Years ago, my son was interviewing for kindergarten. As part of the interview Garrison had to take a series of assessments and tests. One of the tests to determine his level of self-awareness and mental development was for him to draw a self-portrait.

The drawing exercise began and Garrison, who is a rather detailed personality, proceeded to draw his face including his eyes, nose, hair, and ears, and then he drew his neck and a short sleeve shirt identifying his upper body down to his waist…without legs or arms, hands or feet… he stopped and handed the picture back to his tester.

His tester looked at his picture and asked Garrison if there was anything missing in the picture or if he had anything he wanted to add to the picture. She was expecting that he would draw his arms and legs, hands and feet. Garrison thought for a minute and let her know that he did have a more to add to the picture.

He drew on the picture for a minute or so longer and then proudly handed the drawing to the teacher. She expected to see that he had drawn arms and legs, and as she looked at his portrait she began to chuckle.

Instead of adding arms and legs, Garrison had meticulously drawn a number on the front of the shirt of his drawing… number 77.

It’s interesting to me that just as Garrison at this age couldn’t recreate the complete picture of what he looked like, we often don’t see the full picture of who we are.

If you’re a Christ-follower, there’s a transformation that’s happened to your soul and is happening in your soul. You are a new person and you’re on a pathway to Christlikeness.

You may only be thinking about the “77” on your shirt, but God has a complete picture of your destiny and He’s a master artist.

Celebrate the fact that the God who created you is continuing his craftsmanship.

You are his masterpiece.

Roberto Duran was nicknamed “Hands of Stone”. He is regarded as one of the top 5 all-time pound for pound fighters. He held world titles at four different weights. His career crossed five decades. He finally retired in January 2002 at the age 52. Legend has it that he knocked out a horse with a punch at the age of 14 after someone dared him to try it. His career record was 120 fights, 104 wins with an astonishing 69 knockouts.

But November of 1980, in the Louisiana Superdome, one fight and two words became what he will be most remembered for. It was a rematch fight with “Sugar-Ray” Leonard. There was no love-loss between these fighters and the build-up to the fight was at a fever pitch as the bell rung to signal the beginning of the fight.

Leonard had learned from his earlier fight with Duran and he avoided getting into a flat-footed brawl. He jabbed and danced all over the ring for 7 rounds…. Taunting Duran to the point that it was almost embarrassing. Duran seemed unable to land his trademark punches.

In the seventh round Leonard taunted and embarrassed Duran with a “bolo punch” where he moved his right arm in a circular motion drawing Duran’s attention to his right hand and smartly scored a stinging jab with his left hand.

During the eighth round Duran abruptly turned to the referee and turned away from Leonard and amazingly quit the fight. His two Spanish words, “No mas”, meaning no more, ended the fight.

Boxing fans couldn’t believe what they were watching. I can still remember my dad talking about this fight. He had quit in the middle of a fight. With all of the hype and drama that led up to the fight, it didn’t seem possible it would end like this.

He had quit. Normally when a fighter or his trainer throws in the towel the opponent has beaten them to a pulp and for the safety of the fighter the inevitable ending to the fight is acknowledged. This was not the case for this fight.

Leonard led by a small margin of 68-66, 68-66 and 67-66 on the judges’ scorecards at the beginning of the eighth round. The outcome of the fight was still yet to be determined. Duran still had time to land one of his monstrous punches that would have turned the table on Leonard. But Duran had quit. He had conceded defeat.

What’s interesting to me is how Duran’s response in this fight, parallels our life decisions. Are you at a place today where you are ready to say those two words, “No Mas”? …In your job, in your family, or maybe in your marriage.

Galatians 6:9 commands us to “not lose heart in doing good; for in due time, if we do not faint, we shall reap.”

Victory is still in your reach. You don’t have to give up. Look to God for the courage you need to face another round. Remember who the real enemy is. You may be confused and embarrassed by where you find yourself, but there’s a way out. Stay in the fight and answer the bell every round.

Not too long ago I was preparing for my 15th wedding anniversary. I knew I was getting into those anniversary years where the stakes go up as far as the expectations Stephanie would have… so I went to work planning a romantic getaway weekend. I planned to drive our entire family to Alabama, drop the kids off at my mother’s house, and then head to Nashville for an anniversary getaway weekend.

There was a 4-star hotel in Nashville that we had stayed in before and Stephanie had commented on how much fun it would be to go to that hotel. It had indoor gardens, atriums, and all kinds of shows throughout the hotel. You could even take a romantic boat ride through the hotel atriums. I looked for Internet deals at the hotel and tried everyway I could to find the best deal for a room there for a few nights and ended up frustrated that I couldn’t seem to get an affordable price like we had gotten the last time.

