CLASS REUNION MESSAGE: LIFE IS SHORT, HARD AND ...

I never said this when I was young.  Especially in high school.  Then comes the 50+ year reunion.  Darick, our son dying at 31, my brother, Craig, in late 20's, a war hero; they didn't say it.  But I did after they passed; "Life is short, life is hard, life is unfair, and it's end is uncertain." I should add, to return the smiles to reunion bliss, maybe in bold type, too, "life can be wondrous and full."

Reunion time.  All these years, all these trails, all these adventures.  They passed so quickly.  Mike, Roger, Ronnie, Bobby, Sharon, Johnny, Coach Sisca, and all the folks I didn't remember well until the stories from back yonder came alive again.  Could they--the stories and the classmates--be this old? 

And what interesting lives.  Some not. BUT . . .

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SPOSE THEY'LL FIND HIM...THE "BAD GUY"?

Dunno.  Prolly not.  Finding the "Bad Guy," I mean.  Caps indicate proper (or, in this case, "improper") noun, a name.  The Devil? No, 'he" is really an "it". 

Confused?  So's everyone, even the Urologist and Oncologist.  They don't say "confused" because they are paid a lot--A LOT!!--to know stuff but not tell stuff.  But their eyebrows lift in response to "Where's it going?"   "How far along?"  "How long?"

The "bad guy" ain't there.  In the world of blaming Bush and almost anyone/anything else, I suppose we could pin this one on God.  Yea, the Sovereign One, Creator of Heaven and Earth.  Jesus, we are assured, is the creative agent AND the "Sustainer" of earth.  And health.  Let's blame them.  I do. 

After all, it is a mean, onery, vengeful Judge who carries out the punishment for sin just like He said He would. Blame Him, not Adam who stood by passively as the Snake cajoled his wife.  He watched her succumb and didn't even lift the Garden hoe to the Snake's head.

OK, enuf bloggish sermon.  I do blame God for the extraordinary life that has no explanation but Grace.  It's been a long one, in and out of more danger than a Tuesday evening of TV.  Seventy years worth and, they tell me, probably ten years or more to go.  At least I know what my schedule is. Sorta. 

So, other than Adam (and Obama is just as related to him as Bush), ain't no one to blame.  You take the Whole Story to account and recognize every day we have is a gift from the Source.  

Romans put it this way in 5:17(Message)  If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?

Have you visited the book site recently.  I just did.  I LOVE it.  (Which is why this is a break in my headlong effort to meet a book proposal deadline).  http://www.generationalfathering.com/  Subscribe, why don't you?


  

CONTEMPLATING DEATH/LIFE...FOUR GENERATIONS APART

She almost died.  But for immediate, savvy action by her dad, a survivalist and therapist, wee little Charis, faced the end of her life at one year and one week.  Way out on the Aquarius primitive campground in Utah's Boulder Mountain, three family groups had a moment of horror.  Gathered for breakfast someone noticed Charis was struggling, not breathing.  Before panic spread to chaos, dad upended his precious new life by her feet, whacked a couple of times.  Nothing came out, but breathing and serious crying followed.

Breathing and crying are pretty typical human activities.  The former is always a good thing.  The latter?  Well, crying, spelled "whining," is typical, seldom good.  There is pain, crying, gain.  Good thing.  There is sad, hurt, overwhelming-life-stuff crying.  Let's face it, since the Fall, there are mosquitos at Aquarious, vipers in the desert, and "snakes in the grass" of our lives.  But WAIT...crying is a sign of life.

The phone call prompted fears and tears at even the thought of our extraordinarily precious granddaughter, Charis, not being there to greet us at Christmas.  It also prompted deeper thougthts about my own life.  Three days apart, Charis was one and I was 70.  HMMmmm.  She's alive and quite well with the Aquarious incident to remind us how fragil life is.  I go TODAY for a consultation on my prostate cancer.  Second procedure didn't work.  PSA rising slowly.  Matt's not there to upend me and whack me to recovery.

The Last Three of Five Are in the Un-named Generation

Cultural characteristics change about every 20 years.  Academics label them with a tell-tale name.  So, academically, my Traditional Generation (then Boommers, Generation x, then Millennials) is four official cultures sets away from Charis (hers still unnamed until they see what characterizes it, but a return to traditional values and built-in digital savvy is a mixed blessing). 

So what?!

So, prayer is something God likes more than almost anything.  It's talking, relating, enjoying, thanking.  It's worship.  Here's the SO-WHAT:  Pray--worship--with a sense of life's uncertainty, its brevity.  Boy, oh boy is it brevitacious seen from this end.  Thank Him for your life and, yes, the tears you survived.  Pray for a friend.  Include me, if you will (and Carolyn who's most affected...I don't "feel" a thing).  Pray for at least one friend with illness, sadness, or who is missing out on personal salvation and its glory of eternal rescue from both fears and tears.   

[ To enjoy the delights of the Oldest's, Taylor's, Rite of Passage--AND MINE--go to our DIAblog, http://www.gendads.com/ ]

HOW DOES A SOVEREIGNTIST DEAL WITH VERY BAD NEWS (or is it?)

What's the difference in 3.4 and 10.7? Well, if you just turned 70 and the the recent operation for prostrate cancer was suppose to drop the PSA down to below .5, you'd be faced with the challenge that faces me. Is the Lord God Almighty, Maker of Heaven Earth and Commander of Angel Armies paying attention? He's busy. Did this one get by Him?


