Looking for a Rejoicing Event

So far this has been an interesting week.  On Sunday afternoon while driving on a country road for several miles behind three cars, the lead car suddenly stopped to turn left.   The car behind him successfully swerved out into a beautiful patch of day lilies on the right.  With no place else to go the car in front of us swerved out to the left successfully avoiding the car that wanted to turn left.  Unfortunately at that point he lost control and smashed really hard, head on into the guard rail.  That was the end of that car.  As for us?  We had good brakes.

Today on my way back from the dentist (always a treat) I waited for a traffic light in the heart of our little city and watched some lady stealing flowers from the town triangle.  She was picking the best of the best and putting them in her basket.  Hopefully she was taking them to a shut-in.

If God kept a journal it must be filled with amazing things that He has seen.  Each day events just on Earth would fill pages with saga-like stories. Living is just plain interesting. (An oxymoron?)  I was tempted to quote Psalm 118:24.  “This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us be glad and rejoice in it.”  However, the events I witnessed didn’t really inspire rejoicing.

I almost saw a rejoicing event.  Today I saw an old lady in a wheelchair (not motorized) trying to get herself up a grade so she could get into Denny’s.  A man came out and walked toward her.  I was so glad thinking he would push her.  He walked on by.

Tomorrow I shall watch for a rejoicing event.  You watch too.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

By Our Fruits

Thursday evening my wife was standing in a line of faculty waiting to enter an auditorium for a summer graduation, when the lady behind her said with an air of superiority, “I got my doctorate at U.C. Berkeley. Where did you get yours?” “U.C. Berkeley,” said my wife. You could almost hear the hiss as the air went out of the woman’s balloon. So much for being special. You just have to love people.

Last week while at my infusion clinic I stopped to give a word of encouragement to a newly diagnosed leukemia patient.  As I told her I had been diagnosed 5 years ago and she could look forward to many more years of life, she had to tell me she was a doctor, academic not medical.  I merely smiled.  Was that really important for her to share?  I guess so or she wouldn’t have done so. How about I’m a mother or a grandmother?  Those are so much more important.  But maybe that was all she had.  If so I am very sorry because we are a dime a dozen.  All it really means is we have spent more time and more money in school than others.  It doesn’t make us smarter, just more focused on one thing.

Since I have never met a prince I wonder if they have to make sure we know?  Since I am prince of the King of the Universe, maybe I ought to begin making sure people know that when I’m introduced.  But that is so “In your face.”  Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”  If I have to tell you I’m a Christian I must not be much of a Christian.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 18, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Nose Art

There is so much truth in the axiom that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  This afternoon my wife destroyed some of the most beautiful art I have ever possessed.  She washed the inside of the windows of our car.  She destroyed fantastic nose art painted by my beautiful black lab.  Those windows were covered with wet nose prints unduplicated anywhere in the world.  It was like setting fire to a Rembrandt.  Alas.  They are gone. However, I still have the artist and we are going for a ride! Speaking of going for a ride, last week we stopped at a Dairy Queen and the artist got a baby cone.  Does anyone know if dogs get brain-freeze?

My wife thinks I’m crazy.  I wonder if Satan thinks God is crazy.  God actually thinks we, you and I, are beautiful.  How can that be?  I know a few people who are so very good looking I could almost understand the “made in His image” thing. But really now.  Most of us are pretty common looking.  It isn’t till we get to know a common looking person that they become beautiful.  It’s in the “eye of the beholder” thing.

Then there is the aging process.  The only reason I would ever choose to go to a high school class reunion is to comfort myself that everyone else also looks pretty bad.  Which brings me back to our Heavenly Father who loves us when we are babies, teens (wow – really), young parents and finally grands.  There is no other religion in the world with such a wonderful message.  God so loved the world.  God so loved you and me.  How grand.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 21, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

To Do Justice

We have been very blessed with a rich array of bird life around our home.  We have a pair of wrens nesting in a box by our patio.  Goldfinches and hummingbirds decorate the view outside our window.  However, yesterday morning a wood thrush and one of the wrens decided to wake up the world at 4:15 A.M.  This morning a cardinal made it a trio. I don’t want to sound like an old humbug but as lovely as they sound, 4:15 A.M. is not appropriate at all.  Solomon said it so well in Ecclesiastes 3.  “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: . .”  Not outside my open window at 4:15.

