Does anybody out there have a good recipe for cobbler?  Maybe even a pie?  At this
stage in the game, I might even go for some nice preserves.

 

Let me explain:  My father is also a Presbyterian minister and I guess I watched him go
through every stage of communications equipment available throughout my life.  There was a time, ...

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I finally got my easy button!  A quick look around my office will explain this one.  I have a tendency to collect little toys and gimmicks for fun.  Most of them have been gifts I have received over the years.  I have little toy train and Matchbox cars, Brain Teaser puzzles and even a denim side holster for a bottle of Tabasco sauce.  A dear friend of mine has drawn a couple of  cartoons of me and they are proudly displayed as well (We love you Matthew... hang in there!).  These things lighten the mood in a pastor’s office and make the stresses of life seem a little less daunting.  Some of my toys give kids something to do when they come in with their parents.  Sometimes they entertain my own kids when they are hanging out with Rev. Daddy.

A couple of weeks ago, I was placing an order for some office supplies we needed at the house when I discovered the order was about $3.00 short of reaching the $50 free shipping amount so I added an easy button to my shopping cart.  Spending $4.99 on an easy button replaced paying close to $15 on shipping.  It made sense economically... and I got an easy button!  Of course I could have purchased an extra ream of paper or a box of pens or something more productive... but I got an easy button!

You have seen these things on Staples commercials, I am sure.  Some completely disheveled office is the scene.  The employees are facing an impossible task and talking about getting organized.  One of them hits the easy button and ... POOF!... suddenly everything is done!  Everything is orderly and in its’ place.  There is always some poor sap who ends up stuck in the closet or a drawer or some sort of silly thing... and the voiceover proclaims, “that was easy!”

Mine seems to be broken.  As soon as I took the thing out of the box, I pressed my new easy button and was disappointed to notice that my desk was still an avalanche hazard.  My sermon was still not written for the week and I still had a number of phone calls and visits to take care of.  There was an audible, “that was easy” but none of the work was done.  I am now working on the theory that it may not be the result of a faulty easy button at all.  It may be that I am pushing it wrong.  I am working on my technique.  As soon as I get it right, this blog will write itself!  I have faith.

On the other hand, I did manage to rather easily make my wife happy this morning by supporting the other man in her life.  Stessa is the most faithful, loyal woman in the world but I am positive that if Harry Connick Jr. ever walks through the door, I will be kicked immediately to the curb without a second thought.  Lately she has been quite stressed and dreading her daily 25 mile commute to Alpine so I thought I would try and help out a little.  This cold, 38°, morning she climbed into her mini-van to find the CD case of Harry’s (as she affectionately calls him) new album with a note from me.  The CD was already in the player.  I got a very appreciative phone call from her as she drove into Alpine.

I used to do little things like that for her all the time.  In seminary, we lived in Austin, a much larger city.  I could swing by Central Market at lunch time and pick up a bouquet of flowers at very affordable prices.  I could purchase her favorite chocolate covered strawberries from Lamme’s Candies and have them delivered to her classroom.  I could take the time to meet her for a matinee at one of the local cinemas on her way home from work.  The trend continued when I took my first church.  Even though we lived in the smaller town of Seymour, it was easy for us to meet for lunch or maybe I would pick her up a small gift while making hospital calls or attending meetings in Wichita Falls or Lubbock.  Then we had kids; twins first and then a third.  Life got really busy all of a sudden.  When the twins were first born a funeral director friend said to me, “business has certainly picked up at your house lately, hasn’t it?”  Boy was he right!  Not only did life get busy but it got expensive.  Little surprise gifts for one another gave way to diapers and doctor’s visits.  Time together now included short young people.  Basically... life happened.

How easily we forget how easy it is practice random acts of kindness for those we love.  As a minister, one gets to know all sorts of things we would rather not know.  I have known about extramarital affairs before the spouse ever did.  I have known about abuse and fear.  I have even been involved in the aftermath of a husband murdered by his wife.  I have been privy to all sorts of horrible ways people treat each other in marriages and all sorts of relationships.  Those things burn deeply into the memory and just won’t go away.  The more pleasant ones are harder to notice.

Newlywed grooms don’t come to the pastor and proudly proclaim, “I REMEMBERED TO PUT THE TOILET SEAT DOWN THREE TIMES THIS WEEK!”  Wives of retirement age don’t mention the passionate comfort of a glass of wine and a meal out with a spouse of 48 years.  Less stressful mornings where all the children get off to school without a fight or a fit or mess or a tear are not reported by middle aged couples working their way through life.   Often times these things go unnoticed but they are the things that give life it’s most vibrant colors when things begin to appear a little grey.  I wonder, then,  why are we not more intentional about them in all of our relationships?  Why have I let the desire dwindle to offer my bride little gifts or actions of comfort that say, “I love you and I am thinking about you in this moment?”