So I started on a plan B. Hotwire.com. It’s an Internet site that sells rooms at hotels based on star ratings and location without telling you the name or brand of hotel. I started finding some amazing deals on 2.5-star hotels that were near the 4-star hotel. You see, I justified that we could stay there at ¼ the price and drive over to the 4-star hotel in the day and see the sights. I just knew that Dave Ramsey would be so proud of ability to find ways to save money on the trip.

I mean the 2.5 star hotel had free high-speed Internet; it was an all suite hotel, continental breakfast…it had to be nice, right? I researched as much as I could to determine which hotel it might be. They don’t tell you the exact hotel until after you have paid by credit card. When I finished the transaction on the Internet and saw the name of the hotel. I started to have a sinking feeling that I might have made a bad choice. But I continue to assure Stephanie that we were in for a great weekend anniversary getaway.

The day arrived for us to leave the kids at my mother’s house and we headed for Nashville. As I approached the exit for the hotel, that sinking feeling started coming over me again. The hotel that Hotwire had offered such an amazing deal on was not at all what I had hoped for. I checked in hoping for the best. The lobby was nice enough.

The whole time through check-in I was eyeing Stephanie because I knew she had expectations and an opinion about what was unfolding. It wasn’t looking good guys. We parked the car and located the room. The hotel was actually a motel and had each room door opening to the street. I went to open the door and it was already open. The lock was busted and the door had been cracked for quite some time. In the late June summer in Nashville the room was way over 80 degrees.

As I entered the room, I scanned it and I immediately was taken back by the original hotel room décor from the early 70s…with original carpet and fixtures… the room didn’t look like it had been cleaned in a while. My shoes stuck to the carpet as I walked into the room. I took a look at Stephanie and I knew there was only one thing left to do.

I pulled out my laptop, connected to that free wireless high-speed internet at the motel and looked up the number for the 4-star hotel and called and found a way to get a room there. I paid full price without batting an eye. The original hotel had not met either of our expectations, and I knew I was headed for a long weekend if I didn’t do something.

Our life is greatly affected by the expectations we hold. I can remember the great expectations that I held as a kid on Christmas morning and the amazing gifts that I was counting on Santa delivering to my house.

When I think back to that original Christmas night, I can’t help but rehearse some of the expectations that the average Israelite held. Rome was the oppressive world power and was placing heavy taxes on the Israelites and the people were hoping and expecting that the Messiah would come as a warrior king and free them from the oppression.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. The Simon family has started playing Christmas music for the season. Here's a rough recording of "The Christmas Song" from Barry on Flugelhorn.

As a kid, when I played sports, I spent a lot of time on the bench. You see I wasn’t the best player, I wasn’t the fastest, the strongest. When the coach would call my name “Simon get over here” I always responded “water or Gatorade?”

A few times in my career I had my opportunity to make an impact on a game. Not too long ago, I was in the Mabee Center, ORU’s home arena. It was a men’s home game and I had my chance to make my mark. We had been winning for almost the entire game and it was the last few seconds of the game. We needed a score to win.

After a break in the action, a play unfolded where I found myself on the court breaking away uncontested to the basket with just a few seconds left. I approached the goal for an uncontested layup.I had been on fire that night. I had only missed one shot the entire night. This was my chance to put the game away. As I headed for the goal, the sound in the room began to change. It was as though all the volume was cut off and all I could hear was my breathing and my heart beating in my chest.The game was on the line. The reality only began to hit me as I approached the goal.

The enormity of the moment overwhelmed me and I short-armed the layup and it bounced out. I was quickly able to grab the rebound and could see that time was about to expire, I hurriedly heaved the second shot and it rimmed out. Amazingly, I grabbed the rebound and was able to shot a third time before time ran out.And then it was over. I began to hear the crowd again and I could tell the game was over. I had lost the game. I instinctively shot the ball a fourth time knowing it would do me no good.

I had choked.

Now some of you are thinking… "I didn’t know he played for ORU". I didn’t. I was called out of the crowd at an ORU game as part of a Bank of Oklahoma challenge for a $500 prize. 6 contestants were selected randomly from the crowd. We played a game of musical chairs at half-court where we had to bounce the basketball in a circle around the chairs and when the music stopped we had to run to one of the goals as fast as we could to make a layout and return to the dwindling number of chairs. I survived to the final 2 and lost in the last round.

