Author: Ian Bothwell

It was time for some tough love.  For some unknown reason Annie, our new lab puppy, decided the road was a place to explore.  Just as soon as I would carry her back and put her down she scurried back to the street.  It was time to put on the little red collar and turn on the electric fence.  Because we knew what was coming, we almost cried as she headed for the street toward the little white flags.  She never knew what hit her. I don’t think she will be very interested in the street anymore.  The little white flags have taken on new meaning.

God tells us not to do certain things.  We are curious beings and find delight in exploring forbidden things.  The forbiddenness actually increases the lure.  If we could only understand, God only wants to keep us from harm.  He withholds nothing from us that is good.  If it’s good He encourages us to go for it.  Just as we are many times smarter than a puppy so God is many times than us.  We know Annie cannot safely play in the street.  God’s commandments are His telling us not to play in the street.

Sometimes He has to decide it’s time for some tough love.  At Thanksgiving we often sing, We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing.   There is a very meaningful line that often rings in my head.  It goes like this, “He chastens and hastens His will to make known.”   I was a father before I finally understood that line.  I think He must cry when He sees what is coming but He lets it happen because He knows it will save us from something far worse.  We are loved.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 21, 2010

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Our ball of fire lab puppy, Annie, has adapted to us very well.  From the very first night she slept quietly, well almost quietly.  She snores. She has us trained to run for the door when she starts sniffing about the house.  She gets a treat when she waters the lawn.  The problem is she now fakes it.  She squats and then comes running for her treat.  We had a dilemma today.  It was over a stick.  It was the perfect stick.  It was much too good to put down. However, how does one eat one’s treat when one’s mouth is already full?   This produced a lot of whining.

She is so much like some humans I have known.  God offers some incredible blessings.  However, often they are conditional on our actions.   Sometimes we have to give up something to make ourselves able to prosper from what He offers.  If we want the blessing of health we have to give up some bad eating habits.  We have to get off the couch and walk around the block each day.

God wants to forgive us of our sins but we make ourselves ineligible because we continue to harbor grudges against others.  It isn’t that God doesn’t want to forgive us.  Our unforgiving spirit interferes with God’s work in our hearts.   Often just like Annie we whine about life’s misfortunes when the irony is we are the author of our misfortunes. It is easier to blame them on someone else.   My students who do not study don’t do well on exams and it is my fault when they receive a poor grade.    If we truly want all the goodness God offers there are some things we must let go.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 19, 2010

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Six weeks ago one of my very best friends gently went to sleep in my arms. Mandy, our black lab, had been with us for over thirteen years.  Needless to say, it was a very emotional moment, so much so that I have not been able to write about it til now.  I still am not able to say much because she was to me the perfect dog. Her devotion and love were beyond description.  We spent so much time together roaming the mountains of Massachusetts.  But the years took their toll and finally she just ran out of gas.  The last few days she needed assistance just to stand up.  The vet came to our house and Mandy closed her eyes in the comfort of home.

The reason I can now speak of it is that this afternoon Annie has come to live with us.  She too is a black lab.  So here we go again.  The next few weeks we will be soaking up puddles and trying to keep the house from being chewed to pieces.  For the past few hours she has bounded about the house sniffing everything.  She climbed the stairs to the second floor but getting back down was very scary.  It’s much easier going up.  We are wondering if we will get much sleep tonight.

While I do not believe Jesus died to save dogs I do believe Jesus will do everything possible to make heaven great for us.  Therefore, I anticipate opening the door of my heavenly home to see Mandy waiting for me.  Some of my friends tell me I should anticipate about a dozen other dogs I have loved through the years.   If I add thirteen or fourteen years to my present age this will be my last dog.  Surely God smiled the day He made dogs and even though Genesis doesn’t mention it, I am sure He said, “That is very, very good.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 9, 2010

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On my way to work this morning I noted a gas station with the lowest price I have seen in years.  I therefore purposed to stop there on my way home.  On my way home I came to a Shell station with that same price so I stopped there.   I pulled in behind a car beside a pump and immediately another car pulled in behind me.  As I got out and went to the pump I then noticed a much smaller sign that explained the cheap price was for people paying cash. Since I was using a credit card I would have to pay ten cents more per gallon.  Since I was virtually parked in I paid the extra two dollars to fill my tank.  However I will never stop there again.

