THREE FRIENDS, THREE TREES, AND A CONFESSION

I was twelve years old and I lived about a quarter of a mile from my best friend. There were three homes, a church, and a patch of woods between us. There was a valley in the woods and some really tall trees. One day at school, my friend told me he had found a big vine in the woods and had been swinging on it. He wanted me to meet him there after school and have some fun swinging. So I did.

He brought his neighbor with him who went to another school and we all took turns swinging on the vine. At first, I was careful because I was a bit nervous. The hill where we were swinging was pretty steep and when we swung out we were very high off the ground. Then I got a little braver and was swinging further out and higher each time.

Then it happened. I swung too far. There were three trees side by side in a V shape. My shoulder hit one of them and spun me around and I slammed into another one with my back. It knocked the breath out of me and my hands just let go of the vine. I fell into the valley and hit the ground with a thud.

I got up as quickly as I could. It was all I could do to move. I could barely breathe and I was in pain. I just wanted to lay down and cry. All that kept me from doing just that was the fact that I was embarrassed. I didn’t want my friend and his friend to think I was weak so I acted as tough as I could. I did muster up the courage to tell them it hurt a little and I needed to go home.

I could have been hurt worse than I thought. I could have had internal bleeding. I hit that tree pretty hard and I fell a long distance. I hurt for several days, but I didn’t dare tell anyone what had happened, especially my grandmother. I was afraid she would never let me leave the house again.

Shame and embarrassment often prevent us from admitting that we’re not invincible. It also makes us try to hide things we’ve done that were wrong. Even though we know God sees everything we do, too often, we refuse to even admit to him that we’ve sinned, just like Adam and Eve, after they sinned in the garden of Eden. They actually tried to hide from God when he came to visit them.

Isaiah tells us that “sin separates us from God,” but John said, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (Isaiah 59:2; 1 John 1:9). Have you ever heard “Confession Is Good For The Soul?” Well, it really is. Forgiveness is an awesome gift from God, so the next time you sin, and you feel so ashamed that you want to run and hide from God, don’t. We don’t have to be afraid to come to him. We have his promise that he will forgive us.

We know he loves us, and we know he wants what’s best for us so why is it so hard sometimes to just turn to him and confess our sins and say “I’m sorry?” Sometimes it may be pride, but I think it’s usually just shame and embarrassment. We have to get past that and learn to admit when we sin and ask for forgiveness, immediately. The sooner we do, the sooner we can be forgiven and get back to the safety of his arms. It’s truly the best place to be.

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THE BASKETBALL CONNECTION

When I was in school, I loved basketball. My grandmother bought me a brand new ball to practice with at home. That’s the one I took to school and two older boys took from me and wouldn’t give it back. I’ll place a link at the end of this post so you can read that story if you haven’t already.*

I got another ball later and discovered that I was probably better off without one. We lived directly behind one of the neighborhood stores. The owner’s son was one of my friends. Sometimes he would get off the bus at the store and stay until it closed. Many times he would come and stay at my house until just before his dad locked up. One of those times, as he was leaving, he threw a rock in my direction. We had been playing with the basketball and I was about to take it into the house with me. As he threw another rock, I ran to where it was headed and let it bounce off the ball. He threw a few more and I intercepted each of them with the ball.

Then it happened. I missed, but the rock didn’t. It didn’t hit the basketball, it hit me; Right in the midsection. I dropped the ball and hobbled into the house crying so hard I could barely see. I crawled onto my grandmother’s bed and curled up in agony. I was in a lot of pain. I lay there for what seemed like forever, then I guess I finally went to sleep. When I woke up, I was better, but for a long time, I would have sporadic pains that would remind me of that day.

I believe that was the same basketball that I later used to damage myself again. I was squatted down, using a hammer for something and the basketball was nearby. For some dumb reason, I decided to hit the basketball with the hammer. When I did it bounced off the ball and the claws hit me right in the forehead. It was quick, and it was hard, and it really hurt. I still feel stupid for doing that even as I write this. Sometimes I can’t believe all the dumb stuff I did when I was young. As I look at some of the crazy things young people do today, I try to remember how dumb I was, before I condemn them.

