There is a beauty in the rhythms of life. It is reassuring that the sun rises every morning and sets every night. One can go to sleep knowing that the sun will come up again. And every day closes with the same predictable event, even though each sunset is also gloriously and often breathtakingly unique.

The same is true for the seasons. Spring…..summer….fall….winter…..and then spring again! It helps us to feel secure to have this rhythm. We did not design it (for one thing, who would design winter???) but there obviously IS a design. It is beautiful and something to be thankful for.

There is a beauty, also, in the design of the species. Both we and the animal kingdom have within us an ability to adapt to change. Birds can have their beaks grow longer or shorter. Humans can, over generations, develop a different skin tone to respond to a different climate.  Chameleons really can change their colors.  Old dogs can indeed learn new tricks. The adaptation of species is truly amazing.

What about all this rhythmic beauty? We would never expect a Shakespearean sonnet to suddenly fall from the sky….and yet we are expected to believe that there is no designer behind all of this design? How can that be? We are a brilliant human race and can do much. We can predict the weather. We can manipulate DNA We can even clone. But we only do this by understanding the design and laws that are already present. God’s word says it is the glory of God to conceal things and the glory of kings to search things out. As kings (or scientists) continue to search things out, I wish they would not miss the grandeur of the universe…the magnificent RHYTHMIC BEAUTY in life.

WE ALL NEED OUR OLIVET!  I read this line this morning and the truth of it struck me.  It was referring to that quiet place of separation from the hammer of life.  That “alone with God” space that we all need.  What stress we all live with in our world.  There must be an escape valve.  There must be a way to release the pressure that builds in all of us. Otherwise there is a form of internal combustion. We can call it by different names.   Nerves, anxiety, stress, OCD, insomnia….the list goes on and on.   An extreme form is post traumatic stress disorder.  In some cases the result can be extreme depression or addiction or even killing rages.   In everyone ‘s life rain does fall, plans go awry, dreams die, regrets fill us, tragedies sideline us.  No one is exempted.

How shall we cope?  As a physician, I have watched people try many ways, but there is only one that truly works long term.  The Olivet.  It is the means to “get away” and access the wisdom needed to ascertain truth or have your vision realigned so that you are able to weather any storm.  Storms of loss or loneliness, illness or poverty, fear or regret.

One of my biblical heroes is Daniel.  I named my son after this man.  The biblical Daniel was, as a teen, ripped from his home and made a slave in a foreign land.  He saw brutality and warfare.  He knew the immense loss of having everything he held dear stripped from him at a young age through no fault of his own.  But he had his Olivet, amidst Babylon’s noisy world, by a window in his upper room.  It is where he went to escape the world and commune with God.  Though it landed him in a den of lions it also kept him sane.  He found the strength and wisdom to cope.  We can learn from men like him.

We live in such a broken world.  We are all constantly in danger of falling apart.  And physically we all eventually do!  Death is that reminder of our need for something this world will never offer.  It is a historically, well-documented fact that here has only been one to conquer death and rise again.  And we need to have communion with Him.  And even He, when he was here, had his Olivet where he communed with the Father.

I am amazed by the grandeur of nature.    I cannot comprehend the unfathomable vastness of space.  The Grand Canyon can take my breath away.  An eagle in flight can make my spirit soar.  But it is the small and nearly invisible things that truly put me in awe of creation.

An example of this came to me recently as I was reading about, of all things, an egg.  An egg you say?  Yes, a simple egg.  Every living person could probably write a short paper about the “incredible, edible” egg.  Could there actually be a fact about the egg that I have never heard?  I’ve eaten and cooked with enough eggs that I should, along with the rest of the world, be an expert.  I have never raised chickens or scooped eggs from a nest but I have a friend who does this, and I have visited her chickens.  I have studied the content of the yolk and the white.  Good for you?  Not good for you?  (I will not comment other than to say I would have a very hard time not eating eggs!)

Anyway,  I have never thought much about the shell, other than how to crack it one-handed like they do on cooking shows, and still keep the shells out of food.  But to a chick, this shell must keep it safe while it is developing.  That means it has to be tough!  Then when the chick is ready to hatch, it must release the chick.  That means it must be weak!  How is that possible?

