All Us Folks!

None of us is seen from the surface, or even by carefully examining all of the sides. We, like the picture of this iceburg forwarded in from Canada, only reveal a very minute portion of ourselves to those around us. God, on the other hand, knows us and sees us through and through. Perhaps that is another reason getting close to God makes folks somewhat uneasy. I can't imagine the size of the pictured burg, but if one was only looking at it from the surface perspective think of all you are missing. So it is for the people with whom we come in contact each day of our lives. We only see a teeny tiny bit of them, and that, for most of us is hidden as best we can. There is one part of us that we cannot hide when we're with another person one on one, though.
The eyes are the mirrors of the soul, and as such they reveal much more than the outward appearance that is often taken for granted. I suppose this, too, could be overlooked, but if you really want to know who a person it is, it is necessary to get inside their eyes. If they will allow you to do that. Many people hide their eyes and try very hard to not let you see inside them. Books on criminology teach us that a person's truthfullness can be observed through the careful observation of the movements of the eyes. Spiritual leaders from all walks of life can share with us the truth of the "spirit" that shines through. In the circles I frequent that terminology goes something like, "I could just see the Christ shining through his\her eyes!" It's true! There is something about the believer that changes how their eyes shine in respect to their willingness to share the light behind them with others. Also, I might add from years of having worked behind the walls of the South Dakota State Penitentiary, one can see evil, insanity, and a host of other human ailments by simply looking into the eyes of the person.
Out here on the Great American Desert we don't ever get iceburgs like we have pictured here. An occasional pileup of ice on a river or lake, and once in awhile in the spring as the lakes are showing the first signs of "black ice" and large chunks separate from the main body of flow we see a distant mini-scale cousin of the iceburg. I'd like to visit one of these sometime. That way I could prove out one of those old axioms, "There's more to it than meets the eye."
As we roll the road of life that lies ahead it might be a very good thing to remember that "What you see" is not always, "What you get!" Usually what we get is much better than we deserve if we are riding the highway to heaven with the Lord running point and watching our six. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

How Do We Get The Lid Back On The Box?

I've been wondering. Do you suppose that if farmers out here on the Great American Desert had not become corporate entities that life could be better? I'm not doing one of those, "I remember when," things. I'm just continuing to postulate over gas prices. 60 years ago there was a farm about every quarter to a half a mile out on the praire. If they had the electricity that we enjoy today the landscape at night would have been a vision of tiny universes, each showing the location of a family that worked hard. The Pledge of Allegiance was shared in every school every morning by every individual present. Prayers were offered at every school function, and everyone bowed their head.
That was one end of the teeter totter of life. How soon will we push ourselves up from the bottom end to recover what we have lost? Your guess is as good as mine, but I know for certain it is not going to happen until we start pushing together.
In Christ's Love, Preacher.

Credit

Giving credit where credit is due is so often very hard for the individual. We all would like to be in the spotlight! A long time ago when I was 12, one of my cousins became a hero to me. The man was phenomenal! He was a football star, All-American, great at baseball, track, and one of the few people I had encountered at that early age who truly had a "philosophy" for living. His every word I hung on and listened with intense pride that he would bestow upon me the wisdom of his life. One of the most famous of his "sayings," was, "Never pass up the chance to be the hero." I quickly adapted this as a part of my own persona and continue to this day to live the echo of those words.
I began driving(tractors, pickups, and grain haulers)at the age of 9. That was common on the farms where I grew up, and none of us ever gave much thought to the cost of the fuel that went into the equipment. We pulled up by a 500 gallon tank and pulled down the hose and filled up. Today I was at the local convenience store and it was time for a fill-up. $46 later I was calculating the most recent mileage figures and being more than thankful that I can range upwards of 30 mpg. I do better on my Harleys out here on the Great American Desert. They can do 50+ mpg!
The thought has struck me that the leaders of America are missing a wonderful opportunity to "be the heros." Instead of letting gas prices soar to the outer limits of the public's ability to pay, they have the opportunity to set precedents and become, for all intents and purposes, the "hero" for the American people. I don't pretend to understand the inner working of politics. I do know that we help everyone in the world with everything they need as much as we can supply. Why is it, then, that we have to pay through the nose for everything we get from the world? Is it out of loving kindness? Is it out of some sense of guilt because life is so good in the United States? I don't think so. Putting everything in perspective economically we are paying the same prices for everything that we did in 1960. That may come as a shock to you, and I know it does to me, but things are relatively the same as they have always been with fluctuations in what the dollar is worth and what it can get you.
What has this got to do with God in my life? That is a good question. Think to the truth that lies within you. God's business is not man' business, and vice versa. God may not choose to change how things are in people's lives, but He can make a difference in how we deal with the workaday world that we live in. He calls us to be the people that we strive to be. Believers in every sense of the word, and ready to "be the hero" every day by how we live our lives and commit ourselves to His Son's teachings.
Noone said it would ever be easy, but quite often we make it harder than it has to be. Look to the Lord and you, also, shall find the answers for dealing with life in the 21st century. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

