Some friends sent this picture of this dog that has adopted this fawn. Pretty amazing. 

An old curmudgeon

The tragedy of life is not in the fact of death...

But rather, in what dies inside many of us while we still live.

-Norman Cousins

 

Yesterday I was sitting in the hospital with my son Christian; he was having a minor surgery to remove a small lump in his throat. As we were sitting there, I could over hear an old man in the next curtained off area going off about various post surgery bowel problems. 

 

He was using colorful language inspired by years of military service.

He didn't want to take antibiotics because he never needed them before.

He said he lived up in the hills, where there is still clean air and where germs don't go. Not like the valley down where we all live.

He was talking about not being able to shower for three days and having to get some lady to come over with a big sponge...

 

He had one of the most captivating personalties...he was an old curmudgeon.

 

At one point the nurse came and asked him if he felt much pain.

He paused for a while and I thought maybe he didn't hear her but than he spoke.

He said he was thinking about the times and places he had been. How he had been in many fox holes, muddy pits and godforsaken places and how in those times he had told himself that if he ever made it out alive...he would never complain about anything again.

 

In light of that, he said, he was doing pretty well.

 

I was mesmerized by this old soldier, they just don't make them like that much anymore.

 

It's a shame.

I turned 34 today...I have now lived a longer life on the planet than Jesus.  

Soak the roots

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time

with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

-Thomas Jefferson

 

My prayers are with our young freedom fighters.

God hasten the day when your work is done and

you may be reunited with those you love

and those who love you.

Ok, a few shots from camp...this is Jesse holding up one of our octopus, that we used for The Ultimate Octopus Discus Challenge. Have you ever seen a Octopus fly...it's priceless! 

GZ Summer Camp 2004 is in the can...another awesome camp has entered the history books of our youth church. I will be posting pictures at the New Generation website if you are interested in seeing what took place. If you want to see how plungers, slimfat, for love and employment, disco planet, flying octopi, getting balls, the silver scepter of servitude, it's raining...here at Pinelow, midnight puke, Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, satanic phone calls, messages teaching you to kiss each other, tofu, Spam loving, wet & wild volleyball, Turd Furgeson and a whole lot more, than tune check out the site. Thank God for another amazing camp!  

Spider-devils

With every morn my life afresh must break

The crust of self, gathered about me fresh;

That Thy wind-spirit may rush in and shake

The darkness out of me, and rend the mesh

The spider-devils spin out of flesh---

Eager to net the soul before it wake,

That it may slumberous lie, and listen to the snake.

(George MacDonald)

No star in my hand...

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and, following them, you reach your destiny. -Carl Schurz

Your racist friend...

My daughter had an encounter with a racist the other day...the young woman was a hard core bigot.
I was so surprised by this girls cold hate. I was troubled that such a backwoods view of humanity could still be vocalized in public. I was ashamed that such a vein of ugliness still runs through our all most completely white community. Her comments were as disgusting, it reminds me of a time when this was common...Thank God such a horror was vanquished by more noble men and women.

Off to summer camp until thursday. pray for us that the sun will come out on Tuesday and Wednesday and that God will bless us all with a great camp filled with memories and His Spirit. This will be the 4th camp we have done for just our group at this church and things are rocking and rolling now, it should be a blast! Keep us in your prayers. 

This tree was hit with lightning the other night. It struck the top and raced all the way down the tree like the finger of God. The only part that was burned was near the very bottom where the bolt ended. Quite amazing! 

Inspired by anger...

I never work better than when I am inspired by anger.

When I am angry I can write, pray and preach well;

for then my whole temperament is quickened,

my understanding sharpened, and all mundane

vexations and temptations depart.

-Martin Luther

Rachael and Dave get married this Saturday. Two of my most favorite people in the world. I am honored to be in their wedding. As individuals they are two of the greatest and most loving, smart, creative and funny people I know. As a couple I am sure they will be the envy of most. I pray the Lord's richest blessings will be on their marriage. You deserve the best Dave...and you got it, Rachael is a woman of excellence (Ruth 3:11). Rachael you got one of the few Boaz men out there. You two are a modern day Ruth and Boaz, the kind of couple that kings descend from... I Love you both, very much.

