“My Grace Is Sufficient”

Not long ago I became extremely frustrated with a colleague who I thought was being extremely narrow minded and reaching way beyond his authority. When I confronted him I shocked myself by saying something to him about him. It was not something I had premeditated. It just popped out of my mouth. It was demeaning and hurtful. Immediately I asked his forgiveness but it was too late it was out. Words out of the mouth cannot be put back.
He has not forgiven me for I notice he avoids me. I followed Jesus counsel in Matthew 5, “if a brother has something against you go to him.” But he will not see me.

The most difficult part of this is forgiving myself for my indiscretion. I have long since forgiven him for the initial trigger. I have discovered the more difficult person to forgive is me. Why did I say what I did? Where did it come from? Obviously deep within me are seeds of things not so nice and if something as trivial as what he did produced such in me, what horrors lurk there waiting to respond to a real hurt? Would I physically harm someone who harmed someone I love? Would I, could I kill someone? I want to say, “Of course not.” But I am not so sure. Could it be that any of us are capable of anything if the right psychological button is pushed? I have come to believe that is so.

Like Paul I cry out, “Who will rescue me from me?” And Jesus responses, “My grace is sufficient even for you.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 9, 2003.
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

Heaven–Where Is It?

While walking in my yard last evening, noisily pushing and crunching fallen oak leaves with my well worn tennis shoes, I was basking in the moon created shadows when suddenly, just for a moment, a chilling cold wind moved across my face. It was a taste of winter to come. It was a promise of snow to blanket the now slumbering earth. I could almost hear carols announcing the coming of the holidays and the gathering of loved ones.

Some might have cursed the cold harbinger that momentarily swept through the bare arms of the maples hovering overhead. Some might have wished for a flush of warmth to remind them of August nights. So much of life is focus. We can see the snot dripping from a small child’s nose or instead see the beauty of a child beginning the great adventure of life. We can see the mud tracks on the kitchen floor or instead see the wagging tail of someone thrilled to see us.

How often do we sit and wait for someone to make us happy when the happiness is already there waiting for us to but see it. Perhaps heaven is not just some distant place far away in the universe but also a place inside us.

Emily Dickenson once wrote, “So instead of getting to heaven at last, I’m going all along!” And Jesus said, “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:21

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 8, 2003.
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

God’s Best

I should have known not to eat a peanut butter and pickle sandwich just after putting on a clean pair of khakis. It’s the dog. There is no way I can sneak a sandwich. As soon as I open the peanut butter jar her nose awakens her from a sound sleep. There is the fragrance of peanut butter in the air! Before the sandwich is constructed drool is dripping from both sides of her mouth in long strings. It is inevitable in a few moments it will be all over my clean pants. Then there are her eyes. They take on that look of hunger and despair that says, “I haven’t eaten in weeks. Could you spare just the last bite for me?” She always gets it.

In Matthew 7:11 we read, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” I guess I could change that verse to, “If we being evil, know how to give simple gifts to our dogs.” The point is clear. The God who made us in His image considers us to be of much more value than a dog. Therefore, He is keenly interested in giving us His best not just the last bite. God’s best was Jesus and we get to share His inheritance.

Even my dog is smart enough not to walk away from the gift of part of a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Since we are smarter than a dog, how could we ever walk away from God’s best?

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 6, 2003
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

Your “Texts” to God

In 1977 NASA launched Voyager 1 on a five-year mission. Just now, 26 years later Voyager has reached the outer limit of our Solar System. Part of its cargo is a golden record with a greeting to any extra-terrestrial who might intercept it. The message in English says, “Hello from the children of planet earth.” That message is also recorded in 54 other languages. It will be another 40,000 years before Voyager has a chance of entering another solar system.

In Daniel chapter 9 we find Daniel pouring out his heart in prayer. In verse 21 Daniel tells us the angel Gabriel flew swiftly to him from God’s throne to answer his prayer. When it comes to speed, Voyager 1 looks like some sort of Model T.

Isn’t it exciting to know our prayers are instantly communicated to God? There is no lag time. And not one of our prayers is classified as spam. Like any good parent God is excited to hear from us. When I open my email, the messages from my sons get read first. If I get something from them delivered by the U.S. Postal Service it gets opened immediately.

What a thrill to know our God is not limited by time or space. He is the commander of all. Everything is under His control. He responds to us as He also responds to another prayer coming from the other side of planet earth or on the other side of our galaxy? It matters not where the prayer originates. He pays immediate and incredible attention to every detail.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 5, 2003
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

Your Father Is Waiting

It is fascinating that one can diligently search the entire Old Testament and never once find anyone addressing God as “Father” yet Jesus urges us to do so. Jesus said, “When you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly.” Matthew 6

Jesus saw God as a father eager to meet with us because He has the answers to our problems. Jesus doesn’t counsel us to go to a church prayer meeting where we might be tempted to pray for the other listening ears prying into our secrets. He does not counsel us to surround ourselves with “prayer warriors” but instead to go by ourselves into our secluded place deep within ourselves. It is there we will find our Father waiting.

Jesus goes on to tell us not to bother with some prayer formula because God is not an ego driven deity who needs to be buttered up before we make a request. God already knows what we need and He is eager to respond. He is waiting for an honest, simple relationship. This is where the promise gets good. You will not come away empty handed. “But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

I wish we knew more about Joseph. He must have been a special man who role modeled for a little boy in a carpenter shop the depth of a father’s love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 4, 2003.
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

The Worst Sin Is ……………..

