Christ Following, Core Values, life
My family and I moved to a different house a couple of weeks ago. There are very few things I really hate, but moving is definitely one of them. I hate packing up all my stuff, I hate leaving a house and neighborhood I love, I hate hauling heavy boxes and furniture, and I hate sorting through tons of boxes to find what I need to work after we’ve moved to the new house.
One question I kept asking myself during the move was, “Why do we have all this stuff?!” Don’t get me wrong, we’re not pack rats and we usually only shop out of necessity (as opposed to shopping because it’s fun or entertaining). I just kept wondering why we were lugging so much stuff every time we moved. It was really troubling to think we paid for so much stuff that was simply being stored in the basement or attic. It pretty much sickens me to think that Americans have more stuff in storage than what the rest of the world owns COMBINED.
During the move, my wife kept bringing up really good “What if?” questions. “What if God calls us to…” and “What if God asks us to give…”
What do “What if?” questions have to do with owning too much stuff? Everything! What if God calls us to overseas missions? What do we do with all of our stuff? Something tells me that Paul did not have a bunch of junk in a self-storage unit as he spread the gospel across Asia Minor.
What about the cost of all this garbage? I wish I could get my money back for every DVD I only watched once or every book I never read or every accessory and trinket I thought would make my life so much better. That money could have gone to sponsor a child or take that mission trip I said I couldn’t afford to take. An even sadder situation is when people can’t afford to give or go because they’re strapped with debt. An over-sized car payment or maxed-out credit card can seriously hinder a person from being available for God to use.
It really is a brilliant demonic strategy if you think about it. “Let people have all they want until they’re too buried by possessions to be able to go when God says go.”
I believe that God wants me and my family to be in a position to be used by Him. He wants us to be ready. I have a friend who sold his house and moved into an apartment just because God might call him overseas. That may sound extreme to some, but when God calls, he won’t have to spend a year getting rid of everything before he goes. I know some people really take issue with this kind of thinking. They’re thinking, “I worked hard. Why shouldn’t I enjoy lots of possessions? I have a standard of living to maintain!” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “We should be far more concerned with our standard of dying than our standard of living.”
So what are we going to do about it? I’m going to issue myself (and you, if you choose) a challenge. I’m calling it my “Down to One Challenge”. What does that mean? It’s simple; if I have three boxes of something, I’m going to narrow it down to one box. For instance, I have several boxes of things I’ve filed away for ministry purposes. It’s time to scale back to one. Do I really need to keep all those catalogs, old conference notes, and brochures “just in case”? I also have tons of camping gear (I’ve gone once in the last three years), collectibles, and music gear too. Some things I’ll give away like I did here. Other things I’ll sell. And some of it will go to Goodwill or in the trash.
It’s not about being anti-stuff or taking some vow of poverty. It’s about living without the trappings of too much stuff so we can be available when God calls.
So how about you? Are you in? I’ll be posting my challenges here on this blog and it would be great to hear your thoughts.
Down to One
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Christ Following, Core Values, life
A quick fill-in-the-blank for you.
I’d really like to _______________, but I ________________.
I think we all have something sitting on the backburner of our life. Let’s talk about it.
Just type your completed sentence in the comments section below. I’ll start it off by adding the first comment.
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life
Possessions are fun. I’m not going to lie to you. It’s fun to buy stuff, play with it, drive it, watch it, talk on it, whatever. But…
Experiences are memorable. I wouldn’t trade some of my experiences, like my trips to Ireland, even for a new Mac.
Some people can afford both, but most of us can’t. We ultimately end up choosing one over the other, even if we’re not aware that we’ve made that choice.
So how about you? Are you a possession person or an experience person? Post your answer in the comments section (There’s no right or wrong answer). Thanks so much!
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Christ Following, Core Values, prayer
Pleasure. Even the word is rather… pleasurable. We love pleasure. We enjoy that delight, that state of gratification we find ourselves in when something really pleases us. We are, after all, pleasure seeking creatures and we’ll go to great lengths to experience it.
