My "12 Days of Christmas" gifts for 2022

I've made the effort to give free gifts to my friends and online connections during the Christmas season for two or three years now. I pull together a list of some of my most-used apps, websites, and playlists and post one per day during the 12 days leading up to Christmas.

It's fun for me because one my core desired feelings is to be "giving". Doing this helps me share some of the things I've learned about and hopefully help someone in the efforts.

Plus it helps me think about one of my favorite Christmas stories, A Christmas Carol. I love the Ghost of Christmas Present and what he says when he shows up: "Come in, come in and know me better!"

This year I posted my "gifts" to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Gab, Parler, Truth Social, Mastodon, and LinkedIn. This was a little challenging due to the fragmentation of the social media sites but still fun!

My gifts for my 12 Days of Christmas in 2022 were:

- Post-it Note app
https://www.post-it.com/3M/en_US/post-it/ideas/app/
- Chick-fil-a app
https://www.chick-fil-a.com/
- Encounter meditation app
https://encounteringpeace.com/
- George Winston playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVqI204q3ewnm2DHIDtKlwHjrFf7A-DrG
- Dynalist app
https://dynalist.io/
- YouTube scenery playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVqI204q3ewk3SQ7Uj5DXRq97hSCwQs0B
- A Postmodern Jukebox Christmas playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL61tvTq899t6fTht5rGc-pfAes9k3WVqK
- The Pause meditation app
https://www.pausemeditation.org/
- The Marco Polo app
https://www.marcopolo.me/
- The Moon+ ebook reader app!
https://www.moondownload.com/
- A Pentatonix Christmas playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaONuT5QUpidKOBovDhtfzfs8XUndW-8J
- The Story of the Bible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_CGP-12AE0

Advent 2022 - Birth

 

This year I've been thinking about different kingdoms. And how this world was created by God but then corrupted by Satan to become an area in play that will ultimately be destroyed/cleansed to make room for a new heaven and a new earth.

I've been thinking about how Jesus was injected into this world under cover, the ultimate agent sent to help people become part of the kingdom of God. (See the parable of the vineyard in Matthew 21:33-40)

God even used different kingdoms here to protect his son. He sent Joseph, Mary, and Jesus to Egypt to get away from the things Herod was doing to try and preserve his kingdom. I think of Egypt as a different spiritual kingdom (Babylon) with a different set of ruling "gods" from whatever Herod was dedicated to. One of the puzzles there that helps me deepen my faith is that despite being the Creator he didn’t just put a bubble around his son to protect him. My thought is that because Jesus was in an area under another’s authority he honored that authority. I’m not sure about that but it helps me. 

While not exactly how Bible scholars teach about it I sometimes wonder if the heavenly host that sang announcement praises in front of the shepherds were actually so excited that they just couldn't help singing and rejoicing about the victory the birth of Jesus was and the result that it was leading to. 

While our God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent this place we are in right now was created by him but is corrupted and not his kingdom. When we accept Jesus as Savior and Lord we become part of God's kingdom and wherever we go we are foreigners and strangers until his return. 

It's a different way to think about the story. But that's what I've been thinking about this year. 

I hope you think about Jesus and what he is to so many people this Christmas. 

Bonus material: 

A Child Is Born - Celtic Worship

https://youtu.be/_xOdbaLPJ1E

Paul Harvey Christmas Story - The Man and the Birds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY2pTAAn9pc

Bible Project video on the New Testament

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0BrP8bqj0c

Advent 2022 - Hope

One of my struggles is that I tend to look forward to things. I look ahead, I see the possibilities, then I set plans and aim for what I am looking forward to. I become attached to what I’m looking forward to instead of being “here” “now”. 

My experience is that to “hope” is to look forward to something with anticipation. “Hope” can also be some relief from a situation that isn’t quite here yet. I know a couple of women named “Hope” but that’s not what I’m talking about. 

Hope for me is aiming for a goal. I exercise faith and start doing things that lead to fulfilling the goal. The key tends to be that faith. 

 In the book of Hebrews in the Bible the writer says that “faith is the evidence of things not seen”. I like the Message transliteration of the Bible for Hebrews 11:1-2: The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.” (https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/97/heb.11.MSG)

It’s so hard when we can't see any evidence of God from where we are here in this life. But it helps to put your hope in something. And you will put your hope in something. 

Hope is like a chair. You can see the chair, see how it’s built, touch it to know it’s real. You hope it will hold you up. 

But faith is like sitting in the chair. Until you actually let the chair support your weight you haven't really put any faith into believing it will hold you up. 

Because of our instant feedback/instant access/instant gratification nowadays I find it challenging to exercise faith today.  I choose over and over to put my faith in God. I hope you do, too. 

Bonus material:

Pentatonix "Mary Did You Know" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifCWN5pJGIE

Bible Project video on hope

https://youtu.be/4WYNBjJSYvE

YouVersion Bible app

https://www.bible.com/app

Advent 2022 - Peace

 

My music tastes have changed. I used to be the one playing loud music as I pulled up in my car, speakers blaring. Some sort of rock and roll, pop, or dance music, never country or metal (except for Quiet Riot, they were fun!). 

As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned that I still prefer to have music going, but not the loud stuff. I don’t like saying “What?” all the time when someone tries to talk over the music, and the beat tends to get me closer to that anger trigger point I’m trying to avoid, so I’ve turned the music down and changed what I listen to. 

But when I'm talking with someone I still like to have background instrumental music going. Less distracting than the loud music yet it still helps me not hear them breathing and making other bodily noises. 

As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned that habitual actions bring me peace. You could call them “rituals” if you want to use that word, though I tend to shy away from that characterization of what I do. 

Action stacks is something one of my online gurus used to talk about in his posts. He encouraged people to make checklists and use them even if you “knew’ how to do something so that you would hopefully not waste time solving the same problems over and over and become more successful. 

I find comfort in the known steps. Almost like grooves in my head smoothed out over time as I repeat those steps again and again. Less like a record player, more like a path through the woods. 

I wonder how much peace Jesus had as a baby? If he was fully God and fully man did he have to learn to control the tendency to just make things like milk and food? 

I imagine he was comforted by the repeated love and care his family gave him. 

I pray that you find peace during this Advent season. 

Bonus material: 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - The Piano Guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO7ySn-Swwc

Bible Project video on Peace

https://youtu.be/oLYORLZOaZE

Advent 2022 - Joy

 

I love to read! My mother instilled that in me at an early age by reading bedtime stories to me and my brother and by encouraging me to keep a book with me whenever I could. 

I try to read a little every night before going to sleep. I’m not always successful (married), but I enjoy mysteries and adventure books at night, self-help/improvement and history books during the day (not a lot of history, sometimes it’s just not fun :-), and of course current events/informative books by conservative authors. Although I do mix in more liberal authors to stay in touch with what they’re saying. 

