A Clay Jar

Prostate Cancer - One Year Later

2012-02-20T13:16:00.003-08:00

This past week I passed my one year anniversary as a cancer survivor. It was last Valentines Day that I had a Radical Prostatectomy, having my prostate removed. At that point everything looked very positive that the cancer had been completely contained within the prostate and should be gone. But there is always the chance that the cancer had spread and might have migrated into my bones. As a result my PSA, a blood test looking for a prostate antigen, become very important. With the prostate gone it should be essentially 0. But if the prostate cancer is growing in my bones that value will start to grow. Well, the good news it that as of last week it is still at that 0 threshold; there is no sign that the cancer had spread. This will continue to be an annual test just to be sure, but it was good to see.

Physically I seem to have fully recovered from the surgery, being able to do just about anything I could a year ago, other than become a new father; something I am not interested in anyway. I am left with a 4 inch scar on my lower belly that is slowly fading, but no other signs. And having the prostate gone now saves me from one of the more unpleasant aspects of the annual physical; you older guys will know what I am talking about.

I am thankful that we have the technology now to discover this cancer at an early stage and to be able to deal with it, even though that process was less than pleasant. Prostate cancer is generally a fairly slow growing cancer and easily treated when detected early, but very challenging to treat when not discovered in time. I would encourage all of you men, especially once you are over 50, to keep an eye out for this. Statistically, most men will get prostate cancer if they live long enough, so thinking it just happens to someone else is not really realistic. Keep an eye on your PSA and learn about this disease. Don't let it sneak up on you.

And my thanks again to Sue and her wonderful support through all this. To the medical staff who took such good care of me. And to all those who uplifted me in prayer during that time and still periodically check up on me. And thanks to God who has used this event in my life to draw me closer to him.

Extreme Backpacking Makeover

2012-02-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

I love being out in the woods and mountains. I enjoy the scenery and the solitude, the opportunity to sit on a rock and watch a river flow by; all day if I want to. I have been backpacking for most of the past 30 years in the Olympic Mountains and have traipsed over most of its trails at least once. And over the past couple of years I have also hiked parts of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Up until the past couple of years I would have a tendency to take pretty much anything I thought I might need to enjoy the trip and to have a relative level of safety/security/comfort. As a result my pack always weighed at least 45 pounds and as much as 65 if I was going to be out for a week. With this load I would generally shoot for about 8 miles a day with 10-12 miles being pretty much the limit. This would generally take about 4-6 hours of hiking plus an hour or so for lunch and breaks. Thus my non-sleeping part of the day was roughly divided up into two parts; trudging along the trail from camp to camp, and relaxing/exploring/hanging around camp. Now by no means was the trudging all bad. I did enjoy the walking and the scenery, but after a few hours my shoulders and hips were starting to scream at me and dropping the pack for the day became the primary thought.

During a significant portion of this time I always dreamed about cutting down on the weight, but never seemed to be able to pull it off. There was just too much stuff I needed to have. And while none of it really weighed all that much individually, when you put together enough little things they began to become pretty heavy.

A couple of seasons ago though I experienced a total makeover in my backpacking. It is hard for me to remember back to a triggering event but I suspect the adoption of using a hammock instead of a tent was probably the key. That in itself did not buy me any weight savings, but in making such a transformational change in my sleep system, it seemed to open the doors to everything else as well. I ended one season with a 5 night trip carrying 65 pounds and started the next on a 2 night trip at around 30 pounds (that the previous year would have been nearly 50). That is about 15-20 pounds of stuff left at home.

That first time out with a 30 pound pack was not just notable for the weight loss though. I set out late the first day and stopped after about 7-8 miles as it started to get dark. I felt good at the end of the day but anxiously looked ahead to climbing a pass in the snow the next day; something I was nervous about. So I was up early and quickly broke camp, optimistically hoping to get 15 miles that day and over the pass. I quit walking 27 miles later at my truck. And that included several miles in deep snow and over a high pass with no visible trail. Needless to say I was sold on the advantages of lightweight backpacking.

Now instead of trudge a few miles and then recover each day, I am able to walk pretty much from sunup to near sunset, day after day after day. Where before the highlight of the trip would be the time spent in camp, now it is watching the scenery flow by along with the miles. This has had the added benefit of allowing me to easily drop more gear that was only used for hanging around camp; it's no longer needed. Now my base pack weight, before food and water is just under 20 pounds and will likely drop another couple of pounds this year.

I am noticing another transformation that is going on at the same time. In my heavy-weight days I focused a lot on gear; gear for eating, sleeping, staying warm and dry, staying comfortable, handling emergencies, etc. My experience in the back country was pretty reliant on having good gear to handle anything that might come up, a lot of which never did. But my pack now is mostly concerned with stuff to stay warm and dry at night and food, plus a few other small essentials. So I find myself becoming less reliant on gear and more comfortable with just being out in the wild and being able to handle whatever it throws my way.

I will share in subsequent posts more of the specifics of this Extreme Backpacking Makeover, but I have to ask myself: "What took so long?" It's been very liberating!

Who Does God Love?

2012-02-13T18:07:00.000-08:00

Warning: rant to follow!

Apparently God hates:

Fags
America
Catholics
Most Protestants
Eastern Orthodox
Muslims
Jews
Hindus
President Obama
The media
The world

At least this is what the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) would have us believe. It appears to me that WBC believes that just about everyone not associated with them is hated by God. I can seem some appeal to this kind of thought since it puts one in a superior position to nearly everyone else. And, after all, who wouldn't want to be in God's inner circle.

But somehow I just have a hard time reconciling "For God so loved the world" with God hates everyone but me. It may be that I'm missing something here, but I think it more likely that the WBC folks have something out of whack. I just really, really, really have a hard time seeing Jesus picketing the funeral of two little boys because the US does not criminalize homosexuality. But it may be that they worship a different Jesus than the one I do and that I find in the pages of the New Testament.

Now don't get me wrong here; I do believe that the culture I am surrounded by, that I read about in the papers and see on TV is not one that seeks to honor God, and much that goes on in the US is immoral. More and more people in our world are abandoning faith in God for something else.

But if God hates someone, it would seem to me that they are doomed and without hope. And yet, is not the good news of the gospel that all who would "confess Jesus as Lord and believe in his resurrection would be saved"? As long as a person has breath, there is hope for them. And if that is true, then how could one say that God hates them?

It might be correct, and in my opinion is, to say that God hates sin and that much of what goes on today is destructive and harmful to a relationship with God. And that one who is walking in faith would make every effort to purify themselves from that sin. But please don't pretend to speak for God and pronounce his hatred against those who are not like you.

In my opinion, and at the risk of being judgmental myself, WBC is nothing but a small group of people, mostly one extended family, that are hate filled and use Christianity simply as an excuse to spew their hatred for the rest of the world. I can see no evidence that they themselves have experienced or know the love of God. And yet, God would save even them if they would repent and turn to him.

End of rant!

NCIS, Stephen King & Choices!

2012-02-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

My wife got me hooked on NCIS a few years ago and I believe I have now seen every episode, including the recent 200th one. I must admit that this was far from being my favorite one, but it did have an interesting twist. Gibbs appears to have been shot and killed and spends time in a diner where he encounters people from his past who confront him with choices that he had made and their ramifications. What if he had seen the sniper who killed Kate? What if he had not shot the killer of his wife and daughter? What if his wife had lived and he had stayed in the Marines instead of joining the predecessor to NCIS? It was interesting to see how his life, and others around him, would be affected by alternate choices or actions.

I just recently finished a Stephen King book titled '11/22/63'. In this story a time warp is found that sends the traveler back to late 1958. After spending some time in the past the traveler could return back to their own time, two minutes later than when they had gone in. An interesting twist is that every time you go into the past, everything is reset to the state it would have had if the trip had never been made. So you could go back, do something, return to the present and see the result, and then return to the past which undid whatever you had done the previous trip. At some point the decision is made to try and go back to prevent the assassination of John Kennedy. Without giving away the rest of the story, it was interesting to see the alternative ways that history could have come out if only some event in the past had been changed.

The similarities between these two bits of entertainment were striking to me, and caused me to think a bit. How much do my actions today affect my future, as well as other people around me? I generally have no way of knowing with any certainty what the results will be for any decision I make now, but it is definitely something to consider; to realize that my actions now will impact my tomorrow.

Way back in 1982 I was a 29 year old single guy, working full time and just finishing up on my Associates Degree. I was actively involved in a church near where I lived but had grown unhappy there. Rather than deal with those issues, I decided to move to another nearby town as an excuse to join a different church. In this new church I found a lovely young woman who, against all reasonable expectations, came to love me as much as I did her. Long story short we were married, had kids, moved into a bigger house and slowly grew old(er) together. While I am quite happy with the end result of this choice I made in 1982, I do occasionally wonder what the alternative might have been had I stayed longer and tried to work though the issues. What would my life have been like today? What would life be like for the one who today is my wife? Plus the two kids who would not even have been born.

Back in 1982 I gave no thought about the long term results of that move, and there was no way to have foretold what would happen. But it does help me to realize just how important even some seemingly unimportant choices can be. And rather than just blunder through life from day to day, how it is good to take some thought of the consequences of what I do today. And to at least avoid choices that will likely adversely affect my future.

You might think of the life ahead of you as a branching tree, with every fork being a decision point in your life. There are many possible routes you could take in your life, walking out that tree, each leading to a different future. Be sure that your choices allow you the best opportunity to have a good one.

Text Messaging, Email & Prayer

2012-02-06T15:08:00.000-08:00

The home Bible study I am a part of will be looking at Paul's prayer for the Ephesians next week. While thinking about this passage I was struck with the different kinds of communications we humans employ among ourselves and how that might apply to prayer. Prayer is, after all, communication with God and it seems like we do not always communicate with him in the same fashion.

Many people make use of Instant Messaging, or Text Messages, to talk with other people, and some make extensive use of this communications mechanism. I send text messages out periodically, although generally only to those with whom I have an existing relationship. For me, text messaging is mostly used to convey a quick bit of information or ask a simple question and is very informal.

When I first thought about text messaging in relation to prayer it seemed somewhat inappropriate. But then I realized that a lot of my prayer life is pretty quick and informal. Is not a quick blessing for a meal, a thanks for a beautiful sunset or a quick prayer for direction similar to text messaging? It's generally informal, quickly dealing with a single topic, and to one I have an established relationship with. Could it not be that firing off quick text messages to God is actually a quite appropriate for us?

I like to use email quite a bit. Email tends toward being a bit more formal than a text message, at least including some addressee and sender names, and with spelling and grammar being important, at least for me. It also tends toward being more detailed that a text message, and can frequently cover a variety of topics or issues. Another thing about email is that a response is generally not expected immediately; it may take time to get an answer from the one you are sending the email to.

I think that much of my prayer life could be described this way. I am not very big on form, but I do have a tendency to close my eyes and frequently bow my head when I am going to spend more than just a moment in prayer. While I am not very long winded in prayer, I do find that my prayers generally cover a number of topics and I try to think through what I am saying. And in general I do not really expect an immediate answer but am content to wait for God to respond in his time. This email type of prayer is probably the most common for me with a smattering of text messages thrown in as the occasion arises.

There is a third type of communication that I like and that is face to face (telephones are evil). This communication has the potential to be much more personal and has the added benefit of allowing the participants to observe all of the non-verbal cues that are missing in a text message or email. That face to face communication does not always require words either. Just walking hand in hand with one you love is a pretty powerful communication that can occur entirely without words.

This is the prayer I yearn to have with God. That intimate personal time of coming into his presence and just being with him. Luke recounts a story that illustrates this for me. Jesus comes to visit in the home of Martha and Mary. Martha gets all distracted trying to play hostess while Mary sits at his feet and listens. I like this story because, like Martha, I am so easily distracted by all that is going on around me or in my thoughts. Coming before God with a quiet and still spirit is hard, and takes a significant investment of time and, oftentimes, relocation to a place without the distractions. But the return on this investment is greater than anything that might come from investing the time elsewhere. Just coming into his presence and sitting before him, like Mary did, is the best thing I can do.

Send off frequent emails and text messages to God, that's a good thing. But be sure that you also take the time to cultivate a relationship with him by spending time at his feet, that's an essential thing if you want to grow close to him.

The Collins Inn @ Ocean Shores

2012-02-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

Sue and I took off this week to spend a couple of days at the beach, celebrating her recent birthday. We had heard a lot about The Collins Inn from the OBA pastors who had gone there the past couple of years for their retreat, so we decided to give it a try. We opted to go during the week to escape any potential weekend crowds and are glad we did.

The Inn is at the south end of Ocean Shores, overlooking the entrance to Grays Harbor. There are a lot of rentals and houses in the area, but there are none of the hotels and businesses that one finds in Ocean Shores proper. It is a very quite and peaceful part of the area. The Inn is fairly small with only four rooms on the second floor of the main building plus four 2 bedroom cottages. I can't speak for the cottages but the main building itself is beautiful and very lovingly built and maintained by the couple who own and operate the Inn.

We stayed in the Turret room, a significant portion of which was in a turret with a wrap around balcony. This was not your average cookie cutter hotel room by any means. It was very homey with a soft queen sized canopy bed, an in-room Jacuzzi tub, a small fireplace, and a fancy coffee maker that Sue enjoyed. Most of the furnishing were antiques and all arranged very well. We were able to look into two of the other rooms, and while they all had the same basic accommodations, they were each very different.

The four rooms occupied the second floor while the main floor was mostly a fancy steak house, at least it is on Friday and Saturday nights. We were not there on either night, but breakfast was included with the room. While there is a fairly limited selection for breakfast it was very good, and way too much. The owner and builder is also the chef and, based on the breakfasts we watched him make and then ate, he is a very good one. This is a very high end and classy steak house and is pretty much reservation only.

We spent two nights at the Inn and were the only guests. But that changes tonight and through the weekend as they are sold out. I would highly recommend that if you choose to go, and are able to, that you make it a midweek encounter.

The Inn sits next to a spit that runs out into the harbor and we walked out to the end of it a couple of times, about a 5 mile round trip. The second time out we were able to see about half a dozen of the Snowy Owls that have been recently making the news. If you look closely in the picture to the right you can see one of them at the center. It was pretty cool to be able to see them, as well as to explore a beach that is quite different than what you find out on the coast.

All in all this was a very enjoyable trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get away and celebrate a special occasion.

Playing with Fire: the Kindle Way!

2012-02-01T09:40:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in an earlier blog, I now have a Kindle Fire and have had about 3 weeks to play with it. The Fire is just about the same size as the Kindle 2 that I had been using although it seems a bit heavier. And I can still use it to download and read books. But that's about where the resemblance ends.

Rather than using the e-paper technology for the screen that the Kindle 2 did, the Fire uses a color LCD touch screen display. Text is still very readable; I can read for hours at a time without any strain. One thing to get used to is that the page buttons on the side of the Kindle 2 are gone and pages are flipped by stoking your finger across the page. Still easy to do but different. There are actually no physical buttons now except for the power button. All of the other controls are done by touching virtual buttons or scrolling on the touch screen. I think navigation is a bit easier, but not significantly. Managing the books in your library has become easier though. The touch screen and graphical interface are much easier to deal with once you get them figured out.

But the Fire does much more that serve as a book reader now. I can read and write email from both of my personal email accounts on the Fire, although the keyboard is still a bit small for my fingers; I still have to type with my thumbs. Facebook works very similar to the way it does on my phone, except the screen is bigger and the keyboard is bigger, making status posts easier. The Fire also includes a web browser allowing me to browse to all of the sites I normally go to, although some are a little out of whack. And so far anything that requires Flash does not work.

The Fire comes with a free 1 month subscription to Amazon Prime, which provides access to thousands of movies and TV shows which you can stream to the Fire. The promise of thousands of videos sounds much better than it actually is though. I have scrolled through the list of movies and TV shows and don't find a great number that I would be interested in watching, but there are some. Some of them are free with Amazon Prime and others cost from 99¢ to $3.99. The list of movies and shows are limited to those that Amazon has obtained some rights to, so there are not many that are really current. But those that are available are easy to stream and watch on the Fire. I have watched a couple of movies and TV shows and find performance to be very good. You will likely want to use a pair of ear buds though since the internal speakers are not very loud.

All in all the Fire is a very versatile entertainment device and I have enjoyed it so far. There are a couple of things to be aware of though. Where the Kindle 2 could go for a couple of weeks with moderate usage between charges, the Fire will not last nearly so long. I have not timed it but I would guess about 6-8 hours will run it down. The other is that to do anything with it other than read a book you will need to have an active WiFi connection. It definitely needs that access to perform any of its magic. It would be nice if you could use your cell plan to make connection to the internet, but that is not available at this time. Although if you have a mobile hot spot with your cell phone you might be able to overcome that inconvenience.

Long story short: I like it a lot.

New Patches on Old Garments

2012-01-30T14:47:00.000-08:00

I was reading through Matthew the other day and an old familiar passage jumped out and assaulted me. Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees about his disciples failure to fast at the prescribed times and responds with:

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” - Matthew 9:16-17 NIV

The Pharisees might have been OK with Jesus if he had been content to just tweak a bit here and there, patching up a few places in the garment of Judaism as practiced by the Pharisees. But Jesus told them, and his disciples, that anything short of a new set of clothes would be a waste of time. Any patching of the old man would result in a state worse that it was before.

So what does that have to say to me today? He tells me that the person I was when I came to Christ is not compatible with living in the Spirit with him. Just tweaking my life a bit here and there, putting a little paint on the worst spots and sprucing up the outside a little won't cut it. If who I am on the inside remains unchanged, then all of the patching up I do is doomed to failure. Constantly patching up my life is bound to leave me frustrated and defeated. So long as the original me is at the heart of things the struggles will be never ending. Just washing off a pig won't keep him from rolling around in the mud. You've got to change him to something else if you want to keep him clean.

In Romans 12:2 Paul encourages us to not conform to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. I believe this is also what Jesus is saying to the Pharisees here. Rather than patching up the old me, I need to become something else. To die to self and be born anew in the Spirit. If I will put on the new life of the Spirit then there is no patching required and I can experience the life he created me to have.

Now you may have noticed that there are those in our world today who seem to enjoy wearing clothes that are in need of some serious patching. In fashion I guess that is OK. But when we as Christians walk around in the rags of sin and boast about that, something is wrong. We are not called to be like the world, but to be transformed and to be a witness to it.

Father, my prayer is that you would lead me to be a living sacrifice, to not conform to the ways of this world, but to be transformed with a renewed mind. Help me to set aside the old garments of sin and self and to be clothed instead with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness and love. Be my Lord and my God!

The Pacific Crest Trail

2012-01-27T11:58:00.000-08:00

The Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT, is one of the crown jewels of the long distance hiking world; one of the longest and most challenging treks in the US, if not the world. The PCT was first conceived in 1932, designated as a National Scenic Trail in 1968, and finally finished in 1993.

The PCT is 2663 miles long and runs along the mountainous backbone of California, Oregon and Washington. Its southern terminus is at the Mexican border and in the north extends up to Manning Park, 7 miles into British Columbia. Most of this trail is through National Forests or Parks as well as other protected areas, although some portion of the trail is constructed through easements on private property. The route generally follows the ridge line of the Sierras and Cascades, avoiding populated areas and roads as much as possible. The high point of the trail is over 13,000 feet in the Sierras and the low point is at the crossing of the Columbia River, near sea level. The trail is restricted to hikers and equestrians with no wheeled vehicles, including bikes, allowed.

The PCT, like the Appalachian Trail (AT) and the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) are popular trails for day hikers, section hikers (those doing some portion of the trail) as well as thru-hikers (those attempting the whole trail in a single season). Approximately 300 hikers a year tackle the trail as thru-hikers with about 60% of them actually completing the whole 2663 miles in a single hiking season. Most of these thru-hikers leave from the Mexican border in mid April and arrive in Manning Park about 5 months later in mid September. This requires that the thru-hiker average nearly 20 miles a day, although the daily mileage is usually greater to allow for rest and resupply days in towns that are near the trail. Thru-hikers come in just about every color, size, shape, nationality, age and gender. Most are young white lanky males, but there are plenty of women, aged folks and those whose shape is anything but lanky. Last year a 13 year old girl completed the whole trip, and 70 year olds have also been known to complete the trail. The only thing this diverse group has in common is the willingness to walk from dawn to dusk nearly every day for 5 months through desserts and mountains, across snow and raging streams, in the rain, snow, cold and heat, sleeping on the ground and eating 4000 calories a day of dried foods that they have been carrying for up to a week. That and the drive to reach Canada before the snow sets in.

