The Great Gatorade Adventure…

Sometimes we can turn simple tasks into great adventures…  And that is not always a bad thing.  Let’s take the simple task of buying a beverage to drink on our trip from Grand junction to Denver Airport.

Using our cell phone app, we easily found a nearby Safeway Grocery.  So far, so easy.  The three of us, Brenda, our son Andrew, and I trooped into the store on the quest for whatever Andrew might need for the arduous 3-hour trip to AL.  Can’t risk starvation on such a venture, understand.

After a good 10 minutes of debating what might be the BEST possible beverage for the expedition, Andrew hastily reached up and grabbed a bottle of Gatorade.  Amazingly decisive, he was.  As we are heading for checkout, someone in our party decided she needed some more Vaseline.  This entailed a trek to the other end of the store, almost requiring the Gatorade we had discovered in our initial quest.

After snagging the Vaseline, no easy task, we then discussed the best way to finance our $5 purchase. This resulted in several minutes of debating the pros and cons of cash vs. credit cards.

SOOO, just what is the point of this blog post, the astute reader (you) might ask?  Well, the point is, that the Bishops can make even the most mundane task an interesting adventure involving a quest, high-level mathematics, leadership, and cooperation.

Think about THAT the next time you had out to buy more oatmeal!

Zion- The Narrows

Zion National Park is one the prettiest natural beauties we have ever seen.  The Park has numerous trails, the most famous of which is probably “The Narrows”. Andrew, Brenda, and I hiked up the approach trail to The Narrows.  As we approached it, I noticed lots of folks with, what appeared to be, wading shoes.  Hmmm.  Yes, The Narrows is a trail that requires several miles of wading.  That may deter some folks, but not me.  What DID deter me was the hordes of people hiking that trail.  I like solitude in nature.  I avoid large crowds as far as possible.

I love nature as much as anyone I know.  My favorite childhood memories are being in the woods.  My Dad taught us the names of most of the North Georgia trees, and a good many shrubs. Probably because of his encouragement I have enjoyed learning about nature to this day.

I have spent a LOT of hours in the woods over the last 40+ years. Most of that time has been deer hunting.  And, deer hunting is a solitary activity. Some of my happiest memories are of those quiet days alone, alone all day.

I am an extrovert, and I thoroughly enjoy people… just NOT in the woods.

G^d made a beautiful world indeed, but some things are best savored alone.
Now, try taking a walk.. alone.  Blessings,

Our Hike into the Grand Canyon

One of the great thrills of the Grand Canyon is hiking to the bottom… and hopefully back! Our son, Andrew, has made this trek, along with millions of others.  Here are some photos from our hike into the Grand Canyon.

The astute observer may notice that we did NOT go very FAR into the Canyon.  True.  We hiked a few hundred yards in, with NO intention of going to the bottom.  We hiked in a way similar to the way many of us practice Christianity.  We invest a little into Christianity, and then don’t find it all that satisfying. We commit, just not “all-the-way”.

We laughed about telling our friends about our big hike into the Canyon.  We had lots of “reasons” for not hiking in.  Our time was limited.  But, time is always limited, so it becomes a convenient excuse for not praying, reading, studying serving or hiking.

We had been on the road already for several days before we got to the Canyon.  We were physically tired, plus we had Cru Staff Training ahead of us- plus miles of travel.  We can usually come up with excuses as to why we should NOT spend too much energy on our Christian activities.

But, our chief reason for NOT hiking far, far into the beautiful Canyon, was that we had lots of other things on our agenda.  We had Zion, Bryce, and Arches National Parks on our schedule. And hmmm, yes we see Christianity the same way.

Now, here’s the difference, hiking into the Grand Canyon may be nice, but it has NO major consequences one way or another.  Our life as a Christian, our actions, our relationships, our decisions, do have ETERNAL consequences, not only for ourselves but for others as well.

Enjoy the hike!  We sure did… ;).

Alternatives to Christianity...

Christianity takes a LOT of criticism these days.  Apparently Christians supported Pres. Trump over Ms. Clinton, and in so doing... attracted a LOT of criticism.  Of course this is NOTHING NEW!

I choose NOT to enter the presidential debates, but I do choose to address the criticisms.  For many years, critics of Christianity have pointed to the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Salem witch trials, as evidence that Christianity is a bankrupt philosophy.

