RICK’S BLOG

October 2025
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So CENTRAL CHRISTIAN enters a new chapter, with our new Director of Music, John Huntoon, and Pianist/Organist, Mike Meadows.

I have been singing in a church choir, or playing the piano, or acting in church for as long as I have memories. Some churches were so small that instead of a “singing Christmas Tree” we only had a “Singing Christmas Swag”…and some churches were so big that Christmas productions would last for several performances for several thousand people.

In any situation, as a Believer & Follower, and musician, it’s good for me to step back and remember that music can be a gift, but it is always a craft. It is a craft that requires several levels of learning and, most of all, constant practice.

There is of course the learning of the notes: making sure the notes being played or sung (as far as tones & melody) correspond exactly to the notes written on the page. Once those are in place it is time to look at “how” the notes are played or sung: loud, soft, slow, fast, etc. Once that is done then it is a matter to detail out the song in full, making sure that we are not ONLY singing or playing the correct notes at the correct time and with the correct dynamic range, but that we are communicating the mood and message of the song. All of this learning is under the direction of a trained ear and trained teacher of music…like the great director at my own church. It is HIS job to listen to ALL of us together and thus determine exactly what type of practice is required at what time; to make sure that the performance is as musical, as communicative and as precise as possible. We don’t start the first rehearsal knowing everything or giving a perfect performance, it takes time, energy, heart & soul. It takes practice. We don’t start making music well simply because we are labeled as members of the choir or handbell choir.

God, our Father, has called us and brought us to a place where we are His children. We are His children because He calls us His children. We are the sheep of the flock that His Son leads. But becoming who we are, and living like the people He says we are takes time, energy, heart & soul. It takes practice. A common mistake for a Believer & Follower of God is to believe that once the choice has been made to be a Believer & Follower, there is nothing more to be done.

In a way, I suppose, that is true; if God says something is so, then it is so. But for us, being named by God is not the end, it is only the beginning of the life-journey. We realize what it means to truly be a member of the Handbell Choir when our individual notes not only fall into place with the other members so that together we play beautiful music, but also when we begin breathing together and thinking together; when we race together and when we rest together.

After much practice we can sing together without need to concentrate so much on the notes, and our parts…and we start thinking on the true message and the true music. At that point we begin to understand what it means to truly carry the label, “member of the choir”. And when we walk with God, together with those around us who also believe and follow, not looking at our feet and path as much as looking up and seeing those around us, enjoying the view, and listening intently to the One who leads us. When we trust the Voice we truly understand what it means to BE a Child of God.

It is up to the Director (with a capital “D”) to listen and watch US, determining what type of practice would best lead us to that place. And it takes patient practice to become that disciple with a depth of faith to experience the indescribable peace of the believer. It doesn’t happen at once. The notes have to be learned first, then the appropriate dynamic. Then the detail touches…even then, one can’t take their eyes off of the Director/Father…for He alone is in charge of the performance.

Practice, be willing to fail, be willing to accept the failure of others, go back and do it again. Get the “notes” into your voice before moving on to something else. The message of the music is what’s important to those watching your every move and listening to the song you sing.

Miss LaClaire, Miss Just, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Van Dyke, Mrs. Goranson, Mrs. Stankman, Mr. McNamara. When schools begin again in the fall, I go through these names and memories again. I may not remember everything they ever taught but I remember every name and face of the teachers I had through Grade School (6th Grade). And when I read the paper and see the names and faces of those Graduating (some of whom I Babysat!) I don’t necessarily put my trust in THEM for the future, but in their teachers.

