Author: Ian Bothwell

It’s a pretty hill with horse paddocks and spring flowers blossoming from the fertile Massachusetts soil.  One would not think too much about it if it were not for a small stone memorial by the road.  One horrible night in 1675 it wasn’t so tranquil.  Native Americans swept over the hill destroying the small homes of the settlers.  While standing by the marker I tried to imagine the carnage, the gunfire, the roar of flames, the scalping, and the screams of terror of the children and others who perished midst the war cries of the slayers.  I know this place well because it is adjacent to our little New England college.

Walking back to my classroom I looked over the faces of thirty-four students waiting for me to interrupt their tunes and texting as I asked them to turn off all their electronic gear.  Their faces are as deceptive as that tranquil hillside.  Without the marker no one would ever know about the hill’s violent night.  Unless my students tell me, I have no idea what their lives are all about.   They range in ages from 18 to 40.  Each has a story. Some are stories of a happy home and others could most likely tell tales that would raise the hair on our necks.   Sometimes they fill me with exasperation but I try to not say what my impulses want to say.  I have already made the mistake of saying things in jest only to have them break into tears.  That is crushing to me and to them.

I am not surprised that Jesus told us not to judge others.  We cannot make accurate assessments because we have not been where they have been nor have we shared their joys and their pains.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 19, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Fifty years ago my mother-in-law made the world’s most amazingly scrumptious sweet rolls every Friday afternoon.  The weekend house was olfactory heaven.  I think my wife thought I was coming to visit her.  I will never admit that I didn’t want to miss Friday evenings for another reason.  Recently my wife has been trying to replicate those rolls.  She can almost get them that good, but not quite.  I think if she does get it I will not let her know.  The longer she tries the more sweet rolls I get.

I wonder if she already has reproduced them but is it our older taste buds that are the problem?  Could it be that things were just not as sweet as we remember?  When we visit wonderful places we remember from childhood those places are rarely as big or grand as what we recall.

However, there is something that does grow better.  Our walk with the Lord can actually be sweeter as we age.  Because I teach human development, I think I know the reason why.  As we mature so does the complexity of our mental gifts.  There are some ideas that young minds cannot fully grasp.  Some ideas need the experience of years in order to move to a higher level – thus the reason one cannot be President of the United States until one is thirty or older.  According to cognitive experts that is being generous.

The story of our redemption and the nuances of God’s plan to rescue us will fascinate us forever.   As we grow so will our grasp of God’s love.  We will never tire of this study.  It is a story that will grow sweeter as millennia roll by.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 15, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

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

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Just in case you thought you could believe everything you research on the Internet, think again.  Even my devotionals have now fallen into doubt. Last night I reported that the Derek Redmond event that included his father occurred in 1988 in Seoul.  Wrong!  It was in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympic Games.  I looked it up and the first reference I got on Bing told me it was in Seoul.  I did not double check my facts and passed on the error.  Sorry about that!

It is easy to pass error about with our electronic tools. It happens with regularity and even checking with Snopes does not always guarantee accuracy. Eyewitness accounts do not necessarily make things true because each of us, despite our complete confidence in our own intelligence, sees things through our biases and prejudices.  Whether we like it or not, or are willing to admit it, each of us sees what we want to see and are blind to concepts, events and facts that do not fit what we want to be true.  Just talk to teachers about parental reactions to negative information about their children.  Too often Jimmy can do no wrong.

Unfortunately, this is also true regarding our religious experiences.  When we read Scriptures we are inclined not to notice passages that conflict with our “truth.”  And when they are brought to our attention we spin them so there is no conflict. We spin before we change.  God certainly has His work cut out for Him when it comes to teaching us something new.  Yet there are new things for us to learn.  Pray that God would open our minds to what He wants us to know.  His light shines more and more as we grow.  Let’s let it happen.  See Proverbs 4:18.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 16, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

This afternoon I watched a little girl get a stream of dollars from her dad as she was trying to snag a pretty stuffed bear from a machine with one of those descending hooks.  After at least ten dollars she victoriously captured her bear most likely valued at a dollar or so.  In response to her continued pleas for another dollar her dad kept saying, “Okay, one more.” He was joyed when she succeeded. So was I and I didn’t even know them.

My computer does not like the word “joyed.”  It thinks it is not a word. However, it likes “overjoyed.”  But not “underjoyed.”  If we can have one form, why can we not have all three?  I want to say heaven is joyed when we succeed at small victories in life.  Overjoyed is saved for the big ones. If we are overjoyed all the time the relativity of it vanishes.

I was intrigued by the relationship between the little girl and her father. There was no hesitation on her part to keep asking and there was no hesitation on his part to keep supplying her with dollars.  Sometimes when I fail I am hesitant to ask God for another chance.  I need to remember this little girl.  Jesus said, “If we as humans know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more does our heavenly Father know how to supply us with good things.”  Matthew 7:11.  God is so pleased when we succeed.  He is not nearly as disheartened by our failures as He is by our giving up.

During the 1988 Olympics in Seoul Derek Redmond fell to the ground with a torn hamstring.  Without hesitation his father rushed down from the stands and helped him across the finish line.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 15, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

In just a few seconds the entire nation of Japan moved eight feet from its former location.  It is almost incomprehensible to realize the amount of energy expended in such an event.  It doesn’t take a 140 IQ to see the shape of South America and Africa to see that long ago they were not separated by the Atlantic.  Our little planet is a dynamic place that can alter itself in very short periods of time.  Geologic time tables are guesswork at best.  Sometimes continents don’t just creep.  While Genesis 7 is not a scientific account of what happened to our little world, it is the sure Word of God that something extremely violent rearranged almost, if not, everything in a very short period of incredible upheaval.

