Fall Break

We are settling in at an Inn in Destin, Florida. I think this is the first time since our children have been having "fall-breaks" that we have actually used one to take a little trip.

We had an interesting ride in, I thought I would share a few things with you:

• We found some towns with interesting names like Opp, Luverne and Andalusia. Our reservations do not begin until tomorrow and we almost stayed in a town called Shalimar.
• We passed the "It Don't Matter" family restaurant and it appeared to be a fairly nice establishment - however I could see a "trademark" excuse that might be used by any of the employees i.e. "Hey, my steaks' not even been close to the fire and I ordered it well-done!" - "I understand sir, but you know around here it - "JUST DON'T MATTER"...
• We missed a golden opportunity to see a "Live Rattlesnake Display" in Opp - oddly enough, I couldn't convince my family to take the time for that.
• In addition, there were some towns with very amicable names like Niceville and Friendship.
• In Montgomery, Alabama, I was both thrilled and saddened... there were guys wearing pink and black sandwich-board signs at busy intersections. The signs proclaimed that the Flea Market was Going out of Business. . . about the time that I recognized the name - Mongomery Flea Market - I saw the huge edifice to my right and realized that it truly is "like-a....like-a... it's like-a-mini-mall!"

If that last one doesn't make sense to you then you may have missed this commercial that circulated a little while back:

We had an enjoyable drive, Ab and AA are old enough to need entertainment, but young enough to find some adventure in a long road trip.

I have been praying for us this trip, that we will not only be safe and blessed - but more than that - that God's plan will be accomplished in us. That He will be glorified and we will each be open to the changes He wants to make in us.
We want Him to emphasize the create part in recreation.

Status Check

R. and I have been in a transitional phase for at least the past year. I thought I should take a few moments and catch you up.

We became somehow - discontent - with where we were. I had led a teaching about two years ago that surrounded the "daughters of Zelophehad" from Numbers 27. These girls were discontent with their plight because their father had died, leaving no sons - and they were not being allowed to receive his heritage.

They took their problem to Moses, who took it the case to God and God said they had spoken right.

I think that's when I fully realized that discontentment is okay with God, when we take that discontentment to Him.

That and many other things eventually led us to leave a church fellowship that we have been involved with for over 25 years (for me, a little less for R.).

We have been involved in a church for the past year that is strong in Reformed Theology. . . this is very different for us since our roots tend more toward Armenian Theology and Pentecostalism.

It is a major culture shift.

We think that the fact that things are so very different has been a positive thing for us - it has made us more sensitive and we listen more.

As R.'s blog points out, we are a "Work In Progress" so we do not know where God is taking us ultimately, but we are finding new interests - new possibilities.

Our Sunday School class is studying Fikkert and Corbett's "When Helping Hurts" - this book is really challenging the way I think about poverty alleviation and even more than that - it's challenging me on the fact that I am not very engaged with people. If I help someone, I want to get it over with as quickly as possible and with as little inconvenience to me as possible.
I believe there are things God wants to change about me and He is bringing me around to the point that I will be open to that change.

The changes that have gone on for us are having a positive impact on R. as well and I think the Reform theology's worldview is effecting our kids.

The changes are hard and may have been misunderstood by folks that are dear to us. I am still working through these things, but God has truly blessed us to bring us into some new places at this stage in our walk.

We are excitedly awaiting His next step.

More on Leadership

Leadership: It is painfully missing from the public scene these days.

That's one reason I wanted to focus somewhat on the leadership model of David of the Bible, as my journey took me through his life. I think David exemplifies godly leadership in many ways.

Some people may not feel that godly leadership should be applied universally. In other words, godly leadership is okay in some areas, like leadership in a church setting or maybe even leadership in the setting of the family - but in other areas, a more neutral leadership style is the best. Those areas may include business, politics, and civic organizations.

I disagree. I think godly leadership is the optimal choice in any situation - especially in business, politics and civic concerns. I believe that the American nation was built on it. In most cases, the great leaders of our history paid homage to God - some more openly than others. The truth is, whether they acknowledged it or not - and success was due solely to God's provision.

David led well because he followed well.

His defining character was that he was a "man after God's own heart".

