Lou Swanson

“I can see your name is Lou,” the TV reporter confidently stated as he approached my grandfather outside of his beach cottage. The reporter looked up at the “Lou’s Haven” sign over the cottage door, and continued, “Can I get your last name, too, and then ask you a few questions?” He had come to do a story about some recent happenings at the beach, and had seen my grandfather puttering around outside.

All the beach cottages had names. Lou’s Haven sat next to the Patricia Lee and the Silver Sands, just down from the Pilot and the Open Deck, near the Summer Place and the Sandbox. In my grandfather’s case, Lou built the cottage. Lou named the cottage. Lou sold the cottage to my grandparents. But my grandfather was not Lou.

So with a mischievous gleam in his eye, my grandfather – Joe Connolly – responded, “Swanson. With an ‘O’. Lou Swanson,” and then proceeded to answer the reporter’s questions.

That night, after the segment aired with Joe Connolly’s face and “Lou Swanson” emblazoned across the bottom of the screen, the calls flooded in to my grandparents. Lou Swanson? Everyone wanted to know, why Lou Swanson? My grandfather’s response: “Well, the reporter didn’t seem interested in my real name, so I said ‘OK. Have it your way.’”

And my way is typically right on par with that reporter – making snap judgments and inferring things before gathering all the facts, before asking questions, and without taking time to listen. We are supposed to be quick to listen and slow to speak (James 1:19), but we tend to reverse the two so we are quick to speak and slow to listen.

I mean, who’s got time to be patient these days while someone drones on and on and on about their situation or what they are going through. Can’t we can make a few quick assumptions after they’ve said a couple of words, and solve the problem in three speedy bullet points? I’ve got a full schedule here! Time to move on to the next issue already!

How can you tell if you’re not listening? When you start finishing someone’s sentences for them, when you start thinking “Oh, I know where this is going” as someone starts talking, and when you assume someone’s name is Lou. 

Take heed and listen up, because as the Message Bible so eloquently puts it, “Answering before listening is both stupid and rude” (Proverbs 18:13).

Understatement

ESA/Hubble

According to the Creation account in the NIV translation, God used:

• 13 spoken words to create about 1,800,000,000 cubic miles of sky, 

• 16 words to form approximately 57,500,000 square miles of land and 139,400,000 square miles of ocean, 

• 25 words to craft roughly 321,000 species of plants,

• 20 words to make about 31,300 species of fish and 10,000 species of birds, and

• 25 words to fashion approximately 1,264,000 land-based vertebrate animal species and millions species of insects (Genesis 1:6-24 and Wikipedia).

In addition to the words God spoke to create, there is this very footnote-esque statement during Day 4 of creation: “He also made the stars” (Genesis 1:16). Five simple words that refer to, oh, about 400,000,000,000 stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, and possibly 100 sextillion (that’s the number 1 followed by 23 zeros) stars in the entire universe.

The creation numbers are staggering, incomprehensible and unfathomable. I mean, how can God use so few words to create so much? Each step in the creation process is an understatement of Biblical proportions.

If it were me, I’d be holding press conferences, bragging, and posting millions of selfies on the internet to draw attention to myself and what I had done. But God? Not so much. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). One of those divine qualities is humility, since He let His creation speak about Him. No boasts. No need for attention. No grandiose verbiage.

And His humility was on display that first Christmas Day. Rather than choosing to make a lavish and impressive show to accompany the birth of His son - the King of Kings and Lord of Lords - God chose the humblest surroundings. Surroundings unworthy of someone destined to change the course of world history. Surroundings that were probably dark, dirty, and reeked of manure, since Mary placed the baby Jesus in a feeding trough (Luke 2:7). And instead of splashing the news all over the world, angels announced the birth to shepherds, one of the humblest professions (Luke 8-15).

We often get confused when our expectations are not met, something I’m always reminded of at Christmas. This Christmas, remember that flashy, glitzy, attention-grabbing events and gifts may not be nearly as meaningful or profound as something simple and understated. Consider the example of God, who created a sextillion things with a few words, and changed the world with an infant.

