Roger Bothwell

I am rapidly growing to hate Beryl Ives.  I’m sure he was a nice man but I have an earworm of him singing Feliz Navidad and he is driving me mad.   An earworm is a short piece of something audio, usually music, that continuously plays over and over in your mind.  Researchers tell us that 92% of us experience an earworm once a week.  I am so glad I am in the 8% who do not.  Experts recommend chewing gum.  Somehow it involves the tongue and jaw muscles that we use to form sounds and our mind responds by stopping the earworm.
 
It would be so grand if we had complete control over our minds.  If we could choose our dreams or select which fifteen snippet we want as an earworm life would be even better than it is.  When my sons were small we had tapes of someone singing verses of Scripture.  We would sing (that is a generous term for the noise I made) them at night before they went to bed.  To this day they can remember them.  They would make perfect earworms.
 
A great song for an earworm would be “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.”  Psalm 119:11.  “He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.”  Psalm 91:11   “If God be for us who can be against us.”  Romans 8:31.   Then if we had total control over our minds we could turn the earworm off and replace it with another before it became irritating like Beryl Ives is to me right now.
 
Anyone have a stick of Juicy Fruit?

A thousand news worthy things happened in the world today.  A hundred personal things happened to each of us today.  If the world was asked, “How was your day world?”  The world could have selected the hundred really wonderful things that happened and respond, “It was a great day today.”  Or it could have selected the hundred really rotten things that happened today and say, “Today was horrible.”

That very same question could be asked of us.  And our answer would be based upon which ten things we selected out of the hundred things that occurred.  Now it is true some horrific event or some spectacularly great event could have happened today that would totally dominate our answer.   But it is a rare day for that to occur.  95% of the time the choice is ours.  Whether we had a great day or a rotten day depends on what we decide to think about.
 
With Jesus in our lives we have additional help in selecting the good things because it is God’s will for us to live the abundant life.  The abundant life Jesus promises us is not about our bank account.  It is about the joy of loving others and seeing that love produce good things.  I have yet to feel bad about doing something unselfish for someone.  I always am rewarded by knowing life is better for someone.  It can be something as small as a smile or a compliment or a thank you or some word of appreciation.   When we validate others our personal stock goes up.
 
When we do this, we become Jesus-like.  He is a validator.  He says to us, “You are the kind of person I want to live with forever.”   Wow!  That is major validation.

I would like to sing the praises of procrastination.  The wind prevails from the west so the street gutter in front of my house has over filled with maple and oak leaves.  Just last evening I finally said to myself that when I awaken in the morning I would rouse myself to action against the forces of nature and clean the gutter; after all it is December 8.  I should not have waited so long.  Now comes the good part.  Early this morning as I was coming down the stairs toward the kitchen I heard what sounded like a heavy truck out front.  Lo and behold it was the city cleaning my gutter.  My tax dollars at work!  What would have taken me at least two hours or more and a possible heart attack because of lugging the leaves away was done in less than five minutes and my heart is still intact!
 
My neighbors had cleaned their gutters with much blowing and lugging away.   My gutter was cleaned by persistent patience.  I am feeling a bit smug.  I am about ready to adopt a new ethic.  “What does not have to be done today can wait until tomorrow.”
 
As grand as this sounds, (to some) it really doesn’t work when thinking about eternal life.  Paul said it so well in II Corinthians, “This is the day of salvation.”  There are two reasons for this.  Number one is we have no guarantee there will be a tomorrow for us.  And secondly, why would we want to live a lesser quality of life?  Making Jesus our Lord and Savior makes life so much better.  It reduces stress, it takes away our worries and concerns about the future.  And it also helps make us better people.  Why wait?  Don’t wait.  Procrastination is only good for raking leaves.

Whether we want to admit it or not commercials do affect us.  They are pervasive.  A sixty minute football game can easily go three hours.  That is twice as much time being bombarded with commercials as the amount of time we actually watch the game.  A few of the ads are actually fun to watch while others make us wonder.  One of the wonder ones right now is “Love is what makes a Subaru a Subaru.”   Really?  I’m not sure I know what that means.  Was it constructed by workers who loved their jobs?  Or do they love us for buying one?  Or will those who buy one be demonstrating their love somehow?
 
