In the 1984 movie Karate Kid, young Daniel asks Mister Miyagi to teach him karate. Miyagi agrees, with one condition: Daniel must submit totally to his instruction and never
question his methods.
Daniel shows up the next day eager to learn karate. To his chagrin, Mister Miyagi has him paint a fence. Miyagi demonstrates the precise motion for the job: up and down, up and down. It takes Daniel days to finish.
Next, Miyagi has him scrub the deck using a prescribed stroke. Again the job seems to take forever. Daniel wonders, ‘What does this have to do with karate?’ but he says nothing.
Then, Miyagi tells Daniel to wash and wax three weather–beaten old cars and again demonstrates the motion—“Wax on, wax off.” Finally, Daniel has reached his limit. “I thought you were going to teach me karate, but all you have done is make me do your unwanted
chores!”
Daniel has broken Miyagi’s one condition, and the old man’s face turns red with anger. “I have been teaching you karate. Defend yourself!”
Miyagi thrusts his arm at Daniel, who instinctively defends himself with an arm motion exactly like that used in one of his chores. Miyagi unleashes a vicious kick, and again Daniel averts the blow with a motion learned and practiced countless times in his hated, mean-
ingless assignments. After Daniel successfully defends himself several more times, Miyagi simply walks away, leaving Daniel to ponder what the master had known all along: skill comes from repeating the correct but seemingly mundane actions, over–and–over, to perfection.
The same is true of goodness. If we will learn from the Master, and practice faithfully, we too can learn to live a life dominated by goodness!
Learning bad habits seems to be so much easier than learning good habits. Like weeds, bad behavior seems to sprout, hale and hearty, overnight, full grown from the womb. But good behavior—it grows as precariously as delicate orchids. Only with care—and repetitive practice—will we learn to bless others with the goodness of God.
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©. They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
Jimmy Carter was President of the United States most of the time I was in the U.S. Army. Back in those days I was a dedicated runner (I can hardly believe it now, looking in the mirror) and I qualified for the “President’s Physical Fitness Award” for running cumulative distances of 50 miles, 100 miles, 200 miles, and so on. So I would receive certificates from
time to time, awards that identified my physical training milestones.
 It was such a thrill to receive a letter from the President. I knew that he would sit there in the oval office, looking through the paper work on his desk, and nodding when he came to the certificate that said Curtis Alexander of the 101st Airborne Division, and later out there in Hawaii, had run a certain distance and therefore earned the
certificate he held in his hand. President Jimmy Carter would smile a deep, satisfied smile and jot a personal note that said something like, “Curtis, I’m really proud of you. Next time you’re in Washington D.C., call me and we’ll do lunch.” Signed, Your friend Jimmy Carter.
Right? Yeah, when pigs fly!!!
Though his signature was, indeed, on the award, President Carter never saw that certificate, and he never smiled when he read my name, because he never read my name! The president of the free world had more important things to do than to form a personal relationship with
some lowly G.I. who once lived a few miles from President Gerald Ford, the man Jimmy Carter defeated in the 1976 presidential election. And I voted for Ford!!!
But the God of the universe not only knows my name, He gave His special, one–of–a–kind Son to die so that He could renew a personal, intimate relationship with me!
Not that I’m better than anyone else. God loves each of us that much. And he sends special personal hand–written notes to us, like the slobbery, open–mouth kiss of my little grandson. Or the golden glow cast on Mt. Rainier’s western flank on a clear Washington state evening. Or the confidence I feel believing that even with all the puzzling questions in life I can’t answer, God is in control and he has my best interest at heart.
“Affordable Care” Act? Yes, it’s an act!
I just got assaulted (without a rifle) by health care “reform.” My insurer sent me a letter saying that the “Affordable Care” Act requires them to cancel my current plan, for which I pay $486 per month.
They included details of what they called their “comparable” replacement policy. It will cost me $979.75 per month (this is the exact truth, I promise). Apparently the word “affordable” means “Your new insurance will cost you twice as much as your old insurance did (201.594 %, to be exact).” But hey, there is an up–side: I now have maternity and newborn care, plus pediatric dental and vision coverage, always needed by 61–year–old and 57–year–old senior citizens, huh?
The “Affordable Care” Act is so wonderful that the politicians who voted it in refuse to have anything to do with it for themselves. My wife Kathy says, “That’s just criminal.”
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent
the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©. They are exclusively the expressed views
of Curtis Alexander.
The familiar lines of this old nursery rhyme make me wonder: was Humpty Dumpty hard–boiled, over–easy or sunny–side–up? Of course, at the end, he was scrambled!
And what’s with him sitting on a wall? Is anyone left alive who knows why an egg was up there?  So, Hump D had a great fall. Don’t know why, but suddenly the egg is on the ground, fecklessly fractured, helpless, hopeless.
But help—and hope—was on the way, in the form of the Government! Soon, word got to the king that loyal subject Humpty Dumpty
was smashed to smithereens. So the head of state sent all his men, riding his horses on the double, to put the egg together again.
Picture this, everybody crowded around the base of the wall. First the king’s horses tried to reconstruct HD—pretty ambitious for a horse, huh?
After the horses, the government employees worked feverishly to put the eggshell back in place, finding just the right fragment and fitting it into its own unique place.
