of bees and cops

My day started off badly because of overcast conditions. I had hoped to get up with the sun and check on my bees before they were too awake to care, but because of the clouds I got up later than I wanted to and had to rush the process of checking my two hives. The process went OK with no real mishaps other than the bees getting a bit more irritated than usual because of my not moving as slowly and carefully as I should have (bees don't like to be handled roughly or quickly). I only got stung by one bee that had crawled up my pant leg. The reason I was rushing things was because I didn't want to be late to work. But even with my rushing with the bees I was still running 5 minutes late. Even though I work for a very understanding boss who would've had no problem with my being late that day, I still don't like being late to work. Consequently, I ignored that little voice that was trying to tell me that it really was foolish to have handled the bees the way I did, and that to drive 10 - 15 mph over the speed limit was also not a good thing. But hey, I'm a risk-taker by nature, just being who I am . . . I can still make it to work on time if I go just a little bit faster. Cops never patrol these country roads.

I saw the parked cop car about the same time his radar gun saw me. Two minutes later I was parked on the shoulder of the road. What had been a still, small voice was now a glaring, flashing red light. Got the message now, Mr. Jones?

As I reflected on these happenings at the start of my day the message came through to me clear as a bell, and I want to pass it on to you, my reader, because I believe it is an important message we all need to be reminded of from time to time. The message is this: DO NOT IGNORE THAT LITTLE VOICE THAT YOU KNOW IS RIGHT BUT YOU WISH IT WASN'T. The danger of ignoring what we know to be right is that our ability to hear that voice becomes weakened, even to the point that we will no longer hear it if we ignore it too often. It's called a hardened conscience. We need to keep our hearts soft and easily receptive to Heaven's voice. If it irritates, challenges, pushes us out of our comfort zone, it's a pretty good indicator that we'd better pay attention. Would you ignore that little warning light on your dash that's telling you you're almost out of gas?

Fortunately, grace is available to all of us who from time to time ignore that still, small voice. Just like the cop who only gave me a warning instead of a ticket, Heaven will give us warnings before

the harsher judgments come. But I am resolved to continue to work on slowing down in life. As the saying goes, "speed kills", and I want to be about life, not death.

the language of heaven

Would you like to be able to speak and understand the same language that God speaks? Those of you who are linguists or who love words and learning foreign languages might think I'm referring to Hebrew, or Greek, as God's preferred language. But the language that God has always preferred to use when communicating with humankind goes way beyond just one ethnic group. Consider these Scriptures and see if you agree that the language of heaven (intended for human ears) is the physical, created order: stars, galaxies, plants, animals, sand, clay, water, wind, fire, lightning, clouds, etc., etc.

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made . . . he spoke and it came to be. (Ps.33:6,9)

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth their speech;

night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language

where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world. (Ps. 19:1-4)

Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Rom. 1:20)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (Jn 1:14)

Jesus began to teach by the lake . . . He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said, "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed . . ."

Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?" . . .

With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. (Mark 4)

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. . . I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?" (Jn. 3:8,12)

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched - this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. (I Jn. 1:1)

Did you notice how "earthy", how sensual (pertaining to the senses) God's communication to us is? None of this highly metaphysical, philosophically astute, academically refined stuff in God's manner of speaking. Oh, He can talk that way if He wants (Paul's letters tend somewhat in that direction), but that's not His preferred or most common way of speaking. He not only enjoys using very down-to- earth ways of speaking, he also enjoys speaking through the most ordinary and common of people, as this last Scripture makes quite clear to us:

In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams. . .

I will show wonders in the heavens above

and signs on the earth below,

blood and fire and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood . . . (Acts 2:17-20)

When God wants to make sure His message gets through to us you can be sure He will use the most effective language possible, and it will involve all of our senses!

So, today, as we reflect again on the most amazing communication of all - the Word becoming flesh - may we resolve to continue expanding our awareness of the innumerable other ways in which our Father is speaking to us through his creation.

a robust hope

"And now abideth faith, hope and love . . ."

Have you ever wondered why hope gets short-changed in comparison to all the attention faith and love get? I think part of the problem is that the English definition of "hope" falls far short of the true, Biblical definition. In Scripture, hope is just as real and solid a reality as the past and present. It has nothing to do with the wishful thinking that it has come to mean in the English language. It originates from the same eternal Word that brought everything we know into existence.

