Where You Look Determines Where You Land: To The Pit Or The Palace

A load of bricks, its weight more than my back can bear, now bent in pain. My legs slowly prod on, feet shuffling. I see the minuscule pebbles, this unending path of lifeless dirt. The air is thick, my breathing shallow.



Who will help me with this load? Who will relieve my burdened back?



When things in life get heavy-hard – have you also noticed you’re prone to looking over your shoulder?



Shackled you, looking back to see what you’ve done wrong.



Your soul feels burdened with your inability to get
past.
this.
wall.



Discouragement fills your heart. [Maybe anger. Maybe defeat.]



Which mutes your drive to press on.



Looking back that way, there’s always a ball and chain. Every time pressures bear upon my life.



When my finances are tight.
When my kids are struggling.
When my relationships are strained.
When my dreams are on hold.
When my goals seem impossible.
When my expectations are drowned.



I look back to see where I went wrong, and inevitably I feel defeat.
If I keep looking back, I become paralyzed, stuck in a pit of woe.




When will the light come on? When will the weight be gone?


It’s said that it’s the Devil himself who beckons you to look backwards. Because what’s behind you is always past, and cant be changed. Not one teeny bit.



If he gets your head to turn, your eyes backward to land on your performance, then he’s caught you vulnerable – not seeing God. The armor doesn’t cover your back. Ephesians 6:14-17



He has snatched your possibilities.



Our Enemy, his name means “Adversary” or “The one who resists.”.



Our adversary accuses us [Revelation 12:10] and wants to hold us back.
The accuser appeals,
“Look back at you! You’ve done it now, you FAILURE!”



And when we take the bait, because we are in a place where it appears we’ve failed, we land in Pit Defeat.
Pitiful.
Defeat.



And God is calling, “Remember your Redeemer! Look up! I’ve already taken the weight, you bear it no more!”



And when we turn away from the past, when we get our eyes off of ourselves, there we have His promises waiting to be claimed. [His promises are not “yes and no” but only and always “yes” in Christ, so we can say, “Amen!”] Our faithful God is holy and true, merciful, kind, gracious, compassionate, powerful, and perfectly loving. He reminds us that His mercies are new every morning, so great is His faithfulness.




We walk by faith and not by sight.
And we must remember, “Get your eyes up!”
“Look ahead!”
God is already there!


One year ago today, we laid my Dad to rest.



I had the honor of writing the Eulogy for his funeral. This morning I returned to it, and after editing a paragraph by adding a list of his accomplishments, I want to share it in memory of him.


Dad’s Chair


The floor bears dark scuff marks from his chair skidding in and out from the table. If you visited our home, you likely visited with Dad at his spot in the kitchen. Meal after meal . . . day after day . . . year after year.


Dad read the Bible and led prayers before meals from that chair. To his left, at the corner of that table, one by one, sat a dozen babies in a high chair with him sharing his love of food. Sure, mom fed the babies more often, but Dad was there with the dessert. Most often ice cream. His eyes twinkled when he smiled at the reception from eager, round eyes wanting more.


The marks on the kitchen floor are emblematic of the indelible marks Dad has left on our hearts . . . the lasting impressions that will continue to impact our families and our world through the ensuing generations. No doubt his life has marked yours as well.


It’s safe to say that even with his many accomplishments, his military schooling at West Point, his service in the U.S. Army, his service to his hometown of Hugo, his main occupation of dairy farmer, and following that his service on the Conexus Energy board of directors, the hub of his life was faith, family and friends.


Dad delighted in his people.


In “Dad’s dairy school”, he was always teaching us to do the jobs that were age-appropriate. We “graduated” from the first level job of feeding calves to the next, washing cows in prep for milking. Moving up was a big deal and ultimately culminated in fieldwork.


Many of us and some of you experienced hours under the open sky on one of his International Harvester tractors, including his father’s first tractor, a Farmall H, acquired in 1944. Dad maintained and we continued to use it as we worked the family land that he loved, cutting, raking and baling hay, plowing, planting and harvesting oats and corn.


We are marked by his love of farming and his work ethic.


The demands of a dairy farm and large family never kept Dad from enjoying his love of hunting and fishing. And even there he was our teacher.


To bait a hook, cast a line and reel it in . . . To row a duck boat, build a blind, to wait in quiet expectation – often beneath grey skies. To get a shot and hit your target . . . or not . . . To freeze your tail off in pursuit of a deer, and succeed or not, Dad was there applauding and cheering for you.


His joy in our success as well as his own, has marked us all with a hunger to enjoy, advance and succeed in life and cheer others on as we do.


Whatever our need or pursuit, if he was able, Dad invested. Whether college, car, or business … recovery program, farm, land or equipment . . . encouragement, wisdom or humor, he has marked our lives with hope, laughter, perseverance and the means to move forward.


And who will forget his light-hearted, mischievous jokes or his colorful tales that often stretched in the telling. If he could get mom to blush a little, or a face to break into a smile, his heart seemed to dance.


It was with the same joy on his face that we saw when he was on the dance floor waltzing with mom, when he was talking about, holding or visiting with one of his grand children. When he was teasing one of us… or one of you…


We will all fondly recall the glimmer in Dad’s eyes when he succeeded in bringing joy to others.



Like the marks on the floor from the frequented chair, his love through teaching, rejoicing, working and giving has marked our hearts, which will continue to bear a bit of him here through our lives.


We can only bow our heads and thank God now for such a father, for such a man to celebrate today.

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