Monday, April 25, 2011

Whom do you serve?

We All Serve Someone

As a child, I recall learning that my Dad was the “boss” at his job. I asked him about that one, reflecting on how nice it must be not to “have anyone to tell you what to do.”

He surprised me with his answer. He said, “We all have a boss.”

In vain, he explained how he had to answer to a Board of Directors. It appeared that he had a boss after all.

I then tried to figure out if there is any job where one does not have a boss. Now as an adult, I still have not come up with one.

If you are a doctor, you must serve patients well. If you are a construction worker, you must please superintendants and customers. If you are a policeman, you must work favorably with both your sergeant and the public. Even a rock star must keep his fans happy.

As the song by Bob Dylan proclaims, “You’re Gonna Have to Serve Somebody.”

You may be an ambassador to England or France,

You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,

You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,

You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

You're gonna have to serve somebody,

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

Spiritually, you also are serving someone. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you are furthering someone’s agenda every day. The devil will have you focus on yourself, and lull you into believing you are independent, rather than deceived. Psalm 14:1 sums it up this way: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

The Lord will have you focus on others. After all, Jesus was God in the flesh and washed his disciples’ feet. Think of how long and uncomfortable that process must have been for each follower. Service is the manner by which we live out the faith in the grace that has saved those who have been redeemed.

Finally, 1 Chronicles 28:9 warns us that we cannot fool God, even if we fool others or ourselves. “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve Him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

WHAT IS A TRILLION, REALLY?

What is a Trillion, anyway?

Baby Boomers have often proclaimed “50 is the new 40.”

According a recent CNN report, “Trillion is the new billion.”

With all the talk about stimulus funding, deficits and the budget, the numbers lack context. It is hard for us to understand a billion, let alone a trillion.

To start with, let’s start with dollars we can understand. Let’s say I settled a large injury case that netted you $100,000.00. That is clearly One Hundred Thousand dollars.

Ten times that is One Thousand Thousands, or what we call One Million Dollars.

Now, it takes One Thousand Million to make a Billion. That is a one followed by nine zeros.

And a Trillion is a Thousand Billion. Feeling numb yet?

You see, a Trillion dollars is the number 1 followed by 12 zeroes!

One trillion $1 bills stacked one on top of the other would reach nearly 68,000 miles into the sky, or about a third of the way from the Earth to the moon!

A million seconds is about 11½ days. A billion seconds is about 32 years, and a trillion seconds is 32,000 years!

That means that a billion minutes ago, Jesus had just risen from the dead!

To put a trillion dollars in context, if you spend a million dollars every day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn't have spent a trillion!

I sometimes wonder if our elected officials actually understand these numbers.

*Mr. Peel, a Christian Injury Lawyer, may be available to speak to your church or community group. He may be reached through www.PeelLawFirm.com. Other articles maybe found on his blog at www.DavidBPeel.blogspot.com

Friday, April 8, 2011

Soul surfer reminds us of our struggle

PEACE IN THE STRUGGLE


The current movie Soul Surfer tells the story of a young athlete, Bethany Hamilton, whose life revolves around surfing and her faith. But, lurking in the depths off a sun-kissed Hawaiian beach, is a tiger shark.

And he is hungry...

You may have heard about what happened next. The sharks attack cost her an arm.

How could this 13-year-old ever surf again? And, how would she ever face the fear of the sea that no doubt would cripple her emotionally, as sure as she had been handicapped physically?

In a recent interview with Dennis Raineys program,FamilyLife Today, her mother described a day when she said to Bethany, Lets just pray that Gods will be done for your life. Lets pray for God to bring you into the center of His will. They continued praying this for about two weeks, and the shark attack occurred.

I dont pretend to have all the answers to why bad things happen to good people, Bethany says in her book, also titled Soul Surfer. But I do know that God knows all the answers, and sometimes He lets you know in this life, and sometimes He asks you to wait so that you can have a face-to-face talk about it. What I do know is that I want to use what happened to me as an opportunity to tell people that God is worthy of our trust, and to show them that you can go on and do wonderful things in spite of terrible events that happen. I dont think it does any good to sit around feeling sorry for yourself. I made myself a promise: Im not going to wallow or walk around moaning, Woe is me!

It is difficult for me to understand that a shark biting my arm off might ever be in Gods will for my life.

However, our own personal struggle was not with a shark. It was with infertility. Infertility did not seem that it could be in Gods perfect will for our lives, anymore than a tiger sharks attack.

You see, I had married the loveliest, most gracious and Godly lady I have ever met. By 1997, I waspracticing as an injury lawyer and we were teaching a young married Sunday school class at Bellevue.Trish had earned her nursing degree and was a blessing to every one of her patients.

But something was missingNo. Someone was missing.

How do you miss someone you have never met? Couples who have struggled with infertility know this. How could this be in the will of God? We were happily married, Christian professionals, making agood living, with a nice home featuring an empty room we hoped--one day--to call the nursery. We were leading a group at church filled with families having baby showers, but never for us. People would often ask why we did not have a baby yet? Or even worse, Dont you two want kids?

It was difficult to have peace in that struggle. But, like the brave young lady portrayed in Soul Surfer, we found the purpose.

We were more than ready when a developing baby needed adoptive parents. The verse in Joel 2:25 came true in our lives, and we have since become parents, the natural way, twice more.

That means one of our kids is adoptedbut I always forget which one!


David & Trish homeschool their three kids and Mr. Peel often speaks to groups or churches, and is heard regularly on WCRV 640 AM. You may contact his office at (901)872-4229 orwww.PeelLawFirm.com.