Superheroes

Ever play superhero when you were a kid? Wouldn’t it be cool to have super powers and melt stuff with your eyes, or have bullets bounce off you? Unfortunately we grow up and life shows us that there are no superheroes. At least I thought there weren’t until tonight.

I went to the Kidney Foundation’s Gift of Life dinner and benefit that honored “living” donors. My brother-in-law Jim is a living donor. He gave a kidney to his friend Ollie. He met Ollie over 23 years ago when he was first getting sober. Jim is an alcoholic, and a few other things, back in the day. But he turned his life around and joined AA and found sobriety, and his version of God.

Ollie was there and helped him through it. He was recovering himself, and had been sober for about 10 years when they met. Their friendship grew as Jim became stronger in his sobriety. Ollie saved his life.

23 years later Ollie had been on dialysis for a long time. Without kidneys his health was poor. He was weak. Gaunt. His blood system was polluted and it made him very ill.

Jim couldn’t see his friend go through this, so he told Ollie, “Take one of my kidneys.” After a series of tests that confirmed a match, the doctors spent about 3 hours taking one of Jim’s kidneys and placed it in Ollie.

The Bible teaches us that there is no greater love than for someone to lay down their life for a friend. John 15:13. That kind of unselfishness seems foreign in this world of excess and “I gotta get mine.”

It was interesting sitting in a room of people who had donated a piece of themselves, who sat next to the person that received their gift. The love between them all was very evident, and their stories were astounding: a daughter who donated to her mother so that her own daughter would have a grandmother for just a few years more. A son who donated to his father because he knew it was the right thing to do to repay him for all that his father had done for him. A wife who gave to her husband, out of love. And a man who prayed for his friend to get a kidney, and then God told him “give him yours.” The stories went on and on about how these people gave of themselves.

And Jim, he unassumingly stood up and said, “It was the right thing to do. God expects no less from all of us.” He returned his friends kindness of 23 years earlier when he helped him into sobriety and saved his life. Now he had saved Ollie’s.

Superheroes. Yes, they really do exist. I sat in a room full of them tonight.

Life's Like That

I read an article by Jerry Bullock that I thought was very interesting. Check it out: Life's like that.

Political Strategerie

The GOP announced yesterday that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will be giving the Republican response to President Obama’s address to Congress on Feb 24th.

They say he is a rising star, and the new face of the Republican Party. It’s the GOP’s bid to revamp themselves and appeal to a younger demographic. Jindal is being presented to America by letting him do this very important speech, and setting him up for a 2012 election bid.

I thought this was interesting for several reasons. First because I’ve never heard of this guy, and suddenly he’s the GOP’s new “it” guy. And second because they’ve abandoned Sarah Palin.

They kind of blame her for their loss last year, plus she has too much baggage. She’s been beat up by the press, which isn’t going to stop. Every perv in the country Photoshopped her face on scantily clad bodies holding guns and other things, which devalued her, and Tina Fey ripped her apart in her SNL skits. They can’t run Palin. She’s too venerable.

They looked at the election last year and saw a male minority become the President, so now they want to run the same play.

I also thought it was interesting that they waited until after the Academy Awards to announce this. I know, what do the Oscars have to do with politics? Think about it, the day after a movie from India wins 8 Academy Awards and becomes the number one feel good movie in America; they announce their new favorite person is someone with Punjabi heritage.

Am I reaching here?

I don’t want to take away from Jindal. From what I’ve read he seems like a real go-getter and a true conservative. I’ll have to wait to see what develops when the media gets a hold of him and starts digging up dirt though.

Personally I don’t care about race, color, or anything of that stuff. All I care about is their relationship with Christ. Unfortunately getting a Presidential candidate that is fully devoted to Christ would be like finding a live dinosaur. But I continue to hope.

Cup of Assassination

I love my wife. She always puts things in perspective for me. We were lying in bed the other night and I showed her a band aid on my arm.

Me: Look honey! I gashed my arm really bad today!

Kathy: What happened!? (She knew it was a tiny cut, but let me embellish my story)

Me: I was emptying the dishwasher and as I was putting a coffee cup in the cupboard it slipped out of my hand and shattered on the counter and a GIANT piece flew up gouged into my arm!!!

Kathy: Oh no!? Which cup was it?!!!

Aaah, wedded bliss. LOL.

We celebrated the 5th anniversary of our nuptials last week. It’s gone by fast, and I thank God for blessing me with her presence in my life. She is everything that I am not, and she keeps me balanced.

I have never doubted that she was the right person for me. I’d been single for 12 years after a failed marriage, and every relationship was bad during that time.

Then I found Christ. Or rather He found me. He knew I was incapable of having a real relationship apart from Him. It wasn’t until I gave my life to Him that He allowed me to meet my soul mate.

God works in His own time. I don’t know why he came into my life when He did. I’m sure most of it was because I kept ignoring Him. But since then I have experienced a wondrous spectacle of miracles and changes in my life. The least of which is my beautiful, loving, wonderful wife.

I don’t know what took me so long to see Christ. All I know now is that I spent the first 40 years of my life running away from God. And now I will spend the rest of my life running towards Him.

“God, thank you for having mercy on me, and blessing me with such a generous, graceful woman. You really know how to pick ‘em!”

God's Stimulus Package

There’s been a lot of discussion about the recession and how we got to this place in American history. Fingers point in many directions from Fannie and Freddie, to the banking system, to individual and institutional greed.

It’s really about focus. We’re inundated every day with messages saying we need more stuff. Bigger, better, faster, and newer is what we need. You have to be cool and wear the latest fashions, carry the coolest cell phone, and live in a bigger home.

We’ve lost focus of letting God provide. I know it’s hard. Trying to maintain this focus in our society of excess is difficult, but we give in to it all too often. The old saying “whoever has the most toys… wins” is typical of why our economy is so jacked up, and indicative of how the enemy blinds us to the truth.

We’re in a recession because of greed. Excess. A need to be validated by owning the latest and greatest stuff. People buy a house bigger than they need, then they fill it with so much stuff that they have to park in the driveway because their two car garage has to be used as a storage shed. Then they default on the loan because they couldn’t afford any of it in the first place.

We need to regain our focus on what really matters and stop letting the enemy blur our vision.

So don’t be fooled. Let God provide and use His money for the things that matter.

Live a life of interest, not excess.

“God, you know what I really need in my life, and I trust you to provide. Please give me the wisdom to use your blessings wisely. Amen.”