The Gospel According to Fuzzy

Remember Fuzzy? He gave me the greatest and most humbling compliment of my life about a month ago. Fuzzy had his first day of Kindergarten and the teacher wanted to know why he insisted he met Jesus at Grandma Mary’s. But that’s another story. If you missed it you can click here.


After school Fuzzy drew a picture and asked Grandma to write down the following words to give to me along with the picture. At first I thought it was cute, that’s it, just cute. Then, last night I woke up with the interpretation to the coded gospel of five year old Fuzzy.

Without further ado, it is my honor to share with you.


The Gospel According To Fuzzy.


Grandma readied her pen, all eyes were on Fuzzy. He took a deep breath and began, “Dear God you’re so good to me. God I got a couple of little wormies.” (I’m not exactly sure if that has anything to do with the drawing. I think it may be an opening prayer or his interpretation of “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...Give us this day our daily gummy worms.)


Talking through a wormy looking piece of candy he continued. “Storm clouds are so strong and powerful. That’s why they call him Storm King. God fights Storm King with his almighty Sword. God pushes a button on His Sword and turns the universe into God World.”

Grandma stopped writing, thought that was the end. Sounds like a boy’s version of “and they all lived happily ever after.” God pushes a button and makes everything OK. End of story. Amen.


But he wasn’t finished.


He chewed the last of wormy, swallowed hard, raised hands and voice as he declared, “Then the Storm King came back! (Pause for theatrical effect.) We had lots of stormy weather with lots of wind and rain! (Lightning flashed, lights flickered, window rattling thunder rolled.) Wide eyed and white knuckled pen holding Grandma waited. What happened next, she asked.


Waving invisible sword, he jabbed and lunged all the while explaining that he was God’s side kick. He worked with God to help fight Storm King. Then he stopped, dropped his sword. Looked Grandma in the eye and said, “But before God can stop the Storm King, God has to be done taking his bath.”


Fuzzy was done. He walked away.



A few days later the story was given to me. Smiling I read, laughed and said it was awesome. Never gave it much thought after that. Until last night. I woke up thinking about his story. Fuzzy’s on to something I need to learn. I think he’s got the right idea and I need to be more like him.

And so I prayed.


Dear God you’re so good to me, I got a couple things here and for that I thank you. It looks like a storm is brewing. The storm clouds are big and powerful. I know you could push a button and make everything okay and someday you will. But for now I know the storms will come. I will trust you in the storm. I must learn to stand with you and fight; face my fears and the enemy of my soul. I trust you to never leave my side.


And in the quiet I will drop my sword and look to you. I will remember what you’ve done for me. I’m the one who needed a bath, the one filthy and covered with sin, but you took my filth upon yourself. For me you allowed the Storm King to bath you in blood that should have been my own. You, who were clean, became unclean for me. I will never forget to praise you my Lord and my King. The power of your resurrection required you to first be done taking your bath. I hear your words, “It is finished” echo from the lips of this warrior child.

You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength ~ Psalm 8:2

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Who Is God ?

In my preceding post I mentioned the truth, "I am a spirit, I have a soul and I live in a body." Those words prompted a request simply written, “Define spirit.”

Interesting request, I've heard the statement before and never questioned it, until now. Define spirit. In an effort to define who we are, I started seeing who God is. And that’s how it should be if He is our Father.

For those of you who can do a better job explaining...help. For those who disagree, please share how you feel. We can all learn from each other. For me, I gotta keep it simple. So here’s my simple explanation.

We are spirit, soul and body. Three in one. Where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, God, The Three in One. God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit. We’re like that. And that is how it should be since God said it when He started this whole thing. “Let us make man in our image.” So we are triune beings –like God. NOT God but similar in the way He created us. We are spirit soul and body. God is Spirit, Soul and Body too.

