<sup>I don't have a clue what to blog about today. I'm tired of cold weather, sore backs and bouncing trucks. Even dogs carrying shoes around the house just doesn't seem to hold my interest today. Excuse me, I have to go retrieve my shoe from the living room floor -

I'm back.

OK - so I decided to just jot down a note or two about the passage I read in my quiet time this morning. It comes from Revelation, the third chapter, and it was part of a study the men of our church did about a month ago. I am one of those people who takes home the notes from a preacher, teacher or speaker and reads them over, even going so far as to read the passage of the Bible which may have been used - but I like to read the surrounding verses to see if they were taking out of context. I know, I'm a nut you say. Thanks a lot! But true.

So the passage I was looking at started with verse 17: You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

If you go look at the whole chapter, you will see that this is a bunch of notes written to various churches. The passage that I was studying was written to the church at Laodicea. The church, people. Us - believers. Yes, we are being challenged.

Want some true fun? Ask God which of the churches in this part of the Bible YOU are in. And, as the passage above challenges us, ask God to open blinded eyes. The problem I have is not wanting to fix my own problems, I do want that. The problem I have is not knowing that I have them. Show me, Lord.</sup>

Brother

Cold. Cold. Cold. It is cold today. Yesterday was a rain storm, and I was mocked by a friend for saying that I had expected it to be warmer. But here in SoCal it generally IS warmer when it rains. Comes from the warm moist air that carries in the storms, not from politicians' hot air. Or maybe it's a combination of both.

But yesterday was an interesting day. It was rainy, oh that part is sure. But it was also COLD! Very unusual. And I had dressed expecting rain but not cold. Great! Hence the mocking. OK - perhaps I deserved it, but I was having a hard time laughing at myself this time.

My back was in spasms, and I had to drive to Vista, CA - over 300 miles round trip. I had some minor trouble with the truck I usually use on that run, so I had to take my larger truck. The big truck is more than up to the task, but it has the unfortunate ability to shake and shock. That is, the "suspension" transfers the road bumps and bounces directly to the spine of any hapless humans who are lucky enough to be aboard. I have had full 32-ounce drinks jump out of the cup-holder and deposit themselves on the floor more than once, and that was from driving over a sheet of paper in the roadway. You should see what it does with a string of expansion joints on the freeway. Truly, you could film special effects in this thing.

But I had a friend along to help. No, not my dog. An actual human being who took time out of his life to sit and listen to a one-sided conversation which started at 3:30 am and never let up until early in the afternoon. Ah caffeine, wonder drug - and thou art legal. The diatribe was punctuated with "ah, ooh!" and "ow!" with some other expletives of like nature as we jounced over every lump and bump. It had to be fun. Great gobs of fun. It is always amazing to any normal person to ride in this truck and feel just how rough our roadways can be, but to have each bump expressed out loud by me as my back pointed out the fine differences between a minor and a major jolt, well, it just had to be special. And the way it reset my thinking - directing me to completely change subjects and not even know it... well it just had to be amazing.

And it was raining, so we both got pretty wet as we loaded up and secured the truck and trailer. However, God had a sense of humor: it rained the hardest as we were exposed the most, and let up a little now and then as we would climb back into the truck or walk into the shipping office.

So why am I writing this? Simply to say "thank-you" to the friend who gave up so freely of his time, comfort and effort. I need more people around me like this - OK - I bet that is what you expected me to say. But what I really want to say is this:

I need to be more like this person, to those around me.

Lessons from the beast

My dog. What a gift! What an amazing animal. What intellect, sensitivity. What a cold nose!! She likes to carry my shoes off and lay on them. She hasn't chewed one to bits, yet, but I suppose that's because she usually tries to carry them off while I am right next to them - more than once she has carried off the right shoe as I was in the act of putting on the left shoe. Fun times.

But the thing she likes to do above all, is to be with me. I take her to work, I take her on deliveries, I take her on trips to San Diego, I take her to the park. And she will sit and adore me, and heave large contented sighs of amazement. I like dogs in general, but I really like this one in particular.

Just yesterday afternoon, I was sitting in my recliner, fighting with a sore back. I have a good strong back which no longer gives me the trouble it once did, but just like anyone else I can overdo things. I did. So I came home early from church and was trying to find a comfortable position. Not able to do so, I just turned on some mindless drivel and tried to get my mind off of getting old. The dog, sensing my discomfort (I'm sure) came over and nuzzled at my arm and hand. It was a wonderful gesture of love for a master, but I didn't want any of it at that moment. I turned to her and said, "get a life!"

My niece - another brilliant being in my life - overheard my comment, and opined that, "you are her life." Wow - truer words were never spoken! This dumb beast would have only my wife to depend upon if not for me, and I'm sure you would see my wife walking around in a soft brown dog-skin jacket within a week. I feed her, brush her, bathe her, buy her things. And, I clean up after her, speaking again of the dog, not my wife. I chase her to get my shoes back and I really chase her quickly to get my wife's shoes/slippers/clothing items back ... life-saving, that last one. I am her life.

OK - put it together yourself this time: God... is... our ... life.

There you go. Happy Monday!

Opiate of the apathetic

Religion. What a dangerous thing. We can so often build our lives around a group of man-made beliefs, habits and codes, only to overlook the most important part: God. Passion. Movement. Growth. Pick one, any one.

