It is a Saturday morning and Sandi, my wife, and I have had our morning coffee and conversation. This is a part of who we are and what we do—using these times to talk about things that matter to us and the various dimensions of our lives. Often times things are stirred during the night in thoughts and dreams and this is what we use as the beginnings of our conversations. It is download time. Where are we at in life time.

Proverbs 23:7 tells me that: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Early on in this stream of consciousness I thought about another song. It fits somewhere—having been a part of a past that will never be fully understood—and about a future that is on the horizon somewhere—behind the mountains and between the clouds—as the sun shines through on what has already become today.

Artist: The Youngbloods
Song:
Let’s Get Together

Love is but the song we sing,
And fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Know the dove is on the wing
And you need not know why

A friend of mind who shall remain anonymous has recently found out about my blogging and has undertaken the task of reading them. From the most recent entries backwards. I must say that I am a little intimidated by the attention but view his entry into the “Describe Your Ride” domain as somewhat fortuitous.

I guess that “anonymous” is not really what I mean when the prospect of covering his indentity might only be possible to those who don’t have a bead on my history. In other words, his life and mine were, for a time, tangled up together.

I use the word tangle rather than another because our friendship was always somewhere beyond the normal bounderies.

I will explain.

Thomas (not his real name) was a fine musician—a singer/song writer if you will. During his youth he even recorded several albums of songs he had written. In other words—he could have been a contender.

But that was not the path that he choose to walk down. To the best of my recollection, he married his sweetheart rather than persuing a music career and became a great husband and father.

The bottom line of our friendship was that we balanced each other out. That together we equaled more than we did separately.

Thomas was like a Joni Mitchell—he created beats with his music that were a little complex and hard to sing to—sometimes. When we played together, it was my job to play rhythm guitar and hold him to a beat that others could easily follow. So I had the beat and he had the voice. Since I wasn’t really comforatble with my singing voice, I relied on him to lead the way and I held up the back. In other words—he played better because of my beat and I sang better because of his vocal acumen.

We were a team for a time.

Also—he helped me see things that I didn’t really want to acknowledge and I visa-versa.

I remember a time—when we were on a long bus ride—heading to some kind of big event in Washington D.C.—that we played music in the bus isle until our fingers were numb. A friend sitting next to me made the observation that we played so good togher that we must have gotten together often to practice: to which I replied that we hadn’t played together in a long time but that we knew each others strengths and played off of that. We could do the segue almost without thinking—one song led to another almost seemlessly—with energy building as we played.

We will never get a grammy for that performance but it was one of the highlights of our musical relationship.

We also played every other week at a local prison. We sang “Amazing Grace” and all the old tunes, which each prisoner seemed to know by heart (what were they doing in lockup?).

I remember a time, when I was struggling with a health issue and almost couldn’t walk. We had gone to the prison on our regular night and I had kind of “locked up” in pain—Thomas picked me up and carried me out of the prison yard. It was a humbling experience—to place yourself in someone else’s power or control. To have to admit that life at the moment sucked and that you needed a friend more than ever was a lttle over the top—in my experience. We went back to another friends house and we took communion and I had my feet washed—a major step in my healing had begun.

Anyway—I could write a book about Thomas. We don’t see each other much these days although we live in the same town. He has taken up another career and I am still struggling in my profession. Our kids have grown and moved into their own lives—away from our hometown.

Whenever we meet at events that overlap our lives, we are cordial and appreciative.

I am reminded of a song by Bob Dylan that after all these years still echoes in my head. And while it doens’t totally apply to my friendship with Thomas, it does reflect some of the happiness that friendship brings and the sadness when it changes temperature or direction.

Bob Dylan’s Dream

I could say a lot more and maybe will another time. It seems like I never really finish a thought before it needs to be left behind in order to go on to something else.

This blog has become a collection of fragments. Some pieces are more cohesive and stand alone. Some are like road signs along the way: they flash past and are gone almost before they have had time to sink in.

It will soon be Saturday and Friday will be a memory.

But the ride will continue.

The other day, as I was loading my iPod up with tunes in anticipation of my business trip and subsequent airport layovers, I came upon a web site hosted by an artist (Ellis Paul) I have known and enjoyed for years. I was burning his CD to my hard drive and thought I would see if he had any new albums.

It was interesting that he hadn’t updated his blog since September or October ’06 and I was about to leave when I noticed a link to his favorite artists. I clicked the link which led me to a listing of some of the albums that had influenced him over the years.

