Reasons for the wars, right or wrong, I just do not care to discuss. The reasons are not, ultimately, important when it comes to supporting these brave men and women. These soldiers and their families have been called upon, they answered and now the country’s citizens need to be showing our support of their sacrifice.

The Lightbulb Went Off

Last year, while attending the dinner, it struck me that more soldiers, vets and their families might appreciate being there. How about this idea for the next dinner?

Anyone want to purchase dinner tickets (or a table) and donate it for use by just soldiers and their families?

Drop a comment if you are interested in this idea or simply fill out this contact form. I am also thinking of having some kind of arrangement or token of appreciation at each place setting, but I am not in the least creative, in that direction. So, if you have an idea there, too…

The sad part of this story is that we have raised a generation of parents (cathedral builders) that are more concerned about their own status and social persona than simply building the best cathedrals around.

To my fellow cathedral builders: keep it up…

——-

Invisible Mom

One of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’

Obviously not; no one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I’m invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more! Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this??

Some days I’m not a pair of hands; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer, ‘What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please..’

Some days I’m a crystal ball; ‘Where’s my other sock?, Where’s my phone?, What’s for dinner?’

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history, music and literature -but now, they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going, she’s going, she’s gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England . She had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when she turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’ It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription: ‘With admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’

In the days ahead I would read – no, devour – the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: 1) No one can say who built the great cathedrals – we have no record of their names. 2) These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. 3) They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. 4) The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees.’

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was Almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does.

No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, no cupcake you’ve baked, no Cub Scout meeting, no last-minute errand is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built-in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for 3 hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, he’d say, ‘You’re gonna love it there…’

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.

——

The Hill says that the leaders expressed rage when Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) asked DeMarco if he’s ever met a homeowner who has suffered a foreclosure, to which he said he had not. – AGBeat

Huh…

So, in the span of about one month, I have had the, ah… privilege (that’ll work, I suppose) of witnessing two supreme gaffes in an interviewing situation. The quote above is galling, especially in light of our economy’s continued struggle, brought about by the utter collapse of the real estate market. Here, the director of FHFA, the regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is openly and freely admitting that he has never gone face to face with someone who is going, or has gone, through a foreclosure.

Now, being someone who learns more from other’s mistakes as opposed to other’s success, I will be the first to admit that one does not need to experience something first hand to know if it is good, bad, ugly or indifferent. I *really* do not need to put my hand in the fire to figure out it is hot. However, I did need someone who knew more about fire and had been burnt, to explain to me that fire will burn and be painful, if used incorrectly.

As a real estate agent, I have bought one personal residence and one vacant lot for me and my family. On behalf of my clients, I have assisted many in purchasing or selling their home. I have ten years of experience in this marketplace and industry. I am confident that I can guide my clients to a successful resolution of their real estate goals. It is my experience that allows me to speak with authority and confidence as to how my clients’ goals may be accomplished.

Imagine if I simply had a book, webinar or some other form of non-hands on training that I used to “advise” my clients. It would likely be a disaster. I would “know” the words to speak, but the application would likely be off on an individual transaction basis. DeMarco shows his disconnectedness with the issue at hand by acknowledging that he has never spoken with someone going through foreclosure.

[insert howls of rage here]

Round Two

The other instance of disconnectedness came from hearing about some folks wanting to be pastors. A question was posed to these folk that I thought would have been a slam dunk. “When was the last time you shared the gospel with someone?”

You know the answer.

It’s why I am writing this post.

Instead of raging about why their response was disconcerting, at best, I will allow an avowed atheist to answer instead:

How much do you have to hate someone to not share the gospel?

How much do you have to “not care” about someone to not learn about how your policies will affect someone?

[Looks around for the rocking chair on my front porch. Commences to scream, "Get off my lawn!"]

Recently, I ran into this article by Douglas Rushkoff, asking, “Are Jobs Obsolete?” I highly recommend reading the piece in its entirety.

Our problem is not that we don’t have enough stuff — it’s that we don’t have enough ways for people to work and prove that they deserve this stuff.

…we are attempting to use the logic of a scarce marketplace to negotiate things that are actually in abundance. What we lack is not employment, but a way of fairly distributing the bounty we have generated through our technologies, and a way of creating meaning in a world that has already produced far too much stuff.

This line of questioning our current employment crisis intrigues me. For ten years now, I have been self-employed. Every day that I wake up, I need to justify to clients that my services are worth something. Every day, I show my work value to potential clients and they agree or they disagree with the value I bring to their real estate needs.

As Rushkoff points out, it used to be that folks would do what they did best and trade for what they needed or wanted:

They made shoes, plucked chickens, or created value in some way for other people, who then traded or paid for those goods and services. By the late Middle Ages, most of Europe was thriving under this arrangement.

It was not until theRenaissancethat folk began to work for organizations or corporations. Since, workers and employers have consistently been searching for ways to make our work lives easier. Be it the assembly line or desktop computer, we have yearned for an easier way to work or have work done for us by automation.

