Diplomas on the wall, notes on the shelf

My office looks like a tornado went through. 20 boxes filled and not through, papers in the throw away box. Parts of seven years of higher education getting tossed for lack of present use. The minor prophets, tossed. Reformed Eschatology, tossed, back issues of Rev. magazine tossed.

Those years were busy, not wasted, and full of interactions and things that molded me. I am proud to have had the opportunity to spend that much time in school preparing. Sometimes it felt like I had a thousand answers for questions no one was asking.

Today, more so. Things have lost their center in our culture, and we are in a bit of a free fall. Not worried, and thankful that my office mess represents a life of thoughtful reflection of the God who loved this world and its broken people, who need knowledge of God and His ways.

I sure will be glad when the recarpet adventure is done.

Using Electronics for positive blessing

This is a telling picture of the early years of marriage when you don't have much stuff. An old 21 inch given my mother in law run by rabbit ears. That useless picture of a corner of our manse in Crystal Springs was captured by a Kodakcrome film in a camera, then digitally transfered to my computer hard drive for todays momentary reflection.

Today we have two flat screen large panel displays than bring crystal clear images. My good sized library of music goes with me everywhere and can be coupled with a number of players I keep around the home and office to fill the room with beauty.

I type this message on a laptop that did not exist in anyones everyday use on the day the above picture was taken. And I connect with you on a medium that has grown from an idea to a reality in my adult lifetime.

I do not join with those who see these things as a harbinger of a dystopian future. They are all been blessings when kept in perspective and not allowed to overwhelm with information or wasted time.

Dystopian is a word Laura encountered this morning while reading an old fashioned hand held book. Itf speaks of a future that is not utopian, but terrible. Presently movies are obsessed with the idea. Hunger Games is a picture of an unreal but possible future society.

I am glad to touch minds and hearts electronically with you this morning.

1800 posts

College graduation day, me, Linda Word, and Alex Beck. Linda married a minister, Alex dreamed of becoming a college president but died in a few short years.

This almost daily blog will be five years old in August. I will remember the day I began my walk of faith in a few weeks, year 46. I have changed and grown, but not apart from the reality that "Love lifted me". I was not seeking Him, He was seeking me.

When I graduated College and went to Seminary, I noticed that I was different in my basic approach to the faith than most, not all, of the men I began to train for ministry among. I had been nurtured on basic Christianity, and helped by Watchman Nee, C.S. Lewis, and much of my English minor backgroud as one who read widely.

I felt like I brought a strain of mysticism into what was a very scholastic atmosphere. It was all about what you knew. One early acquaintance said he would not listen to any spiritual advice I could share unless I could accurately outline the book of Romans for him. That german dude had a german shepherd, about his only friend I noticed.

To this day, those who approach God relationally rather than rationally still feed and attract me the most. Reading Immortal Diamond by Franciscan mystic Richard Rohr was an absolute treat.

Every part of the ups and downs of my walk with God is part of God's plan to share His love with me in union with Him, everything matters, everything helps, everything leads to the only thing that lasts, which is the love of God.

Books are heavy, part 2

Laura does not like E reading. I love it, I carry 80 books around in my hand. Books are my friends and lifelong companions, but hauling them around has been a nightmare.

Last year I departed with over 40 boxes of books that I had determined were no longer important to this stage of my life and gave them to the giant Nurses Auxilary sale. Now I am faced with the task of boxing up my books temporarily so a new carpet can be installed, so I am once again going to ask each book if it wants to stay or leave.

There is a silver lining in all this, because I really need to go through all the piles of paper than I have been unable to throw out in recent years, I am convince that heaven will be paperless....and bookless, as we are at play in the fields of the Lord.

Monday Meanderings

Summer was always a time to do special things with youth groups, its amazing to think that every child sitting on those benches is an adult now, probably with kids of their own.

I turn off the ringer on my phone when I take the platform on Sunday, and forget to turn it back on until Monday, which puts me out of touch. Sorry.

I gave three fasting viles of blood this morning for tests. You stare at the red liquid and feel amazed at our fragility and the job that blood does unseen to keep you alive each moment.

You determine that life must be lived abundantly even when the everyday tasks and duties pile up.

The church office is large, a manufactured home, and it will be new carpeted later in the month leaving me with a deadline to have books off the shelves and desks before I leave for out of town vacation.

It's Yune

Thats when we have to trim the dead leaves from our palm trees, in Yune. Its when it gets really hot, a dry heat and a steamy heat and an inescapable heat. Four months of heat. Its the price for living year round in shirt sleeves, and we pay it, although the smartest of us find ways to escape for the ocean or the mountians, which we plan to do later in the month.

Meanwhile the Apostle John is painting metaphors, those imprecise word games using like or as, that so infuriate science which operates in the measurable and the precise. The book I am reading by Richard Rohr is doing such a wonderful joy of showing how we need both science and mystery in our life. The mystery of faith so real and deep that you have to approximate it with words which only point in the direction of things much bigger and deeper and more real than the most real things we see and measure on this earth.

And....they are one, the seen and the unseen, this life and the next, their is not final bifurcation, because God is one and we have one God and one faith and He is in all and through all things. Transformation is the job of God, described by science, lived by faith.

Fun Trip

\These Mexican shopping cities are really something to experience. A major boon to the economy of Mexico and a major help to the retirees of the southwest who can get perscriptions, glasses, and dental work, plus a million decorative and leather goods type items.

The numbers are dropping and the salefolks are getting desperate, which makes navigating the streets and marketplaces an exercise in saying a polite no thank you.

The border guard was incredulous that I left without declaring any purchases, I should have told him I was sporting a new silver band that was hand made by a jeweler near our lunch spot. A great day of travel and new glasses for my friends.