Well……….it turns out that the eggshell has 2 outer layers that are made strong by a protein that binds calcium.  Then when the chick is ready to hatch, the calcium from the inner layer is released and becomes part of the chick’s bone structure.  At the right time, the chick gets stronger and the eggshell gets weaker and then……….peck, peck, peck until the sun shines into the chick’s little world!

When someone asks “May I help you” or ” Do you need anything?”, how do you respond?   I am prone to say “No thanks, I am fine.” I HATE to appear weak or like I don’t know something I feel I should know.  But I recently read something that made me realize how off the mark I am.  It was a simple story about someone who was working hard to help a seriously ill family member.  She put off other things…….like looking at her messages…but when she eventually did, one was from a friend asking if she needed anything.  Her first response was to say no, because she was embarrassed!  That’s me!  I am embarrassed to ask for help!  Many times I have been too embarrassed to even ask a question!!

But I have been thinking lately about truth.  I value honesty, both in myself and others.  I am realizing that there are subtle ways we deviate from the truth. There are little ways we lie to others and ourselves.  It is a truth that if you are human, you are not truly self sufficient. There have been many who have helped and sacrificed for me in order for me to be where I am today.  No one can truly raise themselves and provide all of their own opportunities. We all need help in different ways.  I am realizing that my go to “I’m fine” answer says more about my pride than my real need.  I don’t like to admit that I need help.  I want the world to think I can take care of myself….that there is no problem I cannot solve.  I am NOT needy!

I need to try to understand better when and where I need help.  That would be a better use of my energy than hiding my needs from the world and even myself.  It is not a sign of weakness to admit you need help.  It is often a necessary first step to moving forward.  So I am resolving to admit I AM needy.  After all, it has been true all along. .. and pretending not to be is not healthy.  Besides, pretending to have it all together all the time is exhausting!

America’s trust in her government may be on the cusp of disintegrating!  Crispin Sartwell, a philosophy professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. says that “The basic problem isn’t that people don’t trust institutions, but that the institutions aren’t trustworthy.”  Amen to that!  But neither is much of the media.  Or advertisements.  Or churches.  Or schools.

The downward slide toward allowing just a “facade of truth” has been a long one.  Think about it.  As a society, we have decided that truth is relative.  My truth may not be your truth.  But what you believe is equal to what I believe, regardless of whether or not either of our beliefs are true. How crazy is that?

No longer do we delve deep into a subject, searching honestly for the truth of a matter.  It is more important to uphold what is profitable, self-serving, politically expedient, or advantageous.  Lying for the greater good has become a normative behavior.  We lie to avoid hurting others. We lie to sell something.  We lie to avoid exposing our sins.  We lie to cover our previous lies.   You often cannot believe your neighbor or friend or work associate.  So if everyone has become a liar (and there are not little lies and big lies…..just lies), it is of course folly to believe an institution made up of liars.

I live in South Carolina and for days we have been wondering what effects hurricane Florence would have.  Though it was downgraded from a category 4 to a category 2 before landfall, it has certainly been destructive.  For some it has been truly devastating.  Suffering comes in all sorts of ways, but when it comes from something that we have absolutely no control over, it causes its own sort of anxiety.  And hopefully, it provokes deeper thought.

Control over our lives is pretty much an illusion, anyway.  We certainly have the ability to choose different paths.  But our vision of what is down those paths is very limited.  It is often the unexpected, good and bad, that shapes ours lives.  And sometimes what is painful redirects us to a better path.  Years ago, someone wrote “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn…”

My daughter was married this past weekend. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was so much fun. It is always wonderful to get a large group of friends and family together with great food and music….it definitely is a wondrous “moment” in life. I have been married 34 years and still look back at my wedding day and honeymoon with wonder.

Listening to my daughter and son-in-law say their vows made me remember how marriage is to be a mini-example of the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church. Each of them said to the other, “With all that I am, and with all that I have, I honor you” So simple. Why can we say that to another human and not to our creator? That is all he asks…for us to love Him with all we are.

So we should live with those words in our consciousness….

