How Does God Think?

Do you think much about God?

Have you ever wondered how God thinks?

I have.

One thing I know for sure – the Bible reminds us that “no man can know the mind of God, nor understand his ways, his reasoning and his love.”

So, off we go.  Let’s imagine for a few moments how God’s mind works.

What irritates God?

What makes him mad?

What makes him jealous?

What pushes his buttons?

What makes him stop and say “Aha.  I caught you, you low-down dirty rat.  Now I’ve got you where I want you and you’re going to pay.  Shame, shame, shame!”

What if Hitler offered some kind of miraculous death-bed confession and nobody every told us about it?  Would God forgive him right on the spot?

Will Hugh Hefner be in heaven?

In war, which side is God really on? 

Is God an American?

Is he Baptist?

Lutheran?

Episcopalian?

Catholic?

Nazarene?

Mormon?

Buddhist?

So, how does God really think? 

What are some of his thoughts toward us?

I think God loves us way more than we can ever understand.

-He invites us to crawl upon his lap and just have some quiet moments.

-He wants face time with each one of us.  He just wants us in his presence.

-He loves all people equally.

-He watches over us moment by moment.

-He notices even a sparrow that falls to the ground.

-He clothes the lilies.

-He reaches for the down-and-out with a redemptive heart of compassion.

-He is looking for more ways to get us home to heaven than for ways to keep us out.

-He is a forgiving God.

-He never remembers past sins.

-He dances for joy over us.

-He runs to us when we turn back to Him.

He loves Ethiopians as much as he loves Americans.

He will never take away our free will for making choices. 

So how does God think?

With a heart full of love greater than anything we could ever imagine,

     Regardless of whom we are,

          What we are,

               Where we are,

Or in whatever condition we might find ourselves at the present moment. 

God Is Love. 

That is how God thinks.

God is offering love.  Now, receive it!

God Is a BIG Idea!

I have often grappled with the concept of “hearing God’s voice,” and relating to a diety called God.  What does that mean and what does God’s voice sound like?

I never hear an audible voice.  It is an impression on my mind and heart at best. 

Maybe we put limitations on the idea of God because we have barely scratched the surface of truly understanding him….yet I say confidently …

What a ponderous thought. 

I don’t want to box him in.  I don’t want to misunderstand Him or mislabel Him.  I want to free God to be big and large in my life. 

And so, I offer you these thoughts on the God that I am coming to know.

He is the God of …

Discards

  Conflict

    Trouble

      Pain

He is the God of …

     Problems

          Weaknesses

               Failures

                    Money

He is the God of …

    Jobs

      Creativity

        Creation

      Investors

    Inventors

He is the God of …

Bald Men

Prostitutes

Skinny Women

Fat Men

He is the God of …

-Hungry Children

-The Homeless

-The Aged

-Drug Addicts

He is the God of …

Arabs

Muslims

Hindi

Christians

And all other religious interests

He is the God of …

--University Professors

--High School teachers

--Band Directors

He is the God of …

   The Crippled

      The Blind

         The Deaf

            The Injured

He is the God of …

Smart people

The D Student

The Dropout

The Nobel Prize Winners

He is the God of you and me!

God Is … therefore I believe in HIM!

You can’t   deny him

You can’t   ignore him

You can’t   abuse him

You can’t   hide from him

You can’t   out-do him

You can’t   beat him in arm wrestling

You can’t   outfox him

You can’t   outrun him

You can’t   out-think him

You can’t   out-maneuver him

You can’t   outsmart him

You can’t   live without him

You can’t   run away from his love

You can’t   avoid him

You can’t   put a lock on him

You can’t   hoard him for yourself

I guess the only thing one can do is refuse to accept His love.

And yet …

And yet, His love still reaches out for you and me in a thousand ways.

So, what is God all about?

He is love to the max.  There is nothing you can do that would ever stop God from loving you.

I can relate to that kind of God.

So again I ask … What is God all about?

God is a BIG IDEA.

The Person behind the Label

“You’re fat!”

     “You’re ugly!”

          “You don’t belong!”

              “Hey homo!”

                    “Who dropped you on your head, 

                      dumbo?”

The labels we wear in life.  Don’t you just hate them?

I do. 

I’ve had a few labels attached to me down through the years.  Want to hear a few?

“You’re an accident waiting to happen.”  Ouch.  That was said to me over thirty years ago.

“Get away from that thing, boy.  You don’t know ‘nothin about machinery.”

I was given a tee-shirt once with this on it:  “I must hurry and catch up with the others, for I am their leader.” 

Yes, we laugh, but don’t you see that there might just be a bit of sting to these caustic remarks?

What labels have you worn?  

What labels do you still bear?

I was once called “knot-head.” 

