I have been around the church scene for many years. I have discovered that some of the funniest things happen in church. What is even funnier is watching the reactions of the church people when something out of the ordinary happens.

The event that I will share with you happened many years ago in a church where I was the pastor. I had been encouraging the church to invite their un-churched friends to come. On this particular night, a friend of one of the men in the church accepted an invitation to come. Church was not the kind of place he usually spent his evenings and that became rather obvious.

I met the young man prior to the service. He was very friendly but I had a sneaking suspicion that he had a little help. It was not the first time that I smelled the presence of this “Helper.” Many years ago, I knew that helper pretty well myself. His helper was in a pint bottle under the front seat of his car. I noticed that he made a few trips to his car leading up to starting time. With each trip, he became more and more friendly. I thought to myself, “This is going to be interesting.”  

When the service started, I looked around but did not see the young man anywhere. I figured that his helper was not even enough to give him the courage to stay. The music started and the singing began. As I stood there, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a figure walking to the front of the church. The young man was back and “Friendlier” than ever.

The music was upbeat that night to the chagrin of some but the young people liked it. So did our visitor. He walked over and took one of the older women by the hand, and began to dance with her. It was hilarious but no one was laughing. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the older woman handled it. I think she had more fun that night than she usually had in church. It was obvious that everyone else was uncomfortable with it though.

I looked over at the man that had invited the young man and nodded my head for him to take care of the situation, hoping that there would not be a scene. He walked up and kindly took the young man back to sit with him. I imagined that he was just doing what he usually did on Sunday nights wherever he did it. I was glad he came and I do believe he enjoyed the service much more than most of the people there that night. Whether he remembered it, the next day is another question.

Now understand I am not condoning getting drunk before church. I am sad that he felt he had to get drunk to make it through a church service but I am sure it was not any worse to the Lord than some who go to church intoxicated with bad attitudes toward someone like that young man. He even apologized afterwards. I do not think I have ever had anyone apologize for a sourpuss attitude at church.

The truth is that the young man that came that night was just as loved and just as valuable to the Lord as anyone sitting in the building. What would happen if every follower of Christ went to church intoxicated on the joy that having Jesus in our life brings? What would happen if we loved and accepted people right where they are in life and treated them with the value Jesus values them? It would be awesome! Let’s get drunk on His love!

Several years ago, we had gone to Cincinnati where I preached for a week. I always tried to make those preaching trips a special time for the family. We enjoyed going to the Zoo as well as some other fun stuff during the day and then I would preach at night. The week ended, we said our goodbyes and headed home. We really looked forward to getting home to kick back and rest for a while before getting back into the regular routines of life but our return would not be like that this time.

We made it home safely, pulled into the driveway and walked to the front door. Carla and I looked at each other with a startled and disgusted look. There was a stench coming from within the house that was so bad we could smell it from outside the front door. We both wondered what the smell was. I reluctantly opened the door and the terrible smell hit us full force. We both gagged our way into the house. We walked into the kitchen where the smell was unbearable.

We found the source of the smell. It was the refrigerator and freezer. Sometime while we were gone, the refrigerator had stopped running and everything in it had spoiled, and that is an understatement. The freezer was full of meat that was now growing stuff. I cannot explain to you how bad it smelled. I had to clean that thing out and it was not an easy task. It took days to get that smell out of the house. It reminded me of one other time when we had a stench that actually ran us out of our home.

When Carla and I were first married, we were living in a mobile home in Virginia. One day, we discovered an odor that was not pleasant. It began to get worse and worse and we could not figure out what it was. I looked everywhere for the source of that sickening odor. It finally got so bad that we had to stay with family until I could find the problem. It smelled as if something had died somewhere.

I decided to take, another look under our home. I could not see the problem but it was obviously there somewhere. I began to cut holes in the insulation in my search for the culprit. I found it. I cut a hole in one place and a dead cat fell out of the insulation. It almost fell on my head. At this point, it was full of maggots. It was the most sickening thing I had ever seen or smelled. After loosing my breakfast, I began my clean up process. I finally got everything cleaned up and sterilized but it took days for the smell in our home to return to normal.

I know some you are sick at this point in the story. If you dared to keep reading, there is a point. There is only one thing that can stink worse than those things in a home. It is a bad attitude. Bad attitudes stink and they tend to make the entire home toxic. Everyone living in the home is affected.

The problem with a bad attitude is that usually everyone can smell it but the person that has it. The person stinking the home up with a bad attitude is often oblivious to it. Rotten meat or a dead cat is often easier to remove than a bad attitude. The dead cat did not argue with me that I was the one with the problem. It did not deny, blame or distract it just stunk. Once removed, the home went back to normal after a few days.

If it stinks around your house lately, it may be due to someone’s bad attitude. It may be time for an honest family meeting. Take the time to find the bad attitude and then find out why it is there. It may be a simple fix. It could be that someone is feeling neglected, unloved, disrespected or just having a hard time at work. It could be that someone’s cup is too full of busyness. Once you find the source and the reason, start the cleanup process.

I will share from experience that humility will be needed. The stench from a bad attitude is almost impossible to get rid of without humility. Humility keeps us from becoming defensive and argumentative. It helps us take a long honest look at ourselves rather than blaming everyone else around us.

