Love Hate and Guns

This past weekend was a sobering reminder to me about how broken our world is. I went to bed Saturday night saddened by the shootings in El Paso Texas, only to wake up Sunday morning angered by another shooting tragedy in Dayton Ohio. In 2019 alone there have been 17 mass shootings with 104 victims. We have a serious problem in our country. 

The really sad part is that with each of these tragedies, a different type of unintended death is occurring in our country, our unity. Every time a mass shooting happens our first response is to try and figure out who or what is to blame. To some it’s a gun rights issue. To others it’s a violent video game dilemma. And to many it the failure of our politicians. Unfortunately with every occurrence we don’t come up with answers, but only increase the division that we have in our nation. This has to stop if we want the United States of America to stay united. The weapon that is really killing our country is hate not guns. 

I’m not saying I have the solution, but If we are ever going to solve this problem, and all the others facing our great nation, it will be through our unity. Instead of fighting over this issue lets unite over it. Let’s find a common ground to stand on, rather than choosing a side to fire at.  Let’s allow our love to guide us towards healing, instead of our frustration to move us further apart. Let’s offer a helping hand to those who are hurting, rather than shake our fists at those who think differently.

If our nation is ever going to move towards unity again, it will be because we choose to respond in love instead of hate. Love is more powerful than hate. It always has been and always will be. 

“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person...I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it.” - Jesus (Luke 6)

Life’s Best Adventure

This is my third instalment on my blog series “Discovering The Best You” based on the new Apple smartwatch commercial, from which I wondered if a smartwatch can really help you be a “better you”. Because the truth is there is a better you in you and God wants to help you discover it and live your best life possible.

This is my third instalment on my blog series “Discovering The Best You” based on the new Apple smartwatch commercial, from which I wondered if a smartwatch can really help you be a “better you” Because the truth is there is a better you in you and God wants to help you discover it and live a better life.

Let me start with a question, when was the last time you went on an adventure? I mean a real adventure where you decided to go somewhere and do something you have never experienced before. Like me it’s probably been awhile. Remember the days when you packed a brown bag lunch jumped on your bike and rode until you were by a river or on top of a hill? Why don’t we do that anymore?

It seems that at some point in our lives we start playing it safe because we believe that going on adventure presents to much risk, or is too time consuming or costly. So we settle for safe patterns of existence and call it life. But remember what happened when we went on those adventures? I do. I experienced things that gave me a new perspective about life.

I remember the first time I went camping. I thought I knew what stars looked like until I saw them from the top of a mountain. Amazing! I remember the first time I surfed a wave. I thought water was easy to control until I experienced its force. Exhilarating! I remember the first time went to another country. I thought I understood culture until I tasted a real taco. Delicious! I remember the first time I saw real poverty in a 3rd world country. I thought I knew compassion until I met a real need. Life Changing!

Our lives were designed for adventure and not playing it safe. That’s why when we try and find the safe path through life, we miss the best that life has to offer us. To experience your best in life it’s time for life to become an adventure again. You can go on an adventure today to begin to discover the best you right now. You can put up a tent and sleep in the backyard tonight. You can buy a meal and go out and give it to someone who is hungry. You can cancel your vacation to that place you always go and go on a mission trip to experience life beyond yourself. It’s time to stop playing life so safe and start living the best adventure ever!

"That’s what I mean: Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag."- Jesus

Create Something, Anything!

Last week I started a blog series on ‘Discovering the Best You’ https://vandersthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/10/dumb-smartwatch.html
because I truly believe that God placed the best you in you and I believe He wants to help you to figure out how to get it out. I’ll start with the challenge to tap into your creative side, even if you don’t think you have a creative side, we all do. God created us in His image, which means we share His creative properties. Not that you or I could create our own universe (although we try to exist in our own sometimes), each and every one of us has a creative side because we were created by a creative God. 

Now when it comes to being creative we usually think of the arts, music, writing, and drawing and if you do those things already then you have already discovered the creator in you. But if your like me and the most creative thing you have ever drawn is a stick figure, then it’s good to know that creativity goes well beyond these things. For example, have you ever made the best mac-and-cheese ever? Or discovered a new way to fold your socks? Or forged a new path through your garage? Then you’ve tapped into your creativity. You really have. You’re using your creative side every time you create a better or new way to do anything. 

The key is to discovering the power of creativity is to share your creativity. What good is creating something that doesn't benefit others? Could you imagine writing a song that no one ever hears or painting a masterpiece that no one ever sees? It’s only when we learn to create for the benefits of others then we get the full experience and expression of creativity. 

So start looking at what you do in life as a creative process and get busy creating. Create a delicious meal and bring joy to your family. Create a appreciation letter to make someone feel better. Create a new process so your co-workers work more unified. Create an activity that gets students excited to learn. Create a photograph that remind others the simple beauty of life. Create a service to make someone's life easier. Create a ministry to make our world a better place. I don’t care what you create, just create something that benefits others and keep doing it and you’ll discover the best you in you. 

God created us to be the best we can be, so let the creator in you help create a better world to live in.

“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” - Jesus

Dumb Smartwatch

I own a smartwatch that connects to my smartphone and it’s supposed to make my life
easier and more productive. I can track my eating, my exercise, and my sleep patterns.
I can reply to text and emails, and even set meetings. The problem is I feel dumber every
time I try and figure out how to do all that to make my life better. Because my watch is
smarter than me, I usually resort to just changing the watch face and wonder why it’s so
hard to make my life easier?