I am seeking to redeem every ill label anyone has ever cast my way and your way.  What we must always remember is this:

Do we internalize our labels? 

Do we dwell on them? 

Do we become what our labels imply? 

Well, that is up to how we decide to respond to the labels in our lives.

Me?  They are distant memories, and I am choosing to move past all of these labels.  I am choosing to see myself as I choose to become.

I am choosing to become one whole, complete, happy, and well-adjusted human being. 

I am full of goodness.

I am competent.

I can successfully lead a quality life.

I love people and people love me in return.

And so can you become all of these and more.

Make the choice!

What are you choosing?

Interesting words – “choice” and “choosing”.

Are you choosing your responses to these negative and hurtful labels that have been levied toward you during your lifetime?

Nothing of detriment clings to me.

No labels are visible.

The essence that I give off is good, wholesome, positive and getting better.

They are only words. 

               They only have power 

if we allow them to.

I have since learned how to handle these sharp barbs thrown my way.  Today, I am a successful leader.  I have proven that people will follow.

I have been successful in a multitude of activities and career choices. 

So, do labels linger?

Only if we allow them to. 

Only if we allow them to.

There is a person behind every label mankind can level against one.  Step around those labels.  Become better than the label.  Become the best you that you can become.

I see you; a respectable, wholesome, care-giving and thoughtful individual with more good traits than anyone could possibly deny.

Let your label read “Happy, Fulfilled, and Moving toward Better”.

There is a person behind those labels, and you are a becommer!

Starving for Grace

Ernest Hemingway once relayed this story.

“Once upon a time a Spanish father fought with his son, and the son ran away to Madrid.  Years later, in an effort to reconcile with his son, the father took out an ad in the LeLiberal newspaper: 

“Paco is a very common name in Spain, and when the father reached the plaza square on Tuesday he found eight-hundred young men named Paco waiting for their measure of forgiveness.”

What does this story tell us? 

The world is starving for grace.

 Who hasn't needed a measure of grace on occasion? 

I have. 

--Carolyn and I recently avoided a $154 traffic violation for exceeding the 30 MPH speed limit in a small town in Oregon.  Thanks to the grace of the police officer, he let us off with a simple verbal warning.

--I saw grace once in a hot cup of coffee offered a young homeless man on a cold Sunday morning.  He had spent the night in the doorway of a church near downtown Seattle.

--The clerk should have been fired.  After all, he left the cash drawer out of the locked

safe.  He should have been fired.  Instead, he received grace.  No pink slip, just a 

verbal comment that said, “Please don’t let that happen again or I’ll have to take 

disciplinary action.”  

I have always had a grace period for every home and automobile I’ve purchased.  The payment is due on the 1^st , however, I am given a few extra days before my payment is considered late.  That is grace.

The world is starving for grace and kindness at the end of a hand that could offer rebuke instead. 

I think our calling as human beings is to offer a bit more grace in these days.  It’s easy to offer the letter of the law.  It’s easy to issue edicts, eviction notices, call the note due, judge one to be a low life, but oh, to offer grace. 

To offer a cup of water to a thirsty form of humanity is to offer grace. 

Sometimes it takes grace 

to be able to offer grace, 

doesn't it?

*“We’ve got to keep the doorway clear.  These    people may scare off our regular customers.”

*“I might not get repaid for the loan,” You            mumble.

*“But he may go out and do something much       worse than this.  He needs to be taught             a lesson.” 

*“We’ve got to set an example.  What if …?”

Yes indeed.  What if?

                    But what about grace?

The world is starving for grace. 

This word – GRACE – is commonly applied to those of us inside the church walls.  Otherwise we don’t talk about it much.  But we need to. 

I don’t think GRACE is simply a religious term.  It is a term for mankind.  In a day and age when we face cold and hard times, don’t you think a bit of grace might just ease the pains and struggles of life?

I think of the Bill Gates Foundation and the immense humanitarian work they do around our world.  I doubt that you’ll find the word “GRACE” in any of their literature as the purpose for what they do, but it is there nevertheless. 

They are easing the day to day struggle of mankind in life-changing ways. 

I’m all over the idea of GRACE when it comes to my religious belief, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I receive grace abundant in times of need.

Let’s take grace for a walk up and down Main Street USA; beyond the walls of churches and sanctuaries.

Offer a helping hand, a kind word, a smile, a meal to a homeless person.  This is grace at its finest. 

My friends Ed and Carole do just that.  They and their friends serve soup and bread to the homeless in and around Boston every weekend.  They are offering grace and a kind word and along comes hope on the coattails of the grace that is extended. 

“Grace comes free of charge to those who don’t deserve it.”  Philip Yancey said that in his book What’s So Amazing about Grace?

