New Self

Wow....think of all of the 'self' involved phrases and sayings in our society.  Just a quick brainstorm brings some to mind:

~selfie
~selfish
~selfless
~self indulgent
~self-sacrifice
~self-centered

What a difference a minor syllable or two can make in the definition of a word!  For 2017, may we all be less self-focused and more others-focused.  Here's a great verse to get us started:

"and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."  Ephesians 4:24

Happy New Year!

The Faith of an R-Key

When I started traveling with the carnival years and years ago, I learned so many surprising things about human nature, traveling, moving, and the art of persuasion.  One of the really hard-to-believe things was how the rides and games were held together. Many, if not most, of the connecting pieces were held together with a small metal device known as an R-Key:

When the rides and games were being torn down and packed up to move to the next town, the R-Keys were removed and thrown into metal coffee cans for storage. After arriving in a new town, set-up began, so the coffee cans were unpacked and the R-Keys reconnected the pieces.

Such a small thing doing such a big job.

It reminds me of the parable of the mustard seed.  In Luke 17:5-7 it says "The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!'  And the Lord said, 'If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."

I love that we're not asked to have bushels and bushels of faith...just a tiny seed.  God asks that we give the small that we're able to give, and he makes it count in the huge ways that only He's able to do!

No Longer

My "Tales" are all about things I went through, felt, and did...but I'm no longer there.  I talk about lessons learned, often the hard way.  I encourage everyone to be open and honest about things they've gone through, too.  Why?  To show others who might be in similar circumstances that we're no longer there. To give guidance and instruction.  To give hope.

With this in mind, I'm declaring November to be "No Longer" November.  My sons like to celebrate "No Shave November," but I like mine better, haha!  As we enter November, I invite you to share your "No Longers" with others; start thinking and praying along those lines.  Let's celebrate our 'no longers!'

...It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. ~Galatians 2:20

The Greatest of Grandparents

I’m fortunate, though I didn’t always realize it.  I was blessed with two sets of godly, dedicated grandparents, who loved me even while I was aimlessly drifting.  So, a belated shout-out to W.F. (Bill) & Nadine Lown and Roy & Florence Moyer!  They were all faithful to God throughout their lives, even to the end, despite all of them dying in painful ways, of cancer, disease, or heart issues.   

Earlier this week, right before shutting down the computer for the night, I googled my granddad, Bill Lown.  He had crossed my mind for some reason, and I was curious what information or pictures were out there.  It was neat to read through a lot of the history he was involved in with the restoration movement, missions, the North American Christian Convention, and as the president of Manhattan Christian College.  I even found some audio files of some of his old sermons, and it was so good to hear his voice again!  

I always viewed Granddad as a very important, dignified person…but he was also very accessible and loving.  When I was a young grade-schooler, I would frequently send him fake ‘checks’ I filled out using order forms and receipt books, as a ‘donation’ to Manhattan Christian College.  I sent quite a few of these over a two- or three-year period, and it might have been annoying after awhile, but every time I sent a ‘check,’ he would send a ‘receipt’ and a thank you letter, with loving words of appreciation for my good intentions.  He was also one of my biggest cheerleaders, encouraging me to be a writer after I won an essay contest and had a poem published in fifth grade.  I’m belatedly trying to honor his belief in me!

Fast forward to me traveling in a rag-tag carnival with the guy I married after a whirlwind ‘romance.’  Imagine my grandmother and granddad…this lovely, dignified, respected couple…visiting me on the midway!  We were set up near Joplin, Missouri, where my granddad was teaching at Ozark Christian College in his semi-retirement, and it was near my birthday, so they came and visited.  They graciously met all of the carnies, and looked around at games and rides on the midway.  I’m sure they were dying inside at the state of their granddaughter’s situation, but they didn’t betray any negative feelings.  They were loving and supportive, as always.

We don’t often appreciate what we have, until it’s gone.  But we can honor those who have gone before us by continuing to walk in the way of faith as they did, treating others with love and respect, as they did.  I only hope my grandchildren can look back someday on precious memories of love and godliness they experience with me.

“Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.” ~Psalms 22:30

One thought on “The Greatest of Grandparents”

Larry Kuhl 

 

I have fond and wonderful memories of W.F. Lown – nothing but respect for this man of great integrity and honor. He always had something encouraging to say – even if it was a passing on the stairs at MCC.

If you can't roll it up in your apron...

When running a game, we all wore money aprons in order to keep close tabs on what we took in and to quickly make change.  Filling that apron with as much money as possible was most workers’ nightly goal, and at the end of the night, we all rolled up our aprons tightly, tied them, and took them to the boss for counting.  Throughout the evening, if someone was doing something that didn’t contribute to making money, they would be scolded (or yelled at, if the boss saw them), being told “If you can’t roll it up in your apron, don’t mess with it.”  The most common side-tracking issue that came up was flirting.  For some workers, that was their way to bring players to their games, but others just got people who would plant themselves at the edge of the game, not playing the game, just trying to get attention.  When someone yelled “You can’t roll it up in your apron!” that was the carney way of saying “Get them away from your game if they’re not playing!”  Workers who were side-tracked weren’t filling that apron with cash.
 
