Class Reunion

It was like being in a time machine. This past weekend I went to my thirty year high school class reunion. About 15 of my classmates showed up, which was just about half of my class. We were the class of 1976, a bunch of farm kids that knew very little about life beyond the Ozark hills. Most of the kids I graduated with I also started first grade with. After being with them for twelve years little did I know that moving the tassle truly would mean moving on. Except for my best friend that I went to college with, I never saw any of them again until last Saturday night. Five of us went to college, a few of us moved away and the rest stayed closed to home. Most quit raising hell and started raising kids.

It was very strange to talk about retirement with an old friend when the last conversation I had had with him was about what his plans were now that high school was finally over.

One friend had died of cancer. One had lost his wife in an accident at home. Two had fried their brains on drugs. The wildest and most rebellious girl in class now worked for the Secret Service. The class nerd had his own computer company (duh!) and the one who loved his pickup now loved his big rig. My best friend is a Psycholigist (I would like to take credit for getting him started) and I still haven't quite figured out what I am. No, I know what I am I am just not sure about what I do most days.

I wasn't prepared for my fourth grade girlfriend to show me pictures of her grandkids.

We ended up at Applebees, watching the Cards win game one and telling old stories of what excellent, peaceable students we had all been. We asked about the ones who didn't come and why they probably didn't. I was reminded of how poor most of us were, some of the kids in my class actually lived in homes with dirt floors and it was great to hear that they had managed to do well despite the odds. And it was also good to be together and not care at all about the former distinctions that in high school seemed so important. Time washes us like a stream, cleansing us while muddying us at the same time.

I drove home around midnight on an old familiar road. It was rainy and my headlights caused the fall foilage to gleam red and yellow like a blur of neon. A nice buck crossed the road ahead, clearing the fence with that wonderful, effortless grace that always amazes me. I put in the Eagles and cranked up "Take it Easy" and then "Take it to the Limit". I realized that somewhere between the two we, the class of '76, had found our way.

Heavenlies....

We are blessed in Christ in the "Heavenlies". We are seated with Christ in the Heavenlies....Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil in the "heavenlies". (Your translation might say heavenly realms or places). Paul ends Ephesians the way he starts...in these heavenlies. The place of our struggle is the place of our blessings and safety.

I feel so earthbound. Gravity pulls me down and keeps my face in the dirt. In Ephesians Paul keeps trying to tell me who I am in Christ and where I am in Christ but I most often choose to live like a hunchback with my nose two inches off the ground.

One day Ephesians 4:4-7 will be what I fully believe and the lies will no longer worm their way through my thinking. That is my hope...."His great love with which he loved us."

Can it really be true?

Disconnected Ramblings on Stuff

The Cardinals are in and they have won the first game against the Padres. So, I think they will win because a Cardinal always beats a Padre.

Leaves are changing and the weather here has multiple personalities. I went running this afternoon and it was almost 90 degrees. By the time I finished it was only 60 degrees. That really doesn't tell you anything except that I am possibly a very slow runner or a very fast runner that headed straight north.

I like to hunt deer and turkey. I have hunted since I was old enough to follow my Dad around in the woods and scare everything away by fidgeting unceasingly. I used to bow hunt but haven't regained enough flexibility or strength in my shoulder since surgery to start again. There is one of the biggest bucks I have ever seen less than a half a mile from my house. I see him all the time when I take my Son to soccer practice or go to Wal-Mart. He lives in town and likes to lay in the grass strip between the bean fields and hedgerows and watch the cars go by. It is ironic really that I have walked hundreds of miles through brush and woods and froze my whitetail off on many a frosty morning sitting in a tree stand and now this monster buck lives in my neighborhood. I wonder if he works at State Farm?

I am studying Ephesians. It is incredible. I don't understand the first chapter. What I do get out of it is sometimes hard to believe or grasp. It doesn't help that the first chapter is basically one long rambling sentence. Paul literally got carried away, but the concepts are incredible. I have never been good at "planning" good gifts....but every gift we get from God is meticulously planned out from before the foundation of the world. What kind of love goes into that kind of detail? SIT DOWN AND READ THE WHOLE LETTER IN ONE SETTING SOME TIME. I want you to be encouraged by it, as I have been this week. Underline every time you see the phrase "heavenly places". Tell me what you think about that and what it means for us in the here and now.

I just realized that Project Runway is on. Think I will pick up that hunting bow after all.