10%

EVERYTHING ON SALE!!!! Act now!!! Don’t miss out!!! Limited time only!!! 10 to 50% OFF!!! When retailers want to get your attention, sales start at 10%. Anything less than that benchmark just doesn’t seem attractive enough to get someone to notice the advertisement, let alone buy something. Would an ad that blared, “EVERYTHING ON SALE!!!! 1 to 9% OFF!!!” get a second thought?

So is it any wonder that tithing originally started at 10% (Lev. 27:30-32)? I’ll pause to listen for the collective groan from some who right now are thinking, “Ugh. The money talk – again.” Including me. Believe me, if you’re sitting near me on Sunday’s in the coming months during the Stewardship drive, you might just hear me groan, too. I realize I am supposed to give, but how many times do I need to be reminded?

However, my 2¢ on the 10% is this: We were purchased with the life of Jesus Christ, and although nothing we do can repay God, giving up 10% of what we earn helps tangibly demonstrate that our hearts are in the right place and not tied up in worldly things. Although I believe we are not obligated to give 10% if we cannot do it cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7), what other benchmark should we use to fulfill Christ’s charge to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow him (Luke 9:23)?

10% is not something we just mindlessly toss in a collection plate. 10% forces us to deliberately plan and consider what we must give up and let go. 10% compels us to think about why we are giving it up and letting it go.

We may not be able to teach the Word, take care of the widows, support the poor, comfort the afflicted, visit the lonely, heal the sick and feed the hungry by ourselves, but our money enables organizations that do to serve more effectively. Don’t like hearing the church ask for money? Give directly to Good Samaritan, God’s Love, or any other group spreading His Word or helping the less fortunate, and see what happens in your heart.

Giving up 10% of our meager stuff seems like such a bargain compared to everything Jesus gave up. But we better act now!!! Don’t miss out!!! Limited time only!!!

Mt. Helena

When the time came to ask Kristin to marry me, my plan was foolproof. I would surprise her at the top of Mount Helena with the picturesque valley below. The mountain prominently dominates the city skyline, so she would never forget where and when she was proposed to. Visions about how magical this moment would be had swirled in my head for months. My proposal would grandly and eloquently declare my everlasting love, dedication, joy and anticipation about our future lifetime together.

So up the mountain we went for a hike on what I decided would be The Day. She was almost totally oblivious. The closer we got to the top of the mountain, the harder the butterflies started banging around in my stomach. At the top, I got down into the rocks on one knee, and reached into the backpack for the ring. I looked up at her, popped open the ring box, summoned all my courage, and with heart-felt conviction said . . . . . said . . . . . said . . . . . “Ghklfh-phdwtfff . . . gack!” She snatched the ring before I keeled over, jammed the ring on her finger, and said yes before I could do any more damage to my larynx.

Thank goodness she knew what my actions meant, even though I said nothing. Nothing coherent anyway. But as Paul stated, “good deeds are obvious” (1 Timothy 5:25), meaning that no words are necessary when you are doing the right thing out of love. So when we get stuck wondering about how best to serve Christ or to love our neighbors, “let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Our deeds and actions will tell people plenty, even if we don’t speak a word. Since 1999, I’ve had a wedding ring as proof.

Rosie

Rosie’s voice drifted forward from the back seat, “Mr. Connolly, why didn’t the frog have any bones?” I thought for a moment, and responded that I had no idea why the frog didn’t have any bones. A giggle preceded the squealed answer: “Because he was a donut!!!” Dumbfounded, I erupted in laughter even though I could not even remotely make the connection between an amphibian lacking a skeletal system and deep-fried dough.

The jokes always got lobbed around as we carpooled on the way to pre-school. None of the jokes from the booster seats made any sense, but it didn’t matter. I laughed and laughed, hamming it up, and the kids, especially Rosie, just beamed at the encouragement. Soon, whenever I would see Rosie outside of carpooling days, before saying “Hi”, she would start, “Mr. Connolly, what do you call . . . ” I was known to her as someone who laughed at her jokes.

What are you known for? We will all be remembered positively or negatively by the people we interact with because of something that we do or say. To help guide us in those interactions, Paul outlined the traits we should be exhibiting as the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).


As Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:20 NASB), and maybe Rosie knew me as someone kind enough to share a laugh with, no matter how ludicrous the answer was to “What did the pork chop say to the tree?” However, since I do interact with people, even some adults occasionally, I need to do a better job demonstrating the other fruits of the spirit. That way I might be known for more than laughing at a pre-schooler’s nonsensical jokes, and in so doing, bring credit and glory to Jesus.

Quantum Physics

In Romans 1:20, Paul emphasizes God’s personal attributes can be known through the observable qualities of the world around us, i.e., His creation. “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.”

But what about things that cannot be clearly seen, like subatomic particles? Newsweek science editor Sharon Begley summarized the seemingly bizarre results of some recent quantum physics experiments in the July 30, 2007 issue. When an individual particle of light is shot at a screen with two slits in it, the particle can pass through one slit or the other as you might expect, or through both slits at the same time. If one particle being in two places simultaneously wasn’t weird enough, somehow the act of observing the experiment alters whether the particle passed through one slit or two, depending on when the observation began. Begley summarized the results by quoting physicist Jeff Tollaksen: “It suggests that the universe has a destiny – a destiny that is out there and coming back to us from the future.”

