It's The Birthday Celebration Time of Year

 The end of October sees a LOT of birthday anniversaries in our family. Brenda's birthday is 29 Oct Damon's in 11 Oct. My slightly younger brother David's is 31 Oct. Our son David's is October 26. Our son Andrew's is 17 Nov. and Juno's is 20 Nov. 

Birthdays matter. They mark another trip for planet earth around the sun. We grow a bit older, and hopefully much wiser. Over about 40, our bodies begin to fail, slightly at first, then more noticeably. Our step slows, our energy declines, and vision and hearing diminish.  Hmmm, doesn't sound that appealing does it?

But for those of us who have put our faith in our L^rd, Jesus the Christ, the BIG news is that are moving towards our ultimate goal of being with Him. And, that's 100% great news! Yep, "Some glad morning when this life is o'er, I'll fly away."

And when we consider the Goodness that lies ahead, these "light and momentary afflictions" seem like a great reminder that our time here on earth is drawing to a close. So, welcome those gray hairs. Welcome your failing vision and hearing.

Rejoice! Rejoice in the L^rd, and again I say Rejoice!

Wellness Week in Review

 As has become our habit, Brenda and I spent the first week of October in beautiful Panama City Beach at the Laguna Beach Christian Retreat with a dozen Christian friends from AL to TX, to TN, to NC, to IN, to MI. The first few days were COLD! We wore long sleeves and long pants, and sitting on the beach in just a bathing suit was pretty much out of the question. But, after a couple of days it warmed up to a comfortable beach temperature.

Our day was pretty full because I had to give a devotional every morning that was introductory to the talk of the morning given by one of the group. In the evening I had about an hour to share a full-blown wellness talk. So, most of the week i was busy speaking or prepping to speak.

But, I learned a lot. And those folks were a great participative audience. They smiled and nodded and finished Scripture verses for me. It was a true JOY for Brenda and I to be around them. We had asked a lot of folks to pray, and things just seemed to "click". Things fell into place and I tried to move talks around and even created two or three new talks to fit in with where G^d seemed to be directing us.

We had a 5k run walk, and I ran my fastest time in the last 4 or 5 years.  It felt great to push myself again in a race. (Note to self- find a 5k and enter it...as soon as COVID permits).

One of our participants had a birthday during the week. Brenda recalled the year my family drafted little notes of encouragement and collected the strips of paper into a box. Every time I pulled one out, I smiled and enjoyed a bit of joy. It's is my all-time favorite gift to receive. It seemed to go over well with our friend too, who shed tears of joy.

Thanks be to G^d for a great safe time together and safety in our travels. Thanks be to G^d for giving each of us words to say.

And thanks for your prayers.

Some Crucial Instructions on a Kid's Toy

 "To activate: Bend, snap and shake. May take a few moments to reach full brightness."

At our recent wellness week, one of our speakers gave us glow-in-the-dark bracelets. Her point was to let our light shine and also to encourage each other as we see a "great cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1). She read the above instructions, and all of us over 50 saw the application for our own bodies.

When we "activate" we often snap and sometimes shake. When suddenly changing our focus, it often takes a few moments. But, after these many years, we HAVE a lot of light to shine.

We must take a few moments to "reach full brightness" though. Sometimes our "light" is intrusive, or obtrusive. Sometimes younger folks need to walk in the dark a bit in order to gain an appreciation for the light.

Too, we need to "Bend, snap and shake" at least 3x per week. We gotta keep moving, old timers. If we stop moving, whatever health we have will spiral. Often times, the broken hip doesn't kill us, but rather the pneumonia we contract from laying in bed too long in recovery.

But I was impressed with mine and Brenda's glow-in-the-dark bracelets. We activated our bracelets late one afternoon. When I got up about 3:30 AM to "take care of some business" I noticed they were still glowing brightly.

Those of us who are Followers of The Christ need to let our light shine brightly (Matt 5:14-16).

Because Jesus tells me so! (Matt 5 is the first of the 3-chapter Sermon on the Mount preached by Jesus).

Great story from a friend

I was recently in a group and heard a personal story I thought was profound.

The lady sharing had grown up in an Asian culture. Many Asian families set very high standards and are shame based. She had immigrated to the USA and married and has several children. Like all of us, on occasion she makes mistakes. When she failed at anything, no matter how small, it was crushing to her. She was living as an adult, what she had learned as a child--never make a mistake, and when you do it is serious and shameful. I doubt her parents intended for her to take her childhood learning so seriously as an adult, but that often happens.

Well, this pressure to never fail, and the shame that accompanied the inevitable failure was slowly destroying her. Very wisely, she shared her situation with some Christian friends, and eventually brought it to the church elders to pray for her.

Her report was, that when the elders prayed for her, she had this image of her resting her head in the lap of Jesus who was comforting her.

Wow, let that sink in.

Her testimony is that G^d rescued her from her shame and guilt and convinced her that He forgives her and that she can enjoy the peaceful assurance that the Christ died for her, and that He loves her regardless.

And G^d did all that with a simple prayer.

What do you and I need to take before the L^rd, what do we need to take before the L^rd in the presence of our congregational leaders? YOU may not happen to get relief as quickly as my friend, but her testimony is encouraging.

Why not consider it?

It's Wellness Week again

 A few weeks back, Brenda and I made what has become an annual fall trip to Panama City Beach to lead a Wellness Week with a bunch of Christian friends from MI, IN, TN, AL, TX and maybe a couple of other states. All these folks are single, except us.

