don't speak, just look...

My friend Mary wrote about writing and having writer's block...

Sometimes we aren’t meant to speak or to write...sometimes we are simply meant to look. Here’s this morning’s reminder of God’s ever-present love! Be blessed! We are well loved.

 

Oh, the beauty of the small things, if we just take the time to look and see what God has done.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

baggage

My friend SG sent me this quote...

It's so strange, that babies come into this world in innocence, with no baggage and no worldly possessions.. .they aren't even wearing clothes.  But many adults exit this earth with lots of baggage. We are creatures of an imperfect world.

I agree.  What is going on?  It is like we spend the first years of our lives collecting shame, the need for approval, and all kinds of baggage.  Then we must make a decision about the rest of our lives.  Will we just live out our baggage or will we see it for what it is and work diligently to learn to live as a healthy person?

I remember in my 20's, blaming my parents for my problems.  Then when I was 28 I came to an epiphany... sure, they delivered some baggage... but now my decisions are mine.  The rest of my life is on me.

Are you lost in your baggage or actively working through it?  The rest of our lives are on us.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

The world fair of religions

An Anthony deMello story

My friend and I went to the fair. THE WORLD FAIR OF RELIGIONS. Not a trade fair. But the competition was as fierce, the propaganda loud.

At the Jewish stall we were given handouts that said that God was all-compassionate and the Jews were his Chosen People. The Jews. No other people were as chosen as they.

At the Muslim stall we learned that God was all-merciful and Mohammed is his only Prophet. Salvation comes from listening to God's Prophet.

At the Christian stall we discovered that God is love and there is no salvation outside the Church. Join the Church or risk eternal damnation.

On the way out I asked my friend, "Who do you think of God?" He replied, "He is bigoted, fanatical, and cruel."

Back home, I said to God, "How do you put up with this sort of thing, Lord? Don't you see they have been giving you a bad name for centuries?"

God said, "It wasn't I who organized the fair. In fact, I'd be too ashamed to visit it."

May your faith, your religion, your spirituality and mine be loving, compassionate and kind.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

Bye bye Dorian

So the excitement about hurricane Dorian is over here in Vero Beach.   [Vero is the blue dot on the picture]

Dorian cruised by yesterday late afternoon.  It was 75 miles off shore and it had diminished to a category 2 storm.  We got a lot of rain and some 50 mile an hour winds.  We never lost power.

Thank you all for your concern and your prayers.  Today I plan to open up the shutters and return the home to a normal state of operation.

The folks that we really need to pray for now are the residents of the Bahamas.  Dorian sat on top of them for over 24 hours.  There is much damage there.  Maybe a nice destination for a future mission trip?

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

better news

So as I headed to bed last night, it appears that hurricane Dorian is heading out to sea.  The farther it moves from the coast, the better for us.

In 2016, hurricane Matthew came through, Cat 3 and 30 miles off shore.  Still the winds at our house were 75 mph.  If Dorian performs in a similar fashion, at least we will know what to expect as we have been through such storms before.

The town is locked down.  Our house is locked down.

At 11:45am yesterday,  I was headed to Walmart.  The parking lot was packed.  We parked way out there.  As we walked toward the store, I noticed that three policemen were blocking each entrance.  No one allowed in after 11:45.  Many people argued, but the police were not budging.  Walmart was closing.

Grocery store, Target, Walmart, Walgreens, Shell station, all closed at noon.

We hope that the bulk of the storm will remain off shore. 
Will bring you up to speed later today.

Thanks for your prayers and positive messages.

anticipating a hurricane

Gas lines in Vero Beach

No gas in Vero Beach

Businesses boarded up in downtown Vero

I think it was Carly Simon who sang, "anticipation, is making me wait..." 

Sidebar... By the way, did you know that Carly Simon began her singing career with her sister Lucy?  They were known as the Simon Sisters.  Lucy got married and went on to a life.  Carly became a superstar.  Life has it's paths and everyone has a journey.  You are entitled to your journey.