If I can remember each name of each teacher I had in those “formative” years AND the names of most, if not all my Middle School, High School and University teachers…they must have had SOME impact. I thank God for those who teach…it is sometimes a thankless but glorious job to stand at the gate and train those who must pass through to the next leadership time. At times I have an epiphany and think that my parents weren’t so crazy after all when they mourned about MY generation …and I think of this great quote:

“I’m trying very hard to understand this generation. They have adjusted the timetable for childbearing so that menopause and teaching a sixteen-year-old how to drive a car will occur in the same week.” Erma Bombeck (U.S. humorist, 1927-1996)

But as much as I remember (or don’t) about those that taught me to read, write, add and subtract…it’s these names that I remember more, and hold even closer to my heart…Pearl Moehler, Della Reiboldt, Della Nunez, June Clinebell, Violet Van Hoose, Jean Martin, Eloise Woods…These were my Sunday School teachers from the time I was in the Nursery through my High School years. These women not only taught me the stories of Scripture (using everything from flannel graphs to play dough and puppets) but they LOVED me and when I was at Highland Church of God, I was as much home as I was with my parents. To those remarkable people, all gone except for one now, I give thanks to God.

As the years run by and each new “class” walks through the pages of the Herald Bulletin and through the halls of Central Christian Church, let’s thank God for the people He has placed in our children’s path, to teach, train and lead. Let us always pray for our children’s safety and wisdom for teachers.

As much as we may shake our heads at some of the things we see with each generation, it is good to know that some things haven’t changed in a millennium…and through those years, teachers were always held as precious:

What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?” Marcus Tullius Cicero (Ancient Roman Lawyer, Writer, Scholar, Orator and Statesman, 106 BC-43 BC)

“Thank you.” To all at Central who teach Sunday classes and small groups, who have taught and are teaching in the public school system…God smiles on you.

“Teach the youth about the way they should go; even when they are old they will not depart from it.” PROVERBS 22:6

For the first time in my life (since my graduation from college) I’m planning for the rest of my life, which means I’m looking at my retirement years. And by “retirement years” I mean the years during which most people would retire, but I will be working, BEHAVING like I’m retired.

The boys, MY boys, are now grown and in their twenties/thirties. They live close by, but in separate homes, creating new lives. Just when and how did all that happen?

As I look at my boys, at their maturity, and as I listen to them speak, I realize that they have become strong, able, somewhat wise, and grown quickly beyond anything I would be able to teach them or show them…how did that happen?

How does ANYONE “grow”? My boys grew, not because their mother and I stood over them every day and commanded it through our words. They didn’t grow and mature because we focused on their growth They grew because we focused on their nurture. We fed them, made sure that they got enough rest. We educated them and made sure that they were surrounded and protected by educators who reflected and taught what we believed to be the truth. We gave them extra protection and help when they were weak. We gave them space to walk and run when they were strong. As a result, they grew. Their growth was, and is, a result of being nurtured.

Church growth is a subject of thousands of books and even more theories. In my congregation, we face the question that many other churches ask: how can we survive without growth? Some churches and pastors believe that focusing on growth itself is the answer, with an effort to push and pull people into the pews. Unfortunately, some congregations focus so inch on reaching outside the congregation that they forget their true purpose: Worship. When much of the energy is spent on advertising and gaining numbers the core of church sometimes (not always) is neglected. It’s true in commerce, and it’s true in church: all of the best, cleverest and most expensive advertising available to a restaurant won’t do anything but get customers in the door…ONCE, but if the food is lousy, no advertising available will get them to return. Good food is its best advertisement.

My philosophy, which is probably flawed and lacking because I just don’t know everything, is that NURTURE causes growth, even in congregations. People will be naturally and supernaturally drawn to a place where there is love, where they are fed, where they in turn have an opportunity to feed, and where they are accepted and have a place. When God’s presence is sincerely felt, no one can help but advertise.

John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

It’s “Back To School” time again. Of course, with every system on a seemingly different schedule, “back to school” could almost be ANY time…and for some of us who believe in “constant learning” maybe the phrase should be “still in school”.

I always loved the great new classes and teachers, even though, a day or two into a new school year brought the horror of how much homework is possible so early in the year AND how lost one can become in a new subject in just a couple of lessons! Ah, the joys of learning.

One of my favorite quotes, and I collect many, is Michelangelo’s “ancora imparo” (“always/still learning”). I’ve always enjoyed learning, knowing things and gathering information. Yet I remember a time (not so long ago, really) when I asked my Mom and Dad when I’d be through “learning” (I think I was in First Grade)…I remember my Mom good-naturedly laughing and saying that she had just learned something new that day, and HER mother (a teacher) always said that learning was a life-long lesson. I believe that, and I look forward to “learning” more every day.

