Locked Up

I was locked up for four days where I met some new friends.  We spent a long weekend laughing, crying and enjoying music.  It wasn’t the normal crowd I hang with, but I had a great time…partying, eating and getting high. It was incredible…our drug of choice was Jesus Christ.  Yes! Getting high on Jesus.

The prison ACTS team has been at it again...doing what Farther David described best with the quote “I am nobody…trying to tell anybody…about somebody…that wants to save everybody.”

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving me the courage to speak for you.

Now sixty-seven more souls can’t plead ignorance for they have been told and through their repentant tears have acknowledged they understand the plan.

Please Lord, grant them the strength to carry through with their promise. 

Please Lord, protect them and keep them close to your heart.

Amen

Pancakes and Sausage

Our early Wednesday morning breakfast group sat around the table munching on pancakes and sausage as we discussed the subject of the day…Clarity of thought.

I had little to offer, as I cannot ever remember having a completely clear thought in my entire life.  As usual…the discussion seemed to get off onto a tangent of the world’s problems and its moral decay.  Again I had little to offer in the way solving the world’s problems as I spent much of my time over the last two decades just trying to reverse my own moral decay. 

My conclusion was that life is a test and a learning experience.  It seems like I have spent a lifetime gaining the necessary experience…the necessary wisdom to pass the test.

I finally figured out that I can’t pass my wisdom on to the next generation.  And my parents were unable to pass it on to me…as I was far too smart at the time. This all adds validity to the axiom: “Good judgment is gained through experience and most experience is gained through bad judgment.”

It is a shame that all the wisdom goes to waste and the next generation has to make its own mistakes.

Dear Lord Jesus,

Forgive me for being so “smart” at a young age.

Thank you, for wonderful parents who tried their best to smarten me up.

Thank you, for being so patience with all my bad judgment.

Amen.

The Frame Carpenter

Finally the guy framing my wife new bathroom got started today.  He spent half the day going back and forth to the lumberyard exchanging the 8 ft 2x4’s for the correct precut studs.  His excuse was that they sent the wrong stuff.  Then all I could hear the rest of the afternoon was huffing and puffing, mumbling and groaning and some remark about “if I could lose 40 pounds and 40 years this job would be a lot easier.”  Then he quit early with some lame-o excuse about wanting to go to church on Saturday night. 

So I put away my nail gun and all my other tools, extensions cords and air hoses.  Tomorrow I’ll try not to huff and puff so much...maybe even start on that diet. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Thank you, Lord Jesus for all you have bless me with.  Even my marginal carpenter shills.

Amen.

Pearly Gates

As of late I have spend a lot of time wondering about what it’s going to be like when I get to the “pearly gates”.  I am confident my name was written in the “book of life” but what if it is misspelled.  It also concerns me as to how many black marks are beside my name or possibly the name scratched out.  Will there be a password?  What questions will I be asked?  Will it be a multiple choice or essay test?  Will I have the right answer? 

I’ve given some thought to the question: What did you do to deserve to get in?  My answer would have to be “Nothing, absolutely nothing.”  Jesus, you did I all.  You gave it your all, you made me, you saved me, and you blessed me.  Looking back I can see that you were always there, taking care of me even when I ignored you and your guidelines.  So I just wanted you to know I accept your gift…indeed an undeserved gift…but I still accept. 

Thank You, Lord Jesus.

Amen. 

Too Late?

We all sat around the table discussing the fact that the world has changed.  It’s not the same world we knew as kids. The one telephone that hung on the kitchen wall was used for emergencies only, not for visiting.  Today, children are born with cell phones attached to their ears.  We no longer eat family meals together or pray the family rosary.  Our “one nation under God” has put God out to pasture. With my 20/20 hindsight it all becomes very clear…the mistakes I’ve made…are made. The bell has been rung and can’t be un-rung.  It’s too late to close the barn door once the horse is out.

It is abundantly clear that the world has change and it all happened on my watch.

But I must believe that there is hope for the future. I must believe that it is not too late.  Look at the people of Nineveh…they changed.  

I can no longer be just an observer.

What is it going to take for me to take action?

Will I have to be thrown overboard?

Will I have to be swallowed by a fish?

Dear Lord Jesus, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and enough wisdom to know the difference.

Amen.

