These are times that are trying many souls

Over the course of the past year or so, we have witnessed catastrophic earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, New Zealand and Japan.  We have seen a tsunami suddenly kill thousands of people and cause turmoil and anxiety even unto this present hour due to the problems at a nuclear power plant in Japan.  We have seen volcanoes erupt in Iceland and ice storms in places that rarely see them.  Through it all, the United States of America was basically unscathed.

Over the past few weeks, the forces of nature have unleashed their fury upon the very heart of America.  Through wildfires burning in Texas, flooding along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and the current incredible outbreak of tornadoes; there is no longer any feeling of invincibility in this land.  As if the current situation were not bad enough, a very active hurricane season looms just ahead.

In due time, all the damage being done by all these natural disasters will act as a financial stimulus as people will find jobs rebuilding houses, businesses, churches and other facilities.  But, in the short term, the current situation is too much for many to bear.  Losing one’s home or business is a traumatic experience that leaves deep scars in someone’s hearts for years to come.  Obviously there are many hurting people around right now.

The frustration people go through dealing with insurance companies, government agencies, financial institutions and employers is hard to understand unless a person has lived through a major disaster or worked with those who have.  People can talk about “trusting God” all they want, but when your home is a pile of debris, your place of employment is demolished and your creditors want payments NOW; the pressure many times literally breaks people and demolishes families.

In 2006 I took a very long and difficult trip to Cameron, a little town on the coast of southwestern Louisiana, which had been utterly destroyed by hurricane Rita the previous year.  The area was a ghost town as it had been literally forgotten due to most of the emphasis being placed on Katrina damage.  As I trudged through the sand looking at the destruction I came upon a few very haggard people hanging around a white tent.

When I inquired as to what was going on, I was told of how there used to be a church ministry that brought food to that tent twice a week but had run out of resources and had to stop.  My heart ached for these poor people who received no aid from FEMA, the Red Cross, Salvation Army or any other group except one lonely ministry who could no longer find the resources to get food to them.

I was not able to do much but the pictures I took of the people and their plight did make their way to some agencies which in due time were able to get some resources down there.  The town had literally fallen through the cracks due to all the other needs.

As people attempt to put their lives back together in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Virginia; I pray that those of us unaffected by the current onslaught of floods and tornadoes remember those whose lives have been turned upside down.

These are very troubled and turbulent times and many of our brothers and sisters are hurting right now.  If ever they needed a friend to lend them a hand or a shoulder to cry on it is NOW.  If there was ever a time to redouble our prayers and “stand in the gap” it is NOW.  If there was ever a time to intercede on behalf of those who are struggling to stay sane and alive, it is NOW.  Truly this is a time to pray for and reach out to all those engaged in the worst battles of their lives.

There is plenty to be nervous about

I would not say that I am afraid, for I am not; but I will readily admit that the incredible things happening with the weather and economy make me very nervous.  There is a huge difference between being afraid and being nervous.  One is counterproductive and the other is the natural reaction to uneasy situations.

Just four years ago I would have been working 20 hours per day finding relief supplies for tornado victims in the St. Louis area and flooding victims in southern Missouri.  I know my days of trying to “save the world” after every disaster ended some time ago, but I am still deeply impacted as I see images of destruction and hear reports of catastrophic flooding soon to cause untold problems in many areas.  Throw into the mix some of the worst wildfires Texas has ever seen and you have a truly troubling situation building.

I study weather and I have seen from multiple sources that the upcoming month of May will be MUCH COOLER than normal throughout much of the USA except along the Gulf coast.  The last two times this happened were 2005 and 2008 which were years that produced hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma; and 2008 which produced hurricanes Gustov and Ike.  Many experts are already warning of the imminent possibility of multiple strikes by huge hurricanes along the United States coastline this summer.

For a very long time I used to study and try to understand economic concerns.  What is currently happening is so distressing that I no longer have the desire to try and figure out what is happening and about to happen.  Contrary to what media outlets are saying, there is a period of hyper-inflation just around the next bend.  We are already seeing it in the constantly rising prices for gasoline and food.

It is estimated that nearly 15% of all Americans have had to raid their retirement accounts to find resources for emergencies.  I know this is true for I am one of those 15% and am not proud of it.  But, when all other sources of income are removed, and expenses pile up; there is no place left to go but to the IRA or 401k that was supposed to provide income for 25 years or more after retirement.

