Superman

I have been getting sick a lot lately.  I don't know if its the cold weather, or maybe it has something to do with the crap I consider food? I honestly can't say.  Anyway, I was getting a check up at the doctors office recently, and I was forced to sit in the kiddie section of the waiting room.  

As I was sitting amidst the screaming babies and sniffling toddlers, I could feel the eyes of the incoming parents as they stared at me and my seat. There were no other open chairs left for the people who were arriving with their children, and I was intruding upon what was rightfully theirs.  

I gave up. Within moments I arose and began to walk around the small, stuffy waiting room.  Pictures of puppies, cats, and other comforting animals were hung all around the place.  The room had been designed  to be as comforting to small children as it could possibly be.  I kept walking around to the other side of the room in order to inspect a rather colorful picture that had caught my attention.  

It was a poster of superheroes.  I automatically switched into boy mode and began listing each of them off in my head.  "Green lantern, X-man, Wonder woman, Hulk, Spiderman....." the list went on.  I continued to look until I found just the guy I was looking for, Superman.

See I have always liked Superman the best.  The other guys are great, but Superman has just got it goin on.  He may not have all the fancy and entertaining powers that the others have, but he has what the people need.  Super strength, super speed, and the good ol laser vision for when you just gotta melt somethin.  

As I was standing in that waiting room it occurred to me that those superheroes were on the wall for a reason.  People need someone to help them when they are scared. People need someone to get them out of bad situations and tight spots.

Little kids are a perfect example of this.  In a scary place such as a doctors office, these kids needed their heroes.  They needed Superman.  

You know the cool thing about Superman is that he wasn't the result of some freak accident, and he wasn't just another normal guy who got some powers.  He was from another planet. He was from another world.

The other thing about Superman is that he didn't let many people know about who he really was. Only his closest friends had any idea.  

Believe it or not, the reason Superman is so attractive to us is because we are all in desperate need of someone like him. Someone who can save us, and someone who is willing to. 

Superman is real. 

But he does not wear tights, He wore our sins.

"Trust Me"

Trust Me. I hear that phrase so often in todays culture.  In a world that is so uncertain and volatile, those simple words can be all we need to make it through the day.  Whether they be from our parents, our bosses, or even our best friends, these words lay the basis for much of what we do in life. 

I was watching the inauguration the other day and I began to get chills up my spine.  Now, I did not get the kind of chills you may have been expecting. While I acknowledge it, the historic value of the moment was not what caused these chills. I am a conservative, but that also had nothing to do with how I felt.  

As I watched the president become the most powerful man in the world, I came to a frightening realization:  The inauguration of a president is also a declaration of the most trusted man in the world.

This is true of all elections, but never before has the culture put more trust or confidence in one man in such a way as they have Barrack Obama.  While I am a conservative, I do want to make clear that this has nothing to do with politics.  This has to do with human nature.

Many would say that Obama is the fittest man for the job.  I am not commenting on his ability to lead this country.  I am commenting on our blindness in trusting in one man for the salvation of our society.

I will now make my point.  We as human beings need to trust someone or something.  The question has always been and will always be, who and what?    Now I would love to trust in a man like Barrack Obama or even John McCain, but I know that they will fail.  I would love to be able to trust my doctor or my lawyer, or even my best friend, but they are not perfect.  I know that they are simply men and they cannot do what they promise anymore than I can.

I would love to accept the phrase "trust me" and call it good, but in reality I can not.  At least not from humanity.  Humanity is too prone to failure to give them my undivided confidence.

I need something more. We all need something more to trust in.  

There has only ever been one man who kept all of his promises.  There has only ever been one man who told nothing but the truth, and they killed him before he reached his thirty third birthday.  There has only ever been one man who was able to persevere through adversity and temptation and trial, and never fall.

There have been many men who have set out to save the world.  But only one could. Only he did.  Only one man has come, seen, and conquered.  

Humans need to hear those words, "Trust Me", and only one man has come with the true credentials.  

So I do what I do best, I take Him at his Word.

Heart Problems

For about 2 years now I have been spending my precious weekends in a suit and tie, fighting for the last word or the most clever phrase.  I am on a speech and debate team.  

I have noticed a somewhat sickening trend throughout my time at the tournaments and in the practices.  Now I don't like to start these posts of in a negative direction, but I feel that my age group is in dire need of a clear diagnosis.  

We have all heard for many years about the dangers of heart problems.  Whether it is too much grease, not enough red wine, or a lack of exercise, everyone over the age of forty seems to be talking about it.  A lot of times these heart problems are not very visible in daily situations.  If we are going to work or driving our cars or sitting in our chars, all seems to be well.

The real evidence comes when we are removed from our daily routine and we are forced to exercise in order to make it up a hill or run a mile.  Its when the challenge comes that the true condition of our heart is tested and revealed.

Now believe it or not my main concern is not really our hearts in the medical sense of the word.  I am concerned about the other sense of the word.  That of the heart being an indicator of who we are inside.  

During a recent tournament my coach messed up and entered one of my good friends in an event that he was not prepared for. She told him to go to the round and improvise, and to do his best.  Gary went to the round and did just that.  There is a lot of pressure at these tournaments to have your speech memorized perfectly and to be able to present it just as perfectly.  Gary didn't have the luxury of preparation, and so he was only able to be as good as the the circumstances would allow.

