If anyone knows me well, they will tell you if it can happen, it’ll happen to me.  I often do things on the fly, without thinking.

I was at Fort Leonard Wood Military Base.  Fort Leonard Wood is a Multi-disciplinary base, where Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and many foreign military came to learn specific skills.

I was troubleshooting some equipment in one of the Chapels on the base.  This chapel was used by the Army and the Marines for their services.  The Army had already had their morning services and I was told I have one hour to get in the Chapel and do whatever I needed to do.

There was a piece of equipment in the kitchen that was supposed to be telling a piece of equipment way on the otherside of the chappel what kind of day it was having.  For that to happen, a wire was run from the kitchen clear across the chapel to the other side of the building.  The nature of this wire is, it is intolerant of being bent to tightly, or of having anything sitting on it at all.  If either of these things is true, the wire is not able to carry the signal that the Kitchen Device was sending .

I had one hour to get it fixed.  The wire in question was running on top of a steel beam 2 feet above a 20 foot tall chapel ceiling. The problem was someone had laid a heavy board over the wire.  By this time I had 15 minutes before the Marines were marched in by their Drill Instructor for the Marines Services.

I had a 15 foot ladder.  I am a little ove 5’9″.  If I stood on the very top of the ladder and hopped, I could reach the steel beam, pull myself up and fix the problem.  My hope was the wire wasn’t crushed too badly and all I had to do was move the heavy board off the wire. I moved the board.   The wire looked fine (It eventually passed the signals test.)

This is where life got interesting for me.  I had to get back down from the rafter to the top of the ladder.

I forgot to mention that, ever since I turned 37, I began fighting a weight problem.  I was over 40 by this time.  And heavy.  Getting up to the beam was very hard to do, but I did it.  It never occurred to me how difficult it would be to get back down.  I decided to hang by my hands off the beam right above the top of the ladder and drop down to the top of the ladder.  It was, afterall, only about a foot space between the bottoms of my boots to the top of the ladder. (OK, all you OSHA safety nuts on Linkedin, get a grip. Breathe into a paper bag, you’ll be just fine in a jiffy.)

The good news about my weight is, I had recently lost about 20 pounds.  My pants were nice and loose as opposed to being so tight I couldn’t breathe.  This was good for climbing up to the rafters.  This is not so good when getting back down.

When I let go of the rafter and landed solidly on the top of the ladder, my pants and underwear fell down around my boots.  To say I was in an awkward state is to completely understate the situation.

I bent over to pull my pants back up just as the Marines were being escorted into the chapel.  I was moonng the Marines.  I didn’t know this unitl I heard the Drill Instructor bark, “Eyes Front!, One sound from anyone, and I’ll wreck your whole day.”  Things got really quiet as the Chaplain and the Sergeant rounded my ladder to look up at me.

If ever I longed for the rapture, it was right then.

I did my best to spin around so I wouldn’t be mooning the Marines only to find myself mooning a portrait of Jesus that was hanging on the wall of the Chapel.

I was done for.

The Chaplain politely cleared his throat while the Sergeant stared daggers at me, and a bunch of raw recruits were doing all they could not to explode with laughter.

I recovered what was left of my dignity and got out of the chapel as fast as I could.  I heard the Chaplain opening the service with, “All things bright and beautiful, all things great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.”

Why did I just tell you one of the most embarasing moments of my life? (Trust me, hat’s not the only one, and hardly the most embarrasing!).

God tends to choose the last person we would chose to do the very thing no one else will do.  What really matters isn’t how together you are, or intelligent, or beautiful, or any of that nonsense.  What matters is you love the Lord and are willing and available to take up your cross and follow him.

Don’t worry how you look to others, but have the heart to reach out to all the rest of the messy people in this world.  They need you.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” – Isaiah 6:8

Let’s be about it.

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

AUTHOR’s NOTE:  This is an edited reprint from WAAAY back.  I’ve edited it a bit.  I thought in light of all the insanity, this would be fun.  Enjoy };-D

Of the roughly millions of imaginary readers of my blog, I receive about 3000 imaginary e-mails a day, asking me for advice on a wide variety of subjects.

