They said I'd be a bit tired, yes sir, they all said it down at the plant. I believe I'll have stories to tell to my kin or neighbors later on down the road in life about how I worked in a factory; the life of a factory worker is not a lonely job, for you have many comrades manning the machines, helping you pack the goods (vinyl "profiles" for the processing of windows). I'm not singing "A Hard Day's Night" yet so I'm feeling well, alert, and keen thanks to the Master's hand and provision. I prayed on the steps going down to my room yesterday afternoon, having read the last column in the War Cry, the Salvation Army's monthly newsletter, about fear. The writer wrote, very strikingly to my mind that when one is not praying continually he becomes soft, weak; I understood that any worries I have had about anything should be dealt with in front of God, at His feet, in prayer.
Last night, funny thing, I used my step dad's old small ice chest with the "Real Men Love Jesus" sticker on the front of it, reporting to my first day on the job. I had not really desired to wear my faith "on my sleave" or in this case on my lunch box, but the Lord called me to do it; for the only excuse that I had creaping in the back of my mind was that I shouldn't profess Christ's name in the workplace on the first day of work. What will people say, exclaimed the horrid thought. They would simply have to take it or leave it. And I found out that my supervisor is a Christian, who had come up to me while I was on the job, first making small talk ("Is that you mail Jeep out there...?"), and then he asked, "I saw the sticker on you lunch box." And so we eventually had a discussion at 11:45 PM on the lunch break about Scripture, and even the Somolian co-worker whose father is a minister in east Tacoma joined in. Things happen on God's watch weather you want them to or not.
And now it begins again, my friends. I ought t o go put the coffee in my thermos, drink the joe I have in my cup, check my lunch box with that sticker of inspiration, and drive off down to Fife. May you all have a good night's rest.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Time to buckle up,
Settle down,
Here you are,
Don't look down.
This morning at about I got a call, and before I picked up the ringing phone I knew it would be for me. It was from the recruiting office at Milgard, asking for me to come down to fill out some forms for employment tomorrow morning for the next evening I will be at work. I prayed for a job and now I have one. It is God's will.
I asked many times in the last two months since I returned from my extended post-high school graduation trip to California, "Whatever happens, Lord, it will be your will." It amuses me how my mind works, separating itself from a situation and in turn can make one moment in life seem like the most important thing. I look at the newness which this job brings my way, thinking it is the single event or the only thing in life which matters, and doing that creates a weird feeling in my stomach when I concentrate too much on it. I have found that this feeling is treacherous, false, blindly shallow. It is the simple emotion that is expressed in any event which is outside one's normal bout of life and living life; with this emotion, I dare not travel too far. First day of kindergarten wasn't so bad as I found out a few minutes into it. High school wasn't dream but I managed to learn some things. Earning my driver's license wasn't the elaborate, sophisticated process I had thought it would be. Life brings more than childhood stages, there are difficult ledges to climb on and valor in doing so, and in the graciousness of the Father we are not given a preview of our entire life journey before we're born.
My step dad's father, Al, is in the hospital with many complications, pain, and incoherence. He is 78 and almost completely blind. He has lived with diabetic neuropathy, an eroding of the body's nerves brought on by diabetes; right now he lives his last days on earth closer to the death than some of us, or maybe not. To conquer death not death itself was God's plan. Though we suffer for a while on earth, to suffer in eternity without God is the ultimate sorrow. But Al has been receptive in the example of the gospel, and the last time I had talked with him he seemed as one who has lived through the fire of this world and does not want to walk through the fire of death. Lord, You know Al's heart. Continue to work in his mind, and show him peace in there for the infinite life ahead.
In flesh there's birth,
In flesh there's death,
And then there's life.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
On Peace and Genuine Meaning Found in Christ
"There is no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked" (Isaiah 48:22).
In sin, one continually is at war with himself and God; there is no lasting peace in wrong doing. The wanderer flees unceasingly. As I said yesterday, of a widely known thought, each man, woman, and child can look heavenward and call out to the Creator and have lasting peace. In my life I ought to take more thought of the advantages which this peace prepares inside of me.
