What a great trip our family had to South Africa. One we will not forget I'm sure. We were greeted by a very hospitable people who, by and large, seemed to be a happy lot. It seems the World Cup provided a chance for the country to take on a party atmosphere for a while. Yes, we drove by some of the slums and yes, we visited the Apartheid museum and learned more about the horrible rule of a very detailed, law based, discrimination. But the over all sense I came back with was one of appreciation for their culture and a sense of gratitude for their accepting the world with open arms. In the airport there was a collection of people, some who I believe worked there, and some who did not. Some older, some younger, but all of them smiling and laughing as the danced to a song playing on a boom box. This dance was obviously practised and the 25 or so people all moving together made a wonderful visual set against the backdrop of an airport hallway. The enthusiasm was contagious and you couldn't help but feel happy watching them enjoy the music and motion together. At the Game Reserve where we stayed there was a visit from a group of folks who treated us to some more dancing as well. They offered some more current dance routines but then demonstrated the more traditional dancing of some of the tribes there. Again, it was a wonderful experience followed by some songs that they had prepared. One day we took a drive through the reserve to view the animals. This reserve is close to Josieburg, (Johannesburg), and did not have the larger animals on it. However, we saw several gazelle, wildebeest, zebra and baboons. At night you could hear the hiena's calling. Similar to coyotes though a bit like laughing. There were several baboons around the camp and we saw a village of 20 or 30 of them close to our camp. They would raid the trash cans in the early morning hours. We stayed in Safari tents that had beds in them. While it's winter there, their winters are relatively mild compared to ours. Of course, while we were there they had an unusually cold night or two that got down to below freezing. With the extra blankets they provided we were fine though the first few minutes in bed were a little chilly. They drive on the left side of the road there and of course the steering wheel is on the right. This provided many opportunities for a little comic relief for the family while travelling to our various destinations. You could always tell when I was getting ready to turn because the windshield wipers would come on. It was all so very confusing. We saw two games while we were there and Germany and the Netherlands are still in the tournament so we saw two of the better teams as well. We didn't get ahold of any tickets for the US matches but we watched the games on a big screen there at the camp. There is much more to say but I will save it for another time. My wife and granddaughter will be back tomorrow as they took a detour upon our arrival back in the states, to attend a family reunion. So we will be whole again tomorrow as a family, and we will have a great adventure in common as we move on through life. Thank you, Lord, for South Africa and all the creative things you have done and are doing there.
Golly gee, we're off for South Africa tomorrow night. Well, technically, weds. morning about 2:30 am. I'm very excited about the trip even though I know it'll be over in a flash. We are only there for a week and there will be more to do than we have time for. Soccer is what lured me originally but once the family decided to go, too, my focus was shifted a bit to a more general vision. We are staying in a Safari tent village that is located on a game reserve. These aren't your standard issue Boy Scout tents. They are really nice and will have beds in them rather than sleeping bags. Not sure about showers and such but with it being such a short trip who needs a shower? It's fun to see my granddaughters enthusiasm rise as our departure approaches. I'm not naive enough to think there won't be some "tough" times on this journey. Long waits in airports and long periods of time in a plane can be a difficult thing for a 9 year old to deal with. But I am confident this trip will be a blessed one and one that will give us all a chance to laugh together and just party down for a while. We've lived under the same roof now for 30 years, well, just 9 for my granddaughter, and some of those times were less than joyful with plenty of strife and heartache to go around. Now we celebrate a time when God has moved us to a place where my daughter is ready to take her family and move out on her own with an ever deepening faith and a more mature attitude toward life. I suppose I see this as a bit of a send off for her, though she is only moving a few miles away. She is ready to attack life with the gusto that has always been part of her personality and with her Saviour by her side. (which is, by the way, where He has always been) Look out South Africa, here we come!
