Oh the fishes will laugh
As they swim out of the path
And the seagulls will be a’smilin’
And the rocks on the sand
Will proudly stand
The hour that the ship comes in
And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they’re spoken
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
And be buried at the bottom of the ocean
Wonderful Acts
It was 11 and here I was riding around the Monterey Bay. The lights of the city speckled the coastline, and the sky was faded with clouds. My iPod shuffled through The Dears, Lana Del Rey, and the ever happy Little Majorette and I pedaled and pedaled and pedaled. What a good day of work it had been. Tips were excellent, I made some new friends, and the frenzy of the day made the shift fly by. All I needed to do now was to go home.
In the solitude of the darkness I rode alone with my thoughts, and began imagining the day when I have kids and how they’ll grow and grow and grow and they’ll go through the joys and hardships of life just like their father did. They will experience some of the same troubles I did, and have a fair share of their own unique problems. They’ll laugh and cry and love and live.
I wondered, what could I tell them to help them in life?
As I thought on this, I remembered a verse that I particularly liked in Psalms that said, “tell of all His wonderful acts.”
This is what I will tell my children.
I will tell them times won’t always be easy. Trouble and pain are part of life, but I will tell them them of all the wonderful things God has done in my life. I will tell them about the time I was loaded with bills and how the Lord always provided for me. I’ll tell them about the year I rode a bicycle, because a car wasn’t in the budget, and how God blessed me with friends and family that helped me get around. I’ll share how God gave me peace when bad news came, and grace when I messed up. They’ll hear my stories about God answering prayer, healing, and rescuing. With excitement in my eyes I will tell them about Africa and how God opened my eyes to His power and love. I will pour out story after story of God transforming lives and leading people into adventures they never even dreamed of. Finally I will tell them about Jesus’ great love for us, and how from the moment he entered my life to the present moment He has been opening my heart, mind and soul to this love.
That’s what I will tell my kids.
What wonderful acts of God will you tell?
Get Up and Move
This is my whiteboard right now.
My head says that I don’t have a problem with failure. “Failure is good!” it says.
but the ole heart holds back. It doesn’t like failure and the pain that can come with it.
I wrote this quote to remind my heart to toughen up. Failure isn’t fun, but the greatest things in life require the most risk. The only thing more miserable than failure are the times that you sit around pondering, wondering, restlessly wrestling with whether you ought to get up and move or not.
From my experience it’s always been worth it to get up and give it my all. All the failures (and there have been many) make the successes so much sweeter.
What’s keeping you up at night? What are you holding back from doing? Would failure really be that bad?
Stop and Smell The Sawdust
Earlier today I was pedaling around town looking for something exciting when I saw this HUGE crane roped to an even HUGER redwood tree. The tree was so enormous that if you tried to hug it you’d have to have like an eighteen foot arm span or really long fingers. It was that big.
This giant tree was smack dab in the middle of a plaza surrounded by buildings, and I kinda was hoping that they’d just chop it right down at the bottom so everyone could run and scream as it smashed to the ground like a movie. But they didn’t do that, instead they had the huge crane. They had it rigged up so that a guy in the tree could start at the top and cut the tree into pieces. The cutter would cut the topmost portion and they’d pluck the piece right off the top with the crane, and then they’d start working on the next section.
I got off my bike, and found a nice spot in the sun to watch the whole process. There was a guy who shimmied up the tree with a rope and shoes with big spikes in them. The coolest part was that he had a chainsaw dangling on a rope that was attached to his waist. I bet he felt pretty badass climbing the tree as he lugged the swinging chainsaw with him. I thought it would be cool if the chainsaw guy waved at me while he was on top of the tree, and so I started waving at him. He didn’t wave back. That would probably have made him less badass anyways.
As I watched the chainsaw guy and the crew get to work setting up the crane and the ropes to buzz off the first chunk I kept looking at the cars passing by and wanting to flag them down. HEY GUYS, LOOK! THIS GUY IS ABOUT TO CUT DOWN THIS TREE! IT”S REALLY COOL!
and it was really cool. most people didn’t notice and drove on. I saw a few of them catch sight of the soon to be tree-felling, but they kept driving anyways. These people better have had something important to get to, because c’mon a dude is about to cut a BIG tree down with a chainsaw the size of a Toyota Prius! CMON people! Stop and smell the sawdust!
The people on the sidewalk kept walking on too. Every chance I got I would say, “pretty cool, huh? Don’t see this everyday!” and they’d mumble out something and keep on going. One dude wore an iPod and had his eyes fixed forward so that he wouldn’t make eye contact with me as he walked past. I tried to motion to him that something awesome was happening, but he only walked on faster. He was so focused on not getting attention that he didn’t even see the crane!
Next an older man came walking down the street. My mouth was open in awe at this point, and I was pretty caught up in what was about to happen to the tree. The older guy stopped next to me, set a bag of groceries he was carrying on the ground, and looked up at the tree.
