Solitaire

I gave Cheryl a Kindle HD for Christmas. She has been using an old Kindle for a few years, and I thought she would enjoy the added features of this latest and greatest. She is really enjoying the much improved resolution as she reads her books, but I have been very surprised at the feature that she uses the most--a Solitaire ap!

We are on a plane together now, and because we changed our flight to catch an earlier flight, we are on the same row, but we are both in middle seats. To make it worse I have this giant of a man in the seat next to me. You know--the kind you see coming down the aisle of the airplane and you are thinking/praying "please don't let him sit by me." Well, he is into my space!

So, I am trying to work on email, and I give up. I look over at Cheryl and she is --that's right, she is playing Solitaire. I am wishing that I had bought her an electronic toy sooner as I see cards dancing all over her Kindle screen indicating that she has won a game, and I hear her say to a seat mate (not nearly as ample as mine), "Three minutes."

I never played Solitaire on one of my electronic apparatuses until I saw how much fun Cheryl was having. It's contagious. I am looking for opportunities to be mindless and play Solitaire on my iPad, but, I don't enjoy it nearly as much as Cheryl does. I get too frustrated. I have a problem with my ap: it does not have a “redo” function. I don't like it when I play a card, and immediately I recognize that I made a mistake and I want to take it back. If I could only take back that card and play another one already on one of the stacks, it would open up that one card that is still face down and I could watch those dancing cards on my screen. But this darn game ap won't let you take it back. It has no element of grace.

I wasn’t able to finish this post on the plane—have you ever tried typing when your head in under the armpit of the guy next to you and his body mass reaches over the armrest? So, I just found out from Cheryl that her Solitaire ap has a “redo” function. I have decided to download her ap—maybe that is why she always scores so much better than me because she has a different ap. Maybe I should rethink this. Playing on the same ap would be apples to apples and then I would not have any excuse for her clobbering me…

I am thinking about all those times when I have said something and I wished that I could take it back. I have hurt people and oh, how bad I felt immediately. Wouldn’t it be good if we were equipped with a “redo” button.

But, we actually have something much better: God has given us an ap of grace. He fills my brothers and sisters in Christ with grace so that when I hurl a missile at someone I love or someone with whom I work, they forgive me and love or like me regardless of my faults.

"I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue." Ps. 39:1a

Thank you Lord for forgiving when I can't take it back. Thank you loved ones, friends, and colleagues for forgiving me when I beat you up with my tongue.

Communication and community

I love the spontaneity of younger children. They will say most anything. We are so fortunate to have 11 grandchildren—and we expect more. Inshalla. We have more time with the four who live in the same town as we do, and we are blessed that they go to the same church as we do. With the rest of the grandchildren we have to experience many events and funny stories via various media instead of face-to-face, and we are thankful for the technology that is available to us.

When we lived in West Africa we were so far in “the bush” that it took an air letter (some of you don’t even know what that is) from the states 2-4 weeks to get to us. Our address was simply our name, Diabo, Upper Volta—no postal codes, nothing else. If one of our colleagues in Ouagadougou, the capital city, needed to get a message to us, they would send someone on a moped one day—about a 7-8 hours trip on a moped—and we would send the return message back the next day.

 When we left Burkina Faso in 1987, the only direct real-time outside communication with the rest of the world was our short-wave radio and one radio station from Ouagadougou—FUN! I returned to Burkina Faso in 2008 with two Operators from our company to conduct a SERVE conference in Ouagadougou. Our conference was sponsored by the Ouagadougou Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian-Burkinabe Alliance. When we left in 1987 we were working with the poorest of the poor, and when we returned 21 years later we were working with some of the wealthiest business leaders in the country.

Our host had agreed to give us a vehicle with a driver so that we could go out to the area where we lived for several years. It was only a 3 hour drive compared to over 4 when we lived there—the difference was not better roads, but a maniac driver! We departed before sunup so we virtually had the entire day to spend in the villages where we lived. It was a huge joy to see so many friends and former colleagues (all Burkinabe, as there are no expats living in that part of the country now).

Unfortunately, most villagers still experience the physical hardships of living in a drought-stricken and poverty-ridden area of the world. However, the spiritual situation is a blessing—there are churches in 75 villages in that area. The biggest change was that some villagers have mobile phones—even though there is no electricity anywhere near that (more on that in another post). Occasionally, I receive a phone call or text from one of the pastors in this remote corner of the earth. I am simply amazed at all the communication tools that are available to us today.

I have been convicted lately—not to get a Facebook account—but to use the tools available to build Christian community.   Our deacons have recently started having an accountability partner. For a month at a time each of us is paired up with another deacon, and we are responsible for phoning, texting or emailing each other. It has already helped us to build a stronger community among the deacons.

 How many times have you told someone in an email, on the phone or in a text that you are going to pray for them? Why don’t you just do it immediately instead of telling them what you are going to do? Pray for them on the phone. Write a short prayer via text or email. All these acts of kindness and love demonstrate Christian community; they are quickly done, but they reap a huge return on your investment.

 While you are thinking of other ways to use your technology, don’t forget about snail mailing hand-written notes. “A handwritten note can be one of the most important things you do to distinguish yourself from others” (DaleCarnegieTraining.net). Statistics show that thank you notes are opened far more than any other snail mail or email.

 Look around you—what is the condition of the community in which you live, work, play, and worship? What are you doing about it?

Holy Spear

When I was 5 years old we lived on Portwood Street in Greenwood, Mississippi. There are a lot of memories from living in that house. We only lived there a few years as my parents frequently would sell our house and buy another one to “move up” and get a better and bigger house. This one was small—two bedrooms and a bath, but this was where we lived when my folks bought our first television.

 Before we bought a television, all I knew about this magical box I learned when we would park our car in front of the Western Auto and watch the moving pictures in a wooden box in the display window of the store. That was a great advertising gimmick—to leave a TV on all the time (well, at least when programming was going on) for people to see what they were missing by not having a TV at home. It worked for my folks, so we had our first television. After seeing Howdy Doody for the first time, it became my favorite show (www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIslhp9vqqw).

 Other memories from that house included the arrival of my brother, Barry, who I started calling “Bubba”—and it stuck to this day. But, sorry Bubba, I have much more vivid memories about TV and about one other thing: my mother would come to my bed every night to have prayers with me. I would pray something—don’t remember what. However, I vividly remember that she would often thank God for the Holy Spirit who would be right beside me and protect me all night long. It would have been okay if I had truly understood what my mother was talking about, but I did not sleep well many nights because I thought she was saying that the “Holy Spear” would be beside me all night long!

 Now for a five-year-old you can imagine what went through my mind. I was afraid to open my eyes after the prayer because there was a Holy Spear next to my bed!

 It was only several years later that I begin to understand what the Holy Spirit is—and I am still working on that understanding.

 How many times do you hear someone pray, “Lord, we pray that your Spirit would be with us today in this service,” or “God please be with them as they travel.” These are well intended prayers, but they lack an understanding that God’s Holy Spirit is right beside us ALL THE TIME. “And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20

 Thank you Heavenly Father that you are with me every nanosecond of my existence. May I not be afraid of your presence beside me, but may I be filled with confidence and joy because YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH ME. Rejoice!