Abundance

I think generosity comes from a place of fullness, abundance.  This doesn't though mean that materially rich people are more likely to be generous nor that materially poor people are less likely to give.  Material comforts can make someone feel successful but a feeling of abundance comes from a sense of how blessed you are no matter where you are or what you have.  A bum without penny to his name can feel abundance and a multi-millionaire can feel empty and alone.  Abundance is appreciating where you are and who you are and feeling content with that and the journey that God has you on.  Not lusting after someone else's "sexier" path, but seeing your path and actually in time coming to see it as the "sexiest" path, whether anyone else gets it or not.

This sense of abundance must be cultivated and maintained.  It is unlikely to develop on its own in the same way that a vegetable garden is unlikely to develop in the midst of your lawn.  In order to create such a garden you would have to clear ground, create a boundary, plant seeds, water, weed, water, and so on.  Abundance must be lived and cultivated by leaders if they desire their followers to display it.

You are on an absolutely unique journey, like nothing anyone else on earth is meant to do.  God made you especially to do it.  When you find the path of that journey and stop trying to walk on other people's paths you will find, among other things, abundance.  It will become easy for you to give to others and encourage them.  You will see how your help and encouragement might help them find or stay on their path and help create or maintain abundance in their life.  It feels good.  It improves the world.  And it makes God smile in the faces of those you meet!

Back from the Dead

I regained access to my blogger account today and hope to start posting soon.

Teaching Our Kids To Say No

Refusal skills are the ability to say "no" to a person. I try to pass these skills on to my DARE students. Anyone who has kids might think that their kids already know how to say "no." After all they tell us no all day long or so it seems..."Clean up your room" "Not now Mom" "Time to go to bed" "Awwwww!" They know how to let us know when they don't see eye-to-eye with us, but do they know how to say "no" when it counts. Do they know how to say know to a good thing that just won't fit into an otherwise already overcrowded schedule? Do they know how to say "no" to a good friend when they ask them to do something they know isn't good for them?
The ability to say "no" to things is something that societies have always passed on to their children. Fasting is a part of most religious traditions in some form or fashion. It serves several purposes, but one of its most basic functions is learning self-control, the ability to say "no."
The secret to teaching this ability to your children I believe is teaching by example. They need to see you looking opportunity in the face and being able to turn it down. When they see you use self control they are seeing that self control is possible. What kind of things can they see us turn down? Dessert or seconds, that new car that is really more about our ego than necessity, dating too soon after a divorce, the TV during dinnner time, our mobile phones during family time, the desire to speed when you're late, the desire to put other's down when they have hurt you. Our society is quickly losing all of its traditions that once passed the value of self-control on the next generation, but that doesn't mean you can't make efforts of your own to reinstitute some of these traditions. My kid's school challenges families to honor "TV turn off week." We always do it kicking and screaming at the beginning of the week, but we are always better for it by the end of the week. It is good for my kids to see me struggle with the desire to do something and decide not to do it, even though part of me wants to. It shows them that I can acknowledge my desires, but my desires aren't me. In fact I can rule over my desires. I can choose not to turn the TV on even when I'm tired after a long days work. I can choose not to buy a new car even though everyone else seems to have one. I can choose not to have dessert to honor the diet commitment I made.
I by no means have these mastered myself, but I do know that my kids are better for it when they see me demonstrate self-control and the ability to say "no" and I'm better too.

What gives???

So I'm just minding my own business today and God just decides to crap on me. First I notice that the 2 sections of driveway I repoured last summer cracked in the last 24 hrs. Then I'm trying to attach a luggage rack on my bike and I break the bolt off in the frame of my bike. This was supposed to be a simple install. I may have irreperably messed up my bike frame! Then I notice my back right tire is almost flat.
I know it could be so much worse. But it sucked. Given the recent temperature changes I don't know if there was anything I could have done to avert the concrete cracking. I realize now after the fact that the guy at the bike shop gave me regular 6 sided bolts to use on the bike when bike's usually use allen screws which are much more difficult to over tighten or cross thread. And all of this may happened to get me to notcie the low tire before I ruined it by continuing to drive on it.
I almost ruined the date my wife and I went on tonight with my bad attitude about it. Sometimes it just seems like I can't even get the easiest mechanical jobs done without turning them into a big cluster...

