In the Zoning Meeting in Fulton on Tuesday night, I raised a concern that there seems to be a big difference between what two members of the committee (Brian Ashworth and Brian Wade) think zoning will accomplish. (See Two Brians, Two Views Of Zoning) It is very different for anyone to form any coherent opinion of zoning when the committee has polar opposite ideas of what it will actually do in Bourbon County. What I stated in the meeting was:

“Brian Ashworth said it won’t prevent anything, just make sure there are common-sense guidelines being followed. For example, with solar, it might require setbacks from neighboring buildings, EMS training, or fully funded decommissioning agreements. However, Brian Wade has said that zoning is the tool to keep landowners from leasing their land to solar companies. These are two very very different goals. Mr. Ashworth thinks zoning will be a scalpel to carefully shape the way landowners use their land, Mr. Wade thinks it is a sledgehammer that will dictate what can and can’t be done.”

When I said this, Mr. Wade shook his head as if I was misrepresenting him. I want to make sure I correctly represent him, so I went back to find the video. It is hard to hear because it was recorded on a cell phone, since at this point they were not streaming their meetings, so the mics at the table weren’t being used.

Here is what Mr. Wade said:

“ My neighbor hit me up this morning at the gas station. He lives in Linn County, and, uh, him and another partner farm a bunch around us and he said if it wasn’t for zoning in Linn County, he’d have 5,000 solar or 5,000 acres around their house off of 52 highway.”

My best understanding of his statement is that the land owners who wanted to lease their land for non-agricultural use (to solar companies) were stopped by the fact Linn County is zoned.  The result of zoning wasn’t to simply require a certain amount of setback or a decommissioning agreement. It didn’t provide some type of”common-sense” guidelines. Instead, he seems to indicate that they were prohibited from using their land how they wished.

If you want zoning to be used as a tool to keep solar out as Mr.Wade said it did in Linn County, then you should be concerned by Mr. Ashcroft’s view that it won’t do that.

If you support zoning because you feel it will still let land owners do what they want with their land as long as they follow “common-sense guidelines,” then you should be concerned when Mr. Wade indicates it is the mechanism that prohibits certain land use.

The point in my statement on Tuesday was that, despite trying to understand what zoning would mean for Bourbon County, I have no basis for forming any logical opinion on the topic because I have no idea what it would mean for land use other than farming and cattle.  Based on the differences between what members of the zoning advisory committe have said zoning will do, it appears I’m  in good company.

Note: FortScott.biz publishes opinion pieces with a variety of perspectives. If you would like to share your opinion, please send a letter to [email protected].                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Hurtling Towards The Cliff

We’re at a precarious crossroads here in Bourbon County, and if the public doesn’t start getting involved and speaking out, various internal battles that have been brewing behind the scenes for years threaten to boil over and turn our County into a permanent laughingstock. As such, despite thoroughly enjoying my vacation from local politics, I read an abbreviated version of the letter below during Public Comments at tonight’s County Commission meeting, fittingly right after a heated battle over who should control the landfill:

The last time I sat at this table was the first meeting of the new Commission, and that night I felt something I had not felt in a long time – hope.  Hope that the toxicity that has plagued this County for years was over. Hope that, to be blunt, the dumpster fire our county had become was finally extinguished.  I come before you tonight with a heavy heart, as it has become clear to me that that fire rages on, and that without fast intervention, the sickness that fuels that fire is going to turn this county into a place no one with any sense will want to serve, work for, or live in.

That sickness has a name, and that name is  “grievance mentality”.  Google defines grievance mentality as “a pattern of behavior where individuals persistently perceive themselves as unfairly treated, unjustly wronged, or as victims of external forces”.

Just over 20 years ago I first entered the world of local politics, and I watched up close as a man I worked with, a man who was a good and decent person, was eaten alive from the inside out by grievance mentality.  With his grievance mentality came paranoia, an inflated sense of entitlement, and an insatiable desire to control EVERYTHING.  By allowing this to fester, this man made not only himself miserable, but just about everyone around him.

