Coffee Break

We humans aren't the only ones who enjoy standing around the water cooler in the afternoon for a break and some chit-chat.  Above are (from left to right) Mira, Tweety, Honey, and Old Cooper.Lance comes late to the party.

Sin of Omission

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps perpetrate it."

- Martin Luther King

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

- Edmund Burke

What Is It?

A flower bed, of course!  We saw this garden whimsy while strolling through charming Beaufort, SC.

Wolves in the Fold

"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" declares the Lord.  Therefore thus say the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock and driven them all away.  You have not attended to them.  Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord."   Jer. 23:1-2"I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, then they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord."  v. 4
"I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  He is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf catches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep."  John 10: 11-13

"...Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"  He said to him, 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.'  He said to him, 'Feed my lambs.'"  John 21:15

It's So Hot...!

I have a cousin - he knows who he is - who loves snakes.  He keeps them for pets, has been known to take them aboard planes, pre-911, in his carry-on luggage, and has loved those fun Texas Rattlesnake Round-ups!  I think he's crazy.  But, I sure wish he'd been here today. 

It's so hot here in Middle Tennessee.  How hot?  So hot that I saw something I've never seen in all my years of watering gardens.  There, lying under the mist of the faucet-water hose connection, was a 3-foot rat snake; and I didn't see him until I had put my hand 2 inches above his head to turn off the water.  I'm sure my scream echoed up and down this valley, and I had no idea I could scream like that.  At least it disturbed my unwanted visitor, for he slowly slithered off with a "Sheesh, woman!" look in his beady little eye.  

Inquiring Minds

"For inquire, please, of bygone ages,

and consider what the fathers have searched out.

For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,

for our days on earth are a shadow.

Will they not teach you and tell you

and utter words out of their understanding?"  

~Job 8:8-10

When the Beatles first hit American soil, I was in the first grade, but already I was singing along to Hard Day's Night, and marveling at those young men and their shaggy haircuts.  I remember having a conversation with my mother about men and long hair and how this was the first time men had ever had long hair!  She assured me there had been many times in history that men had had long hair, and it dawned on me that it was the first time in my  very short history that men had long hair, and I realized then that much time and history had preceded me.  As a young child, life was all about the present, the here and now, and history had no realm in my understanding.  

George Santayana quipped, "Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it."  And it was Karl Marx who said, "History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles.  It is men, real and living, who do all this."  It is not only foolish, but it's also arrogance to assume that we, in our own space and time, know all there is to know, and deny the great thoughts and accomplishments of those gone before.  But, that is exactly what Modernity/Post-modernity preaches;  "We are it!  We are the People!  We're da man!  To heck with the old fogies."  So, alas, we are doomed to repeat history.

"Reading feeds the brain.  It is evident that most minds are starving to death."  ~ Benjamin Franklin

Arts, education, economics, politics, anthropology, the Church; all these areas have suffered the effects of no longer looking, and learning, back through time.  I would suggest that the Church bears the largest responsibility of abandoning it's understanding of the past, and that the aforementioned areas - and more - are thereby affected.  The Modern/Post-modern Church hasn't even done a good job of looking far into the future - perhaps because of spending too much time waiting for Jesus to return and not enough time keeping her lamps filled and wicks trimmed.  Instead, the here-and-now, experiencially-oriented modern Evangelical Church has concentrated only on the present, perhaps a bit into the future, but certainly not on the past; and that is simply a symptom of failing to mature and see past one's self.

The Church has an amazingly rich heritage and deposit of wisdom and understanding from which to draw.  Not only is there the Old Covenant, from which the New Covenant drew, but there are the Church Fathers.  Why have we have ceased to study the writings of the men of the early church who were only a generation or two removed from the Lord Himself?  The writings and wisdom of Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp and more have been preserved for us in letters.  Augustine wrote prolifically, and don't forget those who preceded the Reformation - indeed established its foundations - such as Groote and Wycliffe - then the Reformers themselves - Martin, Calvin, Bucer, and many more.  Through history, there have been wise men and women who worked, suffered, and left us a rich legacy even to our own time:  Chalmers, Kuyper, Sayers, Schaeffer, Lewis.  In order to walk wisely into the future, we cannot cut ourselves off from the strong foundations of our past.  As it's been said, "The old ways are the best ways after all."  We must know where we've been in order to know where we are and where we are going.  

"For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and what the fathers have searched out."   

Exit Soda, Enter Jack

No, I haven't sworn off soft drinks for the hard stuff; in fact, it's quite the opposite.  I've given up hard stuff for a softie.  So, what the heck am I talking about?  Well, our goat, Soda Pop, has gone to a new home, and we have acquired a pet bunny by the name of Jack.  This farm can be a regular animal Grand Central Station at times.

Soda Pop was a 9-year-old wethered Nubian whose coloring was reminiscent of Ginger Ale - hence his name.  He was quite large, somewhere between 250 and 300 pounds, and fortunately was a mild-mannered guy.  Unfortunately, he - or any of us - could not escape the fact that he was a goat.  Though he was interesting to have around for 9 years, nobody cried when he left.  

We originally acquired Soda when we were showing horses.  Often, we'd take all the horses off to a show except for one, and horses being the herd-bound nuts that they are, would be frantic and anxious until their buddies returned home.  So, we got a babysitter for the one horse left behind, and Soda did a great job of it.  In fact, he thought he was a horse himself and would gallop along with the little herd, trying to keep up with his great huge ears flapping like wings.  

Soda was expert at escaping through fencing and eating my roses.  He almost became BBQ last year for that repeated offense.  He was also expert at breaking into the barn and opening the doors for the horses to join him inside where they all had raucous parties.  Not only was he expert, but he was determined to do such things.  Owning Soda has made me understand why God places the goats at his left hand and not at His right!

We do have some good stories to tell thanks to Soda, though.  Like the one when he got dehorned and had his head wrapped up like a mummy.  When he was turned back out with the horses, they were terrified at the apparition and stampeded away from him.  Soda, just trying to keep up with the herd, kept running after them and it was apparent that things were suddenly terribly out of control.  Sure enough, Monte jumped the fence and hit the road.  Peytonsville Road.  In morning traffic.  Fortunately, he stayed in his own lane, but ran for two miles before turning into a farm.  We finally found him up at the top of a ridge up against a fence line where he could run no more.  It was weeks before his hoofprints were no longer visible in the asphalt.  

Then there was the time when he got an infection and had to have Penicillin shots.  "Sure, I can do it," I told the Vet.  "I've given the horses shots hundreds of times."  Well, Soda was no horse.  Even with Katie astride him, and me sitting on him best I could with a large hypodermic, it took three tries to successfully inject him.  When it was finally accomplished, his eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted!  I thought we'd killed him!  I called the Vet back and told him he could have the job after all.  I'm allergic to Penicillin and there would be no more fighting with a goat and hypodermic!

There are other stories to tell about Soda, and I'm sure we'll be telling them for some time to come.  He was certainly a spice of life.  However, it's nice to close that chapter and welcome a lop-eared bunny to the Funny Farm.  Why not trade the hard stuff for the soft stuff occasionally?