OUT ON BUSINESS

I was a twenty-something in my first job when I first drove a company car—a hilarious experience for my new co-workers. I’d just been hired by a small daily newspaper, so fresh out of college that I didn’t even own a car. When the editor assigned me a local story, he gave me the keys to the newsroom car.
“You drive a stick-shift, don’t you?” he asked. 
“Uh, no,” I admitted. I’d learned to drive on an automatic.
He grabbed a piece of paper and drew a diagram of where to push the gear shift. “And be sure to put in the clutch when you do,” he added.  “Remember, easy out on the clutch.” The clutch was on a second diagram.

First week on the job, and I was sure I’d die in a traffic incident on my first assignment.

“Easy out on the clutch” wasn’t all that easy.  As I bucked out of the parking lot, I provided plenty of entertainment for those gathered at the second story newsroom window.

I was reminded of that young-adult nightmare by this row of empty “company car” parking places I saw a few weeks ago. Whatever company was using those spaces, all were out “doing business.”

At this time of year when millions are out “doing business” at multiple businesses—that is, shopping—maybe this photo is a reminder of priorities. If our first commitment is to our heavenly Father’s business, we need to use the resources He’s made available to us for His purposes.  I think Jesus as a lad demonstrated that when He stayed behind at the Temple after his family’s caravan started back to Nazareth after the Passover pilgrimage.

“Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” He told his anxious earthly parents when they finally found Him (Luke 2:49). Even as a youth, He was focused on the Father’s calling on His life.

The real “company car” for Christmas isn’t Santa’s sleigh. It’s the powerful message from Heaven that was temporarily parked in a Bethlehem cattle feeding trough. It’s the one that reminds us, “Get out of the parking lot and carry on with the Father’s business.”

SECOND LIFE

It was once a dying railroad town, but today Leavenworth in Washington’s Cascades swarms with tourists enjoying the vicarious experience of a Bavarian shopping center. Nestled at the foot of forested mountain foothills, it’s a picture-perfect place with an alpine-village ambience. Shop after shop on the main streets sell souvenirs and food. One recent day we enjoyed the “food” (thanks to a gift certificate). As I looked down at the main street from our second-story eating perch, I thought of the vision (and sweat equity) that turned a dying town around.

Not that there aren’t problems. Housing is expensive, as you’d expect in a tourist-oriented location. Traffic? Yes. Sometimes smoke hangs in the air from Central Washington fires. But it still embraces the “dream escape” to a European village that most will never be able to visit overseas. As a member of the “Sound of Music” generation, I have enjoyed the ambience of this Bavarian-ish town just a half-hour drive from ours. And yes, it capitalizes on that classic film musical with an annual production on an outdoor stage with a breathtaking mountain view. It’s almost magical as the star playing “Maria” twirls and sings “The hills are alive” with Washington’s almost-alps in the background!

In many ways, it’s a parable of how God takes us—dying, neglected, unwanted—and gives us a new and vibrant life. Sometimes I’ve shared these verses with discouraged people who need something to hang on in their hopes for something better:

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18-19)

This comes from a passage of reprimand (for the people abandoning God) and hope (that He can and will restore the now-sin-ragged nation). Some day, God says, things will get turned around for “the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise” (v. 21).

The late Bill Bright, a beacon among recent Christian leaders, blanketed the world with his condensation of the Gospel message, known as “The Four Spiritual Laws.” The first: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” The other “laws” trace how we have failed to love God, and His plan for reconciliation through Jesus Christ. Without Him, we’re like rundown, dying villages, cloaked in a dark cloud of  grumbling and discouragement. His perfect plan for us is so much better than anything we could concoct. His “rehab” program is not a cultural reproduction, but a spiritually transformed life that makes “renewal” a reality.

TWEETS

A treetop chorus greeted me one day when I went out to get the mail. The row of tall evergreens behind our house provided the perches for a whole choir of “tweeters,” cheerfully expressing their happiness (I assume!). My “to-do” list that day included grocery shopping. I thought how the birds don’t need to bother with such errands. Though they have to hunt for food, God supplies. That includes the local crows, who grab walnuts from a nearby tree and drop them on the street to break them open!

The internet has opened up a whole new way to communicate instantly. The birds, naturally, reminded me of the “Twitter” and “tweets” phenomenon. Also called “micro-blogging,” it’s a social network service that allows you to express yourself in 280 characters or less. The White House “tweets”! But don’t try to “tweet” me. I’m not in that “system.” Plus, I favor thinking through my words and asking if they will hurt or harm. Proverbs 25:9 adds: “He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend.”

