Ever have a time where God led you to a surprising and unexpected place? How did that impact your connection with him? Have you surrendered enough to say, “God, I’ll do it,” with no restrictions, without knowing what may come? Check out some surprises from a recent ride.
Read MoreSongs Unsung
John Southwood and I built our connection as co-leaders for a mission trip to Penasco, NM, just outside of Taos, way back in 1973. A van and two motorcycles carried our group of six across the California and Nevada deserts to that mountain village, to help with a recreation program. We both loved running and basketball, and dealing with one EGR member forged us in fire (Extra Grace Required). I suspect struggling through the last did more than the first two. He moved to Indiana and then Tennessee, while I had a short sojourn in Taos. But we stayed in touch, and…
Read MoreSay Good Bye to Brush Popping
Dad mentored me on fishing Sierra streams, sharing what he’d learned from his grandfather. The best tip: fish where few fish. That can mean smaller streams with no campgrounds to larger and more popular ones, but in between the campgrounds. Many fisherfolk are lazy and just fish nearby. So find streams with the road far from the creek, and a good walk through brush brings you to almost virgin water. The fish have more time to grow and…
Read MoreJust Pay the Flipping Dues!
Some goals contain obstacles to deal with before we reach them—we call that paying our dues. We conquer them by focusing on the pay off. Our motorcycle ride to Idaho and Montana had a lot of them, and here’s just a few.
On Day 1, I had to cover 860 miles BEFORE we met in our riding country. Dues. About 400 miles were desert—more dues. Las Vegas lunch was Del Taco with mystery meat carne asada burrito. Gas was $5.41, but some payoff came with…
Read MoreA Tale of Two Cats
After providing a home and family to too many felines during our marriage, we were happy when our last cat passed, but we did decide to enjoy being full empty nesters.
Six months later, our visiting grandchildren brought in a visiting, just weaned kitten. Adamantly, Sheila agreed to keep it just overnight to find the owners, and she would put up “Lost Cat” signs the next day while I worked. Heading home with no signs in sight, I found him curled up on her lap, purring…
Read MoreGod's Intimidating Love
Our Life Group was discussing knowing God and how the relationship changes over time. Someone mentioned a quote by Brother Lawrence, “The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.” Then another asked, “Have you ever felt that better knowing God makes you fear him more or less?”…
Read MoreCaught on the Dot
Most of us have heard the line, “When you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember your objective is to drain the swamp."
Good advice for life. We don't have to allow the present to dominate our thoughts and emotions. Let's not get so obsessed by so enjoying the present that we ignore saving for retirement. Let's not get so obsessed with our current problems that we ignore more serious but less immediately urgent ones. I struggle with that, particularly in…
Read MorePerfectly Imperfect!
Many Bible passages trouble me. They push my limits; they invade my comfort zone; they require following Jesus as more commitment than I sometimes want to give. The worst, for me, came with Jesus’ statement, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We tend to define perfect as flawless or exact. Dang, that doesn’t sound like me at all. Humorously, the older I get the better I get at spotting my flaws. And we can’t quibble—the perfect used for the Father is the same grammatically as our target.
In the original language, the word includes being…
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