What are you missing?

Since the last snowfall I have been walking wherever I need to go because of a rather large snowdrift about a eighth of a mile long and four feet deep between my car and the open road. Walking isn’t all that bad since the places I usually go are quite close, Kyle’s place is three miles, town is six miles and church is about four miles. Actually I am finding that all of this walking is remarkably pleasant and doing me a lot of good since I am in about the same condition as a fat guy that watches TV all day even though I am barely 125 pounds and almost never watch TV. The other day the walk to church was lovely with a bright warm morning and an hour of walking time to think and take a look at the surroundings in a way that I never see flying by in the car at 55 miles per hour. I also arrived at church with a very red face and my hair looked like it had been blow dried into some new fashion, when in fact all that I had done was to go outside with wet hair and the wind took care of the hairdo for me. In fact, it was frozen into place nicely. I suspect if I were to get that long overdue haircut it wouldn’t have had such a chance at going all over the place like it tends to do.

The pastor had lost his voice so he did a whispered introduction and then turned the service over to us, asking everyone to tell of the tangible evidence of their faith. Then we had a little extra music to finish up with, for the next month or so the plan is a 10 minute sermon and the rest of the time they asked if we could do music. I wish there were some more musicians around here so I wouldn’t have to take care of all of it. Kyle is gone so he can’t help out and the regular pianist may or may not be around, if she is I am going to see if she can get the old organ going again, I hear that years ago she used to rattle the big stained glass windows with it and I want to hear that myself.

The walk home was even nicer than the walk out, I got a little stiff and sore so I stopped in to talk to a neighbor, then walked on a little way to another house and borrowed an armload of books, I must have looked like a short version of Abraham Lincoln walking around the countryside borrowing books, reading one and holding a few under each arm as he walked. Even growing up in the country like I have with a fairly laid back lifestyle I am accustomed to rushing here and there and never taking time for a minute of quiet or relaxing while I am going someplace. For a while I did come up with a great solution, which was to install my little brother Samuel in the driver’s seat of the car and I would sit in the back, recline the seat, turn the seat warmer on and get out that book I had been waiting to read. These long country roads with no traffic are perfect for letting a 13-14 year old drive on and he was often a better driver than I am because he at least stopped for the stop signs and kept to the speed limit. I think he also got a kick out of acting the chauffer!

But, now I walk, and I am going to dig out the old bike and see if I can get it going again because I like this slow, silent and free way of travel an awful lot, even though I love driving too. I think back to when I was half my age and I used to have this gizmo rigged up on my bike handlebars that held whatever book I happened to be reading at the time, with a bar on top for my bird, which was either a crow or a pigeon or a dove, depending on the year. I read half a library while riding my bike here and there and it was great, I don’t know why I abandoned the practice, I guess age makes us hurried and rushed for everything.