From sex to sunsets, chocolate to sea cruises, we spend most of our lives (and a great deal of money) on sensual satisfaction. Even when our lives are over, our coffins are made to be soft, comfy, and cozy so that our corpses have a nice pleasant little box to decay in. I know that’s rather morbid, but we really do live and die for pleasure.
My pleasure? I have a penchant for sweets. Anyone who knows me well can tell you I know the Nestle’s Toll House cookie recipe by heart. I love to snack on the dough while I’m making those delicious chocolate chip cookies and often use the excuse “They’re only fresh once!” to eat two or three extra while trying to make my glass of milk last. And don’t even get me started on warm, gooey brownies (no nuts please)!
Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” I love the picture this paints. We can take pleasure in knowing Jesus. I’ve found from experience that this is true. As I spend time with Him, I find it really enjoyable. I experience peace in the middle of stressful circumstances, focus when I’m distracted, and joy when I’m mentally and emotionally maxed out.
One interesting thing about pleasure is that it can be learned. For example, I detested my first cup of coffee. It tasted way too much like, well, coffee. After a while, though, I learned to like it and, eventually, really enjoy it. I like the aroma it gives, the richness of flavor, and the pick me up I get from the caffeine. I can hardly pass Caribou without wanting to grab a tall drink!
The other interesting thing about pleasure is that it can be unlearned as well. If I go for a few weeks without sweets, I actually stop craving them. If I starve that part of my brain that craves chocolate, hot fudge, or Swedish Fish, I can easily pass them up without feeling the need to indulge. I can even reach a point where I know longer receive pleasure from the things I love.
Which brings us back to Psalm 34:8. Over the years, I’ve had the extreme displeasure of seeing some very good friends walk away from Jesus. It’s massively heartbreaking to see them fall away. I wonder how someone could possibly choose temporal pleasures over eternity with Jesus.
About a year ago, a dear friend walked away from Christ, his wife, and children because he found pleasure in the arms of a younger woman. He explained to me how this younger woman made him feel so good and that he just wanted to be happy. I used to challenge this man to spend time in prayer, to “taste and see” every day how wonderful Jesus is. He could never bring himself to cultivate a devotional life because he took so much pleasure in reading the morning paper while watching the sun rise from his back porch. He had starved that part of himself that longs for Christ until it became too easy pass Him by without a glance.
I think that’s why many people walk away from Jesus. They’ve neglected “tasting and seeing” until their appetite for Him has simply withered away. They’ve found pleasure in so many other things until there’s no more room at the table for Him.
I think we all need to do a little more “tasting”. We all need to feed our craving for Christ. It’s easy for days to turn into weeks, and weeks into months without prayer. We need to starve off some pleasures to make room for the Ultimate Pleasure because nothing else compares!
“You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” ~Psalm 16:11
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Family, Humor
My writing teacher gave me this assignment and I had a ton of fun putting it together. I figured I’d share it with you here since I got a laugh out of it (the self-effacing tone is meant to be humorous, not glum). Please ignore the citations since I didn’t include the bib with this post. Enjoy!
Living With Forrest Lee Bezotte
My name is Forrest. It’s not a very common name. In fact, my parents gave it to me with no intention of ever calling me by it. They wanted to call me Lee and liked the name Forrest as a middle name. Ultimately, they decided that “Forrest Lee” rolled off the tongue a little easier so they went with that (Hackbarth). My name has always been a blessing and a curse, but I live with it because it could be much worse.
I’m OK with having a somewhat uncommon name, even though research shows that people with uncommon names are perceived to have “undesirable characteristics” (Kalist and Yee 39). I’m sure if research was done specifically on the name Forrest, they would find that it is associated with extreme blandness, an admittedly “undesirable characteristic” but not entirely unacceptable.