Recent studies have indicated that the housing market for super expensive properties is rebounding and doing fine.  Those with plenty of money are spending it on lavish homes that cost well over a million dollars.  Those homes in foreclosure are also being purchased by people with money and then rented out to desperate people who have lost their homes.

Meanwhile those homes in the $100,000 to $600,000 range just sit there.  No one qualifies for a loan and no one has the money to pay the huge down payment to move up or down.  Most of us live in these kinds of homes and are stuck in them for many years to come.

I cannot do nothing about the weather or the economy so all I can do is pray for wisdom for those deeply impacted by both.  May God grant us all great patience and understanding so as to make the right decisions and have the means to help our neighbor, brother, parent or child in need.

Learning to follow God no matter where the road leads

In no way do I pretend to be an expert on much of anything.  The only thing I do take pride in is that no matter what has come my way in this life, I have never given up.  Regardless of the pain, suffering, cruelty, injustice and rejection I have faced; through the grace of God, I have managed to hang in there.  In the Bible, this is called PATIENCE.

From the time God entered my life on that mountain in New Mexico in 1969 through the present, there have been innumerable peaks and valleys in my life and ministry.  I have stood on the mountains of good times when I thought I was in heaven, and I have slithered as a lizard through barren deserts wondering if I would live to see another day.  Through it all, God has never left me nor forsaken me.  No matter where I have been and regardless of my spiritual state, God has remained faithful to His Word that He would sustain and protect me.

I have lived in, ministered at and traveled to almost every state in the Union (all except Hawaii and Maine).  I could write lengthy books describing the incredible things God did for me in New Mexico, Kansas, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, New York, Texas, Tennessee, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Alaska, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Alabama, Virginia, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Missouri, Louisiana and Montana.  I have learned that in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.

In 1987, two guys and I sold everything we owned at a moving sale and ended up living in a small pop up camper for months until God opened the door to spend 8 months living in a nice cabin at a resort in Oklahoma in exchange for doing odd jobs around the place.  It was during this time that we would spend 8 hours each day sitting at a big table researching various things in the New Testament.

In 1994, at a time of intense financial pressure, God led me to HIS solution which ended up in us living ten years in a rundown old house in the middle of nowhere with no furnace or air conditioner.   The total “rent” paid during those ten years was less than $200.  Despite the hardship of having to cut and haul wood to stay warm, many of those ten years were the sweetest of my life.

In 1971, three of us were assigned to Marinette, Wisconsin to be ambassadors for Christ for a year.  Within a few weeks of getting there, we were having meetings with 65 people crammed into someone’s living room.  The next spring we were allowed to have meeting at the High School during lunch.  At one meeting we had over 125 kids show up to hear us sing and teach the Bible.

In 1979, working with one other person, God threw open doors which allowed us to minister the love of God to hundreds of students at a small college, but at homes of relatives scattered throughout rural northern Mississippi.

In 1984 a few of us turned the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania upside down as we fully committed ourselves to “witnessing” to as many people as we could in a month.  The doors God opened were incredible and resulted in many people being saved, healed and committing themselves to serving God.

In 2006, I was allowed by God to embark on a journey most people would be scared to death to go on.  I took off with only the van I was driving and my conviction that God would lead me to the right people in Mississippi who needed the love and things I had to offer.  The stories I have to share regarding God’s faithfulness to lead and open doors still to this day astound me.

In 2009, just a few months after nearly dying three times in three months, God allowed me to jump in my van and visit many members of this site.  I will forever cherish the times spent in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Tennessee and Ohio.

Over the years I have found myself in positions where either I believed God would take care of, direct and sustain me or I would die.  I thank God that He honored the faith in my heart to follow Him and in so doing lead me to one Promised Land after another.  I also thank God for what I learned during the times I did not follow Him and ended up in spiritual wastelands.

It is my prayer that in continuing to share from the wealth of experiences I have, it may help to inspire any of you craving to break free from the bondage of trusting yourself, your job or your resources. For those wanting to hear about walking out on faith and not by sight; I urge you to stay tuned for more in the days to come.

The long road back

Let us be honest; there is a mold which supposedly good Christians are to fit into.  I call this cookie cutter Christianity.  For the most part this mold consists of going to church on Sunday and living a decent and upright life with no terrible vices.  Unfortunately this mold also involves the watering down of the Christian message as well as severe judgment on anyone who appears to be either too much of a fanatic or a hypocrite.

