Unconventional

Old Faith, New Following
  • Poetry
  • Reflection
  • Happenings
  • About
    • About Unconventional
    • About Tim
    • Tim's Books
    • Handouts
  • Contact
  • Poetry
  • Reflection
  • Happenings
    • About Unconventional
    • About Tim
    • Tim's Books
    • Handouts
  • Contact

Blog

  • All
  • Happenings
  • Poetry
  • Reflection
image from classicboat.co.uk

image from classicboat.co.uk

A Time to Sail

Tim Riter October 29, 2018

OK, I may get the nautical terms wrong, or just not use them, but I AM a landlubber with merely three sailing experiences. My first came when good friends and former neighbors, Ray and Carol Ann, invited Sheila and me to join them for a day on the water with their sailboat. The air rushed past my face as we flew into the wind. One side lifted as we turned, reminding me of taking a tight turn on my motorcycle, but somehow even more thrilling. The joy of “driving” it, and handling one of those wild turns as my wife screamed “Slow down!” in fear, even as Ray encouraged me on. Finally…

Read More
In Happenings Tags Sailing, Adventure, Harbor, Safety, Gates of Hell, Challenges, Impact, spiritual formation, Christian Living
image by Andy Scheer

image by Andy Scheer

Just Add Heat and...

Tim Riter October 22, 2018

A good friend, Andy Scheer, put up this pic with the tag, “In another hour, the individual dried split peas will have disappeared, leaving in their wake a wonderful, creamy soup.” Not only did it make me begin to salivate, that post of Andy’s gives a nice extended metaphor for following Jesus. Heat. Heat transformed dried or raw foods into a delectable soup. Back in high chemistry with John Gunning, I discovered that heat…

Read More
In Happenings Tags Andy Scheer, John Gunning, Heat, Tempering Steel, Trials, Trouble, Hard Times, Embrace, Christian Living, spiritual formation
Pickles.jpg

Bucket Lists

Tim Riter October 1, 2018

Bucket lists typically focus on getting dreams finished near the end of life, but we all have goals and dreams and hopes. Important tasks we desire to do. However, we all face limits that hinder those. It may be physical conditions. Despite my love of playing football, I knew that would never occur in the NFL. Too small to be a linebacker or lineman, too slow for backfield spots. Now, I did…

Read More
In Reflection Tags Goals, Dreams, Bucket Lists, Failure, Heaven, Career, Family, Knowing Jesus, spiritual formation, Christian Living
Rock Creek Aspen.jpg

Make God Laugh

Tim Riter September 24, 2018

Typically, each year brings three trips to the eastern Sierras—a May weekend, an October weekend, and four or five days in the summer. 2018 broke the mold. Plans for our granddaughter’s June wedding, which included prepping the house and yard to host the rehearsal dinner, consumed the spring. Summer featured a 6,000 mile motorcycle trip with friends, including an Iron Butt run the first day…1,000 miles on two wheels in 24 hours. The rest of the summer was given to recovering, along with a bunch of yard and house tasks. That left room for…

Read More
In Happenings Tags Sierras, Trout, Plans, Changing Plans, Adapting, Proverbs, Christian Living, spiritual formation
Image by Jeff Boyer

Image by Jeff Boyer

Who Ya Hangin' With?

Tim Riter September 17, 2018

A good friend from Taos days, Jeff Boyer, spotted this arrangement in a magazine rack, featuring a magazine containing the entire New Testament, and I weighed in, “Jesus hung with wine drinkers and sinners, so it’s appropriate his Word does the same.” Makes sense, right? But…

Read More
In Happenings Tags Jeff Boyer, Friends, Companions, Sin, Forgiveness, Reaching Others, Marijuana, Right and Wrong, Alcohol, Christian Living, spiritual formation
Bow Lake Flowers.jpg

No Good Deed

Tim Riter August 27, 2018

Many consider Lake Louise as the jewel of the Banff region in Canada, but Bow Lake, just a bit north, entranced our Gray Hog group even more. Perhaps the less than crowded conditions contributed to that. We took pics of the lake and Crowfoot Mtn from the central area, then strolled south for another angle of the glacier. Out of the many impressive qualities of Canada, we noticed the almost total lack of litter. Until, walking back to our bikes, we stopped to see …

Read More
In Happenings Tags Banff, Bow Lake, Lake Louise, Wildflowers, Good Deeds, Rewards, Personal Benefit, Approval by Others, Goodness, Christian Living, spiritual formation
image from Los Angeles Times

image from Los Angeles Times

Who's the Best?

Tim Riter July 16, 2018

Baseball’s heart throbs with competition. MVP, Cy Young, World Series. But probe below the surface, because cooperation between team members, complementing one another, and wise managing that puts each the area of their strength, provides the foundation for winning baseball. Cooperation within the team, competition without. And perhaps that gives us a metaphor for the church, because…

Read More
In Happenings Tags Shohei Ohtani, LA Angels, Zak Cozart, Blake Parker, Competition, Complementing, Cooperating, Church Life, Christian Living, spiritual formation
image from EPA

image from EPA

Copy Kilauea?

Tim Riter May 28, 2018

The Big Island grows bigger. For several decades, Kilauea safely sent lava on a downward slope to the sea, giving a bit more land to the island. But a new series of eruptions have changed things, with about two dozen fissures, or cracks in the earth’s surface, that allow lava to surge, destroying homes and highways and immolating cars. The earlier cool lava has given way to fresh and hotter lava, creating steam as it reaches the Pacific, and slowly increasing the size of Hawaii. But something struck me. Didn’t God finished creating…

Read More
In Happenings Tags Kilauea, Volcanoes, Eruption, Change, Geology, Growth, Destruction, spiritual formation, Christian Living
  • Blog
  • Older
  • Newer
TimGlacierMcDonald.jpg

A bit of an unreconstructed Jesus freak. Almost old enough to have known him when he walked this world. About 27 on the inside. Investing his life in university and teen students. Inveterate cross country motorcycle rider. Nature lover. Entranced with the power of written and spoken words. Still learning.

Read more... 


Subscribe to Unconventional

Site built by Sparkpunk using Squarespace.

Unconventional

Old Faith, New Following