We are "Living Stones"

In tents or homes or mansions, Wherever Christians meet
He gathers in the midst of them; We study at his feet.
With joy and love together, To sing and give, and pray
We celebrate the supper, Upon His holy day.

Some day He'll come to take us, Up to the glassy sea
And keep the bride for which he died, From pain and sorrow free.
The Rock is sure and solid, 'Tis faith in God above
Hearts, souls, and minds together, We join our Lord in love.

The body of our Savior: The mystery now revealed
He adds us to the membership; We labor in the field.
We share this gift with others; There's work for all to do.
The church is not the building, The church is me and you.

The church is not the building, It's "stones alive" today.
The deeds we do in love for Him, The things for which we pray.
The kingdom and the vineyard, The love along the way.
The church is not the building, It's "God in us" today.

Mets or Brats?

Tonight, as I was leaving one of my granddaughter's choir concerts, I passed by a food concession stand. The nice lady behind the counter asked if I wanted some free food. They were closing for the night and she was just going to throw it away. Free food always sounds good to me. Two groups of sausages were wrapped in silver foil. She asked if I wanted a Met or a Brat? I asked her, "which is which?" She said she didn't know. I said "then it doesn't matter, I'll take the darker one". I like spicy food. I told my daughter what had happened and she said she was 100% sure that Mets were dark and Brats were white. When I got home I went to my often-used source of information, the internet. To my suprise there are numerous kinds of sausages. White, black, brown, large, small, hard, soft, strong, weak, some for spreading on crackers, and others for eating on buns. Some were spelled Metts, some Mets, some Brats, some Brauts, but most with names I couldn't pronounce. I picked out one labeled Metwurst. It looked sort of white so I showed it to my daughter to "prove" she was wrong. My son later told me that he also was sure that Mets are dark. Maybe if I don't mention it anymore she will just forget it, but I'll bet I know what we will be having for supper tomorrow. Oh well, more free food.

A Dog's Life

I am sometimes envious of dogs who seem to always just "live in the moment". What's past is past and the only thing important is what's happening right now. They can patiently wait for hours alone by themselves, then hop up to joyously run around and go pee, whenever the owner gets home. What do dogs dream about? Big meals, running in the woods, other dogs? When they are in pain, lonely, or sad, how do they just "suffer in silence".

Age

It often suprises me how fast the days, weeks and years go by. Adding an adverb to any age lends some clarification to this observation. For example, am I?: Suprisingly Sixty, Shockingly (or suddenly) Seventy, or Unexpectedly Eighty. My objective now is just to avoid being Decidedly Dead.

Election Thought

The 2010 national election resulted in a Republican wave winning back the House and increasing its gains in the Senate. It reminded me that James Madison, one of our Founding Fathers, wanted our democracy to work just this way. The House of Representatives would be immediately responsive to the will of the people, while the Senate would be more resistent to swift action, taking a more measured, long term course. It is reassuring to know the wisdom of these men is still in play today.

The Job I always wanted:

Philanthropist..........

Touching Obituary

"He died in the arms of his loving wife of 52 years."

Snow Thrower Progress

There is good news regarding the snow thrower. Last week we had an additional 3-4 inches of snow and I got to use my new tool again. This time I raised the "slide plate" and practiced on adjusting the throwing angle as I moved forward and it worked great.

In fact I cleaned off my drive and three of the neighbors drives as well. I was so happy. That evening, one of the neighbors brought me a bananna bread cake she had made as a thank you gift. Aint life grand?

Snow Removal

For Christmas I received a wonderful gift, a snow blower. After reading the instructions I learned that it is actually a snow "thrower". I got it out of the box and all set up, read the operating and maintenance literature and waited for snow. The first snow of the winter covered the yard, but nothing accumulated on the driveway. The second snow was today. I would estimate one inch on the driveway. Perfect, not enough to be a burden, but enough to try out my new device.
The first pass went well the snow came right up and was blown, oops thrown, to the grass. The second pass was not so great. I realized that I was throwing the snow right where I had just cleaned off. I will have to watch my pattern. Then the wind kicked up and begin to blow the powdery snow back into my face. Wow, was that cold.
Fortunately it only took a few minutes to finish the drive but I did not stop to dry off the thrower, back into the house to warm up.
I didn't think there would be a learning curve for cleaning snow off the driveway.

Jogging Observation

I was jogging on the treadmill the other day when I noticed my shadow was bouncing up and down as I ran. I thought, "well that's odd", because I thought I was running smoothly. So then I intentionally tried to run without bouncing. No good, still the shadow was going up and down with every step. Finally I tried to offset the ups with downs and the downs with ups. I was amazed, the shadow bouncing was worse. I can only surmise that God has made a wonderful sense of balance within my head.