Monday, November 21, 2005

Hippie Thanksgiving Tradition

This Thursday we will gather with our family and do all the usual things that folks do on Thanksgiving, but we will also do something that we began in So Cal some thirty or so Thanksgivings ago. We will listen to Arlo Guthrie sing Alice's Restaurant - again - all 18+ minuets of it. We have done this almost every year and if for some reason I forget to crank up the old Victrola (just kidding - we have it on cd now) our kids remind me that it just isn't Thanksgiving with out hearing Alice's Restaurant!

It is interesting how traditions create a bond within the family; they give us a sense of stability and place.

Thus says the LORD: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls…” (Jeremiah 6:16)

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving!

To call a holiday "Thanksgiving" begs the question... "To whom do we give thanks?"

We must assume that there is a person to have gratitude towards, in that an impersonal entity or object is incapable of receiving our thanks. Our giving of thanks to anything less than a real personal benefactor would be pure non-sense!

So who did they thank at the first Thanksgiving? They gave thanks to our loving Creator Father, God Almighty!

Check out The History Channel for info about The First Thanksgiving

Check out the Butterball Website
for holiday turkey recipes and tons of ideas for what to do with all that leftover bird.

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)

Thursday, November 17, 2005

The Price Of A Sparrow

According to United Press International a sparrow disrupted a domino display in the Netherlands this week. The sparrow knocked over about 23,000 dominoes in a 4.3 million domino display that was being set up in an attempt to break the world domino toppling record.

The sparrow was cornered and shot with an air rifle although it is a crime to kill the common house sparrow in the Netherlands with out a permit. Officials decided to shoot the bird with an air rifle after attempts to capture it were unsuccessful. The man who shot the bird with an air rifle has received death threats.

Now here's the absurdity of the matter...Where were the animal rights people when the house sparrow's habitat was being destroyed? The Dutch over build their cities and cause the sparrow to decline in numbers. After essentially killing off tens of thousands of house sparrows with bulldozers and chain saws they make the little bird a protected species. Now every one gets their BVD's in a knot because someone goes Rambo on one of them. They want to kill this guy for shooting one bird, yet the whole Dutch nation has benefitted from the wholesale destruction of habitat that supported tens of thousands of these same birds - the world has gone up-side-down!

Jesus lends us some balance here... "Aren't two sparrows sold for only a penny? But your Father knows when any one of them falls to the ground. Five sparrows are sold for just two pennies, but God doesn't forget a one of them. Even the hairs on your head are counted. So don't be afraid! You are worth much more than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:29, Luke 12:6-7)

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Running On Empty

This last few weeks have been very full, lots of projects to finish and deadlines to meet. The nonprofit that I work for put on a fundraiser benefit concert with several musicians and Jackson Browne as the main act. The concert was sold out with three thousand in attendance and all the proceeds from the event going to help fund the programs that we run for adults with disabilities. It was a great concert and it was such a thrill to see an event of this size for such a great cause.

By the end of the week I could really relate to the lyrics from two of my favorite Jackson Browne tunes, The Pretender and Running On Empty. I got to the point that all my gauges were pointing to empty - I needed sleep, food, ice tea, love, and most of all I needed my spiritual tank refilled. Spiritually I was running on empty, I had not found (or made) the time to meditate on the Bible, sit and listen to Father, or pray. Spiritually I felt dried up, parched, and run down.

Jesus said "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?" (Luke 9:25)

This is a condition that I have been in before and by it's self isn't too bad, but left unchecked it leads to a cycle of spiritual emptiness that ends up being filled with things that aren't so good. Nature abhors a vacuum and our heavenly Father meant our lives to be filled with him. When there is a lack of his presence in our day to day experience then the enemy of our soul rushes in to suggest things to fill the void, and that is when we get into trouble. Relationships take work to cultivate, and the same is true of our relationship with Father. We need to take time to hang out with him, talk to him and listen to him if we expect to have a sense of his presence in our lives. I find that prayer, quiet meditation on his great love, reading the Bible, singing songs to him and about him all help me to keep my spiritual tank full.

Running on empty isn't a good idea because when you run out of gas getting out and pushing that old '56 Chevy isn't so easy!

Peace, Love, and Light through Jesus the Christ!
Kevin (Cloud)