Reluctant Retiree

What makes your heart beat fast? Is it:

Your favorite team winning a championship

Seeing your favorite celebrity at Starbucks

The aroma of Starbucks coffee in the morning

Seeing your child enjoy an achievement

Watching your child be born

All of these events and more may make our hearts beat faster. The enjoyment energizes our emotions and raises our spirits.

Yesterday I experienced a different type of fast heartbeat. All of a sudden my pulse increased to over 160 beats per minute. At first I wasn’t sure what I was feeling or what to do. I had not experienced this before. Fortunately after a short time my wife called my cardiologist and we went to the emergency room.

Medical personnel reacted as you would hope and a flurry of activity happened around me. I was hooked up to an EKG and pumped with medicine through an IV. Chest xrays were taken and blood was drawn. The teamwork and precision of nurses was amazing.

And then the calm took place. My heart reacted properly to the medicine and the heartbeat decreased significantly. Everybody else left the room and I was left alone. It was eerily quiet. I was comfortable and relaxed as I waited.

I don’t yet know the end result. I am out of the hospital but a consultation with a specialist was arranged and I was given a prescription for a new medicine. Now we wait.

Through this experience, I am reminded of the brevity of life. Even though life is short, we only get one chance at it. We should consider our choices carefully and examine how we affect others. I saw a guy on the news the other day explain why he won’t wear a mask during this pandemic. He said, “I am not going to wear a mask just so you can feel safe.” That statement told me a lot about the man. He has little concern for others and will not bear the smallest inconvenience for other people. His impact upon others is probably generally pretty negative.

I don’t want to have a negative impact on others. I want to leave a positive legacy for others. I make mistakes and regret the impact of those mistakes upon others. But generally I try to offer good in what I do.

The apostle Paul wrote “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” I want to demonstrate that type of love. And yes, I wear a mask in public.

I am currently sitting in our livingroom on a bright clear sunny day. However, there is smoke and a putrid smell coming into the room. Outside a team of workers are laying asphalt. The burning tar smoke and smell has made it into the room.

I am reminded that there are are times when we are comfortable and enjoying ourselves, while all the time we are creating a putrid smell for others. We may be exhibiting a selfishness that offends. At times like these our lack of concern and compassion spreads a foul odor that reduces others to but a faint vapor.

We need to open our eyes to the imact that our selfishness and self-centeredness has on others. Then we can see the needs of others and how we can serve them and honor them. Serving and honoring others removes the barriers that divide us. Prejudice is then overcome. Harmony is promoted.

The apostle Paul admonishes us to “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4 ESV

I play on a vintage base ball (Note: it was two words originally) team in Indiana. We play by the rules of the game in 1858. One of the major differences to today’s game is that baseball gloves had not been invented, so everyone played barehanded. Players, or ballists as they were called then, have to field batted balls and throw out runners without the benefit of a glove. One concession is that flyballs can be fielded on a single hop for an out. The ball us about the same size and almost as hard.

The whole atmosphere around the game then was much different than it is nowadays. Games where arranged between neighboring communities. On gameday one whole community would travel to the other community for a day of fun, base ball and picnicing. The game was played in a gentlemenly manner. The pitcher, or hurler, would underhand the pitch to the general area where the batter, or striker, could easily hit it. So there were few strikeouts and the ball was quickly put in play, unlike today’s game. There was an umpire, or arbiter, but his role was simply to arbitrate or make a decision on a close play if the two sides could not make a decision amongst themselves. Ballists could not and would not argue a call. Such indiscretion would result in a small fine. Both teams would encourage each other, often calling the striker to “Strike well”.

After the game, the home community would provide a meal and the two communities would enjoy each other’s friendship in a picnic that often lasted several hours.

That’s how we play vintage base ball today, including the postgame meal together. It is all very friendly and uplifting. Anyone can play. I am 70 years old and we have players in their teens. Often younger kids participate by running for us older folk.

Look for a team in your area and try to catch a game. You will enjoy the fun and comraderie.

While only a few of us are Christians, vintage base ball reminds me of true community.

Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven you.” These attitudes are Biblical but also just make good sense for building the spirit of community for all of us.

A local television station uses “First Fast and Accurate” as their slogan in advertising. The first two adjectives cannot be evaluated as their is no independent criteria to determine who was first or fast.

The third adjective, Accurate, is also hard to evaluate, but for a different reason. If you were to read a news article or listen to reporters from different news agencies you are likely to get as many different stories on the same subject as journalists reporting.

Most of the variations are due to political leanings or biases of the reporters. All news agencies and journalists like to say that they are unbiased and report the truth. In recent years it has become obvious that this is simply not true.

When I lived in a foreign country I used to complain about the biased reporting. The only news came from a government television station and was extremely controlled by the government. I told everyone that this controlled and biased reporting would never happen in the states. Boy was I wrong!

So where can we find truthful and accurate reporting on the state of affairs and the human condition? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” You want to know about life, come to the creator and sustainer of life. You want the truth, come to the author of all truth. You want to know about how to live, come to the only one who can show you the way.

Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” When am I supposed to be happy? Always! You mean even in the face of a pandemic and widespread protests and violence? Yes!

How?

The verse says to be happy in the Lord. So first you must have a relationship with the Lord. This means that you trust Him to be in control and powerful enough to make all things work together for your good (Romans 8:28).

You see Joy is a choice that leads to feelings, not the other way around. So even in hard circumstances we can choose to be joyful because God has got your back.

To those outside of Christ this may sound overly optimistic. To us who believe in Jesus, however, this is truth based upon His Word and how he has proven himself to us over and over. So to the sceptic I say that you will never know the Lord’s goodness until you believe.

Not long after we meet someone we ask, “So what do you do?” It is usually an innocent question with very little social risk. But it also implies that this is an important question to get to know someone. We are suggesting that we are what we do.

However, we are so much more than just what we do. I am not just a manager, I am also a husband, father, grandfather, compassionate soul, lover of people, and a believer in Jesus. In fact these other aspects of me are far more important than what I do.

I am reading a book right now that distinguishes between our faith calling and our vocational calling. Our vocational calling is what we do, so we say things like I am a nurse or a clerk. More or less we feel called to these jobs whether by circumstance or genuine interest.

Our faith calling is why we do something. We say things like I am a nurse because I want to help people. So we try to be the best nurse we can, so that we can help as much as we can. Our faith calling drives us to be who we are.

My faith calling is derived from what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments; to love God with all your heart, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Since this is my faith calling, everything I do should reflect this calling, whether it be in my vocational calling or interrelationally. I wish I could say that I always succeed in that, but honestly I fail often. I can say, however, that these two commands are the heart of what I want to do and be.

Our country has always had a variety of viewpoints and opinions. But in the last several years we have heard vitriolic voices and experienced violence in these disparate viewpoints.

No one seems to want to hear an opinion differing from their own. We all think we know what’s best, but now we are ready to fight to make everyone else agree with us. Name-calling and accusations fly from all corners. And that is just the verbal assault taking place. Often the words are backed up by violence.

Something has to give or we will not only destroy the opposition, but also ourselves. I think James said it best in the Bible, “let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” James 1:19 ESV

Let’s begin to reverse this divisive trend by respecting each other. Show that respect by listening carefully to what the other person is saying and trying to understand. Let’s delay talking and anger in order to gain civility and honor and unity.

We, as Americans, have become a weak people, lacking endurance. It is noticeable every time we run into trouble.

At the beginning of an international conflict, we are focused and determined to succeed. Within months, however, the complaining begins and we begin to find fault with the battle plan. Soldiers, who were widely celebrated at the onset, become targets of ridicule and abuse.

We are doing it again with the COVID 19 pandemic. At the beginning people willingly hunkered down, not just to keep from getting the disease, but also for the welfare of the community. As restrictions eased, however, our determination to defeat the pandemic has faltered. People are not taking the recommended precautions seriously and confirmed cases of the disease are inreasing rapidly. Concern for ourselves and others has gone out the window. Americans just don’t have the resolve to do the right thing over time.

God, on the other hand, values endurance. He sees the positive end result of endurance, especially endurance in doing good. James 1:2-4 says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full affect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The title phrase refers to a situation where you struggle to do something to no avail. It generally refers to trying to do something that you shouldn’t do. The apostle Paul was found to be kicking against the goad when he was persecuting Christians before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Jesus asked Paul why he was persecuting His people. Paul could only ask, “Who are you Lord?” After he found out the truth and that he had been so wrong, Paul’s life completely changed. In fact, even his named changed from Saul to Paul at this time.

I think we do this all the time. We have something we want to do. We struggle and struggle, wondering why we can’t get it done. Perhaps we should take a step back and see if God has something else in mind. Maybe he has a better way of doing the same thing, or maybe he wants us to do something entirely different, like Paul.

For instance, our church , like many others, has not gathered together for services on Sunday for over three months. Instead, services have been online. This in and of itself is already on adaptation. We were supposed to come together for the first time this Sunday. However, the county government issued new restrictions and the regathering of the church was delayed. That’s probably a good decision.

But this has me thinking that we may be kicking against the goad in trying to restart doing the same things we always did. Could God be saying, “I want you to do things differently”? Maybe more services, each with fewer people. Maybe use satellite campuses to spread people out. Maybe house churches. I don’t pretend to know the answer, but I do believe that we need to consider new ways of doing church.

“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:1-3 ESV

As I look at our country today, I see the appalling lack of good leadership. Oh there are many who can gather a following, but few who lead that following uprightly. Most are driven by their own agendas and desires. What happened to serving the people?

I think it is a matter of training in righteousness. If our leaders have not been trained to think rightly, how can we expect them to act rightly. That’s what causes all the confusion and fighting. Each one is doing what is right in their own eyes, and that usually is some self-serving agenda, which naturally conflicts with someone else’s desires.

How can we straighten the path and end the self-serving leadership of today? I say we go back to the instruction manual, the Word of God. II Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”