I Can Only Imagine

I was reminded yesterday of the limits of technology.  I had classes and meetings all day and late into the evening and all of it was on Zoom, an app that allows video of everyone on screen together.  It works great and you can see everyone and talk, teach and meet live.  However, by 6:30 last night I was longing for a real human being, a flesh and blood, fully realized human presence in my life.  By grace I had my lover and our youngest here with me.  But that is not what I realized.  In the last several weeks God has reaffirmed in me the need for real, living, presence.  Not just human presence but trees, dogs, birds singing, ivy growing, irises dark with colored life, green moss, earth smelling like earth, rivers flowing, rain, sunshine, and my lover at 98.6°.  We are so made three-dimensionally alive as is our world and all that makes it the earth and it is all free, free, free.  Oh, what awaits us when we read that this whole world is broken and even groans to be fully realized and yet is so meaningfully helpful to our well-being. Someday we will look back on our life here and realize that it was more akin to a Zoom life than real life and we will turn once more toward Him and sing, “Halleluiah, Halleluiah, Praise You Almighty, Maker of our new heavens and earth.  I Can Only Imagine.  

Someday even Fair Haven will be but a Zoom of our eternal Haven.

  

Collaboration

I was reminded yesterday of the importance of co-labor-(ration).  We are all in this together and will emerge from it better if we commit to co-labor with one another in not only following the quarantine guidelines from our medical community but also in finding creative ways to be with and help one another.  The first reminder came at Pinson Mounds, a local National Archeological Park.  My family has been going there for years to picnic and walk their many trails and it is normally deserted but yesterday there were several family groups there walking with us.  We each maintained our safe distance but as we passed each other everyone sincerely greeted us with smiles of affirmation for what we were doing and the safety our distancing was giving all of us.  We were all co-laboring together.  The second reminder came in the late afternoon.  Our daughter Sissy and her husband Bo had set up a Zoom meeting with our whole family to visit, joke, cut up, encourage and pray with and for one another.  What a joy for Betty and me.  It was different, 17 people on one screen and youngsters starved for attention or with limited attention made for a certain learning curve but we did it and look forward to doing it again soon.  Let me encourage all of us to see this as a collaboration with the whole world as we each sincerely seek to save us all but being kind and considerate in the process.  God is for us so who or what can be against us.  Happy distancing trails.  

Our crazy co-labor, (ration)

Don't You Just Love God!

My wife and I love the backroads of life, trails marked and unmarked, the meandering roads that allow us to live the journey as we gain our destination.  One thing I love about Tennessee’s backroads is the nearness I feel to those that live along these byways.  Interstate travel is mostly devoid of contact with humans but lots of people live along backroads and nothing is more revealing, interesting and entertaining than how people develop their homestead.  Yesterday we drove across the state on a backroad and two events touched us deeply.  One was Cookeville and the grit of its citizens as they work to reclaim what the tornadoes failed miserably to take away.  Homes, now turned to rubble lined the road but in the midst of it we passed a great ambassador for the human race.  A middle-aged woman was walking her front yard picking up debris.  Atop the hill sat her mangled home, roofless and windowless, uninhabitable but of no consequence to the owner, she was rebuilding, a little bit at a time, she was doing what we are designed to do, recreate.  Later as we wound down the plateau to middle Tennessee we passed a home that had several angels out front made of car parts with car doors as wings.  The creativity of the human being always stirs me with hope.  We turned around to go back and look again, and again was rewarded by the acts of humans recreating.  No human can create but One, whose loving-kindness is beyond comprehension, has filled our lives and our world with all that we need for recreating.  Don’t you just love God!  

Hope!!!

A Great Gate Way Drug

Wow, back to back sunny days.  What a gift.  My wife and I spent most of yesterday doing yard work, a gateway drug to appreciative good health.  We should all be involved in making much of the earth we are given.  Making much of the earth makes much of us and, whether or not you believe, it is a grand stance of obedience to God.  His plan is for humans to care for the earth, the Bible records His command thus; “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it;”.  Subdue means to make the earth serve us.  We all know of examples of where this has gone disastrously wrong but just because people mess up doesn’t mean His command is any less a command.  Perhaps the greatest fulfillment of that command is to allow the earth to do what it does best, grow things, and then help it to grow the things you enjoy like trees, flowers, green grass, fruits, vegetables and moss.  The added benefit is its narcotic effect on your attitude.    

