GENDADS

There are times in a cowboy’s life where only poetry does justice to the wide open spaces, or the breathtaking wonders, or the hard and rewarding times or…just another day in a routine like riding at night after a blizzzard.   If you think cowboy poetry is a lark, look again at the next one you come across.   Usually goes deep to the heart of humanity and couples the heart with the wonders of a Majestic God of Creation and Redemption.

What’s this about? Well, Matt and I went on a ride last night.  Cigars included.  It’s a tradition.  There he is catching our horses in horizontal snow blow.   We talked about a lot of stuff:  the deer hunt, how the kids are doing and how “complementary fathering” is working for them, and how the marriages are going (am I talking to the husband of my daughter or a therapist?!), about cancer and what a shortened time frame for life means to today’s life. 

And we talked about Matt’s vision for a family therapy ranch.  And we thought about a friend.  So, this morning, I wrote that friend.  Then I realized it was creating a cowboy poetry moment.  Made me think of you friends on this blog.  So, why don’t a share how God winked at us last night.  And He didn’t mind the cigar smoke.

                 HEY, MATT, YOU CATCH ‘EM. SOMEONE HAS TO HOLD THE CAMERA.

HOW GOD WINKED, click here

Well, we’re off the mountain for this one. Actually, we’re ON the mountain, so to speak. Am up with the object of this summer’s great hike in the snow-covered mountains of Utah. Taylor, the man in the center of the year of passage, his four siblings and the whole lot of us–nine–were seated around the most magnificent Thanksgiving table ever. We are very, very thankful…to each other, to our wonderful nation and its history and, most of all, to the Lord God Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all the things we enjoy in HIS abundance and set before us on yesterday’s table (actually, the leftovers for two or three days are a close second).

Today, I reflect on the glory of being the patriarch. So, what the heck Black Friday has to do with the Giving of Thanks? I’ll spare you the trappings of the day after, but being honored with the carving knife means I have, if only temporarily, acceded to the lofty heights of “Oh, Esteemed, Elevated, and Magnified Patriarch”. Well, that was the funny line of the day as the boy wrestled me to submission.

You really must visit my post today on my companion blog, Legacy Dad.

SO BIG, SO STRONG…BUT HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP BALANCE, MARGIN, GRACE?

On one of those personal notes people like, I’m sitting in our DVS (Distinquished Visitors Suite) at Nellis AFB, Las Vegas. Carolyn and are are in route to the kids and the grandwonders we loaned them. Am up way early and simply enjoying catching up on emails and suantering over to friends blogs.

There is a point to this as Carolyn stirs in our swanky suite. I was hoping Jesus was busy already and wouldn’t get back to me about the question on the trail with Matt and Taylor on the Rite of Passage hike. “Over these 60 years of my Walk with you, have I pleased you, Jesus?” When He offered three illustrations of His pleasure and three of His “not so much,” I thought, to myself (do you see how funny that is…I was chatting with Jesus), “I can survive this…I wonder where He’ll go.”

So far so good. But then He started out, “So, Gary, if I said ‘flotsam and jetsam’ in the same sent sentence with ‘energy’ and ‘wake,’ can you guess where I’m taking this.”

YIKES, He’s not going there, is He?

He was. If I could only rewind for a redo first. All He had to say was “Casablanca, Morocco…” and I knew He was homing in on “IT”.

AND WHAT COULD “IT” POSSIBLY BE? MORE

I love it when Jesus laughs.  Those serious authors of the Gospels left out a lot, I think.  Because as we trudged the trail upward (hey, it’s not fair; He had sandles and wasn’t even huffing), He reared His head back with this great, almost raucus laugh when He described one of His favorite memories of me.  Suddenly it became mine.

 Strange, though.  It was deeply painful at the time.

Rather than the tomes it’d take to describe the fire that destroyed our garage and much more, I’ll just sum it up but tell you about Jesus’s take on my and my bride’s reaction.

JESUS, WHAT COULD BE SO FUNNY ? MORE

LOOKIE ME!  I RUN, I DANCE, I STRUT…(for Jesus?)

This one caught me off guard even though I anticipated it. My jaw tightened a little and I noticed I was not looking at Him, but at the trail, not ahead, but at my boots. “Gary, the list of examples I could use for this particular area of your life that didn’t please me is long. I know you know what I’m about to say. It makes both of us sad. But at the time, I was the only sad One.

