Step away from the scale!

I don’t know if the reality show, Biggest Loser, is still a thing or not.  I suppose it had its benefits.  I know in my place of employment the idea of weight loss competition was pretty popular, and my office was one of the weigh-in stations each year.  I was glad to participate, since it meant I could hand out weekly info on health topics, and sometimes even serve healthy snacks from my own kitchen.

Kale chips were not a particular favorite.  Just sayin’.

I began to be somewhat concerned with what I saw, however, and my mantra evolved into “it’s not about losing weight, it’s about gaining health”.  Weight and health are certainly related, but weight is merely an indicator of health and definitely not the whole picture.  There are other, even more important considerations such as BMI, exercise, nutrition, sleep, and stress management.

Run, run, run-away

The Israelite judge, Jephthah, is generally known for the weird story about his daughter, poor kid.

But I think we generally miss the importance of this guy’s backstory and how God may have used it to his (and His) advantage.

Back in those days, having sons was pretty well tantamount to status (as opposed to having daughters; now where they thought the baby boys came from, gets me…)  And although even our secular Western culture has fairly well done away with that mindset, they (and us) still deal with the “world’s oldest profession”. 

So while Jephthah’s dad, Gilead, had several socially legitimate sons, little Jephthah was not one of them, and was treated accordingly. 

“…and when these half brothers grew up, they chased Jephthah off the land. ‘You will not get any of our father’s inheritance,” they said, ‘for you are the son of a prostitute.’  So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Soon he had a band of worthless rebels following him.”

Because, back then, with those kinds of credentials, that’s about all the following you’re going to get.  I can only imagine what hardship he must have suffered going from the house of his father (probably bullied while he was growing up anyway, but at least provided for) to ousted into the “real world”, possibly as a teenager.  Homeless.  Despised.  Without family or connections.  Or money.

As usual, the plot thickens—

“At about this time, the Ammonites began their war against Israel.  When the Ammonites attacked, the elders of Gilead sent for Jephthah in the land of Tob.  The elders said, ‘Come and be our commander! Help us fight the Ammonites!’ But Jephthah said to them, ‘Aren’t you the ones who hated me and drove me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now when you’re in trouble?’”

Run off the farm, rather than living in the lap of luxury, Jephthah has been hardened by life’s boot camp, and is now evidently the one most suited for rescuing those same brothers with soft, un-callused hands. 

And rescue he does, like the rushing in of the cavalry. 

The point is this.  People do us injustices.  We have to suffer the consequences of others’ stupidity, prejudices, unkindness, or just low-down thoughtlessness.  I’m bullied, kicked out of the club, whether physically or emotionally.  Bereft.  Alone.  (At least it feels that way.)

But God has other plans, and this is just part of the Divine Boot Camp.  Plans for rescue, not vengeance, for redemption, and restoration, and it may be for the very ones who turned me out.  

Jephthah’s hands and muscles may have become just as soft as his brothers had he stay in his dad’s house all that time.  Instead, he became the hero.

Which is God’s training for all of us, to be heroes in one way or another. 

Judges 11:2-7 Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Somebody pass the dill

Things are growing in the new garden!

Once again, I was outside conducting my annual experiments that I presumptuously refer to as “gardening”.  This spring I put in a new plot, and dumped in a bunch of store bought dirt, sorta/kinda had a ever-expanding design of what to plant where.  

I love fresh herbs.  Even just watering them releases a beautifully refreshing scent into the air.  One thing that I was wanting to add to my stash, but have had difficulty with in the past, was dill.  So this year I thought I would just sow a short row of seeds (rather than already half-grown plants from the store) right into the fresh dirt, and “see what happens”.  (Such is my typical gardening strategy…)

What happened is this:

Lion tamers, to name a few

Gary Smalley, a gifted family counselor and founder of the Smalley Relationship Center, conceived a simple personality test using four animals as examples; the lion is used in his demonstration as one who tends to have inherent leadership potential, but is also fraught with some significant relational challenges.  I’m thinking the Apostle Paul was, perhaps, one of these:

“Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue, trying to

Where’s my starfish?

This past autumn, I was with my parents over Thanksgiving.  Dad is really in that stage of paring things down, giving things away. 

This stage has lasted about 20 years now…

Going through his garage, I noted that he still had 3 or 4 big jars of old black sharks’ teeth from when he and mom walked along the Gulf Coast on various vacations.   But so many sharks’ teeth!  You’d think it would finally be “safe to go back in the water”, (I date myself again.) 

I guess no one has made a claim

Don’t shoot the messenger!

Jeremiah, the “prophet of doom” in the Old Testament, had a personal secretary named Baruch.  I don’t know if Baruch was an actual student of Jeremiah’s, or if he had just unwittingly fallen into the position for lack of anything better to do, considering the circumstances and all. 

Or maybe he was looking for adventure.  If that’s the case, he got a bit more than he bargained for.

To begin with, his boss was not a popular fellow.  Regardless, writing down everything

Bad Things, Man, Bad Things

“S**T HAPPENS” 

Now, lest any of my friends be offended, I’m simply relating a bumper sticker I saw many years ago, (only without the asterisks).  And regardless of the French, doggone it, it’s just true.  Bad things happen, to good people!  And it happens when good people try to do good things!  I don’t like it, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

Of course, we’re in good company.  Here’s one of my fave recounts of two heroes in my book,