 
A very long time ago, it became obvious to me that I didn’t fit the standard Christian cookie cutter mold.  My beliefs, values and views on living the Christian life angered both the ultra liberal and conservative sides of Christianity.  I have been called a paradox, a lunatic, a renegade, a revolutionary and many other “interesting” names since becoming a Christian nearly 42 years ago.

 
I can count on my hands and feet the number of times someone has offered me genuine support over the years and complimented me on “breaking the mold”.  I cannot begin to count all the thousands of times I have been scorned, rebuked, rejected and renounced for things I have advocated or done, especially when trying to help someone through a tough stretch in their lives.

 
Christians are some of the most judgmental people I know.  They pass judgment based upon what they have been taught and thus believe.  Anyone who does not fit their mold is automatically assumed to be a sinner or a wolf intent on deceiving the precious hearts of those who passively sit back and accept everything they hear as truth without ever searching the scriptures to see if it is.

 
Many years ago I allowed my independent streak to destroy my ministry.  I succumbed to the mistaken belief that I was someone special.  When I lost sight of the truth that my life is hid in Christ and only through the grace of God do I have anything good within me, I failed and I failed badly.  I spun out of control, crashed and burned a quarter of a century ago.

 
I spent years of my life crawling out from the hole I dug myself into.  I spent years condemning the day I was born and the day I was born again because I so condemned myself for not being perfect.  While others who committed worse atrocities than I went about their merry way pretending they never were wrong, I did what I felt was right and that was to vanish until God said it was time to return.

 
It took the better part of TWENTY years before God once again opened the door to actively minister His love and mercy to others.  It took nearly TWENTY years, many of them wandering through the dark night of the soul, to get to the point where I honestly believed God still loved me, had forgiven me and wanted me to once again reach out and act as His minister.

 
Christians waste so much time judging and condemning other Christians for backsliding and/or sinning. If more time were spent gently helping those who lost their way find the way back home; the results would be astounding.  Let me tell you a secret.  In the TWENTY years it took for a once strong and independent man (me), whose spiritual backbone was broken, to come back; not one single person ever offered their help or even their prayers to me.

 
When God let me know it was time to once again actively serve Him, the incredible joy was tempered by the fact that contrary to my service in the past, this time there would be no glory and no fame.  This time there would be no special benefits, no Rev. in front of my name or people fighting each other to get into my good graces.

 
I have learned that a servant of the Lord must labor in obscurity and seek to minister to people, one heart at a time.  I have learned this service has nothing to do with ME but rather everything to do with God and helping others know Him, see His amazing grace and get a glimpse of His awesome love.  Because I learned these things, God has allowed me to resume being a voice crying in the wilderness and someone willing to speak the truth in love.  Only this time, I could care less if anyone even knows who I am.

 
God did indeed throw open the doors 5 years ago and I will forever thank Him for allowing me the opportunity to give, share and represent Him as His humble servant once again.  That is growth, my friends and that is most definitely breaking the mold in a million pieces.

 

The incredible journey of faith–an introduction

Between August of 1978 and August of 1980 I served as a minister in Mississippi.  Spending two years in one of the poorest states in the Country after spending two years in California was quite an experience.

During my time in Mississippi I learned to respect and love the simple lifestyle of the poor.  I learned that one does not need a lot of money or things to have a deep personal relationship with God.  In fact, I learned that the people who loved God the most are many times those who have the least.

As difficult as those two years were for me, the lessons I learned have stuck with me for more than 30 years.  To this day, my heart is drawn to those who the world considers “losers” and especially to those who must deal with personal tragedies or calamities.

My dad passed away in 1998 and by 2001 I was more or less my 82 year old mom’s caregiver, even though I lived 6 hours away.  Gradually I became her official caregiver and was so until she died in April of 2006.  My heart ached for her state, not just because she was my mom, but because she spent nearly every waking moment held captive by the relentless pain that buffeted her body.  I am deeply moved by anyone in pain, whether physical, mental or spiritual.

When Hurricane Katrina tore into Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005 every part of me wanted to immediately drive down there and help.  I knew how devastating that storm would be to the poor people who get no publicity and who live off the beaten path.  As much as I wanted to go, I could not leave my mom due to her needs.  All I could was pray and that is what I did.

