trees

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

What is it about me and trees?

Somehow, for some reason, they speak to me.  Is that odd?  Someone told me a few months ago, that God's first bible was creation.  The first way that God spoke to humans was through creation.  I like that.  There is something about trees that reach me.  God made them, and he said, "it was good."  And they still are good.  If you have a tree in your yard, be sure to stop and appreciate it.  They are a beautiful part of God's creation.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

in a hurry

Last week we were on vacation.  I was driving on highway 1, the California coastal highway.  There are signs: "slow traffic use turnouts."  I understand this.  The highway department understands that some people want to sight-see and drive slowly while others are driving and trying to get somewhere.

I am sightseeing.  I am taking my time.  It is beautiful.  I am stopping to take pictures.  I am the tourist.

Well, don't you know, a guy comes rushing up behind me.  He is on my tail.  He must get by me and hurry on his way.  He is driving very aggressively.  I pull over at the next turnout and let him by.  He guns it and rushes by.  He rushes by me, to the next car which is about 50 yards ahead.  So, he is behind another slow driver.  In fact, there are five or six slower drivers in line.  The pace is just slow.  It was Saturday.  He was stuck and you know that he hated it.

Here is the thing that I find so sad about this:  Why would you ever be in a hurry on that road?  If you lived near such beauty, wouldn't you stand in awe of it ever single day?  [pause for a moment please and think about that.]   If you lived in such a beautiful place, wouldn't you stand in awe of it every day?

And then I remember that I live in Kansas City.  A beautiful town in it's own right.  I drive by things every day that are miracles of God, and I don't even notice.

Maybe, after all, I am the same as the guy who was in a hurry on highway 1.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

people are funny

On vacation last week I saw something that I found funny.  A sticker on the ceiling next to a sprinkler head reminding you not to hang clothes on it.  Now I just have to ask... who in the world would ever think that hanging clothes on a sprinkler head was a good idea????  But, since the sticker is there, you know it has been done before. 

I am reminded at this moment of a title to a country song, "God is great, beer is good, people are crazy."
 Ha ha. 

The things that people do are hard to believe.  Please don't ever hang anything on a sprinkler head.

You won't like what happens next because your clothes are going to get really wet.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

your comments

Most of the most profound information provided in connection with this blog comes from your comments.  Since the following was posted anonymously, I am unable to ask permission to use this in this manner, so here goes.  Here is their comment from a week ago:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "pain":

One of the great questions of life is "what purpose the past?" This seems especially true if the past brings unresolved pain.

From the time we set our feet on the floor in the morning, until we go to bed at night, we usually walk forward all day, in going about our business.

One of the great mysteries of life is what compels us to walk backwards in our minds. Love and prayers for those whose past brings pain. As a brother or sister in Christ, it would feel so good to be able to take your arm and the arm of other sojourners in the faith, and help people walk forward, so the past won't hurt so much.

Wow.  That spoke to me.  "One of the great mysteries of life is what compels us to walk backwards into our minds."  I love it.  Walk forward, not backward.  Some years ago I found an old college friend and apologized to him by email for something that happened in 1978.  He did not even remember the event.  He encouraged me to let the past be the past and get on with life.  Funny how we keep learning things and then forgetting them and we need to be reminded over and over again of some basic simple healthy thoughts.  Walk forward, not backward.  Let the past be the past.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Christmas

I was at Costco on Sunday September 8th.  They have Christmas items out for sale.  When I was a kid, you never saw Christmas in the stores until the day after Thanksgiving.  Little by little, year after year, it has crept earlier and earlier.

I know that the stores are just trying to make money.  I know that Christmas may account for 60% of some store's annual income.  My problem is with what this practice says about the rest of the year. 

Does September count for nothing?  Is October a worthless month?  November useless?  Is the only month that counts in the year December?  Should we spend 3 months thinking about Christmas gifts?  Personally, I am not going to look at the stuff.  They have wasted their time as far as I am concerned.

I want to enjoy September for what it is.  I want to celebrate October for fall and November for Thanksgiving.  Every month, every day, every moment is a miracle in and of itself and we should never waste today, looking forward to tomorrow.

Today is a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

close the mouth

I took three years of French in Jr. High and High School.  My teacher was Mrs. Rosenberg.  One of the things that she made sure that I learned was "ferme la bouche" = close the mouth.  Ha ha.  Does that make you laugh?  A teacher wanted me to close my mouth!

Now let's think about that.  Is there ever a reason for us to close our mouths?  Is it possible that James was right when he said that we should learn to "tame the tongue?" 

Imagine a day where I say nothing, except the minimum.  Imagine a day where you say nothing, except the minimum.  Where we just love people, and stop trying to fix things.  Just go with the flow.  Talk if you need to, but don't try to fix people.  I like it.