The Christian no longer needs to hunger or thirst for meaning here in this world because he has been fed and watered with the contentment found in Christ. As He said, "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (John 6:33). Christians needn't any other particular to attain fulfillment inside, as there is no void to fill. When there is no hole there is no need to continue piling on substitutes for the peace he already has. If Christians pine for more, they do so in vain. Nothing else can stop the hunger or quench the thirst as Jesus does. He gives life, but the earth only gives death.
I have been trying to keep active lately, waiting for the test results from Monday to reach Milgard and in turn reach me. A lesson rings out over and over again Johnny Cash's song: "Don't take your guns to town." That's not quite it. The actual lesson for myself is that I must not restrict my ears and eyes to one goal, such as looking to the potentiality an upcoming job, but on all things in life--having broad vision and ambitions. Although, Johnny Cash has a few good points in his Western ballads (like the senselessness of killing, as one music critic pointed out), keeping our focus on the Lord is the best advice we ought to adhere to. Look at Philippians 3:20-21. The apostle Paul wrote to the church:
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself."
As the latest peace talks unfold between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the new Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas, who have had a few meetings in the "process," we will see how long the potential peace lasts. Each treaty seems to be made to cover the last treaty, and the last treaty for the last. This generational game of flip-flop between each nation is one more accessory which comes with time I suppose; it is never eradicated, for there is always a new conflict that will come along. John Lennon was a dreamer, I will give him that, and he wasn't the only one of the kind he supposed himself to be. But could you imagine peace between nations as the world currently now exists and works? The most effective way to have peace is to have control, something which many dictators and idealist have given a nod to; utopian despotism is the only way a world could attempt to make peace. The idea is you won't have any conflicts if everyone is on the same level. But any government of man is destined to falter.
To Pilate Jesus said: "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here" (John 18:36).
In sin, one continually is at war with himself and God; there is no lasting peace in wrong doing. The wanderer flees unceasingly. As I said yesterday, of a widely known thought, each man, woman, and child can look heavenward and call out to the Creator and have lasting peace. In my life I ought to take more thought of the advantages which this peace prepares inside of me.
The Christian no longer needs to hunger or thirst for meaning here in this world because he has been fed and watered with the contentment found in Christ. As He said, "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (John 6:33). Christians needn't any other particular to attain fulfillment inside, as there is no void to fill. When there is no hole there is no need to continue piling on substitutes for the peace he already has. If Christians pine for more, they do so in vain. Nothing else can stop the hunger or quench the thirst as Jesus does. He gives life, but the earth only gives death.
I have been trying to keep active lately, waiting for the test results from Monday to reach Milgard and in turn reach me. A lesson rings out over and over again Johnny Cash's song: "Don't take your guns to town." That's not quite it. The actual lesson for myself is that I must not restrict my ears and eyes to one goal, such as looking to the potentiality an upcoming job, but on all things in life--having broad vision and ambitions. Although, Johnny Cash has a few good points in his Western ballads (like the senselessness of killing, as one music critic pointed out), keeping our focus on the Lord is the best advice we ought to adhere to. Look at Philippians 3:20-21. The apostle Paul wrote to the church:
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself."
As the latest peace talks unfold between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the new Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas, who have had a few meetings in the "process," we will see how long the potential peace lasts. Each treaty seems to be made to cover the last treaty, and the last treaty for the last. This generational game of flip-flop between each nation is one more accessory which comes with time I suppose; it is never eradicated, for there is always a new conflict that will come along. John Lennon was a dreamer, I will give him that, and he wasn't the only one of the kind he supposed himself to be. But could you imagine peace between nations as the world currently now exists and works? The most effective way to have peace is to have control, something which many dictators and idealist have given a nod to; utopian despotism is the only way a world could attempt to make peace. The idea is you won't have any conflicts if everyone is on the same level. But any government of man is destined to falter.
To Pilate Jesus said: "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here" (John 18:36).
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Seattle, Washington: Down on Alaskan Avenue, on one of the piers there, this was one of the wonderous views to anyone's eyes which have been deprived of the sight of the ships and the bay. I might describe Seattle, or what I have chanced to see in my few trips there, to the gnat's eyebrow, but I'll just say that a good feeling comes over me when I lean out on the railing overlooking the waves and simply stand there for a few minutes. Ah, salt spray!
