Who Do You Hang Out With?

I am almost done with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book entitled "Ethics." I am sorry that I can not underline books, which is grammatically correct. I am using the quotation marks as that is all the blog software word processing program will allow me to use. I was surfing the Net for some interesting photos of Pastor Bonhoeffer and found that there were very few. However, I came upon these photos. The one of him with his group of school friends caught my eye. It reminded me of the many friends that I have had in my life and the photos that have been taken. Not everyone will be able to look at a photo and be able to say, "That is me! I am right next to my buddy who..." won the Nobel Peace Prize, or saved thousands through an act of bravery, or was first to discover life on another planet, or some such thing. It is rare to be associated with fame much less be famous. There is something to be said for God's people that needs to be remembered. God searches our hearts. He knows out deeds. His world is upside down from ours. Rather we have it almost all backwards. Who is to say that the meek friends we have will not be famous in heaven, God's true economy? Who is to say that if you simply follow His leading you will be accomplishing something that is so important that there is no earthly award possible that would justly acknowledge it.

Pastor Bonhoeffer was a great man, wrote great books, had great thoughts, and committed great and important deeds. He is justly acknowledged as a most important man in the 20th Century as he was one who bravely stood up to Hitler's Nazi movement early on in the game. He will not only have received his recognition here on earth, but I am sure there was awesome celebrations when he entered heaven after being murdered for his faith and actions by Nazi operatives. His terrible execution must have been a wonderful moment in glory. Looking at the faces around him I just wonder. What did they do for God's kingdom? I bet they too did great things...we just don't know about them. Someday we will.

As you look to yourself, look at your relationship to Jesus, and experience the relationships God gives you ponder Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Ponder his friends. There are some mighty grand examples of how to live faith filled lives out there for us to learn from. Iron sharpens iron you know. Pastor Bonhoeffer has sharpened and "pastored" me.

A Great And Wonderful Letdown:

It does not get any better than this. The eldest daughter marries a wonderful young man. So, what is next...for me, for my wife, for my family?

I have spent the majority of my working hours in the past six weeks getting ready for this event. Lawns needed to be mowed multiple times, rooms needed to be painted, windows replaced, decks pressure washed and sanded, furniture purchased, new carpet laid, phones to be answered, checks to be signed, bills to be paid. The list goes on and on. Interestingly it was my wife who had to do the most, though my work was physically more strenuous. On her fell the burden of organization, of relationships both near and far. That is the greatest task. With it comes stress. What a time. Will it ever come again? Well, we've two more daughters to go. We pray for them regularly. I could do this all over again and enjoy it just as much. But, daughters have much to do with these moments and there is no guarantee they will chose the same kind of fellow...that was key. We shall see. We shall pray. Always have and always will.

My mother just left one week after the wedding. That almost signaled the end. The end of the party. The real end came when our daughter called home on return from her honeymoon. A good and godly time was had. Two new lovers learning each other on all levels of the human experience. One week, not enough time. But, more time than most get and they came home happy. How I wish I could have given them a year to themselves like I have heard was done in Old Testament times. I could not. Society seems to be unwilling to. Computers and call lists and youth groups and coffee machines demand attention. Morning clocks ring their alarm and we are off early and fast. That is all right. Been there? yes, done that? sure, enjoyed those early married times and challenges? you bet! Time marches on, my daughter and her husband into their future and my wife and me into ours, and our parents into theirs...those that are left to be embraced.

God uses the wedding, the wedding feast, the wedding relationships often in the Bible. If I ever wondered why that was my questions ceased a week ago. It can be such a wonderful experience for all involved; the bridal party, the parents, siblings, extended family members, and friends of the family. We need stuff like this! We need traditional events that mark the passage of time, signify renewal and new birth, stand for purity of heart and mind, and reflect the relationship we have to Christ. He is the bridegroom and his church is the bride. There is no symbol so beautiful, so complete.

I'll be off to church tomorrow to worship my lord and savior, Jesus Christ. I'll go and worship just like I have done for years. But this time I will be more focused on thanksgiving than I've ever been before. Look for these times gentlemen. Work for these times. Savor these events when these graces are given to you. I did. Last Saturday I "caught" happiness for a time. She was in my grasp yet I held her gently, losely. Happiness, she looked me in the eye and smiled. She said, "hold me now." I did. Sleep will come and then Monday. It will seem that the pursuit begins again. Not really. She is with me now and forever. I choose not to let her go completely.

"The Grapes of Wrath" a book worth "lookin at."

I have just finished "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. I will work up this post as soon as I can. A book well worth reading and thinking deeply about.

08/23/2008
Well, enough time has passed. What about this book? When I read it I knew I was in the presence of a great writer. It took some time to get used to the dialect that Mr. Steinbeck used when his nomadic characters were speaking to each other. But, given some chapters and a commitment to the book those idiosyncratic elements became as natural as breathing. When that happened I was "in" the book not reading it. The thirties were very difficult years. America was tested as were the people of faith. My parents lived as young people at that time and it was the Great Depression that brought them to Chicago where my life began. Some went west, some east, and my grandparents went north.

The story is about the common man, the uncommon man, how the common man so often does uncommon things. It is about government failing its population, a percentage of its population fail another. It is about classism, racism and it is most about fear. Mr. Steinbeck's work spotlights the nobility that man is capable of and this nobility is often manifested in tragic times. It is also a clarion call to be willing to evaluate the past and present for the failures and act positively on them. It is not all right to maintain the status quo when others suffer so greatly. How should a just society work?

The final scene of the book is a shocker. A young woman whose husband has abandoned her in her last months of pregnancy gives birth, in the presence of her faithful mother and a loving stranger, to a still born child. That child, like Moses of the Exodus, is set adrift on a river, this time dead and in a river caused by a terrible flood, a message to those who would hear and understand. She discovers that she is in a barn where a young boy is watching his father starve to death because the father has sacrificed everything he has so his son might live. What the young girl does...you will have to read the book. But, if you do, don't skip to the end. Breath the book, the dust, in.