Imagine a day when I am only trying to love people, care for people, hug people, smile at people and I am not trying to fix everything...... :-)

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

paying attention

I was in an elevator at a hotel.  I was hoofing a bunch of stuff from the 4th floor down to our car.  I got on the elevator, I was the only one on it.  I pushed the button for floor one.

Now let's take a break from the story to talk about elevator etiquette.  I have a few elevator rules. 
1.  always stand back and let others get off the elevator before you try to get on.
2.  no talking on the elevator
3.  the elevator should always go directly and immediately to my destination

Now that I have set up the problem, lets get on with the story.  I am riding the elevator down to the first floor.  The elevator stops and I start getting my stuff towards the door to get off.  But oops, there is a woman, talking loudly on a cell phone who is coming on.  She fights around my stuff, while talking loudly and makes her way into the elevator.  I am annoyed, but I get my stuff off, the door shuts behind me and I start looking for the lobby.  My brain is thinking "what is wrong with people that talk on cell phones on elevators and won't let you get off before they have to get on?"

Now here is the problem.  I can't find the lobby.  I finally realize why.  I am not on floor 1, I am on floor 3.  She had been catching the car to go to the same place that I was going, the lobby.  I thought I was on one, but got off on three.  I was annoyed with the woman, but the real problem was this:  I wasn't paying attention to what was going on.

How many times do we run into trouble, even blaming others for it, when the real problem is that I was not paying attention.  Wake up Jeff!  The world is passing you by.  God has given you a beautiful life to live!  Open your eyes and see it.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

last words to me

It is always sad to lose a friend.  Well, we never lose them, they just go on to be with the Lord.  It feels like a loss to us.  On Friday, Sherri did the service for Don Richter.

What a delightful, wonderful man.  He passed on Sunday the 8th.  I had the chance to visit with him just a few hours prior.

He was positive and happy.  He asked about the score of the Chicago bears game.  I told him that everyone I ever met thought Don was a great guy.  He told his daughter that she needed to help me meet more people.  Sense of humor intact until the very end.

I asked him if there was anything I could help him with.  [This is a pastor fishing for a spiritual need or desire for some consolation...]  He said, "no, Jeff, I am 73 years old.  I have lived a good life.  I am going to a better place.  I have three great children.  It doesn't get any better than that."

I have to agree.  It doesn't get any better than that.  Imagine living your life so well that you are just ready.  Ready to go.  No regrets.  May we all live like that.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

humor

What a gift is a sense of humor!  How wonderful it is to be able to laugh!  How great it is to teach children to learn to laugh.  Laughter is medicine for the soul.  Laughter helps us to forget our problems.  Laughter is a gift from God.  Proverbs says that a cheerful heart is good medicine.

"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose."  Woody Allen

I was sent this comic from my daughter who has a very funny sense of humor and loves to deliver me little preacher and church jokes.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be
sure to see the good.

into the wild

I watched this movie again the other night.  Into the Wild.  It is a true story of a young man's journeys to California and Alaska.  He ends up living in an abandoned bus deep in the wilderness.  I am not sure why, but I find the movie very interesting.  It was produced in 2007.

One of the lines from the movie is "when your kids are messed up, you live in suspended animation."

Wow.  Can I relate to that.  Maybe you can too.  Even if you don't have kids or if your kids are angels, surely we all understand those moments of life when pain comes in such waves that we are stuck in what seems like suspended animation.

Thankfully, there is something that can break through suspended animation, and that is the loving embrace of our Father.  When difficulty seems to be coming in waves, keep going back to God.  Pain seems immovable and constant, but it is not.   Only God is immovable and constant.  He is there, all the time- dependable, solid, and trustworthy.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

pain

I guess that I am a little interested in pain.  Probably because I have some, and so many people in this world have some.  It plays such an interesting role in the domination of so many lives.  The scriptures invite us to take our thoughts captive, but pain from our past is so very powerful.

I read or heard this quote recently, "nothing is left but the cry of my hate."  Wow.  Do I feel the pain in those words.  The deep honest confession of a person who has been dominated by a painful event in life.

Well, maybe you have felt this way.  Nothing is left but the cry of your hate.  But that does not have to be the end of the story.  That does not have to be the last word.  If you are alive, and you are, you have a chance to rise above your worst moments.  One of the nice things about hate is that I think we all know that it is bad.  Hate is not an answer in any way, shape or form.

If you have pain, please know that Jesus did too.  He understands.  He accepts you, warts and all.  There is something left in the world besides the cry of your hate.  There is also the cry of the Father's love.  Love is stronger than pain.  Believe it. It is true.