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"...The word of God is not chained" (2 Timothy 2:9).
"Bel bows down, Nebo stoops;
Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle.
Your carriages were heavily loaded,
A burden to the weary beast" (Isaiah 46:1).
Modern man admires ancient civilizations, the Summerians for their centralized communications and cities, and the Egyptians for their superb mathematics, architecture and magnificent structures such as the pyramids. We are still in awe and are stupified by the mechanics which allowed the ancient Brits to build Stonehenge; we are romanced by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But man is mortal. We who are young should remember that nations rise and nations fall. Old men and women, in general, are more keen about life, for they are proportionally closer to the end of the span of life than the youth are.
Dynasties rise, some linger, and some fade out. The Mayans died out, but the Chinese are abundant. The Germans have had Three Reichs. The Greeks sell islands. John Lennon really digged the idea. Man has been in the game of progress for such a long time, looking to the seas, to the forests, the skies, the stars, the depths of the Universe. In so doing, man has worshiped many things in petions or praise of such things like good harvests and a newborn baby. Gold, silver, wood, mountains, the Sun, the star systems, even the planets have been worshipped. The earth has even been worshipped and is still worshiped by some groups today. Things which have been produced by the goldsmith, silversmith, and craftsmen are carried into homes and miniature shrines still today for the purpose of representing some deity or sacred place; things of man's making have been worshiped. Why not? There's God, and then there are gods. There is the Creator, and there's the creation. If it's all good, then why not call out to everything? To answer this, I will give another question: Does one compliment the casserole or the one who baked it?
It is clear that the dish of food has no feelings, or intelligence, it is not a living thing; it couldn't say 'thank you' even if you praised it for it's succulent taste or fragrance. And it also could not object to you eating it. So therefore it would not be unreasonable if you would praise the thoughtful host who made you the casserole.
To make this entry short, and perhaps to stretch this thought out for a few days, I will note that mankind has the capacity to look heavenward and praise the Lord. It is difficult to assume that all men in the past have known the God all creation by name, but it is well know that His name has been spread worldwide, starting in the beginning, spreading through Jerusalem, and entering many a jungle, forest, desert, and plateau. Bel and Nebo were deities of the Babylonians. But were they really powerful? No, they were dead, useless, pieces of dead weight which needlessly made the cattle weary as they were carried from place to place.
"I am the Lord, that is My name;
And My glory I will not give to another,
Nor My praise to carved images" (Isaiah 42:8).
"Bel bows down, Nebo stoops;
Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle.
Your carriages were heavily loaded,
A burden to the weary beast" (Isaiah 46:1).
Modern man admires ancient civilizations, the Summerians for their centralized communications and cities, and the Egyptians for their superb mathematics, architecture and magnificent structures such as the pyramids. We are still in awe and are stupified by the mechanics which allowed the ancient Brits to build Stonehenge; we are romanced by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But man is mortal. We who are young should remember that nations rise and nations fall. Old men and women, in general, are more keen about life, for they are proportionally closer to the end of the span of life than the youth are.
Dynasties rise, some linger, and some fade out. The Mayans died out, but the Chinese are abundant. The Germans have had Three Reichs. The Greeks sell islands. John Lennon really digged the idea. Man has been in the game of progress for such a long time, looking to the seas, to the forests, the skies, the stars, the depths of the Universe. In so doing, man has worshiped many things in petions or praise of such things like good harvests and a newborn baby. Gold, silver, wood, mountains, the Sun, the star systems, even the planets have been worshipped. The earth has even been worshipped and is still worshiped by some groups today. Things which have been produced by the goldsmith, silversmith, and craftsmen are carried into homes and miniature shrines still today for the purpose of representing some deity or sacred place; things of man's making have been worshiped. Why not? There's God, and then there are gods. There is the Creator, and there's the creation. If it's all good, then why not call out to everything? To answer this, I will give another question: Does one compliment the casserole or the one who baked it?
