Vol. 17 No. 13 | March 31, 2014

Of the 11 million NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets submitted on ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, only 8 brackets correctly picked all 8 of the Elite Eight teams. I had one. Not one of the 8 brackets; I had one of the 8 teams in my Elite Eight. I am not very good at predicting the future.

Of the 11 million-plus NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets submitted only 612 picked the Final Four teams.

I am obviously not the only one who is not very good at predicting the results. There are a few other predictions that did not turn into reality.

“That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced.” (Scientific American, in a 1909 report.)

“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.” (Ken Olsen, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977)

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” (Attributed to Bill Gates, 1981, but believed to be an urban legend.)

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”(Western Union internal memo, 1876.)

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
(Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962)

And a couple of my own:

“Wearing shoes without socks is really a dumb thing to do.”

“Surely gas won’t go higher than 59 cents a gallon.”

Whether making a prediction about a basketball tournament or the future of technology our record is not very good. Our lives are overrun with innovative gadgets of technology that fifty years ago would have been considered far-fetched even for science fiction literature.

God is much better at predicting the future and making promises. When He makes predictions or promises we can be certain that they will come true.

Isaiah 53 (NIV):

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind,a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence,nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong,because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Matthew 26:28 (NIV):

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Revelation 22:12-13 (NIV):

“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

Revelation 22:20 (NIV):

He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

We may not be very good at predicting the future, but that is okay. We may make promises that we cannot keep. God does. So, if your NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket was ruined early in the first round, you know now that life goes on. If you have seen the world around you change beyond anything you ever imagined, enjoy the advancements. When you read the promises that the Savior is coming, He offers you the forgiveness of all your sins, and that the Lord will return to gather His faithful, and we will live with Him forever, you can rest assured that His promises are true and that His predictions will come to pass.

Tom

© Copyright 2014 Tom Norvell. All rights reserved.

Vol. 17 No. 12 | March 25, 2014

David says, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing.” (Psalm 37:25-26, NIV) Truths I see in these two verses:

Truth #1: I was young and now I am old. That is not a bad thing. That is not a good thing. It is just a thing. It is a part of life. There are many things about being young that makes me glad I am no longer young. There are many things about being old that makes me wish I were still young. There are many things about being old that make me really glad that I am no longer young. The truth is I was young and now I am old.

Truth #2: I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. I have seen righteous people suffering and wondered if they had been forsaken. In my attempts to live a righteous life I have sometimes felt forsaken. I have seen some of the children of some righteous people who have struggled to make a living and struggled to provide for themselves and struggled to find their way through life. I have seen righteous people who felt that they had been forsaken, and their children struggle through life, but later both came to realize that God had walked with them every step of their journey and that He had sustained them even during those dark, frightening, and confusing days.

Truth #3: I have seen the righteous be very generous. Many times in my life I have been the recipient of very generous gifts from very righteous people. I cannot recall meeting a righteous person who was not generous. I have known and know people who have called themselves righteous but were not generous. That makes me question their righteousness. There are times when I think I am living a very righteous life, but discover that I do not feel or act very generous. That makes me question my own righteousness. I feel the most righteous when I am the most generous.

Truth #4: I have known children of righteous people to be a blessing. Not all children are a blessing. Not all children have righteous parents. Not all righteous people have children. I am confident that when righteous people have children they feel blessed by those children. Children of righteous people are blessed to be children of righteous people…maybe that is why they become a blessing.

I was young and now I am old. I have learned many things as I have grown old. Some of the things I have learned I wish I could unlearn. I am thankful for most of what I have learned as I have grown old. I have many more things to learn. I pray that as I grow older the things I have learned and the things I will learn will be transformed into the wisdom of a righteous man.

Tom

© Copyright 2014 Tom Norvell. All rights reserved.

Vol. 17 No. 11 | March 17, 2014

Listen and I will tell you a story. There was once a turkey who saw his reflection in a truck bumper.

In the quiet of the morning a minister went upstairs to his desk to study. As he pondered the Scripture he was reading he leaned back in his chair, took another sip of coffee and looked out the window. Below him and across the street he noticed a turkey in his neighbor’s driveway. The turkey was looking at his reflection in the bumper of the neighbor’s truck. The minister grabbed his iPhone and his camera and began recording the scene.

At times the turkey seemed to be admiring himself. At times he seemed to be angry with the turkey in the bumper. At times he seemed to be aggressively attacking the rival turkey in an effort to scare him away.

At first he looked at his reflection in the bumper and pecked it. The minister could hear the pinging on the bumper from across and above the street. Occasionally he would move in super slow motion as if to sneak up on the strange bird. Then, at times he would back away, look around as if in deep thought and shake his head as if to say, “What am I doing?” After pondering the situation he would slowly move his face right up to the bumper staring at the strange bird who looked a lot like him. For minutes at a time he would stand completely still and motionless beak to beak with the turkey in the bumper.