Why is the sky blue?

Yesterday was one of those glorious days that promises so much hope for our future.  It was beautiful, mild, clear and brightly sunny.  After what has seemed like months of rain and disconcerting news a day like that goes a long way in repairing our struggling attitude.  This is important because so often our media and our devices that feed it to us creates a national bad attitude.  We are not so much bothered by our own bad attitude but the bad attitude of others is intolerable.  The problem is our bad attitude is intolerable to all our others and over time all this bad attitude just makes America something we don’t want to be around.  And then out pops the sun and blue skies and all of a sudden, we all seem to be better and more contented and less focused on our problems and more focused on our hopes and dreams.  In all this lies a secret, the secret of gratitude.  Gratitude is a human state that makes for a great attitude, it sounds simple but is really profound, gratitude produces gratitude and gratitude is a basis of a great attitude.  But therein lies a problem for most humans, who or what to be grateful to for sunshine and blue skies?  That is a great question and one worth great effort to answer.  Who makes the sun shine and the sky blue?  And when you find that or Who answer you have found the Pearl of Great Value.      

Our blue sky Wednesday.

The Cure Of A New Routine

It is raining.  We are quarantined.  What to do?  Routine is very important when you find yourself in a prolonged state of being out of your regular routine.  Life is made peaceful and comfortable because we seek, create, and live in routine; life is made exciting when we live outside our routine and difficult when we are forced to, like by a deadly virus.  In our new normal it is important that we establish a new routine.  Try to keep as much of your old routine as possible, that’s where to begin to build your new routine, then add things that are first, necessary, second needful and last enjoyable.  Establish times every day to do those tasks you have long put off and times that you focus on your relationship, caring for others and contacting those who might need an encouraging word or Facetime.  Have a news source that your trust preferably a single voice that is updated daily and stay informed but also limit your exposure.  Once you have established the new routine STICK TO IT.  You will find that your new routine will help you to pass the quarantined days more easily and more rapidly, become a stabilizing daily force and keep you occupied so the news doesn’t.  I have suffered long bouts of quarantine in my life and have found that routine is one gift you can give yourself to get through it.   

PS:  This is a good time to begin what is the most important routine you will ever have, time alone with God.  Include reading scripture as a way to listen to Him and then talk directly to Him as if He were sitting in the room with you, which He is, and then read, write, do, meditate, think and create as a means to make much of Him and your new time with Him. 

A massive boulder we saw on our hike last week.  

Little Orangey

My wife and I went hiking this past week to Frozen Head S.P.  It was a beautiful hike, spring with all its hopes is coming.  At one point we saw a tiny salamander, bright orange with black dots, just lying beside the trail.  It was so cold it could barely move.  We marveled at it and were so grateful we got to see it.  At dinner that night my wife prayed for its safety.  I followed her kind example and did the same in our closing prayer of our day.  I love God.  He fills us with love overflowing even into the life of a little salamander.  Seek God and go hiking. 

Don't Isolate Others In Our Isolation

Our great state Tennessee, as maybe yours, has called for greater commitment to self-isolation.  It is warranted, unprecedented and prudent, however, we cannot allow ourselves, especially those of faith, to isolate our love and concern from those who most need it.  We must remain faithful to be Christ’s ambassadors in the world He has placed us.  We do not have to have physical contact in order to do this, Christ’s healing of the Centurion’s son is a good example of Him being present in healing without the necessity of being there physically.  One of our greatest gifts of God is Facetime, Zoom and other forms of reaching out.  Allow those who are under your watch care to know you haven’t forgotten them, to make Christ’s presence in you, His presence in their lives.  Share His love and concern, stand outside their doors, homes, and windows and let them see you and you see them and know that we are all in this together, those of faith and those that He longs to faith Him.  God will get us through this but as is always the case, He wants us to help.  

