Things under-appreciated

Sitting on the front porch this a.m. watching James' little puppy Beau eat breakfast...some thoughts came to mind. I was totally enjoying the morning, and found myself wondering why I underappreciate so many regular day-to-day things. Ego & a sense of entitlement, perhaps, that says I'm entitled to these things...or plain ol' busyness that prevents me from stopping to smell the proverbial roses...or misplaced focus, perhaps, that says that the outcome of a sporting event or the size of one's bank balance or the quantity of gray hairs one sees in the mirror or another "Everybody Loves Raymond" rerun are what really matters. In my case, it's surely a blend of all of these.

Here's a running start at things I under-appreciate:

--sitting on the porch in the early morning watching & listening to the day as it begins.

--cuddling a dog (ours or James' either one)

--lunch with my children (El Rancho yesterday...awesome time for me!)

--conversation with my wife

--music - whether a great funk-jazz groove, or a symphony that sounds like 500 instruments playing, or a soft, simple Miles Davis cool jazz tune, or a screaming rock guitar sound, or an acoustic songwriter type piece...

--singing - on the way back from Mobile, I discovered that if I turn up my system loud enough, I sound really great singing the duet "In All of His Glory" with Babbie Mason, and that I can nail the lead vocal on Whiteheart's "Once and For All" and "Morningstar", and that I sound just like Chris Tomlin on "Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone."

--laughing with friends - very important these days!

--teaching - I'm so thankful that God has called (& re-called) me to teach. There's nothing like seeing the light bulbs turn on in students' minds as they understand some difficult concept. And I very much love teaching Sunday School. Such joy from grappling with & teaching Scripture...

--the incredible paradigm shift dating back to Tyndale & others who paid with their lives such that I can now read Scripture in my own language.

--reading at all, for that matter...a quote: "The man who doesn't read books has no advantage over the man who can't read them..."

--crepe myrtles blooming - we have a couple, one purple-ish, & one red-ish; our neighbors/friends across the street have a few. All are gorgeous right now.

--green grass - recent rains have really "greened up" our lawns.

--the strength of pine trees - we have a big one just in front of our house, and I was pondering it this morning. (Of course, they're much better to ponder when they're upright, rather than when they're lying on the ground as after Katrina...)

--physicians & their amazing medical knowledge & the accompany medical technology

--freedom! - to enjoy all of the above at my leisure. To succeed...or fail...in the profession of my choosing. To be educated. To worship...or not...as I choose. (and so forth) Boy, do I...we...under-appreciate freedom!! Years ago, a friend from Iraq told me that our founding fathers were so far ahead of their times in the thinking embodied in our core documents. He said there's nobody in his country who has begun to think at that level, and that we Americans take it all for granted...(keep in mind, he said all of this before the first Gulf War)

--the sacrifices through the last couple hundred years of so many who served in the military order to secure and defend the freedoms I...we...take for granted.

--bends in the road that force me to stop & look up & re-focus

--grace!!
..that taught my heart to fear, and then relieved those fears (as John Newton said so wonderfully)
...that pardons & cleanses
...the common type such as the things listed above
...the particular, saving type that somehow allows God see me justified as if I had never sinned at all--a mindblowing concept there, for one whose sins are so many & manifest--and that secures an eternity that will be glorious beyond any feeble words I have

It's Independence Day. Do you appreciate it?

Selah.
Mike