Life's Small Blessings...

Last week while riding my bike to work I was struck with a small but very real blessing of the Lord. As I usually do when getting the bike ready for a ride, I was loading up my “trunk” with my change of work clothes and whatever and noticed that my little hyper-blinking light that I have on the rear of the bike for low light conditions was missing its lens. The light was operable, but exposed. I looked around the bike and couldn’t find it. “Dang,” I thought to myself as I mounted up and set out for the church office, “now I need to replace that thing.” As I rode, my mind was wondering whether I could make something to fix the problem, use a plastic bag, red tape, who knows. For whatever reason, it just bummed me; I found myself rather disappointed.

But just then, I kid you not, when cutting between two rocks near the Centennial Trail, what do I look down and see? There they are: the lens and reflector, sitting there on one of the rocks, clear as day. Someone must have seen them on the ground (I fell there the prior week...it’s a funny) and put them in view, presumably hoping they’d be found by their owner.

The skeptic might say that this was all coincidence and that someone just did the right thing trying to help out, but I think it was so much more than that—I think it was God. And further than that, I think God is doing these kinds of things all the time, we just don’t care to acknowledge it. We seem to prefer the hollow language of “coincidence” or “by chance.”

When you get faced with an opportunity, do the right thing. You never know when God will turn it into one of his small blessings for someone...

Lookin’ Up, Pastarod

My Wife is Amazing...

This Monday through Wednesday my wife is on retreat and I'm so glad she went! Well, sort of...I know it's really great for her and I've been encouraging her to get away to center on the Lord with no distractions. I know in my world this is so critical...it's all part of the "sustainable pace" we're trying to set for life.

But running the whole show at home reminds me how my wife is so amazing...

You see, I promised her I'd "be her" at home for the kids these three days...I'd make sure they stayed on-task, cook, clean, solve the fights, tuck the little ones and fight the older ones to bed and particularly, run them all around to all their various gigs. Now I've followed her carefully-written "matrix" of scheduled activities, and I'm happy to say that it's all going well. And in-between all of this, I've been able to actually get quite a bit done for work.

But wow, does she make alot happen! I'm so thankful for her capabilities, demonstrated in selfless service to me and the girls. Where would we be without her?

Mothers of the world, I salute you!

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

Choosing to Remember...

I've been thinking alot lately about forgetting and remembering things. You see, in the wake of my dad's passing, I've often thought: I don't want to forget him. Though he wasn't perfect, he was a good example to me of so many things that are valuable in life...I don't want to forget!

Back in the Old Testament of the Bible, the Hebrew people used to have a practice to ensure they didn't forget things. If some great event happened, especially a God-thing, it was their habit to make a pile of rocks. They were called "standing stones." And then, whenever they would see these standing stones, they would remember what God had done for them.

In our contemporary American culture, it seems we have a forgetfulness problem. If something significant happens to us, we think it's really great. We tell everyone else and even ourselves that we hope we'll never forget it. But then life moves on, the pressures of getting by set in, and the event whimsically comes and goes in our memories. Before we know it, we've forgotten the great thing we experienced.

The problem? I think it's because we don't choose to remember. Sure, life can be complicated, but we don't choose to put things into action in our lives that will enable us to remember God or the event or whatever over time. In short, we don't put up standing stones.

Last Saturday I drove alone on a sunny morning out to a large local tree nursery to get my version of a standing stone to remember my father's life: a Cherokee Brave Pink Dogwood Tree. I've always liked these dogwoods, and admired them as I've driven around town. Now this tree doesn't have any inherent connection to my dad, but I've chosen to attach the meaning of his memory to it. Now, when it blooms it's deep creamy pink in the Spring, I'll view it with joy and consider my dad.

Something about all this feels really good to me. I think it's that I choose to remember him...

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

I'm Being Overrun...

When I was growing up backpacking in the Colorado mountains, I used to get really excited if we saw a Marmot. They were a sure sign that you were in the high backcountry, for they were never to be seen anywhere else.

Until recently...

Over the last few years these varmints have been overrunning our house. Last year their little babies figured out how to get through our garden fence and helped themselves regularly to my lettuce, broccoli and cabbage. Now that's a problem.

They used to be cute...not anymore...

It seems most anytime I look outside one of these Yellow-Bellied Marmots or Groundhogs or Woodchucks or whatever other heinous name you'd like to call them is grazing in my fields, rummaging around underneath the deck, crawling up on the grill, munching away at our flower pots or rooting around the engine compartments of our cars. Ughhh!

And go figure...it's very illegal to trap them and move them.

Oh well...any day, any time, there will be a lot less of these hideous critters in the population count...

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

In the wake of dad's passing...

Hello Friends, it's been awhile since I've posted, but here I am again. A lot has happened since I last had something to say...my father was moved to hospice, he declined rapidly, and then went to be with the Lord:

Friday, April 11, 4:35 pm. And just like that, he was gone.

How does a life so vibrant get reduced to nothing? How is it that God should partner with mankind and bring us into being at our first nano-moment of life and then at some point later we are no more in this body? This has to be one of the wildest mysteries of life...profound...even despairing...

...if it weren't for the good providence of God.

I watched a provocative movie last night, "Tuck Everlasting." It essentially questioned the desirability of living forever in this body, in this life. It posited a family who had unknowingly drunk from a spring that mystically made them impervious to injury, to age, to dying. Though this family had many bright points to their long lives together, they were unable to live among others, to be known as the real people they were, because of the threat of being discovered as unable to age, unable to die. It was presented in the film as a burden to them.

