Month: July 2019

Therefore what God has joined together let no man separate.  Mark 10:9

When it comes to marriage and the choice of a life partner, those of us who have been married to the same person over two thirds of our life have a whole lot of thoughts on the topic!  I’ve heard marriage compared to many things such as a roller coaster ride, a long walk through unknown territory, a joy ride, a struggle, a nightmare, heaven, hell, or just day by day survival.  Recently, however, I was reading a book which I think describes marriage in images to which I can relate.  The book uses a river as an example.

The comparison uses the struggles of Texas rangers during the time in history when they were defending the Alamo.  The  rangers rode in pairs because there weren’t enough of them to ride in larger groups.  The Rio Grande River was a wild and dangerous place at this time, and the choice of your partner mattered because it could determine whether you lived or died.  Out of that experience, Rangers began to use the phrase:  El es muy bueno para cabalgar el rio.  It means He’ll do to ride the river with.  

When I think of marriage, this visual image makes it real to me.  When you ride the river, you encounter rapids, rocks, danger, smooth water, rough water, sad times, happy times, celebrations, mourning, loss, gain, love, despair, anger, good times, bad times, loneliness, and most any other emotion that can come to mind.  If you have someone that will ride the river  with you to share the responsibilities, the dangers, the excitement, then you are most fortunate.

It takes a team to maneuver the river of life, and I consider myself most fortunate to have married a great rider of the river.  During our forty seven years together, Randy and I have ridden a lot of rivers, and they have run the emotional track from overwhelming joy to unspeakable sadness. Each and every one has been a gift from God, and I treasure all the memories. Years ago Randy promised me two things;  you will never be rich, but you will never be bored!  So far that’s exactly right!

Marriage requires work, and being the Minister’s family puts a little extra pressure to always be on your best behavior, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything!  I have loved every minute! (well almost)

On the occasion of our forty seven years together, I’ll just say thank you, Randy, for riding the river with me.  It has been and continues to be a great ride!  I love you!

He’ll do to ride the river with, but he’ll also be the one I’d trust with my life.

The inspiration is from Thunder and Rain by Charles Martin.

Today everything exists to end in a photograph.        Susan Sontag

Recently, I read a story about climbers on Mt. Everest who, after reaching the narrow pinnacle, were fighting among themselves to get a selfie of their accomplishment.  It seems the line was so long, that people were running the risk of depleting their oxygen supply while standing in line to get their selfie.

Like them or hate them, selfies seem to be the rage on social media.  The term selfie is a general expression used to describe a “self portrait.”  I’d never heard of the word until a few years ago when it suddenly became a craze, so I had no idea that it’s not new.  It seems that Robert Cornelius took the first selfie in 1839!!

The social media of today took the selfie from narcissistic kid’s play to a whole new concept over night.  After the famous selfie which was taken at the Oscars in 2013, it has become explosive.  I feel totally out of touch with the concept because I can’t see the purpose. (I do admit to trying it, and it always seems to end in disaster for me!)   All I see when I see a selfie is a close up picture of the person taking it with distorted things going on around them.  The focus of the picture is always the individual in charge.

Research says that the individual taking the selfie is usually one who likes to create his or her own self image and them share only the ones which contribute to the image they perceive will celebrate their accomplishments.

The Bible says absolutely nothing about selfies, but I began to wonder if folks like John the Baptist would have been guilty of posting a selfie of himself when he baptized Jesus?  Would he be tempted to put himself before his mission? We would have missed the whole point of the baptism and what it means to Christianity.

It seems as if that’s the way God sees us at times.  We are sometimes so interested in our own self image that we tend to  push ourselves to the forefront while all the rest of His world is going on behind us.  We are guilty of putting our focus on ourselves rather than others.  We need to be really sure that the cross of Jesus is always the main object of all we do instead of ourselves.

Selfies are funny and I understand the concept, but I do wonder if years later, we will look back and think about all the things that were in front of us and all the beauty of the things that were behind us.  We might realize how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of God’s plan.

Celebrate life with selfies, but don’t forget who’s really important!

Core is defined as the central or most important part of something.

Yesterday in one of my exercise classes, the instructor launched into a huge tutorial on the importance of the core muscles in the body.  It is the basis for everything else and thus, gets much attention. I don’t remember those muscles, so I have hence set off on a mission to find my core.

I’m pretty familiar with core values:  Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, Sportsmanship and Service.  These things were instilled in most of us during our growing up years.  Everyone has or should have core values.  These things sustain us when we encounter things we don’t understand, like tragedy, death, grief or catastrophes.  If we don’t have our core rooted in values, then we are destined to wander around looking for our way.

During my teaching years, we teachers were expected to teach something called Core Curriculum.  Basically this is a set of educational goals designed to ensure that students learn certain material in a certain grade level or age.  It included Math and Language Arts as the core and incorporated other subjects such as science, history, and so on.  It operated under the premise that the curriculum is the entire life of a school child. 

Today, that curriculum has been replaced by STEM which stands for Science, Technology, English and Math.  I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until this becomes outdated. The educational world has shifted from its Core to accommodate the changing world in which we live.  No matter the new fad, we always come back to the core subjects eventually.

I find the same scenario happening in the country, the church, and the world today.  Everyone seems to have abandoned the core teachings of the constitution, the Bible, and the laws of human kind.  If it isn’t pleasing to everyone in our country, everyone in our churches and everyone in the world, then it must not be relevant.  I hear many people saying, “The world is changing, and we must change with it.”  So does that mean giving up what has sustained our country, our religious beliefs, and our values so that those who don’t agree can have their way?  Times do change, but truths do not.

The most important core is the spiritual core. The central announcement of the gospel is, “It’s time and God is breaking into the world.”  The core Christian belief is the belief in and acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus whereby sinful humans can be reconciled to God and offered salvation and the promise of eternal life.  These are the core messages that we need to remember as we seek to find our core.

I may not have found my core muscles, but I have found my core foundation.   When you have your core foundation in Jesus, these are things that never need to be changed, they just need to be nurtured and grown.

The Lord is my strength and my song; He has given me victory.  Exodus 15:2

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Philippians 3:20

Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.  Charles Martin

It’s interesting how we as people hardly ever think we can make  a difference in our life, the lives of others, our country, our world or even our family.  We seem to think that since we are just one person, that our opinion or our actions can’t make a difference.  I’m so thankful that others throughout history didn’t hold that opinion.  They were courageous, and they believed that with God’s help, they could stand up for their freedom and their country.  Such a man was Francis Scott Key.

Francis Scott Key was a Georgetown attorney and a devout Christian who was heavily involved in politics.  In September of 1814, he embarked on a mission at the request of the President of the United States.  His task was to seek the release of a prominent physician who had been taken captive by British forces during the battle of Baltimore Harbor.  During this mission, Francis was detained by the enemy forces and forced to watch the twenty five hour bombardment of the Eastern seaboard.

When it became clear that the American forces had withstood the attack, he penned the words to the Star Spangled Banner on the back of an envelope.  We all know the words to the first stanza, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard the last stanza.  It shows the witness of a Christian man in the aftermath of a dangerous situation.

Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven rescued land                                            Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.                                                 Then conquer we must when our cause is just                                                                       And this be our motto, ‘In God we Trust’.                                                                        And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave                                                          O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The next morning, Francis Scott Key was released and formerly transcribed the song.

America has withstood wars, hatred, and division over the many years since this song was written.  Now, more than ever before, we need patriotic individuals who will stand for our country and our God.  We never need to underestimate the things one person can accomplish with courage and God.

Happy Birthday, America!