Acting Out Of Character

On my vacation in October, I read the book “YOU are a BADASS: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” by Jan Sincero. I wasn’t really interested in becoming a bad@$$. I do frequently doubt myself, however. And claiming that I’m great? Well, uncomfortable – but lots more about that to follow.                                              

I selected this book because it is one of the most popular ones in the self-development/life-skills genre, somewhat similar to the content in Deep Heavy Stuff. This is research if I ever want to write a book containing deep, heavy stuff (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

“YOU are a BADASS” is a good read, and the author did convince me that anyone who has written three books is a bad@$$. But her most interesting concept was how your parents had a negative impact on some aspects of your character/personality. It’s not that your parents intentionally taught you bad behavior. But in teaching you what they believed was good behavior, they inadvertently taught you things that are holding you back and preventing you from becoming a bad@$$.

For example, let’s say you are a guy and your father taught you that a man should never ask anyone for help. The benefit is that you learned to be resourceful, independent, and hard-working. However, as an adult, you never ask for help, even when you desperately need it. You will even refuse help when offered, no matter your circumstances. These traits, both the good and the bad, became ingrained in you and became part of your character.

To become a true bad@$$, the author says you must identify these negative aspects and strive to overcome them. In other words, retain the positive parts of your personality and mitigate the negative ones. This is extremely difficult to do since it requires you to act, by definition, out of character.

As I pondered this concept on the beach, I concluded it was valid, and I already knew one thing my dad had instilled in me that was having a negative impact. Growing up, I was never allowed to brag about my accomplishments. Heck, it was forbidden to even talk about any successes.

This was the result of my father’s Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. The Pennsylvania Dutch are humble people. They are like Amish, only not afraid of modern life. Like the Mennonites but not as religious, and they dress better. I doubt there has ever been a famous Pennsylvania Dutch person because they would have had to do something that garnered them fame – and that would be not easy to deal with. Really awkward for the tribe.

My father’s teaching meant that I would not grow up to be arrogant, proud, boastful, haughty, etc. And I would not think of myself as better than anyone. The Pennsylvania Dutch are great people, and I love this part of my heritage. However, if a person has written three books, then it might be a hindrance if the author is reluctant to express positive thoughts regarding his writings.

So, right there on the beach, I decided I would post positive, bragging comments about my current book, “Turkey Terror At My Door!” on Facebook, once a day, the entire month of November. The thought of doing this caused me much anxiety, and I worried people would be offended, repulsed, and unfriend me on Facebook in droves.

Doing something “out of character” is extremely difficult to do. This is more than just stepping out of your comfort zone. Getting out of the comfort zone means doing stuff that makes you uncomfortable. Acting out of character is being different than who you actually are. And that creates tremendous, almost debilitating, anxiety.

Now, you may say, “Don, what’s the big deal with a little bragging?” That’s because it’s my hurdle, not yours. You have your own issues, buried inside your character, put there by your parents, that are totally different from mine. It would cause just as much anxiety for you if you tried to face it.

As November approached, my anxiety grew. I had severe doubts about doing this. I looked for reasons not to go through with it. I was so apprehensive, I asked my friend Janet what she thought about it, essentially asking for permission. She said I should definitely do the posts and then added, “But you won’t be able to come up with thirty things to brag about.”

Well if you want to motivate me, just tell me I can’t do something that I know I have the capability to accomplish. I decided this project was a “go”.

Still, on the morning of November 1, I sat there, for minutes, staring at the computer screen with the first post typed into the comment box. The internal conflict was intense. Doing something out of character is so psychologically disturbing. It shakes you to your core, and as I reached for the mouse, my hand was trembling. And then click, and this was posted:

Brag #1 - On vacation, I read the book, You Are a Badass. The author suggests doing stuff “out of character” because some things your parents taught you are holding you back. So, for a month, I’m going to brag, yes brag, about my book – my father would so much not approve. And, oh, yeah, Turkey Terror At My Door! is a tremendous book and you should read it.

On November 2, I followed up with this:

Brag #2 – When I released “Just Make Me A Sammich” in 2015, I didn’t think I could write any better than that! I laugh at myself now, because the writing in “Turkey Terror At My Door!” is so much better. And the good news is: I know I can still raise my game. Sammich is hilarious – but read the Turkey book!

