My Lovely Dwelling Place

  Limits Limits – we’re used to them – speed limits, credit limits, menu limits, gas price limits… Well, maybe not. Did you know the bad guys have limits? It would be nice, wouldn’t it? If the oppressors, the wicked, and the incompetent could only go so far and that was it. They’re done – game over! Well, they do. Take for example, Balaam. Balaam was a prophet or a seer – someone that could be hired for money to give a message from God. He wasn’t a real prophet like Isaiah or Ezekiel. He could be bought. Balak was the king of Moab and he was afraid. Israel was on the move in the desert. They had conquered the Amorites and there were a lot of them. We know what he thought, “Now this horde will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field” (Numbers 22:4). So Balak sent for Balaam and promised Balaam a rich reward if he would curse the Israelites. Now Balaam was willing, but God told him not to go. The whole story is in Numbers 22-24 – you...

  59 59 is the 17 th prime number. It is an Einstein prime with no imaginary part and real part of the form 3n-1… whatever that means! A regular icosahedron has 59 stellations… what? It’s the last minute in a given hour and the last second in a given minute… which sounds rather profound therefore I like it. It’s the approximate number of days in 2 lunar months – not that we use lunar months – it just sounds long. It’s the atomic number of praseodymium – a rare earth metal we rarely talk about… and a word we can likely not say 3 times fast. 59 may also be the title of a future Adele album… And it is too darn many candles to put on a cake without starting a fire. In the last 59 years – my lifetime - we’ve seen the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK assassinated, the beginning of Medicare and other social programs, Civil Rights, Mao’s Cultural Revolution – where between 500,000 to 2,000,000 people were killed for not agreeing with the “party line”. Israel’s Six-Day War, MLK ...

  “Uuh Got” A phrase my mom used to say – It’s actually “Oh God” in a French accent with a hint of despair, resignation, and inevitability wrapped up in two words summing up life in the moment. It’s really quite French if you think about it… It’s amazing how apropos this two-word phrase from the annals of my murky memory have become. I can hear her saying it – and I say it like she did in memory of her. I view it as a prayer – sometimes it’s the best prayer I got. Many a time there are literally no words – if I can say literally. Things have been heavy lately – personally, professionally, in the world at large. You know, life isn’t easy on a good day – and it seems there has been a concerted effort to make everything more difficult. I’ve been getting comfort from Psalm 62 for the last few days. It was written by David – not sure when. It might have been when he was running from his son Absalom, who was stealing the kingdom and planning to kill him – mighty big fail an...

  Wanting “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” It is quite a statement. The opening line of a familiar psalm, Psalm 23, that many people know, some can quote from memory, and often found on those little cards you get at a loved one’s funeral – it was on my dad’s. It is a small statement full of powerful truth – for the believer - life-giving Truth. Yet I find myself wanting many things – a new job, appreciation, a remodeled home, chocolate, a svelte figure, lubricated joints, a maid – not necessarily in that order. Then there are more nobler wants – common sense, integrity, faithfulness, peace, government with a brain cell – just one – please. My, my – I find our times wanting…. As I write, we are looking at more restrictions and mandates that free us from our liberties and make us question the veracity of health experts. We have an engineered disaster in Afghanistan that has already cost military and civilian lives. There will certainly be more lives lost a...

  School Days My baby started school this week. Now granted my baby is sixteen years old, but let’s not quibble. I haven’t had to be sentimental about sending an offspring off to school for 26 years. I think I can afford a little nostalgia. Times change and blessed are the flexible, right? We homeschooled for a long time, and now that it’s over I feel a little sad. Even though I had grown tired of it all several years ago – I mean who likes grading, anyway? And what about 26 years of lesson planning without tenure or summers off? And who enjoys teaching those who know everything? Homeschooling teens is not all that easy – rewarding at times, but not easy. My experience has been a mixed bag. I have a child who remembers homeschooling fondly – and I’m pretty sure she’s a teacher today, partly at least, because of it. I have one that gave up playing football to stay in homeschool – his choice. I have some who preferred homeschool, because they could do what they wanted...

  Tell Me a Story I like a good story – true or make believe. One with a satisfying ending, preferably where the bad guys get what’s coming to them. Truth winning over lies – Good winning over evil – the hero running in to rescue in the nick of time – these are stories we all enjoy. Here’s some opening lines from some of my favorite and yet to be favorite stories: Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing . ~ Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1605 This was a long, weird read, but Don Quixote was a hero of sorts – he had faith in his ideas and suffered for them. He didn’t let popular culture or opinion sway his determination. Here’s a classic: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of inc...

  It’s a Wrap!   Well, it’s a beautiful day in my neighborhood – the first day of autumn per my calendar – my favorite time of year. Changing colors, pumpkin spice everything, jackets and sweaters to cover up fat – I can’t think of anything wrong with it! The end of one season and the beginning of another – it’s like a fresh start – for the world it’s the wrap up of the Summer of Stupid and the initiation of a Feisty Fall… Colossians 4:2-6 is a wrapping up of sorts as well: Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; Praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have been imprisoned; That I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you ...