20 years later, history is repeating in front of my eyes, only this time it’s not just one person I care about being consumed by this sickness, but many, and it’s not just affecting one city, but the entire county.  I truly believe every controversy that has popped up since January in Bourbon County, from shock resignations to legal controversies to battles over who controls the landfill, can be traced back to grievance mentality.

A lot of people have questioned why Commissioner Kruger resigned so quickly.  I don’t want to speak for him, but I will say this: I believe Leroy felt caught in the crossfire of the endless civil wars within this Courthouse, wars between the Clerk and IT offices and the Sheriff’s department, wars between factions within the Public Works Department, and I’m sure others I’m not even aware of.  Basically, there are more offices fighting each other than not within our Courthouse walls, and it’s been that way for a long time.  I believe Leroy felt like an island unto himself at this table, like he was the only one here who wasn’t trying to serve one side of these wars or the other, and I hate to say it, but I don’t think he was wrong.  These things are easy to get sucked into for the uninitiated – grievance mentality also tends to breed manipulation. I would also like to note that I don’t operate on hearsay – as a courtesy, I sent Leroy this portion of my comments this past weekend, and he had no issue with me making them.

Prior to the Special Convention to replace Commissioner Kruger, I met with both Dillon Duffy and Mika Milburn to encourage them but also to warn them about the giant toxic mess they were walking into.  I told them about the internal wars being waged, and that if they were chosen, they would likely end up feeling just as isolated as Leroy did, but that I believed help would arrive this coming January.  To their credit, this didn’t deter either of them.  Flash forward to this past Friday morning when I received an unexpected phone call from an audibly frustrated Commissioner Milburn.  Her message was short and to the point:  “Nick, you were right.”.  That phone call ate at me all day, as it had the same tone and tenor as phone calls I used to receive from Commissioner Kruger.  Guys, I hate doing this, I hate public speaking, and I hate that by speaking out, I will likely get several people I consider friends mad at me.   But what I hate even more is that every time I encourage good people like Leroy, Dillon, and Mika to serve this County, it turns out that what I’m REALLY asking them to do is jump headfirst into a spirit crushing, toxic meat grinder.  That has to stop, and stop now.

Now I don’t want to discount the fact that there were many very legitimate grievances made against each and every one of these warring departments by some of the previous occupants of this table, and I have no doubt those previous occupants enjoyed playing each side against the other.  But those occupants are gone now, and just because a grievance is legitimate, that doesn’t mean it’s healthy to hold on to.  It’s past time for everyone in this County to put the past in the past, put down their swords, their paranoia, their sense of entitlement, and their need to control, and bury the hatchet.  If they don’t, grievance mentality will eat both them and this entire County alive from the inside out like a cancer.

In closing, I want to end on a hopeful note.  I haven’t spoken to the man I mentioned earlier in 18 years, and quite honestly I’m not sure he would want to speak to me, but out of curiosity, I’ve followed his career in the time since. By letting go of grievance mentality and moving on from here, he thrived, having a lengthy tenure in Ottawa, and retiring just last year after a well received stint as the Interim City Manager of Topeka.  He finished strong, and left a legacy to be proud of.  I know many in our County government plan to retire from public service in the next few years, and I would encourage them to do the same – don’t let grievance mentality define your legacy here.  Finish strong.

Nick Graham, Uniontown, KS

Note: FortScott.biz publishes opinion pieces with a variety of perspectives. If you would like to share your opinion, please send a letter to [email protected].

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

I Fall to Pieces

I’m pretty sure you have to be within a certain age group to associate the words “I fall to pieces” with a song. In 1961, Patsy Cline recorded “I Fall to Pieces” which was her first recording to top the Billboard country chart. This song was one of her biggest hits and, as far as I‘m concerned, she still owns it. Patsy, as the first female, was posthumously elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973, ten years after her fatal plane crash. I was five years old when she died, but I have heard this iconic artist’s beautiful and distinctive voice nearly all my life through her records.

