Flight Paths

Respect

8/4/2021 0 Comments
And he went up from thence unto Beth-el; and as he was going up by the way, there came forth young lads out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead. And he looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of Jehovah. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two lads of them, 2Kgs 2:23-24.
            My grandsons learned this little story when they were playing the Prophets game I had made.  At first, they thought it was funny, probably because they were not thinking of Elisha but their dear old Granddad, who is bald, on top anyway.  I really did not want them to get the picture of Elisha as a grouchy old man who just became angry when he was ridiculed.  That's what I thought for years.  But it goes much deeper than that.
            In the first place, God has always commanded His people to respect their elderly.  You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD (Lev 19:32).  Elihu, as one of Job's so-called friends, may have been wrong about a lot, but his attitude toward his elders was commendable.  And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you" (Job 32:6).  We do want our young people to feel free to talk to us and ask questions, but too many come, if they do at all, as know-it-alls who can't be told anything; they must always learn things the hard way.
            Second, while God tells us to beware of false teachers and to "Prove the spirits whether they be from God," (1 John 4:1), he still expected his faithful prophets and preachers to be treated well by the people they taught.  What did Jesus say to the Pharisees?  Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ​Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? ​Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation (Matt 23:31-36).  I have seen preachers treated like garbage, to put it mildly.  We may no longer crucify them literally, but some have been crucified with words and stoned with false accusations, then tossed out like rubbish along with their families, leaving them wondering where their next home or even meal will come from.
            That's the lesson those 42 young men learned that day.  You respect the elderly and you respect the men of God who dedicate their lives to trying to help people exactly like them.  Knowing the wicked king they had in that day, God's law was not being taught as it should have been.  Are we teaching our youth these lessons?  Or is our example completely undoing what they hear?
            What would happen to the high school class at your congregation if two she-bears showed up one Sunday morning?
 
Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed (Rom 13:7).

 

Dene Ward

A Weary Soul

8/3/2021 0 Comments
George Orwell once said, “The quickest way to end a war is to lose it,” (Polemic, May 1946, “Second Thoughts on James Burnham”).
            Do you ever feel that way about life?  With all the things happening to him, even Job said, “My soul is weary of my life,” (10:1).  We all experience those feelings.  Illness, financial misfortune, family problems—all these things can sometimes seem insurmountable.  Then, when you are completely exhausted, both physically and emotionally, the temptation is to end the war by simply surrendering.
            Don’t do it.  This war has already been won.  All we have to do is finish it--do the mop up work, so to speak. 
            The problem too often is that we try to go it alone, refusing to turn our problems over to the Lord.  If we insist on that, we have already lost.  We are not alone in this fight.  We have a Savior who understands everything we are going through and who will share our loads.  Look how far you have already come with His help.  Yes, you may be tired, and you may well have good reason to be, but be encouraged by your accomplishments through the abundant help you have been given.  My grace is sufficient for you, 2 Cor 12:9.
            Let Jesus carry those burdens for you.  He has already borne the biggest one, the sin that would have damned you for eternity.  Surely He can handle the others, things which may seem huge to you now, but which eternal perspective will prove small.  Some days you may feel like you are just plugging along, but that is all right too, so long as you don’t give up.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, Matt 11:28-30.

 Dene Ward

Heartworms

8/2/2021 0 Comments
We did not know the facts all those years ago.  We did not know that if you live in Florida your dog will almost certainly get heartworms if you do not use a preventive medication.  And so one morning, our five-year-old mixed breed was running across the field, suddenly stopped and collapsed.  He was panting heavily and it was obvious he was near the end.  We sat there and petted him and told him what a good dog he had been, and he quietly passed on.
           
Heartworms are parasitic worms spread through the bite of a mosquito.  They lodge in the heart, lungs, and blood vessels of the dog.  Some of them (females) can grow to one foot long.  When the "worm burden" is high enough, they can actually block blood flow to and from the heart.  Symptoms include difficulty breathing, coughing, signs of heart failure, and other organ failure.  It can take 5 to 7 years for an infected dog to die, which means that our Ezekiel must have been infected very young.