Days with no pain are great.  But when we can see the good even when things are difficult, those are beautiful days in God's world for sure.

Genius

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The question I have for you at this point of our journey together is, “What is your genius?” - Albert Einstein

What tree are you climbing?

What holds you back?

By design God created each of us to be unlike anyone else.

By design God gave us choice.

We can either allow life to take control of our path or we can pursue the person God designed for us to be.

Peace,

Lion’s Den Man

lots of good

I got a cool email forwarded to me from my daughter yesterday.

 

It read:

 

“I know today is Monday and you assume it’s going to be a not so good day because of the fact it is Monday, but according to statistics, there will be over 5,000 weddings, 10,000 childbirths and 42 million hugs occurring today throughout the United States. Also today, there will be at least 4 people that will win the multimillion dollar lotteries, 600 people will get promotions at work, 600 dogs will be adopted, and 35,000 balloons and 800,000 skittles will be sold. Plus, the words “I Love You” will be said over 9 million times. So, again, I know today is the dreaded Monday and you assume it will not be a good day but actually you can smile knowing it is going to be a really nice day after all.”

 

How much truth is in these numbers I am not really sure, but the truth is, there are a lot of good things happening around us each and every day. It is our choice whether or not to see them.

 

Peace,

Lion’s Den Man

today

Something may be on your mind today.  Something that is troubling. You are concerned, perhaps worried.  We all do it from time to time. We become preoccupied.  We take ownership, fret and try to control whatever it is, forgetting that what we need to do is turn it over to God.  Find His comfort and direction and then take action.

“Life is too short, joy is too precious, God is too good, our soul is too valuable, we matter too much to throw away a single moment of our one and only life on anxious striving. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid.” Ortberg

Peace,

Lion’s Den Man

serve

What a delightful day I had yesterday visiting some of the sights where our members were in mission for SERVE day 2013.  In Raytown, I helped on a habitat home.  The homeowner was there and she was so grateful for everyone's help.  Later I was at James Walker Elementary and caught the tail end of some work on the rock garden.  My final stop was the Hillcrest Store where many of our members were helping sort items.

It is always so exciting to see others from church giving their time to help people.  It also feels good to do it yourself.  It made me happy to put on the tool belt.  It made me really happy to know that I had spent part of the day helping others.

If you're down and you don't know what to do, find someone to help.  It will lift you up.  Thanks to all of you for being the kind of people that you are and living the missional life of Christ.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

the flag

I was watching a show on CNN about a 3 x 5 flag that was raised on 9/11.  It was a good show.  It brought back very many painful memories.  I was not blogging back then, but if I had been, the things that I felt and expressed would have been very  painful.

What a horrible event this was for our country.  At the time, my Dad was still alive.  I called and asked him if Pearl Harbor was like this.  He said, "no, this is worse because Pearl Harbor was military on military.  This was an attack on innocent civilians."

I told Dad that I hoped that he would come to church the following Sunday.  At the time we were running 700 in worship.  He could barely get around.  I will never forget seeing him wander in the back door with his plaid shirt and suspenders.  It made me feel so much better, so supported.  Over 1,000 attended the first Sunday after 9/11.  Like many things in life, the feelings waned and worship went back to it's previous levels.

Anyway, this show on CNN about the flag, took me back to the day.  And it hurt, and it hurts and we must put our trust in God.  In times of pain, He is the only one who can hold us.  When life hurts, we have one place to go.  I am sure glad that God is there.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

baseball season

nominee for fan of the game.

There is a little grief that enters my life every year in September as baseball season comes to an end.  I just love baseball.  I love going to the Royals games.  Even when they don't win, baseball is just so much fun.  Watching the players on both teams hit, throw and run is quite an experience.  I have one more game left and then I will have to wait until April.  I was at a game this year and was nominated for fan of the game.  Tom B took this picture on the jumbo-tron.  Baseball brings me happiness.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

change pt 2

A friend shared this poem with me after a recent post.

I have resisted change with all  my will

Cried out to life – pass by and leave me still

But I have found as I have trudged times tracks

That all my wishing will not hold life back

All finite things must go their finite way

I cannot bid the merest moment “stay”

So – finding that I cannot change “Change”

I have changed – and this is strange

 For I have found when I have let change come

The very change that I was fleeing from

Has often held the good that I had prayed for

And I was not the less for change – but more

 When I accepted Change and was not loath

I found change was the seed of growth.

 

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

weight loss

Someone asked how I lost the weight, how much I have lost and how I have kept it off.

Ok, I hate to talk about stuff this personal, but here goes.  Between May 2nd and November 15, 2012 I lost 45-50 lbs.  The amount fluctuates because our weight in general fluctuates. 

