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A Bucket Of Balls

June 26, 2010

It takes so little effort to be nice, to be generous, to make a difference in someone’s day.

Yesterday Josh, Nate and a friend spent the afternoon at Two Eagles Golf Course. They had some time to spare and chipped in to buy a bucket of balls to hit at the driving range. When those were done, they were done.

A gentleman approached them, chatted with them for a bit, gave them some tee’s that he had and then, for no reason, bought them another bucket of balls, wished them well, and went on his way.

I say, “for no reason,” but isn’t there one? I don’t know who he was, and I am quite sure he won’t be reading this, but I wonder what happened before he walked over. Did he see the three of them laughing and having a good time—scampering out as far as they dare to grab the nearest balls just to extend their time at the range when their bucket ran dry? Did it remind him of something or someone or just a time when he was their age?

I can’t say for sure, but for some reason he wanted to make their day; and he did.

Why do most of us stand by and observe but not go that extra step to do something nice for a stranger? Are we afraid of being rejected? Are we afraid someone will take it the wrong way or think it strange? Are we too in a rush? Or, worse, do we not even see those opportunities to be kind?

I am just reflecting on this today and wondering what opportunity will present itself.

I think God is so much like that stranger at the golf course. I think He delights in doing things for us, “for no reason” other than it brings him joy to do so. He is the master of “the moment” and, because He is so, I think He prompts us to not miss out on what He finds so delightful.

If we will pause and see what He sees, I think we will find so many ways to touch people’s lives with a little bit of sunshine, for no other reason than they share this earth with us and are of equal importance before God; they are another heart beating; another soul breathing. It should come naturally to us, because ”[We are] God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2: 9 NLT).

On a bad day, a tragic day, those within arms reach quickly become friends. Why not on a good day, a day when nothing much is happening, when there is no immediate need, just an opportunity.

—Teresa Klassen (http://onebrownleaf.wordpress.com/)

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How Many Ways Can I Be Bad?

June 24, 2010

Aren’t there a lot of things you can do wrong?

This morning I read Proverbs 11:3,

“The integrity of the upright guides them,
but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”

“Duplicity” caught my eye so I looked it up to get its exact meaning; it is: deception by pretending to feel and act one way while feeling and acting another (wordcentral.com). Who has not done this? Can you be a human being and not do this?

If one is awestruck by the beauty and complexity of life, one must also be astonished over the incredible webwork of “evil.” I mean, how many ways can we be bad? There is “bad” that is right out there, and then there is the Pandora’s Box of back-room bad, such as this one called duplicity; I doubt it would make the top ten bad things but don’t be fooled, it is as lethal as murder.

Duplicity is acid (the kind that burns your eyes out, not the hallucinogenic). It is the thing that eats away and eventually annihilates trust. It is the “say one thing, think another” evil; it is “the fake”; it is what makes us juggle stories and habits; it is strategic deception. From the most innocent, “I’m fine” when you’re not to the “we’re fine” when you’re about to break something; duplicity misrepresents at every corner.

Little microscopic duplicity; you are a nasty one, aren’t you? You are a game at first—one that requires skill and word-power; and then you are a trip-wire. Why do I live with duplicity? “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do!!!” (Paul, in Romans 7:15). We know what duplicity feels like; it is the scab we keep picking at; the flaw that won’t let us off the hook.

How many things can I do wrong in the short amount of time I have been given? How many ways can I be bad?

Some people say, “I don’t care!” because God’s standard is too high, too impossible to meet. But “I don’t care” is just us giving up; it doesn’t fix anything; it doesn’t make it easier to live with ourselves.

The word that just came to my mind as I am writing this is “reconcile.” When I do my finances and two columns don’t agree with each other (a situation I face frequently), I need to reconcile my statement; I need to get them to agree. Duplicity is when two things are not in agreement with each other; one side is one way, the other side is another.

Jesus, recognizing our duplicity, chose to use that word “reconcile” to describe what He did on the cross. He brought agreement between us and God (we were alienated from God because of our evil behavior) and “now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…(Colossians 1:21–23). Because of our agreement with God He shows us how to have agreement in our own heart and in how we relate to others.

On our own, we are filled with duplicity, but in Christ we are reconciled.

—Teresa Klassen (http://onebrownleaf.wordpress.com/)

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