Teaching Truth From TV

I have been thinking...and thinking..."pondering" is the biblical, meditative, and intellectual word that goes with thinking. "Brain Frying" is the less than intellectual, meditative or reflective way of saying where I've arrived.
My head is clouded over with way too many thoughts...thinking at times strains my mind and gets me bound up in a franctic search for just the right way to think.
OK..so what's it all about?
Teaching...specifically teaching at my church once a month in 2006.
I hit upon an idea that I'm going to flesh out here...not necessarily because it will complete the circle and make it all come together, but perhaps some of you will help me think.
I'm thinking about teaching a series of messages from TV themes.
Let's start with "Lost". A story of a group of people whose airplane crashes and they find themselves on an island. That has potential. Are we a bunch of people who don't know where we are, don't know how or if we will ever be discovered, and therefore don't know whether to build with the future in mind, or whether to "hunker down" and just make what we have work?
The "Amazing Race". A group of people all racing around the world trying to survive each round so that they can advance to the million dollar payoff. It makes me wonder what it takes to get people to venture out of the safe confines of the west to really see the world. Mostly though I think of the idea of "running the race so as to win the prize" that Paul talks about.
"CSI" -- big show (#1 in all polls). I've watched it a few times. It's birthed several "CSI" offshoots....Miami, New York, Navy...all of them based on the idea of solving the mysteries of death. It speaks loudly of our need to solve the problems of evil...in their case it's all scientific, but there is enough to let us realize that science can solve the problem of evil.
"America's Home Makeover" -- a really feel good show about how needy people go from rags to riches in terms of their homes. I love watching people get a new home...wished it could happen to every poor family in the world. It's a weekly show on "grace"...we get what we don't deserve, and way beyond our imagination.
I don't watch a lot of TV. I watch "Lost" with Linda, and as well, "The Amazing Race". The only other weekly regular is "West Wing"...which I can't quite figure out yet how to make into a teaching theme.
I suppose ESPN should factor into this somehow, don't you? NCAA football, NFL football, some basketball (March madness), a little baseball (mainly during playoffs), but definitely should be a part of life somehow. At least my sons will agree!

Boxing Day and My English daughter

It's "Boxing Day" - December 26th, the day after Christmas. For most Americans there is no celebration of Boxing Day. It is likely to get a curious "huh?" if we were to even mention it as a day. Also called "St. Stephen's Day", it is the second Christmas day in most of Europe, as well as our neighbors to the north -- that would be Canada.
It might have originated as a part of the Christmas celebration for the poor...mainly when business owners gave their workers Christmas bonuses in the form of fruits and goodies in boxes. It was, in England, a practice for workers to carry boxes to their employers on the day after Christmas where then employers would put coins in the box as year end gifts -- sort of end of the year bonuses. Another English tradition has it that the poor often worked on Christmas day and so the day after Christmas was their day to open boxes given to them by their Lords and hence was their Christmas celebration.
Interestingly, it was also a part of tradition that the Church often broke open their boxes in which people had given alms to the poor on this day after Christmas so that the coins to be distributed to the poor.
Americans celebrate boxing day with old-fashioned consumerism (don't we celebrate everything that way?).
It is the busiest "return merchandise" day of the year. The stores that sold a booty of pre-holiday merchandise throw open the doors to welcome a ton of it back and to hopefully sell out a whole lot more of discounted stuff in hopes that they can clear out their merchandise.

Well...regardless of what the purpose is, it is MY day to reflect upon my English daughter - Lindsay. I quite like the English. I have been to England quite a few times, dating back to my first trip in 1992. Little did I know that my trips to England would result in my daughter, Lindsay, meeting a Brit - Peter Osborne -- and the two of them getting married -- about 16 months ago. Last Christmas Lindsay and Peter came to the states -- what I call "home" -- even though it is not their home. Their home is in Bristol, England, or to be exact in "Almondsbury", which seems to be a very small village on a busy thoroughfare between Bristol and Thornbury. I loved having them here last year for our Christmas family celebration. I even made it a point to wish them a "Happy Boxing Day" -- which I had no idea of whether that was an appropriate greeting for that day or not.
This Christmas I had to settle for Lindsay and Peter via a webcam and the internet. Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing them on the web cam as they celebrated Christmas with us live through cyber-space. I am happy that I could see her face and watch her and Peter laugh a bit with us. The "us" was the rest of the family -- Kelly and Greg, from Chicago; Chris and Sarah, from Madison; Andrew, from right here at home; and of course Linda and I. We had gathered on Christmas eve day to celebrate: translated that means eat a lot of food, play games, watch some football -- ok, a lot of football, and have fun. We decided we'd open presents at night and so at 7:00 p.m. our time, 1:00 a.m. Christmas Day, Peter and Lindsay's time, we met online. The web cam worked wonderfully...and I loved every minute of it.
I had forgotten how beautiful Lindsay looks. I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have been surprised either at how much I wanted to reach across the web right into their living room, just so I could hold her for a few minutes and tell her that I loved her and missed her. I suppose that is what Dads are suppose to do; but I felt it ever so deeply that evening.
What I want to do is just let her know how much I love her and miss her...more than I can say even in a blog.