Our life is sometimes comparative to the trade of a blacksmith. If you’ve ever seen a Western movie, then you’ve probably seen a blacksmith at work as he makes and repairs iron objects and horseshoes by hand. He heats and hammers the iron and when it’s just right, he plunges it into cold water. Sometimes the object doesn’t take temper and it will fall to pieces in the process. If the iron isn’t going to allow itself to be tempered, it winds up in the scrap pile. Thank goodness, God doesn’t throw us in the scrap pile if, or when,  we fall to pieces.

If I had my way, I’d choose to never be in the heat, hammered, pressured, or tested. But real life is not a perpetual rose garden. Tough stuff happens and it happens to all believers if we live long enough. I suspect Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren’t looking forward to being thrown into the blazing furnace. Nevertheless, they declared, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty“ (Daniel 3:17 NLT). When they were bound and thrown into the fiery furnace, they discovered that they weren’t in it alone. God was there in the furnace of affliction with His servants. Christ followers can have the same confidence these three boys had because we serve the same God they did.

God loves us with an unconditional and everlasting love. When the testing and sorrows of life come, with lovingkindness He draws us to Himself. And He will do one of two things: Either keep us from falling to pieces, or take the pieces and put them back together in a stronger fashion; He never throws them away. Personally, I don’t like putting puzzle pieces together. I suppose I lack the interest and patience required to tackle the project. I’m thankful that God never gives up on me when I fall to pieces.

“When I am pressed on every side by troubles, I am not crushed and broken. When I am perplexed because I don’t know why things happen as they do, I don’t give up and quit” (2 Corinthians 4:8 TLB). Remember, if we should fall to pieces, understand that remaining in that state is not an option for the believer. If life’s circumstances knock us down, we’re not “out” because Jesus’ hand will be reaching out and pulling us back up. When the going gets tough we just keep forging ahead. Apostle Paul reminds believers of our important and steadfast hope in Christ: “We have great endurance in hardships and in persecutions. We don’t lose courage in a time of stress and calamity” (2 Corinthians 6:4 TPT).

The Key: The best option is to not fall to pieces. But if you do, it’s not the end of the record. Just get up and play the A-side.

Up until last week, the zoning advisory committee remained shrouded in mystery for everyone except those who could find the time to attend in person. No minutes have been published, and the meetings were not streamed to the public like advisory committees have been under previous commissioners. (See Commissioner Beerbower’s explanation of his view of the Zoning Advisory Committee as a democracy vs. the need for transparency.)

The veil was ripped last Wednesday when FortScott.biz streamed the meeting. Looking through the hole that had been torn in the opaqueness, those of us who couldn’t physically attend the meetings got our first look at the workings of that committee and the things being discussed that had formerly been obscured from the public view. So maybe that is a bit dramatic, but the point remains, the public was now able to see what was happening with the same level of transparency as city and previous county advisory committees.

For me, the statements made by two people named Brian on the Zoning Advisory Committee (Brian Ashworth and Brian Wade) provide the best illustration of the fundamental disagreement between members of the committee (and possibly the public and commissioners) when it comes to zoning. Understanding these two views of people who support zoning is key in any thoughtful discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of implementing zoning, as Beerbower says, the commission has already established they will do.

Brian Ashworth stated that the goal of zoning is not to prevent anyone from doing what they want to with their land. He said the purpose of zoning is to make sure a landowner wanting to put in something commercial or industrial would need to follow some guidelines to be a good neighbor, but it wouldn’t stop them from using their land as they see fit.

