Broken

Every morning the boy filled the cart with the stones that he needed to move from the side of the Farm House, to the back of the Farm. He had been hired and given $50 to move to the rocks by the farmer because everyone knew what a good worker the boy was. After a few days working, the farmer decided to check up on the boy, because he knew he was working long hours and see his progress. The Farmer came around the side of the Farm House and saw that the boy still had a long way to go. Looking to the back of the Farm he saw the boy coming back up from taking his last load of rocks to the back of the Farm. What he saw shocked him. The boy was pushing the worst looking cart the Farmer had ever seen. Where the wheels were supposed to be, were only rims, the two handles were different sizes, the wood sides were cracked and broken in many places. As soon as the boy reached the old Farmer, he smiled and told the Farmer he would be done as soon as possible, but it was taking a little longer then he thought it would. The Farmer instead of being happy that the job was getting done at all, said to the boy, look at your cart boy. The rims are missing tires, the handles are broken and different sizes, the sides of your cart are cracked and broken in many places, why are you using such a horrible broken cart, isn't that making this job impossibly hard. The boy looked at the cart and did admit that it was much harder having to push the cart with no tires, he said that it did take him awhile to get used to pushing the cart with the handles being different sizes and admitted that he would often have to stop and pick up rocks that he had dropped from the cart due to the broken sides. Exactly said the Farmer, so why do you use it? The boy looked puzzled, but said honestly, sir it was all I had.

How about you, what have you been doing to "Make the Change" in your little part of the world this year? Do you feel like the boy, joyful just to help with what you have, or are you feeling like the farmer, "why am I having to use this broken down cart that makes everything impossibly hard??? I know how hard it can be to make a difference; I know how hard it can be to push a cart that is so broken that it barely moves. However, sometimes, if a broken down cart is all we have and someone needs a pile of rocks moved, we need to move it for them and just be honest with them and say, yes it may not look like much, hey maybe I don't look like much, but honestly "it is all I have". Can anyone ask more? You'll never regret helping!!! Spring is here and the warm weather will soon be on us and we will soon be out and about more often. Use the opportunity to find a way to use whatever you have and "Make the Change"!!!