I wish we had the money and creativity to so promote something about love that is really true.  It would be wonderful to replace most of the car and beer commercials with   “Love is what made Jesus our Savior.”  Now that I understand.   Actually I’m not sure that I do.  The thought of the creator God of the universe becoming one of us and submitting Himself to the cross is beyond my comprehension.  God’s commitment to us will be our study for an eternity.  We will all earn PhDs in God’s love.  What a joy it will be to research and write not one but hundreds of dissertations.  Making oral presentations to committees of professors from universities all over space really will take us where no man has gone before.

We really can’t miss this.  We must treasure what God did and accept His gift.  We will travel everywhere sharing the Good News and we will not be going in a Subaru no matter how much the Subaru manufactures wish it were so.

It’s that time again.  Amazingly so.  An entire year has passed since we last asked for contributions to Spring of Life Ministry.  Our promise is we will only ask once a year and of course we do it now while people are getting their finances in order for the taxman.
 
Once again this year we wrote 240 devotionals resulting in 72,000 words.  That’s 72,000 words with only one goal – to tell as many people as possible how much Jesus loves them. What an amazing task God has given us!  He made the incredible gift of His Son for us and then quested us to tell the world.  We are so close to fulfilling the Gospel Commission.  Modern technology has given us a voice beyond our dreams.  Any place in the world can now hear the wonders of Jesus.  And so we use technology everyday as the Holy Spirit guides us.  We are hungry for Jesus to return.  We are so close now.
 
In the meantime together we are actively using Spring of Life to improve the lives of people in need.  We are able to supply tuition, medical supplies, food and shelter to an interesting array of people.  Thank you so much for making this possible.  Your generous gifts provide us with the resources to seek out and aid very grateful people.  It is very rewarding to be a positive part of others’ lives.  I pray that the devotionals are a positive blessing for you and I thank you for your care, love and concern.

If Freud is correct and my adult actions are the fruit of my childhood, then there is good reason why on Thursdays I am the neighborhood trash man.  Our trash goes on Thursday mornings and on my daily walk with Jazz I pick up the week’s accumulation of miscellaneous things piggy people toss out their car windows – Dunkin Donut coffee cups, beer cans, water bottles, etc.  I drop them into people’s trash containers while still at the curb.  The Freudian connection is when I was really little and lived in the city, once a week a man would come by with a horse and wagon calling out, “Trash, Clothes, Cans, etc.”  His horse was wonderful and I wanted one.  So whenever I was asked what I wanted to be I always replied that I wanted to be a trash man.  That way I could have my very own horse. I never did own a horse but I can still be a trash man.
 
One doesn’t have to be a Freudian scholar to understand the inherent truth regarding childhood’s influence on adulthood.   We are the product of many things but the main ingredient is what we learned in our formative years.  Little ears and little eyes are watching and absorbing – especially the attitudes and ideas expressed by mom and dad.  Sometimes the role models can be so bad children determine not to be like that.  But we shouldn’t hope for that to happen.  Over 75% of children ultimately adopt the value system and behavior patterns of mom and dad.  Children don’t say with it words or flowers but they do want to be like and will be like their parents.  Then of course there is the role model of our heavenly Father.  He’s the ultimate role model.

I was sitting in Applebee’s with my wife reading my email on my phone.   I wasn’t offending her because she was scrolling through Facebook on her phone.  I thought this is stupid.  This was an opportunity for quality time conversation with the person I love most.  Were we doing this because after 50 plus years of marriage we have run out of things to talk about?   Then I looked about and saw both people at the table next to us texting.  And I noticed the couple two tables away doing the same.  One might assume it must be more interesting to talk to people you are not with.
 
I also have a Bible program on my phone so I don’t have to carry my Bible to church.  However, while using it during a sermon I suddenly got an electronic text from someone on the other side of the church chastising me for not paying attention.
 
