Ricky’s Page

I was challenged to examine this past weekend what is my main motivation for being a follower of Jesus.  And my answer was how much he has done for me …or blessed me with.  With things like forgiveness, a wonderful wife and family…etc.  How could I not live the rest of my life out of thankfulness out of what he has already done for me?  I was shown that that isn’t the best motivation….not even by a long shot.  What is really capable of motivating me is what is coming….what is ahead.  The bible says “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him….”   It makes sense. How much he has given any of us pales in comparison to what is coming. I loose sight of that alot. I believe every longing and passion….things that we find beautiful, fun, interesting….things that we spend our day thinking about…those things are just little hints of God. I think Satan has done a good job of giving us a cookie cutter image of God. An image like an old wise looking guy with a white beard. And what we do not realize is that when we get to heaven, God is going to be so great that he is going to blow away even our deepest, wildest fantasies.

Last weekend my friend and classmate Jon invited me to come along  and sit in the back for his first lesson in the Cessna 210.  The 210 is quite a step up from the trainers we fly.  It is much more powerful and complex and has retractable landing gear.  It is very similar to the planes usually flown in missions.  It was a special treat to get to sit in the back and watch.  Eventually in the future I will be needing to get time in a similar type of airplane so it was nice to get a small taste of what goes on in there.  Here’s a little video I put together of the flight.

My classmate Ryan has a supercub that his dad let him borrow for the summer.  It is a good setup because he is working on his commercial license and trying to build time.  He likes to get out there early in the morning before class on those beautiful calm clear mornings.  One morning I showed up early and got some pictures and video.  Have a look.

Here’s something a little different.  A couple guys at my school have these little remote control cars.  So we strapped a video camera on one.   The video ends with the car smacking into a wall and the picture going fuzzy.  The camera went out of focus but it was allright later.

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….”

Spring is in the air! A few weekends ago we had an unbelievable amount of snow. Piles in parking lots where the snow was cleared were like twenty feet high. Now it’s nowhere to be seen! (however the rivers don’t know what to do with all that water). We’ve had a couple of 60 degree days already. I don’t know about you but I love spring. It means all that warm weather is ahead. And the days are getting longer. Heather’s mom, sister and stepdad are visiting this weekend…Ellen Dave and Holly. It is always fun when they visit. They used to visit us quite a bit back in Columbia too. It’s kind of a tradition. We have a one bedroom apartment and we all just kind of hang out. Everyone sleeps all over the place. We make it work. One time in Columbia we had as many as nine guests staying in our little one bedroom apartment. I put a tent on the porch and slept out there that time. School has been really busy. I feel like I have been studying nonstop. I took my Instrument flight class final a couple weeks ago. I have been studying as much as I can for general and airframe orals and practicals (for the FAA exam…which I am taking March 27th!!) then after that I will study for the written exam, then the instrument written exam. Then a little breather until July when our next oral and practical exams will be. I doubt there will really be much of a breather though because I may get to start flying pretty soon which will take a lot of study and energy. Its busy but its a good busy. I feel like I am learning a lot.

