Luke’s Notebook

Happy birthday, me!  An amazing decade!

Here’s an idea for a nice date:  Ice cream (and maybe a few Butter Burgers?) at Culver’s, and then some time spent at the batting cages or miniature golf.   Recently, it just kind of struck me that Culver’s would be a great place to take a date.  Sounds great!  Let’s do it!

There’s one thing missing in my plans:  The girl.  Any volunteers??

Okay, so I’m not really putting out a public invitation.  But in thinking about how ice cream + batting cages would make a fun little date, it’s obvious that a girlfriend is an important piece of the puzzle here.

But you know what?  I’m not really too worried about it.  Yeah, all the time I am thinking of different things that would make for a fun outing.  And while I will admit that part of me really looks forward to that whole dynamic, life is not exactly on pause while I’m single.

In fact, I think it must be God’s incredible wisdom and timing that is still keeping me unattached.  If I was in a relationship right now, I just don’t know where I would get the time and resources to be able to do it justice.

God, knowing me and knowing my tendencies, also knows that it would really frustrate me if I had found the perfect girl, yet I couldn’t find any time to spend with her, to get to know her.  I would so much want to “do it right,” and it would be really tough if I wasn’t able to focus on her like I would want to.

It’s gotta be God.  For one, it makes perfect sense.  Why in the world would He give me such a great privilege and responsibility if I didn’t have the ability to handle it?  Also, I just know a few things:  God knows me.  He knows my name, my age, my location, my situation.  He is incredibly capable — more so than I can even begin to wrap my mind around.  “He can’t” is just a phrase that doesn’t apply to God.  Finally, God’s timing is impeccable.

With God’s timing, though, I think it’s important to remember that while He is never late, He is also never early.  He’s just right on.

My preference is to have something in-hand long before I actually need it.  I like to arrive extra early for appointments, just in case.  I like padding or room for error, if you will.

Well, I err.  I misjudge.  I forget.  I get lost.  But God does not.  He doesn’t need a backup.  He doesn’t need a Plan B when His Plan A is perfect.

By now, I really should have learned that “As for God, his way is perfect.” (Psalm 18:30)

It really is!  The more I remember that, the better.  But for now, I’ll just have to add “Culver’s + batting cages” to the to-do list.

August is over halfway over, and it feels like I have spent most of this month in stunned silence.  It has almost been overwhelming, how many things God has been doing.  I see such vivid examples of His enormous love, of His incredible mercy, of His impeccable timing.

I wish I could expound on these, but right now a I’m little short on time.  It is very late, and I need to be in downtown St. Louis in several hours for a depo.  I was hoping to get a little bit of sleep between now and then!

But… wow.  God is so real.  His promises are so real.  He doesn’t do anything halfway.  Here on Earth, surrounded by imperfect people, you’re just not real accustomed to things being literal.

I am so excited, and I would love to share some more.  Hopefully I will find some time soon to fill in a few blanks!  But for now, just remember that God is so capable.  All we need to worry about is obeying Him.

In our line of work, it’s not uncommon at all to run across with various lawsuits.  While a lot of cases are forgettable, there are some that really stick with you.

I recently became aware of a lawsuit against a police officer, with a then-pregnant lady claiming excessive force that resulted in the wrongful death of her unborn baby.

It really kind of stunned me to think about the facts for a moment.  Had this lady chosen, she could have gone to a clinic and aborted her baby that very same day, and nobody would be in trouble.  But since she didn’t choose that, this turns into a wrongful death suit.  Obviously, it would be terrible if the officer did cause the death of the baby.  Regardless of fault, though, it is just amazing to think how crazy our laws can be sometimes and how little common sense there is.

Can anyone explain how that baby wouldn’t have been a baby if it was aborted earlier that same day?  Did it somehow transform into a baby once she decided she wanted to keep the baby?  Or if she was okay with losing the pregnancy, would it no longer be considered a wrongful death?  What if she was planning to get an abortion the very next day, and then this incident took place?

I mean, to me, this is so obvious that I almost think that I am missing something.  It can’t really be that simple, can it?  Yet I keep doing the math, and I keep coming up with the same result:  This was, indeed, a baby, regardless of who did what.

Sometimes, I think the truth can be easily overlooked and dismissed because it can be so obvious.  It’s right there in front of us.  Yet… we don’t always accept it right away.  The tragic irony is that by trying to be intellectual and open-minded in regards to something like this, you can be doing yourself a disservice — causing you to miss the simplest answer.

Any little kid could reason that if a pregnant woman was carrying a baby on one day, then that probably is still a baby she is carrying the next day.

It’s very good to be educated, but we shouldn’t feel bad about finding a simple truth.  Some things are no-brainers, and they should be that way for everybody.