Anticipation.  The hardest part of a hurricane is waiting anxiously to see what the storm is going to do.  If you are from the Midwest, you know that a tornado warning lasts for 30 minutes to an hour.  Waiting for a hurricane is like a week long tornado watch.  Everyone prepares and worries.  All of your friends call you and text you.

Well at present, it looks like Hurricane Dorian will stay mostly off of the coast of Florida.  Good for us, bad for the Carolinas.  Cathy and I went down to Ft. Lauderdale and have a hotel there for a few days.  We will see what happens.

As always, we humans anticipate and worry, and often make a thing bigger than it should be.  It will all work out.  Thanks for your prayers and well wishes.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

And a tree falls

From my friend, Pat...

Tonight, just a few minutes ago, an 80 foot Monterrey pine tree across the street suddenly died and fell. For the past year we have enjoyed the murder of crows that roost there along with four nests of herons. The original property owner planted it in 1869. It was majestic. And now it’s not.
There is much in our lives to be appreciated, way too much in fact. We have to take some things for granted or no one could function.

 The mistake is to differentiate between what’s important, and what’s not. Some folks solve that mystery by taking everything for granted. All of us miss order our priorities sometimes. The sudden death of a 150 year old tree may help bring order back to chaos.

Who or what are you taking for granted today? What will you do about it? Better act. Even 150 year old trees die.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

on finding joy

We all meet grouchy people.  We don't have to become one. 

We don't have to lose the happiness of our youth.  All we need to do is to tap into our sense of gratitude.  Find something to be thankful for.  When we do, we become like children who are seeing the world for the first time.

What are you thankful for today?


It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

Where will the hurricane hit?

Hurricane Dorian is bearing down on the Atlantic Coast of Florida.  Please pray that it does not hit us.

The models for where the hurricane will go stretch from West Palm Beach to Jacksonville.  But many of the models put Vero Beach [where we live] and Melbourne [30 miles north] at ground zero.  [You can see Vero on the map just below the red line]  We have had glancing blows of two hurricanes since we moved to Florida, but if Dorian hits Vero Beach, it will be a direct hit of 125+ mph winds.  Makes a guy a little nervous. 

We will be in full hurricane prep mode over the next few days.  I already have water and gas.  We will take everything that is not tied down off the deck and put it inside.  I also will be boarding up a couple of other homes for friends who are enjoying the summer up north.

Conveniently, we had planned a weekend vaca to Ft. Lauderdale.  We will probably board up the house and just head down there.

Now back to where the thing will hit.  Please do not pray that it will not hit Vero Beach.  When we pray that prayer we are in effect saying, "Dear God, may some other family in some other town suffer the effects of the hurricane, just spare Jeff's family."  Kind of a selfish prayer don't we think?

It reminds me of this story that I used to tell.
During the great war we prayed for protection.  We prayed that God would keep us safe from the bombs.  And Praise The Lord!  He Did!  All of the bombs fell on the other side of the town.

The moral of this post is that life has it's difficulties.  Sometimes praying for them to go away is simply asking that the pain be given to someone else instead of us.  May we get better at bearing pain instead of wishing that God would save us from it.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, even if a hurricane is coming... be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

Life and death

When we are young we feel invincible.  As if aging and death won't come for me.  Even though we know that all people die, we hope for a pass or an exception to the rule for ourselves and those whom we love.

My friend Kitty sent me a note recently...
I have had several dear friends “leave this life for a better one”
of late. What do we say to that family or friend to comfort them?
When I send a card, I always share this thought.”
I don’t even know where I first read it, but it has always been very
meaningful to me:
“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal,
Love leaves a memory no one can steal.”

Love is so valuable, and loss is measured by the level of love.  No love, no sense of loss.  Huge love, huge cavernous loss.  The only way to not have the loss is to never have had the love in the first place.

You know the old saying, it is better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all.

Love leaves a memory that no one can steal.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

Sitting with my Dad

Late in my Dad's life I would meet him for lunch once a month at Romanelli's at 71st and Wornall.  He knew the servers there because he ate lunch and dinner there every day.  He actually died in the parking lot there on February 2nd 2002.

