Without a "cause" we feel purposeless.
But, a "cause" can distract, from truth, from greatest purpose.
While saving the planet, we are poisoning our soul.
While perfecting biomedical engineering, we are destroying spiritual connection.
Alternative energy has displaced our focus on things above.
We are rebels without a WORTHY cause!
God, help us.
just watching the evening news ...
"Biden the Killer" ?!
He promised to kill your student loan debt. (not my auto loan, nor home mortgage, nor ...)
He IS killing the American economy!
Now, Joe Biden promises to let Americans kill their babies!
"just vote D and you can do whatever you want with babies..."
["D" for Death?!]
... and all of Hell roars and cackles ... laughing and celebrating ... Satan -- "keep them telling themselves that it's about choice ..." ROFL
"BBB" means what?
"Biden Buries Babies"?
God, help us. have mercy.
🥲
.
Cup of coffee with cream.
Slight breeze stirring the air.
Leaves turning, some falling.
Birds in hollow nearby singing.
He leaves Himself a witness.
One must listen carefully.
Gaze into the background.
Stop, and just be still.
Ignore any highway noise.
Autumn is the height of the calendar.
Glorious colors, Harvest time!
The long, hot Summer is over.
The dead of Winter will follow.
It has it's own mysterious beauty.
Over six decades, I've seen it happen.
Spring breaks through the silence.
Summer works it's green magic.
Autumn brings a slow, colorful change.
Winter grows cold and dormant.
Life is that way, if all goes well.
Youthful exuberance, mature endurance,
Aging acceptance, dying reluctance.
But, "dormant" NOT dead is the root.
Unimaginable blooms will reappear!
He is whispering, "just wait!"
In 1974, I excitedly got on a Greyhound bus for an eight hour bus ride to FHC, a place I'd never been before. B.A. Bible, B.A. Communication Theory. "to know WHAT to say and HOW to say it most effectively"
1978 Grad School. Getting suped up for preaching. M.Th. UPS warehouse worker. A daughter born!
1981 Michigan. "go north, young man, to the red, unchurched counties" and off on a wild adventure with my young wife and new daughter. Brigadoon. One son born there!
1985 Chicago. No job. No promises. Multiplying ministry. China next?! A disappointing debacle. However, another son born there! And, forced to unfathomable appreciation for the Grace of God. "by grace through faith" became so real!
1987 Huntsville, for one more adventure?? Decaffeinated Discipleship ministry, we joked. Good, godly folks struggling to find the path forward.
1990 changed direction, trade school
1992 Mobile, IP. Machinist. Plant closed. Forced to move for job. Thank Jesus, a door was opened, through which we entered with relief and hope.
1996 Thomasville, MB/WR/IP ... Millwright. quarter of a century... retired...
2022 Tuscaloosa... never been this apprehensive and unsure and anxious?! Is a little piece of green paradise too much to ask? Godly friends? Useful ministry? Happiness? Peace?
How many more years?!
Golden, heavenly streets next. The new heavens and new Earth. Paradise. Jesus.
Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and he named it Ebenezer (stone of help), saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
1 Samuel 7:12 AMP
O Lord,
Calm my heart.
Fortify my mind.
Strengthen my arms.
Open my eyes.
Guide my steps.
Guard my back!
Surround me and mine,
with Your angelic host.
The familiar is fading.
The unknown is usurping.
Landmarks are languishing.
Progress is pushing.
Keepsakes are corroding.
Generics are growing.
Nothing is the same.
Everything is different.
1. Confidence mandatory
2. Correctness not so much
3. Complexity not good
4. Contingency okay
5. Continuum not so much
6. Corruption inevitable
7. Crushing competition
8. Credit grabbing
9. Cronyism often
10. Cruelty works
11.
Some things excite, but do not satisfy.
Distract, but not direct.
Numb, but not calm.
Amuse, but not answer.
Fill us, but leave us empty.
...
Less is more.
Silence is music.
...
A glutton is never full.
...
Give thanks.
Focus on things above.
Serve.
Books, on the shelf, unread ...
Projects, in the mind, unstarted ...
Gardens unattended ...
Equipment unrepaired ...
Friends drifted away ...
Love unrequited ...
Games never played ...
Thoughts unconnected ...
Prayers never uttered ...
Trips never taken ...
Souls never saved ...
Growth unachieved ...
Time unredeemed ...
Serenity squandered ...
It's a delusional, if not dishonest, "soon"
to the childish question
"when are we getting there?"
Just enjoy the journey?!
Fulfilled in the next life?!
Just thinking about THINKING.
The simple believes everything, but the prudent looks where he is going.
Proverbs 14:15 RSV
"So, is it more important for parents to encourage their children to think WHAT they think, or HOW they think?" I asked my spouse.
"They must be pushed just to THINK!"
I then questioned how I think! Coworkers sometimes told me that I overthink?! 🙄🤣
My parents pushed me to filter thoughts through the lens of Holy Scriptures. But, then, when I came out the other end of the thought process, sometimes I thought different conclusions?! 🤪 Now what?
I like "consequences" thinking. Keeps me out of trouble.
