Summer Storms

A violent storm knocked out a big tree limb in my backyard. I heard a loud crack and rushed to the window. This was around 9:30 or 10:00 so it was dark and rainy. I had to press my face to the glass and force my eyes to focus on the tree. I was both relieved and disappointed. My backyard tree lost a sizable limb from the unrelenting wind. I think it’s a pear tree, which is not the strongest wood.  The relief I felt is because it didn’t hit the garage, neither did anything fall off the front tree (maple) and ruin my SUV in the driveway. It lost a few more limbs, much smaller and manageable. It losses a few dangling limbs during nearly every storm anyway. I’ve just come to expect it. Last year I had someone climb up it and cut all the deadwood and barely-still-there type of branches. Since then I’ve noticed a lot less debris overall. It still likes to shed during the storms though.

I woke up this morning expecting to start cutting the fallen limb into bits and hauling it to the street. I noticed the whole area got trashed by that storm, it wasn’t just my yard. My neighbor in back had a large birch trunk split down the middle. Part of it crushed their new fence as well. The whole street took a beating from north to south. Street lights were out as well. My brother, a mile away, lost power. These storms usually pass through in the spring. Summer is normally light, warm rain and moist breezes that cool down the land after a 90 degree day. Oklahoma doesn’t see a lot of those. You either get extended droughts or what the guy at Lowes called a “gullywasher”. I was buying hostas at the time and preparing to line the fence with them. “Might want hold off on that” he said “Tonight’s supposed to be a gullywasher”. That’s the first time I heard that phrase but didn’t ask him what it meant. It’s a word that explains itself perfectly.

I didn’t grow up here as a kid but it seems like the rain and storms are more violent here. I don’t just mean from destruction. The weather events just feel more intense, hard driving rain, angry wind. I’m sure it’s my imagination but I didn’t think the storms were that much different than the upper Midwest. I know the tornados are worse, but summer storms too?

As a kid I loved a good summer storm. You could stand outside and not worry about getting sick from cold rain. Lightning is usually destructive, but sometimes it’s so far away it doesn’t feel like it. It just cracks across the sky and lights up the dark clouds for brief second; you don’t even hear the thunder. At one house we had a long picture window with a great view of the front yard. I’d sit on the couch against the window and watch the storm progress and the rain get faster as it moved across the yard.

 Storms were more fun as a kid, getting wet and splashing in puddles too. But then everything was more fun as a kid. Being an adult is the worst. “Adulting” it’s called, which is an appropriate name that makes it sound like a game kids would play, talk about named perfectly. Probably the biggest difference from childhood to adulthood is that fun becomes work awfully quick. Families don’t get together so the parents can ride bikes and play kick ball. Kids are all about fun and find it even in things adults hate to do. And one thing we really hate to do is clean up the yard after a gullywasher.

Medical Grade Churches

Church is starting back tomorrow night. Instead of 6:00 pm, like normal, we’ll be hosting a 5:00 slot so the cleaning crew can have extra time to disinfect the church. All that scary Covid wafting around it pays to use a little extra elbow grease I suppose. Come to think of it does Covid even waft? Or is it more an airborne menace, an all-powerful droplet of doom, wreaking havoc on man and beast. It fills up hospital beds quicker than a F5 tornado rampaging through a city. It causes all manner of life to seize up like an engine without oil in July. God help us all! I hope we’re prepared for this present day darkness!

I don’t expect a lot of people to show up tomorrow. I went to a Wednesday night service a few weeks ago. We do those once per month. It’s a good idea to get all 3 separate campuses to meet in one place. But since the shutdown and collective loss of ability to think clearly by so many, we’ve been away for a while. I was pumped to be there. A meeting with fellow Christians, united in prayer for the leaders of the country was perfectly timed. I haven’t been watching the online services. I just can’t get into them. I like the live in person stuff. Sure if I miss a week here and there and I can supplement with a simulcast but mostly, I haven’t had the energy.

 How much energy could you possible need to sit in front of a screen for 30 minutes. You don’t even need pants!