That story reminds me of another incident that happened with one of my sisters when we were younger. It doesn’t involve a basketball, but it does have a hammer. The house we were living in belonged to my late great-uncle. It was old and drafty. At some point in the past, someone had put plastic over the windows on the outside and used roofing tacks with cardboard as washers to keep them from pulling through the plastic. The plastic was gone so I was using a claw hammer to pull the tacks out. I had to use some force, so I was swinging the hammer a bit and I wasn’t able to get the claws under the head of each nail the first time, every time.

My sister came out on the porch to brush her teeth. She bent over to spit just as I swung the hammer. It missed the tack head and hit her head. The claws made two deep holes in her skull. Here’s the funny part. She looked at me and said, “Did you hit me?” Believe it or not, we have had several laughs about it over the years.

Several years earlier, I had damaged my own head in the gym at school. The girls’ basketball team was practicing at one end of the court. Most of them were in a single line, and they were running some drills. The other end of the court was filled with kids playing whatever they wanted. The gym was full and I was being chased by a couple of girls. I ducked and dodged several people before running through the line of practicing girls. Just as I passed through the line I saw the wall, but not soon enough. I smashed into the corrugated tin which wasn’t all that solid. It was a just little too springy. I bounced off the wall quick and hard. I ended up on my back on the concrete floor. My head hit the floor so hard that it knocked me out for a few minutes. When I regained consciousness, my teacher was standing over me, calling my name and asking, “Are you alright?”

No, I wasn’t alright. There was a huge, hard knot on the back of my head and I was in a lot of pain. I remember sitting in the office as the teachers and the Principle discussed whether or not to send me home. They finally decided to contact my family and they came and took me to the doctor. They checked me out, and took some X-rays, then informed us that I had a concussion and a fractured skull. Thankfully, that’s the closest I have ever come to having a broken bone in my entire life. I went home and recovered in a few days, and soon I was back to my old self, and back in school.

I did learn some lessons from these experiences and I have applied them to my everyday life over the years. That has helped me to become more safety-minded and I’ve avoided many other accidents that could have possibly been fatal.

God wants us to apply the lessons we learn in our everyday lives to our spiritual life. Too often, we make quick decisions, without thinking like I did in these situations. Sometimes we have to make quick decisions, but usually, we have at least a few moments to think before we leap. That’s what God wants us to do. Many of my accidents could have been prevented if I had only thought about the variables. I’ve been accused of being pessimistic because I now think about what could go wrong before attempting certain new things. I don’t see it that way. I’m not expecting only bad outcomes, I’m just weighing the situation. I think it’s irresponsible to jump into anything without first thinking about it for at least a few minutes. That’s just common sense. The Bible has plenty to say about thinking before we speak, and there are many stories where people got into trouble by doing things without thinking first.

Most people would agree that we need to take time to consider our options before we make big decisions, but we need to do the same thing with everything we do. We need to stay in constant contact with God through prayer. We need a close personal relationship with Jesus, and when we have a decision to make, even a quick one, he will guide us through the Holy Spirit who lives in our minds. Life would be so much better, for all of us, if we were so close to God that we could hear him every time he tries to speak to us. That’s what I want. How about you?

*I Forgive You Mr. Richmond (Basketball Story)

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CUTS, SCARS, AND LESSONS LEARNED

If you know me, you know that I’ve had my share of misfortune. I’ve had plenty of bad things happen to me as I was growing up. I certainly understand that plenty of others have had a much rougher life than I have. I only mention mine to show what God has brought me through. I have had a few major things happen to me, but for the most part, the bad things I’ve experienced were small and spread out over time. There are a few things that I’ve been through that I had absolutely no control over, but as I’ve grown older I’ve come to realize that many of the bad things I’ve experienced, I brought on myself.

