On the Road Again (with apologies to Willie)

July 7, 2015

The Ural is on the road again! Last week when I pushed it out of the garage to get at the mower, I noticed the drive shaft chucking on the U-joint. Not good! I immediately called up Holopaw Ural in Florida, and three days later, it was in the mailbox. Not bad, considering it was a holiday weekend. The fix included removing the rear wheel, then the entire drive assembly. Never having attempted this before, I consulted the Ural forum, then dove in. It took a few hours, but by 11:00 pm Monday night, everything was back in place, and that even included time for Men's Bible Study.

This morning I had some business to attend to in Pleasantville, PA, nearly two hours from home. The bike ran flawlessly down and back which, given my mechanical abilities, is just short of miraculous. It was a beautiful morning for a ride. Nothing broke, no parts fell off; it was totally uneventful, which is what I like in motorcycle rides.

The gratitude prompt for today was blessings of challenges, conflict, and change. Mechanical repair is not exactly a major challenge; this isn't' the space shuttle, after all. But there is satisfaction in having met the challenge rather than simply hiring it out to the professional. Having it actually turn out right is added bonus! As for the conflict and change, I'm content to leave them for another day.

Real Enthusiasm

July 6, 2015

A few days ago, I remarked that merely reflecting on the day to find something for which to be thankful doesn't give opportunity to be proactive, which I am learning is essential if gratitude is to be more than an afterthought. When I started this particular discipline, I followed a schedule of suggestions that stretched my imagination. That's good, because sometimes my imagination is pretty unimaginative. Feeling particularly unimaginative this morning, I revisited that list. Today's suggestion was to find three gifts of enthusiasm. That's easy. This morning Isabel brought a few friends over to Sunnyside to swim. One thing about Izzi: she's enthusiasm personified! Whether organizing friends or cousins for some activity, jumping on the trampoline, doing backflips across the yard, or plotting to break school records for swimming, she breezes through life with a joi de vivre that is a wonder to behold. She wasn't long in this world before I started thinking of her as "Busy Izzi." I hope she keeps her enthusiastic spirit all through life. It rubs off on you, and if there is one thing this sad world needs, it is a bit of enthusiasm.

Tomorrow little Gemma will spend the day with Linda so her mother can have a bit of a break for her writing. Gemma is another bundle of enthusiasm, dancing and smiling her way through each day as if to challenge it to try to keep her from wringing every last pleasure from it. Tomorrow afternoon when Jess comes to pick her up, I'm guessing Linda's enthusiasm will have waned just a bit, even though she will savor every moment.

Enthusiasm is actually a religious word. It comes from the Greek "en Theos," ie. "In God." For all those who imagine that being a Christian is a dull, drearisome life spent avoiding anything that is fun or pleasurable, and looking as if one were weaned on a pickle, I would refer them to the origins of the word. Anyone who is not enthusiastic about life hasn't grasped even a basic understanding of what it means to be "in God." In his letter to the Ephesian church, St. Paul reiterates over and over how we are "in Christ," a status that elevates us above the misery and aimlessness of this world, not by removing us from it, but by giving purpose to even the troubles that come our way. Elsewhere, he reminds us that God has given all things for us to enjoy. That's not an invitation to debauchery, but to receive with joy all the good that is present even in the most difficult situations. When one's life is not circumscribed and controlled by all the ills of this world, it is no longer necessary to be depressed or worried. By virtue of being in Christ, the joy and hope of resurrection invades every aspect of life, deepening the experience and infusing it with purpose and hope.

I am grateful tonight for Izzi and Gemma's enthusiasm for life and for the reminder that taking ourselves too seriously cuts us off from the joy God intends us to have. I like enthusiasm, being "in God." And I like how one person's enthusiasm can infect others. It's not enough for only a few people to be "in God;" God intends enthusiasm to be communicable, and the more we realize where real enthusiasm comes from, the more we connect with its Source, and the more we spread it around, the better this old world will be.

Proof of God's Love

July 5, 2015

"The Lord makes his sun shine on the good and evil alike..." So Jesus himself spoke about the knotty issue of theodicy, a fancy word for the attempt to make sense of the problem of evil. For the atheist, it doesn't matter; if there is no God, then good and evil are relative terms and concepts; both are whatever we want them to be. But for a Christian, the existence of evil is a bit of a problem. How do we account for it if we believe in a good and all-powerful God? The classic argument is, "If God is all powerful, he could prevent evil; if God is good, he would prevent it. Therefore, the existence of evil means God is either not all powerful or he is not good." To foist the matter of evil on the devil doesn't really solve much of anything. If God created everything, he must have created the devil, so the issue lands back in God's lap.

It would take more time and space than I have here to even begin to deal with this matter, but it does cause me to ponder how we know of God's love for us. It would be convenient if we could say that we know God loves us because of the blessings he bestows on us. Blessings certainly make us feel God's love, but if Jesus is to be believed, they don't demonstrate his particular love. He loves everyone, and blesses even the evil, while often the good are recipients of troubles undeserved. If blessings are indication of God's love, are problems indications of his displeasure?