Ok so I don’t mean energy as much something else. Having trouble naming it, it’s like a whole body shoulder shrug. It’s an “I just can’t right now” feeling permeating my soul. It’s probably rooted in disappointment over the church’s decision to shut down for such an extended period. For what I believe is a ridiculous virus (I didn’t say fake) that wouldn’t raise an alarm in most years. We’re shutting down business, church and schools for a lousy coughing bug. Oh but It’s contagious, spreads quickly. Good. Maybe we can get to herd immunity by football season. I’m trying to understand the needs of the more vulnerable and be accommodating, but we don’t do that in a free country. The sick and vulnerable stay home, not the healthy.

Since I’m a volunteer at church they are making us wear masks while serving. I’m not happy about it. I’ll go along with it for now. I want to be supportive of the leaders at church and the tough decisions they need to make. But this feels more like accommodating to a world view of how we should behave than an honest attempt to make people comfortable.

How much of this is me being a jerk and how much is a genuine desire to rebel against a lying media machine? The Church needs to be strong on all fronts and sometimes I think it means being a little bit rebellious. If for no other reason than to signal to the local officials “You don’t get to tell us what to do”. Mask mandates aren’t law. They’re pronouncements, edicts, power hungry screeds and we have never passed “laws” that way. We don’t vote to compel people to wear things anyway. I realize that masks are either required by businesses or not, the government hasn’t made a ruling yet. But it doesn’t matter.

I think of the mask as a litmus test. Is that really fair though? All that pressure for a thin piece of fabric?

Those who force wearing it are not going to push back when it counts. Oh they’re nice about it of-course, it’s all just the most reasonable how-could-you-not-just-do-the-sensible-thing suggestions. It’s like a feather even, barely a nudge. “Think of the elderly you monster” “What would Jesus do?” “It’s just for a little while”. I can't imagine Jesus with a mask "Come to me all you who are weary...but please wash your hands, and stay 6 feet away."

Those who refuse to wear it are leaders, especially when the downside to NOT wearing it is reputational damage and scorn. Since leaders across the country (inside and outside of church) are surrendering on little things like masks, and gathering, and accepting the silly premise that singing spreads the disease even faster, I’ll look to those who stand on little things to lead. 

Consistency is a Virtue (almost)

I went for an after work run today in the heat, 3 miles nothing crazy. My weekly schedule is usually weights, running, weights, running and then rest. No two weeks are the same but I do alternate between types of cardio on my lifting days. I’m reluctant to call them “lifting days” anymore. I do a few sets per muscle group and peddle a bike for 20 minutes. Or, I do 15 minutes on the stair climber and work the cables for a few minutes. Lifting has a kind of balls to the wall sound to it, heavy, exhausting, punishing. I don’t work out like that anymore. It takes too much out of me. 

There is a consistency to going to the gym (or running) that teaches discipline. I’m more consistent now than ever and it isn’t because I feel like doing it. When a challenging activity becomes routine it starts to pay you back. We have a loft at work that overlooks the entire warehouse. It’s our conference area, break room, zoom call meeting area and all-purpose media room. It has a staircase I run up every morning to grab my printouts. For some reason I can’t connect with other closer printers in the office area. No problem. I love the change to run full speed up the steps. I used to get winded, not anymore.

In little moments like that I feel progress. It takes getting a little older to appreciate it. We take our fitness and strength for granted in our twenties. It’s like the summer heat, constant, unchanging. But after a decade or so it becomes clear that consistent work is the only way to avoid the sluggishness and weight gain. Another way to say that is, you work harder for smaller gains. The gains still happen but they’re marginal relative to 20 years ago. But I appreciate them more now.

Consistency doesn’t sound like a real quality. It isn’t one of the big ones like honesty or kindness or bravery. It’s certainly not listed among the fruits of the spirit like love, joy, peace, patience and so on. But it’s an important characteristic for leaders to have in inconsistent times. When institutions fail and role models (defined very loosely) won’t support their own movements, people will look for consistency. This isn’t always good by the way. The swirling chaos in the country right now is blowing people to opposite ends of the street like debris. Some search for strength in mob like behavior. Others, in brave leaders that reject the onslaught of mob rule and stand on truth like they always have.

