The sequel is better than the original

The sequel can live up to the original, sometimes. When we think sequels, we usually think about movies. It’s rare, but at times the sequel can be better than the original. Do you remember movies that are better than the original? The first that pops in my head in Shrek 2 (What can I say, I am the parent of young kids). Shrek 2 didn’t have as many hidden jokes and pointless mild cuss words as the original. With kids movies sequels are usually good or really bad.

What are some good and bad sequels?

Sequels can be sweet when you take the greatness behind the original and make it better. Can we do this with life? Can we make things better in life? You can look at products like video game systems or cell phones and say yes. I haven’t seen anyone that has wanted an original tv, everyone wants a rock LCD or plasma. How can we improve on the original in life?

Paul shares this in Romans 11:22… “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness.”

God has the ability to be both stern and kind. He is stern when we live a life that does not accept Jesus when we die, we find how stern God is. Yet he is kind. He is a loving God that wants the best for us and one of the ways we can do this is by trying to be the best sequel possible. I don’t think we can replace what Jesus did for us, but we can sure give it the college try.

Mimicking Jesus is not a bad way to live. Jesus thought of others before himself, he forgave people that nobody else would forgive. He was kind to those nobody else thought of as worthy.  Being a sequel of Jesus isn’t easy, but if I could accomplish any of what he did , I would be happy. I strive to be more like Jesus everyday (You and I will mess up, but we can try). I truly believe if everyone did this, the world would be a much better place.

In Christianity the sequel can’t beat the original, but we can still try. If people never made sequels, imagine what products in your everyday life would look like… Car? Phone? Computer? Jesus is worth trying to follow, try to show kindness today and see if that makes your life and someone else’s life better.

Have a great day.

My wife and I were happy for 20 years…then we met

A funny line about marriage from the great Rodney Dangerfield. Marriage is full of amazing times and amazingly bad times too. There isn’t a perfect marriage just like there isn’t a perfect human (Other than Jesus). So how do we fall into false ideas about marriage?

 

Hailee and I have had many good times in marriage and had times we needed help. Marriage isn’t about being perfect, there will always be mistakes. One of the saddest states of marriage is when a couple or spouse isn’t willing to go to counseling or listen to what a counselor says. I have heard this many times. We can handle the issues on our own or the problem is with them rather than me. I can honestly say Hailee and I went to counseling in the first year of our marriage and it was my fault. I had to own up to things I was not doing right in our marriage and admit to that. Without admitting I needed counseling, things would not have gotten any better. Even the best marriages I know could use help from time to time.

 

Paul shared a quote about marriage when talking about the law God created and the authority he has over man. Romans 7:2-3…

“For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.”

 

Going back in the Old Testament, you were married and one of the acts of showing you were married was the act of sex. When two become one can be justified as sex, while we aren’t given a clean straight Bible verse on what made a marriage, sex was part of the consummation.

Imagine for those who have had multiple partners you could be considered married to your first love and cheat on him/her with everyone else. Weird enough for you? Paul talks about a women whose husband is not dead (The phrase till death do you part comes to mind) and she marries/have sex with another man, it’s an affair. Only if her husband dies is it legal to marry again. People have taken marriage in a different way.

 

God gave us marriage, not arrogance. Marriage is full of mistakes because of us. We have done things before we are married, while we are married or maybe in our second marriages and beyond that are wrong. I have seen people get divorced over not being happy anymore (No fairy tale marriage exists) and almost every reason in between. If you think once we are married my spouse will change, most likely not. More likely is the fact your spouse will let their guard down and be a little worse. Yet there is beauty in marriage.

 

I thank God for my wife everyday. She is wonderful, she looks beautiful, puts up with all of my faults (There are many) and encourages me when I feel down. I thank God for giving me Hailee in marriage. A great marriage can make you do amazing things you never thought of yourself as doing (One of the many, I never thought I would get a Master’s degree). A bad marriage can make you miserable.

 

What do you want in life to be happy or miserable? When Paul mentions about marriage in the verse about, I would imagine some people being in marriages they weren’t happy in and hopeful that there spouse might die or they were looking forward to ending things with them. Is marriage worth fighting for? I believe so, but do you? Do you think is marriage is worth putting your own selfish desires aside for better ones?

 

If you are in a relationship or a marriage and it’s not going well get help. If you have a broken leg you go to the doctors. If you have a broken marriage do the same. Get help, a great marriage can fulfill your greatest desires as humans. Is that something you want? If you are married what is something you could do for your spouse today to help your relationship out? If your relationship is not going well, don’t be stubborn like a donkey, get help.

 

Have a great day.

 

Pleasure in Pain

Hurt so good. Through the years, I have heard this saying/song many and as a kid I didn’t understand it at all. How could something that hurt be so good? Not really going into the song, can something that hurts be good? It makes me think of going through pain for the greater good.

Pleasure can come through pain. If you watch the Biggest Loser you watch people that didn’t work out and now train hard to lose weight. It is not an easy task, but at the end of the show you are simply amazed at the results. For reality TV it is one of my all-time favorite shows. There is plenty of pain to see those people lose hundreds of pounds and not only change their lives but the lives of the people around them. The training is tough, can you be excited in the rough times?

Is it ok to have an attitude in suffering? The Bible is a noble concept when it comes to this subject. Listen to what Paul shares in Romans 5:3-5…

“Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Nobody who wins an Olympic medal is done by skill alone. They are in strict training, when Michael Phelps didn’t do so great this Olympics it was because he didn’t train like he did in the previous Olympics, it showed. Yet Phelps worked harder than anybody has a clue. Training all day long without the thrill of that gold medal years down the road, Phelps worked hard. You can grow through the tough times.

Maybe it’s not because of training but real life can take a toll on you. There are always rough times ahead, through the rough times, what do you do? Do you hide from a challenge or do you work through it. Just like Paul talks about, through suffering there is so much benefit it makes who you are today and in the future. Fight through the tough times just like a line in a movie, “Never give up, never surrender.” Hang in there. God is with you when you call on him and is there to comfort you.

Have a great day.