Author: Ian Bothwell

I had a few moments yesterday to talk with a Fed-Ex delivery driver. Naturally our conversation turned to the economy and he told me his average day’s deliveries are 50% of what they were six months ago, indicating a major economic slowdown.   Afterward I wondered if we could develop a national economic index by monitoring Fed-Ex and UPS package deliveries.

Perhaps there already is one.

Later I wondered if we could develop a spiritual index indicating the health of one’s relationship with God.  We have a tendency to use numbers for all manner of measurements.  Perhaps we could keep a running tally on the number of minutes we spend each day watching television verses the number of minutes we spend in prayer or Bible study.   How many minutes a day do we talk to others about National Inquirer or Entertainment Today material verses the number of minutes we speak of a new spiritual insight obtained from our time spent in Bible study?

Actually that kind of activity would most likely ruin a real spiritual walk by turning it into a numbers game and perhaps a competition with others for bigger numbers which would most likely foster some sort of perverted pride like the Pharisee who prayed aloud on the corner.   Perhaps the best spiritual index would our joy at being able to participate in divine nature and our eagerness to share that joy with others.  Do you remember the restored leper at the close of Mark 1?   Jesus told him not to tell until he had been officially declared well by the local priest.   He couldn’t wait. Immediately he told everyone who would listen.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 1, 2008

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

Several years ago one of my church members confessed to me, his pastor, that

he had committed a crime that was currently being investigated in the small

town where we lived.  He told me he had a hard time sleeping because he

imagined every sound he heard was the police coming to shackle him.  When he

would pass a police car on the highway his hands would instantly grow wet on

the steering wheel and his knees would go weak.  He was a paranoid

psychological wreck.  The only way he was going to find peace was to make

things right.

 

His predicament reminded me of Proverbs 28:1, “The wicked flee when no one

pursues.”  There are amazing benefits to be had by living an honest life.

Not only will God bless such a life but you don’t have to worry about being

caught.  If you cheat on your income tax you hold your breath every time you

open the mailbox thinking today is the day you get the letter from Uncle Sam

informing you of an impending audit.   If you are speeding down the highway

you cannot enjoy the scenery.  You have to have one eye on the rear view

mirror and be tensed to hit the brake whenever any government-looking car

appears.

 

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

but his delight is in the law of the LORD.  He shall be like a tree planted

by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, . . . and

whatever he does shall prosper.”  Psalm 1:1

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 6, 2008

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

Daytime television is full of small claims court programs and having never

been to a real one I decided this morning to observe a real life small

claims court in our little city.  I was sitting toward the front trying to

hear every word when I heard the door open behind me.  Almost instantly in a

very clear, loud and authoritative voice the judge commanded, “Take off your

hat in the presence of the United States flag!”   I turned just in time to

see a young man quickly strip his hat from his head.

 

“Wow,” I thought.  “I wish we could have such respect for coming into God’s

presence.”  I realize it is a sign of old age to be distressed over the

apparel of some who come to church.  Yes, I have heard the arguments about

God wanting us and taking us as we are.  We sing songs like, “Just As I Am.”

I understand.  But somewhere along the way as people get to know our

heavenly Father as the Almighty Supreme Ruler of the Universe it seems there

would be a growth in respect.  If I were invited to the White House to meet

the President of the United States I would not appear in shorts and

flip-flops. (They wouldn’t let me in!)

 

One of the most powerful moments in the great film “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Reverend Sykes says to the little girl protagonist, “Stand up Jean Louise,

your father is passing by.”

 

This is not an issue of God not wanting us or God not accepting us.  It is a

matter of respect.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 7, 2008.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

I took the long way to school this morning.  I left a few minutes early so I

could poke along and savor the autumn colors.  Opening the car window,  I

filled my lungs with the scent of fallen leaves mixed with fallen apples as

I passed an already harvested orchard.  Remembering Jesus and His disciples

harvesting a handful of grain while passing a field,  I pulled over and kicked

around in the grass under the fruitless trees until I found a really nice

apple the harvesters had left behind.  Rubbing it until it was nice and

shiny,  I took a big juicy bite.  It was grand.  Actually it was a Cortland.

 

I enjoy doing things Jesus did.  I allowed my mind to run a bit wild and

imagined Jesus standing among the trees polishing up an apple.  Truly there

are many ways we can do what He did and He is anxious to help us.  We can

perform miracles of love that can transform lives by our being attentive to

the needs of those about us.  If we are having difficulty with that, upon

our request,  the Holy Spirit will heighten our sensitivities and actually

give us the resources to come to the aid of others.

 

When Paul wrote, “Let this mind be in you that was in Jesus” he was calling

us to a higher plain of daily living.  He was telling us that we could think

better thoughts than our norm and act in ways far beyond our usual level of

giving.  Tomorrow you and I can be something so much better than what we are

today.  And should we be so, the entire world will be a better place.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 30, 2008.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

While waiting at a traffic signal this morning,  I was suddenly struck in the eye

by a sparkling beam of light .  At first I wondered if someone was playing with a

laser, but the mystery was easily solved when I looked in the rearview mirror.

There was a lady driving the car that was waiting behind me.  She

had her left hand raised to shield her eyes from the morning sun.  The

angled sun was shining in her windshield and her diamond ring was dazzling

in the morning light.  A shaft of sunlight had bounced into and out of her

ring and through my back window into my rearview mirror and into my eye. I

can assuredly say that has never happened to me before this.

 

As the signal changed and I drove away I knew that she had no idea that

light from her struck me.  “Ah,” I wondered, “how often, if ever, does the

light of God’s presence shine from us unto another without our ever knowing?

