Beauty Re-defined

I am proud to be the older brother of a great photographer. He recently came up with a concept called help-portrait where he along with other photographer all over the country take their very unique gift set and use it to do something great for people who are in very difficult circumstances. These photographers go to folks who are in need (homeless shelters, children's homes, etc.) and they do photo shoots with the people there treating them like celebrities, even going so far as to bring stylists and make-up artists to give these men and women the full 'diva/divo pampering' treatment. You can see what they do in the following video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9tu1XrBn3A

What strikes me most about this whole project is how beautiful these people really are. I don't say that with any kind to patronizing undertone. I truly mean it. I see the lines and the stories in these people's faces and I am overwhelmed by the incredible beauty that is there. I also realize how so much of what society calls and celebrates as beautiful really is not. When I see women on the covers of magazines, there is nothing about their perfect faces that make me wonder what they have experienced or seen. I don't see the same knowing (whether good or bad) in their eyes that I see in the eyes of the men and women in these pictures. It struck me to the point that in one of the photos, I saw a man posing as if he were in an Old Navy add and it was so different from what I normally would see that it made me realize that my eye was drawn to this guy's countenance and I would definitely take notice if I were thumbing through a catalogue. I don't know if it was the story in his face or his body language that radiated a bit of 'swagger' while still not being unapproachable and out of reach.

Maybe the advertising world should take notice. I think people's pallets are ready for something different to catch their eye. I would love to see an Old Navy catalogue that read more like a story book than a manequinn display.

Hiro, DVR, and a different perspective on the creation narrative

Recently, during a question and answer session at a college gathering, the question of creation vs. evolution came up and I'm not really sure what triggered it, but the character Hiro Nakamura and my DVR remote came to mind when I begin to try to understand the creation narrative. I guess the reason they both came to mind is that one of the major conflicts between creation vs. evolution is the argument that all of the geographical patterns seem to indicate that the earth was formed over a much longer time than a simple 24 hour day that is referenced in the Genesis account (and even then, I'm not sure that the word for 'day' in Genesis is specifically giving a specific amount of hours but that is a different argument altogether).

First of all, let me say that I don't doubt for a minute that God could have spoken the world into existence and in the time that it takes to exhale, the world was. God is big enough to do that and that is the bottom line of all of this...He did it. But I also think that our understanding of the whole argument is laden with assumptions and this is where the randomness of Hiro and the DVR remote come into play.

If you don't watch the show, Heroes, I need to explain the character Hiro to you. Hiro is a character who has the power to teleport back and forth through time but he also has the ability to stop time and move freely while the rest of the world is frozen in suspended animation. Basically, it's like Hiro has a DVR remote for life and he can simply hit the pause button and everything that is live pauses.

When we think about time and creation, we assume that God is bound and exists within it. We assume that during the 24 hour day of creation, God was bound by that time period....but what if God was making the earth and simply said "time out"? He could have taken eternity to make the earth (because He is eternal) and when He was done, he could simply hit the 'play' button and time would resume and the earth would be formed and by all scientific specifications, created in a twenty four hour time period...or less. I can just see God walking around the earth as it is frozen and hovering in space; studying it, molding it, shaping it, becoming small enough to walk on it's mountains, and then becoming big enough to reshape the very same mountains with His fingers. I think it would be consistent with God's revealed nature to say that He savored every moment of creating everything. He pondered and poured over every bit of it. And it could have happened in a moment and in a millenium all at once because He is God.

I think it can be helpful to wrestle with the whole question of 'creation vs. evolution' but I also think it is very pointless from a human perspective. There is so much information that we don't have. We can barely grasp the things that God has revealed directly to us about who He is, how in the world could we ever comprehend the things that He doesn't deem necessary to explain(and for our own good I'm sure). He simply tells us that He created all of it in six days and my guess is that He tells us in this way with those words because it is in terms that we can understand but I also believe that those words are exactly and fully true.

The Navy Seal Trident and Phillipians 1:18-30

I like to think that if I had not gone into ministry that I might have ended up in the military. I even like to convince myself that I might have even been special forces material....yes, delusions of grandeur, I know. These delusions were quickly shattered when I recently read a book written by a former Navy Seal who was the only survivor left from his Seal Team after a battle in Afghanistan. In the book, the author talks about the training process that Navy Seals have to go through to become a Seal and I realized that....well, I'm a panzy and I wouldn't have made it. The sleep deprivation alone would have caused me to "ring the bell" and give up (not to mention, cry like a girl the entire time).
The author then went on to describe the honor and the privilege that it was for a Seal to be able to wear the Trident badge that is only awarded to those who have come through the fire of Seal Training. He explained that only those who wear the Trident could truly appreciate its meaning and worth.

