Have you ever had those days when nothing seems to go right? I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase; “Man, I really woke up on the wrong side of the bed today!” I’ve never really understood that old saying, but I guess the wrong side of the bed would be the side with the wall on it. From that point of waking up in a foggy mood, the day seems to just get worse as time progresses. On these days you can’t find your car keys, somebody put the milk back in the fridge empty, you find a video rental that was due a week ago, and your puppy has left a gift for you on the carpet. By the time you go out the door and get in your car you have no patience left for anything, much less traffic. It’s on these days that traffic lights are always longer, cars always cut you off in your lane, and you discover your gas tank is on empty.

Why is it that we can take these challenges better on some days than others? To put it simply, it’s due to our frame of mind. A frame (in this context) would be a mood or focus of the mind that provides a main structure for all thoughts to be fitted into. Literally, whatever your predominant thought is, everything that happens during the day will, in some way, be perceived through that frame of mind. We are challenged with many situations during the day, but we put it on the “back burner” to work it out later. I’m not quite sure where the back burner is, but it’s probably located in the sub-conscience somewhere. Anyway, when we delay those thoughts and shove them back there we are not really dealing with it but only temporarily coping with it, and without warning on one of those bad mood days, it all comes out of the “back burner” and pours through the wrong frame of mind. That’s when you’re grumpy and yelling at family members for no reason who just said “good morning”.

In Luke chapter 8 there’s an account of a man who was insane and demon possessed. Needless to say his frame of mind was really messed up, and he lost all ability to cope and was naked and acting like an animal. This man’s insane frame of mind came face to face with Jesus, who literally walked in power, love and a sound (frame) of mind. The demons jumped out of the man and into a herd of swine, and verse 35 says; the man was then sitting at Jesus feet, clothed and in his right mind. When the man was conscience of Jesus (the very essence of a sound mind) then the junk in the man’s mind was flushed out.

Some of the things we go through would seek to stress us out mentally, yet the vast majority of people reading this today are not insane, but there are times we may feel like we’re not fully in our right frame of mind. When those days come, and you’re about to get out of bed and see the wall, just stop for a minute and spend some time at the feet of Jesus. How do you do that? Start by thanking God for every good thing in your life, put on some music that glorifies God and wakes your right minded frame up to His thoughts. Starting the day in God’s thoughts through prayer, praise, and reading His Word flushes out those muddy issues in the back burner of our brain and our heart. We then will have the strength mentally and spiritually to deal with those circumstances we face and never have to shove them to the back burner again. What frame of mind are you in? Take a deep breath and you’ll see God is right there to raise you above it all.

Wings As Eagles

By Rick Kendall correspondent
July 26, 2003

At a department store recently, a cashier smiled and asked me, "Would you like to take advantage of our Monday Club for Senior Citizens?" I looked around and wondered who she was talking to. She was looking straight at me. "Who me?" I replied. "A senior citizen discount? I'm much too young for that. How old do you have to be to get that discount?" She looked startled and said, "Oh, you have to be 50 years or older. How old are you?" My eyes shifted from side to side, looking at what seemed to be at least 1,000 people in the store waiting for my reply. Instead of answering her question directly, I said, "Actually, don't you think you ought to start your senior citizen discounts at about age 60 or maybe even 70 years old?" Then she said something that wasn't fair: "Well it would save you 15 percent off this purchase." My frugal nature kicked in; and before I knew it, I said, "OK, I'll take the discount."

All the way home I felt this nagging echo in my head with that lady's voice saying "15 percent off for senior citizens." It was that same week I received a letter in the mail telling me that I now qualify for AARP senior citizens' discounts. Would you believe I still haven't opened that letter. My thinking is that if I don't open it, I'm still too young to get it. I even wondered if the letter was meant for my father, since I'm only 51 years old. That's when it hit me: I am 51 years old. Yikes!

But then the real reality hit me: While that was a mid-life episode in my life, it wasn't a mid-life crisis because I found out long time ago that God renews my youth daily.What is it that makes some people seem so old while others have a vibrant maturity that is full of youth? I believe that those who pour themselves into encouraging young people will stay as young and vital as those they mentor, just as the eagle picks off old feathers to continually develop new ones.Jesus said: "I make all things new."

So rather than becoming bitter, we can continually get better. It is our concepts that can make us old or bold. The key is to drop old, hardening concepts and hear daily the ever new, living word of God.Don't forget what Isaiah says: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not lose faith."

Rick Kendall lives in Port St. Lucie and is co-founder of The Body Network, a fellowship of Treasure Coast churches and ministries

Connections or Strings Attached

Connections can be a wonderful thing. Connecting flights get us from one destination to another. Technology has brought the telephone, cable, and internet connections broadening our horizons around the world. Someone can get a great job through connections by knowing someone who’s hiring. Networking is the result of connections. When I say that instantly some would think of multi-level marketing, but I’m talking about networking between people connected from the heart. In the Bible, networking was literally people working nets as a team. People connect today for many reasons, over such things as, issues, politics, opinions, goals, and money, but sometimes these reasons to connect can become a tangled net that’s not working. When it comes to people connecting there’s got to be a clear understanding of what the relationship will produce.

