In Haiti, by and large, you get one handle that works. If you even have a sink. And clean water comes in plastic containers.

After a week there on a construction project, my mind and heart are swirling with so many thoughts and impressions that I hardly know where to begin. So, let’s start with something we in first-world countries take for granted (I certainly do). Water.

As you drive around Haiti (warning: driving in Haiti can be hazardous to your sanity. I can’t even begin to describe what it’s like on those roads…!) you’ll see trucks with little plastic containers of drinkable water for sale. You’ll see large jugs and small bottles of water (hopefully clean), and 5 gallon pails being toted around on top of people’s heads, on donkeys, on motorcycles…what you won’t see are nice bathrooms, drinking fountains, or sparkling reservoirs.

Our normal would be Haiti’s top 0.00001%. I made that number up. But I’ll bet it’s close. Haiti is poor in a way that we barely comprehend in “first-world” countries.

Haiti is in the Caribbean. When I think of that part of the world, I think of beautiful blue water and lush, tropical beaches. In Cap Haitien, near where I was staying, there’s a spot called bottle beach. Guess what it looks like. Now envision a landscape where trash is thrown aside everywhere, and almost never collected.

Rough on the eyes. And not so good for the water.

Take a look at this picture. This is the backside of an outhouse – you don’t want to see the inside. Do you and I have a bathroom today with hot and cold water, a flushing toilet, and lights that go on and off? I don’t know about you, but I take that for granted. Or, I did.

Haiti is about daily survival. It’s a land with a paucity of infrastructure, few opportunities, little productive and long-term work, and scarce natural resources. It’s a land where life is eked out. If it weren’t for the mission groups and other charity organizations that continually come in to put in wells, build buildings, support schools, and provide medical care, there’s no telling what life would be like. And yet…this is normal for residents in Haiti. They cope. They make do. They improvise.

Our first-world problems seem pretty miniscule in comparison.

Despite the tragic living conditions, there is something about Haiti that wraps itself around your heart. You see the little children – some with barely any clothes – and they are just like kids anywhere (yes, they loved the give-me-five-then-take-my-hand-away-trick, as every kid does!) You see warm smiles and hear laughter. You wonder about the potential of this nation and its people, and what it would take to move it from a continual state of need and desperation to something better. You realize that with great difficulty comes great opportunity to love, even if it seems like a tiny drop of water in a desert of need. As far out of my comfort zone as Haiti is, I want to go back again someday.

And I have to wonder if one of those kids, privileged to be in an orphanage or a school, is going to grow up to be the one who leads Haiti into better days. Maybe one of the very ones who clung to my neck in a wonderfully-run home for orphans, or got up in unison to say “bonjour!” when the visitors from America came into the classroom.

I was slightly surprised last evening when I was on the plane back to Newark, and using the faucet in the little bathroom to wash up, I felt hot water running over my hands. Perhaps in a few weeks, that will seem normal again. I kinda hope it doesn’t, though.

As I have opportunity, I’ll try to write up some other reflections, but for now, let me close with this. If you are one of those discontent with America, if you whine about being the 99%, I’d challenge you to spend a week or two Occupying Haiti. You’ll quickly realize what percentage group you really belong in. Smell the burning trash. Watch the mangy dogs by the side of the road. See the crumbling buildings. Experience how water and electricity can be unpredictably optional. And talk to the people, who still somehow seem to make the best of it.

We – you and I – have it good here. This is a day for gratitude, not complaining. When we sip that coffee and turn that faucet and open that full refrigerator, remember – we are privileged beyond belief.

And it can be our privilege to help others.

P.S. for those visiting Steve’s Free for the first time (Welcome!), this is my little-known personal blog. Most of my marketing/branding/business writings are over at Connection Agent, and my pharma ramblings are at Impactiviti, if that’s what you’re into…

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Case closed. God is for us.

But what about those times when His hand seems to be against us? When a job is lost, a child is sick, a parent dies, a cloud of mental illness descends – has God changed His disposition?

Faith embraces the promise, and sees past the circumstance. God being for us means that He remains on our side, and by our side, through the inevitable rough patches that are designed for our (ultimate) good.

In other words, God’s heart is for us even when, to our puny vision, it seems like His hand is against us. We cannot read His heart by the events of today, or tomorrow. We know His heart by His Word

If Tim Tebow helps his team win a football game, does that mean God is for him – but then when the Denver Broncos are blown out by the New England Patriots, as they were this weekend – is God any less for him?

Nonsense. God is just as much for Tim Tebow if he has a successful 15-year career, or if he suffers a catastrophic injury and never plays again.

Just as He is for you, child of God, when life has more rocks and thorns than clear, wide paths.

Today, put the Word in front of your mind and say, “God is for me.” Then, put all your troubling circumstances in a pile and say it again.

Be grateful that you are not among those who reject His love, who set themselves against Him, and who do not know the comfort of a God who is for them.

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I’ve had three thoughts about female beauty rattling around in my head of late, and I’ll just throw them out there. Maybe one of them will touch you.