$9.99 on Amazon.com and a handwritten note will by no means win me the husband of the year award but I managed to make a wonderful woman’s drive to work in the dark a little bit brighter this morning.  Making her happy may just be the most well spent expenditure of my time, money and effort that will present itself all week.  THAT WAS EASY!

For what great person can you do a small thing today?  Who can you make smile by offering just a little effort?  I was thinking that if we all made it a point to do some small something for someone each day this planet would be a much more pleasant place to reside.  I invite you to join me in such an endeavor.  And if you are thinking about doing this but can’t find the time or the money or the energy, come on by the office...  

I’ll let you push my easy button!

        

Fort Davis is a tourist town and we invite everyone to come and visit us.  We love this place and want to share it.  Here’s a little hint, though:  I drive a silver Chevrolet pickup with a clergy sticker in the front windshield and an emergency light bar on top.  If you see it coming, clear the sidewalks!

It’s actually September 22nd and it would seem that Mother Nature was glaring right at her calendar when her alarm clock began to ping.  Fall blew in right on time this year.  Yesterday was the last day of summer and it was a blustery 89° outside.  This morning we awoke to temperatures of 48° with the wind blowing at 26 mph.  The seasons are changing.

Adding to the dreariness, we also awoke to the reality that our 14 year old Australian Shepherd/ Border Collie cross met with some intestinal discomfort during the night.  Trust me when I tell you that’s all the details you want there!  While I was cleaning that rather gruesome mess, my lovely bride announced that one of the twins has a fever.  I’m working from the house today as I hang out with a girl child who is angry with me because I won’t let her go to school to take her first grade math test (I have to wonder if she will meet future exams with an equivalent amount of enthusiasm?)!  Yup... turning out to be a banner day at the Miles’ house.

As we were dropping the other two kids off at their respective places, it occurred to me that it was darker at 7:30 than it has been recently.  My immediate suspicion is that it has something to do with the rather large formation of blackish looking clouds in the eastern sky.  Already dim at that time of day, we are only moving toward darker morning hours which brings a new cause for alarm in my life.

For a little over a year now, my eyesight has been somewhat off.  Oh shoot, let’s admit that my eyesight has been horrible most of my life.  I have been wearing glasses since the 5th grade.  When I first started needing them, I remember not being nearly as eager to wear my spectacles as my daughter is to go and take her arithmetic exam this morning.  As I got older and as my classmates began to lose the desire to call me names like “four eyes” all the time, I finally got used to it.  Eventually, I grew to appreciate that I could get a new prescription when things started to become fuzzy.

Last summer, I received my new glasses and knew immediately that I was still not quite seeing right.  Attributing that to the fact that there is a period of adjustment, I ignored it for a time.  Denial is a wonderful thing!  It’s a three hour drive to get to my ophthalmologist, so I put off the inevitable fact that I was going to have to confront somebody at some point.  It was obvious that either the doctor had missed the prescription or the people who made the glasses had made a mistake in filling it.  Driving grew increasingly difficult as time wore on.  Driving at night has just become frightening so I finally broke down and headed to Odessa to face the music on Friday.

A quick view of the glasses at the doctor’s office told us his prescription was perfectly matched.  If the glasses were okay,  that meant that the prescription must be wrong.  After several tests, it turns out that my eyes have not changed and that they are as corrected as they can be.  So the obvious question had to be asked;  “Why can’t I see?”  The doctor explained to me that that happens to folks who have cataracts.  

CATARACTS?  

I’m too young for that!

Friday was a depressing day.  As I struggled with reading road signs in a city I don’t navigate every day; as I tried to see down aisles in stores while we did the inevitable shopping done by all rural folks in urban settings; as I tried to keep an eye on my kids playing with a bunch of other kids, I grew sadder and sadder by the moment.  My doctor has told me we have to wait to treat this problem.  For how long?  We don’t know.  But we have to wait.  And in the mean time, I cannot see well.  My frustration must continue for a time.

I’m certainly not the first one to whom this has happened.  As early as Genesis, we read that Isaac grew old and his eyes were so weak he could not tell the difference between his two sons.  It’s just that I have the distinct honor of being the youngest person I know with this problem.  But here’s the thing.... this is fixable.  I’m still trying to learn all the particulars but I understand that cataracts have to get “ripe for the pickin’”  before they can be treated.  Then it is a really simple procedure.  When I asked my doctor what I was to do about it in the mean time, he said, “be careful.”  Thanks Doc!