It isn’t that I don’t think they should have two prices.  I just think it should be clearly indicated up on the big sign.  I felt like I had been had. I wonder how many others felt like I did and if they also decided never to come back.  Was it worth it for Shell to get an extra two dollars from customers only to permanently lose them?  I don’t think so.

As a teacher I make a point of never trapping a student.  The class prior to every exam I tell them exactly what I will be looking for and where they can find that information.  In all of our dealings we must be transparent.  When Jesus first saw Nathaniel coming to Him, Jesus said, “Behold a guileless man.  A man with no deception.”   What a great thing to have God say about.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 20, 2008

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If we have been hurt, but don’t know we were hurt, have we really been hurt? Many years ago I was the pastor in a small southern town.  Pastors were paid according to some sophisticated cost of living scale that pertained to where the pastor lived.  While I was there the conference office with all its officialdom left the big city and came to my small town.  To help the officials absorb moving costs the living scale for my small town was raised. When asked if the higher pay rate would pertain to the Bothwells who already lived there, the decision was made that while those who were moving would be on the higher scale the Bothwells would “stay on the lower scale because they wouldn’t know about it.”  (Did they really think we wouldn’t find out?)

If you asked me if I was hurt I would most likely say, “No. It was no big deal.”  However, it certainly did not make a favorable impression because decades later I can still remember the event.  Does that mean because I remember I haven’t forgiven?  I hope not.  A lack of forgiveness on my part will never harm anyone except me.  Perhaps that is one of life’s more difficult lessons.  When we withhold forgiveness from someone we rarely hurt that someone.  It is we who are poisoned by feelings that “we” were not treated right.  We are the ones whose sleep is made restless.

When Jesus told us to forgive as we seek forgiveness for our transgressions He struck upon a fundamental psychological law.  The quality of our lives is the fruit of decisions we make regarding what has happened to us.  Over the span of our lives we most likely have received the same amount of good and bad.  The difference at the end that determines whether life has been good or bad is what we choose to forget.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 1, 2010

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If we have been hurt, but don’t know we were hurt, have we really been hurt? Many years ago I was the pastor in a small southern town.  Pastors were paid according to some sophisticated cost of living scale that pertained to where the pastor lived.  While I was there the conference office with all its officialdom left the big city and came to my small town.  To help the officials absorb moving costs the living scale for my small town was raised. When asked if the higher pay rate would pertain to the Bothwells who already lived there, the decision was made that while those who were moving would be on the higher scale the Bothwells would “stay on the lower scale because they wouldn’t know about it.”  (Did they really think we wouldn’t find out?)

If you asked me if I was hurt I would most likely say, “No. It was no big deal.”  However, it certainly did not make a favorable impression because decades later I can still remember the event.  Does that mean because I remember I haven’t forgiven?  I hope not.  A lack of forgiveness on my part will never harm anyone except me.  Perhaps that is one of life’s more difficult lessons.  When we withhold forgiveness from someone we rarely hurt that someone.  It is we who are poisoned by feelings that “we” were not treated right.  We are the ones whose sleep is made restless.

When Jesus told us to forgive as we seek forgiveness for our transgressions He struck upon a fundamental psychological law.  The quality of our lives is the fruit of decisions we make regarding what has happened to us.  Over the span of our lives we most likely have received the same amount of good and bad.  The difference at the end that determines whether life has been good or bad is what we choose to forget.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 1, 2010

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When my wife and I fly somewhere she always gets me a window seat and herself the aisle seat, which means there is a stranger sitting between us. I think I remember the pastor who married us saying something about let no man come between.  Anyway it is quite fun to note when the person in the middle discovers we are together.  That person always, I mean always, lights up and ever so generously offers to trade places with one of us so we can sit together.   At that point the light goes out of their eyes as they realize they are doomed to the center seat with no place to put their drowsing head.

There is no question but that it is easy to be generous when we get something good out of it.  I once had a guy pay me twenty dollars to trade seats so he could sit because a young lady he was wooing.  I was happy to accommodate.  Now you are wondering why I took the money and didn’t just trade seats out the goodness of my heart.  I figured he would get lots of mileage with her when she saw how much it was worth to him to sit beside her.  Isn’t it great how we can spin things?

