We're Not Home Yet

Are you a traveler?  An adventurer?  We enjoy traveling.  We especially like to tent camp in places like the Great Smoky Mountain National Park or Rocky Mountain National Park.  We also enjoy Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida, where we camp not far from the beach.  Taking in all the beautiful sights, eating food cooked over a campfire, drinking cowboy coffee and then hiking for hours on trails.  It's just invigorating and relaxing and we've piled up a mental library of family memories on these annual excursions.

But do you know the best part of traveling?  Getting home!  Pulling into the driveway is a rewarding experience.  Seeing familiar sights, but with renewed appreciation and then crossing over the Home Sweet Home doormat, opening the back door and walking inside, smelling the familiar smell of home.  It's nice, an experience that's hard to explain.  I guess some would call us 'homebodies.'

I'm blessed to have been raised in a family that values togetherness, family, and a simple, yet comfortable and safe home and environment.  We've tried to provide that same thing to our now-grown kids, realizing that not everyone has the opportunity of enjoying an intact family with those they love surrounding and supporting them.  We never take that for granted.  Maybe that's why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Our family is not perfect and things aren't always idyllic, but God is faithful and has blessed us.

I wonder if you also do what I'm about to explain?  As I think about things, despite our blessings, my mind goes to things that are less than perfect, relationships that could be stronger, struggles and health issues that loved ones go through.  You wonder why do bad things happen to good people?  Why is there such suffering?  Why are things unjust?  Why is life so unfair?  The short answer is we live in a fallen world.  Ever since sin entered the world, things have been this way, with pain, toil, sorrow, sickness, parting, and death burdening us.  Can you imagine what it must have been like in the Garden before sin?

For the believer, there is a future glory waiting.  There is a coming Homecoming that will make the "pulling into the driveway after a trip" joy seem petty and trite.  The best way to illustrate this is from a story I heard that Dr. Criswell, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, wrote of: 

A faithful missionary couple returned to the United States on the same ship that carried Theodore Roosevelt home from a safari that he had been on in Africa.  A mob of reporters and well-wishers were on the dock, waiting to see Teddy Roosevelt after he got off the ship from his safari.  Nobody was there to greet the missionary couple who had returned home after serving on the mission field their entire lives in Africa.

Later that night in their simple hotel room, the couple talked about arriving back and the husband was downcast.  "It isn't fair," he said to his wife.  "Mr. Roosevelt comes home from a hunting trip and the entire country is waiting to greet him.  We come home after years of service on the mission field in Africa, and nobody was there to greet us."

And then his wife answered, "Honey, we aren't HOME yet."

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Philippians 3:20

Are you homesick?

Dad's Old Oak Tree Talk

Tonight's post is a little bit different from anything we've ever put up on the blog.  I've opened a YouTube channel and will periodically post videos.  Probably not many of me, though!  I don't like the way I sound on audio or look on video, ha ha!  

The post tonight is one I think you'll enjoy.  I certainly did.  I am extremely proud of it.  It is a family treasure, to be truthful.  Grab a cup of coffee or hot tea and sit down for a 12 minute video.  A little background on how this came about:  A gentleman at my Dad's church teaches a Sunday School class that's comprised of 5th and 6th grade young men.  This teacher asked many of the men of the church to put together a talk to tell the young men about their occupations and how their faith plays a role in their careers.  My Mom and my brother talked Dad into videotaping his presentation under the old live oak at the old Sonnier homeplace in Oberlin, Louisiana.  This is my Dad's talk:

I'm proud of my Dad (and Mom) for raising me and giving me a love for the Lord and a love for the land.

Many Choose to NOT sit in Pews

 I read with interest a recent Gallup Poll which saddened me:

IN THIS GALLUP POLL you can read all the details.  I will cut and paste some of the more pertinent take-aways below and then will discuss further below.

"Church membership is strongly correlated with age, as 66% of traditionalists -- U.S. adults born before 1946 -- belong to a church, compared with 58% of baby boomers, 50% of those in Generation X and 36% of millennials."

