Smile

Can you predict a person’s future based on their smile? In a 2011 TED Talk, Ron Gutman summarized the results of some smile research. For example, one study looked at pre-1950 baseball cards, and measured a player’s smile. The average lifespan of a player with no smile turned out to be 72.2 years, but if a player was beaming, he had lived to a ripe ol’ 79.9 years. The bigger the smile, the longer the player had lived.

In another study cited by Gutman, smiles in yearbook pictures were compared to the success and well-being of those students throughout their lives. The researchers were able to predict how fulfilling and long-lasting their marriages were, how well a student performed on tests of well-being, and how inspiring a student was to others. The bigger the smile, the higher the student’s level of success had turned out to be.

Looking back at my high school yearbook picture above, I think Mr. Gutman would say I am doomed. And you would probably agree, if this was the only picture of me you ever saw. However, it is only one snapshot of one second during what had to be one very bad day for me. After all, I was forced to wear (gasp!) a tie.

Since the picture is of me, I know more about the subject than anyone else, and can definitely say the picture is not indicative of the rest of my story. The truth is, I actually enjoyed high school, and nearly every other picture in the yearbook with me in it demonstrates that somehow. Horsing around with teammates, goofing around with friends, and yes, even cracking the occasional smile. Yet, if that picture was the only thing you knew about me, you’d probably say I was destined to be the grumpy, miserable failure I appeared to be at that moment.

The good news is God already knows the rest of my story, and the rest of your story, too. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’“ (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV). 

The future looks good, regardless of whether you’re smiling at any given instant or not.

What if . . .

My eyes snapped open when I heard it. I had been starting to doze off on a bus tour as part of a professional conference. My mind lazily wandered from one foggy, disconnected thought to the next. Looking out the window as the bus chugged down the highway, I caught a glimpse of a sign for an approaching exit, and recognized the name of the town.

A girl I went to college with had grown up in that town. My thoughts drifted back to years ago, and I remembered, recounted and reminisced as my eyes drooped. Then my mind switched to questions: What’s she’s doing? Where is she now? What if things had turned out different …?

Anything can trigger a memory. These reminders conjure up thoughts, feelings and emotions that range from comforting to spine-tingling. A certain song prompts you to remember a specific event. A smell reminds you of Grandma’s kitchen. A unique sound transports you back to the place where you first heard it.

In my case, it was a simple place name that caused my thoughts to meander. But I was a different person back in college, with different priorities, different thoughts, and different motivations.

Where does your mind go when it wanders? Ever catch yourself wondering or dreaming or hoping things could’ve been different or better? There is a danger in letting our thoughts repeatedly return to the past, especially if that past did not include God. If we continually dwell on what was, then we begin to lose focus on where we are right now, and lose sight of where we want to go.

So before my thoughts drifted too far off the road with my “What if …?” question, I heard “Then you wouldn’t know me.” Like sudden, strong gust of wind, the Lord snapped me back to the present tense, and the fog blew away with His answer. I was instantly awake, alert, and looking around to see who on the bus was invading my thoughts.

Once we know the Lord, He will provide corrections to our course as needed. Which is why Isaiah says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (30:21).

Are you listening?

Faith

www.crh.noaa.gov

The fog would roll in like a magician, eventually making things invisible. From my grandparents oceanfront cottage, I marveled as the fogbank washed the colors out of other cottages further down the beach, turning them gray until they finally disappeared.

The fog enveloped our cottage too, but it never seemed as thick and dramatic as it did down the beach. As a boy, I wanted to be in the thick fog, not the flimsy, wispy fog around our place. I always wanted to walk down to at least the O’Brien’s cottage; it always seemed to vanish. I thought about how cool it would be to go there and not be able to see my hands at the end of my extended arms.

So, I’d wander with my bemused grandaunt down the beach, but could never quite get into The Fog, even in front of the O’Brien’s place. The truly dense, thick, exciting fog always seemed to be somewhere else, just out of reach. 

Nowadays, I read Chapter 11 in the Book of Hebrews, the Faith Hall of Fame, and I can hear that same little boy, wondering and longing. Wouldn’t it be cool to move to some strange land at God’s direction like Abraham, not knowing what is going to happen. Or spearhead a huge, building project like Noah. Or be part of some unbelievable miracle, like the Israelites passing through the Red Sea or making the walls of Jericho crumble.

