Scared to Meet You, Larry

       Greetings readers. I hope you enjoy this excerpt from my recently-released book, Mornings with Larry: Life Lessons from a Man in a Wheelchair. The book is available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com
       This excerpt, from the first few pages of chapter one, gives a brief intro of who Larry is, and how I came to be his morning caregiver. I hope it blesses you—

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1

SCARED TO MEET YOU, LARRY

The church dinner drew to an end. I swallowed a last bit of carrot cake and glanced past several heads toward the man in the wheelchair. An uncomfortable thought surfaced: It’s about time you introduced yourself.
I took a deep breath, got up from the table and approached him.
“Hello, Larry,” I said, extending my right hand. “I’m Tom. It’s good to meet you.”
He looked up at me and smiled. “Hi Tom.”
His fingers barely moved and his forearm remained fixed on the wheelchair armrest. An awkward moment passed—time enough for me to realize his disability affected more than just his legs. I grasped his limp right hand and shook it for the both of us.

Larry in May 2004. Hands/arms still working.

He continued, “I’ve seen you in church [pause for breath], but haven’t had a chance to [pause for breath] talk to you.”
Actually, I’d done my best to avoid him, probably due to my shyness and being overly focused on his disability. I had yet to realize Larry’s flesh-and-blood human status.
      Our first conversation was brief and I was distracted by his frequent mid-sentence pauses for breath. The thought of conversing with a disabled person frostbit my brain. When the encounter ended, I walked back to my seat with a sigh of relief.
If it had been up to me, I’d never have taken our relationship beyond that obligatory greeting. But God sometimes bypasses our unwilling hearts and places us in situations we wouldn’t venture to on our own.
That first meeting occurred in 2008 at McKenzie Bible Fellowship in the community of Vida, Oregon. Larry, his wife, Ann, and their teenaged daughter, Paige, had recently joined our church. They soon became fixtures each Sunday morning, claiming three spots in the left front row as their own. Occasionally, their son Ryan took a break from his studies at Oregon State University, ninety minutes away, and traveled home to join them.
Two and a half years earlier, in August of 2005, Larry had resigned his pastorate at Valley Hills Community Church in Springfield, Oregon. The debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) had progressed to the point where he felt he needed to make that hard decision. He describes his condition at that time, “I still had quite a bit of movement in my arms, but no movement in my legs. And I didn’t have any problem with my eyes. So I could still preach. But I didn’t feel it was fair to the congregation, because most people didn’t have wheelchair accessibility [in their homes] and I was kind of a hands-on pastor. So I just felt it was time to step aside and let them call a new pastor who could be more involved.”
In 2001, Larry was diagnosed with primary-progressive multiple sclerosis, the fast-developing form of the disease. By January of 2008, when I first met him, MS had left him essentially quadriplegic. He could still control the wheelchair toggle with his right hand. His right eye worked fine, but vision in his left eye was blurred.
The Brownings decided they could reduce stress and save time if they attended a church closer to their home. As a result, those of us at McKenzie Bible Fellowship, just three miles from their house, received a great blessing.
Larry preached one Sunday and shared his life story. He’d worn many hats: Vietnam combat soldier, longhaired hippie, preacher, widower, single dad, and modern-day Job. He preferred delivering Bible-based sermons to talking about himself. But speaking opportunities sometimes accompanied requests that he recount his adventurous life and how God brought him to where he is today.
As days went by, the people at McKenzie Bible Fellowship came to know Larry as a friend and brother in Christ. Having put aside his pastoral title, he fellowshipped as one of the flock. As a sheep, he lived out what he’d preached as a shepherd. His conversation typically focused on Christ and others. He didn’t complain about his severe disability. It became clear to the new church that he was a man of strong, mature faith.
Larry and Ann began showing up at the same midweek Bible study that my wife Denise and I attended. Before long, the group decided to switch the meetings to the Brownings’ home. This gave Ann, a petite woman, a break from the work required to load her husband into the wheelchair van and unload him. The change blessed us all due to Ann’s warm hospitality and tastefully decorated home.
One evening, the Brownings presented a prayer request at the Bible study. Larry’s morning caregiver, Evan, needed to quit soon. He cared for Larry five mornings per week. Ann cared for her husband Saturday and Sunday mornings, as well as seven afternoons and seven evenings per week. Someone needed to be within earshot of Larry at all times. The Bible-study group prayed for a replacement for Evan.
More than a month passed and the position was still open. The Lord nudged my heart to pursue the job. I felt little enthusiasm. Caregiving? Ugh. The idea made me squeamish. On the other hand, I needed morning work to supplement my plant nursery business. So when I asked Ann and Larry for the job, I did my best to mask these mixed feelings. In July 2009, they hired me—for better or worse.

