Family Pets

I have been thinking a lot about family pets this week, especially ours. I have been wondering why I put myself through the agony of training those creatures when we get them only to go through agony when they get to the place where we need to say goodbye to them. It really doesn't make much sense to me. But I do it over and over again! We have had Marty, Brandy, Rugby and Rudy.

Our current dog, Rudy, has been a member of the family for over 8 years. He was over a year old when we got him. So that must make him what, 152 in dog years (there is some formula, but I don't have a clue what it is). Recently he has been having some problems and this past weekend they became so severe we expected to find it necessary to end his suffering. Now that is always tough for me to do, and no matter what people say about family pets, its dad's pet when its time to put them down.

So today I had to take our Rudy to the vet and I fully expected to find out he had cancer, or some other very serious condition, that would result in his life coming to an end. Not so! The doctor took an xray and showed me that our dog had dozens of kidney stones that were creating all kinds of difficulty for him, but were not terminal. And you know what comes next! With surgery he could be as good as new! Nine years old new, that is! Now I am about to be unemployed and the last thing I need is a big bill from the dog's doctor. When I asked about the cost, I got that horrible "how could you ask me that, does it even matter" look from the doctor, who then told me it could run from $1,200 to $1,500, depending on what he had to do. I told him I needed to talk with my wife about it and he allowed me to call her. She wasn't home. I tried her cellphone, and it wasn't on. What was I to do?

Well, I have kidney stones and they are painfull! And when I am passing one I often wish I was dead. But I don't want anyone to kill me just because I have the stones. I told the doctor to go ahead with the surgery.

Rudy had the surgery today and is spending tonight at the vets. Tomorrow we will go pick him up and bring him home. It's going to snow tomorrow and I don't know exactly when I will be able to pick him up. But as I was thinking about all the money this was going to cost us at a time when we don't have a lot of money, I remembered a verse from Proverbs. Proverbs 12:10 says,

"whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast," (ESV)

I wonder if paying that kind of money to take care of some kidney stones in my dog qualifys as having regard for my beast?

WARNING: Graphic pictures!

There, I bet I have your attention now! You are probably wondering what a nice guy like me would be doing posting a title like that. If you keep reading you will find out.

We got a call from our daughter-in-law this past Tuesday telling us our son had fallen at a job site and sustained a head injury and was experiencing some memory loss. She said he had been taken to an emergency clinic and they were sending him by ambulance to a hospital in Birmingham. She was waiting for a ride to meet him there. We asked her to call when she got there and let us know how he was doing. Several hours later she called and we got to talk with our son who was still waiting for the doctor to administer some stitches to his head and knee. He said he was sore but anticipating a full recovery. It's now two days later and we have some graphic before and after pictures for those who want to see what his head looked like.

If you don't want to know, don't look. I wonder how many of you will look?

This is what Josh looked like just before they began to work on his stitches. A brick step can do a real job on your forehead. Below is what he looked like after they stitched him up. He ended up with 35 stitches in his forehead and 5 in his knee. Today he was cleared to return to work as soon as he feels up to it. Perhaps with just a little more care being given to going up and down brick steps.

Transitions

"Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." Genesis 12:1 (ESV)


Someone asked me again yesterday, why didn't I wait until I had another job lined up before I resigned my current pastorate. Good question. It certainly would make sense in this economy. It would certainly be more comforting to my wife and son. It certainly would have allowed me to spend less time wondering where my next job and paycheck were going to come from.

What it would not have done is forced me into the presence of God much like Abram must have been forced into the presence of God when he took a step of faith to follow God's command in the verse above. Abram was forced to look to God for direction when he left his country, people and even his own family home, all to follow God to a place that only God knew. That is walking by faith, not by sight!

In the months since my resignation I have spent a lot of time talking with God about what He wants from me. I still have lots of questions about that. But I have found some answers as well. God has shown me very clearly that one thing He wants is my trust. He has spoken through the book Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. He has spoken through the men who have been studying that book together on Thursday evenings. He has spoken that message through the devotional book I use featuring the writings of AW Tozer (the gift of a good friend three years ago). I have heard God say that He wants me to trust Him to show me what is next even though I wanted to know long ago.

God has shown me that it is as important that I travel this road with Him as that I arrive at the destination. It's as though I want to jump on the highway and quickly travel to my destination but God is saying, take the back roads, so we can talk and I can show you some things. I think I have often missed things along the way, things that God wanted to show me and tell me about.

Much like Peter as he walked to Jesus on the water, there are waves around me that tempt me to take my eyes off of Jesus. My truck is in the shop. Our family pet of eight years is getting older. Our son was recently injured in a work fall. We are expecting a grandchild to be born next month in Thailand. All these issues and many more make me want to say to the LORD, I need to know now where you are taking me.

But then I remember that is not trust. God knows (and knew long ago) about my truck and dog and son and grandchild. But He wants me to trust Him. Trust Him for a job, trust Him for an income, trust Him for shelter, trust Him for transportation and trust Him for my daily bread. If I had not been willing to resign before I knew where I was going, then I would not have been learning these important lessons about the God who loves me enough to direct my steps. I am wondering what else I need to learn as I wait on Him.