This sounds completely reasonable and could mean things like, if a landowner is going to put in a field of solar panels, they might be asked to put a row of trees between the panels and their neighbor’s house. Or maybe it would mean asking the solar company to locate battery arrays 500 feet or more from neighboring property and make sure the fire department is comfortable with understanding what to do in the rare, but still possible, event of a fire from the electrical systems or the situation most of us have experience where a neighbor’s field being burned that gets out of control if it happens to threaten the solar field. Those types of suggestions probably fall into the common-sense type of things that would happen on their own among neighbors who are actually looking for reasonable accommodation. Maybe zoning helps make those conversations more likely. Sounds reasonable, right?

However, Brian Wade offered a different view of the purpose of the zoning committee. He talked with admiration about how Lynn County’s zoning was able to prevent landowners from renting their land out to solar companies. He didn’t talk about how the zoning laws allowed the county to guide installations with some best practices for fire preparedness. He didn’t talk about how zoning allowed some reasonable setbacks that gave neighbors some nice trees to look at. No, he talked about how great it was that zoning had been used as a tool to prevent the landowners from leasing their land.

Mr. Wade’s goals as presented in the meeting were completely different from Mr. Ashworth’s stated goals.

If you want zoning to be a tool to prohibit landowners from using their land in legal ways that you don’t want, then Mr. Wade’s goals probably match yours. If you want zoning to be a process that helps guarantee good communication and reasonable accommodations between neighbors, then Mr. Ashworth’s goals probably align with what you want.

However, the bigger question is this: If zoning is implemented, what will we actually get?

(Note: Commission Mika Milburn says she will have the meeting streamed on May 13th, so hopefully the process will be more transparent going forward & kudos to her for trying to bring the transparency of these meetings back to the same level of previous commissioners.)

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Mom’s Mini Messages

It’s been said that no matter how old we are, we never outgrow our need for a mother. I’m in my 60s and I wholeheartedly concur with that statement. Nearly every day I remember some type of wisdom that Mom shared with me. She was a stay-at-home mother so I spent a lot of time with her and I‘m so grateful. She was an excellent role model because she taught me by words and example. Even though we haven’t had a conversation for ten years now, the tape recorder in my memory replays her good and encouraging words quite often. I’m very thankful for her love and voice that I continue to hold in my heart. In 1996, I spoke at a Mother-Daughter Banquet where Mom was presented with the “Exemplary Mother” award. I’d never thought of describing my mom with that adjective. But when she flew away to Heaven in 2015, we had “An Exemplary Life” engraved on her headstone.

I think the first scripture Mom began to drill into my head was Numbers 32:23. I can’t remember if I’d done something specific, but all during my childhood she would say to me, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” I figured that if I did something bad, my parents or God or both would find out and the fur would fly.

Here‘s another vital scripture Mom quoted to me: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head” (Romans 12:20 NKJV). I didn’t understand the part about putting hot coals on someone’s head; that didn‘t sound like a good thing to do. Nevertheless, Mom wanted me to learn the lesson of  being nice and doing good things for people who weren’t nice to me.

She often quoted Proverbs 17:22, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” She did an outstanding job of practicing this. She always had a big smile, a big laugh, and sometimes she’d even “cackle” when she got really tickled. Mom wasn’t a storyteller or a joke teller, but she sure got a kick out of everyone else’s funny stories. It’s been scientifically proven that laughter improves our mood and overall well-being. It reduces stress and tension, and also helps in bonding with others. I think a lifestyle of having a merry heart and laughing with family and friends is kinda’ like the glue that sticks us together. The ability to laugh together is bound to be a gift from God.

One time Mom and I were in the kitchen and, I don’t know what prompted this scripture, but she quoted, “A soft answer turneth away wrath” (Proverbs 15:1 KJV). You just can’t have an argument when someone has a smile and kind response. Mom was the first to show mercy and the last to pass judgment. She power-walked in her faith and she never wavered. She studied her Bible and practiced what she read. Her life was well lived and she was well loved.

