Sweet Anticipation

I wrote before about the pleasures of anticipation.  It is sweet indeed.

This morning, my son-in-law Ben mentioned something he had said in his grandmother's funeral last Monday.  I was at the funeral in Birmingham, and heard him tell about his grandmother.  His "grammy" used to mention, with apparently high frequency, the necessity of planning for the triumphant Return of Jesus.

Anytime any future event was mentioned, Grammy felt the necessity to remind anyone within earshot that the return of Jesus ought to be considered.  Her reminders emphasized the imminence of this event too.

And, I think Grammy had the RIGHT idea.

How would it change our thinking, if, in the front of our mind was the imminent return in ALL GLORY of The Messiah!

I am going to try to be a bit more like Grammy.

First day of school... 57 times!

• 12 years of school
• 4 years college
• 2 years MS
• 3.5 years Ph.D. (simultantoeus with 3.5 years Ph.D.)
• 3 years teaching at VMI (simultantoeus with 2 years MA)
• 3 years teaching at UGA
• 29.5 years teaching at UA (1 year sabbatical at NASA, one term in Sweden)

For 57 years now, I have had a "first day of school".  I just had the first one of my 58th year.

First days carry much emotion:

• Excitement,
• Anticipation,
• Trepidation.

As I have written before, I feel very privileged to have a job that has a distinct beginning.  First days are the  beginning. What will come?  Who will I meet?  What challenges, what opportunities, what trials, lie ahead?  Will it be a banner year, or a bust?  Will it generate many good memories, or regrets?

Lots of questions that will only be answered by time.

That gets me thinking about heaven.  One day we'll have a first day there!  But there won't be but one... for all eternity!

The Beach Again

Brenda and I are at the beach again.  We love the beach. There’s something relaxing about the beach. There is no agenda, no schedule, no list of things to see and do.  The beach is sun and sand, and salt water.

For the first time ever, by an accident of the calendar, we had 3 weeks here.  The first week we had kids, spouses and grandkids.  This week and next it is just us.

Being here this long, we have noticed the constant remodeling that the beach undergoes. When we first arrived, the beach was one long gentle slope to the water.  A couple of days later, there was a 3-foot embankment cut by the current and high tide. Most recently the bank had shrunk to 18-20 inches and a more manageable slope.  Further down the beach the changes were noteworthy as well.

The wildlife is also something to see.  Our grandson Isaac loved hunting ghost crabs with a flashlight at night.  Naturally he named one crabby.  Sunday afternoon, after a severe thunderstorm, the ocean was dead flat.  Then, right in front of our balcony a whole pod of dolphins were chasing fish. I had seen them about 3 times before, the show this time was special.  We also saw a brown pelican, once endangered but now plentiful, diving for fish.  Of course the gulls are ever present and ever entertaining with their aerial acrobatics.

The most interesting wildlife, of course, are the humans. Let me tell you, we have gotten out of hand with the tattoos!  They are abundant and some people have a super abundance of them. Of course we are #2 in the world on obesity, and the beach verifies that data too.

One thing I like about the beach, is the simplicity of clothing. I get up in the AM, put on my swimsuit/running shorts, get my running shoes on and a visor to try to mitigate the sweat in my eyes, and take off for a run.  I take off my shoes and visor, and I am ready for the entire day in the ocean, or a shower and dip in the pool.  Sand is no problem, it is just part of the beach.

The beach, as always is relaxation.  Everyone has the same goal- sun, sand, saltwater.  It’s simple, it’s natural, it pleasurable.

And that’s hard to beat.

Flowers

One of the most striking things about this venture overseas this year, was the abundance of flowers.  In Italy there were some great flowers, and the smell of jasmine was a most pleasant shock on several occasions.  However, England appeared to be one huge flower arrangement.  The hills were alive, not with the sound of music, but with the bright yellow blossoms of the rape seed plants that filled acre after acre (yes we got the measurement of acreage from the Brits).

I’m guessing that England’s abundance of both rainfall and sunshine this time of year gave just the right conditions for floral flourishing.  Maybe it's always this way, and I simply never noticed before.

Flowers are interesting.  So many varieties, and so much of the populace of the world find the same beauty in them.  I have marveled to see some house plants all around the world.  In Sweden, orchids are extremely popular as an indoor flower.  They are also popular with Brenda.