I don't remember when I first heard about the PCT, but for at least the past 30 years it has been a dream of mine to hike it someday. I have never seriously considered trying to do the whole thing in one year, but rather a section of the trail each year until I have finished the whole thing. The fulfillment of that dream started in 2010 when a friend and I hiked the northern 70 miles of the trail, and it was beautiful. Last year I had planned on doing the nearly 200 miles to the south of there, but the high snow levels pushed me down into Oregon and I did the northern 160 miles of that state in 8 days. This year the goal is to bite off about 300 miles of the trail in a bit more leisurely fashion, taking about 3 weeks with more frequent town stops. I have not yet decided which section of the trail to do this year, waiting to see how much snow we get this winter as well as dealing with some logistical issues. Stay tuned for more information as the summer draws nearer.

And yes, I am a little bit crazy :)

In God We Trust!

2012-01-24T13:56:00.000-08:00

In God we trust. It is the American motto and is inscribed on every bill and every coin in my pocket. So it must be true ... right? I am not absolutely sure who the we is in this expression, but I assume it to mean the American public; you, me and the other 300 million plus people who live in this country. And surely all of us in this Christian nation trust in God ... don't we?

Trust, according to the dictionary, means 'reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.' I would think that reliance is the operative word here. If I trust in something, then I am relying on that something to come through for me in some way. I trust in Facebook and email for communication with people outside my home; in other words I rely on them to keep me in touch with friends and extended family. I trust in my truck to get me to the hardware store and back; I rely on it for transportation. I trust in my wife for many things, relying on her to make me more than I would otherwise be. I trust my government to send me a retirement check each month and to provide me with a certain level of physical security; if I could not rely on them for those things then I would have to work until I died, fortify my home and arm my person. And I trusted my surgeon to remove the cancer from my body; relying on him to do the job that he had been trained to perform.

But do I trust in God? I believe I do. I trust him for my eternity: "I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.¹" I trust him to provide me with a knowledge of his will for my life, both morally and with life direction. And I trust him to use whatever happens to me to shape me for his purpose. So yes, I believe I trust in God, at least for those things where that reliance is appropriate.

But what about our nation? Is it true that the American public actually trusts in God? According to recent surveys only about 3/4 of the population of our country makes any claims to being Christian. That means that 1/4 of our population either trusts in a different god or in no god at all. According to the American Religious Identification Survey 2001 (ARIS), 25% of people in Washington state, where I live, say they have no religion at all, or call themselves atheist, agnostic or secular. Only 42% say someone in their household is affiliated with a church, synagogue or mosque. Now Washington is considered the least religious state in the country, but the rest of the country seems to be in a hurry to catch up with us. It does make me wonder about the suitability of the motto "In God We Trust".

I wonder; before 1956 when "In God We Trust" became the national motto, did we not trust in God? Or have we trusted him more since then? Would we trust him less if it was no longer our national motto? Personally I am pretty ambivalent about this phrase as a national motto and would not be heart broken if it was replaced by something more accurate. How about "Liberty and Justice For All"? Or maybe one that more accurately describes the American public: "What's in it for me?"

¹ 2 Timothy 1:12 NIV

Snowmageddon 2012

2012-01-20T12:06:00.000-08:00

The forecasts were predicting the worst snowstorm in the Puget Sound area since 1985; snowmageddon. To read the newspapers and listen to the TV weather reports you would think that this would be a storm of epic proportions, a storm that would wreak havoc across the region. A storm to tell the grand-kids about; assuming I ever have any. And even during the 2 day storm the headlines talked about a state of emergency for Washington, 200,000 people without power in Seattle, airports and trains closed or not running, the roadways a mess.

But now that it's over I find myself disappointed; 4 inches of snow followed by maybe 1/2 inch of frozen rain. It was actually quite a let down. I was anticipating having to shovel myself out of the house. I was prepared to rake the snow off the deck cover again. I thought maybe I would have to fire up the generator to keep the house warm. I had expected to be able to put the snowshoes on and trek around the neighborhood. But only 4 inches; sigh.

I heard reports of others getting 7 inches, 13 inches, 19 inches or even more. But not me. I didn't even get enough to bother to shovel. Living along Puget Sound with the Olympic Mountains to the west makes for some very unpredictable and random precipitation patterns. Two miles away from me the snowfall was nearly twice what mine was. And next time it might be reversed. But somehow I feel like I was cheated. I wanted to see 2-3 feet of snow outside today. For this to have been the worst storm since 1985 it would have required more than 2 feet. But no; just 4 inches.

View from the front porch.

Looking out into the back yard from the deck.

But even so, it was beautiful outside. I love the look of new fallen snow on the yard and in the trees. We get it so seldom here that I never grow weary of seeing it, at least until it starts to rain on it. I enjoyed getting out and walking up to the neighborhood grocery store. I enjoyed the guilt free opportunity to snuggle up in the lazy-boy and read a book. So I will just be content with the measly 4 inches and go back to praying for more snow in the next month or so. Although somehow I suspect that my prayers will be drowned out by those who have had more than enough snow and ice the past couple of days.

And now come the heavy rains and floods!

Sealed by the Spirit

2012-01-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

I am sure that you have seen a TV show or movie where a person writes a letter, folds it up, drips melted wax on the page overlap and then presses a stamp or signet ring into the wax leaving an impression on the cooled wax. This was a form of security used on important documents through most of history. This seal provided two distinct but related services.

The first thing the seal does is provide authenticity for the letters sender. Each important person or official would have their own engraved picture or emblem on the stamp or ring. So to get a letter with that impression in the sealing wax would provide proof that the letter was indeed from the person claiming to send it and not a forgery. Of course that does assume that the person receiving the letter recognized the senders seal, otherwise it meant nothing.

The second service provided by the seal was a guarantee that the letter had not been tampered with. If someone opened and read the letter while in transit the seal would be broken and the recipient would then know that someone else had read the letter and knew of its contents, as well as potentially tampering with the message of the letter.

Paul uses this image of the seal in Ephesians to describe a part of what the Holy Spirit does in the life of a believer

When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. - Ephesians 1:13b-14 NIV

In this passage the Holy Spirit is the seal of God stamped onto all those who have believed. The Holy Spirit within is proof to me that I belong to God. And his presence should be a demonstration to other believers as well that I am God's. But for those who are not themselves sealed by the Holy Spirit, the seal on our lives, like the unknown wax seal, has no value; to them there is no possible proof of God's ownership.

In the Ephesian passage the seal is not so much a guarantee that the contents have not been tampered with as it is a promise guaranteeing the inheritance of those who are sealed. If I know the Holy Spirit's presence in my life, I can rest assured that my future with God is secure. The Holy Spirit's presence is the first deposit on that life, with the remainder coming at my redemption.

This sealing by the Holy Spirit is one of the spiritual blessings that Paul has been sharing, and one that I am very grateful for. With the Holy Spirit sealing my life, I do not have to live in doubt concerning my eternity. Instead, I can rest assured that God will provide, and I praise him for that.

Living With Thorns

2012-01-13T12:04:00.000-08:00

My Bible readings for this past week included the parable of the 'Soils', more commonly known as the 'Sower and the Seed'. The parable describes seed, the word of God, that is sown into four different kinds of soil, and the response of each soil to that seed. The first soil is unresponsive to the word, it never takes root. The seed in the second soil sprouts and begins to grow but is killed by persecution and difficulties in life. The seed sown in third soil also sprouts and grows some but is choked out by the the worries and pleasures of life. The seed in the fourth soil not only sprouts and grows but is productive and fruitful.

I cannot read this parable without thinking about the soil of my own life. The word of God has been sown and, unlike the first soil, has sprouted and grown some; but how much? As much as I would like to be the productive soil that bears much fruit, too often I fear that the thorns are too thick and entangling.

Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. - Mark 4:18-19

I am very familiar with thorns, growing up and living in a place where the Himalayan Blackberries grow in profusion and are all but impossible to eradicate. Only by continuous and persistent effort can these thorns be held in check. Left alone long enough they will engulf the land and choke out pretty much everything else.

I find these blackberries illustrate the thorny soil very well. I am too often distracted from the good I want to do by the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things. Concerns about family, the need to tend to my house and yard, the adventures found in a good novel, exploration of the creation (AKA hiking), physical fitness and health, continuing to learn and grow as a person. The thorns in my life come in many different forms, but they all share in common the ability to choke out my spiritual development.

Some people may find that their thorns are bad things and directly harmful to them. But it seems to me that most of my thorns are much better disguised. It is hard to look at one of them as say 'this is a bad thing' and I should not do it. And yet, if they choke out the word of God, and prevent it from being fruitful in the soil of my life, is it not a thorn.

"Father, I pray that you would take your hoe to the soil of my life and uproot those thorns that try so hard to choke out the fruit that you desire to see grow in me. May the soil of my life be fruitful and may its fruit bring honor to you."

Reading with a Kindle

2012-01-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

I love to read, too much sometimes. I can get so involved in a good book that the world around me almost ceases to exist. Every since the fourth grade I have enjoyed burying myself in the world of books. I also tend to be somewhat of a collector. And as a consequence I have many bookshelves overflowing with books that I have read one or more times, along with some that I hope someday to read. It's getting to the point that I have no place to put any more books.

Sometime in the past couple of years I decided to give the Kindle a try. I was a bit apprehensive about it because I don't really like reading all that much on a computer screen, but all I had read indicated that the Kindle would be different, that it would be almost like reading a real book. So I took the plunge and now, some 50 books later, I am sold on it.

The Kindle is very easy on the eyes, allowing me to read for hours without eye strain. It is also, with the optional cover, about the size of a thin paperback book, making it very easy to hold or drop onto my lap. And, unlike a book, I have yet to have it fall out of my hand and close up on me when I nod off. My Kindle is very easy to use so long as it is just to sit down and read a book from cover to cover. I would be hard pressed to improve on it much for that purpose. I really do love using my Kindle for just reading.

Battery life is good on the Kindle, only having to recharge every couple of weeks during periods of heavy reading. Of course that is with the wireless networking turned off except to download new books. The Kindle software is available for, and installed on, my phone and is also available for my laptop, although I haven't used it there. If I was willing to leave the wireless on the Kindle it would periodically sync up to the big Amazon 'Cloud ' to keep track of where I was in the book. That would allow me to shift between multiple devices and have them all open to the same place in the book.

Storage for my library is also substantially reduced now. I have read at least one shelf full of books in the past couple of years, and they all fit comfortably on my Kindle. The whole library is with me wherever I go. And they are all also available wherever I have the Kindle software installed. The only real downside is the difficulty in sharing a book with a friend; that is something that is still being worked out.

The only real issue I have with the Kindle is that it is difficult to flip back and forth between multiple places like you can with a real book. I'm sure it would be easier if I worked at it hard enough, but I gave up on that pretty quickly. If I am going to be reading something that requires anything other than cover to cover sequential reading, I will pull out a real book.

The Bible is the one that I do this with most. I will hardly ever start at Genesis 1:1 and read straight through to the end of Revelation. Instead I bounce around a lot and compare multiple passages together. And that is just not convenient with a Kindle. So, although I have a Bible on my Kindle, I seldom use it there.

There is a new version of the Kindle out now; the Kindle Fire. The Fire has a touch screen interface which may improve navigation, as well as the ability to connect to Facebook, the web, email, and stream music and video; in addition to reading books. I resisted as long as I could (almost 2 months), but finally have bought a Fire and opened the box yesterday. I will be running it through its paces and will let you know later what I think of it. But the initial impression is favorable.

Who Do You Hang Out With?

2012-01-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

As a good Christian, how should I treat my homosexual neighbors, the people living in the dump down the street, the neighbors who party all night, the drunken bums lining the street downtown, the young lady entering the abortion clinic or the heavily pierced and tattooed kids at the skate board park. Is it OK to avoid them, or to condemn them for their obvious and blatant sin? Should I be a good citizen and work to make their actions or activities illegal? Is it OK to protest against these behaviors, along with many more that I find offensive?

I suspect I am not alone in being uncomfortable around people whose lifestyle and values vary dramatically from my own. And it is tempting to gild that uncomfortableness with self-righteousness. I mean, after all, I am trying to follow the rules laid out in the Bible and they obviously are not (otherwise they would be like me), therefore they are wrong and should be called to task for that. Is it not my duty as the 'light of the world' to point out the sins I find around me and work to prevent people from being able to do those things?

I read a book as a youth that was later rewritten into a more modern setting and became somewhat of a fad for a while. The WWJD acronym came from that story and it challenges me to compare my actions against those of Jesus, were he in my place today. I believe that is something worth considering as I encounter people in my everyday life who are not as godly, holy and righteous as I am. I wonder, if Jesus showed up in my town today, would he spend his time with me, and others like me? Or would he hang out around the skate board park, the downtown streets and the abortion clinics?

The gospel of Matthew gives us a glimpse into what Jesus choice might be.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” - Matthew 9:9-13 NIV

Besides Jesus there are three groups of people mentioned here. The first was Matthew and his friends, other tax collectors and sinners. This was a class of people that were looked down on by the good Christian people of Jesus day (although they were actually Jewish). They lived in ways that violated the commands of the Old Testament or other traditions that had developed around it. They were low life's, the scum of society, unacceptable to good moral folks.

A second group hanging around Matthews house in this story were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were good solid Baptist folk who sought to keep every command in the Bible as well as all the others that had been added to ensure that they were in good standing with God. The Pharisees would have nothing to do with Matthew and his friends because even touching one of them would leave a stain on their holiness. The only help the Pharisees would provide to Matthew and his friends was to give them more rules to try and live by, an attempt to legislate moral behavior, at least what they considered moral behavior. The Pharisees challenged the appropriateness of Jesus and his disciples eating with Matthew and his friends. How could a holy man of God do such a thing, hanging around with sinful people?

The third group in this story were Jesus disciples. The story doesn't say how they felt about all this, although I can imagine they were a bit uncomfortable about it; both because of who they were eating with, and the response they got from the religious folks. But what is most important here is that they went where Jesus went, regardless of their comfort level. They were hanging out with sinners along with Jesus. That Jesus and his disciples were not called sinners themselves by the Pharisees indicates that they had not adopted the actions of the 'sinners' they were hanging out with. Their only guilt here, at least in the mind of the religious folks, was that they were willing to associate with Matthew and his friends.

And what about Jesus? He made it clear to the Pharisees that he had come to reach sinners, to show mercy to them. Not after they had repented of their ways, but in the midst of where they were at the time. He went to them and shared God's love with them rather than sit in a church building and demand that people become good folks before he would touch them.

It seems clear from the story told here who Jesus would hang out with today. If he came to visit my town I think it much more likely that I would find him downtown, in the bars or jails, or in the abortion clinics rather than hanging out in our churches, waiting for people to come to him. Jesus disciples are those who go where he goes and hang out with those he hangs out with. Am I his disciple? Will I condemn my homosexual neighbors for their behavior, or will I embrace them with God's love? Will I allow their life style to prevent me from sharing God's love with them? How about you?

Ephesians Overview

2012-01-04T15:57:00.000-08:00

The home Bible study group I am a part of will be studying the book of Ephesians over the next few months. This is one of my favorite books in the Bible so I am really looking forward to the study. I expect to be blogging some of my notes as the study goes on and am interested in any feedback. Most of these blogs will be a work in progress and are primarily for the benefit of the other group members.

Author
The apostle Paul is traditionally considered to be the author of Ephesians, although that is in dispute among modern scholars. The dispute seems mostly to center around the use of some specific words not used in other Pauline writings as well as a more fully developed idea of Christ and his church. As a result many see that this was a later writing produced by a disciple of Paul and attributed to him. I have read many of the arguments for and against the traditional view of Paul's authoring the letter but have yet to see a compelling reason to doubt his authorship.

Audience
The traditional view holds that this letter was written to the church at Ephesus, a city that Paul ministered in for around 3 years. There is some dispute about that though because Paul does not include any personal references to people he knew there, he seems to relay on second hand testimony concerning their faith, and because some of the earlier manuscripts do not include the words 'in Ephesus' in the address. I think it is possible that this letter was more of an open letter to all the saints rather than addressed to a specific church. But ultimately it really doesn't matter to me. I read it as a letter addressed to me and to the church I am a part of.

Purpose
More than any other book in the Bible, Ephesians helps me to understand the big picture concerning God's purpose for and working in his creation, what's it's all about. In some ways it is like being given a peak behind the curtains. Paul's prayers for the saints are significant both in helping me to prayer for others as well as in helping me to understand what God wants to do in my life. And his description of the armor we are to don gives me hope for engaging in the spiritual conflict that wages around us.

Facebook

2012-01-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

I have been using Facebook for nearly 3 years now. I was initially apprehensive about joining Facebook because it is a 'Social Network' type of an application and I am not very social. And also because of all of the privacy concerns I had heard so much about. And while there have been some things about it that I have not liked, by and large I am glad that I made the decision to give it a try.

The biggest plus for me is that it allows me to stay somewhat connected with friends who no longer live nearby. I am not a letter writer, or phone talker, and so prior to Facebook these friends pretty much fell out of my life. For the most part I had no idea where they were or what was happening in their lives. But Facebook has changed that, at least for those friends that I have found on Facebook and who are somewhat active on-line. We may not often talk with each other, but I still can see what they are up to and that is pretty cool, allowing a certain amount of connectedness to continue!

Facebook also allows me to stay somewhat connected to people who are local. Remember what I said about being social; I am not. Chit chat is not an art form I ever mastered. Just because I see someone occasionally does not mean that I know much about what is going on in their life. But I can eves drop in on their Facebook posts and discover a lot of information that I would otherwise have been oblivious to. Now I must admit that much of that 'information' is of little value or interest to me, but there are enough little nuggets thrown in to continue to make it interesting and valuable.

There is a third group of people that I have enjoyed on Facebook, people that I have seldom, if ever, talked with in person, but have gotten to know at least a little bit through this media. These may be family members of friends, friends of friends or just a familiar name that Facebook recommends to me. While not many, there are a few of these that I have developed some form of relationship with where there would not have been otherwise.

All in all Facebook says that I currently have 242 friends; and that is way more than I would currently have contact with otherwise. So Facebook really does serve to open up my limited social circle. Never the less, there are some things that I don't like about it.

The biggest issue I have is that it can be difficult filtering through the clutter to find the kinds of posts that I am looking for. I do not play games on Facebook and don't really care about what your high score is or what animals you need for Farmville. It has taken a while but I believe I finally have much of the game stuff eliminated from my News Feed.

I have yet to figure out how to eliminate all of the 'I know most of you won't re-post this' or 'Make this your status for one hour' status updates. I won't re-post or make your cause my status for an hour. Nor do I generally even want to read them since they tell me nothing about what is happening in your life.

And I generally don't care that Tom is now friends with Larry or that Sally is going to bed for the night. Some of that I can tell Facebook not to show me and the rest of it I just have to ignore. But I am getting pretty good at speed browsing, scrolling through the unwanted clutter to see the types of posts that are of interest to me.

I do find it humorous how many good looking young ladies want to be my friend. That is really quite flattering to an oldish and socially awkward guy like me. But so far I have resisted the temptation to respond to them. I just have this sneaky suspicion that I would live to regret responding positively to their friend requests :)

I am generally indifferent to the periodic changes that are made to the Facebook interface. I see some as real improvements and others as mostly change for change sake and of little value. But I can generally easily figure out how to continue doing with Facebook what I want it to do. And so, in spite of the periodic uproar over changes, I don't see what the big deal is.

All in all I like Facebook and the service it provides to me.

