The Quiet Before The Storm

Take The Long Road Home

Life continues to provide me challenges.

This photo really encapsulates the journey. It is a long road; a extended track. Although it wavers slightly on the course, it has a general direction.

But notice the "depth of field." It is really only in focus in the middle of the frame. The foreground is fuzzy. The background is fuzzy. Only the mid-section of the photo is crisply in focus.

Today is pretty clear to me. Mow the lawn, clean the house, eat a few meals, spend some needed face with my wife and kids. And retire.

Yesterday is already beginning to fade. Tomorrow has some clarity, but really remains to me created, lived, and then remembered.

Help me, my Sovereign Lord, to see Your will and purpose every step along the way.

Selah.

A Fiery End of the Day

I stepped out the door on the way to a late appointment and I saw the red color of the western sky. I ran back into the house and grabbed my camera. Maybe there would be an unobstructed view of the horizon on my way.

As I rounded the zig-zag curve on Lake Francis Drive, I saw the above scene.

It slayed me.

Awesome. "A fire goes before Him, and burns up all His enemies. The hills melt like wax at the presence of the LORD of the whole earth."

Selah.

Cross of Lights

Like a foolish dreamer, trying to build a highway to the sky
All my hopes would come tumbling down, and I never knew just why
Until today, when you pulled away the clouds that hung like curtains on my eyes
Well I've been blind all these wasted years and I thought I was so wise
But then You took me by surprise

Like waking up from the longest dream, how real it seemed
Until Your love broke through
I've been lost in a fantasy, that blinded me
Until Your love broke through

The words are Phil Keaggy's, the memory is that of Keith Green singing it, and the present reality is that the Cross is my only plea. "Thanks be to God who always leads us in His triumph in Christ and manifest in us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place."

The photograph was taken Friday evening at New Life Ranch, as young people testified to the changes God had wrought in their lives during a week of camp. Intentionally de-focused to represent the tears of this grateful heart for what God had done in others and a foreshadow of the further breaking of my own heart as His refining fire purifies my own soul.

Selah.

A Thought

"between the idea and the reality,
between the motion and the act,
falls the shadow."
— T.S. Eliot

The Wonder Of It All

After spending the better part of four days completely immersed in The Art of Magic, I am struck by the folly of it all. Us mortals, trying to convince others that we have supernatural powers to find your card, teleport your coin, levitate your sister, change something old for something new.

Don't get me wrong...I love the Art of Wonder. I love the look on a spectator's face when the most unlikely thing happens right in their hands. Or, when they begin to sense what is coming and they giggle with glee over the final result. Or, when they simply retreat and shake their head, saying "How did you do that?"

But I am struck with the stark reality that "Magic" is a bunch of secret moves, misdirection, and schtick. There is no real work going on here. Only the appearance of something supernatural.

The healthiest moment of all for me was in a lecture with a man who could literally deal you four cards of any value, say four aces, from a completely shuffled deck. Without you knowing it or that anything unusual had happened. A true technician - an incredible cheat. When asked if anyone ever plays cards with him, he responded "Sure. They know I won't cheat. It takes two things to successfully pull of a card scam. 1) you've got to have the skill and 2) you've got to have the... (and he pointed at his heart)...to pull it off. I've got the first, but not the second. My heart won't let me do it."

Isn't that the truth -- "The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip. -- Psalm 37:31" Oh, that we were all so very true to the law of the LORD. That would affect our thoughts, our behavior, our giving, our devotion.

In our crazed world of liberated lifestyles, compromised morality, and "if it feels good, do it," this was truly a wonderfilled moment for me. But it begs the question -- What's in my heart? What's in yours?

Selah.

Hiding Places

Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.

— Jeremiah 23:24

Ever memorize Scripture verses using those little Navigator cards? Shortly after making the life-altering decision to follow Jesus in 1980, I purchased a set of those memory cards and set about "hiding" God's word in my heart. The verse quoted above was one the very first ones that I commited to memory.

In recent years, I have "used" this Scripture to guilt my kids into confessing their childish attempts to hide their "sins" from the parents. It usually worked like this..."You know, I don't have the ability to follow you around and see everything you do. But, God does...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH." Usually I could draw from my own extensive experience as a sneaky, mischief-making youth and fill in the blanks with assumptions. Usually I hit the nail on the head and they would "confess." Usually.

So I thought.

In the here and now, I have begun to reconsider my life in total -- career, devotion, priorities, etc. And this Scripture has come back to haunt me. (Along with a whole host of others... that's for another day...)

Consider the fact that the meaning of the words translated "secret places" carries the connotation of a hiding place for the perpetration of a crime. It not just the old ostrich with it's head in a hole so he thinks the whole world around him must be just fine. It's not talking about a quiet retreat, a vacation, a closet in your house. This as much an attitude as it is an actual place. It's as much a spiritual "hideout" where criminals plan, with willful intent, to sin against God and man -- premeditated sin (lust, slander, theft, etc.).

This is very personal, my friend. I am one who has been shown to have a criminal's intent in my heart -- over and over again. I have willfully done what is evil in the sight of God. In the "secret places" where I think no one can see me or find me out.

So have you.

We are all so very flawed and save for the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ, we are all guilty. I don't know what your particular "criminal intent" is but God the Father does. The LORD Jesus does. The Holy Spirit does. Might as well admit it and turn 180 degrees back to the narrow way. Place yourself under His amazing grace. Today.

I run in the path of your commands,
for you have set my heart free.

- Psalm 119:32