During that time, I simply did what everyone tells us to do.  More fruits, more vegetables.  Less fat.  No desserts, no biscuits and gravy, no junk food.  Smaller portions.  No eating after dinner.  If I need a snack in between meals it would be an apple or an orange.  Smaller portions.  No more diet coke. 

Cut the carbs.  Eat more protein.  Less bread.  All carbs turn to fat if not consumed.  This process got my weight down.  I exercised a little bit, but not that much.  I am not a big exercise person.  Losing weight is simply math.  Fewer calories in that what a person expends. 

I know folks that exercise but don't lose weight.  What we don't realize is that it would take 4 hours of running to work off one piece of cake.  Diet is the main ingredient to weight loss.

I eat fruit for breakfast, or two eggs.  For lunch I eat a tuna sandwich on 45 calorie bread.  Or if I go out, I eat a chicken sandwich on lettuce instead of bread.  I avoid pasta and pizza.

Speaking of pizza, I miss pizza.  It's kind of sad.  I miss diet coke too.  But I feel a lot better.  For those who asked, that's how I did it and how I keep it all in check.  So far, so good.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

woke with a song

How nice to wake in the morning with a good song in my mind.  The WC band sang this one on Sunday and evidently it stuck.
 

And He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions
Eclipsed by glory and I realize just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me

 

And oh, how He loves us, oh
Oh, how He loves us, how He loves us all

 

And we are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking

And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way

 

Oh, how He loves us, oh
Oh, how He loves us, how He loves us all
 

Yeah, He loves us, yeah, He loves us
How He loves us, oh, how He loves us all

 

There is not much more to say than that.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

change

We hate change.  It makes us uncomfortable.  We like things to stay the same.  When things change, our equilibrium gets disturbed.

How sad it is that many of us spend our entire lives fighting change!  Some cling to old ideas because they can't bear to consider anything new.

Bertrand Russell said, "All great ideas start out as heresy."  There may be an idea just around the corner for you that will change your life.  It may feel different, but don't be afraid.  Much of what we were taught as children was based on fear instead of love.

Change is always good when it aligns us with God's mission. 

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

buying trouble

I am sure that I am not the only person that does this.  A problem is detected, and my brain often makes it bigger than it should be.

I have an argument with an adult child.  Then I sit around and worry about it.  I stress because it is painful.  I have "bought trouble."  I have imagined it to be bigger than it really is.  Usually what happens is that they walk in later and we patch it up.

A person has a pain in their abdomen.  They are immediately concerned that they have cancer.  They bought trouble.  In almost every instance, a pain in the abdomen does not mean that I have cancer.

We worry too much.  We are not very good at dealing with pain.  We expect our lives to be pain free.  When you think about that, that is a little bit funny.  Into each life a little bit of rain must fall.

I think the trick is to keep working on learning that life is always going to have its angst.  Take it, live with it and trust in God.  Gosh if life was perfect, would we need to trust in God?  Maybe our problems push us toward his loving arms.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

more

More on the prodigal son.  You may know that I have been thinking about this story a lot lately.  Last week I made a new friend, Brett Opalinski is a really cool pastor from Ft. Lauderdale.  We were talking one night about the prodigal son story.

I have been so struck by the thought that the father welcomes the son, without an apology.  He just sees the son coming home and rushes out to embrace him.  The churches that I grew up in would have made the son stop, beg for forgiveness and repent before he was embraced.

The father in Jesus' story simply embraces the son who is coming home.  Brett O added another twist on the tale. 

The father embraces the son, and he doesn't even know why the son is coming home.  The son may be just stopping by.  The son may be coming to ask for more money.  The father doesn't know.  He isn't worried about any of that.  He is just so glad to see his son.  He rushes out to welcome him.   No questions asked.

This is grace.  Amazing grace.  Unconditional love.  Transforming love.  When people receive this kind of love from God, they are changed.  It is a beautiful thing.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

thankful for friends

So I am at a meeting in Colorado. I will be home by Sunday.  But I am looking at the mountains and I randomly thought of a friend.  And my heart was suddenly happy.  Oh what a blessing it is to have friends. For all the people that can bring you pain in this life, I am very very thankful for friends.  Can you think of someone that you are thankful for?  Why not call them and tell them.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Make Friends

Problems.  We all have them.  The question is whether they will dominate our lives or not.  Even if you have a terrible problem, you can still choose to work on learning to live on the other side of it.

Lets say we are going to die.  Oh, wait, we are going to die.  Every single one of us.  Now we can spend every day being upset about that, or we can make friends with the fact that we are not going to be here forever.  We can get up in the morning and live.

My problems are what they are.  Some we can fix, some will go away.  Some will not.  Sometimes in life we get what we want, and sometimes in life we get what we get.

