We educators know the feeling. You walk up to the white board and attempt to erase some scrawl. It won’t go away. Parties unnamed (remaining nameless to protect the guilty) used permanent ink in stead of erasable ink. Grrrrr! It’s not going away.
When He asks to write something on the board of our hearts do we hand him erasable or permanent ink markers? Do we willfully insist on the right of cancellation? Or do we instinctively yield to One wiser than ourselves?
I have to say my record on this one is shaky, at best, dismal most often. God frequently desires communication with me at the heart level. Do I value properly the proclamations of God? Here, Lord, its indelible ink.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
May 26, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Look Cute
If you have been around church any length of time you have likely been introduced to the image of a body as a facsimile of the church. The metaphor of a human body works nicely as a way of seeing the importance of all the different parts coming together out of necessity to achieve what part of the whole could not attain independently of the rest.
Further, if you have heard biblical teaching on the subject, you have also likely had posited the question, “What role have you been given in this body?” So far we are on familiar ground for most seasoned Christians.
We know from the scriptures that we each have a unique and important function to fulfill as members of the Body of Christ. Recently I pondered why so many seem convinced their role is to look cute. It is as if they thought their high and holy calling was to serve as the belly button.
Please! How many belly buttons can one body have and still look cute? As I look at the church where I have the most immediate contact and intimate awareness of how the body is doing, I am satisfied that our greater needs are for more arm muscles and leg bones; people who lift the load and give strength for the job. We need more heart and brain matter; persons with passion and insight for our demanding tasks.
There really isn’t a great deal of need for dreamy eyelashes, adorable dimples, and shapely belly buttons. Maybe your exclusive function is to make the body look attractive. But perhaps you could consider how attractive a body is when it is vigorously, forcefully, engaged in significant, consequential action.
A church body which is doing what it was made to do is really quite striking. Could you review your place with an eye for the value you are here to add to His Kingdom? And if you really are here to do cute, do it exceptionally well! The rest of us cherish your aptitude for things we cannot carry out ourselves.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
May 19, 2009
Further, if you have heard biblical teaching on the subject, you have also likely had posited the question, “What role have you been given in this body?” So far we are on familiar ground for most seasoned Christians.
We know from the scriptures that we each have a unique and important function to fulfill as members of the Body of Christ. Recently I pondered why so many seem convinced their role is to look cute. It is as if they thought their high and holy calling was to serve as the belly button.
Please! How many belly buttons can one body have and still look cute? As I look at the church where I have the most immediate contact and intimate awareness of how the body is doing, I am satisfied that our greater needs are for more arm muscles and leg bones; people who lift the load and give strength for the job. We need more heart and brain matter; persons with passion and insight for our demanding tasks.
There really isn’t a great deal of need for dreamy eyelashes, adorable dimples, and shapely belly buttons. Maybe your exclusive function is to make the body look attractive. But perhaps you could consider how attractive a body is when it is vigorously, forcefully, engaged in significant, consequential action.
A church body which is doing what it was made to do is really quite striking. Could you review your place with an eye for the value you are here to add to His Kingdom? And if you really are here to do cute, do it exceptionally well! The rest of us cherish your aptitude for things we cannot carry out ourselves.
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
May 19, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Little Favors
Just this morning I was fishing my waffle out of the toaster when it fell apart. Okay, it was more involved than that. The waffle square -our waffle iron at home is a square one, not a round one- was a left over, frozen waffle from last weekend. I had dropped it in the toaster to crisp it up a bit. It the process of fishing it out I managed to separate it into three smaller pieces and to push it further down in the toaster, down below several wires and far nearer the bottom of the unit than the top.
At that point I made an important decision. I decided to eat the three warm waffle squares on my plate and leave the partitioned fourth one for a later clean up. They were tasty -thank you for asking- and so breakfast took place and the final episode of waffle fishing was delayed fifteen minutes for a good cause.
Unplug the toaster. Pull the crumb trays from the bottom of the appliance. Shack vigorously as you turn the unit while held above the kitchen sink. Comment with a moderate amount of amazement on how much junk is flowing out of your toaster. Secure the services of a table knife for the additional steps necessary to dislodge bread crusts wedged within the toaster. Realize God did you a favor.
Now I don’t want to sound like the folks who credit God for every little thing as if the sun were always shining on their side of the street while it rained bucks just two curbs and a patch of pavement away, but I do think God deserves credit where credit is due.
