Grads -- Your Future is So Bright, You Need Shades

I have been enamored by all the graduation photos of all who are celebrating this momentous time of the year! Congratulations to all of you -- children AND parents. It's a great feat to have made it to this Rite of Passage that took a village to see it through. I know. I've been there too.

Graduation Day is so exciting! The ceremony is filled with speeches about pursuing your dreams, trusting yourself, taking risks and embracing change. Graduates get to celebrate the past and look forward to the future. This year, my granddaughter graduated from high school. I’m so proud of her. Right along with those who celebrated their child being the valedictorian of their class, I celebrated that my granddaughter was the valedictorian of her class – she was home-schooled. I have a great, great nephew and many family friends who are also graduating.

Whether they are getting ready to go to college, pursuing lofty goals and dreams or are sashaying into the next season of their lives, they all have expectations of how their lives are going to go. They've pictured it in their heads. Some pictures are of traveling the world or pursuing a dream job. Some pictures are of a white picket fence with four beautiful, well-behaved children and an always-loving husband or wife, and some see themselves owning a Fortune 500 company by the time they turn 25. And, there is absolutely nothing wrong with pursuing their dreams, but as those of us older, wiser folks know, those dreams may be absolutely opposite of what God's plans are for their lives and so we pray that all of these wonderful graduates pursue God's will first and foremost -- to be God-pursuers.

To all Graduates and Dreamers – keep these words in mind – “Before you ever came into being, God called your name. He formed you with love and intricately designed part of who you would become. You truly are made "in an amazing and wonderful way" (Psalm 139:14). Your journey on this path is not by coincidence. You are here because God looked out over all of history and chose you for a particular time and purpose. You could have entered the world a hundred years ago or a thousand years from now. But you are in this generation, this time, and there will never be another you or another opportunity to do what only you are chosen to complete. So go out there in boldness knowing that you don't have to be like anyone else. You don't have to do what any other person has done. You are chosen for one life — yours. And the wonderful news? Whatever God chooses for you to do, He will equip you. Being chosen means you will be given all you need. Being chosen means that success is simply obedience and trusting God will do the rest. Being chosen means that you have a great big God as your partner every step of the way. Those who love you will be cheering you on every step too! The best is yet to be for you and we can't wait to see it unfold.

Dreamers and Graduates -- you are chosen for one life - yours. God gave it to you. Now show off that life by making it the best life it could ever be for God, others and YOU!

This Doctor Made My Day

Seems like there's a doctor for everything these days. Besides medical doctors, there are phone doctors, plumbing doctors, computer doctors and yesterday I met The Blind Doctor, Marvin. I know you must be thinking he must have a visual impairment, but not so. This sweet 80 something year old man is "The Blind Doctor" who repairs and restores window blinds and shades, and one of my shades needed a "house call" from the doctor.

What was to be a typical service call ended up being one of the most delightful encounters with the wittiest, kindest and quite astute blind repair guy.

My first comment was "You made my day!" His reply: "No, God did." I said, "You've got a great sense of humor." His reply: "Great humor, but not much sense!" I said "Do you have a screw and screw driver for that?" He said, "Does a duck have feathers?" Then he said, "Some folks call me a smart aleck. I say back to them, 'No, just Aleck, not so smart." Then he told me some jokes:

"A man met St. Peter when he got to heaven.
St. Peter: "What did you do to deserve getting here?"
The Man: "I defended the rights of a woman."
St. Peter: "How so?"
The Man: "Well a motorcycle gang was being rude to a lady and I told them to leave her alone or I'd have to let them have it.
St. Peter: "What happened then?"
The Man: "The leader of the gang came after me, so I ripped the ring out of his nose."
St. Peter: "When did this happen?
The Man: "Two minutes ago."

Marvin went on....."I need to tell you my Baptist joke. There was this small town that thrived for years because of their saw mill, but times got bad and the saw mill closed and people started leaving town. There were only two Protestant churches left, a Baptist Church and a Christian Church. The two pastors got together and thought they should join the two congregations together since the congregations were so small. The Baptist pastor said, "I'll preach Sunday morning this week, and you preach Sunday night. Then next week, you preach Sunday morning and I'll preach Sunday night. After those two weeks, we can see who they want to be their pastor. And so they did as they said, and at the end of the two weeks, the Christian Church pastor gave his spiel of why he should be pastor and then the Baptist pastor made his spiel. About that time, an old guy at the back of the church came to the front waving his finger and saying "I want you to know I've been Baptist for over 75 years. Nobody's gonna' make a Christian out of me!"

Marvin's last joke was about a church and their building fund. They had some funds left over after the building was completed so the Construction Committee recommended a chandelier for the sanctuary be purchased with the excess funds. One old guy jumped to his feet and said, "I'm agin' it and here's why:
Number one -- No one can even spell it.
Number two -- There's no one here that knows how to play it.
Number three -- We need to spend that money on getting some lights put in here!"

Marvin accomplished his task of repairing my shade, but Marvin came -- not just with the tools of his trade. He came with a merry heart, a sweet and gentle spirit and no doubt gave me his best when he shared it all with me. I'm quite certain that he's told those jokes hundreds of times. But on this day, he AND God MADE my day! Wouldn't it be great if we had a bag filled with tools like Marvin had to MAKE the day of those we encounter?