Ricky’s Page

I got a guitar for Christmas.  I have really been getting into it lately.  I really enjoy making up little melodies.  It is one of those things I can sort of get lost in for hours.  There are some other things I can say that about, like making videos or slide shows on this computer.  Or jogging sometimes.  Or reading about and watching the suns (phoenix’s basketball team) and their exciting season going on.  There are some other things too.  They are things that I am naturally inclined to do, because I want to do them.  I get excited to go do them.  Can you identify with this?  Are things that you just love to do that if given a couple hours of free time in the middle of the day you would just go do?  As I sat there the other day making a neat little melody on the guitar, a funny, fleeting thought went through my head.  It went something like:  “Man, if someone put me on a desert island for a year or so with nothing to do and I had this guitar with me, I would become a pretty good musician.”  That thought was immediately followed up with another thought:  “You better get off that island with a better understanding of the bible….moreso than becoming a better musician.”  And I thought something like “oh yeah, that too, I guess.”  It was more of a forced agreement.  Sort of like my teacher was telling me to go do my homework and I agreed to do it.  This little episode is a good example of a lesson I learned recently through one of the messages I downloaded from The Crossing, our church back in Missouri.   Dave, the pastor who was speaking, gave some examples of what happens when we get our needs and our wants confused.  When we go to the grocery store, if we get our needs and wants mixed up, we will pick up everything that looks good to us.  For me that would be ice cream, frozen pizzas.  Bratwursts.  Probably  no vegetables.  The results would be disastrous!  He took great effort to point out that we need to want the things we need.  As confusing as that sounds its worth taking time to think about.  We are not often inclined to naturally desire the things that we really need.  I am not drawn to carrots, salad, and fruits, etc,  but I need them.    With the guitar versus bible example, I admit that I am not usually naturally drawn to open the bible.  I would rather sit down and play guitar.  But I know about what it does in my soul when I sit down before the Lord’s feet to learn from him and talk to him.  It is indiscribable.  Unlike vegetables, many times my moments in the bible leave me with a deep peace and joy that I didn’t have before I sat down and that is hard to explain.  And I know that leads to real change in the way I go about my day.  I know that spending time like this with God is good for my soul.  Playing guitar is not bad, but it is not on the same par.  In connection with this I have been learning there is a difference between things that are fun and things that are satisfying.  Between things that are enjoyable and things that are fulfilling.  That is not to say that fun things can’t be satisfying.  But I think it’s worth thinking about the difference.  At the end of my life, I know there will be little satisfaction in the fact that I have become a good guitar player.  Or that the Suns won the 07 NBA championship.  Or from all the running I’ve done.  These things are not wrong to participate in at all.  I think they are very good.  I think the Lord gives us recreation and interests because they are good.  But at the end of my life, things like what kind of husband have I been to Heather, how have I raised my children, how I have been dilligent and faithful in my vocational calling, how have I seen the Lord work in my heart, and how have I seen him at work in those around me.  These types of things will be satisfying.  So I know that right  now I need to be careful not to let my “recreational passions” take over and drown out the most important things.  I know this will take discipline.  And discipline is very hard for me to come by!!

Heather and I are starting out to do a study of the book of Luke together.  Our initial assignment is to read through the whole book and jot down some things that stick out to you.  That sounds like kind of a hard thing to do to me.  So I grabbed a cup of coffe and sat down and started reading.  I made it to chapter 17 in that sitting.  A few neat things did stick out to me at first.  Luke says in his first paragraph that he is writing this book for Theophilus (sp?) so that he may “know the certainty of the things he has been taught.”  Then reading on in the next few chapters that statement makes sense right away.  The sort of detail he puts into it is amazing.  He mentions this king, ruler or governor who was in power in this place or that place while this was taking place (just one example of his detail).  He doesn’t just describe what happened, he throws an amazing amount of detail around it as if to say to the readers , “check it out for yourselves.”(keeping in mind his initial readers lived in the time that these things happened).  This book strikes me as a good one for someone who wants historical proof about Jesus.  Just like Luke says in his opening statement “so that you may know the certainty….”