And I posted my “brags” every day in November, concluding with:

Brag #30 – When I discussed my plan for bragging about Turkey Terror At My Door! every day in November with my good friend Janet she said “ Go for it! But surely you can’t come up with 30 things about the book to brag about.” Even my friends underestimate my creative capabilities. (Keyboard drop). This concludes the “bragging project”. #badassauthor #readthebook.

The anxiety diminished each day. In the beginning, I was so distressed about how people might react that I considered checking my Facebook friend count daily to see how many people were jumping ship. At some point, I realized if people rejected me for my self-promotion, they were never on my team to begin with. And if this is the case, then get your sorry-@$$ off the train because you are slowing me down. 

I’m not sure completing this project makes me a bad@$$, although the book's author would indeed say so. I don’t think I sold any more books directly from the bragging posts, but that was never the purpose. However, at a craft fair in late November, I sold more books than I had at any event ever. Could it be that I was exuding more confidence and, dare I say it, pride in my books? If so, those people were dealing with a true bad@$$.

 

  

 

 

 

Raise Your Game This Year

The year 2021 has been a brutal one for many people. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. After surviving the plague of our age in 2020, we hoped 2021 would be a great year. That we would be able to live and love fully again. That the surge in deaths would cease. That we would return to those good times, the ones we never realized were that good, and the normal, which we craved so much, would return.

We are hopeful creatures. Hope is a great thing. It keeps us moving forward when we don’t have the strength to go. It helps us maintain sanity when our moods are dire. It is the light at the end of our personal darkness. But we never were able to get there in 2021. And while hope makes us feel wonderful, hopes that get crushed cause more distress. The plague just hung on, killing hundreds of thousands more - generating fear, sadness, grief, and frustration into us all at once.

2021 may have been better for some people, but it brought tremendous sorrow for others. My friend Harry described his year in terms of all the people in his life that were gone, some from the plague, some from other things. The natural deaths that occurred were added on to the plague fatalities, to create one giant pile of death. I can count my losses also: Graham, Dana, Mark, Richard, and finally, the plague has taken away my dear friend Kora, the day after Christmas. Yes, death happens. It must happen. But none of these people, none, are older than me. And then there’s the close relative recently diagnosed with a terrible, terminal condition.

Two years living with the plague has put people under an incredible amount of stress. Add any additional pressure on top of it, and bad things happen - the riots, the murders, the crime, the robberies, the arguments, the fights, etc.

Personally, your mood and outlook have been negatively impacted by the dark clouds of the last two years. You are not treating other people as well as you could. You are not thinking as clearly. You are moody and prone to fits of anger. You have lowered your expectations. You have put your dreams and plans on hold. This change began slowly and would have quickly disappeared if the plague had been brief. But after two years, there is a danger these negative traits have burrowed into your soul.

As we enter the new year, sometime soon, it will be time to live again. It will be time to put away the sorrows and struggles of the past and embrace the future. 2022 is a breakthrough year and ….

IT’S TIME TO: RAISE YOUR GAME                        

It’s time to treat others better than they deserve. People have been hurting so much. They are moody, angry, rude, argumentative, etc. Realize that, and strive to be better in your words and deeds. Imagine you are a nurse walking through a ward of sick people. Deliver the mercy and compassion that people need. It’s time to bring the best “you” to the table – and to your world. 

RAISE YOUR GAME

Help others when you see they need help. Be the best person you can be, because the world has changed, and not for the better. Raise your game and be a better person than you were before the plague. If you don’t, you risk hold on to all the negatively weighing you down. Be your best person ever this year because people need it.

RAISE YOUR GAME

For two years we have complained about our conditions. “If it weren’t for the plague, I could have achieved this.” “Things would have gone much better, except …..”. The plague has weighed us down. The plague has frozen us in time. When things break open, there is a risk that we will remain cold and be hesitant to move forward. But we must run hot. We must break loose this year. Understand that our efforts in 2020 and 2021 are insufficient for 2022. You have been held down for two years. Now Go! Go fly. Go achieved. Go flourish. It’s time to ….

RAISE YOUR GAME

Make 2022 one of the best years of your life, after trudging through two awful, terrible years.

RAISE YOUR GAME

 

 

 

Why I Say “Merry Christmas”

Merry Christmas!

or more specifically …

Merry Christmas to you!

or more completely …

I wish you a Merry Christmas! 

I won’t say Happy Holidays because, in actuality, that would include wishing you a Happy Flag Day. And while I hope your June 14 is pleasant, I prefer to be much more specific about celebrations in December.

