kenlassblog

After 36 years in our house, we are having the siding replaced. As I write this, workers are pounding, sawing and pulling the old exterior boards off the house. It is making a terrible racket and sometimes they strike the house so hard the room will actually shake. Their trucks and dumpsters are clogging the driveway, denying our cars access to the garage. This is not a fast process. They’ve been here every day this week and still have a large portion of the house to complete.

Sharon and I are trying our best to tolerate the noise and inconvenience. We are trying to focus on the nice new look our home will display after new siding and paint have been finished, and how it will increase the value of the property. Short term pain for long term gain, right?

Not unlike life itself. Often we must endure adversity and heartbreak and temporary setback to accomplish a positive goal down the road. That holds true in matters of health, finance and relationships. So don’t despair. Don’t give up. See the long view. Things will usually get better, and always keep in mind you will win the ultimate victory.

It’s easy to cruise through life with blinders on, intentionally oblivious to the adversity around us. I guess we feel safer that way. Less vulnerable to unwanted commitment and disappointment. Mind your own business. Focus on your own needs. Don’t get involved with other people’s problems because it only means more work and stress.

But the thing is, ministry to others is why you were put here. Without it you have no real purpose. Selfish motivation will never bring you any kind of lasting joy. You will always want more.

If you look around you, you will find heartbreak, loneliness, sickness and pain everywhere. And you can make it better. Your love, generosity and time can heal so many wounds, bring so much joy, relieve so much pain, perhaps even save many lives.

There’s nothing quite like filling a need to fill your need.

Why does time pass so quickly when you’re busy, but so slowly when you’re lying in bed at night unable to go to sleep? Of course, the pace of time doesn’t really change. It’s just your focus on it.

I can’t help feeling, when I am wide awake overnight, that I’m wasting time. Like I should get up and do something productive. I’m awake anyway, so why not make it worthwhile? Yet if you deprive yourself the opportunities to go back to sleep, it will catch up with you in the long run. Your body will run down and your brain won’t function sharply.

How we manage time pretty much defines us, and our quality of life. There’s a balance in there somewhere. If I don’t sleep well overnight, I try to make time for a day nap. Not always easy, I know. One thing for sure: time is not going to stop. It will keep marching on, and we only get so much of it. So use it wisely.

No matter how fast or slow it goes by, time is a gift we should not take for granted.

I like to perform gargalesis on my grandkids. And they love it. Gargalesis is the technical term for tickling. Every time I see them, I haul out “the tickle bug” from my pocket and gently poke them in the tummy, sides and armpits. They giggle and scream and pretend to try to fend me off. But when I stop they always ask “where did the tickle bug go?”

Ever wonder why you can’t tickle yourself? It’s because the sensitivity to the contact is a reflex to something unexpected. Obviously, if your brain knows you are going to poke yourself, there is no reflex. Your prepared for it. No giggle. No laugh.

When life pokes you with something unexpected, instead of brooding and complaining, consider it a tickle. Try to laugh it off, pick yourself up and move on. The tickle bug of life will always buzz around you. Make sure your mental reflexes are sharp and ready.

I miss newspapers. Growing up, I looked forward to the paper boy delivering the day’s paper. I would immediately rifle through it for two specific sections: the sports section and the comics. Sports, so I could catch up on the news about my favorite teams, and the comics, because, well, they made me smile and laugh. Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Peanuts, Hi and Lois, and BC were a daily source of chuckles and grins.

The authors of those strips must have felt much satisfaction in knowing they played a small part in brightening the days of millions of readers. It’s amazing how they could come up with ideas for so many years.

The ability to bring a bit of joy into other lives is not exclusive to them. You may not be able to write a humorous comic strip, but you can be the bright spot in somebody’s day today. Somebody who needs a little chuckle, who could use a friendly smile. Ministry to others should always be on our front page.

Recently I had to buy a new wifi system for my house. I set it up, and then went about the task of connecting everything to it, computers, phones, TVs, cameras and so on. Everything went smoothly, except for the printer. Try as I might, I just could not get the printer to sync with the new router.

After hours of tinkering, I finally called the customer assistance number for the printer company. I was told that my model was built in 2017, and was no longer compatible with new routers. Just seems like a shame. It’s a perfectly good printer, but it has lost touch with modern technological culture.

Sometimes I wonder if I am the same. I still trust all of my traditional values and beliefs, but times have changed and morality has evolved. Have I lost touch with modern culture? Do I need to upgrade my thinking? Have I become obsolete?

Then I remember God and His ways are never out of date. His path for us is always state of the art.

Whatever adversity you will face today, you will conquer it. You are smart, strong, and determined. It will take work. It will take effort, but you’ll get past it. And you’ll emerge better for it.

Life is an attitude. In many ways, how you think of your world becomes your world. Worry and negativity are self-inflicted. So are peace and joy. God has the big stuff covered. He and you win in the end. Everything else is just temporary hurdles you will leap over and clear with preparation and will.

You are going to have a good day, a good life. And after life, it gets even better! Believe it. Trust it. Make it happen. You were created to love and be loved. If you focus on that, there is nothing you can’t overcome.

My wife Sharon brought home a carton of eggs from the grocery store. When I took them out of the refrigerator a few days later, I discovered several of them were cracked. Sharon swore she had checked them in the store and they were fine. Clearly, she must have broken them in transit on the way home.

A week later, she brought another dozen home. Same story. They were fine on the shelf, but broken a few days after. Sharon was upset and baffled. She had been so careful bringing them home this time. How could she have damaged them? We were both frustrated.

We finally figured out we had the temperature in the fridge set too low. The eggs were freezing in there and eventually cracking from the pressure. It wasn’t Sharon’s fault at all.

Sometimes things are not what they seem. Don’t jump to conclusions until you’ve thought things through. Otherwise, you may end up with egg on your face.

I guess everyone who writes has a dream of writing a book. I’d like to write one. In fact, I’ve started writing several of them. But I get about twenty or thirty pages in, and I lose interest. So I figure if I can’t stay interested in the subject matter, surely readers won’t either.

Following a project through to the end has often been a problem for me. I get excited about ideas and concepts, and eagerly start them, but somewhere along the way, I have a bad tendency to drift off to something else that catches my attention. People who don’t follow through on their commitments have always annoyed me, but I am just as bad.

Don’t be like me. If you commit to something, follow it through to the end. There is a certain satisfaction to completing a mission successfully. Gives you a real sense of accomplishment.

Hey, maybe I could write a book about that!

I have a couple of favorite actors. Tom Hanks is one of them. I will go to a movie knowing nothing about it, but if Tom Hanks is in it, I know it will be good. Of course, I don’t know him, and I will never meet him, but somehow I trust he will entertain me and give me my money’s worth. I suppose that’s because he has come through for me so many times in great films such as Forrest Gump, Castaway, A League of Their Own, Philadelphia, Road to Perdition, Bridge of Thieves, and so many more.

Trust is earned. It develops by coming through for someone over and over. Want to earn respect? Trust? Faith? Yes, even love? Be someone others can depend on. Every time. Every situation.

You can be Tom Hanks to someone who needs you.