SO...Happy Boxing Day honey. I feel poor without you here. I love you and miss you, but I am also happy for you and Peter. The English, as far as I'm concerned, get a beautiful boxing day present.

Joy to the World

It's a Tuesday evening and I'm at my Ministry Internship class. My compadre', Joe, is waxing eloquently on the Ministry Management Tool. While he teaches, I am thinking, pondering if you will, the Advent season we're in -- this season of Joy.
Yes, it's one of the older Christmas hymns of the Church...
"Joy to the World,
the Lord has come,
Let earth receive her king."
What precipitated my pondering was a result of what I will be teaching in a couple of hours from now in my class -- the early 20th Century of Church History, and more specifically, among other things, the life of C.S. Lewis. It was while re-reading some of Lewis' background and his writings that I once again ran across this theme of "joy"...namely, in "Surprised by Joy". From early moments in Lewis' life he had known moments of what he called joy; meaning, very precisely, a sweet aching of sensing -- and in that moment longing for -- a reality of life, light and beauty beyond ordinary experience. These aching moments of life were things that he believed were common and a person searching for them could discover them with frequency.
Joy...surprised by Joy.
Every Advent I'm surprised by the joy of pondering the incarnation of our Lord. It is a "joyous" season for me...fulll of light, full of life, full of beauty. The decorations, the carols, even the cheesy holiday films like "It's a Wonderful Life" all add up for me as a season of joy.
I think I'm a product of this from my childhood. I don't have lots of fond memories of growing up, but I have lots of joyous memories of Christmas. It wasn't because there were lots of presents...we weren't that well to do to have lots of gifts. But, it was a season of surprise, and a happy time in our household...a time of family, food and fun...the stuff of what Community is made of. So, I carried that into my adulthood and sought to replicate some of that in our own family life. We made it a fun season, and the fact that it was surrounded by a greater family time, music, celebration, and real reflection on the incarnation served over and over again to lead me to moments of JOY.
That is what provoked me as I prepared for this evening...something settled over me in my memories and I smiled...a warm joyous feeling settled in. I have pictures in my head of family time...of early morning times of pondering the incarnation, of music, of my "Christmas village", of cookies, sleds, snow, of Kelly, Chris, Lindsay, Andy and Linda that flood over my soul in ways that leave me feeling full of Joy. I only wished that this season lasted all year long...I don't have any excuse for why it doesn't...just a realization that it doesn't, and I wished it would. Still, right now, for this season...even though my family is somewhat scattered and I only have the memories...I am filled with Joy.

