I had an interesting thought today. What if you raised your kids, but you taught them that left was right and right, left. Just swapping those words. How much difficulty would they have as they grew up...trying to just get along in the world. I mean, directions would be all backwards, but even more. Every time they would hear raise your right hand, the left one they would raise, because to them it was the right one.

Seems kind of cruel, huh? They would very quickly find out that something wasn't right, and they would have to work through this confusion...

Now how many of us have been raised or taught something that isn't true. In fact, is the opposite of truth, but spoken as if it were truth. Just because we grew up that left was right doesn't make it true. So how do we know truth? How do we know what is really right or wrong? Well, something inside us all draws us to the truth, and without completely shutting down our innermost self, we just know. I think this is called the Spirit. The Bible states that God calls us in spirit and in truth. And when you boil it down, the sinful nature (the left as right, if you will) soon becomes apparent that it is incorrect, and we have to work through the confusion. And many people then look to the wrong places, not knowing where to look, and that is where we, as other people, come in. It is downright irresponsible to not help people who are looking for truth. Especially since we know it, in the form of Jesus, and of love. The very definition of this leads to a conviction to listen to the Spirit of God and to help others find this love as well...

Am I all mixed up? I don't think so, but I know I don't have it all figured out...not even close...I get confused quite often.

And that is the beauty of Christ.

Calvin Coolidge

Just something said by a former US President, Calvin Coolidge.

While Calvin was president of the Massachusetts Senate, he witnessed an angry debate between two senators. One told the other to go to hell. Utterly furious, the latter asked Coolidge to respond. Coolidge only replied, "I've looked up the law, Senator, and you don't have to go there."

Powerful.

The moon peaks through the clouds, sending soft rays earthward. The sounds of a still, muggy evening settle like a heavy fog without the limited visibility. Why is it that the same scene, can invoke different feelings, different impressions. Beauty can be expressed, or sadness deepened from the same landscape. There is something about beholding nature, but that something also is impacted by the soul of a man. The feelings, the heart of us, and the situation we are in. Take a rainy afternoon. It can either be a tremendous time of refreshing smells, cool rain and windswept hair, invoking cleansing and joy with us, or it can be depressing, claustrophobic, keepign us contemplating life without really looking for the answer. And sometimes this seems to subjective, like we have no control over it. That it isn't a decision, a switch we flip as to how we are going to take in life today, this moment. And yet it is, isn't it. We do have a decision to make, a choice in how we live. To do right or wrong, to feel blessed or condemned. This can't be merely fiction, there must be truth, because so many people have the same problems, the same joys, the same blessings, and yet react differently. So the question really becomes, not what is beautiful in the world around us, but are we going to react beautifully to the world?

Plunder and Percussion

I was reading a little bit of a book entitled "A Walk in the Woods." at lunch today. In this particular chapter, the author was discussing how woods can disorient and make people uncomfortable. Sometimes, they can even be 'spooky.' I don't know if I really think the same thing, but then again I haven't gone out into them for days upon days, as the author was doing. However, woods are a place of wonder, and of new dangers and challenges. Such as plunder and percussion. Confused? Think of all the ways these words can be used in the woods--either in good, bad, dangerous, glad ways. Plunder: A bear or raccoon raiding a campsite, a poacher doing poaching stuff, even a hiker taking a cool rock. Maybe even photographers, trying to steal the beauty of the woods and tame it. I don't know if I even believe that... Percussion, the crash of a tree, the rustle of the wind, a startled deer, the repetitive steps of a heavy-footed hiker...

The list could go on and on...what do the woods mean to me, to you? Personally, I see it as a place of awe, of peace and rest and a perfect love. How, I'm not sure, but it lightens my spirits. But also, of an ever-present God, who is there, and here, and turning to Him lightens, experiencing Him lifts my spirits.

Welcome

Thoughts may come and thoughts may go, and the mind may wander while it never slows. Yet there is a connection to it all. A thread that weaves its way through the banter of the meaningless, giving meaning to this existence. And meaning there is, no doubt about it. It comes in many forms to many people, but from only one source, our Creator. The insignificant becomes increasingly important and the important, insignificant. The doodlepad is the location for the ramblings and wanderings, and rants and raves, the seeking and finding, of the love we all receive and desire. Complexity in simplicity, in that we simply must believe that we cannot save ourselves, and believe that we have been saved already. This is the meaning, yet can still be confusing. How, why, for what reason? We can easily fall predator to the one who lurks as a lion, waiting to devour those who let their guard down, who take their eyes, their ears, their hearts and minds off the One, even if just for a second. And yet, it all ends up ok, if we can simply believe in Jesus, and that He has saved us, and to give our all back to Him.