Speaking of doing the right thing

It's interesting because as I am still thinking about the ipod situation, I read John Piper's post this morning:

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By John Piper March 28, 2007

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Since my father died on March 6, I have been looking through his papers. I found a small sheet with the following fifteen counsels, titled “Things I Have Learned.” They have again confirmed the obvious: I owe my father more than I can ever remember. The comment after each one is mine.

Things I have Learned

by Bill Piper
with comments by John Piper

1. The right road always leads to the right place; therefore, get on the right road and go as far as you can on it.

My father was totally persuaded that wrong means do not lead to right ends. Or, more positively, he was persuaded that living in the right way—that is, doing the right things—are means that inevitably lead to where God wants us to be. This is why he told me, when I asked about God’s leading in my life, “Son, keep the room clean where you are, and in God’s time, the door to the next room will open.”

2. There is only one thing to do about anything; that is the right thing. Do right.

This is what one might say to a person perplexed by a difficult situation whose outcome is unknown. The person might say, “I just don’t know what to do about this.” It is not useless to be told: Do the right thing. That may not tell you exactly which good thing to do, but it does clear the air and rule out a few dozen bad ideas.

There is more, of course, but this was fitting for me today.

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How do you know if you have done the right thing?

I won an ipod nano at Tim Hortons. Well, not really but kinda.

This past week, we had a video technician install our new video projector and video system at the church. He is a really nice guy and did a great job.

On Friday morning, he showed up with his breakfast: a coffee and a muffin from Tim Hortons.

He finished his work Friday afternoon and headed back to the coast - job well done.

On Saturday night, I was working late in the sound/video room playing with the projector and setting stuff up for Sunday. On my way home, I noticed his discarded Tim Hortons cup in a box of garbage that he had left from Friday. It seemed to me that the rim had not been rolled up yet. My curiosity got the better of me and I checked it out. The first word I saw was "ipod"! My heart raced. My suspicions were confirmed once I fully unraveled the rim: I was holding a winning Tim Horton's cup and the prize was an ipod nano!

I did know that the cup wasn't mine. I knew it was Terry's (video tech). And my immediate thought was that I should tell him and offer to send it to him.

I had Angela read the rim at home and proceeded to burst her bubble when I said it was not mine.

Now, Sunday morning rolls around and I'm telling people this story. The overwhelming response was: "finder's keeper's, loosers wheepers." Everyone except my parents and my senior pastor said that I should claim it as mine. Terry would never know. So, untill I talked to people about it, I didn't feel like I was suffering from a moral dilema.

After weighing the decision, I decided to still tell Terry about the cup. And this morning I did. I asked him what he wanted me to do with it. He wants me to mail it to him!

Honestly, when I recieved that reply via email, I was crestfallen and I still am. I let myself believe that he was a nice person who would probably let me keep it since he allready had an ipod and since he did throw the cup in the garbage. I thought he may operate by the "finder's keeper's" rule but I guess not.

So, I was a winner for a while. Now I am not.

And I don't really know if I have done the right thing.

One of the pat answeres I heard was "well, you will be rewarded in other ways." Not what I want to hear and I would argue that it is not necessarily true.

But I need something better to raise my spirits. What do you think? Did I do the right thing?

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My friend has a Beemer

Yeah, that's right. One of my friends owns a BMW. I just found out today. (I am using the word friend here a little loosely - the 'friend' in question recently moved to our area, started attending our church, comes to our home group, and we are getting to know each other.) Until tonight, I have only seen my friend and his wife in their Suburban - a beautiful new 'suburban' Suburban.

I knew they had some cash, having just sold their house in downtown Vancouver but I didn't think they had that much.

So, Angela and I leave to go home after our care group meeting and parked behind me is this beautiful, black shiny BMW. I didn't take a closer look at it because I didn't want to make it obvious that I was gawking but it was definitely worth a bit of coin (and yes it was theirs and I was not mistaken - we were on an acreage and I know what everyone else drives).

I do admit that a severe jealousy has come over me. And that is one reason for this post. I really quite ashamed that I even care that much about what someone drives. I am ashamed that I want a car such as theirs. I am ashamed that I have judged them based on their vehicle choice.