A friend of mine in my Seattle Church, Russ, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer which eventually took his life. He was young and his kids were only in College when he left us. He was a great man and especially fond of new experiences; he had been a missionary in Cairo and he preached, sang and lived life in a big way. His son told me that on his Dad’s last morning on earth he looked over at his son and said, “Well…this ought to be interesting.” A few hours later he was gone…to another new and exciting experience.

Doctors say that people who have given up on learning, or accepting new things, actually “shut down” parts of the brain that keep the brain healthy…sometimes even warding off Alzheimer’s disease.

And think about how it feels inside when you learn something new, or something “dawns on you” as you have never seen it before…don’t you feel freer, livelier, more awake? Of course, because the process of learning is also life in itself.

Learning about God, in church and in private study and observation, is really only helpful if it leads to the behavioral changes that lead to YOUR happiness as you connect more closely to your Creator. But learning in and of itself is also a “rejuvenation process”, even when the answers can’t always be found.

The GOOD NEWS of today is that a part of the “full life” that Jesus offers is LEARNING. In the Jewish society that Jesus grew into the “questioner” was always looked at as a “wise” person…questions were encouraged…teaching, by the Rabbis, always involved a question/question debate because it activates the brain of the student to think for him/her-self. Jesus understands the importance of seeking out answers. His teaching continuously looks us in the face and says, “what is the core of the law?…why is this important?…you yourself know the answer.”

The wonderful thing about our Heavenly Father and the GOOD NEWS of today is that we can never know Him in His fullness…but the facets of His personality are always there to be observed; in His children, in His created world. We can always learn something more about Him, about each other and about ourselves…Learning is what we were made to do. Learning is growth. Learning is life.

So get those backpacks on and fill your LONE RANGER lunch box…because, in the Kingdom of God, every day is the first day of school.

Ancora Imparo “Still Learning.” Michelangelo

Poor Jimmy Stewart: every time he gets up too high and looks down, this weird spiral thing happens and he feels himself falling, all the while trying to solve a mystery and keep his love life sane. I’m working my way again through some of my favorite Hitchcock classics and was thinking about this movie because, in the last couple of months my own VERTIGO has been haunting me (the weather/sinus issues?)

ver-ti-go (noun)
a sensation of whirling and loss of balance, associated particularly with looking down from a great height, or caused by disease affecting the inner ear or the vestibular nerve; giddiness.

This (like some other minor ailments, involving sinuses and the inner-ear) is something that I had never experienced before I moved to Hoosierland AND, I might add, turned 50. I have a friend who was suffering pretty severely a week ago with it and, though still at work, was not able to stand for very long, and definitely not without support.

My first experience with vertigo was around 2005 and it hit me suddenly, I honestly didn’t know what had happened except that I had to lay flat on my back for about 36 hours without moving. I’ve not had it that bad since then. I’m writing about it now because I’ve been dealing with it for the past months. It’s not been bad, and I actually don’t have much of a problem during my work day (unless I bend over to pick something up), but when I lay down at night, and roll from one side to the other, and when I sit up to get out of bed…wow!

It’s difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it, and its symptoms probably vary from person to person, but for me the effect is not dizziness so much, as a sudden confusion as to what is down and what is up. When I fell over once, it wasn’t the sensation of falling, so much as it was the sensation that the floor rose to greet me. Totally disconcerting.

The cause seems to be something very, very small. My doctor informed me early on that quite possibly (in my case) it could be allergy-driven and maybe as simple and tiny as infinitesimal calcium particles irritating my inner ear. How very strange that something that tiny, in a small part of the body can cause a person’s ENTIRE body to be unbalanced, and to misread what is real.

Our lives get “out-of-balance” in the same way. Oh sure, there are LARGE things that throw us off, that cause any BELIEVER & FOLLOWER to lose focus on life’s meaning, on God, on “what is real”. Those are the things we preach/teach about are life’s “curves”. But the scripture, and Paul’s words specifically, warn against being unprepared for the small things. We don’t realize the big effect of things that seem irrelevant and small.