Don't get me wrong. I am deeply appreciative of the blessings I have received. Not a day goes by but what I think of our home, our family, our friends, our country. Time and time again I feel like I should pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. But I've been through a few difficulties, and both the Gospel and my experience assure me that God's love has never left me, even in the darkest of hours.

St. Paul cuts to the heart of the matter when he declares in Romans 5:8 that "God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." That's the only proof God offers, and it's the only proof we need. I am grateful for the many blessings I have received, but they are no measure of the quality of my relationship with God, or even of his love for me. It's God's sacrifice of his Son that demonstrates God's love, and no matter howI feel at a given moment, I am grateful for it.

A Different Fourth

I didn't have internet access last night, so here it is:

July 4, 2015

It almost felt like a normal Fourth of July: there were no fireworks. For the past nearly twenty years, we've been in Canada for the Fourth. Almost as soon as school was out, we'd pack up and head north across the border to spend a week at McMillan's, a family run camp with fourteen little cabins and a big dining hall where home-cooked meals were served three times a day. Our daughter-in-law Debbra had gone there with her family since she was a little girl, and once she and Nate were married, we picked up and carried on the tradition. Until this year. When we started out, the exchange rate and the price made it a super deal, but the exchange advantage has all but disappeared, and the cost has continued to escalate, prompting the decision to stay home this year.

For years, it bothered me to not be home for the Fourth of July, but we did get to celebrate Canada Day on the first, singing their national anthem at dinner and watching the fireworks in Killaloe in the evening. But here we are in the USA on the Fourth, and I haven't seen so much as a sparkler. We had family and friends over for a picnic lunch, then headed to Churchville to spend some time with my mother prior to her family reunion tomorrow. Only she won't be there. She's caught a nasty cold and doesn't feel like leaving the house, so I guess we'll be going without her.

We missed Canada Day, too, as well as some of the friends we've made over the years. The highlight of my week in Canada was going to the Wilno Tavern for Blues Night on Tuesdays, talking with Grant Fraser, the lead guitarist and knife maker who got Matt started in the business, and bringing home a few bags of loose tea from the shop down the road in Golden Lake, a small crossroads community about five miles away from McMillan's.

This is all pretty ordinary stuff--spending time with people we love, eating hot dogs and potato salad, talking, and watching the kids play. But it is ordinary only to us. For most people around the world, a day like today would be an exquisite treasure. We have plenty of food, live in peace, and are surrounded by those we love. We don't live in fear or want. Our granddaughter Alex is in Uganda working with kids in a boarding school. She phoned and we talked today. We talked about the experience she is having that most kids she knows cannot even imagine. She is seeing first hand what poverty is really like. When I commented on American kids who constantly complain about petty issues, she responded with, "That's SO infuriating to me!" We are truly blessed by the sacrifices people endured to give birth to this nation so we can remember today in such an ordinary fashion as having a picnic. What an unusual gift this is! As it says in the Psalms, Let us give thanks to the Lord for his lovingkindness to the children of men!

Blessings in the Morning

July 3, 2015

Gratitude isn't always (or even often) something that can be conjured up on a moment's notice. In the two and a half years I've been exercising my gratitude muscles, I've noticed that it is imperative that I set my mind to it first thing in the morning. If I don't start out the day looking for blessings, I end up overlooking them, in part because many of God's best blessings come disguised as challenges and difficulties, or even hardships. It is natural to look for the obviously good things in life, but if our gaze ends there, we end up living a shallow, narcissistic life, seeing only those things which cause our immediate happiness. But it is often in the shadows that we find jewels reflected in the searchlight of our seeking.

I would not have chosen the trial we endured ten years ago when a third of our congregation and half our income took flight. One person's issues infected the core of our leadership and brought Park church to its knees, which actually is where we should have been all along. Believing as I do that God has purposes in even the most difficult trials, I thought to myself, "If this is God's preparation for something even more challenging, I think I'd just as soon pass." It turned out that instead, it became a learning experience that has humbled me and enabled me to help other pastors and congregations going through their own storms. More significantly to me personally, I learned that I wasn't as good at reading people as I had thought, and I discovered true friendship in those who stood by us, often at considerable personal sacrifice. You don't forget friendships like that.

Years before, another friend stood by us in a different and more personal storm. He was there in one of the darkest hours of my life. And when ten years ago, he got caught up in the inferno that blazed all around us, leaving the church and accusing me of causing him over the years all sorts of grief and pain, I wondered why he had never mentioned any of it to me, I mourned his leaving, but I am still forever grateful for how he stepped into my life years before when I desperately needed a friend. I'll never forget that, and will never speak evil of this person.

