FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (April 22) - Police are looking for a pregnant woman they say tried to rob a North Carolina bank at gunpoint but left empty-handed after answering her cell phone. Fayetteville police spokeswoman Teresa Chance said Wednesday the woman had a handgun and demanded money when she entered a Carter Bank & Trust branch at 9:43 a.m. Tuesday. But she got distracted when her cell phone rang. Police said she began talking to the caller and left the bank without taking any money. No one was hurt."
Hmmmm...talk about getting distracted! Talk about losing focus! Good grief. I can't help but wonder what the conversation on the phone was about? Was it a friend calling to talk her out of the robbery?Did she receive some bad news or good news that caused her to reevaluate what she was doing? Did she turn to go out to the car to look for something that was brought up in the phone call and "wake up," so to speak, when she got outside? Did she just get caught up in a conversation and forget what she had been doing? Whatever caused it...the phone call distracted her and a robbery was prevented. That was good.
But what about when we get distracted and it's not good? What about when we are in the process of raising our kids, or pursuing an education to better address what God has called us to do, or tenaciously engaged in a task for the betterment of God's Kingdom...and we get distracted? Oh...it could be that we become enamored with a hobby, or get caught up in gossip, or maybe we mire ourselves in complaints about something we don't like, or maybe we just stop doing what God wants in order to do what we want for awhile. Whatever the cause...we become distracted, unfocused and – tragically – ineffective. When that happens...there is a loss. Not only for us, but also for those we are failing to adequately engage in the gospel.
Jesus needs you...He needs me...by choice. He has chosen to use us to be couriers of the gospel. He has purposely left the challenge of reaching our neighborhood, our city, and our world to us...and He needs us to be focused.
Oh...count on it...Satan will be "calling" you in one form or another. But it won't be to avert a theft...it will be to create one. He wants to steal you...to steal me...to steal as many as he can from being and doing what God desires. On what are you focused? Is Christ in that picture? Are you in a position to be used effectively for Christ?
"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13, 14
Well...we're at that point in the year when "diet" talk becomes the main dish on the talking table of people all over the states. Why? Because summer is approaching and people want to be "beach ready." We want to recapture that svelte physique that says, "Whoa...look at this!" Come on...you know it's true. No one wants to walk down to the water with a built-in tube around the waist. We don't want to look like an amphibious boat waiting to launch or a beached whale thrown upon the shore by a storm. So...it's time to talk diet.
What does it mean to diet? Obviously, the point isn't about eating less...no, it's not. The point is to lose weight. Eating less is merely the means to the end. That's why lots of diets will tell you that you can eat all you want and still lose weight. (They don't tell you initially that eating all you want means eating voluminous amounts of asparagus or celery sandwiched between pieces of cardboard). We all recognize that, to shed pounds, we must adjust what goes into our mouths. Personally, I find this repugnant...but nevertheless necessary. Sometimes it's easy to become focused on the diet and lose sight of the point...shedding pounds.
That sometimes happens in our spiritual journey, as well. We become focused on the path and forget about why we're on the path. We think the journey is about reading the Bible and praying and serving and going to church and helping the needy and all the "doing" that comes with our faith. There's certainly nothing wrong with these things...but the point of the journey is to know God. It is to live with Him and breathe His breath and sync our hearts and lives with Him.
You see...there are some things about relationships that can become difficult, such as resolving conflicts, forgiving offenses, learning to communicate effectively and thinking more about someone else than about yourself. But...we do all of that because the other person matters. We see the end result and we want to keep the relationship more than we want to languish in the pitfalls and potholes along the road.
More and more it becomes easy to lose sight of where we're going...to lose sight of Christ and each other. Don't do it! Don't overlook your relationship with Christ because you don't like something about "organized Christianity." (I've never understood that phrase. Perhaps the Church should try to be more unorganized. :-) ) Don't abandon your relationships because they require hard work and investment of self. Don't get bogged down in the journey and wander away from your destiny.
"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Colossians 3:1-3
"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." Proverbs 17:17
The birth of octuplets has been running front and center in news broadcasts for the past 10 days. The woman who gave birth January 26 to these little ones, Nadya Suleman, has been the target of a great deal of criticism since these babies made their way into the world outside their mother's womb. Suleman already has six other children. According to an exclusive story from usmagazine.com, Suleman's mother said Suleman was an only child who yearned for siblings when she was younger. Perhaps she may be trying to make up for a lack of brothers and sisters by making sure that her children have plenty of siblings to go around.
I have listened with interest to those who have railed against this woman for giving birth to octuplets. She is a single mother who had six embryos implanted (two of which transitioned into twins), leading to the multiple births. Reports that the babies were conceived through in vitro fertilization has sparked a debate over the ethics of such treatments and the ethics of having that number of children through that process. Doctors usually use from two to four embryos in fertility treatments (as not all eggs will survive, typically), not as many as six. Doctors at Kaiser say Suleman's eight babies so far are making good progress.
I have noted that liberals and conservatives alike have united on this issue and have made critical judgements on this single mom. Now...this column certainly won't address all the issues with this, but let me pose some questions.
1. For those who are "pro-choice" - Why is it ok for a mother to choose to kill her baby in the womb, but not ok for a mother to choose to have multiple children? What does a mother really have the "choice" to do? Are they really not "pro-choice?" Would it be more accurate to say they are simply in favor of the right to kill unborn children?
2. For those who are "Pro-life" - Why is it ok to choose life for a baby...as long as it meets what you believe to be a responsible number of lives? Should we become like China and begin to regulate the number of births we allow in each family?
3. For all - Who or what determines a responsible number of children? For some, one may be too many...for another, fourteen may not be enough.
What does encourages me about the focal point of the news coverage on this matter is this...apparently life does matter. Receiving love does matter. Being responsible does matter. Looking down the road and examining our future does matter.
How responsible are we being with the lives that God has given us...our own lives...our children's...our spouse's...our friendships...our influence? God has gifted us with life and we have a responsibility to nurture, develop, exercise and give of our lives to the glory of God. We are not to live for self, but rather for Christ. To squander our lives is to squander what God has designed to be a holy image of Himself.
Again...I ask...what are you doing with life?
"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light." Colossians 1:9-12
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