GENDADS

No, I’m not dying.  Well, yes, I am, but so are you.  I mean my cancer is there, but so am I; healthy, strong, no affects other than the entertaining issues from the femine hormones (prone to hug, spending extra time in Khols, hot flashes).  Still, there is this thing about the path of life.  I, of course, think in terms of “The Trail.’   Many a trail on the back of Toffee (who preceeded me last year into Horse Heaven), many a ride along rich and challenging sections with Matt.  We peel off and head down our own trails, always within shouting distance, always following the Wild Goose, always ready to reign strong and ride hard over to the other’s call.

Along the trail are the cairns (rocks stacked in such a way as to guide the next rider, invaluable when maps, trail markers, and overgrown trails cloud the journey).  We follow some, we leave some.

This is a short post leading to a longer one in my personal blog (this being more a dads and book blog) The Wild Gray Goose.  Before you jump over there ( I recommend you do), I want you to catch a “bottom line” idea.  Saves you all my poetic meanderings.  We ALL need heart–partners.  We need comrades, amigos, saddle mates, partners who will stand beside us for God’s sake and ours.   SEAL Team Six is a TEAM.  And they do their missions in pairs.  I flew with a wingman, never alone in combat.

Life, because of the Fall and subsequent invasions of our lives by the Enemy of Our Souls, is warfare.  We need trusted companions.  The new movie, Act of Valor (active duty SEALs as “actors”), will emboss that on your psyche.  Ephesians 6:12 will take your understand where it ought to go…the battle is in the heavenlies but touches down in our lives sometimes subtly, sometime dramatically.  The battle is not ours, it’s His.  Our heart/life/trail mates are cruicial.

Oh, one note more.  My grandsons (and soon the granddaughters) are being conditioned to the trail ahead and its difficult sections.  Through Matt and I (the team, co-fathering theme again) taking them up to and through a rite of passage; boot camp for those who would ride and fight well…but never alone.  We provide two generations of savvy companionship.  And when I go, Matt and each of them will repeat the cycle; a legacy of preparing for the long ride on life’s trail and the battles and joys thereupon, one cairn followed by another.

And now, you’ll better understand the meaning of my view of the trail in The Wild Gray Goose.

So, I really don’t have time for this.  What’s new.  Just before heading out the door on today’s project, I got snagged by a friend’s FB post.  Here I am an hour later.   One thing lead to another.  Mostly pondering and typing as I toured my new micro-world in Hootsuite.

Good Morning, Lord. Where DO I head this morning?

This morning became archtypical of what’s right and wrong (but mostly right) of my mornings these days.  I commented on four posts, did a Tweet, and now this.  It’s about The Story.  Again.  I can sledom see a movie twice and never read a book twice.  But this Story I love, for it is Life itself.  Here is a mix of todays posts.  I asked a question I ask of you again here.  How does my “noble sunrise” and it’s quick disintegration look like yours?  Or not.

From a new friend’s comment about a dream of her dad.  It wasn’t a post, it was a vignette of a Story.  Life should be full of thrilling segments of His Story written for us.  Instead, well…. OK, a quick read should be enough to pass the pondering and writing baton to you:

“There’s a story here .  Two stories mingled.  After all, our life fully lived out of the heart is merely The Story God had written for us.  Best we live HIS Story in us one chapter (hey…one PAGE) at a time.  I too often write and follow my own script. More in the past than now.  Age drains the ambition, adreneline, miss-focused passions that too often  formed my own story because the Author was way too slow with His.”

Now this as I moved from pondering to practical in my morning postings,  “It don’t hardly matter…whether old or young, the first challenge of the day, recognized and spoken or not, is:  What are my priorities AND “What are the first three things I will actually DO?

Wanna know mine?  Am curious how much mine and yours are alike.

Coffee, news, update “To-Do,” wrote yet more stuff that won’t get done, settled to read today’s five Psalms and Proverbs 26,

Wait.  That’s Four things.  See, once again, my Father of fathers gets second best.  Actually, I walked the dog as number four…but at least prayed from my Walkabout list while she pranced, peed, and pooped.

Is God offended (no, not about me forcing you to imagine dog-pooping/man-praying) that He was number five?  Not likely.  He’s quite used to it.  So, maybe you, like me, will want to surprise Him.  Without fanfare (which is what I think Tweeting is all about), I’ll move Him up to the number two spot.  (Certainly He does not expect a fruitful, cogent meeting with my heart and my mind before at least one cup.  Right?)