New Year Resolutions

2011-12-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

New Years is a traditional time to evaluate the year just coming to an end and to make resolutions for the coming year, typically things that I am wanting to start, or stop, doing. But I have generally given up the habit of establishing resolutions for the new year; it just seems to be of little value in actually making any improvements in who I am, although there is definitely much room for improvement.

But I do find value in one of the traditional images of New Years. Although it comes in a variety of forms, the image of the old man and young child, representing the outgoing and incoming years does paint a good picture for me.

The old man represents a year that is worn out with all of the struggles of life while the young child is new and fresh and ready to face all that the new year will bring. I find this image fits well with Paul's admonition to believers in Colossians 3:5-14.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. - Colossians 3:9-10 NIV

Here Paul instructs us, like changing clothes, to put off the old self and put on the new self. The old set of clothes, like the old man in the image, is stained with the world and its association with it. The clothes we are to remove include: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language and lying. All of these attributes of the 'old man', need to be removed because they have no place in the person God has called me to become.

Instead, I am to put on a new set of clothes, including: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with each other, forgiveness and love. This 'new self' is one that will honor God in holiness, and should be my goal. It is a choice that I am called to make; out with the old and in with the new.

How about it? Will you put off the 'old man' in this new year and choose to be made anew? To put the ways of this world behind you and be transformed by the renewing of your mind?

The Blessing of Fatherhood

2011-12-27T16:04:00.000-08:00

I put my daughter on a plane today after an all too short visit. That is an emotionally difficult thing to do, and doesn't seem to get easier because of repetition. It seems just like yesterday that I was holding each of my new born children in the delivery room, a pair of events whose emotional impact has only been rivaled on the day I married their mother. There have been lots of memories generated in the past 30 years in my life, but it seems like most of the significant ones have involved either my wife or children.

I look back at the years of watching my children grow with wonder and amazement. Watching them transform from helpless infants to full grown adults has truly been something to see and experience. While there are things I might wish to do differently, I am so grateful for the experience of being a father and for the privilege of being a part of their lives, in the past, the present, and into the future.

I am proud of them both that they have taken such responsibility for their lives, working hard and becoming productive members of society. Both of them have invested a part of their lives in military service and have fought in our nations wars. While the future ahead of them is uncertain, I am confident that they will be able to handle whatever comes their way.

My children no longer live at home, and function pretty much independently of their mother and I. But they continue to be on our hearts and thoughts and the frequent subject of our prayers. The song below expresses my heart's desire for them better than any other I have ever heard.

If you have children at home, cherish the time you have with them and take seriously your responsibility to help them to blossom. If your children are grown and gone, continue to be there for them and uplift them before the Father.

Good News of Great Joy!

2011-12-25T06:21:00.000-08:00

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widelyknown the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard itmarveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. Luke 2:1-20 NKJV

Merry Christmas to all. May the love of Christ fill your hearts today and into the coming year.

The Demand for A Sign

2011-12-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

I am currently reading through the gospel of Matthew and last night came to the 16th chapter and the request by the Pharisees and Sadducees for Jesus to provide them with a sign from heaven. This really struck a note because I can't tell you how many times I have heard folks make the same demand as a requirement for believing in Jesus or even in the existence of God. I believe Jesus response to this demand should be helpful in knowing how to answer this question today if it is asked of you.

Jesus responds to this question by telling them that "A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus first of all compliments those asking the question for being rational and intelligent people who demand evidence before believing. Not! Jesus actually identifies them as being wicked and adulterous, a people who are not looking for God, but rather looking to their own interests. People who are asking for the sign, not because they are interested in believing, but as an excuse for not believing.

But Jesus does provide them with one sign that when fulfilled, should be proof enough; the sign of Jonah. If you remember the story, Jonah flees from God and ends up being tossed overboard and swallowed by a great fish. Jonah is in the belly of the fish for three days before being spit up on the shore. Jesus here is looking forward to his crucifixion and subsequent stay in the tomb for three days prior to his resurrection. The sign of his resurrection should be enough to convince them, if they are willing to be convinced, otherwise nothing will.

As Jesus and his disciples go on from there he warns them to be on guard against the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees. These are the same folks who had just demanded a miraculous sign from heaven, refusing to believe the signs already given. These were the intellectuals of the Jewish people who made every attempt to steer the people away from God's Messiah and to themselves; people who thus were fighting against God.

There are many Pharisees and Sadducees in our world today, although they generally carry different titles. Some of them carry the label of Christian, but are leading people away from the Christ of the New Testament and into more modern philosophies concerning Jesus. And others may be atheists, leading us to worship the creation rather than the creator. In whatever guise they come, remember Jesus admonition to be on your guard against them.

In John 20:30-31 John tells us:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John has recorded seven 'signs' that should be sufficient for one to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, God's Son, and in believing to experience eternal life. Additional signs are given in the other gospels, including the sign of the birth of a baby in Bethlehem 2015 years ago. What will you do with them? Will you reject them and demand a sign of your own? Or will you accept them and find eternal life?

For those who have believed, remember Jesus words and guard against those who would seek to lead you away from simple faith in your Creator and in his son Jesus, leading you into the worship of self and denial of God. This is not an admonition against rational thought and learning, but rather a warning to not abandon faith in the pursuit of rationality.

The Crab Pot

2011-12-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

Today was my wife's birthday, as well as the day my daughter came home for Christmas. So to celebrate we went to the Crab Pot, along the Seattle water front, for lunch. Sue had eaten at a similar place in New Orleans a few years ago and felt like the rest of us would enjoy the experience.

The Crab Pot's signature disk is a sea food combo; there are actually a variety of combos available. Our order included Dungeness Crab, Snow Crab, Shrimp, Mussels, Steamer Clams, some kind of sausage, corn on the cob and chunks of red potatoes all boiled up together. For the four of us they covered the table with butcher paper and dumped two big bowls of this out into a heap in front of us. Along with the sea food you get a bib, a block and wooden hammer and a small fork, along with melted butter and cocktail sauce, and a roll of paper towels.

The food, assuming you like shellfish, was pretty good, although you do need to work at shelling the crab and shrimp, and I can't say I was overly fond of the sausage. The service was great, the company was wonderful (it's always good to have the family all together), and overall it was an enjoyable experience. And, after they discovered we had a birthday girl with us, the dessert was free.

If you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary, the Crab Pot may be just what you are looking for.

Isn't There Anyone Who Knows What Christmas Is All About?

2011-12-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

Charlie Brown is struggling with all of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season when in despair he utters "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" And Linus leaps to the rescue with a recitation of the account of Jesus birth in the gospel of Luke, a part of which is below.

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." - Luke 2:10-11 KJV

Popular cartoons are not always a good source of theology, but in this case I believe Linus has nailed it. Christmas is all about the coming of a savior, good tidings of great joy to all people. The angels announcement, the visit of the shepherds and magi, the manger and stable are all secondary to the savior who was born. Even the birth of a baby who was the center of all the hoopla is not as important as who that baby was and why he had come. He was a savior, a deliverer. He was Christ, God's anointed one. And he was the Lord, one with power and authority, God.

My favorite passage about the coming of the savior is not in one of the gospel accounts. Instead it is in Philippians 2:5-11

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
   Who, being in very nature God,
      did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
   but made himself nothing,
      taking the very nature of a servant,
      being made in human likeness.
   And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and become obedient to death —
         even death on a cross!
   Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
      and gave him the name that is above every name,
   that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
      in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
   and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
      to the glory of God the Father.

At Christmas we generally remember Jesus being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man. But before Jesus was made in human likeness he was in very nature God, having equality with God. Jesus was fully God before he made himself nothing in becoming a human. In becoming a human, Jesus did not give up his divinity, but he did become completely human with all the limitations inherent in that.

This baby that we picture in the manger was God. But he was also a helpless infant totally dependent on his parents to supply his every need. We think of the cross as a sacrifice. But is not his incarnation a sacrifice as well?

Jesus as God is the first stop in the story of salvation, while his incarnation is the second. The third stop in the story told here by Paul is one of death, Jesus becoming obedient to death on a cross.
		Jesus, as a man, was obedient to the Father's plan for his life, a plan that took him to the cross. The cross is why Jesus was born and everything is his life led up to this. It is in his death that he became our savior, delivering us from destruction and into a relationship with our creator.

The final stop in this story is Jesus exultation. Because of his willingness to go to the cross God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.
At the manger the shepherds and magi knelt before him. At the cross all believers bow before him. But ultimately every knee will bow and every tongue will acknowledge he is Lord. Jesus, that helpless infant in the manger, now sits enthroned in the highest place, the firstborn over all creation.

This Christmas, as you celebrate Jesus birth, let me encourage you also to kneel before your Savior and acknowledge him as Lord. And in your celebration at the manger, don't forget the cross and the throne.

2011 In Review, AKA the Christmas Letter

2011-12-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

Well, as 2011 draws to a close it is time to do the annual, or bi-annual, Christmas letter; attempting to ~~bore~~ enthrall all of our friends and family with the ~~hum drum~~ exciting details of our past year. I would dearly love to tell you enchanting tales of our mission trip to the Congo, the adoption of our new Ukrainian baby and our 3 week adventure in Australia and New Zealand, but alas I cannot. Mostly because in reality our past year has been somewhat more modest.

Sue and I did make a week long cruise to Alaska with dear friends. The trip was good and scenic and the food was good and abundant. But the opportunity to visit with Randy and Tina was priceless. It had been a long time and it was great to be able to spend the week with them.

We also faced Prostate Cancer early this year and elected to have a Radical Prostatectomy in mid February. Ultimately everything went great, the cancer is gone and life is back to normal again. It was an exciting adventure, but one I hope not to repeat any time soon.

Last year I began my journey along the Pacific Crest Trail with a 70 mile segment. This past summer I got in the next 160 miles and am looking forward to about 300 miles next year. Sue will be going along with the car to ensure that I survive the trip, meeting me periodically and making sure I stay fed and at least somewhat rested. Plus we will get to see some of the off trail sights in the southern 2/3s of Oregon.

Full retirement has crept closer this year with a job change that has me working fewer hours and, best of all, from home. Going 'to the office' in my PJ's is quite a trip. The company keeps dangling office jobs with more hours in front of me, but so far I have been able to see the barb on the hook and resisted the temptation.

Sue and I continue to enjoy working with our local churches, traveling around most Sundays to visit one or the other. Sue is still the Administrative Assistant for the association and keeps all the rest of us in line.

Sue ran her first half marathon this past summer, nearly 3 years to the day after a major broken leg that had to be surgically repaired. She dislikes running but finds this beneficial to her rehabilitation effort. Hopefully she will learn to love it at least a little bit in the future. She is already preparing for her second half marathon this next June.

The kids are doing well. One is out of the Army, living nearby, and in school now and the other is still in the Air Force, far far away, and globe trotting. Look forward to having them both home this Christmas.

Sue's mom continues to live with us and is doing well. She keeps a close eye out on all of the activity out the front window, putting puzzles together, crocheting, napping, etc.; her schedule is full. She is still in good health and enjoys getting out as much as possible.

The Lord is good and we look forward to his hand in the coming year.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year.

What is a Christian?

2011-12-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

So just what is a Christian? Is it

a person who admires the ethical teaching of Jesus?
a person who has selected Christian on his census form?
an American?
a member of a Christian denomination?
a Roman Catholic?
a Southern Baptist?
a creationist?
a fundamentalist?
a person who believes that God exists, Jesus was his son and the Bible is true?
a person who believes that the resurrected Jesus is the Son of God and seeks to follow his teachings?

By no means are all of these definitions mutually exclusive. I would have to pick 7 of them for myself. But, in my opinion, not all of them can uniquely and adequately define what a Christian is. For instance, I am a Southern Baptist. But that is not really synonymous with Christian. There are Southern Baptists who identify as such simply because that is what their parents are, or other social reasons, rather than because of any faith decision on their own part.

I have heard all of these used as definitions for Christian; so much so that I have begun to dislike the word. It is used in so many ways that it has almost become meaningless, a label that nearly 1/3 of the earth's population apply to themselves. You almost need to know the context and maybe the person to actually know what they mean.

Because of that I have struggled recently with just calling myself a Christian, although I certainly believe that I am and am not ashamed of the label nor what it means to me. But more and more I have begun to use a different term for self identification: Christ follower. I firmly believe that God calls us, not just to profess with our mouths that we believe in Jesus, but also to commit our lives to following him. A Christ follower is one who:

will admire the ethical teachings of Jesus
will likely select Christian on their census form
may or may not be an American
will likely be a member of a Christian denomination
may or may not be Roman Catholic
may or may not be Southern Baptist
may or may not be a creationist
may or may not be a fundamentalist
will believe that God exists, that the resurrected Jesus is his son and may believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God
and, most importantly, will seek to follow Jesus and his teachings

Are you a fellow Christ follower? If not, I would encourage you to take that step and become what God has created you to be. The journey will not necessarily be an easy one, but it is a rewarding one.

Why I Don't Like Christmas

2011-12-06T10:26:00.000-08:00

Actually that's not entirely true. There are actually two things happening this time of year that are both labeled as Christmas. One is a celebration of the coming of our Savior to begin his work of redemption; and that is meaningful to me. The other is an excuse to give a shot in the arm to the local economy as well as go further into debt; and I'm not overly fond of that 'Christmas'.

It is way too easy to allow the first to be lost in the hustle and bustle of the second. I'm pretty sure there is no way to change the culture around me to give up on the secularized orgy of buying and selling at this time of year since it seems to be pretty deeply ingrained. I mean, after all, we really do deserve to get a new car, be surrounded by diamonds and have unlimited data plans for our phones; don't we?

But just because the world around me is going crazy decorating, buying, wrapping, cooking, etc., does not mean that I have to get sucked into it as well. Yes, I have put up a string of lights around the house, and will eventually put up a tree and wrap a few gifts. But I want to try harder than ever this year to keep Christ in Christmas.

And for those of you who are offended when others won't say Merry Christmas and accuse them of taking Christ out of Christmas, may I encourage you to keep Christ in Christmas yourself. Not just by saying that word, but by honoring him in the things you do this Christmas. There are many ways to do this but I offer up a few thoughts here.

What is the highlight of your Christmas day? Is it centered around a mountain of packages under a tree? If so, I would encourage you to shift some of that focus to a baby born in Bethlehem some 2015 years ago. And remember him, not just a newborn baby with shepherds, angels and wise men. But remember him as God, come in the flesh, to live among us and to give his life for us.

Do you have a hard time knowing what to get for someone on your gift list? If so, it may be that they really don't need anything and your money might be better spent providing food and shelter for the homeless, gifts for a poor family in your neighborhood, or goats for a family in Africa. There are so many opportunities to give to those in need this time of year. And you can usually do it in someone else's name, giving donation certificates to the folks on your shopping list rather than a gift that they may well not have any use for.

You might even take the time to get involved in a shelter or kitchen this year yourself, giving, not only of your money, but also of your time. How better to honor the one who gave himself for us than to imitate him in giving ourselves to those who cannot repay us.

And spend time with your family. Spend a little less time in the kitchen or watching football and spend some time with your husband, wife, children and others who are a special part of your life. Go look at Christmas lights, attend Advent and candle light services, play games, or just sit and talk. The memories of time spent together will last longer than the fudge, the game highlights or the unneeded gifts.

And remember what Christmas is all about. And as for that other thing going on now: bah humbug!

The Importance of Right Beliefs

2011-12-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

As a Christian, how important are 'right beliefs'? Does it really matter what I believe so long as Jesus is my savior and I live a good life? Are all beliefs equally important? I have grappled with questions similar to these over the years as I have studied and come to grips with what I personally believe, and why. For me, the answers to the above questions are, 'It depends', 'Yes', and 'No'.

The Importance of Right Beliefs
So just why are my beliefs important? I believe there are a number of reasons for this including:

The truth is important. What I believe is important because I want to believe what is true. It is more important to me to have right beliefs than just popular beliefs.
My beliefs will shape how I view God. Is he a loving God who cares about what happens to people, or is he a judgmental God who punishes sin, or is he indifferent to what goes on here?
My beliefs will also affect how I see myself serving God. Is he satisfied with me living a good life, regularly going to church and contributing to the offering? Or does he equipment me for service within his kingdom and expect me to be more actively involved?
My beliefs can also impact how I relate to others in the church. Do we come together to be ministered to, in which case I am concerned what others can do for me. Or do we come together to minister, in which case I am more concerned with what I can do for others.
And how I view the world around me will be affected by what I believe. Are the folks in Somalia godless heathen deserving only judgment. Or are they lost and in need or a savior. Or are they hungry and in need of what we have to offer them.

In my mind, beliefs are critically important if they impact my relationship with God. They are moderately important if they impact my relationship with other believers and my ability to work alongside them, or if they make a big impact on how I serve God. They are not important if they do not impact my service for God in any appreciable way nor affect my fellowship with other believers. It is worth noting here that not everyone will agree concerning where the division should be. What I might view as relatively unimportant may be viewed as of utmost importance to someone else, and thus impacting my ability to serve alongside them.

Critically Important Beliefs

I do believe that there are some beliefs that are vital if one is to call himself (or herself) a Christian. I tend toward looking at the emphasis the scriptures place on some beliefs to evaluate their importance. For instance Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God and then tells us two things about faith: we must believe that God exists, and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. So those would seem to be critically important beliefs.

In 1 John 4:2-3 John emphasizes the importance of acknowledging that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Those who do are of God, while those who do not are not of God. John makes it clear in this letter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that he is divine. But here he also says he is a man; that he has come in the flesh. Belief that Jesus is God as well as human is a critical belief according to John.

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 Paul identifies those beliefs that were of first importance, including the redemptive death of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. I find it hard to understand how one could claim to be a follower of Jesus who disputes that he died for them and rose to bring them new life. These beliefs are critical according to Paul.

Christianity is based on belief

in the existence of God
that he has a future for those who seek him
that Jesus is God and man
that Jesus death was redemptive
that his resurrection brings new life.

If a person disputes one of these foundational beliefs, are they really Christians, at least in the Biblical sense?

Beliefs that are not important

On the other hand, what difference does it make where I stand concerning the rapture / tribulation / millennium kingdom? For the first year of my Christian journey I was a pre-trib pre-millennialist, but after some serious study of the Bible instead of Hal Lindsey I became a post-trib pre-millenialist. And I find that at some time in my life I have become an amillennialist. While some will view me as moving further and further into heresy because of this, I have a hard time understanding what real difference it makes, other than in the position I take when discussing last things. My faith in God is unchanged, the way I live my life is unchanged, and my hope for the future is unchanged. Nor should this difference in belief affect my ability to worship and serve alongside of people with contrasting beliefs. I would personally view what you believe about the rapture / tribulation / millennium kingdom as relatively unimportant.

How important is the reconciliation of Jesus genealogies in Matthew and Luke? While I would like to know the truth about it, I can really think of little practical value that it would provide to me. At this point it is an unknown to me, and I don't worry too much about it. It is relatively unimportant.

Important but non-critical beliefs

But there is a middle ground here as well, beliefs that are important, but not necessarily critical to my claim to being a child of God. Biblical inerrancy is an example of this. Which side of this debate I stand on does not impact my salvation, so long as I hold to the critical beliefs. But it can dramatically impact what I believe about a number of other things, such as the Genesis stories and the place of women in the church. And that can make it difficult to serve closely with others who have a different belief on some of these hot topic items.

Who is called to serve God, a selected few, or all believers? While I do not believe your answer to this question will impact your salvation, it will affect your relationship to God. If he has called all of us to serve and yet I am satisfied with delegating that service to a professional clergy, then I am not going to be looking for his leading in my life and for opportunities to serve him. It is the difference between being a spectator and a participant in the kingdoms work. This is an important belief because of the impact it will have on my life, my relationship to other believers, and, most importantly, my walk with God. But this is not a critical belief because it does not affect my salvation.