"The two major trends driving the drop in church membership -- more adults with no religious preference and falling rates of church membership among people who do have a religion -- are apparent in each of the generations over time."

"While precise numbers of church closures are elusive, a conservative estimate is that thousands of U.S. churches are closing each year."

I grew up attending church because (shamelessly robbing an old preacher joke) I had a drug problem - my parents drug me to church!  I attended Sunday School, VBS, learned all the songs like "Zacchaeus was a wee little man," "This little light of mine," "Deep and Wide," and "Jesus loves the little children."  We had "sword" drills, memorized Scripture and grew in the Faith.

We now attend a small country church.  Tricia and I drug our kids to church.  Forty people meeting regularly to worship God, pray, and be taught from the Bible.  It is an older congregation.  There are strong role models there.  Imperfect people serving a perfect God.  We rejoice in each others' victories and mourn in each others' losses.

Truth be told, the Gallup Poll is about church membership - not believers. Just because you are a member of a church does not mean you are a believer.  Heaven will have people who never joined a church.  However, we are admonished to "not forsake the assembling of yourselves together" in Scripture.  We are encouraged to meet to worship our King, be edified by sitting under strong Scriptural teaching, to pray for one another, to sing praises, and to fellowship with one another.  By doing this, your faith should grow as your Christian walk deepens.

Alternatively, Hell will have people who were church members:  

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23

So looking at just church membership is not looking at the whole picture.  However, fewer people on the pews is sad.  That's potentially fewer people hearing the Gospel, fewer people being changed by Truth found in the Word of God, fewer people being encouraged to not conform to a darkened world, fewer people being equipped to bring the Light of Christ into that darkened world.  And as the Gallup poll showed, the trend shows decreasing church attendance with each generation.

It is my opinion that we are In the Last Days.  You can click that hyperlink to read what the Apostle Paul wrote about these times in II Timothy.  Things will get worse, but take heart.  If you know Christ, He will guide you through the storms that are sure to come.  Get to know Him if you don't!  Keep the Faith!  Find a strong Bible-believing church and attend and grow despite the trend the Gallup poll showed.

Don't Look Back!

No, this post isn't about the old "Boston" song from 1978 with the same title.
 

Don't look back

A new day is breakin'

It's been too long since I felt this way

I don't mind where I get taken

The road is callin'

Today is the day

How many times did I turn the radio up loud when I was young and sing along at the top of my lungs?  Probably too many to count and it may be a contributing factor as to why with each passing day, I grow increasingly hard of hearing!  This post is actually about finishing the job and is Biblical in nature.

Image Credit

I was thinking about this verse after planting my potatoes this weekend.  I'll be posting about the actual act of planting potatoes perhaps later this week.  This verse (Luke 9:62) from the Gospel of Luke is an important one.  Jesus was a master storyteller and as any great storyteller would, he knew his audience.  Many were engaged in agriculture and Jesus no doubt had their full attention when he related this concept to them. It was one they understood.

Do you ever feel like quitting?  Like just giving up?  When driving through New Orleans on Friday I saw a sign on the side of the road that said, "I messed up already.  2021 will be my year!"  I pointed it out to Tricia and we chuckled.  Undoubtedly, the person who erected that sign had already given up on their New Year's Resolutions one month in.  Can you relate?  I can.

Although I don't own a plow, I did have a 40 foot long by 4 foot wide row of potatoes to plant on Saturday, the weather was misting and overcast, and it was strenuous work.  I pulled back the mulch, dug holes four inches deep and 12 inches apart from the next hole, inserted the seed potato, covered it, and repeated the process.  Halfway through, I was ready to call it quits.  But I didn't.  I kept my eyes forward, for the reward comes in May when I dig up fresh, new potatoes!

Beginning a task but not finishing is never a proud moment and goodness, looking back while plowing can be disastrous.  When I was a kid growing up on the farm, we planted soybeans in rows.  Before the beans "shaded-out," (meaning: the canopy of the beans in one row met the canopy of the next to where you couldn't see the rows any longer - just a solid field of beans) we would cultivate them to turn over and kill the weeds growing between the rows.  You don't want weeds competing with soybeans for soil nutrients.  Cultivating involved carefully driving a tractor with a cultivator, ensuring the wheels of the tractor and the shanks of the cultivator remained between the rows.  If you looked back or got distracted, you risked running over the soybeans in front of you and uprooting and killing them.  This was ruinous to your crop of soybeans and your bottom line.

