Undercover

You've seen them around town, those rolling billboards that change any beater into a magnificent display of artistry. I even thought about getting one for my old Honda before we sold it.

"Is that a 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass? Well no, it's a steamy, cheesy slice of hot and ready pizza!"

It's the vehicle wrap: the cost-effective and broad-reaching advertising and marketing method. Did you know that one delivery truck with an effective vehicle wrap can generate millions of impressions? At least that is what the salesman will tell you.

Some of us, uh, I mean some of you, spend a lot of time deciding what we are going to wear for the day. We match, iron, tuck, press, shine, all so that we will look good when we are out in public. Then we grab our wrap, slip it on, head out the door, and viola...we cover up our true selves. We also carry wraps around in our pockets and purses just in case an advertising opportunity presents itself or we need to display a different product for our viewing audience.

There's Jane from the office. Better put on my "so good to see you" wrap.
There's the preacher. Better put on my "looking forward to Sunday" wrap.
Here comes you know who. Better put on my "I'm having a fake phone conversation so you won't talk to me" wrap.

Or how about this:

Time to go home. Better take off my "do anything for anyone" wrap and put on my "I've worked hard all day so you do it" wrap.

Those wraps are pretty convenient and we can be so creative with the design. But sometimes the impression we are generating is not the one that serves the best interest of ourselves and others. We need to practice more truth in advertising.
I know a place where you can find some inexpensive, attractive wraps that will benefit a lot of people, including yourself...

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Colossians 3:12-14

No other form of advertising offers more return on your investment.

Son Glasses

Have you ever felt like Thomas? "If I could only see the evidence God then I would believe."

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." John 20:24

When I am on this side of a situation or circumstance that has tested my faith it is easy for me to look on that event and ask, "How could I have doubted or been uncertain?" My faith is much stronger today than it was even three months ago but the daily attention that a growing faith requires is sometimes very challenging to manage.

I have to learn to stop squinting through life. You know, like when a light is shining in your face so bright that you can't fully open your eyes - when you see someone having a physically painful experience - when a circumstance is so hard to watch that we must nearly shut our eyes.

Compare your life to that of the apostles:

• They stared at a hillside full of thousands of hungry people and asked what they were to do.
• They were tossed about in a torrential storm and cried out with fear.
• They saw time and again the power of Jesus revealed in healing and other miracles and still they did not instinctively turn their challenge over to Christ.

I find myself too many times seeking first my own solution to a challenge in life before taking that before my God. As the Casting Crowns song says

Oh what I would do to have the kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I'm in, onto the crashing sea. To step out of my comfort zone into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is...

My prayer is that God will open the eyes of my faith to the way He has and does work in my life so that I might be an effective and powerful witness to His love and grace. I have to look at life through the eyes of Jesus.

Put your Son glasses on and open your eyes of faith to a world around you filled with possibilities to do and receive good. Squinting gives you crows feet anyway.

Mulligan

For those who do not golf a "mulligan" is the term used for a retake shot, usually after your first one has gone errant. It's like hitting the reset button. It's a do-over.

Okay. So I got up this morning not feeling very well. Sinus stuff starting and the cough is settling in for a drawn-out visit. The first thing on my mind was how tired I felt. Run-down. Shower - shave - dress - the entire time my mind was off thinking about

• All of the tasks I need to complete over the next few days.
• The commitments I have made that I am pressed to fulfill.
• The people I need to contact.
• The repairs that need to be made.
• The yard that needs to be mowed.
• The studying I need to do
• The...

Then my mind is defibrillated from its frantic and erratic path of non-productivity by the faint, yet familiar, sounds coming from the bedroom...

"I got 'da joey, joey, joey, joey, dow in 'na hart - where?..."

I'll take a mulligan on this hole please. Quite the contrast between how I started my day and how the kids started theirs. No wonder Jesus said

"Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3

Thank you Lord for the blessing of this day.

Do you need a mulligan?

On the fringe...

When I was in Jamaica a few weeks ago, we ate at a cool restaurant named "The Ruins." They had a sizable waterfall that was the centerpiece of this outdoor establishment. After we ate we walked up to the top of the waterfall and I saw this...

These are some sort of hard-shelled something that fell from trees surrounding the waterfall. The peculiar thing was that these shells were in an alcove and were being grouped together by the pressure of the passing water. They were stuck on the fringe. They all came from the same source but these few had been pulled into perpetuity.

If they could just break free from the torrent of the passing water - if the water would just stop running - if they could just work together and use their collective strength - if some big stick or other debris would show up and maybe dislodge them - if one shell would just move a little to the right - then they might be freed from their hopeless situation. But, there they remain - in perpetuity.

Do you ever feel like these shells? Ever feel like you are stuck in perpetuity of a hopeless situation - trapped by the pressure of the world rushing by? Pinned down by the regret and shame of decisions you have made in your life? Maybe being blocked by someone else who is keeping you from reaching your goals? If only the water would just stop - if only someone else would come and dislodge me - if only this group surrounding me would move a little to the right - then I can be free.

