My car is a traveling office, storage bin and lunchroom. It had never been cleaned and detailed by anyone other than me. I have owned this car since 2019. We decided it needed a more professional cleaning. We arranged the place and date, and worked out the logistics of both of us getting to work close to on time. They finished my car just before the lunch hour, making it possible for us to pick the car up without Dorothy losing any office time. The car looked beautiful. I settled up with the company and happily drove off to get some lunch for myself. Only as I was heading down the road did I realize that the air conditioner was not working properly.

I was at that complicated area around South Memorial and the Creek Turnpike where the city designed the streets to switch from right to left before switching back to the way normal streets are supposed to go. I couldn’t just turn around and go back to the place without going a mile or so out of the way. I had to roll down the windows to accommodate for the lack of A/C.  Just as I pulled up to turn back into the car detail shop, I heard an odd noise and noticed dust going everywhere. It was a city crew blowing freshly mowed grass into my car. It turned out that the detailer had polished all the air vents tightly closed and pushed random buttons and settings with complete abandon. Later at home I vacuumed out the grass and tried to wipe away the dust.

Staying clean is not easy. We are always having to clean up things and ourselves. Coming clean is a way of life, isn’t it? Coming clean with our sins—before ourselves, before others and before God Almighty—is the spiritual necessity for each of us every single day. King David confessed his sin and prayed for a clean heart (Psalm 51).  Confession is how God cleans the soul. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Keep clean. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

Imagine residing near an active volcano. Apparently, more people do it than we imagine. Mt. Kilauea is America’s most active volcano. It has been putting on a spectacular display for months, erupting with brilliant flourishes. You can view the eruption live on YouTube/twopineapples. It is most impressive at night. Dorothy and I once took a close-up helicopter ride over this volcano after a major eruption had subsided. We saw the lava slowly oozing into the ocean. We felt the heat and saw the molten red cracks in the grayish lava.  When we were first married, I promised to take her to Hawaii for our 25^th wedding anniversary. That was such a long way off I thought she might forget. Instead, she opened an Hawaii savings account at the bank and made occasional contributions into it. (All of this is on my mind as we are celebrating our 55^th anniversary this week.)

When we arrived at our 24^th anniversary, Dorothy had not forgotten my promise of Hawaii. I mentioned the Hawaii account, and how it ought to amount to something by now. It did–the balance stood at $250.00. Apparently, “we had things come up.” Only with the miracle of God’s provision were we able to head to Hawaii on schedule. It was amazing that Dorothy agreed to fly in the helicopter in the first place, much less over an active volcano. Living around a volcano can be hazardous. The ocean erupts into giant cauldrons of steam as lava flows into it. We could see the smoldering remains of homes, businesses, old vehicles and telephone poles. A jungle was overtaking once peaceful neighborhoods. Yet, a few minutes later we flew over fancy hotels and the busy inner city of Hilo. People were shopping, working or dealing with tourists like us. 

Living on the side of an active volcano seems risky to me, but then, to those who live in Hawaii, living in the middle of Oklahoma’s Tornado Alley might seem dangerous too. It becomes a matter of perspective. There’s the view on the ground, from above, from a distance, or virtually. Faith is a way of living that sees through the lens of Jesus and His love. It can be more awesome than seeing a volcano.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. See Jesus. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” says the flustered Wizard of Oz, as he tries to hide his whiz-bang technology. But to no avail. The truth of his trickery is revealed. I thought of that scene this past week as we watch another showman try to keep the curtain closed. According to L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz series, the wizard had been a traveling carnival magician. Speaking as a former amateur magician, no entertainer wants curious eyes looking behind the curtain. The puzzlement, or awe of the effect, is the point. The wizard had created an illusionary world of fear and subjugation. Smoke, mirrors, and great big projections created multiple distractions in Oz. It was a curious little dog named Toto that revealed it all. 

We live in an age where private acts and unguarded moments will live on forever. See the video of the CEO and his mistress on the Kiss Cam at the Coldplay Concert? When nearly everyone in the world has a camera-telephone in their pocket, anyone can become a news reporter or private eye.  Things once spoken or written for a specific audience are now saved on computers in the cloud, even after they have been deleted. The lines between privacy and security have become blurred. 

Jesus once reminded His followers: What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight (Luke 12:1-4). So how then should we live? Jesus is encouraging us to be people of integrity, honesty and truthfulness. He warns us not to become deceivers. My great-grandmother used to say: Be sure your sins will find you out.  Things got better in Oz when the curtain was opened, and the wizard faced the world humbled and flawed.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Check your curtain. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

One of our pastors in my youth was a heavy man who admitted he was big even as a boy. Whenever he was preaching and got close to Galatians 6:7, he would tell the same story. Being able to tell the same story repeatedly as if it were the first time, is an artform passed from generation to generation, and not just to preachers. He would recount being assigned one hot muggy day to plant seven rows of corn in the backyard garden. The rows were already tilled. He was given a small bag of seed corn and a dowel stick of a precise length. The assignment was to poke a hole in the soil, place one seed in it, lay the stick down and poke a hole with the other end. To hear him tell it, he thought he would die after a few seeds. He was sweating, he was dirty, his knees hurt, and his back was beginning to ache. By the time he got to the top of the fourth row, he was done. He sat leaning on the fence when he had an idea. He would plant the first 3 or 4 seeds at the front of the remaining rows and bury the rest of the seeds in the back. His parents were so proud of him. He was so proud of himself for getting away with it.

It only took a couple of weeks for his deception to be discovered. The gardener always tends the details—looking for bugs and weeds and mischief. His father noticed the empty rows behind the tender shoots of corn. It was a mystery. Were there rabbits or birds raiding the garden? Eventually he saw the clump beginning to sprout by the fence. Reaping what you sow always means a day of reckoning has arrived. A better approach is to just be honest from the start.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Truth will prevail. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.