Mothers are so important in how their children begin life and how they end life, and everything in between. “Hats off” to mothers in their constant efforts to nurture, teach, train, and love their off-spring. Mothers should be celebrated every day because they’re loving, relentless, valuable, selfless, beautiful, funny, and tough as nails.

The Key:  Exemplary mothers never go out of style. Keep up the good work!

Last night, I attended a T-ball game to watch Joey, a four-year-old, swing away at a rubber ball placed chest-high on a batting tee.  The rest of the time, he stood at attention in the infield, moving only when a ball landed between his feet and the coach told him to pick it up and throw it to first.  His mother is a childhood friend of my granddaughter, and I went to play “grandparent” since her parents live several hours away.

Joey isn’t fond of the game.  He is the shortest player on the Grasshoppers’ team and rarely has a ball hit his direction.  This night was different.  “Did you see me, Mom? Did you see me, Dad?  I caught the ball and threw it.” A first for the little guy.

From that point on, Joey covered the entire field.  From left field to center field to third base, if the ball was hit, he sprinted to be part of the group that tackled each other to come up with the prize.  I remember with great fondness our sons doing the same, and last night, I could not stop smiling.

But what really caught my attention was another teammate of Joey who was a head taller than all the other players and clearly had some baseball skills.  Instead of showing off his arm, however, he would catch the ball and hand it to one of the smaller Grasshoppers to throw it to first.  His parents had to be proud.

Unselfishness is in short supply.  Two weeks ago, I watched a video of an Easter egg hunt at a Florida beach where my four-year-old granddaughter, Paige, placed plastic eggs in her younger sister’s basket.  Other hunters were not so kind. They scooped up as many eggs as they could to fill their baskets, with no regard for much smaller kids reaching for just one.

What makes some people share (like that Grasshopper and Paige) and others be all about themselves? One such story in the Bible addresses what happens when we seek to serve ourselves.  Abraham and his nephew Lot had accumulated great wealth in livestock and possessions, and soon there was an argument amongst their servants about rights to the springs of water.                                                                                                                                                                Deciding it was time to part company, Abraham gave Lot the choice of which parcel of land he wanted.  Lot chose the richer, greener acreage of the Jordan River and settled near Sodom (Gen. 13:10-12) having no idea the sins of its citizens would result in his family and him running for their lives.

Ignoring God’s warning not to look back, Lot’s wife disobeyed and was turned into a statue of salt (Gen. 19:26).  The end was not good for Lot and his daughters.  Once safe (if living in a cave is “safe”), the daughters got their father drunk, had sexual relations with him, and birthed the beginning of Israel’s enemies, the Moabites and the Ammonites.

I wonder if Philippians 2:3 was written with Lot in mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. That little Grasshopper and my granddaughter offer lessons for all of us.

Several weeks ago, there was a reasonably cordial exchange between David Foster, who opposes zoning, and Mika Milburn, who supports it. County Commissioner Mika made a very good point about zoning that is worth considering:

I understand your fear, but I have fear as well that bourbon county will some day be primarily owned by out of state or even out of county people that do not care nor respect our county and the people that call it home, so many counties in Kansas are zoned and it did not kill them! Although I disagree with you that this will kill our county David I certainly respect your opinion and agree with you on many other things.

At a high level, I believe Mika is saying that there is a way to do zoning that is good for the long-term interests of Bourbon County. This is a perfectly reasonable position, and I completely agree with her. Zoning done perfectly and administered perfectly could potentially have some benefits for the county over not being zoned.

However, we shouldn’t be comparing a utopian execution of zoning with no-zoning. We should be comparing the zoning we will actually get with the lack of county zoning we have today. What makes it difficult is that it is hard to predict exactly what we will get, and it is impossible to say how it will actually be used by current and future commissioners. So, while Mika may be optimistic about her goals for zoning from the commission she sits on, residents should be weighing the risks and rewards of zoning under both the current and future commissioners. It is less of a question of whether good things could come from the decisions made by the best commissioners and more a question of the harm that might result under the worst commissioners in the future. People will evaluate these risks in different ways and will likely come to different conclusions.