So I guess the moral in this is to not feel like the odd one out if you are the only one who sees something that seems so extremely clear, yet you wonder why so few other people see that.  We shouldn’t feel ashamed to see things clearly, in black and white.  It’s okay.  Sometimes the most obvious conclusion is the correct one.

Over the past 10 days or so, I have had such a lesson in a few things about God’s character.

Things that I have “known” for the longest time have become so real lately, and it has made me realize how literal God’s promises are.  Things that I might think of as more of a theory or good words of wisdom are actually completely, totally true, absolutely real.  There’s nothing theoretical about them.

I see that God doesn’t do anything halfway.  He doesn’t exaggerate.  He doesn’t understate; He doesn’t overstate.  He says what He means, and means what He says.

That’s kind of hard to believe these days, as we live in an environment with so many bold claims, promises, and predictions that we can start to take everything with a grain of salt.

But I’m reminded that God is not like we can be in this sense.  His words are 100% true, and deserve complete trust.

So with that, when God promises that He will guide me… it is completely literal!

About a month ago, I posted Proverbs 3:5, where we are told to trust in God with all our heart and to NOT lean on our own understanding, to just acknowledge Him, and He will make our paths straight — He will take care of us.

In Matthew 6, Jesus says to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then our needs will be taken care of.

Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

These are all pretty significant promises.  What amazes me — and I know it really shouldn’t — is that these are totally true.  Basically, it’s God saying, “Hey, just love Me.  Obey Me.  I will take care of the rest.  I know your needs.  I know who you are; I know where you are.  I can do things you never imagined.  Just trust Me.”

It can seem very risky and reckless to live a life where you don’t protect yourself, but you just try your best to trust Him in  everything.  What happens is every time, He provides.  He does NOT let you down.

It’s a very simple proposition, really.  If people are truly willing to trust Him — even when it may seem odd or foolish — He will take care of them.

I think a reason this gets to be such a hurdle for me is because I am human.  I’m imperfect.  I forget things.  As much as I may try, I don’t always do exactly what I say I’ll do when I say I’ll do it.  I have also encountered plenty of other humans in my life.  Those people, unsurprisingly, were also imperfect.

But God is not like that.  He doesn’t forget.  He doesn’t need tapping on the shoulder.  He doesn’t get distracted.  He doesn’t promise what He can’t deliver.  He will never, ever let you down.

This is stuff that I have “known” for the longest time, but just recently it became so much more tangible.  In a few different things, I have seen things happen that only God could have orchestrated.  The perfect timing, and everything else surrounding these things have just confirmed how God knows exactly what we need and when we need it.  Not only that, He is always on time, too!

It has been such a thrill lately to have a couple of things happen that just had God’s fingerprints all over them.  It is tremendously helpful in those times where I get tempted to forget, or to reason, “Well, yeah, that did happen, but this is now.”  It doesn’t really make any sense, but it’s almost as if I think that somehow this particular issue is just a little too complicated for God.

But to have something extremely tangible happen — when I realize that, “God, only You could have known this” — it just is such a comforting feeling.  I know that God is so much bigger than all of my worries.  Things that will frustrate me when I try to figure them out are absolutely no challenge for Him.  He sees the entire panoramic — where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going.  Nothing that happens to me is going to surprise Him.  He cannot be caught off-guard.

When God gives you the thumbs-up or tells you “Everything’s okay,” what more could you ask for?  If God — who sees every aspect of my life — tells me not to worry, then that’s all I need to hear.  What a relief!

It is also just so humbling, because I know that by now there is NO excuse for me to ever doubt God, to ever question Him.  Yet… I still have that tendency to worry, despite all of the things God has done.  What amazes me is God’s patience with me.  I really don’t deserve it, but yet He still loves me like crazy, and He still will stick with me, even when I get antsy.

I don’t know if I will ever really understand just how much God loves me, but I am just so thankful that He does.

The 2009 Softball Classic is next month.  Five weeks from Sunday, the 11th Annual Safe At Home Softball Classic is set to kick off.

Wow!

The past couple of weeks has been a slow transition into “Classic Mode,” where a lot of new duties and tasks pop up for everybody in the family.  This is when things start to get pretty busy, as we enter the final month of preparations.  September 6th is going to sneak up on us.  These final weeks tend to just fly by.

It’s a busy time, for sure, but also a very exciting time.  I am really looking forward to the Classic as simply being a great time of fun; basically, a big party.  I love to see a bunch of fresh and familiar faces who come out to spend some time with us.  And, as strange as it sounds, I like the clean-up process.  It’s 11:00 or midnight, and most of us have sore feet and are kind of limping around the park to pack things up.  But there’s a feeling of relief to know that we pulled another one off.  What’s really special is that oftentimes, we’ll have visitors — either local or out-of-town — who decide to stay late and help us with the clean-up process.  Pretty awesome.

This is going to be fun!