Life {re}Defined

I fell ill last week prompting a visit to the ER and lots of morphine. Today makes 8 days out of commission. My wife and children are so good to me, even our 9mo makes my excrutiating pain easy to bare. They remind me of this inspiring story.....

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience!

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb..

"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor." Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory -- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes.

My family, this post is my way of thanking you for packing my parachute. And I hope that you, my readers, will send this story on to those who have helped pack yours!

Have a Grate(full) Day.

When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people.

I was tagged on Tuesday by my wife Amy for 6 random things about myself. Don't forget to see my Wordless Wednesday post below...

1. I was born on my father's birthday.

2. 8 years ago, in order to please my children and my mom, we spent about a year to make the ultimate wish list of "The Perfect Wife and Mother". Since I personally was not looking to get married, I made sure it was a very detailed, very picky, very LOOoonngg list. 5 years 8 months ago my children met a lady who matched every single item on our list and then some. 2 months later we were married. It turns out that our list pales in comparison to our amazing wife and mother. Blessed we are!

3. I've never had to buy a Disney ticket thanks to my brother who is an Imagineer.

4. When I was 7 years old, I shut off the microphone of a visiting preacher who was misleading my father's congregation. My dad caught me red handed in the sound room. Since the chapel seated a couple thousand people and most of them could no longer hear the preacher anyway, my father simply went back into the chapel and closed the service and everyone went home.

5. The worse moment of my life started when I saw my oldest daughter's ATV go off the side of a mountain road in Colorado. It ended 2 minutes later when I saw her limp body begin to move as I frantically hiked down toward her 100 feet below.

6. The best moment of my life is: NOW.


Tag you are it!

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The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules to your blog.
3. Write 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

In his novel The First Circle, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quotes a Russian proverb: "It’s not the sea that will drown you, it’s the puddle". Most of us will not be martyrs. Instead, we will be caught up in a war of attrition: the war of everydayness. That everydayness will often defeat us from seeing the superabundance of Love, of spirit, and yes, goods, that God makes available to the children of God. That everydayedness makes us cling to the earthly familiar. That everydayedness makes us cling to the opinions and admiration of the others who are also caught up in their everydayedness. We are only too happy to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and turn the other cheek if anyone should strike us, but yet we are too fear-full to risk the disapproval of or be disowned by the people to whom we have given away our Power.

On the island of Crete they remember the old man who loved his land with a deep and beautiful intensity, so much so that when he perceived he was about to die he ordered his sons to bring him outside and lay him on his beloved earth. As he was about to breath his last, he reached down by his side and clutched some earth into his hands. He died happy.

Later, when he arrived at heaven’s gates, God answered as an old white-bearded man.

"Welcome," God said. "You’ve been good; come into the joys of heaven." But as the old man started through the gate, God said, "Please. You must let the soil go." "Never!" said the old man stepping back. "Never!"

God departed sadly, leaving the man at the gate. A few eons went by, and God came out again, this time as an old friend. They had a few drinks, told some stories, and God said, "All right, now it’s time to enter, friend. Let’s go." As they started for the gate, God once more requested the old man let go of his soil, and once more he refused.

More eons rolled by. God emerged again, this time as a delightful and playful granddaughter. "Oh granddaddy," God said, "you’re so wonderful, and we all miss you. Please come inside with me."

The old man nodded, and she helped him up for by this time he had grown old and arthritic. In fact, so arthritic was he that he had to prop up the right hand holding Crete’s soil with his left. As they moved toward the gate, his strength gave out. His gnarled fingers could no longer stay clenched, and the soil sifted out until his hand was empty.

He then entered heaven, and the first thing he saw was his beloved island.

We clutch at what we have, and miss what we really have waiting for us in this Life. It’s been said that true Christian living is experimental. There is no code of laws or detailed plan, no do-this-and-get-your-reward standard, for as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God —not the result of works".

Experiment with letting go. Start operating out of abundance instead of scarcity.

Release your grip on people and stuff. Watch and see if you don’t find what you want. See if you don’t already have so much that there is something left over, something to give, the cup of your Life full and running over. Just see.

