Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCLXXXI

I've heard the stories, and I've sung the songs. I've read the descriptions, and I've daydreamed. Yet, even with all of that, I just can't seem to get a clear mental picture of what Heaven is like. Practically all of us can say we know a little bit about it, but I dare say that none of us can say that we know even a fraction of all there is to know, except that it's a wonderful place. In fact, if I can slightly paraphrase here, "eyes haven't seen, ears haven't heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man all that God has prepared for those who love Him." But...we can speculate, and I'm sure we've all done that too. Can you think of some aspects of Heaven that, in your mind, would be required to make it perfect? Can you think of some things that, if they are missing, would disappoint you? God will be there, and that will make it perfect, but if I correctly understand what I've heard and read, we will also be reunited with our loved ones who have gone on before us, and we'll be able to fellowship with them at our leisure. The subject of that reunion is where I want to spend some time today. With all my heart I believe that I have parents and grandparents, plus a whole host of friends and relatives, too numerous to mention, who will be there to welcome me when my time comes to enter there. To be perfectly honest, when you think of Heaven, don't you, more times than not, spend time thinking of your loved ones whom you expect to see there? And aren't there some who are a little more special to you than others? Don't you believe that reuniting with them will make Heaven just a little bit better for you? I feel like the majority of you have been right with me up to this point in this discussion, but here's where I may be about to lose some of you. We've recently lost a member of our family, causing our hearts to be broken, and it would make us so happy if we could be reunited with her in Heaven, but here's the deal....she's a dog. Although I can't tell you that I've read anything that proves that there will be animals in Heaven, I HAVE read a prophecy that said (paraphrasing again) "the wolf and the lamb will live together, the leopard will lie down with the baby goat, the calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child shall lead them." That may take place during the thousand years of peace on earth...I'm not sure, but it gives me hope. We're looking with great anticipation toward that "great reunion day," and there are some dear loved ones we expect to see. It would sure be neat if Marlee would be one of them. Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCLXXX

Okay, I admit that she was being a little over dramatic, but the words she was yelling had some truth to them and served as some great fodder for me in the opening paragraph in today's article. Here's what happened: We were at a 5K race in Farmerville, Louisiana. I had already finished and was standing with the other finishers and spectators near the finish line watching the remaining runners as they were approaching the line. A good friend was chatting with me and had my attention until we suddenly heard some high-pitched screaming and yelling coming from a young woman who was about to reach the finish line. At first her words were inaudible, but as she got closer, we were able to make out what she was saying, "MOVE OUTTA MY WAY!! I CAN'T STOP! I CAN'T STOP!" She ran through the finish area, past the table where she was supposed to sign her card, on for at least thirty more yards before she finally came to a halt. (I have a feeling that if there had been a pond full of alligators behind the finish line, she would've been able to stop a little sooner.) Her words and actions helped prove a scientific fact: "Objects in motion tend to stay in motion." And if she had hit that table that was set up behind the finish line, she would have learned the second part of that statement: "Objects at rest tend to stay at rest." A train is a good example. It's hard to get a train moving when it's stopped, but once it gets going, it's hard to stop. Now, since a person's body is an object, we could also say, "Bodies in motion tend to stay in motion, and bodies at rest tend to stay at rest." You can watch a small child and find evidence of that theory. At night, if he's running and playing hard, he will not want to shut down when it's bed time, but the next morning after he's been sleeping all night, he will not want to get up. I know some people who seem to be addicted to exercise, and I think it's because they are bodies in motion. I also know some people who appear to be lazy, and that's because they're bodies at rest. And neither group really understands the other. One of my good running friends recently told her husband, "It's hard to explain the passion of climbing a mountain to a person who rides an escalator." As a runner, I have discovered that one of the hardest things for me is taking a break from running when I have an injury, but, you see, I am a body in motion. In those situations, like most die-hard runners, or "bodies in motion," I have a tendency to start back before I'm completely recovered. Another scientific fact is "it is possible for a body in motion to become a body at rest, and a body at rest can become a body in motion." Although it's rare, a workaholic can become lazy, but the good news is a slothful individual can, with some effort, become a "body in motion." Several years ago I made that effort and became that body in motion, and I plan to remain that way until the day I become, not simply a body at rest, but a body at eternal rest. Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCLXXIX

A few weeks ago I was honored to be a guest speaker in a class at a church across town. I spoke about some things that were very personal to me, and a couple times during my presentation, my voice broke. I know I shouldn't have been, but I was a little embarrassed by that. You see, I grew up in Nebo, Louisiana and now live in Duck Dynasty country, places where men are tough and act like men. It seems to me that there is a movement across our nation and even the world to try to, for lack of a better word, "feminize" men. I don't like that, and I don't think the majority of the population does either. At the same time, with the tremendous increase we now have of women holding public office, there is even pressure on them not to shed tears in public. As a general rule, however, it is much more acceptable in our society for a woman to cry than it is for a man. With all of that said, I do believe it is now becoming increasingly okay for men to show emotions in public, and I do like that. When John Boehner first became Speaker of the House in 2010, his voice broke several times during his first big speech, and for a while, he had to deal with being called a cry baby, but that was mostly coming from his political opponents. The same people who were calling him names would have defended a man from their own party if he had cried while speaking. I dare say that any man who is reading this article has had to fight back tears numerous times since becoming an adult, which means he understands when he sees another man choking up while trying to speak. Men will likely never be as prone to tears as women because we're wired differently, the way God designed us. However, I also believe that much of the pressure we face today as it relates to showing our emotions in public is "man-induced"...not "God-induced." In other words, my embarrassment for the tears during my speech was due to the fact that I was afraid it made me look weak. I've given it a lot of thought since then, though, and I think I'm beginning to gain a new perspective on that issue. It takes a man who is secure in his masculinity to cry in public without intimidation. There's no reason for me to feel any type of humiliation simply because I may have shed a tear or two, because I AM secure...and I'm tough. After all, I'm from Nebo. Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCLXXVIII

Polygamy is illegal. I just wanted to remind you of that fact in case you were thinking about adding another spouse. You just can't have more than one....at a time, at least. Hopefully you're like me and you're happy with the one you have, but honestly, are there ever times when you feel like throwing up your hands and saying "Life would be so much more simple if I was single?" Well, I don't want to be single, and my wife and I have a great relationship, but if I told you we aIways see eye to eye, I'd be lying, and the times when we don't are not happy times. Now, do you think if you had more than one, you'd be able to get both of them happy at the same time? The likelihood of that happening decreases with each additional spouse. Now let's switch to the topic of "Wisdom." Wisdom comes through the experiences of life and the ability to take what we've learned through those experiences and to apply them to the challenges we're facing today. I love to listen to the words of a man or woman who has accumulated wisdom down through the years as they instruct us on the best ways to navigate life. A sign of youthful wisdom is exhibited when a younger person will listen to and heed those words. Have you ever taken the time to sit down and read the book of Proverbs? It was written by the wisest man ever, King Solomon, who basically had the good fortune to be granted a wish by God, and he used that wish to ask for wisdom. As a result, he also ended up with great wealth because of that wisdom. Do you consider yourself a wise person, or do you sometimes feel that you must've gone to the restroom while God was handing out wisdom? If it's the latter, is it because of some foolish decisions you've made? Have you ever done something so stupid that you just felt like a total idiot? I have, but I've discovered something that gives me hope and makes me feel a little better about myself. To examine it will require going back to the first paragraph. We established the fact that taking more than one spouse to try to care for and please would not be a wise decision, but what if we tried to gain some perspective on that topic from King Solomon, the wisest man ever? If you know much Bible history at all, you will know that he tried more than one wife, but when that failed to make him happy, he tried adding another, and then another, until he ended up with not two, nor three, nor four, but seven hundred wives!! And then to top it off, in addition to all those wives, he added three hundred girlfriends on the side! Can you imagine?! I must tell you, though, that I can read his story and find some reassurance for myself: Sometimes even the wisest among us do some foolish things. Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCLXXVII

I had no choice in the matter, yet if I could go back and do it all over again, this time WITH a choice, I wouldn't change a thing. I just got lucky, I guess, because babies never get to choose their parents, and for me to have been born into the home I was born into was a blessing for which I will always be grateful. We don't have to look far to see children who aren't nearly as fortunate, and when we stop to think about it, it just doesn't seem fair. Much of who I am today is a direct result of the efforts and love of my mom and dad. At first, all my decisions were made by them, then, for the next couple decades, they gradually gave me the authority to make more and more of my own, until I finally reached the point to where 100% of my decisions were made by me. When that time arrived in my life, I had a huge choice to make. The biggest and most important decision a person will ever make is the one concerning his eternal destiny. The second most important, in my opinion, is the choice of who do I want to choose as a mate....the person I want to share the rest of my life with. Sometimes I wonder just how much thought is put into that choice. At that point of a person's life, he has more than likely spent at least twenty years living with parents and will probably not stop long enough to consider the fact that that amount of time is only a fraction of the time he will be spending with this new spouse. I wonder how many young adults pause long enough to consider what kind of mom or dad this person will become. I wonder how many take the time to try to foresee what kind of life he will have as a senior citizen with this prospective spouse. Hopefully they will at least look past the lust long enough to question if this is really love. How many brides-to-be spend more time planning a wedding than they do planning for all the days and years that follow? Angie and I dated for two years before getting married, and during that pre-nuptial period, we had the time to consider all those things, but honestly, I'm not sure just how much thought we put into it. What we did do, however, was make sure about the most important consideration...was it really love. I don't know that we actually thought hard enough to contemplate the possibility that we could potentially spend triple the time with each other as we did with our parents. Thank God we made sure it was love! Speaking of love, we experienced a whole new kind of love when our two kids came along, and I can't imagine a thing that either of them could do that would make us love them any less. The love that a parent has for a child is immeasurable and eternal. Angie and I can't begin to express how much joy those two have brought to our lives. For the rest of our time on earth they will be our kids, yet both of them spent their first two decades of life with us, then moved on....just the way it's supposed to be done. We cherish every moment we get to spend with each one of them, but those moments are now simply visits, and at the end of the day, it's back to just Angie and me. None of us had any options as to what family we would be born into, no more than our own kids had in their births. Like I was saying, I feel fortunate to have the family I had, and hopefully our kids feel the same way. Fortunately for those who feel less lucky in that regards, after about twenty years you will have an opportunity to bail. The one that really matters, though...the one that is eternal, you do have a choice, and that requires a degree of wisdom. I'm reaping the rewards of choosing wisely. So is my wife. Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volulme CCCLXXVI