So that is thinking about the way zoning might be administered in the future, but what about the way it is enacted today? In other words, what type of zoning are we likely to actually get? Well, let’s look at the current zoning advisory board. This board consists of Brian Wade, Christine Farbo, Brian Ashworth II, James L. Banworth Jr., Mary Pemberton, Jason Yaunt, Amanda Spicer, Pete Owensby, and Mike Houston. They are meeting in the commission room at the courthouse on Thursdays at 5 p.m. starting April 17th and running for 5 weeks. Hop on over to the county’s YouTube channel where all the county meetings are streamed and archived, to see how the process is going.  What’s that? You say you can’t find any of the meetings? Are you sure you looked hard enough? Does that seem strange?

Even though the advisory board meetings under previous commissioners were streamed, the current commissioners have inexplicably broken with this tradition and made the peculiar decision to leave the streaming turned off for these meetings. It isn’t just past commissions that make these types of meetings accessible to the public. A similar advisory board at the city streams their meetings in order to maintain transparency. The commissioners have also decided to forgo taking minutes at the meetings, so there is no official record of what is discussed.

Multiple requests by citizens asking the commissioners to stream these meetings have been denied. In a recent poll, every participating voter except one asked that the meetings be streamed. The sole exception was a vote by Commissioner Beerbower, who voted that the meetings should not be streamed.

Since the evidence suggests that the commissioners think their goals are better served by making these advisory meetings less transparent to the broad population than what has been done in the past, how likely is it that those goals are in the best interest of the broad population of Bourbon County?

That isn’t a rhetorical question. Apparently, Mika feels confident that this process will produce zoning that will be used in a way that will be better than no zoning in the county. This isn’t an unreasonable position, and I’m sure she is not alone. Others may see the downsides of zoning outweighing any potential benefits. The important thing is to look at the process, ask yourself the above question, and then let your commissioner know what you think.

Mark Shead

Additional note: After the meeting ended on Wednesday, Brian Wade indicated that he was unhappy with this piece because it wasn’t the truth. He was walking out the door, so I may not have caught everything, but it seemed he felt that the decision to not make the meetings available in the way that past commissioners have done with past advisory commission meetings was made by the advisory committee, not the commissioners. I would suggest that, since the advisory committee is appointed and directed by the commissioners, the decision is ultimately that of the commissioners, and if the commissioners wanted to make sure the meeting was conducted with the same level of transparency as similar meetings, they could have done so. However, it is worth noting that Mr. Wade felt the committee had the option to make the meetings accessible but chose not to. He mentioned several times that he didn’t want people to be able to see the meetings unless they came in person.

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

Rat-killing Machine

When my son Aaron was in high school, his sister Mariam talked me into buying a Boston Terrier puppy for him. (It didn’t take much convincing since I’d had three spunky   Boston’s before.) Aaron named her Chloe and when she was old enough he began to train her to hunt rats. He’d grab his gun and off they’d go into the fields and woods. After a few training sessions, Chloe quickly caught on and was finding and killing rats right and left — a literal rat-killing machine. One day they came upon a huge packrat’s nest of sticks and twigs and Chloe went into action. As she headed full-throttle into the nest, Aaron saw something black and white in there. He immediately took off running for dear life and watched from a distance as Chloe excitedly backed out of the nest with a skunk in her powerful jaws. Up close and personal, the varmint sprayed Chloe smack-dab in the face. This time she didn’t kill her prey and she stank for weeks.

Apostle Peter didn’t beat around the rat‘s nest when he wrote: “So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech” (1 Peter 2:24 NLT). Christ followers can be a sin-killing machine if we want to do what‘s right and please God to boot.  Sin is a choice.

“Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it” (James 4:17 NLT)

We’ll never go wrong by doin’ what’s right. But we could go wrong by doin’ nothin‘.   We know that Moses’ faith enabled him to choose God’s will and lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt. He chose to obey God rather than the momentary enjoyment of sin’s pleasures. Sin is a choice. And sin will always stink after the dust settles.

“Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, ‘You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ Jesus replied, ’I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin‘” (John 8:31,32,34 NLT). The only way to know the truth is to read God’s Word for ourselves. The answers to all of life’s questions are found in black and white. Not sure you believe that? Keep reading, keep studying, and keep asking God to reveal His Word to you.

Apostle Paul shoots straight when he writes to the church of Galatia:  “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives” (Galatians 5:16,17,25 NLT). Sin is a choice, so let the Holy Spirit lead you away from it.

John the Beloved encourages believers to hold fast to Christ Jesus. His teachings encourage us to go deeper into the truth and ways of God and deeper into our devotion to  Jesus. “If we freely admit our sins when His light uncovers them, He will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and He will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 TPT).

The Key: Keep walkin’ in the Light ’cause you’ll never go wrong by doin’ what’s right.

God tried to get my attention last Saturday evening.  I was having too much fun to listen.  Six of us were having dinner at one of the couple’s houses, and I had a quick thought: Did you turn off the stove before you left home? Answer: Of course I did.  I put the lid on the pan that held the chicken and turned off the stove.                                                                                                          

I didn’t give it a second thought.

I should have.

When Dave and I walked into our house five hours later, the smell made me gag.  Sure enough, resting atop the flame was a charred pan with no evidence chicken had ever been cooking in it.  For days afterwards, we did everything to rid our home of the horrific odors.  Everything had to be washed.  Pine-sol and candles did little to help.

When I shared my story with a friend, she told me about an Amazon product that I could place in strategic areas of my house, and it would absorb all the residual smells. And then Nanette, Dave’s daughter, told me to boil vinegar.  How simple! Here I had labored for days, burned every candle, laid baking soda in different rooms and washed all the cabinets and rugs, and there were simple products that would absorb the residue?  Nice to know.

Of course, this never would have happened had I listened to God’s nudging and run home to double-check my chicken.  Enjoying myself took precedence.  I wonder if anyone can complicate their life the way I can.

There are times I work my tail off to do something for the Lord, only to realize that all He wanted me to do was to pray about it and then sit back and watch Him work. I keep busy doing whatever I think is important instead of paying attention to how He is trying to direct me.  Last Saturday, I was having too much fun to hear His prodding.

I’m always amazed by friends who pause to listen to God’s voice, relying completely on His guidance. For example, should they be laboring to make a dinner for 80 and some needy person calls, craving counsel, they put everything on hold (i.e., turn off their stove) to share spiritual advice with them.

Not me.  I bulldoze my way through life, rarely having a calm demeanor when I have large tasks to accomplish. I do few things gently. I can’t even sneeze gently.  Mine is a tsunami kind of sneeze that makes people jump instead of a sweet, almost inaudible “achoo” like some people I know.  I eat fast.  Really fast.  Not like Nancy Reagan (size 2) recommended to stay slim: “Chew each piece of food 20 times.”  I waste much less time when I jam 20 pieces of food in my mouth and chew once.

Psalm 143:10 gives great instruction on what really matters: Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. When God gives a nudge, I need to budge. When He presents before me others looking angry or sad, He gives me an opportunity to ask if I can pray for them.  When they struggle to pay for their groceries, I can recognize His push to help them financially.  When God stirs my heart to donate my time for a needy cause, I can set aside my excuses and help.

And when He asks if I turned off my stove, I must, must, must listen.