 

God is Not a Republican. Or a Democrat.

Read more here.

My love and I... 

Micah upclose...this is about the view I have of him most of the day, he is always about this close. :) 

Austin, Destiny and Micah at the our friends pool today. 

LeeElla and Destiny at the Michael W. Smith, Mercy Me, Dave Crowder Band concert. 

Here is Austin, my 8 year old son being pulled behind the ski boat at the church family camp. 

Creed's creed...

Here is a cool interview with former lead singer of creed: Scott Stapp.
He shares about the turn around in his spiritual life, his new song for the PASSION CD and more.

Scripture for today:

"Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise.
Why should you ruin yourself?...-Ecclesiastes 7:16a

So what do you think that means?

Here is my favorite photo of J.R.R. Tolkien. He has had a powerful effect on my life. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was the instrument of healing and sustaining hand that helped me through my parents divorce and subsequent trials and personal sufferings. His world became my Eden in the midst of my hell. the themes and the people in that book were light a light in a very dark place. I had my own dark shadow to fight. To know that little people could overcome great darkness, was illuminating to me; in a time when I needed light. I am forever indebted to his genius.

 

Here is one of my favorite pics of my brother Marc and I. It was taken in my dad's garden in the reflection of this mirror. Cool pic. 

Wow! This is going way back to late 80's. here I was with a bunch of brothers on the Oregon Coast having a weekend away with God and each other. From Left to right: Dan, Tim, Ken, me and Rick...man those were good times. I thank the Lord for them. 

Here is me, my brother Marc and my dad. Some of the most important people in my life, just wish I could see them more... 

A great friend, former youth, present leader and just plain awesome young woman turned 21 last Wednesday. Happy Birthday Jax, you're the best! I love you! 

Man, I love this statue! Makes me laugh out loud. I have to get one for the future foyer...LOL 

Another whisper...

Come, follow me, and leave the world to its babblings. -Dante

winter is past...

For now the winter is past

the rains are over and gone

the flowers appear in the country-side

the time is coming when the birds will sing

and the turtledove's cooing will be heard in our land

when the green figs will ripen on the fig trees

and the vines will give forth their fragrance.

Rise up, my darling; my fairest

come away -Song of Songs 2:11-13

 

This is the scripture that emerged within my prayer and worship time after writing My Fading Winter yesterday morning. As I was in the spirit, the picture came of two lovers dancing, skipping in anticipation and pleasure through fields. There was joy, laughter and freedom in that moment. As I was seeing that picture, I was reminded of a portion of scripture that uses that imagery. The above passage was what I found. The similarity of topics was striking, I am praying it now in faith that it's the doorway into a new season. 

 

His word leads the way and beckons faith to believe and follow...come away, rise up, my darling, my fairest.

Discovering fire again

What paralyzes life is failure to believe and failure to dare.

the day will come when, after harnessing space,

the winds, the tides and gravitation,

we shall harness for God the energies of love.

And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world,

we shall have discovered fire.

-Teilhard De Chardin, from Meditation

 

Imagine if we could capture the energies of love within our church communities.

Imagine relationships that were aiming at loving each other, serving each other and building one another up instead of programs, messages, music and projects.

Imagine being able to bring something to the meal instead of just eating what is prepared for you. Imagine being loved for who you are and not just who you need to become.

Imagine being apart of something that isn't restrained but wild like the wind, as Jesus said it would be. Imagine a life together that isn't centered on anything other than love...love of God and each other. That would be a discovery indeed...a fire worth finding.

Beautiful without regard to you...

Art is not a sermon, and the artist is not a preacher.

Art accomplishes by indirection. The beautiful refines.

The perfect in art suggests the perfect in conduct.

The harmony in music teaches, without intention, the lesson of proportion in life.

The bird in his song has no moral purpose, and yet the influence is humanizing.