Anyway, he liked Romanelli's because when he was 18 he rode the streetcar there and had his first beer.  First of many.

So I would meet dad for lunch.  I remember one time, Probably 1999 when we were in the throes of building and moving into a new church, I met dad for lunch.  I was stressed.  I sat down across from him in the booth and I said, "Dad, I am so glad to see you."

Being with him made me feel ok.  It made me feel safe.  It made me feel whole.

Dad said, you know son, I am 72 years old, and still there are days that I wish I could go sit down with my mom and dad at their kitchen table.

These days, I wish I could go to Romanelli's and meet my dad for lunch.  I wish I could go and sit at his table.  The adult world can get very complicated and very stressful.

I miss my Dad.  Someday I will see him again.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

Sundays when I was a kid

My friend SG asked me to write about Sundays when I was a kid...

When I was a kid, Sundays were for church.  We got dressed up [white shirt and tie.  I hated it.] and the whole family went, unless Dad was working [which was about 50% of the time.]

We went to church and sat in the pews.  We sang the liturgy.  Holy holy holy Lord God almighty... During the sermon the lights were turned down.  Good time to sleep.

No stores were open on Sunday.  That changed when I was 30.  But back in the day, you better get what you need on Saturday, because Sunday was the Lord's day.

Mom always made a big Sunday dinner.  Usually fried chicken and mashed taters.  Mmmmm.

One Sunday for whatever reason, my Mom made grilled cheese for lunch.  I complained.  My Dad asked if I did not want to eat the grilled cheese.  I said, NO!  He sent me to my room.  I sat there for 6 hours until dinner time, 6pm.  Then he knocked on the door and asked me if I wanted to eat dinner.  I said, yes sir.  I got to the table and that cold grilled cheese was still there.  I ate it with joy.

We only had one TV and it belonged to Dad, so Sunday afternoon we played outside.  Soccer, football, baseball, snow sledding, whatever, always something.  No watching sports on TV, we played them for real.

Sunday night was the wonderful world of Disney.  We all sat around and watched it together.  It was probably the closest thing to feeling like a family that I ever knew.

These days on Sunday I go to church and hug my friends.  I try to make new friends.  My wife makes lunch.  We float in the pool.  Later we have a beer and watch football.

Sunday's have changed, but Sundays are still good.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

sermon audio from Sunday 8-25-19 Boiling it all down

here is the link to the sermon audio

click here to listen

The breakfast group

The breakfast group started larger, but dwindled over the years to three men. Gary Glenn, Dan Horn and Tyler Stephenson. You will remember that Dan was my co-writer of this blog... Lions Den Man. The breakfast club was a place where jokes were shared, hearts were opened, new ideas tossed about. Everything was real. And I was invited to join the group anytime that I could.

I moved to Florida. Dan passed away suddenly 2 years ago. Gary moved to New Mexico.

I can speak for Tyler, Gary and myself that we all miss Dan so much. Gary sent me a text the other day to that effect and attached this song. Drowning, by Chris Young

click here to listen to the song

Here are the lyrics...

Still got your number in my phone
And even though you don't wanna listen
I still call and wait till the tone
Just to hear you saying "Leave a message"
Since you've been gone I've had to find
Different ways to grieve
There's days that I don't even want it on my mind
But tonight I'm awake

So I'm gonna pull out pictures, ones with you in 'em
Laugh and cry a little while reminiscing
By myself, I can't help, that all I think about is
How you were taken way too soon
It ain't the same here without you
I gotta say, missin' you comes in waves
And tonight I'm drowning

Yeah I know you're in a better place
And one day I'll see you again
But it's killing me we can't be face to face
I miss my best friend

So tonight I'm gonna pull out pictures, ones with you in 'em
Laugh and cry a little while reminiscing
By myself, I can't help, that all I think about is
How you were taken way too soon
It ain't the same here without you
I gotta say, missin' you comes in waves
And tonight I'm drowning
Yeah tonight I'm drowning

I know it's a part of life
But I wasn't ready to say goodbye

So tonight I'm gonna pull out pictures, ones with you in 'em
Laugh and cry a little while reminiscing
By myself, I can't help, that all I think about is
How you were taken way too soon
It ain't the same here without you
I gotta say, missin' you comes in waves
And tonight I'm drowning
Yeah tonight I'm drowning

we over complicate things

I believe the core message of the Bible is that we should love God and love our neighbor. On this hangs all the law and the prophets.