The greatest joy we will ever have is when we can trust God with our burdens and get on with our lives.

It is a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

bathrooms in Nicaragua

Ok, I am not someone who would normally talk about this, but I have had a few questions about the topic so I am going to ramble for a moment.

typical outhouse in the villages

Bathrooms in Nicaragua- someone asked me what they were like.  Someone else told me that they heard that you have to pay to use the bathroom in the cities.

Paying to use them - I paid a few times in Russia, I paid a few times in the Holy Land.  Glad to do so, by the way.  In Nicaragua, I used several bathrooms in the city, in the gas stations, in various businesses, and was never asked to pay.

What were they like.  The restrooms at the hotels were fine.  Away from the hotels, I found them to be umm... not clean.  Often no paper.  No soap.  Sometimes the flush mechanism is broken and there is a bucket of water near by that you pour in the back of the toilet to make it flush.  This is typical of third world countries.

Away from the cities, the bathrooms were outhouses.

Next time you stop by the restroom, remember that we have much to be thankful for.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

peeved

could a HC person even get in and out of this truck?

Pet peeves.  We all have them.  One of the things that really bugs me is when people that don't look handicapped park in the HC places.  Now a person has to be careful not to judge.  Some people that don't look handicapped may actually have a terrible lung condition.

I don't want to judge, but I have seen it all.  Teenagers obviously in their parents car, parking in the HC spots.  Smart-alec, entitled, rude people thinking that they are owed a right to park there.  People that got a HC tag but don't need it anymore.  It's just hard to understand. 

I took this picture at a recent visit to Lowes.

Please don't park in the HC spots unless you need to do it.  It's the right thing to do.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

prayer

A few weeks ago the sermon was on loving God.  I talked about a short prayer that could be repeated over and over.  Someone asked that I share it.  Here it is.

Father, I love you.
Help me to love you more.

Father, I love you.
Help me to love you more

Say that, over and over.  Sometimes simple prayers help me so much.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

my Dad

So I had this random thought the other day.  You can find anything on the Internet.  You can Google or yahoo anything and find anything on anyone.  So I decided to yahoo my Dad, Paul Brinkman. 

I found that there are many people named Paul Brinkman.  25 on Linked in.  50 on Facebook.  None of them were my Dad.  He died in 2002. 

I decided to get more specific.  So I added his middle name, Parmalee.  Paul Parmalee Brinkman.  I expected nothing.  I expected that there would be no hits on his full name.  But one came up.  It seems that someone had written about my Dad.  It was his son.  It was me.  I wrote about him in 2007.  Here is the link http://canyouhearthebirdssing.blogspot.com/search?q=parmalee

Well, I hope that someday when I am gone and forgotten, my son will write about me.  Frankly, that will be enough.  Today, I honor my father, Paul Parmalee Brinkman.  It's not his birthday, but I honor him just the same. 

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

deserve

We want what is coming to us.  We want our just deserts.  We want our fair share.  We want our piece of the pie.  But do we actually deserve anything?

What happens to our heart and life when we start thinking that we deserve this or we deserve that.  When we think we are entitled to something, we are always upset when it doesn't go our way.

What if we stopped wanting everything?  What if we saw the gift of every single thing that God has already given to us?  What if we lived by the adage, "the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the  Lord?"

I suggest to you that life is much better, much more joyful when we stop thinking that we deserve something and instead fill our hearts and minds with gratitude.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

finding joy

I read something on the Internet a few weeks ago about finding joy in life.  I don't remember where it was, but I made a few notes.  The author had some great ideas....I have added a few of my own.

Find joy by:
-collecting something.  Rocks, coins, stamps, etc.
-playing.  By not being serious all the time.
-fix something that is broken.  It always makes us feel better when we do.
-mow the grass.  It looks better when we are done and the exercise is good for us.
-take a shower.  Feeling clean always makes us feel better.
-laugh.  Tell a joke.  Listen to one.  Laugh.
-prepare.  Plan.  Make plans for something.  It feels good to be prepared.
-enjoy a pet.
-smell the flowers.
-de-clutter your house.  Give the extra stuff to the disabled veterans.
-do it yourself.  Find something that you might pay someone to do, but do it yourself instead.
-read something.  It puts new ideas in our head.
-be curious.
-pop a peppermint or chew gum.
-help someone in need.
-spend time with a friend.
-love someone.
-forgive someone.
-take a deep breath.
-go somewhere quiet and appreciate God's beauty in creation.

There you have it.  Missing a bit of joy?

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

uniters and dividers

Seems like in every Presidential election there is talk about who is a uniter, and who is a divider.  You pick whatever you think about the candidates.  I want to ask about us now.