 

The beautiful in nature acts through appreciation and sympathy.

it does not browbeat, neither does it humiliate.

It is beautiful without regard to you.

 

Roses would be unbearable if in their red and perfumed hearts were mottoes to the effect that bears eat bad boys and that honesty is the best policy.

 

Art creates an atmosphere in which the proprieties, the amenities, and the virtues unconsciously grow.

The rain does not lecture the seed.

The light does not make rules for the vine and flower.

The heart is softened by the pathos of the perfect.

-Robert G. Ingersoll. (From: Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book) 

 

This is a path that I long to see explored within our spiritual community and my ministry more and more. To seek to encounter the Lord through this kind of ministry. A ministry that is quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:19).

I wish it were so...

I must be alone with my work, and have as little need of hearing others talk of it as a man might wish to see in print and to collect other's opinions about the woman he loves.

-Rainer M. Rilke (letters to a young poet)

 

 

My Fading Winter-Eric Blauer (poem, photo is LeeElla's)
Endings are better than beginnings.-Ecclesiastes 7:8

Slipping away, like covers being pulled back,
a queen's quilt, a blanket of cotton, had left,
leaving me only a pauper's raiment.

The beauty of your hiding, your merciful painting, was really witchery;
Evidenced by the emerging, crippled earth that lay frozen underneath your weight.
Such violence you had hidden with your cool and gentle winterhood.

You deceived me, falling from the heavens like sugar.
A deceptive crowning, enthroned for less time than my heart dreamed.
Your coming glittered like a thousand stars descending from angel's eyes.
Showering me with transformation and redemption, you blessed me with, forgetfulness.

My feet never touched the ground, you lifted me, carried me
And then you slowly lowered me to a crippled earth.
Like a child abandoned by its mother, you disappeared in my artic euphoria.

Where did you run too, numbing lover?
Whose kisses freeze time and in whose wake lay a million mirrors.
Everywhere you were, I saw me in your reflection.
I was the face on your emerging creation.

Miracles you brought me.
Opening paths across waters that had forbid my passing.
With the advancing power of your whispered breath...I walked on water.

I stood weeping over your seasonal abduction, gazing longingly into the past.
The ground under my feet is moving.
The cool wind is warming.
The sun has moved and is emerging more and more with a prideful accent.
Creation is dressing different and the mood is frightening.
What evil comes?
What death awaits me, as I am assaulted by this awakened activity?
What spell is being cast that has broken our waiting, our sweet slumbering.

I miss you my fading winter...all must be lost by your leaving.
All will be changed, again

My rising Phoenix

In Paradise, when thou wert born in the first rose,
beneath the Tree of Knowledge, thou receivedst a kiss,
and thy right name was given thee thy name, Poetry.
(from: The Phoenix Bird by Hans Christian Andersen, 1850)

The fable tells that every hundred years, the Phoenix burns himself to death in his nest; but each time a new Phoenix, the only one in the world, rises up from the red egg.

My life is burning...it's on fire.

All of it is being baptized in the death of the old, to make way for a rebirthing of the new.

It's not easy watching things burn, there is a sense of doom and opportunity all mixed within it's transforming heat.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crownless again shall be king.
(verse on Ellesar and Anduril -JRR Tolkien)
 

Ludicrous Speed!

It's time you were reunited with your old friends and fiends like Fluke Starbucker, Augie Ben Doggie, Princess Anne-Droid, Ham Salad, and the evil Darth Nader!

America...Land that I love

Here is a great article on America from a Canadians eyes.
It made me proud to be an American.

Christian turns 12 on the 9th of August. We had his birthday party last night. Here is a good shot that captures the moment. hard to believe it's been twelve years..where did that little junesabuga go? 

Walking blind...

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
From: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke's

"Who is blind but my servant, or deaf like My messenger whom I send." -Isaiah 42:19

The quote above is from a great new book that I have just started to read.
So often we are stumbling around in the dark, looking for a light switch to make this path easier...but sometimes there is none. Sometimes we are given no answer to the situation but are called to just be at peace with His presence.
Are we willing to say...He is here, and that is enough?