After listening to a message at our church on Sunday, I realized that the truths in the Bible are very much like the Seal Trident....allow me to explain.

This past week, a church planter spoke at our church. Just after accepting the call to move from Florida to Syracuse, NY to plant a church, He and his wife received very bad news. His wife had been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer and her chances of survival were not good. They decided to follow God's call on their lives anyway and moved to Syracuse. This past summer, she passed away and He was left with four young children and a church in its infancy stage.

As He spoke this past Sunday, I very quickly understood that he knew things about suffering for the cause of Christ that very few do. He spoke from Phillipians 1:18-30 where Paul talks about his hope that God will use his sufferings for the cause of Christ. I have to think that when this church planter reads this passage, he understands the true gravity and depth of what Paul is talking about. He not only knows what it means, but he has experienced, at least in part, what it takes to be able to pen such words. This passage would be his Trident badge. He has walked and is walking through this fire and he is and will come through it victoriously.

it kinda makes me wonder...up to this point in my life, what "badges" of scripture could I wear because I have truly experienced the weight and gravity of their truth?

A Beautiful Accent

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." NIV Bible.

Yesterday, after our church service, I had the opportunity to spend some time in conversation with a man who was baptized in our service. He had moved to the United States from Scotland and he spoke with a beautiful Scottish brogue that reaked of masculinity and history. His accent made me feel as if I were talking to someone from another time and place and I secretly wished that I had an accent like his. He told me the story of how God had changed his life.....so much so, that he was now out of a job.....allow me to explain.

Before coming to know Christ, my new friend was a salesman. Apparently, he was a very good salesman and based on his own telling, had no problem decieving or shortchanging a customer in order to get the sale. After recieving Christ, he found that he could no longer ignore his conscience (apparently, the Holy Spirit speaks much louder than the unredeemed conscience) and started telling customers the truth about the product that he was selling. The company that he was working for did not like the fact that he was actually looking out for the customer and they eventually fired him.

I have to be honest, it was so refreshing to hear his story because in our American christian culture, I don't hear stories like his enough. It wasn't like he was trying to make some grandiose "stand" for Jesus. He just simply could not be deceptive any longer, even at the risk of losing his job, because he was truly a new creature acting out of a new nature.

I am so glad that my friend has come to Christ in America but I hope that he does not assimilate too deeply into the American christian culture because if he does, he may learn the fine art of compartmentalization and learn to say things like "well, that's just the business and that's how it's done" or "this is just a necessary part of sales and everyone knows that exaggerating and telling half truths is what a salesman is supposed to do".

I pray that my new friend's beautiful accent will never diminish and that it will be symbollic of a life that people envy because it reminds them of the reality that there truly is another time and another place to be lived for.

A New Currency

Matthew 25:34-36 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'" New International Version Bible



The value of the "almighty" dollar seems to be not so "almighty" these days. Because of the current state of the U.S. economy, the value of dollar fluctuates frequently and there is much conversation of moving to a new global currency. All of this serves as a sobering reminder that cash, in and of itself, is only a symbol of value. It was designed to be a representation of the assets that we actually have, not the asset itself.



Strangely enough, our current monetary system has greatly influenced the way I think about giving. Most of the time, when I think about giving, I am immediately frustrated because I can't give as much as I would like to give due to the amount of dollars that I have in the bank. Does the dollar amount in my bank account truly represent what I am able to give? I don't really have an oppinion about whether the global financial system should move away from the dollar but I may need to personally consider a new form of currency.



In Matthew 25, Jesus gives a picture of what exemplary giving looks like and it is definitely not limited to money. If you are going to feed someone or give them something to drink, it might cost you a little bit of money but it will also cost you something else. If you want to clothe someone or take them into your house, you may incur a small financial expense but it will cost you even more in another form of currency. To take care of someone who is sick and to visit someone in prison will probably not cost you a whole lot of money but will require a very costly investment of one of your most valuable resources...your time.