‘Easier’ Work is Luxury, Right?

Could it be that our high unemployment rate is a victim of our drive towards efficiency? We have more than we actually need to live, we have some of the world’s richest poor folksand yet we are spinning our wheels as a country trying to “solve” this employment problem.

I know that in my own work, I look for tools and systems that allow me to be more efficient and effective with the resources and time I have at my disposal. A recent acquisition is enabling me to spend less time printing documents for signatures and more time focusing on the needs of my clients. If I had not been looking towards making the administrative side of my business more efficient for myself, I might have found myself, more rapidly, in a position to hire someone to do those admin tasks.

Forever Recession?

And then Seth Godin drops this tidbit:

There’s a race to the bottom, one where communities fight to suspend labor and environmental rules in order to become the world’s cheapest supplier. The problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win…

You see, Seth posits that work that is repetitious and can be systemized, will be. As civilization battles with this shift, efficiencies increase. It was in the inefficiencies, in communication, in geographic location that companies were able to charge more and employees could expect a stable, secure job.

When everyone has a laptop and connection to the world, then everyone owns a factory.

Rethink: Employment

Let’s face it: most folks reading this post live in North America. We do not want for much in our countries. Scarcity is word and concept that is not oft used to describe much of our lives. Unless, of course, we are talking about our attention span…

I recently attended the TEDxDetroit 2011 conference and was blown away by a young, happenstance, entrepreneur. While attending classes in the winter and completing a project for one professor, Veronika Scott, a design student, sees a homeless person living in a makeshift tent literal steps from a homeless shelter. She pokes her head into the shelter, and begins to design a coat/sleep bag with folks in the homeless shelter.

Not only did she create a coat that allows the homeless to stay warm, she has begun to employ some of the very homeless that she originally worked with to design the coat. One of her employees, a seamstress, has now moved into an apartment with her three children and is now actively looking to get more into industrial textile manufacturing.

…

One college student. One happenstance walk down a sidewalk. Some guts.

What “job” actively makes things like this happen? Is this a repeatable, systemize-able workflow? And yet, I am beginning to believe, this is a glimpse of what the new definition of employment is becoming. It is not easy to compartmentalize, label, and analyze.

Employment could very easily be redefined as re-assembling thoughts, ideas, services and products in more efficient manner.

Have idea and laptop, will produce.

Jesus never measured His life by how or where He was of the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be. – Oswald Chambers

Someone very close to me recently shared their frustration that God never answers the prayers they take to His feet.

Ouch.

To say I sympathize, is an understatement. Often, it feels as though God hears my prayers, my requests, my petitions, yet delays His response to the point it feels as though there will be no answer. Or at least, that is my perception. Oswald hit the “usefulness” nail on the head by pointing out that “we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.”

I believe it would be more useful if I lived closer to my kids’ school and our church. I have prayed this for a few years now. But still, we reside in our humble abode some distance from family, friends and the community we’ve been called to be in.

[my logic] if we’ve been called to be a part of this particular community, have our boys in that school, then it seems better served if we were closer to, if not in, that part of town.

Yet here we are. Waiting on God.

Because

I ask, “Why?” way too often. I nearly feel as though I am a two-year old with no better question to ask of my surroundings than, “Why?” It is as if I can not articulate my frustration, joy, anger, angst, contentment… or any emotion, for that matter, past simply asking, “Why?”

And often, the response I hear is, “Because.”

That is the total answer. Nothing more. Just, “Because.”

Now, I remember how exasperated I was when I was told, “Because,” when I was a wee lad. Heck, I have giggled maniacally at my own sons’ reactions when I tell them, “Because.” This is truly comical when Attaboy (all of five years old, mind you) throws his arms up over his head, rolls his eyes and harumphs at me.

But I digress…

“Because” does not answer anything. At all. It is a simple statement that implies a reason. Except that reason is never immediately revealed.

Or so we believe.

God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him – Oswald Chambers [emphasis mine]

[facepalm]

That’s where I miss the point. Every. Time.

This world, this life, everything, is all about HIS glory. HIS glory trumps all. So when His answer to my prayers is, “Because,” I need to hear the rest of His answer. It is actually closer to, “Because my creation is about glorifying ME.”

So, if my family needs to learn deeper contentment about our current location, I know that the end result will be in further glorifying Him. This is the heart attitude and condition that I fail to maintain when I am most discontent, when I feel that God simply does not answer, or want to answer, my prayers.

And really, who am I to tell my creator that I know better than Him?

Many Christians have grown up in the church on moralistic preaching; that is, preaching that calls for obedience without connecting the commands of God to the cross of Christ.

…let’s just say you have grabbed my attention.

Obedience for Obedience’s Sake

How many times, growing up, were we told, “Don’t do this,” or, “Do that?” I am sure the actual number is incalculable, as I find myself uttering [ok, pleading!] with my own sons to simply “do as you are told.”

And that’s the rub, isn’t it? We expect and want those around us to “behave” but do little to no explaining why we expect or want them to “behave.” It is simply too easy to recite the do’s and the do not’s without explaining the “Why.” When we reduce behavior modification to a series of commands, we are simply laying the groundwork for legalism to take root.