Keys to the Kingdom

By Carolyn Tucker

On High Alert

When severe winter weather is predicted, we go on high alert and begin making appropriate preparations. We make sure we have plenty of groceries, fuel for the generator, ensure foundation vents are closed, charge the flashlights, etc. When we’ve done all we know to do, we simply hunker down and wait it out. I read about a World War II Army Ranger’s four-year experience on the front lines in Germany. This Missouri sharpshooter told about how the Rangers were highly trained and knew what to do in tight and unexpected situations. He mentions how every fiber of his being was always on high alert as his unit traveled on foot. They advanced cautiously, always watching and listening. The words, “retreat” or “quit” were not in their vocabulary. I was impressed with this war hero’s amazing bravery and strong tenacity.

There are ample reasons to be on high alert as we do life. Believers engage in spiritual warfare with the enemy of our souls every day. However, if we’re not paying close  attention, we won’t even realize the danger that’s lurking in the bushes. This Ranger’s memoir reminded me of Apostle Peter’s teaching to the Christians then and now.

After we experience the new birth in Christ and a new way of living, that’s not all there is. Peter wants to encourage and caution believers to take heart and stay on high alert. “Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset — rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined], knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world“ (1 Peter 5:8-9 AMP).

The devil will use depression, hopelessness, isolation, fear, unforgiveness, and lies to devour any Christian that’s asleep while on guard duty. There’s never a good time to be lazy in our Christian walk because that’s exactly what the devil is looking for. He’s patiently waiting for someone he can grab and destroy — but it doesn’t have to be you or me! Through Christ, we must take a decisive stand against Satan and resist his every attack with strong faith. If believers don’t know they have what it takes to overcome the devil, then there’s a good chance they’ll retreat.

Like Army Rangers, Christians need to be highly trained to know how to get the jump on the enemy. We need to read, study, understand, and put into practice the manual (Bible) regarding spiritual warfare. Here’s a key verse: “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7 NLT). As God’s children, we have the authority to stand our ground and send the devil packing. We can’t allow the enemy to pull the wool over our eyes and let him yell his filthy rotten lies at us.

Believers are to, “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. …Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground…“ (Ephesians 6:11,13-14 NLT).

The Key: Stay on high alert 24-7, so you can stand your ground and defeat the enemy.

“We write our sorrows in the marble, our mercies in the dust.”  Pastor Greg Groeshel spoke those words, and he is right.  For too many people (Christians included), thinking about what is wrong is so much easier than thinking about their blessings.  A recent posting caused me to pause and question if any of these describe me.  Read it slowly.

“Someone is taking their last breath in a hospital bed today, and you’re frustrated sitting in traffic.

Someone is spending their first night alone after years of love, and you’re annoyed your partner left dishes in the sink.

Someone is burying their baby they carried for nine months, and you’re upset your child spilled milk on the couch.

Someone is burying their mom who created them, and you’re annoyed your mom called you twice this morning.

Someone is wishing for just one more conversation with their dad, and you’re rolling your eyes at his advice.

Perspective is everything.  Appreciate the little things because, one day, they’ll be the big things.”

Something is terribly wrong with God’s children.  We are consumed with whatever goes against our wants/needs/desires. Scripture calls us to hope, yet we are terrible hopers.  We expect the worst, so we won’t be disappointed.   “Why is life hard?  Why do others have it so much easier than I do?  They sin more, yet they have more. Nothing has turned out like I expected, so I don’t expect anything different.”

The average person has 10,000 thoughts each day.  That works out to be 3.5 million thoughts a year. If you were to categorize those as “+” or “-”, how many thoughts would be under each heading?  Think of it this way: if someone gave you $10,000 this morning and said, “Spend it any way you like as long as you spend it all before you go to bed tonight.” Hopefully, you wouldn’t just pilfer it away on meaningless junk.

So, why do we do that with our whacky thoughts that aren’t even worth thinking?  We need to focus on the abundant life God has called us to.  We can engage in either self-pity, blame, stubbornness and bitterness, or we can follow the directive of Phil. 4:8.  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.                  

How do we do that?  We put our mercies in marble and our sorrows in the dust.