Several people from my church were there that night. One was even the public address announcer. I made my way back to my seat feeling pretty bad. I had just lost $500. I went back to my seat and my youngest daughter was almost in tears. Expecting consolation, I heard the words, “Dad, you lost the money”.

I won’t tell you that the guy who beat me missed his first shot and fell flat on his back on the court and recovered and was almost back to the chair at half court before I made my shot.

That next week I was in Tulsa and someone who had been at the game approached me and asked me if I had been at the game that week. When I said,"yes", he immediately began to say ----“I knew it ! You were the guy that choked and lost the $500.”

I failed.

Failure is a part of life. I’m reminder of the story of Peter attempting to walk on water. Peter stepped out of the boat, but within a few steps, he was sinking like a rock. The moment had overwhelmed him. Too often we look at Peter’s story and think he was a failure, but I’m convinced he wasn’t a failure. In fact, he showed great courage… and the reality is, Peter and Jesus are the only 2 to have ever walked on water.

The other eleven disciples never experienced the exhilaration and satisfaction of stepping out of the boat. If you want to follow God’s plan for your life, failure will be a part of the journey.

Don’t fear failure. Use it as a tool to help you grow and trust God more completely.

He’s got big things in store for you and getting out of the boat might just be the first step toward your next breakthrough.

A few years ago, our homeowners association was having a Christmas contest for the best decorated house in our neighborhood. I drove in my cul de sac and notice that 3 of my neighbors had decked out their houses and yards with beautiful lights and decor…and for a brief moment, something inside me whispered… You could do better than that, you could win the contest if you wanted to…

Then reality set in as I reminisced about years gone by when I actually tried to decorate our house. I’m the TIm Taylor/Chevy Chase character in your favorite Christmas movie… me and lights… let’s just say…one particular year, the lights won. We had been married a few years when I got the hair-brained idea that I was going to decorate the house. We purchased strand after strand of lights and I gathered the ladder, some nails, some extension cords, and my wife and we set out to wrap the house with lights… and to wrap the trees, and shrubs, and everything else it seemed….

I thought it would work…We were going to be the envy of the neighborhood… I had carefully planned the light strand routing as we only had 2 outlets at the front exterior of the house. I was pleased to see that the light strands could be daisy chained end to end and I set out to string 6-7 strands from each of the outlets…. everything worked perfectly… the 14 or so strands that we ran in the front yard covered the front eve of the house and all of the shrubs at the front of the house…

It was around dusk and so Stephanie and I decided to plug the lights in and see just how beautiful the lights would look. The lights all came on and I was beginning to form a mental picture of just how popular our house would be… Families would get in their cars and drive to our street just to see the lights, tears would be shed, pictures would be taken, a moment would be had, and we would have saved someone’s family Christmas…

The lights stayed on for 3-4 minutes and then… mysteriously, they all went out at the same time. I was confused… I thought maybe Stephanie had unplugged our masterpiece… I checked with her…and she hadn’t turned anything off. So I began to think, maybe one of the light strands was bad… and because all of the lights had gone off that were daisy chained together… being the Einstein that I am, I deducted that the first strand was bad…

I had a few extra light strands we had not used, so I quickly replaced the first strand and amazingly the light show was back on… for 3-4 minutes, and then it happened again…. I thought to myself, Wal-Mart must have gotten a bad shipment from China. So, I replaced the first strand again… and to the joy and admiration of all who were there, there was light… just call me the tool man…..

3-4 minutes later, my deepest fears were realized… the lights went out… By then, Stephanie was laughing at the whole debacle. After she regained her composure, she took it on herself to read the box the lights came in… and sure enough… There was a phrase in English, Spanish, and Chinese that clearly stated that the lights would not work if more than 3 strands were connected from a single source. I had connected 7 to the same source… I had killed numerous strands of lights by blowing their internal fuse.

Such is our life… we are limited by our own humanity when it comes to so many areas of our life… We spin so many plates, we praise those who are master multi-taskers, we try to become even more efficient so we can do more… and often, we blow the fuse to our life… I see this especially in our relationships… and in our families… so many daisy chained schedules and activities that we short-circuit the life we really hoped for.

I challenge you in this holiday season to prioritize the strands of your life and to limit the daisy chain effect… Go deeper with your family and make room for God to speak to you in your everyday moments…

If you make room for God and the real priorities in your life,

Next Thursday families all over our country will gather together at dining room tables to celebrate Thanksgiving. Most families will celebrate with a traditional Turkey and dressing meal… maybe you’re like many who will slave in the kitchen to cook the perfect turkey…

If by chance you run into trouble on cooking the perfect turkey…for more than 30 years, Butterball Turkey has provided a turkey talk-line for exasperated cooks who need extra assistance in cooking the perfect bird.