Again, the example from my sons looms large in my mind. So many times, I have heard one boy call the other out for some minor offense without any grace or patience for the offender to rectify the situation. Perhaps not so oddly, I see the same practice amongst grown ups, only it is usually a lot more sophisticated than, “Attaboy took my Lego!”

Showing the God of the command moves us from preaching moralism to unpacking theology. It moves us beyond the command to the God who gives it.

RE: Disconnect

When we fall into moralism, we are setting ourselves, and others, up for failure. There is no possible way for you or me to live up to all of the laws laid down for us. Pointing out the faults of others simply shows how insecure we are in the mercy that our Savior extends us. My failings, which are numerous, are unique to me. What is also unique to me is the mercy and grace that He shows me on a daily moment by moment basis.

The grace and mercy of our Lord is extended to all. Yet we, the created, find it so difficult to be patient with our brothers and sisters, we find it so difficult to be gracious or merciful to everyone…

…including ourselves.

The larger disconnect, however, is removing grace from the commands. Can you imagine a faith based solely on following commands that are impossible to fulfill? Talk about a soul crushing, cold, impersonal faith!

When we understand that the commands laid down for us are for one main reason (HIS glory), we can delight in His grace and mercy when we fall short of His glory. Practicing moralism moves the focus to us, instead of pointing us to our Creator and His love for us.

Two Commands. That’s it.

He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence-and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” Luke 10:27

When I am impatient, upset, frustrated and angry at someone’s inability to see things the way I believe is correct, I am falling flat on my face in keeping BOTH commands. When I lack a level of sensitivity to another person’s feelings and sensibilities, I am failing miserably at loving them.

And, if I actually stop to think about why I am upset, frustrated and angry, it is typically a product of putting myself and my will before His perfect plan.

How are you disconnecting God from His commands? If we can not revel in His grace and mercy because we disconnect Him from His commands, what, exactly, are we reveling in by practicing moralism?

Here is the screen cap of Drudge this morning:

And here is a screen cap of the closing bell on Wall Street this afternoon:

These kinds of headlines and news events seem to put everyone on edge. There’s a palpable sense of hopelessness throughout a day when news like this breaks.Which is kind of ironic given the sermon atGrace Chapelon Sunday, August 7th; Pastor Doug went to Ecclesiastes 8 to discuss the sovereignty of God in ALL aspects of our lives.

Vapor – From Solomon the Sage

…I realized that if you keep your eyes open day and night without even blinking, you’ll still never figure out the meaning of what God is doing on this earth. Ecclesiastes 8:16b-17a

Our church has been going through Ecclesiastes these last few weeks and the sermons have been particularly poignant, considering the news events and times we are experiencing. This sermon, however, really struck home for me. Especially in the wake of the US credit rating being downgraded and the ensuing stock market free fall.

Ecclesiastes is often times felt to be a bit of a downer. There appears to be little “good feeling” coming from the words of Solomon. Yet, I can not help but be comforted by the fact that all that occurs in life, good, bad, ugly or otherwise, is all for God’s glory.

From ourperspective, His ways may seem unjust, unreasonable, unfair or just flat out mysterious. Especially when things appear unjust, we are quick to desire justice; we desire to see the wicked brought low immediately.

Yet…

THOUGH the mills of God grind slowly,

Yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience he stands waiting,

With exactness grinds he all.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | Retribution

Imagine if you got exactly what you deserved, immediately after crossing God’s word. Is there any room for repentance? Is there any room for forgiveness? We all, ALL, fall short of His glory. Yet, in His wisdom, he sent His son as our redeemer and furthermore, gives us time to repent. He allows us the ability to become right with Him.

Don’t misunderstand, God does exercise His justice. But He also exercises supreme mercy and grace. This is where I find my comfort: that He provides all, and more, than we need or deserve. He has ordained that we should be given time to become right with Him. His patience with me is an example of the patience I need to have with others.

Smoke

Does a 634 point drop in the stock market hit the pocketbook?

Does the drop and the nation’s credit rating cut affect my daily life and ability to do business?

The answer to both of these questions is undoubtedly, “Yes.” However, as He has claimed me as His son, I can rest, rest, in the assurance that He will provide what I need. He has never faltered in His faithfulness to me and my family, even though my perspective, at times, has been challenged by His will for my life. However, just as I parent my boys, His parenting of me has always been for the benefit of my relationship to Him.

Our lives are but vapor (smoke) in the wind. We are alive for a short period of time and then are no longer on the face of the earth. Our lives, as summed up by Solomon and vouched for by Thomas Hobbes can be described as “nasty, brutish and short.” Solomon comes to the conclusion that it is good for us to do the work given our hands. He goes further in his conclusion by advising that we enjoy the fruits of our labors as we can because this is all we can expect, while on this planet.

634 point drop? I still have my family, I still have my friends and, importantly, I still have my faith.

How about you?