December, the most wonderful time of the year

Listened to Amy Grant Christmas at the Gym today. Downloaded a bunch of Christmas songs to Laura's Ipod as she has no space to keep it all year. Music keeps on giving to me deep in my soul.

Another of our long time members passed yesterday, lived into her 90s, struggled to hear and see but what a life of love and service she had, great family, a real Proverbs 31 kind of woman. Farewell Marge.

A day for a fond farewell

Laura, my love, dressed for dining with friends.

In the last three weeks I have said goodbye to three men who served their country well, loved their family deeply, and made an impact in their churches and community.

Hank was our reader and led our congregation in prayer weekly for many years, career Air Force Air Traffic Controller. Tom was career Air Force fighter pilot in Korea and Vietnam. Today we buried Bill, a WWII Marine who was awared a Purple Heart, and served as a firefighter for 30 years.

I have been priviledged to enjoy the families of Americas Greatest Generation for the last decade and presiding at their homegoings never gets easy. Taps, Flag Folding, deep reverence and honor....its changed me.

Before and After

Our Turkey growing friends say that the number of companies that package whole Turkeys for roasting has diminished greatly over the last years as more of the meat goes into processed cuts. This yearly ritual is such fun, but many don't know how or don't have the time and interest to do a big one.

It was delicious, I love turkey meat, dark and white, and dressing, and cranberries, and mashed potatos and sweet potatoes and salads made of broccoli and bacon, and spiral cut hams, which we enjoyed at our second Thanksgiving with our Son.

Fun, reatful, sunny Arizona Thanksgiving.

Told you it rained last week!!

At Tumbleweed Park after the rain last week.
Last nights sunset on the way to special pre Thanksgiving Service.
Happy Thanksgiving from our 20lb six toed kitty, whom we call Big Kitty, or Mittens.

Thanksgiving 2013

Thats me in my marching band days. Good times.

Hope your day is special, connected to the great memories of your past, and the hopes for the future. The floats are in the air and flying low to the ground. Families are freezing and kids are excited. It's America, the land of the free.

Our nation is in a crisis of leadership and direction and much division, but the cooperation of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade reminds us of the good we enjoy. A Band that plays and marches with precision, the icons of our TV culture floating overhead to remind us we were all kids once, and much of what we do involves our children and our family.

Too many of my fellow Christians kind of fall into a trap of pronouncing this kind of celebration worldly. I think it is a part of the wonder of celebrating the fact that we are engaged with the beauty, drama, and celebration of life in our unique country. Sure its over the top, and a bit commercial, but that is kind of who we are.

The fact that I am not a super consumer at my age is OK, and the fact that not everyone can fly to NYC to participate indicates that young folks have raised money in their home towns to make the trip of a lifetime, and someone somewhere needs the many goods and services that are available in a free market economy.

Long may our banner wave. Enjoy.

Tis the Season

This is a painted three D turtle which we enjoyed swimming with in Hawaii.

Yep, I like the traditions we enjoy this time of year. I like the Macys Parade, the football, the turkey, the whole experience with seasonal music, the Christ child stories.

I don't want to fight over my private or public celebrations. I cannot change the political climate of secularism. I actually agree that there is healthy division in our constitution that will never allow any Muslim to insist I bow to Allah, as there is no blue law that forbids someone from buying groceries on Sunday.

My holiday joys and wishing Merry Christmas are not political statements, just heartfelt parts of my life, because Jesus belongs to the world.

Body falling apart, groans

This tough hike put my knee out of wack for several weeks.

Now and then, when aches and pains increase, I can see why people long for release from the body. It is the vehicle through which we live and when we are not in peak running condition the problems cloud your ability to enjoy each day.

Pinched or sore nerve, or hip degeneration or who knows what, that has been going on for a month. Adjustments have given temporary relief, pain killers short term dulling, but it persists. I am not willing to live with it like this.

Still thankful for the parts of my body that work, for a good life, for caring friends, for beauty in all forms.

The Grassy Knoll???

Very cool prom ready dude.

