Cat Scan

      For most of the past twenty five years, we have had a two car garage and a two cat house. We did not plan it that way, but wound up with one main cat and one emergency backup cat. They comprise our home security system. Before having cats, we did not even realize the malicious nature of inanimate objects around our home. Our first cat, Annie, saved us many times by attacking walls whose hostile intentions had gone completely unnoticed by us.  Cisco, our second guard cat, focused mainly on threats outside the house. He would flit from bush to bush in the backyard, all the while evading enemies totally invisible to us. Our only clue to their presence was the poofiness of Cisco's tail after having survived an encounter.
     After Cisco died, we got Sola, who has shown no aptitude whatsoever as a protector. As a matter of fact, we sometimes wonder if Sola is something we should be protected from. She has emerged from her standoffish, serial-killer-stare phase to an I-headbutt-you-because-I-love-you stage, which makes us almost as nervous. Just what parts of us does she love? We named her Sola because she was the only survivor of her litter, but began to suspect that she may have had something to do with that. Sola is our current emergency backup cat.
     Our main cat is Maynard. He loves us--intact and inedible. Maynard has often saved our lives by wrestling doormats into submission. We unwittingly brought the mats into our home to protect us. A tile entryway and wet shoes are not a good combination. The worst threat we could imagine from a doormat was being a trip hazard. But Maynard sees the mild mannered mats for the malevolent creatures they are and has to subjugate them almost daily.
    It amazes us that people who lock their doors, wear seat belts, and buy smoke alarms are willing to live in a house without cats. Who will alert them to the domestic dangers that roam their home disguised as innocent, inanimate objects?  For a truly safe house, there's no substitute for a cat scan.
    

For All That He Has Done

     In a recent BSF lesson, we were asked what words we would use to express how much God's forgiveness means to us. My answer was that words were not enough to express something that wonderful, but the main thing I realized, was how long it had been since I even contemplated God's forgiveness. What words could I use?  I learned years ago that the reason Biblical prophecy is written in poetry is that the thoughts were too grand for prose. I write poetry, so I decided to find my words in that form.

For All That He Has Done

We forget, once the burden has been lifted,

how it felt to be full of sin

and empty of purpose

at the same time.

We forget to marvel

that the crushing weight of guilt

rolled off of us, only because

it fell on Christ.

We forget the frustration

of stripping away a layer

of self-righteousness, only to find

more layers underneath.

We thank Him for our day,

but forget to thank Him

for all that He has done, to pay

for all that we have done.

Inside Out

     In my 41 years as a  Christian, I have studied Matthew many times, four of those times in BSF. Although the Bible is a living book, eternally applicable, and I am in a different stage of my life every time Matthew cycles through BSF, I was afraid that familiarity might breed contempt, even for  much loved Matthew. So I prayed for fresh insight into this very familiar book. The theme that has come to me repeatedly through these first 19 chapters of Matthew is Jesus training the disciples to see the inside instead of the outside, especially of the religious leaders. If the disciples followed the leadership of the outwardly righteous scribes and Pharisees after Christ's ascension, Christianity would have died in its infancy. Despite their overt persecution of Jesus, the disciples still looked up to the Pharisees and were worried about offending them.
     On the other hand, the disciples looked down on children and many others in the crowd who followed and admired Jesus. Christ was trying to teach his disciples that righteousness comes from the inside out. The fancy robes, time spent in the temple, scrupulous observance of laws, and even knowledge of the scriptures did not penetrate their hard hearts. That is because reading the Bible doesn't change us. Studying the Bible doesn't change us. We are changed only by applying what the Bible says. That is why I have stayed in BSF 23 years. The questions, discussion and accountability force me, against my lazy nature, to apply what I am learning.
     It is man's nature try to become righteous from the outside in, by conformity to religious practices. But the church is not a magic box where spirituality grows. We all know people who have attended church, prayed, and read the Bible faithfully for decades yet remain spiritually stagnant in the same sins of gossip, bitterness, laziness, etc. that they had when they first walked in the church door.  All being in church does for many people, is mold them into an acceptable Christian shape, and all they do for the church is warm a pew. I want more than that for my loved ones. I do not want them to read the Bible or go to church out of mindless habit, or even to please me, those are lesser things. I want them to do those things because they love God--from the inside out.
   

Connie's Mantra

With so much conflicting health information in the media, how do I evaluate what is true?

Connie's mantra:  Whenever you read a cause, cure or preventative for a well known, well funded disease like Alzheimer's or breast cancer, that is not supported by two or three more independent sources, assume it is not true. Even if the website sponsors have no interest in relieving the suffering of millions of people, they would still be interested in the millions they would get from a proven remedy.

