Wrong Efforts

Political races sometimes bring out the worst in us. A Dutch councilwoman, Patricia Reichman, 59 years old, used AI to make her official photo to look dramatically more attractive and a lot younger. The people who saw the campaign materials knew something was not real. When her political party confronted her, she said, “It’s a medication I’m taking.” She was expelled from the party. Often times, wrong efforts take us beyond the realm of reality. Sin does have consequences. When you do something wrong, don’t make excuses to try and cover it up. Read about Adam and Eve. If you dig a hole and are about to fall in it, quit digging and get away from there. Confess and ask for forgiveness.

Jesus taught that you cannot put new wine into old wineskins because the old wineskin would burst. Jesus offered every person a totally new wineskin. His ministry was not to repair old people but to offer a new person. It’s sad to read in Luke 5 that so many people did not accept a new wineskin. Jesus said they think the old is just fine. Don’t ever settle for something less than what God offers to each of us. Never be content with rejecting God’s offer and just assume that everything will be fine. What you think is fine is far inferior to what God has to offer. Receive God’s new wineskin made just for you and get ready to see what great things God has to put in it.

Ben Tamburello was an All-American football player at Auburn, then played six years with the Philadelphia Eagles. He played for a very stern, disciplined coach who took care of all the small details to be sure that the Eagles played to their maximum potential. Before the National Anthem was sung, the football team had to line up on the sideline in numerical order beginning with #1--#99. Each player had his toes on the out of bounds line. He held his helmet under his left arm with the chin strap buckled. When the anthem started, every player put his hand over his heart and stood at attention. On this Veterans Day, thank a veteran for making it possible to have a National Anthem and please pay proper respect to all veterans past and present by standing up for America.

How do you know which food is the most healthy for you to eat? The Wall Street Journal has reported that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has appealed to President Trump’s inner circle to use a diet of grass-fed beef and sauerkraut. I never heard of sauerkraut being at the top of healthy food chain. In fact, Kennedy’s wife, actress Cheryl Hines, said that he often asked her to carry his sauerkraut in her purse. Her usual response is, “I actually cannot.” Eating a healthy diet is good for our overall health—how do you decide what is most healthy? Make a good decision and after deciding, how disciplined are you to select and eat the most healthy food?

A smart high school senior from McDonough, Georgia decided to practice a principle of opening as many opportunities for college as possible. He applied to 270 schools and was accepted in all but six of them. He was accepted in 264 and was offered over $17 million in scholarships. He wants to major in environmental science and discovered the more you walk through open doors, the more opportunities you will have in the future. What will you do today to expand your opportunities? The more doors you see open, the quicker you will find the right door that leads you to the right place to invest your life. Doors don’t stay open long because somebody else is ready to walk through them.

Sometimes boarding a plane can be extremely busy and you have to make instant decisions. A Las Vegas police officer was working at the airport and encountered such a situation. A lady had to discard her two-year-old puppy because she couldn’t fly with him. The animal protection services came and got the golden doodle puppy and offered him for adoption. They named him JetBlue. Would you believe that 2,700 people applied to adopt him. The officer who was on duty at the airport, Skeeter Black, was chosen to receive the fluffy fido. He said, “We’re going to enjoy him. He is going to be very much loved.” You don’t have to be at an airport to see a need. When you see a need, are you willing to ask God how you might be used to help fill that need?

Patience is a tough virtue to practice. My new book, Got a Second, is composed of 365 quotes—one for each day of the year. One quote is “In traffic we want the car behind us to exercise patience, but not the car in front of us.” A news source in Japan has reported that Japanese restaurants are offering a “fast pass” option that allows you to pay a fee to avoid having to wait for a table. I have seen people slip money to a person in charge to get ahead in line. It’s interesting that Japanese restaurant owners say that some customers are “paying more for the fast pass than they do for the food.” What kind of world could we have if everybody practiced patience in all situations? It might help us all get along better together.

The internet provides many opportunities to get in trouble. Be careful what you click on. A group of employees in Canada were told that they had worked hard and they could get an extra vacation day if they clicked on a link—but it was actually a cyber security test. The link thanked folks for their really hard work on a recent project and offered them to register for a paid day off. It was actually a test to see who would click on an unauthorized link. There was some discussion about how legal that strategy was by the employer. It was entitled “June Holiday” but it might have caused as much harm as good. Be careful what you click on. The internet is neither totally good or bad—it depends on how you use it.

A Florida Waffle House has done a good job of advertising using some eye-catching window ads. Edward Bowlds is 84 and fell in the parking lot because he said he was distracted by the beautiful ads. He said that their size, placement, and orientation painted a picture that was too clear and compelling of folks who had parked and were coming into the Waffle House. I don’t know how he is suing the Waffle House. I don’t know how that case will come out, but I wonder what he expected a business establishment to present to the public. What do you and I present for others in terms of our lifestyle, language, and attitude? We don’t want people to trip over them, but I do hope it will attract people to becoming a follower of the man who created everything.

Rob is a 54-year-old former computer programmer who had a terrible accident that changed his life. It really became an open door for a new purpose for him. He now fixes up bicycles and donates them to the community. In 2017 he was hit at a crosswalk by a car and spent a month in a coma. He has a traumatic brain injury and is partially blind and paralyzed. He worked in a bike shop in his youth. He now is using those abilities to make a difference in his community. What we call tragedies are sometimes open doors for new opportunities to make a difference. God is in the business of taking things we thought are bad and turning them into good.