This went on for hours until another automobile pulled into the driveway driving him away. Cars passed up and down the street throughout the morning, but the bumper-pecking bird would not be deterred from his pursuit of himself.

On one occasion his friends gathered around him as if to offer their assistance. He wanted no part of it. With feathers ruffled and beak cocked and ready to fire he made it clear, “This is my bumper and my space.” They quietly walked away scratching in the dirt and gobbling to themselves.

So it is with the Kingdom of God. Sometimes we act like the turkey mesmerized by his own reflection.

Some churches and some Christians get so focused on their own identity that they fail to realize how foolish they appear to those observing their actions.

Some churches and some Christians love the inward focus so much that we fail to see the danger that may be lurking around us.

Some churches and some Christians spend so much time and energy satisfying their own desires and needs with little notice of the time that has been wasted and how many people have been neglected and ignored.

What may be humorous to watch with a turkey is tragic with churches and Christians.

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:1-4, NIV)

Are you listening? Really listening?

Tom

© Copyright 2014 Tom Norvell. All rights reserved.

Vol. 17 No. 10 | March 10, 2014

A story in the gospels, the “Rich Young Ruler” (Mark 10:17-31) reminds me of a common predicament for many of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus. “As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?'”

This young man was apparently considered a really good guy. By his own account he had “kept all the laws” since he was a boy. By our standards we would have welcomed such a man into our fellowship with great joy and enthusiasm. He would be one whom we would consider a great addition to our membership roll. We would likely be just as stunned as were His disciples when Jesus basically says, “You are not ready.”

With one brief challenge the man’s confident countenance falls and he went away sad. The disciples are dumbfounded. “If he can’t make it, who can?”

Jesus responds: “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Here’s the common situation: Like the rich young ruler, I am not in control. In fact, the longer I live the more realize I am in control of very little.

Recently, my wife and I have watched three movies all of which share this theme of not being in control: All Is Lost, The Impossible, and Gravity. One takes place on a damaged boat in the middle of the ocean, one in a tsunami in Thailand, and the third in space. All three portray the main characters in extremely stressful situations over which they have virtually no control. Beyond their own limited resources each one is dependent upon someone or something bigger and beyond themselves for their salvation.
Thus our common plight: we cannot save ourselves. We are not in control. A list of the things we cannot control is much longer than the list of things we can control.

Like the rich young man we can choose to obey all the laws of God and man. We can do all that we can do and hope that our deeds will obligate the Lord to save us. “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

The ability to accept and surrender to the fact that we are not in control may be the key to real and lasting peace. So, let me help you get started. Repeat after me:

Take a deep breath. “I am not in control.”

Take another deep breath. “I am not in control.”

Take another deep breath. “I am not in control.”

Take another deep breath. “I am not in control.”

Take another deep breath. “I am not in control.”

Tom

© Copyright 2014 Tom Norvell. All rights reserved.

Vol. 17 No. 09 | March 3, 2014

Maybe you have had this or a similar experience. You need information or want to make a change to one of your business accounts (credit card, cable company, utility company). Naturally you call the customer service number. Almost immediately your call is answered…by an automated system. “Please listen closely because our options have recently changed.” Remember those first three words: Please listen closely.

You hear the first three options and realize they do not address your needs, so you press the number 4 to get additional options. Still not sure that any of the options actually apply to your situation, you press the number that is most nearly the reason you called. From there you are taken to another set of options, the final of which offers the opportunity to return to the original set of options. You keep pressing numbers to get more options and wind up back where you started.

Eventually you hear an option that offers to connect you with a customer service person who will assist you. “Finally! A real person!” Yes, it is a real person and they ask for you phone number, your first and last name, your email address, and the last four digits of your Social Security number. After all that you are informed that you need to contact another department. “I will connect you with someone who can help you with your specific problem,” says the friendly voice on the other end of concern. The annoying music starts and you wait. You remember those words from earlier — listen closely — and wish you could get someone to listen to you.

You’re once again greeted by a real person’s voice, so you repeat your problem and you are asked to give them your phone number, your first and last name, your email address, the last four digits of your Social Security number, and the name of the Seven Dwarfs. Unfortunately she says she must consult her supervisor and will now put you on hold for just a few minutes. While waiting for her to return you check your email, check the time you have been on this call, go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, and suddenly realize you have been disconnected. As you redial you shout, “Could I please speak to a real person?”

You can do better. You can speak to the Creator of the Universe any time and any where. John says it well in 1 John 5:13-15:

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Although He may not always respond as quickly or in the exact way we may want, we can know at least that He hears us. He never puts us on hold. He never asks us to check our relationship status on His website. He never tells us we have reached the wrong department. He never passes us off to His supervisor. Our call is never accidentally disconnected.

In those times when we wish we had a real person, someone we could touch, or someone we could talk to face to face we can be confident that He hears us when we call out to Him, when we cry, when have no words, and when we can only groan and moan. He will respond. He is better than a real person. He is our real God and He loves us more than we can imagine.

Tom

© Copyright 2014 Tom Norvell. All rights reserved.