Thanksgiving & Advent

This is probably my most favorite time of the year. Thanksgiving to Christmas - Advent if you will -- the time of the year that the Church worldwide (except Fundamentalists, Most Evangelicals and Charismatics, the groups I sadly most identify with) celebrates the Advent, or Coming, of our Lord Jesus -- The Word made flesh that dwelt among us.
I began this period this last Thursday with a celebration of Family and Friends. First of all, Thanksgiving morning, Lindsay and Peter called. They were at James and Kristi Jensen's place in a village north of London, England. Although separated by 4,000 miles and 6 hours of time, we had a chance to talk, catch up on life. The occaision of course is Thanksgiving.
Then Chris, Sarah, along with Paula, and Mary Barga came to the house in the late morning. Not too long after came Mom and Dad Barga, Michael and Kathy from Minneapolis. We ate this humongous meal of Turkey, Ham, Rolls, Corn, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, two kinds of Cranberry dishes, and topped it off a couple of hours after the meal with dessert: pumpkin pie, apple cobbler, and/or custard pie! We drank some wine, listened to stories and laughed a lot. Kelly called from Sterling to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving, which was timely since Linda was trying to reconcile her fear with her faith that Kelly was not a part of a train crash in Chicago...never can quite figure out some of the rationale behind our fears, but Kelly's call alleviated any misgivings Linda had and it was a nice "Happy Thanksgiving" from her to add to the festivities. Later in the evening we initiated the Barga clan into the "Great Dalmuti" game, hats and all. It was a great day of celebration, food, and fun.
Michael and Kathy stayed over thru Friday. They went shopping with Paula. Linda and I went out looking for a Christmas tree. We went to our favorite little tree farm, outside of Marshall -- the Hanson tree farm. There, we picked out a 10' tall Balsam. Brought it home, fit it in the tree stand and now it awaits Andy's light decorations and Linda's ornaments. Today, Linda is making cookie dough, we'll decorate the tree, and relax.
Tomorrow the Jensen clan will arrive and we'll do our annual cookie decoration get together. It is usually a noisy but fun get together.

All of this surrounds this season of Thanksgiving, and leads directly into this season of Advent. What is there not to love about a season of family, friends, celebrations and fun?
I sat this week and meditated upon my life in relation to Thanksgiving. Deuteronomy 8 is one of my favorite Old Testament passages and it is that because it's theme is "Remember"..."Don't forget"..."All that God has done for you..." It's true, that we are all prone to forgetfulness. I am prone to take things for granted, to assume, to expect, to demand, and to gripe and complain when things don't go the way I want them to. What is needed is daily doses of "thanksgiving". The simple need to say "Lord, thanks for all that I have received...for my wife and the 35 years we've been together, for my kids who are incredible and continue to humble me and make me grateful...for my friends and the joy they bring into life...for the simple, assumed things...our house, food, heat, health, job, life...life abundant and full of joy!"
All of these things, and more fill me with Thanksgiving, and then along comes Advent!!! "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"...what a fantastic season this is.

Transitions and Patience

I'm sitting in a room of young adults...twenty-somethings is the word I believe that is often applied to them...that's rather obscure and impersonal if I do say so myself. We are gathered for a time of reflection, meditation on scripture, and prayer. This half hour time in the mornings vary between nice soul preparation time for the day ahead to can we get this over with as quickly as possible. Today is a good time of reflection. It actually started on my morning jog with Tully. It snowed last night...the first snow of the year, even if it was only a dusting that left a few blotches of white dust on the back hill and in the field across the street to see...it still was the first snow.
Tully was enjoying the run. He scampered back and forth in front of me, behind me, from side to side. His joy was only interrupted by the excitement of chasing up a rabbit that moments before we arrived had probably been enjoying the comfort and warmth of its nest. Not after Tully and I showed up. He lurched rather suddenly from what moments before seemed to be just grass and ran across the lawn to escape the giant and his large hunting animal. Tully was taken quite aback..."what in the world was that" was suddenly, instinctively something he wanted in his mouth and he pulled the leash as far as he could go before realizing that I wasn't going to chase after that "thing", whatever it was. He kept running looking back at me wondering why I didn't want to go after it. I smiled and we kept running on.
For some reason, I began to think about that and how my tendency to run after things in life that aren't really worth it. I wondered if God had me on some sort of leash! Nah...it's freedom that marks us as his creation, not being an animal to control. Tully just doesn't know it is worthless to chase the rabbit, and to use the old expression...."You wouldn't know what to do with it if you caught it anyway." The problem with me is that I think I know what to do with everything I chase after.
While jogging, my mind goes in all sorts of direction. I pray some, but I also think. I began to think about transitions and patience. We use that word transition for all sorts of things. We use it of a woman in labor who goes into transition...which means a lot of pain...intense pain because the baby is coming down the birth canal and is about to be born. We use transition to talk about times in our lives when one season ends and another begins. For me transitions in life are sometimes painful, and need the tethering...the leashing of God. "A man's wisdom gives him patience..." (Proverbs 19:11). I've been in a two year period of transition. The hard part about transiton is that it does involve a certain amount of pain...birth always involves pain. It's mainly good...sometimes I wonder if I'm running after things that are worthless...hoping that I really am on God's leash...and praying for wisdom and patience.