Paul encourages us to live life as if we were running a race, and to “take off” anything that hinders our performance in that race. He writes at a time, in Greek history, when foot races were run by naked runners, literally unencumbered by ANYTHING that would slow them down. Today’s racers, thankfully for the sake of modesty, don’t run naked but DO wear running clothes with little or no air friction.

But what some BELIEVERS & FOLLOWERS don’t understand is that Paul isn’t necessarily always talking about doing away with “sin”, but with ANYTHING that would keep us from focusing on God and the “race of life”,some of these things are not bad in themselves, but maybe not conducive to a good life/race. And some of these things are small, tiny…seemingly unimportant and benign.

But, as with the causes of vertigo, we understand that a small insignificant thing (not bad in itself) can affect the entire body in ways that are amazing. When a person suffering from vertigo can’t tell, from what they see, where “down” is…”down” will find THEM quickly…because that natural gyroscope that we all have but don’t really control, is out of whack, and the world seems un-centered.

When we exercise our physical bodies, we notice there are things (foods, for instance), which may not be bad in themselves, but might not be quite the right foods for our growth and well-being. We feel muscles we’ve never felt before, we notice subtle things that went unnoticed when our physical senses were not so finely tuned. In the same way, when we exercise our spirits, the closer we get to God, the more refined our senses (spiritual and physical) become. We notice and sense the more subtle things. In other words, it’s not only when we are OUT of a relationship with God that our equilibriums fool us, sometimes the larger problems come when we grow closer to God and our spiritual senses become more finely-tuned. In that place, we may not always be able to tell which end is up, and the cause may be something so seemingly small and insignificant that we wouldn’t even think of it.

So Jimmy Stewart DID get over his fear-based vertigo and all was well as the credits rolled. What about you? What keeps you from winning the race each day? Are there times when your soul feels unsettled? Are there moments when the world seems out-of-balance…when your life-equilibrium is out-of-whack? Check the small things: unjustified fears, unnecessary habits, unhealthy patterns of thought, unreconciled relationships, grudges, or lies from your past. Some of these “small” things are like little bits of calcium in the inner ear that go unnoticed until it moves our entire bodies off-kilter.

When people think of my “home state”, Washington, (especially those NOT from Washington) more than likely the iconic image of tall evergreen trees, mountains, the Puget Sound and the bustle of Seattle are the first things that come to mind. However, I grew up on the other side of the state, the east side, east of the cascade mountain range that traps clouds and separates the lush green coastal forest from the fertile high plateau that covers the rest of the state. Where I grew up is dry, filled with sage brush and low-lying, wind-blown bluffs (or what Hoosiers call, “mountains”). So, you see, to define Washington as “Seattle” is ridiculous…it is a small part of a state that is twice the size as Indiana.

When I used to travel to Washington to visit my now-deceased parents, it always took a little time to adjust to the inevitable fact that we all had aged. One time I arrived, my Dad was standing in the airport as I walked right up to him…he didn’t recognize me until I spoke. As for them, I had a certain picture in my mind as to who my parents were and what they looked like…that picture in my mind didn’t change at the same rate they did…so there was always a period of adjustment for me, at each visit, to realize that they were the same people. They were still the fine, deeply-faithed, salt-of-the-earth characters they had always been…but more. To have only known them in their 40’s or 50’s would be the same as meeting them in their 80’s…they were more than they were then, and (as they would admit) a little less. In the same way, I, even as their son, didn’t really know them wholly…I didn’t know them like their congregation knew them, or like their friends knew them, or the young couple of neighbors who would come over every-once-in-a-while and fix, visit, keep in touch.

States and people are simple concepts compared to God, they are finite entities compared to the infinite, they are “local” compared to omnipresent…so why do any of us arrogantly claim to have exclusive knowledge of Him?

Is the majestic Mt. Rainier the definition of Washington State, or the life of a retired Postman the definition of Tom Vale? Of course not, but those definitions are sometimes the limit of person’s perception and knowledge. You may see the Space Needle as Washington and I see the Columbia River…we are BOTH wrong if we think those things totally define the great state. You may have known my mother as a good cook, and known her as my Mom…we are BOTH right, yet neither of those things really and truly define her.

