Month: July 2025

Each morning for the past week we have been rudely awakened at 5 AM by a family of blue jays.  The babies look full-grown but are still demanding to be fed.  It is their endless screaming for attention that rouses me from slumber.  I have tried closing the windows and putting a pillow over my head but to no avail.  I might just as well get up because this cacophony continues on and on as mom and dad blue jay rush to fill their bottomless pits.  I am reminded of one of Jesus’ beatitudes which says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.”  I am wishing those baby jays would soon be filled.

Jesus knew inside most people there is a hunger, a longing to be something they are not.  It is difficult to be content.  The more we have of something the more we want.  No one seems to have enough money.  I see people searching for love, power, prestige and fame.  It is a bottomless pit.  However, if what you are seeking is righteousness that Jesus has in abundance and is willing to share.  Like the blue jay parents He waits for His children to open up and He will rush to supply our need.

We can spend our lives trying to be good people only to be frustrated for if we are honest we know the truth about ourselves.  In Romans 7 Paul describes his frustrated quest but then proclaims to us the good news.  Jesus Christ will rescue us.  He will supply all our needs.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 26, 2002

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I saw the strangest thing this evening.  Three teenage boys were running back and forth across a busy highway in between rapidly moving cars.  I am not sure what kind of male ritual this was.  Were they trying to prove to each other how courageous they could be?  I do know they were upsetting a lot of drivers.

Despite their foolishness rituals are very important.  For as long as we have recorded history people have celebrated passages of life with rituals.  Births, transition through adolescence, graduations, weddings, memberships in organizations and deaths – each have a culturally prescribed way of marking its importance in our lives.  From them we learn the values and history of our heritage.  Sorry is the nation that has become so scientifically oriented that it has forgotten the spiritual importance of ceremony. Rituals are more than decorations or occasions for family to gather.  Rituals are mental milestones enabling people to evolve to a new stage in life.  Rituals instill values and respect generated from the experience of others.  Thus it was that Jesus submitted Himself to be baptized by John the Baptist.  He had no need for cleansing from sin.  He did have a need to prepare Himself for His ministry to follow.  So often we think of Jesus’ divine nature and forget He was also human and had needs just like each of us.

Matthew 21:18,  “Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 23, 2002

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Earlier I mentioned the joy of picking wild blueberries in the mountains of Massachusetts.  One of the things I did not mention was the other crop we brought home.  Both my dog and I became the host for a host of ticks.  While I got them off of me quite soon upon arrival at home I am still scratching some bites and just a few minutes ago I found a tiny one on my dog.  They are miserable little bloodsuckers.

I looked to see if they are mentioned in Scripture but could not find any reference.  However, I did find a reference to another kind of bloodsucker.  In Proverbs 30:15  I found, “The leech has two daughters. ‘Give! Give!’ they cry. “There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:”  The other three things are the grave, the barren womb and thirsty ground.

Have you ever met someone who fits the above metaphors?  They are emotional black holes.  They soak up all the attention and all the emotional support others can give.  They leave you exhausted and totally unsatisfied because you gave all you could and still it wasn’t enough.  The only solution for these people is a healthy intimate relationship with Jesus.   He does promise, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”   He told the woman at the well if she would drink what He had to give she would never thirst again.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 19, 2002

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It was such a warm afternoon and seeing the Dairy Queen approaching as we came down the street I could not resist.  My Peanut Buster Parfait was just what the doctor ordered.  Spotting a nice maple tree with a picnic bench I sat down to slowly savor my treat.  If you eat at just the right speed you can just stay ahead of meltdown and make it last as long as possible.  It was then that I noticed the fence behind the picnic table.  It was the fence surrounding the city sewerage plant; obviously the perfect environment for eating my Peanut Buster Parfait.

I continually remind myself that Jesus deliberately introduced Himself to a planet that could easily be described as the sewerage plant of the universe.  A day in the past the news was filled with the story about some monster that thinks he is human snatching up and killing a sweet little girl.  This was mixed with the story of another family whose daughter was taken from her bedroom.  I could go on and on but the point is easily made.  Jesus came here to seek and save the garbage, the refuse, we call people.

Hebrews 7:25 says,  “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, . . .”  Sometimes in my moral smugness and feelings of moral superiority I forget this text is talking about me just as much as the monster mentioned above.

Thank God Jesus did not refrain from coming to the sewerage plant.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2007

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I received a very interesting compliment today from one of my grad students.  We were listing all the things we have to accomplish each day and when it was my turn one of the ladies said, “Why you’re almost a woman!”

Psychologists have long noted women multi-task much better than men.  Generally speaking men have better focus on one task while women seem to be tuned in to several things at the same time.  An example of this would be a woman elementary teacher who is able to teach, give individualized attention to each student and monitor the total environment all at the same time, whereas men seem to focus exclusively on the sporting event on TV.   Of course there are exceptions to this.  I am only speaking in generalized terms.

A fellow by the name of King Lemuel had a mother who told him all about this.  You can read it is Proverbs 31.   Verses 15 and 16 are a sample of what she said, “She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.  She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.”   As you read the entire chapter there seems to be little left for the man to do.