One of my favorite authors for the past several years has been Mary Roach. She was a “science reporter” for some newspaper out there and wrote books with catchy titles about offbeat subjects that I’ve wondered about but never wanted to spend the time researching. “Gulp” was a favorite - it was about how the digestive tract works and the history of learning these things, which was a fun romp through lots of history. 

Another favorite of mine has been Lee Child, the author of the Jack Reacher series of books. Jack Reacher is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time! Lee Child seems to be handing the series off to his brother, which brings a different style, but it’s a fun series of books that I’ve enjoyed. 

What I’ve learned is that sharing things enhances the joy, even deepens it. But others are not always ready to receive what I’m trying to share :-)

It's challenging to relate all of this to the Bible, but here goes:

The wise men as well as every practicing Jewish person had read or heard the stories of the coming of the Messiah.

The joy they must have felt when they thought about what was coming must have been amazing! But also very different from our joy about Jesus. For us it seems like just a tired old story that needs some modern glitz to make it attractive. But I still find it a compelling story when I look past the glitz and hype. 

The angels that announced Jesus' birth must have been singing from joy. They knew him already, had spent so much "time" singing and praising about him and with him that it spilled over into the sky on the night of his birth! 

To me they were sharing the joy they felt about who Jesus is/was/would be. 

I hope you find joy in this season as we prepare for the birth celebration.

Bonus stuff: 

Pentatonix - Joy to the World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXAWz1jwCow

            

Bible Project video on Joy 

https://youtu.be/qvOhQTuD2e0

Gulp by Mary Roach

https://www.amazon.com/Gulp-Adventures-Alimentary-Mary-Roach-ebook/dp/B00AN86JZ4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KCXP0G0KX7KJ&keywords=gulp+mary+roach+book+kindle&qid=1670079850&sprefix=gulp+mary+roach%2Caps%2C1093&sr=8-1

Advent 2022 - Love

This year I’ve been getting to know someone new. He’s an older guy at work, which is pretty funny since I’m one of the oldest people there now. He is an engineer with lots of high-power experience around the world. He lost his wife of over 30 years earlier this year, then three months later one of his stepsons killed himself. 

This guy loves to read and is pursuing weird subjects, which is right up my alley. He started studying who wrote the Bible - the actual humans, not the Creator of the Universe. He is studying Egyptian knowledge about electricity, remote viewing (which sounds like astral projection), and other things that are a little far out there, even for me. 

A popular saying right now is "Love God, Love Others". Bob Goff's books "Love Does" and others are great reads. I like his writings so much that I've tried to listen to a reading from his devotional "Living in Grace, Walking in Love" each night this past year. I enjoy it but I always worry about stuff like this because of where the Bible teaches not to boil it down to catchy phrases. 

        

There are so many ways to show love to people. One of my favorite ways is to listen to people. In a world with opinions and advertising blaring everywhere listening is sometimes hard but helps me and hopefully helps who I'm listening to. (Like my engineer friend.)

I pray that you find ways to show and experience the love of God this Christmas season!

Bonus stuff: 

Pentatonix “Prayers for this world”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzav80_4kao&list=PLaONuT5QUpidKOBovDhtfzfs8XUndW-8J

Bible Project video on love

https://youtu.be/HV_LUs2lnIQ

Bob Goff’s “Love Does” book:

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Does-Discover-Secretly-Incredible-ebook/dp/B0078FA8HU/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2RVITKA108RA4&keywords=bob+goff+books&qid=1669388712&sprefix=bob+goff%2Caps%2C535&sr=8-6

Okra and gumbo ~

Over the past few years I've tried to change my diet so that I eat more vegetables. It's part of the whole "getting healthier" thing that we tend to do as we get older.

My tastes have changed. I used to hate V-8 but now I can drink and actually enjoy it. I used to dislike the taste of green bell peppers but I've eaten the sweet red and yellow and orange peppers enough to where the green bell peppers taste okay to me now. I still prefer them cooked instead of raw but they taste okay.

One of the dishes that I like to make is roasted brussel sprouts. And I really like it! Which surprises me a lot. When I was growing up the only brussel sprouts that I knew came in TV dinners and they were mushy nasty things that I always skipped. But roasted brussel sprouts where they're just getting soft in their little crispy on the outside are delicious to me now. Throw in some mushrooms, onions, and red peppers not the spicy kind and it makes for a really delicious dish!

Recently I wanted to try something different. So I asked my wife to pick up some fresh okra if she could on her next grocery run. And she did.

I love okra when it's fried, but I don't really like okra in a soup or a gumbo. So I cut up the okra into the pieces like I get when they fry it, coated them with some olive oil and spices, and then roasted them like I do the brussel sprouts. They turned out delicious! Good flavor with the whole full okra taste, no sliminess, just goodness. I could've cooked them a little bit longer because some of the pieces were little tough to chew, but that probably explains why most people put them into a soup or gumbo.

It was funny because I was telling a friend from Louisiana about that. He laughed and asked if I knew what the word "gumbo" meant. He told me that okra was one of the few vegetables that was brought over from Africa and is mostly grown in the South. He said that the word "gumbo" is derived from the African word for okra. And so gumbo means okra. He laughed and he said so when people say that they like gumbo but they don't really like the okra he knows that they don't really know the meaning of the word gumbo and the history of the vegetable. Very funny!

Give roasting okra a try. It turned out really well! 400 for 45 minutes in a cast iron skillet worked well for me. Enjoy!

Driving the older car ~

Growing up I watched my dad drive the older car instead of the new one. When we were in Hawaii I remember he bought a Datson when there weren't very many Datsons out there. He spent many weekends tinkering with the car trying to get the distributor cap to work properly and making sure the engine ran because it was not in great shape. It was a very old so I didn't understand very much of what he was doing but I knew he said a lot of bad words while he was doing it.

The only time I remember him having a new or newish car was when we had a Ford Gran Torino. It was a big car but because it was a two-door it was hard for me and my little brother to get in and out of the back seat. We ended up taking a road trip with my grandmother in that car out to the Grand Canyon and back. My dad drove almost the entire time, Grandma was in the front passenger seat taking video with her movie camera of almost every interstate sign that we passed. My brother was six years younger than me so he was probably about four years old or maybe three. Mom sat in the backseat with us, my brother stretched out with his head in her lap. He slept most the time, that left me to sit in the middle between the bucket seats on all watching everything passed by. It was fun!

As I got into my teens we got a Volkswagen Bug. It was an old 1968 model that dad called "Hitler's Revenge" because it never ran right. No air conditioning, corner vent windows that you turned to get the wind as you were flying down the highway. It was fun to drive! I learned how to push a car and pop the clutch to get the engine started in that Volkswagen.

