Beauty From Ashes

In the middle of last summer, I was headed down the street. At the last stop sign, I looked to my right and beheld a PILE, a big one, of some sort of flowers leaves, with the bulbs attached.

Brenda and I had just expanded our front lawn flower bed to accommodate some day-lilies to add to the beautiful ones already there. We could add these bulbs--whatever they were--to our bed. And, the PRICE was RIGHT!

Well, I stored the bulbs for the winter, and early this spring, I planted the bulbs. They came up quickly--a bit too quickly. Many of them were nipped by the late frosts we had. So, I had no idea what they were or what the frost damage would do.

That is what they were--gladiolas. As you can see, they are pink with a beautiful halo right in the center. We have more coming. The bed won't be full--this year. But who knows what next year might bring.

So these discarded bulbs--one man's trash--became our treasure.

Thank you L^rd that you create such beauty.

Life Review: What is the Fundamental Quest of Most Profs?

I arrived on the campus of the U of AL, Freshly graduated from UGA. I quickly discerned that, "I was among the best TEACHERS ever to inhabit U of A."

In retrospect, I understand my sentiment better now than then. I come from a family of teachers and teaching is in my blood. I enjoy preparing to teach, and I thoroughly enjoy teaching. As I have said before, I find teaching poorly to be easy, but teaching well to be highly challenging.

I was teaching away some pretty challenging material in my undergrad course in exercise physiology and the term was ending. One of my students, Jim, was about my age and worked on the railroad. He was a good student and when he showed up at my office, I was happy to chat.

After i had answered his question, I posed one to him, "Jim, how did you like our Exercise Phys class?"

I expected a glowing review, but Jim hadn't gotten that memo.

For about the next 10 minutes--which seemed like an eternity--he correctly noted several major errors in my pedagogical technique.

I was devastated.

In my old age, looking back at my career, it is my opinion that MOST profs want to create a LEGACY.  They want, like me, to be the best teacher ever. Smarter profs realize that there is NO reward for teaching well in research universities, so they want to leave a legacy in research or granstmanship. They want to be "KNOWN" and even better, they want a Lab or even a building named for them in recognition of their greatness.

Well, Jim did me a great favor. After his BLISTERING review, I realized that my BEST opp to leave a true legacy was to be "salt" and "light" as a Follower of the Christ.

And, I think that is the ONLY true legacy, since every student, every colleague is an eternal being with only 1 of 2 possible eternal destinations.  Think about it.

What's your legacy?

More observations on Prayer--or the lack thereof

This COVID season has impacted prayer in my world.  Each week I had 3 scheduled prayer times: Wed AM at 0630, Friday at 0600, and Sunday at 0830. As of this point in time, these have all continued, albeit virtually.  Now Cru Faculty Ministry has added daily prayer at 1530.

Our Wed AM prayer time is similar to when we met physically, as is our Friday AM prayer time. The Sunday AM prayer has about doubled in size. But why haven't the others?

You do NOT have to travel, or even dress. Child care which may have hindered many, is no longer an issue. But there is NOT a boom in prayer, despite its high status for our L^rd, Jesus the Christ.

Which is to say, that making prayer MORE convenient doesn't induce much more prayer.

Even the disciples in Luke 11 saw Jesus praying and finally realized that PRAYER was BIG for Jesus-G^d with us--so they said, "L^rd teach us to pray...".

To which I can say,  "L^rd teach us to pray...".

We NEED it.

Corona Positive!

No, not that kind of positive. I mean POSITIVE aspects of COVID-19, not testing positive.

What positive? you ask.

Well, how long has it been since you saw gas prices this low?  That's a positive.

Have you noticed the lack of traffic-comparatively?

How about lawn care. I am betting that our yards are looking better than they have in years and years.

We have more time to: talk, think, meditate, read, pray...

We are discovering NEW ways to meet even from long distances, to worship together whilst apart, to pray together, to "do life" while not physically gathering.

I JUST saw a headline that said for the FIRST time since 1957, Miami went 6 weeks w NO known homicides!

You can wear whatever you want to: Church, shopping online, meetings, etc.

Amazon, building supply stores, Walmart, and some other businesses are really making money.  Too, companies making toilet paper must be really raking in money!

IF we pay attention, we can recognize that many of the things we take for granted--running into friends, seeing folks on occasion, casual unplanned chats--these are blessings I took for granted.  No more.

Wearing masks how now become widely acceptable--remember Wesley's quote about masks in the movie, Princess Bride?

You will likely think of some more positives. Please post them as comments.  I appreciate it.

Torqued Pelvis??

