Now that the class I teach has ended for the year, I’ll have a chance to catch up on some recreational reading.

But there’s one book in particular I will not be reading. Not because my own county library has a wait list. Not because more than 2,000 people are already on the Palm Beach County library wait list for it. Not even because the Brevard County library system has banned the book.

The book I will not be reading is Fifty Shades of Grey. Rather than explain why, I’m asking you to check out the following link. Dannah Gresh has explained it so much better than I ever could.

Check the link below and read her post for your own sake. Then tweet it, post it, blog about it …for the sake of those you love.

http://www.purefreedom.org/blog/?p=320

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8 NIV).

• A friend’s husband removed political bumper stickers from the family car because of safety concerns for his wife and children.

• A politically active local group is seeking to have a newspaper columnist fired because of her published opinions.

• A friend on Facebook referred to a U.S. Senator as a “radical nut cake” simply because she disagreed with her politics.

• A patient called a doctor’s receptionist and aggressively berated her because she could not immediately connect him to the doctor (who was with another patient at that time).

• A mother gave her son a stun gun to take to school to defend himself against bullying tormentors.

Have we lost our civility as a society? Is this simply a matter of disagreement, or is something more profound at stake?

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “There can be no high civility without a deep morality.” Whatever your religious or spiritual persuasion, no one can doubt the correlation between declining civility and our culture’s declining morality. Civility is given lip service, if it’s considered at all. When it’s claimed in the name of taking the high road, it lasts for less time than an ice cream cone on a summer afternoon in Florida.

Those who disagree often attack each other with such vehemence that the issue deteriorates from mere disagreement to an all-out war. Battle lines are drawn. Sides are chosen. Intelligent discussion and debate are sacrificed on the altars of passion and pride.

The rhyme, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never harm me,” is one of the biggest lies perpetuated on children. Words do cause harm. Names can crush a spirit and inflict injuries that may not be physical, but are still life-altering. Worse, name-calling is rarely the last stop. It’s a short distance from cruel words to vicious actions. From a put-down to a knock-out. From slurs to stun guns.

The Bible tells us, “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of…. everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:34, 36-37).

I’m reminded of the classic novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. The ugliness of Dorian’s soul is unseen in his face, but reflected in his deteriorating portrait. You and I don’t have the option of restricting our ugliness to a hidden portrait. Like it or not, our words reveal what is tucked away in our minds. As a jostled glass spills its contents, so our lips spill the contents of our hearts.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, “So let us begin anew – remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.” Are we ready to prove the sincerity of our civility? I hope so. If not, we will have lost more than our manners…we will have lost our humanity.

What have your words indicated about the contents of your heart this week?

While these objects – only forty or fifty years old – have passed into history, I’m reminded of predictions made fifty years ago regarding the twenty-first century. Remember the promise of a paperless workspace? Computers that fit in the palm of your hand? I remember watching Star Trek episodes in the 1960s in which the show’s characters carried on conversations with computers and wondered how that could ever be possible in my lifetime.

But some of these predictions have already been fulfilled. We not only speak on smartphones, we speak to them…and they speak back! Computer chips the size of a fingernail contain information that would fill an entire library. The paperless workspace? Not so much…yet. But it’s coming.

An innovation you may not have heard of yet is the flexible robot. Remember playing with Gumby? This robot is shaped like Gumby, with a white, soft body. Harvard scientists studied animals that did not have hard skeletons in order to create a five-inch long robot made of rubber.

The flexible robot is able to crawl, slide, and squeeze through tight spaces, controlled by air pumped into, or released from, its four legs.

Science has always promised us a better life through pioneering inventions. But no matter how innovative the products, they are limited to slight improvements for a life that is temporary, no matter how hard we try to make it otherwise.

God has also made promises to us – promises that will not disappoint because they are related to a life that will last forever. Promises that help us cope with this temporary life while keeping an eternal perspective. Promises based on His unchanging nature and His glorious ways.

