You Offend Me, Sir!

I will never forget the morning several years ago when a dear friend (in this post and in the future I'll refer to him as Stainless) looked me squarely in the eye and said, "Well Kevin, certainly you must know that the biggest difference between you and God is that god NEVER wakes up in the morning thinking that He's you!"

What did he say? That was the most ridiculous and possibly the most offensive thing I had ever heard in my life. He was normally a fairly reasonable fellow. We had spent hours together encouraging one another and building each other up. Then, out of the blue, this so-called friend accuses me of playing God!

The interesting thing is that Stainless was fully aware that I had done a little debating in my life. Did he really want to mix it up with me? So, I HUMBLY went into a full rebuttal of that assinine statement and in several LOGICAL points proved to him that never in my life had I ever exhibited the audacity to play God!

As a matter of fact, any idiot who knew of my background, education, time in the mission field, participation in church----any fool could plainly see that I had been serving God all my life!

It was only a few weeks later that I heard another friend quote the deceased mother of my good friend, Clark. She said, "I remember when Kerry used to say that she had been serving God all her life----mostly in an ADVISORY capacity!"

BAM! What a kick in the gut! Serving God in an advisory capacity. Was that what Stainless meant? Was he really just trying to point out to me that my main problem is that I try to advise God?

Several years have passed since that realization came to me. And some days are better than others. I fight the tempation to inform God of how He should handle some of you. The good news for you is that He NEVER takes my advice. That is a good thing. Trust me on that. Any God who needs Kevin's advice wouldn't be much of a God, would he?

There's a Difference?

I belong to a faith tradition which has historically discouraged the recitation of rote prayers. Oh, there's nothing wrong with the "model prayer", often referred to as the Lord's Prayer. But for the most part, I was lead to believe that I should pray from my heart and not just recite some memorized prayer.

The Serenity Prayer is probably in the Top 5 of "recited" prayers on the planet. Or not! I have no idea how many different prayers the Catholics recite on a daily basis and there's about a billion of them. But, in my limited experience, I know the Serenity Prayer gets a lot of play.

I've actually recited it a few thousand times myself. Apparently, I have no idea what it means and no inclination to let God do what I ask Him to do in this prayer.

Forget a discussion of serenity! I know as much about serenity as I do about quantum physics. Oh, I give lip service to the "things I cannot change" and the "courage to change the things I can." But, in the last week or so my prayer and meditation has involved the "wisdom to know the difference." Thus, the title of this post---"there's a difference?" I had NO idea.

The "wisdom to know the difference" is the key in this prayer. In fact, there is no prayer here without the wisdom to know the difference being on the table.

God is forcing me to learn the difference. He has put people into my life, that today March 4, are doing some of the most STUPID, most SELF-CENTERED, most DESTRUCTIVE things I can imagine. And God is absolutely insisting that I not "rob" them of the valuable lessons they are about to learn.

God grant me the serenity to
Accept the persons I cannot change,
The courage to change the person I can,
And the wisdom to know
That person is ME!

Opinions are Like What?

Back in the early 90's I met a man in Farmers Branch who never gave his opinion. His repsonse to any question seeking his advice was, "Well, it's been my experience....." Bill would only share from his experience. He simply would not give his oinion.

I want so badly to follow Bill's example. And this practicie of sharing only from experience is something I try to keep at the forefront of my thoughts as I interact with folks on a daily basis.

I can't imagine anyone seeking my opionion, anyway. But some of you do! And all it shows is your desperation to finally find someone who will tell you what you want to hear. Isn't that why we seek counsel from a number of people instead of only a trusted one or two? Aren't we really trying to find someone who will finally validate the stupid decision we have already made way before we decided to seek advice? (That's not my opinion.That's my Experience!)

Several years ago, a really good friend decided to do the whole Brady Bunch thing! He was divorced with two kids. She was divorced with four kids. But they knew this "must somehow form a family."

I cannot tell you how many times my phone rang with this guy asking me what he should do. (This was obviously, after they married! He never asked if I thought they should!)

So, I will share what my response typically sounded like:

"Dude! Are you stupid? Are you really asking me that? I am married to and have only been married to one woman. Both of my kids are mine! I have never done the blended family thing. I have never tried to discipline another man's kids! I have NO experience with what you are talking about."

Then I would say, "Have you prayed bout this?" When he would respond that he had not, I would simply hang up on him.

I love this man. But I cannot tolerate any man who will seek my advice when he's not even willing to take his oncerns to his Creator. Good grief!

So today, I only share my opinions when they are REALLY good ones! Ha! Ha! God isn't done with me yet!