March 30, 2015. Madison, GA. We All Have a Role to Play

Life is a succession of events, planned or spontaneous; opportunities, embraced or passed over; temptations, yielded to or escaped; seasons of plenty or seasons of need. Life is a challenge and every day we are in the cross hairs of hundreds, if not thousands of assaults on our time, our money and our allegiances. We all have a role to play and many of us have multiple roles to play at the same time. Just think of all the things which tug at you, and you will understand what I am talking about.
This past week I had a role in the Passion Play at Centennial Baptist Church in Rutledge, GA. I was a Pharisee, a bad guy. I didn't smile a lot, or say very nice things about John the Baptist or Jesus. The only time I could have smiled or shown any satisfaction in my role, the lights were focused on Jesus being hustled out of the Garden of Gethsemane, I was in the shadows with my back to the audience and nobody was looking at me anyway. As Passion Play roles go, it was a juicy one with lots of opportunity to sneer, point fingers, demean people and be a pompous, self-centered know-it-all, kind of what I have been known to be for a good portion of my life. Then, it wasn't a role which won me much respect or "well-dones". A lot of people complemented me on my "performance" the past two nights, but I have been wondering how many people in Jesus' day would have complemented me if I were the one of the Pharisees who condemned Him to His fate on Calvary. While history would judge the Pharisees harshly, at that time they were probably well thought of and applauded. How would we have responded to the events of that day and time? How would we have responded to the message Jesus was delivering? Would we have been disciples or would we have been with the Pharisees?
When the Jesus character in the weekend play was thrown down next to the Cross and voluntarily crawled and laid hImself on that Cross before he was nailed to it, my heart (as a now out-of-costume actor) broke and I was once again convicted of how great a sacrifice Jesus Christ made for me, for you and for everyone past, present and future. What a magnificent role He played and what love He modeled to a world which needed Him so desperately then and needs Him even more desperately now. As we enter Passion Week we should rejoice as Christians and Christ-followers at the magnitude of what He did for us and what He asks us to do for others in gratitude for all we are and have IN HIM. Our role is to share with others what we have so graciously been given. To do anything less would be to not play our role to our utmost ability. Thank You Jesus and Praise You for the role You have given us in Your Kingdom, now and forever.

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March 27, 2015. Madison, GA. I Remember.........

When I came to The Lord in 1999, it seemed that God was expanding the areas In which I was spending my time into activities I had never been in or activities that I had been involved in many years before. One of the areas was drama. I began participating in the Weekend Drama Ministry, the Passion Play Ministry and the Christian Drama Outreach. Each required learning acting techniques, getting into a character's "motivation" and memorizing lines.
I have never had a great memory and part of the fear of getting up in front of an audience is that all the effort put into learning lines will be lost when stage fright or a lapse in concentration causes the lines to be forgotten or misspoken. After a while it became easier to perform and it was actually fun to play different roles and become another person for a while. But sometime in 2007 or 2008, I can't remember when, my acting career took a definite downturn when I could not learn my lines for a Christmas presentation and needed to be prompted continuously during the entire performance. The joy was gone, fear replaced confidence and I stepped out of the "light" unless I had a written script I could refer to or the lines were flashed on the back wall for me to read.
I did a few made-for-tv episodes, a dvd about the faith of George Bush, the entire 2014 Great Passion Play season, but all were roles where there was no speaking or the lines could be read or "mouthed" from a recorded script. Tomorrow and Sunday I will be part of the Passion Play at Centennial Baptist Church in Rutledge, GA and will have a number of "live" lines as a Pharisee. The one and only rehearsal was this past Wednesday and I had been given the script a week before that. I thought I knew the lines, but I was mistaken and needed to use the back wall crutch extensively. Tomorrow and Sunday night we present the play and although I am more confident, I am not close to being confident. Drama is one of the ways we preach the Gospel to those who don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I do remember the joy of the years I spent in drama ministries and I know that this will be another opportunity to feel God's voice coming through my mouth with the correct words and voice inflection for this time of "preaching" Jesus. I look forward to the next two days without wishing away today. Break a leg, everyone.........for The Lord.

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Colors of Spring

Blog to follow, tomorrow.....maybe

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March 23, 2015. Madison, GA. Not again........!