I hear the excuse all the time “But I just don’t have the time for that!” usually in reference to extra Bible reading (more than the obligatory 23 seconds at church) or prayer other than the “Lord, help me find that lost…” or “God, please bless me, I need more money…” . As I sit in church (the only place I see another human being these days) I have noticed that everyone is a nervous wreck, well, everyone but the people over 80 years old who don’t seem to have much to worry about anymore. If people aren’t sleeping in the pew they are fidgeting, you know the nervous fidget where they can’t sit still for 4 seconds. People have so many problems and worries and cares and so much stress it is unbelievable. They remind me of an engine running all out with no oil in the crankcase and it’s just heating up, squealing and knocking before exploding. I know because I have felt that way too! I have this old fashioned diesel engine that has all external valve train parts and while it is running you take a little oil can and drip oil in the oil cups, twist the grease caps a little to lube the upper valve train and wipe the dust off of the lifters. With a few minutes of this care it should run forever (as long as you don’t burn it in a barn fire like I did). I think this is like a person. We need to wipe the dust out of our thoughts and oil our minds periodically with the Word of God and prayer. This isn’t a one Sunday a month operation, it is a several times a day operation. I remember hearing a story about a guy that was uncommonly cheerful and relaxed. He just seemed imperturbable even though he had an incredibly stressful job. When asked how he managed to keep the stress of work from invading his home life and family he said, “Well, it’s quite simple; each day when I walk up the path to the house I stop at a tree at the edge and hang my troubles and worries on the branches, then I can go into the house without them.” While I think that is a grand idea I would take it one step further. Scripture says “Cast your cares upon Him, for he cares for you.” So why don’t we do that throughout the day? Instead of wallowing in our troubles and self pity and stresses we should take them to the One who deals with such things and not fret about them one minute longer. Of course when we say we have no time to do this we are in effect, shooting ourselves in the foot in order to win a race. I suspect that every single one of us has plenty of time to “Cast our cares…” and to oil our minds with the Word throughout the day. And when the minute a particle of dust enters our thoughts we should take the time to wipe it away and replace it with more oil. It’s when we don’t do this that the dust piles up into big globs of filth and we end up looking more like a mud pie than a child of God. Why don’t we seem to have time? Is it because we sleep too much? I think I am guilty of that at times! Or is it because we are working with everything we’ve got towards something that’s falling apart as fast as we build it? I’ll bet if everyone took a good honest look at their lives they would find that this is just the case, they are madly working on a crumbling project. I believe I have said this before, but it’s worth saying again. Take a hard look at what you spend the most of your time, energy and thought on throughout a day. Now are those things a crumbling project? Are they eternal? Are they selfish and worldly? Remember what things pass away and what things never pass away. What things edify and what things feed the flesh. The things that bless others and the things that are of the Kingdom of God. What to we work the hardest at? I hope you aren’t as ashamed of the answer as I am some days. Romans 12 talks about not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our mind, I think we would see a lot fewer frazzled and stressed people out there if everyone took the time they spend building paper castles of earthly things and spent it building with precious stones in the Kingdom of God. For me it’s waking up an hour early and walking to church and doing an extra hour of scripture reading on the way, or just taking in the beauty of the morning while thanking God for it. Then I have an extra hour of walking back to stop and visit elderly neighbors that I would otherwise blast by in the car while rushing back home to get that latest project started. Of course the hour walk quickly becomes a 5 hour outing but I have time for that! It’s also waking up in the morning and stirring up the fire to warm up something for breakfast instead of an instant something out of a box. That unidentifiable substance that comes from boxes may be fast but I am really missing out on a lot if I were to eat that. For instance, when I eat oatmeal or wheat for breakfast I have spent time growing the grains so I know exactly where they came from and what they are, in that time spent growing them I was able to spend lots of time meditating on some important point or other while running the drill or combine. And now, while the fire is waking up I get to spend another few minutes running those grains through the hand grinder, which not only adds to the health effects of eating good whole foods by giving me exercise but it gives me time in the morning to pray for the people that I might otherwise not pray for and I can pound a scripture into my brain with every rotation of the crank “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…” Now that the fire is going I have quite a bit of time for morning scripture reading while the breakfast is warming over it. If I were eating out of the box I could pour, shovel and go to work, which of course leaves no time for more important things. The whole day goes like this if I work it right. Lately, instead of a chainsaw blasting so loud in my ears that all I can think about is BBBBWWWWAAAAAAA for several hours afterward, I can hear the birds singing and the train whistle blow letting me know the Amtrak has just gone by. (that’s another nice thing, throwing the clock god out; it rules people’s lives more than they know. I have three reliable times, the Amtrak going east, the 6 pm whistle in town and the Amtrak going west.) Since I don’t have the noise of a saw blasting my thoughts I can take my cares and troubles to God instead of letting them smolder inside all day long. It’s a good situation I think, so the wood takes ten times as long to cut, great! That is ten times longer that I can put good thoughts in my mind rather than noise! I can also recognize the instant some dust enters my mind and get rid of it right then and there instead of putting it in some back corner to deal with when I have time. Something else that I have found to work wonders at clearing things up is saying scriptures out loud. Not just thinking them but actually saying them. It’s a world of difference and you will often find me talking to myself throughout the day, don’t worry, I haven’t lost my mind just yet, I am just saying Psalm 23 or something.

The other day I was talking with someone (to be unnamed) who was going on about this and that worldly thing (things that not too long ago I was really working for) and I mentioned how I wasn’t interested in working so hard for that sort of fluff anymore, and how my life goals and desires had radically changed from what they were not too long ago, and I was kind of surprised when I heard “Yeah but look at what you are missing!” Missing? I don’t think I need those things anymore. No, why don’t you take a minute and see what YOU are missing!