This is my recumbent trike that I built from plans on the Internet. My friend Denny Fryman did the welding and my son in law Luke Doughton made the super comfortable seat. Friday we are leaving for San Diego in a 6 passenger pick up and Sunday morning we start our bike trip to St Augustine, Florida and I give this Trike her ultimate test. I have 81 speeds in it so it will be able to go up any hill I come to with ease, at least that is the plan. We are planning on averaging 70 miles each day. We are going to camp each night in a camp ground and Patty and I are planning on sleeping in a tent. We are planning on a rest day once each week on Sunday, and are planning on going to church each week. The recumbent is supposed to take about 20% more energy and calories to pedal than a conventional bicycle so I should lose more weight than last trip when I lost 45 lbs, but I was eating freeze dried food on the last trip, this one Patty will be cooking for me.

We leave on our almost 4,000 mile, San Diego to St Augistine, Florida Bicycle trip in 5 days and a standard question to me is “Are you excited”. I say “Yes” because that is what they are expecting, but the truth is I don’t think about it a whole lot of the time. I will get excited about it the night before. I set goals for the future and once I am sure all that is needed to accomplish the goal is in place I seldom think about it again. I think it is part of that right brain, left brain thing that I took a test on yesterday. A better question might be, “are you dreading it”? I am recognizing that the effort that I will have to put out to succeed will be very high and I don’t want to fail so I tend to purposely not think about it

I took a test on Facebook that says that I am 90 % left brained and 10 % right brained. Some people taking the test will be just the opposite, like my wife, Patty. I have taken Temperment tests, Spiritual gift tests, and Strength tests, and my results are usually different from most others and theirs as well. I remember years ago when I was still milking cows as an occupation listening to a pastor and he said, “we are all spiritual snow flakes”, we all are unique individuals in many different ways. We are different by creation, God in His sovereignty deciding what we would be like, our strengths and non-strengths. The Bible uses the physical body as an illustration teaching that each of us is like a body part, hands, feet, ears, eyes, and that when we are connected and unified by love, commitment, and acceptance we are very powerful and accomplish a lot. The problem is that our natural tendency is to compare, compete, judge, critique, and gossip. The Bible teaches that we are to “accept one another”. A key is to accept ourselves as being created by God by His design. Once we get comfortable with who we are, not arrogant but comfortable and accepting, we tend to do the same with others. I don’t become comfortable with my character flaws and sins, but I don’t beat myself up over them either. I systematically train myself with spiritual disciplines to grow a little bit at a time like Jesus in character and maturity. In the area of my non- strength areas I learn skills so I am adequate where I need to be for my responsibilities in life. In my non-strength areas I try to learn from those who are the opposite from me so I can be adequate. So my goal is to focus most of my energy and time in the area of my strengths and be adequate in my non- strength areas, and to partner and work with those who balance me out. I think that is why Patty and I do so well together.

The cross is the symbol of Christianity. People wear crosses as jewelry all over the world. The main reason is that Jesus died on a cross. It was an instrument of torture and death, and it’s purpose was to drain a person of all human dignity as they slowly died with hours even days of incalculable pain before a mob of watching spectators. So the cross symbolizes death, but it is also a symbol of new life, eternal life with God, because while Jesus hung on the cross God the Father took our sins and put them on Jesus and His agony and death paid the penalty of our sin. We get the free gift of eternal life if we accept this gift from Him because we believe that we need it. The cross is also the symbol of death and life as we live our life as a Christian. People,today do and say things to us and say things to others about us that wound, hurt, embarrass, violate our rights, and break our hearts. Most choose to get angry, retaliate, get bitter, and defend themselves, and it seems right, but is equivalent of Jesus calling 10,000 angels and wiping out the mob that was mocking Him as He hung on the cross or at least jumping off of the cross and telling people to go to hell, both which He had the power to do. Instead he stayed and died and the Father raised Him from the dead, exalted His name above every name, and gave us eternal life. God the Father gave His Son, that is, He is the one who put Him on the cross and Jesus submitted to it. God purposely puts us in situations where we are hurt, dishonored, and taken advantage of, and if we trust Him and humble ourselves He will exalt us and use us to give life to others, but it is our choice. Memory verses for the week, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” John 12:24 “Deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it.” Luke 9:23-24

