40 Days (and Sundays)

Today is Ash Wednesday, 2011, March 9. It's really late for Lent to start and the next 40 days (and Sundays) can be a great spiritual experience, or not. Many people on Facebook and other sharing places have been discussing, stating and pondering just what Lent is to them. What they should or will give up, or what they may add to their busy schedules in order to have a time of closer contact with God.

Me, I'm thinking of giving up church for Lent.

I want to give up the idea my time spent in church "worshiping" as merely an exercise in participating in a primitive form of social networking. Old fashioned fellowship can be just "Facebook Live!" "Here I am!" "How are you?" yadda yadda..... Prayer "concerns" can be "holy gossip."
I want to give up the idea that my tithe to the church is just a form of "dues" paying like I'm in the Lions Club, Masons or Kiwanis or a church tax, to pay the higher ups (including the local pastor) or so we can meet our obligations to fix the furnace, the windows, mow the grass, keep the lights on. Somehow those don't seem like ministry to me at times.
I want to give up on making the appearance in church. Is it true that attendance is mandatory and will make a huge difference on how big our mansion in heaven will be. (I may not get virgins when I die, but I will get a house bigger than anything Hugh Hefner has!)
I want to give up on appearances in church too. Comparing what I wear to a.) what everyone else is wearing, and b.) what I wear to the standards of those who believe God wears a bed sheet, but American Christians should dress up.
I want to give up on the church having the cure to what ever ails the world. I don't know WHAT will make people not want to emulate Charlie Sheen*, I only know WHO, and I can't write a prescription for Jesus, but I can live like He leads me to and then maybe they will catch what I have. Am I doing that if I'm not at church?
I want to give up on the church trying to make all Christians the same. I don't believe the world needs or wants more than one of me, so I want Christ in me to show through so others will want to be like Him, NOT ME!
I want to give up on the church judging people. If we are the church, then this one is definitely in our court, but I know I can't do it alone so I'll let God work on that one for the next 40 days (plus Sundays). You might want to work on that one too (not to be judgmental or anything.)
I want to give up on the church theme of "pie in the sky by and by", and have Christ live in me now. This may include singing no songs in the next 40 days (plus Sundays) that include thoughts, lines, insinuation, or promises of what is to come. I think one of the problems of the church is it is a place of escapism. We need to live in the now not the later when we all get to.....you know where.
I want to give up that the church is all of the following: the answer, my home, my people, the only way to eternal life, a place of peace, a place of ideas, a place of enlightenment, a place of hope, a place of growth or a place, the only place for some, or the RIGHT place. No place can be all these things, but I hope it can become what it needs to be not what I expect it to be. 
I want to give up being a cynical Christian.
I guess I have 40days (plus Sundays) to let God work on that.
Peace my Friends.......btw *required Charlie Sheen reference for relevance sake.
Have a Ash Wednesday.

Snow Days.

Windrock Log: 9 February 2011, Wednesday.
Another snow day.
Need more be said.
The yard and the field are beautiful with a fresh layer (4 inches) of new whiteness.
   Does getting older take the thrill out of challenging the elements to get to work to do important tasks, like selling another box of macaroni and cheese? I think so.
   My "like" meter for snow doesn't go very high anymore. I did enjoy watching the blizzard, but as I told my local grocer, I'm glad I don't have to get out to get to work. I just walk down the hall and connect to the world.
    I am fortunate to be able to work at home during lousy weather like this.While I do sometimes refer to the way things used to be as the "good old days", I enjoy all the technology and the new ways to connect. I like email, I like facebook and I like my smart phone. Could I live without them, yes, when I'm retired that will be fine. I don't think I'll need to be so connected when I've got my hands in the dirt.
Today I have been as productive as I could be if the weather was fine. I've "talked" to people in Nashville, Memphis, Kansas City and was on a conference call with folks from all over Kentucky, Tennessee, and even Indiana.
So another snow day, just another day in paradise.
Peace my friends.