I’ve also realized that there is a lesson to be learned from anything that happens in life. Sometimes the lesson is to “never do that again.” Other times the lesson can have a much deeper impact, and can even change the course of our lives forever.

The stories I want to share with you in this post were not life-altering events. These were some of the less significant ones, but I did learn some important lessons from all of them. As you may have noticed from the title, all these events have a common theme. If you've been following my blog, or if you've read my books, then you know that a lot of stuff happened to me when I was twelve years old. That’s where I want to start with this post.

On his latest visit, my dad had a slingshot he had made from a forked tree limb shaped like the letter Y. He had used a piece of leather, a couple of strips of rubber from an old inner tube, and some nylon fishing string to hold it all together. I wanted to make one of my own, so I gathered up all the parts, including a nice Y-shaped limb I cut from a tree in our yard.

My grandmother and my sisters had walked to the store just up the road. I didn’t want to go because I wanted to finish making my slingshot. I wanted it to look nice and smooth so I needed to cut off a knot that was near the center to make both sides look the same. That’s when it happened. After a tough few seconds of cutting, the knife sliced through the rest of the knot. That’s not all it sliced through though. It cut right into my index finger and the blood began to pour.

As many times as I had seen my own blood, you would think I would have been calm about it, but no. It was bad. I panicked. All I could think to do was run to my grandmother for help, but wait! She wasn’t there. The next thing I remember, I was running up the road toward the store as fast as I could go. They had just started back home when I got to the store. My grandmother put some kind of a rag on my finger, maybe one of her handkerchiefs, I don’t remember exactly what it was but she calmed me down and we went back home. She cleaned my hand and got the bleeding stopped and bandaged it up. It healed in no time, but I still have the scar to remind me of that experience. The lesson I learned that day is, Always cut away from yourself, never toward you, and that my grandmother was an awesome woman with a head full of knowledge, and a heart full of love.

I was probably just a few years older when I got my next major cut. I’m certainly not proud of it at all, but I used to hit the wall or throw things when I was angry. This was one of those days, but instead of hitting the wall, I hit the door. That’s when I realized that I had punched through a frosted glass window which was much thicker than regular glass. It sliced a four-inch groove in my arm, taking the skin completely off. I was in pain for quite a while.

Then a few years after that, I was angry again and went to slap a glass off of the sink. It was an empty peanut butter jar, and those things were thick. It hit some other dishes before it left my hand and I was cut again. It was bad, too. It sliced a hole about an inch wide and an inch deep and it wouldn’t stop bleeding. I tried everything. My grandmother did all she knew to do, but it was no use. About an hour had passed, and what looked like a gallon of blood lay on the front porch before I finally decided I might need a doctor. My grandmother sent my sister to get our mother. When we got to the hospital, I had been bleeding for almost two hours.

When the nurse removed the rag I had wrapped around my hand, a huge amount of blood poured out into a puddle on the floor. She took me back to a room and told me to hold pressure on the cut until the doctor could see me. When he came in he told me to let go so he could get a look at it. The second he took my hand, a stream of blood shot out and sprayed all the way up to the ceiling. I was focused on my hand and the stream of blood, so I didn’t see the doctor’s face, but I can imagine what it looked like as he quickly stepped back and said something that scared me to death. I’ll never forget that tone of shock and urgency in the words he said. With surprise and concern in his voice, he said, “Woah! We’ve cut a main artery.”

It’s funny thinking about his reaction today, but it wasn’t funny then at all. I could have died. I lost a lot of blood and I had a terrible time getting that cut to heal. I kept it bandaged up and it couldn’t dry. It swelled up from internal bleeding, and all the stitches pulled loose. When it did finally heal, it left an awful scar that produced excruciating pain every time it was bumped. That lasted more than twenty years, and believe it or not, it’s still tender to this day. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that experience.

Although it took several more years and a few more incidents, I learned not to throw and hit things when I’m angry. I also learned that the kind of anger I was experiencing was not normal, or healthy. I had some things I had to work through. I thank God and my wonderful family for loving me and supporting me through it all.