I looked at him, “awesome, right?” He was bald, and had a goatee with some stray whiskers on his cheeks. I wondered if he knew about those wild whiskers.
“Yea, impressive. I used to work for a tree trimming company like this back in…” he trailed off and I thought that maybe the sight had given him a loss of words, but then he kept going, “Sometime in the late seventies. I was nineteen. I was the guy who picked up all the branches and loaded the truck.”
I pointed to one of the tree trimmers who was lifting branches into a woodchipper. “So you were that guy?” I questioned.
“Yea, except we didn’t chip the wood. We would load it all onto a truck and sell it to someone else to do that.”
“Gosh, hard work huh?” I asked.
“Yes, very.”
We continued to watch the tree crew prepare the tree for removal, and anticipated when the first piece would be cut. Finally the moment came that me and ole whiskers were waiting for. Chainsaw dude was in position far up the tree, and he yanked the chainsaw into his hands. It roared to life and he quickly went to town on the tree buzzing away while red and yellow sawdust filled the air. With one final buzz the top of the tree wobbled into the loving care of the crane.
It was as magnificent as killing an ancient tree can be.
The feat had been done, and the old man must have felt the goodness of the moment too, because he turned to me to give me a high five while saying, “good job!” Perhaps cutting down an old redwood isn’t the most noble of jobs, but in that moment, it sure did feel like a good job.
Don’t Force His Hand
David was anointed by Samuel to be king, and if I was David I would have thought that getting oil poured on my head meant that I was to be king right than. But the story doesn’t go that way. God rejects the current king Saul, but Saul refuses to leave the throne. Instead of David charging into the fray demanding the kingdom, he serves Saul as a harp player and as a soldier. David does a whole lot of good for Saul, and Saul repays David by getting mad and going on a manhunt to kill him. Lovely story right?
What I like about the story is the amount of patience David has. David knows that God is going to make him king. He also knows that Saul isn’t giving up his spot anytime soon, and so David is patient. He understands that God is sovereign, that God’s in control, and ultimately that if God wants David to be king He’ll get him there. Even when Saul comes close enough for David to kill him, David refuses to do so. His line of thinking is God put Saul on the throne, God will take him off. He will wait for God to bring it about.
I know for me, and a lot of people, we want to try and force God’s hand. We have a desire to help children or serve in Mexico or get a certain job or get married or whatever and we know that it’s a desire that God has put in us, but for whatever reason the time isn’t right for it, but we want it now and so we try to force it to happen.
People do this all the time.
Even recently I heard about a girl who started dating this guy when (I believe) deep down she knew he wasn’t the type of guy she should be dating. She loved Jesus, but she really really wanted a boyfriend. All her friends had guys, but she was still single. When was God going to bring around her man? Why was this taking so long? So when a guy came around who liked her, but sadly didn’t like Jesus, she settled and they’re dating now. She’s not really into Jesus as much as she used to be, and even though this guy is a nice guy, it’s pretty obvious that he’s not the right guy for her.
It’s hard to be patient. It’s hard to trust that God will bring about _____________ when the horizon looks so bleak, but have hope, our God is good and He loves you. Trust in his timing.
Review: Love Does
There are people in life that inspire you to be incredible. My uncle is one of these people. He used to throw firecrackers at my brothers and I when we showed up at Easter. We’d walk up to the door carrying fruit salad and a plate of deviled eggs, and he’d huck a pound of ignited black cats at us. We’d dodge and weave the firestorm, and he would stand at the front door belting out laughs. He loved it and we loved it. My uncle’s an incredible guy, and now I can’t wait until I’m an uncle and I can throw firecrackers at my nephews.
We’ve all got people like this who are incredible in our lives. People who gush with joy and love and excitement and every time you see them you leave feeling inspired, energized and loved. These are the people that you love being around, because of the way they make you feel. They have an attitude towards life and other that’s contagious.
Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World is a book by Bob Goff, a man who is incredible and lives life with an attitude that is contagious. In his book Bob shares story after story from his life reminding us that as a follower of Jesus we should be about living and loving. Each story is filled with whimsy, adventure, and compassion and when the book wrapped up I knew that to sit the book down and do nothing would be a dishonor. My attitude towards life has been changed, and let’s just say, that I’ve got a few capers in the works.
If you want a taste of Bob and his style visit his blog and read a few, and than when you decide you need more buy his book. I can’t recommend it enough. You’ll read it and be energized to love those around you, and figure out how you can love even more.
AND,
it’s hysterical. I was reading while waiting for the bus, and I laughed so hard at a story about Bob’s wedding day that a car pulled over to ask what I was reading. It’s really funny.
I'm Captain Tyler Smith. top notch adventurer, follower of the risen King, hopeful thinker, and of course, Teh Lemonsmith. Read more about me