Author: Ian Bothwell

A strong November wind has finally stripped our trees.  My woods finally look like Robert Frost’s poem My November Guest.  “My Sorrow, when she’s here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; . . . She’s glad the birds are gone away, she’s glad her simple worsted gray is silver now with clinging mist. . . Not yesterday I learned to know the love of bare November days before the coming of the snow, . . .”

I am thankful our earth is tilted on its axis.  Should it not be we would have no seasons.  Depending where one lived on earth would determine a sameness to everyday.  There would be 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night at the equator.  There would be eternal evening on the poles.  But as it is I rejoice in the coming of the snow and after a white feast I thrill at the bursting of spring with all its daffodils and crocuses.

It is Thanksgiving week and time to revel in the richness of life, which has little or nothing to do with one’s bank account.  It is about life.  It is about love and friends.  It is about the thrill of learning something new each day.  Even though we have our aches, pains, and worse for some – it is about the hope that Jesus has promised us – an eternity of life without those aches and pains, without the separation from loved ones.

And so I look out my window and pull my sweater just a bit more snug. I hope somewhere in heaven there will be snow – lots of snow.  Somewhere there will be gray worsted days.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 21, 2016.

Photograph by David Marcu.

Spring of Live Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

My son called just to say “Hello.”  That was awesome.  I love having him call for any reason.  It is nice when he needs something.  We never want to grow so old that we are not needed.  Being needed is essential for our mental health.  But it was grand that he didn’t call because he needed something.  He called because he wanted to say “Hello.”  I am loving it.

I wonder if we ever pray just to say “Hello.”  Our heavenly Father who is the source of all the essentials of our lives does not mind when we call to ask Him for things.  If we are made in His image I believe He also enjoys being needed.   Perhaps that is one of the problems He has with wealthy people. They don’t think they need Him when their needs are as real as the rest of us.  But wouldn’t it be grand if we would occasionally surprise Him and check in with a call to say “Hello.”  Better yet we could do a takeoff on a Stevie Wonder song and say, “I just called to say I love you” or how about “You are the sunshine of my life.”  Surely He would get a kick out of that.

Jesus certainly revolutionized our picture of God.  The Old Testament God doesn’t seem like a being who would be bothered with such trivialities.  But Jesus changed all of that.  He told us if we have seen Him we have seen the Father.   It was Jesus who taught us to pray beginning with “Our Father.”   Understanding that helps us to appreciate the little things we can do for Him.   Try it.  Just now call Him just to say “Hello.”  He will love it.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 29, 2008.

Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi.

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

 

I am confounded by my Christian friends who are so caught up in political debates and side-taking.  I am barraged by email forwards of left and right wing materials that are so blatantly biased and unfair I am amazed real Christians can pass them on.  If Christians should be about anything it is truth.  Neither the right nor the left is interested in truth.  Both sides are interested in winning.  Winning is power.  Power is an addictive corruptive drug that intoxicates and blinds one to what is fair.

Truly, it does not take a Philadelphia lawyer to see the half-truths told about the other side.  Single sentences (sound bites) are continually yanked from context.  Should a candidate misspeak about the smallest item it is blown into gigantic proportions.  Which of us could be consistent if video cameras were documenting our every breath?   Add to that the constant travel across the country and even around the world.  These people are not immune to fatigue and jet lag.  They are filled with caffeine as they try not to say how happy they are to be in Chicago when they are in Atlanta.  Deep down they know the inferences they make about the other isn’t true.

I so wish we Christians could be as passionate about Jesus and His love as we sometimes get over candidates who will say and promise most anything to be elected and once in office realize the reality of the world and the things they promised can’t be delivered.  Truth is not a campaign staple. However, the promises Jesus makes are forever true.  They are the staple of our faith.  Jesus never lies.   He doesn’t even tell half-truths.  He only tells the whole truth.  And the whole truth is – He loves you dearly!

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 25, 2008.

Photograph by Eberhard Grossgasteiger.

