Renewing the mind…”Close that refrigerator!”

“Girls! Make up your minds what you want fast and close that refrigerator door. You’re letting all the cold air out,” I demanded in a raised voice directed toward Cayce and Jamie in the kitchen.  I was frustrated after having just gone through the upstairs rooms turning out all the lights that they had left on.  And here they were wasting more electricity.  I had hardly uttered the words when it struck me.

I had become my grandfather.

My grandfather was my Pop.  All of my years growing up were spent in the same house as Pop and my grandmother Nanny. To say Pop was frugal would be a gross understatement.  He often lectured me on turning lights out, keeping the outside doors closed, and planning my visits into that cold electricity guzzler, the refrigerator. Pop wanted us to turn the shower off while we washed, turning it back on to rinse…saving that hot water.  It nearly did him in when the U.S. Diner raised the price of its meat and three from $0.88 to $1.00. I could go on…

 

From early on, Pop would spend time with me every night.  In my younger years, it was over large dishes of vanilla ice cream at his kitchen table.  When I grew older, we usually sat on a wooden swing on the back patio.  In those times, we talked about everything.  I learned all our family history.  We discussed current events.  He talked about things going on in the small business that he ran. We talked about holidays, vacations, his hopes for retirement.  Although he was not an athlete, he listened to all the tales about my ball games and what was going on with the pros.

We spent a lot of other time together too.  Pop took me fishing hundreds of times. We went on special trips together ( we watched Don Drysdale pitch for the Dodgers during their last year in Brooklyn. )  I went on vacations with the two of them. We built a boat together; built strange looking go carts together. Pop was there when I hit my home run to beat those dastardly Little League Pirates. Pop put the basketball goals up in our back yard for me. Most of all, we talked and we listened to each other.

Most of the good things that I know, and characteristics that I have, came from Pop. He taught me the self sufficiency of having one’s own business. He taught me to soap a wood screw before using it, and how to back a boat trailer onto the launch ramp. He showed me how to selflessly love a wife. I’m not a handyman, but everything I can do around the house, I can do because Pop showed me how. He modeled being the Christian head of his household. He proved that being messy was not so bad.

The hours and days and nights and years of being with Pop and communicating with him changed and molded my heart and my mind. My Pop is forever in me. I think that Pop and I did abide with each other.   Abiding is much more than just residing.

I knew my father. He resided in my house also…at least until I was 14 or 15 years old.  My father was gone most evenings. Every weekend he spent hunting or fishing with his friends; never with me. For years I thought nothing about that.  Until … I specifically remember the time, when I was 11, leaving my baseball practice where all the other dads had attended. My mother picked me up from practice that day.  ( Sorry feminists, but if Dad is in the home, ball practice should be his thing. ) It was that day that I realized my father was constantly choosing to be away with others; that I was not very important to him.  So sad.  I knew about my father, but little or nothing of him is in me.

Pop was there for me, but I also chose to spend a lot of time with him.  If my mind is to be transformed because of my relationship with Jesus Christ; if He is to truly be alive in me, then I must follow His command. I must do more than know about Him.  I must abide in Him so He can abide in me as promised in John 15. I must choose to spend time with Him, listen to Him, communicate with Him… and His Spirit will accomplish His work in me. I spend so much time unwisely.  Do you?  I do not want to meet Him some day and have to answer why I did not spend more time with Him. My rehearsals of that exchange do not go well.

I want to take on the characteristics of Christ. I want Christ in me. More than Pop is in me.

The invitation is there over and over. John 15; Ephesians 3; 1 John 4.  He promises the intimate abiding relationship where we can be changed.

Rev 3:20 “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” ESV  He doesn’t just come in.

Have you spent quality time at the kitchen table today with our Lord?  There is a lot of ice cream to be shared. Sharing that will renew your mind.

An aside:

Last week, Diane told me that she has recently had to turn out bathroom lights that I left on … and she is sure that Pop would be disappointed. I miss him.