One of my ongoing goals is to learn a new skill each year. One year, I learned how to “keep bees.” I bought everything I needed, built the hives, and had two hives of bees for about five years when I gave them away to another up-and-coming beekeeper. I learned how to make soap and made lots of soap for three years, and then I gave all my soap-making stuff to another soap maker. I bought a wire feed welder and taught myself to weld from YouTube videos. I also taught myself how to paint cars from YouTube and am now painting a fourth car. Over the years, I have picked up a lot of new skills. Some have been pretty simple, like canning fish or making sausage. One of the more complicated ones was building a greenhouse, putting a 400-gallon tank in the ground, and raising Tilapia in an aquaponics system; that was a lot of fun. At the end of last year, when I was writing my new goals for 2024, I was trying to think of a new skill I wanted to learn that would be fun, relaxing, challenging, and good for a guy approaching old age. I have a Pastor friend who is an artist who paints beautiful pictures, mostly of different animals. I know several people in the church who are taking painting lessons, and my sister-in-law is a great artist who gives lessons. I “googled” artistic painting for beginners and found lots of information. One article suggested that I begin with “paint-by-numbers” painting to learn the mechanics of holding and painting with a small brush. I found a ton of information on companies that sold high-quality, expert-level pictures with all the paint and brushes I would need, as well as coaching on how to make a “paint-by-number” look like a “regular painting” by blending the colors inside the “hard lines.”

I have finished my first painting of a collogue of wild animals, and it turned out pretty good by my standards. I have it framed and hanging on the wall next to my recliner. I am working on my second painting of an old guy fishing in a creek with a red 1952 Ford pickup parked on the bank. The Ford pickup I rebuilt was a red 1949, but that is close enough.

I have found that I enjoy this new skill that I am working on; it is very relaxing, a positive distraction from life’s hecticness, and a new skill and a learning experience.

I wrote a book on prayer about 25 years ago. NavPress published it and quit printing it a few years ago. I have made a goal to write ten more books in the next 15 years. The first one is in the process now as a few helpers, and I am collecting the best of the blogs I have written from July 2014 until now and putting them in a book as lessons for living the Christian life. I will also write a book for Pastors on crucial lessons I have learned over the last 47 years of pastoring; I will write one on the Theology of eternal rewards, one on parenting, one on marriage, another Pastor book on how to start and teach a “Leadership Class” in your church, a couple of Christian novels, and several about our Bicycle trips across the United States. That is a big goal, but I think I can do it if I write the books like I do my blogs, 300 to 500 words every day. I will also try going away all by myself and writing ten hours a day for a week and see what happens. I might also try doing that for a month.

I have always been a dreamer, thinking about the years ahead and what might be and what could be if I worked hard and had a Nobel purpose behind my dreams. When I was 20 years old, I got married and had many dreams, but not one was about being a pastor; I didn’t have a single thought about writing books. I hoped we would have some kids, but I had no idea we would have eight, that they would all be champions for Jesus, and that we would have 28 grandkids, and I have no clue how many grandkids will show up.

I am fascinated with the concept of writing. We have the Bible in writing; God wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger in stone. Psalms 139 says that God wrote His plans for my life in His book. I will work at writing so that my books last over the years because of their value and power to stimulate life change. I am listening to podcasts on writing, reading books on writing, and reading books on various topics written by good writers. I pray daily and ask God to guide, bless, and use me for His glory through this goal.

I have been a bit depressed for the last year, feeling unmotivated, tired, and sort of bored with life because I needed something to challenge me and motivate me. This goal has gotten me revved back up.

I was recently talking to a guy who had just finished his first marathon. We talked about how your mind takes over around miles 18 to 22 and screams at you to stop running because you are killing yourself. This experience that almost all marathon runners have is called hitting the wall, and until you have experienced it, it is hard to understand. But once you have experienced it, you are amazed at how much power your brain has to control your actions, even when they are contrary to what you really want to do. If a person runs multiple marathons, he learns how to run through the wall by ignoring the thoughts that pour into his mind to quit and replacing those thoughts with positive; I can do it thoughts. On the second marathon I ran in Vancouver, British Colombia, I got to mile 18, and there was the beginning of a one-mile-long hill. As I started up the mountain, my mind started whining and complaining, and then a spectator stood up out of his lawn chair and held up a sign he had written that said, “You can do it.” He shouted, “Hey, number 440 (my bib number), I wrote this sign just for you”. It was amazing how powerful that sign was. It shouted out encouragement at the perfect time, changed my self-talk, and I kept running and improved my first marathon time by 30 minutes. Our minds are like spoiled children; we must train them to be strong and tough. Our mind is connected to our Old Nature, which is selfish, lazy, self-absorbed, and likes comfort. The people who accomplish the most in life train their brains and take every thought captive to obedience to Christ.

