1/20/10

Man Gives His Wife Manure for a Birthday Gift
Yet another great story from Iowa, and believe me – it’s true! A farmer really wanted to surprise his wife with the perfect birthday gift, so he spent three hours with his tractor one morning, and he used thousands of pounds of fresh cow manure to spell, “Happy Birthday, Love You” on a hillside area near the couple’s house.

The farmer, Dick Kleis (of Zwingle, Iowa) had apparently thought long and hard about how to express his love in the best way that he knew how, and he later even gave a little advice for other birthday-wishers who might want to follow in his footsteps, as he said, “Any manure will work, but the good, soft, gushy, warm stuff works the best. It kind of melts the snow away.”

Would you believe that Carole Kleis, the farmer’s wife, thought the birthday wish was the best thing in the world! It’s true! Moreover, she’s already thinking of ways to “top” her husband’s gesture when his birthday rolls around this May!

In my opinion, the moral of the story is simply this: It doesn’t so much matter HOW and with WHAT you express your love and adoration as it does the genuine heart of the person doing the expressing! Just as this farmer expressed his love towards his wife with something most people would consider laughable or offensive, his wife nevertheless thought it was absolutely wonderful! It was the perfect gift, not because of WHAT it was, but because of the HEART within the expresser!

The same is true when God views our expressions of love and adoration towards him! Sometimes, in our attempts to heap our love and praise on God, we may get the feeling that he might view our prayerful words, singing, and other expressions as something “a little left to be desired” (at best) or even downright “manure,” but on the contrary, when our expressions come from a genuine heart that desires to love and praise God, he inhabits our praises and receives our expressions with the utmost of joy!

I guess God’s view towards us and our genuine expressions towards him are germane to the way a mother goes wild when her young child gives her a hand-made gift he made for her in Sunday School. While the gift may look downright sloppy, juvenile, and worthless – the mother no doubt cherishes her prize possession and hangs it on the refrigerator for all to see. She wouldn’t sell it for a thousand dollars! Simply because her child took what little he had, spent some precious time, and expressed his love for his mom in the best way he knew how!

When we do likewise, concerning our expressions towards God, he “goes wild” as well! When we “love the Lord with ALL of our heart, with ALL of our soul, and with ALL of our mind” (Matthew 22:37), God gets super-excited and happy … and then, like the farmer’s wife, God goes on a quest to show us how much greater his love is for us!

Put God on a quest, why don’t you! Express to him your love and adoration in the best way you know how, and don’t think twice about it being sub par (because, in HIS book, it’s NOT)! He cherishes our fumbled words, our off-key singing, and our less-than-flattering attempts to give him props … when it comes from a genuine heart!

1/14/10

18-Year-Old Elected Mayor
Last November, Colton Morman was elected the new mayor of the small Dallas County town of Dawson, Iowa. Here’s the thing: he was only 18 years old when elected to take the job, which had previously been held by his grandfather, who had decided not to run again. The story has received widespread attention over the last few months, as Colton is among the youngest of mayors to have ever been elected.

More surprising than an 18-year-old mayor of a small American town are the countless biblical stories of teenagers who did extraordinary things that others would not and/or could not do. Take David, who was only a teenager when God used him to defeat Goliath and therefore save a nation of people. David was younger than his three oldest brothers and all of the other soldiers in the king’s army (who, by law, had to be at least 21 years old), and he was younger than King Saul. And yet these very warriors, who had pulled off some pretty daring feats in the past, could not and would not do what God had placed only in David’s heart to do.

Take Joseph, Esther, and Daniel as well – all teenagers when God used them to do incredible things, some of which (like David) involved sparing an entire nation of people. All of these young people were faced with trying circumstances, and there were always others (many of them older) standing by, who did not have in them what God had placed in the hearts of these teenagers.

I could go on and on with biblical accounts of teenagers who really stepped up and allowed God to demonstrate his miraculous power through them and around them, but I think the point has already been made: Teenagers CAN do the miraculous and the impossible, when GOD has deposited that unction within them, and when HE is the source of their strength and determination!

While this 18-year-old mayor now leads his town of 155 people, there are other teenagers out there who God is using right now to do even greater things! Those of us who aren’t teenagers shouldn’t really be “surprised” by this, but rather “grateful” that God includes teenagers on his kingdom list of power hitters! Sometimes those teens of his can knock a ball out of the park better than the rest of us!

For those of you who are teenagers, strive to follow the advice Paul gave to young Timothy: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers …” (1 Timothy 4:12A). In other words, keep knocking those baseballs of life (which God has called you and equipped you to swing at) out of the park!