If someone connects to us with strings attached we can become a puppet or a yoyo on their agendas. Some who thought they had made some real connections to get where they’re going, found the connecting string to be a rope with a noose. In Galatians 5:1, the apostle Paul says; Stand fast in the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. To be yoked with something or someone is to be literally tied together as one. How can we know our connection (yoking) with someone is going to produce liberty and not bondage in our lives? How can we make sure our connections are progress and not chains to tie us down?

Have you ever got in debt over a need to connect to a new car or house, or some other thing that would put you in a position of looking successful? To take on the baggage of debt never connects you to anything but more debt. Some people have collected so much baggage of abuse, hurts, anger, and other loads, that they would love to connect with someone else just to help them carry it. God doesn’t just carry our load for us when we get in relationship with Him, but He destroys the load altogether so we can hook up with people debt free!

When we connect we are no longer just affecting our destiny, but we become part of the destiny of someone else, and the connections of those networked to them. Everything we do impacts a circle of people connected to us directly and then ripples out to many others connected indirectly. To every connection there a main line that sets the priorities for all the other relationships in that growing network. As it said in Galatians, God’s relationship with us through Christ is a connection of freedom with no agendas except propelling us into life to the fullest. All of our relationships must revolve around our freedom in Christ and then through that connection we produce a network of relationships that grow healthy. This connection to the heart of God causes us to love even the string pullers and the parasites without getting tangled up in their webs.

What's the theme song of your life?

By Rick Kendall correspondent
June 28, 2003

Have you ever stopped to notice that everywhere you go there's music? In the mall, in the car, and in the elevator — there's music. When you turn on the TV you find that everything has a jingle or a theme song. The network newscasts have theme songs; commercials have theme songs; and even at the close of a TV show the logo of the production company that produced the program has a little theme song. I saw a commercial for a sewage treatment company that actually had a theme song jingle.

Our cell phones have tunes when they ring. Our computers boot up and shut down to music. Our alarm clocks wake us up to music.Music is a powerful force that sets a mood. Most fancy restaurants set the romantic moods by music and there's even music at sporting events that set an atmosphere for cheering on the home team. Music can remind you of something you were doing when you first heard that particular song, and music can bring tears, laughter, or even set the attitude for a whole day. Music is everywhere, and the truth is that our lives also carry tunes of some kind.If your life had a theme song, what would it be?

When people see you coming, what theme song would they likely hear? Would your song be "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" or "I Get the Blues"? When you see some people you can almost hear "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Our lives carry a melody of some kind, whether it's joy or sadness, delight or anger, and it's those around us that hear our tune. Haven't we all heard mothers tell their kids to "change their tune"? And we know we're in trouble with someone if we have to "face the music." Country, jazz, R&B, rock, rap, pop, and many other kinds of music flood our ears every day, and sometimes when I'm driving in my car I have to turn off the radio, and hear the music of life in total silence. What's the DJ of my heart playing inside?

It says in Zephaniah 3:17 that God rejoices over us with singing. That's right, God takes joy in His kids and covers us with a joy-filled song. Sometimes it's hard to hear it because we've been overwhelmed by the automated music of situations and turbulent music transmitted by people surrounding us every day. Because of God's love toward us He sent the expression of His joy through Jesus who gave a new song of joy and purpose so that the theme of our life could become a reflection of His love, and a declaration of freedom from the beat of the world's drums.

Now when circumstances throw a depressing note at us, we can set our own atmosphere with a song of praise to God who's caused us to triumph over it all. Now when we walk into a room there's a theme song of celebration. Turn off the televisions and radios for one moment and listen to God singing His life song deep inside of you.

Rick Kendall lives in Port St. Lucie and is co-founder of The Body Network, a fellowship of Treasure Coast churches and ministries.

June 14th (First column)

What's A Scholar?

By Rick Kendall correspondent
June 14, 2003

Hi. My name is Rick Kendall. I have a wonderful wife, Liz, and three of the greatest kids in the world, Ricky, Jonathan and Victoria.Liz and I have been through high times and very low times in our marriage and our ministry. I've gained a wealth of ministerial experience, having served as a children's pastor, a youth pastor, a senior pastor, and now a minister to many churches through the Body Network.

My wife and I founded and are hosts of the organization, which is a relationship-oriented network of ministries and churches in southeast Florida that is growing to include global connections. Relationships are the main focus of my life and ministry. Before titles, positions, and callings, we need to know how to relate to people as individuals with personality, dreams and desires. Before I know what you do, I like to know who you are. It's from this vault of God's love for people and interest in getting to know people that I will draw my topics for this column.

I believe that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. It's more than religion. It's a relationship with Jesus and my fellow man that counts. People are so interesting and have so much to say. In this column, I will do my best to listen to God and to people and share a perspective on current issues that is orth the investment of your coffee break time.There are so many columnists out there. So, what can I contribute? What's my approach?

Well, it won't be a scholarly one. Doubtless there are many scholars who could impress readers with complicated philosophies and intellectual vaults of knowledge. I looked up the word "scholar" in the dictionary, and it says "a learned person." Well, I guess I don't know what I'd be called, but the definition is close — I would say I'm a learning person.

2 Corinthians 4:7 says, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." Each article I write will hopefully be an adventure we share as we dig out the treasure in each of us and learn more about who we are and why we're here.

Rick Kendall is co-founder of The Body Network, a fellowship of Treasure Coast churches and ministries based in Port St. Lucie.

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