So today I woke to seek blessings. Waiting till evening to retrace my steps looking for the good isn't enough. Today was a day of clear and obvious blessing, with hardly a cloud passing overhead to cast its shadow on the landscape of my life. I am grateful for that, but also for those difficult times that have yielded their own hard blessings. Today wasn't one of them, for which I am thankful. But because I chose to look for the blessing this morning and will do so tomorrow, I hope to be better able to receive with gratitude that hard gift when it is given.

Technological Blessings

July 2, 2015

Modern technology is both a blessing and a curse. Our local newspaper carried an article the other day about our local municipality having received a grant to install security cameras at various locations around the city as a means of crime deterrence. On the one hand, anything that gives a potential troublemaker pause is not a bad thing. On the other hand, we live in a society where the authorities spy and snoop incessantly. We talk much about the right to privacy, but in reality, it is virtually nonexistent in a technological world.

Just this morning the paper contained an article about a man killed by a robot in a factory. During installation, something went wrong with this robot that was supposed to grab parts and move them to the next station. It grabbed the man, pushed him against a wall, crushing him to death. I would dare say THAT piece of technology was a curse to at least one person. And just the other day, my eldest nephew posted on Facebook that he was deleting his account and saying goodbye to social media. If you knew my nephew, you would know what a big step this is. He is Mr. Technology personified, and has been since he was a teenager. But he decided it was wasting too much of his time, so it's sayonara. I give him a lot of credit for recognizing the dark side and going cold turkey.

But there is the blessing side, and it is that for which I am thankful today. I've been working on wiring my garage, and needed to run an underground cable from the house to a subpanel in the woodshed. Son Matt had about 40 feet of underground cable left over from when he wired his shop with 220, I dug the trench, drilled holes through the basement wall and the woodshed sill, and laid the cable. Not being able to claim any semblance to an electrician, I needed to know if the job were done properly, especially where it went through the structures. Alas! My electrical friends Harry and Ken are both in West Virginia at work camp. Text Messaging to the rescue! I snapped a few photos, uploaded them to my message app, added a few questions and sent it all off. Fifteen minutes later, I had a response from Ken. The cable is now buried, and I'm ready for the next step, thanks to technology.

Even more important is being able to keep touch with our granddaughter Alex while she is in Uganda. We received a message from her tonight, just a short note letting us know she's OK and misses us, but it was enough. What a sacrifice it must have been for the parents of missionaries just a couple generations ago, when the only contact was by mail sent by steam packet! Often months or even years would pass before family at home could know anything about what was happening on the field. I am grateful tonight for the technology that keeps in touch loved ones who are half a world away.

A Good Wife

July 1, 2015

Tonight's gratitude may sound a bit convoluted, so bear with me. Linda and I had an appointment with our financial advisor this morning. We've been working with Dan for about fifteen years, and the guy is a money magician. Fifteen years ago, we were worried about retirement because we hadn't been able to save much of anything, what with helping with 3 kids' college and wedding expenses. One of his first questions was, "What do you want to accomplish?" He was, and is more concerned with helping us accomplish our goals than fitting us into a preconceived plan, and he has far exceeded our expectations.

Recently he closed out one of our IRAs. It was a smaller one, and he couldn't see the sense in spending the management fees on it. As a result, he told us we had a certain amount of available cash, and wanted to know what we wanted to do with it. Our first inclination was to just roll it over; we aren't big spenders and we often wonder if we're going to have enough to go the distance. Dan assures us that won't be a problem, but our conservative leopard spots are a bit hard to change.
On the way to his office we were talking about needing to begin looking for a new car for Linda. The 06 Toyota is beginning to show its age; at 200,000 miles and more than a few encounters of the close kind with various deer, we figured it's time. Linda has money saved so we can pay cash, and figured we would see what is available in our price range. Turns out, our cash is a few thousand short of our ideal goal. Here's where the story takes an odd twist.

Also on the way to Dan's I had noticed a small Kubota tractor with a bucket, backhoe, and belly mower for sale in someone's front yard. When I stopped to look at it, I knew right away that his asking price was way more than we have to spend, but I took down the information anyway. So we're talking on the way home, when Linda says to me, "If you want that tractor, we could take some of the money Dan says we have for it, and some to add to what we have for a new car." I almost drove off the road in shock! We don't mind giving money away; we've done plenty of that over the years, but spending big bucks on ourselves is not something we're used to. So to have Linda casually offer that kind of thinking made me wonder who was occupying that body sitting beside me that looked like her.

I'm not sure we'll do it. After all, we still have her dad's 1948 8N, which for sentimental reasons is not going anywhere. It can be an ornery starter in the winter, but once it's going, it does the job. There are plenty of needy charities to which we could contribute. But a backhoe and bucket--THAT would be cool! Tonight I am thankful that God has provided so abundantly for us that we can even be considering such a big ticket item. And I am even more thankful for my wife. For the 46 years I've known her and the 45 we've been married, her generosity doesn't surprise me, but today I saw a depth to it far beyond what even I have known.