Big stuff, small stuff, here comes space stuff (Asteroid)!

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

I was at my Oncologist's office this morning. Yes, cancer the gift that keeps on giving.

As we talked about stuff, and the shape of the world we currently live in, I talked about my friends on the Dairy Farm, my doctor likes the fact that I call Chemo the Dairy Farm, "It makes it feel better somehow", says he. 

I talked about big stuff verses small stuff and how just about everything is small stuff. How we try to make small stuff into big stuff because somehow it makes us more important, or something. How people are getting upset and angry about things they really shouldn't get upset or angry about.

I am reminded of a story Tolstoy wrote. In the story there were two farmers. who lived next to one another. One day a farmer went to his chicken coop and found an egg missing. He assumed his neighbor stole it and accused his neighbor of stealing an egg. 

Two things about this story that always caused me pause:

1. How did the farmer know that an egg was missing and that his chicken just had not laid an egg that day?

2. Why did he assume his neighbor had stolen an egg in the first place?

Anyway, this caused a feud that ended when one farmer lit the other farmers house on fire only to have the flames catch his house on fire too thus burning his own house down in the process. 

"One match burns two houses"

Big stuff, small stuff here comes space stuff.

If we just sit back a moment and ask the question what is truly BIG verses what is truly small we have new eyes to see things through. 

According to an internet search evidently there is an asteroid that is going to hit the earth on election night. 

Big stuff, small stuff, here comes space stuff (Asteroid)!

Now if you want BIG stuff that would be right up there. After all the last time a large asteroid hit the earth it was an extinction event.

Upon further research however I found that alas this was not true, thus the Asteroid story became small stuff pretty quickly. 

I guess what I am trying to say is the next time you think you have BIG stuff do a little research to verify that it is truly BIG, chances are it too will become small.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger  

"If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat."

 Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

I got up this morning thinking about a book I read almost twenty years ago. The book was "If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat." by John Ortberg. 

I have thought about this book when it came to mind over the years and always causes me pause. In the book John uses the analogy of Peter walking on the water to greet Jesus. He talks bout being daring, getting out of your comfort zone. Doing something new and different for Christ. 

He says, "If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat."

Meaning that if you want to see change and do things that will get new results you have to stop what you are doing and take a chance. If you want to do something truly amazing like walk on water, you have to get out of the boat. 

Over the years I have wondered whether I have truly gotten out of the boat? That is the thought that haunts me.

He goes on to say, "here is a deep truth about water-walking: the fear never goes away."

Meaning, that when you go into the great unknown, totally trusting Christ, it will be a bit scary, The fear of sinking will never go away. Walk on water anyway!

Laurie (my wife) and I have felt this fear. She has expressed it in terms like, "We are going to have to eat cat food or live under a bridge.

He goes on to say, "the worst failure is not to sink in the waves. The worst failure is to never get out of the boat.

I hope I have not committed this failure. Never taking a chance. Always remaining safely in the process or business that is known and not making a real impact but keeping comfortable is the worst failure, you never got out of the boat. 

He finishes with, "I believe there are many good reasons to get out of the boat.  But there is one that trumps them all: The water is where Jesus is."

You can stay in the boat and talk about the things of God or you can emulate Peter and actually go do the things God would have you do. 

You can walk on water, you can walk toward Christ. Sure the fear of sinking will be there but God has you in His hands. 

Something to Ponder.

Blessings,

Roger

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I will try not to make small stuff, big stuff.

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

I have been a bit cranky lately. I have been feeling a bit down as my "post chemo" body has been dealing with the effects of having been filled with poison for seven months. 

I was busy lamenting to someone (I do not even know who) about this when God reminded me, "Aren't you the guy who spent time on the dairy farm (chemo room)? Aren't you the guy who spent time with people a lot farther down their journey with cancer than your place in the journey? What did you learn from these people?"

I stopped in my tracks. I remembered how we talked about big stuff and little stuff, both large and small. I remembered how we talked about not sweating the small stuff and how the more we talked the less big stuff there was in our lives, in fact unless we made it big stuff it was all small stuff!

We talked about not knowing how many days we had, and making the most out of the day that was in front of us. 

As I ruminated on my conversations on the dairy farm I remembered something someone had once said. Someone whose words remained after they themselves had been forgotten. 

This is what they said:

This is the beginning of a new day.

God has given me this day to use as I will.

I can waste it or use it for good.

What I do today is important,

Because I’m exchanging a day of my life for it.

When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever,

Leaving in it’s place something that I have traded for it.

I want it to be gain, not loss;

Good, not evil; Success, not failure,

In order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it.