I have to admit, I like flowers, all types a lot too.  I think this is a small argument for G^d's existence.  Humans recognize, and generally agree upon, the beauty of flowers, many of which are not only NOT good for food, they are poisonous.  That is, they have no survival value, they just give a bit more value to life.  Why did G^d make flowers, and in such enormous variety?  One day we can ask.

In the meantime, let's just enjoy a few photos from England.

And trust me, these picts were randomly chosen from among hundreds.  Hope you enjoyed them.

Phillip Bishop Funeral Plan

July 2015

We attended a funeral service today which was very nice.  It got me to thinking about my own funeral.  Why let someone else plan something so personal.  So, here is an OUTLINE of my funeral:

Desired Tombstone Inscription for Brenda and Phil:  Followers of the Christ   

These are my present desires for a funeral service:

1  1)  Prayer - invocation

    2)    Bio (also for obituary announcement):

a.       Lifelong Disciple of The L^rd Jesus the Christ (said that way)

b.      Married to Brenda for __ years.

c.       Five children, __ grandchildren.

d.      An active missionary and professor- in that order.

    3)     Prayer – for lost

4  4)     Sermon: Joy of Heaven

a.       For what doth it profit a man… (Matthew 16:26)

b.      Phil 1:21

c.       I Thess 4: 13-18

d.      Call of the Christ to be Saved in Him (Phil 3:14)

e.      Jokes in Scripture:

                                                               i.      Luke 16:31  even if one rises from the dead, they will not believe

                                                             ii.      Matt 6: 27 American Standard Version
And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life?  (This is a gag intentional by the Christ).

5  5)      Joke time:

a.       All surviving brothers share one or more jokes.

b.      Anyone else share joke.

6  6)     Prayer: for Joyous living

    7)   Music:  Interspersed as desired:

a.       Amazing Grace

b.      How He Loves

c.       I’ll Fly Away

8  8)    Prayer: Benediction- notice how MUCH Praying was done (4 times)- “Overworked and under-prayed”.

Yes, Finally the WWW is Wearing me Out

I spend hours each day on the WWW as part of my job, and some more time on the www, recreationally.  But I have to admit it is wearing me out.  I am a bit tired of all the hype that never makes good. I am tired of clicking on a link and then NOT being able to see what I was really after and incidentally seeing numerous adverts.

The overstatement has gotten to the point that I shall NOT be going to half the number of links that at first appear interesting.  They deliver about half or less of what was promised, so if I reduce by half - maybe that should work out.  So called "travel life hacks" turn out to be advice to take chargers on trips.  What?

As you already know, much on the www is simply bogus.  What started me on this particular rant was the 3rd title I have seen in the last 2 days that speaks of science "proving" something. If you paid attention in 6th grade science you probably recall that science is not in the business of "proving" anything.  Every aspect of science is subject to being "disproven".  Forever.  There's NO exceptions and plenty of examples of key scientific principles that are ultimately found to be in error.

Now, if you read this blog, I am pretty sure that none of this is news to you.  I guess "misery loves company" and so we commiserate in this irritating aspect of the WWW.  Don't get me wrong, I think quite often of the explosion of access to information that we didn't have 25 years back.  I love this access.  I am grateful.

BUT, don't expect me to go to the site "proving" anything, and Yahoo and "ask.com", I ain't going to stuff on your sites, until your veracity improves.

And that's where I stand... for the moment.

A Wedding and some Memories

See these two young guys?  I taught both of them in the U of Alabama a few years back.  It was great to see them both at the wedding of Cal, in the second photo.

First, I was THRILLED to be invited to Cal's wedding.  I hadn't seen him or talked to him in several years, so when the invitation came, I told Brenda we needed to put it on the schedule.

At the wedding, I noticed a guy who looked really familiar, and a quick consult to the wedding program told me it was Clay!  What a bonus, one wedding - two of my former students.

I have NO idea how many students I have taught in my 37 years of higher ed.  My first students at VMI are only 5-7 years younger than me.  Who know where they are or what they are doing.  Several of them were from Iran.  Where are they?  At UGA I taught a bunch more, and they would be 8-10 years younger than me, which puts them at ages 55+.  Wouldn't it be neat to run into one of them?

Brenda laughs because I am always on the lookout for someone I know.  But who knows who I might run into?  It's sure nice to have the memories, and the possibilities.  Sweet memories!