New Year, New.......

Clean slate, blank sheet of paper, fresh start, unplowed ground. Any one of these phrases may have crossed your lips in the last week. We maybe looking forward to 2011 as a chance to put behind anything, or all things that have not been easy, have been messy, have been stressful or just have been unnecessary. But the truth is that after 55 years of living this life, I have found who I am right now is not as easy to move away from as the act of shredding the old me and starting with a clean sheet of paper.
 Like all stories, you can't proceed ahead with a story without having the back story, the prequel, if you will. No matter what my current story, or my future story, the prequel will be the same, the prequel is what happened 20 years ago, 20 days ago and 20 minutes ago. When I think of this, I realize that every moment is that clean slate, or fresh start, only when I look back at the prequel will I, and probably a few other people in my life, realize the times when I really did make a fresh start.
Here are a few dates in the prequel the story took a turn that made the story I know today. Christmas Eve 1975, April 16,1976, October 23, 1976, July 1977, March 3, 1979, September 1981, September 1987, Thanksgiving 1987, and January 4, 1988. These are just a few (and the most significant,) moments in time,, that are all markers, signposts with arrows, forks in the road etc, that brought to me a fresh start, a blank slate. Each one of these "starts" in it's own way, has made me who I am today.
 Speaking of today, it's Monday, January 3, 2011, first day back at work after being off for over a week. It's also the day before the anniversary of beginning the work I do now.
 January 4, 1988 I started working for Kraft. Now with 23 years behind me, I guess it can be said to be a career. Even with that said, today is a new day, and a new week and a new story.
 I hope this year to heed the words of Christ from Matthew 6:34, this is from the Message version:
 "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."
Blessings to you, hoping your new year is full of blank paper to be filled with a great story and your unplowed ground sprouts beautiful flowers and abundant crops!
Happy 2011!
Peace my friends.

Happy New Year!

The minimum to wish you all!
May 2011 be all you wish for, all you can do and all you can be for yourself and others.
Peace my friends.

Episode I: The Miracle of Christmas.

     It's the Christmas season, but hurry, it ends soon. All the bargains, all the treats, all the opportunities to watch your favorite holiday shows or travel to see your favorite light display, they soon will be gone. Hurry, the time is short.
     In Branson Missouri there are theaters of every kind. One in particular does spectacular productions of a few Bible stories, and it being the season, their current production is "The Miracle of Christmas". Last year we took in this show, and it is a very traditional telling of the story of Christ birth, done in a spectacular musical style. It was enjoyable. This show starts early in the fall and is advertised everywhere.
       The other day I heard a radio commercial for the show and the ending line was something like, "..get your tickets soon, The Miracle of Christmas ends December 31!". And it stuck me, how this advertisement may speak more truth than many Christians want to admit. Does the Miracle end as soon as Christmas is "over"?
      I know that my own mailbox has been flooded with charitable pleas, but as soon as the last store closes on Christmas Eve, the red buckets will disappear and with them will go part of the miracle of human compassion.   
      I also know that due to the generosity of others some people will have their best meal of the year, and then it'll be back to mac & cheese and beans for the New Year. The Miracle of Christmas will end. Our fascination with lighted houses will turn into, "Hey, it's over! Move on" Already, people are saying the season can't get over too soon. Next season, please. In the retail world I live in that will be the diet season.
      But back to the Miracle of Christmas, the miracle does not have an expiration date, and continues, but only if we allow the Miracle to live in us. Christ in us is the miracle, and Christ doesn't have a limit of a 30 day deal for feeding the poor or helping those who are without work or who are grieving. It's not just a December offer, its an all the time, everytime, anytime offer.
      I guess I wrote this to remind myself and perhaps you also,that as we take down the tree, eat the last of the leftovers and wonder if anyone will know about the returned or re-gifted gift, that this is not the end.
      The Miracle of Christmas does NOT end at 12 midnight December 25, it's only the beginning. In the Church year, this is the new year, Episode I, if you will of the Miracle.
Peace my Friends. 

