Facing the end of life together

Sat with family, hospice worker, and a man losing his battle with cancer but crowning a long life with dignity, faith, and lots of memories. It is one of the most sacred and hardest things I do. I represent hope for the life to come but know the passing from this one is heart wrenching and a bit frightening during times of pain. Once again, hospice is a godsend. A Brooklyn and Manhattan guy with the experiences and wisdom of a life lived with a hard edge and a soft trust in God.

Commuting is not tax deductable

The exciting but fictional road through Juraasic Park.

I presently commute 2 miles from home to office. Recently our main road was refreshed with a new coat of asphalt, and I notice right down the middle seam of the road, grass popping up from what must be a foot of dark road underlay. Wow, nature is slow but persistent in getting us back to the garden.

For seven years my commute was 12 miles each way, but it was away from the city and quite pleasant on quiet roads that have since been populated by our huge growth spurt in the great Phoenix suburbs over the last 20 years. We wanted a home that was not in the horse property areas, so the commute was our choice.

Previous to home ownership my commute for the first 14 years of my career was a walk out the door to my desk in the church office 30 yards away by foot. It had its advantages during those years, including frequent children popping in to say hi or to beg to be allowed to play in the church nursery area.

For many the commute is a transformation from private to public self, but for me my thoughts about God, faith, and life begin when I wake up and never really change when I change my work environment.

In that I have been blessed and burdened for self employment for tax purposes does allow me to take business miliage from the office to the appointments in hospitals or homes, but my work, my calling, is never left at the office.

It's His doing

A Clydesdale in Hawaii?

I know its Holy Week, but in recent years I am so appreciative of what God did through Christ that I have no desire to try to do anything in my own actions to make the finished work of Christ more authentic by trying to set apart a day or a week and be more holy or more transformed than I am.

The living Christ is the one in whom we live and breath and have our being. I would rather share his unconditional love with everyone and allow Him to change them and continue to live each moment in realization of the unity he has already declared in a world full of different people and different cultures. My faith in God and love for others does not require me to refuse to give people all the love and compassion which God shows toward me. Yes I am ready to share the reasons for my hope but do not live in the necessity of insisting everyone be where I am in my understanding today. God is love, and we are known by our fruits of that love. His risen love is declared for all in the gospel.

Four Blood Moons

Hal Lindsey once had me fearing I would never see my wedding day.

Mystery, did John Hagee discover the prophetic key to the end times and suggest his study and book was based upon another man's idea, or did Hagee steal the other man's work and call it His own? Based upon the original scholars work we should be expecting the end of the world and the coming of Christ on the weekend of Rosh Sha Shonna or about September 23 of this year.

There goes my retirement. I am glad other prophecy teachers in my youth were wrong because in the early 70s I read a book and said, There goes my hope of marriage.

I await the date with bated breath. These guys are never wrong????

Amazon Daily Deals and my joy of electronics

This is number two office portable that I use for projection at the church services now. Its over four and getting cranky, already lost a hard drive and a screen.

Every week Amazon throws a half off or more sale on something. Sometimes I buy, like a few days ago. I keep a journal of sorts on my Kindle, and love having a portable keyboard that works with bluetooth technology. Now they have bluetooth mouses which need no usb dinglethingy to run. My new portable bluetooth keyboard is smaller, and has five backlit colors so you can type in low light. If you would have predicted I enjoy creative writing and thinking and journaling on a small portable Kindle with small keyboard/ mouse I would have laughed.

I am so greatful I made the switch to a computer in my early 30s so I could enjoy all this.

When I was a "little" Pastor

Crystal Springs, MS

The first congregation I served just announce an anniversary Sunday. They organized at the end of the war...the Civil War! 150 years ago. They had a wall of pictures of all the former pastors when I was there that was scary, and I was on the wall after I left.

I learned alot about the church in those four plus years, and I often dream about that congregation. We had our first two children in that place. Most were kind and loving to us. Gladys Wallace would introduce me around town with the phrase, "I would like to introduce you to our new little pastor". After a while I told her that at 6 ft and 200 lbs I was not little. It was a quaint colloquilism that came to represent to me what the tragedy of cultural Christianity is all about. They have made God a small part of their lives. Could I introduce you to my little God?

The men were the ones whose faith seemed like an uncomfortable suit they had to put on an hour a week. I would often see them heading for the golf course after going home and changing cloths while we were still visiting people in front of the church.

We are thinking about attending, We left 35 years ago and some of the young ones are now the old ones. I still resonate with the title of a book by Francis Shaeffer, No little people, No little places.

Through a glass darkly

The walking bridge at Hanapepe, Kauai.

Glanced at an article I want to study later, but the premise I know to be true. Human beings have the ability to process information differently and in essence filter what they read and hear through a personal or a group lens. That means groups of people under the influence of a teaching or teacher may have a unified understanding but someone from outside my see and interpret things differently.

This is true about looking at the results of political actions, for I see the same information being interpreted differently by the party spirit.

It explains why group Bible study can become so contentious so quickly.

More later.

I absolutely know that the way I read and understand scripture has changed since I moved away from the theology of my youth and entered into some different hermeneutical pathways. Grace changes everything,and the character and compassion of Jesus is for me the way to define the character of his father in the new covenant.

Meanwhile, I have another week to climb the mountain of life. People, plans, work, thought, relaxation, communication and cat hugging.