Dad ended up taking my old Ford Pinto when I moved up from it to a Subaru hatchback. I ended up buying the Subaru brand-new but being a four-cylinder engine Dad didn't think it would support air conditioning so I drove around Central Florida with no air conditioning for a couple of years.

But he drove that Ford Pinto for years until it stopped working. He didn't like that car but he drove it.

When he got a truck he bought an old Chevy pickup truck with a manual transmission and the shifter on the steering column. No air conditioning in that, but he loved driving the truck. He drove it all over the place and ended up driving it on a road trip to Tennessee and back.

As he got older he finally bought a new vehicle, a Mercury Grand Marquis. It was smooth and he enjoyed driving ita lot. After he died I got to drive that car for a little while and even though it was older it was still a smooth ride.

Through all of that my dad taught me that driving older vehicles is okay and usually saves money. Good lesson!

Filling in spaces ~

One of the things that bugs me is when people don't consider others when they're part of a group and they enter into a group space.

Like at concerts. If it's a concert that people want to go to the all try to get the best seat that they can imagine. Even though there's a large group of people coming there, rush to get there early and try to get in front and if they get there right when the doors open and then they try to beat others to get to the front.

Buses are fun, especially especially when you're part of a group that's riding about somewhere. But I've noticed that most people just drop into the first seat that they come to and then everybody else on the bus has to walk over them and pass them in order to get to the next open seat. And if you're one of the last people getting on the bus then you're having to walk by and bump into everybody on the way on and it's gonna take you the longest get off the bus.

Worse, when you are on a bus and you're in a window seat and when it's time to get off the bus many people just jump up and start getting off the bus immediately and don't consider the second person in a row or a seat that then has to stand there and wait for nearly all of the bus to get off before they can get off of the bus.

Benches are funny to watch people use. In a park or in a business or almost anywhere people will sit in the middle of the bench in an effort to prevent anybody else from sitting down with them. I have done that in the past, but I have tried to make an effort share benches with people or at least leave part of the bench open and make it obvious so that somebody should sit down with me. I had that happen recently at an amusement park where I just wanted to sit on a bench with my wife that was plenty big enough for somebody else to sit there and not make it feel weird. And a woman actually sat down and said she was tired and waiting on her kids and sat down we didn't have to talk or anything we just enjoyed sharing a bench.

Churches are always fun about the way people fill up space. Typically when you walk in the doors of the church worship area or sanctuary you're walking in the back of the room. Many many people sit in the back row so that they can get out as soon as the services over or sneak out before it's over. Or because they don't want to get too close. That means that everybody coming in now has to walk past you or over you to get to any open seats. In the first two or three rows are almost always left empty and anybody who sits up there is automatically judged as being late and not a very good church going person. Which is hilarious!

In my church I've made an effort to walk to the furthest point in the room and try to sit toward the middle-of-the-row so that others can fill in around and in front of and behind me. It frustrates my wife to no end when I do this, but that way I don't have to walk over people and crawl over people to get to my seat or apologize for interrupting their worship experience when we walk in late again.

I experienced a lot of frustration on a recent trip to Israel. I was with a group of hearing-impaired and hearing people, about half-and-half. When in a group setting I tend to be toward the back of the pack because that's where I feel like I can be the most help. I watch out for others, I watch to make sure we're not leaving anything behind, and I don't have to be in a big rush with a whole herd of people right on my tail trying to make me go faster. That tendency of mine led to me not having room or any ability to see when we went to new places to visit and learn about. Very often it led to me missing out on several of the key points of the trip. Or me not getting to see what the tour guide was talking about until after everybody was done looking and walked away and then I could look and go home that's what he meant.

I try to approach it with a servant's heart and attitude but at times my humanness comes out and I have to assert my presence and will just sit wherever I please. Or push my way over and past everybody that's been rude and just stopped when they walked in the door and make my way to the empty space on the far side of whatever area that we're in.

And sometimes I give up completely and don't even try and just go outside once I see that there is no way for me to get to the empty space without having to be extremely rude and interrupt everybody since the show or the tour or the explanation has already started and been underway for a couple of minutes.

Sometimes I wish I was wired differently. But I'm not!

People on the phone ~

I love my phone! My smart phone does so much more than just allow me to take and make phone calls. In fact, I do that rarely with my smart phone. I use it mostly to read things on, browse the Internet, manage my calendar and tasks, and send either short or long messages to people. I also program but that's a whole different thing.

Because most of the people around me have mobile smart phones I see other people using their phones a lot more than I actually use mine, and I use mine a lot! Guys at work spend their breaks looking at their phones instead of talking to each other. When I go shopping I have to dodge people that are so engrossed in whatever they're looking out on their phone that they just run right into me if I don't get out of the way. I find that rather rude, but it happens pretty often.

What I find funny is when somebody is talking on the phone and how they try to get away from people so that they have a semblance of privacy. They turn away from anybody near them, they start walking towards the corner or a door so that they can duck around the corner. It's like whatever they're talking about is private in their mind and they will keep it that way.

It reminds me of when I was trying to play video games and I tried a first-person shooter game several years ago. I don't even remember the name of but the graphics were cool and it boasted of fancy new artificial intelligence built into the characters that were not live players. I don't like the live online games so everybody else in the game except me is an artificial intelligence usually.

But the computer people thrown into the game to add something random to talk to or interact with acted a lot like people do that are talking on their phones in public. They would go wander off into corners. If I would run up to them in the game and try to interact with them they would say random stupid statements or "leave me alone" and stand in the corner.

It's just funny to think back on the way the artificial people in that game acted and how real people that are on their phones today act being so similar.

Very weird similarities.

All in our pocket now ~

I saw a meme the other day that made me think for a few minutes. On multiple days!

It was a picture of a guy standing behind the table that was covered up with media items that have been so popular in my life time. He was holding a boom box while standing in front of console TV. He was surrounded with stacks of VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs. There were stacks of paper in multiple sizes with writing and pictures on them. There was a professional looking camera with a telephoto lens on the table. There was a Walkman with the old headphones on the table. As well as magazines and newspapers and books galore. A guitar, drums, and a portable keyboard. All of that and lots of other things on the table. It was amazing!


The caption of the meme was "we now carry all of this in our pockets".

One of the things I didn't mention above was the telephone that was on the table. Our mobile devices have become so lambasted by people talking about addiction and negative effects lots of time with family and depression and anxiety and all of the other negatives about the things our device bring that sometimes we don't stop and think about the positives. To be able to look up something about somebody I've never known that starred in an obscure movie filmed where I grew up is amazing! To be able to carry a library of books and periodicals and to be able to access the news from multiple sources at the flick of my thumb is astounding to me still.

