Ed, my neighbor next door, noticed me carrying various articles to my garage last week. Yesterday, he saw me taking two electric heaters there, “So, do you know it’s June? Are you planning on heating your garage in the summer?” he asked from across his yard while exhaling his cigarette smoke.

“Well, I hope to heat up the garage as we have a sale there in a couple of weeks,” I answered. “Save your money and get a loan from the bank, because the stuff we are selling will be too good to miss out on.”

“Garage sales are more about getting rid of junk than selling things too good for others to miss,” Ed said.

“Think of it as second-hand treasures for the discriminating,” I told Ed. Then I quickly added, “I need your help to move an upright freezer to the garage. It is not real heavy, so you’ll have no trouble wheeling it around on the dolly while I supervise.”

“I can’t help you with my bad back, but I’ll watch you struggle and sweat to get the freezer to the garage. Better get prepared for when it does not sell,” Ed added. “Sometimes you can’t even give junk away.”

“It will sell. The price will be too good to resist,” I informed Ed.

Too good to resist is what a garage sale is all about. While some might see the articles for sale as used and even junk, there is the hope that somebody will see something as too good to resist. A garage sale article too good to resist must be matched by a good price, a cheap price, a price that is a steal.

Pricing articles for a garage sale is not easy, as they may have sentimental value for the person selling them. An article may have worked well for us, but we forget it is old and out of date now. We may see articles as more valuable than they are.

It seems most people think that they, too, are better than they are. A recent edition of Scientific American reports that psychologists did a test that showed this. They showed people varying pictures of themselves. Only one of the pictures that people looked at of themselves was not touched up. All the other pictures were doctored to make the person look better or worse. When people were asked to pick the picture of themselves, that was the honest one, or the untouched one, they almost always picked a picture that made them look better.

The Scientific American report calls it “self-enhancement.” It is thinking we are better than we actually are. Self-enhancement was at work in other studies where 93% of people asked said they were better-than-average drivers. Likewise, 94% of college professors said they do “above-average work.”

The Bible tells us that the disciples were guilty of self-enhancement. They disputed who of them could be considered the greatest. They were not content to see themselves as average, ordinary disciples. Jesus reminded them that he was the greatest, but he was there to serve, not be served. He was the one who washed their feet. He wasn’t about self-enhancement, but self-denial to serve and bless others. It is God’s way of enhancement.

Ed, my neighbor next door, has decided that I’m even weirder than he thought. The other day, I was spraying dandelions in my lawn and Ed saw the Roundup spray bottle in my hand.

“That Roundup will kill your lawn as well as the dandelions,” Ed yelled from the fence.

“I know,” I answered, “this really isn’t Roundup. I’m using a homemade weed killer in the Roundup bottle. If it works, the grass will be safe and the dandelions dead. I’m trying to keep from using a commercial herbicide.”

“Does your homemade stuff really work?” Ed asked with skepticism.

“So far I’m finding it about equal to the store-bought spray, but time will tell. I haven’t used it long enough to decide how good it is,” I said.

“What’s in it? All I can smell is pickles.” Ed questioned.

“You’re close. The spray is made of apple cider vinegar, table salt and a dash of Dawn dish detergent,” I told him.

“What are you going to do, cover the dandelions in mayonnaise if the vinegar doesn’t work?” Ed asked sarcastically.

“I’ll cross that bridge when I have to,” I said.

The pressure is on now, as Ed will be studying my lawn for dandelions to have evidence that my homemade spray is a failure. At least I know that if it works, Ed will never mention it again. He likes to talk about my failures, not my successes.

It seems to be part of our human nature to watch for evidence that others are wrong rather than right. New ideas are often met with an attitude of skepticism and rejection. Some people are determined that there is only one way to do what needs to be done and it is their way alone.

How many times have we been guilty of saying that something is silly or that it will never work? I know if Ed had said my homemade weed spray would probably work, I would have fainted. Some folks in life will always be your loyal opposition, determined that you are a weak link in the human chain.

The great thing about our God is that He is our loyal supporter, rather than our biggest critic. Our God gives us positive feedback from His loving and forgiving nature. God is the best and thinks in terms of great acceptance and potential success for us. Jesus was amazed while on earth, for in spite of his miracles, few had the attitude that he could do anything. They saw him as limited in ability, like themselves. They couldn’t accept his authority as the son of God among them.