As Christians, we’ve been given spiritual jobs…we’re to make and teach disciples (Matthew 28:19-20) and to love God and our neighbors (Mark 12:30-31).  Ever known, or been, a Christian who got side-tracked on that?  Human nature wars with spiritual discipline…straying from, or staying on, the path…wanting things (possessions, attention, power) more than wanting what God would have us do.  

May we remember the crucial advice given to us in Matthew 6:16-20:  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.“  Now there’s something we can roll up in our aprons!

One thought on “If you can’t roll it up in your apron…”

Leaona Ellis 

 

Glad for another blog from you! I love how God is using your experiences!

Town Marks

Carnies have a name for the people in each place to which they travel…town marks.  They usually view town marks only as a way to get cash…as much cash in as short of time as possible.  Generally speaking, the ‘town marks’ view carnies in a certain way, too.  If you’ve read my book, you read about a time when a gas station employee tried to prevent a group of us from coming in, as well as another time local police came looking for me, simply because I fit the description of a suspect and being with the carnival made me even more suspect in their eyes.  Even though there was an “us vs. them” feeling, when people would take a chance to get to know some of us, or when we’d view townspeople as more than just ‘marks,’ there were some good encounters.  I met a lot of nice people from town-to-town, state-to-state, from younger people to local law enforcement.  The good experiences outweighed the bad by far, all because I was willing to look beyond the ‘us vs. them’ barrier.
 
I keep feeling that same “us vs. them” vibe in many settings this year.  Most current is the presidential election going on in the U.S. right now.  I reallytry not to make comments about current events, because I have good friends from various points-of-view, politically.  Sometimes people genuinely want to know what I think, and we can have a good discussion, but for the most part, the general national discourse is more of a trading of “gotcha” barbs and insults rather than exchanging of honest, kindly-spoken opinions.  Thinking back a few months, remember the whole Chick-Fil-A “us vs. them” bruhaha?  It also basically turned into an insulting, painting-everyone-with-the-same-brush situation, rather than a genuine and calm discussion of the situation.  Earlier this year there were the “Occupy” protests, as well as regular riots and demonstrations all around the world.  Angry.  Insulting.  Dangerous.  Wearisome.

1 Corinthians 14:33 tells us that “God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”  Even if you’re not a Christian, I hope you acknowlege a Creator and an order to the universe.  I also hope that you’ve only had peaceful encounters with Christians.  If there were angry, disorderly, hurtful exchanges, I’m very sorry you experienced a Christian on those terms.

For those who are Christians, there are nine fruit that we should display in our lives as the Holy Spirit shapes our hearts and character:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23).  So rather than having ‘us vs. them’ arguments and insults, we need to prayerfully analyze if we’re displaying these fruit of the Spirit.  Notice I’m not suggesting that we step away from living a godly life or having a Christian worldview.  I’m only suggesting that we step back and analyze motives.  Are we in verbal battles because we want to be right and clever?  I would urge ALL Christians to do more battling on our knees in prayer and less in the faces of others.

Cleanliness

When traveling with various carnivals back in the late 80s, getting and staying clean – hygiene – was a daily chore.  The game trailers have sleeping quarters built into the back, and if you’re lucky, some have toilets in them.  But showers?  Not likely!  Every day I either showered in makeshift shower areas on the carnival lot or did the best bathing I could in gas station or restaurant bathrooms (I remember an awkward time when I was washing my hair in a McDonalds bathroom and a worker came in and started talking.  I couldn’t understand her, and I felt obvious and weird enough, so I just would say things like ‘Haha, yeah,’ etc.  Then I discovered she was talking to someone else on her headset…..).  When we’d had an especially lucrative night of pay, we’d spring for a motel room…that was the best!  Until you have to make the effort to be clean, you tend to take the convenience of readily available showers and bathtubs for granted!  My sister, a missionary to North Africa, made a similar observation regarding the ease with which most of us Americans can access water.
 
I recently was remembering back to the ‘bathe in a restaurant bathroom’ days, and my scrambling to always find ways to stay clean, physically.  My mind turned to thoughts of being spiritually clean…prayerfully asking God to remove sin in my life, bad thoughts, harbored resentments…fasting…applying Truths I discover during Bible study…staying in fellowship with other believers.  I am ashamed to say that I’m not quite as diligent in getting spiritually clean, not as obsessed with finding ways to spiritually cleanse the filth of the world off of me.  There are days I pray as more of an afterthought than a meaningful conversation, and evenings I fall asleep realizing I didn’t study the Word that day.  May I ‘feel’ the grime of sin like I used to feel and seek to remove the grime of the midway.  Amen.

“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” ~Psalm 51:2