I love how technology is going. I wonder about where we're headed with augmented reality and all the dangers that will bring.

I really like the meme!

 Check it out at https://twitter.com/whollydavid/status/1582885292213534720?s=20&t=9cPdLFfkkAgBGrjtNT5P4ghhttps://twitter.com/whollydavid/status/1582885292213534720?s=20&t=9cPdLFfkkAgBGrjtNT5P4gttps://twitter.com/whollydavid/status/1582885292213534720?s=20&t=9cPdLFfkkAgBGrjtNT5P4ghttps://twitter.com/whollydavid/status/1582885292213534720/photo/1

 

#technology

Return to Lake Wobegon ~

In my quest for more content for my personal podcast I bought and downloaded some stories from Lake Wobegon by Garrison Keillor. I added them to my rotation and have enjoyed them so far.

I always enjoyed the storytelling exercise that Garrison Keillor would go through. A very liberal comedian but what I always found funny was his stories didn't sound so liberal, I enjoyed Prairie Home Companion radio shows several times and enjoyed the thought of it for many years. I always loved it when I hear him telling the fictional news from the fictional place in Minneapolis that his character that he played in the radio show came from. News about people in the cold and stuck in their religious practices at church and the funny ways that he would go to great lengths to describe things it was always entertaining for me!

Garrison Keillor is one of those artists that I always feel guilty when I enjoy his work because he's so against what I believe in what he says. Not necessarily in his comedy but in what he says and what he spouts he's against me, but his stories tell a different story about him.

You can check out some of of the Lake Wobegon stories on Amazon at 

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lake+wobegon&i=digital-music&crid=3U5IW3V8VFH9K&sprefix=lake+wobegon%2Cdigital-music%2C379&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Careful what you let in your head ~

Be careful what you let in!

Pretty funny - I've been listening to this old-time radio show from 1950 that was sponsored by Wheaties. The show would start with a blurb about Wheaties. In between Act I, Act II and after the conclusion of the show they would talk about Wheaties. One commercial would be about "Wheaties at seven help you at 11" and how it's important to eat Wheaties with milk and fruit. Sometimes they'd have a sports figure on, and it would be very straightlaced and he would comment about how Wheaties gives him energy to do whatever sport he does. Usually baseball because that was the big one at that time.

I've never eaten Wheaties. When I was growing up I loved the sugar-filled cereals like Cap'n Crunch, cornflakes, Cheerios, and other stuff. When mom decided to get more healthy it was Raisin Bran and I would try to find all the raisins and put sugar on the flakes. But never Wheaties!

Recently I was in the grocery store to pick up the items that were on my list. And when I saw the cereal aisle I started to go down it looking for the Wheaties. Just to see the box and probably pick one up. So that they could help me too.

Then I shook my head and thought about just how much influence those commercials were having on me.

Just another reminder to be careful of what you let in through your eyes and ears. Like the children's song says.

What good can I do today ~

My church has a phrase the our pastor has been repeating over and over and over this year. And it's a good one: what good can I do today?

He uses that to spur action and the people that go to church with me to reach out more into our community with the love of Jesus. To do more things day-to-day rather than having some overarching goal that nobody ever reaches.

It's funny because this question fits with so much of the other teaching and encouraging that's happening around us. A lot of the gurus and articles that I seek and stumble across on the Internet and even the memes that I see as I scroll through social media encourage us to do something. If you can't clean the whole kitchen then just sweep the floor. If you can't do the whole project just do one thing that moves you toward it. If you can't read the whole book read a page or two. Forward motion no matter how fast will get you there eventually.

So the question "what good can I do today" helps me watch throughout the day for opportunities to help somebody. I pick up a piece of trash that somebody dropped or threw. Because if I do that and others do that then we won't have to walk around in trash the way we often do in our neighborhood and society.

I smile at people. Scary, I know, but depending on the person I almost always get a smile in return and science has shown us the if you smile your brain thinks you're happy and you start to feel happier. Happier people make for a better society in general. And forget about society, community is what I'm talking about. A happier community makes for a safer community. And a better environment for children and families to learn and grow rather than be uptight and angry and nervous.

A few years ago at my grandmother's funeral my father asked me to read some of the memories and stories that family members had pulled together to share at her memorial service. I'm really not the kind of person that likes to get up in front of everybody and talk, but I can do it and I can communicate okay. And because I'm a good son I told my father yes I would do it.

One of the stories that a family member shared seemed hokey but it fits with the "what good can I do today" question. It was the story about a little boy standing on the beach picking up starfish and throwing them into the ocean one at a time. A man walking on the beach was watching the boy do this and got curious. So he went to the little boy inside or asked him what are you doing? The little boy explained that the starfish got stuck up here after the tide went out and he said "I'm throwing them back into the ocean so they can live." The man looked up and down the beach and saw that there were thousands of starfish on the beach. And that they were getting baked in the sun. The man looked at the little boy and said "But there are so many. There is no way that you can save all of these starfish. How is what you're doing actually going to help them?" And the little boy responded "I don't know, but I sure helped this one!" And he threw it into the ocean.

All that may not be exactly how the story went, but it's meant a lot to me over the years. I reflected on it quite a bit and with this question that our pastor has us asking ourselves think about that story a lot there so much in our world that could be better how is there anything that we can do to change it? I don't know, but the good that I can do today helps that one situation or person!

Ineffable ~

The other day I was listening to a lesson and the person speaking used the word ineffable.

I actually have a look that one up! Ineffable means too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words, or not to be uttered. As I read more about the word it's been used for things that are indescribable and can't be expressed in mere words. Usually it was associated with talking about God. But other things can be ineffable also.

Another definition expanded on it saying it caused so much emotion, especially pleasure, that it cannot be described. Ineffable joy or beauty beyond description.

And as I read all these definitions and descriptions of things that are too overwhelming to be expressed I started laughing.

One of the things that I enjoy is a play on words. And I started thinking about how in today's society if someone used the word ineffable in a show or a video or a podcast they would probably use it to mean something that can't be messed up.

Do you get it? We've gotten to a point where it's common to hear the F bomb and if you don't hear it it seems weird. We've even shortened it so that in polite company we can say will "that's effed up". And so for something to be ineffable I could easily imagine somebody thinking that it can't be screwed up.

For all of its complications I love the English language! Even when it's effed up like this.

Six Flags vs Disney ~

I recently went to the Six Flags Park in the city that I live near. My wife and I try to go there each year and enjoyed taking our kids and other people's kids with us when we went to Six Flags. Now that all of our children are grown she and I go there alone to ride roller coasters and be together. It's fun!

Six Flags has never been one of those top-ranked experiences where everything is perfect and beautiful. There are always rough edges, the people seem to be regular people and even some not so regular people. And the shiny parts of Six Flags at least for me tend not to overcome the rough edges.