God is beyond description, and to complicate matters even more, He deals with each of us individually, specifically and without prejudice. To the blind who came to Jesus, He is the Healer…although He healed one through touch alone and another by spitting in the dirt and putting mud in his eye. They both saw a different part of Jesus, but to divide the believers by claiming that Jesus ONLY heals through mud or ONLY heals through touch is to make God smaller than He is and to deny His greatness.

And for all that…the Church does that all the time: one congregation claiming that the God who does “this or that” is the only God, and any other definition is heresy. If people and places are complex enough that one-hundred people might describe them one-hundred ways, then isn’t it just possible all of us only have a glimpse of what we try so desperately to define…not so that we will KNOW GOD (our one purpose on this earth) but so that we can claim “right” against the “rights” of people who are not like us? In doing so, we offend our Heavenly Father.

The best part is this…when we open minds and hearts to the possibility that someone might have discovered a part of God that we have not seen, then the hunger and thirst in our souls that longs to know Him and be known by Him grows; we are satisfied and stretched at the same time. To narrow the personality of God is to narrow life to only the “possible”. To judge another according to their perception of how God works is to dismember the ONE Body of Christ.

There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. EPHESIANS 4:4-6

I’m going through a “mantra” in my head right now, a “vow” that I made this winter. I’m saying the words in my mind, and sometimes out loud, as I step into the sunny day and the moist, hot air that wraps around me like a warm wool sweater (not so much, THIS week). I’m keeping the promise I made as I stood looking at my poor ice-and-snow-covered Suzanne (my Buick). I’m keeping the promise I made when I received my invoice from THE VECTREN NATURAL GAS COMPANY and passed out on my kitchen floor from the shock…I promised then and say now…I will not complain about the heat this summer, no matter how hot it gets.

It’s difficult to KEEP that promise through the sweat and the “spring fever” that makes you just want to lay down in front of a fan and sleep! It’s difficult to keep that promise when the deceptive nature of TIME makes this winter seem years away. It is difficult to keep that promise when it seems like a silly thing now…did I really mean that?

What did my old Aunt Lena from Arkansas say? “Promises are like piecrust: easily made, easily broken.” Is that really what promises, even silly ones like the aforementioned, are all about? Should I expect that the couple standing before me at a wedding are going to BREAK their promises as easily as they are SPEAKING them? It seems like a very cynical attitude. And many say that promises need to be “curbed”, perhaps used only occasionally, so that everyone understands the weight that words carry.

Perhaps. But I’d rather think that we, as Travelers of THE WAY, should be following the Architect of THE WAY since He is our Father and Creator…we are models of Him…and He is a PROMISE MAKER and a PROMISE KEEPER. Because of that, I believe we should be extravagant, bold, and scandalous PROMISE MAKERS…with the intent of KEEPING those promises, with God’s strength and our own flesh and spirit.

“Easily said, Rick.” I can almost hear you saying. “Aren’t YOU divorced? Didn’t YOU break at least one promise?”

Yes, I am divorced, I’ll take that hit. But the point IS that promises ARE broken, it happens…how do we deal with that? I can only speak for myself and give the lessons from God through His varied witnesses, but I don’t believe that broken promises are any reason to stop MAKING promises (when at first you don’t succeed…etc.) and for each life lesson, good or ill, we grow, we learn, we expand, we “become”. The person who promised NOT to complain about the summer heat is not the same person who made promises one, two, ten or twenty years ago…I’m evolving, “becoming”. Although I’ve been a citizen of the Kingdom of God since He first initiated the charter in Bethlehem, I’ve grown more each day, month and year to SEE the Kingdom that I hold membership to, and walk in. As I recognize God’s voice more and more, see His work more and more, live with His Spirit more and more I am able to be more like Him. I have the ability (if not the will) to make and keep promises…as we all do.

In this Kingdom of God we are almost REQUIRED to make promises. What does God say, “Let your YES be YES and your NO be NO.” Every word from our mouths should be, by definition, a promise. We carry THE TRUTH in these fragile bodies and our bodies may fail us…in THIS age, but with each day we walk in THE WAY we get stronger, more peaceful, more like HIM: the Founder of The Promise. Let us make them freely and keep them gladly.