I visited Deely Plaza once. I was a pretty convinced conspiracy advocate. Over the weekend most folks just wanted to lay it to rest and pin the deed on Lee Harvey Oswald. I still enjoyed the oddballs on the other side, and such a long time has passed that we may never know, and it may never matter.

History is like pinball, the trajectory changes things, and that successful assassination really changed things, and I guess every president has no idea which bill, which incident, which political decision will carry us forward on a bad trajectory.

I am trying to stop obsessing about it all and live in the precious present moment which has enough cares and duties to take care of the rest of the day.

Refusing to conceive of "unconditional love"

For half a second I wondered if I could drop into this hole without hitting the sides....thought better of it.

No thanks, I don't need it, my life is upright, I have performed sufficiently for you to require death to those whose achievements and efforts fall short of mine. Bring it.


Romans 10 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

How to spend a rainy day

My siblings a year or two before the Kennedy Assasination.

The golf course was closed on account of rain. Huge cactus, decades old, gave up the ghost in crashing piles as the soil let them go. Deserts are not designed for long soaks like this, we don't have quick absorption so the city is on alert for flooding everywhere.

As this rain coincided with my off day, I took full advantage along with my cat to read and relax and enjoy the freshness of the air. Laura, on the other hand, was surrounded by soggy children from before 7 am till they went home, with only a 20 minute lunch to catch a breathe.

As much as we love our evening out with friends, Laura's dilapidated psyche and other issues caused us to stay home, put on our jammies, and carry the quiet refreshment of an evening at home to its completion.

I watched some of the ceremony in cold and wet Dallas. I did some pre Thanksgiving thankfulness for the life God has granted me in this nation, as I have somehow skirted the worst of the damage done by hostility, war, and enmity, and have mostly been allowed to live a quiet and peaceful life, of which this quiet day was a pleasing example.

Thirteen was always a good number to me, despite its bad reputation, and 2013 will go down in my books as a good year. We enjoyed three of our favorite places on earth, New Orleans, Pensacola, and Hawaii. We saw family and friends. I continued to deepen my understanding of the gospel of grace and peace, and survived another summer in the desert, thanking God that there are occassional streams in the desert that make life recharge itself.

Sleeping Through the Rain

That's the name of a song I use to lull me to sleep, and last night a rare reality as it rained steadily most of the night, and I know that because hip pain was an issue all night. I ca n live with lots of aging issues, but sciatic pain really impacts my sleep time.

Reflecting with a great deal of Thanksgiving my life viewed from five decades since the Kennedy Assasination. For some reason when we spent a weekend at the New York Worlds Fair my one souvenir was a pack of pictures of the early Kennedy years. I would leaf through that box of black and whites from time to time. I am sure I was a bit caught up in the youth and glamor of the first family at the time, but the sudden and tragic ending changed me forever.

Each decade was so full of discovery and joy, and a bit of struggle.

The 60s were full of rebellion, but mild and enjoyabe as I came of age and encountered personal faith.

The 70s were full of education, romance, and young love.

The 80s were full of service, and bills, and kids, and getting used to my adult self.

The 90s were filled with an attempt to reach my dreams, big geographic moves and adjustments

The 2000s were full of challenges in my health, my work, and my theological foundations.

This youngish decade has given me rest, deep joy, and a realization that life on this earth has an uncertain cancellation date.

God Bless You

The ocean through a volcanic rift.

There is a little old man who drives his mobile chair to McQueen and Ocotillo and holds a sigh that says "God Bless You" as he waves at passing cars.

Having some struggles with nerve pain in my right leg, my chiropractor fixed it yesterday but it slipped or was pulled back out of place over night, still moving and lifting at the gym, which I enjoy.

Nice meeting with my financial advisors today, gettin my self employed act into gear so we can have enough to get to the end of our lives. Save, Save, Save.

One of my gym friends lost her father over the weekend, she reported that he was a lapsed Catholic and quite beligerent about his faith, but near the end he quietly submitted to the last rites. Interesting, and I was very grateful to have some input into my friends struggles to provide end of life care. We preachers need to get out among regular folks when we can.

Everytime I think violence against the innocent has reached new lows something else pops up, the Knock Out game is appallingly and completely evil. We need help Lord.

