Rob's Grandma Dixie

Rob Robinson was a friend of mine all through Jr. High and High School, and we stayed in touch for a few years after. We spent a lot of time together in those days. Most weekends you could find one of us at the other's house, or both of us out together somewhere trying to impress girls and make general fools of ourselves (in a fun, nondestructive way).
Among my favorite memories of our times together were the times when Dixie, Rob's grandmother, would come in for a visit. She was a most delightful woman who told wonderful stories, but unlike a lot of older people, she was still very much in the midst of living life. She always seemed ready for an adventure.
One Summer we went to their family camp near Clendenin, WV, along the Elk River. The camp was actually permanent building which looked to me like an old house that had been converted maybe, with a great room, loft bunks, a kitchen, and bath. One night Dixie took us out night fishing in their john boat. As I recall, there was a lantern, a cigar (which she used to keep the mosquitoes away, don't you know) and some Velveeta cheese, which Dixie insisted was the very best bait, us, and our fishing poles, along with a few snacks for ourselves, as I recall.
Out on the river, pitch black except for the flicker of our lantern lighting up our smiling faces and the red glow from the tip of Dixie's cigar, we cast our bait into the water and drifted. In my mind I can still hear the night sounds of the insects and bullfrogs along the banks, and the rushing sound from down river where the water split, one half going over the shallows and the other forming a fast moving, deeper shoot around  the left side of a small island.
At one point, Rob's pole quickly bent nearly double, taking us all by surprise. He pulled back hard, but whatever had his line didn't give an inch. Suddenly, the line snapped, and Rob's hard pull on the pole all at once had no resistance, nearly causing him to fall backwards out of the boat.
"What was that?!"
Dixie was sure it was either a snapping turtle, or some game fish like a pike...something with teeth or a sharp beak, because the line was cut clean near where the hook had been, not just pulled apart.
That was a memorable trip in many ways. I got one of the worst sunburns in my life the next day, out on the same river, same boat, with Rob and his cousin Terry (Terry was a girl, upon whom I developed an instant, if short-lived crush). We made a couple of trips down the river and back, one across the shoals and the other down the left side of that little island. The water moved so fast there, winding right and left under low hanging limbs, that it was almost like a water ride at an amusement park.
I had my guitar along, and we sang while I played, and all the other things campers do. But of all that fun, I think the thing I remember most is what a sweet, wonderful, adventurous lady was Dixie.

Centralization Means Vulnerability

The state of West Virginia used to be a very agriculture rich state. Small to medium farms dotted the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and in Summer, roadside produce stands were as plentiful as fast food restaurants are now. Much of our water was from wells, either hand dug or drilled, and our local power plants supplied most of our electricity.
Then, an amazing thing happened - centralization! Over the years, huge farms began shipping in vegetables to our markets in larger supplies, cheaper, and more bug-free and larger in sizes! Our small farms mostly fell by the wayside. Government regulations played a huge part in the decline of small farming.
Huge water and sewer companies began running service not only in our cities, but out to rural areas, and hand dug or drilled wells became a thing for the history books, along with the infamous "outhouses". Oh...government regulations once again played a huge part.
Huge, out-of-state companies built a monstrous grid of power, linking local plants with others hundreds of miles away. Government regulations are trying to shut down our local, coal fired plants entirely.
The advantages to all these changes, which I call the centralization of civilization is generally more reliable, consistent, and plentiful services and goods. The disadvantage is also astonishing. If something goes wrong with a centralized system, a very wide area, and thousands, if not millions of people are affected.
Here are some examples: A small farm sells produce to locals at his roadside stand or in a local market. If there is some sort of problem...say a contamination of some kind, it affects a small number of people and can be located and handled very quickly. If we get our produce from Mexico, or some state hundreds of miles away, shipped to hundreds of grocery chains, any type of contamination is spread to millions before it is even detected, then it takes much longer to clear the shelves, and at a much greater cost, not only to our health, but our economy. And centralization of agriculture has NOT prevented such occurrences, as some would have you believe.
Consider our water supplies. When we got our water from small, local public service districts, if there was a problem, it affected fewer people, and could be handled much more quickly...etc. etc. The same applies to our massive power grid. A huge power substation, if it fails, can affect areas of several states.
My point is that, just as too much centralization in government policies, taking away state sovereignty, can do more harm than good, so can the centralization and conglomeration of our goods and services. In some ways - many ways - we are much better off if we localize, communitize (Is that a word?) and individualize our lives. Comments are welcomed.