In your life, on your job, in your home, at church, in your neighborhood, in the PTA, as a sports parent, are you a uniter or a divider?  Are you stirring people up or bringing them together?  Are you inciting a riot or reminding people of what is really important?

You know that most of the things that we are upset about, in one week, we won't even remember why we were so upset.  Our life is a blink on the face of time.  Life is too short to sweat the small stuff.  Leaders point people toward mental health.  Leaders call people toward positive action.

Life is good.  It will work out.  Put your arms around folks and move on.  Everything is not going to go my way or your way and that is ok.  Blessed are the peacemakers.  I think Jesus said that.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

assets and liabilities

Assets and liabilities.  Or, the good things about us, and the challenging things about us.  Sometimes our assets and our liabilities are the same.  Our strengths are our weaknesses.

A strong leader may grow a thing, but because of that strength may at times run over people.  A quiet contemplative person finds inner peace, but may miss opportunities in life. 

A funny person can liven a moment, but may not know how to take life's difficulties seriously.

A nurturing parent may over care for a child and create a dependency.

What are your strengths?  What are your weaknesses?  Are they the same?  How can we learn to monitor our gifts so that they do not become liabilities?

Dear Father, help us be more aware of how we come across to others.  Help us see our strengths, and help us keep them in check so that they are channeled for your purpose.  Amen.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

fearing pain

We humans don't like pain.  We don't like grief, loss or rejection.  When it comes our way, we hide from it and we seek to minimize it.  We want it to go away so we can get back to normal.  But normal never comes until we face our pain and deal with it.

We are never able to move past an event, because instead of absorbing the pain and savoring all of the aspects of it, we push it away.  We medicate ourselves to make sure that we don't feel it.

Healing never comes until we take it in and bring it to God.  Jesus declined the wine mixed with gall on the cross.  He wanted to feel it all.  We too must get out the Kleenex, find a time and place, and cry our faces off from time to time.

Only then do we, a little bit at a time, work our way through the dark nights of life and emerge on the other side.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

rejection

Rejection is a very powerful and painful experience.  I have recently been visiting with some adults whose upbringing was one long period of rejection.  They spent their growing up years wondering what was wrong with them and working hard to make everyone happy.  They were constantly seeking approval.

Moving out and getting on their own as young adults was an improvement, but now they faced a world where they expected to be rejected.  They also began to look upon others as they had been raised, constantly expecting others to straighten up.  This way of living life never goes very well.

After a while these adults realized that something was amiss, but it took years to work through it.  Thinking, asking, praying, dancing, wondering, feeling angry, looking beyond, hoping for better.  Finally they begin to emerge from the mist and fog and begin to understand life as a celebration.  No longer a fearful worrying about whether or not they were good enough, but a joyful dance of God's love.

I am talking about me and  my sisters.

If you can relate to any of this, I pray for you.  I am never going to say that I have, or we have arrived, but it is wonderful when a person finally starts to understand that they are worth loving.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

the President's home

pathway to her home is 200 yards from the main road, muddy and steep.

Here are some pictures from the home of the president of the village of Los Pinos. Her name is Angelita.

side of her home

Her 21 year old daughter has kidney disease and is not expected to live.
unusual to have pictures or a hammock in Los Pinos.

pet parrot.  also unusual.

her kitchen

pantry

she carries water 200 yards from the well

 We have been so blessed.  Someone told me last week that we should never again say, "God bless America," because God HAS blessed America.  We have so much, may we be grateful.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

squatters

This happens all the time in Nicaragua.  People that don't have a place to live, just pick a place and build a shack. 

This hill is next to the hotel that we stay at in Matagalpa.  It is up a very steep hill.  In April when I was there, you could hike to the top of the hill for a nice view.  Now just a few months later, the hill has been taken over by the poor.  There is no water or electricity on the hill so the people carry 5 gallon buckets up the hill from the valley below.

Makes me wonder why I have ever complained about anything in my life.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Nicaragua Team

Now you know that I love the people that go to our church.  You all are awesome and amazing.  It was such a blessing to go with 14 fine WCC folks to Nicaragua last month.  Here are a couple of pictures of some of the team.

Melissa and Teresa checking out the flowers.

Scott presenting shovels to the village president.  Ron and Kathy in the background.

Michelle, Chris, Becky, Pam and Kathy in a local church.

I was so pleased with the heart, compassion, kindness, hard work, industry, creativity and on and on I could go about these folks.  I made some new friends.  My heart is still warm thinking about seeing their souls on display.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

flowers of Matagalpa

Last month I travelled back to Nicaragua with a team from our church.  One of the hotels that we stayed at had some beautiful gardens.  Things grow in the tropical countries that we can't keep alive in the states.

