tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10577653850484566462024-03-14T02:17:54.548-07:00Boring StoriesReflections from my pilgrimageGaryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-15210499294388951222010-06-11T13:49:00.000-07:002019-02-08T20:34:08.389-08:00New Job, New Blog<br />
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I'm now managing (and sometimes <a href="http://darrowmillerandfriends.com/author/gary-brumbelow/">writing</a> at) <a href="http://darrowmillerandfriends.com/">Darrow Miller and Friends</a> and invite you to follow me there.</div>
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Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-41852265327798702732010-03-12T09:55:00.000-08:002010-03-12T20:59:47.258-08:00Boy Under the Bridge<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/S5qsUYb8F3I/AAAAAAAAAHM/52LxdwOQZIM/s1600-h/1195957_16706430.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/S5qsUYb8F3I/AAAAAAAAAHM/52LxdwOQZIM/s320/1195957_16706430.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447856165415032690" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">As near as I can tell, dogs are born grateful. The rest of us have to learn it, and as Mr. Starr put it, it don’t come easy.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">At two a child can be taught to say “thank you.” By five, she can begin to get the concept of gratitude, but most of us are about 18 before we can be counted on to perform well in this abstraction. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Some people never do. There are kids who can go to the circus, see an elephant up close, eat popcorn, watch an exotic three-ring spectacle for two hours, and then whine because they didn’t get cotton candy! </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Unbelievable, and yet sometimes there’s more to ingratitude than sheer selfishness. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I know a little boy who appears ungrateful, until you know his story. He spent a couple of his early years, with his mom and dad and little brother, on the streets. He took care of his brother, ate cold french fries and learned to sleep in lots of interesting places: motel rooms, a relative’s floor, under the bridge. Mom and dad were running from one or more authorities, hiding from creditors, stoned much of the time. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">A child living like that doesn't learn gratitude. He learns want. A hole grows in his heart and no gift is ever enough. It looks like ingratitude; it’s actually a cry for security and unconditional love.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">These commodities are Jesus’ specialties. He loves the little children. He does not intend for them to fall asleep under bridges huddled with their little brothers from the cold. So what does it mean that they do in his world?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Wiser than me have debated over and disagreed about that. But even I know this: if we cannot understand what is happening </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">now</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">, we can know what is planned for </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">then</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Jesus Christ died in agony outside Jerusalem to buy our salvation, yes, and also so that children might not go on sleeping under bridges. Even as his atoning work for sin was finished, his kingdom was being inaugurated. Its fullness awaits, but even now, wherever we see wholeness emerging from brokenness, we are seeing his kingdom breaking out. That little boy now goes to sleep in his own bed every night in his new forever family. Jesus, working through a young couple who opened their hearts and home, is the one to thank.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I thought of this story recently when I was reading the first chapter of Ephesians: </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Every spiritual blessing. No unmet needs. No unfulfilled longings. No sleeping under bridges. Every satisfaction of every need. No wishing for just a little bit more, because “every spiritual blessing” will be ours. In Jesus. And because of Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">All praise and worship be unto Him.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-75809646677127231292010-02-09T15:20:00.001-08:002010-02-09T18:51:32.634-08:00Crushed With Our Griefs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/S3HyAjNxfkI/AAAAAAAAAG8/SfFpJ3YuZbI/s1600-h/slide_4402_61812_large.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 233px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/S3HyAjNxfkI/AAAAAAAAAG8/SfFpJ3YuZbI/s320/slide_4402_61812_large.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436392316479831618" /></a>When it comes to Haiti, all the news is not fit to print (to invoke the slogan of a famous newspaper).<br /><br />For one thing, it’s too much news. But more than that, it’s too much grief. Too much suffering. Too much sorrow. Too much devastation.<br /><br />How do you quantify the brokenness? From the simple standpoint of the science, the earthquake, 7.0 on the Richter scale, was centered 2.1 miles deep some 14 miles WSW of Port-au-Prince.<br /><br />More profound is the toll in human life. Estimates indicate that three million people were affected, including 230,000 who died and tens of thousands buried in mass graves. Some 20,000 commercial buildings and 225,000 residences collapsed or severely damaged. Four thousand prison inmates set loose. The educational system “totally collapsed.” The bad news overwhelms one’s psyche; the pictures depict the indescribable.<br /><br />Here’s a statistic nobody has counted: how many times has someone asked, “Where is God in all of this?”<br /><br />It’s a fair question, and at one level, the answer is straightforward: God is right there in the middle of it. When the world hurts, Jesus’ body shows up. More help comes in Jesus’ name than in any other. Jesus-followers were crawling around in the rubble in the rescue phase. They are there still in the relief.<br /><br />Yet there is another more profound answer to the where-is-God-in-the-unspeakable-pain-and-tragedy question. The prophet Isaiah wrote about it almost three millennia back, 750 years before the angels were announcing to Bethlehem’s shepherds:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him</span>. Isa 53:4-6<br /><br />Jesus Christ “adopted” our sins as his own and paid for them with his blood. He took away the reproach and condemnation that we deserved. That gospel message has sounded all over the world and is being proclaimed in Haiti today.<br /><br />But Isaiah prophesied another dimension of Jesus’ death, one that is also highly relevant to what is happening in Haiti today. He bore our griefs. He carried our sorrows.<br /><br />See any grief in Haiti today? Any sorrowing there? Jesus took it with him to Calvary. Impaled to a Roman cross in unspeakable agony, dying for the sin of the world, on him was heaped the shame and the scourging, and our sorrows and pains and griefs as well.<br /><br />In some cosmic way beyond our ability to understand, Jesus Christ has felt every pain, wept every tear, been torn with every grief. He has been weighed down with all the suffering and sadness of all the world. Look at an orphan crying for his mother: if you can feel empathy you know just a fraction of the pain Jesus felt for that very child. The burden of our griefs and sorrows was added to the piercing crush of our sin. In that place of suffering, he died.<br /><br />When Jesus hung on the cross, he was feeling the pain of Haiti. His body, the church, is in Haiti today. He was there. He is there still. Praise and glory belong to Him, the suffering, dying Savior of the world.Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-65799547530054014112009-07-07T22:02:00.000-07:002009-07-07T22:07:01.671-07:00Poor Me<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SlQpTqtkayI/AAAAAAAAAGw/FzXOrkhfcH8/s1600-h/pitiful.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 106px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SlQpTqtkayI/AAAAAAAAAGw/FzXOrkhfcH8/s320/pitiful.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355951274710035234" /></a><br />Here's something I received from George Bradley recently.