Good science is based upon very careful observation and data collection.  Our difficulty is our ability to only see and record in very limited segments.  One could learn how to play the game of chess by careful observation and never see a castling move if one did not occur in the games observed.  One could then assume that it was impossible for a king to ever move more than one space at a time.  One would be very wrong.

We are intellectual ants in a giant cosmos feeding on a minuscule amount of data.  For one to arrogantly think we know much and thus cast away one’s faith that there is an all knowing, all powerful, all present, Father God would be foolish indeed.  Faith continues to be a vital ingredient to our health and well-being.  Wise is the person who takes Moses at his word when he says, “In the beginning God.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 14, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

About a month ago I replaced a wall switch.  Last night a circuit breaker kicked off and would not reset.  We hired “Sherlock Holmes Electrical Services.”  Well, not really by that name.  But the solution did require an hour of sleuthing on the part of the old guy who came to help.  It is so nice to have experts around.  The fault was my wiring job a month ago.  It just did not reveal itself until we flipped another switch on the opposite side of the room.  As the electrician pulled out of sight I realized that so often in life we think we have fixed something or gotten away with something only to have it pop back up at a later time.  It is merely a matter of circumstances.

I remembered a childhood story about a little guy who, instead of putting his father’s seeds in the garden row, put them all in one hole at the end of the row.   He got away with it, that is, until the seeds sprouted.

How much easier life is when we do things right the first time.  Paul understood.  That’s why he wrote in Galatians 6, “Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest.”   Sometimes we think this means it will become public.  Not so.  There are many secrets that go to the grave.  The issue is not public revelation.  The issue is character growth, which is far more serious.   Character is all we really have in life.   Material goods and reputation can be taken.  It is character that counts.  It’s permanent.  It’s the person we have to live with when everyone else has gone away.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 10, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

Yesterday, while I was in a middle school, I walked past a table filled with mittens and gloves.  I mean filled.  There must have been a hundred pairs and then another hundred singles.  We are having fifty degree days now in New England so I am thinking most of those gloves will not be missed until next fall.  By then the owner’s hands will have gotten bigger so new ones will be the order of the day.

When I was little and had lost several pairs of mittens my mother finally put a string on them that ran through the sleeves of my coat.  I stopped losing them.  It was a bit dorky but it worked. Not every thing that is practical can be cool.   Functionality trumps beauty over and over.

What is wonderful is when you have a combination of both.  It’s great to get a beautiful wife who can also cook a great meal and also bring home a paycheck.  I know.  I know. That was a crude thing to say.  How about this for an illustration?   A beautiful car can also get thirty miles to the gallon and get you safely to your destination.  That most likely works better as an illustration.

Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder I believe God thinks each of us is beautiful. How grand it would be if we would allow ourselves to be functional for Him.  In Ephesians 2 we are told God has a work for us to do. If we cooperate with Him we are beautiful and functional.

There were some beautiful gloves on that table at the middle school.  Alas, they were not being very functional.   They were lost.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 12, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

While dumping a can of coins into a coin machine at my bank I struck up a conversation with a policeman.  Just then the coin machine broke.  Laughingly he said, “Hang on for a moment I’ll tase it for you.”  This prompted me to ask him if he had ever tased anyone.  “Yeah,” he said, “me.”   He went on to tell me about tussling with someone and while trying to taser the bad guy, the policeman ended up tasering himself.  Then because the taser immobilized his muscles he couldn’t move it off of himself.  Ouch!  So much for being our own worst enemy.

So often in life we do it to ourselves.  We overeat.  We don’t exercise.  We speed.  We tell tales about others.  We don’t get enough sleep.  The list can go on and on.  In the course of a life most of the damage we have o\inccurred has been self-induced.  True, on occasion we are genuine victims, but those events are not as common as we would like people to think.  It is so much easier to find someone else or something else to blame than to be brutally honest with ourselves.   Being a teacher I hear endless excuses for why work is not on time.  No one uses “the dog ate it anymore.”   Now it’s the computer’s fault.  If computers were as culpable as we tell it none of us would dare use one.

If we really want God’s grace, if we really want forgiveness, if we really want real inner growth, we have to own-up.  That doesn’t mean running around telling everyone how bad you are.  What it means is quietly telling God how bad you are.  The two of you can work it out.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 11, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

Jesus was with His disciples for the last time prior to the cross.  They had left the upper room, left the east gate of Jerusalem, crossed the Kidron and were nearing the garden when He saw a vine growing along a stone wall.   Gathering His men near Him in the light of the Passover moon He lifted the vine and said, “I am the vine.  My Father is the Farmer and He will prune the branches that do not bear grapes.”

My closest neighbor in Uganda grew coffee for his livelihood.  One evening when I came home from classes I saw him cutting down his trees.  Running to him I asked what was wrong.  “Nothing,” he said.  “I’m pruning.”   “No Bwana,” I said.  “You are destroying them.”   He just laughed at me and told me to be patient.   Months later I watched him put props under his newly grown branches to hold up the heavy load of coffee berries.   I never saw such a crop.  He knew.

Sometimes God needs to prune us.  It might be painful.  We might think it is way too much and it is killing us.  But if we are patient as time passes we will soon come to realize the fruit in our lives is so rich and so abundant and it never could have happened with the old branches.  Jesus was right.  His Father is the farmer.  He knows just how much to take.  It is a matter of our trusting Him.  And why should we not?  No one ever anywhere has ever loved us as much as He loves us.   Be careful how you pray.  If you ask He will do it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on March 9, 2011

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org