Emojis

"Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on your hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." (2 Corinthians 3:1-2)

I used to write hand written letters. Now I send short texts. I used to receive hand written letters. Now I receive short texts. Sometimes they include 💜, 😀😁😂😇😋, 👍, 🙏, and other tagged emojis'. Sometimes they are highly romantic like the one I often send to my wife: "home." Sometimes its "home, 10 min." You can imagine how she greets me at the door after a long day's absence with such spicy rhetoric.  

I can remember when I was in college I couldn't wait to get a card and letter from my neighbor, Mrs. Louise Rinker. She was a lady of Swedish descent who was one of the hardest working farm wives I ever had the privilege of knowing. She would put up this massive garden - half to put up in her three chest freezers, the other half to give away. She would make the best fruit preserves and call me over when she would open a fresh jar so that I could chew on the wax that had tightly sealed in all those wonderful fruit flavors. She would call me over to sit on the porch swing to eat a "left-over" piece of pie that she just couldn't throw away. 😁

I knew when Louise would send me a card. It was like a flat package. I knew what was inside. To my delight, Louise would tape as many quarters and sticks of gum physically possible on all sides of that card. (I was able to do my laundry that week.)You couldn't even read the words that were on the inside, hence the inserted letter. A letter from home. A letter telling me about what happened to Linda's horse, or Pa's tractor, or Little Ray's eye problems. A letter about the bountiful green beans this year or how bad the carrots did - those darn rabbits - or how beautiful the wild flowers blossomed this year. Nothing really important. Everything that was important. 

She died of pneumonia. I miss her. 

She wrote me a letter but in reality she was the letter. Or...maybe I was the letter. I was a letter that reflected her kindness, her compassion, her love. In receiving her gift, her ministry to me, I became her life's words, a living memoir to a part of her life. 

Perhaps that is why I keep certain things, like my dad's old hand written sheet music for his trumpet or an old yellowed polaroid picture of some distant relative that has my mom's writing on the back of who they were and the date. Maybe its why I cherish anniversary cards from Deb or homemade things from my girls and grandkids. Maybe I'm not a hoarder or a nostalgic. Perhaps I just want to be a selfish living memoir of the past and present, a fleshly mirror of someone who cared about me, loved me, ministered to me, or simply took the time to think about me. I am a living letter. 

No postage necessary. Quarters and gum included. 😉

snow storms and down pours

 "God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour,' so that all men he has made may know his work, he stops every man's labor." (Job 37:5-7)

Moving to a new house and ministry often means getting rid of things that unfortunately you'll have to buy when you get there. There is just so much room on the moving truck (that you want to pay for). And just as unfortunate is the fact that you'll have to practically give it away at some community garage sale and spend ten times as much on the almost brand new thing you bought two years ago that still has the price sticker stuck to it. Such is life. 

We are getting some new patio furniture for our outdoor deck space this week. For the last number of weeks its been in the nice, warm, 50's and 60's, even bumping into the 70's at times. Tonight (Tuesday) we are expecting 1-3 inches of snow. Ughhhhhh.... One step forward, two steps back. But fortunately, it won't stay long because the freezing rain will follow along with a tornado, a hurricane, and flash flooding...and a tsunami. Pessimist. Climate change. Those darn cows passing dangerous levels of methane and carbon gases, ruining our protective environmental canopy. Is there such a thing as bovine Gas-X? Perhaps a business opportunity here. 

But as my church family has reminded me, "Back here in Indiana you don't want to plant anything until after May 15th." Noted. 

Patio furniture and my newly planted hardy mums aside, I was once again forced to reconcile my desires with a God who is perfectly wise and perfectly good and perfectly loving. Forced because I received a call last week from a good friend who said his dear wife found out that she has breast cancer in both breasts. Radical surgery required. I found out this week that a former colleague's teenage son went home to be with the Lord - a heart issue from birth. In the last three or four months I have been asked to pray for brothers and sisters who were diagnosed with differing cancers, with ALS, with MS, with Covid,...snowstorms and downpours. 

We can't change what the weather will do but we can go to the God of the weather. Next time it thunders think about the marvelous voice of God. The next time is snows in April or even May be reminded that its God's witness to His presence. Stop for a moment, as the text says, and know that God is at work. 

My patio furniture just arrived - early. Hope.

Mystery Revealed

 "Listen, I tell you a mystery:  We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed -- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with the immortal." (1st Corinthians 15:51-53)

For whatever divine reason, Deb and I have moved to new ministries/homes in the fall. So it was in our move to Logansport. The leaves were for the most part off of the trees, about six inches deep on the ground, and packed into my gutters. The bushes and plants moving into botanical hibernation. We moved into a mystery. What in the world is planted all over in our yard?