I recently received just such an e-mail from a High School Senior at Colon High School, Colon, Mich. Millicent Nederhose asked me not to use her real name, so out of respect for her privacy, I’ll call her “Slagathor.”

Slagathor’s e-mail reads as follows:
“Dear Mr. Poindexter (I decided not to use my real name either),

I read, like, nearly everything you post, and, like, I was wondering, like, if you can tell me how to, like, be a T.V. Journalist?

Like, your devoted fan,
‘Slagathor’ (Not her real name)”

Here is my response to this forward-thinking young woman:

Dear ‘Slagathor’,

Let me be the first to congratulate you on your career choice! Journalism School can be tough. Not all Journalism Majors make it to the big leagues.

I appreciate you asked me instead of someone who actually is a Journalist, or teaches Journalism, or even has a college degree, or has at least driven through the parking lot of a Junior College on his way to Wal-Mart to buy a paper.

Having none of those qualifications, I will be happy to guide you through a preliminary hurdle that should show you if Journalism is the right choice for you.

I want you to know I have already done a great deal of research (a term you might not hear in Journalism school) on this topic.

All week long, I have been watching endless hours of in-depth T.V. Journalism. From this research, I have developed a short quiz that, I believe, will help you know if you can make the cut to the “Breaking News” world of T.V. Journalism.

There are 3 multiple choice questions, with the answer following each item. Please choose YOUR best answer to the question before reading the correct answer derived from my in-depth research. Relax, take a deep breath, and do your level best.

Q1) Define ETHICS

1. A) Doing the Right Thing, for the Right Reason, at the Right Time.
2. B) ETHNICS? Isn’t that, like, a racist question?
3. C) A sauce you sprinkle on your salad that helps you lose those extra 5 pounds.

ANSWER: Anything but ‘A’.  If you answered ‘A’, you have no business being in Journalism.

Q2) You are the first “On the Spot” reporter on the scene of a terrible accident. You see that 98-year-old Griselda Haskins has been run over by a 1965 Buick. You notice that after the Buick had run over poor Mrs. Haskins, the car careened over the curb and smashed into the front window of a Starbucks.

Tired of being an “On the Spot” reporter, and realizing that what you do next will determine whether you finally get to be an “Anchor” (Another Journalism Term), you do one of the following things:

1. A) Render First Aid until the ambulance arrives, securing your position as the first “On the Spot” reporter who gets to interview Poor Old Mrs. Haskins and the Police.
2. B) You step over the prone body of the widow, Mrs. Haskins, to ask the driver how he feels knowing he ruined a perfectly good Starbucks.
3. C) You order a Latte with extra foam and pretend to do A & B.

ANSWER: ‘C.’ If you answered ‘A,’ you clearly have no grasp of the priorities of the Journalistic profession. Drop your pencil and leave now. If you answered ‘B,’ you are destined to remain an “On the Spot” reporter.

Q3) You have finally made Anchor. Seconds before you go “live” (That is TV talk for being on the air), your editor/producer hands you some “Breaking News” that you KNOW is factually inaccurate. Your future as an Anchor is on the line. You do one of the following:

1. A) Report the truth. Your Journalistic Integrityand High Ethical Standardswill let you do nothing less than tell the truth. Your loyal viewers deserve nothing less from you.
2. B) You don’t care because you get paid the same no matter what you report.
3. C) You finish your latte and read whatever pops up on the Teleprompter.

ANSWER: ‘C.’ If you answered ‘B,’ you return to your former job of “On the Spot Reporter.” If you answered ‘A’, you have no future in any form of Journalism.

I hope, Slagathor, this little quiz has been helpful. You can see, now, that Journalism adheres to a standard that not even New Orleans Prostitutes can lower themselves to. Very few people have what it takes to be a T.V. Journalist.

One last thing, Slag; If you don’t look like a super-model, you don’t stand a chance of ever being in front of a camera. Looks matter more than anything in Television Journalism. You don’t even have to pay close attention to what you are doing if you are attractive and can read a teleprompter. The same holds true for Politicians.