And Christmas is set apart from all other holidays. It reaches a much higher, might we say, angelic realm. For we say: Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy St. Patrick Day, Happy Independence Day, Happy Labor Day, Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, and Happy New Year. But we wish people a Merry Christmas. It is not just happy – It is merry. There is merriment – joyfulness, cheerfulness, vivaciousness, jolliness, mirth, hilarity, and laughter. Many things in life make you happy, very few things make you merry.

So, Merry Christmas!

I wish you a Merry Christmas!

When I wish you this, I am not trying to change your beliefs. There is no ulterior motive. I am choosing to share the joy I possess with you – the merriment that I experience at Christmastime. Because it is Christmas, and Christmas means so much to me.

And this expression of joy is so universally inclusive because I will offer this greeting to anyone. It goes out to all races, all nations – to Muslims, to Hindus, to atheists. Everybody gets a dose of my Christmas spirit. Even people I don’t like – obnoxious coworkers in my past, I’m talking to you.

Even if you don’t believe as I do, I hope you will still be able to experience the merriment. If you think it is a myth, I will still wish you a Merry Christmas. For this was either the most incredible event in the history of mankind, or the greatest myth ever created by man’s mind. Either way, it is worthy of a grand celebration.

It is so special, so monumental, so blessed, that when I wish you a Merry Christmas…

I wish you love – that your broken relationships are healed or new relationships are kindled. That you have people who care about you and that you care about them. That you love, and receive love back in abundance.

I wish you joy – that the people, circumstances, and events in your life make you more than happy – they provide joy – lasting joy beyond the Christmas season.

I wish you peace – yes, that same peace on Earth, goodwill toward all men that you have heard about. World peace, so that the nations will not war and innocent people will not perish. And personal peace, so those worries  and fears within your head will cease.

I wish you kindness – that people will be kind to you when you make mistakes, react poorly, are rude to them, or are vulnerable. And that you extend kindness to others in the same circumstances.

I wish you generosity – in that when you need help, someone will provide that help. And when you see others in need, you will give freely and generously to meet that need.

I wish you a Merry Christmas!

I wish you happiness, and merriment, and all the jolliness of this season. That for at least one day, you can forget about all the disease, political toxicity, pain, arguments, and worries, and experience the wonder of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

I wish you a Merry Christmas!

And if somehow you choose to reject all of this, if it upsets or offends you – it’s not on me ….. but it just might be worth taking another look at the whole thing ….

Is Your Christmas Ruined This Year?

By now, you’ve heard the news reports lamenting that Christmas will be ruined this year due to product shortages caused by backups at the West Coast ports.

But can Christmas be stopped because you cannot get all the stuff you want?

Christmas joy should not be confined within those shipping containers sitting on

the docks.

But our culture emphasizes stuff. Everyone is trying to get more stuff. Even though most of us have way more stuff than we need, we crave more. And many people view Christmas as a way to get much more stuff.

Christmas is by far the most religious holiday. Those in the more spiritual realms worship the birth of THE MAN. If your god happens to be money-stuff, you celebrate by buying, giving, and receiving as much stuff as you can.

We are motivated, manipulated, and cheered on in these festivities by the television commercials that tell us this is the season to hoard everything and anything we can. It is troubling that none of these advertisers actually mention the “reason for the season”, carefully using every euphemism in the book to avoid saying …. Christmas. They can’t actually say His name because that would be messy. They don’t want to expose the fact that a so-called holy day is being exploited for profit. One clever retailer has invented the term “Joy. Fully.”, attempting to fuse the spiritual with the physical. Or maybe it just means you should get your joy from a full shopping cart.

So we have combined the original pagan roots of the solstice/Saturlina festival with the commemoration of THE MAN’s birth. And being the highly inclusive people that we are, you have the freedom to celebrate as you prefer.

Now there are plenty of ways to find merriment at Christmastime. And we all celebrate in our personal ways. The three main ways are:

1.    The spiritual aspect, which includes charity that results from faith.

2.    Family and traditions.

3.    The giving and getting of stuff.

To maximize your Christmas joy, you need a balance of all three of these. (Forgive me for thinking like an economist). Overemphasizing any of these reduces the total happiness. If it’s all just the “Mass” part, you miss out on the fun of the traditions and the stuff. This is equivalent to being invited to THE MAN’s birthday party but not being allowed to have any fun. If you get too hooked on just the traditions, (People with thousand-dollar light displays and overzealous cookie-bakers, yeah, you!) you also lose out on some joy. Perhaps, diverting some of the resources to charity could help.

