Aloha Friday Messge – January 30, 2009

January 30, 2009

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Today I would like to do something a little on the lighter side. Some of you have seen some of these recently – perhaps you might have seen all of them. I just wanted to put them all in the same basket just for the fun of it. Then at the end is a special reading I hope you will enjoy and reflect upon.

FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY:

In Florida, an atheist created a case against the Easter & Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews & observances of their holy days. The argument was it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized day. The case was brought before a judge.

After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, “Case dismissed.”

The plaintiff’s lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, “Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter, & others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur, & Hanukkah. Yet my client & all other atheists have no such holidays.”

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, “But you do. Counsel, your client is woefully ignorant.”

The lawyer said, “Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists.”

The judge said, “The calendar says April 1st, is ‘April Fools Day.’ Psalm 14:1 states, ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God.’ Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned.”

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

Only in America do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Mr. Greene is a butcher. He is 5’11” tall, has a 38′ waist and 32″ inseam. He wears size 8 ½ D shoes, usually loafers. He always wears a fresh paper hat for each day of work. The only jewelry he wears is a wedding band and a Timex watch. Given this information, what does Mr. Greene weigh?

{Meat! He’s a butcher!}

The love of God is like the ocean, you can see its beginnings but not its end. The Grace of God is the ocean of His Love. He is the source of the Ocean of Grace. When you acknowledge Him, it is as if you are submersed in a vast ocean being fed by a fountain of purest water. You are standing in that fountain in the center of the center of the Crystal Sea drinking from a crystal cup of the Endless Grace and Love, and this is freely given to every human soul alive today in Heaven and on Earth. “Drink deeply and never thirst.” *

*Quote from Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger In A Strange Land”

We are called human beings, not human doings. So in happy moments, be praising God. In difficult moments, be seeking God. In quiet moments, be worshiping God. In painful moments, be trusting of God. In every moment, be thanking God. Use the Bee-Attitudes every day! http://www.mamarocks.com/bee_attitudes.htm

Sowing Generously 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

chick

Aloha Friday Message – January 23, 2009

January 22, 2009

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We are just a week and a day away from ending the first month of 2009. We have seen some remarkable history during this month. Not all of it will be viewed as good by everyone. And of course, not all of it will be viewed as bad by everyone. Nearly everyone will find some of each extreme, and a lot of things in between about which they are undecided or uninformed. All of us can agree, I believe, that the United States has taken a new stance in the World. All the clamoring for ‘change’ has produced unprecedented changes the effects of which could hasten or delay the hopes all of us hold for our future. We have all thought about changes a lot in past year. Many of us have undergone changes, some good and some not so good, we did not plan. For some of us our planned changes were successful and for others those changes failed to meet our expectations.

I looked back into the processes for change I have advocated over the years. Here are a few of them, all things that came about when looking for way to make permanent positive change – Quality Improvement – Performance Improvement – Performance Optimization – lots of fancy phrases for trying to do right things better and better things right.

Creating Effective Change for a Healthy Future

1: Create commitment through joint diagnosis.
2: Compare diagnosis to shared vision of health.
3: Foster consensus, competence, and cohesion.
4: Implement a revitalizing treatment plan.
5: Develop new lifestyles that support continued revitalization.
6: Make continuous improvement based on continuous feedback (return to step 1).

The CAREFUL Plan for System Change

Choose an ACTION, PROCESS, or SYSTEM that is suboptimal, but still is essential.
Analyze the resource allocations (PEOPLE, SPACE, TIME, MONEY, MATERIEL, REPUTATION, AND INFORMATION).
Review and revise the quality, quantity, or method of resource allocation.
Evaluate the short-term, long-term, and side-effect benefits and deficits of this revision.
Follow the implementation process closely so problems that arise can be handled quickly.
Utilize continuous feedback for continuous improvement by monitoring responsibility and accountability.
Lead by example. Make the change an integral part of your sphere of influence.

I.D.E.A.S.
Identify an opportunity
Define the opportunity
Evaluate resource requirements for the opportunity
Actualize resource dispersion for the requirements
Synergize the results with applications to other processes

P Plan
D Do
C Check
A Act

Lots of talk, lots of ways to deal with planning change, and these can even be used to plan how to deal with unwanted change. All of them depend on deciding to do something and then sticking with it until you find out if it works. That’s pretty much what all of us do every day, isn’t it? We try to do the right things right, try to avoid doing the wrong things, and hope everyone else will do that, too. It’s the Golden Rule.

