Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Double Dip

Well, I made it. Yep! it was not the most pleasant experience though. The formulation of tea was tasty for hte first glass or two, but a gallon in 4 hours, no way. I was so full that it was nauseating to drink more. I'm speaking of course, for those who now, of a 'double dip' as RN Sara put it. I call it going in both doors. Just another name for what happens when you turn fifty. The highly recommended colonoscopy and for me the endoscopy. It was just a screening for possible problems. I came out clean as a whistle. :}I recommend everyone have it done. It is not a bad idea spiritually either to do a thorough exam of self to see what is up and if you have spiritual polops to be removed git-r-done. The apostle Paul tells us to examine ourselves in this deep way in 1 Corinthians 11, so as to avoid any future judgment by the Lord. A self examination is a good idea. We do it in other areas of our lives all the time. We review our check books, credit bills etc. At least, I hope you do. We look at ourselves in the mirror daily to check for mussed up hair, face or clothes. We periodically check fluid levels and psi in our cars. We look in the rear view. We check to see if we remembered our keys, our wallet/purse, makeup, cell phones or whatever else we have deemed 'can't live without'. So why not review the most important thing in our life?Our spiritual position with Jesus Christ. He makes the claim that He is the only way. "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father but by me!" John 14:6 check it out for yourself. If you find some polops/sin then the remedy is 1 John 1:9 confess your sin and He will forgive and cleanse you. Again, check it out for yourself. All you have to do is lay your cursor over the colored verse and it should pop up for you. It's that easy. The hard part is facing reality. As I laid in the recovery yesterday morning, and groggily, vaguely heard the dr. telling Sharon that all was well, I thought to myself. 'thank You God.' Some, many are not so lucky, a polop is found or some other abnormality and the prognosis is worse. I have no explanation except the grace of God. If they would have found something that doesn't mean, however, that the grace of God was not in effect in my life or in the one whose prognosis wasn't good. However, from a spiritual standpoint, polops were found, confession made and radical elimination practiced. I have to add something in horsemanship because of the title here. The same is true in my working with a horse. I need to reexamine my style, my body language and seat and leg. Sometimes the horse is right and I am wrong. By that I mean, he is reading my seat and leg pressure and rightly discerning it, but because of my own ineptitude I am asking for a movement in the wrong way. I might be asking for a turn but she thinks, because of my seat and leg that I am asking for a leg yield. I can't get upset with her because of that. She is not the dummy, I am at that time. Thus, I need to reexamine my self to make sure I am asking for the specific movement with the correct cues. Putting it all together is as difficult as admitting my own sin, but it is necessary. Waddy Mitchell a cowboy poet put it this way, "First, I figure out my agenda, then I make it easy to embrace it and hard to resist it." God does the same with us, Solomon put it this way, "the way of the transgessor is hard."Proverbs 13:15.
So as it is with horses it is with people.
So get an examination. Examine yourself. Let the Word of God examine you. Do it today. It's for your own good.
Adios
Vaya Con Dios
Pastor Jeff
John 14:6

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

not enough time

Just wanted to let you know that I know that it has been almost three weeks since I last wrote. For those of you who are itching to read more it is forthcoming. I have a few ideas to write about scrambling around in my head to get to the front of the line. It seems life is real busy, but as one person retorted in response to my "I don't have time" excuse for not being able to work with her horses at this time, "get up earlier!" Well! I thought. She doesn't know what I am already doing. As I think about it though, don't we all have time to do the things we want to do? I mean, I can always find time to do something other than mow the lawns I have, or paint my porch ceiling before it gets cold. But I say, I gotta study for sermons and the study at the Jail. Do any of you know how long it takes to write a 3o minute speech? Think back to high school speech class. How long did you agonize over your presentation? The average time spent in the study for sermon preparation, from start to finish and you have it on paper is ten hours. That is not including the time to go through it before you actually stand before a group and orate. Now, add to that the odds and ends of pastoring a church, as well as being a husband, a household maintenance man, a hobbiest of horses that includes everything from riding, cleaning up after, feeding and training, then other odds and ends like writing this blog and you have a day planner that is full. So what do I do?
I guess, get up earlier!

This is Jeff signing off.
I gotta get to bed earlier if I am going to get up earlier. Wait a minute. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting up earlier?

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Lessons from a dead squirrel

Yes, you read the title correctly. I was driving to my brothers house the other day minding my own business which was paying attention to where I was going on the road. My intention was to stay between the lines. When I came upon this squirrel who was a bit flittery, tail twitching. He was all the way across the road heading to my left. He was safe, out of harms way. But I could tell he was nervous, indecisive. His instincts were telling him it was safer to flee back the way he came, which meant he had to cross the road again, in front of me. It happened so fast, yet I knew he was going to try to make it. But the thump, thump I felt underneath my car and the last view I had of him or her was of a tumbling squirrel told me he made it back across the road, but not alive, at least not for long. That squirrel was operating on instinct only. If he had reason and logic to work with maybe he would have realized that where he was at he was safe and would have remained there. But alas, God didn't give him anything more than instinct. While instinct does keep animals alive longer, it doesn't always. Might I add, neither does reason. People often have good reasons to do stupid things, like ride a skateboard down a railing and wonder why the pavement is so hard when they hit it with their forehead or ride a crotch-rocket popping a wheely with the front tire or standing on the seat rather than straddling it. The Lord knows, and so do those who know me, I have done many a stupid thing. But I had good reason.
That squirrel reminds me of people, including myself who live for the moment, who don't plan and think through wha tthey are doing. So they react to lifes pressures rather than respond to them. They act on instinct rather than reason. So here are the lessons I want to point out:
1. Don't always count on your instinct to get you safely through. As with the squirrel it can sometimes steer you wrong. Don't try to fly an airplane through a cloud on instinct. Use the compass and instrument panel. In our case, let God guide you with the scriptures. Life can be foggy at times, instinct will get you into trouble, but depending on and obeying the scriptures will see you through.
2. If you have to go back the way you came, look both ways before you cross. In other words, have good reason and think it through.
3. If you have to cross the road in the first place keep on going and don't look back. Indecision is worse than no decision. Among horse trainers, the thinking is that a horse with sticky feet, that is, those who don't want to move their feet, are the ones who will explode. If you keep their feet moving then you can work through the issues bothering them. But they have to have that forward movement. It is so among us humans too. Indecision is like having sticky feet, but if you decide and move on you can at least be moving and make the changes if your decision wasn't the best one.
4. Some things are outside your control. I could not stop that squirrel from dashing under my car anymore than I could stop the sun from rising. It was in the cards, so to speak. Although that is a simplified way of saying that God divinely appointed it. After all, Jesus reminds us that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without Him knowing it. Are you not more important to God than a sparrow? (Matthew 10:29,30). But that was digression. My point is that you simply have to go on and deal with what you cannot control and not worry about it. So my life intersected with a squirrel that day. His ended and mine goes on. Yes, I was sad. I hate to have that happen. But I can't brood about it. Learn the lessons and move on. No sense in crying over spilt milk, clean it up and move.
There are probably more lessons to learn from that experience but that will be for another blog, maybe.
Until then,
Stay between the ears!
Pastor Jeff
matt. 6:33