Have Evangelicals Failed?

I'll post another excerpt from Mornings with Larry this Friday. Meanwhile, new ideas often swirl around in my head--and this blog is the dumping ground for those ideas. So get ready for some religion and politics. I take a strange, conservative/moderate position on many issues, so this post will certainly offend both liberals and conservatives. I invite you to respond by commenting either at the end of this blog post or on my facebook page. Disagree all you want. I only ask two things: first, that you write civilly, and second, that you don't use profanity. Okay, maybe I'll ask a third thing. Try to show some personality, maybe even a little humor. Fuming rants just don't cut it.

You can order Mornings with Larry: Life Lessons
from a Man in a Wheelchair on http://www.amazon.com/

If you've read my previous posts, you know that I've occasionally written about Christian hypocrisy. I've also written about the need for civil dialogue, especially when dealing with religion and politics. My faith is strong, so criticism creates little doubt in my heart and mind. However, my faith does get tested at times. The one thing that has tried my faith the most is when Christians fail to do the right thing. It especially irks me when Christian leaders blow it. They should know better!

Since the presidential election, evangelicals have received much criticism over the stat that 80% of them voted for Trump. Whether the actual percentage is that high, I'm not sure--but certainly the majority of evangelical Christians voted for him.

So, have evangelical Christians failed badly by voting for Donald Trump? Many progressives claim that the evangelicals sold their souls to the Devil in the 2016 election. Even if Trump is the sexual predator portrayed by the progressives, did the evangelicals really screw up that badly?

It all depends on their motives. I think the 2016 Republican primary is a better indicator of motives. It seems to me, evangelicals should have voted for a Republican with values. During the primaries, I think most of the other Republican candidates fared better than Trump when it came to character, integrity, ethics, morality, etc.. Evangelicals who voted for Trump in the primaries did indeed mess up, it seems to me. But I won't go so far as to accuse them of selling their souls to the Devil.

I'm not sure what the stats are, but I'm certain that a large percentage of evangelicals did not vote for Trump in the Republican primaries. I want to focus on that group.

Many evangelicals who voted against Trump in the primaries, voted for him in the general election. It's this segment of voters who I will not criticize. Most of them truly saw it as a choice between a somewhat evil (yet pro-life for the unborn) Republican candidate versus a candidate from a party with an unbending pro-choice stance. This was the dilemma for many evangelical Christians in 2016. It was truly a choice between the "least bad" of two evils.

Because of this dilemma, I won't condemn/shame my fellow Christians for voting for Trump. For them, the only other options were to either not vote at all, or vote for a third candidate. How can you shame someone who is faced with such non-choices?

So, did evangelicals fail by voting for Trump in 2016? Not in the general election. However, a large segment of evangelicals erred by voting for Trump in the primaries. If you think I've misjudged Trump's moral character, please comment below or on facebook. Conservatives, give me a list of reasons why our president is morally and ethically better than the liberals portray him. Blessings.

Mornings with Larry: Prologue

       Greetings readers! Most of my blog posts in the foreseeable future will contain excerpts from my just-released book, Mornings with Larry: Life Lessons from a Man in a Wheelchair. The book is a memoir/biography about an amazing man, Larry Browning, who lived an adventurous life during his healthy years.
       Later in life, he contracted multiple sclerosis, which ultimately left him quadriplegic and blind. Larry faced this debilitating illness with incredible courage and strength. I was his caregiver during his final two years, during which he became the greatest hero of my life. Enjoy the excerpt.