1. First, regarding young ladies: Aspire to be pretty, according to how Pat Archibold describes it in this post (go ahead, read it and come back. I’ll wait…). Yes, it means being counter-cultural. And this is one time, gals, when you need to have some cojones and respect yourself enough to be something other than a commodity.

2. Secondly, for you women who are older: There is immense beauty in vibrant character. Trying to return to your teens is, frankly, unseemly. Your wisdom, life experience, and proven loyalty impart a different kind of beauty than any amount of makeup can. Being smart, hard-working, kind, and comfortable in your own skin brings a more enduring beauty than model-looks.

3. And, while we’re talking models, don’t buy into the current size zero skinny fad. Are you kidding me? Speaking from the male perspective, curves have never gone out of style. Aspiring to weigh as much as a 16-year-old Olympic gymnast is really foolish. Curves are good. <—-Trust me on this one (also, I will tell you something that remains utterly true: when you are pregnant, you really are radiantly beautiful). I’m not saying that letting yourself balloon into obesity is attractive, but you might be surprised how many women can rock the house in clothing sizes that go past one digit.

As a father, I talk to my boys about the various girls/women that cross their path. Fortunately, they have a rare example of female beauty in their mother – and they know it. They can see the shallowness that surrounds them, and I’ve got to say – if you aspire to real beauty and character, you may not have a lot of competition out there anymore! I know what I want to see in a daughter-in-law – self-respect, smarts, appropriate modesty, a strong backbone, and solid character. Hot chicks are a dime a dozen. Real women are rare jewels.

Be one.

P.S. for those visiting Steve’s Free for the first time (Welcome!), this is my little-known personal blog. Most of my marketing/branding/business ramblings are over at Connection Agent, if that’s what you’re into…

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Abraham had moved away from his  hometown, into the land of Canaan – the Promised Land. But he did not want his son to marry one of the local chicks. He sensed that this would be incompatible with God’s purposes, and a bad match for his son. So he sent his servant back to his home country, trusting that God would lead him to just the right woman for Isaac (He did).

It wasn’t enough to find some woman of outward beauty, or of inherited wealth. To be blunt, those are a dime a dozen in any era. No, Isaac was to have a wife with whom he could be one in soul and spirit. And Abraham sent his servant to fish in the most likely waters.

Today marks the birthday of my bride, a New Year’s baby, whom I met in 1979 in a gathering of like-minded people who were seeking to grow in their faith together. While there was certainly physical attraction a-plenty, we connected on a much deeper level, becoming friends first, and later maturing into a sense that each of us was a half, incomplete without the other.

As God brought Rebekah to Isaac, so He brought Sandy to me. What’s the secret to a long and happy marriage? Well, there are many, but today, let’s point to something right at the foundation, something that has to be right at the very beginning.

Compatibility. If your souls are in sync, you can have great hope that your lives will be in sync.

It’s worth being very, very picky. And, like Abraham’s servant, praying that God will direct your steps.

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He delivered.

Merry Christmas!

Here’s the offer: Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. (Isaiah 55:1)

Let’s put it another way – God has the most spectacular restaurant around, a buffet of the healthiest and richest food and drink, and the price of admission is…nothing. Just come.

Now, this deal involves a choice, of course – putting aside all the fast-food restaurants that charge you for grossly inferior food that will never satisfy you (Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? – Isaiah 55:2).

The analogy, of course, is clear-cut – a life without God’s nearness is empty and unsatisfying, leading only to death. But a life in fellowship with Him is truly life indeed (Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, that you may live – Isaiah 55:3).

So – we can stay on a path of sin and selfishness, trying to suck whatever goodness out of a world while ignoring its Creator; or we can, without cost, return to Him and find life. Abundant life, freely given. That’s the deal.

However, most people won’t choose life. Because it means admitting that we were, and are, wrong. It means getting off one very broad road, with a lot of familiar company, and choosing a narrow road heading in the opposite direction. It means putting aside lesser things that don’t satisfy, and believing in the living God who is so generous that our minds recoil at the idea of such immense grace.

It means repentance. And faith. Which no-one will take hold of God’s amazing “deal” unless they are desperate, convinced that the scraps of sin and a fallen world do not and cannot satisfy. It means abandoning our ideas as supreme, and instead embracing God’s thoughts.

Seek the Lord while He may be found;
call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
and let him return to the Lord,
and He will have compassion on him;
and to our God,
for He will abundantly pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:6-9)

Many years ago, I found that life without my Creator was empty. The deal I was making left me with nothing but dust. I still marvel that I could trade in my emptiness for fulness – without money, without good works, without perfect performance, without cost. Who makes deals like that?

God does.

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It could be doing that right now. All I’d have to do is twist the knob to release the propane, and light up the burners. Let the fuel flow. Until then, it’s all potential, not kinetic.

As am I, when I leave the valve in the “Off” position. When I buy into the idea that I have nothing to offer. That God is so limited even He can’t give others life through me.

Is anything too difficult for the Lord? Clearly, the answer is no. Am I here to, however imperfectly, let His life flow out to others? Surely. To put it another way, is the propane full and the match at the ready? Then why do I hesitate to open the valve? What am I trying to preserve?