Wanna move God up a notch or two?  Wanna “read” and walkabout from His script instead of yours?

There’s one last punchline because my priorities now include my all-out help to Deep Rivers Family Ranch, one of the most exciting God-Thing projects I’ve been connected to in years.   Like you, I have to let God govern my priorities.  I have to make the assumption that those coming from the heart, a heart given to Him, are His.  BUT, since I am prone to my ways over His, I need to constantly ask, “Father, is this wonderful project for You that I’m on, what I am to be doing NOW?”

My place-holding blog entry is waaay too old.  Good reason, though.  Interesting, but are you interested?  Maybe not, so here’s the nutshell version so’s I can get on with fortifying the bridge so I can cross back over.

I loved blogging.  I loved a whole bunch more in life, too.  Hard to balance.  So, with the major focus being the rite of passage for my olderst grandson behind me, I took the bridge across to “LayLoLand”.  Been helping soninlaw, Matt, get started in his new professional-business-as-ministry, Deep Rives Family Ranch.  MAN! is that exciting.  It’s like passing the baton from our years of ministry to the newer gen better able to handle the peculiarities and demands of current family status in our nation.  DRFR is a whole-family crisis intervention therapy ranch.  Did I get enough words in there to help you figure it out?  It’s finding wonderful response in the therapy community and in the lives of those families Matt is touching.

After a summer at their new ranch site in Colorado (in the mountains above and west of Grand Junction), Carolyn and I are back home in SoCal catching our breath AND setting out on the new stage of priorities: 1) enjoy each other and the remaining life God grants us (see next paragraph), 2) Re-start Generational Fathering (after five months idle) and start with notes for Carolyn’s and my life memior (“Our Extraor dinary Journey:  Stories of Following Jesus Up Mountain Peaks, Through Valleys, and Out of Quick Sand”) 3) continue prayer and marketing support for Deep Rivers Family Ranch, 4) increase our personal witness and serve our Chapel congregation well.

By the way, the above is in the context of my advance prostate cancer.

So, what’s the bridge analogy that require re-crossing?  Life is short (and shorter by each year I enjoy God’s grace), Life is Hard, Life is Unfair, and Its End is Uncertain.  That’s the Engineer’s label on the bridge abuttment.  The bridge has been named the “Finish Well” bridge.  I’m crossing it again with even more enthusisam than what characterizes my life to date.

And I remember daily two motto’s.  One took me into college with faith the my future was in His hands, “‘Tis one life, ’twill so be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last.”  Then the motto on the cornerstone of Wheaton College that sent me out from that wonderful, life-framing institution, “For Christ and His Kingdom”.

Sorry I can’t fancy this up with the normal photo’s and graphics.  I’ve been too long away to remember how. For now, I just want my GenDads pals to know I’ll be back on the keyboards.  Soon grandson #2 will be entering his year of passage.  You’ll get some of those pieces and a bit of my Finish Well Journey.

My personal blog, Wild Gray Goose, has some personal refelction of life, cancer, and serving The One upon Whom all is centered.

If you missed yesterday’s post sending Taylor off into his solo wilderness quest, go back an catch it.  It’s short.  Sets the stage.

WHAT A SYMBOL ! BOY STRUGGLES TO EMERGE AS A MAN.  IT’S A THING OF BEAUTY.  WELCOME TO THE SUNSHINE OF GROWING AS A MAN OF GOD’S CREATION, TAYLOR.

He’s due back in a couple of hours.  With Dad who (unbeknown to “T”) rode his horse in about a mile away for his own quest…and a watchful eye via hunting binoculars.  The four sibling covered their eldest brother in prayer at bedtime.  Now are quite anxious for his return.  As it should be, a young man emerging from childhood, has been made a big deal.  Oh, and TODAY IS TAYLOR’S 13TH  BIRTHDAY.

Last night, through the night, and refReshed all morning long is my PEB prayer. You’ll have to buy the book that will someday be finished to get the entirety of prayers for your family. Let’s just say the “Protection” prayer was prominent. Bears are coming out of hibernation in these here parts. The point of the quest was the “Enablement”. Matt is practicing Proverbs 22:6 in pointing him in the direction God created him for. The “Blessing” is reigning as we reflect on Taylor’s growth this year.