Enjoy.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

food scarcity

The thing that haunts me over and over about the Los Pinos village in Nicaragua is the food scarcity.  We can read online all sorts of statistics about how many children will go to bed hungry around the world, but when you see the faces of the people, and hear their stories, it is heart breaking.



The food pantry in the village president's home.

I asked the village president about her meals.  She was glad to tell me.  For breakfast, a piece of bread if they have it.  For lunch a tortilla and beans if they have it.  For dinner a tortilla or piece of bread with beans and rice.... if they have it.

The village is 20 miles from a modern town.  The bus comes right by the village, but few have been to see the modern town.  They can't afford the 50 cents to ride the bus.  Any money that they have, they need for food.

I am thinking about this almost every day.  It just breaks my heart.

What did I have for breakfast today?  What will I eat for lunch?  For Dinner?  Oh, and maybe I had a bed time snack.

I can't write my usual ending.  It is a beautiful day and I would like to help other people in the world feel that way about it as well
.

music

I am thinking back to the night that I was getting ready to fly home from Nicaragua.  I am sitting by the pool listening to my mp3 player.  The air is cool and it is an atmosphere of enjoyment around the patio and pool.

I start thinking about some of the songs that I am hearing and how songs can take you back to a certain time in your life.  I am in 7th grade and Elvis Presley is singing "Suspicious Minds."  I am at my senior prom and the band is playing the Moody Blues, "Knights in White Satin."  I am driving my 73 Chevy Vega in college at San Jose State and the song, "Bad Blood" comes on by Neil Sedaka.  On and on the list could go.  Phil Collins, Fastball, Neil Diamond, Maroon 5 so many bands with so many songs that take me to a certain place and time.

Then I remember that I am in Nicaragua.  The people in the village of Los Pinos have probably never heard any of those songs.  In fact, other than the music that the children sing, the village is void of music.  Wow.  A life void of music as we know it.

Man, we are blessed.  Put on a song and give thanks for the gift of music.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

coffee

This is a left over story from the redwoods trip.  It is my last night of the trip and I have gravitated to a hotel in San Carlos.  It is morning and I am going to get some breakfast.  I want to bring it back to the room to eat so that I can log in and watch our worship on live-streaming.  [which was pretty cool.]

So I am heading up to the door to my hotel room.  A plate of eggs and sausage, a bowl of fruit sitting in the plate......... in my other hand, two cups of coffee one on top of the other.

Do you see what is getting ready to happen?  It is the moment of truth.  I can do this.  I cradle the two coffees on my left arm while holding the plate of food in my left hand.  I reach in my pocket for the room key. 

Oops.

It all comes apart.  I save most of it, but one cup of coffee pops open, spills down the only clean pair of jeans that I have left and crashed to the floor.  Of course there happens to be a family of four walking down the hall as this happens.  I can hear them snicker.......

I get in the room, collect myself and put on a pair of shorts.  I let the pants dry, thinking that the coffee wont stain the jeans.  [my wife laughs at that part]

Breakfast was great, the live stream worship was great, and the jeans are stained.  Now this is where the story takes a turn for the better.

I want to wear these jeans home.  The others that I have are too dirty to be wearing on a plane all day.  So I am thinking Laundromat.  I look some up.  I think about how to get there and the amount of time all of that will take.  Then I remember....... lots of people still wash their clothes manually.  We saw some of that in Nicaragua.

So, I filled up the hotel room sink, got the stained part of the jeans very wet and soaped it up with a bar of soap.  I scrubbed and scrubbed.  Then I rinsed them out and let them dry.  A few hours later, you would have never known that I embarrassed myself in the hallway of the hotel by spilling coffee all over myself- except that I have just told you.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

there is something else

There is something else going on here.  It is bigger than me.  It is beyond my senses.  I can't quite put my finger on it.

There is something mystical, something amazing going on right here and now with you and with me.  I know that my soul does not rest inside my belly, but it sure feels like it does.  More in my chest really.  Somehow, in ways that we are unable to explain, we are created in God's image.  We can feel it.  We know it's true.

That is why there are always going to be parts of life that we can't understand.  Parts that defy explanation.  Let's stop trying to figure it out and just bow down to the Mystery.  God is amazing and it is a real blessing to have Him in our lives.  Some things are better savored than understood.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

pain

Pain.  We all have it.  Some people try to drink it away.  Some try to drug it away.  Some try to jog it away.  Some shop to reduce the pain.  Some exercise their anger to overcome their pain.

None of it works.

The only way that a person can begin to overcome their pain is to discover it, face it, embrace it, make peace with it, and then when the pain has nothing left to say,  let the voice of God tell you that you are loved. 

When that happens, it's a beautiful day in God's world for sure.

