REALLY dumb dog!

Boomer is my DIL's mixed breed mutt. She told me he is not all that bright but he is really lovable. I keep him locked up far from the house at night because he feels it is his responsibility to comment on everything that happens all night around the house. He barks at everything and even nothing sometimes. You would think he had an opinion about this when I went to let him out this AM. IF he knew it was there, he wasn't saying anything about it! Fortunately I saw it before I stepped on it. It never made a move or rattled. I suspect he lives...with his buddies...under the barn which is about 6 feet away to the left. Gunner, his roommate did bark once but he has been snake broke and is really afraid of Rattlers. Last week Dusty exited the back door to find out what the dogs were barking at and narrowly missed a bite. A snake larger than this one was at the back door waiting...We get up often at night to keep the pigs out of the dog food. This week they moved the latched cargo box full of dog food out onto the lawn and popped the latches....without hurting the box! Still don't know how they did that. Now I put the dog food on top of the kennel at night. So far they haven't figured how to get it down. I was catching the snakes to release elsewhere but my grand kids were getting to fascinated with the captured critters....not something that was very popular with Sweetie. At least it keeps things interesting.

Why am I still here?

I was reminded this morning of a curious event that happened near 30 years ago. I had instructed a teenager (who had to serve time with me for some modest infraction) to dig a hole to put a pole in the ground for a new volley ball court we were building. He was a really good worker and made great progress until he got down about 30 inches. Some "roots" were blocking his progress, try as he might. I remember laying on the sand and extending my right arm full length to the bottom of the hole and feeling three smooth intertwined roots, each about as big around as my finger. I felt a nick in one root and what felt to me like a metal cable inside. A sinking feeling came over me that it was not a root but a buried electrical cable. I carefully got up and back on dry ground and saw that at the end of the volley ball court was an electric pole that had a big cable come down the pole and disappear into the ground. I felt really fortunate that we....since we were still alive....hit the ground line instead of the power line. I let the water in the hole dry out and indeed the nick had exposed the metal inside the cable. After it all dried out I cleaned it out and used some 50 year silicone and pipe to seal it up. Everything was fine...for about 12 years. The power in the main church building started to act funny and the air conditioners were not working. The Electric company determined there was a problem in the buried line connecting to the building. I remember advising the repairman to begin his search for the break where I had repaired the line years before. He listened to my story and dug where I suggested. Sure enough, my old repair, good as it was, did not account for the moisture in the line that I had sealed in. Over the years it had corroded the metal into powder. He went to the pole to disconnect the power but I told him it was safe, it was just the ground wire that was harmed. He shocked me when he objected saying NO it is a hot line. There is NO ground cable on this three wire cable! I told him when I discovered it and fixed it we were in WATER. Why were we not electrocuted? His dead pan response was "I don't know, You should have been....electricity sometimes does funny things". I don't know if there is a natural explanation to my good fortune or a supernatural one, but I do know that I was protected. Today Paul's reminder "you are not your own, you have been bought with a price" rings very clear. Not only did Jesus literally die to demonstrate his love for me, but he has saved me....litterally...several times in my life from what should have or at least could have been certain death. That memory makes it easier for me right now with all the uncertainty that surrounds me and the future. I know I can trust Him with whatever comes my way. I hope you know that too.

Do The Math

I was just watching a BP spokesman assuring us that the Oil Spill will be taken care of and that they would cover the wages of those who have lost income. For support he said over 18,000 claims had already been paid for a total of $51,000,000. Sounds impressive IF YOU DON'T DO THE MATH! Each claim was paid $2833.33. No wonder the thing is still leaking!