In the verse immediately following his Hall of Fame list, Paul writes, “since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1). The inductees to the Hall of Faith are not literally enveloping us like a fog bank. Their stories are held up as examples, to bear witness, of what awesome and incredible things are possible through faith in God.

Things so incredibly awesome, they seem out of reach.

However, we don’t have to go very far to demonstrate our faith. God hasn’t called us all to be missionaries to a foreign land, or to inspire great crowds of people, or to be a miracle worker. But He has made us parents and spouses and children and acquaintances and employees and friends and business owners. 

And thanks to those relationships and connections, we don’t have to go wandering off to be in the thick of abundant opportunities. There are plenty of chances to display the calm confidence that faith generates, right where we are.

Boston 2013

(Boston Local 103 IBEW)

My heart got ripped out during the 2013 Boston Marathon. Although we have all anguished over the dead and injured many times after similar, senselessly tragic events, I always had a sense of detachment. They happened somewhere else. I didn’t know anyone directly involved. I’ve never been there.

But having grown up in the Boston area and run The Marathon just last year, the bombings this year became personal. I had been in the crowds and experienced the joyous electricity among the spectators as a kid, and I was finally able to fulfill a lifelong goal of being the focus of that excitement as a competitor in 2012. I can say the commitment and multiple years of training and preparation it takes to get to the starting line as a runner is matched only by the years of commitment and encouragement provided by a runner’s friends and families. Friends and families that were ripped apart for simply offering encouragement – 26.2 miles of beautifully loud and raucous encouragement - where it is needed most.

I keenly understood many aspects surrounding this event, and when I first heard of the bombings, my response was intensely furious. I’ve got to do something! Instinctively, I wanted the perpetrators brought to justice. If I were being honest, I wanted an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, severed limb for severed limb. But, honestly, what could I do?

In 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, is faced with disaster thanks to an impending invasion by overwhelming army, and he’s wondering what to do. “Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord” (v3), and he prayed intensely before concluding with this appeal to God: “For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (v12). 

The Lord answered “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out and face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you” (v17). The next day, as the people of Judah “began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes” against the invaders (v22), and the armies completely annihilated each other (v23). There is no mention of Judah’s people lifting a finger during the battle, only their voices. 

Whether it’s an invading army, mad bombers, natural disasters, a cancer diagnosis, bullies, or a host of other things that make hearts quake with fear, what can you do? We cannot control what might happen to us. As Jehoshaphat said, we don’t have any power over those things, and we should acknowledge as much by praying to the One who does.

The only control we have is how we respond to the situation. And if you are searching for victory, that response should include prayer, praise and perseverance, as the Lord does His work.

Thorns

http://effectualfaith.wordpress.com

When a wild rose grew up and bloomed unexpectedly in the hedge at the edge of our yard, we decided to relocate the rose to a more prominent location near the front of our house. Then, two stems turned into a bush, and its roots began to spread. New stems began sprouting out away from the bush over a larger and larger area, consuming more real estate than we ever intended. The rose bush had to be removed, which meant dealing with thorns.

Although I had thick gloves on to protect my hands, the thorns cut into my forearms and stabbed me in the torso as I wrestled to remove the bush. It’s as if the thorns knew specifically where I had minimal protection, and attacked me in those weak spots.

Some people are referred to as “thorny” for a reason. These are the people we wish we didn’t have to deal with, but just cannot avoid, like classmates, co-workers, clients, neighbors, and maybe even family members. Their words slash us. Their actions tear at us. Sometimes their mere presence intimidates us. And no matter how we try to protect ourselves, our vulnerable spots end up hurt.

We spend an exorbitant amount of time focused on the thorns. We end up thinking about how to avoid them, or confront them, or survive being near them. Thorny people chew up a lot of mental real estate, consuming our thoughts and hindering other parts of our lives because we cannot stop replaying events in our head, exclaiming “I can’t believe what he did!” And the more we retell the story to others – “Can you BELIEVE what he said?!?” - the more established the thorn’s roots become in our minds.

Who is the thorny person in your life? 

Despite the prickly nature of some people, we are supposed to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). Thorny people should move us closer to Christ because they keep us humble, and provide opportunities to demonstrate His character when it is least expected. 

Loving, doing good, blessing, and praying for those people who hurt us enables us to release our grip on the situation, and place it in Jesus’s hands instead. Thorns only hurt when we wrestle with the rose bush. All that loving and blessing and praying enables us to get a glimpse of how Jesus views that person, and to realize that despite our focus on the parts of the bush that hurt us, every thorn does have a rose.