Conclusion
I do believe that each of us is responsible to God for our beliefs. It is important to know what you believe and why. And it is important to seek the truth. Prayerfully search the scriptures, trusting the Holy Spirit to guide you into truth. Know and understand what your church teaches. Don't be afraid to ask other people the what's and why's of their beliefs, but remember your own personal responsibility in the matter. Focus most on those beliefs that are more important, that most impact your relationship with God and with your fellow believers. Become rooted and grounded in the faith and resistant to every strange teaching that comes your way. That is the path to maturity in your faith.

The Sing Off

2011-11-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

I am not much of a TV watcher. My choice to not watch TV initially was because it was so addictive to me and I do not want to spend hours sitting in front of it. More recently it has also been because there is so little on that's worth watching. For several years my regular TV watching was pretty much limited to NFL football. About 3 years ago I started to watch NCIS and have enjoyed that on Tuesday evenings. More recently Sue and I happened to watch the second episode of NBC's The Sing Off and have enjoyed that show as well.

The Sing Off is, I guess, a reality show similar to American Idol, but with one very dramatic difference. The judges are always positive and affirming, even while critiquing a performance; there is no drama or negativity at all. The contestants are all a cappella groups containing at least 5 members who, over the course of the 10 week competition have sung one or two songs a week of different genres with one or two groups eliminated each week. The show started with 16 groups and the grand finale narrowed it down from the top three to the final winner.

I don't know about you, but generally when I think a cappella the first thing that comes to mind is that the piano player didn't show up and we have to sing our hymns without any accompaniment. And some times that works out but other times it would have been better if we had just skipped the singing. But these groups have truly amazed me with what can be done a cappella. For many of these groups it is hard to realize that there are no instruments and that every sound is coming from someones vocal cords. Complicated arrangements, choreography, a wide variety of genres, short time windows to prepare; nothing seems to slow them down. While I have known few of the songs, and didn't really care for some of them, the performances were always entertaining and pretty amazing.

Take a listen to Pentatonix, pictured above, singing Born to Be Wild or the Dartmouth Aires singing Pinball Wizard to get a taste of what the competition has been like. These have been my two favorite groups throughout the show and ultimately finished first and second in the competition. For winning, Pentatonix received a cash prize and a recording contract so they should have a CD coming out in the future. Planning on buying it at this point.

Seattle Half Marathon 2011

2011-11-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

Race day dawned this morning (at least it would have dawned if not for the heavy cloud cover) warm, wet but no rain and with little wind, although the forecast was calling for heavy rain and wind during the race. I was up early to eat some breakfast, slowly get dressed and gear up and then head to the start line. By the 7:30 start time I was lined up with 6357 other crazy's, getting ready to run 13.1 miles, for no reason other than desire, or maybe insanity.

I was lined up to run with Phil in the middle of the pack when the gun went off; and we just stood there. Eventually you could see the crowd ahead start to move and finally it was our turn to start the slow shuffle toward the start line. About the time we crossed the line the crowd was finally starting to jog a bit and we slowly build up to cruising speed over the next half mile. The predicted rain also started about the same time and would be with us for pretty much the whole race, along with an occasional heavy gust of wind.

The Seattle Half Marathon starts at the Seattle Center, runs south on 5th Ave, up onto I90, through the tunnel and then off the freeway and north along Lake Washington. It eventually runs through a series of parks before coming back to the commercial section of Seattle and looping back to the Center. The course is moderately hilly, with one substantial hill between miles 7 & 8, and is mostly fairly scenic, apart from the couple of miles spent on I90. The course is also fairly crowded with runners. I was never really in the clear, always surrounded by other runners and sometimes struggled to break through slow lines of traffic.

I felt good for the first third of the run and made fairly good time. But by the midway point it became obvious that this was going to be a 'hang on to the end' kind of run. Once I had crawled to the top of the big hill and recooperated a bit on the backside of the hill I started to get a second wind, or something, and was able to move along through the parks OK. But by the time I was back into Seattle the legs were turning to rubber and there was no spring left; the 2 hour goal was looking to be in serious jeopardy. But finally the final stretch came into sight followed soon by the finish line. I managed to cross in 1 hour 59 minutes and 35 seconds, a personal best by over 3 minutes for this course. I ended up finishing in 1847th place overall and 37th out of the 140 men in my division and that felt pretty good. And even better was that no one over 71 years old beat me this year. I still remember getting beat by an 80+ year old woman the first year.

By the time I finished my feet were sore and bloody; 13.1 miles in wet Five Fingers without socks is not a good combination. The legs were sore and the tank was drained. Ate at the recovery area, went back to the hotel and took a hot shower and ate some more. Then headed for home, stopping along the way to eat some more.

All in all I had a blast and am already looking forward to next year. Why don't cha plan on joining me next year?

By the way, Phil pulled away in the last 3 miles and finished 20 seconds ahead. Way to go Phil.

Also, much thanks to my lovely bride and support crew for her help and encouragement.

Giving Thanks

2011-11-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

As Thanksgiving rolls around again I find it appropriate to take the time to remember what I have to be thankful for. Included in this list is (are) ...

a God who created this universe and who has given me an opportunity to be a part of his kingdom, both now and through eternity. I am thankful to God that I can know him in a personal way. And I am thankful that he has a purpose even for one as insignificant as I.
the opportunity to serve God both within a local church and the Olympic Baptist Association. Being able to be more actively involved in the OBA has been a joy to me over the past 3+ years and I look forward to what lies ahead.
a wife that loves me far more than I deserve. She is a jewel beyond price and makes my life so much better than it would ever be without her. Everything she touches is better for her having been there.
a son and daughter that have turned out 'not half bad'. I am thankful for who they are and what they have taught me about love and responsibility. I am thankful for their willingness to serve their country in the military, even if it was the Army and Air Force rather than the Navy.
my parents who, although long gone, still remain a shining beacon and model for me to follow. My dad could seemingly do anything and was a leader of men. And my mom loved us all passionately and would give all for her family. I have learned much from their life and from their death.
friends that I can share my life with. I am not a particularly social creature, and enjoy spending time alone. But it is also good to have friends to share with; especially a few close ones that I can share my heart with.
a job that pays well, takes little time, and can be done in my pajamas. Being downsized from my previous job has really worked out well for me. I am comfortably retired, so the extra I make on the job now provides for extras and for ministry opportunities.
a home that is comfortable, paid for and is in fairly good condition. I really like my home. It's nothing fancy but it is a place I enjoy spending time. I enjoy puttering around the house and the big yard. And it hold lots of memories, 24 years worth.
a country that, in spite of many problems, remains a land of opportunity and freedom. There are few places in the world I would rather live that in my corner of the US.
the opportunity and health to be able to run marathons and go on long hikes. I enjoy the chance to be out and enjoy the creation. And who would have ever guessed that a desk jockey like myself would be able to start running in his mid 50's and end up running marathons.
a successful encounter with Prostate Cancer. I learned a lot about myself during this experience; having never before had any real health issues. And I am thankful that the cancer is gone. I am also thankful for the people who participated in its removal and my recovery.
the opportunity to share my thoughts and opinions with the handful of people who read my blog. I have enjoyed putting thoughts into words and posting them for all the world to read, even if most of the world in not interested.
and I am just thankful.

Faith

2011-11-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

'Faith', defined as firm persuasion, and 'believe', a related word defined as to be persuaded of, are frequently used in the New Testament to describe what we have to do to come into relationship with God. Faith ushers me into God's presence and faith allows his power to work in my life. Apart from faith I can never know God or experience his presence.

Hebrews chapter 11 is all about faith, the faith of the Old Testament saints and its importance in their lives. Verses 1 & 6 in particular very explicitly express the importance of faith.

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ... And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." - Hebrews 11:1,6 NIV

Verse 1 of this passage defines faith while verse 6 attaches that definition to faith in God. Faith is confidence in what we hope for which, as a believer, is that God rewards those who earnestly seek him. Faith is also assurance about what we do not see which, as a believer, is that God exists. For me as a believer, faith includes believing that God exists. But that in itself is not really faith; it is just intellectual assent. To have faith I must also believe that God rewards my earnest seeking of him. The bulk of Hebrews 11 describes this earnest seeking of God, which involved a life of obedience.

Another significant passage is found in Romans 10:9-10 where Paul says:

"If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.: - Romans 10:9-10 NIV

This passage also talks about two things that are involved in my salvation. One of these is believing that God raised Jesus from the dead and the other is public profession that you are following him, that he is Lord. This really follows the Hebrews 11:1 definition of faith; assurance of what I can't see - the resurrection of Jesus, and confidence in what is hoped for - exhibited by public profession.

Least anyone take me wrong, I am not saying that anything I can do will bring about my salvation or make it more secure. But I am saying that intellectual assent that God exists and that Jesus died for sins and was raised to life will not bring about my salvation; that is not faith. Faith includes earnestly seeking God and professing Jesus as Lord, both of which involve giving myself to him to do with as he desires. Faith takes me off the throne and puts God on it. Faith will hang an Under New Management sign around my neck. If I am still in charge of my life, directing it as I see fit, then I do not have faith and thus cannot please God.

I talked about God's grace in an earlier blog. Faith and grace are very complimentary. Grace defines God's activity toward me, while faith defines my appropriate response to God. God's grace is available to all who will respond to him in faith. If you are not currently experiencing God's grace in your life, it may well be that you are not living a life of faith, one of surrender to Jesus as Lord.

How to Train for a Marathon

2011-11-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

I am preparing to run a half marathon next weekend, my ninth in the past 4 years along with 2 full marathons. I guess that makes me somewhat of an expert on the topic so I though I would share some of my vast knowledge with those who might be looking to follow in my footsteps, becoming part of a growing movement of people of all ages, sizes and shapes who lace on a pair of shoes and stagger around a 13.1 or 26.2 mile course, just so they can eat a Cinnabon without feelings of guilt.

Now the most obvious training tip I can give to you is to just get out and run. And then run some more. And after that run even more. I generally run about 800 miles a year. That's the equivalent of running from the Pacific Ocean all the way across Washington to the Idaho border and then back plus another 80 miles or so. Of course you can't jump off the couch and instantly be able to run all the way across Washington. I would recommend starting with a mile or so for the first few days and then gradually increase your mileage to longer and longer runs. I currently run about 4 times a week with three days in the 3-5 miles range and the fourth day being longer, generally something approaching the distance of the race I am preparing for.

Set yourself some goals. While I am not obsessively goal driven, I do find that if I have a goal in mind for my running it helps keep me focused. There are two things I use for goals. The most obvious is in preparing for a race. Signing up for a marathon commits me to either prepare for it so I don't look bad, or lose the registration fee. So far that has worked well for me. The other is to track my own progress, both in miles and in time. I have several routes of various lengths and I time each one and log it after the run. I am constantly trying to improve on my best time. Your goals may be different. You may choose to log calories expended that can be offset by a Cinnabon or a piece of chocolate, pounds lost, admiring (or sympathetic) looks from other runners or drivers, etc.

Almost as important as running is having the right equipment. Some folks will tell you that all you need is a pair of running shoes and you're ready to go. Well don't believe them. Shoes are indeed an important ingredient, but there is much more needed than that. If you're wanting to make a good impression on the folks who see you race by them you need to be dressed in real running clothes. You will need to get a hold of lots of light weight clothes that will wick the sweat away from your body, keep you cool in the heat, warm in the cold and dry in the rain, be colorful enough to serve as a target for motorists and advertise your past races or favorite running product. The required ensemble for a runner includes shoes, lots of synthetic socks, shorts, tights, sleeveless, short sleeve and long sleeve shirts, a wind shirt, a rain coat, a warm coat, gloves, ear protection and a hat. Obviously you won't wear all of that at the same time but having it all allows you to run in style regardless of the weather.

There are a few other pieces of equipment that will greatly aid your running. Among these is a watch. Now your run of the mill Timex will tell you how long you have been running, so long as you are able to remember your start time and do the math to calculate how long you have been out. Finding a watch with a stop watch function will simplify that process though and allow you to concentrate on not falling into a hole rather than doing higher math as you run (which, by the way, is rather hard to do when you are gasping for air). I would recommend though that you get a runners watch. Many of these come with a strap you wrap around your chest so that the watch can tell you how fast your heart is beating. You can't imagine what a thrill it is to realize that your heart is racing away at 180 beats per minute. I would advise turning off the high threshold alarm though. It can be unsettling to your running partner if they think you are getting ready to have a heart attack. The ultimate in runners watches have a GPS built into them. Now you can tell, not only how long you have run and how hard your heart is working, but you can also tell how fast you are running and how far you have come. Additionally, assuming you eventually find your way back home, you can upload the watch data into your computer and see a map of where you went, how fast each mile was and what your heart was doing the whole time. Good stuff and highly recommended.

The last piece of gear I would recommend in a headlamp, a little flashlight that straps to your head so you can see where you are going in the dark. Night time running takes a bit to get used to, but I have found that I prefer it, at least early in the morning. For one, there is much less traffic out, meaning fewer cars to dodge. And it is also harder for other people to see you stagger down the road and wonder if they need to be calling an ambulance.

Finally, if you live in western Washington like I do, you need to be prepared to run in all kinds of weather, except for extreme heat. Warm, cool, cold, wet, dry, windy and frozen. I personally don't run when it is frozen but do in everything else. The combination of cold, wet and windy is the worst. And there are, in my opinion, only two ways to handle it; be crazy or bundle up and force yourself out the door regardless. I'll leave it up to your imagination as to which gets me out the door at 5:30 in the morning when it is hovering around freezing, raining and the wind is blowing at 20 MPH.

Once you have run a few hundred miles and have all the right gear, go sign up for a half marathon and enjoy the company of several thousand other colorful crazies rambling down the streets of your local city. Do it enough times and you can write your own guide to marathon preparation.

Occupy Wall Street

2011-11-16T08:45:00.000-08:00

If you're like me you probably have not given a whole lot of thought to this whole Occupy movement. I have known from the beginning of this movement that the 99% were protesting the 1%, the numbers referred to your economic standing, and that the movement was spreading across the country and the world. But exactly what they were trying to accomplish somehow escaped my cursory review of the news surrounding them.

Because I am not a protester (it's just not in my nature) and most of the news seemed to focus on confrontation and problems occurring around the occupied sites, I found myself not being overly sympathetic to what they were doing. And if I thought about them at all, it was mostly along the lines of "Don't we have enough problems without your protests adding to them?"

Now I have no problems with someone working hard, making a lot of money and experiencing a life style that is more luxurious than mine. It is not something I crave, but I don't begrudge it to others. But I do take exception to making and maintaining that standard of living at the expense of others. And so, at heart, I guess I really am in sympathy to at least some of the goals of the Occupy movement which seem to center around jobs, bank reform and the reduction of corporate influence in politics.

Protesting has been used throughout the life of our nation to effect change, starting with the Boston Tea Party and including Woman's Suffrage and the Civil Rights movement of my youth. And recently, in the wider world, we have seen the results of relatively peaceful protests upend the governments of Egypt and Tunisia and lead to the civil war that overturned Gaddafi in Libya. It seems that at times the only way to effect change is for the common folk to raise their voices loud enough to be heard.

So, all in all, I guess I have become at least sympathetic to the Occupy movement, so long as the movement remains peaceful and does not over-strain the limited resources of the occupied cities. It is their right as American citizens to make their voices heard, seeking to bring about change. Who knows, something good may come of it.

But one thing I would like from them. It is one thing to say they want jobs, bank reform and reduction of corporate influence in D.C. I suspect most politicians running for office this coming term are going to express those same 'goals'. I think it would be more effective for them to more clearly describe how they feel their goals might be met and maybe even work to elect those with a similar vision. Otherwise they come across more as just complainers, a nuisance to others living and working around them, than folks who have a positive vision for change.

UPDATE 11/17/11
I have just read an article that indicates the general assembly of OWS is struggling to reach a consensus on their demands. The concern among some is that once they have specified their demands that it will narrow the appeal of the movement and attract fewer groups to the movement. I must say that I find this disturbing. If they are intentionally trying to keep their complaint vague and focused on expressing discontent rather than dealing with specific issues then I don't know what hope they have for success. Unless success is defined as making the problems worse, causing even greater division within the country.

Amazing Grace

2011-11-13T17:21:00.000-08:00

Grace. More specifically God's grace. As believers we talk about it a lot, frequently defining it as God's unmerited favor towards us. And indeed it is. It is by God's grace that we are saved, and not by anything we can do (Ephesians 2:8). God's grace has dealt with our sin and we now have a future with him. It is unfortunate however that we often leave it there.

If you break out your concordance and look up the word grace you will find it used in some interesting ways.

In Acts 4:33 God's grace was working powerfully among the Apostles. His favor went beyond salvation and was involved in the service they rendered to God. His grace enabled them to grow the church in spite of any opposition they faced.
In Romans 12:6, Ephesians 4:7-13 and 1 Peter 4:10 God's grace is given to each of us in the form of gifts, or the abilities to act in ways that would build up the body of Christ. Here grace also extends beyond salvation and into our life of service to him. Grace includes being equipped for service and being an active part of the body of Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 12:9 God's grace is sufficient for Paul's weaknesses. Grace channels God's power into the life of the one who is open to it. God's grace saved me, equips me and also empowers me for service.
In 2 Timothy 1:9 we see that God's grace not only was the instrument of our salvation, it is also a call to a holy life. A holy life is one that is set apart from the world and devoted to God. I cannot be holy and continue as a part of the world. God's grace calls me to leave the world behind.

Notice that these, and other passages as well, all refer to grace as something other than just God choosing to save us. Grace impacts everything that God is doing toward us; it is like a secret weapon that God has aimed at us, although for our good rather than harm. God chose to save us for a life of holiness and service. Grace calls for me to be a disciple, serving and giving myself to the master. Look back at the passage in Ephesians that we started with.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." - Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV

We are saved by grace - that's the part we like. But we are also created in Christ Jesus (saved) to accomplish the work that God has prepared for us to do - and that part is kind of scary. We are saved by grace to be disciples. And not disciples in name only, but disciples who rely on God's grace to follow their Lord wherever he leads and are faithful to the task that he has given us. Disciples don't give the master advice on the best use of themselves, nor do they only follow when it is convenient.

When Jesus called the twelve to be his first disciples they were not called to follow one day a week or in their spare time. They were called to leave their nets and tax booth behind and follow him. Could it be that his grace calls us to do the same? Our call may not involve physically leaving our jobs and homes behind, but it does call for us to be full time disciples, serving him on the job, at home and in the world around us. Oh, at the end of this life, to hear the master say, "Well done, good and faithful servant".

But What If I Don't Like the President?

2011-11-10T17:41:00.000-08:00

Some of our Presidents I have liked and thought they did a reasonable job (meaning I agreed with their positions). And others were considerably less desirable in my mind. I am really glad I live in a country where we have some choice in who fills the leadership positions at the federal, state and local level. Unfortunately not everyone agrees with me as to what would make a good leader and what their priorities should be. And so it is not uncommon that I find our leadership, apparently with the backing of a majority of voters, leading us in a direction other than what I think is right.

And I suspect that I am not alone in this. Everywhere I turn I hear people complaining about elected officials, especially presidents, seemingly convinced that if only we could replace this person, or that party, all would be well with our nation again. And if that replacement does not occur soon there will be nothing left to salvage. I know people on Facebook for whom a significant number of their posts are calls for us to dump Obama because he is the devil incarnate, or nearly so.

One of the nice things about living in the US is that we have the right to have differing opinions and the freedom to express those opinions loudly and freely to the rest of the world. But I have to admit to some agitation when I hear Christians vocally denouncing our president. It somehow seems at odds with what I am instructed to do as a believer. Please note that I am not suggesting that we agree with all he might be attempting to do, nor that I should not take the opportunity to vote my conscience or to campaign for an alternative. But I am suggesting that as believers we have a certain responsibility to our president and other leaders, one that seems to often take a back seat to complaining.

One of the responsibilities I have as a believer is to honor those in positions of authority.

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. - Romans 13:6-7 - NIV

While I may not think a particular president is doing a good job or that he is worthy of honor, none-the-less he is the president and that position is one that I should respect and honor. While that person himself may not be worthy of our respect, the position he/she holds is. Continually expressing the opinion that the man is a jerk who is destroying our country does not strike me as being very honoring.