Other research points to names having a predictive power for a person’s lifetime outcomes (Aura and Hess 226). I’m going to predict this person’s lifetime outcome as, again, bland. Blandness is not such a bad thing in my opinion. After all, there has never been a major crime figure named Forrest. I can’t recall anyone universally disliked with that name either. However, there are celebrities, such as Forrest Tucker from F Troop and Forrest Sawyer the news caster, who are equally as bland yet very well liked.
The downside to being an amicable, yet bland, chap name Forrest is that you tend to get left off the list when guests are being considered for a wild party. I imagine those party planners making their list and having a conversation somewhat like this;
“Who should we invite?”
“How about Bobby? He’s crazy!”
“Great idea! What about Stacy? She cracks me up!”
“And don’t forget Jim. He brings the best food.
“Absolutely! What about that one guy, uh… Forrest?”
“Who’s that?”
As liked as I’ve been over my lifetime, I’ve never been thought of as a must-have at anyone’s party.
As you could imagine, I have been given different nicknames over the years that were inspired by the name Forrest. One of my uncles calls me Jungle. He finds it clever to refer to me as a wooded area since my name rhymes with Forest. Another of my uncles uses the moniker Trees for me. These nicknames really aren’t so inappropriate considering the meaning of my name.
The name Forrest means “from the woods”. I remember when I discovered that. I was looking through a big book of names hoping to find some profound insight or a discovery that my name meant something powerful and compelling. While other names had meanings like “noble”, “strong”, and “prosperous”, mine insinuated that I was birthed beneath some foliage. Dorothy Astoria writes in “The Name Book” that my name means “Guardian of the Forrest” (113). That meaning conjures thoughts of strength, purpose, and nobility in my imagination. I like it much better than simply “from the woods”.
When my oldest son was born, we decided to pass the name Forrest on to him. We even committed to calling him by that name. Little did we know that there was a movie in theaters, that was growing in enormous popularity, called “Forrest Gump”. I didn’t think much about it until the fiftieth person asked, “Did you name him after the movie character?” Who names their children after movie characters? I’ve never known anyone to name their son Luke Skywalker. Often, when I give my first name, the listener asks,
“Like Forrest Gump?”
and I want to respond with, “No, like Forrest Gregg, offensive right tackle for the Green Bay Packers from 1958 to 1970.” (Profootballhof.com)
My absolute least favorite Forrest Gump reference is when someone shouts to me or my son, “Run Forrest! Run!” I look forward to the day when that film is all but forgotten. Dale Carnegie once wrote, “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” (117). When it comes to the name Forrest, I’m not so sure.
My parents always called me by my middle name, Lee. In fact, almost everyone called me Lee from the time I was born. It was an easy name to be a kid with. It was easy to pronounce, easy to spell, and still not terribly common. I was always the only one with my name in all my classes and no one thought it was strange. There was a popular actor, named Lee Majors, that was considered rugged and handsome so I had the added advantage of having a little star power behind my name.
The downside to the name Lee was that it rhymes with pee. Other children gave me nicknames like Lee Pee and Lee Pee the Bumblebee. When they really wanted to tease me, they’d yell, “Lee Pee the Bumblebee sitting in a Potty Tree.” I have no idea what a Potty Tree is or why a person would want to sit in one, but the neighborhood bullies seemed to be authorities on them.
When I was in college, I worked at a radio station delivering the news, weather, and occasional song dedication. There I used Forrest as my first name and Lee as my last name, being known on the air as “Forrest Lee”. I felt like it sounded distinguished and I carried that alias with me into some film work. To this day, when my agent calls, she asks to speak to Forrest Lee.
I’m glad my parents decided to call me Lee. I feel like a Lee. I see myself as a Lee, though the name’s meaning isn’t much better than that of Forrest. It means “from the meadow”, which again insinuates that I was birthed beneath some foliage.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 33,074 other Forrests in this country (howmanyofme.com) and I wonder if they’ve had similar experiences as my son and myself. I wonder if they go by their middle names or proudly announce “Forrest” when asked to identify themselves. I wonder if it’s been a blessing and a curse for them and I wonder if they’ve come to accept all that comes along with such a strong, unique name.
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