<br /><br />The next time you feel like GOD can't use you, remember... <br /><br />Noah was a drunk <br />Abraham was too old <br />Isaac was a daydreamer <br />Jacob was a liar <br />Leah was ugly <br />Joseph was abused <br />Moses had a stuttering problem <br />Gideon was afraid <br />Samson was a womanizer <br />Rahab was a prostitute <br />Jeremiah and Timothy were too young <br />David had an affair and was a murderer <br />Elijah was suicidal <br />Isaiah preached naked <br />Jonah ran from God <br />Naomi was a widow <br />Job went bankrupt <br />Peter denied Christ <br />The Disciples fell asleep while praying <br />Martha worried about everything <br />The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once <br />Zaccheus was too small <br />Paul was too religious <br />Timothy had an ulcer... <br /><br />AND <br /><br />Lazarus was dead.Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-1647873842693377052009-07-04T08:52:00.001-07:002009-07-08T23:08:20.108-07:00Live Like You're Dead!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/Sk-A4VdgMvI/AAAAAAAAAGo/tAQzd-_nI50/s1600-h/cross2.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/Sk-A4VdgMvI/AAAAAAAAAGo/tAQzd-_nI50/s320/cross2.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354640187288728306" border="0"></a>You know how weird it is when someone who has been following Jesus strongly suddenly does a 180 and walks away from all that is true, right, and pure?<br /><br />I know a man who was a fine Christian leader, founder of a ministry organization, networker <span style="font-style: italic;">par excellence</span> in building his ministry and then BANG, he left his wife and family and everything related to the name of Jesus Christ.<br /><br />I used to envy his enormous energy levels and admire his broad network. Now I grieve his descent, stunned at the isolation of his new life (not quite the right word, is it?)<br /><br />That's not all. When I think of him, I am struck with the ingratitude of such behavior in view of the fact that it was our sin that nailed Jesus to the cross. (“My own ‘little’ sins included,” my heart reminds me.) How could anyone treat with contempt so unspeakable a gift as the suffering and death of the Savior?<br /><br />None of us is immune to temptation. Certainly I am not. But what grief and heartache to so many people comes from wrong choices.<br /><br />Even more, what grief we bring to a loving Savior when we sin.<br /><br />Besides, we're <span style="font-style: italic;">dead </span>to sin. Romans chapter 6 says “How can we who died to sin still live in it? ... For one who has died has been set free from sin.”<br /><br />"You're dead to sin, so live like it!" Paul says.<br /><br />What a glorious, powerful and liberating death is this death of Jesus, given to us!<br /><br />Even better, "You're alive to God!"<br /><br />What a glorious life he has given us in place of the dry, empty shell our life was before we were found in Him.<br /><br />"Don't let sin reign ... don't present your members to sin ... but present yourselves to God as those brought from death to life ..."<br /><br />Present yourself to God. With Isaiah, with Abraham, with Samuel we can say, "Here I am, Lord. I'm all yours."<br /><br />My son, Caleb, has just written a song that says this so much more powerfully than a blog. I've attached it. Listen to it and let me know what you think. (I had to use a video file format but it's actually an audio file in disguise.) <br /><br />If you like his song, you can hear more at http://greenzonestudio.com/<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyLLdFPWTclFKRTW34v_uOZ5K28ILn4VOLCkf8JHJVnUZ9pPOy_Wao_0Q88Idpmr36PQ4Duepz27xhv6_JKWA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-68000586761045692682009-06-19T15:48:00.000-07:002009-06-20T06:34:21.938-07:00Pathetic Regime, Extraordinary People<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SjwWEs1WYGI/AAAAAAAAAGg/PkM3cTJ5ncA/s1600-h/IRANProtests-TWITTER-WEB.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 258px; height: 153px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SjwWEs1WYGI/AAAAAAAAAGg/PkM3cTJ5ncA/s320/IRANProtests-TWITTER-WEB.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349174727419519074" border="0" /></a><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CGARY%7E1.ARC%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="Edit-Time-Data" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CGARY%7E1.ARC%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_editdata.mso"><!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Helvetica; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536902279 -2147483648 8 0 511 0;} @font-face {font-family:Georgia; panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Last November I wrote in this space about meeting an old couple from <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Iran who were visiting London the same time we were</st1:country-region></st1:place>. Only they didn't refer to their country by its usual name. They called it "<st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Persia</st1:place></st1:country-region>," choosing the ancient name rather than associate with a corrupt regime. (That was their testimony: "Our leadership is very bad.")
<br />
<br />Today's news of a million protesters demonstrating against that very regime makes me wonder if this precious old couple are among them. </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">At their age, probably </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;">not.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Nevertheless, the drum beat of freedom's cry goes on in the streets of Tehran, as tyrants arrest, beat and kill young people who dare to dissent.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">"<st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Persia</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s" leaders may not care about their people, but God does. In fact, in God's economy, the people of <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Iran</st1:country-region></st1:place>, made in his image, are profoundly more important than its government. <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Here's how C.S. Lewis put it a few decades ago in his compelling essay, <i>Weight of Glory</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><u1:p></u1:p>
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-family:Georgia;">Political leaders--both in <st1:country-region st="on">Iran</st1:country-region> and the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>--may have little regard for a million people struggling for freedom and the opportunity to improve their lives. Power corrupts, as Lord Acton said, and there is evidence of decaying hearts in powerful people in both nations. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=";font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style=";font-family:georgia;" ><span style="font-family:Georgia;">But <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s people, every single man, woman, boy and girl, are precious to Jesus Christ. In fact, Joel Rosenberg believes that more</span><span style=";font-family:Georgia;color:black;" > than 1 million Shia Muslims in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Iran</st1:country-region></st1:place> have turned to Christ since 1979. May the gospel and glory of Christ continue be lifted up there. And wouldn't it be something if it reached the highest levels?</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">A million Iranian citizens crying for justice deserve to be heard, not because of their own merits, but because of what it means to be human. Despots in high place may ignore them at least for awhile (although how long they can sustain their imperious posture is anybody’s guess), but from eternity things are going to look very, very different to the most vile abuser of authority. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">One more quote from C.S. Lewis to make the point:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Georgia;" >"The dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare."</span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-91919251411864917572009-04-18T22:14:00.001-07:002009-05-18T09:53:39.018-07:00A Bloody Peace<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SeqzM6wXAKI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/q10GGw-aheM/s1600-h/_45583668_007023840-1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 170px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SeqzM6wXAKI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/q10GGw-aheM/s320/_45583668_007023840-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326266543830925474" border="0" /></a>"President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe called for 'national healing' as he appeared at an independence event with his rival, the current prime minister."<br /><br />Another broken nationa, another story of the misuse of power and the resulting conflict and shattered lives.<br /><br />We don't have to look far in the headlines to see the splintered condition of today's world:<br /><br /><ul><li>Sri Lanka Rejects UN Appeal</li><li>Suicide Bomb Hits Pakistan Police</li><li>South Africa 'Doomed Under Zuma'</li><li>Israeli Military Ready to Bomb Iran</li></ul>Here in the U.S., even at the relatively simple level of political parties, the divide is growing. The Rasumussen polling group reported, in a March 29 story, that "Fifty-eight percent of voters now think politics in Washington, D.C. will be more partisan over the next year rather than more cooperative. That's up from 49% a month ago, 40% two months ago, and 34% in early January."<br /><br />Those numbers come as no surprise. And that's just the domain of politics, mild compared to divorce, family breakup, ethnic rivalry, homicide and war. Could anybody envision a real and lasting improvement, true healing, real peace? In Zimbabwe? In the Middle East? Anywhere?<br /><br />There is One who does, One who in fact has promised both peace and justice and who has already made the downpayment. He is in fact the ancient Israeli whose life and death is implicitly acknowledged with every reference to a date; our calendar is testimony to the global impact of Jesus of Nazareth.<br /><br />Writing to the church in the city of Colossae (in what is now Turkey) about 30 years after the public execution of Jesus, Paul had this to say about that death: "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."<br /><br />Why did Jesus die? Among the many dimensions to the answer is the one given above. Jesus died to bring reconciliation to all things, to make peace. His death was the downpayment for the healing of the world. At a cosmic level too profound to fully understand, the perfect God-man laid, by his death, the one true foundation for peace.<br /><br />The working out of that initial divine act is still underway. Every broken marriage that is mended, every shattered life put back together, every divided family restored ... every time enemies are reconciled, we are seeing the power of Jesus' death at work.<br /><br />The ultimate reconciliation of all things awaits the coming of his kingdom in its fullness. May that day come quickly. Until then, yes, healing and reconciliation are possible. It's true because he died. It's sure because he rose again.Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-54121743491872921072009-03-10T19:56:00.000-07:002009-03-10T21:02:16.534-07:00Only Nine Quadrillion<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SbcvKYZgvWI/AAAAAAAAAFw/qHDhH-T_fwg/s1600-h/m42_hst.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311766140901440866" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SbcvKYZgvWI/AAAAAAAAAFw/qHDhH-T_fwg/s320/m42_hst.jpg" /></a>Watch politicians very long and you'll see some strutting. (This is particularly true in the camp that, while claiming to be about the little guy, is amok with self-aggrandizement. There is, on the other hand, that kind of person who doesn't consider himself the center of the universe: he is called a conservative.) <div><br /></div><div></div><div>But I digress. I was thinking about the big-man syndrome so much a part of American politics. How great we make ourselves out to be.</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>But, of course, we're not very great. We're not even a little bit great. The most exalted ruler of the most powerful nation at the most momentous time of history has not the slightest claim on importance, notability, or weight. Not in the eyes of his Maker. </div><div></div><div><br /></div><div><em>Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers ... He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble.</em></div><div><br /></div><div></div>Man isn't big. Big is what God is. <br /><br /></em/div><div></div><div>God's job is to be big; man's job is to relish how big God is, to delight and wonder at the excellencies of His greatness, His worth and value.</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div><em>Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. ... All the nations are as nothing before Him. They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.</em><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The picture is a view of the Orion Nebula from the Hubble telescope. According to NASA, <em>"the nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar </em><a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080323.html"><em>molecular cloud</em></a><em> only 1,500 light-years away."</em></div><br />I love that "only 1,500 light-years away." Of course, 1,500 light years is 9 quadrillion miles, no puny hike, but on a cosmic scale, right next door. (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj1sDWjvgjM">Here's</a> a fun and educational little video on the subject of light years.)<br /><br />Or, to put it another way, 1,500 light years is an utterly impossible distance for man, while to God, who holds the universe in the palm of His hand, it is nothing. Nothing at all.<br /><br /><em>Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number. He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing.</em>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-52171858550245003232009-01-24T13:14:00.000-08:002009-01-30T10:13:12.191-08:00Better than a Blackberry<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SXuKKja6HoI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/LWSMP0SUSfU/s1600-h/promo_lobb.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294977700815576706" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 148px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 122px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SXuKKja6HoI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/LWSMP0SUSfU/s320/promo_lobb.jpg" border="0" /></a> My two-year-old Palm Treo isn’t as shiny as it used to be. For one thing, I’ve dropped it lots of times. (Happily, nobody was around to catch that on video.)<br /><br />More to the point, the technology has moved far beyond it. A mere 700 days ago, my Treo was a cutting-edge device. Now, the iPhones sported by some of my friends have left it in the dust.<br /><br />My Palm gives me phone access and organizes my chaos and that’s enough for me. At 55, I don’t have to lead the information technology revolution. Younger folks can wow me with their handheld window to the world. I’m still fascinated by all of it, and intrigued by a book like <em>Wikinomics</em> that elaborates on where the current trajectory could take us.<br /><br />(For example, the author notes that the goal of <em>Wikipedia</em> is to see that “every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” Amazing. And just think: if they succeed, and everybody has a handheld, maybe school will become obsolete. After all, if every fact on every subject is available to every person in seconds from any location, who needs to go to some boring class?)<br /><br />In fact, I guess <em>ChaCha</em> represents steps already taken in that direction.<br /><br />Thus does information technology advance. Even the Bible is available as software, even on a handheld. I use it myself, with great benefit.<br /><br />Still, as fascinating as all this intrusive technology may be, there’s something curious about it. If I read my Bible rightly, there is a dimension of life … a very important dimension … that cannot be digitized and downloaded.<br /><br />The following verses suggest that the nurture of God’s word cannot be reduced to streaming bits:<br /><br /><em>How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and <strong>in His law he meditates day and night</strong>. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers</em>. Psalm 1:1-3<br /><br /><em>Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; <strong>meditate on it day and night,</strong> so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful</em>. Joshua 1:8<br /><br /><em>May the words of my mouth and <strong>the meditation of my heart</strong> be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer</em>. Psalm 19:14<br /><br />The Bible is given to us as a whole-life source, one that requires regular reading and consistent contemplation. It could be thought of as the opposite of consulting a reference work. You can go to the library and dwell among the classics in reflective study, or simply pull an encyclopedia to look up a fact. Both have their appropriate uses. But they are not equal in their impact on who I am.<br /><br />Looking up a fact in a reference can be very helpful, but it has little if any impact on my character. On the other hand, when I spend time in thoughtful reflection of ideas and concepts written down by men and women of maturity and wisdom, I am changed. (Which suggests we would do well to keep going to school after all.)<br /><br />To the degree that those ideas and concepts are biblical, in synch with the one authoritative revelation available to us, the change is profound, and good, and even eternal.<br /><br />That says something about our nature, since the same Designer who made us also ordained that wisdom and prosperity come from deliberation of His divine Word.<br /><br />Maybe scriptural meditation was never easy for us distractable humans. But if there was ever a time when we were tempted to neglect it, maybe we’re living in it now.<br /><br />Or, maybe not yet.<br /><br />Maybe, if Jesus tarries, a day will come when the data stream will go straight to our brain, no handheld needed. If so, even then our nature would not change. Even in such a world, our growth and our prosperity would depend on our obedience to God’s laws: tune out the chatter, get the Word in, mull it over, think about it, dwell on it.<br /><br />That's work, to be sure, but work with better rewards. Better even than the latest Blackberry.Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-67900398678275978672008-12-20T14:40:00.000-08:002008-12-20T15:07:59.865-08:00Of Princes, Ostriches and Christmas<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SU1026RZZ3I/AAAAAAAAAE4/Gv8WAkP_blE/s1600-h/ostrich.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282006424679442290" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 230px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SU1026RZZ3I/AAAAAAAAAE4/Gv8WAkP_blE/s320/ostrich.jpg" border="0" /></a>Some 22 years ago we visited our friends, Jim & Connie Penturf, on the exotic game ranch Jim managed near Camp Verde, Texas. It was a hoot, and included some fun photography, including this shot of a pair of ostriches. (One of their empty eggshells rests on our bookcase still.)<br /><br />I'll get back to these famous birds, but segue with me here to another favorite species: <em>homo sapiens. </em>The older I get, the more appreciation I have for people. As I have blogged before, people are unique in God's creation, the only creature in fact made in the very image of God. People are capable of unbelievable good and impressive heights of genius.<br /><br />Then there’s the occasional reminder of the sheer nonsense we humans are sometimes given to. In particular, I'm thinking about this new term that keeps popping up everywhere: “Common Era."<br /><br />What better time to reflect about it than Christmas?<br /><br />Yesterday, the daily email from the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) included a story headlined, <em>Ancient coins found among Temple Mount rubble</em>. The story contained the following excerpt, “The first coin, a silver half-shekel, was apparently minted on the Temple Mount itself by Temple authorities in the first year of the Great Revolt against the Romans in 66-67 CE.”<br /><br />As you know, CE stands for “Common Era.” Actually this is not a new label; it was first used in English in 1715, a century after its first Latin use. (For that, and for much of the following, I am indebted to the Wikipedia article on the subject.)<br /><br />What’s new, however, is the growing inclination of published sources to use CE to replace AD (the abbreviation for Anno Domino, Latin for “Year of our Lord”). Using a date like "66-67AD" creates an obvious reminder that our calendar is based on the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and for some people, that's just too much.<br /><br />Most academics and media outlets have dumped AD for CE (and BC “before Christ” for BCE “before the Common Era”). Wikipedia lists <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era">arguments</a> both in favor, and opposition, of CE/BCE. Some of them have some merit. But it seems safe to suggest that the overwhelming point on the part of people who use CE instead of AD, or BCE in place of BC, is the rough equivalent of saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”<br /><br />Which reminds me of an old fable … you know, the one having to do with a prince and his attire?<br /><br />Changing the name does not change the truth. Every time I see or hear this “CE” label, I wonder (sometimes out loud) “When do they think this ‘Common Era’ began?”<br /><br />God became man, and nothing has been the same. Given that the entire planet uses a calendar based on that, creating a new tag so we don’t have to be reminded that it’s all about Jesus is a little like the behavior that ostriches are famous for.<br /><br />Which is fine, I guess, if you’re an ostrich.Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-88888862087978179372008-11-29T08:46:00.000-08:002008-12-01T16:58:35.965-08:00The Dalai Lama on Sex<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/STFyfGsUMBI/AAAAAAAAAEw/WRsIfyxyMYA/s1600-h/Dalai+Lama.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274122517325557778" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 245px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 162px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/STFyfGsUMBI/AAAAAAAAAEw/WRsIfyxyMYA/s320/Dalai+Lama.jpg" border="0" /></a>"<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081128183857.lgjbvt92&show_article=1">Sex invariably spells trouble, says Dalai Lama</a>"<br /><br />Chistians shouldn't expect to always agree with the renowned "Buddhist Master." But we don't always disagree either. He wants world peace, for example, and so do we.<br /><br />There's some truth lurking in his observation headlined above as well. What griefs, woes, suffering and agonies have issued from the corruption of this God-given wonder?<br /><br />We'll come back to that, but here's a "strange" (as Paul Harvey likes to say): Isn't it highly inconsistent for someone's offspring to demonize sex? After all, how was he conceived himself?<br /><br />Within the tenets of Buddhism, of course, he's not guilty as charged. That's because Buddhists believe the Dalai Lama represents a divine incarnation (another bit of common ground with Biblical Christianity which also affirms divine incarnation ... but only in Jesus Christ.) I, for one, am convinced that the Dalai Lama was conceived the same as every other human being (save one).<br /><br />Nevertheless, his reflection has merit. Just think of the untold tragedies stemming from the misuse of sex: betrayal, heartache, abandonment, divorce, neglected children, domestic violence, unspeakable abuse, suicide ... In a sexless world all of the above would occur at only a fraction of their current levels!<br /><br />So why don't we just all give up sex? After all, we now have technologies to ensure the procreation of the human race.<br /><br />Let's take it further: why did God create sex in the first place?<br /><br />Yes, it is God's gift. In fact, human sexuality holds unbelievable power. It is the power to beget a soul made in the image of God. (Not so for the beasts. They can only procreate animal life.)<br /><br />No wonder it causes so much havok. It's a little like a giant bulldozer capable of moving tons of earth for much benefit, when used properly. But imagine the destruction it could cause if it were allowed to run amok.