Likewise committing to do something, starting it, and then getting distracted is a poor testimony.  Finishing the task, putting in the necessary work, and remaining devoted to your pursuit involves being firm, steadfast, and immovable despite the circumstances.  Depending on what you are called to do, it is not easy - Not by a long shot.

Closest thing I have to a plow on our little farm!

In the Christian walk, Jesus calls His followers to set your heart and mind on Him and continue to walk with Him.  You must walk by faith and not by sight.  That is not an easy task.  You must not set your heart on Him and then look back to things of the world and get distracted.  Despite hardships and trials, you must not give up.  Only he who endures to the end will be saved. 

In Chapter 18 of the Gospel of Luke, an important question is asked, "When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?"  An important question and one that we must each answer for ourselves.  May we not be distracted.  May we not quit.  May He find us faithful!  May we keep our hands on the plow and finish plowing!

Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.  1 Thessalonians 5:18

Today was a day for giving thanks.  When you think about it, everyday we should be giving thanks.  We are blessed.  I hope that you were able to fellowship with family as we did and enjoy each other's company, good food, and most importantly take time to that God for His provisions.

We met at our home and laughed and reminisced and told funny stories.  My beautiful wife did a great job cooking and preparing everything.  We ate far too much food and sat around the table and made the meal last for hours.

Getting ready to thank God for the food and our many blessings.  Then we'll feast!

Benjamin left early to get ready to hunt as he has a big duck hunt scheduled for first thing in the morning, so when we got ready to warm everything up again to eat supper, he was gone.  He missed out on the photos.  Here's Russ, my Mom, my Dad, and Laura Lee.  She drove in from Baton Rouge for the get-together.

Here's my Mom and Dad.  They brought two turkeys - one was roasted on a rotisserie over a hickory fire.  The other was fried.  Both were so delicious!

And here is four-fifths of our family.  Benjamin made it into the first photo, but missed the evening photos.

What a great Thanksgiving!  Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me!

Remembering Sunday Dinners

Image Credit

I was reminiscing about Sunday Dinners the other day.  Every family has different traditions.  On Sundays our family would gather sometimes at my maternal grandparent's home for Sunday dinner.  I called them Bumby & Poppy.  Poppy came back from World War II and opened a grocery store.  They lived across from the elementary school.  If you stepped out in the front yard while school was in session, you could hear the creaking of the swings that kids were swinging on on the playground.  You could hear their laughter, too.  If you stepped in the side yard, there was a birdhouse with Confederate Jasmine growing on it.  It was difficult to enjoy the fragrance of the Confederate Jasmine, though, because the birdhouse was home to blue jays.  Those birds would dive bomb your head and attack you while shrieking loudly.  The backyard was a shady spot that had a greenhouse.  Bumby always had plants growing in every pot around.  She had quite the green thumb and the Garden Club often had a sign in her yard, deeming it "Beauty Spot of the Week."  Poppy had a compost pile back there along the fence in the backyard with damp, 'earthy' smelling leaves and lots of earthworms.

However, on Sunday afternoon, you didn't want to be outside.  You wanted to be inside.  Right after church, our family would gather.  Sometimes we would change out of our Sunday best and put on "play clothes," but often we'd stay dressed up.  When you would open the door, a great aroma filled your nostrils and you just knew you were in for a treat.  The scent of delicious food drew you to the kitchen.  Before you went to the kitchen, you had to go to the bathroom and wash up.  Poppy taught us to fill the sink with water and wash our hands.  Never leave the water running!

