I continually get these "doom and gloom" messages from a friend. According to him, the end is near, we are all going to watch the US fall, the One World Government take over, conspiracy after conspiracy, etc.

Do I believe this stuff will happen? Of course. It will happen, and soon. Can I do anything about it? Of course not. If the WHO wants 3 billion dead within the decade to help "save the planet" and the Beast wants to get rid of currency and put a microchip in us, guess what? I cannot do a thing.

It's okay. It will happen. Christians will be the only religious group outlawed and persecuted. Wars, starvation, terror, etc.

So? If I die, I die. My problems are solved.

If I'm here, I have a job to do. Wash dishes, cook meals, scrub toilets, mop floors, wipe noses, change diapers, give love to every person I come in contact with. That's it.

It's not my job to worry about how God is going to end the days. He already has his plan, and me keeping up with the "latest" news like this friend does would interfere with the work He has for me.

In the Good Samaritan story, we are supposed, in some ways, to be like the Samaritan, having pity on all who need us. That is a big part of my job, the loving everyone I come in contact with. The rest of the story is that Messiah Jesus is the Samaritan, for only He can bind wounds and heal. I am supposed to be like His beast of burden that carried the injured man for Him. That's my job, beast of burdens. Follow Him and pick up every person He asks me to carry for Him, love them, cook for them, wipe their tears, clean for them.

That's it. That's what I will do for as long as I can. When they come for me, I hope I will be ready for them with some fresh baked cookies and love to give them, even as they take me away.

If I can't do my job, that is when I need to worry.


Today is:

Cleveland Day (Let's hear it for Cleveland!)

Hammock Day (Why isn't this in the spring? In this weather, you would melt and drip through the mesh of the thing.)

Health and Happiness with Hypnosis Day

Lotus Festival

Pi Approximation Day

Preparedness Day

Ratcatcher's Day/Pied Piper Day

Spoonerism Day (Reverend Spooner, who was famous for mixing words, and called called Victoria "My Queer Dean" instead of "My Dear Queen." He also told one nervous young bridegroom that, "Son, it is kistomary to cuss the bride.")


Birthdays Today:

Don Henley, 1947
Bobby Sherman, 1943
Alex Trebek, 1940
Orson Bean, 1928
Rose Kennedy, 1890
Gregor Mendel, 1822


Today in History:

Battle of Falkirk, English defeat the Scots, 1298
First printing of the "Tractate Niddah", a talmudic edition, 1489
General Moses Cleveland founds Cleveland, Ohio, 1796
"America the Beautiful written in Colorado by Katharine Lee Bates, 1893
300,000 Warsaw Ghetto Jews are sent to Treblinka, 1942

So, does putting others first make us wimps?

Depends. Do you think Messiah Jesus was a wimp?

Really, the Lord of the Universe gets on His knees and washes feet. That's not a wimp. That's power under control.

For the joy set before Him, the joy of being able to do what was best for us, He underwent torture.

We put others first, and we get joy in return.

Today is:

Feast of Damo

Legal Drinking Age Day

National Creme Brulee Day (Touche! Cafe au Lait! Creme Brulee! -- well, I guess you had to be there.)

National Junk Food Day (We need a day for that!?!)

National Tug of War Tournament Day

Schoelcher Day, French West Indies (Abolition of slavery.)

St. Lawrence of Brindisi's Day

St. Praxedes' Day


Birthdays Today:

Robin Williams, 1951
Cat Stevens, 1948
Don Knotts, 1924
Isaac Stern, 1920
Ernest Hemingway, 1899


Today in History:

The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is set afire by Herostratus, BC356
Pope Paul III begins the Sanctum Officium, an inquisition against Protestants, 1542
The English Fleet defeats the Spanish Armada, 1588
In what is considered to be the first true "showdown" of what is now called the "Old West", Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in the market square of Springfield, Mo., 1865
Sirima Bandaranaike becomes the world's first woman PM in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), 1960

What is love?

No, seriously, play along with the gag. What is it?

A warm, fuzzy feeling? A desire for someone? A fool's paradise? A pipe dream?

If we define love as God does, it is putting the best interests of the other ahead of the best interests of the self.

Easy to say, hard to do. We are selfish creatures, apart from God changing us and making it possible for us to be like Him.

We were created in His image, but the image is tarnished by sin. Sin is putting anything ahead of the agenda of God, and His agenda is to populate the universe with those created in His image and behaving like it.

So, how does this play out in marriage? The $64,000 question. It takes a lifetime to answer it, and most people don't give it the lifetime. They get married, they don't get their own needs met, they give up and try to find someone else. Tragedy.

The goal in marriage should be to meet the needs of the other, with God's help. Then trust that He will meet your needs, sometimes through your spouse, sometimes not. The trust has to remain in the times that your spouse does not come through.

What does this look like in marriage?

I can tell you what it does not look like. It does not look like a husband coming home, slumping down to watch tv, eat, ignore the family, then demand attention at bedtime.

It does not look like a wife ignoring him and the kids because she wants "me" time all the time.

It looks like sharing the burdens. All of them. Every day.

It looks like honor. Believing and acting as if the other is the most important person in your life, besides God.

It looks like self-control and patience when your spouse fails. Each of you will fail. It will hurt. Love says, I will be patient.

It looks like forgiveness. It looks like repentance. Turning away from the things that hurt each other, forgiving when it happens, working together.

It looks like kindness.

It looks like speaking your spouse's love language, even when, no especially when, it is not yours.

It looks hard. You know what? It is hard. It can't be done. Not in our own strength. That's why it also looks like two people leaning on the Lord of the Universe to make it possible.

Look at how He expressed that love. Every moment of the life of Messiah Jesus was an expression of that love. Think of it. From the moment of conception to the moment of death He put our needs above His own. He gave up parts of His "Godness" and eternally changed His unchangeable nature. It culminated in a horrible death that was a punishment beyond our ability to imagine. Yet, the Scripture says both that Messiah Jesus did it for the joy set before Him and it pleased the Father to do it. Not because of masochism, but to put the needs of the other, namely us, ahead of His own perfect Self.

Amazing. And also amazing that He can give us the ability to do these things for others.

When we put the needs of others ahead of the needs of self, we are showing God's love to others in a way they can understand. We become the hands of the Messiah, doing His will. Not to get in good with Him, but because He loved us first, and we want to take that love and give it to minister to the needs of others. To join in His joyful work, even though we do it imperfectly and incompletely.

When we do this in marriage, we show a picture of God to the world. A good picture, not the foolish picture most people paint when they think of Him.

Marriage God's way is hard. It is worth it.


Today is:

Binding of the Wreaths

Chess Day (I can't play that game. I know how each piece moves, but I can't plan ahead and execute the plan and be thinking ahead of what the other guy is planning.)

Moon Day (The Eagle has landed.)

National Get Out of the Doghouse Day

National Hug Your Kid Day (If you need to be told to do that, we need to talk.)

National Lollipop Day (Warning, stupid joke time: Did you hear about the fight at the candy store? Two suckers got licked.)

St. Elijah's Day

Ugly Truck Day (Must be a "guy" thing.)


Birthdays Today:

Billy Mays, 1958 (May he rest in peace.)
Sir Edmund Hillary, 1919
Alexander the Great, BC356


Today in History

The Riot Act takes effect in Great Britain, 1712
Colombia declares its independence from Spain, 1810
Tax Stamps are first used on cigarettes, 1868 (The birth of a cash cow.)
The surrender of Sitting Bull, Sioux Chief, 1881
Final home run for Hank Aaron, #755, off the Angels' Jerry Augustine, 1976