       The book is available through Amazon. When on www.amazon.com, type in Mornings with Larry: Life Lessons. That should get you there.

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PROLOGUE

South Vietnam, July 18, 1970

       Four olive-drab body bags marked the heart of the perimeter. The encampment barely stirred but for a few guards searching the moonlit jungle for shifting shadows.
       A boyish private, unable to sleep, crawled from his tent and sat against a tree. He stared, trance-like, at his four fallen comrades. Pfc. James Larry Browning, age twenty, kept this vigil for much of the night.
       The camp broke with the light of dawn. The weary, diminished company of thirty-three soldiers packed their tents and gear. Some paused for a bite of rations. Others smoked or drank coffee.

Larry in Vietnam, 1970

       The distant thump of rotor blades echoed in the damp tropical sky. A medevac helicopter appeared over the jungle canopy and descended toward the troops. It touched down in a small landing zone near the fallen soldiers. Several men loaded the dead into the chopper, which quickly lifted off. Browning lit a cigarette and watched the medevac fly away over the tops of palm trees.
       The company divided into three platoons and entered a jungle trail. They trekked until midmorning and stopped for a break near the edge of a small clearing.
       Browning slipped off his pack and sat next to another private. A sergeant approached the two and gave orders. They nodded and readied their M-16 rifles for guard duty. The pair patrolled along the edge of the jungle and stopped in dense trees and brush, across the clearing from their company.
       Another chopper, a Huey, emerged over the treetops. It descended toward the resting company and landed, blowing a storm of dust.
       The noise stole nap time from a handful of soldiers. Others continued to chat, snack or smoke, while casting steely-eyed glances at the helicopter.
       The rotor blades churned. Two door gunners, one on each side of the craft, aimed mounted M-60 machine guns into the surrounding jungle. A helmeted passenger dressed in clean-and-pressed combat fatigues sat alone in the back. Black eagle insignias decorated his collar, marking him a colonel.
       The company’s captain strode toward the landed Huey and waited. The colonel stepped out of the craft, hustled away from the whipping blades, and greeted the saluting captain. They conversed; the colonel laughed now and then.
       Unseen in the thick undergrowth beyond the far side of the clearing, Browning and the other private stood guard. They peered through leaves and branches at the captain and colonel, about seventy yards away.
       While the officers talked near the helicopter, the two lowly sentries conducted a little conference of their own. They whispered intently for a short time and nodded in agreement.
       Browning turned and focused his attention on the two men near the chopper. He adjusted his footing.
       The Huey’s blades pulsed and sliced. Browning shut out the noise and breathed deeply.
       He raised his M-16.
       His right thumb touched the safety, his forefinger inched toward the trigger. He fine-tuned his aim.
       The sights aligned perfectly on the colonel’s chest.

Righteous and Reconciled: If It Happened to Me, It Can Happen to You!

When we call someone righteous, we typically think of all the good deeds they've done. They are righteous because they treat people right. We may think of their honest character, how they conduct business with integrity and fairness. They are honest and just in their assessments of people and situations.

Broad gulfs can hinder reconciliation

Time out. I need to confess that I've failed miserably when it comes to the above-mentioned righteous behavior. And I suspect you've failed too. It seems right to confess this so you wouldn't suspect me of being self-righteous.

A seemingly unrelated word to righteous is reconciled. I'd like to focus on the meaning of reconciliation as it pertains to relationships. We know what it means to be estranged, alienated or separated from a friend, family member or spouse. Many of us desire to be reconciled to that person with whom we were once close. Perhaps we did something to hurt or alienate them, so we know that in order for the relationship to be restored, we need to ask forgiveness. This means that the hurt party needs to forgive. Sometimes both parties have hurt each other. This happens a lot within families, between siblings, and between parents and their children.

