Whispering

I have run afoul of the old communication's problem again. You know, "What I said is not what I meant and what you heard is not what I said." I don't know of any surefire way around this problem other than being an Oscar Wilde or William F. Buckley or such, which I obviously am not. Another unacceptable solution is to just quit talking. Oh well, I guess I will just have to keep plugging along, trying to learn from my mistakes and hope for a little grace from my listeners.

Thankfully we have translator in the Holy Spirit to help us with our prayers to the Father.

March Madness

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March Madness is a great humbler. I can read the stats, watch some games, and listen to many expert predictions and still come out of the 1st weekend with only a 32 out of 48 record. Once again the number 12 ranked teams are wrecking havoc on higher ranked teams, and I love it. You never really know who is going the win, even a 17 point lead isn't a guarantee in the tournament. I just wish that the 12 teams I had picked had done the wrecking instead of the ones I was sure were going home early. I had high hopes for the Dukies but at least they made it further this year than last year.

Speaking of being humble, God and I must have a different point of view of what it means to be humble. He seems to think I need humbling a lot more than I do. The previous sentence is probably a perfect example. Hopefully I am learning from His teaching.

Seder Meal

Wednesday night we had our usual supper at the building, but since it is the week before Easter we decided to do some different. We had a Seder meal along with our regular meal. It has been a long time since I have done one these, in fact I don't think I have ever done a complete one. We did a modified non-kosher version this time. It was interesting to go through the ceremony, read the blessings, and think about what those actions meant.

One new bit of information I learned was that during the taking of the second cup (the cup of deliverance) they spilled a little wine in memory of the Egyptians who suffered through the plagues.

Another interesting part was the hiding part of the Afikomen,the middle piece of matzoh, and letting the children find it for a reward. This seems very similar to Easter egg hunting and reward.

We had about 25 people involved and they all said it was a very enjoyable.

The Original Bread Maker

I make a lot of bread, in fact almost all the bread we eat I make. My bread machine produces a round loaf that we cut in half lengthwise, that why the loaf in the picture may look a little strange. The other night after I mixed together the ingredients for another loaf, I thought I wonder how or even who figured out how to make bread. Why does flour, yeast, oil(I used applesauce), honey and water make such a delicious food. How many times did they have to experiment to get something they liked or even eat? I am experimenting with different flours and other ingredients some to great success.

If you think that is fascinating, just think of who created the wheat, yeast, and honey in the first place. I am just in awe of all that God has done. I think it's the little things that work so well together that impresses me the most. Don't get me wrong I am certainly impressed by the major events in our world but these would not happen if it weren't for the small things that make them possible. Rainbows are beautiful and majestic but without the water droplets there would be no rainbows. Just a dash of salt or some other spice is the difference between a bland dish and a flavorful one.

My amazement of God is just beyond my limited vocabulary. Thank you God.

Synergy of Desserts

A couple of nights ago we had one of my favorite desserts. It was chocolate pudding with bananas mixed in. I like chocolate pudding, in actuality I probably like anything chocolate, and I like bananas, but the two together surpasses their individual delights. It's a synergy effect if you know what I mean. It is such a simple dessert nothing fancy at all. we just use instant pudding and split a banana between us.

It's like love and serving. They just go together. If you love someone, you end up serving them. God said He loved us, so the natural action to follow was to serve us. This He did when Jesus came to live among people and to serve them. You remember, one time when the disciples were arguing over who should be first and Jesus said, "He came not to be served but to serve." That must have embarrassed them, I know it would me. I say, "I love God," and if I truly do mean it where is my service? Too often in the past I believed that my service to God was satisfied by engaging in public worship, not doing anything bad, and helping those that asked for help. Now I believe my service should be more outgoing, not waiting to be asked but seeking to help others and not limiting who I help. I definitely don't have a handle on doing this yet, but I am trying to expand and follow the Spirit's leading.

Smell the Coffee

I think it is interesting how little things can be important, such as in the my current concern which is coffee. We needed to cut back on expenses a while back and one of the items to suffer the financial axe was fresh roasted coffee we ordered off the Internet. It was only about a week old this way, I know that is "really old" to purists who live in the big city, but remember I live in the hinterlands. As way of comparison there was some speciality coffee in our grocery store dated Nov 2007 and it was Feb 2008 when I looked at it. Who knows when the Folgers and Maxwell house was roasted. But I digress, at the time we could only afford the store brand stuff. Carol almost quit drinking coffee totally, she said it was so bad. Well, our finances have improved so we have added back a few of our wants but not all of them. I don't know if we ever will. Good coffee is one of the wants we have added back. We had our first cup of good coffee this morning. Carol took a sip and said, "This is good coffee." It was goooooood coffee.

Writing this caused me to asked, "Am I settling for second rate or even third rate in my relationship with God and others." It seems to always cost more for the "good stuff." Good relationships don't necessarily cost more montarily, but they do cost in time, giving of self and energy. I am trying not to look at relationships from a cost analysis viewpoint, but from - this is just what I want to do. I want the best relationship with God I can have.