Secondly we, as believers, are called to pray for those who are in positions of authority over us.

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. - 1 Timothy 2:1-4 NIV

We are to pray for their needs, to pray for God's activity in their lives, and to pray with thanksgiving. Praying with thanksgiving is kind of challenging when one has a negative attitude toward a person. The end result of our prayer is that we would be able to live peacefully in godliness and holiness, creating an atmosphere that would lead others to come to the truth. Our prayer should not be that God would throw the bum out. But that God would use them to accomplish his purpose in creation.

Building a Shed

2011-11-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

This was the year we finally decided to put up a shed big enough to hold all of the garden and lawn tools needed to care for half an acre as well as store the lawn furniture during the winter. We had been making do with a couple of little sheds and leaving the furniture out all year, where it aged quickly. The initial thought was to buy a kit and build it myself, but since I was still working at the time I offered the job to my son. After looking at sheds for a while we decided, with his construction background, to build one from scratch instead, one that ended up being larger and nicer than initially planned.

From ground clearing to final caulking (painting has been delayed now until the spring) the task took about two months and a countless number of trips to Lowes and Home Depot. During that time we watched the neighbors buy a kit shed and have it installed in about 5 hours. It was very much a learning experience, especially for me, and there are a number of things we would do differently if there ever was a next time (not currently on the agenda), but it all worked out and produced a very nice and functional shed. All the lawn furniture is stored away and the lawn and garden tools are out of the little sheds and the garage.

In particular I enjoyed the opportunity to work with my son during the part of the process where I helped, playing gofer and second pair of hands while putting up the walls and roof. I believe it was the most time we had ever invested together in a single project and that alone made this effort a highlight for me. We worked through some of the design and construction issues together and competed to see who could shed the most blood (I think I won hands down although some might think that smacking myself in the face with a hammer should be a disqualifying event).

All in all it's been a good experience. Thanks Mike.

How to Read the Bible

2011-11-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

The Bible is many things to many people. For those of us who are Christ followers, it is a special book, or should I say collection of writings. We believe it is inspired by God and given to enable us to know God and to be able to effectively serve him. The Bible is considered to be something else altogether by those who are not followers of Jesus, but that is not a concern for this post.

Given that the Bible is our "owner's manual", how should we as believers read and understand it? Some consider it to be inerrant, or without any error in its original form, while others will take exception to the correctness of some parts. Some believe it should be taken literally, others figuratively, others symbolically or allegorically, while others will see some of two or three of these in its pages. I do believe there are some general guidelines we can follow in making that determination, but it is not always real cut and dried.

In 2 Timothy 3:14-17 (NIV) Paul has this to say to Timothy.

"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

In this passage Paul has a number of things to say about the scriptures. He affirms that it is inspired, or God-breathed, and that it has great value for equipping God's servants for every good work via teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. As believers we should be treating the Bible as essential for living in proper relationship with God.

But what does it mean that the Bible is inspired by God? Some will attribute every word in the original manuscripts to be dictated by God. Others will hold that only the thoughts that are expressed were inspired and that the individual human authors were free to use their own words. And still others will limit inspiration to the general themes of the individual writings with much more latitude given to the human authors in how they express those themes. So which is correct? As much as I would love to give a definitive answer, I must confess that I don't know, although I lean to something between the second and third alternative. But ultimately I don't believe the answer is really all that important. What is important is that God has given us the Bible, this collection of writings, to enable us to serve him effectively.

So what about the debate concerning whether one should take the Bible literally or figuratively? The answer to this question is, I believe, 'yes'. Sometimes one should take it literally and other times it should be read figuratively. And some parts of the Bible are more appropriately taken allegorically, the parables of Jesus for instance. The rule of thumb I would recommend is that one read the Bible literally, unless that reading doesn't make sense or it is clearly using a figure of speech. An example of an appropriate time to read a passage figuratively is when Jesus identifies himself as the gate of the sheep pen and us as sheep (John 10:7). He did not literally mean he was a gate and I am a sheep. These are examples of figures of speech, which, while not literal, do serve to enhance the communication.

Another example would be Mark 9:43-48 where Jesus instructs us to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand or foot that causes us to sin. I suspect no one really takes this passage literally; at least I have not seen many one eyed believers with missing hands and/or feet. We rightly understand this passage to be telling us to remove from our lives those things that cause us to sin, rather than an admonition to self-mutilation.

There are two specific areas of the Bible that I believe need some warning when we undertake to read them. The first of these is the Old Testament. The Old Testament contains the writings that applied to the old covenant between God and the nation of Israel, a covenant based on obedience to the Law. But as a believer in Jesus, you are not under that covenant. Instead God has established a new covenant with us, a covenant based on grace. As believers we are not judged according to our obedience to the Old Testament Law, including the 10 Commandments, and need to guard against replacing grace with obedience to the Law. That is not to say that those rules there are bad, but that they are not the measure of our faithfulness to God. We do generally ignore most of them anyway, but the ones we grab onto are too often used as a measure of our righteousness, rather than depending on God's righteousness that he gives to us in the blood of Jesus.

The other place that deserves special consideration is Revelation. 40 years ago I had a pretty good understanding of Revelation. 30 years ago I could almost quote it to you, although my understanding was not as good, and was in general entirely different that it had been a decade prior. Now, I seldom spend much time with Revelation and am no longer convinced I understand much of anything in it. Revelation is, I believe, filled with highly symbolic language and has just about as many interpretations as there are people interpreting it. I am content now to see the theme of Revelation as being that God will reward those who are faithful to him, especially in times of trouble, and will destroy those who live in rebellion against him. It is a call to God's people to be faithful unto death. All the discussions about tribulationalism, millennialism, and 7 or 12 headed beasts no longer hold much interest for me. Christ will return for me in his own time and way, regardless of how I interpret Revelation.

As I read the Bible, are there parts of the New Testament, apart from Revelation, that do not apply to me today? An example of this is the place of women in the church. While the New Testament writers elevated the place of women above the society of their day, they still had a subservient role both in the home and in the church. While many would argue that the instruction of the New Testament concerning women in the church apply just as much to us today as they did 2000 years ago, in actual practice we demonstrate something else. In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 where Paul forbid women from speaking in church, was he speaking to our time and place as well, or just to the culture of the day. I am inclined to believe that he would teach something entirely different about that in the culture of 21^th century USA. Public speaking of women is accepted here while it was not then. In most of our churches today if women had to remain silent our gathering would be awful quiet. Do be aware of cultural differences between the first century Roman world and the world of today as you read the Word and apply it to life.

Finally, I would not read the Bible as a science or history text; that is not what it is. Instead read the Bible as the inspired word of God, given to you to enable your effective service. Read it prayerfully, seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And read it with the expectation that it will have something important to say to you, planning to conform your life to its teaching.

Cranky Old Neighbors and Fences

2011-10-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

Like many other people I have neighbors, defined as people whose property is adjacent to my own. Since my lot includes the middle of the block I have a lot of neighbors, some that I know and some that I don't. But in general I have gotten along with them for the most part. But that has apparently changed.

On one side of me is a cantankerous old lady that I had gotten along with pretty well from the time she moved in until last year. But now, apparently, I have done something, either real or imagined, that has offended her. She no longer acknowledges my existence and, even worse, has done the same thing with my wife. And we are left to our own imaginations to try and figure out what the problem is.

We recently had new renters move into the apartment that is attached to the side of our house and between us and her. The renters have a small dog that uses the yard in front of the apartment. I found out last week that this lovely neighbor has confronted the tenants concerning their dog and the need to keep it off of her lawn. So I should not have been too surprised when late last week a fence started going up between her front yard and mine (the back has been fenced for a long time).

I must admit to some very mixed feelings about all of this. On the one hand, not being overly social, I don't care if she chooses to not talk with me. It's not as though we ever had more than a casual relationship. But for some reason I have found myself offended by her actions, and especially with the fence. And that is somewhat confusing to me. I mean, why should I care that she is building a fence to separate us. I have no need to go into her yard, especially since she won't have anything to do with me. The only people it hurts is the mail lady who walks between our houses across the yard, her lawn care folks who previously used my driveway to get between her yard and the strip of grass along the street, and her pocketbook.

And yet the night the fence started up I spent the first half of the night churning over it, alternately plotting revenge and trying to convince myself to just let it go. Fortunately my better judgement won out and there will be no revenge. But I don't think I can just let it go either, as easy as that would be to do. Romans 12:18 tells me that as far as it depends on me, I should live at peace with those around me; including the cranky old lady next door to me. Not sure just how to approach someone who will turn and walk away if I get close, and will surely close the door in my face if I knocked. But somehow I need to approach her and ask forgiveness for whatever I might have done. If she responds positively, I have won back a neighbor. But even if not, I can know that I have made the attempt.

There may be a card to write in my future. And definitely some praying to do, both for me and for her.

The Problem of Evil

2011-10-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

How come bad things happen in the world? Rape, child abuse, tsunamis, hurricanes, war and disease. The news is filled with accounts of the hurt that is inflicted on oftentimes innocent people. Why does an all powerful and loving God allow this to happen? I have no doubt that most, if not all, of us have wondered that from time to time, especially when the hurt hits close to home.

If God is all powerful and all knowing, and really cares about us, surely he should be able to fix the evils in our world, the hurricanes and earthquakes, the diseases and famines, the tyrant who oppresses his people and the drug industry that so disrupts society. If he has the ability to 'fix it' and yet does not, is he really all that loving? There are many people who use the evils in our world today as an excuse to reject the existence of a loving and caring god. And many others who, while not rejecting God, still question his motives and purposes; why does God allow all the hurts seen on the news or in my life.

The 'Problem of Evil', a topic that has occupied philosophers for ages is one that has no easy answer, although many attempts are made. Some argue that God must allow evil if we are to truly have free will. Others will argue that suffering now can produce a long term benefit for our eternity. And others offer other alternatives that are just as unsatisfying to the person who is hurting or deeply concerned about the hurting that is going on all around us.

I do believe that God exists. And that he is omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing). And I believe that God is good, although not necessarily so when judged by human standards. I do believe that it is incorrect to overlay human concepts of morality onto our creator. He is fortunately not like us (can you imagine me as god) and his reasons and purposes are beyond our understanding. That God appears to be indifferent to the sufferings of mankind does not mean that he is, or that he is not at work in our world today.

For myself, I have no real answer to the problem of evil, but I choose to trust that God cares for me and that he is working through all the stuff that happens to me, whether I think it good or bad, to accomplish his purpose in my life (Romans 8:28). Living with an attitude of thankfulness does not make the problems go away, but it sure does affect my attitude and the way I view life.

While I am far from being a deist, I do believe that God has created a self sustaining world where he is not actively pulling all the strings. Children are born with defects, not because God made them that way, but because of genetic or other issues. People die and suffer from hurricanes, not because God is punishing a particular place, but because of the way our weather systems function. Could God change them? I believe so. But it is apparent he does not always, if ever.

Many would have us believe that God's desire for me now is that I be happy, healthy and prosperous. But I do not believe that to be the case. I have come to accept that what happens to me here is of little real (eternal) consequence, other than in what God can work out in my life through it. And that what really matters is in the unseen, to us, but eternal kingdom that God is preparing us for. My prayer for myself, my family and for others is not that life would be dandy, but that God would be glorified in us and in our response to what happens to us. And also that he would use the events and circumstances of my life to prepare me for whatever purpose he has awaiting me.

I Miss Weekends

2011-10-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

I can remember back to a time when I had to work at an office job for 5 days out of the week. I would be up early in the morning to do all of the pre-work stuff like devotionals, running, showering, getting dressed, making a lunch and eating breakfast. Then it was off to the office for 8 hours of staring at a computer monitor. At the end of the day I got to wake up, go back home, do a few small chores, eat dinner, read for a bit and then off to bed. An unending cycle only broken by the weekend. Aw, glorious weekends. Two whole days to do most anything I wanted to. Sunday morning was devoted to church, but that still gave me a day and a half.

The only problem with all that time off was deciding what to do with it. Would I stay home and do chores or try to get out and do something else. Seldom was there time to do both. And it seemed like all too often the chores won out. But still, I wasn't in the office and my time was my own. And the thing I choose to do held a special place.

But then last year my weekends started to come apart. It all started when I became a part time employee, getting every Friday off. Little did I realize what that would do to my weekends. Now, instead of a day and a half off I had 2 1/2 days off every week. That sounds good, and at first it was. Now I could do my long run of the week on Friday or Saturday. I could take a hike one day and mow the lawn the other. The problem was that the weekend was no longer quite as special; it had been diluted by becoming so much closer in size to the work week. But still, eventually I lusted after even more time off. Oh to be able to take a two day hike, spend a day in the yard and another with my church family. What could possibly be better than that.

And then last week my dream came true. I was laid off from the office and retained by my employer to do a bit of telecommuting. Now I didn't have to get up and shower, make a lunch and trudge off to work. I could just climb out of bed, walk 15 feet to my desk and laptop and do my goofing off at home, unwashed and in my PJ's. Could it get any better?

However, too late I realized that this led to the demise of my cherished weekends. When you don't have a work week, there is no weekend. Every day is the nearly the same. Other than Sunday it's hard to remember even what day it is. I can do yard work every day of the week, as well as take a long run, sleep in or do any number of other things that used to compete for my Saturdays. And once warmer and dryer weather returns I can go up into the mountains any time I want and for as long as I want. Now, instead of being special, these things are just routine and ordinary.

I miss you weekend, may you rest in peace!

What is Heaven Like?

2011-10-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Mansion Over the Hilltop

I've got a mansion just over the hilltop, in that bright land where we'll never grow old. And some day yonder we will never more wander, but walk on the streets that are purest gold

I love this song and enjoyed singing it as a part of a quartet in a small church years ago. It really brings back fond memories. Unfortunately it's just not true, at least as far as I can tell. This song, and many others, paint a picture of heaven as a place where we can kick back, stroll streets of gold and live in a mansion on a hilltop, probably with lots of servants to wait on us for eternity. An eternity of bliss as a reward for accepting Jesus as savior. But that really doesn't make sense to me (after all I did nothing to deserve it), nor do I really find that sentiment supported in the scriptures.

Ones answer to the question about what heaven's like is, I believe, shaped by their view of God's purpose in creation. Why did he create a habitable universe with at least one planet populated by intelligent beings? I can't help but believe that if the previous statement is true, and I believe it is, that he must have had a reason for doing it. And that reason must include our current existence as a step in the process. If life here is nothing more than a time to determine who the believers are that will be rewarded with paradise, and he already knew who they would be prior to creation, then why not just jump to the end game and skip this messy and often painful part?

So it seems to me like life here is playing some part in the long term future God is working us toward. There are at least a couple of passages in the New Testament that give support to the thought that my life here, as a believer, has an impact on my future in the Kingdom of God. The first of these are the parables recorded in the gospels (Matthew 25:14-30 & Luke 19:11-27) of the king who entrusted possessions to servants, goes away for a while, and then returns for an accounting of their stewardship. There is praise, and more responsibility, for those who performed well and condemnation for those who failed to satisfy the king.

The second passage is in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 where Paul talks about building on the foundation of Christ. There are a variety of building materials that could be used, some of value and some not. If the life I build on the foundation of Christ has value, there is reward to come. But if I build on that foundation will lesser materials I will be saved because of the foundation, but will experience a lesser, or no, reward. There is no mention of what that reward is, although in the gospel parables the reward was two-fold, sharing in the Master's happiness and additional responsibility.

These passages tell us that what I do now in this life will have an impact on the life to come. How successful I am by human standards will have nothing to do with it. Rather how faithful I am to the God who called me and equips me for his service will be the key. We need to serve God here as if our future depends on it, because to some extent it does.

So, what is heaven really like? I must confess that I really don't know. I do believe that my future though will not just be a time of kicking back, swinging in a hammock and having fair maidens drop grapes in my mouth for eternity. Rather it will be a time (time will likely have no real meaning) of serving along side our creator in carrying out whatever purpose he created us for.

BTW, the streets of gold? That comes from Revelation 21:21, part of a description of the New Jerusalem, specifically identified as the bride of Christ (21:2, 9-10). We will not be walking on streets of gold. We will potentially be a nugget in the street. :)

Shoes, Shoes and more Shoes

2011-10-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

How many pairs of shoes do you have in your closet? Seems like just a few years ago I would have answered that question with no more than 5 or 6. After all, how many pairs of shoes does a guy need, especially one with no fashion sense. A pair of 'nice' shoes for special occasions, a comfortable pair of shoes for everyday use, an old ratty pair for yard work and a pair of boots for hiking.

But somewhere along the way I must have come up with a fertile pair because they seem to be rapidly proliferating. The shoes in my collection could also be a case study in evolution, branching out into several new niches and species, including running and biking shoes as well as Five Fingers.

Of course part of the problem with my shoes is that I seldom throw anything away, so I end up collecting shoes that are worn out or just not something I want to wear this decade but may at some time in the future. I have done a search through the house collecting shoes from all of their hiding places, and surprisingly, at least to me, there were a lot more of them than I would have guessed before starting this research project.

After my search I found that I have:

1 pair of rubber boots. Every home owner has to have a pair of rubber boots for dealing with wet disasters around the house and weed whacking tall wet grass.
4 pair of hiking boots. Two pair are wore out, but, even though it is likely I will never put them back on my feet again, I still hold on to them, loyalty I guess. The other two are in good shape but will also likely never be warn again because I now wear running shoes on the trail. I do have them though just in case I go hiking with someone who does not have boots and wears a size 13.
2 pairs of flip flops. One for the pool and the other for a backup, I guess.
1 pair of biking shoes. Gotta have bike shoes to ride a bike, even if only in the basement.
1 pair of booties for a wet suit. Sometimes the lake is pretty cold and blue toes are not pretty.
2 pairs of sandals. Originally bought for camp shoes when hiking but no longer used for that. One worn out and one good, but neither used all that much any more. One of them apparently has become so distraught over this neglect that they have hidden themselves so deeply that I was unable to find them for the group shot above.
2 pair of house slippers. Who knows why.
9 pair of running shoes. These are the shoes I really need to keep separated at night. It is unbelievable how fast they multiple. Five years ago I had one pair. And now I don't even use them for running.
2 pair of five fingers. One to run in, meaning I have 9 pairs of running shoes that I don't run in, and one to wear around and sometimes hike in.
5 pair of dress shoes. I wear dress shoes about 2-3 times a year. The rest of the time I generally wear worn out running shoes. Four of these pairs of shoes could disappear and I would likely not notice, but they help keep the pair I do wear company during the long lonely stretches in the closet.
1 pair of crocks. Originally bought as camp shoes when hiking but now mostly used to decorate the back deck and occasionally slip on to walk on wet grass.

That makes a total of 30 pair of shoes. That's just over one pair of shoes for every two years of my life. Not too bad when you look at it like that.

The big downside to this research into my shoes is that my wife has taken offense at me having more shoes than she does. I can foresee needing to find a new place to keep her shoes in the near future. I am pretty sure though that at least my daughter still has me beat :)

The Bible and Science

2011-10-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

The B I B L E, yes that's the book for me.
I stand alone on the word of God.
The B I B L E.

I grew up singing that song and for pretty much all of my life that I can remember the Bible has been at the top of my reading list, providing guidance and instruction. But just what is this book that many Christians hold so dear and what role should it play in our lives? You have likely heard many terms used in relation to the Bible, like inspired, inerrancy, infallibility, authoritative, ... I must confess that I am never too sure just what a person means when they use those words in relation to the Bible, and I disagree with some of what I do understand the terms to mean.

The Bible has this to say about itself:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. - 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

This is, as far as I know, the primary passage used in support of inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. This passage does indeed affirm the inspiration of the scriptures, although it is uncertain just how that occurs. But I fail to see that it really says anything about inerrancy. What it tells me is that the Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness to thoroughly equip me for doing what God wants of me. It is God's instruction for me on how to live a holy life in his service. I do believe that in matters of faith and service to God that the Bible is trust worthy and authoritative.