I'm knocking off two birds with one stone by writing this blog post. The first bird is the post itself, which I hope blesses you, the reader. Second, this post helps me prepare for my part in a church Life Group. Each member of the Life Group shares for about five-minutes what they've learned from their Bible readings from the week. We're all on the same Bible-reading plan, so there's some mutual familiarity about the content.

The group has been reading from 2 Corinthians, and the words righteousness and reconciliation just happened to show up. And we see from the text that they are closely tied. I'll just cite some of the verses from 2 Corinthians that stood out to me, and give my thoughts on them. Hopefully it will all tie together.

2 Corinthians 3:6-9 (NIV) says, "6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!"

The old covenant reflects the Law of Moses, which is the "ministry that brought death." The Law, which was perfect, revealed the sin (Romans 3:20) of an imperfect people (not just the Jews, but the entire human race). But the good news is that the new covenant under Christ set us free from the law and gave us the Holy Spirit, who gives us new life. Also, this new covenant ministry "brings us righteousness!"

I'll momentarily skip to Romans 3:21-25 (ESV) for a deeper understanding of this righteousness that we receive under the new covenant. "21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."

We see the following things from Romans 3:21-25:

• Righteousness is given apart from the law
• It's a righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe
• All have sinned
• We are justified (declared righteous) by grace as a gift
• We are justified because of the redemptive work of Christ
• Jesus was a propitiation (which means He took upon Himself the punishment we deserved)
• We receive this gift of righteousness through faith

Let's go back to 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (ESV), "17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore,we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

Let's look closely at verses 17-20:

• Those who are in Christ are new creations. This likely refers to the born-again experience--the new birth or regeneration, where a believer is given a new heart and the Holy Spirit takes residence inside that heart.
• The old sinful heart and life has passed away, replaced by the new heart and life. We still battle the fallen flesh after conversion, as all Christians know. The new heart isn't the same as the flesh. But the good news is that because of the power of the Holy Spirit in our new hearts, we can now have victory over the flesh.
• We are reconciled to God through Christ (v.18). We are no longer estranged, alienated or separated from a relationship with God. Our sin has been wiped away, forgiven, and no longer forms a barrier between us and God. We are in fellowship with God, completely restored through Christ.
• God reconciled us to Himself through Christ (v.18-19). In the Old Testament Jewish temple, a thick curtain separated humanity (except for the high priest once a year) from the Holy of Holies, where God resided. The temple curtain was torn in two the moment Jesus died on the cross (Luke 23:45). In Hebrews 10:19-20, we see that the curtain represented Jesus' body: "19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh..."  So, through the blood of Jesus, sinful humans can be reconciled to God and experience His presence. His presence literally resides in the bodies of all believers, who are temples of the Holy Spirit.
• Paul gives a command to all of humanity in v.20, "We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." We are reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. That's how it's done.

Whew. That's an awesome message of reconciliation, and it ties in with righteousness in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV), "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Verse 21 clearly tells us that we are credited with the very righteousness of Christ because of His atoning sacrifice on the cross. This is the gospel, the good news of justification through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. There's an old saying that says, "All our sin was imputed to Christ. All His righteousness was imputed to us." This is known as "the double imputation."

In conclusion, Jesus died so that we could be forgiven, justified (declared righteous) and reconciled into a close relationship with God. Blessings!

My Story: Why I Believed Then and Why I Believe Now

There's a debate within evangelical circles concerning the usefulness of rational, apologetic arguments in winning unbelieving skeptics to Christ. Some evangelicals believe it's futile to try to win people to Christ through reason and logic; instead we need to give unbelievers the straight gospel so they can make a decision for or against Christ ASAP.

Where do I stand on the debate? I'll answer by sharing my story about why I initially believed the gospel and why I've continued to believe. I'll briefly describe my conversion at age 10 or 11, and my three recommitments.

Dan Fisher (right), me and mighty dog Cyrus (1972)

When I was 10 or 11, my friend Dan Fisher invited me to join him at a showing of the movie The Cross and the Switchblade at an Assembly of God church in Springfield. Right after the movie, they had an alter call and I went forward to receive Christ. I was impacted by the movie, which showed how gang members turned their lives over to Jesus through the ministry of David Wilkerson.