Several years ago I was emotionally wounded by someone who felt they should “speak their mind” and sent me pages-long communications (definitely not “tweets”) that distorted events and words from long years earlier. Eventually, that person admitted to having a problem with a bitter spirit. I think that was after I shared the acrostic guideline “THINK” for God-honoring communication. Before writing or speaking, ask, is it...
TRUE?
HELPFUL?
INSPIRATIONAL?
NECESSARY?
KIND?
I wonder if some of our problems with the tongue (or the keyboarding/’twittering’ fingers) go back to violating this principle. We forget Who we represent and just speak our minds. We forget our dependence on the Creator, of Whom those singing birds regularly remind us:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6:26)

Those feathered friends “twittering” in the treetops behind my home spoke a language I can’t understand. But I can accept the truth that they depend on the Creator for their very next meal. And although I don’t talk “bird language” (which is another area of scientific exploration by itself) I do understand the need to train myself to speak (or write) as though God was listening in.

Because He is.

DO IT!

Diligence. That word came to mind when I saw this iron sculpture of spear-fishing in a park near the Columbia River in Washington. In days of long-ago, those who didn’t fish, didn’t eat. Fish was an important part of their diets! Actually, the apostle Paul said that, too: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10). There’s both truth and common misinterpretation in that quote.

First, the “way off” stuff. Paul was writing a church that could hardly wait for Jesus to come back and start the new world order.  Some were so sure He was coming soon that they had quit their jobs or suspended their businesses to just “wait.”  They’d become “busybodies” with not enough Christ-worthy things to occupy their time and energy. They’d become a burden to the church, which felt it needed to support them—at least to feed them. 
Their inactivity was depleting the church resources, to no good. So Paul wrote, “Keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us” (2 Thess. 3:6). In other words, quit mooching.

He held himself, Silas and Timothy as examples. Even though they were traveling evangelists, when they landed somewhere for a while, they paid for their own food. They found what work they could—Paul likely in tent manufacturing.  They didn’t want to burden the church community with their support. More important, Paul said, “We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he shall not eat’” (vv. 9-10).

My husband helps deliver donated potatoes to ministries that help the needy. They come from a generous grower about 40 miles away who donates multiple 50-pound sacks of spuds. When my husband pulls his loaded truck up to a ministry office, he’s very thankful when they send out people to help unload. It’s a big job for somebody who’s in his mid-seventies. In some cases, the unloading crew is people who are being helped by that ministry, like a shelter for homeless men. They may not be able to hold a for-wage job yet, but they are working as helpers for the shelter. The shelter’s ultimate goal is to move them out as responsible community members who can support themselves. Work has dignity and purpose.

I find the last chapter of 2 Thessalonians instructional, yet disturbing.  It’s very sad that Paul had to deal with lazy Christians. But it’s a reminder that every day should count for God.  Or, as Jesus expressed it in the Parable of the Ten Minas, don’t slough off in using the abilities God has given you.  “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13 KJV).

SPENT

Fall’s first frost came early this year, leaving us with way too many green tomatoes. I felt like some sort of grim reaper when I tore into our wilted line of tomatoes and removed the whole shebang. Some years I rinse the green tomatoes that show more “potential” in a weak bleach solution to ward off mold. Those with a hint of yellow go in a sunny windowsill to ripen nature’s way. The others I layer in a box between newspapers to awaken slowly. Of both methods, eventually some ripen, but some developed mold and had to be tossed. 
We’re “city-slicker” gardeners who buy fledgling tomato plants every spring from the hardware store. Bravo to the more farm-hearted souls who harvest tomato seeds and know how to bring the pinhead-size seeds to new life as “starter” plants. Think: seed pods made out of empty toilet paper rolls, stuffed with nutritious/sterilized potting soil, and nurtured with lots of green-thumb know-how. I watched the You-Tube! I could do it—if I wanted!

GIVING BACK

Imagine: claiming the abundance for more abundance!  That spiritual principle was Paul’s focus in nurturing the church in Corinth. Known as a worldly and perhaps selfish city, it was a good incubator for the concept of giving generously. As Paul emphasized the practical and spiritual rewards of giving, he urged them to give generously and graciously. The end result (for impoverished recipients in Jerusalem) would be the “overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God” (2 Cor. 9:14).

That passage came to mind a few weeks ago during the annual all-city "Make a Difference" volunteer day. Our newspaper ran a full page of project descriptions to help people figure out how they could spend a few hours improving our community. It poured rain that day, so some of the outdoor projects probably had to reschedule. But many folks got free haircuts, dental care, food, diapers, repaired bikes, property repair and other “helps.” And...the do-gooders undoubtedly got “feel-good” endorphins for giving of themselves.

The dynamics weren’t any different in the First Century. Those who give in the name of Christ, Paul said, receive back what can’t be weighed or measured: the surpassing grace of God (9:14). That concept should blow your mind. It did Paul’s, as he followed up with this exclamation: “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (v. 15).

The Gift beyond all gifts, of course, is Jesus. With the annual celebration of His birth coming at us (with all its materialism and greed), we need the reminder that the seeds of Christ-motivated giving are within us. Even if tinier than a tomato seed, they have potential for harvest.