Frog in a Kettle

You may have heard about the frog experiment. A frog, if thrown into boiling water, will immediately jump out and incur no harm, but placed inside a kettle with small fire underneath will be cooked to its own death, while feeling no pain. This experiment is a lesson on the slow decline of a person, or a community: If shocked into sharp decline, one saves oneself, but decline done slowly will kill anyone.

How's your heart? Is it aflame with the passion for Christ as it did before? Do you feel the love for people? Is your compassion for the spiritually lost or the poor all over the world growing?

Our hearts easily grow lukewarm. The questions above are good evaluators of our hearts' conditions.

If our hearts grow lukewarm, what causes the decline? One is sin. Sin usually begin small: a little compromise with our hearts in lust, a permitted gaze that stays a little too long, or a little drunkenness or financial compromise. Our mind is powerful, and we can rationalize just about anything. Then, the sin grows, and as sin grows, our hearts decline. Another is distractions. Shopping, entertainments, TV. The space in our heart is limited: once it gets filled with matters of no consequence, we lose the fervor of our hearts, and eventually our life itself becomes of no consequence.

Here are three things we can do to restore our hearts' passion and keep it burning until the Lord's return: 1. Cut off sin. There is no other way. Leave no room for even the smallest sin. Even the smallest can kill us eventually. 2. Fast. Develop a lifestyle of fasting. Fast things that you enjoy, even if they are not bad, if it distracts you and makes you less. 3. Feed. Feast on the things that inflame your heart. Read Christian literature. Listen to messages or watch movies that feed your soul.

Guard you heart, above all, for it is the wellspring of life. (Prov. 4:23) Let us guard, cleanse and seek to burn in our hearts, for eternity.

Gray and Toward the Grave

My hair began to turn gray. First one here and one there, and my kids loved to pull them out. It was a great pastime. Then, gray began to come out in multitudes. I had to tell them, "Sorry to stop your fun, but you have to stop pulling them out, or your dad will turn bald."

A few weeks ago, my gray hair began to bother me. I think I am going through my midlife crisis. It bugged me to the point that I wanted to dye it. I did not understand it before, but I realize that midlife crisis is encounter with your own mortality. We all know that we will die, but we don't KNOW, that is, it does not grab us emotionally and shake us so that we have to face it squarely, until something, or some things begin to happen. In my case, that something is my gray hair.

Honestly, it is aggravating, to have to face this undeniable reminder that I am moving closer to the grave. But there is a great benefit: I get to live each day more fully, for I know that the clock is ticking, and it has always been ticking. I spend less time on frivolous activities. I focus more. I make my day count. I live more fully.