Doesn’t it make you wonder, about the horses trying to put HD back together again? It really does sound like the government. Well, everybody tried, but like so many government projects, this one failed! It was no use! Putting HD’s life back together was impossible—it couldn’t be done, not by the government, for sure!
I suppose there was a fact–finding mission afterwards by several influential Congressmen, looking into the failure of Project Humpty Dumpty. And a report of 834 pages, in triplicate, was presented to the House Interior Subcommittee on Re–construction, describing EGG–zactly what went wrong, why the project failed.
Why do we turn to the government whenever something needs fixing? Why are we surprised to discover that the government, regardless which party is in the White House or controls Congress, is not the solution to our problems? Often, government IS the problem!
Only God offers genuine hope, and he isn’t exactly welcome in government these days.
I mean, government horses putting scrambled eggs back together again? C’mon!!!
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©. They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
During the tense, angry 1960s, with desegregation boiling in the south, a mother sent her daughter to school the first day, fear pounding in her heart. When she met the bus after school, the girl said, “Mommy, a black girl sat next to me in class. We were both so scared, we held hands all day.”
 Suppose you lived here in Thurston County, Washington state, where I live, and you were prejudiced against Pierce County, for some reason—maybe it’s “the aroma of Tacoma,” I don’t know. If you needed to go from Olympia to Seattle, you couldn’t take I–5 because it runs right through Pierce County. You’d have to go either through Shelton in Mason County to Bremerton or Port Orchard, get in line to wait, and eventually take a ferry across Puget Sound to Seattle, or you’d have to go 40 miles south to Mossy Rock, east on US–12 to Yakima, then north on I-82 to I–90 and back northeast to Seattle (over 300 miles). It would be far out of your way and inconvenient and expensive and a pain in the neck. But you wouldn’t think of going through Pierce County because you’re so prejudiced against all those disgusting Pierce–ers!
That’s the local equivalent of prejudice against the Samaritans in Jesus’ day. Going from Jerusalem to Galilee was a pain in the neck: you had to go east to Jericho, through a dangerous area of thieves; cross the Jordan River; travel north in the pagan region of
Decapolis; then re–cross the Jordan River westward into Galilee. But as a good Jew of Jesus’ day, you’d want to avoid those Samaritans at all costs.
A few years ago, in Illinois, my wife had major surgery, and while recuperating at home, she expressed a hankering for the wonderful Reuben sandwich at a local Irish restaurant (and
bar). So I drove over to Pekin and asked for takeout. They sent me into the bar–side of the restaurant, where takeout was ordered.
While waiting for the sandwich, I sat at a table near the door and watched the Red Wings on TV. Sure enough, while sitting in “Samaria,” in came our church treasurer, going into the
restaurant, of course, while his new pastor sat in the bar.
I willingly risked “contamination” for a Reuben sandwich. Am I willing to risk "contamina-tion” for the sake of the Gospel?
Many otherwise good Christians who are prejudiced have a surprise coming when they stand before God. He sent Jesus to die so people of every color could be reconciled to Him and to each other. Those who let race separate them are fighting against what God is fighting for!
Like the little black and white girls, holding hands beats prejudice, eight days a week!
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent
the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©. They are exclusively the expressed views
of Curtis Alexander.
In the late 1800s the famous business tycoon John D. Rockefeller built the hugely successful Standard Oil Company. He was notorious for demanding high performance from those who worked for him.  One day, an executive in Rockefeller’s company made a two–million–dollar mistake. Word of the man’s big blunder spread like a fire in a gas station. Soon everyone in the company’s home offices knew about the costly error. The other executives made themselves scarce, not wanting to see the doomed executive, nor to be seen by John D. himself.
But one man couldn’t avoid the well– known tyrant, since he had a previous appointment with the boss and simply
couldn’t hide. So he straightened his shoulders, tightened his belt and strode
into Rockefeller’s office. As he approached the imposing desk, the owner looked up from a piece of paper on which he had been writing something obviously
important.
“I suppose you’ve heard of the two–million–dollar mistake your friend made,” Rockefeller asked.
“Yes, sir, I have,” the employee admitted, expecting the oil king to explode.
“Well,” Rockefeller explained, “I’ve just been sitting here making a list of all his good qualities on this sheet of paper. I’ve discovered that in the past few years he has made us many times more money than the amount he cost us today by this one mistake.
“His good qualities far outweigh this one error. So I think we ought to forgive him, don’t you?”
We might think that this story illustrates God’s forgiveness. But the truth is, heartwarming as it seems, it misses the mark. You see, Rockefeller forgave the mistake because the man had done so much good previously. God never forgives us because we’ve done so much
good. He doesn’t weigh the negative karma against the positive. God forgives even people who haven’t done any good at all.
God’s forgiveness isn’t based on our comparative goodness. His forgiveness is based on his own perfect goodness. God forgives us because He is so good. We could never do enough good to earn God’s forgiveness. We can only accept it as a gift of His grace—all those blessings we do not deserve and cannot earn.
That’s forgiveness at a whole new level.
*The views expressed in this blog are in no way intended to represent the views of Child Evangelism Fellowship©. They are exclusively the expressed views of Curtis Alexander.
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