Tuesday

Dear Diary

In the early morning dark, illuminated by a pale white full moon, I pedaled toward the church and listened to the bells telling me five minutes remained before Mass began.  It was a great sensation because today was the first day in the last month I felt like I was NOT hung over. It had been a tuff few weeks with all the surgeries. Two days of each week I spent with an ice pack on my head bemoaning the fact that I had stuff to do but didn’t feel like doing it.  Each week I would peel back the bandage and reveal a new miniature railroad like track of stitches across the landscape of my face.  It gave me time to think of those people who are really sick, bed ridden or worse…those who will never get better.  So…thank you, Lord Jesus… for this little reminder of what it is to not feel so good.  And thank you for my abundant good health.  Amen.

Mountain High

I spent an interesting few days riding New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains on my new, thirty-two year old, BMW R100RT.  We twisted and turned up and down the narrow highways and roads into the most remote and beautiful areas.  The off-season ski resort offered an abandoned road with switchbacks and awesome vistas perfect for the two-wheel enthusiast's riding pleasure. Gazing down at the clouds shrouding white sands of the valley floor we breathed in the clean clear mountain air and lamented the fact that we lived in a far less picturesque environment.  

We did our best to outrun the afternoon thunderstorms and chase the dream of adventure that lay around each curve and over each mountaintop.

Perhaps the most interesting sights were the motorcycles and the riders that attended the Golden Aspen rally.  All manner of two and three wheel motorization were in attendance.  I felt a bit overdressed, as my tee shirt had sleeves…but then again…I didn’t have even one tattoo to show off, so I supposed it all equaled out.

Behind all the strange leatherwear, tattoos and hair...they were genuine friendly people who had a common interest and were more than willing to talk about their “ride.”
Returning home we stopped for fuel where I observed several riders on their trusty machines and I made the remark "look at that old man, he must be seventy".  My riding buddy...after recovering from a violent bout of laughter asked, "How old do you think we are?"  OK! OK!...I'm living a dream with all the other old men on motorcycles.

How blessed I am to be living in such a country and enjoying all of this.   It really gives meaning to the words…”America, The Beautiful.”

O beautiful for spacious skies,


For amber waves of grain,


For purple mountain majesties


Above the fruited plain!


America! America!


God shed his grace on thee


And crown thy good with brotherhood


From sea to shining sea!

Thank you, Lord Jesus,

For all the grace You send my way

Amen.

Supine

As I lie in the dark, supine on my bed, a flickering firefly of a thought escapes the grasp of my logic. It makes no sense that God would love me, yet…there is a yearning in my heart that tells me this is true.  As if picking at a sore…I keep revisiting the thought, straining my tinny brain and trying to make some meaning of it all...even though it is a mathematical impossibility that does not add up and an illogical truth that I cannot figure out. 

There is something in my bones, something in my being that draws me to Him.  I have to stop trying to use my logic and just go with it…after all…He is God…and God can do whatever he wants.  It does not have to be logical to me.  Like an inheritance…I’ve done nothing to deserve it, nothing to earn it and could never repay it.  I was just born into it, born into the house of David, born a child of God.  So for me this is nothing but an upside…why do I even question it? 

Thank you Lord Jesus for your blessings.

Please forgive all my questionings.

Strengthen my faith so I may see Your face.

Give me the endurance to finish the race.

Amen.

GrandMother's T-Bird

With mixed emotions we loaded up the 1977 Thunderbird that belonged to my Mother-in-law.  I am glad my son had an interest in keeping the car in the family and at the same time  I knew any old car is just a "money hole".  I know he will give this old boat of a car the tender love and care it deserves...because he has the ability and know how.  Actually it is kinda exciting...I caught myself looking through my closet for that old polyester leisure suit with the bell bottom pants and those eight track tape of disco music.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for a wonderful reminder of a wonderful lady.
She blessed me with so many wonderful memories and her wonderful daughter.
She was a "keeper"...in more ways than one...and so is her car.
To find another...you would have to go far.
Amen.

Summer Is Hell

It was long overdue but the north wind blew and the temperature dropped to a hundred and two.

With a robust gust and clouds of dust, the sky turned to a reddish brown rust. 

It’s the time of year that winter is near, and in South Texas I give out a cheer.

Thank you Lord Jesus, you do like to please us, for in this place you give us a taste of what it is like when we make haste.

Amen.