My mom was not a generous person.  The fear of running out of money in her old age drove her to be frugal and miserly.  She would give a small offering at church once in awhile, but the farthest thing from her mind was the idea of giving any of HER money to some poor person.  She grew up dirt poor and no one ever gave her a penny, so in her mind there was no reason to ever give to someone else who was in need.

In the final days before her death, my mom came to realize how wrong it was to have hoarded all her money awaiting a day that never came.  Near the end of my mom’s life, she made me promise that I would use some of that money to go help those poor people in Mississippi I always talked about.  I gladly agreed to honor her wishes.

For the next year I went to more places, met more people and did more interesting things than I had done the previous 20 years combined.   In many respects, I believe that God gave me that year as a personal reward for the many years of taking care of my mom.

I have always felt I needed to share some of what I saw and learned in the year God allowed me to live in service to others.  As time allows, I am going to break my silence and actually talk about what it means to literally walk with God with no safety net, no network of prayer partners and by faith and not sight.

Mercyman 53 is back from his long journey

For the past year or more I have devoted myself to writing exclusively on a Christian blogging site. I assumed this was the “honest” thing to do in light of me being a Christian. After posting almost 1,000 blogs I have come to the conclusion that it was actually a bit shortsighted on my part to have limited my thoughts to only one site and thus after a long abstinence, Mercyman 53 has returned.

In the days and weeks to come, I will attempt to re-establish myself around here resume placing my thoughts into this forum. I will strive to put my “spiritual” material on the Spiritual Food For Thought” blogs and the more general blogs here on the “Mercyman 53″ blog. If there is one thing I no longer am doing, it is writing about politics.

For anyone reading this, all two of you, thank you for your patience and I look forward to once again sharing my thoughts, insights and concerns via this wonderful means. Thank you for your time and God bless you.

Mercyman 53

Will the real you please stand up

Way back in the early days of television there was a popular game show called “To tell the truth”. On the show, three people would all claim to be someone special or have a unique talent or occupation. The celebrity panel would ask questions trying to figure out which one of the three was telling the truth. The two imposters could lie, but the one who was for real had to tell the truth. At the end of the round, the host said the famous line: “Will the real [person's name] please stand up?”

I feel most people live their lives as if they were all three contestants on “To Tell the Truth”. Long gone are the days when people were “two-faced”. People now days act out three or more characters on a regular basis. It is very difficult to establish which one is the real person and which ones are facades or role playing.

A few years ago Eddie Murphy had a movie called “The Nutty Professor” where he played SEVEN different roles (most of them various “Klump” family members). Not be outdone, I hear that he played EIGHT roles in the sequel. It is truly incredible to me that one actor could play 7 or 8 roles in the same movie. Not only does this demand talent, but it is a direct reflection of our society.

We recently watched an older television show which had a character who manifested so many different sides, it was impossible to figure out which one was the real person. Of course that was the intent in the show; to confuse the watcher.

Who are you anyway? Do you even know who the real you is, or have you succeeded in having so many spiritual plastic surgeries that you could not even recognize yourself? Many of us spend a lifetime presenting ourselves as one person in our professions, another at home, yet another when out with the “guys/gals” and yet another at church.

I challenge all of us to demand that the real you please stand up. I challenge all of us to throw off the masks and let the whole audience see you we really are. The times are too dark right now to be treating our walk with God and our witness to others as some type of play or television show. We need to put up the sign alerting others that the actors are on strike.

A person came out today to look at the leg of our one remaining horse. She drove up in an old car with mismatched tires and duct tape holding the window in place. When she opened the door there was no panel on the inside of it, just wires and latches etc. Many people would have immediately judged the person to be some type of undesirable tramp. I knew better.

Sitting out in our barn is an old 1979 cargo van that long ago was “retired”. This was my van for nearly 7 years back in the 1990’s. As one window broke after another, I used sheet metal and painted it white to match the van. When the fenders started to fall off due to rust, I used a whole roll of duct tape to put them back on and then spray painted them white. The van produced laughs and really was the very epitome of “ugly”.

I used to love driving around the “yuppie” neighborhoods in that van for I just knew there were people sitting in their hooty snooty houses laughing their heads off at my monstrosity. I could care less. That was MY van and in many ways it represented the real me more than the newer and prettier vans I have owned since. It was my version of the car I saw today driven by someone who frankly didn’t give a flip what anyone thought of her or her car.