Seeking The Peace Of Understanding

There are times when I feel as though I've got a "handle" on the peace thing, but more often than not I'm wrong. Oh, don't misunderstand me, it's there, for sure! When I'm sitting at the piano working through the movement of God's Spirit dwelling within my being I am at peace. Give me a long winding highway with some distant mountains to conquer aboard one of my favorite HDs and I'm at peace. Sleeping in a tent next to the water, or high in the mountains, is pure peace for the soul in my book. Even amid the raucous clamor of camp in Sturgis during the rally I find a great peace. I believe the common thread that runs through all of this is the closeness that I feel to my Creator. Out here on the Great American Desert we seem to have a little more time to work through the issues of life than folks in urban areas. Maybe that is why when I have the opportunity to do anything I want, I make the choices that I do as a result of the desire to truly be at peace with myself and the world I live in. Wives are wonderful for pointing out those times when we get overly stressed. I give great thanks for the wife I have. She has got to be the most understanding woman on the face of this planet! We've come through some really difficult times lately. The one thing I know for certain is the ever-deepening power of prayer that sustains us in our day to day lives. You see, for us it is not so much how rough things get, it's how much better we can make them by continually solidifying our personal relationship through the excercise of prayer. It really is excercise, ya know. We build our spiritual muscles through our daily walk of faith lived! No matter what the situation we(By The Grace Of God)will persevere. Now, one might ask, do we only do this together? No! We do it individually, as a couple, in concert with our Body of Christ, and with the people we come in contact with in our greater parish, the world!
Prayer is the greatest of all equalizers(although Colonel Colt had a good handle on equalization in the west), and it is the one place we need to go often, be things going great or not so great. God calls each of us into relationship with Himself constantly. The problem becomes one of how well we are willing to listen. One of my favorite hymns is "Trust And Obey," and in that I will close for tonight, praying that each of you out there has a reason to pray every day. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

No Pictures Tonight!

Everyone seems to have an image in their mind of what our Savior must look like. During the course of the past few years I have encountered a number of pictures that are purported to carry the "exact," "definitive," and "decidedly" perfect amalgamation of characteristics that make up what must have been the "image" of my Savior. Whoosh! I cannot begin to understand where this comes from other than a personal need for some to put a "face" on the image of "grace." We don't know what Jesus looked like, people!
We have not got a clue! Paintings and statues, carvings and renditions, cannot give us an accurate point of reference from which to discern what my Savior looked like walking around healing folks. Even the photographs(this is a pun)do not really do justice to His persona.
I'm not upset, and I don't have a bone to pick or any thing else, I just want to set some of the record straight. We don't know! And we will never know until He returns, and even that leaves us wondering because when He comes again we shall be like Him. God forbid that my Savior should ever look like me or any one else that I know personally. The thing is, we all have an image in our minds that is wrong(as in we have all fallen short), but it is ours. So, if you have that picture in your mind and it helps you to be more like He would have you be throughout your walk in life, hold on to it. The greatest artists of the last few thousand years have sought to render Christ on canvas so that we might all know Him as He was. Here comes the rub....."Know Him as He is Today!!! The risen Christ cannot be portrayed on the "big" screen, or placed on a poster. There are no snap shots available, and nobody has any idea what He really looked like. Who He is in your life and in your heart is the important part of living and understanding that unfolds within us as we follow the teachings that He gave us.
I like to think of Christ as a simple fellow with a beard and long hair, but you don't have to see Him as I see Him. See Him as you see him within. Look within yourself to find the truth of the Savior that was sent to us in the image of all humankind. The innocent babe that was born in a lowly place to ascend to His Father in heaven and in the process free us from our sins. In other words, "A Hero" beyond our wildest imaginings! In Christ's Love, Preacher.

Love That Surpasses Any Other!

This is the love that God offers each of us in the gift of a Savior for all humankind. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

LIFE

These are just rambling thoughts surrounding the images that one of the folks sent me today. I have this feeling that I'm on to something that has to do with the greater truth that is found in knowing God. What you see in the pictures are the works of(from what I can tell looking at them)two ladies with an abundance of creativity in their spirits. What they are in the process of doing is bringing a new life into the waste of our world. Driftwood is fascinating in and of itself. A commodity I seek often when I'm around water, be it river, lake, or ocean. Something happens within the wood when it has been subjected to the harshness of decay and elements of an earthly sphere. Sometimes subtle, other times dramatic, but the rigors of time shine through the original, bursting forth with the image of so much more. Now, take a gifted person and hand these pieces of flotsam and jetsam over to their imaginations and what we have is "art" in a form I must admit, brings a certain sense of awe! My mother loved horses, I still love them and everything that they give to us. There is a freedom in becoming one with the animal that probably lies at the root of my love for motorcycles. The underlying message in theses pictures, though, is the wonderful way in which God has created each of us. We are all different, and unique, and what one of us cannot imagine another can! We don't all see the same things when we look at a work of art. We don't all see the same things when we look at another person. Thank God that we know He sees us as individuals each with their own gift to give. It has nothing to do with how the gift is received(as any artist can tell you), it is in the creating that we become one with the Creator, and thus our goals are realized, when we know without a doubt that we have done what we were designed to do. I'm not going to go into the details of my theological stances in relation to how this adds up in terms of good and evil. I will say that all good is of God and that the antithesis to it is from the other side. There are times when all that is necessary is for us to realize that we are doing what we have been created to do and in knowing that it is good needs no acclaim from the world, only our personal thanks to the One who has given us the gift we are allowed to share with others.
I told you I was rambling. Maybe now you will believe me when I say, "I don't have the answers, but I do have a clue!" The first clue comes in belief in the Creator and then in His Son and then in the infilling, indwelling power that is found in "The Holy Spirit" He has sent to guide each and every one of us. It is enough to know that when we step back from our labors and gaze at them in unbelief that we were able to do something so great....and then humbly acknowledge our thanks to the One who gave us the gift to do this....it is enough to know that God lives...in you...in me...in our children...in our grand children...and this is what life is all about. Each of us marches to the beat of the drum. Not every beat is the same, but when we march with God, realized to the fullest of potentials in Christ Jesus, we are getting closer to the same page. In Christ's Love, Preacher.