Life, wisdom, and suffering

This was First Baptist Gulfport, now gone completely after Katrina.

In recent years my teaching and preaching have been clustered around subject or topic studies. I feel that you can touch more areas of truth when you spend time looking at what we learn from scripture and life in a certain area.

Since September the subject has been wisdom, which to me means the understanding of life and the ways we learn to relate to God and man. Closely related to this is the reality of suffering that enters our life in many ways and disrupts the regular enjoyments of work, family and play. Disasters, accidents, sickness, violence, war, broken relationships, crime, job loss. It is a long list.

I really enjoyed the last decade and all I experienced and learned, yet for many it was marked by disaster, suffering, and recovery. 9/11, Katrina, Asian Tsunami and with the turn of a decade the Haitian Earthquake.

One of the conclusions of my reflections that I want to share is the importance of your view of God. If you believe God is loving and compassionate, then you feel His presence in your suffering, not condemnation or judgment. It has for me been on of the greatest shifts in my worldview to believe that God identifies with us in our suffering and cares for the suffering, asking us to care with Him and help as we are able.

My Favorite College Beard

I grew a yearly beard for a while when I was young. Laura said I could have one when I reach my goal weight. I am thinking about it.

Why we are still enjoying our union

1. We were compatible and ready
2. We had kids fairly quickly and were to busy to quit
3. We had no TV in the bedroom for the first 20
4. Coffee fellowship daily
5. Dating for 35
6. Returning to her career and making money
7. Letting me have my hobbies and games
8. Faith in Christ and tons of forgiveness for our grievances.

Got any to add?

The Wedding Day plus 35

We finally got hitched ten months after we met, moved the wedding up from summer to January, against the wishes of the pastor I was working with. "Why in my day we finished our education before we got married" I told that old dutchman that we were not living in his days, but ours, and we wanted to move the wedding. He punished me by limiting the time for my honeymoon.

The Wedding Planning was done mostly without me, and everything went off almost without a hitch. The church youth/Choir director was supposed to do a duet with his wife, and went to the gym and forget the time and had to sing it late and without his wife, and left me sweating in a closet filled with ancient smelly hymnals and the pastor for 15 minutes.

I am so greatful to have these pictures preserved from our young life, because it reminds me we had a young life. Great day, great experience, great memory, great life with the women of my dreams.

The 90 day courtship

So, I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with a beatiful girl and I have committed to move 300 miles away for a year of ministry preparation. We spend a lot of time together that spring. I took her on a campout with my Bible Study from Seminary, and met her Dad, having already met her mom on another occasion.

One afternoon they told me Laura needed me urgently....her father had died suddenly at age 57. The funeral weekend intertwined me deeply with her life and family, and we were talking serious future plans within weeks.

Choosing a life of commitment

Since the IMAX 3D Avatar was sold out we saw Up in the Air with George Clooney. It was poignant and meaningful since it dealt with the hassle of relationships and the difficulty of losing your job in this society.

Part of me always had a false fantasy about how much fun the traveling life would be. Clooney’s character was a good as it could get and yet we discover that life without relationships is the most costly.

Hence my weekend subject. Our 35th anniversary, and the incredible blessing having a friend and partner for life has been. I believed in dating to find the one, and had several long relationships in high school and college, but when I graduated still single I began to panic, as I was out of the milieu of seeing single women at our mostly male campus.

The summer after my first year I lived in South Florida and worked as a youth pastor. The family who took me in was wonderful, and when their youngest daughter came for a visit we began a long distance relationship that lasted 8 months, and ended when she told me that she had no interest in being the wife of a pastor. Since this happened in South Florida on Easter break, I drove over 1000 miles alone in prayerful communion about my hopes and dreams about marriage. I relaxed and decided to visit my alma mater the next weekend and talk to some friends, hoping maybe to meet someone.

I saw Laura leaving the women’s dorm, and was struck by her dark hair, petite figure, and lovely olive complexion. The exact details escape me, but the dorm mom, Mrs. Dennis, arranged for us to meet. Do not ask me if I believe in love at first sight, it happened to me that night. She took my breath away. Happy 35th Laura.

How do they move this stuff????

In spite of the heaviness of my spirit in light of the disaster, I will continue to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us and the creativity that fills us. When we attended the Chihuly blown glass exhibit at the Phoenix Botanical garden last year I really had no idea what a treat we were in store for. The adornment of the garden with these organic shapes and brilliant colors was amazing, and of course, we wondered how on earth all that glass could be transported and displayed.

Yesterday on TV I saw the set up process at the Queen's Garden in London and my question was answered. They are taken apart piece by piece and stored in peanut filled boxes that fit each tube or shape and put on their metal frames by engineers and a numbering system. In other words. Every sculpture is disassembled and reassembled. Truckloads of cardboard boxes, and carefully made stands to hold, display and secure each piece.
Here are three of my favs from that magical evening. If you are not busy double click for a full screen appreciation of the desert and the sculptures.