Manna and Coffee

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. – Philippians 4:8

It’s been awhile since I’ve taken the time to write about what God is doing in my life. In a nutshell, I retired for nine months, failed retirement, and God called me back into research. I’m currently serving as a deacon in my church, Fall Creek Church, and I’m working for a small boutique biotech company, Lgenia, that works on new drugs for tuberculosis, malaria, Alzheimer’s Disease, and women’s health.

For 34 years I dreamed about the day when I could retire so that I could focus on ministry, spending time with friends and family, travel and my writing. Then I retired and found out that I had already been doing all of these things while I worked at Lilly. During my short nine month retirement, I joined two Bible studies and volunteered once a week at Second Helpings in downtown Indy working a tilt, preparing hundred’s of pounds of food for the needy around central Indiana with other Lilly retirees. As much as I enjoyed participating in the Bible studies and stirring food with a canoe paddle, retirement was not what I had expected it to be.

As I pleaded with God to open up a door for me to “do” full time ministry, the only door that God opened up was to go back into research. What God has taught me during work and retirement, is that that ministry is not a title or a specific job, it’s a way of life. All believers are called into the full time ministry of work, whether that is waiting on tables at a restaurant, building houses, running a company as a CEO, or looking for new medicines to ease human suffering and pain.

Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

If you are a Christian, your CEO is not a man or woman who works or owns a company, your CEO is Jesus Christ, and whatever you are called to do, do it with passion and excellence to bring glory to God.

When I was growing up, my dad liked to spend time in the garage. While in the garage my dad spent time watching TV, talking with friends and family, and I suspect, praying, and daydreaming. On the walls in my dad’s garage hung some framed pictures. Dad had hung up pictures of his time leading a dance band and the many awards that he had received during his time working at Michigan Consolidated Gas Company. In his last garage, he even had a few framed pictures of my accomplishments while at Lilly on his wall.

My brother, Mike, was in and out of work while he was alive. During the times when my brother was unemployed and homeless, he lived with my parents. My dad and brother used to like to sit in the garage and talk about life, family, me, and very likely my brother’s next scheme or invention that was going to change the world.

I kind of wish now that I would have spent a little more time hanging out with my dad and bother in the garage. I didn’t do it often because there was always alcohol and cigarette smoking involved. Although I am not opposed to responsible drinking, my family has a long history of irresponsible drinking, and at the time I felt that hanging out with my dad and brother in the garage would send the wrong message to them and my family, and tempt me to drink too much too.

I tried to talk to my dad and brother about my faith in Jesus sometimes in the garage. I explained to them how they could find the same hope and fulfillment in Jesus, apart from alcohol, that I had found, but they were never able to let go of their reliance on alcohol to deal with the stresses and difficulties in life.

It has now been over eight months since my dad passed away. As I have been thinking about my dad and his garage, I have decided to honor my earthly dad as well as my Heavenly Father by creating a space in our garage to hang out with my family and friends.

My wife is a scrapbooker. She loves photos and to capture the memories of our time together as a family in scrapbooks. I have decided to join her in my own nerdy way. I have started a scrapwall in our garage. I was going to paint the garage, but I hate painting. In a moment of inspiration and laziness, I realized that instead of painting, I could fill the walls of my garage with pictures, posters, my dad’s trumpet from his dance band days, and my brother’s guitar instead. My scrapwall stars in one corner of my garage but I plan on filling my entire three car garage with pictures and memories of current and new friends and family as God blesses.

I also have a refrigerator in my garage but it is not filled with beer, it’s filled with diet soda to share with anyone who wants to visit me and talk about life and faith. I’ve also upped the ante to attract friends and family to come spend time with me by filling my garage with classic arcade pinball machines.

It’s funny, I had worked my whole life to buy a sports car and God blessed me, and I when I retired I bough myself a 2016 Corvette with only 14K miles on it. It was a lot of fun, and worth the wait, but after owning that car for awhile, I realized that a garage full of pinball machines would be just as much fun and easier to share with others than a shiny red car, so I repurposed the money into pinball machines.

If you have read this post this far I want to thank you for reading my silly manna and coffee posts over the years. I know that you all have your own busy and blessed lives that you are living, and you likely don’t feel the need to write publicly about it. Manna and Coffee was created in 2010 as a place where I could brag about Jesus with other less than good enough writers. I hope that I have brought some joy and inspiration to those who have taken time to read the dribble that I’ve posted here over the years. If you are interested, here is the first manna that I ever posted.

If it is God’s will, I hope to continue to write “manna” as God leads. I also hope to write another book about God’s Glory, except this time I will fill it with real life examples of how God has used ordinary weaklings to do amazing things like King David in the Bible. I think that we can learn a lot by studying the life of David. David was certainly not a perfect man, but according to the Bible, David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). I think I’ll end today’s manna with some words from David so we can see why God would say that this about him.

1 Chronicles 29:10-13

David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,

“Praise be to you, Lord,
    the God of our father Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
    and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
    you are exalted as head over all.
Wealth and honor come from you;
    you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
    to exalt and give strength to all.
Now, our God, we give you thanks,
    and praise your glorious name”.