If you have a dog, you need to know these things.  If you take your dog on vacations with you, the percentage of heartworm cases in your own home town no longer matters because you might very well be in a high percentage area for your entire vacation, and it only takes one bite.  If you have an "indoor" dog, your dog still is not safe.  Mosquitoes can fly in and out every time you open your door, and what about those walks you take him on?  If you don't have "those kind" of mosquitoes in your area, just wait for the next big blow coming off the Gulf, one of the highest concentration areas there is, and you might.  It has been known to happen.  Heartworm cases have been reported in every state in the Union.

Needless to say, all of our pets since Zeke have been given a preventive as early as it is allowed.  They are also tested every year to make sure.  If you are going to have a dog, in Florida especially, you simply have to do this, or face losing a beloved pet every five years or so.  The percentages are too high otherwise.

Sin is like that, but even worse.  You may have a tiny chance that your pet will not be infected with heartworms in Florida, but you won't have any chance at all with sin.  We are all infected, and it will kill our souls as surely as a badly infected dog will die of heartworms.  The problem in our culture today is not taking sin seriously.  It is fodder for comics (Flip Wilson's "the Devil made me do it"), something to ridicule in Christians, and an outdated philosophy.  "Let go of the guilt," we are told.  "There is nothing to feel guilty about."  But there most certainly is—the infection rate is 100%, and it doesn't matter where you live.  For all have sinned and fall short
" Rom 3:23, and I have yet to find anyone who claims to be perfect, not even an unbeliever.

Many heartworm treatments after infection are dangerous to the dog.  They can kill the animal.  The treatment for sin is not only 100% effective, but easy to use and has no harmful side effects, unless you count righteousness, hope, and joy as "harmful."  All you need to do is pick up your Bible and start reading.  Luke's gospel is a good place to start if you want to truly know the Savior, followed by the sequel by the same author, the book of Acts.  In that book you will find conversion after conversion.  Make a few lists as you read: where they began (Jews who knew the prophets, pagans who knew only their myths and philosophers), things they were told and what they ultimately did to gain salvation.  You might be surprised what you don't find listed as well as what you do find listed in every single instance.

Heartworms are deadly serious to dogs.  Sin is deadly, and eternally, serious to humans.  Get yourself treated as soon as possible.
 

Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. ​For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated (Ps 36:1-2).
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Heb 10:22).

 
Dene Ward

A Green Thumb

7/30/2021 0 Comments
Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 People often tell me that I must have a green thumb, usually when I hand them a bag of excess produce from our garden. Well, I do admit to having grown up on an Ozark farm, having two sets of grandparents who were farmers, and parents, too, who gardened heavily. But, if a green thumb is a genetic trait, it seems to have skipped me.
            Our first garden was in the deep rich soil of central Illinois, a no-fail situation. But that and three years in the Piedmont of South Carolina did not prepare me for Florida. “You must not like tomatoes much,” the old Florida farmer said when he saw a dozen plants—all we’d ever needed to eat and to can in other places. Things just do not work the same in this Florida heat.  We learned that we had to plant nearly 100 tomatoes to get what we needed. That “green thumb” came from lots of weeding (or “grassing”) as hoes simply are useless here. Chop off the weed and it will grow back and the chopped part will root with all the rain and humidity. We weeded by hand and carried them out of the garden in buckets. I read books (nothing written north of the Georgia line is of much use), I talked to farmers and other gardeners, I observed commercial operations.
            I tried new ideas provoked by all of these. But, above all, I over-planted. I figured that in a bad year, we might still have enough for us; in an average year, or even in a good year, I never had a problem giving the excess away. Two different years after we thought we’d learned, we lost most all our tomatoes, once to a soil bacteria and once to too much rain. We planted corn in 3 or 4 different patches in hopes that one or more would produce well, and to spread out the harvest. Too much rain burst tomatoes and watermelons and washed the flavor from cantaloupes. The soil here has no nutrients, fertilize and then fertilize again and again, or harvest puny crops.  We moved the garden spot about 100 yards and had to learn over for we went from a too wet soil to a garden that is wilting two days after an inch of rain. I  seriously considered getting a mule to help me drag hose, I was watering so much.
            That “green thumb” people attribute so casually sure came with a lot of mistakes and sweat. Probably anyone who will put in the labor and the persistence to learn can have a green thumb.
           “I wish I had your Bible knowledge,” people sometimes say. Most of them could. It came exactly the same way the “green thumb” came. Study and skull sweat. Outlining sermons and Bible classes in my head while weeding that garden or splitting firewood. Teaching and having someone take me aside and explain the Word more perfectly. Researching and writing articles carefully so they would not bite me 20 years later (Pay heed those of you who are quick to post on fb).
            I try to give it away but they say, “Your classes are too deep,” those who have been on the pew for decades. I go to the prison and inmates who never heard Jesus except as a curse hear the same teaching gladly.
          The green thumb came because it was grow it or be hungry. Maybe if people understood, really understood, not just the “right answer” kind of understanding they give in church,  that Bible knowledge is more critical than eating, they could learn too.