What messes it all up, what makes plans go bad, or bad get planned is when we forget The Golden Rule. Think about it. Wasn’t it selfishness manifested in pride, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, and envy? Sound familiar? There’s a Plan for dealing with all of those things, too. It is a plan I learned from my daughter: WWJD?
John 3:16-17 (New International Version)
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Now, that’s a plan I can stick to. Not everyone can. For those who cannot, there is still The Golden Rule. That rule does not say, “Get all the gold before someone else does.” It does not say, “Those who have the gold get to rule.” It does not say “Do unto others before they do unto you.” It says, “Treat others as you would have them treat you.” Or “Treat others as decently as you would treat yourself.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. This is the law: all the rest is commentary.” In a word: Reciprocity. Recently I talked about God as Community and humanity as community and God and Humanity as Community. Here is the way, then, to make change: Make a community better for everyone, with everyone, by everyone, in everyone.

That’s what this old man thinks. How about you?

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service.

Chick

Aloha Friday Message – January 16, 2009

January 16, 2009

Happy Aloha Friday
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Attention. Affection. Affiliation. Approval. Four things every human being needs every day. Without these things, we whither. It starts when we are infants. We bond with the persons who hold us and feed us and clean us and love us. Their attention makes our minds, and hearts, grow. The affection we share with parents and siblings, relatives and friends helps define our personality. We have a natural tendency to form community and to express our need for affiliation; we want to belong. And to belong, we require approval. To get approval we have rites and ceremonies, hazings and initiations, standards of conducts and codes of behaviors. And from the attention, affection, and affiliations we have made, the approval we receive tends to foster warmer and closer attention, affection, and affiliations. It’s a nice cycle when it works the way God planned it.

This type of peer relationship, a collegiality of caring, is the basis of our community-centered living. I believe that laws and religions and governments and families all reflect ways we build and strengthen community ties and boundaries. We have requirements for membership in any community whether it is as broad as the whole of humanity or as small as a group of playmates in preschool. Those requirements are based on respect and caring for ourselves and for those around us, respect and caring that has been taught to us through our immersion in the community.

Community, though, is not, or at least should not, be just a human experience. We know that God is also Community expressed as the Holy Trinity. For this community all of the requirements for membership, for participation, for conduct are absolute because the Community is Absolute – Unconditional, Totally Integral, Unlimited, Supreme, Pure, Perfect: God. Not “The Force.” Not “Intelligent Design.” Purely and simply, wonderfully and awesomely GOD in Three Persons. And that Community and our community can also share with one another attention, affection, affiliation, and approval.

How do we give God attention? Listen to what is said by The Word, look at what happens when The Word is expressed, appreciate the effects of that expression, and acknowledge the greatness of each moment spent paying attention to the Creator’s creations.

How do we give God affection? Most of us know that is easy to do. “We love Him because He first Loved us.” I believe He doesn’t love any one of us more than any other of us, so no matter how we say, “I love you” to Him, He hears us saying, “I Love you.” Capitol-L Love is the way God Loves, and He seems to be delighted to believe that we Love Him in the same way.

Affiliation. There’s a tough one. How can we affiliate with God? He’s Perfect, and all those things listed up there with Absolute. Humans can’t affiliate with THAT! Well, God knew we would think like that, so He made the Affiliation part the easiest part, not the most difficult. He became Filios, one of us so He and we could find common ground and therein the basis for affiliation.

So what about approval? Is it possible to show appreciation and agreement with God? Oh, yes! Whenever we praise Him in thought, word or deed, we are showing our appreciation and agreement with His Presence in our world, in our lives, in our hearts and minds. When we realize how much we admire His works and His ways and acknowledge that to each other and to Him, we are showing Him and each other our approval. And that’s a good thing, too.

It is good because we are created to be like Him. We have an affinity for everything that He is: Holy, Integral, Eternal, Just, Loving, Merciful, and most importantly capable of choosing to meld our community with His and His with ours. We need to give and receive attention, affection, affiliation, and approval because God made us that way; He made us in His image and His likeness. We are most complete when we decide to be Community in every way He intended us to be so.

