Paradise Station - Dallas & Don

Since dad passed away 2 months ago, I’ve thought about what he might be doing up there all this time.   We all have these preconceived notions about what it will be like when we die and go to heaven.  The Bible says that we are in a ‘spirit’ form during this time, before the physical rapture, when Christ returns to Earth for all believers.  Then, at that point, we take on our physical forms – our new / old bodies.  Then again, time doesn’t exist there.  So, I figure, we will be immediately transformed into both the spirit and physical – in a flash.  

Regardless – it will be exciting – we will, at that moment - finally see all those who went before us.  The grand reunion.  

One reunion I’m sure is happening now is between Dallas Bateman and Don Kanaley.  Maybe the conversation is going something like this:

The train pulled up to the station.  Don looked out the window of his first-class car, and saw a big sign swinging from a chain that read “Paradise”, it sparkled in the sun light, with a spectacular piercing brightness.  The letters were made of the biggest cut diamonds he had ever seen.   Below it, in smaller precious stones, read “Last Stop”.  He stepped outside of the cabin to the top of the stairs - and took a deep breath of pure fresh air.  He realized that he had no luggage.  Hands free he swung himself like a teenage boy, from the top step, down to the stations platform.  It was crowded, smiling faces and laughter filled the air - people everywhere, beautiful, smiling, healthy people, hugging and shouting with delight as they found friends and relatives everywhere.  It was uncontrolled excitement and joy.  And, not one piece of luggage was anywhere, not even a purse or a briefcase.

  Running toward Don was a man, shouting: “Don!   It’s you! – I heard you were coming and I’ve waited here at the station all morning – I wanted to be one of the first to greet you, and welcome you home!

  “Dallas Lane Bateman, it’s you!. Come here, let me see you closely!” Don said excitedly.  They wrapped their arms around each other for a big extended hug.

   “Holy Cow” said Dallas, “you aged some down there –  in a good way!   I haven’t seen you since 1975 – 42 earth years ago – the gray, and those wrinkles! – or as we call them ‘paths of wisdom’!.  I’m so glad you’re here – finally.   What took you so long?” 

  “It’s true, I’ve aged, I know – that’s what happens when you grow old in earths atmosphere.  I’m glad that’s over with, and now I can’t wait to get my new body back.  Lucky you Dallas – getting out of that mess when you were in your 40’s.  You never had to fight the aging – the body fat – the health issues - and look at your face – such a young man!  And, you’ve still got those classic side burns, and that Bateman grip – strong as an ox!”.

  “You’re right Don, I was the lucky one – wait till you see what we do up here – the fun never stops”.

“Still”, Dallas continued, “while I have no regrets, I have to tell you – I wish I had gotten a few more years down there to physically touch and hug all of my 4 girls, like you did.  I was watching of course – I see everything they do and hear everything they say.  But I haven’t been able to do what you did all those years – man you had a full quiver buddy!”.

 “We’ve been blessed in different ways I guess”, said Don.  “In fact, I have a 3:00 with Jesus to ask some questions – 1:1 – he sent me an invite when I arrived.  I have a long list Dallas, I hope he doesn’t mind”.

“He won’t mind – I had my list too – believe me – pages and pages of questions, and he answered them all pretty quick.  After he explained it so clearly, it all made perfect sense.  Actually, Don, once you see him, it’s so over-whelming, the questions you have will pretty much disappear – they won’t matter anymore – you’re gonna be blown away when you see his face and shake his hand.

“Let’s step over here for just a few minutes – grab a Starbucks, before the big crowd gets here to see you.  I saw them Don, on the way over, thousands, no, tens-of-thousands – on their way here to thank you.  There’s a party tonight in your honor, one of the biggest preparations I’ve seen in a long time!”.  Dallas handed him a cup of coffee as they stood by the train.  “By the way”, said Dallas, “we only have ‘Reserve’ up here, none of that cheap coffee you’ve been drinking down there!  You’re gonna need a lot of energy to shake a lot of hands and get a lot of hugs today!”.

 “I’m just glad to be here, I’ve never felt so worry and fear-free as I do now!” Don said.

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Then, leaning in, Dallas whispers - “OK, really quick, Don, before the crowds get here - I’ve been wanting to ask - that kid of yours, Scot . . he and my girl, and those 3 kids, and now those 5 grandkids.  I only met him a few times on earth when he was a teenage boy in Kenya  . . . but I've always wondered, what's it like to touch them all, to press your lips to their cheeks, to smell their hair - what's that feel like? . . .

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And so it goes on – the big catch up between Dallas and Don - sipping coffee at Paradise Station.

I Can Only Imagine.

"What MIT Grad Designed This?"

A favorite saying of mine, as I’ve gone through life criticizing the design and construction of many common, everyday items that we use in this industrialized, high-tech society of ours.  I blame the lack of ‘genius’ coming out of our universities every year, for decades now.  It’s down-right scary, and unforgivable.  I constantly wonder what CEO, COO, CMO, CSO, CFO and board of directors – allow their products to fail so easily?  How do these people sleep at night?   

Technology, in particular, doesn’t work.  To be clear, and fair, a LOT of the time - it doesn’t work.   But, come on, we all know that we fight technology every day, because so often, it just doesn’t work.  Period.  It doesn’t work the way it was promised.  Sometimes it’s a ‘user error’, but NOT usually.  I refuse to be blamed for things that should work, and work always. 