A Long Time Coming

It has been a very long time since I have posted to my blog. I have been busy, but then you probably guessed that. One problem I found was my discovery of Facebook. That can be much more time consuming than my blog was. It is much more interactive and responses come much more rapidly. Once you start in there, its really hard to get away, and stay away.

And then there was hunting season. There was planning, preparation, practice, patience, panic....and then a deer to hang in my garage until it was ready to be prepared for the freezer. We now have venison steaks, roasts, ground venison and venison sausage (both breakfast and hot) in our freezer and we have already enjoyed some venison steaks, stew and mincemeat pie. Below is picture of me with the lady who arrived at our place December 3rd. I didn't get any pictures but our dog loved being able to process some of the leg bones of this deer as well!

My wife has been busy trying to manage our Christmas preparations this year. She works hard to insure that packages are sent early enough to arrive at their appropriate destinations before Christmas. That is no small task with family living in Georgia, Florida and Alabama as well as Canada and China. And then there is the decorations in the house. She retrieves them from the attic, sends my son and I to bring home a tree, has me string the lights, then works her magic and we end up with a wonderful holiday environment. Here are a couple of pictures of our tree this year, along with one of our manger scenes and our dog Rudy taking it all in stride.


As we move closer to Christmas we are really looking forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus! We will not have any of our married sons with us this year, but Barb and Shawn and I do plan to travel up to be with Barb's brother and his family on Christmas day, they live about an hour away, and it will be nice to be with extended family. But what will be wonderful is to have time to reflect again on just what God did for us when he sent his son that very first Christmas day! I have often wondered if the people in Bethlehem even had a clue what had happened in their town that day.

Gospel Light for Global Darkness

Last week I was able to attend the annual convention of the Eastern Regional Association held in Peabody, MA. After 2 days of Board meetings in which I was involved, the convention kicked off on Thursday evening with a message from Dr. John Roller from North Carolina. Friday and Saturday were filled with business sessions and challenging messages. I had the chance to hear from Dr. Ron Thomas, Executive Dircetor of the Advent Christian General Conference; a medical missionary from Africa; and Rev. Russell Carle, Director of the Advent Christian mission work in Africa and Europe. The meals were nourishing and enjoyable, the worship enriching, the preaching inspiring, and the fellowship sweet. This gathering always gives me the chance to catch up with people I don't see often enough, and I am grateful to God I was able to attend.

Here are some pictures taken during the convention. You may recognize some of those in the pictures. If not, you will find labels at the end of this post which will identify the pictures.

Still Waters

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down is green pastures. He leads me beside still waters." Psalm 23:1&2
I know the "still waters" of which the psalmist spoke were probably much different loooking than the water shown above, but as I walked with my wife in a state forest last week, we came upon this wonderfully tranquil place. As we watched, listened, and photographed this pond, the words of the psalmist came to my mind. How we need to make time to walk beside still waters in this tumultuous world? How we need to remember the LORD is "our" shepherd and will lead us through all the uncertainty and confusion of our time. In that same 23rd Psalm, David tells us that we do not need to fear because the LORD is with us. He is with ME!

My prayer today is that all those who need to walk beside some still waters will find them as they walk with Jesus. Amen

I Love Fall

Yesterday was a beautiful one in Connecticut. Sunny and mild (about 70 degrees), the weather invited me to spend some time in the out of doors. And that is what I did. Without any special agenda, I took three separate walks and savored the sights, sounds and smells of autumn. The leaves are changing colors here, and then falling on still green lawns, begging for rakes to gather them into piles. Soccer fields are filled with boys and girls running and laughing and yelling as they enjoy the competition. Yesterdays blue skies were painted with puffy clouds that made me think the sunset would be amazing (and it was).

As I walked I thought about our time in Connnecticut. We are now in our fifth year here, and a lot has happened in the last four years. Our three oldest sons have all gotten married. Barb now has three wonderful daughters-in-law to share in her torment of living with the Dean guys! While we didn't do the choosing, we couldn't be happier with the choices our sons made. We love Kelly, Marianne and Jennifer (who also brought us Erin, our only grandchild) and so thrilled to have them in our family.

Shawn has grown alot in the last 4 years. When we moved here he was entering middle school in the seventh grade. He is now well into his junior year of high school, pressing us to get him his learner's permit so he can start driving! He has been to a prom, made a couple of visits to the Emergency Room of the hospital, gone to Sports and Music Camp in New Hampshire 4 times, and become a leader in the youth group he attends. He is a good student, a fun kid, and a great son to Barb and me, and we are thrilled to have him still at home.

The Lord helped us face and get through the ordeal of Barb's accident with the motorcyclist. We are so thankful he lived and has made a partial recovery from his life-threatening injuries. While we wish it had never happened, we have learned much about trusting God even when we don't understand why things have happened the way they did.

We love our home here, we love the people in the church, Barb has grown as a nurse working at the hospital for the past 4 years, and I have made some wonderful friends in a group of pastors with whom I meet for prayer on a weekly basis.

And as we have gotten older we have learned to appreciate the blesssings God gives us in the little things, like the change of seasons!