What You See Isn’t What You Get

Posted on May 8, 2018 by James Gorton

We have been on this 2 week journey through Arizona and now Colorado.  We stopped in Grand Junction to visit friends and family and found something very interesting.  First of all a side-note.  Does anyone know how Grand Junction, CO got its name?  For those who don’t of which I was in the camp, the Colorado River and the Gunnison River start in different places in Colorado, but are joined in Grand Junction, making it the grand junction of two rivers.  Just thought you would like to know or maybe only one or two of you would.

Back to my story.  Outside Grand Junction there is a national park called Colorado National Monument.  The picture seems pretty non discript to me from a distance.

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It seemed like another mountain until we entered the monument.  Then things changed.  We first came across a herd of desert mountain sheep  There were about 10 or so and we got fairly close to them as they were grazing in the rocks.

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The more we climbed up the monument, the more beauty began to open up to us.

It was anything but boring.  Around every turn we encountered more beauty in the rock formations than I had ever seen.  From coke ovens to independence rock to smoke stacks.  Colors that even my color-blind eyes could appreciate.

Before we began to drive into Colorado National Monument, it seemed like any other mountain drive, but once we made a commitment to take the drive, it was anything but mundane.  It reminds me of perspectives we often have with people we come in contact with.  On the surface the person may be like any other person and we categorize them as such.  But if we take the time to investigate their lives and look closer at them as a person and the experiences they have had in their lives, the boring turns to beauty.  The mundane turns to exciting.  The ordinary turns to the unique.

On this journey, God is ready to give us new and different experiences if only we are open to listen to Him and take the steps necessary to turn our ordinary into extraordinary.

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Snow in May

Posted on May 6, 2018 by James Gorton

Nadine and I had been planning on taking a 3 week road trip to Colorado, followed by Wyoming and then to Lacy, Washington to attend Tyler’s college graduation.  We were anticipating this journey for a long time and June 29th came for the eventful caravan ride.  It was uneventful on the trip to Colorado Springs and then to Denver for a few days at each place to visit family and participate in some consulting with a client.

May 3rd arrived and we had planned to drive from Denver to Grand Junction to visit Nadine’s family for a few days.  We said goodby to her son and family and off we headed on Interstate 70, a drive of 3 hours and 59 minutes to be exact from our travel app.  Little did we know that rain in Denver turns to sleet and then to snow and snow-packed roads. The higher we went the more snow we saw.  Warning signs stating that chains were mandatory were flashing every few miles.  It was becoming slushie on the highway when we entered Eisenhower Tunnel at the top of the mountain.  We thought we were in the clear when something happened.

We exited the 2 mile tunnel only to find total show packed roads coming out of the tunnel and a 6-7% decline coming down the mountain.  Cars and trucks were sliding in every direction in front of us and as I put on the brake, my truck began to skid as well.  We couldn’t stop.  My brakes were to no avail.  We were going to hit the cars and truck in front of us and we had nothing we could do to stop it.  Except for one thing.

On the right side of the semi-truck in front of us was a pile of snow that no one was venturing into.  My only thought was I didn’t want to hit the truck so I guided the wheels to the right of the truck and my truck began to go in that direction.  I was in knee-deep snow but I didn’t hit the truck and the snow brought me to a stop.  I put the truck in 4-wheel-drive and passed the semi on the left and began to head down the mountain at 5 miles per hour.  I looked back in my rear view mirror and saw that the semi I had almost hit was beginning to slide with the back-end moving into a jackknife position.  He had blocked off all cars in back of him.  We finally got down to where the snow was beginning to melt on the freeway and continued on our journey.

How many times do we find ourselves cruising along in life thinking about our destination only to find that a snow storm hits our path and causes us to have to deal with the difficulties that are facing us.  It may be a financial crisis.  A relational crisis.  A vocational crisis.  Whatever it is, we feel helpless in solving the problem as we did when we were sliding in the snow and had no brakes.