Work not for the food that perishes
..
I am the bread of life
..

As newborn babes long, you long
.
 Keith Ward

 

A Half-Rotten Tomato

7/29/2021 0 Comments
Canning tomatoes is one of the more difficult garden season chores.  You wash each and every tomato.  You scald each and every tomato.  You pound ice blocks till your arms ache in order to shock and cool each and every scalded tomato.  You peel each and every tomato and finally you cut up each and every tomato.  How many?  In the old days about 5 five gallon buckets full, enough to make 40+ quarts.  Then you sterilize jars, pack jars, and process jars.  Only 7 jars fit in the canner at a time, so you go through that at least 6 times.
            And you will have more failures to seal with canned tomatoes than any other thing you can.  As you pack them in, pushing down to make room, you must be very careful not to let the juice spill over into the threads of the jar.  And just in case you did that heinous crime, you take a damp cloth and wipe each thread of each jar.  Tomato pulp will keep a perfectly good jar, lid, and ring from sealing.
            In order to have that many tomatoes you must be willing to cut up a few that are half-rotten, disposing of the soft, pulpy, stinky parts—and boy, howdy, can they stink!—in order to save sometimes just a bite or two of tomato.  Now that there are only two of us, I usually limit myself to 20 + quarts.  I still put one in every pot of spaghetti sauce, one in every pot of chili, and one in every pot of minestrone, as well as a few other recipes, it’s just that I don’t make as many of those things as I did with two big boys in the house.  Now I can afford to be a little profligate.  If I pick up a tomato with a large bad spot, I am just as likely to toss the whole thing rather than try to save the bite or two that is good, especially if it is a small tomato to begin with.  Why go to all that work—washing, scalding, shocking, peeling, cutting up, packing—for a mere teaspoon of tomato?
            But isn’t that what God and Jesus did for us?  For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it. Matt 7:14.
            The Son of God, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil 2:6-8.  And he did that for a half—no!--for a more than half rotten tomato of a world.  He did that to save a remnant, a mere teaspoon of souls who would care enough to listen and obey the call. 
Sometimes, by the end of the day, when my arms are aching, my fingers are nicked and the cuts burning from acidic tomato juice, my back and feet are killing me from standing for hours, and I am drenched with sweat from the steamy kitchen, I am ready to toss even the mostly good tomatoes, the ones with only a tiny bad spot, because it means extra work beyond a quick slice or two.  Aren’t you glad God did not feel that way about us?  It wasn’t just a half rotten world he came to save, it was a bunch of half rotten individuals in that world, of which you and I are just a few.
 But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. Rom 11:4-5