Science is, according to Wikipedia:

Science (from Latin: scientia meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. ... In modern use, science is "often treated as synonymous with ‘natural and physical science’, and thus restricted to those branches of study that relate to the phenomena of the material universe and their laws, sometimes with implied exclusion of pure mathematics. This is now the dominant sense in ordinary use

In simpler terms science is the study of the world around us, trying to understand the nature of the universe and all it contains and how and why it works the way it does. I find it unfortunate that to many people, both believers and non-believers, the Bible and science are thought to be at odds with one another.

I believe that the reason for this is that too many believers attempt to make the Bible be something that it is not; an inspired science and/or history text. For example, how old is the earth? The Bible doesn't actually say, but the implication from Genesis is that the earth is not really all that old, in the range of 6-10 thousand years. However, modern science claims that the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old; certainly quite a contrast to 6-10 thousand years. As a believer, how do I choose which to believe?

Those who hold to Biblical inerrancy would say that the Genesis account must be historically and scientifically accurate because it is the inspired word of a God who cannot lie. And I hesitate to challenge that statement because I would then come across as one who claims that God lies, which I will never do. But, does belief in a young earth better equip me for serving God than belief in an old earth? I would argue that it does not, and that is some ways it actually hinders it. Part of my service to God is in sharing the good news with a world that is in need of it. But how can I effectively do that when I deny the overwhelming scientific evidence in support of the age of the earth and hold to a contrary belief that has no scientific support. St. Augustine wrote:

“It not infrequently happens that something about the earth, about the sky, about other elements of this world, about the motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about definite eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons, about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things, may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience, even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful and ruinous, though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-Christian] should hear a Christian speaking so idiotically on these matters, and as if in accord with Christian writings, that he might say that he could scarcely keep from laughing when he saw how totally in error they are... In view of this and in keeping it in mind constantly while dealing with the book of Genesis, I have, insofar as I was able, explained in detail and set forth for consideration the meanings of obscure passages, taking care not to affirm rashly some one meaning to the prejudice of another and perhaps better explanation.” The Literal Interpretation of Genesis (De Genesi ad Litteram) 1:19–20, Chapter 19

I do believe his words are instructive to us when dealing with the debate between the Bible and scientific findings. We make ourselves a laughing stock to the world around us when we hold so strongly to something that is so obviously at odds with what we can see around us concerning the creation. Let us hold tightly to the Bible in matters of faith and service to God, and less loosely in matters that are not central to our faith. Really, what difference does it make how God created the heavens and the earth and the life that populates this planet?

We often apply the following verse only to unbelievers:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. - Romans 1:20 NIV

But does it not have application to believers as well? Should I not be able to look at the creation and see what God has created without twisting it to fit an ancient cosmology? And is that not what science does; look at the creation and try to make sense of it? In my mind science is a tool that can help me to better understand God's working, the revelation of himself in the natural world. I follow the Bible in matters of faith and service to God; but in understanding the world around me I am willing to learn from those who have invested their lives in revealing the mysteries of creation.

Profound Thoughts of a Long Distance Runner

2011-10-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

I went out for a long run this morning and somewhere along the way it dawned on me that both of my loyal readers would dearly love to know the amazing thoughts that run through my head while plodding down the road. Running gives a person lots of time to think since it is pretty challenging to watch TV or read a book while dodging cars in the early morning fog. There is not really much else to do besides think and devise solutions to the problems that plague our world today. So here, in no particular order, are the things I can remember thinking about during this mornings 2 hour run.

"Are we there yet?" This is actually a conversation that goes on between much of my body and my brain after the first few minutes of most runs. My feet and legs in particular would much prefer to cease this nonsense and head on back to the house and back to bed. They are as bad as the kids in the back of the car on a long car trip.

"How much longer are we going to be doing this?" This is a variation on the previous question, and one that starts to replace it the longer the run goes on. The legs eventually start to grow really tied of the whole idea of running and start giving the brain ultimatums. Either you wrap this up soon or we are going to take a break, and maybe forget to tell you until you are face down on the road.

"I wonder if that car waiting to pull out in front of me sees me?" When running facing on-coming traffic and a car is waiting to make a right turn into the traffic, too many times the driver never looks to their right to see if a runner is getting ready to become a hood ornament. One of these days I am going to learn how to do a 3 foot vertical jump so I can land running on the hood of a car. Bet that would get them to start looking for oncoming ninja runners.

"I bet that driver was trying to see how close they could get without actually hitting me." I for one am not interested in playing chicken with a car or truck, especially when I am not also encased in a ton of steel. I am pretty soft and squishy and just know it would hurt a lot to lose at that game.

"I wonder if I can make it through that light before it turns red?" Today's route included Waaga Way between Bremerton and Central Valley Road, a stretch that includes a number of traffic signals. While a part of me likes to hit red lights (who doesn't like taking breaks?) another part of me is wanting to get this run over with and waiting at a light just prolongs the experience.

"I wonder if I can catch that runner up ahead?" I am not particularly fast so it is also a big ego boost when I encounter someone who is even slower than me. And even better is when I can pass a bicycle (it has actually happened once on a big hill).

"You should not have come out in shorts this morning!" This was my legs complaining after about 90 minutes this morning when they got cold and stiff. What to wear on a long run is frequently a problem since one never knows that the weather will be like in an hour or two around here in the fall.

"Ow! Watch where we're running!" This is generally a foot complaint. I have them encased in Five Finger 'shoes' and the soles are pretty thin. Stepping on a rock, especially under the arch, hurts. The feet are frequently reminding the eyes to keep a better lookout.

"Is this all the faster you can go?" My ego talking to my legs and egging them on. This works for a while but eventually the legs start to ignore the ego, and the brain, and just do their own thing. At that point, if I am not well on the way back toward home, I could end up taking a closeup look at the pavement.

Are we there yet? Ouch, watch where we're going! Get your car off the shoulder! Are we there yet? How fast are we going? Are we almost there? It's cold! I'm hungry! I gotta go potty! Are we there yet? ...

Origins

2011-10-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

We live in a big complex universe. Where did it come from? How did I come to be? These are questions I have frequently asked myself and I suspect I am not alone in doing so. The response you have for these questions will have a big impact on how you view the world around you and how you respond to much of what happens to you.

To give an authoritative and comprehensive answer is beyond me, but I would like to share a few thoughts. There are, at least to my mind, three general answers that can be given, each with a lot of variation. The first approach is one taken by many believers in my circle and includes:

God created the universe, this earth, and life on it exactly (or nearly) as is.
the belief that God continues to be actively involved with everything that happens on earth, from the blooming of a flower or birth of a child to earthquakes, storms and wars.
God has a specific plan for my life and that there is a specific right choice for me in every decision that I face.
science is treated with suspicion, especially when it is at odds with beliefs about origins.

A second common view, and one that is becoming more popular all the time, is that of the atheist:

the universe either has always been, or it just happened without any causal action. There is no place for a creator.
there is no thought for anything after this life.
this life is, to a large extent, what we make of it and our only purpose is what we assign to ourselves.
science, in some ways, takes the place of God; not that science creates anything, but science, and the technology it inspires, provides us with all the answers worth knowing and will be the savior of mankind.

And finally there is the view of other believers, including myself, who hold that:

God created the universe, including the laws that regulate and have shaped it, over a very long time, into what it is today.
much, or most, of what happens in the universe, and with life on earth, happens according to the physical laws that were put into effect at the creation; meaning that there is no need for God to be directly involved with making flowers bloom or forming an unborn child.
for the most part, while God has a purpose for people, he does not have a specific plan for the execution of their life. Oftentimes there can be multiple responses I can make to decisions that are equally good.
that study of the created world, science, will help us to better know him and know his creation. This includes the assumption that the creation is knowable and that what it reveals is accurate, i.e. the universe will not lie about its age or its history.

Over the last decade I have slowly moved from view 1 to view 3 with two major impacts. The first, and more troubling, is that it is sometimes hard to reconcile with a more "fundamentalist" view of the scriptures; and I will be addressing this in a later blog post. The more rewarding consequence is that my beliefs no longer seem to be at odds with what I see and experience around me, making God's revelation of himself in the created world much more revealing. God certainly seems much bigger to me now than he did a decade ago, although at the same time I have had to relearn much of what I thought I knew.

I am firmly convinced that in the beginning, God! And that God produced what is seen from what is unseen. And while I have no doubt that God could have created this universe, our planet and life in any fashion he chose, I no longer accept that it was all done in the span of 6 days some 6 thousand years ago. The creation itself bears witness to its creator and tells a much different story, a story of an incredibly old universe that has changed over the eons and of life today that bears no resemblance to life in the distant past.

I know that some will label me a liberal, or even a heretic, because of this, but I have to be true to where I believe God has led me over the years. There is much about origins that I do not yet understand, but I am at peace with where I am in that journey and continue to grow in my understanding. And I would encourage each of you to explore and be open to the Holy Spirit's guidance.

God

2011-09-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

God! A simple three letter word that means so much and is used in so many different ways. To some it is just a word used when swearing. To others it is a general word used to describe all forms of deities. To some it is the name of a non-existent mythical being. And to others of us it is a title we use for our heavenly Father, the creator of the universe.

I believe that God is real and that he has a purpose for his creation and for me. Can I prove that to you? No I can't, although I can demonstrate that belief in God is reasonable, more so than any of the alternatives. While I cannot prove to you that God exists, I am convinced in my own mind that he does and that belief is an integral part of who I am and how I live my life here.

I believe that everyone has an opinion, or belief, concerning God. Those beliefs range from active disbelief (militant atheism), through indifference (more passive atheism and agnosticism), to passive belief (folks for whom that belief makes no practical difference) and on to active belief. Active belief is where ones belief in God makes a practical difference in their everyday life. I am different specifically because of what I believe about him.

I believe, among other things:

that God exists
that he is the creator of all that is in this universe, including the laws that regulate it
that he has a purpose for his creation
that the creation bears faithful testimony to its creator and that it is knowable
that he does not micro manage his creation, allowing it to function according to the physical laws he put into place
that he knows me and has a future for me
that he wants me to know him in a personal way
that he is not overly interested in me being healthy, wealthy or wise in this life time, but rather is using the events of this life to prepare me for a future life
that he is not like me in any appreciable way and the terms I can use to describe him are totally inadequate and often misleading
that he is not obligated to me in any way, but has provided me a way to be a part of what he is doing

And because I believe the above I:

actively seek to know him better, spending time with him
try to live, not to gratify today's desires, for in preparation for the future he has for me
live in awe of his creative power and what he has put together, our universe
am convicted of the need to share the good news with others who live without it

What do you believe about God? And what difference does it make in your daily life?

Loving the Lord your God with all your mind.

2011-09-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

Jesus, quoting from Deuteronomy, tells us to 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind' (Matthew 22:37). Loving with our hearts and souls seems straightforward enough. But what about loving him with your mind? How is one supposed to go about that? The mind seems like it is more for thinking than for loving.

Consider this; I love my wife, and there is a very emotional aspect to that (heart and soul). But when I try and understand who she is, attempting to get to know her better and consider how to please her, am I not also loving her with my mind? I believe that is the case, and loving God with my mind is similar. Which do you suppose God is more pleased with: blindly accepting what we are told about him; or investing time and effort in trying to discover and understand who he is and what he is doing in the world? Which of those choices more clearly demonstrates a love for God (consider your spouses response if this was about them).

As a believer, thinking can be a dangerous thing and is not always something that is strongly encouraged. What if you set out on a voyage of discovery and end up with some belief that are differs from that of your church? It is much safer to simply tell people what they should believe; that way the chance of leaving the orthodox path is much reduced. I believe though that that hinders our ability to love God with all that we are, in particular with our minds.

Dare to think about God. Dare to try and make sense of the world around you. Dare to be open to God's revelation, not just in the scriptures, but also in the creation. Might you get something wrong? For sure, and maybe more than one thing. But, within limits, is that not better than simply being a sponge that absorbs the neatly packaged Sunday school lesson each week without ever really thinking about it?

Some caution is needing when you set out to think for yourself. First of all realize that the primary thing God is looking for from us is faith, not complete understanding. Because you cannot figure it out is not grounds for rejection. Live by faith, but be willing to explore with reason. Determine what is core to the faith and hold to that. Don't lightly change beliefs, but be willing to if appropriate; don't just hold on to a belief because it is what your parents believed. And, mostly, trust the Holy Spirit to guide you into the truth. If you are truly sensitive to his direction, he will not lead you astray. We can count on going astray though without his help.

And, finally, some warning. You will encounter people who act as though your salvation depends on your sharing the same set of beliefs they have. Consider what they have to say, it may be valuable input, but trust God to guide you in coming to know him and what he is doing. God knows himself better than your concerned brother does. If you find yourself on the opposite side of some issue with a brother, I would encourage you not to get into a fight with them, or to get upset by their response to you. Remember that you are serving the Lord and he is the one you need to be striving to please, not any of the rest of us.

Retired

2011-09-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today is kind of a bittersweet day. After 31 plus years at Keyport I will not be getting up and going to work any more. I had actually retired from government service a bit more than 3 years ago and returned to the same place to experience the life of a contractor. I enjoyed the chance to be a computer programmer again, but last week I experienced the big downside of being a contractor. The budget was tight and the workforce needed to be trimmed, resulting in 3 of us being laid off, effective today for me. Walking away from the job had been in the back of my mind for some time, but I had not yet reached the point of pulling the trigger. Now that it has been done for me I can go ahead and begin to enjoy 'retired life'.

So what does the future hold for me? That's a good question and one that I do not have a complete answer for. For sure it will open up more time to hike and enjoy the creation. I expect to spend considerable amounts of time on the PCT next year. I had already been planning on finishing out the 300 miles of Oregon. Now I may push on into California for a bit.

It will also provide ample time to work on my house and yard. There are many tasks there that have languished due to time constraints. After work and time in the mountains, there just wasn't enough time left to landscape my yard the way I would like. I am looking forward to seeing what will happen to the yard in the next year.

I am still an employee of AMSEC for the time being. I am told that they will have some part time work for me in the future although I don't know what the level of effort will be for it. Getting in a few hours a week wouldn't be too bad, depending on what the task is.

Sue and I have talked in the past about getting involved in some short term missions work, in particular disaster relief efforts. I expect that will become a larger part of my life going forward. It will be good to be in a position to be able to go at the drop of a hat without having to worry about leaving a job behind.

I look back on the past 31 years with fondness and without regret. Now I look forward to the next 20-30 years with anticipation and look forward to spending the time with my wife Sue and with our Lord. Our health is good and we are financially fairly secure. It is a good place to be.

Onward and Upward!

Do you have God in a box?

2011-09-14T06:39:00.000-07:00

Seems like a pretty silly question, doesn't it? How could you possibly find a box big enough to put God into? But in a very real sense most of us attempt it from time to time, if not most of the time. Think about what it means to box in something: it is the process of putting limits around that thing. We do it with our children, hopefully allowing the box to get bigger and bigger until they finally bust out of it. With our children the box is defined by the limits we impose on them, and what we think they are capable of. As they grow and mature the box should expand to accommodate that growth.

But what about with God? When I was a child I had a very simple set of beliefs concerning God: he lived in heaven and was watching over me; if I was good and believed in Jesus I would go to heaven when I died; in heaven I would get a harp, wings and a halo and would float around on a cloud and look down on the people who were still here. But as I grew and matured my understanding of who God is also changed; the box got bigger, or at least it should have.

The problem is that for many people the box doesn't really grow and they enter adulthood with a child's view of God. And while that is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, it can lead to a real problem when challenging times occur or someone seriously challenges your faith. A child-like faith is good, but a child-like understanding of God will be sorely tested when your own child is killed, your spouse leaves you, when life just keeps dumping on you, or your atheist friend demonstrates that your faith in God is unreasonable. All to often, when that happens, the response is not to seek God and let him out of the box you have built around him, but to toss out the box with God still in it.

I would encourage you to examine the 'box' you have put God into. Is your box too small and constraining? Or does it really allow God to be God? How do you know if your box is too small? If you envision God as human in some way, even as a superman, your box is too small. God is not like us nor are his ways like our ways. If you envision God as a kindly old grandfather who wants all of his kids and grand-kids to be healthy wealthy and wise, your view of him is misguided; or else there was something wrong with Jesus and many of his early followers as described in the New Testament. Because while many of them had a certain amount of wisdom, they certainly were not generally very wealthy and often suffered physical ailments and abuse. If you find that God is generally in agreement with your assessment of other people and events, you need to seriously evaluate whether or not you have actually confused your own opinion with God's assessment.

God is not like us in any real appreciable way. We are stuck in time and have a real limited view of eternity. God is not, and his viewpoint is much larger. I am most concerned for tomorrow while God takes a much larger view, one that extends beyond the life of the universe we inhabit. If the New Testament is to be believed, God is more concerned with my future than he is my present condition. Expand your horizons and consider a God who has a long term purpose that he is working out in the lives of those who live by faith in him. As Paul said, "Set your hearts and minds on things above, not on earthly things" (Colossians 3:1-2) and "what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Do you dare to let God out of the box you have him in? You may find that it is a life-changing event.

The Great PCT Hike of 2011

2011-09-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

The Pacific Crest Trail runs from the Mexican border to just inside Canada, approximately 2,650 miles. Lot's of people hike parts of this trail each year and about 200 or so actually make it the full length in a single year. To do that most people start mid-April at the Mexican border and hike north toward Canada, finishing up around mid-September. I have dreamed about hiking this trail for a lot of years and finally started on it last year with the northern most section, getting in the first 75 miles.

I had planned on hiking the next 200 miles to the south of that section this year, starting at Highway 20 and hiking down to I-90. But the snow this year in the North Cascades finally scared me off so I shifted my sights to Oregon. The snow looked much more manageable down there, although I did not know as much about the trail. I choose to start at the Columbia River and head south to Highway 242, about 160 miles away. This trip was expected to take about 8 days with the option of heading on down another 30 miles if I still had it in me.

Sue dropped me off Monday morning at the trail head around 6:45 AM. The first section of the days travel was actually down an alternate route that is considered much more scenic. The trail passed along a number of waterfalls, including one where the trail tunnels behind the fall, pretty impressive. The trail is moving up a narrow and deep canyon and is frequently blasted out of the side of the canyon wall, not necessarily a place for those with a fear of heights. There is frequent water along the first few miles, then a dry stretch followed by a little trickle at the 12 mile mark. The next source of water is 12 miles away. That stretch is scenic though and enjoyable. I made camp about a mile past the last water in what was for me a rare 'dry' camp. By the time I had camp set up and had eaten and cleaned up a bit it was dark so I jumped in the hammock and called it a day, after 25 miles on the trail. Sometime during the night I woke up to it raining ... I thought it was supposed to be clear for the whole trip; kind of a downer for the start of day two.

		This is the top of the Tunnel Falls. You can see the opening to the tunnel to the left of the fall and just over 2/3's of the way down the picture. The tunnel exit is just to the right of the falls. The tunnel is actually in the middle of the fall and is pretty drippy inside. Way cool!
		This is another fall on the creek. I liked the rapids on this one and had my first break here. There were lots of nice pools to soak my feet in.
		This is the first clear view of Mt Hood on the trail. Mt Hood dominates the skyline for the first 3 days of this trip.

Tuesday morning dawned wet and rainy. Broke camp under the tarp and marched for the first few hours in light rain. By 10 AM or so the rain had quit and by noon the sun was out. The highlights of the day included Ramona Falls, below Mt Hood, and the views of Mt Hood from the Timberline Lodge area. The day included lots of climbing and lots of walking in what looked and felt like beach sand, neither of which was too much fun with a too full pack. I was able to call home from the Timberline Lodge and then made it another 3 miles to a nice campsite alongside of a small stream. Finished setting up camp in the dark again, took a bath in the stream, had dinner and dropped off to bed after a 20 mile day.

		Ramona Falls sits to the west of Mt Hood. This fall cascades over a rugged face and spreads out as it goes down. Very impressive.
		The Sandy River cuts a channel through a thick layer of ash. This looks much like beach sand but is the ash from a previous eruption. Mt Hood is covered in the stuff, sometimes making walking a bit challenging.
		The view of MT Hood from the Timberline Lodge. From here it doesn't look like it would be too difficult to climb, but it is still 6000 feet to the top and a fairly technical climb. Climbers die on it just about every year.