In Ecclesiastes 3 Solomon has challenged ethicists, moralists and the rest of the thinking world with  “There is a time to kill.”  “A time to love, and a time to hate.” “A time for war.”  Someone might ask but what about “Thou shall not kill.”  It does appear that God would, instead of having us act like robots, have us think and ponder justice.  Laws are but simplified expressions of principles. To live by principles often requires agonized hours of decision making.  How easy life would be (and how wrong life would be) if all we had to do is blindly follow statues in stone.

“To everything there is a season.”  “God hates lying lips.”  Yet, we lionize with honor those who saved the lives of thousands in Europe during World War II.  Those lives were saved by the use of many lies. When God made us in His image He gave us minds, minds to ponder, minds to, with His help, do that which is loving, fair and just.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 22, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

An Outrageous Story

While waiting for my wife to select the perfect potatoes from the mound of potatoes in the grocery store my eye caught a beautiful sliced in half watermelon. There it was lusciously red and juicily smiling at me from under its clear plastic wrap.  I was tempted until I saw the $7.99 price.  Obviously the grocer also thought it was tempting.  But really now sixteen dollars for a watermelon!

I tried once to tell one of my grad classes about being a boy and going to the Giant Supermarket where there were a hundred or so watermelons stacked inside the door.  There was a large knife on the pile and before you purchased one you could plug it and taste it.  If it didn’t suit your palate it was tossed aside.  They were ninety-eight cents apiece.  I could tell from their expressions they did not believe me.  How could anything so outrageous really have been?

The Gospel is like that.  It is an outrageous story.  The universe is filled with a billion galaxies.  Why would a Creator of such wonder come here to save us?  It sounds so provincial.  Surely it is the product of our ego-centricity.  We begin the story with our being made in the Creator’s image.  Really?  The story begins focused on our conceit and it gets far more worse when we get to the cross.  Just who in the universe do we think we are?  In Romans and Galatians Paul tries to tell us we are the adopted sons of that Creator, princes and princesses destined to, according to John, sit with Him in His very own throne.

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 23, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Life Is for Living

It is often said that the journey is the destination.  Probably like most catchy sayings it is sometimes true and sometimes not.   Taking a road trip with the family can indeed be the destination.   The journey coming home to loved ones after a long absence is not the destination.  The destination is the envelopment of loved ones in your arms.

Life is a journey.  However, some folks are so heavenly oriented they have lost sight of now and they only live for the future.  I can indeed understand that for people who have lost loved ones.  It is natural that they are living for resurrection morning and reunion.  However, there are those with no such motivation.  They live in a fantasy world; imagining all kinds of science fiction type experiences they think will occur in heaven.  They almost stop living now.

Life is for living.  Life is for growing and sharing and cultivating relationships.  The wider our social circle the richer we become. The more people we reach out to the wiser we become as we watch their reactions to our unselfishness. One of many reasons for going to church is to meet like-minded people and enjoy their friendship.  Forgive me for likening it to the old television program Cheers.  But we want to go (need to go) where everybody knows our name.  When we are absent we are missed.

While I certainly do not want to discourage people from looking forward to the second coming of Jesus, I do want to encourage us to look around at the now.  Reach out to others.  Last evening while walking my dog a teen passed me with his head buried in texting.  When I said hi he was so startled he almost dropped his phone.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 12, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

The Panic Button

What witchdoctor decided it was advantageous to stick one’s head into a small dark box and beat on it with sledgehammers?  I refer of course to an MRI or magnetic resonance imaging.  A few weeks ago this happened to me for thirty minutes. The top of the box was about an inch from my nose.  There was no music, just the sadistic voice of the operator who would occasionally stop the pounding to announce to me three more minutes.  After which he announced eight more minutes and then five, etc.  He gave me a panic button which he promised if I pressed it he would immediately extract me.   But my manhood was at stake.  How could I press the button and declare that I was a wimp?  For thirty minutes I kept my eyes closed and took journeys to the beaches of Mombasa, I climbed Mt. Shasta and spent an evening enjoying The Nutcracker in Atlanta, Ga.