Visiting mom yesterday in her quarantined assisted living.

Seeing Is Half The Love

We have an adventure planned for today even though at present it is still dark.  Today I am leading my lover on an expedition to find the sun and the most beautiful example of texture at Frozen Head State Park.  Have you ever wondered why God covered us with billions of cells for feeling?  Well for one reason, it is so much fun, think of your spouse right now.  Have you ever stood at the edge of the ocean and as the waves flowed back into the sea you felt the sand erode beneath your feet?  Who is so kind that they would put that many feeling sensors on the bottom of your feet?  And there is the adventure; we are looking for texture but our objective is to praise God for His overwhelming kindness.  And the sun?  Well, we have to see the texture and it's actually coming out today.  That in and of itself is worth the hike—to praise Him that He gave us light to see—half the love in lover is seeing her.

PS:  All this is brought on because my freshman 3-D Foundation class is trying to learn something about the miracle of texture and I never tire of doing it myself.    

A recent shot at Fair Haven of half of what we are hiking to see. 

    

Heirloom Love

I am reading Song of Solomon of which the Bible says is the best song ever written.  I am reading it in the context of my marriage of 36 years and now my lover and I being in our 60’s.  I would have liked Solomon to write that best hit.  One of the most wonderful gifts my lover offers me is how sincere she accepts growing old, the new wrinkles, the greying hair, the slower gate with the elegance of an heirloom rose.  In every new line of years, I see her lovingly as I couldn’t see her when I was 30.  I see her bent and gnarled hands, soft as sifted flour as those that have held mine through life and certain death and her burdened bentness as liken to being polished by years of loving.  My lover, once firm and ripe and dancing over hills is now the more beautiful laying silently in our wedding bed of years and years and I, wait so longingly for her to waken and once again join me in living as one, the best song about me. 

Living Worthily

“Life is worth the living because he lives.”  One of the great gifts of this quarantine is that we are going to have to become creative in finding ways to living worthily.  So much time is spent on our device and in front of our televisions now, but to be placed in their vicinity for several more hours each day will demand that we all become aware of other ways, more meaningful ways to live.  I walked out into my yard the other day and said to myself, I could hike this lot full of trees for days discovering all that is beautiful right here.  I heard that song just now, “Because He Lives” and it reminded me of that thought the other day, that looking for beauty in nature, even very familiar nature, is “worth the living” if I allow it to give me reason to praise Him, to be with Him, to allow my gratitude to increase.  So, rejoice and be glad in this quarantine and find in it a new commitment to living well in the place you are quarantined because even there we are given life that is “worth the living because He lives.”  

My wet back yard waiting to be explored further.

Knowing Where You Are In The Graveyard

My wife and I are in a semi state of quarantine but we can still hike—there is no virus in the woods.  Yesterday we found ourselves in another semi state, lost in West Tennessee.  We came upon a long-abandoned church and in the graveyard found the marker pictured below recessed in a low concrete dome.  It was a strong reminder of how America has staked itself out, how humans tend to do that, how we seem to be programed to understand our location on the earth and relay that information forward.  We are commanded to take dominion over the earth and a lot of that is knowing where we actually are on the earth.  Being in a graveyard brings even greater clarity of our need to know where we are.  It always pays to know where you are, even after death!!! 

Will The Stones Ever Get Their Chance?

A new miracle and hope filled sign is given me every morning.  As my wife and I walk in the early morning dark we are being greeted with ever more voices, the many song birds of spring.  None seem to be the least bit attentive to the concerns of humans but seem to wake every morning with a song in their heart, a song filled with praise and purpose.  I often wonder if God did this because he knew how often the cares of this world would stifle the songs of His saints giving him cause to make song birds and stones in reserve.  We might meet these stones someday and them tell us how they had longed to sing to Him.  How kind the gift of a wondering mind in a wandering body. 

Tennessee's own Mocking Bird is one of the great
praisers of the morning.