Dene Ward

July 28, 2003--Garbled Words

7/28/2021 0 Comments
Yet another technological advance is supposed to be making our lives easier—Keith now has a closed-captioned phone.  Now he can make his own phone calls.  Before, I spent hours on the phone because I had to do all of it.  When you add waiting on hold or for call backs, there were days I felt like a prisoner in my own home.
            Closed captioning has a long history.  Similar things actually began in the late 1800s with the intertitles (subtitles placed between scenes) of the silent movies.  Here is another little piece of information.  Subtitles are dialog-only while captions include things like atmospheric noises.  Open captions are permanent.  Closed captions can be turned off by the user.
            Once talkies started in the 1920s, the need for intertitles and subtitles ran out.  This made movies impossible for the deaf.  A deaf actor named Emerson Romero, brother of actor Cesar, found himself out of a job because he could not speak well enough when in the silent movies that did not matter.  He found a new passion instead.  He pushed for keeping the subtitles for the deaf community but did not get very far with it.  Still, it did influence things in later decades.
            The first captioning agency, The Caption Center, was founded in 1972 at WGBH, the public television channel in Boston.  Due to their work, the first captioned television program aired on March 16, 1980--The French Chef with Julia Child.
            All this eventually led to captioning for telephones.  I found half a dozen dates, but it seems that the patent for a captioned phone was first applied for on July 28, 2003.  That patent was approved and issued to Robert Engelke, Christopher Engelke, and Kevin Colwell on April 26, 2005.
            However, this voice recognition technology is not the perfect cure.  For one thing, it takes a minute sometimes for the captions to register and print up on the screen.  Recorded menus will not wait a minute for the computer to recognize the words and print them, and then for the caller to read them.  By the time the whole process has occurred, the pleasant little voice will be saying, “I’m sorry.  I didn’t catch that,” and unlike a real person, you can’t interrupt and explain.  I still have to deal with the menus for Keith.
            Then there is the machine’s inability to recognize every word.  If a speaker is not loud enough, all you get is “Voice unclear.”  If a word or name is odd, it will come up with the closest “normal” name it can find in its vocabulary.  I have been everything from “Jane” to “Jeanie.”  And if the word is something not in a dictionary, like a brand name or company name, the machine goes completely haywire.  Not long ago, Keith had to call a man about our septic tank.  In the course of the call, the man recommended we use Rid-X.  What did the machine print on the screen?
            “You’ll have to put some rednecks down their once a month.”
            Yet another time when I was talking to Lucas, the machine told me something about a “pork picture.”  Lucas had said nothing even remotely close to cameras or ham.  But the computer decided he had, simply because his speech was a little garbled at that point in the conversation.  He was a little excited, talking quickly.
            It doesn’t have to be a closed caption system to show us our words are a little garbled occasionally, especially when we stop and think about what we just said.  Think about prayer for a moment.
            I’ve heard people say, “I don’t want to bother God with my little problems.”  Did you really say that?  You don’t want to “bother” God?  As if you think that God considers hearing from His children a “bother?”  Is that actually how you feel about your children?  Haven’t you read the parable of the unjust judge?
            And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?  Luke 18:1-8
            If an unjust judge will pay attention to someone who “bothers” him, certainly a loving God will pay attention to someone He does not consider a bother at all.  In fact, he will give justice “speedily.”  Don’t think you are saving God trouble and merely being considerate.  Jesus said that when we won’t lay all our troubles on a Father who loves us, that the problem is a lack of faith, not an abundance of courtesy.
            And sometimes I hear, “God has too much to worry about without me unloading all my problems too.”  Once again, a lack of faith cloaked in consideration.  If you believe God is who He says He is, you cannot give Him too much to do.  In fact, the very wonder of it is that He pays attention to us at all!  What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8:4.  But pay attention He does, and He has the power to take my problems and your problems and everyone else’s problems and fix them in the blink of an eye.
            And I could go on with some of the thoughtless things I have heard—and said.  Sometimes our words are garbled.  They simply don’t make sense.  It would behoove us to listen to ourselves once in a while and straighten them out, because they certainly don’t give a pretty picture of our hearts.
 
