THE WORLD is full of STORIES

We have met some amazing people - survivors of numerable tragedies.  A child born with not enough oxygen causing brain damage and blindness,  but with a happy and inquisitive personality.  His father skillfully showed us photos of the 23 year old who was not supposed to live over 90 days!!  Trips on motorcycles that became life changing; the doctors who could not understand how the person even survived the brain trauma unchanged, and with no infection after "drowning" in a swamp with open wounds.  Our host in TX backed into a tree, a dead tree, while doing yard work which caused the tree to pin him to the riding machine with the blade on the front. As his blood loss continued - from the branch impaled in his scalp - he drove up to where his wife was so he would not die out back with no one aware of what had happened.  THEN at the hospital his wife noticed that he was STILL BLEEDING as his pillow was saturated!!  His hair had been sewn into the incision closing the wound!  Perhaps they should have waited to have the head shaved?  Messy as it would have been to do so!

 It reminds me of Joe Friday of "Dragnet" fame who said the same of Los Angeles.  "Everyone in Los Angeles has a story and I know them all, I'm a cop!"  Like Joe, we feel honored to be able to listen to the stories and see GOD's hand at work in OTHER LIVES as He has been in OURS.   Friendly people doing their best to be thankful for each day that GOD gives them, sharing their lives and resources with others.  It amazes us how many church potlucks we are invited to share in,  how many Communion Sundays and back in Canyon TX a baptism of a young girl in a Methodist Church by immersion!  The Pastor and her father rolling up their sleeves and tucking their ties inside their dress shirts while joking about her getting them WET.  The liturgy was the same as in our Methodist Church, but the JOY of the LORD was evident to all including BOTH SETS of grandparents.  The organist at that particular church was exceptional as was the choir!!  

Oh, and then at that Canyon Methodist Church there was a CHILI Cookoff by the college-aged youth,  and a fundraising AUCTION!!  The most money was raised by a German Chocolate cake in a 9 x 13 pan.  It sold for $2,000.00 thanks to two gentlemen who were bidding against each other up to $1,000.00 each agreeing on the $2,000.00 bid and splitting the cake. Everyone laughed when a pan of "Italian Meat CAKE" - aka Lasagne - was put up for auction!!  Actually all the cakes were shared (except the Italian Meat Cake) as there were plastic knives and small plates on each round table. We enjoyed small slices of Swedish Creme Cake, Death by Chocolate Cake, and Dolly Parton's Coconut Cake.   The auctioneer had been raised in that congregation and was just amazing!!  He asked one young man if he had baked the cake he was offering?  "No, just a WalMart purchase,"  he answered - like could he lie at a church function?  It brought a bid of  $125.00!!

We enjoyed lunch yesterday at a restaurant in Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border which was built in 1928.  Excellent lunch and a tour of the free museum next door. There were all kinds of STORIES shown there,  the famous and the not-so-famous,  the natives and the visitors.  The Depression was so hard on the reservation there that the owners of that RESORT went to Hollywood and convinced the movie industry to come and film Westerns there.  What a God-send and the monuments have not changed all that much.  Tom actually thought that we had seen them before as we made the annual trek to or from Southern California in the 1960s but we always took the road that passed through the 4 Corners to Cortez and Durango Colorado, not the one up to Moab Utah.  I told him he had seen it often in the Western movies!!

The winds are still blowing here at the Blue Mountain RV Park so we will stay until at least tomorrow.  That is one thing we learned as pilots all those years - do not travel if the weather is uncooperative.  That is a good way to live to hear more stories!!

REAR VIEW MIRROR

How often have I heard or read, “I know God is all powerful and was ABLE to heal my child, (mother, husband) But, why didn’t He?”  Timing, affect/effect, loving care, opportunity for growth, trust, lack of obedience on the part of the shooter, driver, or doctor…

Many books have been written on GRIEF – the steps and how to navigate the journey through grief.  Words to say and words NOT to SAY!  Presence and Prayer are Powerful.  But I heard a pastor say:  “People who speak in their hearts through what they say GOD DIDN’T DO, lack the discernment necessary to speak into their MOMENT.”  (whatever the need of the moment)  Our unspoken thoughts about GOD’s lack of empathy toward us do affect the outcome of the future.  Our understanding of His omnipotence is clouded by our anger and resentment about previous times of grief, previous times of unanswered prayer, previous times of frustration.

The devotion in The Upper Room this morning was from Isaiah 43: 16-21, and especially vs 18 – “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”  Every little town that we have visited, or parked at, has a museum with knowledgeable docents anxious to discuss their memories, or the glory days, or the historical significance of their corner of our country.  The Israelites in the Old Testament down to the practicing Jews of our day keep the feasts proscribed in the Torah, remembering GOD’s faithfulness and great acts of mercy in rescuing their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.  Walking on dry land, water from a rock, manna for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, quail - when they complained about the unimaginative food choices!   Gratitude was not their daily mindset. 

Jesus at the Last Supper told the disciples to break bread together, drink the wine together to REMEMBER his sacrifice until He returned.  Perhaps it is a fine line between REMEMBERING and DWELLING, between learning from your history and REPEATING it?!  Remembering the good deeds and forgetting the hurtful ones is never easy, but certainly necessary.

The rear view mirror in our GMC is actually a camera image, showing what is actually behind you without the distraction of what is going on in the back seat!  Obviously, it is one of those “well turn it off if not helpful” devices.   I am not sure how that relates to my maxim that “if you spend too much of your time checking the rear view mirror, you WILL run into a TREE.”  I may have to rethink that based on our newer technology.

 I will continue to chew on that statement of the pastor about blaming GOD when prayers are not answered the way I wish them to be.  When we recite the negatives we have a hard time being grateful for the blessings and noting GOD’s perfect timing and care. 

HAPPY TRAILS!