I was supposed to go steelhead fishing tomorrow, but it got rained out; the river was too high, so we canceled. This is the third fishing trip in a row in the last month that has gotten canceled because of weather; bummer. Regularly and often, things go wrong, not how we hoped or dreamed or what we expected. My life seems to go in seasons where a bunch of bummers happen all together, and then there will be a reprieve, and then life goes pretty well. I have lived long enough to know it doesn’t rain forever; the sun will shine pretty soon, and the fish will bite.

A string of rainy days and canceled fishing trips can make a person sad and depressed if they let it. I work at finding a new focus, a substitute for what I was planning, or a replacement guaranteed to be a winner. I am reading the installation instructions for my new Rohloff 500-14 rear hub for my bicycle tonight. I am so excited about getting it on my bike and giving it a test drive down the road. I have read the manual thrice, watched three YouTube videos on installing it, and watched several longer videos about how much more enjoyable riding a bicycle is with a Rohloff 500-14; I can’t wait.

You probably think I am weird getting so excited about a rear bicycle hub, but if you only knew what this baby can do!

The point is, there is something in your life, probably not very far away, that you could focus on that would bring some joy into your life instead of mopping around about what went wrong.

One of the things that I often heard my Dad say was, “Always do the right thing because it is the right thing.” People often say, “It is so hard to know what is right.” No, it isn’t; we always know the right thing to do. The problem is that the right thing is usually the hard thing, and we would rather do the easy thing, so we make the choice hard because, in our mind, we are trying to talk ourselves into doing the easy thing, and we confuse our own conscience.

The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

That means that when we do what is right, we will reap the rewards of the right choice we made, and when we do what is wrong, unwise, selfish, or hurtful, we will reap the consequences.

The problem for many is that the crop that we reap is delayed long enough after the sowing that we don’t connect the dots between our choices and the consequences that occur in our life; we blame them on our boss, our neighbors, or the government, and never grow in wisdom, so we keep making the same easy choices in life.

It doesn’t take much listening to conversations before you hear someone blaming someone else for their problems. Every morning, it is a simple commitment: “Today, I will not complain or grumble, and I will not blame anybody else for my problems.” It is simple to make but not easy to keep, but if we keep making the commitment, we will move in the right direction.

I know many people in our church who are older than I am. Some are in their 90s and are still doing reasonably well. But at 75, I still consider myself beyond simply senior, and now I am an old man. I am reminded of my status in life every time I attempt to tie my shoe laces or pick something up off the floor. I have been going to the YMCA in Albany with Patty; we bought a membership right after the first of the year. There are a lot of other old guys in there at the same time as us. I sit in the sauna for about 15 minutes as the last thing on my agenda at the “Y.” A number of other old guys do as well, so I enter into conversations with them. As a result of my time in the sauna with these scintillating conversations, I have made a short list of guidelines for my time in the old guy stage of life. I have a much longer list, but I don’t want to violate guideline #11.
1. If I ever have surgery of any kind, I will not talk about it to anybody except my doctor and my wife.
2. I will never mention to anyone except my doctor how many bowel movements I have had in the last week.
3. I will not be a tightwad. I will tip generously and won’t debate the total on every receipt I get.
4. I will not complain about the weather, no matter how rainy or icy it may be.
5. I will not gossip about or slander anyone, especially those in my family.
6. I will not talk politics.
7. I will speak of Jesus, the Bible, and my church more.
8. I will tell stories of my kids’ and grandkids’ accomplishments, not mine.
9. The exception to #8 is fishing stories.
10. I will laugh at other people’s attempts to be funny unless it is immoral or rude.
11. I will work very hard not to bore people with my conversations.
12. I will honor others by listening attentively to their stories, no matter how boring they might be.

These verses in 2 Peter are my new “everyday meditate on verses.” There is so much information in these seven verses. I don’t like to fill up my blog with too many Bible verses because I like to keep it short and readable, and I know you have your own Bible reading time and schedule, but these are so good I will include all seven verses.

2 Peter 1:5-11
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

One of the phrases that jumps out to me is, “if these qualities are yours and are increasing they render you neither useless nor unfruitful.”

So much of the time, I focus on the tasks and the ministries that need to be done in my living for and serving the Lord. But this passage puts the focus on growing in character. If I grow in these character qualities, I will be neither useless nor unfruitful for Jesus.

The key to growing in these character traits is ” applying all diligence” and “being all the more diligent.” I understand what that means, and I can do that.

The word repent is used often in the Bible, mainly as a command. We generally know what it means, but it is an intimidating word, so we tend to read it and not spend much time thinking about its application to our lives. It can, in places, mean to change how we think, but it usually means to change how we act or behave. We tend to think it is like walking into a changing room wearing old, dirty clothes and walking out wearing spiffy, new clothes, an immediate change based on our choosing what to wear. Most people want to change who they are and try to change, but not much difference takes place. Most people have given up on the “repent” thing and have settled for different coping methods to help them live comfortably with who they are.

Most of the Bible is filled with principles and guidelines on how to change, and most of them suggest that repenting is a process, not an immediate “about face.” Because I am a sequential thinker and a mechanic at heart, I like solutions to problems in steps, and each step to be pretty small.

