Blessed

Every once in a while, a man should reflect on his blessings. I acknowledge that I am a blessed man. Not by wealth or fame, but I have some very precious relationships that has made me a wealthy man. One of those relationships is with the lady in the picture.

I met her here at the church way back in 1976. I was teaching the youth Sunday School class. Her Dad owned a cottage here in Houghton Lake. They didn't stay at the cottage that summer because they went on a big bicentennial trip.

The next year, we had moved the church to a new building (the one we are in now), there was lots of excitement and work. She showed up again at the church, and this time was going to be around for the summer. It took me a while but I finally asked her out on a date, and she accepted. We canoed for our first date. And from that initial meeting love blossomed.

We wrote regularly through the remainder of high school. I still have every letter she wrote me in the nightstand next to my bed. Every once in a while, I pull them out and read and remember what young love was like for me. It was exciting and uncharted territory for me. When I read those letters I am transformed back to the days of my youth. I relive those feelings, those dreams, those days of extreme awkwardness, hope, fear, wonder . . .

We attended college together and then married in the summer before our Junior year. There were folks who made the dire predictions about how we were too young, too poor, and too immature. They were sure we were not going to make it. And you know they were right - we were too young, too poor and too immature. If I today was to council the younger me, I would have advised me to take the safer route and wait a couple of years.

But the younger me didn't listen because he was so in love and he was sure that love covers over a multitude of sins. So, he, my younger self, was right too - because in this instance the too young, too poor, too immature couple was able to make it because love, theirs, but mostly God's, was always present to see them through.

28 years we have been married and I regret not a moment of it. Even when we have had bad times the love covered us and we grew closer together. If there is anything that I struggle with now it is the desire to spend more time with her, because I know that in spite of our love neither one of us will live forever here on earth, and I don't want to miss a moment of my time with her.

I am a blessed man, and I know it. A scripture, Genesis 2:22 - Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib and brought her to Adam." God brought her to him - God brought her to him - God brought her to him - I was and am still struck by those words. It wasn't good for man to be alone, he created a suitable companion and then brought her to him.

At creation , when all was up and running including the relationship between man and woman the Scripture says, "God saw all that He had made, and it was very good." Genesis 1:31 Yes from what I have experienced I can join in and say, "Amen."

Day 5

Well I really waited too late to write today - it is 10:52 pm and it's been a long and active day. After all this activity, I'm tired and seem more and more to wonder if what I am doing is making a difference.

My little experiment of writing has given me regular pause to stop and think as I write. I'm 48, and I have tried to live in a way that little by little, over the course of a lifetime, I might find the will of God often enough to make an eternal difference in some lives.

But these weary nights are the times when I feel the most unsure. Thank you God for sleep and the difference rest makes in our lives. Tomorrow, another day, with new strength from Him for the challenges of a new day.

Day 4

What do you do when you don't feel like blogging? I just received some personal bad news, earlier today, I heard a confession, before that some news about an imprisoned friend's crimes, I discussed death with someone and now, I feel bad. I have that feeling in my stomach that reminds me, all is not well in the world in which I live. I am tempted to worry and fuss and fume and blog about.

I guess I should have blogged this morning, because for me, most mornings just don't seem as bad as the end of a day.

The funny thing about that is, this morning, all the stuff I heard later in the day was just as true then as it is now, only I didn't know about it then. I could have waxed eloquent about some topic, not knowing or caring about what I was going to learn later in the day.

I know God knew about it and evidently He handles things a whole lot better than I do because all the stuff I now know, even though God knew about it before me, didn't cause Him to whine about it to me. It seems I am the one who excels at whinning.

The next question I ask myself is: "Do I really want people to know that I am having a bad day?" What if I want to keep that fact a secret? Well, there's really no reason to be too worried about that since I have only two followers and I am pretty sure that if they were to talk with me they would know it isn't a good day for me - I am a little too open about I how I feel.

So, what should I do? Continue whinning or . . . wait - isn't there something in the Scripture - let me think - "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." I Peter 5:7 (NIV) (Caps mine) I wonder if the word - "cast" is used, by the fisherman Peter, like throwing the fishing net out to sea - give it a toss - the whole messy net worth of junk.

Sometimes I wonder, can I cast my anxiety on the Lord when a portion of it is stuff that is really my mess - bad decisions, wrong thinking, erroneous actions, can I really cast that stuff to Lord - shouldn't I have known better, why didn't I forsee these problems, I wonder if my decision will keep things from working out for good. But, there doesn't seem to be any boundaries on that which causes my anxiety. We are encouraged to cast it on Him. Thinking about that makes me feel better. God can handle all that stuff - very easily - and in ways that I can not always anticipate. He has the resources necessary to meet my needs. He is wise and knows what is best. He has all power and all authority at His disposal. Why am I still blogging, when I should be casting.

So, here it is God, the whole mess. I am casting it on You, as You commanded. I am going to believe You can handle it, that You are able, and that whatever comes from all this, You are working all things together for good - because I love You and am called according to Your purpose.

Oh, and my stomach feels better too. Thanks!

Day 3

I learned to play the piano from an elderly lady name Mrs. Green in South Haven, Michigan. She had perfect pitch, which was terribly annoying, because she heard every note on a piano perfectly and if you missed one she caught it immediately, even when she was feeding cats in the kitchen, she would holler out, "NO!" when a note was missed and you would have to go back and correct it.

We had two piano books that we played from, and one, John W. Schaum (or some spelling like that), had a red book with a song that I remember well to this very day - it was called the kanga-rooster and went like this: (ahem)

"In the land of let's pretend, there lived a kanga-rooster.
Half of him was kangaroo, the other half was rooster.
He could jump and he could crow, flap his wings and tap his toe.
In the land of let's pretend, there lived a kanga-rooster."