This year I noticed that Six Flags has gone cash less. They have big signs up saying if you expect to buy anything in the park convert your cash to a card here. My wife and I talked about it and that have a feeling that because the higher minimum wage workers to work at Six Flags they had to deal with a lot of fast. Having no cash drawers and all terminals probably reduces that theft a lot as well as reduces the money that they have to spend on securing their own facility from their own people.

Technology has reached the point that the drinks and drink bottles that Six Flags sells have chips in them and instead of having someone staff a drink station and just refill bottles they have automated drink stations and if your bottle doesn't have the chip the drink does not flow. That's a cool use of technology but it does give me pause.

One of the rough edges that I noticed that was really disappointing to me was stickers stapled to the end of boards of wood. They had refurbished one of the wooden roller coasters in the park. And not just the roller coasters but all the surrounding walkways that have wood decking material and such. While I stood waiting for my wife at one point I noticed that about half of the boards that made up the walkway leaving the roller coaster still had the yellow pressure-treated wood label stapled to the end of the board. It made for a very tacky and unpolished feel. And my immediate thought was "Disney would never tolerate that!" I read a couple of books about Disney and have been to Disney a couple of times and the Magic Kingdom has very strict guidelines for the people to help maintain the magic. I read in one of the books that Disney employees are given a test they don't even know they're in where they are walking and if they walk by a piece of trash and do not pick the trash up and throw it away they are fired. I don't know if that's true but it is a wonderful philosophy that I wish more people and not just companies but individuals would take up as a way of life.

Six Flags was fun. I got beat up by the roller coasters and enjoyed way-overpriced junk food and drinks. The best part was being with my wife, who I love dearly. And I love having fun with her!

Still spinning ~

Holy David Post

When I was in training as an Air Traffic Control Specialist the training was mentally draining. We were learning things about air traffic control and the rules that we had to use to keep airplanes separated from each other. Under many many different situations.

I remember being nervous as I thought through the daily puzzles that were presented to me. I understood that if I didn't figure it out and pass them I would lose my job. And so I was pretty motivated to figure things out.

The nervousness came out in different ways though. I got quiet. I studied a lot. Although I didn't really understand what I was studying I still studied the rules and made index cards with identifiers and flipped through them. Beat myself up for not knowing things faster.

I remember being in the non-radar lab and doing a puzzle. Old retired controllers were usually the trainers. And so all these older guys that came up in the 1950s and 1960s were in there teaching us non-radar rules of separating aircraft. As I puzzled through each problem part of the challenge was to do strip marking correctly. Each aircraft has a flight strip with an identifier, the type of aircraft that it is with its airspeed and ground speed, which are different, altitude, fix posting along his route to tell me where we were thinking about where he was, his route of flight, and other information. As we controlled airplanes we were supposed to mark on the strips that we had communication with the pilot, when he had passed certain points in the sky, and write down the clearance that we had given him and whether he had reached it or not. Especially altitude.

My nervousness in the lab would come out with the pencil that we had to use. We used double-ended pencils - one end was black and one end was red. Black was used for things that actually had happened and were real, red were things that were planned or warnings or things that we had not done yet.

Once I started figuring things out I would sit there during the problem and fidget. I didn't know what to do because there was time in the problem before the disasters that were presented to us as puzzles came up. So I would review my flight plans and make sure that I had done all the things that I need to do. And as I reviewed this information and puzzle through things I would hold my double-ended pencil in my right hand and spin it around inside my fingers. Not like you see in Top Gun where Iceman is making his pen go through his fingers like a magician with a coin. I would make a hoop with my fingers and thumb and  and hold the pencil there in the circle and spin it around like it was inside a hoop.

One instructor just thought that was hilarious! He would laugh and say "I can tell that you're thinking too hard because you're spinning your pencil." And then he would laugh and joke with the other instructors that he had never seen anybody else in his life do something like that with their pencil or pen.

What I find interesting is over 30 years later I still do that. If I have a pen or a pen shaped device in my hand and I am not actively using it I will catch myself spinning it around in my fingers and thumb while I think and ponder.

I guess that means I'm consistent! Pretty funny...

Digging cactus ~

Another good memory I have of being a kid in central Florida was digging cactus.

My brother and I wanted to earn money to buy some toys and comic books but there wasn't a lot of opportunity were we lived. We lived 5 miles away from the nearest Jiffy store and the road was such that our parents would not let us ride all the way there and all the way back on our own.

We lived next door to our grandparents. And they own the big field that had a lake in it. My dad mentioned our desire to earn some money to my grandfather and he said that he needed cactus dug up in the field and put us to work digging prickly pear cactus for three dollars a bucket. 

My brother and I thought we were going to be rich! We were so excited to be able to go out in the field and do this. But we know it was going to be hard work!

We suited up with the our silly looking bucket hats. They were light blue and were supposed to protect us from the sun. They did, just not anything except the top of our heads.

We would go over to grandma and grandpa's house and get our buckets and our hoes and head out into the field. We didn't go out early because there was so much dew and the grass was so tall that we didn't want to be soaked. But then we didn't want to be out there in the middle of the day and get baked by the sun. So we went around 10 o'clock and worked until 12:30pm or when we got thirsty we would go back to the house and get something to drink. I had my transistor radio tuned to some music station. I remember hearing the song Baker Street over and over and over! And then the news would come on and I would try to change the radio to a different station to get some music.

We dug the prickly pair cactus up with the hoes. I got more needles in my hands and legs than I ever want to get again in my life. We saw gopher turtles and snakes. We saw birds and bugs. We got chiggers.

When we were done digging for the day we had to go back to the house and get grandpa to come out and inspect our buckets. He made sure we were filling them up and not trying to cheat him out of three dollars. And then he would pour the prickly pear cactus on the sheet of tin so that they would die in the sun

I wish I had counted how many buckets of prickly pear cactus we dug but I didn't. I was too focused on the payoff. I only remember doing that for one summer, maybe two. I remember my brother sweating profusely and me being concerned that he was getting too hot. He is six years younger than me so I was responsible for him even though he was usually doing something that would get me into trouble.

But we never got in trouble digging cactus. And then later we got accused of planting cactus out there, but that's a whole different story. Every time I hear the song Baker Street I think about being out in the field in the of summer digging of prickly pear cactus.

Good stuff!

Dead Sea experience ~

My wife and I went with a group to Israel. It was a wonderful experience but as with any great endeavor there are always a few spots that are not quite as wonderful.

I loved being in the Galilee, I loved Jerusalem, I enjoyed the food and hearing the languages and seeing the people and all of the rich history from the Bible and more.