Attitude is a choice. No one can choose my attitude for me and neither can anyone choose yours. We must each choose to have a great attitude every day. If we don’t, things will start stinking around the house. We all have circumstances that we could blame for bad attitudes. The difference in people who have great attitudes is not better circumstances but how they choose to react to the bad ones. Let’s choose to react to whatever life brings with the greatest attitude we can muster. I promise things will smell better around the house!

There once was a man who fell off a horse. He landed on the ground with quite great force. After his head cleared from the rattle, he went to his barn and created the saddle.

What we see as obstacles may very well be great opportunities.

Seize the opportunity

Poetry by Bud

In a land far, far away a little bird named Jason, lived on a farm. He made his home in a tree overlooking the cow pasture. Jason enjoyed flying to the fencepost to agitate the cows with his constant chirping. On one cold, snowy day, Jason’s flight to the fencepost did not go so well. He injured his wing on the post and could not fly. Sitting on the post he thought, “Life can’t get worse than this.” A couple seconds later, he fell off the post into the cow pasture. There was a foot of snow on the ground and Jason was only six inches tall. The snow covered his head. He thought to himself, “Life can’t get worse than this.”

After a little while, Jason could feel himself getting colder and beginning to freeze. He was sure he was about to die so he thought, “I have made a mess of things and the one thing I have not done is pray.” He prayed, “Dear Lord, I have been a bad bird by agitating the cows. Now I am injured, cold and about to die. Please forgive me and save my life.” He had no more than finished praying when a cow walked by and pooped right on him. He felt completely humiliated as he said, “Thanks a lot Lord; my life will end with being pooped on.” That was his last thought as he passed out from hypothermia.

Sometime later Jason woke up and emerged from the cow poop. The sun was shining, the snow melted and he was alive. The cow poop had warmed his body and kept him alive until he regained consciousness. While he was unconscious under the cow poop, the sun had come out and melted the snow. Jason realized that day that God had actually answered his prayer and saved his life by sending a cow to poop on him.

Have you ever felt like life could not get any worse and then it does? You decide to pray and then you feel like you just got pooped on? It may be that what you see as a negative circumstance is really, what God is using to save your life. You may even feel humiliated and feel like everyone is laughing at you. Once you get beyond feeling humiliated, you will find that what you thought was bad was the best thing that could have happened to you. It very well may be that it is what saves your life and your family. Now, dig your way out of that poop, trust God and do life differently! Make the wise choice!

This story is a remix of one that I heard many years ago.

Riding with Bud is anything but boring! I am Bud and I concur. I will admit that what is exciting for me may bring on other emotions such as fear, anxiety, or confusion for those going with me, if they do not trust me. My motto is, “Enjoy the ride wherever it takes you!”

We had spent a relaxing day at the beach on our recent vacation. As usual, we headed out in the evening for dinner. After dinner, some of us decided to go to a store called Golf Dimensions. I was driving the lead car as I did the entire trip. I told everyone that I knew a shorter way to our destination so just fall in line behind me. On the way, we missed an exit but I told them not to worry, I knew where I was going and there was another way. We drove for sometime but did not seem to be getting to where we were supposed to be going. Carla kept telling me to stop for directions but I assured her that there was not a problem.

After I came out of the store where I had asked for directions, I found that we were on the wrong road but we were running parallel to the road that we needed. We took the connector road and we were on our way. I shared with everyone that we had an opportunity to see sights that we would not have seen if we had gone the normal way.

On an earlier occasion, we had headed out looking for a soccer store. In my car was, my daughter Kayla, my son Joshua, and my nephew Andrew. My brother in-law and my sister were following my car in procession. Following me when I am driving is not his favorite thing to do but he does it graciously. On our way to our destination, we passed the exit that we were supposed to take but I told them not to worry, I would find another way. I found a little road that connected us back to the right road.

We came to a light and realized that we needed to go right. We were in the left turn lane and that, is not the lane you want to be in when you need to turn right. I checked for on-coming traffic behind me and there was none so I cut across three lanes to get to the right turn lane. Greg followed and we made it. I lead Greg and my sister in a joy ride through a few U turns, in and out of a few parking lots, and around the same block two or three times. We finally realized that the store we were looking for no longer existed. I am not sure if my brother in-law and my sister had as much fun as we did but they did have an adventure that they would not have had if they had not followed.

The key to enjoying the ride with me or following me, rather than feeling anxious and afraid, is trusting me and staying close. We will eventually get to where we are going and you will see sights that you would not have seen otherwise. You will also have fond and fun memories of trips that you would not have had. I would not be writing this if we had followed the same old boring path that everyone else was taking.

Similarly, when you follow Jesus, you have to trust him and stay close. Following Him is anything but boring and you can be sure that He always knows the way. We humans like the security of the known path and the comfort of the shortest path. We seem to love the security and comfort of routines but hate the boring results.  If you are bored with life, follow Jesus. For the willing passengers, He will take you on adventures that you haven’t even thought of yet but to experience the adventure, you have to trust Him and follow closely. You may not know where He is taking you but He does and He knows how to get you there. It probably won’t be the short comfortable path but it will be the adventurous, non-boring path. Take the risk and enjoy the ride wherever He takes you!