And then I see the new ad for the Apple Watch about the guy who keeps duplicating himself
and the ends with the tagline, “There’s a better you in you” (if you haven’t seen it here’s the
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms4yxJcvW3s).


It seems like all you have to do to discover the better you is to get a smartwatch. But is
a smartwatch really all we need to get out the best of whatever is in us?

I want the best out of my life and my watch doesn't seem to be doing it for me. That’s why
I’m convinced we already have the ability to tap into the best that’s within us, by simply
seeking the one who put it in there in the first place.


I believe Paul thought the same thing when he wrote this to the Romans....

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your 

sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an
offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t
become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead,
fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what
he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. - Romans 12:1-2

I may not be as smart as my smartwatch, but I’ve discovered a smart way to discover the
best of me and it starts with God. I believe that at the soul level of each and every one of us
exists our best, so over the next few weeks I’m going to work on some new blogs to help you and I discover the best in us. In the meantime I leave you with the words of the modern
poet and prophet Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters to ponder... 

“Has someone taken your faith? It’s real, the pain you feel. You trust, you must confess.
Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?”

The Calendar Cure

I don’t know about you, but my calendar can get full really quick. A meeting here, a lunch
there and then throw in a few interruptions and next thing you know I didn't accomplish
anything I needed too. Then I get so busy I need to start rearranging my appointments
and schedule and then things get really crazy. That’s why we’ve all heard that if we don’t
tell our calendars what to do, they’ll tell us what to do.

In fact the only time I like my calendar telling me what to do is when it comes to weekends
and Holidays. I have noooo problem with my calendar telling me to take a day off. It's almost
like calendars are programmed by the manufacturer to tell us to do what’s best for
us. I mean we can always fill our calendars with what’s most important to us, but our
calendar tells us what’s most important in life.

Take weekends for example. We all know how vital rest is to our lives, so as bad as
Mondays are, without our calendars reminding us to take weekends off, we would
really hate Mondays. Then there are holidays. Give me a day off to drink a green beer,
eat a stuffed bird, or an egg shaped piece of chocolate and I’m in. However, holidays
aren’t just for eating and doing things we normally don’t, holidays are for remembering.  
When we observe a holiday it’s about remembering important moments in history that
shaped our world, our culture, and our faith. Our calendars tell us what matters most.

The fact that our calendars remind us that we are in the year 2018 is measured by the
most important person in human history who walked the earth some 2018 years ago.  
The reason we still remember this today is because of, you guessed it, our calendars.
If you think about it, Jesus changed time and wants to change the way we think about our
calendars.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up
about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever
hard things come up when the time comes.” - Jesus

Just like our calendars remind us what’s most important, maybe it’s time to realize
how important time with Him is.

Restless Sleep

I’ve been thinking a lot about sleep lately. Maybe it’s been the time change and how just changing our clocks leaves me feeling like I’m missing out on the sleep I need. I know changing our clocks only makes everything an hour earlier, but it feels like I pulled an all-nighter when it’s time to wake up. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like feeling tired. Sometimes I wish I were back in kindergarten and I had nap time every afternoon because life sometimes just makes us tired.  It doesn’t matter it it’s caused by changing the clock, or too much on my mind, or too much to do, or too much netflix binging, feeling tired and exhausted makes for a bad day.

Maybe that’s why God tells us to make sure rest is part of doing life with Him. I’m discovering that being rested doesn't come from a good nap or a good night's sleep, rest comes from learning to do life with Jesus.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” - Jesus

Study after study has proven what God has been trying to teach us from the beginning. Rest makes us healthier. Rest makes us less stressed. Rest makes us smarter. Rest makes us nicer. Rest makes our lives better.

Maybe it’s time to wake up and get some real rest in our lives.

Dirt

[In memory of Geraldine Vander Dussen]

My mom loved dirt. Now let me be clear, my mom didn’t like dirt in the house because dirt inside a Dutch home is a really bad thing. Growing up you never wanted to hear mom ask, “who tracked dirt in here?” because you knew you were trouble if you were the one who got dirt in the house. But my mom loved the dirt that she worked with.

Dirt was a sanctuary for my mom and that is where she taught me to love it too. She taught me to work in it in the cool of the morning when the dirt released it’s warmth into my hands. She taught me to turn the dirt and to make sure it always was prepared to enrich whatever was planted in it. She taught me to water and moisten dirt regularly so that roots could grow deep and plants could grow strong. And the most important aspect of dirt was to keep it weed free, because weeds rob other plants of life. My mom loved dirt because she discovered the beauty that emerges from dirt in the form of a flower or the flavors of vegetables, even the shade a tree provides is only possible because of dirt. Mom loved dirt because she loved God.

God loves dirt too. Dirt is the foundation of life. God used dirt to form us out of His great creation. God wants to enrich our lives with His presence. God instructs us to keep our lives saturated with His words to grow us deep and strong. God reminds us to keep our lives free from the weeds that rob us all of life. And when we love dirt like He does and the way mom did, we see the beauty and brilliance of life the way God intended us to live it.  

That’s why Mom was the perfect reflection of a life that loved dirt. She radiated the love and compassion of Christ through all that she did. She brought a fragrance and a radiance into this world because of her love for God. A fragrance and life that will be deeply missed, but will resonate through the lives she touched with her love. And because mom let Christ take care of the dirt that she “tracked” into her life, she is planted firmly in the soil of eternity. And for that reason l too love dirt, it gives me great hope for today and for all eternity.

I hope you learn to love dirt like my mom taught me to love dirt.