Aloha nui loa. Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever . . . at your service.

chick

And I seek attention, affection, affiliation, and even approval from you, Beloved, because – thanks be to God – I love you

Aloha Friday Message – January 9, 2009

January 9, 2009

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Do you remember this, Beloved?


I am a member of the Moon Beam Network. Every hour of every day I am loved and prayed for by other members. Every time we see the moon, we remember the whole network, even those persons we do not know, and we lovingly remember them in prayer.

Father, I take a moment to remember everyone in the Moon Beam Network. Watch over them all. Bless them. Protect them. Guide them. Direct them. Keep them all safe from any harm or danger in body, mind, and spirit. See to their temporal needs and continue to call them all to a deeper spiritual awareness of and commitment to you. Give them your Light. Bless them all for the love we share among all of the members of the Moon Beam Network. Likewise bless everyone I have ever loved and everyone who has ever loved me and anyone who has ever loved them, for the love we have comes from You through your Son Jesus the Christ by the ministry of The Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Today I want to take a moment to comment on this short prayer and to encourage you to use it often. You should have received an explanation about the MBN when you were inducted as a member. (If you don’t have it, didn’t get it, or don’t remember it, let me know and I’ll send it to you.)

In this prayer we ask for God to protect us from the World’s ways and influences in every aspect of our lives. We pray for daily and deepening conversion so that our minds, and bodies, and spirits will be renovated in His image and committed to His plan for our lives.

God is Light, the Father of Lights, and we ask Him to send us that Light to illuminate our path toward Him. The Light is to be shared, passed on to others, and multiplied.

We offer blessing to the people we love, all the people we hold dear in our hearts, even those we might not fully remember. How could we not remember someone we have loved? Remember, Love is not a feeling; it is an action. When we have been kind, or thoughtful, or generous, or given hope, or comfort or refuge; when we have been merciful, or prayerful, whenever we have acted out of compassion, sought justice for others, facilitated liberty we have loved.

And we also offer blessing to everyone who has ever loved us. How many times have people prayed for you or helped you or risked a bit of themselves for your sake? They have loved you, then, and you might not have even known it. That’s not uncommon in the MBN because people you have never known are praying for you right now. And so we bless them for that blessing they have given us.

We offer blessing for “anybody who has ever loved them,” for all the people who have loved the people who have loved us. This expands the circle of blessing far beyond our own lives. Anybody who has ever loved anyone who has ever loved you or me – that comes to a lot of people and therefore a lot of love and blessing. It even includes The Trinity.

1 John 4:16 We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.

If you would, please make the time to find your Bible and read that whole chapter in First John – not the Gospel of John, but the first letter of John back toward the end of the New Testament. That’s pretty much the whole idea behind the MBN – to love one another, to pray for one another, to make “one another” the broadest circle, the most complicated Venn Diagram ever. Make it a circle so large that your simple 20 seconds of prayer covers the whole world. You will even end up praying for the people who do not, have not, and probably will not love you – but you can love them.

Pray that leaders will govern with compassion, wisdom, and justice. Pray that the good we do is not merely contemplative but also active – feed the hungry, shelter the poor, heal the sick, liberate the captives, be the difference: Be Love, Beloved.

That is why I urge you to use this prayer as often as you can; and if you can’t remember the whole thing just pray, “God, you know the Moon Beam Network and every one in it. Bless them now for the blessings they have given me.” Do this, and you will know God, for God is Love.

And so, today, please pray for AT who is very ill, JT also ill and hurting financially, and CD whose work life suddenly changed recently. I invite you all to share your prayers and prayer requests – for petition or praise – and to do so for Love.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved
chick

2009 Calendar for you to use

January 2, 2009

You can use this calendar to find the dates for the Fridays in 2009.

Aloha Friday Message – MERRY CHIRSTMAS!!

December 26, 2008

Todd Family 39th Annual Christmas Letter 2008
2008 has gone by faster than Santa’s Reindeers! So many things have happened. First, look at that number up there – 39! On November 4, 1968, Crucita and I met in San Antonio Texas at Lackland AFB. We’re coming up on our 40th wedding anniversary in April. Tim is 30, Maria Cereza is 28. The grandkids: Willie, 5, Chaz, 4, Miranda 2.