<br /><br />When God gave us the ability to have children He made us co-creators with him. He intended that our use of this power would result in benefit to the creation: helping others, fixing brokenness, bringing beauty, improving the world. In short, He wanted us to bless the world in His name. And all of these have been done, in abundance, by people made in God's image and born through human volition.<br /><br />To give this ability to mankind, though, was not without risk. So we have the enormous consequences of the misuse of human sexuality, throughout human history and all over the world.<br /><br />I think we can draw at least two conclusions: 1) God places a very high value on people. Apparently, for God, the more people the better! 2) He knows something He hasn't told us about the end of the story.<br /><br />But that's for another blog entry.Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-75920808645290794002008-11-10T20:08:00.000-08:002008-11-10T21:22:39.331-08:00Still Fighting After All These Years<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267248819186452402" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SRkG5Ns0R7I/AAAAAAAAAEg/S7rVcuSyVos/s320/DSCF5206.JPG" border="0" />Do you see the suggestion of a skull near the middle of the picture? You're looking at the "Place of the Skull", near the Garden Tomb just outside the city wall of old Jerusalem.<br /><br />At the top of this cliff ... or maybe at the bottom ... is maybe where Jesus was crucified for the sin of the world.<br /><br />The other possible site is now covered with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, inside the old city. Maybe Jesus died there, maybe here; we don't know.<br /><br />What we do know is that yesterday, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the scene of an unbelievable "Christian fight."<br /><br />Here's the story as reported by ICEJ News under the headline, <strong>Christian monks brawl at Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre</strong><br /><br /><em>A mass brawl erupted on Sunday between Greek and Armenian Orthodox monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection located inside Jerusalem's Old City walls. Stunned onlookers watched as the clergymen dressed in their vestments traded punches, pushing and yelling while decorations and tapestries were scattered. The fighting began as Armenian monks marched in an annual procession to mark the Feast of the Cross, a celebration of the 4th century discovery of a cross thought to be used to crucify Jesus. Meanwhile, the Greek clerics demanded that they be allowed to place a monk near the site thought to be Jesus' tomb. The Armenians refused the request, however, seeing it as a power play for control of the site and a deviation from the Ottoman-era status quo agreement that governs relations between the six main churches who oversee the holy site. The Greek monks then blocked the procession from continuing, causing a melee that was ended by Israeli police who ended up arresting two clergymen, one from each denomination. Although there have been conflicts between the six denominations that control the site, police are rarely required to intervene. Tensions have been so high that a ladder placed on a ledge near the entrance has remained since the 19th century because of a dispute over who has the authority to remove it.</em><br /><em></em><br />An odd juxtaposition--Christ followers in a knock-down, drag-out fight right at the place of His passion.<br /><br />Jerusalem, where he was headed when another "power play" took place:<br /><br /><em>"We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."<br /><br />James and John … came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." … When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.<br /><br />Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."</em><br /><br />We like to think we're so much more sophisticated than James and John. As soon as Jesus has announced He's going to be murdered, they start positioning to be in charge when He's gone. How could they be so crass and self-serving.<br /><br />But lately Jesus' words have been striking my own heart, challenging in me the same ugly self-centeredness that broke out in one of Christianity's most sacred places yesterday.<br /><ul><li>Do I have any idea what it means to be a servant? </li><li>Am I really willing to die to my own ambition? </li><li>Why do I chafe when I think my gifts and talents are being submerged? </li><li>When do I ever stop for a nobody, as Jesus did for a blind beggar in the immediately following story in Mark 10?</li></ul><p>There's nothing sophisticated about selfishness, and there's no cure like recognizing Jesus' presence. Which reminds me of my youth.</p><p>Like most siblings, my brother and I had a real doozy of a fight from time to time. Sometimes Dad would catch us at it, and of course we immediately stopped. But he had a most effective discipline method. "Oh no," he'd say, "Don't stop. You just keep fighting! I want to see you." You know, with him watching, there was no fight left in either of us. Our attempts to keep it up, as he insisted, were pathetic and lame in his presence.</p><p>Whether we're standing outside His long-empty tomb or somewhere else, Jesus is there. If we just remember and practice His presence, what a powerful cure that will be for selfishness and turf wars.</p>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-51173424107788618792008-11-05T19:46:00.000-08:002009-07-05T13:30:15.395-07:00My Audacity of Hope<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SRJqCaWPxDI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/Q3uT7ijSEgM/s1600-h/Persia.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265387504014443570" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; width: 320px; height: 284px;" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SRJqCaWPxDI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/Q3uT7ijSEgM/s320/Persia.JPG" border="0" /></a><div>Last month, Valerie and I, with Dan & Bev Mayerle, enjoyed four days of touring England on our way home from Russia. It was our first visit and I hope we get to go back.<br /><br />On a city bus, an older gentlemen asked me, in broken English, if a particular building in the distance might be St Paul’s Cathedral? When I replied that we ourselves were headed to that famous landmark, he immediately responded, “Oh, good, we’ll go together!”<br /><br />“Persia!” was his answer when I asked where he was from. He was proud of the land of his fathers, but ashamed of its leaders (“we have a very bad government”). He fell back on the ancient name rather than admit he was from Iran.<br /><br />Our few minutes together, walking slowly down the street to the great cathedral, comprised a pleasant exchange about our families and snapping photos together (touched up here to protect their identity). We left them with a brief word of testimony of Isa, the only One who died for them and loves them still today.<br /><br />It was my first time to meet anyone from Iran, and the story serves to frame something about yesterday’s election. More about that below, but first some general observations:<br /><br />• America has a new President elect. I salute Obama’s remarkable success and genuinely want him to be an effective president. He deserves opportunity to succeed. But given what we already know about his positions, such a hope seems audacious indeed. Praise God that our hope, and faith, are not in Obama but in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />• Obama’s achievement has cast an important new vision for all black Americans.<br /><br />• This election looks like very bad news for unborn children. I hope a President Obama does not continue his senatorial trajectory of approving the murder of innocents. Robert George has written a compelling <a href="http://townhall.com/Columnists/RobertGeorge/2008/10/15/obamas_abortion_extremism">article </a>clearly spelling out that Barack Obama has been not only “pro-choice” (if such a moniker is even accurate) but clearly pro-abortion. Until now, there has been no pro-abortion law he would not support, nor any protection of the unborn, however miniscule, he would not reject.<br /><br />• Obama comes to the office at a moment of ponderous global challenges. Within hours of his election, Russia announced it is deploying missiles inside Europe in defiance of a U.S.-led missile defense plan. The Taliban has called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. These may portend what’s to come and we need to pray for courage and wisdom for a new, untried President Obama.