Fortunately we realized that the Lord had directed our thoughts to turn to the right and gain control of our truck.  On this journey when we find ourselves being out of control of our circumstances, God is only a prayer away to give us guidance and direction to our circumstances, if only we would call on Him.

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Decision-Making Tree

Posted on May 3, 2018 by James Gorton

Decisions are an everyday occurrence and sometimes we get tired of making decisions all day long.  What to have for dinner?  What clothes to wear for work?  What clothes to pick out for school for our children?  To go on the busy freeway or take the side streets to avoid the traffic?  What advice to give to our teenage child or adult child, or just listen and not try to fix the situation?  To exercise or not to exercise?  To take the new job or keep the one we have?  To move or to stay put?  I could go on and on with the decisions we are confronted with each day.  Sometimes it seems that ignoring the decisions seem like a better alternative only to have those stored away decisions come to hit us in the face.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a decision where we can’t lose by making the decision, but could have a tremendous win by going down that road.  Let me give you an example of what I mean.  There is a story in the bible of a city that was cut off from any food entering it.  The people were dying of starvation and were confronted with the decision of what to do.  There was an army outside it’s gates waiting to kill everyone in the city gates, and people were running out of food–literally.  The story begins with lepers talking about the city’s plight.

“Now four men with a skin disease were at the entrance to the city gate. They said to each other, “Why just sit here until we die? If we say, ‘Let’s go into the city,’ we will die there because the famine is in the city, but if we sit here, we will also die. So now, come on. Let’s surrender to the Arameans’ camp. If they let us live, we will live; if they kill us, we will die.””  ‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭7:3-4‬ ‭CSB‬‬

These four men were looking at their options and choices.  1.  Doing nothing and dying (they said it twice).   2.  Going into the city where there is a famine and dying.  3.  Surrender to the Arameans’ camp and if we live we live and if we die we die.  You see the decision tree they were talking about had all the scenarios with possible outcomes.  In all of their negative scenarios they were going to die which is what was going to happen to them anyway.  Their third choice opened up the door for them to live.  You see no lose and only a win by staying alive.

Lets say you want a raise and the raise can only come about if you ask your boss.  If you say nothing, you haven’t lost anything because you are in the same place you were at before you started wanting a raise.  If you ask your boss for a raise and he/she says no, you haven’t lost anything and if he says yes, you have gained something.  No lose and only win situation.

By thinking about making decisions with a no lose scenario and only win perspective, it gives us more boldness to ask for what we want.  On this journey we are going to be bombarded with all kinds of decisions.  If we can grab ahold of this concept, we are going to become more bold in going forward and not allowing our fear to stifle us.

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Working With Integrity

Posted on May 1, 2018 by James Gorton

When I was growing up, my dad would take me places where he was called upon to fix a sink, or tile a wall, or place formica on a counter top.  There was almost nothing that my father couldn’t do.  He didn’t fix his own cars, but other than that he worked on almost everything that needed fixing or was broken and needed repair.  Small appliances.  Washers.  Dryers.  Leaky toilets.  Light switches.  Re-wiring circuits.  You name it, he fixed it.

Not once in all the time that I went with him did one of his clients ask for a contract for the job he was about to do for them.  My dad was a man of his word.  If he said that he would do a job, you could take it to the bank.  He was honest as the day is long and had a reputation of being a man of integrity.

I write about this concept of integrity because I came across a passage in the bible that caused me to ponder.  The story was found in the book of Kings and described one of the kings named Joash.  He was the king of Judah and was called upon to bring the nation of Judah back to the lord.  He was also called upon to rebuild the temple that had been damaged.  He had a plan of how the temple was to be rebuilt and we take up the story from there.