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

There was a time in my theological past when the word “perfection” was a dirty word.  I had seen it take its toll on a vast number of young people who believed perfection was the criteria for salvation.  Being honest and non-hypocritical these young people just called it quits and walked away from the church because they knew perfection wasn’t going to happen in their lives.  They sat through sermons where Jesus’ wonderful admonition in the Sermon on the Mount to be perfect was used a club to get them to measure up to some impossible goal that the speaker himself could not attain.

Goals are important.  Lives without goals rarely accomplish anything worthy of note.  I doubt if anyone ever won any Olympic medal without having the gold medal as an objective.  Jesus understood this.  He came that we might have the abundant life and reaching beyond ourselves contributes to a better life.  The problem arose when we inadvertently or advertently thought He was talking about salvation.  He wasn’t.  According to Jesus, salvation is a gift.  It always was and it will always be a gift.   Matthew 5:48, “Be ye perfect” is instruction for better living.  It is a commencement address. It is “rah rah” get on with your life.  Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back.

What happened was young people were told we are saved by grace but then in order to stay saved we have to overcome every defect.  Ephesians 2 was lost along the way.  Paul says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 19, 2008.

Photograph by Simon Wilkes.

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

I am starting to be concerned.  My wife has taken to watching a channel that features renovating houses.  Builders take ordinary houses and turn them into works of art and wonder.  Since we live in an ordinary house I am wondering what is going on in her head.  Even though she says she is just curious,  I know that what we behold affects our thinking and desires.  If this continues I would not be surprised to hear talk about redoing the kitchen or the bathroom.

It is a rule of nature that what we behold becomes part of us.  When we are young we are especially vulnerable to external influences and we never completely grow out of it.  When I am reading a good book I think about it as I ride back and forth to work.  When I associate with my friends I note it does not take me long before I am talking like them and even dressing like them.

John was a teen when he started following Jesus.  It is no wonder his gospel is so different from the first three.  It is filled with promises of Jesus’ love.  Those three years he was with Jesus molded him into the likeness of his Master.   It is the same for us.   If we really want to be like Jesus we have to spend time with Him.  We have to read about Him.  We have to talk to Him and without our being consciously aware we will be changed.  It’s the law. Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  It happens.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 11, 2008

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

When Buzz Lightyear, a lead character in Toy Story, proclaimed, “To infinity  and beyond” my mind swirled with what could be beyond infinity.  The concept of infinity fills me with frustrated consternation.   I am so limited by the finite.  While I can imagine going forward forever I am completely bamboozled when I try to extend infinity into the past.  My mind wants everything to have a beginning.  I can comprehend space having no beginning because space is nothing but God is, always was and always will be. Truthfully I want a God I do not comprehend.  He is so much bigger than any of our comprehensions. What does excite me about the concept of an infinite God is that infinity allows, makes it possible, for God to give each of us His undivided attention.  Infinity releases God from limitations.  Infinity places God everywhere all the time.  Infinity gives God all the resources necessary to meet the needs of everything everywhere. The very idea of each of us having the full attention of God could well feed our natural tendency to be self-centered, egotistical and narcissistic. But it does help to call Him Father and to encourage us to always live in His presence.

As Jonah discovered, one cannot run away from Him. “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.    If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;  even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”   Psalm 139.

Written by Roger Bothwell on September 4, 2008

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

There is a place in my forest (I fanaticize that it is mine.  It belongs to the State of Massachusetts.  I guess that makes it mine.) where a stream cascades down a small rock ledge into a pool filled with crystal clear water that is presently hosting a few red and yellow leaves.  The leaves are neither on the top or bottom but are suspended in the motion of the water. Occasionally the sun pierces through the leaves as the wind moves the overhead branches and the sunlight catches facets in the moving water.  For fleeting fractions of moments one seems to see deep into the pool only to quickly lose the vision of suspended gold.

As I gaze into it I am filled with the same feelings I often get when reading Scripture.  There are so many mysteries in the Bible.  I do not understand infinity backwards.  I cannot grasp Jesus’ dual nature.  I do not begin to know why God loves me.  I do not understand the beginning of iniquity in heaven.  My list could go on.  As I read I have these fractions of moments when my limited intelligence almost grasps some new deep truth. For a fleeting second my brain almost sees and then as if tantalizing me with truth it is gone.

