Religion Today: The Pancake Life

Guest Writer Spotlight: Richard Lewis 

“My momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Forrest Gump 

Of course, there are many ways of looking at our lives. As I view another birthday on the horizon, I have begun to feel that my view of life has changed over the years. There was a time when I thought of it as a timeline with different events spread out along that line. That line stretched out to an unknown conclusion. Our financial planner calls that unknown conclusion the, “termination of my plan.” Of course, we call that event “death” but financial planners and others like to have a nicer way to describe it.’

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The events of my life I can recall are not as clear in my mind as they once were. There are names, places and events that are not as easy to recall and sometimes my memory of the sequence of events fails me. All those days, weeks, months and years that were once a distinct timeline have become flattened. It is like the day I first played little league baseball and the day over 10 years later when I embraced Christ in faith while in college, are right on top of each other. The day I married Sue and the day I held my first grandchild, Marius, in my arms were over 30 years apart but it seems like only a few days passed. The first day I opened my bike shop and the last day when I closed the doors 19 years later are likewise compressed in time. So I think Forest Gump’s momma had it wrong. I think that life seems to be flat – flat like a pancake.

I think about the fears and worries in my pancake life that sometimes loomed so large, and now 70 years later, I realize I wasted a lot of effort worrying about things that never happened. I have learned that worry not only takes a toll on us physically but it can actually short circuit our spiritual life and make it unfruitful (Mark 4:19).

James writes about how life is a vapor: James 4:14 “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

2Peter 3:8 “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”

Job reflects on the length of life when we writes “A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed”(Job 14:5).

SEE OTHER RECENT DEVOTIONALS BY RICHARD LEWIS:

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Psalm 90:4 “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a [3 hour] watch in the night.”

Psalm 139 contains a beautiful explanation of God’s watch care over all our days: “For the choir director: A psalm of David. O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night–but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous–how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” (Psalm 139:1-18)

As a wise man said, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift from God.”

The most important day in our pancake lives is today. Now is the day of salvation. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. (2Corinthians 6:2 & Psalm 118:24)

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Richard Lewis is a graduate of Arizona State University (Advertising) and California Baptist University (Computer Information Systems). Richard and his wife Sue met while they served as staff members at Campus Crusade for Christ for 8 years in the 1970’s. Richard served in the Campus Ministry at University of Texas at El Paso, Louisiana Tech and at the International Headquarters in San Bernardino, California.

Following their ministry in Campus Crusade Richard was the owner and manager of a bicycle shop in Riverside California for 19 years. After retraining in the computer field at California Baptist University, Richard worked as a Information Systems contractor and employee at Boeing for 17 years. Richard has written over 150 published articles in Information Systems and Computing publications including Windows Magazine and Windows Scripting Solutions.  Richard has served in a leadership role as a Deacon and Elder in several churches as well as being a meditation presenter and Men’s Ministry coordinator.

Richard has written hundreds of meditations and devotionals that have been used in church and small group meetings. Many of these have been published in The Upper Room and Racers For Christ publications and on their web sites. 
In 2021 Richard published a collection of his devotionals. These are available in a Kindle and paperback format on Amazon (ISBN 979-8705738878) “Life Stories to Uplift and Encourage”.

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Trevor Montgomery, 49, moved in 2017 to the Intermountain area of Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source (RCNS) and Shasta County News Source (SCNS).

Additionally, he writes or has written for several other news organizations; including Riverside County-based newspapers Valley News, Valley Chronicle, Anza Valley Outlook, and Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle; the Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County; and Mountain Echo in Shasta County. He is also a regular contributor to Thin Blue Line TV and Law Enforcement News Network and has had his stories featured on news stations throughout the Southern California and North State regions.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back, and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations; including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, and Lake Elsinore Station; along with other locations.

Trevor’s assignments included Corrections, Patrol, DUI Enforcement, Boat and Personal Water-Craft based Lake Patrol, Off-Road Vehicle Enforcement, Problem Oriented Policing Team, and Personnel/Background Investigations. He finished his career while working as a Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigator and was a court-designated expert in child abuse and child sex-related crimes.

Trevor has been married for more than 30 years and was a foster parent to more than 60 children over 13 years. He is now an adoptive parent and his “fluid family” includes 13 children and 18 grandchildren.