. Home is where your family is located. Home is where you are completely comfortable. Home is better than the best a hospital has to offer.

I will be honest, I am glad my dad is still with us and has a chance to come back to New Ross Indiana. But I know his real graduation day is coming. Same for my mom. Same for the rest of my family. Same for you. Same for everyone you know. Same for me. There will come a time when we all spend our last day on earth. A day in which we graduate from this life to the next.

For those of us who call Jesus our Lord and Savior we will get to go to a home he has prepared for us. Sure it was nice here on earth, but I believe that home will be better than anything we have ever experienced. Sure it will be hard to say goodbye to those we leave behind, but I look forward to all those I will be reunited with in heaven. Sure it will a hard transition, but it will be the best thing that has ever happened to us.

Graduation day means the work is over. The journey is done. A new chapter is beginning. Today I look forward to graduation day.

The Bible says in Galatians 6:2, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

This verse has a tension in it that is easy to pass by in a casual reading. In order for us to carry each other’s burdens we must first share our burdens. We have to tell people what we need. We have to open up about our struggles. We have to ask for help.

In life I have seen two different ways of people handling this truth. One group is sharing all the time. They are constantly asking for you help physically, financial, spiritually and emotionally. The other group never asks for help. They do everything themselves and quietly carry all their burdens alone.

I firmly believe that neither of those groups are right. There are limits to what we share. A person who asks for help all the time is a burden themselves. They drain people while they take and take. On the other hand, never sharing forces you into isolation and resentment as you try to handle everything yourself.

My hope is that people will fall somewhere in the middle, or possible bounce back and forth between the two as life moves through good and bed times. The Church wants to be your community of support, but you must share your needs. Share your burdens so that we can help carry your burdens and in this way we fulfill Christ’s will in our lives.

Traveling down the road to my parents house last night I came over hill to see this sight –

At Effingham, Illinois there is a huge cross that stands beside the road. It has a sign under it that gives the website of www.crossusa.org You an read the whole story there, but I will say that it was built in 2001 and ended up being dedicated a few days after September 11 and the tragedies of that day.

It is definitely an interesting sight when traveling down highway 70 in Illinois.

The sight of this huge cross did a couple of things for me. First, it stirred some thoughts about the cross. I appreciate that anyone would take the time and money to hold up the cross in the world. Second, I do wonder of the money would have been better spent in other ways. How much mission work could have been with that money? Could a new Church have been started with the money? I am never know about religious monuments like this one.

This morning I am still unsure how I feel about it. One thing I do know, I appreciate the cross of Jesus and the debt paid for my sin, but that is one huge cross 🙂