Isn’t there great joy in pulling the meat out of the freezer, firing up the smoker and the grill, and letting all that potential energy flow into great food and fellowship? It’s not there to be preserved, but to be prepared and presented.

Today: Flow. The Lord has unlimited resources. Opening the valve is releasing the potential – unleashing power. That’s where the blessing will be found. God is looking for open heart valves, not perfect performance.

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A favorite line from a favorite movie (The Princess Bride), when Inigo, at the top of Cliffs of Insanity, waits for the man in black to reach the summit so he can try to defeat him in a sword fight.

I can relate. I’m all for action – but I hate waiting.

God, on the other hand, is quite content to put a lag time between promise and fulfillment. He has an entirely different view of time and eternity. And He is determined that we learn faith and patience, especially in a posture of – waiting.

I hate waiting.

Reading in recent days about the story of Abraham and Sarah as they wait to have a son named Isaac (Genesis chapters 12-21), I am reminded about how long we, at times, must wait for the fulfillment. Abe and his wife were old; she was barren and long past the years of even being able to conceive. God promised that Abraham would have as many descendants as the countless stars in the skies, yet the years kept stretching on. Human impossibility awoke each morning to another day of unfulfilled promise. Where was this Isaac, to be (miraculously) born to aged Sarah??

Finally, in chapter 18, when Abraham was 99 years old, God appeared to him and got specific about the promise. “I will return to you at this time next year, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” The years of waiting would come to an end. And so it occurred, exactly on the timetable God had in mind.

I have, deep within, various huge life-mission desires that have brewed in my soul for decades. I can picture them, and can almost fast-forward to a time of joy and meaning in fulfilling some things that I have (seemingly forever) felt that I was meant to do. And while I’m taking steps to arrive at those destinations – I hate waiting. “We are men of action,” said Westley in the above-referenced movie. And life is a curious mix of action and initiative, curiously joined to waiting patiently for the right time and the right door to open.

I hate waiting. And in this always-on, instant fulfillment digital generation, I believe that patient waiting will become even more of a lost art. The last thing we are used to enduring is a time lag.

God, however, doesn’t change. The time between promise and fulfillment is of His design, and no application of Google and broadband and mobile devices will hasten it.

Maybe someday, I’ll love waiting. Or, at least, not hate it. Abraham had the long-promised son when he was 100. Maybe I still have a few years to wait.

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And there I found some of the most powerful perspectives on prayer ever.

At one point, before the child’s birth, Hagar runs away from the household after being harshly treated by the (now jealous) Sarai. There, in the wilderness, God met her, and made rich promises about her soon-to-be-born son. While the child of the promise would yet be conceived directly via the (now barren) womb of Sarai, Hagar’s child was not to be neglected.

It turns out that God was not off on some celestial errand during this family drama, and unaware of the circumstances, but as He always is, God was intimately involved in every detail – past, present, and future.

She was to name the boy Ishmael, which in Hebrew, means God hears. She called God Elroi, which means God sees. And, she marveled that God would appear to her and she would remain alive. You might call that, in much bigger words, God graciously condescends.

Amazingly, God not only saw the present, but he also told Hagar about Ishmael’s future. Because, you know, He’s God. He sees past, present, and future without our mortal and finite limits. Our NOW is this moment, today. God’s NOW is eternal.

Often, when we pray, we feel a nagging sense of uncertainty. Does God know what I’m going through? Does He even care? Will He intervene? Do the dark mists of the future contain awful and unexpected surprises that will derail everything?

There are great mysteries in the immensity of God, and intimidating aspects to a future we cannot control ourselves. Yet, like Hagar, we need to act in faith.

God hears. God sees. God cares. And He’s going to do what is best, including dispensing blessing to the undeserving.

Ishmael. Elroi. That’s enough.

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He’s always showing me something more that I did not dig into, something better.

And that’s why I love my iPhone, and the Apple design philosophy – you keep discovering, the more you dig, something even better, even cooler. Unlike many products, where more and more flaws show up over time.

Yesterday, splitting a pile of wood, I found myself marveling at the creativity of God. The different grains and textures in various types of trees, the smells, the fact that this lovely stuff hiding behind its marvelous tree-bark cloak can be used to make furniture, construct houses, build fires…and that it makes a growlingly manly splitting sound when you apply force to turn it from log to cord wood.

Just a moment ago I glanced over at my Facebook stream, and there one of my crafty friends had uploaded a picture of a beautiful desk that he had just made for his daughter. That was a tree not long ago. Now it’s an heirloom. Something glorious was hidden in that tree, waiting to be released.

From another friend’s Facebook post:

“All the beauty to be found throughout the whole creation is…the reflection of the diffused beams of that being [God] who hath an infinite fullness of brightness and glory” (Jonathan Edwards, True Virtue).

It is a slander to think that knowing God – seeing His handiwork – leads to narrowness and misery and dullness and hate. A truly opened pair of eyes is always discovering something better, something more. We go from treasure room to treasure room, even in the simple act at gazing at the grain of wood or studying a fallen autumn leaf.

And, in God’s inexhaustible wisdom and creativity, there will always be something even better!

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