“Then Joash said to the priests, “All the dedicated silver brought to the Lord’s temple, census silver, silver from vows, and all silver voluntarily given for the Lord’s temple — each priest is to take it from his assessor and repair whatever damage is found in the temple.” But by the twenty-third year of the reign of King Joash, the priests had not repaired the damage to the temple.  II Kings 12:4-6  Silver that had been collected by Jewish men and women coming to the temple was being given to the priests who were supposed to give it to the workers to repair the temple.  Unfortunately, 23 years passed by and nothing had been repaired.  Where did all the silver go to?  What was it spent on?  What did the priests do with the silver and donations?  What happened with their integrity?  Their honesty?  Their responsibility to fix the temple?  Evidently, they had none, although they were the religious leaders of their day.  They gave King Joash their word to deliver the silver to the workers of the temple, but their actions didn’t follow their word.

An entirely different experience happened with another group of individuals that were part of the rebuilding process.  It says, “No accounting was required from the men who received the silver to pay those doing the work, since they worked with integrity.”
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭12:15‬   The priests were told by Joash to give  the silver to these men who were to give the money to the workers.  No accounting was required.  They worked with integrity.  This group of individuals were honest people and took what silver they had and gave it to those who were doing the work.  Their reputation was impeccable.  Their word was their bond.  They did what they said they would do.

On this journey, our reputation is so important.  Being people of our word to people we come in contact with can cause people to trust what we say because our word is consistent with what we do.  We have a choice to be like the priests or the men who required no accounting.  Everyday our word can be our bond.

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A Free-Flying Kite

Posted on April 9, 2018 by James Gorton

I told you about a book that my wife is reading entitled Reunion.  In the very first part of the book Bruxy Cavey tells about his experience with his dad flying a kite.  He and his dad got it up in the air and then his dad went somewhere else, leaving him alone to fly the kite.  “As a boy I had a vivid imagination, and I often personified my toys.  To me, my new kite was a person, deserving of the freedom to explore its own potential.  It seemed to pull away on purpose, struggling to be completely free of the constraints of the sting and my guiding grip.  (Ya, I was a weird kid.)  I felt I was holding it back from flying as high as it could fly and going wherever it wanted to go.  So I let go.  At first there was a flutter of freedom and flight.  But is was short-lived, and the maiden voyage of Bruxy’s first kite ended with a nosedive into dirt.”

The kite in some respects is typical of our journey through life.  We are tethered to our parents during the early years of life and begin in the teenage years to want to be free from their control of our strings.  We think that being free of those constraints of our parents will give us the freedom to fly wherever we want.  Once that freedom is given, we find out rather quickly that freedom carries its own consequences.  What we thought would bring us fulfillment only brings disappointment.  Broken relationships.  Worn-out-cars.  Our income not going far enough to meet our expenses.  Jobs that lack enough challenge.  Broken friendships.  Death.  The list goes on and on.

There was a song sung by Peggy Lee entitled Is That All There is  It’s a song about life from being a little girl to the point of being old and standing on the edge of death.  When we are free and untethered, we find that what seems to be of value in this world fades over time and we continue to ask the question, “Is that all there is.”

We have the opportunity in this life to become retethered to the One who brings purpose and meaning to life.  As Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly.” John 10:10.  On this journey, if you find yourself untethered and floundering through life, it might be advisable to retether yourself to the God of this universe that does have a purpose and meaning for everyone walking on this earth.  We only have to recognize that our freedom has led us down the wrong road and ask to be tethered to the One who can give life and give it abundantly.

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The Sharpening Process

Posted on April 3, 2018 by James Gorton

I got up this morning and had a desire to go and work out.  I don’t always get that desire, because the comfort of the bed at 5 am is more of a draw than getting out of bed, walking to the closet and putting on my workout gear to drive 12 minutes to get on the rowing machine and sweat for 30 minutes.  But this morning I had the desire.  It didn’t seem like I was there for an hour, but I was.  I lifted some weights after working on the rowing machine and finished by putting some hand sanitizer on before walked out to my truck to drive home.

What happened next is what I want to talk about.  I came into the living room from the garage and there Nadine was, sitting in my red chair and reading a book.  She had her coffee by her chair and seemed in a very upbeat mood.

