Delivered

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             Your wire transfer of funds has been delivered

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     I remember getting a similar message from our bank that final payment on our house has finally gone through and the transfer was completed. We had decided to pay off the remaining amount early and went to the bank to fill out the paperwork.   We ordered a wire-transfer of the needed amount and waited for the funds to transfer and the mortgage company to give us the deed to our house.  The house was now 100% ours and we owed nothing more to the bank

Done. Finished. Completed.

We can relax knowing there is nothing more to do.

Jesus cried out in a loud voice on the cross “IT IS FINISHED!!”   I am sure many people around the cross were perplexed as to what Jesus was declaring.  To them, he was the one that was "finished", but he was declaring the work God the Father had given him was 100% complete.   Jesus resurrection from the grave was receipt that God accepted the payment.

The transfer of righteousness for sins is complete. There is nothing more for us to do. God has done it all.   You are FREE!

Dear Intel.... I forgive you

    With Labor Day fast approaching I felt it was a good time for me to finally write this blog.  Labor Day is the day we set aside to show appreciation for the workers in our country and all they do to make our world work.   Appreciation is nice to have, but so often it is not shown the other 364 days of the year by our company heads.  Too often they love the work we do for them.... they just wish it didn't cost them so darn much.... and they find ways to stop that from happening. 

    As Christians we are taught to "Forgive others as God has forgiven you".   That is all good when you are sitting across a table from someone you have a relationship with and they pour their soul out to you that they have wronged you and want your forgiveness.   It's a whole different thing when you get a check in the mail from a law firm saying your company settled out of court (along with Apple and Google) to a tune of $415 million because they got caught creating a "No Hire List" to prevent workers from moving from one company to another and driving up wages (this was done from 2005 to 2010).   The money is nice, but where are the tears?  Where is the "We are soooo sorry!"?   Where is the "We did something wrong!" (by the way, part of the agreement was that they did NOT have to admit to any wrong-doing).    

    To describe my feelings when I got that letter I can only say it would be like coming home and finding your wife in bed with your best friend and then finding out it's been going on for 5 years (no, my wife has never cheated on me and loves me to death... but that is the only comparison I could come up with).   By 2015, I had worked for Intel for 25 years.   It was a dream come true to work for them.  I proudly wore Intel Inside T-shirts and loved to tell people I worked for Intel.  I worked long hours at Intel and put in many 50 to 60-hour work weeks.   It was so great it didn't even feel like work most of the time.  During the Microprocessor War years with AMD I would urge friends and family to buy Intel over AMD and loved sharing our latest product release information.  I was one of Intel's best cheerleaders.  The check from the law firm was a gut-check and not a pay-check. 

     Fast forward to today and here I am writing about what some would call "ancient history" or "water under the bridge".  But I keep finding myself drawn back to this like a dog to its vomit.  After much soul searching and discussion I realized the answer was in a past blog I wrote to my daughter about graduating from college.   The blog was titled, "Swinging from the monkey bars".   In the blog, tell her that moving through life is like swinging on the playground monkey-bars.  The trick to making it across is to not lose your momentum and to "let go" of the bar you are holding onto as soon as you "grab hold" of the next bar.  My advice to her was simple: Reach, Grab and Let Go!   I told her that if you don't let go, you will lose your forward momentum and you will be "stuck between two bars".    As I read that advice, it occurred to me that I was the one that was "stuck" and not her. I needed to "let go" of the past with Intel with forgiveness. Yes, I am wiser now to the world and will never be 100% the same again, but I need to move forward and let go of the bitterness. 

     Maybe someday I will wear the Intel T-shirts again......after I put some distance between me and the "2015 bar".   For now, I am at peace with myself.  I love my co-workers, my projects and my work.   I enjoy the challenges that are given me to work on every day.  I hope that maybe this letter will serve as a guide to others who find themselves in a similar predicament as me.   I hope that maybe it will serve as a guide to other CEOs or VPs who need to be reminded of the relationship they have with their employees who work for them and to not take them for granted.  Maybe upon reading this they will have a new appreciation for their workers who invest not only their time and energy into them but also their passion and emotions.   Maybe they will see that money can't buy that kind of allegiance or fix all wounds. 

The Greatest Act of Valor

   The other night I was channel surfing and was looking for something good on TV.  I came across a movie on TBS called "Act of Valor".  I had seen the movie in the theaters already several years ago and even though the movie was almost over I decided to watch it anyway.