"...If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin...so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:31-36)

We all come from the same source but our decisions can separate us from the same destination. Thanks to Jesus we are not left in a perpetual condition of uncertainty. We may find ourselves trapped by the torrent of this world, but we do not have to stay trapped. There is not only hope but certainty.

Are you abiding in the Word? Are you on the fringe of making a change?

Hand me the pliers...

I am drawn to people who embody wisdom. I want to say and do the right thing at the right time in order to "fix" a situation and I am enamored by those who seem to always have the right words or actions for any situation.

I call this the gift of "the moment."

These are people who, it would seem, bought up all of the right communication tools at Sears and even have Craftsman branded on their tongues.

I, on the other hand, feel at times like the Snap-On Tool guy who needs a particular sized socket but then finds that very one is missing from his socket holder.

So, I reach for the pliers instead and end up stripping the nut because the pliers aren't made for the job and don't grab effectively.

I want to learn from those who possess and use this gift of "the moment."

"Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and the one who waters will himself be watered." Proverbs 11:25

What's in your tool box?

"It's okay, I've got you."

Trolley ride through the Rivermarket - $2.00
Watching the Peabody ducks march back upstairs - $0
Spending time with my wife and kids - Priceless

Okay, sorry I beat that dead commercial but it really was priceless. Anyway, I'm squatted down in the Peabody lobby with Jackson waiting for the Duck Master to cue the fowl. Jackson is used to ducks because he feeds them down at the lake. So we perch ourselves up front with our toes right on the edge of the red carpet - front row, reach-out-and-touch-em seats right at the bottom of their stairs. When they climb out of that fountain we can shake their hands?...feet?...wings?

I'm positioned behind Jackson with my hands on his arms - doing the whole "daddy commentator" thing. The Duck Master cues the music and let the show begin. As soon as that first duck starts down the stairs Jackson tenses up and begins backing up into my chest, pushing ever so slightly to allow a lot more distance between him and that quacker. Then the whole downy family heads right for us (or so it seems to a 2 year old). Let the pushin' and shovin' begin!

"It's okay buddy...I've got you. They won't hurt you. I'm right here with you. Daddy is bigger than those ducks and I won't let them hurt you."

I wanted him to work through his uncomfortableness (new word) so that next time he will be more relaxed. So with that he settled down just in time to see the ducks load in the elevator, give a rousing wing flap goodbye, and off they were to their little duck house on the second floor. In less than a minute it was all over. And Jackson stood there...applauding to his heart's content.

Hmmm. Got me to thinkin'...

How many times in my life am I faced with uncertainty and as I try to push back on my life God says, "It's okay...I've got you. I'm right here with you. I am bigger than this and I will protect you."

But I keep pushing away from what makes me uncomfortable. But God wants me to work through my uncomfortableness so that next time I will be better equipped to handle it. What looks menacing and dangerous and insurmountable to me is no match for the God of the universe. And He wants nothing more than to celebrate with me as I load my challenge on the elevator and send it up.

Then He will stand there...applauding to my heart's content.

The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy.

Deuteronomy 33:27

""Be watchful..."

Okay. So I decided that today would be the day that I ventured into the Revenue Office to license the van. One week into the month...middle of the day...should be in and out, right? Yeah, I know, I know.

So, I'm already anxious because I just don't like dealing with stuff I do not fully understand (like the Revenue Office - no offense Brenda). And, this trip is not cut and dry because I sold our Civic and need to get it off of our record.

My plan goes like clockwork: I walk in - no waiting (YES!). Saunter up to the Assessor - done (SWEET!). Take a number - called before I can sit down (WHO'S THE MAN!). Lay my offering of paperwork out on the mercy seat of "Tammy". Click click of the keyboard. Shuffle shuffle of the papers. Oh, the printer is firing up! I made it! I think I made it! Screeeeeeeeeech!--Red Light!

"Mr. Ashberry, I am not finding any record of the Honda."
"Huh?"
"This car is not in my database."
"Really?"
"Let me go check with my supervisor."

[While "Tammy" made a bee-line into her supervisor's office I paused to allow random thoughts of illegality to run rampant. See, this was my first private sale. I printed paperwork from some "official" website for the bill of sale, tried to navigate my way through signing the title upon transfer, yada yada. Have I messed this whole thing up!? All I could think now was that there is a poor young guy driving around in a Honda that he purchased illegally! He's going to get pulled over and arrested! And I am the fraudulent salesman!]

"Mr. Ashberry, you said the title was in your wife's name?"
"Yes, she has had the car since BEFORE WE WERE MARRIED." (threw that emphasis in there thinking they might let me go and nab Tressa - after all, it was HER car).
"What is her maiden name?" (Oh, wait a minute...)

Click click on the keyboard again...

"Here it is."

So anyway, got to thinking about this experience while driving away and knowing there had to be a lesson here somewhere.

In all of this process, even when "Tammy" was repeatedly saying that the Honda we had been driving and had registered for years did not exist, I kept my mouth shut, my patience in check, and my integrity intact. That was good...for Tammy, for me, and for anyone who might have been watching my example.

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. Proverbs 21:23

Who's watching you today?