Clean Water, Standard of Living

Photo from Wilson-Blair School Museum in Western KY

 
Yesterday evening, WV American Water Company issued a DO NOT USE  alert for their water supply because of a chemical leak just up river from their treatment plant. At the time of this posting, the alert is still in effect, and no one knows just when clean, safe water will be restored. That brought to mind some thoughts from a conversation earlier in the day with a coworker about growing up in WV.
    We were talking about how life has changed in our lifetimes. He is much younger than I, so I've seen many more changes, but he was raised in a very rural, WV area where many of our childhood experiences are similar. We both have seen times where outdoor toilets were a common sight in the WV hills, along with wood fireplaces and "pot belly stoves," and hand-dug water wells. The picture I've posted here shows several items with which I am very familiar - the water bucket and dipper, along with tin cups, a wash pan, and wash table.
     When I was very young, my grandparents lived on a 100 acre farm in a lifestyle that would now make an Amish family's life seem almost modern. The water all came from a hand-dug well with a dip bucket that had to be lowered by a chain over a pulley. The water was then drawn up and emptied into a two-and-a-half gallon bucket similar to the one pictured. The water was then carried into the house and sat on the side of the kitchen sink, where a dipper hung nearby. That was it...the entire drinking water supply for the household, and let me tell you the water tasted wonderful! It was pure and refreshing, with just a slight mineral taste. Water for washing clothes, bathing, and watering plants came from a rain barrel, which caught water from a downspout off the roof when it rained. Occasionally a little bleach was put in to kill bacteria and settle anything that may be floating in the water.
     Life was much simpler then, in some ways, and yet more complicated in others. We had to bring wood in for the fireplace and wood-burning cookstove that grandma still used until I was about 8 years old, or so. On cold nights, a block of #9 coal would be brought in and placed on the hot embers in the fireplace to keep the house warm till morning. Black soot would settle on everything in the house, and I often went to school with the smell of coal soot on my clothes after spending a weekend there. Even though I had no game system, ipod, smartphone, or other modern luxury, those days are some of the best memories of my life.
 ***
    Water is something we often take for granted in America. My daughter has been on two mission trips, one to Haiti, and one to Peru, where clean, safe drinking water is a precious rarity. Clean water is life. Not having it means sickness and death. We are just a bucket and dipper away from a very, very different America. When the local water company issued that alert, my thoughts went immediately to how much our lives would change, almost instantly, if clean water was not readily available. We don't know when our local water supply will be cleared up, but it won't take very many days for us to find out just how much it means to us.

How Important is Love to a Christian?

How Important Is Love to a Christian?

Jesus came to be a sacrifice, the final and complete sacrifice, for all the sins of the world. But while he was on this earth, he also taught many things to his disciples and all those who would listen. The most important of those lessons was one about love. As we’ll see, in his own words he said that the commandment of love is the greatest of all commandments, and all the laws and prophets (from the old testament) hang on love.

He taught that love was more important than burnt offerings or sacrifices. That’s a pretty amazing statement considering he was talking to those who were still living by all the old testament laws which required those things.

He also said that our love for one another will be what defines us - what shows the world that we are his disciples. More than any preaching or public prayers, love will be the sign that we belong to him.

Jesus introduces this concept by going back to the law and expanding on it:

Matthew 5:43-45

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

He explains a little about God’s love here. Evil, good, righteous, unrighteous…He extends the same sunshine and rain to all. God loves all, and wants everyone to come to Him in love. To be children of our heavenly Father, we need to also love, not hate, and pray for our enemies.

At one point, the Pharisees tested Jesus. The Pharisees believed strongly in the oral law passed down from Moses, which wasn’t written down till much later. They believed they not only knew the law, but understood how it should be interpreted and applied. They considered themselves pretty much experts in the law. So they asked Jesus a question to test his knowledge: 

Matthew 22:34-40

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In effect, Jesus threw them a curve ball. What he said was unexpected, and not directly a part of the ten commandments. He said that these two commandments of love are the basis of all the law, and the words of the prophets.

Everything hangs on love.

Here is where Jesus tells his disciples that love is more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices. He would later prove that, by showing the love of God through his own sacrifice to end all sacrifices.

Mark 12:33

“To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Jesus set the example of love for his disciples, and for all of us:

John 13:34

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Then he said that love would be the way the world would know his disciples. It is what truly defines and sets apart the ones who truly follow him:

John 13:35

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

In Romans, Paul reminds the early church that love is the basis of the law, and even the fulfillment of the law:

Romans 13:9-10

⁹The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

There are some believers who see the law in a very harsh, rigid set of rules by which to judge each other. You can see the fire in their eyes when they see someone breaking the laws of God. It’s as if they almost want to see the offender punished in some way. That is not the spirit of love that Jesus was talking about. That is judgment. To be angry with those we see not keeping the commandments is misguided. The Bible says that the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.

According to all these teachings in all these scriptures we’ve seen here, love is the correct response to those who are in sin, and those who are not living in the light. We should pray for them and above all show them God’s love through our own actions, and set an example, just as Jesus did.

If we see the law as a set of instructions, not to burden us, or to oppress us, but to guide us to love, and not harm one another, it all makes sense. We are not justified in God’s eyes through keeping the law. Jesus provided that justification. But to truly understand His will for us, we must know and practice love. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, we see some examples of how to display the love of God. It tells us what love is, and what it is not:

1 Corinthians 13

¹³ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

How important is love, to a Christian? It is extremely important. Without God’s love for us, He would not have sent His only Son to prove it. Without our love for Him and for our brothers and sisters, we cannot fully know Him. We cannot understand the meaning of the law, the prophets, the commandments, the teachings of Jesus, or have a true spiritual connection with Him…without love. Without love, all our attempts to serve Him miss the mark. That is the importance of love.

So how do we live by that commandment? Only through the Spirit can we see its full meaning and truly practice love. We must want to. We must make it the desire of our heart to learn it, to live it, and to share it.

The next time you read the Bible…any part of it, think about it as it relates to the law of love. It may amaze you how well it fits everything in the scriptures.