Life Matters - January 22, 2025

‘’Well! Grandpa! You’re already thpoiled!’’  The wide-eyed sparkling brown eyes of my lovely and lovable six- year- old granddaughter looking up at me with mildly curly-haired head tilted a bit sideways was enough to melt any grandpa’s heart in general and this one in particular. And…that lovable lisp!  

Little Kassya had met me at the door opening up to the kitchen from the ‘mud room.’ It was a repeat of the evening before, only last evening it had been eight-year-old Mikayla leading the way, with four-year-old Kaedon peering eagerly past his two sisters. Led by Mikayla they wanted to give me a foot soak, rub my feet with lotion, and massage my back. ‘’I would love that!’’ I had said, ‘’but what if I get spoiled? That could happen, you know, what if I like it so much that I think I have to have a foot soak and rub plus a back rub every evening?’’ But they weren’t concerned about spoiling grandpa, they just loved grandpa.  

None of them had been concerned and so they gave me the works. Once I was done taking a shower they had seated me on the corner couch, brought Epsom salt, warm water with feet pan and while my feet soaked little Kaedon had rubbed my back as I leaned forward a bit, then they dried my feet with a towel, rubbed them with lotion, got my socks started, then pulled on up with a little help from Grandpa. Then, it was story-time. 

Now, led by Kassya, they wanted to do it again! And I repeated the line of “what if I get spoiled?” Upon which Kassya informed me, “You’re already thpoiled!” I conceded with, ‘’I would love that!’’ Then as my love tank was again being replenished, this time on the hickory rocker by the wood stove, ‘’I guess maybe…I am already spoilt..!’’ 

I have no argument with Kassya. All kidding aside, it is very probable that few spoiled people believe they/we? actually fit into that category. There is something about ‘spoiled’ that seems not to know it, at least not in the moment. 

Deep in the soul of every human with a beating heart and a clear mind is the need to have meaning, a purpose, in life. Beyond just taking care of me, myself, and I. Who can deny it? Spiritual, even emotional, needs can be squelched, stuffed, but they will resurface, and when they do, they may very well surface faced in the wrong direction. In an affluent culture there are almost endless avenues to explore in the search for purpose. And as the avenues are almost endless, so are the dead ends. There is only one way to find, to zero in, on the question of leading a worthwhile, purposeful, life. The quest to satisfy selfishness with more selfish pursuits is an endless quest indeed as feeding the self-life with more selfishness only feeds an ever bigger monster. ‘’There is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death.’’ (Proverbs 14:12) 

I have wondered if I’m so spoiled I don’t even know it; a sentiment I voiced to son Caleb one day as we visited by a lakeshore with the happy sounds of children at play and our ladies visiting close by, in a backdrop of nature’s beauty, one beautiful sunny day a few years ago.  

‘’Are you thankful?’’ Caleb responded with a question. ‘’Yes!” I exclaimed, ‘’I am so very, very, thankful! I can’t get over how blessed I am!” To which Caleb responded with another question; ‘’Well, can a person be thankful and spoiled at the same time?” 

 ‘’I guess not” I conceded, as the profundity of that question settled deep into my heart. And that question keeps settling deeper since then. 

Can we be thankful and spoiled at the same time? I think not. And then there are the whatabouts. What about when squabbles take away the happy sounds? What about when life is stressful? What about when the two-year-old throws a fit? Or the sixteen-year-olds their immature, contradictory, possibly even rebellious, opinions? What about coming home from a stressful day at work only to meet a stressed out wife at the door? 

Have I failed? Yes. I’ve also had those times when I felt maxed out and then discovered more grace available. I love how the late evangelist Billy Graham put it when he said, ‘’Mountaintops are for views and inspiration, but fruit is grown in the valleys.’’  

Truly the hard things in life are where we get tested. Those valleys also provide an abundance of opportunities to repent where needed, to grow good fruit. It is in the hard where we continue to learn right responses. The hard has many opportunities to grow good fruit. Accept the hard. Then release it to Jesus. He understands and knows what to do with it. It is in the hard valleys where we learn compassion. We may not all have the same ‘hard’ but we all experience the same ‘flavors’ of hard pain.  

It is that learning of compassion that puts meaning, purpose, into life. Compassion cares about the pain others are going through. Cares enough to respond where we can. To help where we can. To warn people of danger. Both spiritual and physical. To search out and point in the right direction, away from that danger, away from the thistles to the fruitful trees. To mountaintop views and inspiration.  

In the valleys, we learn deep thankfulness leading to mountaintop experiences of it. 

Life Matters!