The Great Potato Mystery

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My eldest sister has accused me of sending my mother a potato with a message for her birthday. My mother excitedly sent me a text message just the other day thanking me for said potato, but to her chagrin, I admitted that it was not me who sent it. After asking my wife if she sent it, I went online (and I know this is going to sound bad, but I had to do it!) and checked out bank accounts to see if there was a charge for the potato. Nope! My wife is even innocent of this spudicious activity.

So, who can it be? I believe that it is one of my dear siblings that sent the spud to my mother. At this point, she is going crazy trying to figure out who sent the spud to her. Would I dare attempt to drive my dear old mother crazy? May it never be! I love her too much to add to her neurosis. But there are others who may attempt to drive her deeper into despair.

For instance, my eldest sister, Dina. I believe that because she has been living with my mother, caring for her (as she says), she is perhaps the most likely candidate for sending the spud. You see, after living with my mother for this long, she is going crazy because my mother cleans up after her all the time. If Dina leaves a cup on the lamp table, my mother quickly picks it up and washes it. Who can blame her? Leaving all those rings of water on the tables! So Dina digs up this plan to trick the whole family as to who sent the potato.

She convincingly places the order for the anonymous potato from a store close to my home, therefore throwing my poor old mother off her tracks and making her believe that I am the guilty party. When the potato arrives, she quickly and undoubtedly tells my mother to text me and thank me for the gift that I sent to her. I reply, “What gift?” Her response, no doubt forced by my eldest sister, “The one YOU sent me!” There it is, folks. You can hear the tone of the response: fear that my Amazonian sister will bring more cruel pranks upon her unwittingly.

So I write this post today to declare my innocence. You see, My eldest sister has pulled pranks on all of her sweet and righteous family members. All of her siblings have faced some sort of cruel joke of making us believe one thing or another. Why when I was a wee lad she convinced me that I was left upon the doorstep of my family’s home and they had no idea what to do with me so they took me in and let me sleep in the dog bed with our Beagle, Patches. It was funny to her as I cried and cried believing that my parents were somewhere and I’d never know who they are. I’m so grateful that my sweet mother told me the truth and scolded the offender and that my father came to my aid as well.

And what about all the times that she has tricked our poor baby brother, Richard, by telling him not to look at something knowing full well that he will not be able to do it. He has to look! Like the time she told him not to look at her landlord’s right foot that was missing three toes because he was conscious of it. What does poor Richard do? He can’t help but stare at the landlord’s foot offending him and practically getting into a fist fight for her suggestion. If it wasn’t for my niece, Jodie, who everyone loves, the landlord would’ve surely decked my baby brother right then and there, but the landlord loved Jodie like his own daughter.

And what about the time that she tried to tell all of us that there was a ghost in the house that our parents raised us in? Yes! A ghost! We went into the bathroom, she brought her favorite candle in there and lit it and had all of us sit in a circle when she all of a sudden screamed, “All spirits arise!” And what happens? The sink faucet turns on mysteriously! Or was it a mystery? With her lanky arms and legs I believe she is the one who turned the water faucet on only to see all of us scrambling for the bathroom door to run out, my two older brothers trampling my twin sister and me and our poor baby brother.

She has taunted us for years with said pranks. And now, for my dear old mother, she is driving her insane by not telling her the truth that she is the Spudinator! She is the root of the problem!

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How To Handle Church Problems

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Acts 6:1-7 gives us a clear path to handling problems that arise in church. These problems can range from what color of carpet the new building is supposed to have to how finances are handled to the pastor’s message. Whatever the problems, God’s Word always has the answer.

In this particular text, there was a group of widows who were not having their needs met. If you know anything about ministry in the church, when a group of widows is not having their needs met, trouble will ensue. And this is exactly what happened in the early church. Remember, this is a mega-church with over 3,000 members in it (cf. Acts 2) and there were great numbers being added to this church everyday.

At any rate, these widows were Greek speaking and a complaint rose with them that the the other widows who spoke Hebrew were getting served but they weren’t. When the complaint became something big enough, the news reached the apostles who trying their best to get everything organized; after all, again, this is a mega-church and they’re snowed under with so many ministry opportunities that most likely their heads were turning every which way!

The apostles at this point take it upon themselves to let the people know that it is not wise for them to deal with the complaint. It’s not that they didn’t want to serve the people, but they were trying to help the people see that their priority was to spend time in prayer and in the Word of God so that they could deal with the spiritual life of this new church. Priorities within churches should always be laid out properly–as evidenced here–with the Word of God and prayer from the pastor and staff as their priorities. So they told the congregation to find seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.

