Walking On Water Power

Please raise your hand if you have performed the following. Have you have ever walked on water?  Although I am not able to see your response I am guessing that no hands were raised. I am also guessing that you are thinking, "Has he lost his ever loving mind? Why is he asking me to respond to such a foolish question?"  Wait! Don't stop reading. There is a point to this seemingly ridiculous question. As far as we know, no one in the history of man or woman has walked on water except Jesus. Well, Peter briefly walked on water. Here is my point. Peter, a man like you and me, defied the laws of nature and walked on water even if it was only a few steps. He did the impossible. It happened after he asked Jesus if he could come to him. Jesus just happened to be walking on the sea during a raging storm. I don't think Peter's goal was to walk on water. I think Peter wanted more than anything, during this frightening storm, to be with Jesus, like a child who is frightened wants to be in the arms of his mommy and will run to her the moment he sees her. 

As Peter was taking those few steps he was thinking of nothing else but to be by Jesus' side. When we are in the presence of Jesus, our minds fixed on him, we have power, walking on water power. I’m not suggesting that you try to walk on water, but think what you could accomplish if you really believed that Jesus can use you to do what you have thought was impossible for you to do. Many Christians have experienced this same kind of power. Maybe you have too if you just think about

Matthew 14:28-33. Philippians 4:13

A Lesson From Rosco

Early this morning I took Rosco, my dog, out as I always do, so he could go to the bathroom. I don’t put his leash on him in the morning because no one is ever out walking their dog at this time. I do walk close to Rosco just in case someone does happen to be out. But today I wasn’t close enough to stop him when he ran across the street to meet a large dog being walked by his master. I yelled for Rosco to stop, but he kept going. Luckily the dog was friendly and so was the man walking him. I apologized for not having my disobedient dog on a leash. He graciously assured me there was no problem. 

After the two of them continued walking  up the street I scolded Rosco for not minding me, and told him to go back to the house with me. Now Rosco can be hardheaded sometimes, and as I was walking back across the street I turned to see Rosco walking up the sidewalk toward his new friend. Again I told him to come, and again he acted as if he didn’t hear me. I ran over to him, forcefully held him down on the grass and fussed at him. When I let him up he ran as fast as he could to our front door. I opened the door and he ran and got on his blanket. He laid there with his back to me. He was staring at the wall. That little fur ball always jumps up in my lap, but this time he would not even look at me. It was as though he was trying to  hide from me. I felt bad that Rosco didn’t want to get in my lap. I find joy early in those mornings when he snuggles up to me. 

All of us have a master who we are supposed to obey. We know when we disobey Him. Even a dog knows when they have been disobedient, and like Rosco sometimes when we have been disobedient we run and hide from the One who loves us unconditionally. Adam and Eve hid after they sinned, and ever since then man has hidden from God after they have sinned. Hiding from our loving Father is the wrong thing to do. Rather than avoiding Him we should come to Him, jump up in his lap and ask him to forgive us. No one loves us like our Father, and He gets great joy when we show our love for Him by snuggling in his lap. God’s lap is big enough to hold all,of His children. That’s the place we should go when we have disobeyed Him.

We Will See Clearly Some Day

 Last week I had my yearly appointment with my retina specialist, Dr. Casey. I have diabetic retinopathy. After having my eyes dilated and and a bazillion pictures made of my eyeballs I was taken to an examining room where I waited for Dr. Casey. I didn’t have to wait very long before Dr. Casey came in for our 15 minute conference. He looked at the pictures of my eyeballs for a few seconds,  and then scanned through the pictures that had been take the years prior to last week. 

Dr. Casey sat down on a stool in front of me, and with what I assumed was a very powerful magnifying glass looked into both my eyes. When he finished he told me that my eyes had not changed a bit in the last seven years. He said my eyes were in great shape, especially since I have had diabetes for over fifty years. He told me to come back in a year and asked me if I had any questions. 

I said, “Dr. Casey, I have been having trouble focusing on things far away. For instance, I sing in the church choir, and when I look out over the congregation the faces of the people are blurry. I think I might need glasses.” 

He replied, “I don’t think you need to spend four or five hundred dollars for glasses. You are probably like me. You would either lose them or break them. Just keep using your readers.”  