Of course to do that, they MUST IGNORE all the positive contributions of Christianity.  They must forget the hospitals, orphanages, the feeding stations, the emergency services provided by Christian organizations.  They must also ignore the negatives of the KEY alternative, atheism.

Think of all those Atheist hospitals, orphanages... yeah, I can't think of any either.  In fact, if the Christians must accept blame for the Crusades and the Inquisition, then my ardent atheist friends must accept blame for the literally MILLIONS of deaths by famed atheists: Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, Mao, and others.

With Christianity there is HOPE, and there is a FIXED moral standard.  Admittedly, I, and other Christians, fail to live up to Christianity's standard, but our atheist friends, have only relativism to guide them.

So, you get to choose.  Choose wisely!

Grand Canyon elk

Grand Canyon Elk

I have spent many hours of my life pursuing trophy cervides (deer family).  In 2010, I got to go out and kill  a very nice bull elk in New Mexico, an event etched in my memory.  Boy was that meat good!

Coming out of the Grand Canyon National park, we saw a group of people huddled roadside with cameras, which typically means there is something unusual to photograph.  Naturally we pulled over.

There, lying on the pine needles were two HUGE trophy elk.  They were close, probably on a little more than 50 yards from roadside.  I took more pictures of those elk than my youngest child, but they were truly impressive.  The spread on the biggest one was 50 inches or better. Because the antlers were still in velvet, they looked even larger than normal. Coming out of the park, we see one more, right at the edge of the road.

Having hiked many, many miles through the mountains looking for elk, I would like to think I had a bit more appreciation than many of the onlookers.

The Grand Canyon is grand indeed, but not nearly as impressive as those elk.  Thanks be to G^d for allowing us to see such wondrous creatures.

It was hard to get a clear picture of that elk in the top photo- the spread of his antlers was over 50”.  The elk in the middle photo was a good one, just not so huge. The last picture is of the one right by the road.  These elk are accustomed to humans, apparently.

G^d's Creation

This part of VA, and the USA is truly beautiful.  Fall was extremely pretty with great colors, and the mountains made it easier to see the beauty.  Spring is even better.  Take a look:

G^d made SUCH variety, and so much of that variety is beautiful.  If this old world can be so beautiful, I can't even imagine the beauty of heaven.

Come quickly L^rd!

Words with Friends

I (Phil) am part of a small group of men who meet each Thursday at 0645 to spend just over an hour discussing Scripture on discipleship.  Our leader, Dick B, invited us to his home on Smith Mtn Lake on Sunday PM.

It was a beautiful day, but it was also a beautiful group.  We had a nice mix of us old timers and undergraduate and graduate students.  What was most enjoyable for me was the words we shared. We discussed all sorts of issues from philosophy to times to never accept a challenge.

In my view, friends are one of G^d's greatest creations and gifts to us.  I treasure these dear friends, and hope to see them again here on earth.  But, we can have confidence we will see each other in heaven.

Blessings, friends!

Religulous by Bill Maher

Flying from Teguchigalpa to Miami, I had a little time when I couldn’t be on the laptop, so I watched comedian Bill Maher’s movie, Religulous.

In this movie, Mr. Maher goes to great lengths to make all religions, look ridiculous, hence the title.

Sadly, it wasn’t even a very good attempt.

Maher starts by interviewing a bunch of truck drivers who are obviously Christian.  Way to go Bill, what a great place to start.  Maher then goes on to make a series of claims about Christianity that are totally baseless.  He attacks the historicity of Jesus, but of course fails to interview ANYONE with any real knowledge of the Biblical archaeology, of the hundreds of ancient non-Biblical manuscripts, of even the illogic of people being willing to die for a myth. Bill intentionally finds the bizarre, the cash-hungry, the crazies and portrays these strange folk as being illustrative of religion.  Whereas there is NO doubt that lots of crazy, and cunning, folk, cash in on religion, they are hardly representative.

Although Bill goes to great lengths to imply that religion will lead to the downfall of mankind, his omission of the positive contributions of Christianity is striking.  He clearly avoids any acknowledgement that Christian hospitals, schools, and orphanages have done tremendous good, not just in the wealthy west, but in the poorest parts of the world, world-wide.

But, then again, why would anyone want to take serious philosophical advice from a man whose only qualification involves being a comedian.

Oh, wait!  Maybe that was the real gag.