Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Salt free diet

Yesterday I had to say good by to Babe, my Boarder Collie of 13 years. I knew the end was near...cancer...and she passed peacefully. As Dusty and I buried her next to her sister Dusty commented that everything he loves leaves in June. I don't like to think about that, but it is true. Mom, dad and Poppy all left us in June. June has a bright spot too, we celebrate 5 birthdays in June too! (Jody tells me Cooper Allen Zimmermann will be here on or by the 11th). This is all just background, it is not really what I want to say today.

From the time I was 11 my Dad was on a "salt free" diet do to a heart condition...ya, like that ever worked. Mom tried every salt substitute available and he adamantly refused to use them. For him, fake salt was worse than no salt. I'm not sure how he knew that because he never really went the no salt route anyway! I'd have to agree with him. If it says "lite" or imitation on the label, I don't want it either...and YES, I can tell the difference. It occurs to me that a lot of religious life is really a substitute for the only thing God ever wanted or still wants today. We have all the rules, regulations, shoulds and shouldn'ts, work, service to do and services to attend...you know the drill....but we do not have what God freely gave to us. We try to preform or meet a standard to feel some measure of his Love and in some way return it. Wayne Jacobsen noticed that when Jesus asked Peter "do you love me?", he was looking past Peter's failure and pointing out that all our failures do not effect is love for us...or our love for him. Jesus want Peter to know that his failure was not a measure of his love! Because we are fleshly we will fail...but it is not a measure of our love for him and NEVER a measure of His love for us. That says it all to me. What does it say to you?

3 comments:

Ken Thiesse said...

Just love your blog Pastor Don!

heidi jo said...

such good spiritual thoughts... but i have to get back to that first line... babe. :( i'm so sorry... i'm sad about that. i really liked babe... so glad she gave you that PRECIOUS pup before she left. gosh... what a bummer. she was a sweet dog. i'm glad it was peaceful goodbye.

heidi jo said...

b