People make fun of my “uniform” which I wear almost every day during the summer. I usually have on a pair of shorts and one of three or four nice big loose fitting shirts. Around the house, I only wear gym shorts and t shirts. If we have company I will graduate to one of my “nice” shorts. The point is that I could care less what anyone thinks of the way I look, what I wear or what kind of vehicle I drive. If they are so shallow as to judge me by these things, I am not going to waste my time worrying about what they think.

People are so hung up on trying to impress everyone with their outward appearance that they forget who they really are. People spend a fortune presenting an outward façade that bears no resemblance to what is on the inside. When these people are stripped of their wardrobe, makeup and other things that make them appear to be better than anyone else; lo and behold they are just like the rest of us. They are just people.

What I liked about that car I saw today is the same thing I liked about the old “Flintstone Van” I used to drive and that is on the inside it was cleaner than most people’s fancy cars. There were not piles of trash or cluttered dashboards full of paper or electronic devices.

We lived for ten years in an old house (destroyed a few years ago) that looked horrible on the outside. As bad as that old house looked outwardly, we made it look like a palace on the inside. We kept it clean and uncluttered with fresh paint and even new carpet. Anyone brave enough to look past the exterior was amazed at how “livable” the inside was. I think this would be a fine way to look at the way we live our lives, don’t you?

Some thoughts on stupid things and the people who do them

What exactly does the word STUPID mean?  Officially it means to show a lack of intelligence, perception or common sense, but unofficially it means most of what takes place around us both in the world and among Christians.

There is not a day that goes by where I do not stand in awe of the stupid things people (including me) say and do.  Whether this is because of the “dumbing down” process we all have been subjected to or whether it is lack of concentration or common sense I don’t know; all I know is that the “stupid meter” is reaching an all time high.

Some things are just plain stupid like going to a football game with a painted body and no shirt when it is 10 degrees outside.  Other things are not quite so obvious like driving 80 mph in a blinding rainstorm with no lights on. 

Many times what is absolute stupidity to one person is perfectly normal to the one doing it.  For many of us, the idea of watching cars race around a track is stupid.  But, for the millions of crazed NASCAR fans it is anything but stupid.  For many the very thought of riding a roller coaster, parachuting out of an airplane, skiing down a 14,000 foot mountain or shooting the rapids of a roaring river defines STUPIDITY.  But, for those who enjoy thrills, these things are perfectly normal forms of entertainment.

I don’t much care what kinds of stupid things people do in their private lives as long as it doesn’t affect me.  But, when one person’s stupidity poses a threat to my life or property, then I feel I have a right to be upset a little bit.  This is a daily battle while driving due to the massive number of drivers who live and die doing very stupid things.

God does not want us to be stupid.  I can say that with full assurance that I am right.  God does not want us to harm or injure ourselves in vain efforts to please our senses.  God does not want us to harm or hurt anyone else while trying to bring a thrill to our flesh.  Love dictates never doing anything that would present a stumbling block to another believer.  Thus, we do not have the “right” to do as we please if it involves anyone else.

This lesson is very hard for believers to grasp.  They want to enjoy their freedom in Christ but have a difficult time understanding how abuse of such freedom is in direct violation to the guidelines of the Word of God.  This is all brought up in great detail in Romans chapter 14 for it was a problem in the First Century Church and is still a problem today.

We may not like what others do and say, but we have no right to judge them unless what is done or said either directly harms us or is in direct contradiction to the written Word of God.  I may not like it that you jump out of airplanes to ski down a 14,000 mountain never skied before; but I have no right to judge you for doing it.  It does not affect me.  But, if you come set my house on fire to appease an inner desire to see flames; I will call the sheriff and have you arrested for arson.  You do not have the legal right to do something stupid if it hurts me. 

 

American small businesses are on life support

In the past few weeks I have made a number of trips to various places in these United States.  I believe some of the things I have seen and experienced have given me a much clearer picture of what is right and wrong with this country than what I previously had.

Last week I made a short journey from Jackson, Tennessee to Corinth, Mississippi.  For a time I was trying to keep track of the number of empty warehouses, small manufacturing facilities, auto dealerships and other business facilities; I quickly had to give up trying to keep track of them all.  I was in total awe at the number of “for sale” or “for lease” signs on various buildings of all sizes and condition.

