May 24 – “Food fights and friends”

 

 

I did the teaching at the youth group meeting again last night.  They really had fun with the intro activity.  I taped the name of a classic book on each of their backs.  They had to figure out what their book was by asking yes or no questions.  They ended up doing it one at a time, with the questioner in the "hot seat" in front of everyone.  It was a good thing that they were all high schoolers.  I don't know many junior high kids who have read Wuthering Heights or War and Peace.  That one may find its way back into some teaching in the future.  Maybe camp?  The study itself was on the Bible and what made it stand out in a way that made it more significant than the books they guessed.  Worked out pretty well. 

 

The meeting then morphed into a surprise birthday party for one of the girls.  Her Mom had set up a scavenger / clue hunt for her.  Each clue was somewhere in a Bible verse, which then led to the location of the next verse.  The final verse led her to one of the showers, where her Mom had put a birthday cake.  It took so long for her to figure all the clues, though, that by the time she found the cake, all the candles had burned to the nub and the icing was turning into hot fudge.  Didn't affect the taste.  And it certainly didn't affect the food fight that occurred when someone "helped" the birthday girl get up close and personal with her piece of cake.  If you just looked at her and hadn't seen what occurred, you would think at first that she had a black eye.  Then, as the frolicking peaked and began to wind down, it appeared that she had been on a raucous romp in a mud puddle.  Great fun.  Memories of an eighteenth birthday that I hope she won't soon forget.

 

1 John 4:1-3 says, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."

 

Father, thank you for food fights and friends.  Amen.

 

May 23 – “Playing with the big guys”

 

 

Jachin and Micah both had a baseball game last night.  Makes it much easier since they are both on the same team right now.  That sort of thing can happen when your Dad is the coach.  And when the team is short of players.  And when some of the players that are on the team don't show up for practice or games very often.  A five year old playing with eight year olds must be kind of intimidating for Micah.  He's supposed to be playing t-ball, and there he is facing The Machine.  The mechanical arm that whips the tiny orb toward him at 41 miles per hour.  At least that's what I heard the opposing team's coach say when he put his radar gun on one of the warm-up pitches.  Yes.  He had a radar gun.  Sigh.  What's this world coming to?  But Micah valiantly took his turns against the mechanical monster.  He also did a great job playing left field.  He had several fielding attempts.  He moved into position, put his glove to the ground, made the pickup, and threw on a line to the cutoff man.  His throws went just about the right distance for a five year old in a bigger man's world. 

 

The game was particularly exciting last night.  Our little guys all played the best I have seen them play all year.  They made some great defensive gems.  One guy on the opposition hit a rocket to center field.  Our youngster ran it down and tossed it to the shortstop, who turned and heaved a throw from the outfield all the way to the catcher, who just happened to be Jachin.  Jachin grabbed the throw and leapt over to make the tag at the plate.  Out.  Very nice glovework.  Even our right fielder took a break from creating a hovel out of a pile of dead grass just in time to field a base hit with his face and hold the runner to a single.  First time that has happened all year. 

 

On the offensive side of the game our two heavy hitters both came through with some strong punches beyond the outfielders.  One in particular would have been a home run for sure, but he had to slow down because our tiny girl was on base in front of him for the first time all year.  She was safe at first on catcher's interference after actually fouling off a few pitches.  Amy is about Micah's size and played an admirable third base as well, I might add.  She fielded three or four grounders and flipped the ball to the shortstop to deal with any throws that were needed.  Jachin's highlight was his drag bunt that went for a homerun.  The throwing error that got past the first baseman was all he needed to keep on running.  Micah made his attempt to get into the highlight reel when we had a runner on third base with two out in the top of the last inning.  The score was tied.  He hit a shot down the first base line that barely squeaked foul at the bag.  His Dad the coach argued the call to no avail, but it was kind of a funny argument.  "How can you call that foul?" he complained.  "He's just five years old.  And besides, he's my kid."  Great logic, coach.  We lost by one run in the bottom half of that inning.  But it was a great game.  On to the playoffs, Rangers.

 

1 John 3:24 says, "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

 

Father, thank you for the development we have seen in those little kids this year.  Help us old kids develop at least as much in our spiritual lives.  Amen.

May 22 – “Dreams are dreams”

 

 

We had to drive into Bay City again yesterday to get some more paperwork from one of the banks.  Still trying to accumulate all the paperwork Chris is responsible for as executor of her Mom's estate.  It's looking more and more like there will be quite a few areas of frustration remaining when all of this plays out.  The legal system just isn't made to restore the effects of broken relationships.  Takes God to do that effectively. 

 

I've been struggling with more pain lately.  I guess I got used to having sore knees, but trying to do much of anything with pain in both elbows is extremely distracting at best.  I'm not finding much that I can do while I'm awake that doesn't involve one or both of my elbows at some point.  Pick up a cup of coffee?  Yep.  Driving?  Also involved.  Typing?  Not so much during the process.  I found a spot where I can rest my arms on my desk.  But when I stop and straighten my arms out … ouch.  Read or do a crossword puzzle?  Gotta hold the book and the pencil.  Roll over in bed?  Uh-huh – gotta push off.  That doesn't even begin to include mowing the grass or carving something or even fishing.  I started taking the pain medication my doc prescribed to help me sleep at night.  It seems to do the job, but leaves me kind of sluggish when I first wake up.  That's not good, because I do most of my work in the early morning before the early afternoon weariness hits.  Kind of a catch-22. 

