The secret of being content

The art of enjoying any journey

The motivational calendar on my desk has beautiful pictures of nature and people on mountain bikes flying in mid air against a clear blue sky. Early this morning I tore off yesterday’s page and crumbled it slowly in my hand thinking how odd it was that I was about to throw away a day that would never return. At the same time I scanned the words for today, “The really happy man is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour”.

With or without bicycle, I want to be that (wo)man! I want to be able to say
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation
(Philippians 4:12)
I am trying to picture ‘any and every’ situation. It’s like being forced to take a detour on the bike of life and ending up in the rain and the mud or on a dead-end road. It is realizing you forgot to bring your rain gear and after the longest struggle uphill arriving too late for the party and not getting the sympathy you’d hoped for. It is like feeling all alone on that steep hill and knowing there is no way back, no side tracking and no changing your mind until you reach the viewpoint, where you can finally look back and say: it was all worth it! Hey, and if you'd been singing all the way, then you have truly mastered the art of enjoying even the hardest journey.
The good thing is; you will have a story to tell!

Promise about our climate

The Lord brought order in His creation... and a promise

It rained, again, in Southern California… A winter storm in this part of the world brings more than snow in the mountains and welcome water in the wells and reservoirs; it causes havoc on the burned hillsides. A steady flow of debris and dangerous mudslides make their way to the Pacific and leave a trail of destruction behind.

In view of all the discussions about the warming of our global climate, the extreme weather in the USA seems to be out of place, sort of like a practical joke from the Creator. Ha ha folks, you can discuss and debate all you want, but I am still in charge here!

Worldwide meetings and conferences, scientific research, millions of dollars in campaigns and media coverage… and we’re still missing the point; it is pathetic, really...
After the biggest climatic disaster in human history, the Flood, the Lord brought again order in His creation and added a promise. He said:

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.
(Genesis 8:22)
Storms, floods, extreme cold or heat and changing numbers and statistics, it doesn't frighten me. God has the first word and the last. That settles it for me!