But there is another reason why I think hope has remained such an obscure concept. Even when we talk about our hope as Christians, wanting to base it on the Bible, the focus inevitably seems stuck on trying to imagine what "heaven" will be like. After all, isn't that what we look forward to after we die? Because heaven is such an ethereal, non-physical place (where God dwells), it's no surprise that we have a hard time relating to it or even really looking forward to spending eternity there. I believe that it's time to re-examine this wimpy view of "the Christian hope" to see if it is true to Scripture, because I believe it falls desperately short.

First of all, and most important to my world view, is that hope is something very tangible and physical. It is also very relevant to the here-and-now. Whether we know it or not everyone lives according to the hope that they have. The clearer and more focused that hope is the more purposeful and "on-track" one can be. Let's look at just a few Scriptures that will help to bring into sharper focus just what the "Christian hope" is, and let these truths shape the way we live in the present.

"Be fruitful . . . fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over . . . every living creature" (Gen. 1:28)

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge . . .they came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Rev. 20: 4)

"The time has come for judging . . . for rewarding . . . for destroying those who destroy the earth." (Rev. 11:18)

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them." (Rev. 21:2,3)

. . . we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Pet. 3:13)

What comes across clear as a bell to me in these Scriptures is that our hope is a very physical hope that is tied to God's creation. God created us to be fully engaged in this earth as caretakers and co-rulers with Him. And that responsibility only increases, not diminishes, when Jesus returns. Even after the millenium is over the Biblical picture is not of us heading up to heaven, but of God coming down from heaven to live with us! How's that for a paradigm shift! God loves the world (i.e people and all of creation) so much that he actually wants to come and live with us! Of course, He's going to have to do some remodeling before He moves in with us, but you get the picture. That's what I call a robust hope. That is something that should impact the way we live in the here and now. Don't we want to live our lives, both physically and spiritually, in such a way that it fits in with the "big picture" of what He is up to? I sure do!

We are in the Advent season, proclaiming not only the first coming of Christ (Messiah, "annointed one", King), but also the hope, the looking forward to his return again to reign. Are we living lives that are truly welcoming of Him and His agenda in this world He created us to exercise wise dominion over?

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her king:

Let every heart prepare him room,

And heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Saviour reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains,

Repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make his blessing flow

Far as the curse is found.

wild things

"There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot."
- Aldo Leopold, naturalist


Last Sunday afternoon I got the urge to take a walk on our land. With Champ at my side (though not for long as he loves to run hither and yon, exploring) I headed down to a part of our land that we have chosen to let sit and return to its natural, or "wild" state. It is impossible to farm this piece of land during wet years on account of the fact that it used to be marshland. As I approached the northeast corner of this marshy area I noticed Champ barking almost hysterically into a clump of of brush and I knew that he had cornered some kind of animal. It was over the fence and into the neighbor's property so I couldn't see the animal. Usually it's a coon or a possum so I just called to Champ as I headed in an opposite direction down our property line. But shortly after calling out to him the barking turned into an all-out snarling and scuffle as this animal must have decided to make a break for it. By the time I turned to try and see who Champ had gotten into a fight with this time, the animal had run from Champ, crossed the drainage ditch and was proceeding up a tree on the opposite bank. That's when I finally saw that Champ had picked a fight with some kind of a wild cat. It had the exact same shape as a house cat, except it was two, maybe three times the size of a domesticated cat - roughly the size and weight of Champ himself. It had a solid, tawny color and I'm sure it must have had a long tail, not a bobbed one that a bobcat would have or that would have caught my attention. Later, as I was looking online for descriptions of wild cats, I came to the conclusion that this must have been a small cougar, most likely a female, or a juvenile. We have had more than one report of cougar sightings in our county within the past year, including paw prints along our own road about a mile away. When I told my partner at work he said there had been a report of a cougar sighting within the past week near his area. Information that I could glean from the internet said that cougar sightings have been on the increase in this part of the midwest, though there is no confirmation that these animals are actually settling into the area and having litters. It is still an open debate about whether the cougar is actually making a comeback to an area that has not been its habitat for over a hundred years. If that is in fact what is happening then I may be among one of the first to be an eyewitness to this phenomenon!
To some this is a scary, alarming development, especially if you raise smaller livestock such as sheep or goats. Cougars have been known to even attack horses and cows. Even though cougars rarely attack humans, it has happened, though it is usually in cases where human populations have impinged on cougar habitat to such an extent that the wild cats have gotten so familiar with humans that they have overcome their natural shyness.