Wednesday looked to be a mostly level day and I hoped for about 30 miles, but it was not to be. The day was mostly spend under the cover of trees, was not too scenic and was pretty dry. Other than Timothy Lake there was not really a lot to commend this section of the trail. I finally staggered to a stop at my second dry camp after a 27 mile day. Had a thunder storm move through with a little rain just as I got camp set up. Had dinner, took a spit bath and fell asleep listening to strange screeching sounds in the woods around me. Sometime during the night I decided that I would not last trying for so many miles each day and decided to back down to 20 or less a day, and looking for a lake or stream to camp near.

		The trail heading south from Mt Hood is very well manicured. In many places two people can walk alongside each other. And there are miles of trail that could be used by wheelchairs.
		Mt Hood is visible from far to the south, although usually it is just through small openings in the trees. Once you get down from Mt Hood the terrain is relatively flat for a long way with not many vistas.

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday in some respects. Not much water around and not much too see for most of the day. I crossed 3 water sources during the day and spent a lot of time in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. The reservation has a lot of logging going on so I saw a lot of clear cut areas and crossed many logging roads. After 20 miles I reached Lake Jude and setup camp. But the lake was stagnant so I hiked about 3/4 of a mile back up the trail, collected water for the next day and for dinner, cleaned up and went back to camp. It was great feeling somewhat clean and being all ready for bed before it got dark; first time for the trip. Had some more thunder and rain before bed time but nothing too serious where I was and actually made it to bed around dark.

		The PCT is marked in many ways. This older metal plate nailed to a tree is one of them. There is a wooden plaque that is also commonly used along with blazes on the tree and an occasional sign nailed to a tree or a post. In general the trail is well marked; there were only a few times when I questioned whether or not I was actually on the correct trail.
		Lemiti Creek is one of the few water sources between Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson. The creek is only a few inches deep but was a welcome sight. Took off my shoes and sock and the legs to my pants and knelt in the creek near the rock in the background to cool down a bit.

Friday was the big climbing day, up before light and on the trail by 6:30. The first stop was at the Olallie Resort where I was able to buy a Dr Pepper, which I drank on their front porch, and a few small supplies. Then up and past a number of small lakes before the ascent up a snow covered shoulder of Mt Jefferson to the trips high point at about 7000 foot. And then down into Jefferson Park and a nice spot next to a stream and not far from a nice lake. It was intermittently windy here but pleasant. I got in a swim and felt much better. This spot had the largest concentration of mosquitoes on the trip though and was the only place I really needed to breakout the head net and repellent. Other than the final partial day, this was the trips shortest day at 17 miles.

		Mt Jefferson can be seen across Olallie Lake from the front steps of the Olallie Resort grocery store. The store had very little of interest to me, but I was able to buy a cold Dr Pepper and sit on the front porch and chill out for a while and enjoy the view.
		The trail goes over a 7000 foot ridge to the north-west of Mt Jefferson. There were a couple of long stretches of snow on the climb. The only thing to indicate the proper course were the tracks of the folks who had just come down it.
		Jefferson Park is an alpine bowl, about 1 mile across and 3 miles long that sits to the west of Mt Jefferson. Pictured is the northeast corner of the park and Russell Lake. I camped a little to the right of the lake and enjoyed a quick dip in the lake.
		The wind was intermittently pretty strong while I was at Jefferson Park. That made it fun getting the hammock and tarp setup and staked down. Here my hammock is imitating a sail.

Woke early again Saturday and was off at the break of dawn. Jefferson Park is a mile across where the PCT crosses it and is mostly a high altitude meadow dotted with clumps of trees and small lakes. The trail skirted around Mt Jefferson, dropping for the first few miles and then climbing back over 6000' before walking along a ridge for the last few miles. The days trip included a ford of Russel Creek that was knee deep, crossing the remnants of an avalanche over Milky Creek and 5-6 miles through an area that burned a few years ago. I was concerned that my destination for the night would be burned but Rockpile Lake and its immediate surroundings had been spared and was beautiful. Setup camp in the trees to the east of the lake, got in a swim and dinner and was able to relax for a bit before bed. Yet another thunderstorm moved through bring some pretty heavy gusts and a bit of rain.

		Slate Lake on the trail to the south of Mt Jefferson and was a pretty little lake. Enjoyed lunch and a wade here.
		I probably hiked through nearly 30 miles of forest that had burned during the past few years, apparently from several different fires. It looks pretty desolate but the wildflowers and shrubs were taking advantage of the missing canopy. There are currently 3 fires burning on or near the portion of the PCT that I came through so the destruction will be even greater in coming years.
		Ash is a pretty common occurrence through the northern part of the Oregon PCT. This was part of a 'meadow' about the size of two football fields side by side. The 'soil' was coarse sand down to dust with periodic larger chunks of pumice laying on the surface and with a surprising variety of wildflowers growing in it.
		This picture was taken just after the sun had set behind the ridge at the top right. Rockpile Lake was a beautiful little lake that was spared during the burn that took most everything else within miles around.

Most of Sunday was spent on a continuing journey through the burned area. Seems like most of the last 35 miles of this trip was through areas that had been recently burned. It did open up the views a lot and was interesting to see the recovery process. In many places the forest floor was covered with flowers, grasses, ferns or huckleberries. The day included a trip up to 3 Fingered Jack, an old volcano whose glaciers had stripped away all but the core, along with some vistas back to Mt Jefferson and ahead the the Sisters. I ended the day at Youth Camp, a PCT hiker friendly camp along the shores of a lake. They have a cabin available for hikers along with showers and food. A fire on Mt Washington was threatening an evacuation of the camp so there was no meal but the shower was nice.

		I was marching through a section of trail that had been badly burned and had had no maintenance that year, making it the most challenging section of trail to follow. I was pretty sure I was going the right way when I came upon this sign. It was comforting except for one thing; it was backwards. I had just come from Rockpile Lake, off to the left.
		3 Fingered Jack is all that is left from a volcano like Jefferson or Hood after the glaciers have finished their job on it. All that is left is the hard core of the mountain. You can see the trail that ascends to the pass near the mountain. It switch backed along a steep slope up to the top, just to the right of the right most hump.
		There was a lot of Lupine along this trail, especially in those areas that had burned out. Lupine seems to grow just about everywhere.
		There is a variety of vegetation that sprouts up under the burn. Here it is just a field of grasses with an occasional flower. Other places it was ferns, wildflowers or huckleberries.

I left Youth Camp early Monday and climbed over the west flank of Mt Washington and then into the lava fields around the Belknap crater. Five miles of walking across the lava fields was pretty interesting, but not something I would like to do every day. 12 miles into the day I hit the trail head and waited for Sue to pick me up.

		I came upon this off to the side of the trail and was confused at first. Finally realized that I was 2000 trail miles from the start of the trail at the Mexican border. Someone was celebrating that fact.
		Some of the lava fields around the Belknap Crater were pretty desolate. Nothing but chunks of lava. There were several miles of this as I approached the end of this years journey down the PCT.
		With Sue at the DW Observatory atop McKenzie Pass. Mt Washington is in the background with the Belknap Crater lava fields in the foreground. There is an occasional dead tree in the fields but not much else.

I found three kinds of people on the PCT. The first group are those who are hiking the complete length of the PCT is a single year, or thru-hikers. These folks were generally younger, although I met a few who were older than me. They were in general fairly friendly and willing to stop and talk for a few minutes and had colorful trail names like Buttercup, Ninja, Sniper, Sunshine or Wired. Section hikers were folks like myself who were only hiking a portion of the trail, anywhere from 50 miles to a whole state. They tended toward being a bit older and still fairly friendly. The day hikers that were encountered near resorts or back country camp grounds were of all ages, generally clean and tidy and less interested in conversing with stinky long range hikers. I generally have little to do with people I pass on the street. But I have found over the years that I enjoy taking a few minutes to chat with the long range hikers I encounter.

This trip had to be one of the hardest things I have ever done, both physically and mentally. I had thought that with all the running I had been doing that walking 25 miles a day would not be so hard. But it was, especially when you throw in a 38 pound pack at the beginning and have to climb several thousand feet once or twice a day. Laying in my hammock after the third day, with my legs, feet and knees throbbing, and thinking that I still had 5-6 days left on the trip was very difficult to deal with. I had been optimistically hoping that I could add 30 miles to the end of my trip but had to decide then that was not going to happen. Instead I decided to slow down a bit, doing only 20 mile days and making sure that I ended up on a lake or stream where water was abundant and I could clean up easily, and enjoy the evening a bit before turning in. That made a big difference for the rest of the trip. As the pack weight dropped and the miles and hours went down a bit I was able to have a much better attitude about the experience. All in all I would have to say it was a good trip and I learned a lot about long distance hiking that will hopefully help in the future.

I am looking forward to getting back onto the PCT next year and hopefully finishing up Oregon and maybe doing another hunk of Washington. But I do not believe that I will be willing to just go out and hike non-stop for over a week again. I have already enlisted my wonderful wife, she with the wander-lust blood, to meet me every few days to resupply and allow a recuperation day when needed. Time to start planning now.

2011 Olympics Traverse

2011-07-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

I have plans to do a nearly 200 mile hike later this summer and felt the need to get out and get some serious miles on the trail first. Plus, I just enjoy being out in the woods with nothing to do but walk and think. The biggest problem so far to this has been the snow pack in the mountains and the cool wet weather we have been having this summer. But this past weekend promised to at least be warm and sunny so I decided to reverse a trip I had made a few years ago with a couple of friends. That trip started at the Dosewallips road washout and ended up at the North Fork Quinault trail head. It is a trip that is a bit shy of 60 miles and had taken us 7 days to complete, at least in part because of heavy loads (close to 60 pounds) and blisters. The goal this time was for a swifter trip across, planning on only 4 days and only carrying half as much.

Sue dropped me off at the trail head shortly after 10 on Friday morning. The lower Quinault is very mellow and easy to walk and the miles quickly flew by. I stopped at Francis Creek for lunch and then pushed on, hoping to reach Low Divide that first night. Between there and the 16 Mile ford I met a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) group that I had seen 3 weeks earlier on the Skokomish and a Boy Scout troop coming across from the Elwha. The Boy Scouts warned me about the 16 Mile ford and it was a bit exciting when I got to it. I explored around a bit but ended up crossing at the trail. It was very swift and about a third of the way up my thigh (I am 6'2"). But I got across without incident and started the climb to Low Divide. Quite a few trees across the trail through here and started running into snow about 3400 feet, but generally not too bad. Lost the trail briefly once but proceeded along and soon found it again. Found a couple of bears in the meadow below the empty Rangers Station and got up to the upper campground about 6:45, setup camp, had dinner and fell into the hammock for a good nights sleep.

		Still some snow in the Low Divide meadows.
		Lot's of Avalanche Lilly's all over the high country.
		The Low Divide meadows had lots of Glacier Lily's as well.
		Are you looking at me? Chowing down by the trail just below the Low Divide Ranger's Station.

The second day dawned and I was up and hit the trail by 7:30. The lakes were melted out and beautiful with some snow still around them. There was no snow on the descent although a lot of flowers and a beautiful waterfall. The Camp Chicago ford was about knee deep and not as swift so seemed safer than trying to balance on the small logs I could find. Pulled into the Hayes River Rangers Station and Campground about 1:30 and decided that was a good place to stop, rest, get a bath and prepare for the ascent of Hayden Pass. It was a very relaxing afternoon and I had a good visit with the ranger stationed there. First thing she asked me after finding out where I had come from was how the 16 Mile ford was. She was pretty incredulous when I told her because the Low Divide Ranger had been passing on that it was waist deep for a 6' man. As a result she had convinced 3 parties to turn around and not attempt the ford. She apparently let everyone know that it was not that bad; next day a ranger I encountered near Hayden Pass had already heard the story of the 16 Mile ford and new who I was.

		Lake Margaret was beautiful!
		Waterfall visible from near the top of the Elwha side of the Low Divide. I think it is draining off the Martins Lakes area.
		The Columbine were out on the way down to the Elwha as well as other locations on the trail.
		The Western Starflowers were pretty prolific as well. Lot's and lot's of flowers.
		Setup for the night at Hayes River. Left the top down for the first time. Very pleasant night lulled to sleep by the river.

Sunday morning I was up at first light and on the trail by 6:15. The ascent up to Hayden Pass is nearly 9 miles long picking up about 4000 feet of elevation. The trail is never really steep, but it is pretty steady up. The lower part of the trail is fairly dry but as you get higher is gets pretty wet and finally about 5000 foot the snow started. By about 5200 it was fairly continuous. I soon lost the trail and struck out for a ridge line just above me, following some bear tracks. I found the trail just over the top, although it took a bit to figure out which way it was going. Just as I had got myself located on the map a ranger showed up. We visited for a bit and then I set off following the tracks he had left coming down from the pass. Hit the pass around 1, had a bit to eat and then started down. The Dosewallips side of the pass is very steep and no footprints that I could find. Fortunately the snow was fairly soft and I was able to slowly work across the slope until I could find a place where I could see all the way to the bottom and finally took my first adventure with glissading. I was pretty reluctant to really let go until close to the bottom but it was definitely easier than trying to sidestep down 500 feet of what looked to be a 45 degree (or better) slope. Trudged through the upper basin and eventually found a piece of the trail and was able then to follow it to the bridge across the Dose. After that there was more trail than snow and the pace picked up quite a bit. Dose Meadows was very pretty although the camp sites were still buried. Bear Camp was also beautiful but I went on the Deception Creek so I could more easily catch my ride out the next day. The trail had some snow until about 4000 foot with some fallen trees but none that were too difficult to navigate. Got into Deception Creek about 6:45, ate, setup camp, bathed and crashed.

		I picked you a flower. Some of the trails through the meadows had flowers even in the trail.
		Traversing the upper approach to Hayden Pass. Not much of a trail until after I had met the ranger.
		Not a real good picture, but looking out at the Dose side of the pass. It drops away pretty quickly and pretty steep.
		Dose Meadows was all melted out, although the campsites were still buried.

Took my time breaking camp Monday morning and hit the trail about 7:30 or so and walked pretty steadily until I met Sue just above the big waterfall on the washed out road. We headed on back to the car and home after a wonderful 4 days in the woods.

Pretty patch of flowers along the road on the way back to the car.

Rock & Roll Seattle

2011-06-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 2011 version of the Seattle Rock & Roll Marathon / Half-Marathon. This was my third running of this even and Sue's first ever half marathon. This race is quite a production and started for us the day prior to the actual run.

We went to the Quest Field Event Center Friday afternoon to pick up our race numbers and go through the expo. There were at least 100 vendors there selling running related items from shoes, clothes, food and gadgets. It is quite interesting to browse through the booths, although it would be better if there were not several thousand other people trying to do the same thing at the same time. After the expo we made a quick trip to the REI flagship store and then on to dinner at Cheesecake Factory (the Fettuccine Alfredo is delicious) and then to a hotel for the night with a 7 pm lights out and a 3:15 am wake-up call.

The race starts in Tukwila and ends at Quest Field making transportation an issue. There is a shuttle that runs from the finish line to the start line but it only runs from 4-6 am and does not run in reverse afterwards. So you get a hotel, drive to the start line and park the car and then take the shuttle. We caught a 5am shuttle, that got lost and drove all over the country, arriving at the start line around 6am. The race started at 7 for the fastest group and every 1-2 minutes after that for the progressively slower runners and walkers with the last group, which included us, leaving the start line at 8am. I was scheduled to leave about 7:30 but since this was Sue's first big race I stayed back and started with her, at 8am, after 2 hours of standing around. Ahead of us stretched about 25,000 people with over 17,000 running the half and the remainder doing the full run. It is quite a sight to see that many runners in one place.

Over the course of the 13.1 miles of the course I ended up passing about 13,000 people. It is quite the ego boost being the fastest thing on the road for a change, which is the beauty of starting back with the walkers and slow runners. But the downside to that was the difficulty in getting by some of the clumps of folks who seem to line up all the way across the road just in front of me, especially in the first 2-3 miles.

The course winds through some light industrial and residential areas for the first 5 miles, eventually coming out onto the shores of Lake Washington for the next 4 miles, with the last 4 miles running on I-90 from the lake to down town Seattle then trough the streets of Seattle to the finish line. The I-90 portion of the course is pretty bleak but the rest of it is nice and I enjoyed the run as much as I have any other in the past 5 years I have been running. Other than sore feet I felt very comfortable and was able to finish strong.

After completing the course you are given a medal and a bottle of water, have your picture taken, pass by tables of bagels, banana's, chips, granola bars and sports drinks, and finally get a space blanket to try and keep you warm. I grabbed up all my goodies and went back over to the final stretch before the finish line and watched other people finish while waiting for Sue.

It is pretty amazing to watch folks complete this course. I saw a motorized wheel-chair, a couple of blind runners, 3 Elvis impersonators, lots of tutu's, a speedo, a banana costume and other wild get-ups. I saw folks who looked like runners and others who looked like two or three runners. Some walked across the finish line, some raced across and some staggered across. But this past Saturday, 25,000 people got up early in the morning and ran, or walked, either 13.1 or 26.2 miles. Pretty impressive showing!

The best part of the whole experience for me was watching Sue cross the finish line. Three years after a seriously broken leg that required 5 plates and 19 screws to hold all the pieces together, this gritty woman, who had no prior interest in running, became the finisher of a half marathon. It brought tears to my eyes!

North to Alaska

2011-06-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Sue and I spent last week taking a cruise to Alaska along with some dear friends. This was my first 'cruise' other than in the Navy or aboard my parents boat several decades ago. I must say that it was quite different from either of those prior experiences. The Golden Princess carried 2600 passengers and 1100 crew, making it larger than at least one of the towns we visited. Service was wonderful, the food was endless and fairly good, and the accommodations were nice. There were a lot of opportunities to stay busy on board, ranging from eating, working out, eating, going to shows or movies, eating, and lounging around. Did I mention eating? So much food!

We spent time in Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay and Ketchikan along with a quick stop in Victoria. At each of the three Alaskan towns we left the ship and took an excursion: hiking, train ride and zip lines. And that left only a short time to try and wander around the town and count jewelry stores. We were able to go up into Glacier Bay on board the ship and watch a glacier calve ice bergs for a while; and that was pretty cool. We saw whales, seals, sea lions, sea otters, eagles, and a porcupine, plus a countless number of sea gulls.

The best part of the trip was just being able to sit and visit with Randy and Tina. Such a joy to be able to reconnect with old friends and get 'caught up'.

I was amazed at the number of people we encountered who had made many, many cruises. And how many three generation family groups and small children were aboard. I cannot imagine taking small children on a trip like that, nor taking lots of these cruises. While the trip was enjoyable, I do not think I am too interested in making another one. I would much prefer sitting along on top of a mountain for a few days (or maybe with a small group of people :) ). And actually flying into these cities would give much more opportunity to explore pretty much everything we saw other than Glacier Bay. But all in all, it was a good experience.

Prayer

2011-05-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

Do you have a prayer list? If so, what's on it? If you are like me, and most others that I know, it is filled with the personal physical needs of self, family members, friends and others you have come into contact with. And it will likely include some whose salvation you are praying for. All of that is well and good, but how do you pray for a believer who does not have cancer or the flu, problems at work or at home, whose dog ran away or dad died. How do you pray for one who is faithfully serving God and loving others around them?

In several of Paul's letters he gives us an example of how to pray for each other and Ephesians 1:15-23 is one of those. Paul prays first that the recipients of this letter would be given a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they could know God better. And I do want to know God better, both intellectually and relationally. I want to know more about who God is, what he is doing in this world and what he has planned for me. And I also want to have a more intimate relationship with him. I am not satisfied with where I am in my knowledge of God.

Paul also prays that the 'eyes of their heart' would be enlightened. Paul is wanting his readers to see some things, not with their physical eyes, but with a spiritual discernment. The three things he specifically mentions will all enable them to be more effective and stand firm in the Lord's service. Having eyes focused where they need to be will help to prevent discouragement and side trips on the journey he has set before us.

