Author: Ian Bothwell

In Isaiah 55:8 God tells us that His thoughts are not ours.  He thinks differently than we do about things.  I was reminded of this in class this morning when I read 1 Corinthians 13 to my students.  Verse 3 says, “Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.” It seems to me that degree of personal sacrifice should count.  But God says, “No. Not unless one’s motive is correct.”  If we did it for love it counts.  If we did it to earn a place in heaven, it doesn’t.”  The basic premise being that one can do nothing to earn heaven.  We either accept it as a gift or we don’t make it.  No amount of pain, no amount of sacrifice, no amount of money, no amount of public or private contrition counts.  This just seems so different than what I would think should count.  God says, “I think differently than you do.  These things do not count.”

It is difficult for us to accept something so wonderful as salvation without wanting to contribute.  It is part of our nature.  No wonder Paul says in I Corinthians that our nature will be changed when Jesus comes.  But the good news is we do not have to wait until that day for the change to begin.   As that change continues little by little we will more and more think as God thinks.  We will understand Him better and His will for us.   And what is His will for us?  It is to accept salvation as the gift that it is and be good people because we love.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 6, 2008.

Photograph by Shifaaz Shamoon.

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

We had a birthday party for our old lab.  She sat with cocked head trying to figure out why there was a flame on top of her cupcake.  I couldn’t get her to blow it out. So I helped.  With long strings of drool almost reaching the floor, she stared into my eyes obediently waiting for the okay.  I would guess one whole second passed after I nodded “yes” before the entire cupcake was swallowed. So much for savoring one’s food.

As I looked into her eyes I could not but notice they are milky.   The clear dark wells of her youth have gone away.  Yet I know even still she sees better than I. When we walk at night she spies the rabbits and skunks in the moonlight before I do.  Occasionally we will spot the neighborhood coyote which often stands in the shadows and watches us go by.  Neither he nor she seems fearful of each other.  They just watch with interest.  I must confess the chill that runs my spine.

She is 84 in dog years.  I think she still looks great even though I have to help her up into the back of the truck.  I hope I have her for yet another year.  But I am not naïve for I can feel hard lumps in her that should not be there.  Alas.  I shall treasure each month, each week, each day as we should with all those we love.  None of us are promised tomorrow, that is here.  But we are promised an eternity of tomorrows.   “The wages of sin are death but the gift of God is eternal life.”  I have more than earned my wages.  But I have no desire to collect them.  It is the gift I want.  The grandest thing of all is the gift that is given.  Thank you Jesus.

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 25, 2008.

Photograph by Jason Leung.

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

 

Not long ago a woman complained to me that when her husband came home he always greeted the dog first and then came and found her.  But I asked, “Doesn’t the dog run to the door and wait when she hears the car pull into the drive?”   “Well, yes,” she answered.  “Sooooo?,” I answered.   I was reminded of a church member who most always came to church after the worship service started and left during the closing hymn.  They complained to me that the church was unfriendly and no one ever talked to them.

Emily Dickinson once wrote, “This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me.”   She got it.   If one is to have friends one must often take the initiative.   This evening I made three attempts to introduce myself to a church member only to have her turn and walk away from me.  I had been standing quietly in her vision range waiting.  I will try again.

Solomon said it in Proverbs 18:24, “A man who has friends must himself be friendly.”  However, we do understand that some people are shy.  We need to seek them out.  In Romans 12:16 Paul admonishes us to make friends with nobodies.  It isn’t natural to do that.  We want to seek out the somebodies. However, somebodies rarely need us.  It is the nobodies who most often really need us.  Life can be brutal and demolish people’s self worth to the extent they just don’t have the courage to speak to someone new.  That is where we come in.  Sometimes an extended hand is all it takes to change a life.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 16, 2008.

Photograph by Johannes Plenio.

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

I have a student who has consistently come to class five to ten minutes late. So I asked her what class she had just before mine.  I figured it was in a building at the far end of the campus and thus a significant walk.  I was underwhelmed when she told me she did not have a class before mine.   So I made her a deal.  If for the rest of the semester she is on time, I will ignore her past tardinesses.   Today to my great pleasure she was on time. I felt a great sense of satisfaction until five minutes after class started she got up and left the room for ten minutes.  I never cease to be amazed! I realize I have an overblown sense of the value of my classes.  However, as I reflect on each day’s lectures I wonder just who is teaching whom.

How many times did Jesus go to bed wondering if He was making any headway with His disciples?  When John wanted Jesus to destroy the city of Samaria because they had not welcomed them properly, Jesus must have just shaken His head.  When His disciples wanted Jesus to tell the Canaanite woman to go away without helping her, Jesus must have wondered if it was all in vain. But of course it wasn’t.  They learned.  They grew.   I’m sure He shakes His head at us when we cling to retarded ideas or when we laugh at jokes that put down another race, denomination or class.  Just as Jesus never gave up on His men, He will never give up on us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 9, 2000.

Photograph by Tom Hermans.

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

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