A Quiet Soul

It's dark now...this Saturday afternoon in mid-Autumn means the Sun has set early and while the evening news is just beginning, the outside is dark. There's something very quieting about Autumn. The days are short, the evenings long, and our world slows down a bit...at least in the Northern Hemisphere!
I love this season of cooling air, warm heat, short days and long nights. I find my soul begins to catch up as my body slows down. I need that. I am much too prone to think that my real self is in my performances, in my public busyness and the accolades of people. My soul is a jumbled mess of Me...my will, my desires, my passions, my heart, and more. I hit the Fall running so fast that I don't even take time to quiet my soul...then comes Daylight Savings time...Maybe we should call it Soul Savings Time! I don't know why it changes me, but I know what happens to me -- I slow down, and my soul is quieter, my frustrations more subdued, my expectations more realistic, and my desire for quiet strong.
I started playing Christmas music the other day. I just wanted to start preparing for Christmas in my soul first. I'm not thinking about shopping, but I am celebrating the coming of my Lord. And I read, reflect, think...just think! It's a wonderful time for a quiet soul.

Praying for Eyes to See

I remember playing little league baseball. I started playing baseball when I was about 8 and kept playing until I was about 16. I was not a very good hitter, but I was a pretty good catcher so I ended up playing baseball for several years, even though I couldn't get the hang on hitting. I stopped playing in high school largely because I wanted to play golf, which I was much better at. I went on to college, then to Grad school and eventually got back to Wisconsin in my mid 20's, which led me back to playing recreational baseball. Here's the thing...all of a sudden I could hit. All the way through my little league, junior high and high school years I never could get the hang of hitting; but now all of a sudden I was hitting the ball and hitting it well. I played baseball through my 30's, getting the joy of playing softball with my sons until my late 40's. I decided to hang it up after realizing I still could hit, but kept wondering if falling over dead on the base paths from a heart attack in my old age was going to be a good way to go!
Anyway, what I realized -- sometime in my 20's when I started to play again -- was that in all of my early years my problem was that I always batted with my eyes closed! I realized that the difference was in my older years I kept my eyes open, and it made all of the difference in the world. I could see the ball, so I could hit it. Pretty simple, huh? I got to thinking about this. I kept my eyes closed, because as a catcher I knew the way the ball came to the plate, and I was fine as a catcher with all of my padding and the face mask, etc..., but when all of that was removed, I was pretty vulnerable and I was afraid. Fear led me to bat with my eyes closed. Not very smart, but understandable when you think of a child's desire to avoid pain. I began to wonder...in all of those years why didn't one of my coaches ever observe what I was doing and try to instruct me in the simple art of keeping your eyes open. I don't know...they simply didn't. Perhaps they were focused in -- as often leaders can be -- on performance. "C'mon hit the ball, you can do it...that's ok, next time..." It's encouragement without instruction. It has made me realize that fear needs to be addressed...we need to walk into our worlds with our eyes wide open.
Here's something to meditate on: 2 Kings 6:20 is one of those "wow" passages on opening our eyes. As well, so is Isaiah 42:5-7...
Oh God, I want open eyes!

Slugging it out One Day At a Time

I remember reading Eugene Peterson's book several years ago entitled, A Long Obedience In The Same Direction. Translated this book is about faith living slugging it out one day at a time. I'm old enough to say that I believe in both the thesis of the book, and my translation of it. I wished it was true that our life of faith, the journey of faith, was smooth and always ascending. I wish there were no dark times...no dark nights of the soul. I don't like difficulties, and I don't like having to make choices that bring denial to my flesh. In otherwords, I wish we could always eat steak, mashed potatoes, fried foods with pies and other desserts to end it all with.

Life isn't always easy to navigate. Some of the things I have discovered is that it's a long journey...one for me that is now 56+ years and counting. There have been many times I failed...much more failures than successes! Which is why I'm more grateful for the words "Grace and Mercy" today than I've ever been before.
It was 34 years ago while a new believer struggling with walking it all out in faith, that my professor said the immortal words I've never forgotten: Any dead fish can float downstream. Not too eloquent, but profound. It is this never give in, never give up, never stop picking yourself up off the floor after failing again and again that counts. It's a marathon of faith we're running...the secret seems to be to just keep running!