There, that’s your sermon for the day. Now, how would YOU answer the questions we posed for him to work out overnight?
WHAT IS MY CALLING—What did God design me for? What are my strengths, my special abilities, my life desires?
WHAT IS MY PURPOSE IN LIFE? What do I want to be remembered for?
WHAT DO I NEED TO BE A COMPETENT MAN
WHAT DO I NEED TO BE A TRUE MAN OF GOD—are there issues, problems, struggles, sin, to deal with? Are there gifts and interests that need to be developed? What and who can help me develop these best?
WHO IS JESUS CHRIST TO ME TODAY, REALLY?
IN FOUR SENTENCES OR LESS, WHO IS TAYLOR PETTIT?
IN FOUR SENTENCES OR LESS, WHO WOULD TAYLOR PETTIT LIKE TO BE IN THE YEAR 2031,
IN FOUR SENTENCES OR LESS, MY IDEAL LIFE IN 2031 WILL LOOK THIS

Off they go.  Tears forming suggest I now know a little about post-partum depression.  These four days were so fulfilling, so uplifting, that watching the van with Matt and Gson Taylor head back home (Utah), is a mix of joy and sadness.  One month to go and the official ceremony with events and men gathered will usher Taylor in to his manhood year 13.

Here’s a short review of a week designed to give this young man exposure to levels of adventure and daring as well as a chance to look down the trails to his future.

• Sunday six men gathered to share their careeer and the difference following Christ made in it.  The golf with dad and grandad.
• Monday all day following family doc around on office visits. Saw caring, healing, and hearing things people tell only their doc. A homeschooled kid strong on math and science looked down this possible trail to his future.
• Tuesday 0530 show time for a long day of deep sea fishing.  Never mind the green gills and breakfast burrito projectile over the rail, this was a huge adventure alongside the burly and savvy fisherman.  Catching five to my one crowned the acheivement.  A dinner on the open street fair in a SoCal beach city was an eye bulger for this Utah country boy.  Lots of explanation needed by thereapist dad.
• Wednesday was Wow-Day.  BIOLA University prof gave us personal 3-hr tour of Mammoth site and anthro dept during missionary conference. Rest of day visit student summer project tables and mission recruitment displays. “God of Wonders” DVD back here produced rich evening of discussions on the role of the Lord God Creator in life’s origins and Taylor’s own future.
• Thursday was a glider flight, first time in the air. Pilot shared the glory of silent winged flight and a bit too much of the acrobatic features. More green gils.  The bag came in handy.  Fighter pilot grand dad grins.

YOU CURIOUS ABOUT THE YEAR OF PASSAGE AND THE RITE THAT IS ITS CAPSTONE? Stay tuned.

[Contuing the series of legacy letters to Taylor, 12, approaching his Rite of Passage and Colton, following close at his heals with an entirely different pesonality to filter a grandfather's "finishing well" stage of life. The goal is helping the boy's parents equip them to stand strong in the Lord and to LIGHTHOUSE of goodness and godliness for others in the turbulent future ahead.]

OK. Nice start, guys. Good response. You’re getting the idea. What I say in lots of words, you confirm with a few. Attawaytogo! So, let’s dig in.

INTEGRITY. Sometimes I think the root Latin word is “Gritty” (“Tough; working against the grain. Or, grains of sand added to cement to give it strength. Or, True Grit, like the girl said of Rooster Cogburn; someone who sticks it out to do what’s right, even when safety and other voices scream, ‘Get out quick! Take the easy way’”).

Let me tell you why INTEGRITY is the first among important character traits that will equip you to be a Prince in the Kingdom of God in the challenging years ahead. You with me so far? Good, then you’ll click “MORE” to get my thoughts in two more short paragraphs and some quotes. . . More

[Thus begins a series of letters to Taylor and Colton, grandsons at 12 and 10. Taylor in his "Year of Passage" to his man-year at 13; eldest, bright, responsible, tech-
savvy. Colton; deep, curious, engaging building his own path. I'll engage them in letters from my heart and my generation and from my Walk With God. It's my investment in my legacy...AND THEIRS, and it's part of the tough journey to complete GENERATIONAL FATHERING (see website). Later I will include letters to the bright-spirited, effervescent, charming Brooke. Girls, too, need two or more generations of good and godly fathers.]