One that caught my eye (besides the Dylan I expected) was an album from 1992 from “the Story” called “the Angel in the House”. A publisher friend of mine had played this album for me in the mid-ninties and so I was aware of the group and the lead singer, Jonatha Brooke. Several years ago when Turtle Records in our local mall had their going out of business sale, I picked up an album by Jonatha called “Live” for a couple of bucks based on knowing her from years before.

She is a real “singer song-writer” in the sense that she writes and sings her own songs which are catchy and introspective at the same time. This is a concept that seems mutually exclusive in modern day popular music.

Since she is introspective and somewhat folkish, comaprisons to Joni Mitchell are inevitable and not totally unwarrented. Introspective also means to me having a somewhat melancholy air to them. They are bluer than blue and so real that they hurt. Not every song mind you, but there is enough to keep me coming back for more in those times of indecision and pondering that I experience every now and again. It is almost like she knew when she recorded the song that it would touch me in a certain way in time to come.

Long story short: I bought the album (the Angel one) on Amazon do com for a couple of bucks and am listening t it right now. It’s even better than he said it would be.

Now don’t get me wrong, although I am talking about secular music, that this is the only area that applies to me. Contemporary Christian music that blows me away has a similar characteristic in that it gets under my skin with its beat and lyrics in much the same way—only different—if you get my gist.

What I am really trying to say in all of this is that each of us must have a place inside ourselves where a certain beat or wavelength of music gets our attention and makes us react to it. Jonatha is one of these people that seems to echo the beat that I walk to and experience life within. When I listen to her sing I want to dance the way King David must have danced—with abandon and joy—even in the midst of the enemies attempt to discredit him. Her songs strike a chord within me and I can’t but help to sway in time with the music.

The question that arises at this point is whether or not secular music can awaken within us the desire to serve God on a deeper level and a longing to get in touch with our feelings and motives and goals. Or are they a distraction that in and of themselves will serve us no good.

I guess that question is answered differently by each of us. Whether Jonatha knows God or not, I know that her talent is given by God who gives liberally to all without repentance. Whether she recognizes it, there is always a different level, a different destination in each and every thing we do or song we sing. Her music can stall us or start us up—challenge us or cause us to look at our lives—defeated and deflated—without purpose on this sphere we call earth—or be used to push us to a new level of understanding and consciousness that will bring us to a place of purpose and joy.

I vote for the later. Enjoy the ride!

First of all let me say this: I am very confused by life at this present moment. There are forces at work to promote me and forces at work to demote me.

Jesus says that he came to …”give us life and that more abundantly”.

He also told us (tells us) that the thief (the devil) comes to steal, kill and destroy.

Waking up in the middle of the night and worrying about making a mistake at work (one that you really don’t even know for certain you made) is the work of the enemy of our souls. He will pick an area of uncertainly or insecurity and make you fixate on it so that the only recourse you have is to get up and literally shake it off. You can forget about sleeping through the night.

At the same time, there is scripture telling us that God knows the plans that he has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us.

My life seems to be caught in a soap-opera scenario. There is good stuff that happens and bad stuff that happens and it all seems to work out eventually—except while it is happening it seems like I am falling off the edge of the earth.

I remember my political science teacher in freshman year at community college. It was his theory that we would have more than a few significant jobs in our life’s career. Until this time it was generally accepted that you would work the same job, once your found out what it was that you wanted to do, for the rest of your life until you retired and received the gold watch for all your service to the company. I grew up with “Father Knows Best” and  “I Love Lucy” and “Giiligan’s Island”. This pre-disposes me to think that life is very simple and that things will work out.

Destiny as defined by dictionary dot com is: the predetermined, usually inevitable or irresistible, course of events.

The question is: Did God create us with a destiny in mind? Do we have at least one over-riding significant purpose that we were born to fullfil? It’s hard to get answers to questions that you hardly know how to ask, but we have to begin someplace.

During a recent business trip, I asked the guy sitting next to me reading his bible, if he thought we had a purpose—a destiny in life we were meant to fullfil. His answer was that he thought that we did and that the question then became to ask God for the tools needed to fullfil that destiny.

In all of this I will have to admit that, in terms of God and destiny, I have separated my natural life (like work and play) from my spiritual life. In other words I guess I have always thought that God works his will out in us through the church which is the body of Christ. Maybe this is why I am sitting in front of the computer at 5:30am in the morning—I haven’t been looking in the right place for the answers to my questions. Or I have been asking the right questions but only looking in so-called spiritual places to find the answers.