In the Bible, a Roman centurion’s slave was sick and about to die. As Jesus went toward the centurion’s house, the centurion sent word to Jesus that he understood Jesus’ authority. As a centurion, having soldiers under his command, he told Jesus to just say the word and his servant would be healed. That was how the sick slave was healed. Jesus was amazed at the centurion’s belief which was without reservation in his power and authority. We need to be like the centurion, certain of God’s power in Jesus for us. (Homemade Weed Killer Recipe: ½ gal. apple cider vinegar; ¼ cup table salt; ½ teaspoon Dawn; use as a spray)

Ed, my neighbor next door, is in full force out at his farm working hard and long. The busier he is, the more critical he becomes of seniors like me. He calls me “one of the lucky ducks who just paddles around the pond and gets fat and lazy.” I told Ed that I’ll remind him of his words when he is retired. Ed claims that he will not be retiring for ten years and that by then I’ll be dead and gone.

“Maybe I should make a bucket list. You know, a list of all the things I would like to do before my life’s end,” I said to Ed. “What would you put on a bucket list for yourself?” I asked Ed.

After a long objection, Ed came up with the first three things on his bucket list. First, Ed would go fishing along the Yukon River in the summer with a guide. Second, he would take a donkey ride down into Death Valley and back up. Third, he would open a Swiss or Caribbean bank account that was tax free. I think Ed would have continued, but he had to answer his cell phone and take off to get a part for his machinery.

One thing about retirement ─ a person does have the opportunity to consider what is most important for them to do and consider. When younger, the tasks of raising a family, working and paying a mortgage may leave people focused on daily life. The older one becomes, the less the end of life is miles down the road.

No matter how you slice it, once you approach seventy, the countdown is on towards eternity. Seventy is a marker for the span of life in the Bible, but it is only an indication that one has had a full allotment of life. Many folks do live long past seventy. They enjoy lots of overtime, even up to a hundred years, and a few beyond that milestone.

The Bible promises a glorious eternity for those who have faith in God. Earthly death leads to being with God forever. Being in heaven with God is pictured this way, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Retirement is a good teacher in that it puts life into God’s perspective. Our jobs and our accomplishments become empty containers. Once we did this or that, once we bustled about only to leave it behind. Ed gets irritated when I tell him that he cannot take his farm to heaven. His life work on his farm will go to someone else. It may seem that there is no end to our things to do, but our lives are like a breath. In retirement, some folks face the truth that life is fleeting and they have a limited number to their days. It gives them time to put their hope in God and look forward in joy to being with Him forever.

Ed, my neighbor next door, has been trying to get his thoughts wrapped around our trip to China. “Where is it that you are going in China?” Ed wanted to know. I told him we are off to the capital, Beijing, as the first stop. I added that it is a very ancient city dating back 3000 years. Ed insisted on getting a piece of paper and making notes.

Ed tends to be suspicious about most things I tell him. Three thousand year old city he wrote in his notes and then muttered, “I’ll see about that one.” Ed decided that if the city dates back all those years, it must be pretty small by now. “Most of them people there must have died of old age by now,” Ed scoffed.

When I told him that Beijing is a metropolis of 20,693,000 people, he wrote it down quick and said “That’s another fact you’ve probably got wrong.” Ed wanted to know what on earth I would do among all those people. He informed me that I would be dealing with something way bigger than a Walmart Super Center. He continued that I could get lost in Beijing since it has a population like a country and never get back to Canada. I told him not to get his hopes up.

I told Ed that the first things on our tour at Beijing are the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. He remembered that not so long ago they arrested demonstrators there and he was thinking that maybe that could happen when I was there. With his hopes up again, he decided that he had enough things to check out on his computer and that he was going home.

Beijing is world renowned for opulent palaces, temples, gardens, walls, tombs, gates, art treasures and universities. It is the political and cultural centre of China. In the Bible, at the time of Jesus, Jerusalem with its temple was the religious, political and cultural center of Jewish people. Paul reminded the people of Athens, “The Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples built by [human] hands.”

God is much greater than the world’s most renowned cities. Cities glorify the accomplishments of people. They are human constructions limited to human abilities and imaginations. Cities or towns, large or small are subject to the scrutiny of God. In Jesus’ day, people went to the temple at Jerusalem to worship and sacrifice to God. There is no hiding from God behind a temple visit, or an act of worship or an act of sacrifice there.

Jesus spoke of Jerusalem in the Bible this way, “I must keep going to Jerusalem for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”

No matter where we are, Beijing or Saskatchewan, God wants all people to know that it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. Our glory is that God made the world and everything in it and is the Lord of heaven and earth.