At the end of his speech a certain competitor who was in the room felt the need to approach Gary and inform him of a few things. Namely that he was a "disgrace to pubic speaking and had wasted all of their time".  

I find instances like this one to be very telling of the heart problems in our society.  This kid was so unhealthy inside that he felt compelled to put someone else down for their honest effort.   

In the Word it says that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  This has proven itself true so many times in my life.  I have seen instances where people are truly good hearted people, and it shows primarily in their words.  Our words are often the first act of either love or condemnation towards those we meet.

And our words never fail to reveal the condition of our hearts.  

When the challenge came to the kid at the tournament and he was faced with either welcoming Gary with love, or condemning him through his own false pride, the kid chose the latter. Because his heart was sick and broken. It couldn't show mercy toward Gary because it had never received any of its own.

God tells us to love each other just as He has loved us.  Christ showed us mercy and love and forgiveness on that cross,  and he asks us to remember it so that we might treat others the way He would. 

With love and with mercy.  

As a country and as a species, we do have major heart problems.  The only cure is a daily practice of love and mercy.

 

 

The Need

Throughout my high school career I have always been involved with Mr. Stafford in one way or another.  Stafford is the guitar teacher at my school. His class is laid back and basic in nature, and kids both enjoy that and hate it at times.  

But Stafford doesn't bend or budge, he just keeps on truckin through like he always has. I admire that about him.

I  T.A for his class, which means that I help him teach and manage the kids.  I love the kids in the class.  They are so honest about life and about themselves.  So typically human.

Whether they are stoned or tired, hungry or lazy, these kids are typical freshmen.   They come to school each day with an attitude that some may mistake for crudeness or rudeness, yet if you were to honestly talk to one of them you would see what wonderful kids they are.

I spoke with one of them today about how 90% of life is just showing up.  It took him a second, but he understood what I meant.  His sad and tired face seemed to brighten as the words soaked into him.  

I believe that one of the chief human needs is encouragement.

Encouragement from the source that they believe is credible.  I know that Jesus came to be that source.  He came to fulfill that aspect of human need. 

The reason He was able to do so is because He is the manifestation of the Truth. When a man understands Jesus, he understands all things.  And he is encouraged unto all things, in Jesus Name.

The very name of Jesus is the key to salvation and blessing.  While worldly prosperity is often gained through sinful forces, true blessing can only be received from the Grace of God through Jesus Christ. 

Once again, the beauty of Jesus is that He is simple and He is central.  

He is as simple as the key and as central as one as well.  He is the one who opens the doors of the Scriptures and to the True Life that we are all searching for.  

He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  

Im gonna tell people about Him.  

If there is anything I will do, its that.  

Good Morning America

Good morning.  Or is it? If your anything like me it is rarely a true "good" morning. I have never really been much of a morning person. I find that it takes a thorough soaking in the shower before I can be declared legally sane each day.  

One of the main reasons that I dislike the morning is because my faith in the Lord seems to be at its weakest when the hours are early and my mind is vulnerable.  It is really in the shower that I am able to get my mind together and engage the Lord before the day begins.  As I sit in the steam and the heat I am able to come to terms with the reality that today is the Lords.  In doing so I am put at an immediate advantage against the perils and temptations of the day.  

I have learned that giving the day up to Almighty God to handle is extremely freeing.  The peace that comes with knowing that He is in control and that all works for the good of those who love Him is a peace that I don't want to try to live without. That is essentially what life is like when following Jesus.  

He is strength when you need Him. He is Love when it hurts. He is forgiveness when you just cant do it.  He is direction when your lost.  He is both the power and the purpose in all that is holy and clean.  And above all, He will carry you through. 

At the end of the day we were beaten, and so He came down here and won.  

It was finished. It is finished.

I don't walk out of the shower without remembering that.

God Isn't Done.

Thats a controversial title for the first entry of pretty much anything. It speaks of God(controversial enough) and His activity(even more so).  My name is Dan Walbert, and I will do both. So brace yourselves.  

I have some thoughts. Not many, but I got this one in particular.  I have this really strange feeling that God wants me to do some things.  Im gonna do them.  I would encourage all who can say the same to do the same. 

I have never really been a major fan of the Beetles. I know the music and I know the culture.  You could say Im a fan, but not a major one.  The one thing that always struck me about the whole beetles culture is this Love mantra.  "All we need is love..." and so on.  I have found  that many people agree with that famous line.  I find it funny that it took a man like Paul McCartney singing those profound words over the radio and into history for a generation to get the concept.  

Those words are true. All we need is love.  But love is not a renewable resource. Paul will die. So long as love is a lower case word, it will fail as well.  What is needed to sustain the verb is the proper noun.  To love, we must know Love.  Love is a person.  The verb is flowing out from the nature of the proper noun that is Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is the manifestation of love.  He is literally where it begins and where it will end.  

When people understand that, all is well with their souls.  To know that is to be at peace.  Because Jesus tells us to come to Him and He will give us rest.  I like rest.  Cause Im tired.  

God isn't done. Jesus is not done.  There are still too many people that need rest. 

Thats my thought for now.