The big news this year includes two goddaughters. Our first goddaughter, Meghan, spent a semester in New Zealand. She’s wonderful, bright, and beautiful, doing really well in college and 20 this year. We are so very proud of all her accomplishments as well as her persistent and exemplary Faith. This year we also had the joy of welcoming a NEW goddaughter! Her name is Lily Mae. She will be six months old on Christmas day (lucky kid!). She is the daughter of our dear friends (who also happen to be co-owners of the business I work for and therefore my bosses). Her baptism was just so thrilling for us. And of course we have to spoil her as much as we can!

We also had a visit from Timothy and his girlfriend, Chanson. She is a delightful young lady who makes elegant hand-crafted glass beads. Tim continues to work for Higher Balance, Inc., and is doing well in his work. The economy has impacted their business some, but so far they are holding their own. Tim and Chanson are scheduled to be on the Big Island (Hawaii Island) in June, so we may get a chance to see them again soon.

Tommy, Maria and their kids all moved to Tennessee this summer! Things got just terrible for them in Phoenix early in the year, and Tommy’s sister drove out from TN to pick up the whole family and take them back. Tommy has several family members living in that area. Willie is excited about his new school and really likes his new teacher too; but, the best part: He gets to ride the BUS to school!! Chaz is excited about being able to start school soon, too. He’s adjusted pretty well to all the moving, and emulates his big brother’s school lessons. Some of you may recall that Miranda has had some developmental problems. She has made great progress in the past year and continues to progress with PT and additional clinic visits there in TN. Tommy’s working part-time with his brother, and Maria is pretty sure she can get a job at the care home close by.

Now, another big event for Crucita was her Road Trip!! She flew to the mainland and stopped in Phoenix. She spent some time with two wonderful and close friends (and their families) – one for our Clinical Laboratory days and one from her teaching days in Mesa – and just enjoyed wonderful visits with them. But, she also gathered up Grandson #1 – William – and headed off across eastern Arizona including a stop just outside Sanders to stay with a friend in her ho`oghan then all the way Albuquerque to visit with family there and then on to her hometown of Española, NM. They had a BLAST! Crucita rented a Hyundai Sonata, and loved it. She and Willie visited lots of friends and relatives, ate bunches of good food (William is a very good eater, even loves salad as did his mom). The renewing of friendships, the family visits, the time together on the road with Willie, the things they got to see and do … it will be the source of many fond memories for years to come. That Willie is something else!

Crucita has had an … interesting … school year. We have noticed over the past couple of years that the attitudes of high school students are changing. Some seem to be actually hostile toward the idea of being educated. Apathy would be a relief. Instead, they refuse to do any work, refuse to learn. She is teaching Math again this year, prealgebra, and as we near the end of the first semester, she is finding that some of the students are actually learning MATH! Not all students have this attitude of hostility about learning, and for those that do not – well I believe they cannot help but learn something when they are in Mrs. Todd’s classroom. How great is her classroom? Well, she’s got technology like most teachers could only dream about. She’s got a 32″ TV she can use for a computer monitor or to get educational TV programs, an electronic camera device that can project a live image onto the whiteboard, and a whole bunch of other goodies. Except for her microwave and mini-refrigerator; they made all the teachers take those home!

And the Old Man? Feeling it, that’s for sure! This was a very long year of touch-and-go battles with JCAHO – The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. That’s the main part of my job – Performance Improvement Manager – the rest of my job descriptions read “Does everything else nobody else wants to do.” Well, not really. I am blessed to have a job where they pretty much let me do whatever I want – accreditation, personnel, safety, infection control, computers, you-name-it. And to top it all off, I work with people who are so terrific, wonderful enough to be friends. It’s no exaggeration to say I love the people with whom I work – like my bosses are also my Compadres, that is we share the baptism of Lily Mae. I haven’t been back to the mainland in a while, but that’s OK. I’m very, very happy here. Crucita and I have been real active in our parish here in Kapa`a (St. Catherine’s) and have lots of wonderful friends there, too ranging in age for 2 to 92! Our house is just wonderful (and will be even better after Christmas when we hook up our Home Theater System we got for Christmas). The ‘kittens’ – Mimi, Hercules, Zoë, and Frankie the Fat really enjoy having us hang out in their life-zone. Crucita even built them an outdoor Cat Condo this summer, and also a four-tier lounge! She continues to do most of the repairs around the house, got some pretty nice tools for that sort of thing, and also got a new sewing machine, OH! And she loved the Hyundai Sonata she rented so much that when her 2000 Chrysler Sebring Convertible croaked, she replaced it with a 2008 Hyundai Sonata. It’s a great car! And that means I am now driving the 2007 Mazda pick-up. Detroit: Take a message.