Well, it looks like it’s going to be a beautiful and WARM Independence Day (with a chance of showers and storms…isn’t that typical?). I’m singing tonight (Tuesday) with THE INDIANAPOLIS JAZZ ORCHESTRA, some patriotic music inside, thankfully.

In celebration of The Fourth, I like to watch “patriotic” movies, like “PATRIOT” or “INDEPENDENCE DAY” (OK…that one’s really about aliens, but it’s still a good movie). One of my favorite movies was on TV the other day; “NATIONAL TREASURE”. In this movie, the minor point that stuck out to me was how our Founding Fathers were, in fact, traitors…at the time they rebelled against the established government. At the end of the “Declaration of Independence” they pledged each other their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor.” Most of the signers lost all three of those things before the end of the Revolution.

But the point was that to pursue what they knew to be the truth, they had to buck the establishment. Like Martin Luther, who said that the church was wrong (according to how HE read the Bible) and had been wrong for hundreds of years. He was a monk and he MARRIED A NUN! You can imagine what the church thought of Him! Good grief…even Mary (mother of Jesus) was an un-wed mother! That’s truly bucking the system. The Church itself has stated that there is one thing all the saints have in common; they said “no” to the established church, they bucked the system. They called the truth the truth, no matter what the status quo was and how long it had been established.

What I learn from this is we (or maybe I should just speak for myself) need to be true to what I believe IS TRUTH, no matter how long the “establishment” has said something else. I need to be strong enough to pledge my “life, fortune and sacred honor” to that which I believe is true, even when it flies in the face of what my contemporaries may believe. I’ve done that. I’ve lost much. It’s not fun, but God is the final judge, and it is to HIM that I truly owe my life, fortune and sacred honor…as we all do.

As a Pastor, I pray for courage to be bold in speaking what I believe to be the Truth. And the congregation needs to be free to speak boldly about the Truth as well, and so I encourage that, in all realms of our lives.

As citizens of the Kingdom of God, our PRIMARY allegiance should not be to the establishment, nor should it be to the State, but to Him and to the Truth. It is truth, not the establishment that gives us freedom!

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed!” – And to that Truth, and to the Kingdom, I will pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor…will you?

Yesterdy, in 1486, King Richard III took the throne of England…only to die in a battle over that same throne some 2 years later, ending the famous “War of the Roses” and ushering in the house of Tudor for the next 117 years.

Richard, my namesake, had his hasty grave discovered only a short 5-years ago. Archeologists discovered the floor and some foundation of a Medieval church in Leiscester (under a parking lot) and discovered the small grave of one of the most controversial rulers in history of Great Britain. He was literally dumped, naked & hands tied, like trash, in a grave that was hastily dug and forgotten years later. The last king to die in battle, Richard had assumed the throne in controversy and survived one prior revolt…but the Tudor family succeeded in the next. After being killed, he was stripped, bound, his body “humiliated” and put on display for 3 days…then dumped.

Such is life. We scramble for honor, money, power, acceptance, respect and love…all of which are transient and deceptive. Fame and power are fickle, as public acclaim is as well. And yet all of us seem to have the desire for power, for respect, acceptance and love…do we learn?

Jesus knew exactly how to handle this part of humanity. Don’t deny it, every human is hungry for all these things, they are a natural part of our created selves. Unfortunately, like children, we believe that WE have all of the information necessary to satisfy our cravings with “food” we see around us. Like a child who is hungry may not be able to reason that his or her body is in need of a specific thing whose nutritional value will encourage growth, we also only know that we are hungry. A child may think that eating ice cream will satisfy the hunger as well as a boneless chicken filet…so why not eat ice cream? We seek power and think that working our way to the top of the food chain, in whatever business we are in, will satisfy that hunger. Jesus knows that hunger, He placed it there at the dawn of creation…it isn’t a bad thing, just a misguided thing. As certain “anti-nutritious” foods will only cause the body to keep craving, causing an addiction, so will constant searching for that which does not truly satisfy will cause a vicious cycle of brokenness, envy, jealousy, bitterness and death.