Friends will joke about my blindness.  I’ll even make an occasional quip about this to beat down the annoyance over my ever dimming sight.  But the truth is that I am so very blessed.  There are truly blind people in this world.  There are those who have never seen light or color and those who have suffered horrible injuries who’s sight simply and suddenly left them.  There are also those who suffer some disease of the eye that, at least with modern technology and understanding, will not be healed.

And... there are those who are blind to the goodness of God.  In this world are those who suffer anger and loneliness and torn relationships.  It’s hidden behind racism and sexism and it’s found in the form of violence in their own homes.  It’s hidden in the lack of listening to enemies and friends.  It is camouflaged behind the judgement of others.  I may have the beginnings of cataracts... but at least I can see!

As the seasons change in my life, I’m thinking of 11 year old Cole who had surgery for brain cancer yesterday.  I am thinking of those who suffer the cold without shelter.  I am thinking of those who live without love in their lives or food in their bellies.  Maybe my daughter has a stomach bug and my dog made a mess.  Maybe I don’t see well at the moment... All things considered, though, my life is really, really good.  Thanks be to God.

My friend, Jim Fowler, reminded me this week that you can see God better without eyes.  Not bad... not bad at all.  Thanks Jim.

        

Mixed Emotions this morning:  The weather is nice, really nice.  After a long hot summer in which many Texas cities (luckily not Fort Davis) set records for how long they held out under 100 degree temperatures, it’s 57 out there at 7:52 AM as I settle into my office and seek to process all the beauty and all the ugly that is churning in my head.  It’s not raining.  It’s not really even sprinkling but there is moisture in the air. It’s just enough to feel the occasional cool drop ...<< MORE >>

As I post this blog, my laptop will be plugged into an ethernet cable.  That’s right, a WIRE.  I say, “will be” because, as I write, I am not currently in contact with the internet in any way, shape, or form.  When it comes time to post this post, I will walk into the next room, plug in and log on.  How PRIMITIVE.  The horror of it all!

All this started with the crashing of a  hard drive on my wife’s computer.  This was no big loss, actually (although we are trying desperately to save the pictures of the last two birthday parties in our household).  That was an old Dell PC that has been around for about six years.  We have built and rebuilt. Duct tape and baling wire were soon to be a part of the equation with that machine.  A few months ago, it was infected by a virus and we were already budgeting for a new Macintosh laptop for her.  No Major loss.  The new computer has been ordered and we can share this one for a few days while we await it’s delivery.  Once the new machine arrives, my wife and I will be even more compatible!

We began to suspect a larger problem,though,  with the untimely demise of the DSL modem that was wired to that computer.  There were about four days in there where we were completely without internet service in our house.   A new modem installed and verified to be running has now led to the revelation that the wireless router has also lost it’s sense of identity (it has ceased to be a router and now thinks it is nothing other than a plastic box).   We have also lost the hard drive on our satellite DVR controller.  We’ve either had a power surge or an incredible run of bad luck.

This whole experience has got me to thinking.  There was a time that we didn’t have all this stuff.  When Stessa and I married, there was no internet.  I had an 8088 machine that I had somehow managed to salvage so I could write my college papers on it.  We didn’t have internet, there was no way to play music on a computer and video was not even a dream on a PC.  Email was not a consideration.  Neither of us even owned a cell phone because those were priced for only the very elite at the time.  Even then, phones were big ol’ clunky things that were mounted into cars by professional installers.

I bought a new computer the first year of seminary (believe it or not, this was only 13 years ago) that had all the modern amenities.   You know... we had a dial up modem and an account with the ISP that allowed for a certain number of minutes of internet use per month.  Email was GREAT!  You could turn on the computer, connect via phone line, and download your email.  Then you shut all that down, read and responded to your emails before logging back on to send your responses.  You didn’t want to stay logged on all of that time because it was cost prohibitive.  You used up your precious online minutes.  Not to mention, it tied up the only phone line you had while you were logged on.  People would get a busy signal if they called.

Stessa and I have been talking about how life has changed just since our marriage.  Our children will never have to live a life where this technology is not readily at their fingertips.  We don’t own Blackberries or iPhones in our house (yet) but I get a sense that by the time our kids are teenagers, the next new technologies will have taken over anyway.

Most of all, I think there is a lesson to be learned by our loss of modern amenities.  It IS possible to live without them.  Sometimes it’s even better.  There was a time, when one got curious that we actually wandered into the community library and looked information up in... wait for it... books.  While it is nice today to be able to pick up the closest computer and “Google” it, we also miss a visit with the librarian and other community folks we might run into at the library. 

Computers aren’t all either.  Not so many decades ago, families were driven by the heat of summer’s dog days onto their front porches where lemonade, conversation, and dominoes were shared each evening until things began to cool off a bit.  Neighbors walked by and joined in conversation.  Children safely played kick the can in the streets.  Today we have been sucked into our homes by the cool air created by our air conditioners.  Dominoes and checker boards are gathering dust in the closet as our interest has turned to television and video games.  We have lost some of our sense of community as a result of our “progress.”  We don’t talk as our ancestors did in this society.