Our bodies, the only temporal part of our triune being consists of our flesh, blood and bone structure. God has a body too. His body could be referred to as Jesus when He became flesh The Word that dwelt among us; The Word that dwells among us today His Word, the Bible; and His body, the Church. His body we can touch and see with our temporal bodies on this earth. Jesus, the Bible and the Church (other Christians)

Our soul is our mind, our will and our emotions, an eternal part of our triune being. Likewise God’s soul, His mind, will and emotions are revealed to us through His Holy Spirit. Our souls died when Adam gave into temptation. Remember God said not to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the day you eat from it you shall surely die. Well, they ate from it and they did not die in the sense we think of as dying. Their bodies did not die, that day. Their souls died. We died. Our minds became corrupt, selfishness dominated our will and we lost control of our emotions. We died by choice.

Define spirit…Our spirit, the eternal part of us created in the image of God that still longs to serve Him. The creation yearns to be reunited with Creator. Our spirit wars against our members (our soul and our flesh.) We are triune beings. Who we are in truth is a spirit created to serve and fellowship eternally with Him. We have yielded to the lesser, the fallen, dead nature within. And have become led by the flesh rather than being led by the spirit.

That is the reason Jesus became flesh. To live a life being tempted just like we are in His soul and tormented in His body, yet He remained sinless. His body and soul sacrificed to save our lost body and soul.

Jesus said, “God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” To worship in spirit we must not be led by the flesh. “Be led by the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.”

In The Lion King, Mufasa said it well to his son Simba gazing at his reflection in the water, “You are more than what you have become.” He was a lion, the king of the jungle, but he yielded to a lesser nature and was living and acting like a wart hog. Fortunately, Simba came to himself, realized who he was and made a decision to follow his true nature and take his rightful place as king. And everybody lived happily ever after.(if you haven’t seen Lion King, that won’t make any sense at all, sorry.)

We are images of God, created to reflect Him, yet we have allowed our fallen nature (body and soul) to dominate. True fulfillment will only be found when we make a decision to turn from our lesser nature and accept that we are children of The King and receive His nature as our own.

And there is a happily ever after.
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Who Are You?

Who Are You?

Since getting facebook and starting a blog, I can’t hide.“Are you the Doug Spurling that graduated from St Peter High School?...Did you ever live in Ada Ok?...Is this my cousin Doug-the skiing, fishing, boating horse breaking Doug? What is happening?”

My past resurrected. Things I thought left behind for good, staring at me asking in different ways the same question, “Who are you?”

I didn’t realize until I needed air, the question caused me to hold my breath, it scared me. Like looking in the mirror and not liking the view. I stared at each question as if it violated my present. Why are you here? How did you find me? Why would you want to find me?

I don’t know why tying together past with present caused pain.

I crossed and burned that bridge. How did you get to this side? It’s not that I don’t want you here. I’m happy to see you. But, I’m not the man I should be. I'm not done. I’ve failed and my life, well, just not so sure you want to see the mess. Come back in twenty years and I’ll have things straightened out enough to be presentable. In the mean time have a great life, nice to see you. Bye.

What was that? Why did I feel that way? My life isn’t that screwed up, is it? Why do I feel ashamed or embarrassed about accepting as a friend my past?

I know why.

I don’t measure up in my own eyes. I'm not complete. I haven’t grown. I have goals and dreams I haven’t reached, some because I failed, others because I never tried.

It just occurred to me. What bothers me about me isn’t the failing so much as the times I never tried. The times I thought I should or could but didn’t or wouldn’t, those are the times that make me feel less than adequate.

Who am I? How do I answer? My head knowledge tells me, I’m a husband a father a son a brother an uncle a nephew a cousin a grandson a grandpa…and then it goes a little deeper. I’m a child of God created in the image of God.

With that thought I wax philosophical. Things I know as truth but harder to understand stroll through my mind. I am a Spirit, I have a soul and I live in a body. I am a Spirit. I only have a soul which is my mind, my will and my emotions, it’s not me, I’m a Spirit. I live in a body, this body isn’t me, I just live inside it. I am a Spirit, created in the image of God. A Spirit that will live forever is who I am. We all are. Created by The Creator. Out of the same mold, God.

