Category: devotional

I had the wonderful privilege of being the recipient of a major trove of marvelous old books from a pastor’s library.  His widow saw to it that I received the gems.  I am most grateful. The few I already had have gone to the eager young theology students on our campus.  They cannot believe their good fortune and rightly so.  Many of them are long out of print and will enhance their future ministries.  Right now I am sitting here with one published in 1915.   My parents were both four years old when this book was printed.   It’s called Personality – How to Build it.    It’s a really good read.  While culturally dated the basic ideas have not changed.

Some people seem to think the personality we have is basically who we are and nothing much can be done about that.  Nothing could be more wrong.  Cranky people don’t have to be cranky.  It’s a choice.  Oh, I understand that the older we get the more aches and pains we have and that makes us want to be cranky.  But crankiness is still a choice.  Sometimes because we are old we think we can be rude and get away with it because what can people do about our rudeness.  They can’t fire us if we are retired.  In my case I have tenure.  That makes it very tough to get rid of me.  In order to do that they would have to push me in front of a moving truck.

However, personality is not something we are born with.   Personality is the face that we wear for loved ones, not so loved ones and strangers.  If we want to really be Christians and really want to be like our hero Jesus, rudeness and crankiness should be left in the outhouse.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 8, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

On occasion it is good to reflect upon the good things God gives us.  It is even good to repeat something if it was very special.  About fifteen years ago I told the following story which occurred about thirty years ago.  It is time for a repeat.

I was the pastor in Des Moines.  My wife and sons had gone to her parents’ farm in central Wisconsin.  I remained behind to conduct Wednesday night prayer meeting and I was to meet them the next day.  As I was locking the church one of my elders who knew I was going to drive that night caught me at the door and prayed for me to have a safe journey.  Thanks Dennis.

Several hours later I was driving east across Minnesota and had not seen another car for a long time.  As my eyes started to droop, my brain, which must have already been asleep, started to connive. I told myself I could safely take a nap if I would center the car over the white line that divided the two lanes heading east.  That would give me plenty of zig zag space.  I could drift back and forth and when I arrived at a bridge about a mile ahead I could wake up and recenter the car.  Ever so carefully I lined up the car and then put my head back on the seat as I began my insane plan.  But wait a minute.  A red light on the dash started to flash at me.  I was irritated as I reached up and pounded on the dash so it would go out.  It did.  I leaned back again.  The light flashed again.

“Seat belt.”  “Seat belt.”  As I reached up to once again pound on the dash, reality dawned on me and the light went out.  I stopped the car and got out and walked awhile.

The seat belt light never again randomly came on.  Never.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 8, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

For about two or three weeks we had workmen doing home repairs and some remodeling in the kitchen.  We have been in this home now for sixteen years and it was time to give it some tender loving care.  Three of the workmen were a father, the boss, and his two grown sons.  Those two young men were amazing.  If my wife or sister arrived home and started to take things from the car they dropped everything and rushed to help.  They even had a fit when they saw me carrying something fairly heavy.  I received a lecture about my age!  These fellows remind me of Romans 15:1 in the Message paraphrase, “Strength is for service, not status.”    While it is true Paul is talking about our strength in the Lord, the idea does transfer over to physical strength.

God gives us blessings so we can be a blessing.  We are to be conduits through which God can funnel His strength, His riches, His health and His happiness to the world.  While it is true He could send angels to distribute good things He knows how much joy can come to us if we allow Him to use us.

This is one of the really nice things about being a citizen of God’s Kingdom.   We don’t have to wait to be recipients of the privileges that accompany citizenship.  The more we share the more He will give to us, so the sharing can continue and spread.  It’s hoarders who don’t receive much. They get just enough to get by.  Why should they receive much if all they are going to do is to see if they need to build bigger barns?

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 13, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

If you are looking a bit haggard in the morning, if the bags under your eyes seem just a bit droopier and darker, if those once wonderful smile lines have become deep crevices, I have a verse for you.   It is 2 Corinthians 4:16.  “. . . though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”  We ought to put that on our mirrors.  It gives us reason for thanksgiving. Hooray for the inner man.  Hooray for the God who renews that inner guy.  It’s hard to read that and not smile and behold when we smile that old haggard face in the mirror doesn’t look half bad.

