I suspect we all have a favorite place, one that soothes our soul and calms our spirit. Where merely being there is all we need. I discovered one of mine back in 1994: the Mount Hermon Conference center, that has led to revisits. There, walks through the redwoods not only reveal God’s love of beauty, but they enhance the spiritual tone of the conferences I’ve attended. So, in 2019, I carved out some time to take a trail down to Bean Creek. And loving the art of trout fishing…
Read MoreIn His Image
A few years back someone in our high school class set up a Facebook page to prep for our upcoming reunion, which introduced me to Roland Peachie. This previously unknown classmate from decades back creates marvelous images with photographs. He posted a pic with these words, “…the new adapter came in today, not only infinity has been fixed (I’d never realized someone broke it) but my Macro is now about 6 feet closer, which I really like.. test shots show even a different background blur with the new adapter.” Must have been Latin he was speaking…
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I like metaphors, a comparison that helps us understand something we may not yet fully know with something we already know something about. And although I’ve followed God for 52 years, many aspects of him remain hazy, uncertain, even unknowable. But what’s around us can give us some hints, like…
Read MoreBeauty As Its Own Reward
I’m a decent stream fisherman for trout. On a Sierra trip a couple of years back, in 13 hours of fishing I pulled in 43, some up to 15”. That’s pretty good for smaller Sierra streams. No brag, just fact. (Kudos to the first that gets that allusion about “no brag”). Then came McGee Creek.
Driving south on old 395, I saw the line of trees marking McGee, and was ready to drive on by. Why? In ten or twelve stops there over the years, I have caught the grand and humbling total of two trout there, both last spring. Yep, entirely shut out before. But the stream’s beauty continues to entrance me—gorgeous holes that…
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Our Vast and Varied World
Pulling out of Temecula onto I-15 at 4 AM 2 years ago, I had one primary goal. To test myself, to push my limits, to see if at 70 I could repeat the feat done at 28: riding over 1,000 miles on 2 wheels in under 24 hours. Oh yeah, I had other goals, to meet Jerry in Butte as we hit 3 of the states I had not ridden in, and then to meet Mick and Brad and head to Banff. Dawn had not yet…Then serendipity struck…
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Beauty is its Own Reward
I’m a decent stream fisherman for trout. On my last Sierra trip, in 13 hours of fishing I pulled in 43 trout, some up to 15”. That’s pretty good for smaller Sierra streams. No brag, just fact. (Kudos to the first that gets that allusion about “no brag”). Then came McGee Creek.
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image by Leilani Smith
Beauty in Hard Times
As many of you know, despite the abundant rain this last winter in NoCal, the drought continues in SoCal. A friend and former fellow teacher, Leilani Smith, started an interesting Facebook dialogue a week ago that revealed a truth of growing in Christ, right at the end. She posted a series of pics taken on a hike she took, including the one above, and this conversation ensued.
Leilani: So much sculpture on the trail this morning!
Me (as one who tries to see a spiritual hook in everything): The quality of the art ...
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Worship Band by Roots Worship Arts Academy
Blessed by Quality
If Emerson revealed truth, my mind might be gargantuan: “Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.” Apart from hat size, paradox prevails in my life. Just last week we explored how we can be “Cursed by Quality,” that a certain level of quality in worship may build expectations of regularity, and if the leaders don’t continue on that level, we experience frustration instead of ecstacy. But let’s flip the coin, because we can also be paradoxically “Blessed by Quality.”
The worship team at our church is good. Very good...
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