Consistency is never saying “sorry” to appease the mob. It’s taking a Biblical position on traditional marriage if that’s always been your belief. It’s defending American traditions if the rationale for those traditions hasn’t changed. Should statues be ripped down in a fit of anger whatever the reason? No. We vote on these things. Consistency is holding the line and taking the arrows even when the battle looks lost. Besides, there is always a market for truth and reason; stand on it and watch people follow. Leadership, or lack of, is the problem. It takes courage and a lot of our business CEOs, politicians and athletes don’t have it. They’re either lost in the woods with no compass, or they have a compass but no courage.

I hope I haven’t downplayed the very real struggle our leaders face and the constant assault from evil people in high places. Earlier this week James Lankford (Senator from Oklahoma) introduced a bill to replace Columbus Day with Juneteenth. Nothing against Juneteenth, but getting rid of Columbus Day is a sop to the radical left and their demands. They’re children, you don’t appease them. 

He eventually abandoned the idea. Wonder why?

Lankford seems to me like an honest man with convictions so this one surprised me. It’s just dumb. I like him and I think he’ll do well if he stands on principle, mainly don’t try to do media fluff legislation. They don’t like you so don’t bother.

Consistency is about never giving up and doing the tough work, day after day. It builds up resolve the way that running builds up the legs. You can't have courage without it.   

 

Moses and Remembrance

Deuteronomy 9

Why do we remember anything? Or if asked a little differently, why do we remember some events and not others? Meetings with old friends can bring to mind stories long forgotten? It happens that way because our minds are prone to push some things to the front and others to the back. We can only focus on so many events/stories/memories at a time. Moses understands how pivotal the 40 years in the wilderness was to the children of Israel and insists they remember, or lose the collective importance.

If you had an event in your family where a member almost died because of a heart condition, you would remember that. You’d remember a scary night at the hospital when their life seemed to hang by a thread. And if they lived…you’d remember how they changed their diet, started walking and losing weight. You’d remember what made the difference and make changes in your own life to avoid a similar scare. Moses needs the Children of Israel to remember the scary night in the wilderness when God nearly destroyed them because of their wickedness.

One way to remember is by routine or ceremony. In America we have ceremonies for Veterans Day and Memorial Day, and important people like Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln. The Jews celebrate Passover by ‘remembering’ in a collective sense, the exodus from slavery to freedom and a land of their own. It's a reminder of how God kept His promise and rescued them from the Egyptians and took care of them through the wilderness. Most of Deuteronomy is Moses imploring the next generation of Israelites to never forget how the Lord kept them from harm, and kept His Word.  

Near the end of chapter 9 Moses reminds them that God was full of wrath at how they had rejected Him and made a golden calf to worship like the Canaanites. He (Moses) pleaded with God not to destroy them in His anger. Moses is also thinking about what would be said about God if the Jewish people were ultimately destroyed.

 “…O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” (26-28).

Moses was thinking about the promise and reminding God about it. How awesome is that? We can remind God about His promises to us. He is also thinking about the future of God’s name and reputation among people if the children of Israel die in the desert. Usually God is holding us back from making a regrettable decision. Here, it looks like Moses is doing the same to God. But in using the promise of Jehovah’s Word, it has the uniqueness of being reliable.

The wilderness experience for the Israelites was so formidable in the exodus story that Moses won’t let them forget it. The same is true for us in personal matters too. We remember when something is important enough. But add a few generations and without rigorous attention to ceremony, it gets lost in the ‘importance’ of the now. The Jewish people get this better than most. They also show us that it’s possible to live a modern (Western) lifestyle and still honor the past by adhering to ceremony where necessary. I don’t think the actual rites or rituals are as important as making time for them. In Christianity we celebrate the resurrection of Christ by attending church for a celebration of victory over death, for all time. But other ceremonies exist around the world, I’m sure Eastern Orthodox Christians have a different tradition.

When we don’t honor seminal events we lose them, and the importance of God in our lives. We also lose generations of people to nihilism or apathy. Moses won’t let them forget.