Roger Bothwell

When I was a very little boy, before we moved to the country, we lived in a city row house with just enough room between the house beside us to accommodate a walkway and a small patch of ground.   The patch had no grass. It was perfect for playing marbles.  I don’t really remember the rules of the game but there were three small holes I had dug and it had something to do with using a shooter to knock other marbles into the holes.  The very best part of my day was when my father would come home from school. He would get down on his hands and knees and play marbles with me.  I would smooth the dirt, rub the marbles clean on my pants, sit on the steps of the porch and wait for his car, our car, an old black prewar something.  I don’t know what it was.

How strange it is that so many decades later I am still waiting for my Father.  I have grown up in a church that is waiting.  The entire concept of waiting is embedded in its name. I have watched my friends and family engaged in this waiting process.  We speak of it almost weekly.  It is based upon the promises of Jesus.  I wonder if in some undesigned way the waiting has kept us from truly appreciating the now.   We almost want the world to get worse and worse so Jesus will return and take us to our Father.  Catastrophes are almost welcomed.

If I read carefully what Jesus said, I wonder if we have missed the promises that once we make Him the Lord of our lives, the blessings and benefits of citizenship in the Kingdom of the Father are not merely the future but are the now.   See John 5.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 1, 2010

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Each day I receive via email a daily devotional published by an Islamic organization.  Last week one was entitled, “How to earn Allah’s favor.”  If anyone ever wanted an answer to the question, “What is the difference between Islam and Christianity?” this was it.

We do not have to earn God’s favor.  If we did it would be impossible because God requires perfection.  God, according to Jesus, is a loving father who woos us.  The incredible part of this is “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Romans 5:10.  The wonder of Christianity is this; it is not a religion of people in search of God.  It is just the reverse.  God has consistently sought opportunities to reveal Himself to us.  According to Hebrews 1  His best effort was the incarnation of Jesus.  When we see Jesus we see the Father.  John 14.  This is what God is really like.

But what about that perfection thing?  We can’t do it.  Here is the beauty.  Jesus did it!  “By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” Romans 5:19.  It is so amazing.  It is incredible and it makes Christianity absolutely distinct from every other religion in the world.  We do not have to earn God’s favor.  We already have it.  Does that mean everyone will be saved?  Alas, no.  Millions will refuse the gift.  God’s heart has been, is and will be broken over and over because He longs to save all.   But what joy we can provide Him. Accept the gift and heaven rejoices.  You gotta love this!

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 11, 2010

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In Paradise Lost John Milton wrote, “Servant of God, well done; well hast thou fought the better fight, who single hast maintained against revolted multitudes the cause of truth, in word mightier than they in arms, and for the testimony of truth hast born universal reproach, far worse to bear than violence; for this was all thy care to stand approved in sight of God, though worlds judged thee perverse.”  Of a few such men we know, Martin Luther, Thomas More, Wycliffe and others.

I am tempted to say the world has only seen these few but Hebrews 12:1 tells us God has a cloud of greats.  When I drive up my hill into fog, a low cloud, I see tens of millions droplets of water.  What joy will come to those who chose integrity over position, power or reputation.  To tell the truth, to cheat no one, to harm no one but perhaps self by taking such a stand has to be in the face of threats, loss of loves, loss of honor, loss of life itself has to be monumental in the course of one’s life.  What more could compensate than the words written above by Milton.

Milton’s words reflect Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 when the master commended his servant for faithful service.  Wouldn’t it be grand to hear “Well done”?  Paul expected it for each of us.  In Romans 8:37 Paul assures us we are more than conquerors in Christ.  With Jesus’ help we can and shall join the cloud in Hebrews 12.  What could be more meaningful in life than to stand approved before God?  The judgment of worlds means nothing when we have that privilege.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 26, 2010

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At least six times each week I use a back road into our college.  Today I saw a new “No Passing Zone” sign.  I asked my wife how long it has been there.  “Years” was her response.  “Years!!!”  So much for being observant.  At least I am not alone.  One of the psychology texts I use explains how our minds protect themselves from being over-stimulated.  Our senses are continually feeding our brains billions of bits of data.  To avoid overload our brains subconsciously sort out what to notice.  We can see something hundreds of times and our brains reject any input–visual, auditory, etc.  No two people see the same event.  Everything is filtered.

