Everything is New

 

[1]

2 Corinthians 5:17 Contemporary English Version

¹⁷ Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new.

 

This is a new year. I have had serious reservations about what this year 2025 would bring. Our country has been divided worse than anytime since the Civil War. Only time will tell whether we can ride the crest of this wave or be drowned by it. The past is indeed being swept aside.

On the other hand, life rolls on. We have a water leak in our front yard that threatens to drain the Colorado River dry. But we will take care of that. We have a Better Than 50 Club meeting in a mere fortnight. But members will rise to the occasion. My computer, on which I am typing this, is showing more and more serious signs of rolling over and playing dead. But my brother gave me a little computer for Christmas.

When I say little, I mean tiny: it is less than 3½ inches square and 1½ inches high (less than 9 x 9 x 4 cm) Yet it is 500,000 times more powerful than the computer I used during my doctoral research at the University of Iowa that occupied a whole floor of one of the large buildings on campus, and had dozens of people running it. In less than an hour I transferred onto it more than 100,000 times the total capacity of data that IBM 360 could hold.

I am already polishing off the final chapter of my Ikizu Memoirs book on this Ace Magician. And, yes, with Sylvia’s help we have all but completed the equatorial African experience of our lives, so that part of our past is history and forgotten only in the sense that we no longer are living it.

God has had His hand in our lives through out our whole existence. We are definitely new persons, but in this case “new” includes “old” in it! Yesterday my Standard 1 grade school teacher Ruth (Miss Hurlow) Webster and her husband Eric came by our home. She will be 100 years old this year. I had found some pictures of their wedding (in 1950) that my dad had in his collection and gave them to her. I was in Standard 1 (= Grade 3) that year!

Thank You, Lord, for making us new persons—we look forward to the finished product when You come again.

Here is a wedding picture of Eric and Ruth Webster in 1950

 

---

[1] https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51pmHZlGyaL._AC_SX679_.jpg

When It Seems Everything Goes Wrong!

Psalm 23:4

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁴ Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, Lord, for you are with me.

It was four o’clock in the morning. I tossed and turned. My mind started toiling through a long list of recent setbacks.

Our faithful, gas-guzzling pickup had just done a seven thousand mile trip. Now suddenly on the last fill-up, its mileage had dropped to a third of what it had been on the trip. We had double checked the calculations. Google told us this happened to other owners, and they had a terrible time finding out the cause. One had even replaced the engine, to no avail.

Our water main had broken and we had been without water for twenty-four hours. Our neighbors let us take showers in their home, bless their caring hearts. I had spent the whole day repairing it, and now the sprinkler system wouldn’t work. The temperatures were in the hundreds, and the trees and plants were starting to seriously wilt from lack of water.

The Internet and phone company had spent four days doing a “simple” upgrade, and still neither the phone nor the Internet worked. Since our home is up a little valley, even our cell phones don’t work unless the Internet works or we go outside and stand in the middle of the street to make a call. So we were thrust back into the nineteenth century reliance solely on the post office for our communications.

Katie, our beloved one-year-old, still-chewing-everything puppy just chewed up Sylvia’s C-PAP breathing apparatus. The insurance company tells us we can’t get a replacement for at least another month. When I walked Katie in the hills in front of our home, a young coyote was walking shoulder against shoulder with her trying to coax her back to the pack and the kill. Katie wasn’t sure whether she should go with her new “friend” or come back to me.

While we were on our trip mentioned above, our son Fred phoned us to tell us he was engaged to Uni, a lovely girl he has been dating on and off for a number of years. Then he phoned us to tell us they are getting married later this month. They plan to meet in Oregon and see the August eclipse and invited Sylvia and me to go with them. I am eager to see the eclipse and even more eager to be with Fred on the trip. But I’m also still recovering from my battle with West Nile Virus. I seemed to lose some ground on our 7,000 mile trip in which we took everything very easy, so I fear a rush trip of 2,000 miles may set me back even more.

A smiling doggy face and furniture-beating tail greets me as I roll out of bed at six o’clock. I happen to read our familiar and much beloved Shepherd Psalm. I reread verse 4, and peace covers over my many concerns. My Lord is still with me.

Thank You, Lord, that I can rely on You to solve my problems as You have so frequently in the past!

Conversation Starters

[i]

John 4:27New

International Version (NIV)

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

Recently, at the delightful reception of a beautiful wedding, eight of us were sitting at a table where 6 of us were more or less closely related. The other two were total strangers. For some reason I personally feel uncomfortable ignoring the presence of someone who is in close proximity to me. I guess that in the past I have been snubbed enough times to not like the feeling.

Introducing myself, I asked the couple their names. They told me. Over the next half hour I found out they live in Riverside, where I live. Riverside has close to a half-million people, so it’s no surprise that we didn’t know each other. They’re happily married after some thirty years. They have a 24 year old daughter who might be getting married one of these days and two teenage sons.

They’re hoping to move north and live within 30 miles of the Canadian border once they both retire. Naturally, their children do not share their joy in living in the wilderness. “What are you going to do for fun, Dad?” The couple loves the out of doors, especially hiking, an interest we share enthusiastically. We spoke of places near Riverside that we enjoy visiting. When we parted at the end of the evening, we hugged each other as though we had been long time friends.

Later I couldn’t help thinking of how I had come from being a dedicated nerd and introvert to the point where I could talk to people like these. Many years ago a long time friend introduced us to Amway. I worked Amway hard and lost money consistently. It just wasn’t my kind of life. But I learned one thing from these zealots. They encouraged me to “FORM” strangers. This is an acronym of a way to get others talking, so I don’t have to, and make friends in the process. Ask the new acquaintance about these:

F    their Family;

O    their Occupation;

R    their Recreation;

M    then present your Message.

I was encouraged to listen closely and, as soon as possible, try to write down names and important points for later reference. Although I never sold a box of soap (Amway), I found this FORM acronym of great help whenever I found myself sitting uncomfortably next to someone I didn’t know.

Try it on someone you’re sitting next to on a plane or standing next to in an interminable line. It is absolutely amazing what you’ll learn. Usually the former stranger parts from you thinking about what an interesting conversationalist you are because you let them do all the talking.

Lord, thank You for an easy way to talk to strangers, like You did with the Samaritan woman. And give me wisdom to weave Your message of love into the conversation.

---

[i] http://infed.org/mobi/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/conversation_jason_schukltz_cc_by_nc_2_flickr_jdawg_484678361.jpg