Understandably, my wife is now fearful of taking walks by herself in the woods or the marshland. I guess because I am a male fear was not my response, but rather excitement - a strange, new kind of pleasure. I am not a hunter, and although I can understand why some hunt game for the purpose of eating it, I cannot appreciate hunting simply for pleasure. Hunting wild animals that are becoming too numerous and a genuine threat to our safety and livelihood is also understandable. But I think I am willing to allow cougars to make Illinois their home again if they so choose. A part of me thrills at the idea of living so close to such a large predator as a cougar. But such a reality would entail a greater soberness and carefulness that we are not familiar with. Carefree walks on the wilder parts of our land would become only a memory. The walks would definitely continue, but with increased vigilance and awareness. That may not be all bad.

I've been considering getting into the livestock business at some point, on a small scale. Knowing there could be an increasing danger of predators will figure into my decision whether or not to go ahead with those plans. All of a sudden life has become a bit more complex. Again, that may not be all bad. Complexity, biodiversity, is one of the goals of permaculture. Creator enjoyed making this world of ours full of incredible diversity, yet modern "development" continues to kill off His creations in favor of our own. Ironically, while we have assumed that our own creations have made life safer and more comfortable for us, in retrospect we are discovering that these creations of ours are, in fact, in danger of bringing about our own extinction.

This is not a simple or easy topic. But I'm more willing to take risks with Creator's "wild things" than with man's. There is a mystery and a wisdom there still waiting to be explored if one is willing to face the challenge and the risks. As Tumnus the faun said to Lucy at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (in an attempt to explain Aslan) - "He is not a tame lion." Which Aslan would you rather get to know? The original, true Aslan, or a safer, tamer version?

The Spirit sent [Jesus] out into the wilderness, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals . . ."
Mark 1:12,13

everafter

I was struck by a thought recently that was not only a totally new thought, it was a whole new paradigm or way of looking at life. The thought was this: "I am planning to stay put, to live here the rest of my life!" Until we moved back to Illinois that had never crossed my mind as a possibility. My entire life has been one of moving from one location to another. In the 28 years of married life we have moved 5 times, and before that my parents' frequency of moving was probably close to the national average of once every 5 years. It had always seemed like an anomoly to have married someone who grew up in the same house that her father had grown up in. Such things just don't happen anymore, it's not the modern way. The controlling force in people's lives today is their work. Where can one go to get a "good job"? seems to be the no. 1 issue that keeps people on the move.
Personally, I had other reasons that kept me on the move, reasons related to trying to discover my core identity and "calling" in life. As my identity and calling become increasingly linked with the land, and as it became clear that we were being entrusted with a piece of land to be caretakers of, it was a simple, natural and straightforward move to step out of the fast track of modern life and commit to putting down roots in one place for the rest of our life. Not only is that a radical shift in how one relates to and thinks about the land, it can also lead to a radical difference in how one relates to the people and community that one is living in. My wife and I have been slow to find and commit to a church body in the area. But now that we have found one that we are comfortable with I am taking it with much more seriousness and a long-term perspective that I've never had before. It is a whole new perspective for me and it feels good, it feels right.

Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. . .
The righteous will inherit the land
and dwell in it forever." (Psalm 37:3,29)

on being radical

The more I connect with the natural realm the more radical I feel myelf becoming. Now by radical I don't mean fanatical. I mean getting in touch with the root, or foundation, of things - the bottom line. This thought came to me as I was out in my garden picking beans - not the green beans that most people grow in their gardens, but the kind you leave on the vine until they're completely dried up and then you harvest them as dry beans (pinto, kidney, lima, etc.) that you can store and use throughout the winter. The only crops I had previously grown that could be stored for later use were winter squash (butternut, primarily) and potatoes. This year I tried my hand at corn and beans, letting them grow, mature and then dry on the stalk/vine until dry enough to harvest and store. As I was harvesting these crops this fall I thought, "Wow, so this is how it feels to actually grow the food that is going to sustain you throughout the winter. This is how people used to do it for thousands of years. This is what it means to be connected to the land. This is really radical!"

rad-i-cal, adj. 1. going to the root; fundamental; basic 2. favoring extreme social change or reform; extreme

Come to think of it, maybe I am a bit fanatical or extreme as well. I don't think it would be such a tragedy if our financial system totally collapsed and more people would be forced to grow their own corn and beans to survive. As I sat around the kitchen table, first joined by my 14 year old and then later by my 12 year old (and eventually by my wife and older son), all of us shelling the dry beans, I thought, "this is how our ancestors used to pass much of their time!" It might be a stretch to call it entertainment, but when you didn't have TV or the internet, or even radio, it did help you pass the time in a statisfying sort of way to sit around the table together with family and possibly neighbors, developing the fine art of conversation (which is fast becoming a lost art in our e-world of cyberspace) all the while contributing to a basic (radical) need of your (or your neighbor's) family.