His relationship with God affected him at every level:

• when he was a shepherd, he relied upon God to protect him and to enable him to do his job and protect his sheep.
• when he served King Saul - he again - relied upon God and followed Him as he saw his responsibilities escalated to the point of leading troops into battle. He followed when he served and he followed when he led.
• as an outlaw - leading a band of discontented men; misrepresented and misunderstood, still he followed God and led his militia to do likewise. When he had opportunities to obtain vindication, he waited, overlooking the spoil that lay before him; looking instead to the heart of the One he was following.

In the opening chapters of the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel, David is finally promoted to king. It's the thing he had been promised possibly ten torturous years earlier. Yet it is less than he may have hoped for. Israel is made up of twelve tribes - David became king of only one of them... the tribe of Judah.

Godly leadership is not about grabbing power. David demonstrated this in the grace with which he accepted the position of King of Judah.

One of his initial acts as King of Judah was to follow his consistent practice of giving honor to Saul - the man that had been God's anointed one.

David sent word to the men of Jabesh-Gilead that had risked everything to rescue the dead bodies of Saul and his noble son, Jonathan - and to give them a decent burial. To those men, he proclaimed honor for their noble service.

That's godly leadership. Always taking the "high road" and not for political expediency, but rather because of his allegiance to God.

Whatever happened to the "high road"?

And before I set too many standards for others, let me look inside my own house... even my own heart.

Am I really willing to take on whatever task God allows me to be involved with - even if it's demeaning - and view it as my service to Christ?

Would I really practice restraint, were I given the opportunity to "rain on my enemy's parade"?

And what about when the rewards start trickling in - success on some fronts - would I be willing to accept that with the grace and gratefulness that David displayed. Would I remember and keep the values that brought me to that spot?

Or would I begin to clutch the thing God had given to me so freely? Grasping it madly - as if my own strength had earned it and my own strength could hold it?

While clinging tightly, would I also grab for more?

The Goat Man

Who remembers the Goat Man?

A rough looking old man who traveled the country in a tattered wagon pulled by goats.

I sometimes have wondered if I really remembered him or if he was just an urban legend. But I do remember occasions in which Dad would come home from work and announce that the Goat man was in the area. After supper, we would ride to the outskirts of town, often at some abandoned or burned out building. There we would see a mass of cars parked near an old wagon.

My Dad and I approached the Goat Man a time or two but I don't remember ever talking with him.

Those times return to my memory from time to time.
So I googled him.

Click here to link to a website dedicated to the Goat Man if you are curious.

I would be interested in hearing any stories.

Smith Hill

As I have emphasized (to ad-nauseum) lately, my means of achieving the long-term goal of giving my kids a healthy Dad - has taken the form of bicycling.

For almost a year now, I have been on a fairly regular regimen of physical exercise. It began with "running" with Ab last year in preparation for the "Pumpkin Run". Now AA has decided that he would like to take a stab at the "Pumpkin Run".

Anyway, earlier this summer, I moved from running (well - trotting) to bicycling. And in words similar to those of the prophet - "bicycling have I loved; but running have I hated".

My brother-in-law, who lives over the stone path and through a patch of woods away from me, has served as something of a cross between an inspiration and an antagonist throughout this "fitness" phase of my life. Neither of us are very competitive but he always seems to outrun me- and with much less heavy breathing. . . and he almost never does all the warm-up exercising and stretching things.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I like to ride on the Silver Comet Trail - which is not too far away, but I have also taken to riding over the country backroads near our home. About two months ago, my brother-in-law invested in a new road bike.

If it has some sort of qualifying superlative then that means its more special; so his is not a bicycle - its a road-bike.

I remember in the 70's when the banana-seated, low-riding, high- handle-bars bicycles suddenly went out of fashion and everyone was riding "10-speeds". Well that was a specialty bicycle for awhile but then there were higher grades of 10-speeds.

I once knew a guy that rode a Schwinn - how we envied him.

So my brother-in-law bought this specialty - road bike. I have not really made a big deal of the fact that my bicycle is a hybrid, but then again, I am not one to put on airs.

This road bike looks somewhat similar to an anorexic version of a 10-speed.

It has really skinny tires and a really skinny seat ... so much so that I warned him that if he hit a pothole, he would certainly have to have that bicycle surgically removed.

My brother-in-law didn't ride on our little country backroads when he had his Walmart bicycle. But now that he has this Greyhound-looking thing, he wants to ride with me.

So we ride, about three to four days a week.

And he is always ahead of me.

I complain about the hills; he complains about me complaining.... he just has some sort of weird aversion to coasting.

Tonight as we were riding and I was laboring up yet another hill - needing a small paper bag to breathe into - I realized that he and I are different.