    When I selected the movie, the scene I caught was the final scene where the Navy SEALS are driving into a Mexican stronghold. The terrorists were thought to be planning their entry into the US through a tunnel.  As the men fought there way through the buildings , a man drops a hand-grenade from above them.  The SEAL in the back of the group, a Lt Anglo, sees the grenade and realizes he is the only person to know it's there.  He yells "GRENADE!" and then proceeds to throw himself onto it and prevents the explosion from hurting anyone else.  Because of his selfless act of valor his men were able to continue their mission and prevent the terrorists from fulfilling their plans.

   The scene ends with sight of blood running out from under Lt Anglo's body onto the ground and him shutting his eyes in death.

   In similar fashion, Jesus saw the 'live-grenade' of God's wrath against sin and our love of sin.  We are like those other men who were oblivious to the presence of the explosive waiting to go off.  Jesus, like the soldier in the movie, didn't hesitate and threw himself on that wrath by willfully allowing evil men to condemn him to the cross in our place.   He took the full impact of that wrath on himself and once that wrath was expelled it no longer posed any danger to us who deserved it so much.

   Why did he do this?

    Jesus said,

"No greater LOVE can a man have than to lay down his life for his friends!"

    He loves you right now!
 
    Not after you respond to his love!
    Not after you reach a certain level of goodness! 
    Not after you  can wrap your mind around why or how!

    He simply wants us to receive his love and follow him.

     But unlike the soldier in the story, Jesus story doesn't end here.  We don't follow a dead person.  We follow Jesus who was raised from the grave as "proof" that God has accepted his payment for our sins.  He is with us today as we make our way through this life.  He is with us to help us to complete the mission the Father first sent him and now sends us as well.

Glass half empty or full?

     Most people are familiar with the question about how they view a glass of water filled like that shown below

    Do you see it has half FULL?                                              Or do you see it as half EMPTY?

    The answer to that question dictates whether you are more of an OPTIMIST or a PESSIMIST.

     It's all about how we perceive something.  There is no right or wrong answer here.  Both are simultaneously correct in their own right.   We don't know what makes one person more optimistic than another person.  In our world we need BOTH kinds of people to balance things out.   We need the pessimist to tell us to save our money because we don't know what tomorrow will bring.  Maybe a job loss or an injury/sickness or maybe even death.   We also need the optimist to use and spend our money because what is life if all we do is hoard our money and never enjoy it.

     When we view God's word,  the same optimist/pessimist views are often applied without us even knowing it.  I think that most people who study the Bible already know at some level they are sinners and in need of forgiveness.   We carry this view with us as we read the Bible and sometimes miss out on what God is really telling us.

    Take for example this verse from Leviticus 19:2

‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.    

   How does that make you feel when you read those words?

   Does it strike some level of fear into your hearts?

   Maybe it makes you feel a bit uneasy maybe even angry because it seems to be an achievable demand by God upon you.   Me??  Holy?

    But when we look at these words in context of the Bible these words seem less like a demand and more of a declaration by God on us.    Take for example, Genesis 1:1,  "Let there BE LIGHT, and there was light".    God calls for light to be created and it is.  Another example is when Jesus calms the storm

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves,  

 “Quiet! Be still!”Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” 

     Jesus words to the wind have effect.   When Jesus speaks, things happen.  His words change things immediately.   In another story, Jesus heals a man with leprosy (Luke 5)

12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.[b] When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

     Jesus words of "Be clean!" changes the man immediately.  No fancy incantation or magic words.   Reality is what Jesus says it is!

     Yet Jesus, being the very Word of God, is the same person speaking the words of Leviticus 19:2 to us.  To me, God's words of "Be Holy" are not so much a demand but more of HIM declaring US to be Holy.   What God speaks happens.   We are HOLY because God declares us HOLY.    God can only do this because he will be the one picking up the tab of all of our sins on the cross.

    Prayer: Thank you God for declaring me HOLY in your sight and changing my life forever.

Being Remembered

   I have seen a trend that is occurring more and more often.   That trend is putting "memorials" on the backside of your vehicle to commemorate the death of a loved one.   The most common one is the decorating of the back windshield with white-lettering and pictures of doves, hearts, angels etc and including the birth and death dates of the person.   This, in affect, turns the vehicle into a mobile-grave-marker.   I can understand why someone would do that.   I know that people don't visit cemeteries and therefore grave-markers go unnoticed by most of us.  It's hard to accept that many people die without being "remembered" by most of us.   We want their lives to have meaning and consequence.   We yearn for their lives to have an impact on this earth.

