Month: February 2023

Vinyl records are making a comeback.  It seems that digital music lacks character because it doesn’t have the hiss and crackling sounds and people are missing the flavor of imperfection.  It’s hard to imagine that we miss the sound of the needle in the groove but once again the vinyl presses are working 24 hours a day as people snatch up the old technology.

So it got me to wondering if things can be too perfect.  If we take off all the warts and moles do we strip a person of his or her personality?   What does being perfect mean?  Will the heavenly version of Cindy Crawford be missing her characteristic mole above her left lip?  If so, how will we know her?  I know some twins whose only distinguishing identity mark is a mole.  Will it be gone?  Perhaps we get to choose which marks we want to keep.  Will I be as tall as some of my best friends?  I hope not.  I would not know them from eye to eye perspective.  I’m used to looking at their Adam’s apples.

In I Corinthians 15 when Paul speaks of this corruption putting on incorruption is he only referring to the death factor and we get to keep the other characteristics that make us us?  The corruption of our minds, our selfishness and our bigotries can go.  That will be great.  But hopefully the personality quirks, the lilt of the head, the raspy voice, the silly laugh will stay the same.  We just don’t need everything to be vanilla perfect.

Whatever it will be I know we will be thrilled.  I just don’t want us to be overly perfect.  That has the potential of being quite boring.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 17, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

 

 

I just finished watching an irate man spew venom at a lady in a CVS parking lot.  It seems she was blocking a parking space he wanted.  The sad part about this drama was there was both a car in front of her and a car behind her.   She could not move.  Finally he raged off to another spot and almost ran over another lady with a small child because he had lost control.

Rage, especially stupid rage, makes the rager look like the idiot he has reduced himself to be.     Paul wrote, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:30-31).   But someone is sure to say, “Jesus got angry.”  One does not have to read any further in Mark than chapter three to read of Jesus becoming angry.  “ He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.”  This is not the only account of Jesus being angry.  What is unique about each incident is why He was angry.  Most of us are angered because someone has taken something we want; real or imagined.  Each time Jesus’ ire is raised is because someone with power is abusing someone without power.  He was a champion of the weak.

This was so different from the idiot in the CVS parking lot.  The only person he was championing was himself and the product was a load of poison that surged through his own system.  The person he hurt the most was himself.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 16, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Bo 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Snow had been falling steadily for seven hours and a foot of snow covered the ground.  The wind was pushing tiny crystals of ice into the tiniest of cracks.  Just before sundown a towhee along with a pair of cardinals and lots of juncos were stuffing themselves at a sheltered bird feeder.  They seemed to know it was going to be a long difficult night.

Towhees are not supposed to find themselves in this situation.  Had he stayed behind in the fall because of the birdfeeder?  Had he figured, “Why make the long journey?  There is plenty of food here.”  Where did the towhee spend the night?  Was he cold?  Was he sheltered?  In the morning after the storm had passed did he have access to food?   Had the owners of the birdfeeder remembered to clear the snow and refill the feeder?

In Luke 12 Jesus spoke of His father’s care for the birds.  In the same way our heavenly father makes sure we have access to our needs.  Storms come in life and when they pass God is still there.  He always was there.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 9, 2001

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

Some days are just “ordinary” sorts of days.  Actually though one person’s “ordinary” is another person’s “extraordinary.”  If we had to go to work in the morning and do what someone else ordinarily does that could be pretty extraordinary for us.  If you got to pilot a 747 airliner today it would probably be the “extraordinary” of a lifetime.  But for lots of people it is very ordinary to pilot several hundred people and a hundred tons of metal thousands of miles across the country at an altitude over five miles above the earth.

For those of us who were fortunate enough to grow up believing Jesus is our Savior, it is ordinary to live with the assurance of eternal life.  It is ordinary to know we are loved.  It is ordinary for us to know we have a purpose in life.  It is ordinary for us to know any setback we might have now will be rectified in the future.

For lots of people those wonderful things are not ordinary.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 16, 2001

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

She was walking down the grocery story aisle talking to no one in particular.  “I just hate spending my hard-earned money on food,” she muttered.  Now what do you suppose she wanted to spend her hard-earned money on?  Eating is rather important.  However, it is disconcerting to open the refrigerator door only to find the vegetables looking like hairy alien life forms about to attack if one opens the crisper drawer.  That once magnificent head of lettuce you spent your hard earned money on now looks like something from a horror movie.

Jesus once said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”  John 6:27.

While Jesus did not have a refrigerator in which to keep vegetables, He was most likely familiar with much of our fare.  The coastline along eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea is credited with a large number of vegetables now grown in America—vegetables like asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, kale, lettuce, parsley, and rhubarb.

When Jesus tells us to seek food that does not spoil He could easily have had some of these veggies in mind.  But Jesus really wanted to emphasize the great importance of feeding our souls with nourishing invigorating food that stimulates intellectual and moral development.  These things never spoil.  We can lose our house, our car, or our bank accounts, but no one can ever take from us our education.  Jesus told us He came to give us an abundant life and the abundant life begins in one’s personhood.

Written by Roger Bothwell on Feb. 14, 2003

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

I am sitting here looking at some pictures of outer space and feeling extremely insignificant. It seems that human efforts to see the end of the universe are destined to failure because the farther we see the more we see.  It just doesn’t stop.  I am most uncomfortable feeling the way I do.  My ego wants to be reassured that I am not just an accident in time and soon will not matter, that is assuming that I matter now.