Influence

bostinno.com

I grew up surrounded by the unique and very distinct Boston accent. It sounds like this, and please, don’t try this at home; I am a professional: “Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd.” (Bonus Bostonian dialect lesson: The term “wicked” means “very, very,” as in “That scientist from Hahvahd is wicked smaht.”) R’s on the end of my words and syllables didn't exist, since that was the way everyone around me spoke.

So when my accent and I moved to North Carolina State University, I sounded just a wee bit different from the locals. “Where y’all from?” was the initial response. (Bonus southern dialect lesson: “y’all” is one person; “all y’all” is a group of people.) Once someone knew I was from the Boston area, the very next thing out of someone's mouth would be: "Hah! So do y'all paaaaahhk your caaaahh in Haaaahhvaaaahhd yaaaahhd?" 

After being totally immersed in Southern culture for almost a year, my R’s reappeared occasionally. I even developed a slight drawl. Like when I got a flat – I had to change the “tar” instead of the “tie-ah.”  

When I came back to Boston, friends would say “Sean, wheah you been? You sound wicked Southern.” Back at school, friends would drawl, “I reckon you been back in Boston. Y’all sound funny.” Back and forth I went between accents and dialects without consciously realizing I was adapting and changing based on what I heard from those people around me. Although I liked sounding, and therefore being, different from people, I was insecure enough that I didn't want to be that different.

The more we are around someone or a particular group, the more likely we are to be influenced by them, consciously or not. We start to act like them, pick up certain habits, and repeat what they say. Kids mimic their parents. Employees act like the boss to advance. We try to fit into the crowd.

… which becomes a problem when the influence of those people causes us to drift away from God. As Paul warns, “Bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). As my Southern friends might say, “Ornery people’ll make yuh ornery, and that’ll git y’all in a whole mess of trouble.”

What kind of sway are people having on you, and do you realize it? Because when it comes to the influence other people have on the way you live, the way you act, and the way you talk, all y’all bettah be wicked caheful.

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.

The Faucet

www.sweetclipart.com

 

The faucet handle blew off as the water erupted, soaking me and drenching the ceiling. In the next room, my wife and daughter erupted with laughter as I dove under the bathroom sink, frantically grasping for the water shut-off handle to stop the geyser.

By no means am I a plumber. You won’t catch me sweating pipe joints. But replacing a washer to stop a leaking faucet is so simple, even I can do it, and have many times before. So, I do know enough to turn off the water leading to the faucet before attempting to unscrew the faucet handle. Usually.

At some point that particular day, between deciding to fix the dripping faucet in the morning and actually attempting to make the fix in the afternoon, I convinced myself that I had, in fact, turned off the water to the faucet. I truly believed the water was off. But, I didn’t bother to verify what position the shut-off handle was in.

When we hear something that seems spiritual or sounds Biblical, how often do we confirm it actually comes from the Bible? When tempting Jesus in the desert, Satan quoted Scripture out of context to help support his lies (Matthew 4:1-11). To fight back, Jesus also quoted Scripture, but correctly. We also need to understand the Bible, so we can distinguish the truth from the quasi-truth or outright falsehood.

Even if they are meant for good intentions, phrases like “God helps those who help themselves,” or “Money is the root of all evil,” or “This too shall pass” sure sound Biblical-ish, but they are not. The website blueletterbible.org has a great collection of sayings not actually found in Scripture. (Small group discussion idea!)

But what other sayings or phrases have we repeated, or believed in, or relied on without confirming they are based on Biblical truth? God may work in mysterious ways (another often-quoted saying not found in the Bible), but He will not contradict Himself. If Satan has the audacity to twist the meaning of Scripture while speaking directly to The Author of Scripture, I don’t think we’re immune to his word twists either. Whether sayings, bits of advice, or words of guidance come from a friend, family, community leaders, or anyone else, we should verify they are based on truth before fully embracing them.

“Test everything,” Paul implores us (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Otherwise, what we believe in could blow up in our face.