Back in the TROUT stream again

It has been several years since I took Davey, middle son, trout fishing in North GA to celebrate his graduation from UA. I was over-joyed when he picked that as his celebration trip, and we had a great time, though he didn't catch much. Trout fishing is more of a skill than I had realized.

I got to return to trout fishing the first part of this month. One of my favorite all-time buddies, Chuck Carson and I did some fishing in the streams of N. GA. Due to rain and more rain, we only really got to fish one day. We started on the lower Tallulah River, near Tallulah River Campground.  The water was deep and rough, and sporadic rain made fishing pretty challenging. Nevertheless, we each caught 5 trout and I kept the 3 biggest of mine and Chuck kept two of his. My first trout was a big rainbow who pulled and pulled against my light spinning rod. Fortunately, I remembered some of my trout experience and led him onto a rocky bar where he came off the hook, but I didn't lose him. I think my next fish was a native rainbow about 5 inches long. Then I caught a large brown who jumped maybe three times.  What a thrill. I caught another big rainbow and then a smaller one which I released.

After 3+ hours, we grew tried of fighting the steep banks and moved upstream to a place that was HARDER to fish. This was the steepest stretch of trout water I had ever tried to fish. It was almost one continuous low waterfall.  Chuck found one hole and caught three fish, and I didn't find much of any place to fish and caught none.

From there we moved upstream to a stretch of river that was exactly the type I love to fish. The river at this point was shallow and it could be easily waded across at any point--a total change from what we had seen to this point. We each kept a trout or two out of this section, giving us a total of 12 good trout.  Here they are:

One good thing about trout is that they are easy to prepare for the table. That afternoon that's what we did. Brenda and I look forward to 3 good meals.

Thank you L^rd for the beauty of the trout stream, the beauty of trout, the joy of fellowship with a brother in Christ, and for the taste of N. GA trout!

Unexpected Joys

We have now been in the Walden Pond home about 2.5 months. We have had to do a LOT of work in and around, but that has been a joy (mostly). We have been a bit surprised at how MUCH we have enjoyed it here. The pond is very nice. We have been SURPRISED at how much pleasure we have gotten from... the GEESE!

Yep, we have 3 domestic geese that our one-house-down neighbors put in a few years back. But, our real thrill is the 3-9 Canada geese that live here-apparently year round. It is late May and they have NOT YET departed for cooler Northern climes to nest. Each evening, just before full dark, they take off in a whir of honking and flapping, only to return about 0700-0730 the following morning, again with much honking and splashing as they land. Even as I write this the locale is filled with a lot of honking. They do this periodically, and then they quieten.

The domestics make a trek across the pond a couple of times a day to a neighbor who apparently feeds them. The Canada geese don't follow this pattern. They may paddle across the pond from time to time, but their location varies and on occasion they paddle right by our dock. Here is a photo at 4x mag. Not a great picture, I agree, but you get the point.

We have mentioned how much we enjoy the Great Blue Heron, the green heron, the kingfishers, and the frogs. It is nice to have the fishing at the end of the yard, and a good place to paddle the canoe.

The dead-end street means that rarely a car passes. The few neighbors screened by trees gives a nice sense of privacy. The 19 acres of undeveloped land is a nice buffer to our east. The location is convenient to UA, our Church building, and shopping.

Thank you L^rd for the new digs, for the geese, and for Blessing us in so very many ways!

Seeing the BIG Picture- Ps 73

Ps 73 is well worth the read--especially when we are despairing. One section says this,
"Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

The "You" here is G^d, Jehovah. this is nearing the conclusion of the Psalm and part of the point of this Psalm is that we can only see what is in our LIMITED field of vision. G^d is at work on a Grander Story on a grander stage than our limited lives. We are likely to NOT understand all that G^d is doing--after all, He is G^d and we mere mortals--why should we expect to understand?

So, if there seem to be injustices, if things seem to be going swimmingly for the pagans and poorly for the Followers of Jesus, just be patient.  After all for Believers, "Our biggest problem has already been solved!"

Another Scripture that needs an Emoticon

In our weekly men's Bible study this AM (May 22), we discussed the Woman w the demon-possessed daughter in Mark 7.  Here's the KEY part of the passage, "25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Now, what do we make of this strange encounter? Think about it a bit, then if you want, take a look at some commentaries. One feminist uses this passage to argue that Jesus wasn't sinless- just look at how he treated that woman! (I advise you to NOT stand close to this woman for fear of lightening strikes!) Other commentators focus on the dogs, probably as a diversion.

In MY UNeducated view, this is a GREAT passage with much to teach, and this woman is one of my Scriptural HEROES!

Jesus Knew the woman and her heart and what she would answer (Jn 2:24,
But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people. See also Jn 5:6, 6:64). Jesus gives the woman what we take to be an insult, but knowing Jesus, this was said with a wink or a smile, or both (why we need emoticons in Scripture). Now look at the woman's reply.