It’s fun to remember old items that recall simpler times. It’s exciting to consider new inventions that promise comfort and ease. But we should never get so comfortable that we begin to believe this is all there is to life. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (I Corinthians 2:9).

There’s an even better life coming!

What invention do you wish for that would make life better?

After a prolonged dry season, sunny south Florida needs rain. Not the tease of a drizzle, but the deluge of a downpour. Precipitation that soaks deep into the soil instead of rivulets running off parched surfaces to collect in curbside puddles.

The weather report warns of a 10 – 20% chance of rain on a regular basis, but the dry season isn’t ready to release its grip. Irrigation systems sprinkle much-needed water across dry lawns, offering the proverbial drop-in-the-bucket until the empty clouds are no longer void.

There’s another kind of empty cloud. The Bible likens ungodly people to “clouds without rain” and trees that are fruitless and uprooted (Jude 1:12). People who only care for themselves, who pretend to be something they’re not.

I know people like that. People who have let me down when I needed them. Co-workers who pretended to work with me while furthering their own ambitions. Friends who betrayed the foundation of friendship for the sake of convenience.

I’m ashamed to say there have been times in my own life when others used these same phrases to describe me. When my behavior was more like an ungodly person than the Christian I claimed to be. When nurturing my own hurts was more important than forgiving the offender.

But each day brings the opportunity to start anew. To surrender to the lordship of Christ and deny my baser instincts. To follow His Word rather than my natural inclinations. To grow more like Christ and become all that He created me to be by the power of His Holy Spirit. To be less like the empty cloud and fruitless tree in Jude and more like the fruitful tree in Psalm 1:

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.

Is that the patter of raindrops I hear on the roof? I hope so.

April 17^th was a red-letter day…and not in a good way, unless perhaps you are receiving a tax refund. But even that isn’t really good news, since it means the government had use of your money all year, interest free.

This is the time of year when many of us reexamine our financial plans, that is, if we even had a financial plan. But financial issues have plagued us for centuries. In an essay first published in 1758, good ol’ Ben Franklin had a few bits of wisdom that still apply today…

Spending:

“What use is this pride of appearance, for which so much is suffered. It cannot promote health, nor ease pain: it hastens misfortune.”

Saving:

“If you would be wealthy, think of saving, as well as of getting. Away then, with your expensive follies, and you will not have then so much reason to complain of hard times.”

Debt:

“When you run into debt, you give to another power over your liberty.”

Managing our money includes learning how to receive it (working with integrity), how to give it (understanding God owns it all, anyway), and how to spend it (realizing we are merely stewards of our resources). Much like a three-legged stool, if any of the three are improper or missing, the result is instability or failure.

Tax-time is unpleasant, but if it motivates us to manage our finances in line with our spiritual identity in Christ, then it’s worth it!

For help managing finances, explore:

Crown Financial Ministries

Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University 

Ron Blue’s Master Your Money

What tips can you suggest for biblical financial management?

My thoughts have been influenced by the recent deaths of several celebrities:

Thomas Kinkade died last week at age 54. An artist known as “The Painter of Light,” he spent his life creating art that pointed people to the Light of the World. Yet his final years were darkened by allegations of driving under the influence of alcohol, and financial troubles that drove him to file for bankruptcy.

Reporter Mike Wallace died this week. He was 93. Known as an intrepid reporter who not only informed us of current events, he spoke openly about clinical depression – a condition he struggled with for many years.

Singer Whitney Houston died two months ago, her life cut short at 48. Houston was a gifted singer who entertained and enthralled. But a troubled marriage and addictions silenced her voice.

Baseball player Gary Carter died shortly after Houston. He had known the joy of being an all-star catcher, a Hall of Famer, and winning a World Series. But he lost his fight with brain cancer, succumbing at age 57.

What especially surprised me is the attention these deaths received in the media. Even as Kinkade was mourned as a Christian artist, critics continued to belittle his art. Houston’s death has rarely left the news two months later, despite a life marked by deterioration and addiction. Carter was a family-man who took his position as a role model seriously, raising millions for community charities and even traveling on mission trips. Yet how many of us heard anything about him beyond the initial death notice?