A close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ will work miracles in a person’s life. I know I sometimes sound like a broken record, but that kind of relationship only comes through prayer and Bible study, and having a close, personal relationship with Jesus is the only way we will ever make it to heaven. So, If you haven’t been born again, ask him to save you today. If you have been born again, ask him to draw you closer and stay in constant communication with him through prayer and Bible study. That’s the key.

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FORGIVE YOURSELF

About a year ago, I posted a story about learning to forgive. It was called “I Forgive You, Mr. Richmond.” I’ll put a link to it at the end of this post. Many people misunderstand forgiveness, and what it really involves, and I was no different. I had to truly understand forgiveness before I could give it.

We know we must forgive others for God to forgive us, but sometimes it’s not that easy. What’s even harder, is forgiving yourself. We know ourselves better than any other person on earth knows us. We know all our thoughts and all our secrets. We know what kind of person we really are under all the smiles, and masks we sometimes wear.

When we do something that hurts others, or God, we’re ashamed, because we know we shouldn’t have done such a thing, but we also know that sometimes, deep down inside, we really wanted to do it. Whether it’s something mean we said to someone, or something God says to do, or don’t do, and we disobeyed. It might be anger we’re holding on to because we don’t want to forgive just yet. Sometimes we hold on to that anger like a child with a favorite toy, or like it’s a vital piece of merchandise or our most prized possession we can’t bear to part with.

It’s even worse when we’re angry, or disappointed with ourselves. When we become the focus of our own anger we are in a bad place indeed. If we could only see through our anger and shame, we would realize that we are only hurting ourselves more by holding on to those things. In Mark chapter eleven, Jesus had this to say.

Mark 11: 25-26

25 And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Jesus said forgive if you have anything against anyone. That would include yourself. We are God’s children just like anyone else, and we should try and see ourselves through his eyes. We know he wants us to forgive his children for wrongs they have done to us, and we ask them to forgive us for things we have done to them. We need to forgive ourselves as well when we’ve done things that we shouldn’t have. It’s important to do so in order to clear our minds and start fresh, with a clean conscience.

We may know ourselves better than any other person on earth knows us, but God knows us even better than we know ourselves. We often forget that. If he can forgive us, surely we can find it in our hearts to forgive ourselves.

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For more about forgiveness, read “I Forgive You Mr. Richmond.”

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HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Sometimes life is rough. Sometimes I don’t feel good at all. I’ve had a bad back for many years, and it affects my whole body. My legs and feet, my arms, hands, and neck as well. I’m almost always in pain. I never get enough sleep. I have bad days and better days, but I never actually feel good. Sometimes I feel like no one cares. I’m not telling this so anyone will feel sorry for me. I don’t want that at all.

It’s three o’clock in the morning and I’m awake. In thinking about my suffering, I often try to remind myself that there is always someone who has it worse than I do. I see so many others suffering in this world, and many of them, most of them are in much worse shape than I am. 

My sister had cancer for several years and was always in pain until she died. My dad had colon cancer and had to have surgery to remove the tumor, and before he recovered from that, he had to have gallbladder surgery. It couldn’t be removed because it was so inflamed it was stuck to the other organs. The doctor closed him up and sent him home with drain tubes coming out of his body. That led to more problems and he suffered for several months before he finally died. Then, my mother suffered for years and finally died from cancer.

My cousin almost died after his wife stabbed him in the heart during an argument. I just heard about a woman who was out drinking with her boyfriend and her twenty-three-year-old son. The young man had been in a fight and was still upset on the way home. For some reason, he opened the car door and got out while they were going down the highway. The car ran over him, and another mother lost her son.

More babies than ever are being born with birth defects. Many are stillborn and there are many miscarriages. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain and suffering those parents are going through. On the other hand, many babies and children are being abused and even killed. Pain is everywhere.

