Summer

Yesterday was the first day of summer.  wow!  It feels like it too.
 
It's hot, of course.

But there's more:
1) baby birds have hatched on the back porch, a couple chicks made it, a couple didn't
2) the pool is using an extraordinary amount of chlorine now
3) wasps are nesting up around the rafters
4) my son is taking 'summer courses' at college
5) there's a wedding every weekend
6) the neighborhood smells of BBQ 24x7 and the lawnmowers never stop their buzz
7) when we go out in the evening for chips, salsa and lemonade, we always request the patio
8) we talk about buying a lake house - alot - again  (see picture)
9) 'cheapcarribbean.com' and 'pueblobonito.com' are 2 websites I search hourly for deals
10) the A/C unit never stops running - the bills gonna be a whopper
11) my skin is turning golden brown, the way I like it
12) everyones cologne is called 'suntan lotion' - the best
13) plans are being made for the 4th
14) I'm looking for the perfect book to read on the beach - whether or not I actually go to the beach
15) sunsets are spectacular
16) it's t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops
17) I review my list of things I saved to do during the summer, but now its too hot to do them
   
These are the kinds of things that happen in the summer.  And it sometimes feels to me that what we do in the summer sets the stage for the rest of the year, like a jumping off point to our lives.  Even the short summer vacations give us the energy and motivation to move forward to the rest of the year. 
 
Like Solomon says in Proverbs 10:5 - "He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son."
    
So what 'crops' are we to gather?   Maybe we're to prepare for the fall, the winter, the cold dark months ahead.  Maybe we should be finding that new job now, or that new place to live.
 
Or, planning for a new way of living.  Plan for fun; plan to be productive and fruitful;  plan for a meaningful existence - before it's too late. 
  

 

"Lost" - and Wasted

I was a 'Lost' fan for 6 years.  And it ended last night with the 4.5 hour grand finale.  It may go down as the biggest dissappointment in the history of TV series endings.  What was propped-up and 4-walled as the most significant ending to any series ever - was a complete disaster.
     
I haven't read anything about it this morning, or heard anything on the radio.  I'm talking from my gut here with no outside influence on a Monday morning.  The shows ending proved to me, once again, that there really is a lack of imagination in the world when it comes to 'the big things'.  The story writers hit on a nerve early on, but 'lost' control and meaning as the show progressed - and finally gave up the goose in the end, throwing their collective pens and paper and ideas - in the air.  It was sad to see. 

The show's conclusion was:

Very Universal.
Very Shallow.
Very All Inclusive.
Very Weak.
Very Boring.
Very Stupid.
            
Those are some hours I wish I could get back.
  
Don't get me wrong - I wasn't expecting the flight survivors to be standing around the camp fire singing kumbaya or anything.  I didn't expect that Jesus would appear and explain what had happened to them.  But I AM a believer in The Way - the JC Way.  The moment they entered the church scene and very predominately displayed the stained glass window depicting all religions of the world - my hopes and aspirations for the show were destroyed.

It was as if they had reached their hands into by chest and ripped out my heart.  A quick reminder (to self) to stop putting my faith in the hands of some Hollywood producer - it just doesn't work.

You see - I would have been cool if they had even picked one of the religions of the world to promote as 'right' and the final answer to the big question of 'WHY'?.  That would have taken guts, fortitude, courage, strength, grit - big kahunas.  It could have been Budhism, Ying/Yang, Islam, whatever ....  but no, they went politically correct (and religious correct), and went with them all.  A big shallow pool of mud and death.
   
Weaklings.
 

And if there's any doubt out there about being lost, don't forget what Jesus said in John 14:6 - "Jesus answered, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.  NO one comes to the Father except through ME."
  
(picture at Zandvoort - beach town west of Amsterdam, where I felt very lost once)

In Peace

If there's one thing I've learned about myself over the years, it's that I'm a city guy.  Noise.  I kinda like some white noise to make me feel secure.  I grew up in the city, lots of cities. Noisy, dirty, crowded and busy cities.  I wouldn't do well in rural America for long.
      
But, I know too, that I need some peace & quiet now and then (more so as I get older).  With summer coming I'm thinking about one thing:  a vacation in the sun, on the sand, by the surf.  I like surf and sand, that's not too far from the city.

 As much as I wish I lived near the ocean and the beach, there's something about NOT living there all year that makes you yearn for it even more, enjoy it more, and appreciate it more, when you get there.  I took this picture 12 years ago at one of my favorite beaches.  When I look at it, my blood pressure drops about 85 points (give or take).

It reminds me that we need to learn to live at peace, in peace - with a sense of calm - always (not just during summer vacations on the beach).  Believers are suppose to be role models for joy - and your joy brings peace - naturally.
 
In Eccleciates 4, it says: "Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil."   I'm not a theologion, but I think that means we should live with less material ambition and stop trying to get more stuff, because it just creates trouble.  Strive for 'tranquility' - it's better than 'toil' anyday.
    
And in 2 Thesalonians 3, Paul says:  "May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way."   That's a good one, as if to say having a sense of 'peace', is what it's all about.

I'm looking for more peace.   Are you?      
     


