Reveration Blog
2/25/2005 0 Comments AttitudeDuring a two-year period, I moved into four different offices within the same organization. It’s getting so I’m leery of putting anything up on the wall knowing I’ll just have to move again. Change is the norm in the Army Reserves these days. Now as I get ready to move for the fifth time I am eyeing an office that best serve the needs of my team and me. But to move into this office I have to displace a man highly resistant to change. I did not look forward to the conversation with him knowing that he would resist my directive. At first, this is exactly what he did. He cited injustices he experienced in the past. He said he would raise a ruckus. Then he said according to regulation he was entitled to a space of at least 120 square feet. All of his objections were raised before I even mentioned the office in which I planned to relocate him. Other members of the team measured the dimensions of that space and “gleefully” informed him that it was sufficiently large. They too had anticipated a defensive posture. Fortunately, the situation was resolved favorably and we can move on to more important issues!
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10/8/2004 0 Comments CertainI feel like I’m living in a giant bubble that increases with size and darkens in color. I wonder when it will explode and what outcome I can expect. Almost daily I receive emails from people that love President Bush and despise John Kerry. Conversely, I get messages that bash Bush and laud the Massachusetts Senator. Each person is certain of his or her views. I don’t ever remember seeing this nation so polarized and divided over who should be its next Commander-in-Chief. Perhaps in the tempest it is wise to remember the temptation to lean on our own understanding sets us up for failure. If our hope for the future is pinned on a man or a party we are destined for an overdose of pain.
5/21/2004 0 Comments CalendarVainly I searched my desk for my pocket calendar. I needed it to determine which days to submit for pay for working at my reserve center. If I don’t look at my calendar on a daily basis there is a good chance I will miss an appointment. I’m somewhat bound by a schedule and dependent upon the information I write down on little squares.
4/22/2004 0 Comments CowsMeditation
1 Samuel 6:7-9--Now then, prepare one new cart and two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. Take the ark of the Lord, place it on the cart, and put the gold objects that you’re sending Him as a restitution offering in a box beside the ark. Send it off and let it go its way. Then watch: If it goes up the road to its homeland toward Beth-shemesh, it is the Lord who has made this terrible trouble for us. However, if it doesn’t, we will know that it was not His hand that punished us—it was just something that happened to us by chance.” 1/30/2004 0 Comments Cloud--God's PresenceWith celerity they moved across the desert, angry, with revenge burning in their hearts. Six hundred bully chariots commanded by officers led a thundering army across the hard rocky soil. Pharaoh knew his freedom-seeking slaves were trapped. Enraged by the death of his firstborn son and hardened against an omnipotent God Who had ravaged his country, he would make Moses and his pathetic people pay. As the Egyptian warriors approached the Israelites panicked. They turned on their reluctant leader and cried out, “Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness” (Exodus 14:12).
12/13/2003 0 Comments OrderlyWhy is it that the one year you get a flu shot you get the flu? Why does your dog shake off muddy water next to you when you’ve just changed into good clothes? Why does your husband get sick on the day you’re supposed to go on a family vacation? Why is it that the day you’re ready to complete your project the power goes out? Why do microphones work fine in rehearsal but then screech during the play? Why do people get mad at other drivers right after leaving church? Why do camera batteries go dead just when your son takes his first steps? Why does some stranger’s toddler pitch a fit at the climax of your daughter’s recital?
8/29/2003 0 Comments ElianaShe is beautiful. Her serene, unblemished face is a remarkable sight. Her tiny feet wiggle to the tickling touch of her mother’s loving fingers. Her black hair is thick and astonishingly full for a newborn. But inside this lovely baby rages some unknown storm that throws her into seizures and more than once has arrested her ability to breathe. The doctors have no answers. Meanwhile, two hearts burst in agony. Henry and Melody helplessly watch their first child not knowing . . .
8/15/2003 0 Comments InadequateIt’s not hard to feel inadequate. In the middle of an intersection I zeroed in on what John was asking me. I didn’t see the silver Nissan approaching from the right. He couldn’t swerve in time or stop to avoid me. Bang!!! In one unceremonious crunch our Plymouth Voyager was totaled. With one lapse of attention I joined the other side—the team of drivers in accidents because they were talking on cell phones. The best intentions don’t erase crumpled metal. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the other car suffered only minor damage.
6/20/2003 0 Comments FlexibleImagine being told you are headed to Iraq and you may not see your family for a year. You are trained with specific skills and given an important mission. Once you get past the emotional struggle of leaving your family you focus in on the task ahead of you. But everything changes. Instead of deploying overseas your unit ends up at Fort Lewis and you and your fellow combat engineers are assigned to work as gate guards for the installation. Meet SSG Osborne! Such was the fate he and his fellow National Guardsmen from Oregon encountered.