Life works best when winning or gain is reciprocal. When both people walk away feeling satisfied because they have gotten something good makes for happiness all around.  When Jesus died on the cross He gave so much it is difficult for us to understand what He got out of it.   However, according

to Scripture He gained the right to give you and me eternal life.  I find it difficult to understand why He thinks that is a good trade.  But I am not going to argue.  I love what we got.  And He loves what He got.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 5, 2010

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It was very quiet this morning when I went to the street for the morning paper.  It was quiet except for a family of cardinals.  Mom and dad and three adult-sized young ones were all over the yard while having a full blown conversation.  They were celebrating.  This was not the first attempt for this mom and dad.  Earlier in the summer we were watching them raise three only to have them taken by who knows what.  The couple tried again.  Again they lost their babies.  The third time was a charm.  In the words of Dora the Explorer, “They did it.”  What a happy lot they were this morning.

Loss is a part of life.  We never really own anything.  We just get to use things for a while.  It is the same with people.  For a while we get to be with them, we get to love them, but they will ultimately go away.  Or if we are fortunate we will be the first to go away.  Emily Dickenson once wrote, “Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell.”

However, I do not wish to dwell upon loss.  I want to join my cardinal family and rejoice at their persistence and ultimate success.  Oh, that we all should have such fortitude.  I do not know if they suffered grief over the loss of two families.  What I do know is they kept trying and to great success. This morning there were streaks of red throughout the yard as they experienced life to its fullest.  As we age some of us realize our strongest times are history but ultimate strength is yet to come.  It is so grand to know Jesus.  He makes all the difference.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 18, 2010

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Today was a sleepy day in New England.  It rained most of the day and the temp never went above the mid fifties.  As hard as I tried I couldn’t keep my students awake.  They settled into their chairs and within a few minutes their eyelids were settled.  I tried almost everything.  To begin class I read a fabulous passage from Romans. Only half of them seemed aware of my presence.  I walked over and called some by name.  They roused for a few minutes but soon were back in dreamland. There was a temptation to be miffed except for the fact that just yesterday I was in a faculty meeting and was in the same stupored condition.

Jesus had a similar problem with His disciples that horrible night in the garden.  But He did acknowledge their human nature.  Sometimes we just can’t stay awake. He understands His sleeping church.  We can take comfort that He never condemned the ten young women for sleeping while waiting for the groom to come to the wedding.  It is not natural to stay in a state of excitement constantly waiting for anything, let alone something we have been told for decades is at the door.

Perhaps the best thing is not to hype ourselves up every time there is an earthquake or some other horror.  The best thing is not to be event watching or studying someone’s fabricated time chart but instead establish a living, breathing, eating, walking, talking, and sleeping relationship with Jesus that is so real it doesn’t matter when He returns.  Our goal should be to be so involved with Jesus that going to heaven will merely be a change of address.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 7, 2010

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In preparation for an accrediting visit for our college we have to locate and report on the whereabouts and successes of our graduates.  No one in our department knew the whereabouts of one of last year’s psychology graduates.  We started pulling out all the stops to find him.  We asked in classes from other students.  We did computer searches.  We finally found him.  He is working in our college library.  Our psychology department is in the library basement.  His desk is immediately above mine on the first floor.  During the day he sits about five feet above me.  He was lost!  We didn’t know where he was!

His proximity to me reminds me of students who tell me they have no or little contact with God.  They go about their daily routines sealed in their own little cocoons not aware that God is so very near.  And unlike our student who was not trying to get our attention, God, who is self-revealing, has been trying to get those students attention.  This week He has painted the sugar maples on campus with luscious reds and yellows.  He has wafted 70 degree zephyrs through their hair.  He has whispered to them via lectures from Christian professors and yet they don’t perceive His wooing.

In Romans 1 Paul mentions that we are without excuse because the invisible characteristics of God are evident in the visible things He has provided us.  In the Psalms there is a wonderful verse that says, “Though I ascend to the heavens thou are there. Though I make my bed in Hell thou art there.”  Psalm 139.   How is it that someone can be so close and yet so far away?  It’s amazing!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 25, 2010

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