Grace is free.  It’s an act of love, compassion, kindness, gentleness.  It is not dependent on us being worthy of it or of earning it.  Grace offers hope,

HOPE.  Remember, a person can’t live 4 seconds without hope.

Hope and Grace. 

God give us the grace to offer more grace.

Images of Self

Who am I, really?

Who are you, really?

Maybe we should ask the question this way; “What have I been in the past and what am I becoming today?”

Proverbs 23:7 puts it this way:  “As a man/woman thinketh, so is he/she.”

Earl Nightingale says, “You become what you think about it.”

Earl also says “The mind moves in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts.”

Let’s see.  I’ve been a drummer from early age till now.  During my junior high and high school days I was consumed with drums.  I played them; I listened to recordings featuring Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich.  I thought of little else.  I should have become a drum stick, I thought of drums so much.

And then I discovered that I could sing and lead music as a director/conductor.  That was a fun trip which lasted a long time as well.  I watched other directors, I studied musical scores, I dreamed of some day being able to direct some great symphony orchestra in Dvork’s New World Symphony.  I should have become a baton, I thought of directing so much.

And then I dreamed of becoming a great managerial whiz.  I even set my cap for being president of a particular music publishing company by age forty-five.  I got my foot in the door of that organization at age 38 and was on my way.  I would have been a great company president.  If only …

And now I write and speak.  I write and speak because I love to.  But I do it mostly because I want to offer hope, encouragement and inspiration one word at a time to my audience.

My friends Rick and Linda read my blogs.  Linda wrote me one day in appreciation of something I had written and she used the word “philosopher” in reference to my writing.  That was an ironic statement and one that took some getting used to.  I had never seen myself as a “philosopher”.  I’m the guy who thanked Dr. Dunning, my college philosophy professor, for giving me a “D” in philosophy.  I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around the label “Philosopher” and P. Michael Biggs going together. 

So, what is my image of myself?  How do I see myself?

And how do you see yourself? 

Are we successful?

Smart?

          Handsome?            

                            Pretty?

                                      Skinny?

Do people listen when we talk or sing?

Do they read stuff we write?

Are we known as a stable person?

Are we trustworthy?

Are we reliable?

Do we live in integrity?

Do we live the Christian precepts with clarity that we promote?

Are we consistent in our walk and talk?

Are we kind to others?

Do we encourage others with a smile, 

                            a firm hand, a kind word?

Do we love our spouses?

Do our children run to us or from us?

Are we good to our siblings?

Are we a citizen of the world, thinking of the next generation, not just of our time in space?

What are the images within you that you hold dear?

These are sobering and ponderous questions.  I stop often and think on these things. 

You see, I really do believe “I’ll become what I think about.”

What do I want to become?

What do you want to become?

I have the questions. 

For the answers, we each must search our own hearts and minds. 

What beats within you? 

What is your destiny?

What is your God-given gift?

What is your calling in life?

Before you pass from this earth, what do you wish to have accomplished?

If the desire is there, then I believe God has gone ahead of you, prepared you with the gifts and abilities and will help you find the full scope of knowledge required to accomplish that destiny. 

Henry David Thoreau gives us a great summation for these thoughts today. 

Furious Love

(The following story is a re-telling of a story told by Brennan Manning in The Furious Longing of God)

Once upon a time there was a college student named Larry.  Larry was rather large.  Fat actually, and unkempt.  He wore jeans that had seen better days, a constantly dirty t-shirt and no shoes.

He was as low in self-esteem as one can sink and still manage to survive, if that is what you call what Larry was doing.

He had no social life, for he was labeled by everyone as “ugly”. 

One year, at Christmas time, Larry found himself back home with his parents in Rhode Island.  Larry’s father was a typical lace-curtain Irishman.  That meant on the hottest of days he would come to the dining table with a tie and suit on; he spoke in subdued tones. 

As the New Year approached, Larry told his Dad he needed to get back to school the next day. 

“What time, son?”

“Six-o’clock.”

“Well, I’ll ride the bus with you as far as I can.”

The next morning Larry and his father rode the bus to his dad’s work place where Larry caught another bus to go to the airport. 

There was a group of men in front of his dad’s work place and they began making loud and degrading remarks to Larry.  “Oink, oink, oink.  Look at that fat pig.” 

Another man remarked, “If that slob was my kid he’d be out the door so fast, he wouldn’t know if he’s on foot or horseback.  Hey pig!  Give us your best oink.”

The harsh words continued.

At that moment Larry’s father, for the first time in his life, reached out and embraced him, kissed him and said, “Larry, if your mother and I live to be two hundred years old, that wouldn't be long enough to thank God for the gift He gave to us in you.  I am so proud that you are my son!”