Fighting Giants again...

Once again the Philistines were at war with Israel. And when David and his men were in the thick of battle, David became weak and exhausted. Ishbi-benob was a descendant of the giants; his bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds, and he was armed with a new sword. He had cornered David and was about to kill him. But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his rescue and killed the Philistine. (2 samuel 21:15-22)

I've spent so many years longing for more "Abishais" and have learned that often what I was longing for is most often found in the heart of God. We look to man or woman to rescue us. We look for or hide in stuff that will temporarily sustain us or at least keep us above water emotionally. But in the end there is a deeper well for our thirst, a more tasty meat for the hunger, a sweeter drink for the ache that all these merely hint at.
A true source, that all the other remedies are but shadows compared to the One casting it.
They are gifts from the gift giver, fruit from the tree of life; but not meant to eclipse the One who created them.
Eat the fruit, drink the wine...but don't forget the One who planted them.

This was a word of encouragement to me...

I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy?

How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now.

Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
What are we holding on to Sam?...
That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.
- Sam to Frodo, at Osgiliath (The Two Towers)

I agree dear old Sam....It is worth fighting for...thanks for reminding me, yet again. -Eric

This is Jed...I don't know his real name but it seems to fit him. He was playing his guitar in a coffee shop downtown for change. He had an awesome hat, great hair and a beard only the Northwest could grow. He was a traveling man. He had a dog & pack waiting outside, a guitar and a good hat. He kind of talked to himself between songs and his head ticked to the side a few times, seemingly uncontrollable. He sounded awesome, I was mesmerized by his sandals, his beard, hat, his voice and his songs. We shared a sandwhich, he played great music and I left feeling more poor than he... 

Here's the dog and the stuff...I was captured by the thought of living a life with only this much stuff to care about. It was sureal. The dog just sat there for around an hour and didn't leave. Content is about the only word that sums him up...it really was holy ground. I am jealous.  

Do I love your Dust?

"I do not know what strength is in my blood, but I swear to you I will not let the White City fall, nor our people fail." -Aragorn (The Fellowship of the ring).

I thought of this part of the LOTR in my devotions after reading: "Thou wilt arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time is come to pity her. Her very stones are dear to Thy servants, and even her dust moves them with pity." (Psalms 102:13-14). A great love for a city, a people. Even her dust and stones awakens a smoldering love. Here is a true leader, one that loves the crumbling as much as the glory.
The weakness and the strength, the failure with the victory.
(Image © John Howewww.john-howe.comAll rights reserved)

God forgive us...

Forty-million abortions since 1973...

Stop looking for it, and become it...

"Throw out all the rules as we perceive them. If you're not being taken to the next level with what's in front of you, refuse to wait for someone else to model what's going to connect you to the Father. Go to the source. And when you come back from the well, please, share the life-giving water with the rest of us. We're thirsty."
-Adrienne Gray (From article called: Where has all the worship gone? at Relevant magazine

I read this online today and that paragraph shouted at me.
It's both a call and a conviction to me.
Am I living at the well myself or off of someone else's spiritual breast?
Am I willing to "go to the next level" if I am not being 'taken there"?
Am I 'waiting for someone else to model for me"?

I remember a word from the Lord to me, that was given at a time when I was extremely frustrated with the lack of spiritual fathering within churches; the word was: "Stop looking for it and become it".

I think that word speaks now as well...

Do you use a fishing pole or a net to catch souls?

The article here on evangelism is one of the best I have read or heard on the subject.
I loved it. I think and feel it captures the best 'way' to draw this generation into Christ.
In the past it was: believe-behave-belong...
Today it is more often: belong-believe-behave...
Read the article, it just might liberate you from fear to faith again.

The Old Swimming Hole
by James Whitcomb Riley

After reading this poem, I sighed deeply...I guess that means I am grown up now.
What a tragedy.
I remember this place and I find myself looking for it often.