When I was a little boy I used to try to figure out which sin was the worst. Surely it seemed that killing someone was worst than stealing something and stealing something was worse then telling a lie. In my little boy mind I had developed quite an interesting hierarchy of sins. But then I grew up and decided that since all sins led to eternal death and the crucifixion of Jesus there was no hierarchy. I figured they were all the same. But I have changed again. Once again I have a hierarchy. I have come to believe the sins of the heart are the worst kind. Killing, stealing, lying, etc. are merely the fruit of something far worst. The really bad sin is the one that gives us the liberty to judge others.

I saw a woman holding a sign with a demeaning label and vindictively she spewed her hatred into the news camera telling the world how good it felt to know God was on her side and that God hated the new Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire. I saw the worst kind of sin. I saw the conceit and viciousness that causes someone to think if we do not think like they do we are inferior and not God’s children. I saw hatred masquerading as righteousness. I saw someone saying, “God is on our side and not your side.” I saw the worst sin.

No wonder Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “If you hate someone you are guilty of murder.” Because the person you have murdered is yourself! Matthew 5.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 4, 2003
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

A Call to Courage

“And they clothed Jesus with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, and began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshiped him.” Mark 15

Surely all the universe watched in stunned awe as they witnessed this abhorrent behavior of the religious establishment toward the Creator of all things. No one could ever say Jesus asked us to do anything He Himself did not do. He said, “Resist not evil.” Matthew 5:39 He did not resist!

Surely it is the most difficult counsel ever spoken. When someone hates me it is natural to hate him or her back. But Jesus knew that hate kills not the hated but the hater. The evil thoughts we have toward another do not harm them, they harm us, the thinkers. Those thoughts literally ravage us with the results of our self-induced stress. If we can turn away the event is over. If we strike back we not only continue the battle, most of the time we take it to a higher more violent level.

How interesting that Jesus did resist evil when He saw it happening to others. It was only when it happened to Him that He silently took it.
His counsel to, “resist not evil” was not a call to turning a blind eye to injustice or to cowardly behavior. It was a call to courage: courage to do the right thing for others and courage to be the right thing for ourselves.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 2, 2003.
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

An Old Oak Tree

It was a wonderful old oak tree that no longer could bear up under an autumn storm. Crashing to the earth it revealed a hollow core. I remember hearing a sermon about a tree with a hollow core and the preacher made the analogy that if we are hollow inside we too will crash in life. I don’t want to make that analogy now for this was a noble old tree. While I was cutting it into pieces I discovered the remains of a squirrel’s nest. In its earlier years that old oak tree provided shelter and warmth from winter snows for God’s creatures to nestle safely inside its protective walls.

We all have our weaknesses. Some of us are unfortunate enough to have our flaws on the outside for all to see. Others, like the old oak tree, have their weaknesses on the inside. However, blessed is the person whose weaknesses can be used to benefit another. We all can’t be leaders. If we were who would be the followers? If there were no followers no one could be a leader.

Blessed is the person who realizes their limitations and fits well into the community by contributing what they have to give and getting out of the way of the gifts of others. The old oak tree was part of a community of hemlocks, maples, birches and pines. It was able to give shelter to squirrels that most likely buried thousands of acorns thus planting the next generation of oaks. It had much to give. No matter who we are we each have something to give.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 28, 2003
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

Changing the World Child by Child

There are times when I wish everyone could have seen and heard what I heard. Tonight was one of those nights. It was a class filled with teachers working on their Masters degrees. Our discussion about how to help middle school children dream big dreams led several of my students to share their personal dreams. If you are discouraged about world conditions, if you wonder about the quality of education our children are receiving, if you think you just cannot bear to hear any more bad news you should have been with me.

Your heart would have thrilled and your courage bolstered by these public school teachers sharing their stories. They were people who left lucrative careers to go back to school. One man has gone to night school for over nine years so he could become a teacher. Others were moms whose children are not small any more and so these moms are back in school to become teachers. Others are already teachers trying to be even better at their craft. All of them were people we would be proud to have stand before our children.

Sometimes we only hear about the bad things that happen in our schools and we miss out on the literally tens of thousands of decent, moral, hardworking, good people who sacrifice major amounts of money so they can change the future of the world child by child. I just wanted you to know for every lousy teacher that might be hiding in the system there are hundreds of great ones who love and care for our children every single day.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 29, 2003.
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

Enosh Begat Kenan

Do you remember the first time you decided you were going to read the Bible? You most likely started at Genesis chapter one. Soon you had breezed through the creation story and the introduction of sin and death. You read about Cain and Abel and wondered where Cain got his wife after he was forced to leave home. But then you hit the really hard stuff. You got to Genesis five and suddenly you got bogged down in the genealogies. “Enosh begat Kenan. After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters.” Only historians could stay awake with this material.

There are many genealogies in the Bible and scholars have learned they are far from complete. Only really important people got their name recorded. If it says Sam begat Bill it does not necessarily mean Bill was Sam’s son. It could be that Bill was Sam’s great grandson and his dad and granddad never distinguished themselves thus their names were left out.

It must be horrible in life to have your name left off a list because you were not important, because you did not make a difference. We all want our lives to count. We want to make a difference. And the truth is we all do make a difference. The world is not the same because we have been here. It is just that we might never know what it was we did. Was it a good difference or a bad difference? Romans 8:28 promises that God will make your difference a good one. You can be sure.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 27, 2003
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574