A Simple Blog Of Hopeful Help

With just a little bit of inconvenience and patience we can manage this current health situation.  The most important thing is to fully comprehend that you are responsible for your own good health and for those that are dependent upon you for theirs.  For the time being limiting exposure to others by remaining in our homes and yards, strict attention to hand cleanliness, consciously try to remember to keep your hands away from your face and use pick-up and delivery services for your stable needs are critical yet simple ways in which we can manage.  Our homes have multiple ways in which we can remain informed, do much of our daily work, maintain our education pursuits, entertain ourselves and basically stay connected with our family, friends and the world and also allow us to serve others by checking on and encouraging those who are in our wide circle of care and concern.  However, we should not allow these same helpful devices to give us opportunities to dwell on the current situation and consume vast amounts of anxiety.  This will be a great opportunity to catch up on many of the things that get moved to our perimeters and to allow our overly busy lives to give our bodies some much needed slowed pacing.  Remember that we are all dependent upon one another, the same way our acceptance of our laws and policies allow us all to live safe and free is the same thing that will help us manage this, each of us being careful, diligent, informed and conscientiously caring for ourselves and those we are responsible for is really loving our neighbor as we love our self.  And on that note one more added encouragement, above all else, pray for God to give us His steadfast, loving and compassionate help in this, all of our time of need. 

    

Steve's Thanks For Yesterday

Steve is a colleague of mine.  We were in a meeting yesterday and I asked him to open it in prayer.  He prayed ‘God thank you so much for this day, for many yesterday was their last day and by your grace we got today.  Thank you Lord…’  Oh, the glorious gift of today, one of the grandest of all creations, today, a new 24 hours.  What shall be my work for His kingdom today?  To begin; a grateful heart!

Maria's 3-D class project on space.  A mirror of the day.  

This Land That I Love

My lover and I biked Shiloh yesterday, the great Civil War battlefield that lies beside The Mighty Tennessee River, this late winter, swollen with rain.  It was a beautiful day, flowering trees just beginning to bud, buttercups opening, grass greening, the kind of day that seems to underscore the sorrows of the past with springs eternal.  There were two American flags horizontal in the breeze scented by the rolling river and new growth.  One flew over the graves of warriors long dead, one over the park as their harnesses played a deep tone on the pole.  I privately saluted each one and said to those long dead, “Long may you wave.”  It was America the beautiful, the true America that we seemed to have forgotten—the America that washes our sins in the blood of our youth and repents atop the mass graves of our own.  It is not the one the media rails against or the foolish hold in contempt, but the one that we hold so dear because so much of our blood has bathed our shores from sea to shining sea. We are a people United who now seem determined to rend us apart clawing at our mistakes as some such mortal wound that demands the hate-filled death of us all.   My lover and I sat on the banks of the river and watched a Bald Eagle held aloft on the rising cold currents and my heart seemed to be divided between her and this land that I love.

Ultimate Best Friend Forever

Have you ever had a true best friend?  I have had the great fortune to have had four in my life and in even greater fortune, married the fourth.  A best friend is someone who really likes you, someone who really knows you and most all your issues and still prefers to hang out with you and vise versa.  However there is still one hurdle that I allow no BFF to cross over, that is to completely know me.  Besides being impossible there are still things I would never reveal about me even to my lover.  That is one of the greatest qualities of God, He knows it all, in fact, He tells us that he knows even those things that we don’t know about yourself, the true condition of my heart, the number of hairs on my head (very few but still unknown to me), how I should really pray and the number of my days on earth come to mind.  This makes God my UBFF.  Because he knows me completely I stand in great need to be with Him as much as possible, to have Him involved in my every day all day, to make my relationship with Him my highest priority.  When the Bible reveals that my heart is “deceitful above all things” and that only God can truly know my heart much less change it, my every day becomes an overwhelming need to be with Him before I can hurt myself or someone else with this deceitful heart of mine.  Only He can truly make me someone that anyone would even want to call—their BFF.  

Me and one of my best friends, Ricky.