Actually texting isn’t as new as we might think.  Three thousand five hundred years ago God texted Moses and God has been texting us ever since.  Our Bibles are God’s text to us.  As old as the Bible is, the miracle of it is, it is still relevant.  The inherent principles are eternal.  It is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.  That comes from Paul’s texting to a young pastor named Timothy.  In Hebrews 1 Paul wrote that God has communicated with us in various times and various ways.  For us the text is the Good News.  You will never ever get a more important text than the one from our Father assuring us that we are extremely loved.

P. S. Once again I carry my Bible to church.

I have a friend who speaks abbreviated English.  When we hang up the phone he says, “God bless.”  When we part from an actual face to face meeting he says, “Take care.”  God bless what?  Me? My wife? My dog?  Take care of what? Myself? My wife?  My credit card?  Language is a strange animal.  Never say we don’t believe in evolution.  Language is constantly evolving.  Most sales clerks (store associates) now say, “Have a good one.”  A good what?
 
Years ago the word “caretaker” was used for anyone in a position of responsibility for almost anything or anyone.  Now “caretaker” is only attached to inanimate things.  If one is responsible for something alive they have become a “caregiver” which I like.  There is huge difference between “taking” and “giving.” It most likely evolved because “caregivers” did not appreciate being called “takers.”
 
By present day usage God is both “caretaker” and “caregiver.”   He is our “caregiver” and our planet’s “caretaker.” Adam and Eve were “caretakers” of the Garden and “caregivers” for babies Cain and Abel.  If alive today David would write, “The Lord is my caregiver. He leads me to the supermarket and safely down the valley of the interstate.”
 
Actually I don’t care much what words we use.  I do care about and am so thankful that He cares.  He cares about all our daily needs, problems and challenges. If not a bird falls from the sky unnoticed by Him just imagine how He feels about our risings and fallings.  He is our Father and it’s a great family to be a part of.  Enjoy every moment of it.
 
“Take care” “God bless” and “Have a good one.”

We took our walk this evening after sundown and darkness had settled in for the night. This is a great time of the year.  Many of our neighbors have already decorated their homes for the holidays with a vast array of lights.  We do not have street lights so the homes are extra beautiful with no competing light.  One house has brightly lit angels in the yard.
 
As we walked along I thought of a passage in II Chronicles 3 talking about Solomon decorating the home He built for the Lord.  “He decorated the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim. He also overlaid the house—the beams and doorposts, its walls and doors—with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.”
 
The luminosity in our neighborhood is beautiful.  I also thought of something Paul wrote to Timothy about decorating our lives.  Instead of lots of external gold he counseled us to decorate our lives with good works and modesty.  Just think about how beautiful people are that are kind and unselfish.  In college one of the guys had a large purple birthmark on his face.  One year at Thanksgiving he announced that he was having it removed.  We were dumbfounded.  He was so kind and so Christ-like we saw no need for him to do that.  We thought he was handsome because of the kind of person he was.  We ceased to see the birthmark because he was so decorated with good works.  He was a quality person.
 
This is the season for decorating.  This is the season to be thankful, generous, forgiving and kind.  This is the season to be beautiful.

Part of taking my dog for a walk each day is giving her a chance to socialize.  In just a mile she gets to visit with Peanut, Bailey, Cora, Sebastian, and Annie.  There is a lot of sniffing that goes on as greetings are exchanged. Then there are others that bark at us from the confines of their homes as we pass by.  There are at least four of them.  We don’t know their names.  Just last week a new player arrived on the social scene.  His name is Bruno.  Believe me when I tell you that Bruno is big.  Until now she has been the Big Dog.  No longer is this so.  Up until now she has played the big “I’ll take care you” role.  She keeps between me and the others making sure I am safe.  But since Bruno has arrived she makes sure she is behind me.  Suddenly I am the “You’ll take care of me.”   She doesn’t even put up her ruff.  She does her best to hide.
 
How thankful I am that God is a bit more faithful as my shield and protector.   David wrote, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”  Psalm 18.  Paul wrote, “If God be for us who can be against us?”  Romans 8.  Unfortunately bad things do happen to God’s children.  Fortunately they are only temporary and God has the final say.  If there are any adjustments to be made He will more than make up what will be needed.  So don’t be afraid of the Brunos of this world.  The REALLY BIG DOG is on our side.