What a marvelous mind we have. With enough determination and concentration we can bear almost anything.  In no way do I even begin to hint that having an MRI is anything like what Jesus endured.  But in that box I did think of Hebrews 12:2. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. . .”  There it is.  This was why Jesus did not press the panic button.  He could have. He said, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”  Matthew 26:52.  And what was that joy?  It was having you and me with Him for eternity.  Awesome!

Written by Roger Bothwell on May 25, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Our Guard Dog

Our black lab is a marvelous guard dog. Each morning she sits by the breakfast window calmly watching chipmunks and squirrels come and go.  There is no reason to be upset because she knows they are harmless.  But when the monster comes she reacts with all the fury a one hundred pound dog can muster.  Growling begins like lava from a volcano.  Hairs from the back of her neck to the tip of her tail stand erect. Lips curl and sterling white fangs appear.  She will at all cost defend those she loves from this formidable creature that dares hop from under the rhododendron unto the flat stone patio.  Her Leviathan has tall big ears and a fluffy white tail boding terrors and destruction unheard of.  That wiggling nose and those long whiskers can mean nothing other than yes you guessed it – a bunny.

There are many real horrors in the world.  But often we seem preoccupied with bunnies. We allow small fears to grow into Leviathans and we lose the quality of life.  Jesus promised to bring us the abundant life. He has promised to care for us and should bad things come our way He has promised to someday compensate us a million times over for our loss and pain.  Fear is a healthy reaction.  It warns us of impending harm.  People who have no fear of anything are foolish.  But like most things in life fear should be balanced by reason and knowledge of the past.  Sometimes I hear people speaking of current events as if they were the worst things that have ever happened.  They must have slept through history class.  A good life is one that is aware of the difference between lions and bunnies.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 11 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Perspective

I have this friend who doesn’t like to ride with me.  He thinks I drive too fast and it scares him.  (That’s not a nice feeling.  We rode with a man in Russia one afternoon who terrified me as he passed buses and cars while climbing hills.)  So we now ride with my friend.  This is interesting.  I watch very carefully to see how fast he drives and it is exactly the same as I.  Yet I think he drives too fast and he scares me.  One afternoon it dawned on me what was going on.  Perspective.  When one is on the passenger side the trees, bushes and mailboxes are much closer than when you are driving.  When we are on the passenger side things whiz by filling our peripheral vision with a greater sense of speed than when we are sitting in the driver’s seat.

I should have figured this out sooner.  Perspective is important in almost every aspect of our lives.  Have you ever seen a mother interviewed on the Today Show who says, “Yes, my son is a monster serial killer and should be executed.”  Rather it is usually, “He is such a kind sweet boy and would never do such a thing.  And I believe him when he tells me he didn’t do it.”  Perspective.  Our side is the good side.  Those guys are the bad guys.  We have the truth.  God loves US. How can those other people believe such craziness?  Don’t they read the Bible?

I am so happy we have a God who is able to understand where we came from and what experiences we have had.  There isn’t a perspective he can’t understand because He is the God of all.  How grand!

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 10, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org

 

The Fly

It was the end of a full day.  The dog was tucked in for the night.  My wife was done reading. The window was open and the only sounds of the night were a few romantic tree frogs. The room was dark except for the red lit time projected on the bedroom ceiling. Closing my eyes I slowly allowed my head to sink into my pillow.  This was good.  And then I heard him.  I’m not sure where he had been hiding or why he had to appear now.  He came down the hall and into the room with his buzzing whirling wings that built a crescendo like an approaching B-52.  This was so wrong as he swished in over the bed.  And then all was silent as I felt him land in my hair.  Few they may be but somehow he used them as a landing strip. Horrible beast. Were there flies in Eden or were they a mutated form of something much nicer?  As I swung at him all I managed to do was slap myself on the head.  That was really stupid.  I’m not sure what happened next because the next thing I knew it was morning.

In John 3 Jesus compared the appoachment of the Holy Spirit like the wind in a tree.  But sometimes He comes like a fly in the night.  He pesters.  He annoys.  He keeps us from sleeping.  He avoids our slaps and continues to woo us with promises of freedom from guilt and the luxury of eternal life with eternal health.  If we manage to fall asleep He will be back tomorrow night.  God is that way.  We are way too precious to ignore.  So if you want a good night’s sleep just surrender

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 9, 2012

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

Rogerbothwell.org