Only the thin line of hair suggests the pic above is not an asteroid-pocked Martian landscape. But that was my forehead just two weeks ago. Three skin cancers over 20 years have made me an habitué of dermatologists who look for precancerous hard spots on my skin. The last time, she took a look, ran her fingers over my face, neck and arms, and gave up. "You have too many actinic keratoses for me to freeze. I want to prescribe a cream, Fluorouracil, that...
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Follow Your Leader?
One entire day last week my wife and I shopped. For lighting fixtures for our bath and kitchen. Then, afternoon rush hour traffic in north San Diego County added a slow hour to our return. Likely one of the most exciting days of my life. So, to celebrate the joy, we mixed a couple of margaritas and relaxed by our waterfall to go over the day. Soon several birds landed on the fence behind the waterfall, and the count grew to seven. Cautious, wanting a bath, but leery of ...
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Spiritual Planning
Plans sometimes get changed. Radically. My Sierra plans were to fish until late Friday, then to head home and miss the Friday traffic. The snow in the pic above forced a revision. Waking to 2" of snow in my campground made outdoor cooking problematic, so I threw all my wet gear in the back of the truck and headed home. Early. Not much later I walked into a Mickey D's in Lone Pine for coffee, only to meet a middle aged guy in shorts and a hoodie, "Are you a local?" ...
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image by azquotes.com
Two Kinds Of People?
Many divide people into 2 groups: old-young, smart-stupid, lazy-motivated, and more. Kind of like the above quote, which I have no clue what he means. While sounding profound, these distinctions typically provide a simplistic view of life and humanity. BUT, God himself places people in numerical categories, so let's explore that just a bit...
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Crosspoint in the Vines
Relentless Seeking
In an almost New Testament manner, our church has a satellite campus at a winery east of Temecula. The pic above shows the view the gathered believers have during worship. This last Sunday, just after the sermon began, a small, yellow-breasted bird flew up to the window, beating his wings trying to get in. Tiring, he flew back to a grapevine branch, rested, then resumed his attempts to enter God's presence. After a few moments he tired, returned to the branch, rested again, only to head to the window. What a metaphor for seeking intimacy with God! Do we...
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image from commons.wikimedia.org
Suck It Up
Life can suck us dry. Home life. Work life. Economic life. Family life. Yeah, the list can go on. We get exhausted and have little to give. We need a break, some rest, like the lion above. A time to refill spiritually, emotionally, physically, relationally. But we can't seem to find, or create, a break in the fast pace. Even so, sometimes we need to suck it up. Not always, but sometimes. Here's why...
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Sudoku Spirituality
Years back, one of my students got me hooked. On Sudoku. During study hall he pulled out a puzzle book and I wandered over, and that's all it took. The pic above shows a puzzle, and for those not aware of Sudoku requirements, you enter the numbers 1-9 in each box of 9 spaces, in each row and column, without any duplicates. You begin with some numbers filled in and you do the rest. Every possible number candidate gets placed in a box, then you ...
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image by lunaticg.blogspot.com
Post Easter Ponderings
Hard times and trouble and frustrating people seem imbedded in my life. I suspect you share the same condition. My high sense of justice merely compounds this, and serves as a strength and a weakness. I care about those taken advantage of, who get treated unfairly. Rightly, I want to support and encourage them and take their side. That's the strength side of the justice coin. The weakness occurs when ...
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