Broken Love

We just celebrated the Easter Season and for me each Easter Season is a chance for me to review Christ's life on this earth and see the reason that I chose this life. When I look at Christ's life I see three things and for this post we will look at those things, because at least to me these three things are why this page exists and why I chose to live this life.
1st thing I see is Christ's way of looking at people:
Most everyone looked at Christ as someone who could provide something for them, or who could take something away from them. The ones who wanted something from Him would crowd Him with their requests and pressure Him to give them what they desired, never relenting, never giving Him any peace. The one's who thought He would take away their power and influence, they consistently pressured Him with questions and tried to trick Him all the time into saying or doing something that they could arrest Him or Kill Him for. However, whenever Christ looked at people, He saw people who just needed something that they didn't even know they needed. He always looked past the questions, past the motives and into the heart of the person and always tried to give them the answers and things that they really needed. He never tired of teaching, giving and answering the people who came to Him. Not to say He didn't get frustrated at times, but His frustration was not at the people themselves really, it was because He wanted so badly to give them a peace and an understanding that they were just not ready to or willing to understand at the time. It's so easy for us to get frustrated with people who are always asking for things from us, or people who always seem to try and get us into trouble. However, do we ever really look at these people and try to find out what they really are needing? Do we ever wonder why they keep coming to us? Do we ever look at them as opportunities, rather than nuisances.
2nd thing I see is Christ's impartiality:
One of the things that really attracted me to Christ was His impartiality when it came to picking His disciples and with who He helped. So many of us stick to the people who are just like us. We feel more comfortable only with like minded and socially equal people. Since I have always been on the fringe of normal and a little odd, the people who chose to befriend me had to learn to accept me for my oddness and normal side. When I saw how Christ accepted all people, even those who were at first strongly against Him, it made me feel like Christianity was exactly what I was looking for. It was a religion that accepted all people and weren't just looking for those who were "just" like themselves. I found a place to finally fit in, even with all my flaws and oddities. It's a great feeling to find people who are willing to just like you, for who you are. To be able to be yourself and know that you will be accepted. Jesus always let his disciples be themselves and accepted them for who they were. It didn't mean that they didn't have disagreements or conflicts, what it meant was that even when there were disagreements or conflicts, they were never in danger of losing His Love, Friendship or Commitment. Are we willing to do this with our friends. Do we seek out only people who are like us or who are on equal social standing? Or do we give everyone a chance to get into our inner circle and accept those who are different from us?
The 3rd thing I see in Christ:
This last thing I see hit me hard between the eyes and that is His unfailing Love for all people. A lot of bad things have happened in my life, I have met a lot of pretty bad people. However, to read and truly try and understand what Jesus went through just prior to the Cross and then the actual Cross itself, the weight of His few last words on earth cut me to the core of my being. He could have easily been angry, He could have cursed all those who were there, but the three things He did would show Love on a totally different level then I had ever seen or understood to be possible. The first thing was He ministered to a criminal and promised that criminal, that He would join Jesus in Paradise. This criminal admitted that what he had done and the reason he was there on the cross was deserved, but Jesus saw his change of heart, he saw the truth of repentance in his words and instead of worrying about His own problems, His own pain, He chose to give peace to a repentant soul. The next thing He did was to ask that God forgive all the people who had beaten Jesus, spit on Him, pulled out His beard, hurled curses at Him, nailed Him to a Cross, cast lot's for His clothing and humiliated Him with a crown of thorns. How could He find the depth of Love it would take at such a time, near death, in pain and agony that can't be explained, to yell out for God to forgive them!!! The third thing was, He was committed to finishing the plan that God had for Him and that was a plan of redemption for us all. He willingly gave His life for us all. He endured all this pain, torture and humiliation for us. This was the ultimate act of Love. No greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. The only greater love I've seen, is the Cross, where Christ laid down His life not only for His friends, but also for those who hated Him. Do we find this kind of depth of Love for people. Do we love those people who frustrate us, hurt us, get on our last nerve? What I loved about Christ and Christianity that came through Christ, is that it gives that kind of love to it's followers and it's followers are called to give it back as well!!!
So why did I call this post Broken Love? The reason is because after reviewing Christ's love this Easter Season, I find myself asking all those questions at the end of each of those sections and finding myself lacking. I read article after article from churches that seem to have lost their connection to the three things above. They choose to pick out certain people, like Homosexuals, women who have abortions, drug dealers, prostitutes and they attack them, they call them names and they resist allowing them into their churches. They call them abominations and it breaks my heart!!! If you look up the word abomination in the bible, you will see that all sin is called abomination. It says in the bible that no liar will enter into the kingdom of God. We the Church however, choose to ignore the places in the bible that relate to us. We choose to ignore those sin's that we commit to easily, like lying, sex, anger, using God's name in vain. We miss the point totally when it comes to sin. Jesus understood that to Make the Change in a person's life, to give them peace, to capture the heart of anyone, you must be willing to do all of the three above things. Anyone who has chosen to walk the path of Christianity, must also walk the path of unconditional love. A depth of love that seems to be broken in many places today.
So are we ready to "Make the Change" in our little part of the world? If we want to have any chance, we must not start with a broken love, filled with our past's, our conditions, our bias. We must be willing to have a complete love, one that is open to differences, inconveniences and one that is open to understanding and to look through the outward and into the heart of a person!!! I love my choice to follow Christ and my choice to try and spread His love into my little part of the world. Whatever your reason for reading my posts, or being a part of this page, take at least this away, people need more love!!!

The Broken Vase

A young man drove to his grandpa's house after the memorial service. He and his grandfather were very close and it was given to him to clean out the house his grandfather had lived in for 55 years. After spending several days packing up his belongings he was in the attic and found a box with the word "Potential" written on the top of it. When the young man opened the box he found 50 broken pieces of what looked like something of Chinese make. The young man donated most all of the boxes to charities, but kept the box that said potential and took it home with him. He decided to see if he could put the pieces back together and see what it was. So he researched the best adhesive to use and began to put the pieces back together one by one. It took the young man several weeks to figure out which pieces went together and how they went together but he finally finished and when he did, what he had, was one of the most beautiful vases the young man had ever seen. The pieces had fit back together so well that all that showed was a small thin line where the pieces went together, but the way they fit, the design actually made with vase look really cool. The young man displayed his vase right on his table where all could see it and everyone told him how beautiful the vase was and he always had beautiful freshly cut flowers in the vase. He had never understood why his grandfather had put those pieces in that box and wrote that word "Potential", but now as he looked at his beautiful vase, and remembered all the compliments he had received on it, he knew what his grandfather knew about those pieces of broken vase. If someone just took the time to research what would work best to put them back together, and then spent the hours carefully working the pieces back into their rightful place, the vase could be beautiful and useful again.

The young man began to think about how people are much the same. So many of us have so much potential, but are often broken by life's circumstances. All we need is someone to invest the time to figure out what it is that would help put us back together and we would become beautiful productive people again. So what about you, do you know any broken people in your life, do you know people who could use your time and investment, do you know people who have potential? If so, would you be willing to "Make the Change" in their life? I hope so, I hope that all who read this story can find a way to see the beauty in those who have been broken and hurt by this world and can learn how to invest your time, energy and efforts in putting them back together and becoming the change in their life's!!!