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The book she was reading was entitled Renuion written by Bruxy Cavey.  She was excited about what she was reading and began to read some excerpts that touched her soul.  I found myself being sucked into her enthusiasm and began to be hit by the same material that touched her.  Her learning was rubbing off onto me.

I was reminded about Solomon, the wisest person on earth, who wrote about this phenomenon.  He says, “As iron sharpens iron, so does one man sharpen another.” Proverbs 27:17.  When iron hits iron, two things happen.  There are sparks.  There is heat.  There is a sharpening process whereby one piece of iron causes the other piece of iron to become more sharpe.  That is what was happening this morning.  As Nadine began to read to me, I was becoming enlightened by the passages she chose to read.

On this journey we will come in contact with people that are close to us.  They may cause some sparks to fly.  They may cause some heat to produce in our interaction with them.  Or they may cause us to become sharper in our understanding of life and how to grow.  Make sure that your mind is opened when the interaction occurs to become sharper.

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A Brother’s Love

Posted on April 2, 2018 by James Gorton

Easter has come and has gone.  The beautiful dresses have been put away for another occasion and the Sunday shoes have been placed back on the shelf.  The scales if we are brave enough to get on them tell the tale of that extra piece of cake or the 10th peanut butter cup.  Hopefully in the midst of the glitter, we all had the time to reflect on the theme of Easter, the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What happened though yesterday with my grandsons caught my eye–really my ear.

DSC_0235  Brayden (8) and Keaton (5) were in the backyard playing hockey and running around like kids are supposed to do.  It was quiet inside the house as the adults were busy in conversation when all of a sudden a blood curdling scream came out of the little one.  It got everybody’s attention and in he came.  It was a cry that you know is serious as he couldn’t catch his breath to cry some more.  He couldn’t tell us what was going on as he was in severe pain.  There didn’t seem to be any obvious blood coming from his extremities (thank God for that because I faint at the sight of blood).

What had happened is that Keaton was on top of a scooter train he was supposed to be sitting on, but was standing on this train.  He was in the process of skateboarding on this train when it hit a concrete crack and stopped abruptly.  The action of the train caused another reaction and Keaton took a head dive right onto the concrete–a head plant bottom line.

What ensued was the interesting point for me.  Brayden first wanted an apple because that is Keaton’s fruit.  He then came close to Keaton who was still crying and tried to make him laugh.  He was telling him a story of a friend who did a face plant and acted it out which began to cause Keaton to smile.  He continued this behavior until Keaton stopped crying entirely and began to laugh at his brother.  Brayden was so concerned about his brother and wanted to show him love by comforting a brother who was in much pain.

It reminds me of Paul when he talked about comforting others.  “Praise be to the God . . . of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive From.  For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” II Corinthians 1:3-5 When we are hurting, God wants to come along and comfort us, so that we can come along and comfort others with the comfort we received from Christ.

Brayden was a great example to me of a brother’s love in coming alongside his brother and comforting Keaten in time of need.  On this journey, there will be plenty of times we encounter those who are hurting.  We have the opportunity like Brayden did to comfort those in need.

 

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CHRIST IS RISEN

Posted on April 1, 2018 by James Gorton

Nadine and I went to the early sunrise service at our church.  It was beautiful outside as we heard again how Christ Jesus reconciled us to God by dying on the cross and resurrecting 2000 years ago.  The passage below is a beautiful message for each of us today.

“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.”  2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:16-20‬ ‭MSG

Have a blessed Easter

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Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

Posted on March 28, 2018 by James Gorton

We are bombarded daily with advertisements of stuff that “We need.”  Cars.  Trucks.  Clothes.  Homes.  Food.  Alcoholic beverages.  Digital games.  Services.  Get away cars.  Get away hotels.  Get away islands.  Get away cruises.  Furniture.  Glasses.  Shoes.  You name it, we got it.