One of the things that I was most looking forward to was floating in the Dead Sea. I had heard about it and read about it. I had heard people talk about how cool it was and how hard it was to stand and how wonderful the sensation was. So I planned for that experience.

Part of my plan was to pack my things needed for a beach. I had an extra large baggie from the steering wheel cover that I had purchased. I stuffed that baggie full of my bathing suit, a longsleeved shirt to protect my arms and body from the sun, sandals, and a beach towel. And I packed all those things two weeks before our trip to Israel and kept it in a safe place so that I would remember to pack it in my suitcase.

I packed that baggie in my suitcase and put everything else around it. It made it to Israel just fine and I made sure that it was ready for that one day deep in the trip.

The day came. I grabbed the big baggie of Dead Sea things and put it in my day pack. We went through the whole day and everything was like every other day, rush rush rush to see and learn as much as we could throughout the day. Of course with so many things packed in the day and traffic and everything the Dead Sea float was at the end of the day just before dinner. So when we got to the Dead Sea we had already been hearing "hurry hurry hurry" for most of the afternoon.

The guide told us where the changing rooms were and said we needed to meet up at a certain time. The time he mentioned was not very long after we got off the bus. The people in our group all rushed to go and change into their bathing suits. Being considerate and having been considerate to the others in my group of the rest of the trip I was considerate again and lagged behind as I tend to do. The men were in the restrooms for quite a long time. I went from the restroom that was full of people not of our group as well as the men from our group and went to find one of the changing stalls near the water. Of course that was full also and I was patiently waiting outside of one. When the person that was in there came out one of the people in my group went in even though I was standing right there waiting to go in to change my clothes. So I went to the bathroom again to see if the stalls were empty and I could change into my bathing clothes and of course the stalls were full of other people now. And as our limited amount of time at the Dead Sea dwindled I began to get upset

I stopped myself and let the last couple of guys that were in our group go ahead of me. And then I did something that was a luxury on this trip, I went in after everybody was done and I got to sit on the toilet for a few minutes. I played a little game on my phone and enjoyed the rest while using the toilet and then cleaned up and wash my hands and went out and sat on a bench with my baggie full of Dead Sea bathing clothes that I had carried with me to Israel.

I was stunned and angry and hurt and upset. I really wanted to shout and cuss and make a scene. But I did not.

And I watched people walk by. I listened to the people in the water and watched them all rush out to change back into their regular clothes. The guide was busy telling everybody to "hurry hurry hurry" because the next stop was dinner and we needed to get there so that we could get our dinner before the restaurant closed. And I started to feel very peaceful about my choice.

In situations like this I can begin to blame people and things for me not getting what I wanted. Too many people were in my way. Too many people took advantage of my consideration. I got cut off.

But this time I came up with a phrase that helped me accept what had happened. I had made lots of plans and had everything lined up for my Dead Sea float to be a wonderful experience that I'd be able to tell people about for years.

My plans didn't work out

That phrase has started to save me a lot of pain and suffering. When I tell myself that "my plans didn't work out" I'm not blaming anybody and I'm not angry. I can look at it objectively and see where I could have planned better and maybe done something a little bit different. Or sometimes there's just no way that the long-term plans that were laid out worked and it just didn't happen.

So I feel more healthy now. I feel like I have a strategy that can help me not only deal with not getting the float in the Dead Sea during our trip to Israel but can help me deal with many other things that happen along the way that are not in line with my.

For someone who plans a lot and predicts and forecasts and adjusts to make things happen according to the plan it's very difficult to say "my plans didn't work out". But it helps me accept the reality of what happens.

Being less judgemental ~

One of the fascinating aspects of being in community with others is a search for something to be offended about. So many people walk into a room or go to a place of business or entertainment and see things through judgment: and they look for things that are considered wrong by them that they should be upset about or even offended about.

I get that way sometimes. I want things a certain way. I even joked that I get along with everybody as long as we do things my way. But I don't know that I'd go in looking to be offended by something.

If I did it would be very easy. As a Christian the entertainment industry majority seems to have it out for me and my God. They make me and my fellow believers out to be evildoers that just want to control everybody else. A limp noodle people that are easily swayed and controlled by others. Which is kind of funny because they portray Christians as both extremes which one is it?

But even having been involved in scouting and raising three Eagle Scouts I could easily be offended. The Boy Scout motto is be prepared. But in the movie the Lion King the people driving that story and bringing that entertainment to the market threw a song in there where the bad guy was telling all his henchmen "be prepared" for when I overthrow the king. And they repeated it over and over-be prepared, be prepared.

Even after all these years of seeing that movie I still think of that and think how that could so easily undermine the great message that scouting has.

Luckily it didn't! I continue to be prepared for so many different things. My mother jokes about my backpack and how after raising our kids I still can be asked hey do you have this and I can reach into my bag of wonders and usually pull something out that's very close to what somebody's looking for. I don't want to get caught flat-footed.

But I do. And when I do I handle it and move on. And then I added to my bag of tricks.

I wish the entertainment industry moguls would just produce fun entertainment and leave the messaging happy and easy. Happy and easy is different for everybody and mine may not match up with their happy and easy. Such is life!

Adapting to no change ~

I was recently in New York City with my wife. We were celebrating an anniversary and having a good time!

We rode around the city in one of the double-decker open top buses, which was a lot of fun!

One day when we were riding around the city we decided to hop off of the bus and walk for a little while. Which was fine, even though it was a hot day.

We saw the food cart on a corner and we stopped to get some water. Of course the water was way more than it should've been, but in the city and it was a hot day and we needed water we paid the price. Four dollars each for two bottles of water came to e-books so I gave the guy to fives.

The guy who was not a native English speaker look through his money in the cart and told me that he didn't have any change and asked if I wanted something else. I was puzzled but instead of getting worked up I just went with it and asked him how much or what I could get for two dollars. It took us about a minute to understand each other but he finally got it and he dug in the back of the cold space in his heart and came up with a ginger ale that was ice cold. He said to dollar and I said okay and my wife and I enjoyed in ice cold ginger ale as we walked down the streets of Manhattan. And then we drink our water to.

I thought that was really adaptive of the guy. And I was kind of glad I just went with it which is something I tend to do more and more now. If I run into something that I really don't want to do I just don't do it. Which is a big change from the way I used to be.

I love progress! And I love adapting to the situation. Period.

Age of Aquarius ~

A few weeks ago I heard the song age of Aquarius from the 1970s playing. It made me laugh at the catchy tune and the lyrics that I remember from when I was growing up.