Heaven Can Wait

The Porpoise Driven Life, those guys and gals and kids seemed to enjoy just swimming, and eating and loving the pod.

Saw some folks yesterday at a funeral who parted ways with me less than fondly a decade ago. Typical issues you might see in a church. So and so said such and such and I am offended and leaving. It was good to shake hands and express kindness to them and to hope that time and age heal old relational wounds.

But one sweet couple I could tell were struggling to look me in the eye. They were teachers and leaders in the church and I was hijacked by an angry woman who attacked me on the phone, caused me to say something defensive, and then promptly told this couple what I had said about them. Are you following all this?

I spoke of the genuine fondness and love shared between the man we were remembering, in the midst of people who felt I had hurt them. Hence, the title of my post. If heaven contains these remebrances of wounds past, something is really going to have to change in our hearts and minds for us to party on through eternity.

There would be very little chance in this life to go and pick up those broken pieces and start again. I guess thats why there are so many church choices around, find the preacher and people you like. Frankly, it makes me wonder why I keep trying to make the gospel actually function in our largely dysfunctional world. Heaven has a fix, and I can wait for it.

The Gettysburg Address

This is Chai, a Chinese American Hawaiian, and the chief coffee roaster at the Greenwell Farms Coffee plantation in Kona Coast, Hawaii, I loved her the moment she opened her mouth and spoke in a Chinese accent about her love for her job, her adopted country, and her passion for the coffee bean and all the conversations and moments of peace a good cup of joe has brought into our human experience. God made coffe, and he made Chai, a chinese women, created equal in God's sight.

Wow, in Elementary School I memorized the preamble to the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address and I can still say them from memory...as long as you don't stand me in front of a class to do it.

This 50 year anniversary of the Kennedy Assisination is looping all kinds of things together in my brief journey through this life.

My father moved us from New York to Alabama in 1961 in the middle of my fifth grade year, just as the South was celebrating the Civil War Centennial. In some ways the south never admitted defeat in that bloody war, continuing to devalue the black man as less than human even when I arrived to a structured segregation that would remain through my high school years.

That war really tested the fabric of the constitution in more ways than we can imagine, and those human beings in America who lived through those years really paid a price for that war in lost sons, and devastated land and commerce.

Lincoln paid with his life, and the parallels between Lincoln and Kennedy have been drawn for all to see.

'dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal'

Jesus died to tear down a wall of hostility, a wall of enmity so He could create one new man, thus creating peace, and he spoke peace to those who were near and peace to those far off.

Last night we met two young students from China who must have been amused at the way we old folks think and talk. They are here to study and return to China to have teaching careers, they look different and speak our language through another tongue. They are the children or grandchildren of those who suffered under Mao Tse Tungs communism which has yet to really be rooted out of the psyche of the Chinese people, and somehow, our beleagured constitution, and Abraham Lincoln, and John Kennedy, and Jesus who went into the grave and is thus far the only one to come out of it...Jesus is still calling us to view humanity through His eyes, and to see the essential oneness of every human being...created equal...what an amazing proposition.

Hooked on Kindle

A friend gave me a book that was normal paper size and bound with a plastic spiral. As excited as I am to read this exposition I am just plain distracted by the page turning and the size of the book when reading it. It seems that the convenience of tapping and moving with the color Kindle has made reading a whole new experience over the last several years.

I am hooked, so I bought the Kindle version of the book.

Continue to be excited by the shift in my thinking about the Gospel of Peace and the finished work of Christ which will be the continuing subject of November teaching.

Thinking about the Philipinos

Our family rented this huge two story in upstate New York for a couple of years, lots of good memories there.

Postscript on breaking 90....almost...an errant shot on the 18th kept me from the elusive goal. Next week.

As the returning golfers shared summer events, one gentlemen spoke of selling his family home and moving into a condominium, and when I asked how they disposed of the furniture in downsizing, he said they still have 3200 sq. ft. in the condo.

I belong to that generation and class where our streets were filled with homes with large families living in 13 to 15 hundred sq. ft. Our home when our kids were teens had 3100 sq. ft, and I loved the space.

