Again.

You won’t understand this post without first reading “Gone.”

Continued from previous post….

Saturday I went back to my friends house to pick up a few things that I had left behind. It had been very windy, rainy and plain nasty for a couple of days so I wanted to make sure that I had cleaned up properly. I hadn’t left their house from Thursdays work until 2 am (Friday morning) and being so late I was not in the mood to clean up after losing a hundred dollars and working for 18 hours. As I pulled up to their house Saturday afternoon I parked in the street because their two minivans occupied both of the driveways. They have six children and need both minivans! I got out of my car and thought to myself,
“Well God, I wonder if that hundred bucks is around?”
Not two seconds later, laying in the middle of the lawn, four feet from the side walk, out in plain site, is a folded and wet one hundred dollar bill waiting to be picked up. Unbelievable. I laughed outloud, walked into my friend’s house with a big grin and told them what I had found and they didn’t want to believe it. I had to convince them by showing them the wet bill that God had indeed given back to us after I had frivolously lost it. Through wind and rain and many people venturing down that sidewalk, God gave back. Sure it is nice to have the money, but it is so much better to know that the creator of all things cares for us, even in small things.

“For by him (Jesus Christ) all things were created: things in heaven and things on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities all things were created by him and for him.” Colossians 1:17 NIV (parenthesis added by me) And I would add; He can do whatever he wants with that he has created!

Gone.

Last week I spent some time making good on a promise that I had made a year ago. Friends of mine asked me to experiment on them, well on their counter tops, they wanted cement counter tops and I wanted to learn how to make them. So last Thursday I was able to finally pour the special concrete mixture into the forms that we had built. The cement was really wet and it took 13 hours for it to dry to the point where I could be done finishing the surface. During the waiting period Connie and I went out to dinner and our friends graciously gave us a hundred dollar bill and said for us to go out to dinner wherever we wanted, on them. I tried to say no, but eventually I just thanked them and put the crisp Benjamin in my pocket.

When Connie arrived she brought me a change of clothes because I was filthy from bathing in the concrete throughout the day. I changed, transferring the money, keys and wallet into my pocket and we left. Connie wanted me to drive and I pulled my keys out of my pocket and we left for the restaurant. Halfway through the meal I wondered about the money and I reached into my pocket to reassure myself of its ability to pay for our meal.

It wasn’t there. Not wanting to panic I searched all of my pockets and my wallet to no avail. It was gone. In the back of my mind I had hoped that I had just left it in my other pants and that is what I communicated to Connie. With our debit card we paid for the meal and left.

I searched my pants my friend’s house, the car, the ground outside with a flashlight. I prayed for help to find it. It was gone. I am such an idiot. I told my friends what I had done and that I was sorry for losing their gift to us. I prayed some more, then asking God to forgive me for being careless with His gift to me I asked that he would give it to someone who needed more than we did.

“The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

To Be Continued….

Transcendence.

Gnawing at my insides is desire. Desire is a strange and perplexing thing. Desire can cause any of us to grasp for any one of a multitude of things.

“I want chocolate.”

“Man that taco looks good!”

“Boy is that a nice HDTV.”

“Have you seen the 2009 ZR1 Corvette with 620 horsepower?”

All those desires seem somewhat innocent and tame, especially when compared with desires like:

“Look at her!”

“Check him out, he must have it all together.”

“She would be the girl of my dreams.”

“I could have that too, if I had a rich old man.”

“If she was my wife, then I would be happy.”

Buddhists say that they key to life is removing all desire from your life, umm, good luck with that! Recently, stumbling upon this simple truth has helped me by putting into perspective my desires. Whatever the desire, Jesus is better. Jesus beats whatever this world has to offer hands down, not even close. Jesus transcends everything. Jesus is better. And here, in Westernized Christianity, is where our consumerist mentality can be so damaging because, do I want Jesus because he is better and being better can do any number of nice things for me? We wrap the universe up into our existence, and it is all about me, or do I want Jesus because he is the best person ever and the only relationship that anyone could ever be fulfilled in?

I want Jesus.

What do you want and why do you want that?

Will you consider that Jesus transcends that desire by a billion light years?

What will you live your life desiring?

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hears and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

90/2

Many thanks to everyone for the nice birthday wishes, I appreciate the care. But now that I am officially half-way to 90 it seems like I should be better at stuff. The things that matter kind of stuff. Things like loving, kindness, caring, slow to anger and selflessness, you know, important stuff. I do feel that I have made strides, sure but not fast enough, or deep enough for mysmall brain.

