I’ve
seen various versions of the following joke. My favorite was sent to me by a
friend:
His and Her
Diaries
Wife's Diary:
Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans
to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner. I was shopping with my friends all day
long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made
no comment on it. Conversation wasn't flowing, so I suggested that we go
somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn't say much. I asked
him what was wrong; He said, 'Nothing.' I asked him if it was my fault that he
was upset. He said he wasn't upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not
to worry about it. On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled
slightly, and kept driving. I can't explain his behavior. I don't know why he
didn't say, 'I love you, too.'
When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he
wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there quietly, and watched
TV. He continued to seem distant and absent. Finally, with silence all around
us, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he came to bed. But I still
felt that he was distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else. He fell
asleep - I cried. I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts
are with someone else. My life is a disaster!
Husband's Diary:
Boat wouldn't start, can't figure it out.
Marriage is hard.
Spouses see things differently. To
become married, you have to transform your mindset to a different way of thinking.
We
have seen this in other fields. Apple, a few years ago, launched a new
advertising campaign—“Think Different.” (Think different, not grammatically.) The company was integrating
everything: music, computers, cell phones… a complete break from the rest of
the industry.
A mantra for God could be, “Think different.”
For example, in Acts 10, God was doing a work that was going to blow Peter's
mind. He had to show Peter what
He was up to.
In Acts 10, we have a very good man who was
known as Cornelius. He was a Gentile. Cornelius was in a journey of faith, but
he was not yet in a saving relationship with Jesus. So God went to a lot of
trouble to see to it that it happened. However, there was a problem.
God had chosen to work through the people of
the church, and they did not have the same mindset He did. For example, he
spoke to a fellow named Peter. Peter was an apostle. Peter was part of the
household of Israel. One day, Peter went up to an out-of-the-way place to pray.
Peter had been trained to look at food in
specific ways. Now God was telling him to think
different. God was telling Peter to think different about food so that he could think different about people. God wanted to bring different people into the kingdom. This was going to be a huge
stretch for Peter and others who were like him.
What
Peter did not remember was that God was always about community. You go back to
Genesis 2: God started building his most fundamental community–and what was
that? Marriage.
Now
folks, Judy and I are married. We are very different.
Our bodies are different. She is a
female, and I am a male.
Do we think alike? No. She is an early riser.
I have built pyramids of pillows on top of my head trying to cut out any sign
of sound and light at 5:30 in the morning while she is getting ready for her
day; I'm trying to sleep… because I am a late-to-bed person. (Of course,
according to Ben Franklin, Judy is healthy, wise, and, now that she is a
full-time teacher, surely soon to be wealthy!)
Judy
would love to set a thermostat to 70° in the winter time. I would be happy to
turn off the heater until the temperature drops below 50°. (It is winter after
all; we can bundle up.)
A
few years ago, we negotiated.
Judy
said, “Let’s put the thermostat at 65.”
I
said, “Let’s put it at 60.”
We
compromised… at 65.
God,
in his mysterious wisdom, has called Judy and me together in community.
Somehow, we work it out. Sometimes it is through submission; sometimes it is
through compromise–but we make it work.
Now,
there are those in our society today who are trying to eliminate the difference
and create marriages for those who are as much alike as possible—including
alike in gender. But God has always said, in His word, regarding marriage–think
different.
As
for Judy and me, God, in His infinite wisdom, understands that Judy and I, as
we struggle with our differences, if we submit to the work of the Holy Spirit,
are being transformed more and more into the image of Christ.
Let's
expand this a little bit. God called the world to his community of people,
initially through a fellow name Abraham. He cultivated a people. Later, he
would call that community Israel. They were to take the good news of God to the
entire world,
“It is too small a
thing for you to be my servant
to restore the
tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make
you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends
of the earth” (Is. 49:6.) NIV 1984
God
was saying: I want to call the world to this community.
But this community–Israel–could not get over
the difference between themselves and the rest of the world. They could not
think different. They wanted to
think--same. They wanted only those who were like them in their community.
What
they did not realize is that God would have done a work on them had they
allowed him to do so. He would have transformed them into a people of his
character through this difficult work of interacting with those who were different, but that was not a priority
for the Israelites.
Unfortunately,
too often, the Israelites thought about what they wanted and that messed
up the work of God. You have got to think about God and his Kingdom—what God
wants.
(To be continued next week.)
Five Things I Think I
Think (with
a nod to Peter King for this idea)
1. I found the book Eisenhower-The
White House Years by Jim Newton to be enjoyable. I had read that it broke
new ground because of the access the author had to classified documents that
had recently been declassified. Yes, the book broke new ground, but… it was not
to the extent as advertised. However, these new revelations continue to draw
out the fact that Eisenhower was the
true leader of his White House. Moreover, I found those endorsing the book on
the cover (including a few democrats) fascinating
2. John Eisenberg’s book That
First Season did not break much new ground either about Vince Lombardi’s
first season with the Green Bay Packers back in 1959. Probably, the more accurate
statement would be Eisenberg provided a few more details about what occurred
that first year in Green Bay than other books. Still, the book was interesting;
furthermore, I was impressed by the quantity of people the author interviewed.
3. Okay, so I was wrong last week about Denver’s defense. They looked
awful. I am picking San Fran over New York and Baltimore over New England.
However, the glamour Super Bowl matchup would be New England vs. New York—a
rematch of their epic 2008 battle.
4. I’m intrigued by Kiefer Sutherland’s new
TV show Touch.
5. I downloaded new music to my iTunes last week, and
everyone in my family loves it. It’s called “Hero in Waiting”, and its composed
by David Robidioux of NFL Films. You might recognize portions of the piece. I
find it stirring and beautiful.