Bumby would be in the kitchen, directing kitchen maneuvers like a field general.  If you lifted the lid off of a pot, you would be confronted with the business end of a wooden spoon and told to "Git out of here and go to the den.  Dinner will be ready shortly."  Bumby would have an apron on and would point out where items were to be placed on the table.  The dining room table had a white tablecloth on it and all the best china was out with silverware.  Nothing was buffet-style.  We would hold hands, bow our heads, and Poppy would say grace, thanking the Lord for the food we were about to enjoy.  Everything was served in serving bowls that was passed around the table.  You had to ask, "Please pass the mashed potatoes."  There were dishes of pickles and black olives to start with and a salad.  There was always a plate with white bread and butter.  There were cucumbers with sour cream and dill (I think), always sliced, ripe cantaloupe.  Lima beans were a favorite, as were beets and the main course would be pot roast with carrots and potatoes and rice and gravy.  We'd drink iced tea.

There were no cell phones back then and we would sit around the table and visit and laugh and joke.  We would ask each other questions and have good conversation. Poppy would kick off his shoes and he wore black dress socks that had yellow toes.  As a young boy, those socks would scare me for some reason!  The main plates were cleared and pie would be served.  Or maybe a banana pudding.  Bumby would 'rescue' brown bananas from the grocery store that wouldn't sell and transform them into a delicious dessert.  When we were full and finished visiting, we would ask, "May I be excused please?"  We were released and the grown-ups would do dishes and put away leftovers.  We'd head outside to play football or we would gather in the den to watch the Saints or the Cowboys.

In remembering Sunday Dinners, I'm reminded of what seemed to be simpler, less stressful, less busy and more innocent times.  Maybe it wasn't.  Maybe I was just a kid without responsibility.  The meal itself seemed very formal as far as the serving platters and linen, but the family togetherness was informal, relaxed, and the good times were seared in my memory.  After coming in from church where we feasted on the Word of God, we'd go to Sunday Dinners at Bumby's where we'd feast on great food and family fellowship.  Good times and good memories.

A Real Gardener is All About Touching

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.

It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.” ~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

I've always loved to read books.  I tried to pass that love on to my kids by reading to them from a very young age.  We've read stacks and stacks of books together over the years - all sorts of books, from Chronicles of Narnia, Pilgrim's Progress, to most of the classics.  It gives me great joy to see my kids reading.

One of the books we read was "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury.  The book's title is the temperature at which books burn.  This dystopian novel contains an unexpected quote about gardening that I cut and pasted at the top of this post.  Being a Christian, I don't agree with the first part of the quote.  My soul has a place to go when I die - Heaven!  The overall quote resonates with me, though, because it is about leaving a legacy. 

I would think that most people desire to leave the world in better shape than the way we found it.  We aim to change things for the better, to 'leave our mark' by touching things, investing time and energy, and molding them with your hands. Your kids can be your legacy.  Your kids can carry on your family name and the values you've tried to instill can be the torch that still burns after yours has been extinguished.

Bradbury's analogy of a someone who cuts the grass versus the gardener is a good one.  The grass cutter is a hireling, but a gardener is one who has gotten his hands dirty, tilling the soil, hoeing the rows, pulling the weeds.  The gardener, in a labor of love, amends the soil with organic material, minerals, and compost.  He or she feels connected to the soil and working in the garden is almost a spiritual exercise dating back to when God and Adam walked in the coolness of the evening.  The soil you've built and the tree you planted are here long after you are gone.  More than that, though, hopefully a legacy of deep faith taught to our kids will carry on after we're gone. 

Proverbs 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, And the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.”

Although that proverb is talking about material wealth, we know that fortunes can be squandered and be gone tomorrow, but a deep and abiding faith in Almighty God lasts for eternity!

A Spiritual Cleansing

If you click on the link below, it will bring you to a short video that I ran across.  I thought it was good.  With each passing day, I grow more and more disenchanted with politicians of either stripe.  It seems as if this world has been turned upside down.  It feels like we've broken loose from our moorings and our ship is drifting out in perilous waters where the rocks are.  Everyone is looking for the captain to steer us back into a safe harbor.  The captain, whatever captain we have at the helm, can't seem to get the ship turned around.  In fact the ship seems to be speeding toward the rocks now.  In whom can we put our trust?  What can we do?  In this video, I think Rand Paul knocks it out of the park.  I also posted the transcript below, if you can't view the video.