When we are young, we are tempted to think that new cars or new clothes, or new shoes will change our present situation.  We are saturated with messages that more is better.  When we latch on to some message that tempts, it is difficult to let go of that temptation until we finally purchase the item and think that we have finally arrived.  We realize only too soon that what we thought would satisfy begins to tarnish and lose it’s initial appeal.

Hopefully as we grow older we realize that stuff can never satisfy and we begin the arduous task of decluttering our stuff.  Nadine and I are doing just that as we have become serious of selling our house and downsizing to 1/2 the present size or smaller.  The garbage can has been overflowing over the last month with stuff we are consciously choosing we don’t need.

Nadine got in the swing of the experience when she decided to declutter her shoe store.  I do mean a shoe store.

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51 pair of shoes that have been decluttered from her closet.  As you can tell she is very organized and lined them up according to color and style where the exercise shoes are all in one place, slippers in another place, and strap shoes in a section of their own.

I am really proud of her because she has begun to choose to declutter and simplify her life by getting rid of shoes she wouldn’t wear today.  Choosing to simplify is a day to day exercise of removing stuff in our lives that tempt us to stay connected with the lie that things can ultimately satisfy our lives.  Whether it be shoes, or shirts, or bolts, it is a conscious choice of ridding ourselves with things in our lives that keep us wrapped in the cocoon of desire.

Simplification involves changing the master of our lives.  Mark 10:17-31 is a story of the young man who was rich and wanted to know how he might inherit eternal life.  Jesus told him about the commandments of not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, not giving false testimony, not defrauding others, and honoring your father and mother.  The young man responded by saying that he had done all of these things.  He was a good man, one you would want to be your neighbor.  Jesus then said to him, “One thing you lack.  Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”  He walked away as his face fell.  He had a lot of money and was unwilling to simplify.  He couldn’t get rid of his stuff.

I am so proud of my wife as she has begun to do what I have been doing for awhile.  It is a process of letting go as you can see her closet now.

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They fit now on her shelves, but she is not done yet.  On this journey when God calls you to simplify and sell the stuff to follow him, be encouraged that He doesn’t give up on us and is waiting for us to simplify, simplify, simplify.

 

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A Grandmother’s Love

Posted on March 27, 2018 by James Gorton

When I was growing up, I lived next to my Grandmother Gorton.  I vaguely remember her taking care of me when my dad went to work and my mom was teaching school.  What I remember the most were snow days.

On snow days when the roads were too dangerous to drive the school buses, the schools would call off school for the day or two and I would be thrilled.  I didn’t have to go to school, but more importantly, I would get to go over to my grandma’s house and have her dote on me all day long.  I mean all day long.

I would get over to her house early in the morning for her to squeeze me a fresh glass of orange juice followed by Swedish pancakes smothered in maple syrup and crispy bacon. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  I didn’t have to clean up as she did that chore.  Then came the best part.

We would play games all day.  Monopoly.  Canasta.  Hearts.  Spades.  You name it we played it.  ALL DAY.  She was not one of those grandmothers who would let you win.  I had to win fair and square.  She treated me like a king and I loved it.

An incident a couple of Sundays ago reminded me of my memories of my grandmother.  We had gone over to my daughters house to cook them a breakfast and as I turned around I saw Nadine interacting with our grandson.

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She was working with Brayden in having him stir the eggs and fix scrambled eggs.  She was valuing him just like my grandmother did to me.

In II Timothy 1, Paul communicated the importance of family in developing our perspective in the world.  He was indicating that Timothy’s faith was developed in the interaction he had with his grandmother as well as with his mother.  “That precious memory triggers another:  your honest faith–and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you.”

We as grandparents and parents have the privilege of positively impacting our children and grandchildren every time we interact with them.  It is a real privilege of affecting the next generation with principles and truths of God and His love.

On this journey, be aware of the people you come in contact with today and see that interaction as one that could change the direction and mindset of the person we touch.

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