   Jesus was asked by one of the thieves on the cross next to him,

"Lord! Remember me when you enter your kingdom!"

   That's all.... just "remember me".   And to his astonishment Jesus goes far beyond his request to be remembered.   He promises the man complete forgiveness of his sins and that he will enter God's kingdom that very day when he replies,

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”   --Luke 23:43

   The man who had no hope at all when he was lifted on his cross next to Jesus now had the best hope anyone could ever have.  I think the Pharisees down below must have been scratching their heads as they heard Jesus during his agony on the cross minister to this lost soul.  Maybe they would recall Jesus own words earlier when he said to those who made exception to Jesus eating and drinking with "sinners",

"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to   repentance.”  --Luke 5:32

   How much does this thief know of Jesus?   Answer: hardly anything at all.  Most of what he has learned came from the mockers down below.  They yelled "insults" at him.   Taunted him with his "claims" and probably quoted some of Jesus own teachings back at him.   That's all it takes for the Holy Spirit to work.   Even when the world mocks Jesus it inadvertently professes about him and performs an unintended spreading of the gospel.  Yet despite the small amount of what he has learned in the few hours he has been placed next to Jesus he has come to accept him as "Lord".  Simply amazing!

    When Jesus sent out his disciples and they came back bragging about what they saw happen.  They bragged to each other about how they saw the sick being healed and demons being pushed out of people.   Jesus admonishes them and says,

However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.  -- Luke 10:20

    We, also, get caught up in our own earthly "demon kicking" and need Jesus to remind us what really matters in the end.  He reminds us that being "remembered in heaven" is so much more valuable than being remembered here on earth.  I had a conversation with a co-worker on how it's so silly some of the verbal fights we see going on at our company over which vendor we should use for our work.   I said to him, "There's not going to be a bronze statue of me standing outside our building in Folsom with me standing next to an emulator and pointing out into the distance!  When I leave I will be forgotten along with all I have worked on too!". 

     As we make our way through this world we daily need Jesus gentle reminder of what is really important: "He will not forget us when we die but will take us to heaven to be with him forever"

 

WHY

   The word "why" seems to be one of the first words children seem to learn, right after "momma", "dadda" and "no".    This word can drive a parent to near insanity on long car rides.

Why is the sky blue?
Why is the grass green?
Why can't I drive the car?
Why do we need to go on vacation?
Why can't we stop for ice cream?

The questions seem unending to a young parent.  This line of questioning would put a CIA operative to shame who must resort to water-boarding to inflict higher levels of pain and mental distress.

Some questions of "why" we can answer, but the child is too young to even understand our answer if we gave it to them.   We know that such answers would only be open to 10 more "why" questions that we don't have the time or energy to answer.  To this, we often resort to our simple answer:  "Because it just IS!",  This answer will hold a 5 year old for about 10 seconds before they bellow out a loud "WHY?" from the back seat of the car.

On Good Friday, while Jesus is hanging on the cross he screams out a question for God the Father to answer:

"My God! My God!  Why have you forsaken me?"

Christ, suspended on a cross between two worlds: earth and heaven.  Rejected by the earth and forsaken by the Father.

Why?

Why is often the hardest question to answer in stories like this.  Journalists can give you the Who, What, Where and How, but often they struggle to come up with the WHY.    When a crazed husband shoots his wife at her school and 2 other children we are left empty when we search for the reason of WHY.  Or when a soldier sees his friend take on heavy fire from the enemy and dies so he can crawl to safety we are left empty as we search for the answer to WHY.

The answer to Jesus' question comes to us earlier in the book of John

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life"

The answer is because he loves us.

All to often we get too caught up in answering the other questions that we overlook (or maybe we just don't want to face it) the most important of questions.  Knowing HOW Jesus died, WHERE Jesus died, WHEN Jesus died won't bring you any closer to God.  Today we are blessed with great cinematography and actors who can portray Christ's suffering in great detail and almost make you feel like you are standing right there under the cross.  But that won't save anyone.  Only when they come to face the question of WHY... are lives changed.   When we see that it was for US that Christ died.  He acted as the mother stepping in front of her child to shield them from the oncoming bullet to protect them.

I have often found it amazing that the one thing you can say to a child that you will never get a WHY question for is this:   I LOVE YOU!

Children just get it.  They accept it.   They know they are not perfect, but they accept the love of their parent as irrefutable and will often immediately respond with "I LOVE YOU DADDY!"

God loves you too and all he asks us to do is to accept it and not ask WHY.