But what if the information is verified by objective scientific studies?

Connie's mantra:  There is no such thing as objective science.
Many health studies are paid for by companies selling the product they want to be good for you. At best, science works within a paradigm, essentially, the lens through which information is interpreted. For instance, facts that do not support the current science paradigm of evolution are suppressed or ridiculed.

But what if a product is endorsed by a well respected doctor like Dr. Oz?

Connie's mantra: In order to be competitive in the media market, new health breakthroughs need to be aired on a regular basis. Unfortunately, health breakthroughs do not occur on a regular basis.
This leaves no time for long term studies of the products being endorsed, even by well respected doctors.

What if the health warnings are not trying to sell products, but warn about dangerous foods?

Connie's mantra:  If I am not to fear the devil, who hates me and wants to harm me, I refuse to fear food, which my Father has given to bless me.
Current warnings have made Olympic leaps of logic by blaming disease on a certain food or drink when it is only one element of what may be an unhealthy lifestyle. The other common, cultural logic leap is assuming something is a cause when it is only another factor. For instance, most murderers are right handed, but being right handed doesn't make you commit murder.

What if doctors want us to be unhealthy so they can make more money? How can I distinguish real conspiracies from hoaxes?

Connie's mantra:  A real conspiracy requires an agenda plus the ability to enforce it, including a way to silence those who expose the conspiracy.
My cat may have an agenda of world domination, but he has no way to carry it out. People who do well publicized, multi-city tours are exposing agendas. People who expose real conspiracies are in hiding or dead. I will believe there is a conspiracy among doctors to keep us unhealthy the day my dentist starts mailing me candy.

What about doctors who sell miracle products only by mail order because "they want to help as many people as possible"?

Connie's mantra:  If they wanted to help as many people as possible, not to mention earn the respect of their peers, and $$$, they would make it available in stores. "Mail order only" means the product claims are unsubstantiated.

What is your advice about giving advice?

 Connie's mantra:  Pray relentlessly, speak occasionally. Blog, don't nag. There are two reasons I restrain my urge to give advice. 1.  I am much wiser with my mouth closed than I have ever been with my mouth open. 2. The only people who really listen to advice are those who have asked for it. That is one of the reasons I blog, I can share my opinions on my take-it-or-leave-it blog and no real relationships have been harmed. In four decades as a Christian, I have learned that when God is working on my loved ones, my Spirit assigned role is to pray and shut up.

So despite all these warnings, you aren't worried?

Connie's mantra:  I refuse to start worrying until God stops being sovereign.
I realize it is counter-cultural not to worry. Even in Christian circles, non-worriers are looked at as uniformed or delusional, as if we are somehow shirking our duty and others will have to cover our share of the worrying. What they should worry about, is committing the spiritual slander of implying God is either not good enough, or not powerful enough to take care of us. Doing that would worry me. 
 

The Touch of the Gardener

     Today is my in-laws' sixtieth anniversary. Sixty years is the diamond anniversary, an occasion so rare there are few cards and no decorations to cover it. I wanted to write a little synopsis of their  marriage because it is such a testimony of the hand of God that a marriage so unlikely to succeed could last sixty years, but the story morphed into a poem. However, the symbolism of the poem is hard to understand without the back story, so I will try again with a short synopsis. In 1954 a sixteen year old girl from an alcoholic home on the wrong side of the tracks eloped with her twenty year old  fiance on leave from the army. They ran away to Idaho where they married without parental consent, then returned to Helena where Del left his new bride and went to Korea for two years.
     When he returned, they started having children and moved to Missoula, not too far from the tracks, which was fitting because Del worked for the railroad. It was there, through the intervention of some Christian friends, that they came to know Christ. They raised four children in a Christian home, and have doubled that investment by having eight grandchildren. I had the privilege of marrying their firstborn and eventually settling in Kalispell. The other two sons and a daughter live in or around Missoula. This poem is for Pat and Del, but it is about God.

The Touch of the Gardener

The chances of it working were one in sixty--

planting an immature rosebush

in a crack of soil

in a bottle strewn parking lot

on the wrong side of the tracks,

leaving it alone for two years

and expecting it to grow.

But it did grow

and began to blossom

almost immediately.

By then, the bottles were gone

the town had changed,

though the tracks 

were still nearby.

And in that unlikely place

a master gardener

found the struggling plant,

loved it,

and began to water it.

The roots sank deep

and the plant began to flourish.

When the time was right

the gardener took four cuttings,

established their roots

and planted them

not too far away.

In time they, too,

began to blossom.

What was once

a hastily planted rosebush

in the wrong part of town

became a rose garden

that passersby could see and enjoy

and, most of all, recognize

the touch of the Gardener.