The Beloved Country...

(Mexico's Independence Day celebrations last week (Sep 15-16) helped me with finishing this entry.)

“Leaving America is like losing twenty pounds and finding a new girlfriend.” Phil Ochs

I'm pretty sure that this 60's folk singer had different reasons for such a sentiment than I might have. But, I must confess that, in my own way, I agree!

Roots are a powerful thing... the pull of our childhood memories, the love of family... sometimes I miss family so badly that it hurts.

Wausau, WI, where Linda was hospitalized in June, happens to be close to family: my niece and her husband in Wausau; Dad, sister and brother-in-law 40 minutes north in Tomahawk; Mom in an Alzheimer's unit twenty minutes east of them in Rhinelander; a few miles south of Rhinelander lies Lake Julia, where my grandparents had their resort when I was growing up.

It is what it is...

“Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” (Psalms 139:12)

When tragedy strikes, when infirmities set in, when a moment of crisis lingers, stringing successive crisis moments into hours and days and nights of more of the same, what set of emotions and thought processes do we default to?

• Why us?
• Why this?
• Why now?
• Why doesn't God make it better?

Why do we spend so much time asking, "why"?

To die or to die? That is the question...

This post was about half completed when my wife, Linda, suffered a major heart attack on June 17th. She was 15 days in the hospital, 11 of those in ICU. She is progressing day by day with her recovery. We hope to be back in Cancun by the end of this month or the first part of August. "Thank you" to those who have so earnestly prayed for us!

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“...Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone:

but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)

Hamlet's well-known soliloquy has been quoted so superficially, that it almost seems trite to make any reference to it at all. However, it was famous for a reason and is still worthy of reflection.

Watching God work, Part II...

These two brief videos are from this Sunday as well.

Testimony of Florsha Tellechea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fd9KQx9prU

Testimony of Karemly Alegria:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsQOgTY1OOQ

Watching God work...

“We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;” (2 Corinthians 4:13)

Sunday, we hosted a gathering from four of our churches in Cancun. We all got to hear the testimonies of a total of nine people awaiting baptism, including two from our group in Alamos. Usually, each church does their own thing, often baptizing in the ocean. Being indoors, though, with a good sound system, allowed us all to hear two excellent Bible messages, plus every word of each testimony. It also helps that we now have a beautiful baptistry. Everyone went away rejoicing over how God works!

Steppenwolf...

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was a German author who was in vogue in the 60's when I became acquainted with his writing. In "Steppenwolf", Hesse introduces his main character, Mr. Harry Haller, like this:

"For he was not a sociable man. Indeed, he was unsociable to a degree I had never before experienced in anybody. He was, in fact, as he called himself, a real wolf of the Steppes, a strange, wild, shy--very shy--being from another world than mine. How deep the loneliness into which his life had drifted on account of his disposition and destiny,.."

A wolf of the Steppe: a peculiarly apt description of some; a tendency innate to some degree in us all.

In the presence of God...

"...for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:27)

When do you most feel like you have been in the presence of God? I guess if I were a more spiritual person, I might respond, "late at night while I am praying." Sadly, for me, that is not usually the case.

I'm not shooting here for creepy organ music and goosebumps. I am pretty sure that there is not some mystical experience awaiting me around the corner. It is tiresome at times dealing with the superstition, the confusing of ritual with rebirth, the emotionalism attributed to the Holy Spirit, the expectation of some overpowering manifestation that would nudge one over the line into saving faith.