Ever heard of a torqued pelvis?  Neither had I until about 2 weeks ago. I have been suffering about 3 or 4 weeks with terrible hip pain that previously would get bad enough to shoot down my leg and cause a sensation in my foot too. I was telling my son-in-law Ben about it, and he said, "hey I had something with those symptoms a few years ago--called a torqued pelvis."

At last I had a diagnosis and I was so happy that the WWW description described my situation completely. It is due to a twist in your pelvis, which is pretty rigid, but not totally. Regardless, let me tell you that it hurts!

As is my norm, I have NOT been to see a physician. After Ben told me about it, I looked it up, then self-diagnosed, then started my own version of physical therapy.  Now, over 3 weeks into it, it still hurts, but not as often or as much. I can sleep better now.

Now, understand, most WWW medical diagnoses are WRONG. With that in mind, I still trust my diagnosis and treatment plan.

If you have severe hip pain, with some occasional numbness in the foot of the involved leg--you too may have a torqued pelvis.

So, now you know!

Quick Review: On Death

Tim Keller has doen it again with a brilliant little essay on death, titled, On Death.Catchy huh?

This little, admittedly over-priced, book is barely 100 short pages. It is apparently based on a funeral sermon for his sister-in-law. It is an excellent book that succinctly covers the key issues. he begins with a nice discussion of our fear of death and how our modern culture separates us from death in ways foreign to our ancestors. In the old days, the death rate was higher, and much more personal. People died at home rather than hospice, and most of the populace had seen death near-at-hand.

What he doesn't mention was that in a rural farm-based community, people had to participate in killing food to eat. Brenda recalls slaughtering a poor chicken for Sunday dinner. People routinely killed chickens, sheep, cows, and other living things.

Today, a person can actually write a letter to a newspaper decrying people who hunt saying, "I buy my meat from the grocery store where no animals have to be harmed."  Yep, this is a real quote.

Coincidentally I just saw a reprint of a Bart Ehrman essay in Time magazine claiming that the Bible really does NOT mention people going to heaven or hell. If you know Professor Ehrman, you know he is NOT a Christian, and his view of Scripture seems more than a bit suspect. The essay is, in reality, a plug for his book about heaven and hell. Please understand I do NOT recommend this book or anything Mr. Ehrman says or sells.

But Keller is a different story. COVID-19 is killing folks at a noteworthy rate. Many folks will be facing death for themselves, loved ones or friends.

 I highly recommend On Death. It is a short, but very worthwhile, read.

Enjoy.

No Good deed goes unpunished!

Yesterday , Saturday 4 April, I was driving home from working at a friend's when I looked over to my right and saw something off the shoulder of the road which caught my attention. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it looked vaguely like a body with an arm up across it's head.

I quickly turned around and went back to investigate. I carried my cell in my hand in case I needed to call 911. I approached and to my relief it was a very large- the size of a very fat 10-year-old stuffed cartoon character that apparently had blown out of the back of someone's truck.

What do do?

Wanting to serve my fellow man I determined I could NOT leave it lying, least someone else be fooled as I was. I picked it up, not noticing that it had a couple of tears. I guess the way I held it kept it from leaking its contents. I picked up as much trash as I could carry since I was on the road edge that bordered a church.

I threw the stuffed creature in the back of my truck, thinking I might let the grandkids see it. As I drove off, I noted white stuff flying out behind my truck. Oh no! I pulled over and arranged some junk to keep the white stuff from flying out, but it was really too late. There was a large pile of white, very light small pieces of some kind of Styrofoam.

I Made it home without leaking too much styrofoam into the roadway. But what a mess I had.

I got my trusty shop-vac which was really just a regular vacuum with a small dust compartment that held only a small quantity of stuffing. After about 30-40 minutes of struggling to clean up the mess which had now fallen out into the driveway I finally had this stuff corralled.

Well--lesson learned. I'm glad I got it taken care of, but hope that when our trash pick-up comes, they are successful in dumping our can without getting white foam everywhere.

Well... I guess I'd do it again--just more carefully next time.

Another day closer to heaven…

I am one of the most time-conscious people you know. I figured out how to walk to every place on campus with minimal steps. I lecture about managing time. I try NEVER to waste time, and spend very little time watching tv.

I am highly aware of the passage of time, and every day that passes registers with me. At the end of many days I am a bit saddened by the passing of time. And, as most readers have experienced, time goes by more rapidly with age.

But I realized the other day, a new perspective on the passage of time.

I finally recognized that with every passing day I get a little closer to the prize--the high call of Jesus the Christ to join Him in Heaven.

13 Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:13-14

Yep, those of us who follow the Christ can look forward to the passage of another day!