What Would You do for a Friend?

According to one midwest “Burro Barn,” a self proclaimed last stop shop for donkeys, burros, jack asses and mules.... a donkey will cost you between $1000 and $2500, depending on its lineage and training....... but there is a word of caution.... if you find one for less than $1000, you really need to take it for a pre-ride just to be on the safe side......

I found that bit of significant information interesting, but I digress..... 

So, I was reading in my Bible in the start of the book of Acts.... the author Luke, mentions a guy named Theophilus, they must have been buddies cause Luke also mentioned this same cat in the opening of the gospel he wrote....there he calls him “most excellent Theophilus”, which because of my age, I naturally associated with “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” I was wrong...... Turns out, “excellent,” “most excellent” and “Excellency” are titles. Later in Acts, Luke's account identifies both Festus and Felix with the same title....In Roman culture there was this elite class, the “Equestrians.” Even though they were the lower half of the uppermost cast, they were still elite. Consider this, in order to qualify, you had to have a minimum of 400k Sesterces! .......yeah I didn’t know what that was either... thats where the donkey’s come in. See a Sesterces was the value of 2.5 asses. .......I will add...... that with my 6th grade mentality.....Its so great to get to legitimately use the word “ass”.....

So... if you average the present day cost of said ass at 2 grand, your talking $5k for one Sesterces...multiply by 400k, bingo....2 billion dollars! Now I realize thats all by today’s standards, but Theo had coin...and he loved God. In fact, his name, Theophilus actually means “friend of God”... its wild to me that Jesus was born into stark poverty, yet everyone needs the gospel, everyone needs Jesus, He is God's plan to make things right between Himself and man....and even though Theophilus was rich.....Luke set out to help his friend have “certainty” about Jesus, about what he had been taught.....at least thats what Luke wrote in the beginning of his gospel....

SO think about this for a second. This guy Luke, writes over 100 pages, according to my Bible-Luke and Acts, .......organizes all that into 50 something chapters, all so his friend can have certainty about Jesus....is it me or does that sound a little obsessive......

Actually........ I found it, well........ convicting.........especially when I ask myself......

“What would I do for a friend?” 

Now, I’m not a huge letter writer..... I do on occasion, mom says not enough....but 103 pages.......organized like that..... just so my friend can understand more about Jesus? Really? Even if you take out the hand writing part of all that, and cut and paste......just the time and energy that Luke put into speaking into Theophilus life is beyond remarkable. Sometimes I think, those guys wrote all that... they wrote knowing that what they wrote was gonna end up in the Bible, and they would be BIG SHOTS...... way, way, way.... in the future, but you know, they never knew that. He was just writing to a friend.....

So what would you do for a friend? 

What would I do for a friend? 

Even as I write this, I think....... really? Man I’m too selfish about MY time to give that kind of energy to anyone, let alone someone who just isn’t sharp enough to “get it.” I mean isn’t that God’s job anyway? 

No......no matter how long I think about this, I cannot escape the thought, I cannot rationalize, I cannot explain away.... the gospel is for ALL people regardless of gender, ethnicity, economics, or social classes, AND.... there are people in my life who I need to seriously consider giving that kind of energy to just so they can have certainty about Jesus... so....

What would you do for a friend?

Pigeons are Ambidextrous

I love spring, but then who doesn't.... The lake has thawed and the beloved "Klunker" -a mid 80's minivan the local Lion's Club pushes on the ice-has taken it's plunge.... Gone is the ice on the roads and the below 0 mornings. The bulbs in the yard have been starting to pop up and the trees are covered with buds. In a very short time those trees will be revealing leaves and flowers. If I was more poetic I would say it's "magical..." I think if you have allergies or hay fever you probably don't like spring.... but I like spring.

I'm thinking about getting a new bike. I love that about spring... Such a mild season, not too cold and not too hot... I'm super fortunate; I live like 4 miles from work, so I can ride a bike through neighborhoods to work. If you live in a city, you call it commuting. Here we just say we are riding a bike to work. I rode my bike a lot growing up to both school and work. I used to draft behind trash trucks and buses in the dark, cold, "wee hours" of the morning. On really cold mornings I put socks on my hands to keep them warm, I know it's all relative, especially "cold" and California....

So I saw this really cool bike in our bike shop... It's a fatty O cruiser.... "Matte red" paint, super wide and cushy seat, laid back handlebars, full fenders, wide tires.... it's very cool.... and we all know image is everything.... Because I love to ride bikes, I have a couple other bikes already. One's a "hand-made" Italian, another is French. There is also a mountain bike and my wife and I have had a "bicycle built for two" almost 28 years. I like bikes. So when I thought about riding a bike to work and saw this one, I thought.... yeah that would be cool.

