Ready For Wonder?

The Choice

From our infancy we each learn about opposites:

self-indulgence/self-control

roughness/gentleness

inconstancy/faithfulness

greed/goodness

neglectfulness/kindness

intolerance/patience

disharmony/peace

sadness/joy

hate/love

We find that no matter how hard we try to "live right",

we can't escape the "dark side".

For me Christianity offers the way of escape for every individual who will choose it through the Justice/Mercy provided by our Source of Life through the substitutionary death of Jesus the Christ.

The Christian Creation Account

Through the centuries many accounts of creation have survived and some still believed today. Tepeu and Gucumatz, Vishnu and Brahma, Primordial Singularity and Cosmic Egg, Allah, String Theory and the Theory of Everything, etc.

Recently a friend asked, "Why do you prefer the Christian creation account?"

I believe in a Creator God, a sovereign self-existent being of infinite love, a God who did not design me to be a robot but gave me a free will. I may choose to deny Him and even hate Him. I may choose to thank Him and even worship Him. He does not interfere with or coerce my choice but in fact has provided through Jesus the Christ the assurance that our individual choice will be preserved for eternity. So whether Creator God thought, breathed, spoke, or plucked strings, the whole Cosmic Egg is in His Hands.

Worldwide Drought...

"Despite the rosy picture of an economy improving, the fact is that "famine and pestilence" so familiar in the writings of the classical prophets are again impending. "Pestilence" or disease, is the result of famine, of a lack of nutrition. It is going to take the form of pandemics, as Revelation 16 says, and the rapidly-developing world-state will act just as it is now, trying to play "savior" to the populace, assuring all that God's judgments can be safely withstood. Such an attitude will invite further, more severe judgments."    John McCall, spiritual advisor

See this article entitled, Food Collapse of 2009, by Eric deCarbonnel for a description of current conditions and data regarding worldwide food production.


LESSON:  Definitely time is now to chose LIFE with the Life Giver, eternal life in Him.

The Innocent for the Guilty

Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation describe in symbol the throne room of The Creator. Today we commemorate this portion of the scene.

Then I looked and I heard, around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, "To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!"

Peace and Love.

The Shack

Last Christmas my sister sent a 2007 novel by William P. Young entitled, The Shack. Fabulous book. Here are a few statements that God makes in his conversations with the main character Mack.

"Creation has been taken down a very different path than we desired. In your world the value of the individual is constantly weighed against the survival of the system, whether political, economic, social, or religious--any system actually. First one person, and then a few, and finally even many are easily sacrificed for the good and ongoing existence of the system. In one form or another this lies behind every struggle for power, every prejudice, every war, and every abuse of relationship. The 'will to power and independence' has become so ubiquitous that it is now considered normal."

"You humans, so little in your our eyes. You are truly blind to your own place in the Creation. Having chosen the ravaged path of independence, you don't even comprehend that you are dragging the entire Creation along with you." "So very sad, but it won't be this way forever."

"Nobody knows what horrors I have saved the world from 'cuz people can't see what never happened. All evil flows from independence, and independence is your choice. If I were to simply revoke all the choices of independence, the world as you know it would cease to exist and love would have no meaning. This world is not a playground where I keep all my children free from evil. Evil is the chaos of this age that you brought to me, but it will not have the final say. Now it touches everyone that I love, those who follow me and those who don't. If I take away the consequences of people's choices, I destroy the possibility of love. Love that is forced is no love at all."

"My purposes are always and only an expression of love. I purpose to work life out of death, to bring freedom out of brokenness and turn darkness into light. What you see is chaos, I see as a fractal. All things must unfold, even though it puts all those I love in the midst of a world of horrible tragedies--even the one closest to me." "Everything's about him, you know. One day you folk will understand what he gave up. There are just no words."

"You see broken humans center their lives around things that seem good to them, but that will neither fill them nor free them. They are addicted to power, or the illusion of security that power offers. When a disaster happens, those same people will turn against the false powers they trusted. In their disappointment, they either become softened toward me or they become bolder in their independence. If you could only see how all of this ends and what we will achieve without the violation of one human will--then you would understand. One day you will."

