Mañana Mr. Frog, Mañana

The kids were watching (I watched too) The Prince of Egypt the other day and when the scenes with the plagues started I began to think about something I'd previously read in Exodus where Pharaoh said the most peculiar thing. 

The second of the Ten Plagues is the “Plague of the Frogs”… which sounds like a 70’s b-movie or something to me.  If you read the account in Exodus 8, you’ll see that God was serious about this smiting thing- the frogs would come from the river, they would swarm and get into everything including ovens and kneading bowls, it had to have been intense.  The noise alone would have driven me insane. 

I can imagine Pharaoh’s wife coming to him and demanding that he take care of this frog epidemic that eclipsed their once serine land.  She was not OK that her servants were so preoccupied by these slimy little amphibians and the thought of those dirty little creatures being anywhere near her food so disgusted her royal standards. 

Whether it was his wife, his own motivations, Pharaoh had to go talk to Moses and Aaron about fixing it and he did.  He asked them to “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people…” Moses basically responded with “I’d be happy to, when do you want them gone?” and this is where Pharaoh said the strangest thing imaginable.   He responded with ‘Tomorrow”.  You can read it here, it’s crazy. 

I’ve read this story in Exodus a couple of times and I always pause right there and re-read Pharaoh’s response.  Really?  Tomorrow? Was he waiting to see if the French would come down and make something with the frog legs (I know, wrong era but humor me here)? Did he forget how upset his wife is?  Guess he never heard that if momma ain’t happy, no one is happy.  But seriously, did he really just say ‘tomorrow’?  Enough frogs came out of the river to cover the land and get into everything!  This guy goes to the two people he knows that can change the situation quickly, begging them to talk to God about it and when they give him the option of when does he want the whole thing fixed and he puts it off another day? 

Why would Moses and Aaron need to ‘plead with the Lord’ if this was something that could be put off till mañana? 

Then I started to think about things that I ‘plead with the Lord’ on, and that too many times I’m willing to put the solution to my dilemma off for another time.  I’m so glad that God isn’t smiting things too much anymore but really, if I have something going on that has me pleading, you would think I would prioritize it when I’m pleading with the Creator of the Universe as far as when I want the situation resolved. 

I think the issue is that in the solution there is often sacrifice on our end.  It would be easy to read through Exodus and say that Pharaoh must have been an idiot, that all he had to do was let Moses an his people go.  But it isn’t that easy, by doing that Egypt would be giving up a huge labor force and if you read about ancient Egypt, they were happy to have others, like their Hebrew slaves, do the hard labor and live a life of great luxury.  There was also the whole pride thing; Pharaoh was a God King, part of a line of these great God Kings who were the most awesome people in the world ever, so he had been taught.  Now he had to basically bow to the invisible god of an outcast who was raised in Pharaoh’s house but was really a Hebrew?  I’m guessing that humility wasn’t high on the list of character traits for the Kings of the Nile and the idea that there was someone, something greater than he was just plain insulting.  

I think that so many times I’m not too different from Pharaoh in this story, when I plead with God and ask him to fix a situation.  When God responds with the ‘when’ for the fix and I realize that the fix is going to require some work on my end, some humility from me & that I’m not able to order God around like my own personal executive assistant I back off a little and am ok living with the plague of the frogs for another night or two or longer, you really get used to the noise, and the smell... 

So it comes down to this- live with the issues that plague us or roll up our sleeves and take an active role in doing what we need to and deal with it.  Sure some of it will require sacrifice on our part, it may take some really hard work, humility, patience, perseverance, grace, forgiveness, love… but it has to be better than the ongoing cycle of pleading that God fixes our situation and we just find ourselves dealing with the same thing tomorrow. 

Tricky Dick inspired me today

Image credit: Flickr commons

I found some inspiration from our former president Richard Nixon today. It wasn’t his politics, or anything related to Watergate, it is a quote of his that I believe shares his heart on what was at least partially why he entered the arena of politics- he said:

“A man who has never lost himself in a cause bigger than himself has missed one of life's mountaintop experiences. Only in losing himself does he find himself.”