Power? We are heirs to the Kingdom of God, royalty. All that we see is within our grasp. Money? A childish mind can tell you that the “love of money” is not simply the “root of all evil” but also a substitute for a deeper need…since many who have all the money any one person could possibly crave…are not happy, and crave MORE. Fame? When one tries to please everyone around, they instantly become a slave to all of them…and people will choose arbitrarily who to follow and “worship” at any given time, based on their own cravings. The King of the Universe thinks you are the most beautiful, precious and important of all his creations…He holds your tomorrow and your todays…He is the ONLY person worth pleasing.

King Richard’s life, short reign, bloody death and forgotten grave is a lesson to everyone about the realities of human life. What we seek, to satisfy a created hunger and thirst, is usually unsatisfactory…God and God alone quenches the thirst for honor, money, power, acceptance, respect and love.

“…your Father knows what you need, stop worrying. Aggressively seek FIRST for the Kingdom, and all of the rest will fall into place…” (MT 6:32-33)

Let us at least begin to put life into perspective.

We thirst, we hunger. God holds the Bread of Life, and the Living Water…satisfaction can be found nowhere else.

It’s difficult to believe that 49 years ago (in July) Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, the first to do so? I remember where I was, I was staring at our black and white TV, trying to discern the hazy and somewhat confusing image, while listening intently as Neil Armstrong spoke the famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

That was a great time to be a kid, our heroes were astronauts and the “sky was the limit”…literally. I had astronaut action-figures, there were a plethora of science-fiction shows on TV which took the imagination to the limit of believability, and what could be imagined seemed to be possible.

What happened? What happened to imagination?

Years ago, every-once-in-a-while, I’d be asked to come into a Gifted Classroom of kids and teach songwriting. I had a teacher-friend who taught an accelerated humanities-type program for Elementary Age children of every age, I would come by for a day and have the children, each hour, write a song together (leading them somewhat along) that we would write down and sing (and record). What was interesting to observe was the children who were under Third Grade had no trouble writing lyrics with fantastic themes, creating scenarios and creatures that didn’t exist, and putting things that DID exist into impossible situations. Once we started dealing with kids older than that, they only wanted to write about what was possible, and things they had seen or heard before…what happened?

Many of you know that I travelled to the Soviet Union (back when it WAS the Soviet Union) and spent a good month getting to know the folks who hosted me, and observing life in Communist Russia. It was eye-opening, startling, and not at all what I expected. One morning, over tea with my friend Misha, I told him that in Moscow at least, I hardly saw a smile…except from the children. He said something very enlightening, he said, “That’s because they think that anything is possible…you see, once you get to be 9 or 10 your life and work are planned out for you, it’s a sort of caste system, and once you realize what the rest of your life is going to be you stop dreaming.”

You stop dreaming.

As a side-note I have to tell you that Misha’s dream was to move to the United States, marry an American girl and get his green card…then work in a bank and get rich. He accomplished, after the second revolution, every one of those goals.

Neil Armstrong walked on the moon because somewhere, at some point, one person imagined that it was possible. Someone had a large dream, an “Impossible Dream”. Someone checked back in with their God-given imagination. Someone said, “I believe THAT’S possible.”

Imagination and dreaming are God-given gifts. When we only see what is possible (with us) our prayers become litanies of grief and whining…not shared dreams between a child and a Parent. When we see what is only possible with us, then we disrespect the God who says, “With humans it is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible.”(MATT 19:26) AND “…ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” (JAMES 1:6) AND “…your old will dream dreams and your young will see visions.” (JOEL 2:28)

God wants you and me to think “outside the box” in all things…why? Because when we tap into the impossible, we tap into God. When we see miracles and expect them we truly become His children. When we stop saying “that’s impossible” and start saying, “why not?” then we start living the ABUNDANT LIFE.

A man in a space suit walking on the moon is nothing compared to the great things that could be accomplished if we knew that “With God, nothing is impossible.”

Don’t stop dreaming. That one step into the impossible, with God, could be the giant step for humankind that we all need.

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