Which brings us back to the “stuff”. The harmful result of being committed, addicted, attracted to the stuff, is that you will value the stuff over people. We have seen the videos of people fighting over products on Black Friday (the holy day for stuff lovers). People have been punched in the face in pursuit of the hottest gifts.

The current conditions where stuff, including money – the means to buy the stuff, is more important than people, is the greatest failing, the most harmful aspect, of our culture. Yes, here greed is good, and that message is pounded into us every day, and unfortunately, more in December than any other time.

If your god is money and the stuff it provides, you will use this season as an opportunity to spend as much money as you possibly can - to explode your money across the universe. That behavior is the natural result of the love of money and stuff, because everyone worships some God, or gods – just be extremely careful which one/ones you choose.

Which brings us back to Christmas.  If there is one universal message of Christmas, and this is true whether you consider it truth or fable, it is that people are much more important than stuff. And nothing is more important than people. As we read about THE MAN, we see He always put the needs of people first. He NEVER, EVER valued stuff more than people. Not once – not one time.

This truth should influence not just how we approach things at Christmas, especially our charity efforts, but all year round. It should impact how we interact with strangers, our relationships, even our political views. And if people are the most important thing, who should we admire more – the CEO of the large corporation or the guy who runs the soup kitchen downtown?

If bare shelves and stockouts can ruin your Christmas, maybe you are doing it wrong.

 

Giving In Abundance From Abundance - The Giving Chronicles (Part 5)

 ^“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

I got a new job after being unemployed for nearly five months. It was a relief to have health insurance again for my daughter and resume a stable lifestyle. But I never forgot the provisions of three Christmas turkeys or the mysterious ways THE CREATOR met all my financial needs, and more, that February. The amazing thing is I ended up with more money in the bank at the end of being unemployed than at the beginning. A pastor asked me how that was possible; I really had no explanation.

The lessons of this tribulation stayed with me. It was another life-changing event. The Christmas giving continued, and I began donating to a ministry that provided gifts to children of needy families. As my children grew older, I was donating more money to that ministry than I was spending on them.

And that is fitting, because this whole thing started with an image of a child with no presents under the Christmas tree.

At that time, I asked: But what can I do about that?

And my answer now is – I can do this! I CAN DO THIS. I WILL DO THIS. 

The Three Turkey Tradition

Sometime after receiving those three turkeys in 1992, I began giving three turkeys to people in need each December. I didn’t provide the actual birds. I would get $20 grocery gift cards early in the month and figure out who they should go to, sometimes sent anonymously.

But then weird things would happen after I gave away the last card. Within a week or so, I would receive some unexpected money which coincidently would be slightly higher than the $60 I had spent.

One year, I surprisingly received a check from the IRS for an overpayment.  Another year, the college where I was teaching part-time had forgotten to compensate me for training I had received in May. I wish I had written down the other unexpected December payments that came my way, but I never anticipated I would be writing about them 20 years later.

And then there was the bizarre poker game in December 2008 that I wrote about last year. I had only given away two gift certificates that year and carried around a $20 bill to give to the next needy person who crossed my path. I donated that $20 to a family whose house had just burned down.

Less than four hours later, the poker game began. My luck was atrocious at the start, and I was soon down to only a couple of chips. I then got tremendously lucky on some desperation hands and had enough chips to continue for another hour. But then, my luck ran out again, and I was back down to almost nothing. I somehow survived sure elimination a second time. I then fought my way back and ended up in heads up (just two players remaining), extremely short-stacked (my opponent has many more chips than I do and has a huge advantage). But my opponent is inexperienced and plays so poorly that I win the $180 first-place prize. I didn’t comprehend what happened until the next morning when I realized there was less than a 1% chance of me winning the game before going on the incredible streak of “luck”..

There were no turkeys given away in 2009. The Great Recession cost me my job. My circumstances were much less dire since my wife was working now. Although, as I have chronicled, I did not respond to the situation well. And for the second time, I came out of the calamity with more money than I started with. Still can’t explain it. 

Time To Raise The Bar

And that experience changed my perspective as well. Why limit it to just three turkeys? So, at Christmastime, I started giving ten turkeys away. Then 20, then 30, and last holiday season, with the help of my friend Reverend John, over 70 turkeys. I don’t say this to brag – it’s just a fact for reference and confirmation of my commitment. 

Part of Rev. John's turkey haul in 2018

But Don, where did the money come from to donate all those turkeys?

