Roger Bothwell

It was such a warm afternoon and seeing the Dairy Queen approaching as we came down the street I could not resist.  My Peanut Buster Parfait was just what the doctor ordered.  Spotting a nice maple tree with a picnic bench I sat down to slowly savor my treat.  If you eat at just the right speed you can just stay ahead of meltdown and make it last as long as possible.  It was then that I noticed the fence behind the picnic table.  It was the fence surrounding the city sewerage plant; obviously the perfect environment for eating my Peanut Buster Parfait.

I continually remind myself that Jesus deliberately introduced Himself to a planet that could easily be described as the sewerage plant of the universe.  A day in the past the news was filled with the story about some monster that thinks he is human snatching up and killing a sweet little girl.  This was mixed with the story of another family whose daughter was taken from her bedroom.  I could go on and on but the point is easily made.  Jesus came here to seek and save the garbage, the refuse, we call people.

Hebrews 7:25 says,  “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, . . .”  Sometimes in my moral smugness and feelings of moral superiority I forget this text is talking about me just as much as the monster mentioned above.

Thank God Jesus did not refrain from coming to the sewerage plant.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2007

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I received a very interesting compliment today from one of my grad students.  We were listing all the things we have to accomplish each day and when it was my turn one of the ladies said, “Why you’re almost a woman!”

Psychologists have long noted women multi-task much better than men.  Generally speaking men have better focus on one task while women seem to be tuned in to several things at the same time.  An example of this would be a woman elementary teacher who is able to teach, give individualized attention to each student and monitor the total environment all at the same time, whereas men seem to focus exclusively on the sporting event on TV.   Of course there are exceptions to this.  I am only speaking in generalized terms.

A fellow by the name of King Lemuel had a mother who told him all about this.  You can read it is Proverbs 31.   Verses 15 and 16 are a sample of what she said, “She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.  She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.”   As you read the entire chapter there seems to be little left for the man to do.

God carefully designed us with different skill sets.  Men do their part and women do their part and society and family prosper.   I was flattered when I was told I was “almost a woman.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2002

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In less than three quarters of a mile this evening I had three cars pull out in front of me from side streets.  All three times I had to slam on my brakes to keep from smashing them.  I began to wonder if my truck and I had become invisible without me knowing it.

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you really could be invisible for a time?   I imagine most everyone has wondered what it would be like.   Whenever I think of it I don’t like myself because the things I would do are not very nice.  Thinking about it becomes an indictment of my character.  I have come to believe the measure of one’s character is what you would do if no one saw you.

I am thankful God always sees me.  The very idea acts as a constraint.  Yes, I know that is not a very highly developed sense of morality and I should be pious and say I would act no differently.  However, that would not be honest.  What I am truly counting on is the mercy of God poured out as a fruit of the death of our Jesus.   At the end of Ecclesiastes Solomon reminds us that a God who sees all things will bring all things to judgment, but John promises us in I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”   So there is nothing left to bring up in judgment.   I like that.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2007

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The chimes from the grandfather clock echoed up the hallway announcing midnight. I turned out the light hoping to quickly drift into sleep when it started.  It must have emerged from some obscure crack in the woodwork. I could hear it coming.  At first it was content to buzz about the inside of the screened window but then it discovered me lying silently in bed.  It was a gigantic fly.  I could not see it in the darkness but it had to be gigantic for soon the roar of its aerobatics filled the room with deafening dopplerized sound.  How could I ever get to sleep?  Then it was silent.  “Ahh,” I thought, “it has gone into another room.”   I could not have been more mistaken for in a moment I felt it walk off the bedcovers unto my nose.

I am not sure how long this sick party went on for I eventually drifted off.  Too soon it was morning.   As I staggered across the room I spotted the monster.  He was lying belly up, feet to the sky, by a window.  I felt not a twinge of remorse.  I was glad he was gone to fly heaven.  I cannot even imagine what that must be like.  Actually I can but don’t want to mention it.

Flies don’t fare well in Scripture.  They star in Exodus 8 during the plagues in Egypt and Solomon does mention them in Ecclesiastes 10.  He wrote, “As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 15, 2002

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After a wonderful afternoon in the mountains of Massachusetts we arrived home with two gallons of wild blueberries.  They were wonderful to look at but they were full of leaves and little sticks.  It would take hours of tedious separating to clean them by hand.  Then I remembered seeing a picture in my Bible of people winnowing.   I remembered a statement John the Baptist made about the coming Messiah.  He said in Matthew 3:11, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Going to my attic I brought down an electric floor fan.  Putting it on a barrel and turning it on we began to pour the blueberries from one bucket to the next in front of the fan.  In just a few minutes we had the cleanest blueberries in town.  All the leaves and all the little sticks were on the floor blown past the bucket now containing the ingredients of many breakfasts and muffins to come.