What amazing and informational words those were. 

Here’s what happened. 

Larry went back to school.  He remained a hippie, but he cleaned up the best he could.  He began dating and to top it off, became the president of one of the fraternities.  He also managed to "squeak" by with a 4.2 grade point average.  He had what you might call a brilliant mind. 

On June 14, 1974 Larry was ordained a priest in the diocese of Providence, Rhode Island.  After being ordained, he spent the next twenty years as a missionary in South America, living a life of total service to others in a redemptive and grace-filled way.

Why the transformation?  Why did Larry turn from being a fat slob and an aimless nobody?

For one defining moment in time, Larry felt unconditional love from his father.  That moment changed his life forever.  His father healed him. 

Did you read that right? 

His father HEALED him!

His father had the guts to give Larry the blessing he so desperately needed in the face of cursing and taunts.  His father looked deeply into his son’s eyes and saw the good that Larry couldn’t see for himself.  He affirmed Larry with a furious love, and changed the whole direction of his son’s life. 

Changed by furious love!

What an amazing transformation. 

Larry is the vehicle for this story, but it was his father’s love that this story is really about.

People cross our paths daily.  Some are casual acquaintances; some are intimate loved ones and friends.  But what matters is how we see each relationship. 

--Maybe you work on a college or university campus and you interact with students all day long.

--Maybe you are a boss and have an employee who needs just the right word from you to effect his/her transformational moment.

--Perhaps you have a friend who is desperate for those words of healing.

--The person most in need of your transformational words might just be a sibling or your own child.

Regardless, there are some people whose destinies could be changed in the blink of an eye with just the right words spoken at the precise moment in time when they are needed the most. 

Will you be that person speaking those words?

My wish, my prayer for you, is to see those close to you as redeemable.  Show them grace in a graceless world.  Dare to love with furious love. 

Love that is blind to circumstances, physical attributes body odor and clothing style.

Love that is blind to racial differences, religious opposites, and life-style choices.

Show Furious Love. 

What an amazing concept. 

Let's Go Together

I like living life in pairs and groups.  There is something about the shared experience that adds to the memory.

A few years ago I read a book by Reuben Welch entitled We Really Do Need Each Other.  In it he tells this story.

“After teaching a class on group and interpersonal relations at the college campus where he taught, the class decided to take an hour and a half group hike together up to a place called Henniger Flats, just outside Pasadena, California.  It was to be a sort of culmination of all that they had learned during the class time.

They picked the day, they set the time, they made the sandwiches and the chocolate and bought the soft drinks and packed the back-packs and off they went.

The strong, stalwart ones started out fast, lead by Don, a former paratrooper.  In no time the group was strung out all along the trail on their way up to the top of Henniger Flats, with Don in the lead, marking the trail for the others to follow. 

Don paused, looked back a few switch-backs and saw Jane, who was as we say “a bit over weight.” 

Don felt a strong urge to go back and walk with Jane for a while, which he did.  The others up ahead often called out, “Come on up.  Go faster.” 

Jane would call back, “I can’t.  I don’t think I can make it.”

“Oh yes you can.  Try harder,” came the reply.

And Jane did not make it to the top.

Thankfully the group decided that this was no way to end this shared experience together, so they decided to try again, only this time they made some new rules.

This time we will all go together, or we don’t go at all.”

So they picked the day, they set the time, they made the sandwiches and the chocolate and bought the soft drinks and packed the back-packs and off they went.

Time passed.

It took them four hours to reach the top, and by the time they arrived all of the back packs were empty, the sandwiches were eaten, and the hot coco and the soft drinks were all gone. 

BUT THEY MADE IT, TOGEHER.

TOGETHER!!!

What a concept. 

What if we adopted this idea a bit more in our lives, in our towns, our state, and our communities? 

What if families banded together in such a way as this and determined “we are family, we are together, and we survive together.”

What if churches exhibited this concept?  We would probably sing a good mixture of hymns and praise songs and nobody would be left out. 

What if the strong stalwart ones could humble themselves enough to reach back for the weaker, slower ones and lend a helping hand? 

That would be something else, wouldn’t it?

We’ve got to go together!

Some will definitely 

have to slow down.

          And some will probably

need to speed up.

But we do it together.  We go … together.

It’s not a matter of finishing first, or having your own way.  It’s working together as a group, sharing, laughing, loving, crying, but it’s all about this thing called “TOGETHER”.

We are facing some dire times.  If ever there was a time for us to pull together it is now.  Jobs are being lost. Families are stressed and being pulled apart.  Blood pressures are rising, bank accounts are dwindling. 

What do you say?  Next Saturday, how about all of us go up to Henniger Flats? 

Together!