For instance, here’s a short, quick list from the top of my head:

1. Why do windshield wiper blades squeak?  100+ years of car making, and they can’t figure out how to design wiper blades, using the same ‘technology’ that they used in 1920?  Really?
2. I got a new laptop last week – it didn’t work.  On a random basis, the screen blacked out, and it wouldn’t come back, so I was having to reboot every couple of hours, losing my work and time.  I had to send it back.
3. My new high-tech refrigerator is great.  Very expensive.  Very proud.   Oh, but the doors don’t always close – so when they don’t close, an alarm will beep to let you know ‘you’ left the door open.  Really?
4. I was trying to use ‘gogo’ on American Airlines – to watch movies (for free they say) - it doesn’t work, on my laptop, ipad or phone. 
5. I bought a new microwave oven last year – expensive – professionally installed.  The door doesn’t close or open properly, unless you ‘trick’ it:  close it, push it up a little, push it down little, do a rain dance in the middle of the kitchen floor – and it should work.   Really?
6. Wi-Fi in airports – they don’t work . . .  not always.  They tell you they have free wi-fi, but some airports struggle to keep it going, and more-often-than-not, it doesn’t work, and it’s always when you need it most. 
7. While talking about planes and airports – you know what never works – the volume control for music and video on planes - - the volume is either too loud or too soft, no in between.  Either you blow your eardrums out or you can’t hear it at all.  After 100 years of aviation, billion $ planes – Really?   (and, who is the moron that pics the ‘music’ for these channels?  Really?)
8. Cable in my house - - sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t work.  Period.  It should always work perfectly, 24x7, when I need it, all day every day.  Either its an outside issue, a cable connection issue in the attic, a TV issue, a modem issue or a wi-fi issue.  Really?
9. The biggest private information security company for all Americans (a monopoly) – with all of our social security numbers and passwords – is hacked – by a 12-year old in Korea.  Really?
10. You get a new phone, the 19-year old behind the counter says it’s easy to copy all your files from the old phone to the new phone.  No – it’s not, it doesn’t work.  You lose all your texts, contacts and most of your pictures (because some copy over, but not all).  They say they can do it – but no, they can’t either – they’ve ‘never seen this problem before’. . .  Really?  I’m the only one on the planet who wants to keep ALL my data?   “Isn’t it in the cloud” I say . . . ‘yes’ he says.  “Then lets just download it from the cloud – isn’t that the point of the cloud”?  - -  silence.
11. I got a new phone.  They said to just move the SD card from the old phone to the new phone.  It didn’t fit – too big.  They said, no problem, go to the store and they will cut the card with a razor blade (or you can do it yourself) – then it will fit in the new phone.   Really? 
12. Phone battery life.   Really?
13. I was searching for movies on Netflix last night – selected a category – but when the category of movies came up, it was a different category than the one I had selected.   Really?
14. We went to see a movie the other day – fancy new theater, fancy new technology.  Half way through, the screen went black and no sound.  For 15 minutes.   When it came back, the audience screaming, it re-started at a point 20 minutes before the point that it shut down.   A 2-hour movie took 3 hours to watch.  Really? 
15. You buy new technology, and follow the directions to a ‘T’ – but the directions leave out a step, or the steps are out of order, and you can’t complete the setup.   And that’s another hot topic – those people who write the directions /documentation . .to anything, where do they get these people, what planet do they all come from?
16. I have a number of radios with AM/FM, old and new.  You try to set your channel on ‘570’ or any other station, but the needle on the dial doesn’t line up properly to the station.  To get ‘570’, you have to move the dial to ‘610’.   Don’t tell me you don’t know what I mean.  It doesn’t work, never has.
17. I bought a new stove top last month – a flat, black glass – expensive stove top.  I can’t clean it with soup and water.  So, it looks like a black Mercedes-Benz that just drove through a mud field.  I spill a little egg on the side, and it won’t come off without a special cleaning fluid and sponge, which you can purchase at ‘any’ hardware store.  Really?
18. Back-up power at the Atlanta airport – the busiest airport on the planet – doesn’t work.  Shuts down 1,500 flights for a day.  People’s lives shattered – millions.  Really?
19. We live in the newest, high-tech city in America, where we pay the highest power rates on the planet.  At least 1 time a month, summer and winter, our power goes off.  You have to cruise through the house and reset every electrical device to its proper state.  In most African nations, the power goes off, on average, once every 3 months or so because a baboon has eaten through a line.  Really?

Maybe you have better luck with technology, or you just know how to let it slide, and don’t complain.  If that’s you – you’re blessed - awesome.  I was born with the other gene.  

But, I must keep reminding myself of the scripture: Phil 4:13:  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  (well, maybe not ALL things ;{

Old Stones - New Life

Stonehenge.  Visiting this place for the first time last week was incredible.  We were staying in London, so we took a train through the English countryside to a small town, then jumped a local bus to the site. Perfect.   It was surreal, because all my life I have wanted to visit this 5,000 year old site of stones - and suddenly, there it was.  This was built in the time of Noah - that's right - Noah and the Ark, 3,000 BC.  Of course they don't know exactly when Stonehenge was erected, but they know it was around that period.

This day was cold and a little wet - typical London weather in December, and perfect Stonehenge weather.  I took this picture and will probably use it for my new screen saver - who wouldn't?  So, this stone structure is really old.

  

So what's the new life part?  Compared to Stonehenge, the birth of Jesus is 'new'.  He was born 3,000 years later, after some guys stacked these 40 ton stones - and He was talked about, eluded to, back in the Old Testament at the time of Noah.  Just as these smart guys watched and tracked the stars, the sun, the moon, to build this place - Noah built an Ark over a long period of time to save his family from the flood.  Something strange was going on, all over the world, for sure.

 

I'm not trying to connect any dots, there are no dots really.   Well, maybe just a few . . . . .

  

Merry Christmas!