In some ways, it’s great fun.  I have reconnected with a number of high school, college, and seminary friends on Facebook.  I can meet face to face with international friends on Skype.  I can email large numbers of church members by selecting their specific group and moving on.  I can look up each week’s sermon pericope with the click of my mouse.  But what has this done to my being able to connect directly with local folks in community?  Can I really get to know people without face to face, heart to heart conversations?  Can I know people as well, if I can’t share a handshake or a hug each time we meet?

Our world has become much smaller with the advent of the internet.  We can know more people for longer and stay connected easier with people around the world.  I can’t help but wonder, though, are these relationships less meaningful than they once were when people knew each other without the filter of technology between them?  

        

Airports have changed. I used to travel extensively but it has been several years since I found the need to crawl on a plane and be hurled through the sky. Today, with apologies to Ray Whitley and Gene Autry, I find myself “Back in Saddle Again.”

Things have changed around here. There was a time before cell phones and laptops that people would actually have conversations ...<< MORE >>

One of the great things about being Presbyterian is that I get to have friends all over the country. I am in pretty constant contact with folks who are also Presbyterians. It is a nation wide community of faith. We have things in common and we have places where we differ. Of course, life has changed a bit in the last few years. Contact with people is no longer a problem. Whether it be email, AIM, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Skype... you name it, we ...<< MORE >>

Easter. Is it over or has it just begun? I dare say for most folks in the United States of America, Easter comes and goes in one short day. Some may give it a long weekend on the outside. This year, the kids were out of school on Good Friday along with their mother who teaches in a different school district. Her school is in session on Monday but the kids have that day off too. So, Monday is my day to hang out ...<< MORE >>

Burying pets is never easy. Especially in the rocks! To be completely honest, I never expected much sadness when Gemini died. She was my wife’s cat. Never mine. There was no love lost between “that beast” (as I affectionately called her) and myself. We had a mutual disdain that seemed to work for us. It was almost a game for me. You could tell, though, that cat meant business!

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For some of us in this world, there is at least one single truth and that truth is that all good television entertainment ended with the Final episode of M*A*S*H. It was a wonderful break from reality with characters many of us grew to love over the years. I still look for reruns late at night when I get a chance. Sadly there are fewer and fewer occurrences each time my wife actually allows me the use of the remote control. The finale remains my favorite of anything I have seen on television... ever. A ...<< MORE >>

In 1996, when I matriculated at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, I really thought I was forever done with my experiences in volunteer emergency services. Our apartment on campus was less than a block from one of Austin Fire Department’s stations and AFD used the same tones as we had used on the last department I served in east Texas. I remember dimly hearing those tones late at night and jumping out of bed just like I had always done, raising all kinds of less than friendly comments from ...<< MORE >>

So... what do you do when you are involved in full time ministry, full time volunteer work, and have a family of five which includes three very time consuming children and their mother (to whom I am honored to be married) working in an adjacent town?  What do you do when you meet yourself coming back across every threshold?  What do you do when there is not one single moment left in the day?  The answer, of course, is start a blog.

This is it!  You are reading my first exploration into the universe of "blogdom".  I suspect introductions are in order.

I am the pastor of the little Presbyterian Church in Fort Davis, TX.  We do hope you will come and visit us.  We are a small, historic church with tons of progressive energy, creativity, and passion for Jesus Christ.  Our mostly agrarian culture out here has turned touristy in the last couple of decades.  Our ministry is often to those who stumble upon us because they have come to Fort Davis to drink in our sunsets in the desert mountains of west Texas and to let the stresses of the world fall away. 

We don’t have the tax base to hire government entities to do a lot of the things larger communities hire government to do so we all pitch in to get those things done around here.  It is sort of a sweat equity way of living together in community.  My version of that is to volunteer my time for the board of directors of our Chamber of Commerce.  I also volunteer with our local Fire and EMS departments just to keep the blood pumping.  While my family has been involved in this community since 1886, I moved my immediate family of five back to the area in 2007.  Since that time, I have had the chance to meet some really neat people. A lot of them live here.  Some have stopped by the church to take a picture or had an event that caused me to meet them in the back of an ambulance (nobody’s preferred method of getting acquainted).  Whatever the reason, God has called me to this place in this time and has put me in the path of some incredible people from around the world.

I hope you will wander along this path with me and share the things I learn and the people I meet in this incredible time of parenthood, ministry, and community service, in this place where my roots are planted at the center of the earth. It may not be where God lives but we feel quite certain, it is where God vacations!