Just how many people will be saved or have been influenced for good and we

will never know?”   Most likely it has happened to all of us and we will

only know when in the Kingdom those we have affected will approach us and

share with us what had occurred and oh how happy we will be.

 

Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good

works and glorify your Father in heaven.”  I have always loved the fact that

our good works are not to glorify us but our Father in heaven.

 

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 18, 2008

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

The President of the United States receives over 10,000 letters each day.  Virtually all are opened and read by a mail team.   But what if the President is your old college roommate and you wanted send him a reminder of the promise he made to you, that should he be elected President one day, you would be given a cabinet position?  That kind of letter would most likely never get past the mail team.  But neither you nor the President want others reading personal stuff.  Therefore, all family and friends of the President are given a series of numbers to write on the outside of the envelope.  This secret code moves the letter unopened to the President’s desk.  Friends and family have direct access.

I have always loved John 15:14 where Jesus says, “I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.”   Now, combine this with Galatians 4:7 which reads, “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”   That makes us both friends and family with God Himself.  Therefore, our communication with God does not go through a reading committee of angels.  We have direct access.  The code is found in John 16:22, Jesus said, “Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.”

People who have the President’s code have to keep it a secret.  We are commissioned to tell.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 30, 2003.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

She’s a sweet old dog.  It’s taken most all of the eight years since we brought her home to stop being a puppy.  She still gets excited when the doorbell rings but life has changed.  No longer do I have to call her to know where she is.  I just need to look down for she will be just a few feet away.  When I come home at night she follows me not only from room to room but also from chair to chair.  If I get up in the night and put my feet to the floor often they land on her side.  The house is never empty.

As I look at her I realize how quickly these eight years have gone and before another eight shall pass I will have to place her in the back yard beside another such faithful friend.  We can keep nothing nor can we keep anyone.  A moment of parting will come from everyone we love.  Shakespeare once wrote, “This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong. To love well which thou must leave ere long.

I once knew a man who would not allow himself to love because he feared the moment of parting. When I presided over his graveside service there were only a few present and no one wept for he who gives not love receives no love.   To love and be loved is true wealth.

Will I miss this old dog when she is gone?   Of course I will, but that day of pain has been more than compensated for by thousands of days of love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 28, 2003.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

My mother is in a nursing home near to us.  It is convenient to drop in for a few minutes more than once a day.  Recently she is having trouble remembering things and this can be very specifically correlated to a certain medication.  The medicine has left her feeling disoriented and she struggles to cope with simple cognitive tasks.  I do not have a problem with the nurses. They are only following doctor’s orders.  I do have a problem with doctors who prescribe medication and then do not come back to check on effects.  Getting their attention on this has become a major task.  It is not fun to be mentally fuzzy and know it.  She knows it.

I have often wondered about the effects of sin on all of us.  We think we are aware.  We think we know what is happening; however, often our judgment is clouded by our habits and their effects on our clear thinking. In I Corinthians 13 Paul says, “Now we see through a glass darkly.”  Have you ever forgotten to take off your sunglasses when entering a darkened room?  It is difficult to discern much detail.

Each day we need to pray for help that we might see life and its ramifications with clear minds lest we be deceived into error that would harm our families and us.  We have been drugged by sin and need our systems purged that we would know truth.

“Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 27, 2003.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

This morning during a television interview, Ian McKellen, who portrays    Gandalf in the film trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” by J. R. R. Tolkien, said, and I cannot remember the exact context because the sentence leaped upon me, “Sometimes a fool’s wisdom is the best wisdom.”   My first response to this oxymoron was “What nonsense.”  But I could not shake it off.  It stuck with me and during the day I remembered the Roman Emperor Claudius who survived the treachery of his family by playing the fool.

But this was not what Ian McKellen was talking about.  He was talking about wisdom that wise people miss.  He was in the same arena as Paul when he wrote to the Corinthians the following.  ^“But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”         I Corinthians 2:4

To pretend to understand God is real foolishness. If we totally understood Him He would no longer be God but be a fantasy of our imagination.  He is beyond us, yet has through His greatest revelation, Jesus Christ, revealed enough of Himself that we might understand His Fatherly and redeeming love.  Paul said, “The things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: . .”  I Corinthians 3:13-14

Sometimes we need to leap beyond logic into the love that awaits us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 22, 2003.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574

My granddaughters spent the afternoon making gingerbread houses.  Our table was immersed in Graham crackers, pretzel sticks, Gummy Savers, marshmallows, multi-colored Sprinkles and lots of frosting for glue.  But where I asked was the gingerbread?  What a stupid question.  Gingerbread houses are not about gingerbread.  This was an adventure in design and imagination.  Soon there were walls and roofs and sprinkling pathways leading from one fantasy house to the next.  The afternoon was filled with tales of little people living in sugar houses.

Surely one of the greatest gifts God has given to us is imagination.  Without imagination we would be a miserable lot eking out a living fighting off the elements and foraging for food.  Each year the imaginations of bright people bring us wonderful ways to improve our living.  Last week, just for fun, I sat in a 1965 Mustang and remembered when I owned a brand new one.  I remembered thinking what an incredible machine it was.  Now as I sat there stroking the steering wheel I was overwhelmed with how much cars have changed.  It is true they don’t build cars the way they used to.  Today’s cars are marvels that first existed in someone’s imagination.

Surely the best use of imagination would bring peace to a violently troubled world.  The best place to begin is right where we live.  My granddaughters’ gingerbread houses were homes filled with laughter and love.  Surely it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that for real.  Imagine love and it will be so.  Imagine peace and it will grow.  “Behold, the dreamer cometh.”  Genesis 37:19

Written by Roger Bothwell on December 17, 2003.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574