"Does your life work regardless of whether you’re perfect or not?"

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I can remember from my childhood helping my dad hang the lights on the Christmas tree. But before we hung them, we had to check them. My dad plugged them in to make sure they worked. Back then, the lights were serial, not parallel like today’s. Today, if one bulb is blown, the rest of them work just fine because the electricity flows around them to the other bulbs. But when I was a kid, each bulb was dependent on the other bulbs to work properly and pass on the electricity. If a bulb was blown, the circuit was broken and the electricity stopped there.

When that happened, I had to exchange each bulb with one that worked, checking to see if that was the blown one. If I got the right one, the string lit up. If it wasn’t the blown one, the string didn’t light up. The entire string had to be perfect for it to work.

I’m so grateful for today’s Christmas lights. And I’m also grateful that life works regardless of whether we’re all perfect or not, that God’s grace flows through us to each other even when you’re having a blown day.

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"Are you always on the go, paranoid, or do you take your time?"

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I really love watching hummingbirds. They each have their own personalities and preferences for feeding and relating to other birds.

For instance, I recently watched one hummer who never would land on the perch, but did drink, although not much at a time. He was off to somewhere else. Another bird wouldn’t land either, and would stick his bill in to feed, only to withdraw it quickly. He was paranoid about another hummer coming over to attack him, even though there wasn’t another bird around. Then there was a third hummingbird. She would sit on the perch and drink forever, like she had nowhere else to be or anything else to do. The other birds would buzz her to force her to leave the feeder, but they didn’t bother her. She’d just turn her head and look at them like, “What’s your problem?” and resume feeding.

So which one of these three birds are you most like? Always on the way to somewhere else? Too paranoid to light? Or taking your time, enjoying the sweet stuff of life?

The choice is yours so ask God to help you feed well as you make a life.

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"Got a can of spinach?"

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I loved watching Popeye cartoons when I was a kid. My favorite part of every cartoon was when Popeye got in trouble—usually trying to rescue Olive Oyl from the evil clutches of Brutus—just when it seemed Popeye was going down for the count, was too weak to battle on, almost out of nowhere his salvation would appear—a can of spinach. The music would change to this roaring, sound-the-charge tempo as Popeye squeezed open the can and gulped down his equivalent of an energy bar and drink in one can of spinach.

I guess I loved those scenes because when Popeye was so weak, he didn’t whine or blame Olive Oyl or make excuses about Brutus being bigger. He popped a can of responsibility. He did something differently. And he met the challenge.

So what about you? What do you do when you’re weak? Whine, blame, make excuses? Or, knock back a can of responsibility, throw up a heavenly request for God’s help to do the right thing?

When you’re weak, God is strong. So listen to life today and get strong.

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"How's your ride?"

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I recently rode with someone else. Now normally, I’m just along for the ride when someone else does the driving. I’m talking and looking out the window, but this time I couldn’t do that. My friend drives with one foot on the accelerator and the other foot on the brake. So down the road we go, but not very smoothly. He jerked me around the entire trip. It just wasn’t a smooth ride of easing off the accelerator and then applying the brakes. It was accelerator—brake—accelerator, just really abrupt.

When I got out of the vehicle, and said a prayer of thanks, I realized that some times I do life like that. Maybe you do, too. I go headlong into a project, only to stop abruptly for an interruption. Then when that’s over, I’m back to full speed.

The key to a smooth life’s ride is pacing, easing in and easing out of situations, while focusing on one thing at a time that God brings to your attention. And that’s why listening to life and making a life is so important. As you listen to life, God focuses you on what’s most important and that makes for a smooth ride.

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"Are you squirrelly?"

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You know I’m not a real big fan of squirrels. I call them “tree rats.” The truth is I have no use for them at all.

But recently as I took a break from doing yard work—and this is hard for me to admit—I learned something from a squirrel. I watched one playing in an oak tree. He was really small, and looked like this was his first summer.

I thought about how this fall would be his first also. And how he would be digging around in my mulch beds, looking for nuts and hiding them for the winter. Then I wondered, “How will he know to store nuts for the winter?”

And I realized that God put that instinct into the squirrel to know how to care for himself. And I’ll bet that squirrel never worries a single minute if there will be enough nuts to go around. He just collects them.

I hate to admit this, but that squirrel is smarter than me at times. Sometimes I worry about there not being enough nuts to go around, don’t you?

Be squirrelly today. Do what God puts in front of you to do and trust. There’s plenty to go around as you listen to life and make a life.

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