Tattle Tales and Cover Ups

I have been a tattletale all of my life.  When I was a child I made my parents aware that my brothers were hitting me and that my sisters were not letting me sit up front in the car when it was "my turn."  Later in life I would point out mistakes that certain individuals made so everyone could get a good laugh.  When I became an adult, I learned to complain to others that "so and so" wasn't doing their job like they were supposed to, and I was having to make up for them.  Of course there have been many other things that I have pointed out to people who "need to know" over the years.  And while most of the tattling varies in the details, one thing has always remained constant--I have let God in on all of the things that everyone else is doing wrong.  Of course, my sole intention is for Him to help them do better next time...not!

 

Let's face it, whenever I tattle (you can call it gossip, sell out, or throw under the bus, now that you are grown up) I usually just want to make someone else look bad so that I can look better.  Okay, yes, sometimes saying something involving a wrong that is being committed is necessary; but if you are doing it just to beat someone down so that you can be "exalted," you probably don't need to say anything at all.  I bet your mother told you that when you were little.

 

When Jesus was hanging on a cross, he said a really strange thing: he said, "Father, forgive them.  They don't know what they are doing." 

 

Now here is the thing.  They were hanging him on a cross, and ridiculing him while he died.

 

I don't think that most of the wrongs committed against us, wrongs that we insist get punished, actually go to that extreme. 

 

But Jesus, dying on a cross, knowing that his Father in Heaven sees the wickedness taking place, says something that I might paraphrase this way: "Okay, yes Father, I know this looks bad--but they really don't have a clue here.  They just don't understand what they are involved in.  So, maybe you could forgive them.  And maybe later on, they might understand and change.  That would be a good thing."

 

So, it is a very loose paraphrase, but the idea is that Jesus was trying to make the perpetrators of really bad things look better, and he did it by saying "They don't know what they are doing."  When people do things to me, I like to say (or at least think), "Get them God, they know exactly what they are up to."

 

It is my selfishness that causes me to want to expose others failures, and to see them punished for those failures.

 

And it is the unselfish nature of Jesus that causes Him to want to forgive others failures and see them lifted out of those failures.

 

Jesus is simply God in pictures.

Cats Are Not God, But Sometimes They Look Like It

My daughter, Amanda, has a cat named Margo.  She came into our home as a kitten and has only been here for around eight months; but it doesn't matter to her--as far as Margo is concerned, she is the god of her world.

 

When Margo arrived, she was cute beyond belief.  She was cuddled and petted and pampered and praised by everyone who saw her.  And now that she has grown, she is beautiful and graceful and confident.  She demands attention at every moment, whether it is through the presentation of her beauty, the acrobatic moves she performs while playing, or certain acts of mischief which she is fully aware she ought not to do.

 

We have given Margo many things.  We have bought her balls with bells and feathers on the end of a string that we swing around with a stick.  We have purchased her a four-foot carpeted pedestal with three scratching posts, a round cylinder halfway up which she can sit inside and peek out of, and a podium at the top where she can stand and survey all of her territories--whether they be in the living room that she rules, or on the other side of the window which faces her throne.  We have also given her access to the things that we consider ours--specifically furniture--which she enjoys sharpening her claws on and then running away with glee once we have responded to her actions with shouts and a squirt bottle of water. 

Margo, like most cats, think she is god.  She takes great joy in all of her godly activity.

There is one thing, however, that receives the joy, gratitude, and approval of the mighty Margo in a way that nothing else does.  That thing is an act where she is removed from the presence of the family surroundings (including our two pesky dogs) and taken alone to some place quiet.  In that place she is petted, rubbed, and scratched behind her ears and under her chin in a way that makes her purr with delight.  She simply can not get enough of the one-on-one interaction with one of her "beings."  While Margo is happy with all of the frivolity of her life, it seems that it is the personal communication (and petting) that makes her existence heavenly.

It is hard not to see God when I think of her activity.  She has a sense of humor and a playful attitude.  She has energy.  She is sometimes hard to hold, and when she puts her paws on something it can hurt.  She has a perch that ought to be her throne, but she can't always be seen there.  It is in her power to be everywhere one moment, and in the next she totally hidden.  Those are attributes that might be ascribed to God.

And when the day is done, there is one place that she really wants to be.  It is a place that brings her joy like no other.  It is that place where she gets to be alone with her subjects--interacting and sharing love.

That is Margo.

I think it is also God.

Just because cats aren't god, it doesn't mean that they don't look like Him sometimes.  Is it any wonder that they think so highly of themselves?

God in Pictures.

A Mother's Day Post Written by a Man--Two Days Late...So Right On Time

While the title of this entry might be intended as a joke, that does not make it inaccurate.  In fact, I meant to write it on Mother's Day but "never got around to it."  And if you are a father, husband, or teenage child (who knows that they should be a part of the process of giving a gift), then it is likely that you can relate to the truth. 

 

It is indeed ironic that this idea came to me when I was shopping on Sunday morning (Mother's Day) at a local store; and of course, I was shopping for a last minute gift of flowers.  I was amazed at how great a selection there was for floral products, considering that at the last minute most people should have already taken care of the responsibility to show their appreciation and love.  But they obviously hadn't.  I was not the only man digging through the greenery for the perfect petals and a fabulous fragrance.  There were dozens of us.  Most of them looked like me.  Well, not exactly, but almost all of the buyers that were not fathers, were children that had not remembered the important day until the last minute.

 

It is the same scene I see amidst the perfumes and jewelry on Christmas Eve.

 

I began to think about this fact as I was driving home and realized that I never see mothers rushing frantically through tool aisles or fishing supplies on Father's Day.  I don't see them pulling out their hair and wondering "Will He like this?" on Christmas Eve.  Mother's have paid attention.  They have noticed.  They have acted.  They have loved.  And they have not waited until the last minute.

 

I have seen it written on greeting cards and refrigerator magnets and coffee table displays that "Because God couldn't be everywhere, He created mothers."

 

That is silly and short-sighted.  One of the main reasons God created mothers is so that He could be everywhere in our daily lives.  A mother does not just share her own love--she does something even greater--she shares God's love.

 

It is a mother that sees what we need when we don't even know it.  She has it always at the ready because the ones that she loves will need it.  When I say, "Where is my lunch?" or "I can't find my clean shirt," it is a the heart of a loving mother (like my wife and my mother) that has already understood my needs and can calmly point me to the place where, in her love, she has already anticipated and met my needs.

 

Mother's show God's love.

 

Tell them that.  You can even print out this post and hand it to them to help them better understand how much you love and appreciate them.  And how grateful you are for their love.

 

And if you are a man, you should try to get to that before the end of the week.