“You thought–no, you assumed–you were doing My will. But you didn’t stop often enough to check it out with me. Let’s see, how many names can we use to describe this one? There’s ‘busyness,’ of course, and… HOW HE LABELED MY MISGUIDED SERVICE

It’s Veteran’s Day.  We’ll take a break from the mountain trail.  Jesus won’t mind.   

My heart is light but the rims around my eyes seem reservoirs.  TV news features, emails from friends, a visit by a fellow vet in my church.

What a difference a few years makes. Veterans are actually thanked with uncommon frequency and sincerity…”Thanks for your service.” And they mean it. The tears come freely in remembrance of my son and my brother; brother in a Navy fighter crash, my son of cancer probably contracted handling heavy metals as an Air Force bomb squad tech. 

Take a think. Our Millennial kids and grandkids only know two dimensional wars on TV news and Xbox. When they hear the real life version from dad, uncle, granddad, it’s a different story.  In fact, “story” is the issue.

ABOUT VETS AND LEGACY

“First,” said Jesus as we continued up the trail,”I have loved your faithfulness and your resiliance. They go together. Do you remember how the board of the church got together and told you how you irritated them and how you were having a negative effect on the people in the church you were trying to help? I do. It was a set up. By me.”

“What I like, because results show still today, is that you spent the next couple of days reading your scriptures and writing in your journal. Do you remember your entry: ‘The marvelous walls framing the edifice of my own hand was so luminous, so high, so, well…humbly grand. Then Jesus sent some thugs to trash it. How could they? How could HE?! All I have left is shards and dust. Wait, wait…Isn’t this like the potter’s hand on soft clay on the wheel when He gives up on one form and smashes it down to create another? I will let God build me up this time, one brick at a time, kiln fired and layed by His hand true to the Cornerstone.’”

“I liked that, Gary. That was a hard time, and I meant it to be. It was necessary. But you responded as I’d wanted. That painful event was a prize to me, as were the 194 other times since then which you—mostly—responded with the grace I’d intended. It was my grace. By the way, Gary, there’s more ahead. You’ll do fine.”

“Resilience and faithfulness. You bounce back and stay on course. I’d like you to pass that on to your children and grandchildren. That’s what Taylor is learning on this hike. You guys missed the spring, didn’t give up, made it through the night, found water the next day, and had a birthday in the process.”

“Now then, I do want to tell you about something you thought was really going well. You were so pleased and believed it was a major ministry accomplishsment. But I wasn’t so happy when…”(tomorrow).

I know, the delay from Deer kills, manhood triumphs, and techie gremlins distracted me.  You keep asking, “So what did Jesus say?”  in response to the question I asked Him on Taylor’s “manhood”  backpacking hike (yes, way back in late summer, that one).   I’m repeating my first question for my sagging memory and yours, and because all of us should be asking this daily–AND should be listening close for the answer.

There I was huffing and tired on the steep tail.  When I joined Jesus around the bend, the question came slowly.  I was beside my self with a mix of joy, respect, overwhelming adoration.  I framed my questin by a lifetiime of curiosity, realizing I should have asked this daily and not saved it ’til this meeting on the trail.  

“Jesus, about these many years behind me, have all my effodrts, all the sacrifices I’ve put my family through, all those times of extreme tension in ministry been as You’ve wanted them? Have I pleased You? Has the fruit been as rich for You as I thought? What would You have me pass on to those who follow behind me?”

He smiled, of course.  “You mean, have you truly followed Me, done My will?”
SO WHAT DID JESUS SAY?

[Resending due to technical errors]

THE HUNTER RETURNS,
A MAN EMERGES

We interrupt this blog post with breaking news–And, yes, Jesus, as always, had some life-alterning things to say to me I’d like to pass on. But here is something as fresh as an hour ago. It’s news from the real life saga of a manhood year of passage for Taylor. We’ve taken this one from the pages of our Manhood Year Plan and the several “passage” books which support it.

The photo is a bit rough. Sun setting. We had to hustle to catch the light. Matt and Taylor back from Taylor’s youth hunt. His first. You can see the results. We were returning from a major medical event and Mom Cari called, told us we had to pull over and turn on our computer and Skype or we’d miss something big. She had heard Carolyn and I say we actually prayed for Taylor (and guide Dad) for his greenhorn hunt; safety, bonding, learning and…”Oh yeah, Lord, we’d sure love it if you’d give Taylor a good shot at one of those precious deer you’ve used to feed mankind for ages.” We pictured Venison at Thanksgiving. POPI DEALS WITH THE MONSTER