Rocky Mountain High

Back in 1972, I purchased the album "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver. I still have that LP, it's a little scratched and fuzzy sounding, well actually, I have 2 copies, and one is still pretty good. I thought the title song was the coolest song ever, and still do. There's something in the words, to me, that talk about getting a clear vision of life, of your life, and following that dream.
We have vacationed and camped in Colorado over the years. We would often leave in the middle of the night with the boys asleep in the back, as we tried to get across half of Kansas before daylight. Usually our goal was to be at the edge of Colorado, in Garden City Kansas or maybe Burlington Colorado,  in time to camp at the end of the first day.
Then, early the next morning, we would enter "Colorful Colorado" and begin the ascent to the mountains. We always commented on the city limit signs which changed from displaying population numbers to declaring the elevation of said town. After everyone was awake and the first round of snacks had been passed around, we began to anticipate the first hint on the horizon of the far blue horizon that would be the Rockies. Over the years it became a tradition and later an annoyance to teenagers, that with the first sighting of the mountains, I would play on the tape deck or just spontaneously begin to sing "Rocky Mountain High". It was always an inspirational moment. Seriously, it was. There is something in that far off horizon of snowy peaks that has beauty, mystery and the promise of adventure.
Camping and hiking and driving to see the sights. Garden of the Gods, peering over the edge of the Royal Gorge, or the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, or climbing the tallest dune at the Great Sand Dunes National Monument (getting the Great Sand Dune Sunburn), were all fine vacation things to do.
The Rockies are, for us, a place to run away to. A place that is both, in physical placement and spirit, far from the everyday life we live.
Three weeks ago Regina and I headed to Colorado for the end of summer vacation. 7 days in the mountains to get away from it all. We had a great time, staying in an unheated cabin in Grand Lake CO, on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park.We saw historic sites, ghost towns, rushing rivers and of course snow and road construction.
We came back relaxed and ready to get back to real life. Real life? As we drove home on Thursday, with the blue horizon of mountains in the rearview mirror, I wondered about real life. Some of the pictures we took could be post cards, and we wondered if this were where you lived, if this were YOUR real life, would it be just a boring or ho hum as living in the Ozarks can be to us?
Real life? The question is just that. What is it? When we got back, real life kicked in, Regina has 2 jobs and mine had just grown in responsibility by more than double. Real life was here, waiting. But you know, I have tried to keep that Rocky Mountain High in my hip pocket to pull out and remember and use to refresh. Mini trips with John Denver singing in the background while I eat a burger in my car, or starting the day looking at pictures we took while there, remind me that, even though it was only a few days, it was for those days, my real life. I believe dreams and memories are the same in our lives. One is the life we have lived, the other the life we will live, if we only catch the vision.
As I have thought about our mountain vacations I was reminded of how many times in the Bible references to the mountains occur. I guess a mountain high has always had it's spiritual aspects. Moses, Abraham, Elijah, and Jesus all had mountain top experiences. Think about yours!
Peace my friends.

A vacation day in Kansas.