I am also amazed by our culture’s standards for accolades among the living. Actress Kate Winslet recently received an honorary award for lifetime achievement during an awards ceremony in Paris, France. Lifetime achievement? She was 36 years old! Yet Christopher Plummer (best-known for his role as Captain von Trapp) was 82 when he was awarded his first Academy Award earlier this year.

As I’m reminded of the quickly passing years and the fickleness of our culture, I’m glad I don’t work for the world’s accolades. The apostle Paul wrote, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24).

I may celebrate many more birthdays or this might be my last birthday. Either way, the greatest lifetime achievement award I could receive is to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

What accolades are you working to win?

Matthew 27:50-53 (NIV): And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

“Easter says you can put truth in the grave but it won’t stay there.” ~ Clarence W. Hall

“Christ the Lord is risen to-day,” Sons of men and angels say. Raise your joys and triumphs high; Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply.” ~ Charles Wesley

“We live and die; Christ died and lived!” ~ John Stott

“The tomb of Christ is famous because of what it DOES NOT CONTAIN.” ~ Sam Morris

“The stone was rolled away from the door, not to permit Christ to come out, but to enable the disciples to go in.” ~
Peter Marshall

“The resurrection gives my life meaning and direction and the opportunity to start over no matter what my circumstances.” ~ Robert Flatt

John 11:25-26 (NIV): Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

“The biggest fact about Joseph’s tomb was that it wasn’t a tomb at all – it was a room for a transient.  Jesus just stopped there…on His way back to glory.” ~ Herbert Booth Smith

“Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.”  ~ Charles M. Crowe

“The resurrection proclamation could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact.” ~ Paul Althus

“The story of Easter is the story of God’s wonderful window of divine surprise.”  ~ Carl Knudsen

“The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary world.  Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice.  But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline, and make the sacrifice.” ~ Henry Knox Sherrill

Matthew 28:1-10 (NIV): After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Happy Easter!

Until now. Until Tebow. Tim Tebow is more than just a football player. He’s a phenomenon. Fans flock to him. And now that he’s been traded from the Denver Broncos to the New York Jets, self-avowed New York “haters” find themselves newly-minted Jets fans.

Why such passionate loyalty for a player rather than a team? After all, Tebow is not the best player by a long shot. His unorthodox playing style, throwing accuracy issues, and the very public sharing of his faith have generated a heated group of critics. Yet he set the NFL Draft record for jersey sales. His jersey – number 15 – the same number he wore when he played college football for the Gators, was the bestselling jersey in the NFL each month since he was drafted.

Perhaps it’s because football is not Tebow’s god. Tim Tebow has a higher calling. While he loves the game, it does not consume him. And he’s not alone.

Basketball has Jeremy Lin. He plays for the New York Knicks and who scored a career-high 38 points in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers last month. Lin doesn’t just “talk the talk,” he “walks the walk.” For example, this week he reached out to an ex-ESPN employee who was fired for writing a racially offensive headline about Lin.

Baseball has Mariano Rivera, called the greatest closer of all time after saving 603 games for the New York Yankees. But as Rivera says, “It doesn’t define who I am…God has put me in a special place to talk about Him.”

If you’ve ever held a sparkler on the Fourth of July, you know how mesmerizing the bright, multi-colored sparks can be. But they soon fizzle out, leaving nothing but a short memory. Bonfires are different. Built with solid logs and lots of kindling, their fire burns slow, a steady glow lasting well into the night.

Men like Tebow, Lin, and Rivera are like well-built bonfires. They are competitive, but the game is not their life. Games are like sparklers, quick to fizzle as new players, more games, and future seasons take center stage. No, these athletes keep their focus on an eternal prize – things whose glow will last long after games, seasons, and statistics are a distant memory.

No matter how much fans heap praise and accolades on them, these athletes do not seek glory for themselves. On the field or on the court, their goal is to glorify God. When they’re not playing, their goal is to live and serve in a way that leaves no doubt as to Who gave them their abilities.