The results of the experiments seem strange. But maybe God is dropping hints about His personal qualities to physicists and Newsweek readers using the light particle experiments. The Bible states “God is light” (1 John 1:5), and “Christ is all, and is in all” (Col. 3:11) without regard for size or time. The Bible is also pretty clear about the destiny of the universe, and it involves Jesus coming back to us because He is the one “who is, and who was, and who is to come” (Rev. 1:8).

God reveals His qualities in everything, from the tiniest bits of matter on the planet to His clearly seen creation. Big and small, invisible and visible, His fingerprints are all over everything, whether we look around with the naked eye or with an electron microscope, so we really will not have an excuse for not knowing Him.

Right Now

“But, Dad. I am an artist.”

She caught me. Thinking that I was complimenting my daughter’s artwork, I merely suggested maybe she would be an artist someday, but she snapped me back to reality with her retort. At five and a half years old, her mass-production of drawings and artwork has been threatening to swamp the house for years already. From her perspective, there is no need whatsoever to worry about going to school, training for years, getting a degree, or jumping through any other hoops in the hope that she might become an artist someday. She believes, and therefore, she is. Right now, in the present tense.

Which is where God asks us to be and to work, too, especially when dealing with people who don’t know about Jesus. Anyone could be saved in an instant - right now - based on something that we say or do because “now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Not after memorizing 962 Bible verses. Not after graduating from seminary. Not after serving on at least five church committees. Not after attending services 57 weeks in a row. Not after completing a missionary trip. The thief on the cross next to Jesus (Luke 23:32-43) didn’t have time to do anything except sincerely accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and he ended up in paradise.

While many things can demonstrate our belief in Christ, salvation occurs as soon as someone honestly believes that Jesus is their Lord and Savior. Once a person genuinely believes in Him, then “he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Right now, in the present tense.

1/4 Mile

To race for one-quarter of a mile is one of the toughest running events a member of a track team can be asked to do. Just a little too far to be a sprint so you can run as hard as you can for the entire distance. Just a little too short to be a distance race so you can conserve some energy and pace yourself.

In high school, the coach had us distance runners do many ¼-miles for practice, and after those practices, we all would collapse in near exhaustion. Before one particular practice started, I found a pair of football shoulder pads in the equipment shed, and slipped them on for a laugh. Then I found out practice for that day would be ¼-mile, ¼-mile, ½-mile, ¼-mile, ¼-mile, ½ mile. Ouch. Then the questions started: “Hey, Sean, you gonna keep those on or what?” “Are you wimping out?” “Taking off the pads?” Having a stubborn streak, the pads stayed on as we started.

I made it through the first ½-mile, but was obviously dragging. The workout would have been hard enough without the extra weight, but with it, my legs burned, my lungs heaved, and my heart pounded so hard I thought my ribs would crack from the inside out. So finally, I decided to get rid of the extra weight, and tossed the pads aside. The next ¼-mile run, I was amazed at how much quicker and lighter I felt. I guess you could say that I felt somewhat rejuvenated, even though I was racing for ¼-mile.

If it feels like you’re dragging, like you’ve got a weight on your shoulders or your heart, you might be carrying around some extra burden that you need to toss aside. It’s time to rejuvenate yourself because, as Psalm 12:25 says, “An anxious heart weighs a man down.” “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:6). Confessing our sins is liberating, like being freed of shoulder pads. The race we’ve all got to run is hard enough without the extra weight that sin uses to drag us down.

M&Ms

You don’t need to convince me about original sin – I survived potty training our daughter. When we started to get serious about the whole potty training thing, my wife and I agreed that our daughter would get one M&M for just sitting on the toilet as a method of encouragement. When she agreed to sit, we gave her an M&M. However, we limited the chocolate reward to one try within a reasonable amount of time. No bouncing on and off the potty just to get more M&Ms.

After coming home one night during this same period, a frazzled babysitter and a chocolate-crazed 2-year old blazed past us at the door. Although we discussed the M&M/potty training plan with the babysitter, we forgot to tell her about the “one try” limit. Even at two years old, our daughter instinctually knew enough to swindle the clueless babysitter nine times in just two hours to keep getting more chocolate.

If we could have gotten her to focus through her sugar rush and ask her why she kept lying to the babysitter, I’m sure her very eloquent response would have been, “It is no longer I myself who did it, but it is sin living in me” (Romans 7:17). We were stunned by the deceit she demonstrated so easily. But maybe we shouldn’t have been, for as David said, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). The sin and the inclination to do wrong were already in our daughter, and it lurks in all of us.

To be properly prepared for Easter, Lent should be a time to repent and purify ourselves to properly present ourselves before God. Yet, with all those sins that we are aware of and unaware of since conception, repentance can seem like a very daunting task. However, repentance is as simple as sincerely asking God to, please, “forgive my hidden faults,” and “keep your servant also from willful sins” (Psalm 19:12-13). Jesus paid for each and every sin we have committed by being crucified. His blood “purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), whether that sin was deliberate or unconsciously involved M&M’s from when we were seemingly innocent 2-year olds