​The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45

 

Dene Ward
 

Carrying A Lamp

7/27/2021 0 Comments
Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps, Matt 25:1-4.
             Every time we hear this parable the same point is made—it was foolish to have no oil for their lamps.  But one thing has always struck me from the outset of this little story.  Why were they carrying lamps in the first place if they didn’t also pick up some oil?  It’s like carrying a gun in a dangerous place but no ammunition.  It’s like carrying a hair dryer to a primitive campsite.  It’s like peeling a five pound bag of potatoes with no pot to cook them in.  Why bother? 
Does that mean the story isn’t valid?  Nope.  I see those same foolish people every Sunday.  They get up early to come to church and sit on a pew and a listen to the preacher—but they have made no commitment to God, to their Lord, or to their brothers and sisters.  They do absolutely nothing all week long—no Bible reading, no praying, no serving.  They live exactly the way they want to live, and usually don’t get caught.  Or maybe they are relatively moral, having been taught by their parents to be good people—not because God requires righteousness of His servants.  In fact, God is the last person on their minds in every decision they make.
            What’s going to happen when the trumpet sounds?  They will suddenly realize they did not bring any oil.  They carried a lamp every Sunday and somehow thought it would light itself or give off light simply because it was a lamp, or who knows what irrational reason. 
            You know that word translated foolish?  It means “stupid.”  It’s the word moros.  Look familiar?  I think it’s the word we get “moron” from.  Don’t be a moron.  If you plan to carry a lamp, put some oil in it.  And, according to the parable, carry some extra.  Sitting on the pew never has saved anyone, and it won’t save you.

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. ​Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause, Isa 1:11-17.

 
Dene Ward

Book Review: Cold Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace

7/26/2021 0 Comments
I have heard the evidences for the New Testament and the resurrection of Christ many times in many sermons and read them in many books, but the sub-title to this book tells us what makes it unique:  "A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels."  Det. Wallace is indeed a homicide detective, a cold-case detective in fact, and approaches the evidence from that perspective.  Two thousand years may be the coldest case he has ever investigated!
            In this book he teaches us how to evaluate both evidence and witnesses.  He takes you step by step through the process, the same process he uses as a detective, the same process jurors are instructed to use when evaluating the evidence for a verdict.  Along the way, he also gives us real-life examples from the homicides he has worked.  Those examples help you see as you may never have before, the power of the evidence we have for our faith.  As he says several times, both in the book and on its cover, "You can believe because of the evidence, not in spite of it."
            You may have a problem or two with his doctrinal beliefs, but that is really not the strength of this book anyway.  Read it for what it's meant to do and you will be fine.
            Cold-Case Christianity is published by David Cook.
 
Dene Ward

Chloe's Path--The North Side

7/23/2021 0 Comments
And now we head east along the final leg, the north side of the property.  We used to drive in that way, straight down the drive and across the top of the property to the front door. That was before we had a summer so wet we kept getting stuck in mud halfway up our hubcaps.  Somewhere along that north side is a spring that only appears during wet season and a neighbor had to pull us out of it with his tractor several times before we finally cleared a higher road we could count on that comes to the back door instead of the front.  I keep telling people I would never put my washer and dryer in my foyer, but few seem to get it.
            That wet weather helped us discover another problem.  The property directly north of us drained all over us.  We are on a slight grade, one you hardly notice until a summer downpour comes washing down from the neighboring land.  I will never forget the day I stood at the front door and watched a six inch deep torrent rush under the house, then raced to the opposite windows to see it come churning out.  I knew we were in big trouble.  The summer rains had barely begun and we were also in the middle of hurricane season.  In short order we would be washed away.
            We have a law, at least here in Florida, which says you are responsible for what your property does to neighboring property.  One of the neighbors found out the hard way when they did something on their property that left another neighbor in an undrainable, and un-drivable, swamp.  The ones who caused the situation refused to fix it.  “It’s not our problem,” they said. The neighbors who could no longer access their home had to call the sheriff, who sent out deputies to tell those selfish folks, “It is too your problem—you caused it,” and to make them repair the mess so their neighbors could once again get in and out of their land.
            The owners of the land just north of us, people who had bought it as an investment and did not live there, knew about that law, too.  All we had to do was make a phone call, and they sent out the equipment to dig a ditch along that north side that led straight to the run on the east where we started this walk, so their land could drain around us instead of through us.  Yes, it was a law, but at least we didn’t have to call the sheriff to get them to act.  In fact, they were quite nice about it and did not leave until they were certain we were satisfied.
            God has a law too.  It goes like this:  ​“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. Mark 9:42.  Paul spent a couple of chapters in both Romans (14) and 1 Corinthians (8) telling us the same thing.  Everything we do has an influence on people who see or hear us, whether we know they see or hear us or not. 
            I’ve heard people say things like, “I can do whatever I want to do.  That’s his/her problem.”  No, it isn’t.  It’s your problem when you want to claim to be a disciple of Jesus but do not follow his example.  We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” Rom 15:1-3.
            We influence people for good or ill by what we wear, how we speak, how we react to others, especially the unkindness of others, and any number of other things. God expects us to be aware of how our speech and behavior effects the world, and not only that, to care.
            Wouldn’t it be a shame if the world had to call “the Sheriff” on us?
 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. Rom 14:12-13.

