Rendezvous opportunities approach here on the Great American Desert. Blurps have been arriving in my mailbox with increasing frequency the past few days. A joy to attend(although the nights can get a little chilly and damp)and a refreshing change of pace from the tech world we live in. The only technology in use at most of the gatherings of this sort that I attend was outdated by the end of the Civil War. Flintlocks and percussion caps are the firearms "order of the day," and they can be seen in use in contests that begin with the first light of dawn. Historically these "happenings" are loosely based(unless you're one of those #(*&%$purists who wants to make sure nobody is wearing cotton long johns and there's no modern day closures on your rigging)on periods of time determined long before I discovered my first. My favorite contest has to do with the axe and the hawk. There is nothing like the feel of a double blade axe in your hands on the 25 yard line. The hawk is a handy little tool that I carry most everywhere I go, but when it is at it's best it is flashing through the air with a force sufficient to cause melons to burst all over the laughing onlookers. We jeer one another, poke fun at the "newbies" and in general make everyone as miserable as we can while having a good time. All in all it's like something out of a story book, and another of the frontiersman type of things that occur out here on the plains. It's a great equalizer of men! Although being big and burly has some advantages when it comes to tossing stumps or hurling the big axe, it is not an advantage in the shooting and throwing(or spitting and chewing)! Whoosh! Talk about a level playing field, out in the woods you're so close to God's creation that you can literally taste it, and that makes for a wonderful opportunity to sit around the campfire and ponder the secrets of the universe. For NFL fans and guys who like to golf it probably doesn't sound too much like a sport they would enjoy, but it is one that brings a rare breed of individualists together for a short time. That short time provides the opportunity to find out where folks are in their faith journey. We get to encourage those who are trying to stay on the right path, and find many who aren't sure where the path is at. Wherever you find that path, though, you will know without a doubt if has been trod by disciples of Christ, it is the "right" road to be on. In Christ's Love, Preacher.