The first step is identifying a sin, problem, or character flaw I want to change. I have many, but I only pick one or two to work on at a time; otherwise, I don’t do well for several reasons.

Second, I write out what I want to change as clearly as possible, making it measurable so I know whether I am moving. I write it out as an absolute; otherwise, I will become content with a partial change

When I fail, I confess it to the Lord with no justification or excuses; I own my failure 100%. I then recommit to conquer this problem and ask the Lord to give me His strength to do His will. As I notice positive progress in my behavior, I thank the Lord for making me increasingly more like Him.

If I can find books, sermons, or podcasts that revolve around the issue I am working on, I will work at learning as much as I can from others on how to conquer this problem in my life. Also, if I know of people who have had success in the area I am working on, I will seek counsel from them

Often, an area of my life that I am working on needs some accountability from others to succeed. The humility required to seek accountability or counsel from others is very pleasing to the Lord, and He will reward it with great strength.

A problem that I had in the past was getting angry at Patty. Anger is a problem that many people have that rarely gets better. I wrote, “I will never get angry at Patty, not even a little bit irritated, no matter what she has done and no matter how many times she has done it.” I told her of my commitment and that every time I said, “I love you,” I was remaking my promise to her.

Occasionally, I get irritated at her and say something hurtful, but I repent again, saying to myself, “I will only speak words that edify and build up, never words that are spoken from anger or irritation.”

Change is slow and complex; the key is to keep diligently pursuing it, never get apathetic or lazy about repenting.,

There is always a gap between what I know I should be doing and what I should be in character and what I am actually doing and being in my life. It isn’t just sin that causes this gap, but a lack of accomplishment and retarded growth in me, a sense of bobbing around in the ocean in a boat with the motor off. That gap creates guilt and tension in me, especially as a pastor, a father, and a grandfather who is supposed to provide an example for others to follow. I have discovered that this tension in me can motivate me or it can bury me with a sense of hopelessness, leading to depression over my failures. I have also discovered that I am not the only one who feels this way. This sense of being overwhelmed with this gap in our lives is why many people avoid going to church; they subconsciously choose to avoid anything that would make the gap bigger.

An interesting phenomenon in life is that the more I grow, the better my eyesight becomes into who I really am in character and accomplishment. It is like climbing Mt Adams; the higher I climb, the farther I can see.

I don’t want to remove the tension this gap produces in me by false self-talk that everything is OK, that would blind me and deceive me into who I am, but I think that is what many do to cope with this guilt in themselves. I don’t want to become like those people Jesus is talking about in Revelation 3:17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

I have discovered that the number of goals I have set for myself and the length of my daily “to-do” list contribute to my sense of being overwhelmed with life and my sense of failure. Most of the time, they motivate and drive me, but occasionally, they become a big club over my head. When that happens, I rewrite my goals into a list of only four, mostly easy ones, and reduce my “to-do” list accordingly. It is like priming the pump and restarting my motor.

I also honestly examine my life, confess any sins or failures to the Lord, and ask Him for His strength and joy to fill me as I pursue Him and His will for my life. This time of confession and asking for strength is often repeated over and over until the fire in me is restarted and burning hot.

We just had a week of freezing weather, at least for our part of the world. It was so cold and icy that we canceled church this past weekend, and I canceled a steelhead fishing trip scheduled for today. Dozens of people have fallen on the ice, and I have heard of three people with broken bones because of their falls. Some have had broken water pipes, and others I know slid off the road. This is what you call a significant inconvenience.

This past summer, it got so hot that I couldn’t sleep, so I bought an air-conditioning unit to cool off our bedroom at night so I could sleep. Our lawn turned all brown, and I canceled a week of bicycle riding. Now, that was a significant inconvenience. But the weather was pretty good between the cold and the hot.

Job 37:10 From the breath of God, ice is made, and the expanse of the waters is frozen.
God made the seasons, the heat, winter, the sun and stars, the moon and night and day.

Besides the inconvenience of freezing weather and super hot days, there are tornadoes, hurricanes, severe wind storms, earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions.

In all those, there is nothing we can do to change them, stop them, or postpone them. All we can do is compensate as best we can to endure them and survive them with air-conditioners and the like.

Why did God make life like this? The highs and the lows, the good and bad days, the cold days and hot days, the seasons, and the crisis events.

Did you know that the weather in the eternal Kingdom will be perfect? I am thinking about the day I will be abundantly ushered into that glorious place.

Did you know that God is in charge of our lives and the circumstances of our lives? There is a little bit we can control and influence, but not much. On the other hand, we can control 100% of our thoughts, attitudes, and how we talk to and treat others amid the freezing days.

Did you know that God is constantly training us, disciplining us, rewarding us, and shaping us into the image and character of Jesus? He controls the circumstances, but we control our thoughts, attitudes, and responses. We grow rapidly when we rejoice and cope with life positively, cooperating and loving others in the bad days. It is our choice every day. Complain or rejoice, it makes a lot of difference in the final results of who we are in our character.