I see people every day suffering from some kind of affliction. I know people who have Diabetes, Heart trouble, Cancer, broken or lost limbs, back problems, Emphysema, COPD, and numerous other problems that are visually noticeable. There are many suffering from things that are not so noticeable, though. Things like depression, anxiety, broken hearts, emotional problems, drug abuse, and physical and mental abuse.

Many are having a hard time making it in this life because of all the physical and emotional problems, but many others are suffering because of the economy. Some don’t even have jobs to take care of their families. Our world is a mess.

Being a Christian, I trust God to help me and my family through this troubled world, with all the problems it brings. Even so, things aren’t always easy, and sometimes I get discouraged. Sometimes I’m not happy with how things are going in my life. Sometimes I wonder if things will ever get better, but I know, no matter what happens, Jesus will be there to help me make it through it. I always have hope.

My point, in laying out all these bad things that happen to people, is this; Even though I have Jesus to help me through all my problems, at times, things still seem unbearable, so I don’t see how people make it through those terrible times without Jesus by their side. I wonder about the ones who don’t believe in God at all. Where do they seek comfort in times of trouble? Many times they look for comfort from drugs and alcohol, which only adds to the problem.

The apostle Paul said, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable”(1 Corinthians 15:19). What about those who have no hope in Christ? What about those who have no hope at all? It’s sad to think there are so many in this troubled world, suffering from so many kinds of problems, and they have no hope for the future. No hope that things will get better. I believe that’s the main reason so many people end their lives. They have no hope. Jesus wants us to have hope. The Bible is full of messages of hope. Here are a few verses, that mention hope specifically, to help you with whatever you’re going through.

Romans 12:12  Rejoice in hope, be patient in times of trouble, be constant in prayer.

Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in former times was written for our instruction, that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

Romans 15:13  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may have much hope.

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DREAMS FROM GOD

I’ve had many dreams in my lifetime. Some, I didn’t remember at all when I woke up, and some faded soon after I awoke, before I could think too much about them. But, many of them, I still remember, like it was yesterday.

I remember some dreams that I really don’t think meant anything, and I’ve had several where it was pretty clear why I dreamed them. I’ve had many dreams that I’m sure came straight from Satan, or at least from his evil forces, and I’ve had several dreams that I know for sure came straight from God.

If you’ve been following my blog you know that I was raised in church. When I was sixteen years old, I quit going to church and began a three-year romance with alcohol and drugs.

One night I had one of those dreams that I know came from God. I remember it in great detail. In the dream, it appeared to be mid-afternoon in late Spring or early Summer. It was a lovely day, and everything was so green and beautiful. The sun was bright and warm, but there was a nice calm breeze. I was standing outside near a big oak tree, next to a field connected to the wood line. The wind started blowing a bit harder and quickly grew. It soon became so windy that the big oak tree was being blown back and forth like a small bush.

I heard the long blast of a trumpet. At that point, I knew exactly what was happening. Jesus was returning for his people. As I looked up, the sky changed color, and I saw the Face of God filling the sky. Then I saw Jesus descending from heaven.

I fell on my knees and cried out to God. I said, “No! Please, not now, God! I’m not ready! I’m not ready!”

That’s where the dream ended. I’m sure no one needs a degree in dream interpretation to understand what God was telling me.

Then, one day cousin invited me to go to church with him, so I did. Later that year I met Jesus and gave my life to him, and then I received another dream from God.

This time the sky was clear and everything was calm and so quiet. I was walking over some big white rocks beside a body of water. Jesus was walking with me, holding my hand. I could feel his love for me, and I felt so peaceful and happy. It was the best feeling I had ever felt. That was the dream.

Many years have passed since I had that dream, and Jesus has never left me to walk alone. At times, I’ve let go of his hand, but he’s always been there to pick me up and dust me off when I’ve fallen. He’s always there for me; when things are going well, and when the road gets rough. Things are not perfect, and I know they never will be here in this sinful world, but someday the troubles of this world will be over, and we’ll live in a perfect world with no more tears, no more pain, and no more death. I’m longing for that time, more and more each day.

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© 2015 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @
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