"Who’s your daddy?"

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You know, there’s a difference between being a father and being a daddy.

Being a father is about biology. Being a daddy is about being there when you learn to ride your bike or hit a baseball or score a soccer goal.

Being a father is about buying a house. Being a daddy is about creating a home, a place and space where you know you can go no matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done.

Being a father is about not sparing the rod. Being a daddy is about teaching you how to measure up to your full potential as a person, about having integrity and playing fair and treating others the way you want them to treat you.

Being a father is about ruling your household. Being a daddy is about respecting your wife and children, and earning their respect by doing the right thing by them.

Being a father is about making a living. Being a daddy is about listening and making a life, and taking time to hear about your wows and your woes.

This Sunday, I pray you can wish "Happy Daddy’s Day" to yours!

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"When is something scary really neat?"

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A father and son stood in a clearing just outside of a forest.

"Looks kind of scary, Dad," the son said. "I’m not so sure we should go in there."

"Yea," the father said, "It is rather dark in that forest."

"It sure is dark," the son said.

Then the father said, "But let’s go in anyway. It could be a neat place" and started walking into the forest.

"What do you mean ‘a neat place?’" the son asked.

"Well, let’s look and see," the father said.

They began exploring the forest floor for insects and animals, plants and rocks. They found trees like none they had seen before. They discovered berries that tasted delicious and flowers that smelled so aromatic their fragrance clung to your hand. "This is a neat place," the son said.

Today when you stand outside of a new, scary experience, remind yourself that God translates dark forests into neat places and then listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"How do you like your tea?"

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Did you know that in the U.S. June is National Iced Tea Month?

Now for those who grew up in the southern U.S., I suspect every month is National Iced Tea Month. Most likely you were weaned on iced tea and probably sugar-sweetened iced tea. You drink sweet iced tea with at least two meals a day and maybe even for breakfast, too. For you, iced tea is…well, normal. But go to another part of the world, like the Orient, and iced tea isn’t normal. When you ask for tea, it’s not iced, but hot. It may not be black tea, but green tea. And you drink it from a tiny cup, not a 20 ounce tumbler filled with ice cubes.

What’s interesting to me as I listen to life is that so many of us assume everyone else grew up like we did, e.g., gulping iced tea or sipping hot tea, and that our way is the right way. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since God has the whole world in hand, expand your horizons a bit today and accept others as they are, regardless of how they drink tea.

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"What do you want?"

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Let’s say that you want to go on a trip to Hawaii. So you boot up your computer, Google "Hawaii," and pretty soon you’re on a virtual trip to Hawaii. You’re looking at two-dimensional, pixel pictures of the place called "Paradise."

But what do you miss on your virtual trip? You miss smelling the harvesting of pineapples and the rainforest orchids. You miss hearing the birds sing and the surf crash against the lava rock coastline. You miss seeing in three dimensions miles and miles from atop a volcano-created mountain that resembles a moonscape. You miss tasting all the delicacies of a luau and dancing to the drummer’s beat.

If you settle for the virtual in life, you may be more in love with an idea than you are committed to realizing it, to making it happen. If you want something in life, first you seek it—doing whatever it takes to go after your prize.

And that’s when you find it. When you seek it, you find it.

Seek out God today and what God’s best is for your life. And you’ll find it as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

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"Who was the playground bully at your school?"

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I guess every school has one. It can be a boy or a girl. It’s usually a child who’s failed a grade. Or, maybe a kid who just grew faster than everyone else. Regardless, this child decides it’s his job to rule over the kingdom of the playground. He makes his own rules, daring anyone to defy his authority and enforcing it whenever possible, using whatever means necessary—threats backed up by punches. He’s the playground bully.

Who was the playground bully at your school? And when did you fall prey to one of his tirades? Or, did you?
Maybe you did your best to be a compliant subject in the playground kingdom.

Do you think of God as a playground bully? Bigger than you and forcing you to do what’s required? Threatening you to comply with divine demands and punishing you if you don’t?

God’s really not like that at all. God speaks to your spirit gently and deeply, and lets you choose how to do what you do and when. So listen to life today not out of fear, but in faith so you can make a life, not just a living.

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