Many people will only remember Nixon for Watergate which is sad because he was so much more. Did you know that while he was President, Nixon Established the EPA or that he made it a point to enforce desegregation of schools in the South? Nixon and JFK were friends, they had both been elected to Congress in 1946 and while on opposite sides of the isle they formed a close friendship that lasted at least until the 1960 election where they campaigned against one . Nixon he was a very complex, interesting guy who often broke from his group to pursue what he thought was better than partisan politics. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he is perfect, I once did a biography on Nixon for a school paper and read stories about his terrible temper. One story recounted how a young, somewhere around 6 years old, Nixon hit another kid in the head with a hatchet over a jar of tadpoles. My point is that Nixon was so much more than Watergate.

Back on point to my inspiration- What he said, the idea that maybe the goal, or at least A goal of ours should be to not just look out for ourselves but to lose ourselves in something bigger than us is fantastic. It is also very different from many of the messages that play to the “it’s all about me” that so often is found on our culture today. I would like to say that I’m really good at this, losing myself in things bigger than me but honestly I’m not, at least not like I want to. I still think about myself first in most situations, even when I should be thinking of others. I have lost myself in bigger, better things than me- Marriage and family come to mind and this is an area that I’d like to think that I excel but I know that there will always be room for improvement, anyone who says that they are the best at being a husband and or dad is either telling a bad joke, is lying or is really out of touch with reality.

So here is to Nixon and his epiphany, I’ve already been thinking about things I can do and I’m going to spend some more time thinking about ways that I can lose myself in things bigger than me. Who knows, I might get so lost that they have to send a search team for me ;)

Running and hopefully not standing still

This year I celebrate my 37th birthday.  Kelly and I have discussed that with 37 (she turns 37 today) we can't say that we're in our mid 30's anymore.  37 is clearly late 30's. Which means that 40 is going to creep up on us like tomorrow or something.  It also means that our 20's, and whatever hold over ideations of being young and invincible, if they haven't already gone, are going and will be gone as soon as we embrace reality.

For me, part of that embracing reality means a real assessment of where I am, and where I want to be with my physical health.  I think overall, I'm healthy.  I'm breathing, and have the ability to stand and get around. I’m alive and mobile which is good but I know that there are areas that need improvement.

I can push, pull, lift, throw and otherwise manipulate a multitude of objects of various weights and configurations, even exceeding my own weight in some cases.  Though, because of the leisure like life I’ve come to enjoy and be accustomed to, I’m not as strong as I once was and the manipulation of the multitude of objects seems to be more and more difficult compared to what it once was.  I used to also be able to run (or jog, though run seems the more en vogue term these days) a lot longer distances for a longer duration than I can today.  I also weigh many pounds more than I would like- the short of it is that I’m fat and not as in shape as I want to be…and it is on me to change it if I want it changed.

I have a couple choices here.  I can pretend that it is either not that bad, pretend that it will magically get fixed or some other form of make believe that in the end doesn’t help me right the situation.  I can also face the reality and decide that I’m going to do something about it…tomorrow, or some other mythical time period.  Or, I can decide right now to do something about it. 

So I did, and I continue to do something about it.  Yesterday I completed the first week of a 16 week training plan that I hope will prepare me to run in a 10k race in August of this year.  I would love to sit around, read blogs and stories of how to get ready and have that magically change me but the simple truth is, that unless I get out and actually train I’m going to go back to that pretend land that results in a very sad reality in the long run. 

So there it is, I’ve chosen today to do something.  When enough todays come and I make the right choice, I’ll run that race and not just stand still on that hot, hot day.

blogs...all the cool kids have one, so I guess it is time I get back to being a cool kid or something.  More than anything I've wanted a place to collect my thoughts a little, share with some friends or whatever strikes my fancy that day. 

first post down.  on to more fun stuff