It also made me laugh to think about how hopeful the hippies were when they sing that song. So excited about the dawning of a new age and how great it was going to be! It was enough to get me to go on look up some information about the age of Aquarius. I went to Wikipedia, the Internet-based encyclopedia that lots of people laugh and joke about but they still use it. The entry about the age of Aquarius is a fun read. It talks about astrological signs which I put no stock and even though my grandmother religiously read her horoscope every day. It talks about how and age in astrological terms is 2160 years. And it talks about how the different ages are defined by where the vernal equinox falls in the zodiac symbols made by the stars in the sky.

That made me laugh even more because that meant the hippies were all singing about our planet tilting a little bit further from one side to another and I knew age was dawning.

When you read deeper into the Wikipedia article talks about how believers in medieval astrology.

The funniest thing about the Wikipedia entry on the Age of Aquarius is about the middle of it and says that the Aquarian age will be a rule world ruled by secretive power-hungry elites seeking absolute power over others and that knowledge of the Aquarian age will only be valued for its ability to win wars, that science will be abused, and that the Aquarian age will be a dark age in which religion is considered offensive. Reading that made me think about how so many today fit right into that picture!

Anyways, the whole astrology thing is kind of silly to me. My grandmother believed in it and would read that thing every day. I read it when I was growing up but once I got into my teens I thought it was kind of stupid to live few words in the newspaper tell me how I was supposed to live my life. And how I was supposed to feel. I much prefer putting my faith into Jesus Christ and following him and his teachings in the Bible over the random writings of somebody in a dark room publishing in a newspaper or whatever.

But that's a different discussion!

 Wikipedia entry about Age of Aquarius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Aquarius

 

Parking ~

I love to drive! Driving is one of those freedoms that I thoroughly enjoy even as the gas prices get higher and higher. Traffic used to bother me but I've reached an age and an experience level to where it doesn't bother me as much. I don't jump from lane to lane trying to get ahead of people, I just want to get somewhere the easy easiest way possible.

I love driving a pickup truck now . It's fun to be full-sized again! When I park I tend to pull through parking spaces so that I don't have to backup on my way out. That means I tend to park far away from the door of whatever building I'm trying to get into. Which drives my wife crazy at times.

Parking has not always been a fun experience for me. I remember one time when the my wife and I were dating that we were going to something in another town. It was at a college. We got there and there was nowhere to park of course. We drove around and then we saw somebody pulling out of a parking space and I rushed up there and cut somebody off to get into the parking space. I felt guilty about it and I thought I was going to end up in a fight but luckily I didn't.

I remember another time when I was younger I was in my first car at the grocery store and rushed into to the store to buy whatever it was I was trying to buy. I came rushing out because I was in a big hurry to go and see my girlfriend (who became my wife eventually). I hopped in my car and made sure my sunglasses were on right and that the appropriate music was blaring from my speakers. I was in a parking space with nobody in front of me. I looked around, put the car in drive, pulled forward to go through and go straight out the other side of the parking spaces. There was a huge thump and clunk from the front end of the vehicle! I was like "what just happened" and I realized there were curb things in the parking spaces to keep people from doing what I was doing. But I was already over it and scraping the bottom of my car that I was in. It was horrible! I thought I was going to rip up my car's transmission and screw it up and then thump thump over the next one on the other side for the other parking space and just decided I had to keep going. After two more thump thump's I was free and as I pulled away from the parking spaces I looked behind me to see if I was trailing any mechanical stuff or any liquids. Luckily I was not.

That was the worst parking experience that I've had in all of driving career. Very embarrassing! Very nerve-racking because ever since I'm always looking for those stupid curb things in between parking spaces. Luckily they don't put those things out very often now.

Be careful parking out there. Dangerous!

Hawaii things ~

When I was a boy I lived in Hawaii for five years. From when I was
age 3 to 8 he was stationed at Hickam Air Force Base on Oahu in Hawaii
I have a lot of good memories from there! Memories of playing in the yard, going to school, watching Bozo the clown and Saturday morning cartoons that were fun and silly my brother was born in Hawaii and I remember helping him as he grew.

I remember as part of a school program I participated in King Kamehameha Day. I remember wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a lei and sitting on grass with a bunch of other students while hulu dances and other shows were happening.

I remember my aunt and uncle came to visit us while we were there. I don't remember a lot from their visit but I do remember that he enjoyed eating poi, the mashed taro root food the Hawaiians made. I remember my parents being so puzzled as to why anyone would like that tasteless food, but he loved it!

I remember I had one jacket and it was made of opaque vinyl with the Hawaiian flower the design underneath it so you can see it through the vinyl. When we left Hawaii and went to Texas the first weekend we were in Texas it snowed. I had to wear a Hawaiian jacket in the snow which was funny.

I remember when we left Hawaii I had a window seat on the airplane. I remember looking back as we took off and seeing all the lights on the islands in the night. They were beautiful! And even though I was leaving it was such a cool thing to be on an airplane and to see the lights from above that it helped me not be too sad. Plus I was only eight years old so I got over that pretty quick.

I remember going back to Hawaii as an adult. My wife and I took our rental car onto Hickam Air Force Base. I was able to find where I had lived. We drove up and down the street and finally parked and got out just to go and look at the duplex where I spent so much time. It was a cool feeling to see the tree that I probably played in and the palm tree in the front that I had sprayed water on wasps and played with my army men in front of. It was nice to be able to show my sons where I had grown up, something I couldn't do without a long flight.

Whenever I hear old-time radio shows that use a Hawaiian theme or weave something from Hawaii into them I enjoy them. I also enjoy shows based in Hawaii - we watched all of the latest Hawaii 5-0 series with the new young actors that came out back in the 2000's.

A lot of good memories about Hawaii!

Holocaust museum thoughts ~

It is fascinating to have gone through the Holocaust Museum in Israel. Such sadness.

One of the interesting reactions I had was the question of being part of a "people". So many Israelis feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves. Something bigger than even their family. And so the biases and concerns of people foreign to them become their own in some way.

I have none of that genetically. I have some of that as part of my belief system as a Christian. I have a lot of that as a citizen of the United States of America. But having been raised in freedom and encouraged to pursue my own place that's what I've done.

And that's okay. To me that's a hindrance not a limitation. I remember a Jewish friend at work that filed an EEO complaint about Christmas lights because he felt like Hanukah was getting unequal treatment and as a Jew he was offended. To satisfy his complaint and repair the situation he was encouraged to put up a Star of David. And he did.

The Holocaust Museum in Israel is a sad memorial to a very sad time in the history of our planet. I moved very quickly through it and I will remember just like I remembered these events before I went there. What sadness. And what hope that it will never happen again.

Potato salad ~

When I was growing up potato salad was a treat saved for special events. Holidays during summer, dinners that Grandma and Grandpa's house, or other things like that. We very seldom had potato salad outside of the special event.

My wife has continued that trend. I get potato salad once every couple of years. Usually in response to something going on. Recently there is a death in our church and my wife was making potato salad for dinner for the family. And I got to have some potato salad before it was all taken away.