One of my older sons made a very perceptive comment that ties in with all this. He said that when he has access to things like television and the internet he ends up watching or using it because it is so easy/accessible and it does bring a kind of immediate pleasure. But if he's in a situation (say, camping out in a remote place) where these things aren't an option he finds he doesn't even miss them. The reason, I believe, is because these electronic devices don't tap into the most basic, fundamental aspects of who we really are. If I had a choice between these electronic devices and shelling beans with my family and neighbors I wouldn't even have to hesitate to choose the face to face, hands on experience over the electronic option.

Am I just a hopeless old fogey refusing to face up to "future shock", to a world that's changing faster than I can adapt to it? Those whose lives are so inter-twined with the electronic media of the day would say I'm hopelessly stuck in the Middle Ages. Maybe there are true radicals out there in cyberspace as well - I'm sure there must be and I would like to meet them. All I know is that I prefer to stay close to the food production end of the spectrum (i.e. the land) because that's pretty basic to something called health and survival. I'll never forget something my grandpa Welch used to say: "When you get old there are only two things that really matter: health and family." He wasn't known to be a radical, but I would call that a radical statement.


p.s. I think I have discovered where the expression, "spilling the beans" or "don't spill the beans" comes from. As we were taking the dried beans out of their brittle shells or skins, every so often a bean of two would inadvertently pop out its shell and land on the floor or some unexpected spot (like down the neck of your shirt!). As hard as we tried it seemed like we couldn't avoid spilling at least a few beans in the process of shelling them. So have some compassion on those who just can't help "spilling the beans" - it really is hard not to!

one's niche

How does one know for sure that they have "found their niche" in life? Well, I think I have found one good way for determining that. Yesterday, when I got home from work I did what I usually do. I took off my shoes and went out into the garden to continue working at what I enjoy working at! But no sooner had I stepped out of the door than I felt a sharp stinging sensation on one of my toes. Knowing I had probably stepped on a bee feeding on one of the many clovers now in bloom I quickly shook it off. But I could feel the intensity of the sting was not abating so I took a look at that toe and sure enough, there was the bee stinger still stuck in my toe. Removing it alleviated the pain just slightly and, from past similar experiences I wasn't too concerned because I don't have any allergic reactions to insect stings. I debated whether to go inside and put some baking soda on it (one home remedy) but instead tried another remedy I'd heard of. Plucking the leaf of a plantain plant, which are as common as dandelions in most places, I chewed on it and stuck the wad of chewed plantain between the affected toe and its neighbor. The pain continued for about another 5-10 minutes, but then it quit altogether. One of my sons wasn't convinced that the plantain did the trick. He said his bee sting bites have felt better in that length of time anyway . . .

Anyway, I decided I needed to weed a part of the garden where the weeds were doing especially well (which I haven't minded up until now because those weeds included dandelion, plantain, lambsquarter and violets, all of which are quite edible and which I have been putting into our "green smoothies" every day). I was aware that part of the weed mix included a few stinging nettles but didn't think there were enough of them to bother getting gloves. So I proceeded to weed those nettles along with the other weeds, and sure enough, I felt the effects of those nettles on some of my fingers. But it wasn't that bad, certainly not as bad as the bee sting. Now the mosquitos, which also love lush vegetation, were a bit of a nuisance but I decided I'd put up with them in order to get the job done. I despise mosquito repellants almost more than the mosquitos and I've observed that as the spring and summer wears on my body must develop some sort of its own repellant because mosquitos bother me less and less. So I'll put up with their bites now and let nature take its course. I'm blessed to not have much of a reaction to mosquito bites, unlike others who can get good-sized welts from their bites.

Long story short, after sweating it out in the late afternoon sun and high humidity, fighting mosquitos, putting up with stinging nettle skin irritation and a bee sting, I could still report at suppertime that I had an enjoyable time in the garden. My oldest son's response was, "That's how you know what you're supposed to be doing with your life!" And I heartedly concurred. I knew I had truly found my niche.