I guess his advice makes sense. There are many things we are not meant to see or understand. We go through life with blurry vision worrying about things we can do nothing about. We try to understand things about ourselves and others for which we do not have the ability to find the answers, and we struggle to know spiritual truths that only God knows.  He will not share with man. About these matters Jesus says, “Do not worry. Seek first the Kingdom of God.” In our days on this earth God will reveal to us and make clear what we need to know. The apostle Paul wrote about our limited spiritual vision, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” And Paul also said that we are to live by faith, not by sight.

One day we will see clearly, and what a glorious day that will be. Our eyes will be opened, and we will see amazing wonders which are impossible for us to comprehend now. In this time God has given us the vision to see what he wants us to see. Don’t try to find a pair of spiritual glasses to see what you wouldn’t understand if you could see it. I guess my doctor was right. It’s alright to see somethings dimly.

I Hate When That Happens

I just had one of those moments that every married man hates. I lost my Fitbit. We had gone to a graveside service, and I had worn an overcoat since it was one of the few blustery days we have  down here. After the service we came straight home. It was then that I noticed that I didn't have my Fitbit. I searched everywhere for that lost Fitbit and could not find it anywhere. I decided it must have fallen off at the cemetery. I figured that it was gone just like my wedding ring that I had lost a few years ago. I think I lost it at a graveside service.

When we went to the mountains over the weekend Susan, my daughter asked me if I had looked on the computer to see the last time the Fitbit synced. I didn't know what she was talking about. She told me how to check that out. I didn’t have my computer with me so when we got home on Monday I found that my Fitbit had synced five minutes earlier. That meant the Fitbit was somewhere in the house. 

I searched again and no Fitbit. I called Susan to tell her the bad news and she suggested that I purchase the app, Find My Fitbit. So I got the app and started the search again. The Fitbit Finder led me to one of our front bedrooms which happened to be where I keep my winter coats. I went to the closet and pulled out the overcoat that I had worn to the graveside service. I just knew the Fitbit had to be somewhere in that coat. I turned in inside-out but still I couldn't find it. I was frustrated. I yelled for Sherri to come up and help me search in that coat. The coat was lying on the bed when she came in the room. The Fitbit Finder was reading red hot. 

After Sherri searched the coat she said, " Have you looked around under  the furniture? Remember you were moving everything around the other day. Maybe you lost it when you moved the furniture" 

I said, "I lost know it can’t be under the furniture. It has to be somewhere on the coat." 

Sherri knelt down and started looking under the bed as if I had not said a word.

Even more frustrated, I said, "You are so hard headed. I told you the Fitbit has to be in the coat!" 

No sooner had those words left my mouth, Sherri rose from beside the bed with my Fitbit in her hand. She was smiling when she answered me, "Now who is the hard headed one?" 

I really hate it when that happens, but I was glad to get my Fitbit back.

A Big Disappointment

 Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Unfortunately St. Patrick’s Day is not the same for me. I grew up thinking I was Irish. If your last name is Brady you are Irish, right? Brady a derivative of O’Brady? 

After working on my family tree recently I discovered that my ancestors came from an area about an hours drive north east of London, England, meaning that the Bradys that I came from are British. I was disappointed, but I guess a British heritage isn’t all that bad. I still had hopes that my journey perusing the tree on my maternal side would reveal an Irish background. Again I struck out. The Christian clan is German. We were originally called Christiansen. I did find one ancestor that may have been Scottish. That was as close to Irish as I got.

I am not an Irishman. I had always wanted to go to “me homeland” as I let it be known in my best Irish accent. And Irish mashed potatoes have always been my favorite, so much so that my brother and I used to fight over who would get the first helping at dinner. Frequently, I would look up as my dad was offering thanks and Mike, my stinking little brother, would have his grubby little hand on the spoon in the mashed potato bowl. As soon as I heard amen I would grab the bowl, and the fight was on. I don’t know how many times neither of us got a taste of mashed potatoes. 