Anonymous

I will try and remember these words. 

I will try not to make small stuff, big stuff.

My post Chemo Body is small stuff. I will have fun working on it 

What stuff are you making "big stuff" today, is it really big stuff? If you are unsure, ask someone who is looking eternity directly in its face, they will tell you what big stuff is, and what isn't.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger

Come on people now smile on your brother,

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

The Youngbloods wrote this song in 1967. 

Love is but a song to sing
Fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Though the bird is on the wing
And you may not know why

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

Some may come and some may go
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moment's sunlight
Fading in the grass

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

If you hear the song I sing
You will understand (listen!)
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It's there at your command

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

I said, come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now

Right now
Right now

It says it all!

I believe we should be practicing this today.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger

Enough about that.

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

Did you see the debate last night? All I can say is "wow" I wasn't sure if I was seeing a debate or a middle school argument. In fact, I am sure I didn't see a debate and I did see a middle school argument.

Enough about that.

Well maybe a little more. I would have liked to see an actual plan. A way to help us be a better country, a better people.

I teach a worldviews class at a university and in the very first class of the session I tell my students, "Do not tell me what you believe, your actions will tell me what your core commitment is."

Parker Palmer says it even better, he says, "Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.  Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let you life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent."[1]

I wish that the moderator had said that to the debaters/middle school arguers last night. 

As we go through our days may we be more diligent on our actions and not our words. Let us be the hands and feet of Christ and not his mouth.

If our actions do not match our words maybe we need to check our core commitment and see if this is who we want to be, if not we should work on being better.

Something to ponder,

Blessings,

Roger

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[1]Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak, (San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, 2000), 3..

Dancing with God Redux

 Good morning. 

I pray that the day finds you well.

This is an old bread, but I thought it was relevant for what we seem to be going through at the moment. 

Enjoy and ponder.

The wind was blowing the other day, and I noticed a leaf being

carried along. It blew one way, then another.

I watched as it went back and forth, tumbling over its stem, then

over its tips. I sat for quite a while observing this leaf.

At first I was amused by the back-and-forth action, and thought

about how the wind changed direction, causing the leaf to change with it.

I thought about how the leaf had no say in where it wanted to go.

The wind was in control.

It occurred to me that most of us live and work at the whim of

others. If someone decides to go in another direction or the economy

takes a dip, our jobs might go away, and we will have about as much

say in it as the leaf does with the wind.

Then God said, “Relax and watch the leaf.”

I sat silently and did as He asked.

After a while, my heart began to change. I began to see the leaf

differently.

I began to see it dance.

It no longer was an out-of-control leaf pushed here and there. The

leaf was dancing.

A still small voice said, “This leaf makes Me smile. It is dancing

with Me.”

I watched the leaf for quite a while.

In the end, I was no longer thinking in a negative fashion. My

thoughts turned to all the blessings and small miracles that happen

every day. I just need to have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to

accept.

My prayer is that we all choose to see the beauty in God’s creation,

to see a leaf dance, and to ask, are we dancing with God or merely

allowing ourselves to be blown out of control?

It is a matter of perspective.

Blessings,

Roger

Hydroplaning can be fun I suppose, but I have never found it to be so.

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

It was raining again today as I left the house on the river to drive to the "Y". 

It wasn't an easy rain, but one that could make you hydroplane if you were not focused. I was focused. Hydroplaning can be fun I suppose, but I have never found it to be so.

As I drove along the Columbia River God reminded me what a beautiful day it was. 

I have often said, "If you can see God in the puffy clouds of a beautiful sunny blue sky day, then you can also see Him in the mudpuddles of a rainy one." 

I hadn't always realized that, but found it later in my walk with Him. In fact I had spent a good amount of time in my early years saying things like, "God where are you? or  I wish you would come back." It wasn't until much later that I truly grasped the concept and understanding that God is always here and it is I that leaves Him or ignores Him.

When you get to the point where you see God at work in His creation you get the opportunity to see Him working in places you would never expect. He even works with Nihilists.

Ernest Hemmingway is one of my favorite authors. His writing style intrigues me. I was reading one of his books many years ago and this is what he wrote: 

"He had always known what I did not know and what, when I learned it, I was always able to forget.  But I did not know that then, although I learned it later."[1]

I love this quote. It reminds me of how big God is and how small I am. 

Seeing God in mudpuddles is fun, if you haven't tried it you should give it a go. You just might be surprised at what you find.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger 

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[1]Ernest Hemmingway, Farewell to Arms, (New York: Scribner, 1929), 14.