So, there I was just minding my own business, watching my granddaughter singing with her school mates at a musical program featuring the story of Moses when out of the blue I was visited by a thought that seemed to come from God himself. My granddaughter enjoys music and it is enjoyable to watch her enjoy music. Additionally, the presentation itself was quite good with several humorous commercials between the main songs. One such commercial was touting the attributes of Almighty Manna Mix. The commercial ended with a well delivered "my personal favorite is bamana bread". The music was totally new stuff with the exception of the next to the last song which was the traditional, "Bound For The Promise Land". As it turns out this song was the bait for the "sneak attack". It was like God pulled out His highlighter and sent the opening words of the familiar old song directly to my heart. "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye, to Canaan's fair and happy land where my possessions lie". Wow, what a powerful picture. I'm standing on Jordan's stormy banks. Standing, very assuradly in this world that seems to have an innate strand of struggle and sorrow in it. A fallen world, so I believe, that is not capable of sustaining a joyous disposition. Yes, we can look and find comfort in our Saviour, even in the midst of our struggles, but the struggles do not go away, they are simply moved to their proper place. However, there is a place, Canaan, or heaven if you will, that is "fair", and "happy" in a profound way. And I was blessed with a quick glance at that place through the voices of those children. Also, carried on their voices, was the question of Matt. 6 of where I am storing up my treasures. Are they here, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, or, are they in heaven. Once again I held the majority of the tears at bay, but the glimpse of my true home was momentarily overwhelming. My soul was looking through the window the children had opened for me and longingly telling me that someday we would get to go there. It's my home you know, my soul said to me, and you'll love it there. Sometimes I just can't wait.Heaven can wait for me, but I can't wait to see, who's in the marching band, and who's gonna be set free (Michael Omartian)
Music at any level can be a true joy. It reminds me of one of the beauties of the beautiful game, soccer. You can be totally ignorant of the laws of the game and still enjoy it. Kids with little understanding of the strategies or techniques of the game can have a truly enjoyable experience on a weekend playing the game, not to mention the entertainment value for the on-lookers. Yet I rewind over and over certain plays from the English league games I watch in complete awe of the level of skill required to do what they do. It requires skill but also determination. A player who is on the field for the whole 90 minutes will often run over 6 miles during the course of the game. Much of that time is spent testing the defence and looking for the best way to attack the goal. A great build-up of several passes and lots of hard work will often come to naught. But if you have the stamina to keep attacking you will eventually be rewarded with a goal. Not that different, I suppose, from all the plays and strategies that go into getting into the end-zone at an American football game. Music, even in its simplest form, can be immensely enjoyable. My granddaughter needed to practice her clarinet tonight. She indicated that she just needed to play some. No particular assignment or anything. Well, while she was getting out her instrument I figured out what notes she could play to accompany a song I like to play on the guitar. She had to learn a couple of new notes but we were soon on our way through the song. Then I decided to see about scaring up the ol' trumpet that had been purchased some years ago. Sure enough, as mis-fortune would have it, I found it. As my granddaughter and I played a couple of simple duets and her enthusiasm became more and more evident, I realized what a great blessing music can be. Will she write or perform great masterpieces? As wonderful as that would be, it does not affect the great time we had this evening in our living room. We are planning for an encore performance in the near future. I remember stories about my Uncles wanting to stay home from the movies to play music with their mom and dad. They eventually made a living with their instruments in New York playing for Broadway plays. But would those times have been any less enjoyable if they had pursued other careers? Nope. And so music has found a way, once again, to enrich my life. Thank you, Lord, for music. You are the author and finisher of my faith and the writer of the most marvellous symphonies.
The title of this blog may change, though you'll never know. While this blog deals with an occasion that is not at all rare in scripture it identifies an occurrence that jumped out at me this morning. Brevity, (sorry for yet another interruption, but it turns out brevity has fewer letters in it than I tried to give it), so, brevity, simplicity and eternal truth all combine to bring us Romans 8:6. "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." We must handle such verses with care as we are wont, as occupants on this earth and finite beings in this physical world, to bury and resurrect this, and other, eternal truths, to more comfortably fit our lives. There are times when the absolute truth of this verse warms and fills us with a sense of wonder. Yes, we say to ourselves, this is so true. Then, there are those times when this verse is completely ignored so as not to get in the way of our selfish ambitions. Physiology wins out over our spirit. Our minds are taken captive by our bodies or our desire for a certain thing. It is the point where temptation becomes sin and that is where we most need to hold on to the truth that we know. So hold on tight and don't be shy about pointing out a friend's grip that looks to be slipping. In his heart he knows the same simple, eternal truth you do.