In a book entitled “The Great Evangelical Disaster” Frances Shaffer posed a question along this line. His theory is that as a people called the body of Christ, we had missed the point of our purpose and calling. One of his proofs of this happening lay in the fact that we tend to think that doing God’s will involves becoming a minister or a missionary and so on. His point was well made when he postulated that Roe v Wade would not have happened if more Christians had seen their destiny in God fullfilled by becoming lawyers who would eventually wind up on the Supreme Court bench.

He asked the very real question as to who would have more influence: the minister of a small rural flock of 50 people or the editor of the New York Times newspaper. He went on to say that both were very real ministry destinations and that neither path was less “spiritual” than the other.

I know this isn’t something I am going to find the answer to at this very moment—during my journaling and my blogging. But it is the path I am on.

As I write this, I see all of the roads I have been down in my life merging into a great big intersection—the many streams I have been involved with coming to a confluance.

In other words, everything has been leading me to this point—has been directed toward this destination. Inside the church and outside those four walls as well.

Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened; ask and your questions will be answered.

The road to discovery is exciting—I just hope I have enough air in my tires to keep pedaling.

I am fortunate that I don’t have to travel very much on business. It’s not that the experience isn’t interesting—it is. Feeling yourself in the mainstream of America along with the real “road warriors” that travel all the time from one place to another is an adventure in and of itself.

One that does get old after you miss flight connections and you end up spending whole days waiting for new flights in the inner sanctum of airport food courts and waiting areas. I believe on this last trip the drone of “We apologize for the delay” was almost constant—the domino effect of winter weather taking its toll on our sensibilities. The waiting does begin to grind you down no matter how well you have prepared yourself. For me the preparation was having a USA Today, a fully loaded Ipod, a journal, some books and chewing gum and a waterbottle.

You will be surpirsed at how quickly you can go through all of that stuff and end up just watching the crowd and listening for the next announcement telling you that your crew has not arrived yet and it may be another half hour or more before they show. And that even when they do show up you will all have to wait until your jet arrives.

That just about sums up air travel during the big storm winter times. Sketchy at best. Crowded airports, frazzeled nerves and not enough reading material or attention span to go the distance.

That’s the down side of wintertime air travel. The upside is the occasional interesting conversation with another passenger and the thought processes that seem to be broadened during a period of time away from home and family.
Old sayings aren’t old sayings for nothing: absence does make the heart grow fonder.

During my last flight into Greensboro, North Carolina, I struck up a conversation with a gentleman to my right. He had just pulled out a bible from his briefcase and had turned to Jerimiah. After finishing my journal, I boldly asked him what the old guy had to say on this fine evening 22 thousand feet above the ground.

What proceeded was a 15 minute conversation about church and all that kind of stuff. We talked about our struggles and collective walk within the Christian faith among other things. I then went back to my book and het took his computer out and began watching the latest superman movie. We landed a bit later, picked up our bags and gave each other the high sign and both headed home to wife and family.

This conversation was significant in other ways as well. On the flight to my business meeting, I didn’t interact with the guy sitting next to me at all, nor did he say anything to me. Go figure.

Part of the story that I left out is the fact that no matter what the reason for a trip, I don’t usually sleep very well in the motels and hotels along the way. The pillows are too big or the heater to loud or the sheets to stiff—whatever the reason, nights seem to be a series of waking ups and going back to sleep times. Mornings find me almost refreshed but not quite as ready to go as when home.

So this morning, I allowed myself time to sleep in somewhat after having gotten home much later than if the planes had been running on time.

I feel refreshed and ready to take the next step—whatever that may be: life has already begun.

It is almost time to head back home from my business trip up north. It snowed a little last night and there is a light dusting on the ground as I type.

One thing it is important to remember: behind every successful business there are people who have been empowered to take that business to the next level. One way this happens is by taking care of the people who are your customers. It is not just about production and bottom lines–it is about people taking care of people.

A business can be profitable by grinding people up and using them to achieve the lofty goals and expectations that businesses often have. Or it can be great by allowing its’ people to establish relationships and build the business from this strength or point of reference.

Not that I am an MBA or anything close to that. But I do know what feels good and what doesn’t.

In recently reading a book entitled “The Seven Practices of Effective Ministry” I learned the importance of beginning each project with the end in mind. Then with the end (where you want to be at the completion of your project or program) in mind, a good leader will create steps that are easily found that will enable the workers to get to the end result. These steps will be communicated to all the people involved in easy to understand terms and when the goal is accomplished, the team that reached to goal (won the game so to speak) will celebrate the win together.