Global Economy

"We are living in interesting times. I presume that you have noticed that no progress was made by infusion of enormous amounts of cash into our banking system, and that only as the industrialized nations met and coordinated their efforts was any progress made. That, however, was minimal, and now the president has set an international meeting for November 15, after the election, for the great nations to meet and set an agenda for rules for the global economy, formalizing and authorizing what was a de facto reality in any case, that globalism had already progressed to the point where there is no such thing as a sovereign economy of a single nation, but rather a global economy to which each nation belongs. Thus, step by step, we progress into the world-state." John McCall, spiritual advisor

The Automatic Earth says, "On the international front, there are many miles of dams and dikes about to burst. Denmark joins the list of trouble with a desperate rate hike; Romania does the same. ING Groep loses another 20%, even though it got $14 billion last week. Sterling and the Euro keep plunging (which makes Europeans happy). The Yen is heading for the skies beyond infinity, which takes enormous additional amounts of credit out of the markets, a much bigger issue than you might think. The IMF announces a plan to help developing nations, but even if we were to assume that they have noble intentions -which we don't-, it is too little too late. The Fund is now talking to perhaps a dozen countries at the same time, and it can't seem to conclude any deals. It doesn't want to, it won't, and it can't. There'll be token amounts handed out, but only to countries that agree to give up what can basically be labeled their sovereignty."

"Our societies, all of them, need to spread their remaining wealth, because if they don't, they will fall apart. The poverty this crisis will unload upon our lands will make that inevitable. You either share, or you face street fighting men. Over 90% of the 'money' that makes the world go round is make believe, and it's being renditioned and disappeared at lightning speed, to never be heard from again. In a sense, that's a very healthy development. Yet, the way we are approaching it to date will not end well for many of us. Forget the Wall Street "bloodbath". Unless we change our ways real soon, we are talking real physical bloodbaths."

In a New York Times Op-Ed article on October 21, 2008, A Matter of Life and Debt by Margaret Atwood she states, "As for what will happen to us next, I have no safe answers. If fair regulations are established and credibility is restored, people will stop walking around in a daze, roll up their sleeves and start picking up the pieces. Things unconnected with money will be valued more -- friends, family, a walk in the woods. "I" will be spoken less, "we" will return, as people recognize that there is such a thing as the common good. On the other hand, if fair regulations are not established and rebuilding seems impossible, we could have social unrest on a scale we haven't seen for years. Is there any bright side to this? Perhaps we'll have some breathing room -- a chance to reevaluate our goals and to take stock of our relationship to the living planet from which we derive all our nourishment, and without which debt finally won't matter."

Now how does one interpret all this information? For me, this description of Jesus feeding five thousand hungry followers from two fish and five loaves of bread, best illustrates my view as a Christian Creationist.

"In feeding the five thousand, Jesus lifts the veil from the world of nature, and reveals the power that is constantly exercised for our good. In the production of earth's harvests God is working a miracle every day. Through natural agencies the same work is accomplished that was wrought in the feeding of the multitude. Men prepare the soil and sow the seed, but it is the life from God that causes the seed to germinate. It is God's rain and air and sunshine that cause it to put forth, 'first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.' (Mark 4:28) It is God who is every day feeding millions from earth's harvest fields. Men are called upon to co-operate with God in the care of the grain and the preparation of the loaf because of this they lose sight of the divine agency. Man is glorified in place of God, and His gracious gifts are perverted to selfish uses, and made a curse instead of a blessing. God is seeking to change all this. He desires that our dull senses shall be quickened to discern His merciful kindness and to glorify Him for the working of His power and the blessing of His gifts.

After the multitude had been fed, there was an abundance of food left. But He who had all the resources of infinite power at His command said, 'Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.' Nothing was to be wasted. We should neglect nothing that will tend to benefit a human being. Let everything be gathered up that will relieve the necessity of earth's hungry ones." The Desire of Ages, E.G.White, pp. 367-68, 1898.

LESSON: It is time for us to gather up the leftovers that God has provided and share them.

