Pastor Mike Nodland

Born left-handed, I was forced into a right-handed world who thinks their right, and left is wrong. In school, desk chairs always had arm rests for right-handers. We left-handers were forced to write “to the right,” which always smeared our school papers. In sports as a kid, we were forced to bat and field right-handed, shoot right-handed, throw right-handed and kick “right-handed.”Even at my favorite place-the dinner table-we were told to eat right-handed. We even drive on the right side of the road! My fourth-grade teacher told me that her husband had been left-handed until his teacher broke his left hand, forcing him to become right-handed! Weighing 200 lbs. more than me, I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Teaching a class to a group of inmates in an Iowa prison, I noticed that in a class of 40 men, one entire row of men in that class were all left-handers! Every man seated in that row was left-handed! We apparently unconsciously think alike.

But is, what is left, right? Leftovers aren’t exciting. And spiritually speaking, leftovers get a bad rap. Why? It’s just an afterthought. But hey–here’s an idea: “Give God what’s right…not what’s left!”