32 years of dating

My gosh! It seems as though it was just yesterday that I was washing the old Mustang and getting it all polished up for my first date. And as the hour drew closer....the nerves began to take over. This would be my first date with Karen. Everything was gonna have to be just right. I have to be polite.....open the door for her......compliment her.......pay for the meal......and take her safely home. That doesn't sound too nerve racking does it? Oh yeah, this is a blind date.

Of course it was a blind date that changed my life forever. King of Pizza in Kannapolis became like a shrine to me. I can still see the inside of that place, and the booth that Karen and I shared with my brother and his date. Can't tell you what kind of pizza we had, but I can tell you that I sat beside of Karen. I don't know what it was, but I would try and remember everything, and every time we were together. The first movie we saw together was "Rocky"; the first Christmas we exchanged gifts (I still have the chair she gave me); my birthday gift to her (an engagement ring). Our lives have been filled with lots of "firsts"..... first kiss, first home, first child, and the list goes on and on. But, more importantly.....our lives together have been filled with dates. 32 years of dating.

One of the greatest pieces of advice that Karen and I received in pre-marriage counseling, was to continue dating. Of all the things that I have learned in 30 years of marriage, taking Karen on a date still makes my heart race just like it did 32 years ago today.


Karen.........I love you........wanna go get a pizza tonight?

play-doh

One of my favorite art classes that I took in college was in ceramics. I guess the main reason was the chance to learn how to mold clay into a piece of art. There was always a fascination at a young age with being able to make a recognizable object out of a lump of clay.....mainly play-doh. But, here was a chance to learn how to mold clay......real clay. I would even get a chance to "throw" a pot on a wheel. (That's just some artist lingo to make you think I knew what I was doing) It was thrill for me to sit at the wheel with a lump of clay in the center and using a combination of force and control to begin the process of creating a pot/vase. Whether it would have any real use would be revealed after it was fired and glazed.

I always think about that ceramics class and "throwing" pots when I read in the scriptures how we are described as clay in the hands of the potter. And, I can see how we are that lump of clay until God takes us and places us on His wheel to mold us and shape us into what He wants us to be. Just like an artist, He has a plan on what He needs to do to make us useful for Him. I know it seems like it is all up to God how this all will turn out, and in the area of art, the clay is pretty much totally controlled by the potter. Once it is on the wheel, it stays there till the potter is finished. This is where the difference is.

It takes quite a bit of force for the potter to turn a lump of clay into a piece of art. Sometimes, it takes a lot of force for God to turn us into His piece of art. The difference in us and the clay is that, when we feel like it is too much force; too hard on us; too difficult for us; too painful to bear....we choose to get off of the wheel.

Oh....for the strength to stay on the wheel and allow the Creator to finish what He has started in us; to feel His hands as they shape and mold us from the inside out; to feel His force on our lives as He lifts us higher and higher...... making us His work of art.

People will be able to look at us and know that we are His because we were willing to stay on the wheel.

others

I was reading in a book by Eric Rees the other night, and he was commenting on the Good Samaritan parable in Luke 10. I've heard about this man in messages, studied about him in Sunday School lessons, and I have even taught about him to youth at a summer camp. And, you know how, even if you are familiar with a story in the Bible, and you think you have heard every angle that could be presented on the topic......there always seems to be a new view point. That was the case in my reading.

The Good Samaritan is all about being a servant; simple as that. We are called to be servants as we follow Christ. He is our example of how we are to live our lives. I guess I just didn't consider the importance of our mind when it comes to being a servant. Most of the time...we focus on our heart and we want to have a servant's heart to help us be a servant. But, our mind? Eric Rees says that he has heard it said, "The body never goes where the mind has never been." He goes on to say that if our mind is set on serving others, then that is how we will respond to others. We need to be aware of how we can serve at all times. Serving others must be in our mind at all times.

I have come to the realization that for "serving others" to always be on our mind, then it needs to have a place of importance in our mind. If serving is something that we just think about from time to time, maybe when prompted by a message at church, or a commercial on TV, then it is not important to us. How important is serving to us? .......to me? Are we ever saddened when we can't serve someone, or miss an opportunity to serve somebody in need? Or, do we look for a reason not to serve? Does our mind start to calculate how much time this will require, or how much it my cost us?

And when that happens, we will realize what is important in our minds......our self. We become more concerned about "our" time and "our" resources (money). Where do the "others" fit into our mind? The "others" need a place of importance, and that place can only be seen as important if we have the mind of Christ; who said that He "did not come to be served, but to serve." The "others" were always on His mind. He gave His life for the "others".


That makes us all................."others".