My point is that we are a prosperous and blessed nation, and the shrinking middle class faces perhaps a future without this abundance if things don't change....and....nations like the Philipines live their lives with so much less, that the wind and water had very little trouble destroying the fabric of hundreds of thousands of families. May the help continue to flow as those poor people seek to rebuild.

10 strokes

Last years Chapel Treasure sale, about to start in 1 minute, thanks to all the volunteers.

That's how my golf game has changed from my 40s to my 60s. Golf is about walking outside, being with friends, competing against your mind and your body, and about improving your score.

Those ten strokes are lost by inconsistent swings, strange mental errors, back nine fatigue.

Every time I achedule a round I am believing that I can subdue a few of those mistakes that are keeping me out of the 80s. Maybe today.

The Annual Sun Lakes Chapel Sale

These trees have the capacity to reroot themselves and expand to create canopy that is very large.

Volunteers preparing for our Chapel Treasure Sale tomorrow and Friday even though the Ladies Association of Sun Lakes held their huge sale, but the interest of bargain hunters is never peaked.

Breakfast with John, we have been doing this for many years, though he has moved to Iowa so our times together are not so often.

John and I are one the same journey of expanding our view of the grace of God. Good times.

On sitting for an hour at the DMV

Ironman Triatheletes are not normal people, and are not pitiful, they are supermen and women, at least physically.

It's one of those places where the people are on the outside and the government are behind the desks helping you get drivers licenses or change ownership of vehicles etc.

It is one of those places where the wealthiest and the simplest, the youngest and the oldest must wait for their number to be called, no paying to get to the front of the line, all God's chillen gotta wait.

As I watch the crowd around me I still remember an impression we have gotten for all of our 25 years in AZ. Folks here do not dress up for anything.

Teenagers dress to impress their peers, not their parents, but that has not changed anywhere.

Overall I observed a pretty pitiful group of humans, no Thors, no Supermans, no James Bonds. And I wondered why God would love us as we are. And I know how easily it is for me to see so many differences between every human being in the room, and wonder how God could see the best and the worst in their hearts and still desire fellowship with people who are in general pretty normal and pretty pitiful.

I go to the DMV as rarely as possible, too many thoughts going through my head as I wait for my number to come up.

Does Change require major foul ups?

Interesting architecture at the aging Royal Kona Resort, owned by Pleasant Hawaiian Vacations, who books the rooms at a rate higher than the rooms and amenties are worth compared to newer resorts. Very nice ocean view and outdoor restaurant/bar with awesome ambience.

What if the problems with the Obama Care Website were non existent? What if enrolling was a simple breeze? Would we be locked in the spiraling downward fall of this administrations popularity? In other words, did it take a sign up disaster to create the need to reconsider the full implications of this bill?

I wonder where the church would be if, 500 years ago, when Luther asked his 95 questions, if the church had welcomed the questions and opened a time of questioning and study with a willingness to correct that which was proven wrong. I know its useless to rewrite history, but my point is that the poor execution or response to any important issue will affect the actual reception or rejection of the issue.

When the Catholic Church sought to silence Luthers efforts at reform, for better or worse it gave people a chance to escape the system that was full of error and power abuse and centuries of stoggy and painful tradition.

Even if our efforts to get back to the plan have been less than perfect, the fruit has been quite real in the process of reforming the body of Christ in its outward forms.

Most people will not doubt the ship they sailed on, until it springs a leak. So...thank God for leaks, that create alarm, and the need for reexamination.

We are there, western Christianity, get down on your knees, with your brain, and check the structure of the ship, the gospel ship.

p.s.
So much suffering in the islands of the Phillipines, thanks to all rushing aid to the area.

Non Stop Weekend just slowed down

A pretty awesome picnic tree.

Laura was at work from 7am till 8:30 pm for the Fall Festival, Ben comes home with us, we swim and golf Sat. am, attend Shannon's choir concert, bring both grandkids home, church, shopping for the annual Xmas Shoebox ministry, an afternoon concert fundraiser for Phoenix Rescue Mission, evening fellowship with friends, shopping for Brown Bag Lunch early Monday, preparation, lunch with ministry team, a bit of shopping the Veterans Day sales at the Mall, and here I am enjoying Coffee.