While I write, my wife is working on our ancestry. She said my great great grandma named her kids after presidents, Abraham Lincoln Lynn and George Washington Lynn. If she keeps going she’ll funnel down through a ship we call Noah’s ark, spread out a bit, then narrow again to wind up with Daddy Adam and Mamma Eve. Finally the search will end with The Father of All, God. A comforting thought. Healing actually.

From now on, I think I'll welcome my past. I know my past is not who I am. I'm not complete, true. I just have to remember to look back all the way, past an old rugged cross, built to bridge the gap from who I am to who I should be. All the way to The Father.

He’s probably smiling and saying, the same thing I tell the kids, “My how you’ve grown.”
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Kylie's Heaven

Reading a post about heaven recently gave birth to this blog. Thank you Gwen for a heavenly post and Anne LB for linking to it so I could find it.

Do you remember Johnny Carson, night show host/comedian? I've heard that Johnny asked Billy Graham, “Will there be golf in heaven.” Billy wisely answered. “Johnny, if you get to heaven, and if golf is necessary for you to experience joy, then, yes, there will be golf in heaven.” Pure Joy.

On a personal note: Recently, 9/11, I attended a birthday party for my two year old granddaughter. Her birth date is bitter sweet and somewhat fitting for her life thus far. Since she was three months old she has suffered from seizures and has remained mentally at that age. Although her body has continued to grow in size, she can't talk or walk or even hold her head. She must be fed through a tube in her stomach.

I told her there are a lot of things I just don't know. Like, Why, on your birth date as our nation remembers being shaken by terrorists, do you skake with with seizures. I'm sorry sweet girl but I just don't know. But, one thing I do know and look forward to. One day we will sit together and talk. We will laugh and run and play. And I can hardly wait to hear you sing.

Although I've never heard her utter a word other than groans from seizing, when I pray for her I see her singing. I just know she will be able to sing with the best of the angels. I still pray for her recovery. I want to teach her to ride a bike and fish and swim. But no matter what, I know in heaven she will be seizure free and I suppose, maybe she will be teaching me.

That's gonna be heaven for little Kylie. Me too - Pure Joy.

"Joy is the serious business of heaven."~ C.S. Lewis

The Flag Is Still Standing

The Star Spangled Banner

Yesterday...9/11 - Tears clouded my vision as half mast flags cleared my memory and God bless America prayers slipped from quivering lips.

Yesterday's tears now dried. Darkness fleeing slowly from the sun. Peeking out my window I see the flag waving me good morning.

In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the poem, Defense of Fort McHenry. The poem was later put to the tune of (John Stafford Smith's song) The Anacreontic Song, modified somewhat, and retitled The Star Spangled Banner. Congress proclaimed The Star Spangled Banner the U.S. National Anthem in 1931.

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.O say, does that star-spangled banner yet waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly sworeThat the havoc of war and the battle's confusionA home and a country should leave us no more?Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.No refuge could save the hireling and slaveFrom the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued landPraise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

If you're like me, I grew impatient reading all the lyrics, not remembering the long version. Lord forgive me and thank you for the last verse:

May the heaven rescued land Praise the Power that has made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”

We're still here. We still believe. In God we still trust.

That's MY Boy

Sixteen cars rumbled onto the Nascar, eighth mile track. Twenty laps. Forty left hand turns from start and finish - if nothing went wrong. As drivers roared by sizing up the track before the green flag, I sized up the fence between me and my boy. A chain link fence towered straight up ten feet and then jutted out away from me at an angle over the track another six feet. To climb that fence one would have to be half monkey and half crazy. But I was going over if number twenty-two got in trouble.

Under the green flag sixteen cars pushed it to the limit. If anything else happened in the race I wouldn't know it, my eyes were fixed on one car and one car only. Number twenty-two, Josiah Spurling, my son. Of the eight rows, Josiah was inside the seventh. How could anyone pass in that traffic jam. No matter how good a driver? Josiah tried.