3/6/2003 0 Comments DistrustMolly Unreliant works as a mechanical engineer for a firm in Duluth, Minnesota. She got the job through the recommendation of a friend at church and it was an answer to prayer. Her boss is a little cantankerous but overall she enjoys the work. So it came as a surprise to her friends when she announced that she was secretly looking for a new job. They counseled her against this. Why risk losing a position God clearly provided and was blessing her in? In truth, she also felt a check from the Holy Spirit to remain where she was. Even reading her Bible she sensed God directing her to stay.
2/5/2003 0 Comments Trust IIIIt started when my good friends Rob and Glenn realized they had to install a handicapped accessible restroom in their San Diego church. The molehill they faced turned into a mountain. At a cost of $50,000 a ramp had to be built, doors had to be widened, and handicap accessible doors with electronic openers installed. During the construction the carpet was ruined. Beneath the tiles underneath the carpet they found asbestos requiring them to call in a removal team. Finally, after much time and expense, the renovations were complete.
8/28/2002 0 Comments BelongingLittle Julie is ragged and dirty. Two buttons are missing from her soiled dress. Her hair is matted and she owns no brush. One shoe is missing. What were once light blue sleeves are now gray. The frail fabric is torn in many places. She can only wink with one eye, and her mouth long ago lost its vibrant expression. She’s been dragged by a dog, punched by teasing boys, and twice left outside in bone-chilling rainstorms. For any casual passerby, she is all but useless—but not to Amy. She carries Julie wherever she goes. She tells her stories, puts her to bed, and kisses her hard-plastic cheeks. Amy doesn’t see a worn-out doll. Julie is her beautiful treasure and she loves her.
5/29/2002 0 Comments SatanCerro de Pasco sits over 14,000 feet in elevation in the central Andes of Peru. It is a bleak place. Besides the lack of trees and barren terrain, the atmosphere around this mining town is oppressive. In the community where the engineers reside, a blue signboard welcomes the spirit recognized as lord of the mines. Pastor Marco, Felipe and two other young men of the church we visited, walked us around the central plaza one evening. They pointed out the many bars and discussed the rampant problems of alcoholism, adultery, prostitution, incest, animal sacrifices and demon-worship. They discussed the pride among the inhabitants—a “machoism” that scorns outsiders and keeps the many different churches from coming together as a united body.
4/19/2002 0 Comments Self-ControlBefore I write about self-control I must share a disclaimer. I struggle with this area personally. I wrestle against impure thoughts. I don’t always use my time wisely. I say or do things I shouldn’t. In short, I have a long way to go to be like my hero—Jesus. It is recklessly foolish to think I can control myself by my own doing. My sin nature guarantees the impossibility of self-earned perfection. What is a fallible man to do?
1/12/2002 0 Comments LagomSilas took me to lunch at a Swedish restaurant in Gothenburg called Lagom. Lagom has no single English word that matches its meaning. Essentially, it translates “enough, sufficient, not too much or too little—just right”.
11/30/2001 0 Comments Strong and CourageousFujitsu closed its plant in Gresham. Enron announces it will declare bankruptcy. The Oregonian does not deliver much by the way of good news. It seems with each week more companies are laying off employees. Times are getting tougher. For every headline proclaiming bad news there are real lives effected, like David in Salem. In tears he grapples with the virtual elimination of his savings as stock once worth $89 a share is now 40 cents a share. Like Mike in Beaverton, he went in to work and the plant had closed down swiftly and unannounced. He returned home without a job.
9/5/2001 0 Comments KidnappedMeditation
Psalm 56:4--In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not fear. What can man do to me? Psalm 86:12--I will praise You with all my heart, Lord my God, and will honor Your name forever. 4/24/2001 0 Comments DependenceBilly’s dad kissed his wife goodbye and walked out into the cool dark of early morning to go hunting. As he backed up he felt the vehicle go over a mysterious bump in his driveway. Concerned, he stopped opened the door and went back to examine the object. His two-year old son lay under the vehicle. He’d just run over his head.
They rushed Billy to the hospital, his skull badly cracked in three places. The doctor sent the stricken parents home and told them to come back the next day. 3/22/2001 0 Comments FreedomJust because we live in a free country does not mean we have freedom. In fact there are many indicators that suggest that all kinds of cords entwine us. A graph of the stock market looks like some anchor tossed in water that only grows deeper. Wearing sweaters of worry, whose fortunes are tied to investments, face the chill of anxiety. Companies lay off employees to keep their profits. Lights go out from city to city across the state whose economy may be the sixth largest in the world, but who cannot create the energy to prevent brownouts. If our hopes are based on the strength of a nation our dreams will one day be nightmares. The prevalence of fear is a sure sign of the absence of freedom.
3/2/2001 0 Comments FaithfulJohann* works for Bernard Haldane Associates. As I sat down in his office he said to me, “During the five years I have worked with this company I have interviewed thirty-four pastors. Thirty-three of them missed appointments, were late, or lied when giving information. Only one was a man of integrity.” He looked me over as if to say, are you any different. If he meant to get my attention, he succeeded. For the rest of the day I pondered his opening statement and grieved.
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Photo from Rachel Maxey Miles