Minnesota in summer

The Northern Lakes Raceway (Hwy 35) is the fastest way out of the Twin Cities to peace and quiet. After a side trip over to Spooner, WI, to visit Dad's grave site, we drove to Duluth. As we cruised the highway through Duluth, a deer ran out in front of our truck and bounded across the interstate. From there it was north to Birch Lake...

Birch Lake borders the portion of Minnesota called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The BWCA is said to bring peace to your heart, renewal to your spirit and quietness to your mind. For me it is coming home...back to where I belong.

This is the view from the dock that I looked out on for the past week. If this photo was larger, the bald eagle's nest would be visible. Last year we watched two baby eagles, Puff and Jeff, feel the air currents as they spread their wings in preparation to leave the nest. Mom and Pop were always attentive coming and going with food and encouragement. Sadly, this year, there were no baby eagles to watch. The heavy snow last May fell after eggs had been laid. Mom eagle never left the nest even when she was buried in snow, but the eggs did not mature.

Charlie and Charlotte, the resident loon couple, were not successful either. In fact as we canoed our end of Birch Lake, we only saw one adolescent loon with its parents. However, late one afternoon, while sitting on the dock alone, I watched and heard a loon batchelor party. After much verbal calling and apparent discussion over where and when, five adult loons congregated within the view of my binoculars. After much circle swimming, they began taking turns diving. When one would dive the other four would look under water until the first one surfaced next to the group. What on earth was going on underwater? I suspect some loon show-off moves.

Despite the lack of eagle and loon babies this year there were an abundance of ducklings bobbing around the lake shore. The water was perfect temp for swimming so swim we did. I had been warned about the size of the mosquitos this year but the mammoth dragon flies took care of them. All in all it was another refreshing visit home. God is Good.

Rest

"...I tell you not to worry about everyday life - whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lillies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?"

"So don't worry about these things saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today."

Matthew 6:25-34

What makes you care?

What makes you care about those around you? Your family, your friends, your community. What makes me mourn my father's death? What makes me burst with joy at the birth of a grandchild? Love you say. OK.
What is love then?

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

This definition comes from a Biblical letter written by Paul to the first century Corinthians in an effort to encourage them to live a life based on love.

For numerous decades we have chosen to narrow the range of this love to ourselves and those whose lives contribute directly to our own. Here we are today living the result of this selfish choice. More and more talks, blogs, interviews, articles, books, conferences, international summits, and innovative thinkers are addressing global crisis issues. Energy. Climate Change. Water. Food. Disease. How can we fix it? If we can't fix it, how can we make the transition? What will the transition look like?

What if in the beginning we were created as a perfect match? The Earth created for mankind to prosper and live on. Mankind created to live together as they managed and maintained the Earth. What if mankind decided to divorce this matchup and do his own thing? Eventually what made them a perfect match would disappear. The unmanaged Earth would lose its ability to prosper mankind. The self-absorbed mankind would lose his ability to manage the Earth. All this because mankind chose to deny their Creator and His purpose for them.

What makes you care today about the lifestyle transition that lies ahead of us? Love. If you didn't love, you would not ask, "How can we all transition together?" You would ask, "How much can I get for myself?" Let's choose to love.

Quit It Now - Cold Turkey

It's not neat. It's not pretty. But, oh so effective.

When choosing to change an addictive behavior, "cold turkey" is a most effective method to accomplish the STOP step of victory. That's where I am today. The MAINTAIN step in victory will be a later post.

Tuesday morning I woke up with "the stomach virus that's going around". Felt like death to me. Both ends exploded leaving me dehydrated and too weak to do anything but nap for two days straight. Five hours passed before a tiny ice chip no longer brought on nausea. My skin was flushed and hot, my pulse rate and blood pressure high. The headache, the gut pain, even my rib cage was too sore to touch. After twelve hours a cooling, lukewarm bath eased some of the discomfort. Never thought Gatorade would be my drink of choice. Did you know that if grape Gatorade, which is not purple but blue, is all that you are ingesting, your poop, what little there is, is bright green? Anyway, the point is the STOP step of victory over an addiction.