It took 1,000 s of years for the bible too be written

another 1400 years for us to decide for sure [mostly] which books were in. Not all Christian groups agree today about which books are in and which are not.

If I steal a recent question from a friend and reinterpret it, I might say that I believe that the most important, core part of scripture is to love God and love others. Everything else hangs on that.

Too bad we use the rest of it to cloud the simple message of love.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland

July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

Grace in denial

I was listening to a sermon by my friend Pastor Robyn Miller.  She was talking about grief and Elizabeth Kubler Ross's stages of grief.  One of EKR's stages is denial.

Pastor Robyn said that there is a bit of grace in denial.  I had never thought of that, but I loved it.  If I can deny or pretend that something is not a certain way, I keep the pain at bay.  I buy myself time to deal with reality in the future.  I portion the struggle out a little bit at ta time. 

That is grace.  I don't have to face it all today.  I don't have to swallow it all today.  My heart can have some time to adjust.

Grace is always good.

Sometimes grace buys us time.


It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland
July 13-22, 2020
http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

what have we buried?

From Anthony deMello's book, The Prayer of the Frog...

In the early 1850s American painter, James McNeill Whistler, spent a brief—and academically unsuccessful-period at West Point, the U.S. Military Academy. The story goes that when he was assigned to draw a bridge he drew a romantic stone one, complete with grassy banks and two small children fishing from it. “Get those children off that bridge!” said the instructor. “This is an engineering exercise.”

Whistler got the kids off the bridge, drew them fishing from the bank of the river and resubmitted the drawing. The angry instructor yelled, “I told you to remove those children. Get them completely out of the picture!”

But the creative urge was too strong in Whistler. His next version had the children “completely out of the picture” indeed. They were buried under two small tombstones on the river bank.

What hopes and dreams lie within you?  Have you allowed the pressures of life to bury them, or are your dreams still alive???

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland
July 13-22, 2020
http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

Monsters at night part 2

My brain has been thinking about my friend Pat's post from the other day.

There are things that I think about at night that I don't think about during the day.  Why don't I think about them during the day?  Because my brain is driving a car, it is visiting someone from church, it is talking to you on the phone.

But at night, the junk comes out.  The worries.  The regrets.  The things that still hurt.  I have noticed that there are a few recurring themes that take over my brain at night.  In my dreams, in my thoughts when I am in and out of sleep.  I think that I still need to work on forgiving some people.

I hope that you don't lay awake at night and think of past hurts.  It is not so much fun.

I know that I am getting better because I don't need to talk about those times anymore.  Maybe one day soon I will stop dreaming about those hurts.  Let's keep working on them.  Let's keep giving our hearts to God.

May God grant us all more daytime joys even in the night.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland
July 13-22, 2020
http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

what a Kindergarten teacher sees

Brian's grand-daughter's Kindergarten teacher sent this home on the first day of school.

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland
July 13-22, 2020
http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours

grouchy

I am grouchy and I don't know why.  A whole litany of things that usually would not bother me are bothering me.

I am not overtly grouchy.  I am not being ugly to people, but for some reason I am perturbed.  The world is not aligning itself to make me happy.

All of my little ailments are first world problems.  I am not sick, I am not homeless, I am just grouchy for some reason.

I need to work harder today at seeing the good.  Maybe you have days like this too???

It's a beautiful day in God's world be sure to see the good.
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I am leading a trip to Ireland next year. If you are interested in reading about it, or joining in, the link is below.....

Treasures of Ireland
July 13-22, 2020

http://www.eo.travelwithus.com/tours/ir20071320a17768#eotours