I have a remedy for this feeling of inconsequentiality.   Ephesians 1 in the Message is the most splendid cure for my inferiority complex.  “How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)”

A billion earth years before there was an earth to tabulate our time God knew us!  He made provision for us to be part of His family.  The very idea flushes away my despondency and fills me with “He loves ME.  He wants ME!”  One of my students last evening told of being in several foster homes as a child.  Finally one day a family kept her.  Not only did they keep her they gave her their last name and a room of her own and a birthday party and best of all.  They gave her love.

Oh yes.  Oh yes.  This is the best.  We matter.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 13, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

Ephesians 1 verse 3 Paul says something intriguing.  God “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”  Surely inherent in this promise is a consideration of our maturity.  Some of us are spiritual babes in understanding and others among us are teens or adults in grasping the ideas of God.  As a responsible parent God would only give what could be safely used.  When my sons were boys I did not give them sharp knives nor keys to the car.  With gifts come preparation and responsibility.  Note that Paul says “in the heavenly realms.”  Might that be that each of us has a safety deposit box containing every possible blessing and as we are ready we receive?  Could that mean even after being there a thousand years there will yet be more gifts waiting for our maturity?

Paul is expressing to us the lavishness of our Father and nothing we can handle is withheld.  We can never say, “But God you didn’t tell me or help me when I needed.”  He pours onto and into us everything which we can understand and with which we can cope. What we receive is for our good and the good of those about us.  Jesus said, “If we as humans know how to give good gifts to our children how much more does our heavenly Father know how to give His children good gifts.”

Even now that my sons are mature responsible men, I would not give them a car with a thousand horse power unless I also took them to the salt flats in Utah.  No one needs a thousand horse power car to use on I-95, not even the winner of the Daytona 500.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 12, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

Amid the varied chords and arpeggios coming from my car radio I found myself humming Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster.  Somewhere buried in the almost cacophonic jazz was that familiar melody.  I was fascinated that amidst all of the notes being played the tread of a familiar tune could still be discerned.  It is so much like our lives.  Each of us plays our own variation of the same song we call being human.  Our stories are unique and yet the same.  We are born, we age, we marry, we have children, we die.  Somewhere in the midst of that same song there are a billion variations.

We could even use Stephen Foster’s title for our common tune.  Each of us is a beautiful dreamer.  Every little girl and boy dreams of what their life will be.  Rarely does reality match the fantasy.   For some it is better and for others not so good.

Surely the ultimate Beautiful Dreamer is our Creator.  He put the perfect man with the perfect woman in the almost perfect environment.  It was perfect in all ways except for that tree. It was just enough of a choice factor to turn dreams into nightmares for millions of God’s children.  However, that did not stop God from continuing to dream for us.  He sent Jesus.  It ended in the most horrible nightmare.  Yet, God continues to dream for us.  Out of Calvary comes the possibility for all of us to realize our dreams.  Sometimes Christians are accused of being out of this world dreamers with our stories of heaven.  That’s okay.  Let non-believers call us whatever names they may.  Their names will never interfere with the ultimate Beautiful Dreamer making our dreams come true.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 11, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

If you live in Florida you might never know the truth about the postman.  He or she does not come when the snow gets deep.  I know this must come as a blow.  It is like hearing for the first time as a child that Santa isn’t.  “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” just isn’t so.  Our mailman did not come last week during a blizzard.

Another favorite that isn’t so is “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”  Thousands who got to Ellis Island never got any closer to the golden shore.  If they did not look well they were sent back.  I cannot imagine the heartache of those who spent all they had for passage only to be sent back penniless and homeless. They even got to see the promised land but New York’s door was shut.  This was a hard one for me to learn.  I was devastated. What else can go wrong? Next we are going to discover that George Washington told a lie?

Psalm 146:12 says it quite accurately.  “Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.”  The good news is verse 6.  It says, “He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them– he remains faithful forever.”   “Faithful forever” sounds so good.  His promises are reliable and not just for this week or this year.  Forever is a long time.  In Malachi 3 God tells us that He doesn’t change.  So if you are looking for some consistency in your life we can safely say He is forever faithful.  And that is the unchangeable truth.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 10, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org

 

We have almost three feet of snow in our yard with another foot coming tonight and tomorrow.  That does not take into account the ten foot high mountain of snow at the end of the driveway pushed there by a nice man with a pickup truck.  The path from the driveway to a front door of the house is only as wide as our snow blower.  I traced a way in and then backed the blower out.   The problem is the dog.  The only place available to her needs is that narrow path.  The sides of the path are higher than she is tall.  Her problem is if she cares for her needs facing away from the house she can’t get back.   Her mess blocks her out because she will not tread over it to return home.

As I watch her dilemma from the front window I think of Adam and Eve blocked from the Garden entrance by the mess they made.  Just as they could see the Garden, my dog can see the house but the way is blocked.  It’s a common life theme.  People lose out on something good because of something they have done.   Jobs are lost.  Marriages are ruined.  Relationships are spoiled.  The list is as long as history.

I can intervene.  I can go out with a shovel and help my dog come home.  As for mankind the only way home was for God to intervene.  Because of the magnitude of the crisis the solution was much worse than my getting a shovel.  Jesus came and rescued us by way of the cross, which is by far the worst mess ever made by mankind and the best ever rescue by God.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 9, 2015

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org