It was easy to pick out the white and red river birches and the big maple in the backyard with their recognizable bark but the rest...I had no idea. I just know that my neighbor across the street said that the whole backyard was an array of color in the spring. So we anticipated the reveal. 

What a beautiful surprise. What a wonderful mystery revealed. Red buds. Tulip. Flowering Dogwood. Cherry. Burning bushes and something turning yellow by something else turning pink and white. Rose bushes (of which I am waiting to be surprised by their color). My neighbor was correct - an array of color. 

We also have some monstrous, overgrown thing that I have recently found all along the Eel River and in the overgrowth at Huston Park. It looks like a hedge type of bush/tree with bark that peels, small leaf. (If anyone knows the name of it please let me know). It looks half dead but the ends seem to have life. I know two things:  Deb hates it and my grandkids love it. It's like a little tree fort but low to the ground. I found the middle ground. I pruned it. 

I am reminded that when I look in the mirror I see, as the Apostle Paul wrote elsewhere, an unclear picture of myself. I am not what God has destined for me to be. This old body, susceptible to disease and decay, will miraculously be turned into something else. Something corruptible into something incorruptible. Something mortal into something immortal. 

The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:20, But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." 

Wow! I can't wait to see what that will look like..what that will be like. 

In the twinkling of an eye I'll turn from a half dead old hedge bush to...

I think I'll just be surprised by the reveal. 

Now let's talk about that other thing that God does in my life...pruning. 

I'd rather talk about how bad the grass looks.  

He is Risen!

 "At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people -- everyone whose name is found written in the book -- will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." 

What a wonderful Sunday! The joy of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. The joy of celebrating together - in person. The joy of singing. An emotional weekend. And even so much the more for Deb and me as we were finally able to function post-Covid. Resurrection took on a whole other meaning for me. It felt like I was back from the dead (exaggerating of course but not in the moment). 

Before writing this I looked...the last time I published was on March 10th...almost a month ago. Whew! I envy those who came down with Covid and were asymptomatic or who had a very slight case, e.g. achy, tired, a little feverish, for a few days. I was not so fortunate. But I also am thankful that I didn't wind up in the hospital as some of my dear friends did (thankfully not having to be on a ventilator but none-the-less very ill). 

It hit my lungs pretty hard. Truth be told I should have went to the ER. I probably had pneumonia but the stubborn farm boy in me was either going to get better or die. Either one was welcomed the first two weeks. 

I have a new appreciation for anyone that struggles with a long term illness or simply the daily aches and pains of aging. I was a prisoner of my house and bed for two weeks. I woke up knowing that I had to get up and move but spent the rest of the day hoping it would go quickly so I could go back to bed. Praying that tomorrow would be different. It wasn't. Sometimes it was worse. And then the on and off days of feeling better and then feeling terrible. Sickness sometimes reveals its sadistic side of torment. It felt like it just wasn't letting go of me. 

Thank God for his grace and mercy. In the grand scheme of things it was about three weeks of being set aside. Hopefully, learning some divine lessons in the process. Hopefully. 

I was reminded of another passage in the Book of Daniel as well. It was the story of the three brave men who defied the edict of the king to bow down and worship him by threat of being thrown into a blazing furnace. They refused. "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But...even if he does not...we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." 

I know this was a sickness and not a type of persecution because of forced false worship but there was a lesson in this for me. I know that God was able to heal me but...if He didn't, He was still God, still sovereign over my life, still loving and gracious and merciful, still good. How can I say this? Because Jesus is my resurrected Savior and with Him I have a sure and certain promise that when I die I will be with Him in heaven. "Where O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" Jesus took it. And one day He will come down from heaven with a trumpet blast and a shout and my plagued body will rise from the dead and be transformed into His likeness. And I will be glorified in His sight for all eternity. 

It not only reminded me of my eternity and God's sovereignty, but of my utter dependence upon God. Hebrews 1:3 reminded me, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." 

Every breath I take, every second given, every moment enjoyed or endured happens because Jesus is sustaining it. And not only this insignificant man but the whole world, the whole created universe. 

What about my witness through this?

Jesus told a story of a rich man and a beggar (Luke 16). They both died. The rich man who cared for no one but himself found himself in a tortuous place for the unrighteous wicked. The beggar found peace in the bosom of Abraham, a place of rest and peace. 

"I beg you Father Abraham," the rich man said, "send Lazarus to my father's house. for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment." 

Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the Prophets, let them listen to them. " 

"No, Father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent." 

Abraham said, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead..."

...or comes back from Covid. 

Jesus saves. Jesus sustains. Jesus is sovereign. I am a witness. 

He is risen. He is risen, indeed! And so have I (metaphorically)...at least until I have to take a nap at 3.