I also learned that a teams focus must be narrow so that the goal becomes more easily attatined. That if you try and do too much, something will fall through the cracks.

The example in the book that was given to explain this concept was pastorally centered around the traditional Sunday sermon. Many preachers think that by giving people lots of information about something they are helping them assimilate that truth and apply it to their lives. However, the reverse is often the case. The authors explained that it is much harder to say a lot about little than to say a little about a lot.

To say a lot about a little requires a deeper understanding of what it is you want to communicate.

So, in order to get more done a person needs to narrow their focus, say more about less and begin things with the end in mind and create easily indentifiable steps that will get us to the agreed upon end or goal.

In between all of this theory are birthdays, vacations, meals, taxes, birth, trials and tribulations and the like. Life goes on despite our best laid plans and initiatives.

But isn’t it good to know that we can begin to have the system serve us rather than the other way around. That we can begin to enjoy the journey knowing that the destination is there ahead of us.

As I return to my life after this business trip ends (did I ever really leave it), I will try my best to listen better to what is going on inside as well as outside.

This is my beginning and my end–to send my roots deeper into fertile ground and see more fruit come forth.

To end strong–to finish well–to enjoy the ride. It sounds like a plan to me.

I begin today a little more refreshed than yesterday–and certainly more well fed. That’s one of the things about a business trip: other than the airport, there is generally a lot of good food around. There’s lunch with the people you only see a couple of times a year but talk with on the phone a lot. It is always nice finding new places to eat and looking forward to your trip next year so you can eat there again.

I also start the day a little less philosophical than yesterday.

Somehow, trips always get me thinking about life: how I am living mine, the purpose of it and where we all fit into what is going on around the world.

How often do we think about the plight America’s family farmers or even really care. Not that we don’t care–it just seems we are all so wrapped up in our own journeys, our own trials and tribulations that we have very little room in our minds life to share it with any of the world’s problems. We all have our own bills to pay; families to take care of and so forth.

So, as I am on a business trip and slightly out of my box, I begin to think about life and the purpose and meaning of it as it relates to me and those that pass me by in the aiports and other places I find myself in.

If you think that all of that deep stuff went away when we graduated from high school–think again. It is right there under the surface of our everyday experience. We have really just gone on to other pursuits–filling our days with work, church, family, recreation and other stuff that in retrospect seems all to ordered and familiar.

However, when you find your self thinking that you have fewer years to go than those you have already lived, your perspective begins to shift. The goal really is to finish well–to have left no stone unturned as they say.

It is like that old story, the one that goes like this: when you are on your death bed, you are not going to think that you didn’t spend enough time at the office–you are going to think about your family and friends and the paths that you didn’t choose rather than the ones that you did.

So the goal seems to be, before we reach that destination, to make whatever changes that need to be made to get us to where we want to be. It is like the ship out on the open sea–it has to keep calibrating all the time in order to get to where it needs to be. This is where books and friends and husbands and wives come in–vehicles to be used to help us keep on course or to provoke us to change direction if they see we are going in another direction than the one that will be beneficial.

Cut to the chase: as my mind wondered about all of this and my place in the greater reality of planet earth, one thought rose to the top of the mind-pile. It is the first of 97 statements collected in what is called:

The Westminster Larger Catechism

with question one stating:

What is the chief and highest end of man?

and the Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.

So, where we fit into all of this has very little to do with where we work or attend church. Whether low fat foods are better for you or not. What kind of car you drive or the clothes you wear. Whether you like jazz or country western music.

In Ecclesiastes the author tells us that after going to the excess in all things in order to find the meaning of life, his conclusion is that any endeavour without God is vanity and striving after wind. In other words, without value and will yield no lasting benefit.

There is more I could say today, but the laptop computer I am typing on is getting heavy and my mind is beginning to wander.

The ride is still on and the rest of the journey is before me–in front of me–right here and right now.

Today’s entry could be entitled “What I thought while I spent most of Monday in an airport!”

Simple is defined as:
 
1. easy to understand, deal with, use, etc.: a simple matter; simple tools.

2. not elaborate or artificial; plain: a simple style.

3. not ornate or luxurious; unadorned: a simple gown.

4. unaffected; unassuming; modest: a simple manner.

5. not complicated: a simple design.

6. not complex or compound; single.

7. free of deceit or guile; sincere; unconditional: a frank, simple answer.

8. not grand or sophisticated; unpretentious: a simple way of life.