I have just finished a 12 week study aimed at igniting the hearts of believers. I did it with a group of men, and I got the feeling that most of them were not going to burst into flame anytime soon. Sort of wet kindling, if you know what I mean. I think that the best reason that most of them could give for showing up week after week is that we met on Wednesday night, and they have always gone to church on Wednesday night. Fine - if one or two of us catch a spark, so be it. The amazing part is that we watched a video which had some exciting ideas in it, was full of scriptural teaching, and contained challenge after challenge. Exactly like our Pastor has done for the past 16 years...

OH! I forgot to put up the RANT ALARM: the following is a test of the "Chas Rant" system. If this had been an actual blog, I would have been sneaking in some scripture or a hidden truth by now. I just had to vent. Phew! Thanks, I feel better now. Really.

Book of James - first chapter: ²⁶If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

So - we need to speak carefully, help the helpless, and pursue purity. Works for me. I'll let you know if I achieve perfection, but in the meantime, I'll be working on the pursuit. Join me?

Pain

Pain can cause people to do amazing things. I have been in several castles in England and other parts of Europe, and one of the things they always seemed to have on the tour was a dungeon, equipped with a torture chamber. The various land lords or other folk had to keep the people in line, either to be sure they kept serving them, or just keeping the general peace. And the fear of time in the torture chamber seemed to be sort of a universal way of getting that accomplished.

Physical pain from our own physical ailments can have amazing impact on our personalities. I have had some sharp back pain over the past few days, and I have had to battle fiercely two things: I have had to not allow discouragement to enter, thinking that this may be something serious as it was before - and I also have to keep a close reign on my tongue. As my Pastor says, "Hurting people hurt people."

Wow is it true! I am human, and I tend to let that pain out just a little bit: why keep it all to myself? I get snappish when I hurt, and I think that God loves me enough to let me pull a muscle or raise a bump now and then just to hone my skills at keeping it to myself. I was flat on my back in sharp pain with my back for close to six months a couple of years ago - surgery finally set things right - but looking back at that time I am so amazed that my family didn't just shoot me! I was spreading the pain around - very tough time for all of us. It would have been a mercy killing - for them!

I was somewhat surprised and even a little relieved to read that I am not alone in this. How many times do heroes of the Bible, great men who spoke for God, rattle off amazing truth which has the power to change lives, only to follow it up with a rant about some pain or affliction? Quite often. David was even good at complaining about the simple fact that the ungodly men around him prospered, or that there were people who seemed to take delight in speaking ill of him personally.

Jeremiah 15:16 is an oft-quoted passage, but if you read on a bit, it contains a little twang which does NOT get mentioned in most of the teaching I have heard. Here it is - watch how it moves from amazing truth which can challenge our very lives, to a very human-sounding rant:

Jeremiah 15:16-18 (New International Version)

¹⁶ When your words came, I ate them;
they were my joy and my heart's delight,
for I bear your name,
O LORD God Almighty.

¹⁷ I never sat in the company of revelers,
never made merry with them;
I sat alone because your hand was on me
and you had filled me with indignation.

¹⁸ Why is my pain unending
and my wound grievous and incurable?
Will you be to me like a deceptive brook,
like a spring that fails?

So - I want to hunger after God's word as Jeremiah did. God was able to speak to the world at the time, and even to this present day through this prophet. But it seems that pain was able to make him begin to wonder if God was just a mirage. Wow - Lord, I know I will have pain, both physical and emotional in my life. Please help me see to it that it only drives me closer to you.

"You can't go wrong with land, they're just not making any more of it." That statement has been attributed to Will Rogers, Mark Twain, and just about every other source you can imagine. It was used in advertising by people trying to push the western expansion, and it still pops up now and then as sage investment advice. But I just don't see it.

I own several chunks of land, and every one of them has dropped in value over the past three years. So where's the big demand? Well, so much for sage advice - in fact, one of the pieces of land I own is in Arizona, and sage may very well be the only thing on it of any value. I have looked at it via Google Earth, Google Maps, and a few other computer imaging sites, and there truly is nothing for miles. No roads, no power poles, no water, it's a good five miles off the highway, and nobody seems to be developing anything anywhere nearby.

I inherited that one from my late father, and he owned it since as long as I can remember. He kept saying that the city would expand and people would want to live in the suburbs... but the city is Bullhead City, and people don't seem to want to live in town, much less the non-existent suburbs.

So I pay my property taxes of $84 per year, and hope that by the time I find a buyer, I will have not spent more than I get. And as I said, I got it for free.

So where's the true good value these days? What can we invest in which will never drop in value? I sure don't see anything, other than each other. We can invest in friends, relatives, each other - people. Yes, they will let you down now and then. And no, I don't know of anything on the planet capable of inflicting more pain on humans than other humans. But I'm not looking to make a 'profit' off of this one, I'm just trying to spend my time wisely. So I am investing in people - I have for most of my life, and I will continue to.

And there you have it.

Our closest planet: Earth

I just saw the Earth, from space. No, I wasn't really there, and I had hoped that by this point in my life I might, but no. So, I put one of those IMAX DVD on my 'new' bigscreen and there is was. It was amazing - and I don't even have all the latest and greatest technology as far as the DVD player yet. But if you have ever gazed at the stars and wondered if there could be any way that we evolved from slime, let me tell you this: yesterday in the space of a few hours I watched some of the best video and film footage of our planet from space, and then I went outside and gazed at a star-filled sky. At that moment I remembered why I love God, why I believe that an intelligent being created us, and why I want to thank Him for doing so.

Look around you today - there are people hurting. It's harder around the holidays for some people. Be aware of that. And be aware that an intelligent being created not only the world we live in, and the space that world is hung in, but the plan laid out for each life around us. And if He didn't scrimp on the details of creation, He won't scrimp on the details of our lives.

Cool, isn't it?