Bounding Beauty-So Dangerous

We were all in the mountains again yesterday.  All spread along a cold, boulder-strewn stream, each on a rocky patch watching the youngsters play.  Several times I would go in.  It was cold and swift and I could only occupy a small section, a little sliver of a few feet.  I was snorkeling, holding onto the rocks on the bottom looking at fish and the beautiful stream bed.  I would make myself as ‘watero-dynamic’ as possible, keeping myself parallel to the rushing water to keep from being swept away.  It occurs to me that even in this mildly wild wilderness it could really hurt me if I were to let go and it would sweep me away.  Such bounding beauty—so dangerous.  The Fall is going to take us all, we are eternal and are in the battle for our lives and even exquisite beauty can kill us.  Jesus said, “in this world, you will have troubles!”  A beautiful mountain stream can sweep me away to my demise but—Jesus finished that truth with this, “take courage, I have overcome the world.”  I returned to my snorkeling and rededicated myself to my God because, in the beginning after the end, He also promised to “make all things new” which means mountain streams that won't hurt me and me that can’t be hurt. 

  

A Hike With A Moral

Oh boy, I’m beat.  Loving on a big family can be exhausting especially if they are a family of adventures.  We spent the day yesterday in the mountains beside a cold Little Tennessee, nice wide pebble beach framed with massive boulders.  We played, swam, built sculpture, ate, and just loved on each other.  Only one problem, wilderness takes a certain amount of agility, a litheness that allows you to navigate the wild but you are now being dragged around with a 62-year-old body.  When you have to hold the arm of your 12-year-old granddaughter to boulder hop from one deep green water hole to another you’ll know what I mean.  The moral of this story is this, you had better raise children who will raise children who think it is ok to help their old granddaddy live the adventures they are living.  God is good.  All the time.  God is good. 

The Twinkling

There is a tie that binds that is as quiet as the heavens and deep as Eden.  You experience it when all your family is sitting around, sunburned and tanned, all washed fully in The Great Tennessee, well-fed, evening full-on, and the conversation has begun.  Rekindled memories, exploits, deeply held faith experiences, and new adventures are shared.  And the laughter, the holding of everyone close enough that none of us can take ourselves seriously but seriously tighten the knot of love we have for each other.  And then it comes, your lover looks at you and you at her, the sound fades, the brain quietens and the heart begins its quiet melody that only her and you can hear, the tune goes something like this; “look at what we have done these 36 years, the treasures of love that transcends our own lives.  God, oh God, how our imagination would never have imagined, what glory of Yours You share with us.”  And you are winged into the hills and mountains, and into the heavens, and into the Great Beyond, and there it is, The Tie That Binds, The Quiet, Eden, and you are, in a twinkling, aware, HE IS.   

Mixing Love and Blood

I am at our annual family reunion, 19 total, and three dogs, wall to wall Lee and Betty Benson’s; you can’t walk without stepping on one.  I can remember when it was only one, me alone.  I don’t do alone well but I am also almost clinically introverted.  I need really, really strong ties to tie me to someone and blood is about as strong a cord as there is.  But it wasn’t blood that made the ultimate knot, it was love.  Betty was who I only wanted even though she was completely out of my reach.  Me a wretched mess and her a Godly catch.  I cannot tell you how many times I have thought about the amount of Grace God had to expend on me to allow her and me to become married lovers.  I would watch her walk around the deaf campus and long to marry her.  Another great gift of Grace, God giving me Godly parents who instilled me a deeply seated desire to marry Godly (even if at the time, weighted completely on the wife's part).  But from that love knot came the blood and the blood has born to us 17 and no one seems to be slowing the blood making yet.  Family Reunion’s are just that, a re-tying ourselves together into one family which is what blood does, here and eternally; and as we all held hands and sang last night, “There’s a better home awaitin, by and by Lord, by and by.” 

Magic Carpet Dreaming of the Adventure Beginning

Last night I watched several satellites glide overhead, mysterious in their man-made-ness so far out there, like a star only made by us.  One was so brilliant that I am sure it was the space station—humans riding our own made star.  In the middle of the night, I awoke to the soft rumble of a tug, slowly the barge moved until it lay entirely across our windows with the tug quietly under running lights, its searchlight beam of white haloing it all.  It silently went on its way, a night river train, my windows were once again dark.  I lay there thinking of our space station star and this night train and me in my place and the adventure we had all shared and I went to sleep.  I dreamed of the beginning of the second coming, the sky a rainbow, and then it began to shrink like ripples in a pond in reverse.  It scared me.  I woke up.  Our longings for adventure, the things humans make, and ride like magic carpets of steel and solar sails will one day be like twiddly dees and navel lint when He returns to get us.  It will be scary to begin with until we hear Him say, “Fear not, it’s just Me on My Magic Carpet coming to get you!”  and the Adventure will finally begin. 

The Pot Harping On The Kettle

Yesterday I wrote about being fed up with all the craziness in America.  Ever since then I have felt a certain level of gratefulness and shame that is greater than the growing sorrowful frustration I have in the State of the Union.  I confess that I know myself, in many ways, like those that now mar the public image of America.  For many years in my youth, I was every bit the living wretch I now see daily on my many screens.  Oh, what grace spared me from cell phone cameras, videos, and public exposure.  There are only two people that know and remember all the sorrowful depravity of the years of my youth; me, who live it and God who not only forgave me and disciplined me but then gave me an abundant life I could never have imagined when I was screaming down the highway to hades looking for it.  What Amazing Grace I was FREELY given that no one had a camera to film those years. 

The second greatest grace of my life was even in the
midst of my wretchedness this angel married me.

I Have Had IT!!!

I have had it with all this stuff.  If you don’t like the way the world is build us a better one.  If you don’t like who has been honored then build monuments to honor those you honor.  If you don’t like the police become police that you can admire.  When American was built it was built because they didn’t like the British.   They didn’t tear down Britain, they left and built America.  Why march if you are not going to get up the next day and do something.  Most positive change comes from a heart determined to make it better, every day.  All people desire things to get better but very few of them are determined to make them better.  Here is a good test to see how well you are doing.

--Is your personal space clean, squared away, daily put in order? 

--Is your room, apartment, home and/or car clean, really clean? 

--Is your yard squared away, mowed, picked up, having curb appeal? 

--Do you own anything, something that your own hard work, sweat, and sacrifice allowed you to own?

--Do you support yourself by working?

--If you are in school do you earn all A’s and B’s?

--Do you floss?  Do you recycle?  Do you conserve water, power, and resources?

--Do you physically, actively practice a faith system that demands you care?

--Do you actively, physically take care of your family?

--Do you actively, physically take care of the people who live adjacent to where you live?

--Do you give a significant amount of your money, 10% minimum, to others in need?

--Do you vote at every election?

--Do you regularly grow something, trees, flowers, vegetables?

--Do you actively, physically commune with others that do the things listed above?

These are just the beginnings of what it means to be a human and are prerequisites to being a good citizen.  Once you get these squared away you can begin to work at changing others to be more like you.