The first thing that struck me was wondering where all the people who used to work at these places have gone.  Did they find new employment or are they unemployed?  Are they still receiving unemployment or have they given up?  Did they stay in the area or move on to “greener pastures”?  These were the questions running through my mind.

Locally, in the far western parts of the St. Louis, Missouri metropolis, I am amazed at the number of empty commercial facilities.  We used to have three car dealers here back in April and now we have one, and it is about to fail.  We used to have a transmission repair facility, a number of reputable auto mechanics and body shops.  The numbers have dwindled to where only the strongest have survived.

In quick succession over the past year, first the Sonic  ceased operation, then the Dairy Queen and finally the Hardees.  Granted, there are still three other fast food places in operation, but to lose one half of the total places to eat in a town (fast food) in such a short time is incredible.

What happens to the tax base in places where one business after another fails?  What happens to the image projected to outsiders when they look around at one empty building after another?  It certainly does not act as an impetus to move there and open a new business.  Just a couple of years ago two strip malls were constructed next to each other.  They all filled up with businesses very quickly.  Within two years one is completely empty and the other is less than half occupied.

Where have all the small businesses gone in this country?  Where have all the small machine shops, repair shops and specialty item retailers gone to?  We have an Outlet Mall in our town.  At one time all 50 places were leased and businesses were operating within them.  In the last two years the occupancy rate has dropped to less than 50% with more surely closing in January.

While the eyes of the media are squarely upon Fortune 500 companies and how their stock does on a given day, the eyes of most of us are on the local small businesses and their ability to stay afloat in these troubled times.  With so many of the new laws being discussed in Congress ready to make operating a small business nearly impossible; one has to wonder what the landscape will look like by this time next year.  I really do wonder how many family owned small businesses will be left standing by then.

 

Escape from the concrete jungle of wrong assumptions

A few weeks ago I flew from St. Louis to Chicago and then on to Minneapolis.  With each stop, the surroundings were the same; cement, asphalt, cars, homes, stores and warehouses, in other words–normal city “stuff”.  As unremarkable as this sounds, it was actually quite profound.

See, I did not fly back to St. Louis bur rather I drove a vehicle I had flown to pick up.  The difference between flying and driving was incredible to say the least.  Instead of only seeing cities and thinking of all the problems cities have, I saw mainly farmland as far as the eye could see.

Many years ago a famous “know it all” wrote a bestselling book claiming that the world’s population was going to explode to the point that by the year 2000, there would be no food to feed it.  Hmmm, I just made a trip where I did not so much as see one human (except in another car) for miles on end.  Hmmm, I just made a trip through the fertile farmland of Iowa (and other states too), where there were thousands of acres of corn and beans in the fields.

Right now I am looking out the window at my home at the most awesome looking bean field I have ever seen in my life.  These beans are such a rich shade of green and nearly 30 inches tall.  Yes, this is the same field that had been planted in corn, tilled and replanted in beans in June.  The point is, there is going to be an incredible harvest of beans shortly out of that field along with hundreds of others just in our county alone.

A person can sit in an ivory tower of learning, looking out on the cement world of a major city and invent a crisis.  This has been proven over and over again in different realms.  But, the only way to know if there really is a crisis is to climb out of that tower and get out of the concrete jungle to where the common people live.  It is out there, in the thousands of tiny villages, towns and communities that the “real world” lives and moves and has their being.

When I was stuck in Chicago for an unanticipated ground delay the other day, I was struck by the number of business people using their laptops and talking on cell phones the whole time.  They were oblivious to the situation and were thinking of only dollars and cents.  One day later I was eating at a diner in the middle of nowhere surrounded by truckers and farmers whose only concern was the weather and the food they were eating.

Life is as complicated, messed up and hopeless as we allow it to be.  Sometimes we get so caught up in what we are doing in life we forget what life is really all about.  Sometimes we become so engulfed in the affairs of this life that we lose sight of the Lord who gave us a life to live.  Sometimes we become so obsessed with the daily grind that we totally forget that without the Lord there is nothing in life but pride and problems.

Perhaps some of you need to take a nice long drive and get away from the pressures and warped perspective that comes from the stress of work/kids/etc.  Sometimes a quiet drive through fields of plenty or the woods or up a mountain or to the beach is all it takes to refresh, rejuvenate and realign our thinking with God and His way of doing things.