Football, basketball, baseball. Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin, Mariano Rivera. They are true role models, not just for kids, but for all of us.

Who are your favorite role models?

But writing doesn’t take the place of living. I don’t want to limit my writing to covering other people’s experiences.  So, after living in this beautiful part of Florida for more than twelve years, today I finally drove ten minutes to Halpatioke Park with a friend, rented a kayak for the first time, and paddled up a lazy river.

Oh. My. Goodness. The South Fork of the St. Lucie River is also known as Lost River. Now I understand why. This portion of the peaceful waterway meanders in a series of twists and turns within the seclusion of Halpatioke Regional Park. It’s a hidden treasure of Martin County, hosting an abundance of flora and fauna to delight the senses.

Nestled in our kayaks, we paddled, then coasted, then paddled some more. Water swirled around each dip of the paddles as we found our rhythm. The scenery pulled us in, farther and farther. Palms, cypress, and pines stood tall against their shimmering reflections in a picture of symmetrical grandeur. Shrubs, ferns, and dead branches populated the shoreline in a natural panorama of intertwined clutter hugging the shoreline.

We intruded on the habitat of reptiles and fowl who tolerated our presence and shared their bit of paradise with human interlopers.

The eight-foot alligator floating in the water didn’t move as we glided past, although he didn’t have to – we considered him menacing enough. Later, other kayakers told us “he” is a “she” – they had seen several babies around her. Yet another reason to give her wide berth. Later, a second, slightly smaller alligator lost patience with our presence and submerged in a seeming huff.

The painted turtle sunning himself on a partially immersed branch didn’t appear concerned as I stopped to photograph him. He stretched his neck high as the sun’s rays warmed him. Another turtle – perhaps a slider – was clearly disturbed by our trespass. He dipped back into the water before I could ready my camera.

A pair of yellow crowned night herons swooped down in front of us, landed on a tree branch, and watched with a wary eye. On our return, one of them held several twigs in his (her?) mouth. Not sure if they were constructing a new home or remodeling an existing one. Either way, they were building it together.

Occasionally, a fish jumped out of the water and landed with a splash. Was he doing it just because he could, or was he rushing to escape his position in the food chain? What might have been chasing him? A snapping turtle? An alligator? On second thought, I’d rather not know.

The return trip seemed shorter, perhaps because we didn’t take the long way around one of the islands on the way back – although that little detour only added to our delightful experience. I was disappointed when houses came into view, informing us our excursion was just about over.

As General MacArthur said, “I will return.” Not to conquer, but to be conquered by this slice of heaven with which God has blessed us. And I don’t need to travel halfway around the world to find it. It’s in my own backyard.

What local activities have you been meaning to experience? Do it today!

Still, March 15th is not as bad for me as it was for Julius Caesar. Poor Caesar. March 15th was just another day for most people. But not for him. Although he belittled the warning that he would be harmed on or before this date, the prophecy came true. Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate by at least 60 conspirators. Shakespeare immortalized the event in his play, Julius Caesar, with the line “Beware the Ides of March.”

Time marches on…for some of us. For others, like Caesar, this is the day time will cease to be measured. We have no guarantees that another day will come. In the past several weeks, two families I know lost loved ones. One family lost a precious 25-year-old son. The other lost a beloved 92-year-old great-grandfather.

Although we don’t know how many days we have, God does. Psalm 139:16 tells us, “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Still, we do have the gift of this moment. We have this moment to be. To rest in the assurance that if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you belong to the Creator of the universe. To be thankful for all that we are and all that we have. To love the Lord and to love others.

Psalm 90:12 encourages us to “number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This doesn’t mean we should try to predict the number of days we have left. Rather, it means we should appreciate the limited number of days we do have—however many they are. To use each day with wisdom and discernment. To live in a way that leaves no room for regret.

Let’s not take our moments for granted. Caesar’s final day was the Ides of March. We don’t know when our final day will come. Until then, let’s not take our days for granted. Each day—each moment—is a gift.
Treasure it.

What are you doing with the gift of this moment?