I came across this quote from a good friend who is the wisest young man I’ve ever know.
Quit looking for the solution and find the opportunity in the problem itself. Could it be that the precise reason for these problems is the opportunity to bear witness to God’s sufficiency admidst the problem? Could it be that the answer is: there is no coping strategy. Could it be that the call of Christ is not to solve the problem, but to suffer it? Perhaps the call is not to the end, but to the journey….
Maybe the gospel of Jesus … is all about our relationship with Jesus rather than about ideas. And perhaps our lists and formulas and bullet points are nice in the sense that they help us memorize different truths, but harmful in the sense that they blind us to the necessary relationship that must begin between ourselves and God for us to become His followers. And worse, perhaps our formulas and bullet points and steps steal the sincerity with which we might engage God.
http://donmilleris.com/2012/01/31/why-scripture-includes-so-much-poetry/
Youth cannot reach their potential through the influence of peers. They best mature through the influence of older, wiser, and more experienced mentors. If generational segregation was the start of the moral downfall of youth culture, than re-connection through formal mentorship is the logical solution to empower youth against the curse of low expectations.
I am, maybe, the ultimate Protestant, the man at the end of the Protestant road, for as I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Christ did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here. Well, you can read and see what you think.
Jayber Crow – Wendell Berry
For whatever reason, while looking at the x-ray of my fractured foot, it reminded me of when I was a young boy and my mother would take me to the shoe store. It seems that we always got Buster Brown shoes. What was the most fun was that when I tried on the shoes I got to use the fluoroscope to see exactly how they fit my foot. Very cool.
The gimmick changed from decade to decade to suit the market at the time, but the most famous sales pitches were that the fluoroscope allowed salesmen to better fit shoes and that it made it more fun for kids to go to the shoe store. During the Great Depression, a popular sales pitch was that the fluoroscope allowed the best possible fit, which made for longer-lasting shoes and implied that customers would not have to buy as many pairs for themselves or for their children. In reality, the shoe-fitting fluoroscope was little more than a way to attract potential customers because essentially the same fit could be obtained by simple measurements.
Buster Brown was my favorite brand of shoe. Buster hid in a shoe and had a dog named Tige.
You cannot walk the second journey with first journey tools. You need a whole new tool kit.
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr
Rohr’s statement regarding the first half of our lives and the second half has been proven correct in my experience. Most of the tools that I found necessary and useful in the first half of my life have not served me well in the second half. In fact, it never occurred to me that I would need different tools. The tools I refer to are both practical and spiritual tools. With regard to spiritual tools, my first journey spiritual tools were mostly ineffective.
One of the things I remember about my father was his propensity for always trying to do a job with whatever tools he had available rather than taking the time and expense to get the tool designed to do the job. For example, he would always repair the brakes on our cars. Removing and installing brake shoes necessitated brake spring pliers. Dad refused to procure any brake spring pliers, insisting that the job could be done with ordinary pliers. I must say that he always got the job done but at pretty high cost… busted knuckles, wasted time, frustration and anger, improper installation requiring re-installation; not to mention the lessons he was teaching his son in the process. I followed his example. Thankfully, I eventually decided to have the brakes on my vehicles repaired by a real mechanic.
In retrospect, my first journey spiritual tools were akin to the ordinary pliers my father used. It seems to me that if I had used the proper tools in the first journey, I would have been better prepared for the second half. At least I could have avoided all those busted knuckles, et al; and maybe have taught my children a different lesson.
A quote from interview with Kerry Burke who has been reporting on crime for the New York Daily News, primarily homicides—or murder and mayhem, as he tends to call it
I go into these houses and there aint no men. I walk into these places and there aint no men. There are mothers and grandmothers, and there are these children that belong to whom exactly? Families are fractured. I see the unwanted children. Sometimes they are males around, but theyre the cats who are living off of the women. They are on the couch, there for the drink and the drugs or whatever money she has. They are the broken men. But there are no men. There are no fathers. Time and time again.
The first 1:40 of this video recognizes and honors the Fern Creek HS Marine Corps Jr ROTC. Their accomplishments are outstanding.
Grandson Ryan is a member and performs with their competition drill team. He has done a great job and works very hard. I am proud of him. Congratulations and keep up the good work.
This video is a short clip from their competition this past Saturday when they placed first.
For the Joy of the Journey is back up following several frustrating days after my site was hacked. I am still tweeking the design but all my posts are recovered and I’m in the process repairing my picture links. That will take some time but I am grateful to be back on line. I have also restored my Pew Notes blog.
This experience has been helpful in a couple of ways. First, I know a lot more about websites and databases than before. Second, it was an opportunity to rethink the whole idea of blogging and social media, et al. I considered abandoning it all together but after some consideration I decided to continue. I’m not sure how much of an audience I have. If I knew exactly I would probably reverse my decision.
I am enjoying Pew Notes. I keep finding a lot of good stuff in my notes. Since both blogs are published to Facebook and Twitter, perhaps the audience will expand.
To travel by faith implies the unknown. Lewis & Clark’s Northwest Passage map was marked “Unknown”
Rom.4 Abraham – Against all hope, in unbelief…”fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised.”
Heb 11:13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
No extra baggage. Nomads don’t accumulate unnecessary baggage.
Rom 8:1 no condemnation, set free
Matt 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matt 6:25 Provisions for the journey are assured.
We have the most experienced and reliable guide.
“I will be with you.” Ex. 3:12 “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Joshua “For me and my house…” Mary “I am the Lord’s servant, let it be with me as you said.”
“The Lord is my shepherd..”
Eph 2:19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, …
Infinite God, mysterious and wonderful.
An adventure… not of a lifetime… but of an eternity.
Rom 11:33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Psalms 84:1-7
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young– a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Selah
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
Psalms 84:1-7
They pass through the Valley of Baca
People who hold out never engage the world. As pilgrims, our journey does not bypass the world but takes us through it. Ps 23 ;
Our journey does not end when we find Jesus, it is no longer a restless wandering but a journey filled with hope and joy. It is along that journey that we are salt and light to the world.
“… they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
It matters what happens in the world. Until Jesus returns, the world’s future is our future. God’s people are called to effect/infect the world.
“They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God inZion.
Prov 17:3 “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.”
We find strength in the journey. Holding On does not allow God’s power to prevail and strengthen us. “A clinched fist cannot receive a gift.”
Ps 23 I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me.
Mark 6:8-11 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff– no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.”
Christian pilgrims understand and are prepared to move. They tempted to hold on but the promise before them is greater than that which they see and they keep moving.
Elijah – I am the only one left. Rom 11:3-5
“Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”?
And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
Rev 7:9-10; 13-17
After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”…
Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes– who are they, and where did they come from?”
I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
“… they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