Lord, with all that I am and with all that I have, I honor You.

Such a simple way to change the world.

It is impossible to live long in this world without realizing that something is wrong.  That many things are wrong.  That our world is broken.  On this, all people can agree.  The reason for the brokenness and the solution to it are where opinions diverge.  For me, I believe that there are still VESTIGES of “how we were meant to be” evident all around.

The very fact that we are able to care, however inadequately, for someone outside ourself says that their is Truth beyond utilitarianism.  Evolution does not ever teach that it is wise to do for someone else UNLESS it benefits you in some way.   Survival of the fittest does not allow for caring for a handicapped child or helping the infirm elderly.  Yet most, whatever their belief system, would say that  these things are right to do.  Why?…a vestige.

There are terrible natural catastrophes such as hurricanes and floods and mudslides and fires.  But there are rainbows and starry nights and beautiful sunsets.  Coral of dazzling color buried deep under water where no human eye appreciates it .  Why?…a vestige.

And then there is human error (or dare I say sin?) that leads to broken families, homicides, abortion, or injustice of a million different varieties.  But as a society we still seek to enforce rules and correct injustice.  Why have laws?  Why seek to correct wrongs?  Why?….a vestige.

The list could go on, but you get my drift.  There is wisdom that generally leads to good.  Hard work generally gives a benefit to the worker.   As a general rule, doing good reaps healthy benefits and doing wrong (or evil) reaps loss and hurt.  But not always!  Our world is broken.  Why is it true at all?….a vestige.

There will come a day when the current world, with all its brokenness, will pass away.  Humans will still be in the process of trying to fix it themselves when God steps in to finally correct it all, just as He has promised.  How much better it would be for humanity in the meantime, if we spent a little more reflection on seeking the Wisdom that promises not just a total fix in the future, but a glimpse of it now if we listen.

What is wrong with the world?  As GK Chesterton famously wrote when asked that question, “I am.”

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PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD IS THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS

Her last few years were marked by a battle against both cancer and dementia.  I lived 600 miles away from her.  Fortunately,  her suffering was lessened by my 2 sisters who lived close and did everything in their power, and more, to make mom comfortable.

Dementia is a sad disease.  People leave before they really leave.  It’s been a long time since I was able to call Mom and really have a discussion with her.  I could not talk to her about her day or mine, or discuss a problem, or get her opinion on an issue.  Because of this, I mourned the loss of my mom long before her heart quit beating.  I missed not being able to talk to her while she was alive.  I miss her physical presence now that she has died.  But the odd thing is that since she is now with the Lord and of sound mind again, in some way she feels closer.  I know that she is more alive now in heaven than she was when she lingered here on earth.

There is a verse, 2 Corinthians 5:4, which talks about death.  It says, ” while we are still in this tent (or body), we groan, (ain’t that the truth?) being burdened–not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be SWALLOWED UP BY LIFE.”

I am not one who favors the cold.  Temperatures near freezing always threaten to put me in a foul mood.  Sometimes in the morning on a cold day, the chirping of many birds will interrupt the silence of early morning.  Now chirping birds always lighten my mood.  Moods are a funny thing.  They come and go and can change so fast.  But I have found that an almost sure way to brighten a “less than sunny” mood is with trying to find my lost, grateful heart.

Have you ever sat down and tried to list 50 things you were grateful for?   This morning I tried to do 50 things just from nature.

I am grateful for……

sunshine, sandy beaches, gentle and warm rains, rainbows, warm breezes, bees, honey, the smell of honeysuckle, flowers that bloom, and trees that bud in the spring.

I love a full moon, country nights away from city lights full of stars, waterfalls, green valleys, country lanes, horses, friendly dogs, digging in the soil, a garden and fresh vegetables….

blue skies, fluffy clouds, gold and silver,  turquoise and quartz, the smell of rubber and the smell of baking bread, the colors of autumn and the crunch of walking in fall leaves….

the sound of children’s voices, gentle hugs, passionate kisses, butterflies, rhododendron in the mountains, gentle streams, the taste of fresh caught salmon, butter on fresh bread, cinnamon and caramel apples.