 

Wow.  Sounds pretty bleak when I read back over that.  I'm not dead yet, actually.  Although I have been longing for a break.  You know, the typical dreaming of a vacation.  A long vacation.  Knowing Mom is taken care of.  Knowing the bills are covered.  Knowing April is doing OK.  Not having anything in particular to prepare for.  Chris by my side (well, practically speaking, she'd probably be driving).  Maybe we could make a visit to every friend we have in the United States.  That alone would take us to … let's see … Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, New Jersey, Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma, Colorado, Oregon, California, Utah, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina, North Carolina, New York, and of course all over Texas.  Did I miss anyone?  Now that would be a trip.  I could even take one sermon along with me and preach it in everyone's church.  Then they could take up a love offering for us to get us to the next spot.  Of course that would probably mean I'd have to take along my marryin' and buryin' suit for some of those churches.  Ah, well.  Dreams are dreams. 

 

1 John 3:23 says, "And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us."

 

Father, thank you for placing friends of ours in all those places.  Makes dreming a lot more fun.  Amen.

 

May 21 – “Online predators”

 

 

We had a great dinner the other night with some new friends.  I got a call from the half-brother of my niece who lives in Lubbock.  We get to see her every year when we pass through going to Glorieta, New Mexico.  I vaguely remember meeting her brother at her wedding seven years ago, but I certainly haven't seen him since then.  Now he is getting married and wanted me to perform the ceremony.  He and his fiancé were coming to Houston to visit an uncle, so he wanted to get together and talk. 

 

I loved the story of how they met.  They were both playing the Facebook game Farmville.  I have never played it, so I'm not sure of the details, but apparently he needed someone to help him pick pumpkins.  He posted the position and she responded that she was available.  They continued their online "business" relationship until they finally decided to meet.  Sounds romantic, huh?  Not so much to her seventh grade son.  He laughed and told us that he warned his Mom about online predators.  "What if he is a 300 pound motorcycle gang member?"  Well, he was half right.  Scott is pretty thin.  We ate at Shrimp & Stuff, and they even came back for worship at Seaside yesterday morning.  Scott wasn't raised in church at all, so I've been praying for him a lot the last few days.  He seemed pretty interested when we talked about the gospel, and he didn't fall asleep at church, so that's always a good sign. 

 

The wedding will be in Jacksonville, Texas, wherever that is.  He said it was near Tyler.  Don't think I have ever been there, either, but at least I have heard of it.  And it's scheduled for the weekend before we leave for camp.  That will be a hectic one.  We'll go to Jacksonville on Friday for the wedding, spend the night there, then get up Saturday and drive to Victoria to pick up our niece who is going to camp with us.  We'll get home Saturday evening in time to pack so we can leave first thing Sunday morning for New Mexico.  And yes, we will be helping with that drive as well.  Glad Chris loves to drive. 

 

1 John 3:19-20 says, "This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

 

Father, keep drawing Scott closer to you.  Amen.

May 20 – “How I do that?”

 

 

Josiah spent the night with us.  Our first time with just him and without his Mommy.  His two big brothers and Mom and Dad went to the Astros game to see Jachin's favorite player, Josh Hamilton.  That's right.  Not even an Astro, but at least it's baseball.  And Josh Hamilton is really good.  I guess we haven't had enough time around Josiah to understand all the things he says.  There were two things that struck us as quite comical, mainly because they were so random.  The first one he said numerous times over the course of the evening.  Not sure how it got started, but once he realized that we liked it, we heard it again and again.  For some reason he stopped, looked down, and declared, "I got big foot."  OK.  We laughed and engaged him in a brief discussion of that medical malady.  The second one also reappeared a time or two and in different forms.  It was actually much funnier than the other one, because he used it appropriately every time.  When we talked to him about his big foot, he responded, "How I do that?"  And later, in the middle of one of his jabber sessions where he obviously knew exactly what he was saying while we didn't have a clue, he blurted out, "How you do that?"  Challenging question.  How I do that, indeed?

 

I went to one of the local high school's graduation ceremonies.  I heard some very interesting things in the two and a half hours we stood there.  Yep.  Stood.  The venue was packed out.  It was a beautiful room at the Tremont Hotel, but there were people standing two deep in places.  Here's a sampling of some of the advice .

In one of the prayers: "May they consume themselves until they finally reach their heavenly home and hear from the Lord, 'you were a good and faithful servant.'"  Great sentiment … at a funeral.

From the guest speaker, a former NFL player: "When trials come in life it's a matter of reflect and respond vs. react and reject.  That's a really good point.  Maybe I can work it into a sermon somehow.

From one of the presenters (a teacher, I think): "We feed them ungodly information."  I'm sure she meant to say "ungodly amounts of information," but that slip of the tongue struck me as really funny.  No one else laughed, though.