Coincidence

I don't believe in coincidences. I believe God is moving all the pieces and occasionally He likes to get our attention by moving two pieces that haven't seen each other in a long time close together again.
Annually we take the Shriners treat all of the city's DARE students to the Shrine Circus in February. Thousands of kids and teachers and parents are bussed to and from the event. I walked my kids back out to their bus, which was among a sea of school buses, and then headed back into the auditorium as my patrol car was on the opposite side of the building and the temperatures were uncomfortably low. I ran back up toward the doors as students continued to pour out. I thought the students had to be almost all out and the doors would then close and lock once the last student came out but as I got closer I realized that the door was stuck open and stopped running. As I got inside I headed toward the main hallway. I heard someone call "Kurt!" from behind me. I spun around and was looking at a once familiar face, a former girlfriend and co-worker from about 10-15 years ago. She is someone I have wondered from time to time about. Did she get married? Is she OK? Who has she become? God gave us apporximately 30 seconds to talk. I gave her a big hug. I would have loved to talk to her for another half hour and reminisce. As a DARE Officer the circus starts off with all of us DARE officers being introduced in the center ring (I have such a rock star job!). Anyway I found out that she bragged to her students at last years circus when she saw me that she knew me, which made me laugh that anyone would brag that they know me! She is a para-educator at an OPS school, but she either didn't say which one or I didn't remember it. She parted saying, "I'll see you next year." I thought as I drove away of other questions I'd have loved to ask her and wondered if I could track her down. And then I realized that God did that. And that the amount of time he gave us was the perfect amount of time too. Instead of wasting any more effort on greedy grabs for more time, I appreciated the time God gave me and the fact that I got to see her at all. She is OK!
It also make realize all of the women I come in contact with are someone's ex-girlfriend that they wonder once a year about. They are all a treasured friend to someone both now and in the past. I could honor my friend not by trying to contact her, but by treating the friends of others the way I might treat her, the checkout lady at Target, the counter girls at the cleaners, my daycare lady.

God uses the things that are not

I'm walking into the county couthouse today in uniform and this old black man asks me how I am doing. I was having a genuinely good day and so I said "Good!" in an especially enthusiastic voice. He excitedly began to correct me!?! "No. You are doing excellent! God made you and he used excellent ingredients. If you make a pie with excellent ingredients is it an excellent pie?" This gentleman was dressed in a dated suit and hadn't shaved in a couple days, but he was filled with joy and a love for Jesus. Smiling, I said "Yes!" He answered back, "then you aren't just good!?! You are EXCELLENT!" He then took me back to his car and showed me an award plaque from the 70s that he had been given as an outstanding junior probabtion officer. He also told me about the AME Zion church that he was here to plant and how this church had been the one that fought to free the slaves. He opened an AME Zion history book in the trunk of his car and showed me a picture in it of Harriet Tubman and other prominent black figures of that time to further prove the point.
There was much about this man that made him dismissable, but I felt very clearly that God was speaking to me in the entryway to the courthouse.
I thoroughly enjoyed telling people for the remainder of the day that I was "EXCELLENT!" when they asked ho I was doing.

Central Christian Qualities

Here is a list of central Christian qualities that both individuals and institutions(churches) will display as a result of following Jesus Christ. Not that I have these but I think that I should

Humility
-Not selfishly ambitious or seeking power
-Not pushy or controlling
-Jesus who had ultimate power asserted none of it. He affiliated with unimportant people who had nothing to offer him. He could have taken over the world by military might or physical force but he didn't.

Contentment
-Are satisfied with what God has given them
-Do not see material items as being the solution to their problems
-Jesus didn't setup a stable base of operations and his disciples had to give up their's to follow him.

Hopeful
-Should always have and hold out hope to others
-When all others have given up hope believers should be the exception
-One of the central beliefs of Christianity is that this reality isn't all their is and that we have a bright future as we rely on Jesus Christ.
-I think Joy and Hope are integrally linked together, perhaps producing encouragement.

Sacrificial
-Desires and looks forward to giving things up for the sake of others
-Is looking to learn the benefits of sacrifice personally
-Jesus sacrificed throughout his life and in his death

Redemptive
-Has a heart to give value back to that which has been called useless or hopeless
-Jesus cultivated relationships with people rejected by society (whore, a tax collector, blue collar workers, an activist). He healed using rejected things (spit, mud). He took a man determined to destroy his followers and used him to reach the world. He (God) came down and redeemed us.

Courageous (Risk-Taking)
-Has the ability to do what needs doing that others fear to do
-Jesus did this so frequently that it is impossible to relate every occasion. Courage was a hallmark of faithful characters in tht Old Testament too (Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Elijah & Elisha, Daniel & most of the prophets)
-Trust God enough to move even when everything else says to stay put

Forgiving/Gracious
-Since we have been forgiven even at our very worst, we should want to extend that same forgiveness to others

Introspective
-The focus of questioning motives and judgment should be focused inward primarily
-Understanding of others is fostered by judging ourselves first and realizing the grace we give ourselves
-Jesus accepted those who perceived their own faults and judged those who were blind to their own faults.

Patience
-Endurance & self-control are results of real patience
-Patience realizes that results can take a long time to show if they ever show at all
-God is a god of inefficiency. He demands patience because he works in years and decades more often than seconds and minutes. God is in no hurry and we get ourselves into trouble when we get into a hurry.

More to come...