My wife is into making cards for people lately, which is really cool, very personal and (bonus) it saves a ton of cash. She left a very personal birthday card on my computer keyboard before she left for work this morning. It said so many nice things that when I read it I felt like there was no way that it was about me. There are way too many days when my inherently evil side is having it’s way with me, again.

I guess that as I aged I naively thought that sin would be less of an issue in my life, but I am afraid it is just as much an issue today as it ever has been, its just as much a battle that demands my every effort. Not that my faith hasn’t grown up some over the 21 years of following Jesus, it has, but I am not where I thought that I would be or think that I should be either.

Then I read from Colossians 1:13-14 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Once again reminded that my rescue is not up to me, it is the accomplished work of Jesus and I am simply striving to follow him, at half way to 90 or 190.

Radiance.

I am a nerd and this is confession time. When I was growing up I loved Star Trek. Today I watch the NASA channel. I read space.com all of the time along with the NASA website. I am a nerd. My wife has threatened to buy me a NASA t-shirt for Christmas, which she thinks will make me look like a bigger dork than I already am and maybe that is true, because I know I would proudly wear that shirt!

I am such a nerd-burglar that I know that light travels at 186,000 miles per second. The sun is about 93,000,000 miles away from us. (Yes 93 Million!) At the speed of light the light emitted from the sun takes roughly eight minutes and twenty seconds to reach the earth. It all really breaks down into a simple math problem right?

So here’s a question for you un-nerds: How long does it take for the light emitting from the moon to reach us?

I am sure your superior un-nerdy mind can do that math problem …..

Well it’s a trick question. There is no light emitting from the Moon, the only light we see from the moon originates at the sun. Our moon has no radiance only reflection.

I was listening to Peter’s sermon today and he was speaking on this very subject:

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being”
Hebrews 1:3a

Think of it: Everyone ever born merely reflects the image of our creator (some more dimly than others=). No one possesses their own radiance, we only, at best, are a reflection of God’s glory. Everyone except Jesus that is! The Son is the radiance! Jesus is the radiance of God because he is God. That radiance came into our world and we didn’t have a clue. That real, present, radiance is what we celebrate at Christmas. God with us!

By the way, the nerd in me must finish:

(The light from the sun that is reflected off the surface of the moon and into our eyes only takes 1.3 seconds to get here.)

Need.

As I contemplate Christmas, or for a more precise thought, what Christmas has become in this part of the world, on one level it sickens me and makes me want to disassociate myself from it all. According to Adventconspiracy.com Americans will spend 467 Billion dollars this year on Christmas gifts. Almost a half a trillion dollars! I cannot even begin wrap my mind around it. What is it that we need while living in the richest nation the world has ever known? What is it that we are after? What are we worshipping? Christmas was meant to change the world, and I am certain that our mentality of consumption is not what Jesus had in mind when he came. The Son of God humbled himself, coming to this world with us in mind. Pouring our his love and mercy and grace into our lives. A blessing far beyond what we can imagine, a gift worth way more than 467 Billion!

Will that “much wanted gift” bring you peace this year? Or have we settled for the intoxicating feelings of worth when what we really need is a heart transplant? I live right next door to Canada and I believe that they have a good idea in “Boxing Day” the day when they box up stuff and give it away on the day after Christmas. Maybe we could adopt that idea the day before Christmas, spending some of (the average household in the U.S. spends $900.00 and goes into debt to do it) the money that we spend on Christmas to bring peace and hope in this world of ours. That is my rant for today.

Journeying.

As my journey of following Jesus continues and I pause and reflect on the place I am today and the long look back over the path that I have traveled. This summer in Montana along the trail that leads up and over the continental divide I paused for a few minutes catching my breath from the combination of the weight of my pack and altitude. I looked down over the trail that we had traveled. It had winded in and out skirting around the rugged mountain terrain, crossing cold glacier streams and climbing ever higher and higher. This picture is taken at that exact spot.

Today, pausing for a few moments of silence and reflection, I am feeling a quiet hopeful desire to know him more. I deeply sense that I should already have been to some places that yet lay off in the distance, calling me forward in obedience, forward in love, forward in faith. I am becoming more aware of myself, the way I think, what I believe to be true about myself, what drives me and this truly is a dichotomy. My selfish dark self often inflicts havoc on those close enough to me to experience its wrath demanding attention and appeasement. Have you spent any time lately thinking about who you are? Or perhaps with Christmas on the immediate horizon, the thought that God cannot possible be some impersonal force, as a friend of mine said this week. Have you considered your life’s journey in light of the cross? Who are you in Jesus and where are you in your pursuit of him?

I am deeply grateful to God for loving me even though he knows me inside and out. Travel On!