KNOWING IT ALL ALONG

A number of years ago, I made a very important commitment to my wife and children. I told them that if I was thinking good thoughts about them, I would always verbalize those thoughts immediately. I never wanted to think something about them, and then never share it with them. I told them when my commitment played itself out, I would be telling them things in places and times, when my verbalized thoughts wouldn't always seem appropriate. No matter, I did it all the same and have continued this commitment on with my grandchildren.

A few days ago, after my grand-daughter Autumn had enjoyed a meal at our home, I told her I wanted to speak to her and asked if she would come to where I was seated. She dutifully dropped what she was doing and walked to me. I picked her up and placed her on my lap, looked her square in the eyes and said, "Autumn I love you sooo much!" She looked back into my eyes and said, "Papa, I knew that you were going to tell me that!" Wow! What a great feeling! What affirmation! Autumn had already experienced my love for her, in my actions. She had heard these same words expressed and directed toward her, over and over. She knows her Papa loves her. For her - no surprise! She had seen it, she experienced it, she heard it all before. Nothing new here. Thanks, Papa, but I already knew that!

I thought about how this should be true in my relationship with God. As I spend time with God, and I tell Him how much I love Him, is it possible for Him to say to me, "I knew you were going to say that!" Have my actions shown it? Have my words expressing this love, been consistent? Is He caught off guard by my words because they don't align with my actions? Or does He simply say, "I knew you were going to tell me that!"

I sure look forward to hearing Him say those words in person, "I knew you were going to tell me that!"

Hey Autumn, thanks for teaching your Papa about love.

DOM

GIVE IT UP, ALL OF IT

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian during the days of Hitler, expressed these thoughts as he observed the behavior of others around him, "Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God - the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the call of God. Where are these people?"

Who or what have I given my allegiance to? How does it show up in my life (or death)? How great a sacrifice am I ready to give? Where am I?

Partial obedience is disobedience.
DOM

TUNNEL VISION

I often hear people speak of the "light at the end of the tunnel." Invariably, this cliche' follows a mantra of how busy and stressed that particular person is.

For practical blogging purposes, let's call this interesting thought/quote, the tunnel principle. First of all, when we're in the tunnel we can usually see in two directions - forward and behind. A tunnel doesn't allow us to deviate a great deal from the path before us. A tunnel can also seem constricting as it limits our vision and our perspective. Also, the light we see before us, at the end of the tunnel, seems inviting and serves to motivate us to continue the travel
toward it. Tunnels allow us to traverse quickly and safely through a hill or a mountain, so they serve a purpose of efficiency. If we stop and then stay within the tunnel, we can quickly lose our overall perspective of the world around us. You might say this loss of perspective could be called, "tunnel vision." It's when we become oblivious to what is happening around us and increasingly comfortable with the walls that box us in and form the tunnel.

How often do you find yourself in a spiritual tunnel? What causes you to shutout the world around you? When do you begin to enjoy the security of the tunnel? What scares you about the light at the end of the tunnel? Got tunnel vision?

Walking toward the light,
DOM

ACCOUNTABILITY

Thomas Carlisle wrote, "Conviction is worthless until it converts itself into conduct."

Conviction can come and go freely and frequently, with little or no pain at all. But let's get serious, what good is conviction if it doesn't change or rearrange our conduct? Our best intentions to change our behavior, often get short-circuited by the fact that we're stubbornly trying to "go it alone." For instance, I was convicted years ago to become a decent golfer - to move beyond the "weekend hacker" stage. I have spent more than 35 years attempting to do just that, but I've never considered asking anyone who would be able to help me move from my conviction into a new golfing conduct. As a result, I have become comfortable as a "weekend hacker," even bragging about it. I keep thinking I can figure it all out without any help, thank-you very much. What is it? Pride? Lack of desire? Too frugal? Comfort? Too stubborn? Or, all of the above and more?

I've learned that accountability helps me move from conviction to changed conduct, but please don't try to hold me accountable until I ask. Accountability sucks...but I need it.

DOM

WHAT I'M LEARNING FROM MY GRANDKIDS

I'm finding the need to carry around a notebook and a pen whenever I'm hanging with the grandkids. These kids sure know how to get things done. Over the past weekend while spending time with my 4 grandkids, I made alot of entries in my notebook. Here's just a couple:

If you're a grandkid...
-When you're tired, take a nap. It doesn't really make a difference when or where - just go for it. It's okay and people mostly think it's cute.
-When you're at the beach and you don't feel like walking from the waters edge to the car, just stand there and say, "I'm tired" or "My feet are hot" or "Papa, I really love it when you carry me." The last line really works best for a free ride all the way to the car.
-When you're sick of having a plate of food in front of you, just start chucking the food on the floor. Guaranteed, the plate full of food will be removed immediately and you won't have to deal with it.
-When you're running a bit short of cash, just tell your grandparents that you love them and want to spend the night with them. Money starts flowing freely.
-When an adult picks up a phone and begins to make a phone call....now, is the time to scream and make a racket. It doesn't accomplish much, but the phone calling adults are sure fun to watch.

DOM(inutive)

IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE BORKED AGAIN?

Here is how Robert Bork described the damage the Supreme Court has done to our values in a recent Wall Street Journal article:

“The justices have weakened the authority of other institutions, public and private, such as schools, businesses, and churches; assisted in sapping the vitality of religion through a transparently false interpretation of the establishment clause; denigrated marriage and family; destroyed taboos about vile language in public; protected as free speech the basest pornography, including computer-simulated child pornography; weakened political parties and permitted prior restraints on political speech, violating the core of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech; created a right to abortion virtually on demand, invalidating the laws of all 50 states; whittled down capital punishment, on the path, apparently, to abolishing it entirely; mounted a campaign to normalize homosexuality, culminating soon, it seems obvious, in a right to homosexual marriage; permitted racial and gender discrimination at the expense of white males; and made the criminal justice system needlessly slow and complex, tipping the balance in favor of criminals.

“Justice O’Connor, a warm, down-to-earth, and very likeable person, joined many, though not all, of these bold attempts to remake America. Whatever one may think of these outcomes as matters of policy, not one is authorized by the Constitution and some are directly contrary to it. All of them, however, are consistent with the left-liberal liberationist impulse that advances moral anarchy.

Is this extremist rhetoric?
DOM

SCHEME

I couldn't resist taking this picture. The G-woman is standing on Fulton Mall in Brooklyn near a retail store with the same name that she enthusiastically answers to: Scheme.

Why Scheme? Because she's always scheming...her mind is never idle. She's constantly planning and just plain scheming about how we could spend some time together or with others. Scheme's scheming is always fun, never dull, always exciting! Thanks Scheme, for making our marriage so interesting and fun!
DOM

BEACH DAY

Yesterday was a beach day with some of our kids and all of our grandkids! Blue sky, great temperature, one foot waves, water sparkling like a thousand diamonds in the sun, kids laughing, skin burning, sand sticking, water refreshing...an afternoon that was restful and relaxing.
DOM