This passage in 2 Corinthians is really good.  Look at what comes next. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; . .”  Sunrises and sunsets have glory.  Morning Glories have glory.  But nothing is going to top the “far more exceeding” glory waiting for us.  I tell you.  I promise you.  You are going to be looking good. God is going to lavish you with a glory that has “eternal weight.”  It will never fade.  It will never go away.  You got it.  You get to keep it.

So there, you old haggard face filled with scars, cracks and crevices.  You are having your day now but the best is yet to come.  In    1 Corinthians 15 God promises us a spectacular resurrection body.   I put this “old acorn” in the ground and up comes a “magnificent oak.”  I told my students today I feel sorry for them because I am just a few years away from consciously realizing this glory and they have to wait decades.   Don’t tell me getting old isn’t great.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 5, 2010

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

I have a friend who recently took a standardized test and received a perfect score in the math section.  That’s not supposed to happen.  If one receives a perfect score that means the person was not tested to his limits.  We don’t know how much more he knows.  Maybe he only knows a little bit more or perhaps he knows a whole lot more.   There are many human developmentalists who believe the only way we learn is by actively confronting things we don’t know.  Things we don’t know challenge us to learn and the more we learn the more we grow.  The more we grow the more capable we are of service.  The more service we can provide the more complete and happy will be our lives.

Failure to know something is an avenue to an expanded and more fruitful life; that is if we travel “up” that avenue and learn. Please note I said travel “up” because there are certain things we are much better off not knowing.  Eve did not know the sorrow of death and suffering until she ate the fruit and learned.  She went “down” that avenue.  Not all things are good to know.

Psalm 1:1 is a great text for all of us to memorize.  It describes the progression of sin.  “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.”   As we move through life we cannot avoid walking past things that are harmful.   The secret to happiness and growth is to keep on walking and not stop and look at it.   Confronting that which we don’t know can be a growth experience or a disaster. It’s our choice.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 4, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

In preparation for a coming weekend retreat for our administrators I am reading a very fine book on leadership.  The book is designed to instill in corporate leaders the importance of such vital concepts of gifts of love, power, significance and authorship.  The author’s goal is to impress leaders to lead with soul and heart.  It’s a very fine book.  Now comes my negativity.  Because the book was written for people of all faiths it is very generic.  It has to be so.  The authors had no choice if they wanted the book to have a broad appeal.  But it is missing the richness of Christ.  As fine as other faiths are there is nothing that compares with the love, mercy and grace of Jesus.   Take the best of every other faith and you will find excellent ideas but they pale when compared to the extravagant richness of  Christ described in Ephesians 1 and 2.

Reading this excellent book is like eating an Oreo cookie without the middle layer.  The cookie all by itself is excellent but doesn’t come near being as spectacular as when we savor that middle layer.  The authors have a fine idea but they are looking for the best of humanity inside humanity.   We are only at our best when our humanity, our personhood is filled with the divinity offered to us by Christ.  Peter says it so well in his second letter, “. . . given unto us are exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, . . .”   We are at our best when we open ourselves to being God’s temple.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 3, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

I’m sitting here with an old book in my hand whose author has long been dead.  He has letters after his name so I am inclined to give reverence to what he has to say.  When I think about that I realize how silly that is.  I know tons (literally) of people with letters behind their names and little that they say should be revered.  And just because the author is gone doesn’t mean what he had to say was meaningful.  Ah, there I go again.  Negativity is such a problem.  My dark side wants to criticize and complain about things that really are none of my business.  I want to complain about our school administrators.  But really now, I don’t get paid to deal with what they deal with.  I don’t know the pressures they have.  I don’t know the nuances of the issues.  It just seems a bit delicious to complain about them as if I could do a better job.  That is narcissistic madness.  Should I have their position I would most likely do very poorly.