This thought has become very liberating for me. I don't have to limit my giving to the money that I have in my bank account (don't get me wrong, that does not get me off of the hook of constantly streamlining my finances so that I can give as much money as possible). This especially becomes applicable when I think about using the "handy man" skills that I have recently been learning. How much money could I save a family that is living below the poverty line if I am able to go in and make substantial improvements to the physical structure of their house? If I go over and take care of a bathroom plumbing problem for the widow in my neighborhood, how much money have I given her now that she will not have to pay the expense of having a plumber come to her house? When I think about giving in this light, the possibilities grow limitless. The financial equivalent of what I can potentially give becomes exponential regardless of the current state of the "sometimes mighty dollar".

Carousels and Comparisons

Recently, I was standing alongside my three year old son as he was riding the carousel in the food court of our local mall. As we were going round and round, Zach looked at the kids on the horses behind us and said with a sly little grin, "we're beating them". I love the way that boy thinks. Not only were we beating them, but there is no possibility of them ever threatening our position. He is already turning out to be an eternal optimist. He wasn't comparing his position to the kids ahead of him with whom he could never catch up, he was comparing his position to the kids behind him. That's a smart kid.

I think for a three year old, comparing his position on a carousel to others is innocent and cute. The problem is that many of us, in our spiritual journey, continue that habit and it becomes something altogether different. We either go before God with a heart of complaint because of who is ahead of us on the carousel or we allow ourselves to get really puffed up because we look behind us to see how many people we are beating. I wonder if, while we whip our plastic horses so that they'll speed up, God is up in Heaven shouting, "It's not a race! It's a ride....would you just learn to enjoy the ride!"

90 degree angles

Genesis 1:14-18 "and God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.' And it was so. God made two great lights - the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to seperate light from darkness. And saw that it was good." The NIV Bible

I have recently been learning the construction trade from a friend of mine. I work for him on Fridays with jobs that he is being hired for and on Saturdays, he comes over and helps me with some re-modeling projects that I am doing at my house. Through this learning process, I have come to understand how crucially important the 90 degree angle is to quality construction. Every wall should be perfectly perpendicular to the floor and every board should be perdendicular to the one that it is nailed. Pretty much everything that is built hinges in some way on the use of this angle. Let me re-phrase that...everything that is built by man hinges on the 90 degree angle.

In my obsession with the ninety degree angle, I was struck by a profound realization. I could hardly find anything that God has created that uses ninety degree angles. I don't see them in trees, clouds, grass, humans, animals....I just don't see them. I guess somewhere in creation there may be a ninety degree angle but for the most part, you just don't see a lot of hard angles or even straight lines for that matter.

The things that God makes just seem to explode into place with free movement and life. Trees look as if bark, branch, and leaf just erupted out of the ground. Mountains have a rugged unsubmissiveness to any appearance of order and symetry....and humans, I can't really explain what we look like accept that we are a beautifully raw mix of order, chaos, and symmetry that is still entirely organic.

It's funny how man applies hard angles and lines to pretty much everything we put our hands to. When man makes something, it almost always devolves into industry with smoke and fire and regulatory specifications. (I say 'almost always' because there will always be the artists among us). When man puts his hand to religion, it becomes a system of rules and regulations with sub-rules and sub-regulations created by committees and sub-committees.

With God it's just different. Everything that God makes resembles......life. Each creation has its own pattern and it's own chaos that is submitted only to its Creator. Even the 'religion' (or the title that men with angles and lines would give to it) that God has given us to know Him is organic and relational and wild. Jesus clearly stated why He came when he said "I have come so that you may have life and have it more abundantly" and He lived a life for us to model that was undomesticated and beautiful and perfectly organic....and he was a carpenter by trade. I wonder what his take would be on the ninety degree angle?

Greatness

Recently, I have been wrestling with the issue of greatness. More specifically, wondering if God will use my life to accomplish some great thing and what that great thing is. Amazingly (I know I shouldn't be amazed...but I was) on the very day that I was journaling about that question...God answered it through a friend that I had just met. He was sharing his story and mentioned a very obscure passage of scripture that God had used in his life.

The passage is Genesis 5:24 "Enoch walked with God and he was no more, for God took him", New American Standard Version.

That's all it says but it spoke volumes to me as soon as I heard it. It doesn't speak of brave and heroic feats of faith or even benevolent acts of sacrifice....it just says that Enoch walked with God. What if for the rest of my life, all I do is walk with God? In Enoch's case, it was apparently enough to please God so much that he couldn't stand not having Enoch in His physical presence....so he just took Him. There are very few great men in the Bible who achieved that distinctive honor. In fact, the only other members of the "ascension club" are Elijah and ...Jesus. Everyone else got into God's presence the old fashioned way.