All Souls Day

Today is another of those "lesser well known" days in the Church's calendar. While All Saints Day barely is know, I doubt if most people even know about "All Souls Day". It's obvious that it follows All Saints but the emphasis is not so much on the Saints -- or remarkable people faith -- that the Church recognizes, but rather on the Souls, the people of God's creation...i.e., US. (I said US, not U.S.).
The soul is one of those remarkable things, and I dare say many people probably have a vague but very unrefined idea of what the soul is. But, it is important. I'm not going to claim that I know everything about the soul...but just reflecting upon the soul as the very center of our being...who we really are, and where the conjunction of our physical self and spiritual self come together might be the best way to describe the soul. Reflecting upon the soul biblically leads me to some interesting observations:

• 1. To Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, as well as your mind, includes the need to love him with your soul as well - Deut. 6:5 and 10:12
• 2. The picture accompaning this is a portrayal of Hannah, who in 1 Samuel 1 wept bitterly in her soul before the Lord for a child - 1 Sam. 1:10
• 3. The Psalms are full of references to the soul and include nice positive things like, "Praise the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me.", to the not so positive gut wrenching cry of "Why are you so downcast O my soul...?" -- There are 48 references to the soul in the Psalms alone.
• 4. The Prophet Isaiah speaks what many have felt when he says, "My soul yearns for you in the night..." -- Isaiah 26:9 (I usually yearn for God to help me sleep).
• 5. Jesus' words about the soul are often penetrating... "What shall it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose their soul?" and, "Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of the one who can destroy the body and the soul..." HMMM!

I could go on. It stretches my mind to think about my soul. I know that I need to take care of it. I once heard a story of an Indian guide who told his Westward bound American scouts that he needed to stop so that his soul could catch up to his body -- I understand that.
We need to care for our souls.
So, perhaps "All Souls Day" is simply a reminder that we need to take care of our souls...not to get too preoccupied with our desire to prove our worth by all of our "human doings" and instead celebrate God's life in us as "human beings". What do you think?
I leave you with he blessing of the little known book 3 John 2: "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health, and that all may go well with you, even as your SOUL is getting along well." :)

Pots, Pressure and Sick dogs

It's that wonderful day..."All Saints Eve"...forget that Halloween stuff. That's for people who want to ignore their roots of faith.
Yesterday I spoke at Mad City on "Pots, Pressure and Perspective"...some musings on God's desire to form his character within us -- from 2 Corinthians 4:7. Paul's profound words, "We have this treasure in our mortal bodies -- jars of clay (pots) -- so that the surpassing power of God might be made visible in us." (my paraphrase) I couldn't help but note that God has this unique sense of humor that causes him to take the glory of himself and dress it up in the tackiest of costumes -- us. Pressure? Well, today that comes from our sick dog -- Tertullian. He's been sick all weekend. Between his vomiting and his diarrhea this very little left within him! So tonight we took him to the Vet clinic...third time in a week. Now he's on an IV, and scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning. The doctor discovered the mass of something in his bowels and I even felt it. A squishy section that felt a little lumpy -- about 2 inches long -- that the doctor assures me is the culprit. "He'll be as good as new by tomorrow evening." I don't Tertullian understands what is about to happen to him. He's about to be violated...all of it in the name of feeling better. That's his pressure. Mine is the $500 bill that is added to normal life bills.
So, back to 2 Corinthians...perspective. "Hard pressed, but not destroyed..." thank you Lord, I need to know that.

All You Saints Pay Attention

I'm thinking about "saints" today. It is only a few days before "All Saints Day", a little known and not well celebrated event in the church today. Most celebrations like this are owned by the Catholics. They lay claim to the historic church events that fill their religious calendar every year. This celebration is still on the calendar, but it is in reality "All Saints lite" type celebration.
Why? Simply put the embarrassing incident of Luther's using this day as the time to post his propositions - debatable ones at that - 95 Thesis. He simply wanted to put the issue of Indulgences and whether or not they are part of the salvation God promised through the church. Well, little did he know the firestorm he would start.
Now, 488 years later we don't tend to celebrate this day much...perhaps the Lutherans do.
Evangelicals and Charismatics have an abysmal record for celebrating anything on the church calendar. Too bad.
There is much to say about "All Saints Day" and even if Luther had not made the day infamous, it would still be worth our time to reflect on the "great cloud of witnesses" that have gone before us.
As a student and teacher of Church History there are many Saints to be awed by...
The Early ones: Iraeneus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, The Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine to name a few.
The Middle Ones: Patrick, Columba, Anselm, Francis, Benedict, Abelard, Aquinas, Hus, Wyclif, to name a few more.
The Reformers: Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Count Zinzendorf, Melancthon, Bullinger, Knox, Cramner, Spener, to name a few more.
The Modern Ones: Bunyan, Edwards, Wesley(s), Finney, Wilberforce, Moody, Barth, Bonhoeffer, M L King and my namesake, Jim Eliot.