Well, I need to start off with a bit of a disclaimer. The purpose of this entry is not to cast disparagement on my ability to comprehend what someone is trying to communicate to me. However, it will explore the speed, or lack thereof, at which I am able to grasp things. I'm pretty quick on certain aspects of the realities of this world. For instance, if I touch a hot stove the thought of it being hot has not even registered as my hand is quickly repositioned to a cooler location. There is virtually no time at all that expires between the touch and the grasping of the reality that the object of my touching is very, very hot. On the other hand, some things, which are just as real, and just as hot, though not physically, are slow to be comprehended by the same system that brought us the cat-like response of the earlier situation. A while back I began memorizing scripture. The second chapter I undertook to file away in the ol' steel trap was Isaiah 53. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed ....... Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried........but He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him and by His scourging we are healed. There are a lot of wonderful thoughts and pictures that come to mind reading through the chapter and while trying to memorize I must have gone over each verse a hundred times or more. So the other night as I read back over the chapter trying to reinforce my memory a bit, it was a surprise to have a portion of one of the verses really hit me. For cryin' out loud, I'd only been over these words a few hundred times. You can't consider every word with any real depth when your goal is to memorize. Repetition is important, not contemplation. Well, when I read, "by His scourging we are healed" I immediately had to stop reading and I placed my hands over my face as my mind and spirit seemed to be operating on a deeper level than before. By His scourging, that would be the scourging that my sin has brought to bear on Him. By His scourging, we are healed. God turned around the darkness of sin and used it as a tool to heal us. The pain He endured took away sin's final victory in my life and healed my spirit. Somehow, this perfect, sinless man used Satan's own tool against him. God's shield of salvation dulled and rendered useless the devil's most powerful weapon. Our sin, directed at the Lamb of God, becomes useless and cannot have its usual effect because it was defeated by God's light. Our sin, when laid at the foot of the cross, cannot take our lives, it can only cause us pain here on earth and that pain is nothing compared to what we will experience in glory. There is a deep peace waiting in those words and I am still unwrapping yet another wonderful Christmas present from my heavenly Father. Hope you get what you've always wanted, too.
In reading over my last post I've decided that a mental evaluation might be in order. My struggle with continuity is an ongoing fight that I usually end up on the short end of. Seems like I had a couple of good points in there but they weren't necessarily points that followed logically with the previous statements. Of course the title was "non sequitur". My adherence to the spirit of the title was, however, largely unintentional. Rather than deleting the post I decided to leave it as a reminder to try to give these postings a little more forethought.When in college I delivered a speech in speech class about eye care. To establish myself as someone who has a unique perspective on the subject I was going to mention, early in my speech, about an accident that occurred when I was 7 leaving me blind in my right eye. That point was going to validate me as someone whose comments on the subject of eye care should be heeded. After a nervous few minutes in front of the class my ordeal was over and I was listening to the next poor sucker deliver his or her speech. Several minutes after taking refuge at my seat it hit me. I didn't mention the fact that I had been left blind in one eye as a child. Wow, how could I forget that. It was the very point that would have given people a good reason to listen to me. Similar scenarios have played out over the years as I have attempted to teach or discuss pros and cons of ideas with others. So last week's post was a pretty good indication of how things unfold in my head. Maybe I will try to go back and develop each of those disjointed ideas more fully sometime. I believe each of them, I simply didn't support my position on them. They just sort of came out like bumper stickers.OK, now here are a couple of new entries in my pocket calendar. (sorry if I've mentioned any of these before)1) The EPROM programmer we have at work will check the chip to make sure it has been erased because it won't take a new program if it hasn't. This process is call a "blank check". I'm planning on explaining this to my brother before shining a flash light in his ear and saying, "yep, she's blank alright".2) Someone who stands out in a crowd could be called, "distinctified".3) there's a 24 hr. "Family Dining" restaurant that also advertises as smoker friendly. I noticed they changed their sign recently. I think the only way to work the idea of family into the crowd I saw in there on one 2 am visit, is if you were thinking of starting one.4) In Michigan, day-care facilities have union dues taken out of the government subsidies they receive. They have no choice in the matter.5) Friday Feb. 12, 2010, there was snow on the ground in all 50 states.6) This is a nice story. The organization in England that tells old people they are not "eligible" for certain procedures because it wouldn't be good use of resources is the National Institute of Clinical Excellence. N.I.C.E.7) When no one responds to a passionate email you sent around you might say, "my email fell on deaf eyes".8) I made up a couple of governmental bureaucracies so I could sound important when I talk to total strangers. They are: the Society for the Preservation of Non-Stick Cooking Surfaces, and the Federal Name Spelling Administration. I'm thinking of making some laminated badges to lend some weight to my ruse.9) Resistance is futile, voltage is everything.I'm so glad we had this little chat. Now go find something worthwhile to do.