To be honest, it really takes the pressure off. But, I have also realized that I have just simply become aware of something that has been in front of me all along. When describing God's approval or dissaproval, Jesus uses phrases like "depart from me, I never knew you" or "well done, my good and FAITHFUL servant". These phrases are relational in nature. The "great things" that were done throughout the Bible were simply acts of obedience to the voice of God and that voice was recognized only because the hearer's had been walking with God.

The simplicity of this truth is so freeing for someone like me who is 35 years old and is on the verge of a mini-midlife crisis. Up to this point, I have walked with God as best as I know how, and as far as I know, I am where He has called me to be. I may or may not accomplish some "great thing" by the world's standards (and even by Sunday School standards) but I'm not responsible for that. I am simply called to walk with God and if that's all I do for the rest of my life, then that will be my "great thing" and I will get to hear words reserved for people who do great things...."well done, my good and faithful servant".

Super String Theory

Recently, a friend introduced me to an incredible website (http://www.ted.com/) where experts from every field in the world give 10-20 minute lectures in their area of expertise. So far, one of my most favorite lectures is on super string theory (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/brian_greene_on_string_theory.html)

I highly recommend that you check out this lecture but I will go ahead and give you the very short version. The speaker, Brian Greene, explains the premise of string theory which basically states that inside of quarks (which are now thought to be the very smallest identifiable units of matter) are little belts or circles of energy that are constantly resonating and are the source of all of matter's constant movement.
To sum it up, at the very core of all existing matter is a resonance.

As I listened to Greene, I could not get a way from the creation account found in Genesis where God literally speaks existence into being. "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light..." and as the chapter progresses God speaks everything in creation into being.

It also brought to mind the first chapter of the book of John that states, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made."

As I listened to Greene, all I could think about was that super string theory may just be a secular way of saying that at the very fabric of all that is made, you will find the resonance or the word of God..

Slow Leak

For about the last year, I've been driving around on a tire that has a slow leak in it. I'll go to the gas station, pay 75 cents to use the air compressor to re-inflate it (paying 75 cents for air...that should be reason enough to get it fixed) and be good for another 2-3 weeks depending on the weather. The only reason that I can think of for why I haven't gone to have the leak plugged is that I just don't want to take the time to do it. It won't cost me anything because typically, tire stores will do a flat repair for free (because they know that if your tire is beyond repair, you'll be buying a new tire from them...I know this because I used to work in a tire store). I know that the tire is still in good enough shape that with a proper plug, I would be able to drive on it for it's expected lifespan. The danger of not fixing it is that if I continue to drive on the tire while it is not inflated to its recommended psi (pounds per square inch) it will wear down in places that will make it dangerous to drive on and it will either blow out or I will have to pre-maturely replace the tire with a new one. All of this could be prevented with about thirty minutes of my time and the effort of taking the tire to get it fixed...

wait for it....here it comes....the spiritual application for the slow leak metaphor......actually, I won't do it. I'll let you fill in the blank as to what the "slow leak" in your life may be...because it may just be a slow leak in your tire.....but you still need to do something about it.

"I don't know": the essence of being human before a sovereign God

Just recently, the community of Buffalo experienced a great tragedy when passenger flight 3407 crashed and killed all 51 passengers and crew on board. It was a shock to the community and called forth a response from the community of faith in the Buffalo area to help the affected families and the community at large in coping with such a great loss.

In our church, our pastor spoke from the book of Job and gave maybe one of the best messages that I have ever heard on why tragedy happens even though we believe that God is ultimately sovereign. Among many different points that Jerry covered, one of them is that we don't know why God allows tragedy. We know that for true love to exist, that choice must also exist which opens the door to risk, but ultimately we don't know why God allows one plane to miraculously land in the Hudson River and another to crash just 8 miles from the airport.

As I have wrestled with all of this, I came to the conclusion that being forced to say "I don't know" is ultimately what makes us human before God. It is one of the many things that makes God "other" or "holy". It is what makes God a mystery and it forces us to have a childlike faith in a God that we don't always understand but allows us to trust a Father who's character is always good.