<br /><br />I also hope a President Obama does not fulfill his pledge of no-conditions discussions with global thugs like Ahmadinejad. Which brings me back to that delightful couple from “Persia.” I read today that, “Polls taken inside Iran show that the Iranian people are the most pro-American in the Middle East, after Israel.” Reading that, I understood the warmth of our encounter with two strangers on the streets of London. May their favorable view of Americans … and the attendant opportunity for the spread of the gospel in their land … remain undiminished in the coming months and years. </div>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-55778291991986288802008-08-01T14:08:00.000-07:002008-08-02T14:32:50.923-07:00Down the Drain Forever<a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SJTP2qwZ4mI/AAAAAAAAACQ/ukFRdwiI9-I/s1600-h/DSCF9773.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SJTP2qwZ4mI/AAAAAAAAACQ/ukFRdwiI9-I/s320/DSCF9773.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5230033605381186146" /></a><br />The photo depicts what used to be Roslyn Lake, five miles east of my house. Like tens (probably hundreds) of thousands of people, we have splashed, boated and fished in this very pleasant local waterway, and picnicked on its shores, but no more.<br /><br />Roslyn was part of the Bull Run reservoir, and the stream feeding it was channeled through a most amazing wooden aqueduct. We used to drive guests up Phelps Road crossing under the aqueduct trestle and up the hill to park and look down on the clear, cold water hurrying to the lake below.<br /><br />Not any more. The lake is gone, and (I'm told) the aqueduct is soon to follow, victims to a political system too deeply infected with environmentalism to tolerate the possibility that a fish might die.<br /><br />I digress. I really use that picture and story to point to another one, penned by Mart De Haan in Our Daily Bread.<br /><br />He writes about a sewage lagoon in Sand Lake, Michigan, that disappeared into a sinkhole. "Fifteen million gallons of water suddenly disappeared." <br /><br />Even more interesting was that nobody knew where the water went. De Haan quoted a (befuddled?) county spokesperson who had the dubious privilege of offering an explanation to the press: "It will depend on where it went before we can say what happened." <br /><br />Curious syntax, but one gets the point.<br /><br />Here's the powerful spiritual parallel De Haan drew out of that intriguing story:<br /><br />"I imagined all the wrongs of my life as being like that missing filthy lagoon. ... I really don't know where they went, but they are gone. The last time I saw the real guilt of my envy, anger, and impatience, they were all nailed to the cross of a Man suffering for wrongs He never committed."<br /><br />In my teen years, shortly after my voice changed, my Dad put me on to a solo written for bass voice that was a lot of fun to sing. (I will not presume the same emotion on the part of the listeners.) De Haan's story reminds me of the words of that song:<br /><br />"They are buried in the deep, deep sea.<br />They can never, never trouble me.<br />Cease my unavailing fears, for my sins of all the years,<br />They lie buried in the deep, deep, sea."Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-84818316538622104632008-06-30T15:44:00.000-07:002008-07-01T11:04:02.165-07:00If I Make My Bed in Hell<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SGlh5tYhneI/AAAAAAAAACE/MkQhwqKCryg/s1600-h/Jesus+and+the+Junkie.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217809287348329954" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SGlh5tYhneI/AAAAAAAAACE/MkQhwqKCryg/s320/Jesus+and+the+Junkie.JPG" border="0" /></a>I found this picture on the page of a facebook friend (thanks, Jake!). When I came across it, I was preparing a message to preach in my church and it fit perfectly. In fact (as I mentioned on Sunday) I would never have thought a picture could capture the truth of 2Corinthians 5:21, but this one did.<br /><br />That verse says that Jesus was made sin for us so that we can be made the righteousness of God in Him. One writer I consulted called it the most profound verse in the Bible.<br /><br />God crossed many dimensions to become man and open to us the way of life.<br /><br /><ul><li>From infinity he came to an obscure Roman province on a dark planet in a nameless solar system in one of uncounted billions and billions of galaxies. </li><li>From somewhere outside time he made himself subject to the oppression of the aging process. </li><li>From perfect love he came to scorn and contempt. </li><li>From eternal life he came to death. </li><li>And from perfect holiness he became sin. For us, his enemies.</li></ul>Sin gives rise to many griefs: shame, ugliness, rejection, isolation, despair ... the list goes on. Jesus has felt every one of them. There is no place you can go where Jesus has not been. As David wrote in the Psalms, "Even if I make my bed in hell ... you are there!"<br /><br />Every single individual on this planet is loved and valued by Jesus Christ. Every person is born for joy, and because of Jesus' unspeakable payment, joy is just one step away.Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-84961477526938823922008-06-15T21:51:00.000-07:002008-06-16T19:26:02.892-07:00Swallowed Up by Life<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SFXygIGiEUI/AAAAAAAAAB0/pKOQOx5L1Uk/s1600-h/John+Revesz.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212338777495834946" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SFXygIGiEUI/AAAAAAAAAB0/pKOQOx5L1Uk/s320/John+Revesz.jpg" border="0" /></a>Saskatoon will never host anything like the Olympics. The airport, though modern and altogether satisfactory, could be described as intimate. Not a popular tourist spot, this prairie town happens to be a regular destination for me because of its centrality to ministries working among First Nations communities in western Canada.<br /><br />John Revesz was born near Saskatoon. Before departing for there four weeks ago, I saw John in church and made it a point to tell him where I was going. I knew he would be interested. He was always interested in people, me included.<br /><br />John couldn't see very well lately. Helen did all the driving. But he was always in church ... until a couple of weeks ago. Helen told us he was weak. Last Sunday afternoon I started a five-day meeting in Brightwood, so I wasn't home when Valerie got the call, "John is dying. Do you want to see him?"<br /><br />She did, and when I got home, I phoned. "Yes," Helen said, "he is about like yesterday." So I arranged to be there in a couple of hours. But a little before it was time to go, his daughter called back. It was too late. John saw his opportunity and took it; I had missed mine.<br /><br />An earthly pilgrimage is a thing of wonder. Here was a 97-year-old man whose parents had been born in Hungary, one of 10 children, Canadian-born but immigrated to America. He had worked as a farmer, preacher, mechanic, furniture fabricator, homebuilder, woodworker and handyman.<br /><br />Without any religious background, John had come to faith in Jesus Christ when he was 30 years old. Astride a farm tractor one day, he heard the voice of God. So he stopped the tractor and knelt in the dirt to invite Jesus into his life. "He identified immediately with God's great grace and tender mercies," as his son, Richard, put it.<br /><br />John immediately began leading young people to events where they could make the same discovery. He knew Jesus now, and it was important that other people have the opportunity for the same relationship. "Our dad made Jesus a 67-year theme," Richard said.<br /><br />A good choice. The only choice, really. At the end of 97 years, he slipped away, and that's the best part. He is gone from us, but he did not go to silence, gloom or fear. He did not, in fact, go to anything <em>less</em> than what he knew for 97 years. No, he went to much more. His mortality, as Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, was swallowed up by life.<br /><br />“Someday you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody of East Northfield is dead," wrote the famous evangelist of an earlier century. "Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal – a body that death cannot touch …”<br /><br />So it is for John Revesz. So it can be for you.Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-46450049170328929032008-06-07T09:45:00.000-07:002008-06-07T10:31:49.335-07:00Glad for 35 Years<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SErE9QDIrQI/AAAAAAAAABk/r-5tArjYRvc/s1600-h/DSCF9785.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209192475566583042" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SErE9QDIrQI/AAAAAAAAABk/r-5tArjYRvc/s320/DSCF9785.JPG" border="0" /></a>When I was 10 years old my dad became the pastor of Butte Community Bible Church in Butte, Nebraska. We moved 600 miles from the Texas panhandle to Butte, population about 500 souls, and spent 5.5 years there. <div><br /><div></div><div>That's a big chunk of one's childhood and youth, and the source of lots of stories, but the most important thing that happened to me in Butte was meeting Valerie Hansen.</div><br /><div></div><div>She was a year older and consequently, for almost the entire time of our sojourn in that little town, just out of my reach. Nevertheless, I was smitten from the beginning. There was never anyone else for me almost from the first time I saw her. But less than six months remained of that 5.5 years before I finally wore down her resistance to the idea of dating a younger guy.</div><br /><div></div><div>We married in the church in Butte on June 8, 1973. My dad performed the ceremony and we honeymooned in Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills of South Dakota.</div><br /><div></div><div>That was 35 years ago and I'm still smitten.</div><br /><div></div><div>Marriage is a thing of wonder. Like everything else in creation, it's a physical picture of something invisible, something too profound to imagine, something God wanted us to see every day to remind us of an eternal truth. </div><br /><div></div><div>For example, vines we have to picture that Jesus is the source of life to us and we need to cling to him ("abide in me" he said) and draw his life to bear fruit so the world can partake of him.</div><br /><div>Bread pictures that he is sustenance for us. Seeds and soil show us that from death comes life. Stars depict that vast company of angels who constantly do his bidding. Etc. Etc.</div><div> </div><div>And as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, the great mystery of marriage is that it pictures the love between Jesus Christ and his people. </div><br /><div></div><div>Look around and you will quickly see how many people are hungry for community, for relationship, for comfort, for unconditional love … all these are part of a good marriage, and all these are offered in the community of believers (the bride of Christ). And all these we can demonstrate in our marriages.</div><br /><div>Valerie and I just spent 48 hours celebrating that. We were at a highly popular vacation destination--the Oregon coast--where it rained and blew and stayed below 55 degrees virtually the whole time. The picture is very representative. (It's also the only one we took!)</div><br /><div>But, horrible weather notwithstanding, we just enjoyed being together without responsibilities for a couple of days.</div><br /><div>I still can't believe she fell for me. But I'm glad. </div><br /><div>I'm really glad.</div></div>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-65192375416871822572008-05-12T14:44:00.000-07:002008-05-12T15:10:08.330-07:00Pavement on the Road to HellI boarded a plane one day from Calgary to Denver and sat down by one of the nicest people you could expect to meet. He worked for Caterpillar and actually took a demotion because he found he was spending too much time away from his family in pursuit of money. He was cordial, pleasant, humble even, interested in other people … and, apparently, utterly lost.<br /><br />At the end of a conversation about spiritual matters during which I shared my own story and a couple of favorite truth analogies, I said something like this to him: “Someday God is going to knock on the door of your heart, and it will require faith on your part to answer.”<br /><br />For maybe the first time in the conversation he disagreed with me.<br /><br />“No,” he said, “I don’t see it that way. At the end of the day, I believe a life well-lived will not be rejected.”<br /><br />Since he had felt free to disagree, I reciprocated.<br /><br />“No,” I said, “I’m afraid you are mistaken. That’s the greasy-$100-bill approach,” I replied, referring to an earlier metaphor I had used that goes like this:<br /><br />If someone approached me and said, “Gary, I would like to do something really special for you. I want to give you my ranch. Here’s the deed, titles to the vehicles, all the equipment, buildings, cattle and horses … it’s yours! Enjoy!”<br /><br />If that happened to me, I said, I had two choices: I could accept it as a gift, or I could refuse it.<br /><br />The only other option, to pay for it, was way beyond my means. And if I dragged a greasy $100 bill out of my wallet and said, “Here’s 100 bucks, I can’t take that for nothing,” I would be insulting the giver.<br /><br />So it is when we try to earn God's favor. We can never muster enough goodness to earn that favor. We must receive it as a gift, or reject it. Our highest effort cannot possibly begin to earn it.<br /><br />That payment has already been made. 2000 years ago. As surreal as it may seem, on a Roman cross just outside the gates of first-century Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth provided the unique payment for the sins of the whole world for all time ... including yours ... including mine.<br /><br />So, while a well-lived life is a goal worthy of anyone, to rely on such a life to earn a good standing with God is folly.<br /><br />Maybe that's what Jesus was talking about when he said: “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” (The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verses 43-45)Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-59353802642244560722008-05-07T15:30:00.000-07:002008-05-07T16:34:39.250-07:00When Innocence is Crushed<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SCIuenEB-oI/AAAAAAAAAA8/ss_meHA9Hzc/s1600-h/kids+huslia+73.jpg"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197768023355816578" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SCIuenEB-oI/AAAAAAAAAA8/ss_meHA9Hzc/s320/kids+huslia+73.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br />Unspeakable<br /><br />That's the only word for the story about the man in Austria accused of incest. After the news first broke, I can't bear to read about it any more<br /><br />That story is only one of the worst in the daily accounts of the abuse of God's gift of human sexuality.<br /><br />Someone not convinced of the ultimate goodness and wisdom of God might be tempted to question what he was thinking about when he granted to man the ability to beget life. When God gave man that privilege, he gave away enormous power. Power for good, and power for evil.<br /><br />(That's much different, by the way, from the ability of animals to procreate. Animals don't give birth to a soul made in the image of God. Only people do that.)<br /><br />God is eternal and I am not. If my puny perspective fails to grasp what He has in mind, should I be surprised? Some day I will know even as I am known. Some day we will see what God already sees about this. Just not yet, not here.<br /><br />In the meantime, we Christ followers are called to bring His blessing and healing and reconciliation to the world. Wherever there is brokenness, we can bring healing in His name.<br /><br />There is plenty of brokenness in the communities of the North Pacific Crescent. Sexual abuse, for example, happens way too much in so many of these communities. For obvious reasons, it's almost impossible to get statistics about it, but anyone who works in these environments knows the stories.<br /><br />Too many young girls live in dread of the night. Too many bedrooms have no doors. Too many children know so little of real childhood. </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">It's hard for outsiders to understand the damage done by sexual abuse. Years after the last night of horror, people are still suffering. Marriages cannot survive, families struggle. The function of entire communities can be crippled by this reality.<br /><br />But that's not the end of the story. Jesus has His people in some of these places. His powerful love is bringing a difference.