Well, if you asked that question – or don’t know the answer, you need to go back to Part 1 and reread the Giving Chronicles.

Because it started with a fundamental truth which is …. One more time …. taken slowly:  

^“Give, - freely, generously with a pure heart when you see people in need of help.

and it will be given to you – you will receive back what you have freely given in some form of blessing or benefit.

 A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap – if your heart and motives have been pure, you will receive back the value of your gift, and more. So much more, that it overflows.

for the measure you give will be the measure you get back – the intent, the compassion, the generosity, the sacrifice of your giving, will determine the quantity of blessings you receive back.

This concludes the Giving Chronicles

 

We Are All Pilgrims This Year

This post is about the plague, the virus, the scourge, the pandemic – if you will.

Wait, don’t go! It’s different than the thousands of commentaries already written on this subject.

You see, I don’t care if you wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, vaccinated, non-vaccinated, virus survivor, skeptic, Democrat, Republican, Independent, or other.

I do care that when you inhale, your lungs fill the air. If they do, you are still alive. Which means you have survived the scourge, so far.  This is no small accomplishment. I have told people over the past two years, “If you celebrate a birthday during a pandemic, it is a blessed occasion. If you celebrate two, even better.

You see, 765,000 Americans have died from the virus.

Oh, you want to argue that the number is too high because deaths for other illnesses were intentionally misclassified? Okay …

But you want to argue that the number is too low because some people died and never made it to a testing site or hospital? Okay, also.

Let’s just assume these two factors totally cancel the other out, and 765,000, and counting, is a reasonable number. The count worldwide is at 5.1 million.

And this is because pandemics kill people. That’s what pandemics do. We hadn’t had a severe pandemic since 1918. The frustrating part is that even though mankind is 100 years smarter and medical technology has advanced exponentially, we still can’t keep a lethal microbe from killing us. Mask on, mask off, shots, jabs, distancing, quarantines -- it’s still striking us dead.

But even though it’s killed 765,000 of your countrymen, it hasn’t gotten you. You have not been infected. Or you were infected, but your immune system neutralized it. Or you became ill (I’m in this category), and you were able to survive.

Which brings us to Thanksgiving. These days we really don’t give much thanks. We take our wealth, health, and blessings so much for granted. Maybe on Thursday we say a group prayer before we gluttonously gorge ourselves on the holiday feast. But that’s about it.

The Pilgrims started all this, and if you read the history, you will find that they were essentially thanking THE CREATOR for still being alive on that first Thanksgiving. That is a strange concept when you think about it. But the Pilgrims had that faith thing down right, much more than our present culture. So, we find ourselves back to the beginning, so to speak. Back to the basics. Back to life-or-death. 

This has been a brutal year. Besides the fatal virus, add in the cancers, the accidents, the illnesses, the overdoses plus everything else, and death has claimed someone in our circle. (My posse has been hit hard this year.)

So after making it through this year, and still being able to draw breath through our lungs, we, like the Pilgrims, need to offer up thanks to THE CREATOR for our life – our actual life. For still being alive, when so many others have perished.

And I’m not talking about just “being thankful” or “feeling thankful” or “making a list of things to be thankful for”. No, not enough. Not even close. There is a difference between feeling wealthy and actually being wealthy. There is a difference between feeling blessed and actually being blessed. So, there is an enormous difference between feeling thankful and actually giving thanks.

The Pilgrims got it. They really got it. That’s why the holiday is called Thanks- Giving. So today, it’s time to literally get on your knees and give thanks to THE CREATOR for continuing to give you life. (Yes, I am going to do this) This giving of thanks will provide a spiritual cleansing. This is greatly needed since the virus has infected more than our bodies. It has infected our souls. And there is no vaccine to fix that.

I give thanks to THE CREATOR for your life ……

The Story of the Three Turkeys – The Giving Chronicles (Part 4)

 ^“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

When you have always worked, and you want to work, the stress of being unemployed  grinds on you constantly. Although I had no immediate financial issues, there was high anxiety about the future. I had a family to care for and a daughter with medical conditions.

This heavy stress plays tricks on your mind. You begin to have irrational thoughts and fears. Years later, you regard some of these as downright silly, but at the time, they seem totally normal.

As I entered my second month of unemployment in December 1992, the stress began to get to me. It isn’t easy to job hunt at the end of the year since most companies pause their recruiting efforts until mid-January. But having more free time means there is more time for those irrational thoughts to fester.