What they have taught me is that faith is stubborn perseverance -- all along trusting in God regardless of the circumstances and winds of compromise and comfortability that grow.
What they teach me is that "sainthood" is theologically true of every believer in Jesus Christ, but rarely expressed with greatness. NOW IF THE CHURCH I LOVE AND PARTICIPATE IN COULD ONLY LIVE LIKE IT BELIEVED ITS SAINTHOOD.
Well, anyway, Happy "All Saints Day"... Thank You Martin for your courage and love for Christ that moved you to risk it all.

Coming Up With A Message

OK...no panic...it's at least 9 days until I will preach in front of 1000 people...and I don't have much of clue on what to preach about. It's not like I haven't any thoughts...I've had a bunch. The problem is when you have lots of thoughts and none of them stand out. OH for that "move of the Spirit" that I've talked about, but long for now.
So, perhaps an online blog will help sort it out...perhaps a divine connnection will be made and it will all become clear.
First thought was...can't remember the first one.
Anyway, some of the things I've mused on was...

"Killing a Lion in Winter"...an interesting story from David's life
"The Worship of the Broken"...from the story of the prostitute who annointed Jesus' feet.
"Remember to Go Forward"...from Deuteronomy and Numbers, when the children of Israel failed to remember and went backwards for forty years.
"Authentic Pots of Glory"...from 2 Corinthians 4 on how we are containers for God's life to a world around us.
"Wake up Stupid and Smell the Roses"...OK, that's not really a message title, it just seemed like a Christopher thing to do.

Anyway...inspiration hasn't quite struck yet...but I'm working on it.
OH Yeah, I've got a bunch of neat stories to insert if I can only figure out the message...Ugh!

Heart Exercises

OK...I've re-started my blog...Inspired by my children. I love reading theres' but I don't necessarily know just what to say when I get to these times...SO...I hope this isn't just an exercise in futility.

It's one of those October days that has a bit of everything...this morning it was cool and rained, by this afternoon it was in the upper 60's and Sunny...a beautiful day. I love walking outside in weather like this.
I've been doing some jogging of late with Tertullian (Tully to everyone else). He likes to get out and I need the exercise. We tend to go out for about two miles, sometimes less. It's a good 20 minutes of heart beating faster than normal...I guess that's the goal. I need heart exercise. I turned 56 last month, not getting any younger. I also need the heart exercise that is spiritual. I'm in a bit of a funk of late. Funny, I'm teaching three to five times each week and talking about God at every session; but I've kind of hit a wall in the Spiritual side of me.
Everytime I think of the heart as the spiritual ME, I slow down...I think it's the Henri Nouwen effect. "The Way of the Heart", "The Return of the Prodigal Son", his many other writings remind me that MY heart is everything.

I love teaching...but I think about retiring.
I love the students...but I enjoy quiet space alone.
I love football....there aren't any "buts"!

Mom and I went up to Daniel and Sara Kuhfuss' wedding on Saturday. I saw old friends...naturally Bill and Sharon, but also Stan & Faye, as well as Arlan and Sandy. Arlan is doing well...or so it seems. He has now been in his wheelchair and unable to walk for almost 6 years. Still his "heart" seems good. He is looking at the positive side of it, and although honest about the desire to walk...he's not going to turn towards bitterness should it not come. I admire him for that. The church in Randolph is without a pastor right now and they wanted me to come back...but when they asked me all I could do was lower my head and rub it...it hurt to even think about going back to Pastoring.

My heart...that's what I'm musing on these days. It has plenty of exercise, but I'm working on not allowing it to get too hard!

That's it for now!