THE TRUTH ABOUT CROSSWORD PUZZLES

I enjoy working crossword puzzles.  And lately God has been speaking to me about crossword puzzles.  No really.  Here let me help you understand it.     Try this one.   Across    1.        Some embroidery  (6 Letters)   Down 1.       Studies all night (5 letters) 2.       Explain away (5 letters) 3.       Cheer up (5 letters) 4.       Sage (7 letters) 5.       Times of preparation (4 letters) 6.       Was ahead (3 letters)   1    2    3    4    5    6 __  __  __  __  __  __ __  __  __  __  __  __ __  __  __  __  __  __ __  __  __  __  __  __  __  __  __                  __                 __     Figure it out yet?  Puzzled by it?   Here is the solution.         C  R  E W E  L R  E  L   I  V  E A  B  A  S  E  D M U  T  E  S S  T  E  M              A              N   That's the lesson the Father was speaking to me this morning in my devotional time as I puzzled over some of the challenges that lay before us. Half in prayer, half in meditation, my eyes fell on the crossword puzzle in the paper and I was reminded. Puzzles have solutions.  They may take time and effort, trial and error, but puzzles have solutions.  Some are very difficult, but puzzles have solutions.  I began to think what might happen if I viewed every problem as being a puzzle, and remembered that every puzzle has a solution. In the midst of puzzling times, this leader was encouraged to keep working at the challenges because all puzzles have a solution.   The Man in the Window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.

Tulips Again?

Most years my tulips only last a week to a week and half before the blooms are gone.  Some people don't appreciate them.  Here today and gone pretty close to tomorrow.  Some people don't thing they are worth the effort, the space.  For some the bloom, no matter how spectacular, is not worth it.

 

But I love my tulips.

 

I've got some fierce fuchsia colored tulips that I just love.  Brilliant.  And I learned a secret about my tulips.  Given time, they produce more and more tulips.  Plant ten bulbs and in five years have twenty plants.

 

That is so great about tulips. 

 

So for me the bloom, even short lived, is worth it.

 

It's just like that in my devotional life, that time I seek Him in the window.  Very seldom do I have an earth shaking, life changing, career defining moment in my devotions, but I do get blooms of His presence in my life.  Blooms of His beauty.  Now I admit that these blooms often fade quickly in the face of the rest of my day as my schedule quickly distracts.  For some people, it is not worth the effort, not worth the trouble for a brief glimpse.

 

But I love those moments in the window, those moments of discovering blooms of His presence.  Even on the busiest day, the bloom of His presence makes a difference.  Discovering it fresh and new each day is so worth the effort.

 

It's what so great about tulips.

 

Look for the bloom.

 

 

The Man in the Window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.

Tulips

My tulips have been teaching me something this week.

 

My tulips are blooming-red, yellow, white, variegated rose, fuchsia, orange, pale pink.

 

They've been coming up for the past few weeks and suddenly they burst into color.  Soon the petals drop and the tulips fade away again for another year.  This year with so much rain, I've noticed something about the blooms, they have lasted longer.

 

How long is a tulip bloom supposed to last?  This depends on two factors: first, the kind of climate and the season where you live and; two, how quickly the flower is pollinated.   During the warm springs, or when the bees are very active, our flowers last for only a week or maybe a week and a half.  But during colder, rainy springs, tulip blooms last longer.  I've been enjoying tulips for the last three weeks.

 

In this cold, rainy spring where early May seems like most early Aprils, the blooms last longer.  They become a testimony of the season.  Spring really is here.  Better days, warmer days, drier days are coming.

 

That's the lesson. 

 

You picked it up right?

 

The blooms remind me of the presence of God in my life.  Often like those warm pleasant springs, my awareness of His beauty, His grace, the wonder of His presence passes quickly.  I get distracted by so many other things. But in the tougher days, the colder days, the more challenging seasons, He makes His presence known in more vibrant ways.  He seeks to manifest himself as a promise of things to come.  He blooms in our lives.

 

In the midst of a tough season, going through a tough day, look for the bloom of His presence, the promise of change to come.

 

 

The Man in the Window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.

Fertilizer

I was fertilizing my lawn yesterday, taking advantage of one of the few dry days this April.  I didn't think a lot about it.  I just knew I wanted to get the fertilizer down before the rain returned so it could soak deep into the ground.  I had previously replanted seed in some bare spots and thin patches and they were starting to fill in but there was still a ways to go.   This morning after a conversation in the coffee house window I realized that a lot of ministry was just like that--fertilizing seed that was planted a while ago.  We just came through Easter and at the end of the services gave away a number of copies of Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Easter.  And it hit me that what we had done in giving those books away to any seeker who asked for one was fertilize the seed that we hoped was planted that morning in worship, in the preaching of the word, in an atmosphere of love encountered.  We gave the book hoping that individuals who visited might choose to look more closely at the resurrection and the truths behind it.   Why did I get to thinking about fertilizer this morning?  Because one of those individuals we gave a book to was at my table, sharing with me how he had read it and passed it on to another.  Sharing how the book helped fertilize the seed, the Easter event.    Can you think of any seed that you have planted recently that could use a little fertilizer?  A note in the mail, a simple book, a CD, a phone call, a few moments in prayer.  Not for harvest.  But to fertilize the seed planted.   We cast seed, now it's time for the fertilizer.    The Man in the Window