Somewhere in the past century, "I don't know" somehow became an unacceptable answer especially in the intellectual and even theological community. It has caused theologians to feel the need to force interpretations of seemingly contradicting scriptures through the grid of their preferred theology to create interpretations that really don't explain what the scripture is saying in it's context. Having to know, eventually causes one to have to choose a side, which in turn leads to finding others who are on your side, and next thing you know you are the "Second (enter denominational name) Church" that is just across the corner of the same intersection from the "First (same denominational name) Church" because you decided that you couldn't agree on every theological issue that the Southern/Central/Reformed/ (same denom. name) Denomination believes which happens to be the denomination of the "First (same denom. name) Church"

But maybe it's not such a new problem. As I have read the book of Job, I see Job's friends doing the same thing. They get angry at Job because he refuses to acknowledge that his troubles are a result of God punishing his sin. The reason that this angers them is because it completely flies in the face of the common theology of their day that basically stated, "if you are prospering then you are living righteously and you have God's blessing, if you are experiencing hardship, then you are living in sin and you have God's hand against you." So if Job does not admit that their is sin in his life, the Job's friends will have to reckon with the fact that their understanding of who God is may not be correct.

To go back even further, I think one of the enticements that Satan offered to Adam and Eve was that by eating of the forbidden fruit, they could "know" the things that God knows. They wouldn't have to stay in the dark regarding the ways of God and could be like Him in "knowing".

I think there is a great place of comfort in being able to say "I don't know". It is a reminder that He is One who is totally other than me. He is mysterious and He is far more brilliant than I will ever comprehend but He is infinitely good. And as I rest in that goodness, I can say with full assurance and confidence that "I don't know".

"Lost" without my "Friends"

A couple of nights ago, as I was watching T.V., I came to the profound revelation that I am truly pathetic. I realized that I had gotten excited about getting to come home and spend a couple of hours in front a screen where I would allow myself to get emotionally invested in the lives of several fictional characters, living in a fictional world, while working through fictional circumstances. It really is sad. My wife and I's two favorite shows are Lost and Heroes and the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it becomes. At that moment, I realized that I truly care about people that don't even exist and I invest a significant part of my time keeping up with their fictional lives. How sad is that!
It reminds me of another revelation I had several years ago when the show Friends went off the air. I felt like I had lost some of my closest friends when that show went off the air. It was so hard to say goodbye to Joey and Ross and Rachel and Chandler and Monica and Phoebe (and I can't believe I can still so easily reel off all of these fictional character's names). It made me realize how sad it was that I could actually experience grief over a bunch of people that didn't even exist.
It truly is sad....very sad indeed.

Isaac Watts...disgruntled songwriter?

I am a worship leader at my church but I am also a songwriter. In my pursuit to grow as a songwriter, I have heard many different takes on how great songs originate and even opinions on how they should originate. Many of these opinions, at times, have caused me to almost stop writing songs altogether because I feel like I don't have the perfect storm of life altering spiritual revelations and earth shaking quiet times to write a useful worship song.
Today, I read an account of how one of the great songwriters of the church, Isaac Watts who wrote classics such as Joy To World, Oh God Our Help In Ages Past, When I Survey The Wondrous Cross, and many others, started his journey as a songwriter.

"One Sunday after returning from a service of this type of Psalm singing
and
being deeply concerned and critical of congregational singing, young Isaac
was challenged by his father with the words, 'Well then, young man, why
don't you give us something better to sing?'" (101 More Hymns Stories
by Kenneth W. Osbeck, p. 168)

The story goes on to say that for the next two years, Watts wrote a song a week for his church to sing.

I have to be honest, that story is very liberating. Watts started writing because he was tired of singing the same ole stuff and was concerned that the congregation was feeling the same way and so he started writing new songs.

I don't think his process was any less Spirit guided than the guy who writes a song that springs out of an incredible encounter with God's presence in a quiet time or life changing worship experience. Both have a motive of serving the bride of Christ, the church and I believe that God honors and annoints both types of songs.

I don't know if I'll be able to write a song a week but I will definitely feel a lot more free to write songs without wondering if my process is "spiritual enough".

"Its just a part of the business" and other excuses that cheaters use

If you watch the news at all, you've probably seen all of the controversy about Alex Rodriguez's (N.Y. Yankees baseball player) confession of his use of performance enhancing drugs during his time with the Texas Rangers. Because of this, many are wondering if Rodriguez or A-Rod will be disqualified from ever being in the Hall of Fame and there is much talk about how all of his accomplishments are now tainted.