I'm not sure why I like to have more than one bike. I never planned on having more than one bike. I mean, I can only ride one at a time. But I also have 2 kayaks, but I can only paddle one at a time, I have 3 pairs of shoes, but can only wear one pair at a time. We have 3 cars, but I can only drive one at a time. I have alot of pairs of socks, but I only wear one at a time. I have 2 ice fishing poles, 3 fly rods and a spinning rod, but I can only use one at a time.... well sometimes 2. On my desk there is a pencil and pen holder deal, it's got a lot of pens in it, but since I'm not ambidextrous, I can only use one at a time. I guess if I was ambidextrous or if there was another one of me then I could use more than one at a time. At one point we used to have homing pigeons. We started with 9 and after a couple years we had 10 times that. We never planned on having that many.....

I think pigeons must be ambidextrous.... otherwise they would fly in circles....

Sometimes it just seems like I'm sort of "flying in circles" when it comes to stuff. I mean sometimes the moment I get something new, cool, or functional, I want another.... a different or a "better one".... It's almost Pavlovian.... So I talk myself into it... and then again... and again... and again....

There's this show on TV called "Hoarders".... maybe you've seen it.... they say it's a disease, maybe it's just greed... Now I'm not saying I'm a "hoarder," I just like stuff, and really I never had "an issue" with loving money, I just like the stuff you can get with money.... there's a lyric of Cheryl Crow who sang, "It's not having what you want... It's wanting what you've got...."

I think my contentment with life, is reflected in the way I show contentment with stuff.... know what I mean?.... but if I was ambidextrous.....

I guess God didn't make me ambidextrous for a reason.... what if I was a pigeon......

Anyway, I think if Jesus had a choice, he would ride a cruiser.... it's way hard to jump on carbon fiber in a toga.... and he'd miss all the waves and nods.... I'm pretty sure he wasn't particularly concerned about his image, he wouldn't ride one for that reason. No, if people saw Jesus on a big 'O Pee Wee Herman,"..... sans tassels of course..... they wouldn't say anything, cause it would look so natural.....

especially since Jesus wasn't ambidextrous......

Sometimes I just wish I was ambidextrous, so I could use all the stuff I have.....

More later....

I Want to Get a Weathervane

I want to get a weathervane

Maybe living in the Midwest now with farms and barns has begun to rub off on me... but that's not why I want to get a weathervane.

In college I actually studied meteorology, in fact, probably almost enough to have like a minor in Atmospheric Sciences, but that's not why I want a weathervane. There are way better, more "techie" ways to watch the weather and weather patterns... I do love clouds: Stratus, Stratocumulus, Nimbostratus, Cumulus, Altostratus, Altocumulus, Cirrus, Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus, Contrail.... I love clouds, but that's not why I want to get a weathervane... and really, come on, do you really need a weathervane to tell which way the wind is blowing?.... that's no reason to get a weathervane...

One of my daughters and I share a love for rain. She loves to hear it and feel it... I have to admit, there are certain times, especially at night, with an open window.... when yeah the sound is amazing...soothing...but that's not why I want to get a weathervane. Another of my daughters loves the heat and warmth of California, so she moved back there and loves it, we share an affinity for the warmth. I have always said that it can really never be too hot. Growing up in Southern California, I lived with the phenomenon of the "Santa Ana" winds. Each fall for a couple weeks, they blow "off shore" and bringing with them the heat of the inland empire, the deserts. They are hot winds.... but that's not why I want to get a weathervane. Now, during our spectacular Wisconsin summers, I love to watch as thunderstorms build up and the sky darkens. Then those window-rattling booms of thunder and flashes of lightening that make the night light up like day... like a "B-rated" saturday afternoon monster movie I used to watch as a kid... sometimes I even sit in a lawn chair in the front yard or driveway just to watch... but that's not why I want to get a weathervane.

I suppose weathervanes are kind of cool.... and sitting on the peak of our home, would be a cool look... I think I'd get a black one. There are tons of different kinds too. Farm animals, wild animals, birds, livestock, shapes, signs of the zodiac, even custom weathervanes, but even the old adage that "image is everything" is not why I want to get a weathervane.