God carefully designed us with different skill sets.  Men do their part and women do their part and society and family prosper.   I was flattered when I was told I was “almost a woman.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2002

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In less than three quarters of a mile this evening I had three cars pull out in front of me from side streets.  All three times I had to slam on my brakes to keep from smashing them.  I began to wonder if my truck and I had become invisible without me knowing it.

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you really could be invisible for a time?   I imagine most everyone has wondered what it would be like.   Whenever I think of it I don’t like myself because the things I would do are not very nice.  Thinking about it becomes an indictment of my character.  I have come to believe the measure of one’s character is what you would do if no one saw you.

I am thankful God always sees me.  The very idea acts as a constraint.  Yes, I know that is not a very highly developed sense of morality and I should be pious and say I would act no differently.  However, that would not be honest.  What I am truly counting on is the mercy of God poured out as a fruit of the death of our Jesus.   At the end of Ecclesiastes Solomon reminds us that a God who sees all things will bring all things to judgment, but John promises us in I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”   So there is nothing left to bring up in judgment.   I like that.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2007

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The chimes from the grandfather clock echoed up the hallway announcing midnight. I turned out the light hoping to quickly drift into sleep when it started.  It must have emerged from some obscure crack in the woodwork. I could hear it coming.  At first it was content to buzz about the inside of the screened window but then it discovered me lying silently in bed.  It was a gigantic fly.  I could not see it in the darkness but it had to be gigantic for soon the roar of its aerobatics filled the room with deafening dopplerized sound.  How could I ever get to sleep?  Then it was silent.  “Ahh,” I thought, “it has gone into another room.”   I could not have been more mistaken for in a moment I felt it walk off the bedcovers unto my nose.

I am not sure how long this sick party went on for I eventually drifted off.  Too soon it was morning.   As I staggered across the room I spotted the monster.  He was lying belly up, feet to the sky, by a window.  I felt not a twinge of remorse.  I was glad he was gone to fly heaven.  I cannot even imagine what that must be like.  Actually I can but don’t want to mention it.

Flies don’t fare well in Scripture.  They star in Exodus 8 during the plagues in Egypt and Solomon does mention them in Ecclesiastes 10.  He wrote, “As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 15, 2002

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After a wonderful afternoon in the mountains of Massachusetts we arrived home with two gallons of wild blueberries.  They were wonderful to look at but they were full of leaves and little sticks.  It would take hours of tedious separating to clean them by hand.  Then I remembered seeing a picture in my Bible of people winnowing.   I remembered a statement John the Baptist made about the coming Messiah.  He said in Matthew 3:11, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Going to my attic I brought down an electric floor fan.  Putting it on a barrel and turning it on we began to pour the blueberries from one bucket to the next in front of the fan.  In just a few minutes we had the cleanest blueberries in town.  All the leaves and all the little sticks were on the floor blown past the bucket now containing the ingredients of many breakfasts and muffins to come.

What a great metaphor John used.  Jesus came to winnow out His fruit from that which will be burned.  It sounds pretty frightening until one remembers each of us can be part of the fruit if we will only respond to the urgings of the Holy Spirit.  The choice is ours.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2002

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I was held up this evening by a no armed bandit.  During a break in my evening class I approached a large inviting machine with my money in hand.  I needed a drink.  The picture on the front depicted an icy cold frosty bottle of refreshment.  It was muggy and I had been lecturing for three hours.  It looked so good.  I slipped my money in the slot and I hear all kinds of banging and rumbling inside.   Watching with great anticipation I waited for the bottle to drop into the open bay.  Suddenly the machine grew silent without delivering my drink.  I pressed the money return button and this time it never even bothered to make noise.  It just sat there silently.  I was robbed.  It never delivered what it promised.

Drooping my way back to my classroom for yet one more hour of class I wondering how many times we as Christians do the same thing the machine did.  People find out we are Christians and they come to us expecting kindness and help.  Instead they get a lot of rumbling and noise but never anything of substance.

James talks of this in 2:15 – 17.  “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 9, 2002

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It is no secret the more tired we become the more irritable we become.  Our patience runs thin.  We are put off by things we would have hardly noticed were we not at the edge of our physical resources.  Today I was with a group of people who worked very hard for fourteen or fifteen hours.  It was interesting to watch them relate as the day grew long.  Most made an effort to be gracious but some grew, I think “testy” is the best word to use.  Tomorrow they will be better.

Action hero movies make a lot of money.  Good looking, well-built men on a noble cause blow up cars, blast through buildings, punch out a host of bad guys.  We watch them and inwardly cheer their bold aggression. In        Proverbs 16:32 we read, “Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.”   So who would go to see a movie about a patient man?  It would lack exciting chase scenes and we would not get the inner satisfaction of seeing the bad guys smashed.   The badder the villains the more we want the action hero to hit them.

But that is Hollywood.  If we come back to the real world of real human relations then truly a patient man is better than a warrior.   A ruler who maintains peace is better than a general who aggressively defeats an enemy.  However we build monuments to the warriors and let the peacemakers slip unseen into history.  Surely it says much about our nature.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 30, 2006

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