Yours,

Peter Poindexter (Not My Real Name).

This is a reblog but has come to mean a great deal to me these last 2 years.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

(Psa 51:17)

Broken

We all break. The array of things that break us is astonishing. Each thing is exactly the tool needed to do the breaking.

Most often, we are broken by the big three things:

Lust of the Eye

Lust of the Flesh

The Pride of Life

When we break, we look for a remedy from the pain. Some turn to alcohol. Some turn to sex. Some turn to pills. Some turn to secular solutions, full of promise, empty of results.

If we belong to God we will see that what God could have prevented by His power, He allowed in His wisdom. It is to Him we take our broken pieces.

Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You. (Psa 51:7-13)

Restored

God understands brokenness. Jesus was God in the flesh. Jesus was shattered on the cross for us. Jesus was broken. Yet, He rose again.

God’s strength is revealed in our broken pieces. God mends all that is broken and restores the damaged vessel to a greater purpose. His handiwork is revealed in our brokenness.

What others have written off as trash and useless, God will mend with His pure love. No one is so broken that God cannot mend him. What pieces are discarded, He replaces with Himself. You become a reflection of His own Son in the handiwork of His healing.
BROKEN THINGS BECOME BLESSED THINGS WHEN GOD DOES THE MENDING

Take your broken pieces it to God. His love will repair you and restore you. Your purpose in Him will grow to greater things than before.

Let’s be about it.

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

I heard a song on the radio.  The lyrics were about Jesus’ suffering on the cross.  The lyrics were:

“For the sake of His suffering, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

These lyrics were being repeated over and over and over, as in a chant.  I realized I had tuned into the Roman Catholic Radio station.  The RCs like to keep Christ on the Cross and keep their believers in perpetual shame.  It’s good for business when you can keep your followers believing there is always one more thing you need to do to prove you are worthy of God, but that is a blog for another day.

Even so, I thought about these lyrics.

His Meekness

Before I can address God’s Mercy, I need to discuss Jesus’ Meekness.

When the scriptures say Jesus was meek and mild, God is not saying His son was some light-in-the-loafers, Casper milquetoast.

Meek in Jesus’s case was that although He had the power and authority to wage the most horrible war against all sin and all sinners, He chose to defer his judgement in favor of God’s mercy.

This meek Christ is the same one who braided a whip, beat money changers at the temple and overturned 100 pound tables.

God’s Mercy

Back to the lyrics:

“For the sake of His suffering, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

The concept of sin is foreign to this world.  Everything goes.  If I say this is sin, or that is sin, I am being politically incorrect.  Who am I , after all, to judge anyone?  OK, I’m no one, and I am not judging you.  That is God’s job.  In God’s eyes, there is sin.  Sin must be punished.  It is written that the wages of sin is death.  All who sin are worthy of death and unworthy of God.  That includes all humanity.  No one is sinless.

With one exception.

The Holy Law is that there is a way to redeem sinners, and that way is accomplished only if one person who is without sin freely gives his life to God; and must be willing to take on all God’s wrath and punishment of all sin on behalf of all sinners, even though he himself is sinless.

That is exactly what Jesus did. Jesus is the only one who was ever without sin.  He willingly and voluntarily became all sin, and was judged by God on our behalf.

There isn’t a sin you can think of that Jesus did not become.  The sinless one became, on our behalf, all sin that ever was and will be.

2Corinthians 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 

For our sake, he died of all our sin.

Sometimes God’s mercies don’t look so merciful.  It is written that it pleased God to kill his own son so that we, His creation would live. (See Isaiah 53:10)

The exchange on the cross is this:  Jesus became all our sin, past present and future. In return, you become God’s own beloved child.

Jesus told Nicodemus

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
(Joh 3:16-18 KJV)

If you accept this free gift from God, you are born again.  If you reject this, you need to understand, you are already dead.

“For the sake of His suffering, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

Jesus’s suffering was God’s mercy.  If you will accept it.

Let’s be about it

David Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com