We’ve been fortunate to have friends and family come visit us (seems going to the Todds’ house can be a desirable destination), and for Thanksgiving Crucita’s great-nephew and his girlfriend came up from Maui (where he works a construction job). I think we finished all but about 2% of the leftovers around mid-December. Our Christmas will be spent here on Kaua`i, and I’m going to take a couple of extra days off before getting back into the JCAHO Festival after the first of the year (have to make it at least sound like it’s fun!). Just enough room for our traditional closing:

May Hope, and Peace, and Joy, and Love be yours through the coming of the Christ Child!

God Bless you all, and Merry Christmas!!!

CHICK AND CRUCITA

Contact us about joining the Moon Beam network if your are not already a member!

Aloha Friday Message – December 19, 2008

December 19, 2008

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was filled with sorrow at the tragic death of his wife in a fire in 1861. The Civil War broke out the same year, and it seemed this was an additional punishment. Two years later, Longfellow was again saddened to learn that his own son had been seriously wounded in the Army of the Potomac.

Sitting down to his desk, one Christmas Day, he heard the church bells ringing. It was in this setting that Longfellow wrote these lines:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep.
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!
The wrong shall fail,
The right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men!”

— Pulpit Helps, 12-92, p. 23

What good is it the Christ was born?

“Meister Eckhart once said: What good is it that Christ was born 2,000 years ago if he is not born now in your heart?
“Lord, we do far too much celebrating your actual coming in our hearts. I believe in God, but do I believe in God-in-me? I believe in God in heaven, but do I believe in God-on-earth? I believe in God out there, but do I believe in God-with-us?” Remember, He is Emanuel, the Promised of Ages.

“Lord, be born in my heart. Come alive in me this Christmas! Amen.”

— LIVING FAITH, Vol. 4, # 3

The Work of Christmas Begins

“When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with the flocks,
then the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal those broken in spirit,
to feed the hungry,
to release the oppressed,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among all peoples,
to make a little music with the heart.
And to radiate the Light of Christ,
every day, in every way,
in all that we do and in all that we say.
Then the work of Christmas begins.”

— Howard Thurman, adapted

So my friends, my prayer for you this year, this Advent Season, is that Christ will be the center of your Christmas, and also that Christ will be the center of your Christianity. That was the message given by Bishop Larry Silva (Diocese of Honolulu) last Sunday. If all of us will begin 2009 committed to beginning and continuing The Work of Christmas, then we can be certain that our lives are centered on Him and our world – beginning with family and friends and extending throughout the nation, the continent, and the globe – will be all the better for it.

Have a wonderful week, Beloved. Look for our Christmas Letter sent to you by [email protected] in your e-mail on December 24. That will be in lieu of your Aloha Friday Card for Dec 26.

Aloha Friday Message – December 12, 2008

December 12, 2008

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Aloha Friday! TGIF (Thank God I’m Forgiven!) It’s been a long, trying week in Lihu‘e, Kaua‘i.

For most of the week I was on jury duty. It was difficult because we were told it was an “easy case.” It ended up taking more than twice as long as expected to reach a verdict. I felt more aware of justice and that in turn heightened my awareness of injustice. So, for the rest of this holiday season I am going to ask you to join me in praying for the suffering people in this world: Prisoners, people in wars, people dying in famine-ravages countries, the sick and dying and especially those who bear the burden of being chronically ill, the marginalized, the Godless and those living without hope, and for all the people in this world and beyond whose lives need to return to God’s providential care.