In I Corinthians 13 Paul speaks of seeing through a glass darkly.  I have these moments of clarity only to once again become mystified by the enormity of the God who loves us and who died for us.  The gift seems so outrageously out of proportion it leaves me in a state of wonder.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 17, 2008.

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

Life is full of confounding things.  Often times when a publically-traded company announces they made a billion dollars this past quarter the stock goes down.   Traders dump it because they expected it to make two billion. Or it is sold off because they were so successful traders don’t believe they can do it again next quarter.  Sometimes the opposite is true.  A company loses money and the stock goes up.  Why isn’t a two by four really two inches by four inches?  Why does a golf course have 18 holes?

Actually those are fairly easy to explain.   The tough ones are why are you you?  Why aren’t you someone else?  How is it that Jesus’ righteousness can be our righteousness?   Where do my sins go when God forgives me?  Why do some people ruin their own lives by hating someone?  Can’t they see their hatred is harming themselves and not the person they hate?  The most confounding of all is the Gospel.  Why did God so love the world that He gave us His son?

We want so much for life to have meaning we invent stories in an attempt to make sense out of nonsense.  We quote Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” and sometimes unwittingly think the bad occurred because God wanted it to.  He never wants bad things to happen to His children.  He is a good Father.   What Paul means is God is smart enough to take the broken pieces of our lives and do something wonderful with them.  Satan smashes and God fixes.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2008.

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

I paid for my new knee.   I put a check in an envelope and slipped it into a slot at our local post office.  It felt good as I walked away knowing it’s mine.   For the last month it has been on loan from the surgeon.  (It is doing terrific.  Thanks for asking. I can now walk up and down stairs if I so desire.  Sometimes I baby myself and do them one at a time.)  As I sat down earlier today to write the check I wondered what would happen if I didn’t pay for it.   Would repo guys come in the middle of the night and take it back?  Ouch, that hurts just thinking about it.  I am still amazed thinking about living in a time when we get new parts.  We can even get a transplanted face.  Humm.  This old one is looking pretty haggard and wrinkled.

I am sure you have noticed it is hard to look bad if you are smiling.  I would love to be artistic enough to draw the faces of my friends as I see them.  The pictures would be so different from what photography would produce.  None of my friends would look like their photographs.  They are all much more illustrious and fascinating.  They overwhelm me with their stunning presences.  Often I wonder what Jesus sees when He looks at us. I doubt if he notices the broken blood vein on the side of my nose.  That isn’t important because this body is but the seed that blossoms on resurrection morning into something so grand that the world has never seen. This will not be my last new knee.  I will get that one on resurrection morning.  Please see I Corinthians 15.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 22, 2008.

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

He was a typical little boy sitting in a grocery cart.  He wanted to touch and pickup everything within range.  Why not?  That is what packaging is designed to do.  Packages are colorful and have nice pictures on them specifically to get our attention.  Instead of his mom giving him something to occupy him she just kept telling him in shorter and shorter phrases to keep his hands in the cart.   As I walked by she looked up, smiled and greeted me in a sweet voice diametrically opposed to the one she was using with her little boy.

Why do we do that?  I was nothing to her.  I was just a face pushing a cart by the cereal.  That little boy was, I assume, the heart and soul of her life.  I have no doubt, should she have to, she would die for him.   Yet, he was getting her worst and I, a stranger, was getting her best.  Please, please, if you have to be rude be rude to strangers.  If you have only a limited amount of love and niceness, then save it for your children and spouse.  Don’t waste it on people you will never see again.  Now I am not advocating public rudeness but I am sure you get my point.  The people closest to us should get our best.

There is a scene in one of the old Rocky movies where the bar keeper tells Paulie to give Rocky his best.  Rightfully so Paulie says, “Hey, what about me?  I come in here every day and you never give me your best.”   Good point, Paulie.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 1, 2008.

Photograph by Belle Deesse.

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