Ed, my neighbor next door, knows I have a long do-it-yourself list that keeps growing like a fungal infection. Ed cautioned me against ever starting a DIY list, as he claimed such a list is like a legal will. The whole world can see what you put on the list and once it gets written down, it is like a life sentence to complete the list.

I wish I had listened to Ed, as my DIY list has become a source of regret and shame for me. I regret admitting that so many jobs need to be done. Then, there are my recurring feelings of “shame on me” for putting those jobs off so deliberately. I can see what needs to be done, but I procrastinate instead of getting to the tasks and getting them done.

The handymen on television make all DIY jobs look so simple and easy. They never have to say, “What a mess I made.” I feel like Mike Holmes is watching me when I pound nails in crooked and measure a board twice and botch it both times. The only thing I have mastered so far is writing long DIY lists of what I should be doing.

Ed is pretty handy at repairs and DIY jobs, so when he gets around to them he makes quick work of them. He doesn’t understand how I can take weeks, months and more and still be working on the same project on the list. He has looked at my list and said that I’ll never get the list done unless I put an expiry date on it. “When the date is up, throw the list out,” Ed has instructed me.

Most of my DIY jobs are not exactly critical. Putting on some baseboards, putting in sinkers to hold loose screws, filling some cracks, painting the back-stair-way are needful and cosmetic, but not dire or needing to be dealt with immediately. Ed said it rightly that if I wanted to do my DIY jobs, I’d have them done. He also concluded that excuses never cover up lack of motivation. Everyone does pretty much what they want to.

The Bible makes it clear it is not just hearing what needs to be done but doing it. Jesus cautioned that the wise man puts what he (Jesus) has said into practice. He pictured the person who practices his words like a man who builds his house on the rock. The house is secure in rain and flood and wind. The foolish person hears the words of Jesus, but doesn’t follow or practice them. He is like a man building his house on the sand. The rain and flood and wind destroy it.

There is no point in me having a list and not doing what needs to be done on the list. Likewise, there is no point in making excuses for ignoring the words of Jesus. Jesus speaks of a man who invited people to a banquet. Those invited all made excuses why they couldn’t come. The man filled his banquet with other folks and those making excuses missed out. Each of us is challenged with doing what God says, rather than making excuses or ignoring Him.

Ed, my neighbor next door, just hit one of those black weeks when feeling lousy kept getting worse. It was a nasty virus that came out of nowhere and drop-kicked Ed in the head, throat and lungs. We heard all about it from Ruby, Ed’s wife, who kept seeking refuge at our house. Ed was so sick that he whined for his mother, but she has been deceased for five years. With Ed acting in relentless petulance Ruby was torn between sympathy and murder.

Sadly, Ed’s virus was the kind that attacks like a wolverine and sticks like a miser to his last penny. First, it was aches; then chills, fever, heavy chest, sore throat and non-stop coughing; and lastly, swollen sinuses in his face. Each day, both Ed and Ruby waited for the virus to weaken, but it seemed to be just as strong every new day as the day before. When I suggested maybe Ed should see the doctor, Ruby just said, “Whose army is going to get him there?”

After seven straight days, Ed was barely able to have his first cigarette by his garage door. I called to him across the fence to see if he was back to normal. He would have come to the fence to talk, but I warned him about sharing the virus with me. Ed informed me that the virus had closed in like a black hole with no light for five days on end. It was only after dragging around lethargic and low that on the sixth day that Ed saw a spark of light. On the seventh day, Ed decided that he might recover after all and celebrated with a cigarette.

Ed informed me that I needed to be careful, for at my age if I caught the virus I could be done for in three days. All conversation stopped when Ruby found Ed out having a cigarette. She said some strong things and Ed got in the house quick and I moved away fast. When people start scolding, they don’t always stop at the one they started with.

Ed’s battle with a virus reminded me how fortunate we often are when it comes to our health. No one likes to be sick, but good health often gets taken for granted rather than being at the top of our, “Thank You, God” list. It has been said that our good health always seems much more valuable after we lose it. After we lose our good health, we see that it is better than wealth.

One of the reasons people flocked to Jesus was because he went about preaching the good news. Another reason was that he also went about healing every disease and sickness among the people. The Bible says, “People brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed and he healed them all.”

The enemies of Jesus were not impressed that Jesus healed the sick, blind or paralyzed. They rejected him because he sometimes healed on the Sabbath. They also opposed him for befriending and forgiving sinners. Jesus answered his critics by indicating that God is about mercy, for the sick and sinful.