And now, I give you the message from the archives. I hope you will find something inspirational in it. Please don’t forget to pray for the MBN and for all the Little Ones. “Whatsoever you do for the least of these little ones, you have done for me. (Matt 25:40)

The 7 Ups (Holiday Style)

1. Wake Up !!
Decide to have a good day.
“This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Psalms 118:24

2. Dress Up !!
The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
I Samuel 16:7

3. Shut Up!!
Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. “He who guards his lips guards his soul.”
Proverbs 13:3

4. Stand Up!!
. . . for what you believe in.
Stand for something or you will fall for anything. “Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good…”
Galatians 6:9-10

5. Look Up !!
. . . to the Lord. “I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me”.
Philippians 4:13

6. Reach Up !!
. . . for something higher. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.”
Proverbs 3:5-6

7. Lift Up !!
. . . your Prayers. “Do not worry about anything; instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING.”
Philippians 4:6

Whenever you want to talk, He’ll listen. He could live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart. What about the Christmas gift He sent you in Bethlehem, not to mention that Friday at Calvary? Face it, He’s crazy about you.

I thought this was mighty special, just like you. Pass this on and brighten someone’s day, and remember . . . .

God answers Knee-Mail!

(This message created with 100% recycled electrons, and therefore is very GREEN.)

I Love You! Make it a great day!

chick

Aloha Friday Message – December 5, 2008

December 5, 2008

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It’s that time of year when the commercials are thick with gift suggestions. This gadget or that toy will make someone very happy. All of your problems can be solved by buying a collection of plastic containers, or a new vacuum cleaner, or the latest kitchen-tool, or amazing glue or super-cleaner, or kitchen-wonder, and a new fragrance or make-up or a new car – any of these can make your drab life go super-nova. The new sunglasses you get will brighten your world. This amazing purse will totally organize your whole life and protect you from theft. This toothpaste will whiten, brighten, protect, and clean; and if you use it with that amazing toothbrush, the results will be dazzling. You can get 10,000 uses from a plastic disposable razor or from one that’s made of precious metals. You can keep all your houseplants from dying as they happily and automatically guzzle water from a hand-blown glass doodad.

Sometimes the commercials show black-and-white images of amazingly inept people trying to slice an over-ripe tomato and instead they squash it. Or they are tossing and turning in bed, or washing their car, or doing any simple daily chore and in fuzzy black and white we see them fail with elaborate overacting. And we know that they are not truly incompetent. They just don’t have the right new doodad to solve the problem. We also know with each phrase either shouted at us by Billy Mays or crooned to us by that mysterious guy with the deep voice that we are getting closer and closer to the catchphrase we fully expect to hear any second now:

“BUT WAIT!! NOT ONLY ….”

Now the commercial emphasizes not only will our live be changed for the better, but there is hope for even greater change. If you act now, but wait until you hear the super bonus you’ll get if you listen to the rest of the commercial, you can get twice as much of only $19.99, or and extra hour of WWII footage for $10 less, or some other equally useless gadget if you “just pay preparation and handling.” And as we watch (I know, I always watch them too even though I don’t want to), we know that what they are selling is probably junk, but such a bargain! And who wouldn’t want to be the envy of all their friends, have all the coolest (and cheapest) stuff, and totally get their life together?

“BUT WAIT!! NOT ONLY ….”

It is not just the gadget people who ask us to wait and to be wowed by something extraordinary, something life-changing. God also asks us to wait because He is going to exceed every expectation we can gather up in our hearts and minds. Unlike the commercials we know so well, God is not promising us junk. He is promising Himself. HE will come to us, HE himself will pasture His sheep, HE will save us, and HE will make us clean and holy and joyous and eternal just like HE is.

Advent is that time of year when we anticipate with great hope the message of Advent: “BUT WAIT!! NOT ONLY ….” Not only has God come to us to save us, He has also promised to come and change the whole Universe so we can be with Him for ever. All of this Hope and Joy and Love is ours, not for ninety-ninety-ninety-ninety, not for seventy-nine, not for nineteen-ninety-nine but for only a single word: “Yes.” Yes, I believe, Yes I have faith, Yes to His Everlasting Love, Yes I will wait in joyful hope for the coming of the Lord. I will be still and wait upon the Lord. I will embrace hope and my strength will be renewed. I will wait for the Lord and keep His way. I will be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. I will wait, not idly sit, but actively wait for and pursue my hope. I will serve as I wait. I will wait while I serve. Yes. And with your YES, all the shipping and handling costs are FREE.

Titus, chapter 2: 11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

That is definitely worth waiting for.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever — at your service
Chick

Photo by Yuuji Kitahara: http://www.janis.or.jp/users/kitahara/sww/e-sw-index.html

This shows my favorite constellation, Orion – among others. Look for it. Maybe we could also be part of the Star Shine Network?!?!?