Like road rage meets rush hour on steroids they roared by bumper to bumper. After thirteen laps Josiah saw an opening, he ducked under number, I don't know the number, some red car, and was side by side in the middle of turn twenty seven. The red car trying to hold the corner pushed Josiah into the inside edge of the track. They managed to gain control, and speed in the straight away but hit the next corner too fast. They lost control. Josiah fish tailed off track and into the pit, toward the parked emergency vehicles.

I headed toward the fence like a crazed monkey.

Thank God Josiah gained control of car before I lost control of senses and got hurt climbing that fence. He steered clear of danger and re-entered on the other side of the track.

My son didn't know I was watching. He was unaware of my plan to jump the fence and rush to him if he got in trouble. He couldn’t see me in the stands waving, or hear me cheering, or sense me praying.

But I was.

Somewhere in the midst of all the chaos, all went quiet. Above the roar, the smoke and engine fumes I sensed my Heavenly Father watching. He is you know, watching, all of us. And even when I didn’t know it, He already made a plan to rush to me when I got in trouble.

We’re all in this race called life. Out of control effects of sin have knocked us off track and sent us fishtailing toward the pit. He cleared the dividing wall between us, and hurt Himself doing it. He made a way to rescue and put us back on track.

Although, I couldn’t see Him waving, hear Him cheering or even sense Him praying.I knew He was. He Is.

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Red Stop. Green...Wait?

I have a gift, for hitting red lights and pot holes. I can find a pot hole on every road I travel. And red lights, I have a knack for hitting those too. Not just kind -of-red, but the whole cotton picking red. Sad to say I think it's spreading. I'm developing the ability to wait at green lights as well.

Why, when the light turns green do I have to wait?

We all see it turn green at the same time right? Then, why can't we all move our foot from brake to accelerator at the same time? And start moving together, like one big happy family?Why, if I'm several cars back waiting in line do I have to wait for the first car to move, and then the second car to move and then the third car to move and then...you get the point. And sometimes before the car in front of me ever moves the da-gone light turns red again. What's up with that? Uhggg. I don't get it.

I wonder why in life, I have to wait when I have a green light for things I'm ready to move forward in. I know I must prepare and waiting is involved in that. Like if I want to be a doctor, I can't just walk in and start doing surgery, jus' cuz I wanna. But how about, things I'm already prepared for? I have everything I need to accelerate yet I'm stuck waiting in line. What do I do about that? I've been asking God about this lately and one word keeps coming to mind; Timing. Going from stop to start at a traffic light is simple if timed right, it's a mess if it's timed wrong. Seems timing is involved in just about everything. According to our timing; we swing and miss or hit a homerun; land the job or search the want ads, create a masterpiece or burn the cake, accelerate at the right time or cause a wreck.


There is no lack. God didn’t create the world with not enough. He is the God of more than enough. (People lack, yes. But, it’s not because there isn’t enough. It’s because of waste or abuse or a myriad of other reasons, but that’s for another time.) I think this also applies to time. There is no lack of time. Now, this is a hard concept for me to grasp. But, I hope it’s true. Because I’ve wasted a lot of time in my life.

We live in a world filled with people sitting at various traffic lights in life. Timing is important with things. It’s top priority with people. (Try saying "Happy Anniversary Dear," after being reminded and see how far bad timing gets you.) Paying attention to the timing of others will help us move forward as well.

Maybe the next time we’re sitting at a red light we can make the most of our time. Say that prayer that needs praying. Talk to the One who multiplied the fish and the loaves… He can do the same with our time.

PS This really works. After posting this my wife and I went for a drive, about 200 miles round trip. I started looking forward to the red lights I was invariably going to hit. At which time I started to pray for the people around me. I have never seen such short red lights in all my life. I wasn't even done praying and the da-gone light was turning green. And the folks were taking off as soon as the light turned green. They must have read my blog.

Oh, one more thing. Seems on this trip I started to develop a gift for hitting green lights as well.

Thanks for stopping by you have a green light to leave a comment. I love reading them.

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