14-year old Ben Underwood is a master of many things - rollerblading down the street, video games, and pillow fighting. No big deal, right? Actually, it is a big deal -- Ben is blind. Physically, since birth. Yet he has developed a kind of sonar that tells him where objects are -- and he doesn't miss.

You will be astounded at this amazing video, showing Ben doing all the things that eye-sighted children can do - and better (like beating his friends on video games).

While scientists have their theories about Ben's extraordinary sonar capacities, I have mine. God tells us that real sight is not of the eyes, which is why He looks at our hearts. It is interesting what Ben sees when he looks at people; he doesn't see the tint of our skin or the face of our 'race'. But I'll let him share that with you himself.

Enjoy....

Here's a song that came out a few months ago that I really like and I wanted to share it with you ... entitled "Don't Blink".

A man walks into a restaurant with a large ostrich and sits down at a table to have breakfast. The man orders a stack of pancakes, and the ostrich orders the same. The bill comes to $15.95. The man reaches into his pocket and empties all his bills and change, which equals exactly $15.95 plus a 15% tip.

The following week the man returns to the restaurant with the ostrich and the same waitress comes to his table. This time he orders bacon and eggs, and so does the ostrich. The bill comes to $19.50. He reaches into his pocket and takes out exactly $19.50 plus a 15% tip.

A week later he comes in again with the ostrich. They both have the same meal. The same waitress presents a check for $18.75. The man empties his pockets and reveals exactly that amount plus the appropriate tip.

By this time the waitress is quite curious. "I am astounded, sir, that you take this ostrich to breakfast every week, and that you always have the exact amount of money," she explains. "How do you do that?"

"It’s an amazing story," he answers. "Several years ago I was cleaning my basement and I found an old bottle. When I opened it, a genie emerged. He told me I could have two wishes. My first wish was to always have enough money to buy anything I wanted. Now, wherever I go, I simply reach into my pocket and the exact amount of money is there. I buy all my meals this way; I have also bought a car, house, and vacations and no matter how much anything costs, I have the exact amount in my wallet or checkbook."

"That’s astonishing!" replies the waitress. "And what was your second wish?"
"To marry a chick with long legs."

This story teaches a profound Truth: Be conscious of what you are asking for. You can Pray for something specific and get it. Or you can pray for a quality of Life, and get that. Praying for specifics is risky, for you are dictating a form. Praying for essence guarantees reward, for you are seeking an experience.

Emerson noted that...
"A wise man in a storm prays not for the end of the storm, but for the end of fear."

Get clear on where you want to go, and let God fill in the blanks about how to get there.

"Heaven asks nothing. It is hell that makes extravagant demands for sacrifice."

Social and theological doctrines would like us to believe that the above statement is not true.

That, "Heaven makes extravagant demands for sacrifice. Hell asks nothing." Oddly enough this is an erroneous belief that mainstream christian theology, atheists, and rejectors of Jesus all have in common. We are led to believe that the Bible states over and over that we must sacrifice and sacrifice much in order to attain eternal Life and that the Bible even gives examples of this.

The Truth is that everything we own on earth is perishable and their value is just an illusion; they are nothing. And that is precisely what heaven asks. Nothing.

Hell on the other hand asks us to sacrifice the only things which have True value; Eternal value. Hell demands our Divine -soul- natures, our minds, our relationships.

"But invest for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Where's the sacrifice in that?

Cindy Crawford the super model, after being complemented by a reporter on her stunning good looks, responded...

"Even I don't wake up looking like Cindy Crawford."

But cosmetics pale in comparison to the persona(alitie)s, the masks, we wear.

We were not born with these masks we wear; they are an invention of the spirit of fear and we believe fear when it tells us that we were created imperfect and that we therefore need to hide our true selves in order to be accepted and even loved.

When we are accepted or loved because of who we pretend to be, it is really our mask that is accepted or loved, not Us.

Masks and the demon of fear do not come from God, and they are incompatible with His eternal Life.

We are made in the image of God; we are not a product of our heritage, or environment, or even our social or religious programming. But our heritage, environment, and our social and religious programming often become our masquerade.

When we embrace these Truths, the people who belong in our Life will embrace and Love us and all others will commune elsewhere.

God does not test us. God simply gives us opportunities to recognize His presence where we thought it was absent.