I am trying to tell myself it doesn’t matter. After leading the National League Central Division for most of the season the Cardinals have lost six in a row and are losing in the bottom of the ninth tonight against San Diego. They began the last week of the season up by 6 games and in Cubesque (?) fashion are about to lose 7 in a row while the Astros, a tiny dot in the rear view mirror just days ago have won the last 7 games and have pulled almost even with us.
I think they need my help. I am going to call Pujols or Edmonds or Rolen or anyone who will pick up the phone and offer them some advice and encouragement. Maybe tell them that I am praying for them and stuff. I might send them the Purpose Driven Line Drive or Wild Pitch at Heart or some other motivational book to remind them that we were all created to play baseball and we only find our true selves when we finally slide safely into home. Sure, there are some out there that claim football is the true religion but the faithful know better. After all, football is violent and dangerous and baseball is unfathomable and mysterious…just ask the Cubs. Besides, Genesis 1:1 starts with God creating the world in “the big inning” and the rest is all statistics. So, what is needed here is for the Cardinals to simply return to the “old base paths” and get rid of those free agents of change and start playing Brock and Gibson and Musial again and maybe even find Ozzie out there. That’s when Cardinal baseball was winning the nation.
Well, they lost again, why isn’t Larussa answering his cell phone?
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Talking with a Grape Man.
The view was pretty good really. I was sitting on the deck of a client’s house overlooking what is known here as the Mackinaw river valley. We were talking business but I was distracted, not just by the miles and miles of corn and bean fields that lay before me but by the pungent, sweet smell of freshly pressed grape juice that filled the vat directly below me. I was at a vineyard and winery and at that moment financial planning felt trivial compared to looking at rows of grapevines with all their eternal implications. I just kept seeing Jesus walking among those vines with a glass of wine in his hand, laughing and saying: “Come down here and let me teach you some things about vines and grapes that will make your head spin more than anything they got bottled in there!”
Eventually, we got past the work part and I began asking our gracious host some questions about growing grapes. Here is some of what I learned….
The juice from every variety of grape is always clear. It gets color from how long the juice is in contact with the skins of the grape while fermenting. Wine that has a blush color like a Rose’ means that the juice had contact with the skins for a short time. The dark red wines means the skins of the grapes were with the juice for a long time.
Grapes are still picked by hand, cut off the vine using scissors or a knife and it takes a lot of work to get a vat full. Cutting your fingers is expected.
Birds like grapes too, especially the smaller varieties-of grapes not birds. Some vines are covered to be protected against the birds.
If you would like to have a vineyard in the future you should plant it now.
Grapes do better under stress, like drought.
Wine isn’t instant.
Vines must be pruned after every season. Radically pruned. Cut back to where they look like dead sticks, with just a little bit remaining. Grapes only come from new growth. In other words, you can have a beautiful looking vineyard, with rows of thick vines and leaves and not have fruit, because grapes only come from fresh, new growth!
A few acres of grapes can make a lot of wine.
Wine tasting can be very fun.
You have to love grapes and vines a lot to do the amount of work it takes to have a vineyard.
If you need to see a real miracle to help your faith right now, go look at a cluster of grapes, preferably at a vineyard and not a supermarket.
Jesus can teach more about real security holding a vine in his hand than all the financial planners in the world put together.
If you are reading this, I am glad and I hope it has made you want to read John 15.
Eventually, we got past the work part and I began asking our gracious host some questions about growing grapes. Here is some of what I learned….
The juice from every variety of grape is always clear. It gets color from how long the juice is in contact with the skins of the grape while fermenting. Wine that has a blush color like a Rose’ means that the juice had contact with the skins for a short time. The dark red wines means the skins of the grapes were with the juice for a long time.
Grapes are still picked by hand, cut off the vine using scissors or a knife and it takes a lot of work to get a vat full. Cutting your fingers is expected.
Birds like grapes too, especially the smaller varieties-of grapes not birds. Some vines are covered to be protected against the birds.
If you would like to have a vineyard in the future you should plant it now.
Grapes do better under stress, like drought.
Wine isn’t instant.
Vines must be pruned after every season. Radically pruned. Cut back to where they look like dead sticks, with just a little bit remaining. Grapes only come from new growth. In other words, you can have a beautiful looking vineyard, with rows of thick vines and leaves and not have fruit, because grapes only come from fresh, new growth!
A few acres of grapes can make a lot of wine.
Wine tasting can be very fun.
You have to love grapes and vines a lot to do the amount of work it takes to have a vineyard.
If you need to see a real miracle to help your faith right now, go look at a cluster of grapes, preferably at a vineyard and not a supermarket.
Jesus can teach more about real security holding a vine in his hand than all the financial planners in the world put together.
If you are reading this, I am glad and I hope it has made you want to read John 15.
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