I have some friends who see God working continually in their lives.  I have other friends who are just the opposite.  For these folk God isn’t much interested in them.  The difference isn’t with God.  He is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow.  The difference is our personal filter.  He is there whether we see Him or not.  Psalm 138 says it so well, “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.”

There is a great old song that goes like this.  “Open my eyes that I might see glimpses of truth thou hast for me. . . Open my eyes, illumine me.” Paul assures us we do not yet see things clearly.   In I Corinthians 13 he tells us we are looking into a steamy mirror.  However, the Good News is little by little the steam evaporates.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 12, 2010

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We spent the weekend at the home of friends in the Finger Lakes Region of New York.  They have a veranda with a million dollar view of one of the lakes surrounded by lush verdant forest.  Perhaps I have a touch of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder because I was persistently annoyed by the top of one dead tree that stuck up above a perfect layer of green.  I wanted to take a chain saw and go down the hillside and eliminate it.  When I finally mentioned it my host was horrified.   “You can’t,” he exclaimed. “It’s my hawk stick!”   He’s an avid birdwatcher and apparently raptors love to sit atop that one dead treetop giving both the hawk and my host great views.

It was amazing.  Once I realized the dead tree had a valuable purpose I no longer wanted to cut it down.  It was useful.  It provided something the living trees did not.  Solomon was right again.  There is a purpose for everything.  Actually, it’s a lesson I have discovered about people.  Have you ever met someone whom you deemed to be useless?  I’m ashamed to mention this because that is so wrong.  But I have been guilty.  It was only after I knew more about the person that I realized they had a gift, they had purpose, they had someone they loved and it was none of my business to make such a judgment.   There is no such thing as a useless person.  Just because I wasn’t perceptive enough to discern their value was a judgment about me and not them.  I need to remind myself that I have come across individuals who most likely thought I was useless.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 16, 2010

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It’s spring time on the east coast and one of the most wonderfully obnoxious of all plants has once again sprouted fresh new leaves.  I speak of POISON IVY.   As I am writing to you I am looking at my right hand all puffy and itchy.  My hand looks like I am wearing an inflated rubber glove.  One of my nursing students asked if I was retaining fluid and my answer was, “Only in spots.”

In II Timothy 4:3 Paul speaks of “itching ears.”   While he was not speaking of the fruit of exposure to poison ivy, he was speaking of something far worse.  He was talking about our seeming hunger to listen to pass on poisonous stories.   We seem to crave hearing the worst about someone or something.  If there is a bad story we seem quick to listen and pass it on as truth without any verification.  In Paul’s time gossip was passed on by whispering in someone’s ear.   Today via electronics we can prodigiously spread vicious tales.  We are literally capable of inflicting pain, chaos and untruths in gigantic proportions.

Very few of us seem to be immune.  I know I am guilty.  As soon as I hear something juicy, I rush down the hall to pass it on to my colleagues.   What is the matter with us?  We almost seem to delight in hearing bad news, even when it is so preposterous it can’t be true.  Paul also wrote in Philippians 4:8 that we should think about things of “good report.”   I’m sure all of us would agree that is what we should do, but good stories rarely tantalize and satisfy our itchy ears as much as something sensationally scandalous.   What is the matter with us?

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 22, 2010

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One of the very first stories I ever read was the tale of the lazy grasshopper and the industrious ants.  He played all summer and they worked all summer.  Eventually winter came and the winds howled and the ants were snug in their home with lots to eat.  Poor lazy grasshopper shivered at their door and they generously took him in.  As a child I wondered about the lesson from this story.  It seemed to me I could be like the grasshopper and play instead of working because someone would help me when I needed it.  My school teacher father assured me that was not the point.  We were to be like the ants so we could not only care for ourselves but be heroes and rescue stupid Mr. Grasshopper.  While I loved and trusted my dad I was never so sure.  It seemed to me the grasshopper won.