I love potato salad! The German potato salad that's warm is not my favorite, but the blend of potatoes with eggs and egg yolks and celery and spices and other things well refrigerated tastes great to me!

I enjoyed the potato salad that my wife made recently. She is an excellent chef and does great things in the kitchen. She makes amazing potato salad! And I enjoyed it.

I don't need to eat a lot of potato salad because of the carbs. But when I do get it I enjoy it.

I love potato salad!

Anniversaries and awards ~

As a manager responsible for some of the people where I work I have the honor of giving awards to my people. That's the fun part of being a manager. Where the other part about chewing people out and giving direction and expectations and all that stuff isn't quite so much fun, giving the awards is awesome!

One of the main awards that we give where I work is a work anniversary. Not annually but every five years we give a certificate and a pin. So when somebody reaches five years of service eventually HR sends us a certificate and a pin and whoever is that person's immediate supervisor gets to present it to them. Over the years I have presented many different pens. Recently I was honored to have an employee who reached 40 years of service at our agency, which was amazing! I had the facility manager present that to him and he felt very good about receiving it. Didn't matter that it was almost a year late, which is normal and actually pretty quick for our HR department, but we still got it to him.

What's funny is over the years I've noticed differences between the generations and their attitudes about awards.

The generation before mine was all about the gold watch and the plaque when they retired. The expectation was for some sort of covered dish dinner or dessert celebration and they would finally bring their family and see where they spent all this time doing shift work in the middle of the night and early hours of the day. But that desire for the attention and celebration of reaching the point of retirement was huge for them, especially the managers. The worker people still wanted something but it wasn't quite as big as what the managers wanted and expected. And tended to set up for themselves.

My generation is different. Most of my people that have retired or received awards that are part of my generation didn't want a big deal made of it. They don't want any attention, they don't want to be seen or noticed, and at retirement they just want to fade off after their last shift and be left alone. They tend answer phone calls for a month or so but after that they don't return phone calls. My guy that just got his 40 year certificate is one of those where he is preparing to retire in a couple months. He is adamant that he does not want any kind of party or celebration for him. I'm planning on sending him something in the mail so that he can't turn it down but other than that we're not planning anything.

I have to admit I tend to be that way also. I don't really want to make a big deal about myself, I don't want people to know that I've crossed some sort of line so that they don't make fun of me or something. It's already bad enough being left out and treated like the old guy, which is on the verge of making me want to file something. I just don't really want to be noticed. And I just want when I do choose to leave my agency to fade off into the distance.

The generation after my generation is different. They're all about getting the award certificate and the pin. It reminds me of everybody getting a participation trophy when they were younger. These people are all about the getting of the award but they don't make a big deal about it. They just want to receive it because it means something to them. It's good to see, but it's also different and weird in its own way.

I'm hoping that I can stay long enough to see what the generation after them does but that's hard to tell. I'm close to retirement and my wife keeps saying I'm too young to not work anymore. I explained to her that it's not that I won't work, I just won't have a boss anymore. I'll get paid to not work!

I look forward to that award...

Christian prayer struggles ~

Struggles with prayer new pair a Christian. As a Christian I pray to an unseen God. The creator of the universe hears my prayers and responds in different ways. Either I get more peaceful about something because I know that I lifted it up, or I have seen things happen in people and things around me that could only have been done by my God.

An example that I point to in my life happened when I was going to college. My dad had arranged for me to be able to live in a one bedroom house on my grandparents property. This is so that I could be out of their house since I have lived in an apartment already and they had moved my brother into the bedroom and there really wasn't another bedroom for me to stay in. But it also gave me the freedom to live without interrupting everything going on at my parents house. My grandmother was very uptight because the little house had not been lived in for quite some time and things had been overgrown behind it. There was a shed in the corner of the property behind the little house and plants and stuff had grown up around that shed to the point to where you couldn't see the leak on the property. My grandmother really wanted me to be able to see the leak. She would say that repeatedly whenever I would visit with her and grandpa. And she would tell mother that we really need to make it so David can see the lake.

I prayed about. I asked God to make it so that I can see the lake. And I felt peace about giving that over to him waiting instead of going out and starting the tear stuff down and spending days clearing years of overgrowth.

A storm came through and my grandparents said that they heard something that sounded an awful lot like a tornado in the thunderstorm. But they wouldn't very much damage anywhere. And they said that the little house was fine but the shed was gone. The shed that was blocking my view of the lake was gone! I considered it an answer to my prayer.

Now when I pray I talk to God about things and try to listen. I have a folder on my cloud platform for storage where I keep text files, each one a prayer request for a person, couple, or group. And in that text file I have the details of what I'm praying for and record any answers that seem to happen. It works well for me, because I recorded several answers to prayer.

But lately I've been struggling with a couple of things surrounding prayer. I started meditating a couple of years ago. I resisted meditation because it seems so new age and uncompatible with Christian life. But as I've gotten into it and read more about it I am thinking more and more of meditation as a time to listen to God. I quiet my mind, I focus on my breathing, and I listen. I don't always get much but at least I'm taking 10 minutes a day and making myself available to hear. Do I expect God to speak to me in an all audible voice? No. But impressions and thoughts are always nice.

Of course that makes me wonder if I'm the one generating the thought or if it's actually something that's coming from God. Always a question, not really any answer about that. That's where I have to lean on faith.

Another struggle that I'm having is ending every prayer with the words "in Jesus name". When I read the Bible I read that Jesus is told his disciples that whatever you ask for in my name will be done. A lot of people take that to mean that he's like a genie and if you read your Bible enough and you say the prayer in Jesus name enough that it will happen. I tend not to think that because I know that people have free will and it's hard to know who will do what and why they will do it and whether God can overcome that or what or if he even should,. There's a lot of times when people make choices that are pretty much final and they know overcoming it and the repercussions will splash all over everybody around that person. Sad but true.

But neither do I like the having to say those three words at the end of every prayer to make it a "real" prayer. I tend to pray in a conversational way and I don't want to tell God what he is going to do, remind him you know you did this and you did that and you said this and so you have to do what I'm asking you to do right now. I just never think of it that way. I hear a lot of people pray that way and they raise their voices and they repeat it over and over and quote Scripture in tie things into a nice neat bow so that God can't make any choices except do exactly what they said to do. Those people tend to be the most frustrated and the most disappointed that I know because it doesn't happen their way.

And so that's where I struggle. Praying and developing that relationship with an unseen God and hope and have faith and then live my life knowing that I may never see what I asked for and it may never happen in my lifetime if it's not God's will is not going to happen it's all very strange!

So I struggle with prayer. I pray. And then I go about my life. Fun!