Treasures

Our refrigerator is once again the display case for precious art. Zandi and Karsyn frequently present us (usually Sweetie) with their most recent art treasure. Is that stuff really important? It is to me. I still have the art I presented to MY father when I was young. It sat on his desk most of his life and now sits on mine. Zandi was fascinated last week with some clay duck images David made about 25 years ago. They were on display in my church office for years and now are enshrined in Sweetie's Curio cabinet along with 100 year old quilts and oddities of lesser importance. Zandi wanted to take them home but Sweetie politely declined her request. I imagine she will get them one day, but that won't be soon. By then she will know why they are so important to us. More important than the expensive Hummel and antique collectibles that surround them. Honestly, is it real quality art? Only to Sweetie, me and apparently Zandi. (David is not old enough yet to see their true worth). Thinking of art projects it reminds me of one Daniel presented me. He was somewhere around 5 or 6 and had unusual small motor skills. As a toddler he could pick a live fly off the window nearly every time...a skill I lacked and respected. On day he presented me an Disney quality drawing. I'm thinking a child prodigy here...It was so good I asked ..... ok Doni, it was more like the Inquisition....if he had traced it. He assured me he had drawn it all by himself. It was to perfect and looked exactly like a picture we had in the house. I got terribly fixated on the question of Daniel Lying to me...which he was not...He just did not know what the word "tracing" meant. This is the short version of that episode. I suspect that if you scroll down to the comments Doni will have added something. She still reminds me of it from time to time...it was that bad! I don't have that picture. It had no significance (If you don't count paternal embarrassment). It was not an original, just a copy of a professional artist....and a very good hand drawn copy...IE traced very well. It was not unique or personal. Part of me wishes I had just praised the effort and let it go. I really hope Daniel doesn't remember it as well as Doni does and if he does remember I think by now he realizes I love him for just who he is, nothing more, nothing less. His value as my son stands alone with no of comparison to anyone else or anything else. I have four boys who are completely different in looks, personality and temperament and I love it. The only things they have in common is they have beautiful wives and incredible children. And they are all uniquely different....except for Ryker and Cooper who appear to have come out of the same mold so far. There definitely was no tracing going on with the family genes! All this comes to mind as I read this morning an Article from Wayne Jacobsen at lifestream.org. He mentions that as a child he loved to color by the numbers and noted that evidently God does not. God loves to color outside the lines, blend, shade, and do all the things a true master artist does. He values each of us as his unique priceless and untraceable children. When believers are expected to be nothing more than a tracing of someone else or to be just colored all the same to match all the rest, it destroys our true value in the body of Christ...not to God...he refuses to see us that way. Each believer is truly an original hand crafted child of God. Don't let others try to color or trace you. Live as a free expression of what God is doing in your life.

Glancing

I stole this off of Doni's blog.
Lately I have been trying to really curtail my driving and talking on my cell phone without the headset. I used to think I was doing just fine but when I really stopped to watch myself I found I had inadvertently developed a really bad habit....one that could be very costly. I noticed that talking on the phone was no big deal....but dialing was taking more of my attention than was safe. Even though I held the phone right in front of me where I could see out the windshield I was really watching the phone and glancing out the windshield. At freeway speed you can go a long way while dialing a couple numbers between glances. I have speed and auto dialing but that to is fairly distracting if the freeway traffic suddenly stops in front of you. Anyway, I am seriously trying to curb by dialing addiction. I place the call before I take it out of park and then with my really cool Bose headset I can talk all I want or listen to a download podcast without ever taking my eyes off the road. Now that I am getting that down to a routine I plan to work on another big problem I have that is similar. I tend to Watch the world and Glance at Jesus. I need to totally tune into Jesus so when I do glance at the world it will not be so distracting or dangerous to my soul.

Cooper Allen Zimmermann is here!

All I know right now is 7lb 9oz Dee and I had Ryker and Karsyn and Zane and Zandi at our house while Jody was delivering. David just got here (10:15 P.M.) with the Darin's car so we are headed off to see #12. Check Doni's blog. She was the Labor coach and Photographer. Special thanks to Belindia and Amanda for the extra help. Darin was in Show Low when Jodi went into labor...but was here in plenty of time for the delivery. I still think it way to much that Jodi held off having the baby until after the Laker/Boston game was over....yes it was ON in the delivery room! Gotta go.

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?