Rand Paul says America needs a spiritual cleansing

Senator Rand Paul: “I think it’s important that people know that for the country to get better it needs more than just politicians. Politicians aren’t enough and it needs resurgence through churches, through revivals through a spiritual cleansing of the people."

Senator Rand Paul: “Changing a particular law is not going to make us a better people but that comes from the people themselves.”

Senator Rand Paul: “I don’t want people to think that salvation comes through elected leaders. It doesn’t.”

Senator Rand Paul:  “What’s the number one cause of poverty in America? It’s having kids before you’re married. Can you have a law to prevent that? I don't think any law even if you did have a law couldn't prevent it from happening. We have to convince kids that it's a big huge mistake not only from a religious point of view but from an economic point of view that it's not a good idea to have kids before you're married. The hard part is then people say you’re harsh and you’re against single moms. Well, I’m not against single moms. I just want to talk to them before they become the single mom. I want to talk to them when they’re 17 years old and convince them wait, get married and your life will be better and it’s a better way to do things.”

Senator Rand Paul: "People say you shouldn't talk about moral issues. Well, I think there are moral issues that no law will be able to fix but there's no reason why a political leader can't also have some impact in moral issues that really the law may not be able to fix but maybe by me saying that the marriage unit, the marriage unit, the family unit is an important structure, it's been with us for thousands of years and we shouldn't give up on that."

I think he's onto something.  Politicians aren't going to save us.  They can't.  They are flawed just as we are.  The morass we find ourselves in is not going to be resolved by a politician's agenda or plan.  Our only hope is in Christ and until we remember what our knees are for, humble ourselves and repent, we will continue down this hard road.

If you think about it, there were bad times, crooked politicians, and needy people when Jesus walked the earth.  He didn't tell people to look for government to save them.  Instead He sought to change men's hearts, knowing that true faith, a spiritual cleansing, could do more to revive a people and a nation than any ruler or king.

Thus says the Lord,
“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls. - Jeremiah 6:16 

Be Ye Not Conformed

This past week we had the Youth Group over to the house for what was intended to be a Bonfire and fellowship.  Most of the youth were out of school for Spring Break and it was the last real chilly weather of the season with overnight temperatures dipping into the 30's.  Perfect night for a bonfire, except for the fact that we had very strong winds from the northeast.  Winds from that direction would create a fire hazard since our barn sits to the east of our burn pile.

I had high hopes that by nightfall the winds would diminish, enabling us to light the fire and send sparks high into the night air, warming us and providing us with a nice evening.  It wasn't to be.  No worries.  Plan B involved a fire pit with a bunch of sticks I'd gathered from the yard.  It always helps to have a back-up plan since things have a way of not going exactly as planned.  Be adaptable and resilient.  We ended up having a great night.

Gathering around the fire pit

So using the house as a blockade from some of the wind whipping from the north, we started the fire in the fire pit and got some good coals burning.  Armed with Flaming Hot Cheetos and youthful enthusiasm, we gathered around the fire.  Russ was the master chef of the evening.  He has a neat grill thing in his hand where he is roasting some hot dogs over the fire.  In addition to chips, we had hot dogs, cold drinks, brownies, homemade cookies, fruit, and a strawberry banana dessert.


What a great group of kids!

After eating we had a devotional around the campfire centered around the following verses:

Romans 12:1-2 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may that prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Keep the fire burnin'

We talked about presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice and what that meant.  We talked about the fact that they are each a Child of the King - Princesses and Princes, and are highly favored by our Heavenly Father.  We discussed keeping our bodies pure as they are a temple of the Holy Spirit.  Finally we talked about not conforming to the world.