Aloha Friday Message – November 28, 2008

November 28, 2008

AFC112808

Happy aloha Friday, Beloved. Today I am thinking about Johnny Carson’s frequent use of the prhase “harking back” in his monologues. Something happens and suddenly we find our minds “harking back” to some incident, some unexpected memory, some moment of truth or fiction we had laid aside and rarely come across again. I don’t even remember what it was that triggered this, but suddenly this poem from the comic strip popped into my head circa 1971. It’s based on a fishing trip on the Rio Grande, but in turn, it “harks back” to college days and some of the whacky things college students do – like inventing a comic strip.

Colorado Chuckie and Tales of Fishing on the Rio Grande
(Base on my comic strip which coincidentally had the same name.)

What madness comes over me
To mistake this ancient art
For fitting sport?
Standing and sitting
At the most awkward angles
(must be why they call it angling)
in the least comfortable positions
it seems I spend half my time
(must be a cut-bait or half-time job)
trying to restore life
to my limbs and sitter.
(Sounds like you’ve got a dead end.)
The rest of my time is divided
Between cursing, tying complex knots,
Cursing, untying complex knots,
(Sounds like your knot trying)
climbing trees for cast-away lines
(Why would you do what they ask you?)
wading in after others which seem
predestined to frustrate me
(It’s nice of you to let them go first.)
and my dreams of catching
just one fish.
(Better dreams than your chances of catching
one just fish!)

This was part of the script for a Colorado Chuckie strip back in 1968. The basis of the strip was that there was an “observer/commentator” working n the background. Chuckie’s activities would be in the main panels and above those panels there were smaller panes with the text written is very small letters – as if whispered. Chuckie’s comments were always in balloons, and “the whisperer’s” text was always enclosed in parentheses. The artwork was –terrible – I can barely write my name, much less draw – so the comic strip never made it out of the composition notebook I shared with my sidekick, Michael.

Michael was and animorph as in the books by K. A. Applegate in the ’90’s. Michael could be any kind of animal he wanted to be – or needed to be – and he could always hear the whisperer which Chuckie rarely seemed to hear either the whisperer or Michael. Nonetheless, Michael showed up once in a while, usually to trick Chuckie into doing the right thing. When I left Denver to join the Air Force, the notebook and a lot of other things I owned disappeared. I came across this in a sheaf of papers that were original drafts written on all sorts of odd papers.

Chuckie was short, kind of ugly, and wore a blue, quilted snow-suit (maybe P/J’s?) that had little pictures of strawberries printed all over going every which direction. His hair was sort of a cross between buzz-cut and flat-top. His hands were too big, and he had a lot of freckles. In short, he looked like a 6-year-old ME. And yes I was called “Chuckie” for years; hated it! Changed it as soon as I could (Fall, 1964) and never went back.

Michael was also a real person, and at the time my best friend and spiritual Brother. He was a bit older than I was, but going to Metropolitan State College at the same time I was there (1965-1969). We shared a lot of common interests, and developed more in common as we became closer friends. Michael in the comic strip sounded a lot like Michael in the Student Lounge, or in the offices of The New Campus Review MSC’s literary magazine.

Sometimes harking back takes us places we never think about, and when those memories fill our minds again, it’s often enough of a treat that we just sit back and let the memories cascade. Maybe you’ve had your own little cascade while reading this; I hope so. Memories are a precious commodity. Some of us have so really bad or painful or even terrifying memories, too. Still those are part of what makes us who we are. My dad could not forget the extreme poverty he experienced as a child and teenager. The memories of his days as a B-17 pilot and squadron leader during WWII also haunted him. Although he was reluctant to talk about them, they nonetheless shaped his life in many ways, and thereby shaped my life as well. He died on his 81st birthday 11 years ago, and he still shapes my life.

So, Beloved, if you are out fishing on the Rio Grande, look for Colorado Chuckie, Michael, and the whisperer. They are still there, and still tying and untying complex knots I am sure. I think you get the idea. Everywhere is the Rio Grande. Every one is, has been, will be, or knows Chuckie, Michael and the whisperer, and everyone has to tie and untie complex knots in all kinds of awkward positions. That is how memories and made, and they are made so they can be shared. Thanks for letting me share these with you!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved
chick

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