She is NOT insulted, angered, or discouraged. She acknowledges her lowly state in the presence of The Christ, and merely, humbly asked again in agreement with Jesus' assessment. And her daughter's problem is corrected by Jesus (v 29).

The Holy Spirit in this passage gives us a GREAT response to insults and criticisms. We simply agree and go on. On only 2 occasions in my recollection have I done this myself and both went well. 

Once, a salesman tried to close the deal on my purchase of a time-share. When I declined, he remarked, "I thought you were smarter than that!"

"Don't worry about it", I replied, "People make that mistake all the time." 

I was so happy that my oldest son was with me and got to see one of my few victories.

Now, perhaps I am wrong about the passage, but I feel pretty confident about my own take-away. I just wish there was an emoticon with this encounter with Jesus.

Blessings,

Ahh, the beach...NOT SO FAST!

At about 0200 on Monday morning of our vacay at the beach, we get a telephone call. NOT many good calls come at this early hour. And, this was from our daughter telling us that she had emergency surgery scheduled for Monday at about 1000!

Yep, that's right. We had to pack up all our stuff and head back to T-town, making out 2 nights at the beach very, very pricey! Tough eh?  Coulda been MUCH worse.

I did note to a friend at the beach that, to my recollection, this was the first time that this had happened. With 5 kids and 8 grands, that's a pretty good record. AND, the surgery outcome was good, and we can stand the lost vacation expenses. Plus, one of beach friends has a son who was really wanting a bed at the beach for 2 nights with his friend from The Netherlands, so our loss was a WIN for him and his buddy.

So, another first-world problem--the interrupted vacation. And, I have been able to get a lot of work done around the house.

L^rd give us a heart of GRATITUDE for the many ways you do BLESS US--especially help us realize this in the midst of minor disappointments.

May G^d bless you in your travel plans.  

At the Beach...Again

A couple of weeks back, Brenda and I made our annual spring trek to Panama City Beach. It was great to see our "beach friends" and catch up on the latest. The weather was TERRIFIC and the sunsets beautiful, as was the FULL moon when we first arrived.

As we have noted before, the beach is ONE place where we can truly relax. No chores, nothing to fix or improve, no grass to cut. Those will wait until we return.

I did some work--a couple of hours--on the drive down and another hour or so after we came back from the beach on Saturday after sunset. But that's it...almost.

We love our part of the beach, as it is NOT heavily populated. The beach is NEVER crowded--at least until Memorial Day. We have been coming here so long, that we are very comfortable here. It is not fancy, so we are comfortable here. It is not overly expensive, so we are comfortable here. We know the staff and many guests, so we are comfortable here.

And that is a great gift from G^d!  Thanks be to Him for a great, restful holiday.

Blessings,

An Error in Scripture- Take a look

I never thought I would say this, but the Apostle Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, says this, "18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

See what I mean?  I work with Christians, Christian Faculty particularly, but considering all of US Christianity, and I am sure this Scripture is wrong. In fact we are FIXED on what is seen, and we are not so very sure about what is unseen. We do NOT want to risk, jeopardize, or gamble on what is unseen. We are all about the "here and now", we are pretty sure of this.

Those "transient" things are the "here and now". The "sweet by and by" is too far off. We don't dare risk:

• status,
• reputation,
• promotions,
• our free time,
• our money, or
• our energy,

on those "unseen" things. 

I talk to people very frequently who do not DARE risk anything "seen" for the sake of those "unseen things.

So think about it.  What was the Holy Spirit thinking when he spoke in Paul's ear about those, "...unseen (things) are eternal."

Cars, houses, promotions-- those are seen things. They may NOT be eternal, but they are fun!  And fun is what it's all about.

Maybe not.
(Author's note: This is tongue firmly in cheek. I DO believe All Scripture is inspired by G^D--I just don't always act on what I know to be true. How about you?)

60 Million lives lost, how Tragic!

A few folks may recall the 2004 earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Sumatra that killed more than 200,000 people. As horrific as that geological event was, it wasn’t even the deadliest of recent time--in 1976, an earthquake in China killed between 240 and 600 thousand people. Wow that is a LOT of death and destruction. This loss of life, by anyone's measure is a tragedy.  But none of these hold a candle to... US abortion.

About 60 MILLION abortions have been recorded (that suggests MORE happened) since 1973!! In some years, there are over one-third the number of abortions as there are live births.

In the US Civil war 1861-65, there were about 0.6 million deaths. Yes 100 times as many deaths due to abortion as deaths in the bloodiest conflict in US history.

Now, some readers may support a woman's "right" to end her baby's life. It IS her body (plus that of the baby). This is a volatile issue, and I was reluctant to take it on in a simple blog post.

But 60 mill is TOO big a NUMBER to ignore.

Regardless of your view.  Think about 60 Million lives lost.  What a SAD tragedy indeed.