I think I jumped the gun on my enthusiasm for Spring springing. Yes, it warmed up and yes, we had to use the air conditioner to cool down the RV and yes, it is good to see the pinks and whites on the trees, and the greening up of the grass. But there is one thing I suffered with last year and yes it has already struck again.........CHIGGERS..........aaaaargh.
The red bumps, the infernal itching and the multiple remedies and suggestions for relief are back. I even sprayed before heading out the door Saturday to clean out ditches, but the beasties are back and my feet, ankles and toes are the victims of the first onslaught. I am washing, applying the various remedies which relieve the itching, and trying to heed Jesus' command to love my chigger-enemies, but this is not a good start to the "I want-to-be-outside" time of year. The best remedy right now of the many at my disposal, is Calmoseptine, which claims to promote healing of skin irritation, with itching being the last item on the list of irritations. My hope is that I don' have to use this remedy for the irritations higher up the list; they are pretty nasty and I won't go into more detail.
For now I'm grateful for the relief, will definitely have to work on my self-control, resist the itch-urge and pray the little critters don't climb higher on my body to the places they did last year where I was really not able to scratch in public and wondered why they would want to invade those places anyway. Yes, Spring has sprung...............help me Lord.


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March 20, 2015. Madison, GA. Spring has Sprung

While the Northeast is still struggling with winter and the West is facing ongoing drought conditions, we are beginning to see trees budding out, ants building mounds and temperatures climbing out of the space-heater range. We spent most of Monday afternoon mowing lawns, cleaning ditches and even planted some grass seed Wednesday before the rains came early Thursday morning? I wore shorts a few times this week and while we weren't as warm as our last few days in Florida, we know it won't be long before Spring will be fully sprung. We may actually have our first winter season without any snow where we have stayed. For Colorado residents that almost qualifies us for excommunication.
We will have an early Easter this year and I have been asked to be one of the Pharisees in the Centennial Baptist Church's Passion Play. There are two presentations next weekend and we will have a rehearsal this Sunday, dress rehearsal Wednesday and then the play. I've been letting my hair and beard grow to be ready for Eureka Springs in May and our return to The Great Passion Play there. This will be the 22nd year for the CBC Passion Play, so we are looking forward to the week ahead and the whole Palm Sunday/ Easter experience in a new locale. God has really broadened our walk during this journey and each day is an opportunity and an adventure. God is so Good and so gracious; I can only marvel at how blessed we are and how much we look forward to each day, the community of believers we are part of and the peace we have in Christ. Happy Spring. I pray this will be an awesome Easter for our family and friends, for our Shiloh Christian Church family in Colorado and for all who seek the God of Peace and the Peace of God. Thank You, and Praise You, Lord.


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March 17, 2015. Madison, GA. Work/home

Our time in Florida was intended to give us a time to rest, regain our strength, and have a Sabbath of sorts from the routine of the nine months in Arkansas and Georgia as volunteers. After two work days, Karen and I are wondering why our bones ache and we are dragging around like pooped puppies. Maybe we rested too hard.
But, it's a good tired and we have been welcomed back and told how much we are appreciated and were missed during our absence. It feels like home, and even the donkeys in the field next to us came to the fence to have their foreheads petted and their backs and necks rubbed. Earl remembers his aunt and uncle and Stewart, who heads up the Braille Ministry here, though he cannot see, recognized our voices and the names which went with them.
Yes, it's good to be here, to be part of something so much bigger and impactful than we can really imagine. As we say often, we are blessed, making a difference in lives here and around the world. Thank You, Lord for allowing us to serve You, being patient with us and providing everything we need every day. We will rest tonight and rise tomorrow, God willing, for whatever He calls us to do. All Glory to You, Lord.

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March 14, 2015. Back in Madison, GA. In an Instant..........

Today we came back to Madison, GA, after a month in Florida. We enjoyed our month-long rest, did about three hours of "work" during the month, and had a pleasant drive of about six hours from there to here. We were greeted warmly by Ron and Twila's dog Skittles as we pulled onto the Source of Light Mission property. Five hours later, after a fun evening of food and fellowship with our 3-couple-volunteer-family, we were burying Skittles, who had just been hit by a car on the busy road which runs by the Mission. In an instant laughter turned to tears, and a life which had brought joy to many was over. Five years of love and companionship were replaced by a small hole in the ground. A tiny dog wrapped in a blanket put to rest near where had been playing only minutes before.
In an instant it can all change. My last posting on this website struck a somber chord, and this posting, too, speaks to the uncertainty of life and the way our lives can go from one extreme to the other in an instant. We have all lost loved ones, had a roaring success turn into failure without notice, seen a healthy person struck down by illness or accident in the blink of an eye or seen a miracle bring triumph out of tragedy. In an instant it can all change.
I don't know the remedy or solution to the uncertainties of life, other than to trust that there is a bigger plan than we can fathom, that God is in control and can bring good out of any situation and can help us recall the good memories and live with them rather than the sorrow of the moment of loss or let it shake our faith or belief that God is Good and He desires only good for us.
Skittles was loved by a lot of people, and returned that love to all of us who were greeted by him, petted him, or were graced by his snuggling up to us as we sat in "his" recliner. Our memories will last beyond an instant.........God helps us to do that, if we will just let Him

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