Now why didn’t the apostles solve the problem for the church? Again, their priority was prayer and the ministry of the Word. In other words, what they were doing was training the church on how to handle their problems. It’s not always the leadership that has to handle the problems: the church needs to learn how to handle issues that arise in a Biblical and righteous way. The apostles simply told them what to do, and guess what! They did it! The congregation came to an agreement that they would do what was best for the apostles, what was best for themselves, and they found the seven men who needed to carry out this ministry for the widows of all stripes.

When these men were presented to the apostles, they laid hands on them which is symbolic of passing on the authority to these men who were full of faith and power to carry out the ministry to the church while they kept their priorities of praying and administering the Word of God to the people.

This is proper. A pastor and staff should not have the sole responsibility of solving all the problems in the church. On the contrary, the pastor and staff are to teach the congregation how to handle problems within the church. When priorities are kept straight by the leadership and the congregation, then the result is a lost and dying world seeing how things are done well, in love and in righteousness. They will see the church being the church and handling the problems as they ought to handle them. And then the church will increase in number daily as it did in this early mega-church.

Facing My Anger

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It certainly doesn’t happen all of the time. However, it is often enough for me to consider how my anger affects others around me. Sometimes, when I feel that my mind is on overload, I tend to begin getting irritated with things and people. It’s becoming more clear to me as to why thoughts of anger and even outbursts at times happen. Here are some reasons for my anger.

First, if I am focused on getting something completed, say a project or a lesson or some other thing, I really don’t like being disturbed. I know that my train of thought can be cut off rather quickly if I’m distracted by some mundane task or by someone who just wants to sit and talk about whatever or if someone interrupts my train of thought with a ton of questions, then its tough to get back on track. You see, disturbance when I’m deep in my thoughts, breaks the cycle of completion for me–at least in my mind. It’s as if the train has derailed in my mind and it is going to take extra time and effort to get that train back on the tracks. And in the meantime, the delivery that the train is supposed to make is not happening in the time I’ve allotted myself to complete the action or task.

Second, sometimes I just like to be alone. I realize that isolation is not necessarily a good thing, but sometimes it is a good thing. Sometimes, after a long day or week or month of work and ministry, I just need time to get alone with the Lord and think through things that I deal with from day-to-day. It’s not the easiest thing to pastor people because you not only have your own baggage, but you take on more baggage from others. Now don’t misunderstand me. It’s a pleasure doing what I do professionally, but sometimes I need the rest, sometimes I just need to sit back and not think about all the people who are hurting, those who are hospitalized, those who are dying, those who are…the list can go on and on. Sometimes I just need to take a step back and recover from someone who’s upset with me and has let me know in a non-Christian way because they think that pastors are supposed to just roll over and not say anything in response (these are “joy-in-ministry killers”). Sometimes I just need to try to stop thinking (which I think is impossible).

Third, sometimes people around me can just do things that I think are stupid. There’s a huge difference in being ignorant and being stupid. Being ignorant is just not knowing how to do something or not knowing what’s going on around you. Being stupid is knowing what and how you are supposed to do something and not doing it. I have a hard time when people do stupid things. But it’s not just because they are doing stupid things, it helps me to see when I’ve done stupid things as well! It is a huge irritation on my part when I do something stupid. People are mirrors: you see yourself in others in ways that you don’t like at times. For instance, when someone on the road does something stupid, I want to let them know how stupid it is and then I find myself doing the exact same thing: cutting someone off to get one car ahead, switching from one lane to another as I’m speeding down the highway, etc. People are mirrors and I can see myself in others’ actions and words when I get angry about stuff.

Finally, there are times that I want justice…for others…not myself. What I mean by this is that I really want justice in the world. When someone does something wrong I want those who did the wrong to be held to account. I on the other hand, when I do something wrong, don’t necessarily want the justice that is due me because I know that justice may very well be painful. And when someone points out my wrongs, it’s frustrating to me because I think I should’ve known better than to do that which requires justice to be doled out. Moreover, it proves to me all the more how far short I fall from being the man that I believe I am to be in Jesus Christ.

Anger is just frustrating! Frustration is just anger! I think what I need to do to rid myself of anger is to stop being angry. But it is an idol of the heart which is sinful because God has said that there is to be no other god before Him. And idols of the heart are putting gods before Him. I’m realizing that this anger that I’ve had for most of my life is sinful. It is not due to any one thing or any one person except myself. Anger is a choice to live by. Anger is something that I decide to control or not control. Anger is something that I can release and need to. But I cannot do it alone. I need help with my anger and that help can only come from the change of mind and heart by God and through others.

It’s hard to write confessional posts like this, but it is therapeutic as I think through my life and unload my baggage. We’ve all got baggage. Mine just happens to be a load of anger.

Jesus said: You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent. (Matthew 5:21-26)