What a great metaphor John used.  Jesus came to winnow out His fruit from that which will be burned.  It sounds pretty frightening until one remembers each of us can be part of the fruit if we will only respond to the urgings of the Holy Spirit.  The choice is ours.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2002

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I was held up this evening by a no armed bandit.  During a break in my evening class I approached a large inviting machine with my money in hand.  I needed a drink.  The picture on the front depicted an icy cold frosty bottle of refreshment.  It was muggy and I had been lecturing for three hours.  It looked so good.  I slipped my money in the slot and I hear all kinds of banging and rumbling inside.   Watching with great anticipation I waited for the bottle to drop into the open bay.  Suddenly the machine grew silent without delivering my drink.  I pressed the money return button and this time it never even bothered to make noise.  It just sat there silently.  I was robbed.  It never delivered what it promised.

Drooping my way back to my classroom for yet one more hour of class I wondering how many times we as Christians do the same thing the machine did.  People find out we are Christians and they come to us expecting kindness and help.  Instead they get a lot of rumbling and noise but never anything of substance.

James talks of this in 2:15 – 17.  “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 9, 2002

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It is no secret the more tired we become the more irritable we become.  Our patience runs thin.  We are put off by things we would have hardly noticed were we not at the edge of our physical resources.  Today I was with a group of people who worked very hard for fourteen or fifteen hours.  It was interesting to watch them relate as the day grew long.  Most made an effort to be gracious but some grew, I think “testy” is the best word to use.  Tomorrow they will be better.

Action hero movies make a lot of money.  Good looking, well-built men on a noble cause blow up cars, blast through buildings, punch out a host of bad guys.  We watch them and inwardly cheer their bold aggression. In        Proverbs 16:32 we read, “Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.”   So who would go to see a movie about a patient man?  It would lack exciting chase scenes and we would not get the inner satisfaction of seeing the bad guys smashed.   The badder the villains the more we want the action hero to hit them.

But that is Hollywood.  If we come back to the real world of real human relations then truly a patient man is better than a warrior.   A ruler who maintains peace is better than a general who aggressively defeats an enemy.  However we build monuments to the warriors and let the peacemakers slip unseen into history.  Surely it says much about our nature.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 30, 2006

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I stopped at an auto repair shop early this morning hoping someone might be around to help.  As I walked to the door a voice said, “May I help you?”  Turning around I saw no one.  I was looking everywhere for the owner of the voice.  Suddenly a head popped out from underneath a truck.   From his vantage point he had seen my feet.  From my vantage point I had seen nothing.

As I drove on to school I was thinking about perspectives on life.  We see or don’t see something depending upon where we are and who we are.  As a member of the majority population of our country often times I not sensitive to the viewpoints of minorities.  Sometimes I unknowingly say things that offend.  I don’t mean to.  It is because my perspective on life did not reveal to me my words could be hurtful.

As a member of the majority I can go where I want, buy a home where I want, travel where I want and pretty much get a job anywhere I am qualified.  I fail to be sensitive that someone else might fear to attempt those things lest they be rejected or hurt by bigotry.

Much of what we think is truth and “the way something is” is only our perspective.  Before we pop off about “only telling it the way it is” we need to remember “It” can be totally different to a different person with a different perspective.

Written by Roger Bothwell

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It was about 88 degrees today as I drove through town.  I came up behind a large city dump truck filled with salt and sand.  This was a perfect place to be in a blizzard in January but this is July.   The light turned green and as the truck moved through the intersection it began to spread its contents.  I am guessing the driver had no idea what was happening.  For the next two miles he salted and sanded the highway.  If he was delivering a load he was in for a big surprise when he arrived at his destination.

This is just like people who think they have something worthwhile to share and have long since lost it, if they ever had it.  We see (hear) them dominate committee meetings and private conversations.  Even worse we hear them pray in public meetings and they have nothing to say to God or us except a long string of worn out clichés.  It isn’t that we all have to be constantly original but there is an ethos emitted indicating whether or not a person is passionately attuned to their words or intellectually fresh.

In his second letter to Timothy Paul wrote,  “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”   The admonition is plain.  Study.  Constantly be filling one’s mind with new insights and deeper understanding so we need not be ashamed when we open our mouths.  Unfortunately most people don’t have a clue when they have an empty load.

Pray that it is not us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 4, 2002

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According to Adam Smith in his classic “Wealth of Nations” the true value of something is measured by the amount of labor required to attain it.   The value of a loaf of bread can take one man an hour of labor and another man a minute of labor.  The discrepancy is the result of the skill of the laborer in producing what others will trade an hour of their labor to attain.  A man who works for 10 dollars an hour will pay 300 dollars an hour to an attorney who can do something the man cannot do for himself like keeping him out of jail.  The labor of the attorney is 30 times more valuable than the labor of the client.

So it is that I was wondering how it was that Jesus could upon the cross pay the price for all the sins of mankind.   That is incredible value considering the rotten history of this world.  Paul says, “. . . through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. ”  Romans 5:19   Why is the labor of Jesus so valuable?

Reason number one – Jesus was obedient.  That is something no one else has been able to do.  The law of supply and demand enters here.

Reason number two – He is the creator.  (Hebrews 1)  Recently I was drooling over a magnificent painting.   The artist told me I could have it for $95,000.00.   From experience he knew the value of his work.  Jesus declares His labor adequate to cover the cost.  From experience He knows the value of His sacrifice on Calvary.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 14, 2007

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