I'm 46.  I remember what it was like to be young.  I wish I could tell you that I was perfect, but I can't.  These kids are good kids - really good kids.  They are bombarded at school by temptation and influences that I didn't have to deal with at their age.  Their innocence has been under attack by a world that has them in its cross hairs.  Our kids need our prayers.  Our kids need parents who will stand up and be counted and lead.  Our kids need leaders whose lives and actions match their talk.  God, I hope that I can be that type of person for them.  Parenting is the hardest thing I've ever done.  A good buddy and I often repeat that phrase to each other.


Smiles everyone, Smiles!

While looking at the burning coals, we talked about letting our lights so shine that others might see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.  We don't want to hide our lights under a bushel basket.  We want to be in the world, but not of it.  At the same time we talked about being careful.  I used the illustration of someone standing on a bench.  Is it easier for the person standing on the bench to pull someone up to his level or for someone below him to pull him down to theirs?  It's easier to be pulled down.  I challenged them to keep the faith and not be pulled down into peer pressure and ungodly influences and temptation.  

Walking the walk

We sang a song around the campfire.  Remember the song "Pass it On"?  

It only takes a spark, to get a fire going?
And soon all those around can warm up to its glowing,
That's how it is with God's love, once you've experienced it,
You spread the love to everyone
You want to pass it on.

Shout it from the Mountaintop!

The group ran around in the pasture with the animals, climbed trees and went down the zip line and eventually got flashlights and ran around the yard playing hide and seek or flashlight army.  I think it is safe to say they had a great time.  It made me think longingly of similar times from my childhood.  Nights that you wished would never end.

Nice fire roaring

As the night got cooler, more and more sticks got added to the fire making the fire leap as everyone sat around it talking and laughing with fingers stained red with Flaming Hot Cheetos stuff on them. 

Flames leaping into the air

Our little fire pit couldn't contain the fire and burning coals fell out of the pit and onto the ground starting new fires, providing a perfect lesson on which to end evening.  What started out as a small spark, became an all-consuming fire which the vessel could not contain.  That fire then overflowed the fire pit and birthed new fires expanding and burning in different directions, threatening to spread out and touch everything in the vicinity. 

Light the fire in my soul

May the fire of Christ's love do the same in our lives and not be extinguished.  May our fires burn flaming hot!

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold...

You ever had one of those days?  Or maybe a series of days where it seems everything goes wrong?  Perhaps things are not going well at work?  Or you are waiting on an email for good news and it arrives and the first sentence starts off with, "We regret to inform you that...?"  Or health issues come up out of the blue?  Or tough family problems have you perplexed?  If so, you can probably relate.  Stick with me until the end.  I'm trying to encourage myself and maybe you need some encouragement as well.

The past two nights in a row we've lost a meat bird.  They are one week from butchering - almost there - and a predator has killed two.  The frustrating thing is that he just pulls the head off and eats the neck.  He totally wastes a perfectly good bird.  This is the sight I've been greeted with for two successive mornings now.  This particular chicken probably weighs around 4 pounds right now.


Don't lose your head

I asked a good friend who specializes in problem animals and predators and he told me that this shows the signs of a kill by a mink, a raccoon or an owl as they all pull the heads off.  So, I went by Harbor Freight after work, bought a trap, baited it with a can of salmon and we'll see if we can catch the villain in the morning.  This story is "headed" somewhere, thanks for patiently waiting... Pardon the pun.

So these bad days we were talking about?  What do we do?  How do we get through these "spells" where nothing seems to go right?  I know what we should do.  It's just not easy to put it into practice.  It takes discipline.  It takes faith.  You have to be tough.  (I'm a work in progress and I'm still learning.)

Just so happens I was reading something just the other day that came to mind in my current pity party.  In the Old Testament book of Habakkuk, the Prophet is lamenting with God over the fact that Judah has turned its back on God and are in open rebellion against Him and His ways and it seems like this evil is going to go unpunished.  Habakkuk asks God if He's seeing what's going on.  (Paraphrasing)  God tells Habakkuk, though, that He is going to send judgment on them and it is not going to be pretty.  The problem that the prophet Habakkuk has with this is that the judgment God is bringing is coming at the hands of the Babylonians, a people more evil than Judah.  This just doesn't seem fair from a just God and Habakkuk questions God about it.  God tells him to be patient, the Babylonians will eventually be punished and true faith will be rewarded.