I usually do my taxes on April 13th or 14th and occasionally the 15th. Today I realized that I was going to be pedaling my bike somewhere in West Florida on those dates so I was going to need to get them done before we leave on our biking trip across the USA. I started this evening. I have never gotten into doing them on line, I like doing them on paper with the good old 1040 forms. They don’t mail them to me any more so I decided to find a spot online and download and print them off. It took me about an hour to figure out where to go on line To find ones that I could print off. I got about half way done filling in all the numbers, and I realized that I had printed a form for 2014. I couldn’t figure out why they had those available still, but I went back and found the right year and started again. By this time I was getting a bit cranky so I decided to finish tomorrow and write this blog. Taxes have been part of man’s life since there has been government and I am pretty sure have caused people to get cranky from the very beginning. The cost of government seems to be going up and I found myself mentally fussing about it. Oh well, ours is still way better than most of the countries in Africa. Someday Jesus will be the King of the whole world and then there won’t be any taxes. Cool.

The topic of Spiritual gifts is one that is fun to think about and teach on. It is an ability that is supernatural and infinite in it’s potential to edify and bless people and cause them to grow. There isn’t much that brings greater fulfillment than functioning in the power of our spiritual gift. There is a great sense of contentment and a feeling that we are right where we were created to be. Patty’s gift is serving and she can be all tired out from a busy day and then she hears about someone who has some kind of need and as she goes about doing something about it she gets totally renewed in her strength, she becomes super woman! I can be so muscle fatigued and stiff from my Parkinson’s disease that I can hardly walk, and then stand up to teach the Bible and it will all go away. It is quite amazing to experience. The Bible teaches that our spiritual gift is like a part of our physical body, a hand, or foot, or ear, or eye. Each body part has a unique function and edifies the rest of the body. That illustration also demonstrates what is required for our gift to function. My physical hand won’t do anything unless it is connected to my arm, to my body. The church is the “Body of Christ” and if we are not committed to and involved with our church our gift will not function. Very few Christians today have any idea what their spiritual gift is, and the reason is because most Christians today have a very low view of the church in general and a very low level of commitment to their own church family. That is like cutting my hand off at the wrist and laying in on the key board of a piano and expecting it to play. All it will do is bleed and look gross.

As I pursue character growth in my life I have identified 24 character traits I want in my life. Two really important ones are self-control and patience. As I pursue these one of my commitment statements is that I won’t get angry because of trials, difficulties, unexpected set backs, or at people who do things to violate my rights, not even a little bit irritated. I have been doing pretty good at keeping that commitment for awhile, in fact I had a 108 day streak going. Today I had a long list on my “to do list” of things I wanted to get done, many of them in preparation for our bicycle trip to the East coast in 10 days. One of them was to paint water proofing stuff on the bottom of the tent Patty and I are going to sleep in. I bought two little bottles of it on line advertised as the best stuff possible for keeping tents leak proof, and it must have been because it was very expensive. I calculated that the two bottles would be just right to do the job well on our tent. I had the tent set up on the drive way upside down so I could paint the bottom well. A big blast of wind blew the tent and as I tried to keep it from blowing down the driveway I dropped the bottle of waterproofing stuff and it spilled out all over the ground. I got instantly angry and said a dairy farm word that I haven’t said for a long time. I was so thankful that none of my grandkids were helping me. Oh well, back to day one on the streak. Progress on self-control and patience sure is slow going.