<br /><br />One of the best examples of that is a program called Hearts Going Toward Wellness. Alaska Native leaders dreamed it up and are leading the way. Check it out at </span><a href="http://news.webshots.com/album/554597374ZbNGaJ"><span style="font-family:georgia;">http://news.webshots.com/album/554597374ZbNGaJ</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br />It's our privilege to participate.<br /><br />Yours, too. Ask me how.</span>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-57017275552876994692008-05-04T09:16:00.000-07:002008-05-07T21:25:52.660-07:00No Ordinary Life<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SB84E4qxdvI/AAAAAAAAAAs/p5-sz9Wa2Bo/s1600-h/Walters+06.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5196934151591261938" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SB84E4qxdvI/AAAAAAAAAAs/p5-sz9Wa2Bo/s320/Walters+06.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Last week Valerie and I drove all the way across Oregon and Idaho to visit Bruce and Flo Walters. It's 720 miles from Boring to Rigby, a very short distance to honor two extraordinary servants.<br /><br />The neighbors probably wouldn't use that adjective to describe Bruce and Flo. After all, they live in a nice but non-descript double-wide manufactured home on an treeless street and drive an old Toyota sedan. They wear every day clothes and eat every day food because they are every day people. But if the neighbors could see them through the lens of the Kingdom of God they would never call them ordinary.<br /><br />Bruce and Flo raised their family in Idaho before going to Alaska to settle into a small community 330 crow-flight miles from the nearest road. They went simply to offer their lives to people.<br /><br />When they arrived, they were given a house to rent. Flo, like any nester, wanted to start by cleaning it up, but Bruce said <em>Let's wait for a couple of days</em>. Dust flying out an open front door at the end of a broom would say "This house is dirty" and he didn't want to offend the community.<br /><br />Of course a little dust was nothing new to Bruce, or his bride. He was an Idaho sheepherder. He grew up in the hills and benches above the Snake River and, like a certain king-to-be of Israel, lived most of his life with sheep. Like that Israeli shepherd, he killed a bear that was raiding his flock, and the .22 pistol he used to do it was more powerful than a sling only by degrees.<br /><br />That had been their life, but God called them like he called Amos, from tending sheep to offering a life to people. And they went. And they served that little community, and two or three others, through 13 years of obscurity in Alaska's desolate wilderness. The gift of their lives brought help and love and grace to some very dear people, dear to the Walters and dear to Jesus Christ.<br /><br />Now they are back in Idaho in retirement. The living room of that little manufactured home displays a simple wooden plaque expressing the love of those remote Alaska communities.<br /><br />Bruce and Flo still live pretty much in obscurity. But they have many friends in many places, whose embrace now is all the more dear to them since they found out, about a month ago, that Flo has stage 4 cancer.<br /><br />None of us knows our days. Only to God is the future clear. That's how it works: He knows and loves, we trust and obey. That He would stoop to work with people at all is something very profound. But He does. He uses the most ordinary people.<br /><br />He used Hannah, the barren wife of a polygamist, to provide the priest Samuel who rescued his people from moral collapse and became one of the most prominent leaders in the history of Israel.<br /><br />He used Simon of Cyrene ... and went out of his way to identify him ... to carry the cross upon which Jesus of Nazereth died to purchase salvation for the world.<br /><br />He used the youngest son of Jesse, a redhead despised by six older brothers, to kill a giant and deliver his people and become their greatest king, the benchmark for all the long line of royalty. He was a shepherd, like Bruce and Flo. About him the scriptures testify that "David ... served the purpose of God in his own generation ..."<br /><br />That's how God works. And because he does, in the economy of God, there is no such thing as an ordinary life.<br /><br />And as Bruce and Flo would be the first to say, it isn't about us anyway ... it's about the King.<br /><br /><em>We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.</em></div>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-83117870315369528362008-04-28T19:59:00.000-07:002008-07-03T10:20:32.389-07:00Boring Snow in April<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SBaVe4qxduI/AAAAAAAAAAk/ikgb3AWJShc/s1600-h/DSCF9629.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5194503578058847970" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SBaVe4qxduI/AAAAAAAAAAk/ikgb3AWJShc/s320/DSCF9629.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />Last Tuesday I flew to Alaska. By car, that would be 2,461 miles and take 48 hours (not counting any stops). Alaska Airlines does it in about 3.5 hours (not counting the obligatory stop in Seattle). That could be why I have flown to Alaska many times but only driven once.<br /><br />Now that I'm blogging I need to start taking my camera when I travel. This would have been the trip for pictures. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday it was about 60 degrees with beautiful sunshine. On Friday it started snowing in the morning and it was still snowing when I took off after midnight. Parts of Anchorage received 22 inches. On April 25.<br /><br />I helped a friend shovel snow off his driveway and he remarked how unusual it is to shovel snow at 10:00 p.m. in daylight.<br /><br />Driving back into Anchorage from Palmer Friday evening in a heavy snow storm, a bald eagle flew right over my car. I have never been so close to this magnificent bird and have to wonder if he was having trouble navigating in the weather.<br /><br />The picture isn't Alaska. I didn't have my camera up there. This photo was taken right here in my back yard in Boring, on April 19. A corner of our garden is visible in the middle of the picture. The lighter areas are the snow-covered grass clippings I had spread there from mowing a day or two before.<br /><br />I'm still waiting for a TV metereologist to make some remark about global warming in this, one of the longest, coldest, snowiest will-spring-ever-get-here years in memory.<br /><br /><script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"><br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />_uacct = "UA-4890866-1";<br />urchinTracker();<br /></script>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1057765385048456646.post-11097729172468044212008-04-18T20:12:00.000-07:002008-04-18T20:37:22.422-07:00Is it omaha?<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SAloZBvLryI/AAAAAAAAAAc/46-uPVQaP88/s1600-h/DSCF8122.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5190794824693559074" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qQY8ZhVcjcs/SAloZBvLryI/AAAAAAAAAAc/46-uPVQaP88/s320/DSCF8122.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div>One of the fun things about living in Boring, Oregon is ordering stuff on the phone. You know when they ask for your shipping address? The more professional telemarketers are pretty smooth about it, but sometimes I catch a suppressed chuckle when they ask "city?" and I say "Boring."<br /></div><div>"Actually," I tell them after they stop laughing, "it's such a beautiful place we have to call it something to keep the crowds away."<br /></div><div><br />(Full disclosure: The picture is actually taken about four miles up the road, in nearby Sandy, but you could get much the same picture if you chose the right spot in Boring.)<br /><br />I have been asked, more than once, "Is it boring?" to which I have replied (after asking them their location), "Is it omaha?"</div><div><br />Valerie and I (with our two sons, Zach and Caleb) moved here in 1990, before some of my readers were born, and exactly 3.27 times longer than anywhere I have ever lived in my whole life. Now the boys are grown and we have a couple of grandsons. We have planted trees and watched them grow up. Ten, in fact. Amazing.</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>Life is good. God is good.</div>Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03862111885647588286noreply@blogger.com2