Knowing just how funny and quirky people can be, I thought it might be interesting to see what kind of calls the hotline has received over the years. I found some interesting true stories that were reported.

One call came from a young mother failed to notice her children playing near the oven-ready bird. The kids decided the turkey’s cavity was a good place to park toy cars. Their mom didn’t discover the turkey was serving as a garage until after the turkey had been roasted. She wanted to know if the turkey was still edible…

A West Coast woman who had taken anti-bacterial precautions too far called Butterball to find out how to get the bleach she’d used off her bird—that gives a whole new meaning to white meat…..bleach…never mind….

Butterball turkey experts still talk about the Kentucky woman who called in 1993 to ask how to get her dog out of her turkey. It seems the woman’s Chihuahua had dived into the bird’s cavity and become trapped there. The woman tried pulling the pooch and shaking the bird, all to no avail. A Butterball economist finally suggested the woman carefully cut the opening in the turkey wider to release the captive canine.

Then there was the young bride who had a small, apartment-size range and was worried the turkey would get larger as it cooked (similar to a loaf of bread rising) she was worried she wouldn’t be able to get it out of the oven after it was done.

Then there are questions on how long to cook the turkey. One lady in Arkansas had her five-pound turkey in the oven 24 hours and asked the talk line if they thought it was done. Another caller wanted to know the best method for reattaching the thighs and drumsticks when they fall off. His 12-poundturkey had been in the oven since 8am… the day before.

Others have different oven-related questions, such as: “Your directions say to roast the turkey, but my oven says only bake or broil; how do I set it?”

A few years ago I decided to email the Turkey hotline and see if they had any other stories that they had compiled that they would be willing to share…. Here’s a part of the email response….

Hello Pastor Barry,

Thank you for contacting the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line…As you correctly assumed we have had some humorous phone calls and emails over that last 28 years. Most of them, however, are just memories we hold, nothing has been compiled to share. The most common call we get as Thanksgiving approaches is that the turkey is “still frozen.” So you might want to remind all your congregation on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, that if they haven’t started thawing yet, it’s time!! And reassure them that, if they need it, we are here to help.

Sincerely, Butterball Turkey Talk-Line

So there’s your reminder…. You should start thawing the turkey this Sunday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Talk-Line Stories source: http://www.snopes.com/holidays/thanksgiving/hotline.asp

A pilot was landing a plane on an unfamiliar runway and as soon as the plane’s tires hit the tarmac, he frantically shouted to his co-pilot to take drastic measures to bring the plane to a stop. It seemed the plane was about to run off the end of the runway. The pilot looked at his co-pilot and commented that the runway was extremely short, to which, the co-pilot responded, “Yes, but it sure was wide.”

At the risk of oversimplifying a very technical concept, I’d like to talk today about 2 types of flight rules that pilots use in flying their aircraft.

Pilots are instructed on the rules of flying and are certified and cleared to fly under 2 sets of universal rules of flight…. Visual Flight Rules and Instrument Flight Rules.

When a pilot is cleared and certified to fly by visual flight rules, that means he or she is allowed to fly in airspace that is visually clear of fog, clouds or anything that would visually impair them from being able to see out of their cockpit window and make visual corrections to avoid collisions and maneuver the plane safely.

When a pilot is certified and cleared to fly by instrument flight rules, the pilot is allowed to fly into clouds, fog, or other visual obstacles that may cause the cockpit window to be useless because the pilot relies entirely on the instrument controls.

There’s a great parallel to these 2 types of flight rules in the way we respond to situations in our life.

Seasons come to our lives where circumstances and situations create a stormy atmosphere and it becomes difficult to see clearly. It’s even more essential in those seasons to fly by the instrument flight rules… by the instructions and tools provided by The Bible.

If we fly by visual flight rules, left to our own interpretations of what we see and feel, we are vulnerable to making mistakes with huge consequences.

Scripture encourages us to “walk by faith, not by sight” 2 Corinthians 5:7.

Where do you find yourself today? Are you in a stormy season where it’s been difficult to see clearly and have clear direction?

Let’s live our lives by instrument flight rules, holding closely to the instruction and direction provided through close communication with God and His Word.

Something to think about today.

I don’t know of another melody that matches the emotion and reflection that occurs when these simple 24 notes are sounded. I’ve played these notes in school assemblies, in patriotic celebrations, and in funerals, and each time there’s a sobriety and appreciation that I feel as the moment approaches to begin playing.