It really is an interesting question: if we could live forever in this body, would we choose to do so? If there really was a "fountain of youth," would we choose to drink from it?

Of course we all do live forever...it's either with or without God, and with whatever consequences this means.

I don't know if I'd want to drink from a magical spring that froze my body forever in its current state, but I am thankful that God has provided me the security of life for today followed by life for tomorrow.

I miss you, dad, and I look forward to seeing you in That Place again someday, together with our Lord...

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

This guy is waking me up...

I don't know what his deal is, but there is a male Red-Shafted Flicker that lands on my roof in the mornings, sqwawks a few times and then does his machine-gun thing on one of the metal pieces of my roof. It's SO LOUD and when it comes at 5 am it's a bit undesired! Jenna and I went out on the front lawn yesterday to look at him when he showed up at the more convenient time of 7:30am. I decided he's not actually trying to smash through the metal.

I think it's all about getting a chick. "Males will do the strangest things when it's all about females." That's just the way it is...

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

Living without regrets...

While preparing for a new message series to start this Sunday, I came across the following sage words from Ecclesiastes 5: 18-20...

"Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat well, drink a good glass of wine, and enjoy their work - whatever they do under the sun - for however long God lets them live. And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life - that is indeed a gift from God. People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy."

It's a funny thing, this life...sometimes it's a joy, sometimes it's a challenge. I'll say that I want my life to be lived simply and for that which matters: walking with God, loving my wife and girls, serving people. In this, though filled with some sorrow, I'm finding there really are no regrets and much reason for joy. Isn't this God's pathway to living without regrets?

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

My church is so cool...

We had our Easter service today, just as most churches. We organized it around a creative theme from Job: When you die, Will you live? I know this isn't the normal theme for an Easter Sunday, but it was one of those things the Lord laid on my heart and it was really cool to watch the many creative people pull together an outstanding worship gathering. Many came, and we were able to creatively present Christ to them.

One of the things I think is so cool is when people, gripped in devotion to Jesus Christ, give themselves to God in any way required. When people give their talents to the Lord for his use, God does so many cool things!

I'm thankful to be a part of such a great church. Thanks, Garland, for being the gracious, loving, and talented people that you are. Keep giving yourself to God's greater glory and He will continue to accomplish great things through us!

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

Bluebirds, Goldfinches, Nuthatches & Crossbills...

I'm staying at home for work today...too many interruptions at the office make it hard to get things done sometimes and it's a particularly busy week with Easter coming.

Plus, the Bluebirds are sitting on their nestbox in the back field, right out the bedroom window where I set up my home study.
This is certainly one of the things I like best about spring - when the Western Bluebirds come back. And I'm one of the fortunate ones who is able to have these bright bursts of azure living on our property.

But that's not all! Out the back window I see not only the usual Starlings, House Finches and Robins, but also American Goldfinches at the upside-down feeder, Juncos picking at what's been dropped, a Pygmy Nuthatch at one of the other nestboxes and one of my other favorites, the Red Crossbill. I haven't seen a Crossbill all winter.

The great things about birds is they are there just for the looking...all one needs to do is open their eyes!

Thank you, Lord, for these gifts of song and color!

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

Through glass doors...

I got back in town Saturday night with an empty heart...

Through tears I had just said goodbye to my ailing father as he weakly leaned to the side of his bed at his care center in Colorado. He was propped up by pillows. He's almost empty. He's a tired, old man who is but a shadow of what he once was. Throughout the time of my visit I shaved his face and clipped his fingernails. I wiped his face to clean the sleep from his eyes and the crusty food clinging to the edge of his lips. Out loud I remembered with him the many woodworking tools and their uses as I told him about cleaning his garage at home earlier that morning. I read him daily selections from the Psalms and Proverbs. His hair is long...I would have loved to give him a haircut but he was never upright when I visited. Sad, Happy. Sorrow, Joy. He said "yes" on Friday when I asked him if it felt good for me to scratch his head. Parkinson's stinks. As I stepped out of the glass doors at his care center I wondered...is this the last time I ever see my father?

Later, with a hug for my crying mother at the drop-off and brief words of encouragement, I stepped through the glass doors at the Colorado Springs airport and...

...finally...

...stepped through the glass doors at the Spokane airport and received hugs and words of encouragement from my beautiful girls and wife. They are so wonderful, so boundlessly filled with life. Thank, you Lord...

Sunday morning I stepped through the glass doors at the church building and received from my Garland community many words of love and encouragement. So many told me that they had been praying for me...others took special time to lift me up and tell me how much they appreciated me. Another one lost her mother this last week and gifted me with her story. The music from the visiting worship band was wonderful, Terry preached a message on hope and reminded me that "when God's grief overlaps the people's grief, God acts."

Why am I discouraged?

Why so sad?

I will put my hope in God!

I will praise him again--

my Savior and my God!

Psalm 42:5

After more good conversations with dear ones from Garland, I stepped through the glass doors at the church building and thought before the Lord...

Thank you, God for this treasure of life.

Thank you that I am not alone.

You know our journey...our ups, our downs.

You take away and you give.

You are the One who makes it fit together.

Because of You, where there is death, there is life.

Bittersweet.

I'll keep walking through the glass doors...

Lookin' Up,

Pastarod