  

Big Porches

When I build my own house, it'll have a big porch.  I mean a BIG porch - wrap around job, deep, part screened, part open.

What good is it if you don't have a respectable porch to sit on anyway, to watch the cars going by, waving at your neighbors, drinking some lemonade in the summer and hot coffee in the evening, playing cards, gazing at the sky, counting shooting stars?
  
You can chew on some straw, sleep in a rocker, play fetch with the dog - shoot squirrels - whatever.  
 
This is a porch we sat on for 2 days in Louisiana last weekend - visiting MawMaw at 103 years old.  Good times.  You could smell spring in the air.  The days were warm and the evenings were cool.  The towns people didn't know us from Adam, but they waved just the same as they drove by. 
   
When are we going to start sitting on the porch more often?  It's time to do - nothing.  As Paul instructs in 1 Thessalonians 4:11 - "Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands."

  

My New Boots

Well, they're not for me - they're for some little kid someday.  But I think they look cool next to mine!  He's gonna be a Texan, for sure.
  
I figure we'll go to the rodeo together in the Spring.  We'll go to the Fair in the Fall.  We'll go camping all year round.  Go dirt bik'in in the summer.
      
Maybe we'll just kick some rocks, look for girls to pester.  I'm always digin holes, he can help with that.
  
Whatever - they'll look good and clean up nice.

Grasshoppers & Spring

  I needed a break, so I walked out into the hallway area at work, to sit next to a big glass window that looks out over a beautiful garden area.  I had a piping hot cup of coffee, fresh.  The sun was filtering beautifully through the tree tops and onto a area blanketed with new springtime growth of plants and flowers.
  
It's awesome here in Plano right now.  The perfect 75 degree weather, drops to 55 at night - topdown, windows open weather.

Just fantastic.  Spring is in the air.  All things new and fresh.  The possibilities are endless. 
    
I spotted a little grasshopper feeding on the new vegetation - sitting on top of a green leaf.  I marvelled at its strange beauty - its prehistoric posture.  I envied it being out there while I was in here.  I wanted to be the grasshopper.  Nature at it's best.
      
Just as I was processing all these thoughts, a large black bird swooped down directly in front of the window, and without even touching the ground, picked up the grasshopper and disappeared into the trees above.  It all happened in the time it takes to blink an eye.
      
Ain't spring great?  :)  I'm just saying ......

 (picture taken of artwork at the Ft. Worth Arts Festival last weekend)   

A Madman in Jerusalem ?

Once, I went to Israel and made it to Jerusalem for a 6 hour tour.  I was alone except for 5 other strangers who sat in a minivan while the english speaking tour guide whipped out of Tel-Aviv, and drove 60 klics east to Jerusalem.  When we got to town, he sped around corners, pointed and shouted things like "that's where .....", and "over there to the left is .....",  "on the right at the top of the hill you can see .......".  He did this hundreds of times and I was only catching every third phrase that he spoke.  I had a map and was trying to follow it as he turned right, left, right, left.  I was sea-sick and hot and sticky and thirsty.

Then, very casually, he pointed up a hill to the left and shouted "that's where they crucified Jesus".  Never slowed down, never acknowledged much of anything, just raced on to the next site.  I turned in my seat, now just barely able to make out the hill through the rear window.  This picture is the hill he was pointing at.  (whether it really was the hill, I don't know).
   
It was a big Nothing.  A waste land of dirt and weeds, chain link fencing, electrical wires dangling, an old gas station below, trash everywhere.

I thought to myself - "no, it's impossible - surely there's more to it than that!.  Golgotha is a joke.  Don't they know I'm a tourist looking for the most sacred spot on the planet.  Can't he slow down long enough to let me focus the camera on something worth taking a picture of ...... is there anything worth taking a picture of?"

I became irate.  I'm thinking:  "The Promised Land?  This place sucks!"   And I felt guilty for thinking it.  But I can tell you, if you're looking for the land of Milk and Honey - go to Texas, or California - not Israel.  Even the beaches in Tel-Aviv are nasty - but maybe for people who don't know any better, they'll do.  What is everyone fighting for over here?  And by the way:  someone clean-up my hill!
     
Preachers use stuff like this to make a point in sermons on Sunday morning.  Like:  'it was the worst of places where Jesus came, in the worst of circumstances, for the worst of people - like you ......'  Ever heard that one before?
      
I think way back when Moses and Joshua were alive - it was an incredible place of beauty.  Then, a couple thousand years later when Jesus showed up in person - it wasn't so nice, but not too bad.  Then, a couple thousand years later when I showed up - the devil had done a lot of damage, because that's what the devil does.  He destroys beauty.  He belittles what really matters.  He takes our focus off 'The Hill' - and onto the pavement.
        
Golgotha wasn't a joke.  Jesus wasn't just some cool guy in flip-flops,  and he sure wasn't just a great teacher or philosopher.

I like how CS Lewis puts it:
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him:  "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God."  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God:  or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us."   
 
We should all be 'Madmen in Jerusalem' - crazy for Jesus.  He died on a sorry little nothing of a dirty hill - for us.