From the valedictorian: "Hurricane Ike illuminated our inner resilience."  That I could relate to.  And then, "Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment."  I'm not sure who he was quoting there.  It just seemed to stand out from the string of clichés he came out with at the end of his speech.  Don't get me wrong, though.  The speech he gave was entertaining and well-put-together.  Nice job by the guy who was offered full scholarships from at least four different major colleges.  Speaking of scholarships, that's why it lasted so long.  There were only 31 graduates, but they announced and presented every scholarship received by the students.  Two pages worth.  Way to go kids, but figure out a different way to do it next year.  I was proud of the two Seaside girls who graduated, though.  They even gave me a yellow rose.  That's part of the school's tradition.  The kids give a rose to the people who meant something to them.  I assumed it was meant for parents, so it was quite a surprise when I got one.  Humbling, actually.  Maybe she was just being nice to the old guy. 

 

1 John 3:18 says, "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

 

Father, walk with those students through the next part of their life.  There's so much more to come.  Amen.

May 19 – “The Big Three”

 

 

I finally took a few hours to do some fishing yesterday.  Problem was my usual bait supplier didn't have any live shrimp.  He said they should be available in 45 minutes or so.  Not good.  I tried my second choice and he didn't have any either.  Not looking good.  My third choice did have some.  In fact he was bragging about his huge tanks and how he could keep more than anyone else.  I got some there, but they were so small I had to put two on the hook just to get any fish's attention.  All in all it turned out to be a good day for someone fishing to get some food for his family.  Chris had already planned a family fish fry for Memorial Day.  Most people do barbeque, but, hey, we live in Galveston.  So we needed to get enough fillets to handle four families.  Not a bad start.  I ended up keeping thirty whiting.  Caught quite a few more than that, but those tiny shrimp seemed to entice tiny whiting.    

 

I had a wedding on the beach last night.  It was supposed to start around 6:30.  The bride's Dad and a few others were there at that time.  The others straggled in over the next thirty minutes or so.  The bride's son came, I think with some cousins or maybe his aunt.  I think he's about eight or nine years old, so I was pretty cautious when he held out his hand to give me something.  Turned out that it was the rings.  I showed him how to put them on his fingers and asked him to hand them to me during the ceremony.  He seemed excited at the prospect of being involved.  At least until the other kids decided they wanted to run up to the water and do some playing.  He ran off to join them, so I let the groom know that he had the rings.  Loved his response.  "Oh, well, we can always get a metal detector." 

 

The bride finally got there around 7:15.  Good thing it was daylight savings time.  The wedding itself was very small, with just family and a friend or two present.  We just took up our places next to the water and everyone gathered in close so they could hear.  There must have been fifteen photographers.  Actually they didn't hire anyone, it was just phone cameras and at least one video camera vying for the best possible angle.  The bride should have plenty of pictures to choose from.  I think in general the ceremony went well.  I have three big indicators, from my perspective, of a successful wedding ceremony.  I don't count not starting on time.  That's pretty much a given no matter where the ceremony is.  First, no one broke down crying.  Not that that is a negative thing.  It just inevitably leads to others joining them.  Second, everyone stayed awake.  Of course, they were standing up.  And they were at the beach.  All they had to do was watch the waves or the seagulls or the children playing or the guy fishing (who didn't seem to be catching anything.  Not that I was watching him or anything).  And the final of the big three indicators of a successful wedding?  The bride was happy.  That trumps everything else. 

 

1 John 3:16 says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

 

Father, give that bride and groom a great start to their life together.  Amen.

May 18 – “Can’t beat a good comic book”

 

 

I had one of those very early mornings again.  Didn't sleep all that well because I decided to not take a pain pill before going to bed.  I guess in the grand scheme of things it didn't go all that badly.  I only woke up three times that I remember.  It has certainly been much worse. 

 

Mom asked about her finances again yesterday.  Said she just wanted to be sure someone was paying her bills.  I saw that as a positive step, although she still wasn't clear about where she lives.  She asked Chris to get her a little notebook so she could resume her long-time practice of journaling.  Wow.  Now it has really been a good while since she has done that.  She asked me who my sons were and then who my grandkids were.  Three times.  She wanted to hear their names.  She was also watching the computer screensaver that scrolls through all the pictures I have saved.  Every now and then she would ask about one of them.  After a while she came up with an idea.  She asked me to make her a picture album with everyone's name under their picture.  My favorite part of the request, though, was, "That way I can check it out when I see someone and know who it is I'm talking to."  Now that is thinking through a problem and coming up with a viable solution.  Way to go, Mom.  I got her book done.  Of course, then our home group people started arriving and she wanted a picture of each of them in her book as well.  Guess we need to start another book.  Or see fewer people.

 

I heard a great challenge when I taught at youth group the other night.  Rita suggested to the kids that every night for one week they thank God for one thing they have never thanked him for before.  Great idea.  I think I'm going to give it a try.  So first … thank you, Father, for the creativity of the guys who put together the Action Bible I got for Christmas.  It has been a lot of fun reading through it during my quiet time.  Can't beat a good comic book.  Amen.

 

1 John 3:14 says, "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death."