A month back, Sheila and I drove twenty miles north to Canyon Lake to look at a living room bench—kind of a flat white church pew. A few miles up the freeway, I noticed a liquid amber leaf from the tree next to where we park our F150 was stuck on the windshield wiper arm. That leaf stayed on the entire trip up and back, at speeds up to 75 mph. AND, the wiper arm still holds it, with several other trips in between. That’s one tough leaf to take such a beatin’ and keep on truckin’. Feel like you’re taking a beating from life? A job, a spouse, a church, a friend? Let…
Read MoreA Balancing Act
Some time back I intentionally opened my Bible to Psalms, and randomly to 86. As a poet (no poems today, sorry!) I appreciated the variety of structures that enhanced the meaning. But verse 11 touched my soul, “Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name,” because it gave three requirements of connecting to God and the result. All touch on…
Read MorePages Turning
Looking ahead, my spiritual vision is maybe 20/400. But looking back, it may approach 20/40. Maybe you’ve experienced the same—the past has more clarity than the future. Looking back, I see my bad decisions, my good ones. The times that God has gently nudged me in ways I didn’t comprehend until later. The times he took a figurative 2 x 4 to me. We can all benefit from looking back to gain a better insight into…
Read MoreIntegrity
Early last December, when fall still held sway, a strong wind stripped our trees of many of their leaves. A sixty-foot liquid amber, a broad fruitless pear, and a neighbor’s trees all contributed to the mass of leaves covering the ground cover on our south slope and driveway. Wanting to avoid the debris from choking out our ice plant and from drifting onto our neighbors’ yards, I grabbed my leaf blower to blow them off the slope and pushed them into a pile…
Read MoreBe Good...For Goodness Sake
Christmas may be over, but I still remember the song that claims we should be good because Santa is watching, “you better be good for goodness sake,” or you can’t expect gifts. Among all the sloppy theology I hear, this may top them all. If we do good to benefit ourselves, to get something we want, can we really call that goodness? Sounds like self-centered pragmatism to me. But maybe we can have a better motivation for being good. Maybe desiring goodness shows…
Read MoreBorn in Mud and Blood
True confession time—I’m a bit of a Christmas junkie, and on this, the day after Christmas 2022, I’m not quite ready to give it up. Oh, I know the over-the-top displays like the pic are heading into hibernation, but maybe we can extend it, in the spirit of what the incarnation means. So, think with me on that first one, and how we can live it out…now. In a gritty manner.
Read MoreStarting Fresh. Again
The cushy beds in the tent trailer at Convict Lake claimed my son-in-law and grandson as I rose alone at early dawn to entice a few trout in the creek. Yes, I caught a few. But better than the rainbows was the reminder of God’s patience. The crisp dry air of mountain mornings brings a unique freshness. Being immersed in God’s creation makes me…
Read MoreRelentlessly Seeking
In an almost New Testament manner, an earlier church we attended had a satellite campus at a winery east of Temecula. The pic above shows the view the gathered believers have during worship. This last Sunday, just after the sermon began, a small, yellow-breasted bird flew up to the window, beating his wings trying to get in. Tiring, he flew back to a grapevine branch, rested, then resumed his attempts to enter God's presence. After a few moments he tired…
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