If I've heard it once, I've heard it said a thousand times..."I don't care one iota what other people think about me." Really? Okay then, consider this: Let's say that through your years of marriage, you have never even considered being unfaithful to your husband, yet for some reason, some false information has gotten around, and people's opinions of you suggest otherwise. Are you saying that, since you don't care what people think about you, that wouldn't bother you? Suppose you have always paid your bills in a timely manner, but the word on the street is you're a terrible credit risk. Are you saying that you wouldn't be upset by those allegations? It seems to me that, since I didn't care what people think about me, if I heard there were some rumors about me going around, I wouldn't even care to hear what's being said. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you've heard me talk about the difference between reputation and character, and how our reputation is what others think we are, and our character is what we actually are. In those articles, I stressed the fact that good character is more valuable than a good reputation, and while I continue to stand by that statement, I want to spend time today explaining why I think a good reputation is vital for a successful life. If you and I are having a conversation where we're expressing our opinions, would my opinions mean anything to you, or would you just let them go in one ear and out the other? I think that would depend on your opinion of me. If you thought of me as a windbag who spews out words simply for the joy of hearing myself speak, more than likely, you really wouldn't care to hear what I had to say. On the other hand, if you've known me to use sound judgment in the past, you would find me more interesting. If I want my words to carry weight, I need a good reputation. Would you feel safe in a car I'm driving? Would you trust me around your kids? Would you loan me fifty bucks? I think it would all depend on what you think about me. Sometimes I wish I could view myself through your eyes, but that's because I care about your opinion of me. Perhaps if I don't care what others think of me, it could indicate that I'm a selfish person...someone who feels that it's all about me. If I want to help others, I need others to trust me...and that means I need to have a good reputation. Let me just get down to what I really believe. Sometimes we may carelessly make the statement that we don't give a rip what others think, but if we'll stop and give it some thought, we'll find that we all care. Knowing that makes me feel better. Preston

Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCLXXV

As a runner and especially  as a marathoner, I was angered and saddened by the events in the Boston Marathon a few weeks ago. Like most Americans, I stayed glued to the television as they closed in on, and ultimately captured, the second suspect who perpetrated that horrific act of terror.  In fact, if you watched much TV at all during those few days, there wasn't much else to choose from in the way of programming, because that's practically all the news media talked about. I don't blame them for that...they were giving the public what they wanted. The nation watched these events unfold, and as a result, thousands of our citizens are afraid, or at least extremely nervous about attending or participating in events such as marathons or other big sporting events. Chalk one up for the terrorists. That's what they wanted. Like I was saying, the news media were just doing their job. If they hadn't reported those events as they did, there would have been a huge outcry from all of us. However, there are some related events that were NOT reported, and that's what I want to talk about today. Please understand that I don't mean to take away anything from the memory of those innocent victims who lost their lives that morning in Boston...I just want to tell you something that you didn't hear on the news that might make you feel a little less afraid. Here it is:  In this year's  Boston Marathon, tens of thousands of runners and hundreds of thousands of spectators went home safely to their families, just like they had planned. We, as humans, glamorize and focus on the spectacular, and we have a tendency to ignore the normal or most likely occurrences. You, me, and everyone else are gonna die someday, and none of us know when that day will come. Yes, it may be due to an act of terror, but the likelihood of that is minuscule. Just like you, I'm doing all I can to preserve my life for as long as I can, but I refuse to live my life in fear, especially of events that are so extremely unlikely. As a matter of fact, I'm sending you this message from Fargo, North Dakota, where I, along with my wife and some friends, will be participating in the Fargo Marathon tomorrow morning. It may be the last thing I do, but the likelihood of me dying was greater on my way to the airport yesterday morning than it has been at any time since. Approximately 40,000 people die on our highways every year, yet we all are driving just as much or more than ever. More than 600,000 people die from heart disease every year, yet we continue on with our lives as usual, even eating the types of food that increase our risks. Then we freak out when the spectacular happens to a few individuals, and the reason is, just like I said last week, the things we magnify are what appear larger in our lives. Tomorrow morning I will rise early and begin my run without fear, yet I will be running in honor of those who died or were injured in Boston. Sunday afternoon, I will board a plane and head for home without fear. Monday morning I will rise early and begin the long drive to a business meeting in Atlanta. That's when I'll be in the most danger, yet hundreds of thousands of people drive to and from Atlanta every year in complete safety, so I will not fear. Preston Sent from my iPad=