The pastor who gave the alter call just presented the simple gospel without fancy arguments. In my heart, I felt it was the right thing to do to accept Jesus. I'm grateful to Dan Fisher for inviting me to the movie. He played a significant role in my conversion.

My excitement about the faith lasted for a year or so and completely fizzled out by the time I reached my teens. A rededication  was needed. This occurred my sophomore year in high school at an all-area Young Life meeting. The speaker gave a heart-felt message; it wasn't a deep, logical, apologetic argument. Later that night in my bedroom I recommitted my life to the Lord. I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, my zeal lasted for maybe a year before my heart turned away from Christ.

My second recommitment occurred around 1980 when I was a student at Lane Community College. It was lunchtime and I sat at a table in the cafeteria. A man sat down across from me and asked if I knew the Lord. My answer was wishy washy because I was in the middle of a backslidden phase. The man proceeded to share the gospel with me. He used a simple illustration about a white dog and a black dog--but he did not use deep, logical, apologetic arguments. His words went straight to my heart. In fact, I felt deep conviction by the Holy Spirit.

When the man asked if I wanted to pray with him to receive Christ, I said yes. It was more dramatic than my conversion as a 10-11 year old. This time I felt an incredible load come off my back. I felt the supernatural peace of God in my heart and I knew without a doubt that God was for real. But alas, after a few years of walking with Jesus, worldly pursuits once again lured me toward dark paths.

My third recommitment occurred in the early 1990's. At that time I was getting drunk regularly, smoking pot, doing (occasional) hallucinogenic mushrooms, and dabbling in eastern mysticism and meditation. A bad trip on mushrooms spurred me to quit hallucinogens, though I continued to use marijuana sporadically.

So I focused on trying to experience heightened consciousness through eastern meditation--without chemicals. One evening, I sat on the floor cross legged while staring at a white wall. I focused on emptying my mind. I'd done this several times before, but this time was different. After a few minutes, I felt a deep, non-painful electrical feeling start to move up my spine. The strange current then started to enter the base of my skull.

I panicked, stood up from the floor and tried to shake off the sensation. It wouldn't go away. That night I couldn't sleep because I felt like my body was pumped up with some kind of high voltage adrenaline. The next day I visited a large, nearby Christian church, where a couple of pastors counseled me and prayed for me.

The sensation at the base of my skull went away, but over the next month, my body continued to experience an uncomfortable, adrenaline-like feeling. Eventually it too went away. The good news is that this crisis prompted me to return to Christ. I've been walking with the Lord ever since.

What keeps me walking with the Lord today? I would say it's a combination of prayer, daily Bible reading, fellowship and the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit.

Do logical, apologetic arguments strengthen my faith? I've read a fair number of books on the subject and I would say, to a limited extent, they encourage my faith. However, in the end, the Holy Spirit is the one who sustains my faith and keeps me walking with Jesus.

I do believe apologetics have been used successfully in evangelism. Many young people came to Christ through the ministry of Francis Schaeffer. He used deep, well-reasoned arguments successfully in the 1960s and 70s at the L'Abri fellowship in Switzerland. It's interesting to note that his wife, Edith Schaeffer, in her memoir, wrote that she and others prayed continuously for the ministry and for the salvation of souls. So, we know that the Holy Spirit was working on hearts, not just minds, at L'Abri.

Reasoned arguments by such Christian intellects as J.R.R. Tolkien had a huge influence on C.S. Lewis, prompting him to come to faith. But really, it was the Holy Spirit who ultimately brought Lewis to his knees. No one gets saved apart from the Spirit drawing them to repentance.

In my case, reasoned arguments weren't the cause for my conversion and recommitments. For me it was the Holy Spirit using the gospel message, along with my own personal crises, to bring me to repentance. For this reason, I'm not a great apologist, though I believe logical arguments are valid. I encourage skeptics to read Christian apologetics, starting with C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. Also, go to the Veritas Forum http://www.veritas.org/ to see interviews and speeches from many of today's best Christian thinkers. Blessings.