The other day I was reminded of a lesson that was really valuable to me. Several summers ago I got to spend the summer with fifty other college-age people from all over the country. It was a summer mission project with Campus Crusade for Christ. (its also the same place I met heather). We all had different roles there. One of my jobs was to meet with several different guys and just kind of get to know them and their life stories. Two of those meetings really stuck with me. They were both with guys who were remarkably passionate about their faith. As I talked to them about their stories, I was amazed at how their thankfulness and love for Jesus just flowed from their speach. And it wasn’t the kind of enthusiasm that seems like it might be made up. I could tell it was genuine. And there was a common theme that really stuck out at me from both of their stories. Both of their lives at one time had seemed hopeless. They both believed very deeply at one time that their life was useless and pointless. And that they were not worthy of being loved. That they were unloveable. Because of the bad things they had done, and the life they’ve lived, they both believed that they were, for lack of a more pleasant way to put it, scum. They both had what you might call “bottomed out” in life. This was when they learned about Jesus. And about his love for them. About how God loved them so much…individually….personally. And that those things they were guilty for….Jesus had taken care of those things when he died for them. Those things are forgotten through faith in Him. When those guys were shown that, and when they embraced it, their lives did a complete flip flop. And their passion makes a lot of sense. Here are guys who were staring hopelessness in the eyes. They were the type of guys who might strongly consider suicide, and now the best way I can describe it is that their thankfulness and praise for God is like honey dripping from their lips. Meeting with those guys and seeing their obvious love and passion for God made me desire that. One thing was clear to me, and that was that I was not like that. I was nowhere near as excited about God as these guys. Sure I loved the Lord, but it was clear to me that these guys had something that I didn’t. I knew I could not muster it up. I knew it was useless to go try to become as passionate as these guys. Instead I asked the question why. Why were these two guys so much more passionate in their faith than I was? Not long after those meetings I ran across a passage in Luke. I read the same passage a few days ago, and it brought the lesson back into my mind in a fresh new way. In Luke chapter seven, a wealthy, religious guy invites Jesus over for dinner (his official title was a Pharisee). This was a guy who probably thought he was a pretty decent, upstanding guy, as pharisees are noted for doing. He crossed all of his T’s and dotted his I’s. He probably did a good job at keeping religious rituals and going to church on Sundays and what have you. This guy got pretty disappointed when, at his dinner party when Jesus was the guest of honor, some lady comes in to his house off the street who is known to have “had a sinful life”. That probably means she was known to be a prostitute. This lady sat down behind Jesus down by his feet and began weeping. She brought a container of perfume with her, and she began to wash Jesus’ feet with the perfume and with her tears, swirling them around with her hair. The guy who invited Jesus over thought something along the lines of “if Jesus really knew this woman’s story, if he knew how bad she was, he would not let her do that. He would want nothing to do with her.” Jesus knew what he was thinking, so he told him a little story. Two men owed money to a certain lender. One owed him $50. The other owed him $500. The lender sees that neither has the money to pay him back, so he decides to cancel their debts. Jesus asks the pharisee “which one will love the lender more?” The pharisee thinks about it for a second and says something like “well, the one that owed him $500 dollars i guess.” Jesus replies “You’re right. Now do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” It made sense to me that Jesus wasn’t implying that the pharisee had few sins, and the woman had many. The key difference was that the woman actually understood how sinful she was, while the pharisee didn’t. When I read that on summer project years ago, that passage really landed its blow on me. I could see that there I was, probably identifying more with the pharisee than with the woman. I was a decent guy. I had never done anything really bad. I crossed all my T’s and dotted my I’s. I went to church and bible study every week. Those two guys that I interviewed, they had their chance to be in the woman’s shoes. They had scraped bottom. They had felt deep despair over their sin. And like the woman, they were overflowing with thankfulness and joy towards Jesus. Had I gotten a chance to speak with that woman sometime after she had met Jesus, I am sure her lips would be dripping praise and thankfulness “like honey” in the same way that my two summer project friends were. I know this lesson was teaching me that though it is really hard for me to understand, the sin in my liffe is just as wretched as anyone elses. My problem is that I didn’t see that. I was, and in many ways am still blind to it. I’m not any better than a prostitute, or a drug dealer. Since learning that lesson years ago my prayer to God has been “God please help me understand my sin, to be able to see it and turn away from it. And protect me from a self righteous attitude.” In many ways, during the six years since summer project God has done that. He has helped me see my sin in a deeper light, and has helped me turn away from it. And that has led to a more thankful heart on my part. I know though that in many ways I am still the pharisee, needing God to show me my sin. I suppose that will be a continual prayer for the rest of my life. I consider this to be one of the most powerful lessons God has taught me.

I just had a random thought tonight that I wanted to write about. It occurred to me today that there is a difference between personality and character. I learned from a friend of mine from long ago, named Shawn, that personality has a lot to do with the body God has given you. Or more specifically your brain chemistry. Shawn had struggled with bipolar disorder ever since the death of his twin sister several years before i met him. He was one of the most shy people I’ve ever known. I got to know him a little on the same summer missions project that Heather and I met on back in 2001. There were many people there also on the summer missions project with very strong and outgoing personalities. Shawn said there had been times when his brain chemistry was different and he was just as outgoing or even moreso than anyone on our project. But he clearly was not like that at all when I knew him. He was the most behind the scenes, quiet and calm guy in our entire group. So now I understand that a person’s personality and character aren’t necessarily the same thing. It may take effort to discern the person’s character, where their personality is pretty easy to find out. I suspect this might be why alot of the first impressions I get of people are often way off. i kind of judge their character by their personality before I really know them.

I really like Christmas time.  Heather just loves to decorate the house.  She’s got little trees up all over the house, and a big tree in the corner, a garland above the window, all with little lights in them.  And a whole host of ornaments on that tree.  And since our wedding was in November, we recieved plenty of “christmas items” as wedding gifts.  Including special Christmas mugs with little matching spoons.  And Christmas plates.  So we use all of those!  We do hot chocolate quite regularly.  Or should I say I do hot chocolate quire regularly.  Heather is definitely the more disciplined side of our marriage.  I am a succer for sweets, and hot cocoa.  I have been delivering pizzas as a part time job. I just started doing that.  The night I first did it it was snowing.  And I was cruising around town, listening to Christmas music, checkin’ out the lights on peoples’ houses and bringing people pizza.  It’s fun because everyone is excited when you show up.  Especially kids.  It’s a rough job I know.

So what have we been doing here at SMAT for Christmas?  Welding, of course.  I learned how to weld briefly in Mr. Eckhardt’s class in high school.  But we have really been doing all kinds of welding around here.  With gas, with electricity.  I actually welded Heather a little ornament for the tree for practice.  (since it was practice, I don’t know know if it’s good enough to get the “stamp of approval” from Heather).  It might end up in the trash bin.  But at least I tried.

For Christmas we are headed out to Arizona.  I am excited because it will be the first time in years I’ve gotten to go spend an extended time with my family in Payson.  Last April we went out for Danny’s wedding, but I was only in Payson for an evening.  This time we’re there for a week.  Just hanging out with everyone, playing with the animals, etc.  We are bringing a guy from school here with us to Arizona.  His name is Matthias (pron matt-ee-us).  He is from Germany, so he can’t get home for Christmas.  So he’s going with us!  I am excited.  He sits next to me in class and he’s a great guy.