The thing that baffles me most about all of this is the unbelievable amount of hypocrisy on display. How many people in our country cheat on their taxes? How many husbands and wives cheat on their spouses? How many business men and women use little bits of deceit here and there to get ahead? How many construction contractors overestimate the amount and price of needed materials so that they can keep a little for themselves to take to the next job? How many negotiators start with a much higher price so that they can "negotiate" down to the price that is still above and beyond what they need? The amazing thing is that many of these deceptions and shortcuts are just viewed as "a part of the business" or it's "just the way things are". I think that Alex Rodriguez was just using the same logic that everyone else was and is.

I'm not in, any way, justifying what Alex Rodriquez did. I think, more than anything, I'm just shocked at how we as a society have normalized cheating and deception and the persecution of Rodriguez just makes it more noticeable. I think we all have to stop and look at our daily decision making and let the Spirit of God show us the compromises that we have made in the name of "doing business" or "it's just the way it is"..

Inheriting The Golden Touch

I will be honest, there have been times where I have wondered if there is something in my family's spiritual lineage that keeps us from ever having wealth. (Even as I write those words, I realize that they are laced with entitlement and discontentment but I want to proceed with this line of thinking because it might take me somewhere redemptive). I watch people around me who appear to have the "golden touch" as they invest and manage money effortlessly. They just seem to have the favor of God on their finances. In some of my lesser moments, I have wondered why I don't see that kind of favor in my life (again, I hear the discontentment oozing out of that statement as I write it) and have wondered if we Cowarts are just not meant to have the golden touch in this lifetime. But even as ungrateful as that thought is, God used it to shed a little light on my families spiritual heritage as I was reading this morning.

I have been reading a little book by Randy Alcorn called "The Treasure Principle" and as I was reading it made me think about my grandfather. In the book, Alcorn talks about the concept of sending it ahead where one gives money away (to the poor, to the church, etc.) in faith that you are actually storing away treasures in heaven. This is not a new thought to me but it came into a new light when I began to think of my grandfather M.A. Cowart or "PawPaw". Pawpaw has been dirt poor (by U.S. standards) for his entire life. He was forced to work in a C.C. camp as a teenager to help feed his family so he was never able to get more than a middleschool education. Throughout Pawpaw's life, he worked labor related jobs and worked very hard just to have the basic provisions for his family and himself (and often times, forced to choose in that order).

But here's the great irony of Pawpaw's life. He gave money away as if he were a millionaire. During the time of his funeral, I remember hearing story after story of people that he had bought groceries for or bailed out in a pinch when he barely had enough to take care of his own family and he would often do this by leaving envelopes in the foyer of his church with the person's name on it that he was helping so that he could remain anonymous. I also know that he was completely faithful when it came to giving to his church. During the last few weeks of Pawpaw's life he said on many different occasions, "I'm prayed up, I'm paid up, and ready to go!" and you knew by his life that he wasn't just talking "church talk".

As I think about Papaw's life, I realize that Papaw did have the "golden touch" when it comes to investments and money management. He just understood the value of investments that are long term (and by that I mean forever) and high yield verses investments that are short term with low yield. As I look at my grandfather's investing practices through an eternal value system, I realize that my Papaw was a genius when it came to finances. His diligent investments have paid off and now he will be able to enjoy the wealth that he has acquired forever. I hope that I can inherit even a fraction of his fiscal common sense and be one more Cowart that has the "golden touch".

Missing The Mark

I was listening to a preacher on the radio and he was talking about the word "sin" and it's actual translation. He said "sin" in it's original context was an archery term that simply meant that you missed the mark or missed the bullseye. This explanation is not new to me but it began to take on a different meaning when I began to think about it in the terms of an archery tournament.

Let's say you were in a tournament where you simply had to hit the bullseye in order to advance to the next round. The guy who goes before you misses the target, the bail of hay that the target is mounted on, and sends the arrow flying off into empty space. You confidently step up to take your shot and your arrow takes a beautiful flight only missing the mark by a centimeter. If this was a competition of comparison, you just won it hands down. You are clearly the better marksman. Here's the problem, it is not a competition of comparison, it is a competition of qualification. Regardless of whether you are a better marksman than the other guy, you are still not good enough to advance to the next round. You could appeal to the judge as much as you want and argue about how bad the other guy's shot was and it would make no difference. You did not hit the mark and so you are not qualified to go to the next round.

God says in his word to us that "all have sinned (missed the mark) and fallen short of the glory of God". Maybe the reason that the self-righteous have such a hard time understanding their need for the grace of God is that they still believe that they are in a competition of comparison.