They have a strong bond of unity and also meet every late spring at the same place. In fact, that's how we got to know them. We were down at the beach and noticed a group of people gathered together, who appeared to be holding a Bible devotional. Curious we drew closer and they invited us in. We discovered that day this super group of brothers and sisters in the Christ.

When they learned later that I was in the midst of co-Authoring Fit Over 50, they asked about me leading the Wellness Week, which we happily accepted.

We had about a dozen folks plus us, and the weather was a bit cooler than good ocean swimming requires, but we had a lot of fun. There is something great about Christians assembling to love one another and to spur one another on to love and good deeds.

We had devotions, presentations, and prayers. We ate together and ran/walked 3 miles together in the annual footrace. We walked and talked with each other and with the L^rd.

We look forward to next year's trip--L^rd willing. May G^d grant us all the health to do it again next year. We take the actions to be Well, but we count on the L^rd to do His perfect will in each of our lives.

Blessings,

EVANGELISM- Not just for the Professionals

 In my youth, some 1000 years ago next week, I got the message from growing up in church. Evangelism is the job of the pastor. He is the only one trained enough, skilled enough to explain the message of:

We in Trouble.

Christ is Solution.

REPENT, Trust Christ's (pick one: Redemption, Atonement, Sacrifice, Salvation).

Well, if you find the above 10 words too daunting, there is an APP that I highly recommend available here:

https://www.cru.org/us/en/digitalministry/apps-tools/godtools.html 

This gives you the option of putting the essence of the gospel on your own cell phone. It even offers you training on sharing the gospel. It has two gospel options plus a follow-up tool helping new converts, and old to grow. It has a couple of tools to start conversations just by presenting questions to others, and one uses emojis to express responses.

This little app enables you to gain the SAME qualifications as your Pastor (well, not all of those quals, but the basics of sharing your faith).

People all around you are eternal beings (See Lk 16:19-31). Many of them are headed straight for hell. They may not know it, but the "bridge is out" on their current "Highway to Hell". Yes, they may be "too busy", or "Not interested", or too sophisticated, but nonetheless, the bridge is still out. And no, you don't ever HAVE to tell anyone that the bridge is indeed out...but that seems SAD. Don't you think they at least need to know. And they CAN KNOW if you will simply tell them.

Just have them take a look at your cell phone.  You can even share the pages to THEIR cell phones.

Check it out.

Archery

 Archery must be one of the oldest sports/activities in the history of mankind. One of the MOST interesting events at the 2008 Olympics, to our surprise, was archery. If you ever get a chance, go see an archery match.

My earliest purchase, even pre-dating the canoe, was a fiberglass bow and arrows from the Sears and Roebuck CO. Where we lived, so far out in the country, that was my best bet to get a bow. I don't remember another bow until I was a Naval Officer stationed at Pax River, MD. There I killed my first whitetail with a recurve bow. I don't think I got a compound bow until after I arrived at U of AL in 1984. Sometime after that, one of my friends at church quit bow hunting and gave me his much nicer, much better compound bow. I am still using it.

When we moved to Maryland, Brenda got a bow and for 3 years we were "members" of our Pax River field archery group, who had a nice field archery course on base. We went several times and shot. In field archery, there are several targets at different distances that aren't marked. So you have to first estimate the range, adjust for that range, and then loose your arrow.

Last year I bought a cross-bow which became a legal method of hunting deer in AL a few years back. It kinda shoots like a short-range rifle. I like it for hunting because there is very little motion in aiming and shooting it. It is more like shooting a rifle than a bow though. I like it, as it is fast and accurate and like I said, little movement is needed.

Archery, the ancient sport, is only practiced by a few sportspeople and quite a few deer hunters.

If you get a chance, give it a try. You'll be reliving a long history.

Life Review: Looking back

 Kierkegaard famously observed, "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

In my old age, there is plenty to which to look back. I think back to my own childhood and am surprised at some of the things I still recall.

    I once put a smaller cooler inside a larger cooler and placed a Popsicle inside. Yep, didn't work.

    We camped a lot in the backyard and the woods directly behind our house. We hunted squirrels, explored, enjoyed.

    We had bb-guns from a young age, and yes I was once shot in the eye, but the bb bounced off the uppermost bone surrounding my eye and remained lodged under the skin until Dr. Looper removed it.

    Once my next younger brother and I were shooting bbs into a paper wasp nest under the front door awning. It was a popular place for wasps to build nests. My unsuspecting brother happened to come out that door. The wasps took out their obvious irritation on my poor brother, who had no idea that David and I had stirred them up. Once he made the connection, he chased us a good distance.

    Amazingly I don't think I ever broke a bone, and neither did my brothers. Though, I did once break my dad's ribs. He was playing football with us in the front yard. He went up to catch a pass, and my shoulder was positioned right under his left rib cage.

    We did most everything the local Southern Baptist Church offered for youngsters. We did Vacation Bible School, RA's, graded choir, Sunday School, Morning and evening church. Baptist Training "Union". I carried a 1957 KJV Bible with my books to High School.

    Our little town was "dry" with no LEGAL alcohol sales. But one night we ran out of gas and happened to coast into the little two-pump gas station about 1.5 miles from home. Fortunately, the man who ran the station was awake and sitting in his station, but had just ran out of booze. We got enough gas to do us for free..in exchange for taking him to the local bootlegger to resupply. But that was about exciting as life got for us.

    Thanks be to G^d for a peaceful happy childhood--a privilege denied to many.