There were two distressing thoughts constantly rolling around in my head. The first was the fear that I would eventually lose my house and my family would have to wander homeless in the street. Fortunately, that never came close to happening.  

The second was that I was a failure because I would be unable to provide a turkey for our family Christmas dinner. This idea was preposterous. We had plenty of money to afford a turkey. But that didn’t matter much to me. I saw myself as the family provider, and if I didn’t have a job, I had failed to provide this essential Christmas element.

Now, you may consider this chauvinistic, sexist, paternalistic, toxic masculinity, etc. – throw the whole darn arsenal at me. But that’s who I am; however, in this case, it was toxic because it traumatized me every day as the holiday approached.

The voice inside my head yelled out:

“You can’t provide a turkey. There may not be a turkey. You have no turkey, none. Your holiday dinner could be ruined because there may not be a turkey. It is your responsibility to provide a turkey, and you have failed. You have failed your family. What type of man cannot provide a turkey?”

This hellish “turkey loop” was played in my head several times a day, every day. I would guess obsessing over something unimportant is your brain’s defense mechanism from obsessing over things that are really important. But I was obsessed over this turkey problem. Of course, I didn’t tell anyone about this fear because I knew it was irrational, yet there it was every day.

A Turkey From Heaven

Two Sundays before Christmas, about twelve days prior, our Sunday School group at church presented my wife and me with five large boxes of food at the end of class. I was up front thanking the people for their generosity, but then someone came up behind me and set a large frozen turkey on one of the boxes.

Never in my adult life has a small gift made me feel so jubilant. Just as worrying about not having a turkey created irrational, enormous sadness, receiving an unexpected turkey produced tremendous joy.

I had a turkey! They gave me a turkey! And I no longer would be tormented by this any longer. This is one of my best memories of this time in my life.

It did cause some storage issues, however. The big bird took up almost all the space in our 90’s standard freezer located at the top of the refrigerator. My wife had to move some stuff around, but she made it all fit. 

But Wait … There’s More

I felt much better that week not worrying about a turkey and still being jubilant about the gift I had received. And then things got even better. Friday afternoon, there was a knock on the door. It was Carl from our church. He said that he had been delivering turkeys to needy families for the church, and of course, I wasn’t needy, but he had ended up with an extra turkey he wanted to give to me.

Of course, this was a white lie. If I wasn’t considered needy, then what was my name doing on his list – he obviously had my address. This was just his way of making sure I accepted the turkey. But before I could explain that the church, in effect, had already given me a turkey, he literally shoves the bird into my chest. I instinctively grab it, partially in self-defense. But once I had taken possession of the turkey, Carl quickly retreats and wishes me “Merry Christmas” as he sprints back to his car.

I put the second turkey in the fridge and explained the circumstances to my wife when she returned home. Because Christmas is now just a week away, we can thaw the first turkey in the refrigerator and store the second turkey in the freezer. The plan is to roast the second turkey in late January and then get our freezer space back.

And We Are Not Done Yet

Two days later, I took a Sunday afternoon nap. When I awoke, my wife informed me that our friend Dave, who worked at the local homeless shelter, had stopped by. He had been delivering turkeys to needy families … and guess what … he had an extra turkey.

If I had been awake, I’m sure I would have tried to reject this third bird. I know I was supposed to accept all gifts, but this was too many turkeys for me to possess … which brings us back to this …..

^“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

In eight days, I had received more turkeys than I had room for. And you can’t press down and shake together frozen turkeys, can you? Turkeys  had run over my freezer capacity, into my lap - so to speak. THE CREATOR had just literally provided a “running over” of turkeys.

The question I posed in Part 1 of this series, is how is this statement from THE MAN could possibly be true. How could you receive so much you cannot contain it? Yet, there I was. The turkeys were overflowing. The strange thing is I never asked anyone for a turkey. I never prayed for a turkey. I just worried constantly about it.

But then, this heavenly provision did cause an earthly problem: I had more turkeys than I could store. That night, I called my friend Jim, who had a large freezer. After hearing my plight, he graciously agreed to stow two of the turkeys for me. My family enjoyed the second turkey in April and invited Jim and his wife Frannie over for a cookout in August, where we feasted on the final bird.

^“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

There are teachings from THE MAN that I continue to struggle with. There are many others that I accept as true by faith. But this one, I don’t need to accept by faith, because faith is only necessary for the unseen. This proclamation, I know, is true. I have held the cold evidence in my own hands.