I think all my children know this song by heart as I would sing it to them from time to time throughout their childhood. From it, I would try to teach them a lesson, about being true to God. I would talk with them about this hideous creature, the kanga-rooster, who did not know who he really was, and therefore tried to be two incompatible things at the same time - a kangaroo and a rooster.

At the top of the music page was this hideous looking creater, un-natural in appearance, flapping it's wings and jumping around, I don't know if the artist intended it or not but the creature looked kind of miserable to me. And sitting in my piano teachers house, with the lights low except for the one over the sheet music and the keyboard, highlighting this ugly creature who didn't know who he was or how to behave - I learned something - always be just who you are.

Today, when I read certain passages of scripture, I still think of the poor kanga-rooster. For instance, when Jesue tells of the division between the sheep and goats - they are divided by who they are. Sheep were just sheep, the good guys, and the goats were unmistakenly goats, easily recognized for who they were, the bad guys. There was no part in the story where there was suddently revealed a new and mystifying creature who had characteristics of both creatures - let's call it a "shoat" or a "geep." The Lord doesn't step back and marvel over a creature that is able to be both the good sheep and the bad goat and still remain true to itself. That would have certainly had a dramatic change upon the parable, it might have gone like this: "Why look, a shoat, a creature who is both sheep and goat." Our Lord would have said, " Behold, the appearance of this creature has changed My belief system, I now know that it is possible to serve two masters, My bad. Now let us determine whether this creature is more sheep than goat or vice versa so we know where to put him. Let's form a committee to study him . . ." That didn't happen because there is no such combination - you are either a sheep or a goat. The same worked for wheat and weeds - there was to "wheeds" that had to be examined to determine if it was more wheat than weed so they would know for sure whether or not to cast this stuff into the fire.

Yep, even a little kid, scared to death of his ancient piano teacher with perfect pitch, who could hear a wrong note in the back part of her house while feeding her cats, can come to grips and own a life-long learned lesson. If you are going to be a Christian, be one. If not, don't pretend to be one, otherwise you look awful foolish, kind of like a kanga-rooster.

Day 2

Well, here I am on day two. I thought over night about what to share this morning. I thought about things I like and things I don't like. Sharing a little about my preferences didn't seem too risky to splatter on the world wide web.

So, here it goes, let me start with the negative, I don't like flat surfaces in my home. Any flat service that exists in my home is covered with something, particularly, unnecessary somethings that should have something else done with it, but for some reason never gets done. Flat surfaces are everywhere, kithen counters, tables, chairs, benches, floors, coffee tables, desk tops, bookshelves, everywhere I turn, if there is a flat surface, something is on it.

On the flip side, when I look at the stuff, alot of it is just stuff that found a resting place with no one to take owernership of it. But some of it, are things of value, maybe not immense value, but value none the less. I see a book that someone from church gave us to read that they thought would be a blessing to us. A token of love. I see a picture that dates back to the early 1900's of my Grandfather, his Sister and his Mother. The picture needs to be fixed and has been set their until I can get to it - but it has worth to me - looking into the faces of those to whom I am related that are no longer with us. Some of the flat surfaces are items that belonged to my Great Grandmother, a baker's table and a china cupboard, full of stuff, but the furniture themselves was once found and used in her home.

Sometimes, my life seems full of stuff. It seems kind of overwhelming at times as I try to sort things out. But if I am able, for a little while, to look at the stuff through the eyes of a different lens, even if just for a little while, I can sometimes see some real value in clutter. In those moments, I don't see the stuff so clearly as I do the little elements of the clutter that brings value to my life.

More often than not, it is something to do with a relationship. Whether an old picture of those who lived before me or a Star Trek key chain given to me by a friend who knew that I was a fan of the old TV show. I am slow to give these things up, even though most of these things will lose all their value at my departure from this life, because to me they represent a token of love in a relationship, whether family or friend, and once I am removed, that items value converts to some other estimate of worth.

My mother has a black outline of my head against a white sheet of paper. It was made when I was in Kindergarten or first grade or something like that. Now, the reality is, it is an old piece of paper, with a black, funny shaped head on it. Do you think anyone is going to find any value in that once my mother is gone? It is doubtful, and yet she treasures it! It represents a simpler time for her, a precious time to her, a gift of a child to her, and to her, it is valuable! So much so, that after 45 years she has kept it.

I read in Revelations that bread will someday be worth a bag of gold. Funny how the value of things change. It looks like, in the future time frame described in that portion of the book of Revelation, that people will be awful hungry and since you can't eat gold, the value of the bread increases over that of gold. Pretty simple concept.

I wonder why it gets so complicated seeing things of real value. Do you suppose it has something to do with the fact that we have so much? Maybe we spend too much time shuffling our stuff, trying to figure the value of these things and placing them in order. Maybe, we should spend a little more time looking at things of real value, things that last forever. Maybe we should use a different lens to see things.

Jesus mentioned this to us one time: "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eathen by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be." Matthew 6:19-21 (NLT)

To Boldly Go

When I was a child I became enamored with a TV show called Star Trek. Whatever you think of if now, back then, it was a call "to boldly go where no man had gone before." That is what this endeavor will be for me. I haven't blogged nor did I ever really have the desire to do so. But I have found myself desiring to understand those who follow me and their world a little better.

I find it interesting and sometime horrifying what my children (and that includes the in-laws, nieces and nephews and the like) will post on the various public viewing areas of the web. What is the attraction attached to this information being sent abroad? I decided to give a whirl and see what kind of thrill they experience.

For me, it is "boldly going" where at least I have not gone before, and to experience what is out there.