Peach Tea

I was battling bronchitis or some other such chest ailment recently.  On the worst of the days my throat was raw and sore, difficult to swallow.  Now most people think of me as an exclusive coffee drinker.  And I've been known to drink a cup or two (often).  But most people don't know that in the afternoons and at home in the evening, I switch back to my childhood love of hot tea with milk.    Growing up there was nothing like a strong cup of black tea, English Breakfast, deeply steeped and rich with milk remains one of my favorites. But during the week of my real battle with bronchitis, I wasn't drinking much coffee or English tea with milk.  Most of the week I was brewing peach tea, drunk without milk sweetened with natural honey.  Why?  It soothed my throat.  It made me feel better.  It was what I needed.   99% of the time if I want a hot beverage I would never order, brew or drink peach tea.  I actually don't like fruit tea flavors; they smell too much like perfume to me.  They have little appeal.  But during that week peach tea with honey was the beverage of the day.   Sitting in the window this morning while I was reading on leadership, a lesson from the peach tea kept resurfacing in my mind.   Most leaders have some sense of what type of leader they are wired to be. They are a visionary leader, a strategic leader, a shepherding leader, a team building leader and 99% of the time we function best within the role in how we are wired.  But every so often we find ourselves in a set of circumstances that requires one of those other styles of leadership.  So we reach for the Peach Tea, because it's what's needed right now.   I've probably always seen myself as a visionary leader, one of those individuals who keeps communicating the vision, keeps placing it before the people, believing wholeheartedly that ultimately they will catch the vision and follow it.  It's the coffee cup of my style, the most reached for, most used style of leadership.  It's always been balanced by the strategic leadership style that wrestles with how does the vision become reality.  It's the English Tea, the other common cup in my life.   But every once in a while, what is most needed is a different style, a shepherding style, a re-engineering style, a bridge-building style.  One of those other flavors that need to be picked up because they make sense in the circumstances we are facing.   So what was my leadership lesson?   While I know I'm a morning coffee drinker and evening black enthusiast, there are times when peach tea with honey makes the most sense.   While I know that I'm wired to be a visionary- strategic leader there are times when another style makes the most sense.   What about you?  Do you know when it's time for peach tea?   The Man in the Window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.

Deal 'em Again

After I finished the Man in the Window about playing Euchre and playing the hand you were dealt, almost immediately another leadership thought sprang to my mind.    When you're playing Euchre with friends it's amazing how twisted the conversation becomes when you are on a men's weekend away.  Playfully you begin to tease your opponents about how bad they are, or about how great your card playing skill is.  You get dealt a great hand and take all the tricks and we're quick to take the credit.  We make gloating comments like this: "Give up now, you can't play with us." "Watch the master at work." "How are you guys ever gonna stop us?" "Do you guys want some lessons?" When you are playing for fun with friends, the digs and jabs are a part of the game and we laugh them off.  You see most of the time, we remember it's not the skill of the player that leads to landslide wins, it's in the deal of the cards.  Sure you have to play the hand you are dealt well, but the landslide win is often out of your control.  Put four equally good players at the table and the wins will be determined by how the cards are dealt.   Sometimes we forget that it in our ministries.  We're too quick to take the credit.  Too brag on our own abilities, our own efforts, our own work.  But it is God who is in control of the situations.  He is the deal of the cards.  He calls us to be faithful, the results are HIS not ours.  Faithfully fulfilling the call is what is required.  He brings the results so if we're going to brag, let's brag on HIM.   Paul said it this way, "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."  1 Corinthians 1:31   Lord, make me a boaster, a boaster of all that You do and never of what I may think is my doing.   Amen!

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.

Deal 'em

 

I was playing Euchre with a group of guys on an overnight fishing trip.  Euchre is dealt in a unique way.  In sets of three, then in a set of two, five cards are dealt to each player.  The remaining four cards are set in the middle of the table and one is turned up.

 

Like any card game eventually you get dealt one of those hands that just looks incredible; you're holding both bowers and the Ace King in Trump.  And you will also get dealt some of those lousy hands, nines and tens, a queen high in four suits.

 

I was thinking about the game today and one of those leadership thoughts snuck up on me again.  When you are playing euchre, all you can do is play the cards that you are dealt to the best of your ability.  Sometimes it's everything you can do to just take one trick and stop your opponents from running the table. Other times it's a cake walk, go loner, shoot the moon and score four points taking them all.  But the truth is that in both cases all you can do is play the cards you have been dealt to the best of your ability.  

 

As a leader, there are a lot of similarities between euchre and life.  Perhaps more than we ever realize most of the time all we can do is play the hand we are dealt.  Circumstances, seasons of life, economic trends, and numerous other things are usually out of our control.  So what is required of us?  Play the hand to the best of our ability.

 

Sometimes it will seem like you steam roll the competition, results are obvious and abundant, fruit of your labors is seen on all sides.  And other times, it feels like it's everything we can do to just hang on, to see it through, to not give up and quit.

Let me paraphrase how Paul said it, "One thing I do, forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead, I press on."

Been dealt a great hand recently, press on.  Play it out well.  Going through one of the seasons where it feels like you been dealt one lousy hand after another. 

Press on, play the hand well.

Deal em.

The man in the window

And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.  2 Thessalonians 3:1

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.