But just when I was thinking that it is all right to be British/German I discovered something much worse. I did one of those DNA tests at the first of the year. I was hoping that it would show for certain that I was Irish or at least British. No Irish whatsoever, but there was some British and German in my blood. But here is the kicker. I am predominately Finnish/Scandinavian. Who wants to be Finish? I know nothing about Finland unless that is where some of the Vikings came from. I can’t even begin to say anything with a Finnish accent. O well, I am what I am. Maybe some day I’ll get a chance to go to “me real homeland”! I’ll see if I can get one of those Viking hats or helmets. The best part of being Finnish is I think that is where Santa Claus is from.

Who Are Tammy and Chris

This morning Sherri was sitting on the couch looking at a video on her iPhone. I was in the kitchen fixing eggs and bacon for breakfast. I wasn’t paying any attention to the conversation coming from whatever Sherri was watching. The video ended and Sherri said, “Chris and Tammy Nichols have  sold their mobile home and their house in Florida and moved to Georgia.” I was trying to think how I knew Tammy and Chris. There was a Nichols family down the road where I lived when I was a kid. There were several children in that family, and I knew all of them, but I could not remember a Chris. 

Sherri continued to tell me about this couple. Chris wanted to move back to Georgia because he missed fishing in a lake near where they had moved. They had downsized because their two daughters were in college. When COVID hit the girls had moved back home, and they discovered that living in a 1,500 square foot house was a mistake. I was still racking my brain to remember who Chris and Tammy were. I was wishing I new Tammy’s maiden name. After Sherri had finished telling me more about Chris and Tammy I asked her who they were.  How did we know them? Her reply was, “Oh, I don’t know them. I was watching Tammy show some of her breakfast recipes on her website. She has over forty thousand viewers who watch her on “Collard Valley Cooks”

Sherri’s grandmother, Mimi, always watched “As the World Turns”. She would tell Sherri how she worried about a character on the show who had been going through some very hard times. Mimi had commented how bad the character was looking. I hate to say it, but I think Sherri has finally become her grandmother. I can’t believe that I wasted all that brain energy trying to figure out how I knew Tammy and Chris! You know, I would like to meet them now that I know so much about them. I feel like I do know them since Sherri told me so much about them.

A Crazy Story

Last Friday I went to Lowes and bought three bags of topsoil, three bags of mulch, some plants and a small Juniper tree. I got everything loaded in my trunk except for the tree, I don’t know what I was thinking. I had gotten one a few weeks ago, but that was all I got. There was no room for the tree, but I managed to squeeze it into the back seat, which reminds me I need to clean my back seat.

When I got home I unloaded everything and got busy planting what I had bought. After I finished I went inside, cleaned up and went to get my iPhone. I couldn’t find it. I looked everywhere. Sherri couldn’t  find it either. I have a “find my phone” app on my iPad so I checked, and there the phone icon was in the parking lot at Walmart. I had not been anywhere near Walmart. Someone had stolen my phone. I deduced that I had forgotten to lock my car when I was at Lowes. 

We called and reported the phone stolen, and had it locked so no one could use it. Sherri had given me the phone for my birthday last October, but didn’t get the insurance to cover a stolen or lost phone. I was going to have to buy a new phone. Those things are expensive. I had no idea that they cost so much. I decided to wait about buying another one, and see if I could make it without one. I couldn’t keep up with that phone anyway. 

On Sunday Sherri got a message from someone who had found my phone. She messaged him back and arrangements were made for him to bring my phone to us that afternoon. He lived in Wake Forest not far from where we live. We were excited and couldn’t wait to find out where he found it. We couldn’t believe what he told us. He knew who took the phone. You would never guess who made off with my iPhone. It was Sherri. 

When I was unloading my purchases from Lowes I had inadvertently laid my phone on the back of her car. While I was behind the house working she went to the grocery. About a mile from our house she was stopped at a traffic light. The young man in the car behind her saw the phone on the back of her car. He jumped out of his car and managed to grab the phone. Before he could get Sherri’s attention the light turned green and she took off. The young man started banging on the side of her car, but she kept going despite the fact that she heard the banging. He tried to catch her, but obviously he never found her. 

The mystery was solved. Just another reason why I should not have an expensive IPhone. I made it fine when all I had was a land line and an answering machine. If I want to take a picture I can use a camera. Also I won’t have to remember a password. I hate passwords and constantly trying to find my phone really upsets me.