After church today I took Patty out for a nice dinner date at our favorite restaurant, “The Roadhouse Grill”. She had “Baby back ribs” and “shrimp”, and I had “Baby back ribs” and “Prime rib”. Whoooeeee was that good. Nice dinner and very nice conversation with my wife of 47 years. The guy taking care of us came by with the bill, and said he would take care of it whenever we were ready. I could see that they had a line-up of people waiting for a seat on this Valentine afternoon, and so he was probably trying to hurry me along a little bit. I reached for my wallet and got this sick feeling in my stomach as I felt nothing and realized that I had changed pants after church and had failed to get my wallet out. Patty had no money expecting that I was paying for dinner. We discussed our options, and decided that washing dishes was probably not an option. We decided that I would tell them our dilemma, I would sit in the lobby eating peanuts playing “Angry Birds” on my phone, and Patty would drive back home and get my wallet and come back and we would pay the bill. I thought of calling someone at home but no one was home, and then I remembered that Dick and Lou Ellen Pearson lived somewhere in this area so I called them. Lou Ellen laughed hysterically at my dilemma, and when she caught her breath she said they would be glad to help us out, and Dick walked over and gave me enough cash to take care of the bill a few minutes later. It is nice to have friends in just the right places when you need them.

I went to the Portland Sportman’s Show today with two good friends. It was an incredibly fun day. The Show seemed bigger this year and all of the buildings at the Expo Center were filled with hunting and fishing guides with great videos of successful hunts and fishing trips. There were also booths selling fishing equipment of every sort, all of the latest and best in camping stuff along with camp trailers and campers, and lots of boats,quads, and trucks. I get a big plastic bag right off the bat and collect dozens of brochures on all of the various guided hunting trips promising Boone and Crocket record book deer and elk, along with the guided fishing trips. The one I got the most excited about was the trip out of Baha, California for yellow fin tuna that get as big as 400 lbs, now that would be fun. When I get home I read through each one the cool brochures once more, and then throw them away knowing that they all are out of our price range, but it was fun to dream and imagine a bit. I did buy a few things that I couldn’t resist, but just a few. The phrase I used at the start “incredibly fun day” is interesting. What does “fun” mean? What made it fun? Was it the all time funest day? If it wasn’t what was? I am always careful to acknowledge to the Lord that besides Him I need nothing in order to be full of joy. But it seems like when that is really true that the Lord is free then to bring days into our life where everything is perfect and good and is incredibly fun because He knows that we will not get addicted to that kind of day and worship it as it were because of the good time we had. God will have no other gods before Him and if we look to fun days with stuff and perfect circumstances to meet our joy need God will remove them out of our life. As I lay in bed tonight thinking about the day, I say “thank You Lord, for the gift you gave me today, it was awesome and you are wonderful, I love You”.

The death of Jesus is what gives us life forever. He died and then rose from the dead. The most basic message to us is to die to self and then Jesus will give us new life. Die to self is the most often given and most emphatically given principle by Jesus to His disciples for character growth and fruit bearing.
Luke 9:23-24 “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
Luke 17:33 Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
Our biggest problem is our ego. Probably almost every relational conflict we have is because of our ego. It is our biggest problem in our relationship with God. Because of our ego God doesn’t use us. Because of our ego God doesn’t bless us. Because of our ego God doesn’t know us. Those with ego problems are easily offended, they seek recognition, they gossip and slander, they are quick to defend themselves, they are not easily taught or corrected, they feel sorry for themselves, they are people pleasers, they argue, and they often feel they are being taken advantage of, they are fussers and whiners. We all are born with major ego problems, but if we are going to be blessed and used by God we must figure out how to die to self. If we die God gives us new life, if we die like a grain we bear much fruit. It is counter intuitive to lay down and let people walk on us, but if we do God exults us, and He does great things through us. But you say people will take advantage of me. That is true only if your God is dead. My Savior is very much alive and very involved in my life, and He will protect me and He will exalt me.