I like "options" thinking. Helps prevent narrow-mindedness. There are C's and A's and X's...
I like "continuum" thinking. Some things are not just black and white.
I like "contingency" thinking. Surprises can be fatal.
I like "stream-of-conciousness" thinking, floating with muses. Surprises can be amazing!
I like "filtered" thinking. Agreeing on the filter may be difficult, but, there's a lot of poison in the stream.
I like "unfiltered" thinking. "Poisoning the well" predisposes the answers.
I like "solitude" thinking. Eurekas are better than chocolate.
I like "group" thinking. Pooling of ignorance is not the only possibility?! Advisors prevent failure, often.
a few more thoughts ...
"garbage in, garbage out"
"you can't make chicken soup with chicken droppings"
"pigs ears make poor silk purses"
I need to think about this...
There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 14:12 RSV
For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses, who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:6-7 RSV
Lurking Danger.
Uncomfortable Glance.
Unknown Dread.
Dark Shadow.
Ominous Threat.
Unwelcome Stranger.
Dangerous Intruder.
Unwelcome Guest.
Stubborn Squatter.
Entitled Demander.
Abusive Spouse.
Entangling Spider.
Blood-sucking Leech.
Pimping Drug-dealer.
Cannibalizing Monster.
Dung Shoveler.
...
I do not believe that ethnicity nor heritage are the clues to who we are.
I do not believe that travel nor nature will lead us home.
I do not believe that something comes from nothing.
I do not believe that the age of this place is best measured in "billions" of years.
I do not believe that my great-grandfather, nor anyone else's, was a monkey who had his tail pulled off.
I do not believe that boys are girls.
I do not believe that anything is free.
I do not believe that life is fair.
I do not believe that grudges and anger end well, for anybody.
I do not believe that vengeance and reparations solve the problem.
I do not believe that life is without meaning and purpose and direction.
I do not believe that hoarding is the goal, nor the means.
I do not believe that truth is personal nor subjective.
I do not believe that wrong is right.
I do not believe that all choices are righteous.
I do not believe killing babies is right.
I do not believe that nothing matters.
I do not believe that less guns is the solution, nor more guns.
I do not believe that too much CO2 is even in the top ten list of our problems.
I do not believe that being with a crowd cures loneliness.
I do not believe that one can trust everybody.
I do not believe that thelogians get God as well as poets.
I do not believe that the most important things are tangible.
I do not believe that there is not One who sees all.
I do not believe that it is over when I die.
.
We are children of dust, the earth, the dirt! You have breathed into us Life, but we all too soon turn away to death!
And, our parents, bless them, have received from their parents what they received from their parents?! We begin with a broken cart, full of garbage they have collected. Show us the dumpsters on our path.
But, occasionally they have noticed the delicacies and delights You have scattered along the detours we make as we turn aside. And they have collected them to pass on to us. Open our eyes to see the beautiful and to collect it and share, passing it on. Thank You!
Good and bad we have inherited?! Do not be too hard on us. Lead us in paths of light. Turn us from darkness. Do not abandon us, please! Have mercy! Patience we need from You. Jesus.
Good AND Bad we inherit. Habits. Patterns. Attitudes. Behaviors. Perspectives. Cultures. We can, with His help, sort, select, shed, share from our hand-me-down heirlooms. Choose wisely.
an obscure line in a song can take one to aerie heights?!
pay attention to details!
"God of salvation
You chased down my heart
Through all of my failure and pride
On a hill You created
The Light of the world
Abandoned in darkness to die" *
... The Hill
the angels wondered why His heart skipped a beat as He formed that hill...
That hill bore the eerie image of the skull of one those stubborn creatures below?!
He caught His own breath as His heavenly hands shaped that lonely, foreboding mount.
Only centuries later would the angelic horde begin to fathom this mystery.
A lonely hill outside Jerusalem, where many rebellious patriots would die.
But, the Creator would walk up that hill, dragging along His cross, us to save!
The rabble, assembled at the base of that hill, rarely fathoms what the angels, on high, adore.
All the other hills, even highest of mountains, bow low before this blessed hill!
So will I, by Hillsong
Happy Valentine's Day 2022
Remember when we barely managed, to ourselves, to keep our hands?!
Barely out of church, to the bedroom we ran!
But, pain has tempered the passion, and the years have weakened the yearning.
Age has altered the "amore" but love lingers in the heart, we're learning.
Now, we manage a smile and a laugh of those days;
glowing coals lie where once there was a blaze.
Pine straw and field grass have been our bed;
gratefully, the hay is in the barn for winter's dread.
Often, now, in the moonlight I quietly watch you sleep.
Where once we would have fallen into an exhausted heap!
Sadly, one of us will one day quietly sit alone on a bench;
alone, forlorn, will be singing some solitary little finch.
Even nearly blind, I will only have eyes for you, though then so glum.
But, my "Disney girl" will take my hand in "what dreams may come".
Over there, the two lovebirds will find their shared nest,
singing together, in the Light, forever blest!
So, for now, enjoy what we have, while yet alive.
Love lingers on, changing, not dying, one day to revive!
See you there! ♥️ "forever and ever"
I'll listen for your giggle.