Okay, now we're coming to the 'meat' of the story:

 Here is the prescription for what you are to do in difficult times.  I can't say it any better than Habakkuk:   

¹⁷ Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold

And there be no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸ Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

So did you catch it?  Our faith or our happiness should not be dependent on our circumstances.  This book was written 600 years before Christ.  These were primitive agrarian people who were primarily keepers of animals and growers of crops, orchards, and vineyards. 

It's easy to trust God or be happy when all is going well, right?  It doesn't take faith for that.  No, the real test of faith comes when your fruit trees don't blossom, or the yield of your crops is low or you experience crop failure.  Or your chickens get beheaded.  Or you lose a calf.  Or all those other things that I discussed in the first paragraph happen.  What are you gonna do then?

Well, you exult in the Lord.  You rejoice greatly.  It hurts to say that because I don't feel like "exulting."  But if we trust in Him, He's given us salvation and you know what?  He's with us.  We don't walk alone.  And we will overcome, because He is a good God and in Him we find strength. 

A hind is a deer.  What he's telling us is that God has designed us to be like a deer - to run fast to Him (Nothing runs like a Deere), to climb to the highest heights with Him and to be sure-footed so that we may walk in the high places.  Who wants to hang out in low places?  Keep the faith.  Be strong.  Though things crumble around us, may we keep our eyes fixed on Him!

A Family Legacy

Do you ever stop and think about what type of legacy you'll leave behind?  About what your kids will remember you by once you're gone?  About making memories and a creating a family identity that sets you apart and makes you different?  About what work ethic, values, integrity, and character traits that you've deposited in your children that will hopefully be passed down to theirs.  I think about this stuff a lot.


Benjamin fishing by the bridge at (Cub Scout) Camp Edgewood in Gillis, Louisiana  (One of my favorite pictures!)

I always wonder what steps I can take to instill in my kids timeless virtues and therefore, leave behind something of value that will carry forward those things our family cherishes.  Many of us are standing on the shoulders of our fathers.  Our lives today are shaped greatly by what our fathers gave us - and theirs by their fathers, and so on and so forth.  Our identity, in many cases, was largely determined generations ago.  Likewise, our kids' future is largely dependent on us and what we do.  That's a sobering thought.  It only takes one broken link in the chain and the work of generations of men and women can be brought to a screeching halt.

I'm not saying that it is all up to you, because it's not.  A child, and then a young man or young woman, has free will.  Once they are out from under your roof, they can make their own decisions - good or bad.  Sometimes things go awry despite our best intentions.


Foggy morning fishing

Faith, Hope, and Love.

First off, I want to pass along my Christian faith to my kids, fully aware that I can't make the decision to follow Christ for them.  That decision is theirs alone, but I have a great responsibility in conveying the message.  Just as Moses gave the commandments to the Israelites, we should teach (AND LIVE) the Gospel of Jesus Christ continually.

Deuteronomy 6:6-10
⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Secondly, as dark as this fallen world is, there is always hope and we should never give up.  There is hope in Christ.  There is hope in our fellow man.  There is hope in justice and that goodness and virtue and honor will prevail over evil.  I want my kids' eyes to be open to the evil that is in the world, but to never give up, never be complacent, never be pessimistic and never be apathetic.

Finally, there is love.  I want my kids to experience the love of Christ and to radiate that love to others in their path.  I want them to be considerate, thoughtful people that genuinely love other people and treat them as they expect to be treated.  Love never dies.

As a post script, I want them to share my love of the land, the smell of dirt, the enjoyment of watching things grow, the challenge of tending for God's creation and experiencing the joys (and sometimes sorrows) of that relationship with the land.  I want them to know how to work with their hands, grow healthy food, and enjoy a standard of living not measured by dollars, possessions, or other luxuries, but measured in love, peace and satisfaction that while they are living out lives of purpose on this earth, their real citizenship is in Heaven.

Our Maker's Acres Dirt!

  What kind of legacy will we leave and what can we do TODAY to shape that legacy?