The Gospel of Peace

We all grew up with Billy Graham, whom ,has been honored this week on his 95th Birthday. I still remember reading Peace with God long ago. We tend to think of peace as a personal benifit we get when we believe and it is true.

What is more amazing about the gospel is that God is at peace with humanity, through the obedience of Christ, the second Adam.
It is part of the good news that was almost never mentioned in the first half of my life, and now I see the peace that God declared with sinners and the benifits of the gospel to the whole world.

The gospel of the peace of God towards sinners does not take sin lightly, its penalty was paid by Christ, and its power, the law was fulfilled in Christ, and the personal transformation that takes place when we realize we are loved and accepted unconditionally as sinners is the power of the Gospel that does not degenerate into pride and presumption. Its not, I found it, but He gave it.

Hallmark and Pixl, love it

This beach was just a hundred yards away from our condo to the south, Laura walked there several times and I joined her late in the week.

I love those Christmas romance stories that show up each year on the Hallmark Channel and the Larry Levinson movies on Pixl. Never know at what point and through what circumstance the spirit of the season will hit me.

The Word O God

Sand Castles close to the ocean are destined to succumb to the tides of time.

In the south, where I am no longer from, preachers dropped the f from of, I think for dramatic effect, the phrase becomes more like one word.....Word-uh-God. Whats wrong,brother, don't you believe the worduhgod?

Just emerged from a discussion of the age of the earth with some of my folks and the legitimate question was asked. Why does this matter to you or to us how old the earth is?

My reply was not so much to defend science, although their a many major areas of study and many more ways to test the relative age of things than we who are not scientists know.

My issue was how do we believe and understand the word of God. If it is an unfolding revelation that starts with Moses describing creation and ends with Paul revealing a mystery long hidden and now revealed, then the handling of that revelation requires some nuances theologically and linguistically and culturally, and not to mention some understanding of the original languages of the ancient texts.

So if a guy pulls out a calculator and agrees that Moses was born around 1500 years before Christ and he begins to try substracting the geneology and the number of years of each listed generation, and if he further believes that God would never lie to us even if the statement is in a storied recollection of truths long preserved in the people of God, or people-uh-god, then you set biblical revelation, which ends in the miraculous against observation and knowledge, both of which we were commended by God to grow in as we exercise dominion over the earth, catching, cooking, planting, building, writing, ect. Then we create a situation where the Bible becomes impossible, which it was never supposed to be.

The wordogod says the earth is 6000 years old and was created in six twenty four hour days I would live and die on that if I was convinced that that was the writers and God's intent. What hurts is the spiritual abuse of sheperds who abuse in the name of the worduhgod. All scripture is inspired and helpful, but please don't send me on a search for trees of the field that are clapping their hands because of the w....uh....g....d!!!! Its a metaphor,,,and my own tongue in cheek sarcasm is a survival mechanism for which I ask your forgiveness.

Hawaiian natives enjoy their own home

Several beaches and parks on the Big island are described in the blue book as worth a stop if you are not in a hurry. This we did and found that these less attractive swimming and picnis areas are very popular with the people who make the island their home, and that is a good thing, we really enjoyed this stop at Whittington Park with a cement dock structure in the background.

The Hallowed Weeks are upon us

Boats like these were the origianal trans oceanic vehicles to get people to Hawaii. When we passed the souther part of Hawaii we were in the southermost part of the US, way south of Key West and sort of mid Mexico in longitude. This is where the original polynesian explorers landed to begin populating the chain.

The desert climate is perfect as we slide toward the finish of another year. I am thankful to be alive as I needed healthcare this year, and really, all the clamor and debate are about getting real healthcare when we need it, and the affordable healthcare act is very much an unproven commodity in these last weeks of the year.

When I began to sense that my heart was not functioning properly in August, one afternoon I felt so bad that I had to decide to sit it out, call 911, or go to the emergency room, or stop by my cardiologists office. The first three options all felt wrong, I was having high blood pressure but not chest pains. So I began the process that led to a stress test, an angiogram, stent number 15, and the opportunity to enjoy the next weeks of special memories, family, concerts and events, and having my wife relax at home with no outings for two weeks.

