2019: What Shall We Fear?

Merle2 CommentsLife Lessons, Spiritual Growth

My mother had a lot to think about. She felt responsible to care for a large family, with the prospect of many more offspring to come. Her experiences in the Great Depression likely contributed to her concerns about having enough of life’s basic needs. To add to Mom’s anxieties, a common theme in the ’60s was the threat of frightening and global changes to our existence. The church and the news media both promoted a fascination with the end of the world as we knew it. When I was a child, I remember Mom’s musings about saving things–even considering saving worn-out shoes in case Read More

Celebrations

MerleLeave a commentLife Lessons

I remember numerous Christmas experiences from childhood, and I’m very fortunate that they are happy memories, for the most part. I grew up in a very large family where relationships and togetherness made the Christmas season feel like a happy occasion. I’m not making that up. My parents didn’t put a high value on buying gifts. Maybe that’s because shopping for 15 children would be a daunting project. By the time I came along, there were already in-laws and grandkids added to the family. Gifts were limited, and gifts were small. What seems remarkable is that while we eagerly anticipated Read More

With Us

MerleLeave a commentSpiritual Growth, , ,

I want to be near birds. I love to observe them, to pursue them for learning about them, and to identify them. I love the challenge of getting near enough to get a good photo. I feed birds, so that they come closer. I learn to recognize their language so I can persuade them to come closer. I don’t like it that birds are so flighty. Sometimes the smallest movement causes a whole group to swirl into the air and leave the area. Just when I think I’m quietly getting near, the bird I’m pursuing takes off for another part of Read More

Fully Aware

Merle1 CommentLife Lessons, Spiritual Growth, ,

It was a wake-up, for sure. I suddenly became aware that I was looking out at the receding highway through the back windows of an ambulance. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised; but I didn’t know how I got there. So I asked. I got a short explanation. For the next hours in the hospital emergency and critical care unit, awareness was still an illusive and elusive thing. I thought I was aware. Then I realized I hadn’t been. Then I thought I had a grip on it. Then I realized it had escaped me again. I have never been as aware Read More

True Story

Merle7 CommentsLife Lessons, , , ,

Many years ago, a young boy was playing in the family’s garage, and exploring the tool box on the workbench. The old ratchet was especially fascinating, as it made a clicking noise whenever the center was turned. The boy was very curious as to what caused the clicking sound. Seeing that several small screws held a cover on the ratchet, he decided to remove the cover and see how it worked. Immediately when the cover came off, a small spring went flying off into the darkness under the workbench. No amount of searching could locate the spring. Maybe the missing Read More

Reluctant God

Merle4 CommentsLife Lessons, Spiritual Growth, , , , ,

It felt like the most exciting event of my life was just ahead. In the mid-1960s, my dad had just purchased two horses to replace the one horse that we had recently sold. This was just too amazing: my brother and I could ride together, instead of taking turns. I couldn’t even focus at school, I was so pumped! But I faced a huge fear. The two new horses would not be ours for another week, or so. Would God really let it happen? At our church, the overriding theme in the 1960s was the coming apocalypse, the rule of the antichrist, Read More

Part 3: Sticky Labels

Merle7 CommentsLife Lessons, Spiritual Growth, , , ,

I was born with a label stuck to me. The doctor could easily see that scrawled on a sticky label on my back was the single word, “Amish.” From that, I’m sure he made quite a few assumptions about my life and potential. Sometime during the first months of my life, that original label was pulled off by my parents and replaced with one “Mennonite.” The old label hadn’t yet stuck hard enough to rip my skin. Any observer would now make some different assumptions about me. I wore that label in my childhood and teen years with a growing Read More

Part 2: Justifiable Hostility

Merle6 CommentsLife Lessons, Spiritual Growth, , , , ,

Before we start “As We Are One…” Part 2, I’m going to pick up some key ideas from Part 1: What if we Christ-followers would still consider The Cause, defined by The Cross, as an overarching and governing category of unity and belonging and action? What if we who wear the Christ-label determined that any other cause, though worthy, is not even remotely capable of destroying the unity by which we pledge allegiance to The Cause? If Jesus wishes his followers to be completely unified through a first allegiance to The Cause, how would he expect us to respond to Read More

“As We Are One…”

MerleLeave a commentSpiritual Growth, , ,

One lady pictured with me is my wife. The other four ladies are my daughters. You can figure it out. We are one family, but we are not the entire family. We are individuals, and we are one family. We think and believe differently; so we subject our words and actions to what it takes to remain one family. Whether, or not, you celebrate it, the Boston Red Socks won the top place in major league baseball. We can notice individual players and staff and give credit or blame to what someone did as an individual. Or, we can rightly Read More

Stupidity

Merle8 CommentsLife Lessons, ,

This is freeze-up season in Northwestern Ontario. This is also the time of year that my mother moved to paradise, about 22 years ago. Those two realities are related, in my mind. When I left my home in 1971 to begin living in NW Ontario, my mother had concerns for my safety. Where our family lived, freeze-up wasn’t a season. It was an occasional event that didn’t often produce enough ice to skate on the farm pond. So Mom’s repeated warning (for the rest of her life) was, “You’ll be careful on the ice, won’t you?” And my response was Read More