It's interesting when you look into weathervanes. I discovered that the "cockerel" or rooster-"Chanticleer" (chant-a-clear) weathervane was originally featured prominently in French history; appearing on church steeples and towers for well over 1000 years. It seems that the rooster became Saint Peter's symbol-based on his denying Jesus 3 times before the cock crowed, that's why its associated with him, particularly in Europe. So the "Chanticleer" weathervane was created as a daily reminder of Peter's denial of Christ, and as a reminder to those who saw it not to do the same....

That's why I want to get a weathervane.... a "Chanticleer" weathervane... so that daily... when I back out of my garage, and then return home at the end of the day... I can't help look up and see it there as a reminder.

I'm not sure what my neighbors might say, maybe just, "Hey nice Chanticleer weathervane you got there...." or, "We used to have a Chanticleer weathervane..." or, "You know there are better ways to see what direction the wind is blowing.." I don't know, but really I don't think I care either. Really, I just want it for me.. call me selfish.

So today is "Good Friday." Better than all the "pretty good Fridays." The day I celebrate what Jesus did on my behalf. The day I have chosen to celebrate his death that paid for what I did wrong, my sin. The day when the "infinite God-man" willingly took the punishment I was supposed to get, all so I could have a friendship with God...

Now I'm sure Peter, never ever, intended to deny Christ. I'm sure when he walked on the water, or walked with Jesus, or when he saw Jesus tell the wind and waves to shut up, or saw Jesus heal the guys ear he had cut off, or any other of the miracles... I'm pretty sure he never thought he would deny Christ....

Then the Chanticleer crowed....

I have no intention of denying Christ... when I'm talking to my wife or daughters, when I'm alone on a business trip, when I'm driving my car, when I'm "on-line," when I'm hanging out with friends, when I'm all alone, when I'm watching TV, when I'm downloading itunes, when I'm working in the yard or on the car.... when I'm.....

Then the chanticleer crowed....

I really want to get a weathervane

Pretty Good Friday

So I'm reading my Bible... about the whole "passion week"... as a kid I wondered why they called it that. On occasion, I sit down and really think about the accounts of Jesus' life, and sometimes I have linked specific events recorded in the Bible to a sort of "Bible calendar" in my mind. For me the problem is that there are lots of days that are simply unaccounted for. Today we would say they were "open." Surely Jesus didn't just hang out on those days, or maybe he did. When I think about those Bible times, it's hard for me to get beyond images of hot sunny days, togas, sweat, sandals and really, really, dusty roads.

Take for example today, the Friday before "Good Friday." Does that make today "Pretty Good Friday?" I'm not trying to be sacrilegious; I mean, Jesus knew what was coming, what was looming,... next week. I don't think he was worried about the disciples not "getting it." I don't think he was thinking, "Man are these guys ever gonna connect the dots?".... If he did then for sure, those kind of thoughts or fears would be played out in the week to come, and with his band of disciples.... his friends no less. I mean come on... falling asleep when he was praying, chopping off a guys ear, Judas bailing hard for money, and ultimately all of them denying him publically. Way, way more than thinking about a pending root canal, a term paper or project that's due or anything else that we might have on our calendar... but the Bible says his face was set toward Jerusalem. He was focused.

At the same time, when God created the "day," the 24 hour period of time, way back in Genesis, He said it was good, along with the rest of creation. We kind of separate out and designate "Good Friday" as being better, so today, I guess along with the other 50 Fridays of the year, must be "Pretty Good Friday." Don't get me wrong, I'm super glad about "Good Friday," even if for Jesus it wasn't all that good. The fact that he prayed that if he could take a pass on his trial and crucifixion, seems to indicate, it was not looking like "Good Friday" for him. In fact, there is no where else in the Bible where Jesus prays for something not to happen. Typically, Jesus prays and stuff happens... which is actually exactly what happened here too.... stuff happened.

God had been working out his plan from way before Jesus walked on the earth. So while it's hard to see Jesus' arrest, imprisonment, trials, beatings, humiliation, ridicule, crucifixion, suffering and death all adding up to "Good Friday," it really is. Now if left at just "Good Friday," and it was just a story, then, no, that's not much of a good Friday.... especially for Jesus. But it wasn't left at that, because then comes Easter... Jesus' ressurection from death.

At the core of why I do what I do, and how I live my life is "Good Friday" and Easter. Without it, without the stuff that happened, Paul, the guy who wrote the majority of the New Testament, said what I believe about God is "in vain".... useless.

But it's not just a story, it really happened and because it happened everything is different.

So I guess today is just "Pretty Good Friday"

More later....