Our Wonderful Weekend in Gatlinburg

To celebrate our 32 anniversary Lynetta and I enjoyed a great weekend in Gatlinburg. We went hiking, climbed on the rocks, and went shopping. The leaves were beautiful.The weather was perfect. The hiking was refreshing. The Outlet Malls were crowded, but our cabin was quiet and miles away from everyone. It's nice to get away every once in a while and just relax. It really is nice being married to your best friend too.

OOPS!

My cousin Roger should love this one. (He is a lineman for the power company in Arkansas)

It was simply too beautiful a fall day to stay inside and watch football. I needed action, adventure, fresh air, and exercise. I needed to do something manly. So I sharpened up my old chainsaw and proceeded to cut down the old dead tree in my back yard, the one that has been threatening to fall on my neighbor's power lines. I did everything right. I studied the angles - adjusted for the wind - cut the notch just right - rechecked the distribution of limb weight to trunk mass - and then - convinced and proud that I had done everything according to the Manly Man's Hand Book - I made my final cut.
Apparently I forgot to figure in the rotation of the earth....
The Picture tells the rest of the story.

Meaningless, Meaningless

"Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

I meet an interesting old man last week. He was facing the end of his days here on earth. His lungs were diseased and scarred beyond repair - his heart was in even worse shape. He lacked the strength to even lift his head off the pillow. The doctors had done all they could do.
It wasn't his physical condition that made him so unusual, nor the fact that he only had a few days left to live. In my line of work I meet people like that every day. It was his dying wish that caught my attention.

He told me that all he really wanted was what he called a "temporary patch job". He only needed enough strength to make one last trip to the Casinos in Tunica Mississippi. That was it - that was his dying wish! He had convinced himself that all of the answers to all of his problems could somehow magically be fixed by one lucky tug on a slot machine handle.

His words really caught me off guard. How could anyone be so foolish? How could anyone really think that money was the answer for anything? It sounded so absurd coming from the lips of a dying man.

God has a subtle way of using the people around me to sometimes remind me of my own faults and my own insanity. It occurred to me that in reality the only difference between this poor misguided man and the rest of us, is the time he had left to live. We all waste our lives working hard and chasing after the things that are really meaningless. We neglect and misuse the truly important things in life because we are too busy working for the useless stuff.

More Strange Things

Here is one more entry from my list of strange things that I have learned over the past fifty years:
1. Life is not fair. It's not meant to be. In many ways I am glad that it's not. In my life I have been blessed beyond measure and the longer that I live the more I realise that I truly do not deserve any of it. If my health, wealth, and happiness were dependent upon or in direct proportion to how good, how righteous, or how well disciplined I was, then I would probably be cold, wet, and hungry living alone in a cardboard box somewhere.

Psalms 102:10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.


Psalms 16:5-6 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Mile Stones

Life mile stones like hitting the big 5-0 are a good time for reflection. It's a good time for looking back at where you've been and wondering about the things you wish you could have done differently. it's also a great time for looking forward and hoping that you have matured and grown a little wiser. I pray that through the process of living these past 50 years I have learned enough about life and love and God's grace to help make me a better person.

Here is just one of the strange things that I've learned along the way:

Outwardly I feel like I'm falling apart. My glasses and my waist size are both getting thicker. Physically I feel 50. But inside I haven't changed much. My soul, my inner self, still feels just like it did at 18, 25, 30, and 40. I am convinced that if this old body holds on until 90 the spark inside me will be just as strong or stronger than it has ever been.

I keep finding that the words in the Bible are really true after all:

II Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

Up Up and Away

Well, this week I finally pasted the half century mark. I celebrated my 50th birthday Tuesday by going to work and trying to pretend like it was just another day. My Coworkers bought me pizza and an icecream cake for lunch (so much for my new diet) Later that evening Lynetta surprised me with a very unusual gift.

For the past few years Lynetta has listened as I bemoaned the fact that I was tired of just watching other people live. I told her that with what time I have left I want to experience life for myself. No more sitting on the couch watching other people's adventures - I want to experience my own adventures. So, to shut me up she bought me a Hot Air Ballon Ride!!!!! Me and my big mouth.

I have always wanted to bungee jump too, but I was always afraid that when the time came for my feet to leave the platform that I just wouldn't be able to move. So, it's up up and away. Depending on the weather conditions I should be flying over Nashville within the next few weeks. I will take lots of pictures and some extra underwear.

Happiness Is....

Happiness is building your grandkids a new tree house.