A week in Colorado, the perfect escape from a hot dry summer here in the Ozarks. It had been several years since we had visited our other favorite state. We made plans and the last week of August we headed west,a full 7 days of being gone.
We always allow one day to get across Kansas, and it seems no matter which route we take it takes about the same amount of time:hours and hours.
I had been reading (again) William Least Heat Moon's book PrairyErth a 624 page ramble around Chase County and the Flint Hills of Kansas. The Flint Hills I know of, because they are often mentioned in conversations with my good friend, Kansas native, Steve. Anyway, Moon talks of the land, the people and the history of not just Chase county, but all of Kansas. This has helped me to look at Kansas, the not so flat land in a different way, and on this trip I was determined to enjoy the ride and look at it from a pioneer perspective and perhaps with an eye as to what could be loved about Kansas (other than purple Wildcats and mutant blue and red birds). Let me also mention that my family lived in southeast Kansas for 2 years and that we did come to know some of the ways of the the people there. People of the prairie, people of the open sky, people of the stinky wind. But, while there we were generally only looking forward to the day we could get back to the Ozarks (trees, blue water, clean breezes).
I am not a Kansas hater, but like many (most perhaps) appreciation for Kansas is stronger among the natives. But attitudes can change, and I think mine has.
The trip began with us driving, roads that first half of the day,very familiar to me.During the 2 years of life in Kansas, I had a sales route which extended from the Coffeyville Dalton Museum to the Yellow Brick Road of Iola to the twin cites of Fredonia and Neodesha and the Safari museum in Chanute. In our heading west on Hwy 400. Although the road was much improved, the condition of the towns it had bypassed,and many family farms and homes along this "new" road were showing signs of abandonment and deterioration.
The day we left was what is known as "bluebird day" in the Ozarks. Clear blue skies, sun shine, a breeze and, once we not far into Kansas, green fields of corn, hay and fat slick cattle gave the day a pastoral look that made me smile.
We drove all day, and were able to maintain a good pace, even quickly riding the tide of traffic through Wichita. It was amazing how quickly the metro of this conglomerate of towns on the the plains, turned back to farmland. As we continued north I noted how few billboards advertised upcoming places or places of interest, because there weren't any. And in my new perspective, I saw this as one of the beauties of Kansas, the shear nothingness, not of the land, but of the things people bring with them. The sprawl of Wichita is limited by the number of people who really want or need to live there. The billboards limited by what is ahead (only 2 ADULT places between Wichita and Colorado on I-70).
Most people, and I have been one, complain about this nothingness, but on this trip I took notice of several features. One was the sky, there was lots of it, and nearly everywhere you looked from I-70, the land touched the sky. This is not the same as touching the treeline, or the mountain tops, or the city skyline, the sky touches the earth, and it is impressive. And speaking of the earth, I tried to look at the land in a more narrow focus to see what was really there. It's kinda like the difference of using your camera in profile mode, or landscape mode. On this trip across the grass sea, I saw more detail. There were gullies where entire cars had been used to stop erosion, only their 1930's headlights now showing. Lines of cedar trees marching along a fence line where they had been planted by roosting birds. Broken windmills on abandoned wells tilted against the wind and abandoned feed lots, home now to one lone horse and tall weeds clinging to the falling down lot fence.
I found my self looking close and looking far and trying to imagine what it was like when it was truly tall grass prairie for as far as the eye could see. A perspective that also included the promise of mountains somewhere in the distance. Then there was the wind, not so stinky here north of the many feed lots, but as always, blowing. Over the years as we have traveled across Kansas, I have watched for the windmills. Windmills and sunflowers are icons of Kansas. As we came through the rolling hills west of Salina, there was something in the distance that I just couldn't place, something big, but not clicking in my brain. We continued our barreling down the interstate, suddenly my brain finally put together what the eyes were telling it, windmills of course, no, take that back, wind turbines, huge white three bladed towers standing on the north side of the interstate, for as far as we could see. On the way back home I measured and this army of the the green future, stood alongside the highway for more that 15 miles. It was amazing. Later we saw one of the blades on a truck on I-70, it was the length of the trailer.
This whole thing reminded me that Kansas is often thought of as empty, useless, boring, etc. But just as it does with wheat, corn, and cattle, Kansas supplies the nation and the world with the common everyday things, that so many people have no idea where they come from. So now, it seems, power will be added to that list. The wind always blows in Kansas an unending resource.
So on this vacation I found that Kansas is more that meets the eye, or the imagination. Even though I am still not a person who would chose to live there, I do understand that those who do a little more perhaps. They are there because,like their pioneer ancestors,they see a potential in Kansas that most would fly by or prefer to sleep past. To all my Kansas friends, thanks for the slice of bread this morning and the quarter pounder for lunch, without these would this wouldn't be America?
Peace my friends.