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LOVING THE HIGH LEVEL JOURNEY

One of the great metaphors for the journey of a life along the path of faith is...is...er..ah, a "JOURNEY". I've used it often. I also like to tell of the Walk, the Walk with God. This one turns me even closer to the "Jesus bumps" my mother used to talk about; dare any of us say we are "Walking with God? Yet we can, many do. Can you grasp the ungraspable imagery, can you sense the conundrum that He, the Lord God Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of Heaven and Earth, has arranged for such a walk, hand-in-hand, as it were?

So, as I reported in broad strokes in my latest post on www.gendads.com, Matt and Taylor and I had an extraordinary journey on the four-day trek, backpacking in the wilderness for Taylor's "rite of passage." At 10,000 feet overlooking eons of His handiwork, the Journey becomes real. There we were, father, son, father's father (inlaw) walking together on The Journey mapped for us somewhere in Heaven before time began.

Walk turns to Journey, Journey become part of The Story. The Story, like the Walk and the Journey, is never alone. It's about us with Him, us with each other. How special that it is with fathers and sons.

LIFE'S JOURNEY IS "HIS STORY"

Good morning, T,

This is our first true dialog. No more rule making and discussion Except to remind us, this is a DIALOG. I talk, you talk. Not complicated.
We can do this.

It’s about The Story. Taylor, just about everything I share with you will be framed by this one thing, The Story. When I say “The” Story, I mean HIS Story. I will always capitalize it as if it were something coming from God and deserves the honor of what I call “divine capitals.” It is, and it does; The Story.

Our life on earth is often called a “journey.” True enough. But that could mean wandering aimlessly and without a guide. I prefer to see our lives as one designed by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in what seminary people call the Counsel of the Godhead. Before the heavens and earth and even before time, They met to completely design all of life. Hard to get your mental arms around that one, eh? Thus, I like to say, "They wrote The Story of all of life, yours included." That's a "Wow" moment when it sinks in. It is not wandering, not aimless unless we make it that way ourselves. Unbelievable? Believe it! See Psalms 139 13-16 (below)

We could say all of history is His Story and the book would be a trillion pages with each life fully described with care and love. The front and back covers and the binding could be described as “The Story of Grace.” That would be the wonderful Grace of God that is beyond our comprehension.

But I want this to be personal for you as it is for me, for Dad, and for Mom and Nani. Yes, God the Trinity wrote your story as He wrote The Story. He selected when and where and what family you would be born in. Wow, what a wonderful opening chapter! Yes, the Lord God Almighty, Commander of Angel Armies (this is the correct translation of “The Lord” in the Old Testament) loves you as His own. You are, my son, even more precious in His eyes than even in Dad's and Mom's. That is another “Wow!” (Have Dad tell you what “Wow!” means to us. It came from our great horseback quest to the Continental Divide).

So, Taylor. You have the privilege of living out The Story He made for your life. There’s a sad reality, though. Most people, even Christians, write their own story. Not good; usually very bad endings. You’ve already discovered sin in your life. And you know about evil all around, and you have seen around people, even good people, living The Lie designed by God’s enemy, Satan. The Lie is the opposite of The Story. For the rest of your life, you will find yourself being tempted to write your own version, a sentence here and a paragraph there, maybe a page, even a chapter. Not good. It is very common that "good Christians" around you are living pretty good and decent lives...but they are stories they have written themselves without complete dependence on the Author of Life. Often story line come from The Lie.

So, here’s my simple start to our dialog journey for the year. You are beginning to live out His Wonderful Story. You will find times of disobedience, self-will, even secret sins. The sooner you get back to discovering the wonders of the life you see modeled in the Lord Jesus, the smoother life will be. How better to please God and live His full life than to Walk With Him in The Story. You will discover what He wants of you as a man made in His image. You’ll learn what “your glory is,” that is, just how He has designed you to shine for Him.

Yes, you need the disciplines of Scripture, the fellowship and counsel of family and godly friends (grandparents too, of course), you will want to serve God in your witness to friends, maybe even in career service in ministry. It will be part of The Story IF you are listening to and walking with The Author. (Which is like “following Christ” only better. It's side by side). So for all the clues I want to share with you about living the full potential of your life as a follower of Christ, we both will want to remember it’s His Story we are living out, not even the good one we invent for ourselves.

There, that’s a page worth on my laptop. The below is extra and is free. It’s worth meditating on:

Psalms 139: 13-16
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.

I like this one, too. You’re suppose to listen to the counsel of your grandfather from the generation who’s lived life and has the counsel of God to pass on:

"The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations" (Psalm 33:11).

GO WITH US ON THIS GRAND JOURNEY

The journey started today.  It's the one whereby grandfather Taylor, "Popi," joins Taylor, age 12, and his dad on the rough and wonderful trail to the manhood ceremony of age 13.  It's called various things around the world, "rite of passage" is a popular one and it is a ceremony embraced by cultures with ancient roots and possesed grand hopes of leaving a good legacy.

The event today was Taylor's first Journey Letter from Popi.  These are short life sermons delivered sometime on Thursday for a Friday read and think.  Taylor has the weekend to chat with Dad and Mom and, maybe, younger brother about the content and the application. 

I'll post the first one in the next couple of days.  Let's see how he responds.  I'll guide him to this blog for his response which is about to take on a new, wild, full, exciting generational whoopila.  Father, Father, son, three generations to bring to focus the lessons God had provided us through His World and thourgh the lives we can grateflully say He's guided.  The first title?  The Story.  All the lessons to follow come under The Story, His Story, the one He/They wrote in the Counsel of the Godhead just for Taylor before time began...for such a time as this.