Not too long ago, I was asked to play these 24 notes at a veteran’s funeral at Quantico National Cemetery. It was a surreal experience as the marines began the military honors with a gun salute. I was positioned 20-30 yards from the funeral in the line of sight of a marine who signaled for me to being playing.

As I waited to play, I felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility to make sure that I played the notes correctly, but I also felt a great sense of appreciation for the man who was being honored and for the thousands of military men and women who were buried nearby.

The 24 notes that I played that day have a rich history that began over 150 years ago.

It was July of 1862. The Civil War had reached a fever pitch as the Union and Confederate troops battled that summer in a Peninsular Campaign in Virginia. As part of the campaign there was a period of seven days that became known as “The Seven Days Battle”. The Union forces had suffered drastic casualties; in fact the total casualties for both sides reached 26,000 before the battle had ended. Union General Daniel Butterfield had stationed his men at Harrison’s Landing in Virginia following the battles and it was here that he called for a bugler to come to his quarters.

The military had a bugle call to signal “Extinguish Lights” and General Butterfield felt the standard call was to formal and he wanted to modify the call as a way to honor the men who were battling bravely. He modified the length, speed, and repetition of the notes and it was on this summer night in 1862 that these new notes sounded for the first time from the General’s quarters. For several days the call was used to signal “lights out” in the camp.

Buglers from surrounding units heard the new tune and immediately began to ask for copies. The music began to be passed around to units throughout the Union Army. In fact, Confederate buglers also began to circulate copies of the tune.

As the Peninsular Campaign of 1862 continued, a member of a Union artillery unit was killed in action and a quick makeshift grave and service was arranged. The leader of that artillery battery was concerned that if they honored their fallen friend with a standard 3 round shot with rifles, it would alert the nearby Confederate soldiers of their position. So he instead substituted the gun salute with the playing of “Extinguish Lights”.

This practice of playing these notes at the funeral service of a soldier began to become standard practice. You and I know these 24 notes not as “Extinguish Lights”, but as “Taps”.

“Taps” is played at every funeral service for veterans and active military when military honors are requested.

I’ve played these notes at funerals and I’ve preached numerous services where this tune has been played, and I’m always overwhelmed by the emotions that surface in me.

I’m proud of our military men and women both past and present who gave of themselves to protect our country’s freedom and liberty.

Jesus shared these words in the Book of John; “There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.”

Each man and woman who serves our country could at a moments notice be faced with the reality of giving up his or her life for our freedom.

Let’s be sure to honor our veterans… not just when we hear those 24 notes.

Historical material for this post:

Jari A. Villanueva

www.tapsbugler.com

Early in my life, my parents were missionaries in Uganda, East Africa. Our nearest American neighbors lived 300 miles from us, so my brother and I became very creative in entertaining ourselves.

One of the perks of living in Africa was that we had a pet monkey. We named him Monk-Monk.

Monk-Monk was determined that we was part of the family and we had some interesting times with him over the 3 years we lived there.

Monk-Monk loved our family and he also loved jawbreakers- you know, that good old-school candy. From time to time my brother and I would get some jawbreakers as a treat and Monk-Monk would love to share in our stash of jawbreakers.

Unfortunately, Monk-Monk couldn’t tell the difference between jawbreakers and marbles. My parents would remind us that when we played marbles we had to be careful not to have the monkey in the room. There were a few times that Monk-Monk found our marbles and that’s when the fun began. Monk-Monk would grab a handful of marbles and jam as many in his mouth as he could thinking he had hit the jawbreaker mother load. My dad and mom would have to pry his jaws open and remove one marble at a time to avoid having him choke himself to death.

I laugh whenever I think of Monk-Monk. Over the years, I’ve found that Monk-Monk’s story provides great insight in so many areas of our life.

Just as our monkey was confused about the difference between marbles and jawbreakers, many of us mistake marbles for jawbreakers when it comes to what we want out of life. We think we know what’s going to bring us joy or pleasure or success only to find out in the end that we chose marbles instead of jawbreakers.

I’m reminded of the story of King Solomon in the Old Testament. His father, King David, was fast-approaching the end of his life and was leaving control of his country, the world power at the time, to Solomon. God visited Solomon and asked him what he would like God to do for him and Solomon asks for wisdom.

Solomon understood that “marbles and jawbreakers” could often look alike and he asked God for help discerning the true path he should take as a king.

The Bible says that if we lack wisdom, we can ask God and He will give it liberally. Pray for wisdom and direction daily. God is pleased with that request and he will grant it. Discernment is crucial in our lives. Let’s learn the difference between marbles and jawbreakers. Lessons from Monk-Monk.