I have come to realize in many cases administrators have to make decisions not between better and bad but between bad and badder.  The decision is what will do the least harm because there is no good decision possible. However, it is so satisfying to belittle others.  Little do I realize when I do I am actually belittling myself, in my own eyes and most usually in the eyes of those who heard my ranting.  My dad passed on to me one of life’s great lessons and I need to remind myself of it on a daily basis.   It is quite simple.  I need to mind my own business.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 2, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

We have some dear friends we like to diner with each Sunday morning.  This morning while sipping on a hot drink I watched our waitress top off one of my friend’s hot drink.  Immediately she had to try to conjure up the right balance of drink, cream and sugar.  The added top off upset her prior perfect mix.  As I watched I realized how much this was like our lives.  We can have the perfect balance.  We enjoy our jobs, our health is good, our children and grandchildren are doing well, the weather is great and the bills paid.   Then something happens.  The mix is changed and the balance is gone.  Life’s challenge then is to seek to regain the prior perfect mix. It’s not easy.  Often there are just too many variables and one of them might be gigantic.

It’s on these occasions we would be wise to seek divine help.  God is only a prayer away and though it might not often seem so He is eager to help.  When Jesus told us to pray “Our Father” Jesus was not using a metaphor.  God is most anxious to have us consider Him to be the best Father we could desire.  He has unlimited resources but wisely doesn’t just dump upon us our requests.   He’s much smarter than we are and knows exactly what we need to restore the balance.

Balance is not easy.  I am always impressed to see a trapeze artist walk a wire without a balance pole.  That’s a tough act.  The bigger the pole the easier the walk.  So it is with us.  God provides a pole that is just the right length.  Too long would make it too easy and we wouldn’t grow.   Too short and we would fall.   He

knows exactly what we need.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 1, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

An interesting thing happened to me this evening as I entered a bookstore that shall remain unnamed.  It does begin with a B.  In the space between the two front doors they had a display of books they were trying to quickly get out of their inventory.  One of them caught my eye.  It had been an expensive book of Tony Bennett’s art work.  It was now only $5.98.  I couldn’t resist.  A bit later when I went to pay for it the lady at the checkout said, “This can’t be right.”  She picked up a phone and said to some unseen person, “Someone has drawn a marker through the bar code and written a very cheap price.”  All the time she was talking I was getting the evil eye. She seemed to be looking for a marker in my pocket.  Soon the unseen person arrived and he too said, “This can’t be so.”  He also gave me the “What are you trying to pull here” look.  Finally I spoke up and said, “Folks, there is a pile of them in the entry.  They are all marked the same.  Go see.”  They did.  I was most disappointed for I never got an apology.  But what I did get was my book for $5.98.

Why can’t people say they are sorry?  Is it so painful to acknowledge that we have been wrong about something or someone?  Does it diminish us to regret misjudging someone? Does it always have to be someone else’s fault?  I have this gut feeling that until we can learn to do this very simple thing we can’t expect much forgiveness for ourselves.  Pride is a dastardly thing that eats away at character development.  May God help us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 27, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The New England Patriots did not really win their football game Sunday afternoon as much as the Chargers lost the game.  Sometimes you are given a gift.  I was amused by a student this morning who came up to me with a big smile as he said, “We won.”  We?  Strange I had not noticed him on the field during the game.  I wondered which pass he caught or which field goal he kicked.  But I didn’t say anything like that to him.  His smile was too big.  He was so very happy.  I could not say anything to take away his joy.

As he walked down the hall I thought about heaven and eternal life.  We win.  We?  If I take a good look at my life I would have to say that I certainly haven’t contributed anything to this victory.  I was not in Gethsemane.  I wasn’t nailed to a cross.  And yet when I think of it I smile.  That is unless I actually think about the gruesome nature of the cross.  It is the fruit that makes me smile.  I hope it is as big as my student’s smile.  I should be so happy.  I should be way more happy.  I am not talking about a game.  I am talking about eternity, an eternity of endless growth and development.

How interesting it is that Paul says in Romans that we are more than conquerors in Christ.  It’s all vicarious.  Vicariously my student won Sunday afternoon.  Vicariously we win an infinite amount of Sunday afternoons.  Sunday afternoons without end.  I like the sound of that.  Because for us to have an infinite number of Sundays we need an infinite amount of Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sabbaths.  How grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 26, 2010

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

Rogerbothwell.org