It is clear that the dish of food has no feelings, or intelligence, it is not a living thing; it couldn't say 'thank you' even if you praised it for it's succulent taste or fragrance. And it also could not object to you eating it. So therefore it would not be unreasonable if you would praise the thoughtful host who made you the casserole.
To make this entry short, and perhaps to stretch this thought out for a few days, I will note that mankind has the capacity to look heavenward and praise the Lord. It is difficult to assume that all men in the past have known the God all creation by name, but it is well know that His name has been spread worldwide, starting in the beginning, spreading through Jerusalem, and entering many a jungle, forest, desert, and plateau. Bel and Nebo were deities of the Babylonians. But were they really powerful? No, they were dead, useless, pieces of dead weight which needlessly made the cattle weary as they were carried from place to place.
"I am the Lord, that is My name;
And My glory I will not give to another,
Nor My praise to carved images" (Isaiah 42:8).
Monday, February 28, 2005
Today's Lesson: "Physicals and B#maj7"
Happy Birthday to my brother Jason. He's soaking up the winter down in Modesto, California.
Had some interesting experiences at the health clinic today, being my first check up in a great while andmy first drug screening. I won't elaborate on today's escapades, for they really have no words of wisdom in them; although, one particular physician's disdainful memories of marching band were entertaining for me as the assessment came to a close. He truthly didn't like "band" when he was in 8th grade; and I am sure by the clues that it wasn't his thing, for he made a slightly sneering face when he recalled that it all really consisted of students marching in the rain. "I hated it," he said. Those physicans can be surprising at times. All in all, it was a good visit. The results ought to reach Milgard in a couple days.
I made a stop at the South Hill Library this afternoon and picked up a copy of Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' and the music book The Definitive Jazz Collection. I have quite a good collection of Dylan albums, but evey now and then I feel especially inclined to use the free stuff from our state government's library systems, so the CD's are frequently checked out. I usually check out too many books for one sitting of a month, therefore, many books go back partially read. As for the Jazz book, I took it off the shelf wondering if it had "I've Got Your Under My Skin" as sung by Old Blue Eyes Sinatra, and wonder of wonders it did include the song! But I've discovered I'm an ignoramus when it comes to playing Jazz rhythms or chord changes on the guitar. I must learn this wonderful style of musical delight. I can play a few nice progressions (and if any potential reader cares) like Galt, Cadd9, D9 and other chords which I have no name for.
More to do and learn tomorrow. I must do some more studying in Isaiah and James; the moments of anticipation leading up to this job have taken my other desires, such as reading and studying, away and gained "center stage". Aye, the praying will be plenty abundant this evening!
Had some interesting experiences at the health clinic today, being my first check up in a great while andmy first drug screening. I won't elaborate on today's escapades, for they really have no words of wisdom in them; although, one particular physician's disdainful memories of marching band were entertaining for me as the assessment came to a close. He truthly didn't like "band" when he was in 8th grade; and I am sure by the clues that it wasn't his thing, for he made a slightly sneering face when he recalled that it all really consisted of students marching in the rain. "I hated it," he said. Those physicans can be surprising at times. All in all, it was a good visit. The results ought to reach Milgard in a couple days.
I made a stop at the South Hill Library this afternoon and picked up a copy of Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' and the music book The Definitive Jazz Collection. I have quite a good collection of Dylan albums, but evey now and then I feel especially inclined to use the free stuff from our state government's library systems, so the CD's are frequently checked out. I usually check out too many books for one sitting of a month, therefore, many books go back partially read. As for the Jazz book, I took it off the shelf wondering if it had "I've Got Your Under My Skin" as sung by Old Blue Eyes Sinatra, and wonder of wonders it did include the song! But I've discovered I'm an ignoramus when it comes to playing Jazz rhythms or chord changes on the guitar. I must learn this wonderful style of musical delight. I can play a few nice progressions (and if any potential reader cares) like Galt, Cadd9, D9 and other chords which I have no name for.
More to do and learn tomorrow. I must do some more studying in Isaiah and James; the moments of anticipation leading up to this job have taken my other desires, such as reading and studying, away and gained "center stage". Aye, the praying will be plenty abundant this evening!
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