Dalton Minnesota, Otter Tail County (Bass Lake??)

The sun had already set and the sky was beautifully reflected on the clear & glassy lake surface. We quickly removed the canoe from the roof of the truck and bringing only paddles and life vests we moved out onto the lake.

Our trip was beautiful but marred. There were so many people pulling out of town with loud mufflers on their trucks and motorcycles that we could barely hear ourselves think. It was quite frustrating, and saddning.

It was also buggy, but that’s to be expected. We were still seeing bugs in the middle of the lake, which is unusual. We stopped at one point to listen to them, and were able to hear the ‘dull swarm’, but then a couple of Harley’s blasted away from the VFW and that was all we heard for quite a while.

Substitutionary Cursing…

The church I attended when I lived in Western Colorado had a small book store attached to it’s fellowship hall. After church one day I observed a frustrated mother say to one of her children “Gosh Darnit Johnny, stop that!”

I was fairly close by, and knew this mom so I walked over and quietly said to her; “Why didn’t you say “‘God Dammit Johnny, stop that!’ It’s what you were thinking wasn’t it?” (Something to bear in mind here is that I am now, and was then a counselor/therapist of sorts, God has gifted me with the ability to ask such questions in love rather than condemnation. Her honesty had a lot to do with how I said what I said.)

She turned pretty red but revealed the depth of her character, even under parental stress, smiled and replied; “Yeah, but I’d never say it.”

My question to a reader would be the same as my question to her; “What’s the difference?”

Call it What it Is…(If You Thunk it You May as Well Say It)

During our tenure in a YWAM (Youth With a Mission) DTS (Discipleship Training School) there was a young man who was not a part of our school, but joined us for virtually everything we did. He was from Texas hand had some drug problems, I heard a few years ago that he died due to this addiction, his name was Ben.

A bunch of us took a break from school one fine Spring day to drive down the snowy and muddy mountain on which we lived in order to prune some trees in a benefactor’s orchard. It was a fun day of male fellowship and as we drove home for dinner the only obstacle left us was a long very muddy hill that we hoped to climb in our two-wheel drive van.

We gave it a great try and we had a backup plan, we’d radio for help and be pulled out by one of our base camp’s four-wheel-drive vehicles. No big deal if we didn’t make it…but…

There was about ten guy’s worth of testosterone in the van and we wanted to make it up the hill without radioing and waiting for help. It’s a guy thing.

So we all dog-piled up over the rear axle to give it as much weight as possible. We got closer and closer to the top on each try and we’d jump and bounce together as a group, encouraged by the DTS Leader/Driver…we dang near made it.

On one of the last tries, spinning out just as we made it to the top, Ben (our recovering friend) shouted out “aw shit!” in frustration, and immediately apologized. We were in an all-guy, but all-christian ‘gathering’ and somehow it was appropriate and guilt-inducing at the same time. It’s exactly what I was thinking.

I laughed, as did most of the other guys.

One young man of about 19, a wonderful, deep-thinking son of missionaries who now lived in Minnesota said; “Ben, it’s no big deal, don’t worry about it, I’ve heard pastors say it from the pulpit in Minnesota.”

What a grace-filled, loving statement. We all had a great laugh and sat around for the next half-hour waiting for our tow. It was a great time, a great moment, a bonding moment.

Many wouldn’t understand, to people so filled with legalism and reaction that love is an alien reaction, this will become just another example of “what’s wrong with Christians” and how easy it is to “backslide” and become like the world. In reality it was a moment of deep, loving, joyful fellowship.

People like that shouldn’t read this story.

Da (green) Bomb…

There has been a massive explosion of ‘green’ outside of our windows. There’s a jet-black squirrel running up and down a tree outside of my office window. It’s cold and wet, which can be part of Spring, but a renewal of life is taking place.

Snowstorm? Welcome to May in Minnesota…

We drove home from Fargo last night in a bit of a snowstorm. The ground was too warm for ice to build up, but we were down to 40mph a few times due to poor visability. This morning we wake up on our twelfth anniversary to a heavy dusting of snow on the ground and a forecased high of 38F and a 50% chance of snow showers.

Today’s our anniversary, #12. Very Cool.