The first of these three things is that we would 'know the hope he has called us toward'. God has called, or invited, us to an escape from a coming destruction and into an eternal future with him. That is currently a hope for us since it has not happened yet. But hope is not just a wish; it is a 'favorable and confident expectation', something we are confident will take place in his time. What a difference it can make in my life when I know what God has invited me to experience with him. How the appeal of this world should fade and my desire turn toward him.

The second thing Paul would have us know is 'the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints'. In the Old Testament Israel's inheritance was the land that they lived in. It was given to them by God because they themselves belonged to God. But for New Testament believers there is no promise for a land of our own or for earthly riches. Rather we have a glorious inheritance that awaits us beyond this life; a place in the kingdom of God. Membership in the kingdom is something we have now, but the glory to be revealed in us is still an upcoming event. Why strive for the riches of this world that pale in comparison with the glory of the inheritance that awaits me.

The third thing on his list is that we would know 'his great power for us who believe'. God's power is directed toward us, shaping and enabling us, conforming us to the image of Christ. That same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him above all things is also at work in my life. Knowing that God's power is at work within should keep me from discouragement and thoughts of "I can't do that" when God calls me to do something. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

To know God better, and to have a better understanding of what he is doing within me and what he has prepared for me; this was Paul's prayer for other believers. And it is also my prayer for you as well as for myself. What could be better that a closer and more effective walk with our Creator and Lord.

Blessings

2011-05-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

Ephesians is one of my favorite books in the Bible. Paul packs an awful lot of material into such a short letter, and its hard to fully comprehend all that he is saying. I started reading it through again a few days ago, this time spending time meditating on what it is that Paul had to say to me. And it didn't take long before it struck me with a new freshness.

There is an old song that I used to hear and sing a lot called 'Count Your Blessings'. I am sure Paul never heard this song, but he takes its message to heart at the beginning of Ephesians by offering a note of praise to God for his blessings and then shares some of them with us. One of the things I find interesting about Paul's list of blessings is that it bears so little resemblance to what most of us would likely come up with: sunshine, good health, recovery from sickness, great spouse, good job, pleasant experience, and most anything else that one finds to be positive.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realm with every spiritual blessing in Christ." - Ephesians 1:3 NIV

Paul's praise to God is for spiritual blessings rather than the physical things we generally identify as blessings. And these blessings are in the 'heavenly realm' rather than in the physical world we see around us. Those are the blessings he cares about, and maybe I should also learn to praise God for them. Over the next 11 verses Paul identifies at least some of these blessings. It is hard for me to know for sure just were to divide these verses up into specific blessings, and you may list them a bit differently, but I see at least the following:

Chosen to be holy and blameless in God's sight. God chose me, before creation, to be set apart for his purposes and he sees me as blameless.
Predestined to be adopted as God's children. Not only did he chose me to be holy and blameless, he planned on adopting me as his child.
Grace freely given to us in Christ. God expresses his grace, or favor, to me freely in Christ. I do not have to earn it, he freely gives it.
Redemption and forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ. My brokenness and separation from God are dealt with through the blood of Christ. It is not something I can earn; only accept through faith.
Grace lavished on us with wisdom and understanding. God's grace is not given sparingly, but is lavished on me. And it comes along with wisdom and understanding to enable me to understand what God has done and now I can respond.
Revelation of his will; to bring all of us together under the headship of Christ. God is not keeping his purpose in creation a secret; he has made it known to us. He is creating a new body with Christ as its head. And since his purpose is know to me, I can participate alongside of him.
Chosen according to the plan of God, a plan that will be fully executed. While individuals may chose not to participate in God's plan, his plan for creation will be fully brought to fruition. We can trust God that he has been, is currently, and will continue to work out his plan, a plan that includes all who have trusted in him.
Being included in Christ. To be 'in Christ': where he is, I am also; his experience is my experience; his future is my future. What could be better?
Marked with a seal, the indwelling Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is God's seal, or mark of ownership, on me. The Holy Spirit is proof that I belong to God and am a part of his purpose.

I join with Paul is praising God for his indescribable spiritual blessings that he has given to us in Christ.

And Life Goes On

2011-03-14T18:26:00.000-07:00

Well it's been four weeks now since surgery; and not a four weeks I would hope to repeat. I have never spent so much time laying around doing little or nothing. And if I never see a catheter again, it will be too soon.

There is a projected healing process that most guys go through during recovery from a radical prostatectomy. And according to that, I should have been out of the hospital after two nights, had the catheter out in 2 weeks and quickly been about getting back into the swing of things. Unfortunately there are those outliers that fall outside the standard curve, and while I was not totally surprised that I was one of those, I was surprised that I fell on the slow side. I was in excellent health and in good physical condition so to have healed quicker than normal would not be too surprising. But no, I had to struggle through every step of the way. Troubles with the catheter started in the recovery room, continued during my hospital stay leading to an extra day there, and on into my home recovery period. The silly thing kept plugging up, leading to leakage through the anastomosis (the reconnected urethra and bladder) and out the cavity drain.

The catheter problems hit a crisis point on the Saturday after coming home and resulted in a trip back to Tacoma and a replacement catheter, quite a fun process - NOT! The only highlights of this was Sue being called in to assist the doctor, and that it fixed the problem. Unfortunately it appears that by this time one of the sutures in the anastomosis had blown out, requiring an extension of the time for the catheter from 2 weeks to nearly 3 1/2. At that point the doctor removed the catheter, not because the leak was gone (it wasn't) but because I was going crazy.

Life post-catheter is much improved. I am able to move around much easier and life is almost back to normal (whatever that is). Today, four weeks to the day after my surgery, I was finally able to lace up the running shoes and get back on the road. Just a short easy run, but it is a start. And I was finally able to make it back to work. While there is still some discomfort, it is wonderful to be able to re-engage with the world outside of the house.

So what does the future hold? The cancer should be gone, although I will be tested periodically over the next few years. The healing process continues and I should be able to gradually increase the duration and intensity of the runs. In another couple of weeks I should be able to get back on the bike and into the pool. The major issues facing me in the future are incontinence and impotence. Both of these should slowly resolve but there is no assurance of that. The next 6 to 18 months will tell the story here. Whatever it is like at the end of that period will likely be permanent.

Still a long road ahead, but I am thankful to have the past few weeks behind me. Also extremely thankful for my loving wife who has been willing to wait on me hand and foot, and to the others who have prayed for and supported me during this process.

Surgery: A Big Adventure

2011-02-20T12:30:00.000-08:00

I must admit that surgery was quite an adventure, but one that I do not look forward to ever having to experience again. I have heard from lots of people who have had surgery, and read about it some, but nothing quite prepares one for the actual experience. Monday started at 2AM with a mandated shower and double wipe down with a MRSA disinfectant, along with no food or fluid. Report in time was at 5:30 but, being who I am, I got there at 4:50 and got to wait around for someone to show up and check me in. Highlights of the pre-op experience included the poofy robe and winning the blood pressure contest. Because of the length of the surgery I got to wear a warming robe. It has a hose that connects to it and circulates warm or cold air through the body of the robe. Made me look kind of chunky but it was warm. Blood pressure was a bit of a problem throughout this whole process. It started off low (somewhere in the neighborhood of 110/55) and never got higher. That was impressive to the folks checking me in but in the hours and days after surgery when it was dropping to 95/39 it got me a little extra attention.

I remember pretty well everything through the pre-op, getting wheeled into the OR and shifting from the bed to the operating table and meeting the OR staff. The next thing I remember though was being woke up in recovery, about 3 hours later. Apart from not getting a room until after nearly 8 hours in the recovery room, and a short drop in blood pressure and pulse and intense pain, the recovery room was pleasant. I got to know my recovery room nurse and had visits from Sue, the Dr. and the Anesthesiologist and got to listen to folks talk about me. I was supposed to be a really easy case but the one incident I had seemed to have changed that. According to my anesthesiologist it was because I was 'too' healthy. With my blood pressure and pulse normally pretty low, it didn't take much of a drop to push me into the danger zone.

The original plan was for me to stay in the hospital through mid-day on Wednesday. And up though most of Tuesday everything seemed to be OK. But the catheter seemed to have other plans. We noticed mid day on Tuesday that it was not draining correctly and the drain line from the incision site was draining way too much. Tuesday night was long and painful and had the Dr's and nurses puzzled. Finally, midday Wednesday it just started working on its own and so far has continued to do so. I have it for two weeks so have to keep a pretty close eye on it.

Throughout this process my swing and graveyard nurses were great, especially the angel who cared for me from midnight to 8; I'll never forget Nina. My day shift nurse was nice enough but she seemed a bit distracted. I would have guessed that she was new on the job but apparently was not. I found it both funny and scary that I had to help her with her duties and give advice on my care, including having to remind her to take out my IV line after she had discharged me.

In the back of my mind I knew that modesty was not a high priority for a hospital. But I never fully appreciated just what it would be like. The experience of having a seemingly endless succession of doctors, nurses and CNA's poking around in places that are generally off limits to other people was very interesting. I am very thankful indeed that they were able to do what they needed to, but am also thankful that I do not have any kind of social relationship with any of them. Not sure how I would handle that.

Now, other than taking it easy at home for a while and letting everything heal up, the next step is a trip back to the doctor to check up on how things are and to get a pathology report. That is currently scheduled for next Tuesday afternoon, my 10th appointment in this whole process.

God is good. And I am thankful to all the friends and family who have prayed for me through this whole process. I am especially thankful for Jon and Bonnie spending the surgery day with Sue in the waiting room.

Surgery Pre-Op

2011-02-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

Surgery is now six days away and today was the day scheduled to get all of the pre-op stuff done. Spent time with my surgeon as well as the admitting process at St. Joseph's. My surgeon gave me a rundown on all of the things that would be taking place on the day of surgery as well as the following couple of weeks. The admitting nurse also walked me through the preparations I will need to make to get ready for the surgery. Since this is my first time for anything like this I have found it to be very interesting.

I need to rest on Sunday and eat lightly, but nothing that will cause gas or bloating. That probably eliminates the chili feed at the church that night. And no food or drink after midnight. The surgery is on Monday and the Dr. told me they would likely starting giving me fluids to drink on Tuesday with solid food on Wednesday. Think maybe Monday will be a good day to schedule a time of fasting. :)

I have to check in at St. Joseph's in Tacoma at 5:30 AM, which means I need to leave home around 4. But prior to that I have to take a shower, shampooing my hair, followed by two complete wipe downs with a special wet wipe that will kill germs for 6 hours. Apparently all of this is to cut down on the chances of a MRSA infection.

Surgery is scheduled for 7:30 AM and should last for for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Because I am skinny they will only have to cut a 3 inch hole in my tummy, carve out the prostate and related stuff, re-route some plumbing, install a catheter and then sew me back up. Should be a piece of cake; or so he says. Will be in recover for an hour or so and then into a room for a couple of days with an expected release on Wednesday.

They want to have me up and walking sometime Monday after the surgery and I am encouraged to walk as much as I like. But no running for at least 3 weeks, and then only a light jog. It'll be another week or two after that before I can really start running again. I'm guessing that a marathon in March is probably out of the question.

Once I get home I will have three jobs. The first is to not hurt, which I am all in favor of. Take more drugs when the pain hits a 5 on the scale of 0 to 10. The second task will be to avoid phenumonia. This is done by sucking on a breathing thingy a few times an hour, at least until I am up and walking around a lot. And finally I am supposed to avoid blood clots. I can accomplish this by wiggling my feet around a lot, again, until I am up and walking. Seems like a pretty rough routine but I suppose I will be able to manage it for a week or two.

As a side note, most of the medical folks I have seen in the past couple of months, and it has been a lot, say that I am about as healthy as anyone they get the opportunity to examine. Blood pressure is running around 110/60 with a pulse rate in the upper 50's to low 60's, all the blood work right in the middle of the chart, never smoked, no alcohol consumption, answering no to all of the 'have you ever had this...' type questions. And the shocker for most of them is when they find out I go on 20 mile runs. The gal today's mouth fell open. That's been the fun part of this routine.

On Cars and Runners

2011-01-08T20:27:00.000-08:00

I am a runner, and am soft and squishy. And I share the road with cars and trucks, and they are hard, fast and scary. And sometimes it's quite an adventure. I do want to thank to those drivers who show mercy to poor defenseless runners and give up part of your lane to me. It is much appreciated. On the other hand, to the occasional driver who seem to think that 'sharing the road' is a contact sport; it's not. Fortunately there are not many of you where I run.

Just in case some of you drivers out there are wondering about some of strange things we runners do, I thought I'm let you in on some of the secrets. A runners perspective on the road is quite a bit different than that of a driver. If the road has much of a cant, it is nothing to a car, but is really tough on my hips running with one foot lower than the other for an extended period. As a result you will find me running on the wrong side of the road if I think I can do it safely, just to balance things out a bit. The road shoulders can also be a significant hazard for a runner. Gravel, sticks & tree cones and other tripping hazards on the road surface as well as blackberries, mailboxes and other obstacles reaching out from the side of the road all make running out on the road itself much more appealing, assuming none of you guys are bearing down on me. But I can assure you that I will get as far on to the shoulder as I can before you get to me. Of course that is assuming that the road actually has a shoulder. I try to avoid those kinds of roads, especially when they have a lot of traffic. But sometimes there is little option if I am going to be making a long run.

I do have one small request for you drivers. Please look to the right before pulling out to the right from a side road or driveway. I can't count how many times I would have been hit without having taken evasive measures.

Again, thanks to all of you drivers who are willing to share a little bit of your road with me.

It's Surgery

2011-01-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

It's been an interesting few weeks trying to find out as much as I can about prostate cancer and how to treat it. I've read books and looked on the web. Also spent over an hour talking with my doctor about it. I have found that there are three basic options for treatment with sub-options for two of them. One treatment option is to do nothing and hope the cancer does not kill you before you die naturally; not a bad option for someone either much older or much poorer shape than I am in.

There are several forms of radiation that are used to treat the cancer. This option is much easier than surgery but can take a long time and has no guarantee of actually eliminating the cancer. More generally it is thought of as a control mechanism. The primary potential long term complication of this treatment is impotence.

Surgery also has several different options but they all include removal of the prostate along with a hospital stay and recovery period. The biggest plus for the surgery is that the prostate is gone and, so long as the cancer has not spread, there is little chance of having a second bout. The potential complications of surgery include impotence and incontinence. If the cancer has spread beyond the prostate, determined by biopsy, then other treatment may be required, otherwise it should be the end of the cancer.

The biopsies I had earlier, plus my PSA reading, indicate that the cancer is in an early stage and should be contained within the prostate. Based on that, my age, general health, and desire to 'know' where I stand when it's all done, I have opted for surgery. It seems to offer the best long term outlook for me. Surgery has been scheduled for Feb 14th with several pre-op activities leading up to that date. This will be my first over night stay at a hospital as a patient since I was born. Should be interesting.

In the meantime Sue is reading up on dietary treatment for prostate cancer. Looks like I am going to have to learn to like tofu :(

Good News of Great Joy

2010-12-24T20:49:00.000-08:00

The message from the angel to the shepherds was one of 'good news of great joy for all the people'. That day in Bethlehem was born Emmanuel, God with us. That baby grew and became a man, but more than just a man, he was God in the flesh. Jesus came to bring to us the greatest gift ever given, the gift of eternal life. I rejoice this Christmas, not because a baby was born in Bethlehem 2015 years ago, but because through him I can know my creator and his purpose for me. Take time this Christmas to celebrate the Christ, not as a baby, but as God's Anointed One, come to bring salvation to all who would believe. Have a joyous celebration.

Prostate Cancer

2010-12-16T18:41:00.000-08:00

Cancer. Such a simple word; but with such ominous overtones. One day all is well in my little world, then the bi-annual physical, a high PSA reading in the blood work, a trip to a Urologist, a 1 in 8 chance of cancer, a biopsy, and then the results; prostate cancer. It is still in the early stages and is very treatable. But still, it is cancer. Both of my parents died with cancer, as have many others in my circle; and now its my turn to do battle. I must admit that the first couple of hours were a bit difficult. But now, two days later, the shock has pretty much worn off and it becomes just something else to plan for and deal with. Doing a lot of reading and digesting material about prostate cancer now. Next week its back to the doctor to discuss treatment options and then following through with whichever one we decide on.

The journey ahead is full of unknowns. I am so thankful to have a wife, a God and friends who will be walking with me through it.

Seattle Marathon 2010

2010-12-06T13:26:00.000-08:00

A week ago I ran in the 2010 edition of the Seattle Marathon, after running the half marathon the previous 3 years. I had tried a full marathon once last year, but it had had a less than satisfactory ending, having to walk most of the last 7 miles. This time I was determined to run the whole course, regardless of how long it took me to finish. I trained hard, running in excess of 1000 miles this year including several 21 miles trips around Dyes Inlet. The primary goal for this event was to run every step of the way, hopefully completing the course in under 5 hours. That meant that I had to average just under 11 minutes a mile, which certainly seemed doable.
Race day dawned cold but dry and with little wind; nearly perfect conditions. I started off at the back of the pack and just plodded along at what I thought was close to an 11 minute pace. Surprisingly, when I passed the first mile mark I found I was just under a 10 minute per mile pace, and at mile 2 I still was. This concerned me somewhat because I knew that going out to fast would kill me later. But I felt really good and relaxed so just continued. At the half way mark I was still close to a 10 minute mile pace and on pace for a 4 1/2 hour marathon. Unfortunately, it was too good to last. I slowed down some over the next 7 miles and then hit the hilly portion of the course. The last 6 miles have more hills that the previous 20 miles, including a long steep stretch at mile 20. It ended up being the hardest 6 mile stretch of my life, but I kept putting one foot in front of the other and eventually managed to stagger across the finish line in 4 hours and 43 minutes. It was amazing to me how my body could feel so pathetic and at the same time my mind be so thrilled. I had done it, and within a couple of days was looking forward to the next one.

Paul's use of the runner competing in a race (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) is much more meaningful to me now. While I was hours behind the official winner of the race, I felt like a winner for having entered and finished. The strict training required for that race is applicable for the spiritual race I am running as well. Am I as focused and committed to winning that race as I am a foot race that provides just a finishers medal and a tee shirt? Am I willing to see the race through to the finish, not only in the stretches where I am feeling good, but also in those where I am exhausted and hurting and the end is not yet in sight? How much is it worth to hear the master say "Well done" at the end of this life?

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T07:53:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving morning and as I set here this morning on a cold snowy day, I have much to be thankful for. It is good to take the time periodically to recognize those things rather than just take them for granted like I so often do. I am thankful for:

a God who cares about me and has a purpose for my life.
an opportunity to serve Him within a local church and within our Association.
a wife who loves me and takes care of me, making our house into a home.
a pair of children who have grown up to be responsible adults and are serving their country in the military.
a home that is a comfortable and enjoyable place to live.
being generally healthy and able to be physically active.
having an abundance of stuff and not having to worry about how the bills will be paid.
a retirement and a part time job that lets me work on my schedule.
the legacy of my parents the my upbringing.
friends that I can share my life with.
living in a country that allows me the opportunities this one does, including the opportunity to worship God freely.

Thanks to all of you who make my life what it is.

Treasure in a Clay Jar

2010-11-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

2 Corinthians 4:5-11 provides the basis for the title of this blog. I am a simple clay jar, nothing special or extra-ordinary about me. Yet God has put within that clay jar a treasure. That treasure is "the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ". I don't pretend to understand all that Paul meant by this expression. But for me it includes God's active indwelling presence, a treasure that is greater by far than anything this world might have to offer.

I am weak and fragile, but he is strong. It is unfortunate that I insist in getting in his way so much of the time. There is a part of me that would love nothing more than to be in complete surrender to the one who knows me best and has the best in mind for me. But there is another, oftentimes stronger, part of me that is frightened of giving up control over my life. This blog will chronicle the journey of one clay jar seeking to be used by its creator.