It's now been maybe 20 minutes since this all came to light to me and I am amused at the context in which this falls: our group just started a little series on Marriage by Andy Stanley and tonight he talked about the transition that happens in marriage when our desires become our expectations. Like when a couple is engaged and they have dreams of what their life will be together - their desires. And then, sometime into their marriage, those desires may become expectations. "So dear, doing the laundry is your job cause that is what the wife does" or "when are we going to put a down payment on a house because you sir promised you would provide for our family." And Andy was saying that when we live with expectations and don't put them back in the "desire" category, the marriage relationship erodes. As I was listening, I was thinking about my relationship with Angela, sure, but I was also thinking about my discontent with my "faith." I realized tonight that I expect quite a bit from God. I realize that I have been saying to God: "OK, so I am serving you. I am in ministry. You owe me one, God. You owe me blessings. You owe me a decent salary. You owe me a reliable car. You owe me more than this." Well, I haven't really said all that stuff outright but that is basically how a have become to feel about my relationship with God. And that is probably why I have become bitter with God. I am angry that he hasn't followed through on his end of the bargain.

Andy Stanley says that one way you can find out what your unknown expectations are taking not of what you don't thank your spouse for. For example: Angela does all our laundry. We haven't really talked about who's job it is. She just does it. And she seems to not mind. The problem lies in the fact that I rarely, if ever, thank her for it. I only seem to mention something about it when I am low on socks or something. And according to Andy, this is because I expect her to do the laundry. And he's right. One day I may have desired for my wife to do our laundry but somewhere along the way, it changed to an expectation. This is not good. If I could get it back to a desire, I would have gratitude that Angela is doing our laundry and in tern might be more likely to do the laundry out of love for me. She would be doing it to fulfill my desire, not live up to expectations. If she is always trying to live up to expectations, then she may get tired of it, get bitter, angry and she could perhaps quit it all together but one thing is sure: it would become an issue of contention. And not realize that it is my expectation that started it in the first place, I wouldn't understand what the problem was. You get what I'm saying?

And I do the same thing with God. I have desires, but I've somehow, for some reason, turned them into expectations. The Bible talks a lot about God wanting to give us our desires but says very little about living up to our expectations.

And after we watched the talk about this, of course Andy says we are going to learn how to move expectations back to desires in the coming weeks. We all wanted to find out how right away. Oh well, it gave us lots to think about as couples.

But this was the context of my thoughts surrounding my friend and his Beemer. And my thoughts about why God hasn't blessed me like I expected him too. And my thoughts about why my desires never seem to be fulfilled. And ultimately, my lack of faith in the whole area of trusting God for providing for me. God is teaching me a few things. It just seems funny to me that He uses a friend and his BMW, a care group that is going through a marriage study, and my wife's commitment to laundry, to teach me about my relationship with Him. My relationship with God lately has been a journey towards gratitude, contentment, and more so - joy. The events of the last 30 minutes have propelled me further along in that journey and I am a more grateful person than I was 30 minutes ago. If anything, I am thankful that there is hope for me to recapture the joy that God promises - to be content and grateful for all that God has provided.

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How much R&R is too much?

My intern and I had breakfast supplied by Tim Hortnons.

Then we went golfing.

And then went fishing.

And hiking.

I am wondering if that was too much - especially on church time.

But then I think no and here's why:

We set out initially to only play golf, but since we went early in the morning, I was running late and had to go get a Sausage thing from Tim LLING_ERROR_1">Hortons, and as a consolation for being late, I brought David a bacon one.

On the first hole, we cleard the pond from the tee. As we walked around the pond that we soon realized was covered with a thin layer of ice, we saw that my ball came to rest on top of the ice of a tiny pond which contained a few hundred dead fish. Being the pro that I am, I dicided to chip the ball where it lay (and because I wanted a story to tell). As soon as my 9 iron hit the ice, it was obvious to us that most, if not all of these fish were indeed quite alive! David, having a heart for the living, decided he would rescue these fish and place them in the bigger, life sustaining pond. It seemed to us that these fish were going to die if left too much longer in the puddle. And would you know it, and I am not kidding, there were fish nets right there for us to do the task, or rather David. using his club to chop holes in the ice, he proceeded to catch one of these things and free it. Just as David was moving this suffocating fish to the big pond, it fell out of the net and landed on the ice with a dull thud. So much for saving it's life. He did get it into the water and the fish eventually swam to freedom. Who goes fishing on a golf course? We do.

And even though we only played 9 holes, we had quite the hike. We took in the beautiful surroundings. Ah, it was great. A cool sunny morning. How much better can it get?

And we had the course all to our selves. No pressures.

And we did this all on work time.

And I think I am using "and" too much to start sentences.

But all this to say, you can never have too much R&R.

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