I would also hope to avoid any sense of rush, or concern about spending too much, as we are in retirement planning mode, or at least studying to see if we get to retire. I am hopeful, and thankful.

"If I had words to make a day for you'

"I'd sing you a day that's golden and new."

Farmer Hogget is dancing a jig to cheer up Babe the Sheep Pig who is sick and not eating. There is music in the background, and later the little farm mice sing the song written to go with the tune and I am digging it for years.

The film credits Camille Saint-Saens for the tune from his Symphony in C minor. I bought the CD this summer, and the tune comes in one movement that lasts 1:38 seconds.

You can see the 1977 song on youtube.

I am searching for the song on google and find that a Hawaiian singer named Keialii Reichel sang it on an album. I bought it, and now the simple tune in C minor is playing in my head daily.

If I had words to make a day for you, I'd sing you a day that's golden and new (some say true),
And I'd make that day last for all time, and give you a night full of moon shine.

Kudos to each artist, separated by a century, for this happy little diddy. And to Babe, the Sheep Pig who had a very pure heart.
And to those very few days we are given in life when everything is new and golden.

Sunday afternoon is my day of rest

It was Women's Club Rummage three day sale, and the things they have collected and sold is enormous each year as lifelong gatherers begin to let things and clutter go.

Its not quite fair for people to give VCR's to the club as the technology is dead and it just has to be hauled off, but that is their business.

I bought two wooden fighting elephants and a pill bowl, great purchases both, he said, generously.

I am committed to preparing the world for a new reformation, but realize that some things just need to be left alone to die or allowed to survive as a minority report for a while, or, sadly, to become a cancerous growth that hurts the faith of many. The church is always in conversation and reformation and sometimes disputation. Always slow to change and sometimes an obstacle to growth, but still part of the plan.

After sharing my heart, which was not as free as normal, I am letting it all relax in my comfortable chair. I have been using my fitness pal software for a week to track calories and help me learn to eat for health and not hunger. It's working.

Gravity

Near Wiamea, northern Hawaii, atop a long dead volcanic peak turned fertile grassland.

I have been a Sandra Bullock fan since day one, the innocence, humor, self deprecation, cuteness thing. I already heard it was not really plotted but a survival amid real trouble film, and it worked for me, space is a very unforgiving environment, and all the things she did to get home were impressive acrobatically and theoretically. And the earth from space is a great backdrop.

The yearly non event is over

Random shot of a roadside monument to a teenager whose life ended on a lonely stretch of road in Hawaii. Rest in peace, Tony.

Halloween, as I have not observed it or participated in it one way or the other for several decades, is interesting. I admire those folks for whom it is an innocent celebration of costuming and candy.

I admire those folks and used to be one in which you fought the good fight yearly and worked your butt off to create an alternative like reformation day, still with costumes and candy, but not with the scary overtones of a spook celebration, and with reminders of how unsuperstitious we were...well, maybe admire is too strong a word, but we had some good times getting ready and carrying out these parties.

I reaffirm that my spirit does not do well with horror movies at all, can live without them, and have. Adventure and risk movies, yes, but supernatural and scary, no.

I am repulsed by the idea of lost souls or spirits wandering the world or stuck living in some abandoned hospital or child's bedroom, saw Poltergist, and it reaffirmed my belief that I should not be watching those type movies.

I distinctly remember when, as a holiday, it made me really sick and sad. We were living on a cul-de-sac, and tons of older kids who were dropped in the neighborhood because it was new and had lots of stops, were outrunning the cute little kids to grab your loot nd keep running to see how much of a candy stash they could accumulate. I am sure the candy companies loved that, but it made me sad to see the cuteness part be trashed by pimple faced pre teens. My doorbell rang so constantly that I could not leave the living room for three hours. yeech.

That was shortly before I moved to this gated senior community and all the clamor ended, and I almost made it through the evening without a thought, until I realized all the shows put reruns on because they knew the audience was out on the street.

My favorite candy is Reeses Cups, followed by Zero Candy Bars, and I thankfully have no bag of goodies tempting me to get sick today. And American moves on to the desecration of its next Holy Days.