Ten Reasons

At the end of my redwood trip, I scheduled a stay at a hostel.  I usually spend the last day 1/2 in San Francisco and the cheap Marina District hotels that I stay in have become more expensive each year. 

So.... I went on line and found this hostel.  It was $50 a night cheaper, even with a private room.  I arrived to check in and found one disaster after another.

Ten reasons why I will not stay at a hostel again:
1.  the parking is free, but it is four blocks from the building.
2.  there are signs everywhere about securing your belongings, so much so that you now are worried about who is staying in the place with you.
3.  lockers are provided to lock up your valuables, but you must buy a lock from them.
4.  The private room that I rented was about 10 x 10 and I think the ceiling was 7 foot.  There was no desk in it, so the whole purpose of my trip [reading and writing] was a bit derailed.
5.  Breakfast is free if you are ok with a bagel and a banana.  Be ready to wash your own dishes.
6.  The room they gave me was under the cafeteria, so at 5am when breakfast starts, you can hear the chairs sliding and banging above your head.
7.  The room they gave me shared a wall with the men's room.  All night long when a toiled flushed, you could feel it vibrate the walls.
8.  The rest room is shared, which did not bother me until I went to shower, then all of my wife's germa-phobe stories came to my mind.
9.  Since your room is next to the bathroom, all night long you get to listen to people walking by the your door, some laughing to use the bathroom.
10.  The final straw was the stairway that ran outside the room.  I should have taken a picture.  It was comical.  The windows in my room were high, but there was a stairway that ran from a patio out back to the cafeteria.  Anyone climbing the stairs could see right into your room, and they did.
11.  No air-conditioning.

That's the last straw.  I called my wife.  She set me up in a Fairfield in San Carlos.  It cost $50 more to stay there, but oh my, it was well worth it.  Isn't it funny when some of our worst moments are self-created, self-inflicted.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Holiness

There is a holiness in the redwood forest.  It is a feeling that is beyond description.  I wonder if the tall canopy gives us a sense of space or a sense of awe.  We build high ceilings in our churches, they somehow provide a sense of the holy.  In the redwood forest, there is a natural sense of awe, an awareness of the holy.  You can feel that we are a small part of something so much bigger.  It is amazing to think that some of these trees have been here for 1500 years!  And they will be there long after I am gone.  God is big.  Really big.  And he owns some really big beautiful trees!

 

 

 

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Wildlife of the redwood forest

[by the way, I am back in town, I wrote these posts last week]

Nature is amazing.  Animals are amazing.  Before the Bible was speaking to us about God, creation was telling us how amazing he is.  Here are some of my animal pictures.

there are lots of deer here. There were four of them walking up the road when I took this picture.
They had absolutely no fear of me.  Isn't that nice?



I came back from dinner and I hear someone pounding on a sliding glass door.
I am on the second floor, and the pounding was below me and off to the side.
I thought, "Oh someone needs help."
When I looked over my balcony to see who it was, there were five turkeys
pecking on the sliding glass door!

These signs are posted all around the area.
I have not seen one yet, and I hope I don't.
That encounter would make a beautiful day less likely.
 

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

Redwood Forest-

I arrived at the camp at 1045pm, 1245pm California time.  I was tired.  It was late to be driving on those curvy roads.  I saw a 12 point buck standing alongside the roadway.

I am immediately impressed with the quiet that is here.  No TV, no radio, no cell service, no voices..... it is good.  Like a 24 hour a day silent prayer.

Since it was dark last night, I could see very little.  When I woke this morning I took this picture from the balcony of my room.

Breakfast was a welcome spread of scrambled eggs, sausage and blueberry yogurt.  Most exceptionally welcome since I did not get any dinner last night.

I am off to the forest to read.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

7 day stretch

Well this is the end of what I think is the longest stretch I have ever filled in for Jeff.

At times this is a challenge for me to pull together enough thoughts to share. And even though I have been doing this since 2007 I still am worried about what I say and how I say it. (See yesterday’s post which is one of my concerns) This week went a little different. I was on vacation the week prior. I knew this was coming and so I prepared…I read more….took notes…read old notes from my journal….and prayed. Prayer led me to being open which led to the posts that were on my mind. Posting brought me peace.

If you know me you know I am big on being open and transparent. It is necessary to move forward in our faith, clean up our misdirection’s and heal our brokenness. I wish our Stephen Ministers were buried…not that I want people to be in need of that type of help, I just know there are lots of people in need that just fear what getting that type of help may require from them….

So, where is this all going? Nowhere actually…just my final thoughts to end a great week and say thank you Jeff for your trust in me to do this from time to time. I have grown so much because of this. Which leads me to praise God for the way he moves us and me…

Peace,
Lion’s Den Man