He rides to complete the ride. I ride for the sake of the ride - the sheer enjoyment of it.

He barely notices when some mangy old Pit-Bull-wieler boroughs under it's fence and makes a mad dash for our ankles. . . but I take it all in.
I make it a point to "moo" at all the cows when we ride by - as they stare rudely. He almost never "moo's" at the cows.
I think about what it would be like to get forced off the road by oncoming cars and careen wildly down the sheer ravine beside us . . .
. . .I look ahead . . .
. . . way ahead - and see that while I don't know know what he's thinking - he's probably not thinking that.

And when I top one of those murderous hills . . . I want to meander for a moment. I struggled to the top, I deserve the right to lollygag aimlessly for a moment.... and try to breathe.

He hits the top and just keeps going.

Unless of course, he turns around and rides in circles a few moments because I have fallen woefully behind.

While we approach the ride very differently, I can tell you we both love what AA and I refer to as the "pay-off". I have taught him that when you have to climb a hill, just remember there is always a pay-off - that's the big ride downhill.

There is something very liberating about speeding down a big hill - the wind whistling, hair blowing - feet pumping at a remarkable rate of speed!

Nothing like the pay-off.

Tonight as I took the descent on our last big hill of the day, I remembered "Smith Hill" in Cedartown, Georgia.

Unless you lived in my neighborhood, you wouldn't know about Smith Hill, because the name of the road was actually "Hillside Drive". I am not sure why the kids in the neighborhood took to calling it Smith Hill - maybe someone named Smith lived there.

I just know that Smith Hill was something of a rite of passage. It was not for the novice. There was some legend about some girl that misused her hand brakes on Smith Hill - and flew over her handle-bars. You didn't dare risk it with training wheels. And when I got my Western Flyer with banana-seat and high handle-bars and a single hand brake to accompany my coaster brakes - I kept my right hand well clear of the hand-brake when going down Smith Hill - for fear of becoming another legend.

I have been back there since growing up and saw that Smith Hill was not as steep as other hills in the neighborhood - even the one in front of my house.... but it had a wide and smooth curve and it stretched out over about three blocks and you could get some real speed going down it!

The mysterious curve, the speed, and the stories about "handle-bar-girl" all just added to the mystic of that hill.

Tonight I felt a little of that "Smith Hill-thrill" .... and while my brother-in-law arrived at the destination well ahead of me - as usual -
- I wonder if his ride was worth as much as mine.

Break Time!

The days are getting shorter and it's been awhile since we have enjoyed the cartoonical stylings of Tex Avery. . .



. . .Enjoy . . .

Legends of the Fall

I heard Ken Frenke of Ken Frenke & Co. in a radio interview today and in it he asked what big event occurred on September 29th?

I was baffled.

His answer did not require a great reach backward in history - in fact, it only went as far as last year - September 29, 2008.

Now do you know?
It was the day our latest economic turmoil came to fruition - on this date the Dow Jones dropped an unprecedented 700 points.
Do you remember how that talk was, that we might not make it through the weekend if Congress didn't do something and do it fast?!!

Well, eventually they did do something and I am still peeved over that deal.

Those of you that read these postings often (that's you, Mom), know that I have some definite political leanings and every once in awhile, I cast off the restraints and write about it. But mostly, I try to curb those impulses somewhat.

Don't you think it is interesting that "We the people" and Congress have been locked into a fisticuffs of sorts throughout every Autumn in recent memory?

Last year it was the sharp economic downturn and the warped remedies that were applied. Obviously, my side lost that battle and I think we,as a nation, are still smarting - not from the problem but from the solutions that were applied. But that's just one man's opinion.

The Autumn before that, it was the Immigration reform deal.

They were telling us that there was a BIG problem that had to be fixed and RIGHT NOW, too.

We never did get that legislation passed. Gee, what do you know, we survived.

So this year, the big political circus has rolled into town in the form of "Healthcare Reform" and the parade came to a halt some time back in July. Since then, they just can't seem to get the wheels turning again.

But once again, the talk was - something HAD to be done and right away ...before the Congressional Summer recess....

I think another deadline passed this week and we are still surviving. I think the next absolute last day is maybe Thanksgiving.

At any rate it looks as if we are locked into another battle for Fall.

I hope that more and more Americans are beginning to get wise to their cries of "wolf".

I believe that more are beginning to realize that the less this Congress actually DOES - the better off we will all be.