The addiction I am trying to quit on the Quit It Now Challenge (see picture link) is comfort eating in the evening. Well, what better way to lose the urge to comfort eat than a bout of vomiting with diarrhea? Takes that whole appetite thing right away. As an added plus to the situation I couldn't have my morning comfort of hot coffee either...the incredible headache with no pain meds in sight. Going cold turkey on two addictions at once, definitely not something I chose for myself. And yet, I did, after the fact.

That was Tuesday morning. It is now Saturday evening. The BRAT diet (bananas-rice-applesauce-toast) is over. The bod is back to normal. No, better than the old normal...no caffeine and no evening comfort eating. Thankfully The Creator's surgical tools are sharp and precise. The addictectomy was a brilliant success! Patient is feeling great, feeling free, feeling blessed and very grateful.

LESSON: When you pray, both the process and the answer may be different than you expect.

"Alfalfa"

Advantages to believing in an Omnipotent, Omniscent, Omnipresent Creator God:

He always knows what's happening.
He always knows what to say.
He always knows what to do.
He can always fix it.
He can always make it better and intends to do so.
He will always respect free choice.

For example: He might ask you to sprout alfalfa for luncheon sandwiches. Then He might ask you to say "alfalfa" at an unlikely moment and watch lives change. (You really had to be there.)

LESSON: Prayer opens the door to problem solving.

Spring jump ahead

Today is truly a perfect spring morning. Yesterday some tomato seedlings were transplanted out into the raised bed and along the house. Just checked on them. After a light rain and a night of forty degree temps they looked happy with their new homes.

Here's my planting update. Tomato plants, sweet peppers, Brussels sprouts moved outside into gardens. Newly planted rhubarb and asparagus showing signs of life. Garlic and onion sets stretching their leaves. All the potatoes are up and growing fast. Other sprouts of various types are breaking through. (Noticed a collapsed tunnel through the asparagus bed - moles I suspect - but the soil was too soft. Thank you compost.)

Making a life style change means starting the new while only modifying the old until a successful switch can be made. Yikes! Balancing acts at my age are getting more and more iffy. While we're making an effort to cooperate with the Earth, other factors are at work to destroy it. "The number of birds, marine and freshwater creatures in the world has dropped by almost one third according to WWF conservation organisation. It found that between 1970 and 2005 land-based species fell by 25 per cent, marine species by 28 per cent and freshwater species by 29 per cent."

Thankfully our Creator is still in charge and will intervene.

Inspiration in Beauty

My work hours this past week fatigued me. A co-worker who works the evening shift took vacation and I filled in part of her time. Different sleep hours interrupted my spring gardening momentum but it did not render me totally unobservant.

This particular day I got off work as usual...about 6:45pm...in spring time that is almost sundown. I collapsed into my car and just sat making an effort to shake off the stress of the day before going home. The hospital is on a small hill with enough open space for a life-flight helicopter to land. Directly in front of my car stood an incredible flowering tree framed with dusty cumulus clouds. With the lowering sun behind me, the mauve flower petals almost sparkled with the light. One of those moments that a photographer watches for...the reason she carries her camera with her always. (Not today of course) As I sat trying to soak in all the beauty, I had what I call a revelation.

All my life, even as a child, I believed in God. I have never not believed. As I've grown so has the size of God. From that first visit to the confessional with my cheat sheet so I wouldn't forget a single sin; to high school discussions with a Jewish girl friend about death, life review, heaven, hell, a state of being; to college where I left the church of my childhood but discovered the miracle of conception and development in Embryology class. Through all this my understanding of heaven developed from harps and clouds to something like cruising the universe learning everything there is to know and more...until I saw that tree.

At that moment all the beauty I had appreciated in my life time came together. The moment of revelation when Creator, creature, and the perfection of habitat became a single thought. The Creator who will stop the destruction of His planet. The Creator who offers new live to those who will choose to accept it. The Creator who will restore His dying planet into its original state - a perfect match for His newly revived creatures. Suddenly I knew I could be totally satisfied living in a world created for me and I for it.

LESSON: See the beauty that lives around you and know it exists for you.