 
Dene Ward

Chloe's Path--The Gate

7/22/2021 0 Comments
We have reached the northwest corner where the gate opens onto our property and leads guests down a narrow drive, past the wild corner, a shady field, the grapevines, the jasmine, and between two azaleas that stand as sentries to our yard.
            Thirty years ago we didn’t have a gate, or a fence to attach it to.  The titles on the land parcels back here off the highway were not free and clear, except for ours, so our boys grew up wandering over twenty acres in every direction.  They swam in the run and climbed trees in the groves that now stand on other properties.  They hunted and explored, and we cut our Christmas trees from the uninhabited woods around us.
            Then the titles were cleared up and people began buying and moving in.  Suddenly we had to deal with neighboring cows breaking through their fences and wandering our way to find good grass to eat, with pet pot-bellied pigs rooting in our garden, with donkeys braying loudly outside our windows, and packs of stray dogs terrorizing ours.  So we scraped up the money we had been saving over the years and put in a fence, with the gate at the road we had driven down long before anyone even knew there was a road there.  Now we can protect what is ours from wandering livestock, and the lock on the chain is especially nice during political season.
            The gate is a two-banger.  The larger portion is a standard cow panel, 16 feet wide.  But that isn’t enough space for a tractor pulling a cultivator and sprayer, which an old friend used to plow and treat our garden once a year.  So right next to the larger gate is a smaller one opening from the middle that adds 4 feet and just enough room for the equipment to come through.
            Jesus had some things to say about wide gates and narrow gates.   One thing I have noticed about wider gates.  It isn’t just that more people can get through them.  It’s that they can get through quickly.  Narrow gates stay that way because they are seldom used, and when you see one, the very smallness of it makes you hang back and consider.  Maybe you’ll poke your head through trying to make out what’s down there, but it still takes considerable thought before you will go down a place that not only few go, but they don’t go quickly.
            Wide gates on the other hand?  People go through them in a headlong rush simply because everyone else does.  Someone famous wears a certain color and before two weeks have passed everyone is wearing it.  A celebrity eats at a certain restaurant and the next week there is a line a mile long.  Someone posts a video on Facebook and it goes “viral.”  As soon as anything gets approval from a popular source, people can’t get enough fast enough.  It’s a mania, a craze.  Would you look at those words a minute?  No thinking at all involved in those words, unless you classify insanity as a thought process.  Jesus, on the other hand, expects his disciples to be thinkers.
            Star Trek always starts with a prologue ending in these words:  to boldly go where no one has gone before.  Isn’t that what Christianity is supposed to be?  Except for this one, critical, factor:  someone has gone before us.  He tells us that yes, it’s safe, at least in an eternal sense, and yes, you can do it too.  The gate may be narrow and seldom entered, but that is what makes us special, something besides robots in a cookie cutter world. 
            Today take a moment to think before you choose.  A quiet stroll with the Lord in a narrow shady lane may be just what your soul needs. 
 
​“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matt 7:13-14.

 
Dene Ward