If my waffle hadn’t gone to pieces and I hadn’t been required to empty the toaster of all its foreign matter, could the toaster have caught fire later and done far more damage that gobble up a part of my breakfast? Sure. Most definitely.
If you were to review the events of your life, how many times would God have used your fourth waffle to keep your house a singe and smoke free zone? Thank God for the little mishaps that prevent the big mishaps from ever taking place.
Tim Gramly
South Haven Baptist Church
May 13, 2009
At that point I made an important decision. I decided to eat the three warm waffle squares on my plate and leave the partitioned fourth one for a later clean up. They were tasty -thank you for asking- and so breakfast took place and the final episode of waffle fishing was delayed fifteen minutes for a good cause.
Unplug the toaster. Pull the crumb trays from the bottom of the appliance. Shack vigorously as you turn the unit while held above the kitchen sink. Comment with a moderate amount of amazement on how much junk is flowing out of your toaster. Secure the services of a table knife for the additional steps necessary to dislodge bread crusts wedged within the toaster. Realize God did you a favor.
Now I don’t want to sound like the folks who credit God for every little thing as if the sun were always shining on their side of the street while it rained bucks just two curbs and a patch of pavement away, but I do think God deserves credit where credit is due.
If my waffle hadn’t gone to pieces and I hadn’t been required to empty the toaster of all its foreign matter, could the toaster have caught fire later and done far more damage that gobble up a part of my breakfast? Sure. Most definitely.
If you were to review the events of your life, how many times would God have used your fourth waffle to keep your house a singe and smoke free zone? Thank God for the little mishaps that prevent the big mishaps from ever taking place.
Tim Gramly
South Haven Baptist Church
May 13, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Wave Good-bye
One of those pleasant features on so many homes that make them appealing to approach from the curb and even more appealing to contemplate as your own home is the porch. Front, back, or side, it makes little difference, a house with a porch is more likely to be designated by the soothing little word “home.” Comfy, inviting, made to live in. These are the messages sent by a porch.
Your porch is a place of transitions. It is on the way somewhere else. Even when you are headed to the porch to read a chapter from your latest book purchase or rest a spell or drink leisurely a morning cup of coffee, you won’t end up staying there – you just pass through.
Sometimes we land on the porch spiritually. We are coming or going, but it’s no place to live indefinitely. You can’t get the mail all day. You won’t wave good-bye Monday from 8 AM to noon. Slippin’ muddy boots off doesn’t require an afternoon, even with the spring we’ve had. Not meant to be that way and won’t work in connection with the rest of life.
Are you stuck on the porch? Making a switch, but still caught up in the alterations? It happens sometimes, and not just to you – other people have experienced this one, too. It’s like you have one foot on the sidewalk and one in the front room. When observed awkwardly, uncomfortably stretched out like this, someone might astutely ply, “Entering or exiting?”
Here is a prayer for each of us, provided for us on those occasions when we have become deck dwellers. “God, I’m missing out here. Move me into what is next. Even though I’m frightened, You are not. Even though I am uncertain, You are serenely calm. Even if I’m not ready, You are. Get me over this - please! I am ready for whatever You say is my next assignment.”
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
May 5, 2009
Your porch is a place of transitions. It is on the way somewhere else. Even when you are headed to the porch to read a chapter from your latest book purchase or rest a spell or drink leisurely a morning cup of coffee, you won’t end up staying there – you just pass through.
Sometimes we land on the porch spiritually. We are coming or going, but it’s no place to live indefinitely. You can’t get the mail all day. You won’t wave good-bye Monday from 8 AM to noon. Slippin’ muddy boots off doesn’t require an afternoon, even with the spring we’ve had. Not meant to be that way and won’t work in connection with the rest of life.
Are you stuck on the porch? Making a switch, but still caught up in the alterations? It happens sometimes, and not just to you – other people have experienced this one, too. It’s like you have one foot on the sidewalk and one in the front room. When observed awkwardly, uncomfortably stretched out like this, someone might astutely ply, “Entering or exiting?”
Here is a prayer for each of us, provided for us on those occasions when we have become deck dwellers. “God, I’m missing out here. Move me into what is next. Even though I’m frightened, You are not. Even though I am uncertain, You are serenely calm. Even if I’m not ready, You are. Get me over this - please! I am ready for whatever You say is my next assignment.”
Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
May 5, 2009
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