COLTON AND TAYLOR

G’morning, boys. It’s been awhile cranking out this letter. It’s been deep in my heart, just hasn’t made it through my fingertips. You know what I say about whinning. Ok, so I won’t…except I’m blamming my weeks of computer stress on the loving and all-knowing God Creator (who finally sent me a tech-savvy beginning angel looking for his wings. All he did for me was earn maybe 50 feathers). You’ve heard me talk about God’s sovereignty, right? This is where knowing that He is in control of all stuff and happenings is handy. it kept me from throwing my new Dell through the window. Not a good idea.

Speaking of Dell, Taylor, thanks for you tutering on the new laptop. I like it, mostly. Am listening to worship music on the great on-board speakers (confession: the first album on my iTunes download was Willey and the Wild West). I guess I’ll like Wiindows 7; every body else seems to. But loosing three months of Outlook files in a faulty backup has sucked up three weeks of my life. Then I let God whisper, again, about how even this sort of thing (He says ALL things) work toward my growth. “Hey, Lord, enough already. I’m 70. Put your growing tricks on someone else. Like Charis. She sure could use it.”

Guys, I know about the attention span thing and the distraction of other things going on in the Net world. I’ll send you two or three letters a week. If I have a deep or long subject, like the major one today, I’ll stretch it out over a couple of readable sessions. Short and seet is the idea.

For example, as I planned my heart/life/experience/wisdom-swap to you guys, I decided on a cornerstone theme. Integrity. Let’s take a Popi Peek and how I see it applies to you. – - – - – More

 He sat across the table at a mid-east restaurant in Philadelphia.  It was way long ago, about the time I was 50.  Two remarkable things happened that fateful night.  First was insignificant, but, boy do I remember.  The second changed my life.  There was still plenty of that ahead of me. 

Burned on the retina of my mind, which now has forgotten lots of stuff, but not this, is the belly dancer.  It’s not why you think.  After all, I was sitting across from a now world-honored missionary leader and class and football team comrade.  Oh, and best friend.

 Why is Captain Taylor eating a Strawberry sundae in Indonesia signficant?

While we concentrated on the Humus and Pita Bread and changing the world of missions–honestly, much of what is true in missions today all began there–this young gal in veils with an appropriate middle-east pulchritude bee-lined for our table.  The Devil made her do it.  I was a Navy captain in dress blues straight from the Amtrak station, from the Pentagon, from the Admiral Nimitz “War Room,” now a congressional lobbying office.

 Circling our table twice with her veil screaming, “Come hither, sailor,” the Devil and the Belly Dance slithered onward, trying one more time just before Souvlaki.  Now that was memorable.  It was not significant. 

Which brings me to fateful item two.  Maybe you’d best read on More

I’m cheating.  Sorta.  I wrote this following on my weekly post for Legacy Dad, a lively blog you should subscribe too).   Carolyn liked it so much, she said I should post it here.  That eases my work day…that’s how I describe heading off in my big Freightliner truck-cum-writing studio to the nearby desert to set my keyboard to Generational Fathering , the book that WILL be done by summer (if you haven’t visited, check it out).  

Let’s get serious about defining two words we normally don’t associate with each others.  Doing so will define your life.  For dads, it will define your legacy. 

Ready?  Ponder the value of significance compared to success.  It would be a story of my journey.  I’d better do this in two parts. 

I tell you from experience—which I will related in detail in a couple of days—that  the difference is vast, life-shaping, eternity framing.  This post is timely if late.  My laptop crashed on the Friday of my normal LegacyDad post.  This month we want to set before you that mysterious, though huge, difference between concentrating on raising children who will become successful  or on children who will be significant.  Impressive and well-off vs world-and-eternity changers.

Sound a bit heavy?  ‘Tis.  That’s because, dad, if your son or daughter does not pick up the difference by hearing and watching you and their mother, the distinction is likely to be lost.  The hallmark of full American achievment is found in one word that is underscored and highlighted and set in bold type by the Millennial and post-Millennial generations that identify your children.  That word:  “SUCCESS”.  ”I’m entitled to success. It’s the American way.”    “Stand aside, watch ME go!” 

But, Dad, you MUST get this right.  Better read on. More