What I did not understand as a child was one’s needed sense of worth and esteem.  One of life’s very important needs is to be able to look in a mirror and have respect for the person we see.  If one has never really worked and has consistently lived off the labor of others one cannot, in all honesty, feel the same about themselves as can the person who has toiled and been productive.

God made us in His image.  He is extremely productive.  He is a creator.  He desires for us to be fruitful and to multiply the labor of our hands and minds.  Paul certainly understood this when he wrote in Ephesians 2:10, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”    As His sons and daughters we will be most happy when we are like Him.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 17, 2010

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I’m sitting here looking at the current issue of Popular Mechanics.  The cover “grab your attention headline” is 20 Bold Ideas that will change the world; quake-proof buildings, cheap solar power, finding water on the moon, curing cancer with laser, cars that drive themselves.  Technology is changing our world so rapidly I’m afraid to buy anything lest it be antiqued before I get it home.  There is no doubt this is the most interesting ever time to be alive.  I don’t want to get any older not because I’m afraid of dying.  Jesus has taken that fear away.  I don’t want to die because I don’t want to miss what’s coming next.

If the afternoon judge programs on TV are a valid sample of our general population, I hope not but fear they are, then something becomes extremely clear.  All the wonders of technology aren’t doing a thing to change human nature.  We are still as bright and stupid, noble and selfish, nice and vicious as we have ever been.  We can read Bible stories and understand them because the people then were the same as people now.  It doesn’t matter if a man rides one horse or drives in a car powered by 400 horses it is still the same man.  It’s exciting to be human but there are times it is very discouraging.  While the trapped Chilean miners are nobly arguing about who gets to be the last man up the tube their relatives on the surface are fighting about who gets the financial benefits that are being offered to the families.

Isn’t it absolutely amazing that God became one of us?  Sometimes I think God is a bit crazy.  Crazy with love for us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 13, 2010

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I’m fascinated with our obsession with winners.  During the Winter Olympics we have watched people who have trained for years, honed their skills to the finest and yet because they finished one thousandth of a second behind the bronze medalist we don’t even hear their names.  They are the “also rans.”  One thousandth of a second is less than a heartbeat.  It is time so brief we humans can only measure it with electronics.  Yet it is the difference between being honored for excellence and obscurity.  We just don’t pay much attention to losers.  How many of us can remember the names of those who lost the last five presidential elections?  Yet these were men millions deemed capable of leading our nation.

It’s not that way in heaven.  Us losers, that’s you and me, (Sorry about that.  But it’s true.  All have sinned and come short.  See Romans 3:23.) are treated like winners.  Paul writes about our being more than conquerors. See Romans 8:37.   We are not obscure in the halls of heaven.  Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  See Revelation 13.

God’s system is upside down compared to ours.  His values are not our values.  The first is last and the last first.  Sit at the bottom of the table and He will move us to the head of the table.  He will invite each of us to sit with Him in His throne.  The whole story is so unlike our nature. If we ever wondered if all this is true, it has to be, because it isn’t the way humans would design it.  Humans would only let the perfect ones have the prize.  Well, I guess that is the way it is.  Fortunately, for us it is the perfection of Jesus that counts for us.  We win.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 22, 2010

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Annie and I took our first late night walk together last Thursday evening. We didn’t get very far because the neighbor left his yard light on.  Annie soon discovered something was following her.  It was dark and no matter how fast or slow she went it stayed with her.  She pulled the leash to go home so I released her. She ran as fast as she could go, but that thing chased her right into the alcove to the door.

Shadows can be frightening and also comforting.  Consider Psalm 17:8, “Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.”  That’s one very comforting shadow.  Too bad they are all not that way because we must also consider Psalm 23:4, “I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . .”    Just as shadows grow longer toward the evening of day so that shadow grows longer in the evening of life.

I cannot imagine what that must be like without having Jesus in one’s life. Though the shadow looms for me, it isn’t terrifying.  Yes, we will miss our families.  Perhaps we will miss seeing our grandchildren graduate from college or see our great grand children graduate from eighth grade, but we know it is not the end.  Paul so eloquently put it in II Timothy 1:12, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

There are no shadows dark enough or deep enough to swallow up the light of Jesus.  He is the light of the world.  He is the resurrection.  The only shadows He creates are good ones.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 12, 2010

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