In contrast to my parents, I am a nostalgic type of person who likes customs. Not having customary parents (some of you are going to look that word up, I know), my brother and I don’t have that many customs or traditions to observe. And so, we don’t. We don’t have a place to return to where we always vacationed. We don’t have any real Christmas customs, except going to church. We have no Thanksgiving traditions since we didn’t have that holiday in Costa Rica.

As a result, our boys don’t have a lot of traditions.  But we do have places and events that we remember nostalgically–like riding the Metrorail in Miami or going on “Dadventures.”  But we don’t nurture the traditions like other families, particularly like people from other countries.

Spain, for example, has traditions that carry a thousand years of tradition. You might question the reasonableness of these traditions, but as customs go, they are all the same. For instance, people have hiked the Camino de Santiago for about a millennium. This is a pilgrimage traditionally from France to a town called Santiago de Compostela. Why do people do this? Because 1000 years ago, some enterprising guy announced that he had the remains of St. James there. And people have flocked there ever since. I may become one of them later this year.

Is that crazy? Maybe. The bones of St. James have to be somewhere, right? I read about a crazier one recently. Tucked up in a beautiful mountain range between Madrid and Avila (Janice and I found out just how beautiful it was up there as we got lost in them parts last year) is a little town called San Bartolomé de Pinares. There, every January, they have a custom, a tradition, which draws people from all over. The local priest has a “blessing of the pets” so to speak, that’s called Las Luminarias. Luminaries for us here are candles, put in a bag or something, that decorate a yard or a walkway at Christmastime. But for them, in January, it’s a big bonfire over which people jump their horses and donkeys. (Bet you weren’t expecting that!)  For hundreds of years, people have believed that the smoke from the fire, not unlike incense in the church, purifies the animals. Most priests in Spain have decided a little holy water suffices. But not in San Bartolomé de Pinares. They have different traditions.

Around the church office, we’ve started talking about our Holy Week traditions. Seems early. But Ash Wednesday is only 10 days away. Traditions can bring people together. They do in San Bartolomé – a town of 500 grows exponentially that day. I hope that happens here at First Boca. Traditions can bring us closer to the Lord as well–that’s the purpose of what we do around Lent. The preparations in our church are starting. I hope you are readying your heart.

Easter is going to be great!

Waxing nostalgic,

Craig

“You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. Deuteronomy 16:9,10

When I think about it, I have three (I think) speeds. And by speed, I mean by moving around, but also in my approach to things. Cars used to have three speeds, bicycles had three speeds, and I guess I do too.

 Now, in a car or a bike, the three speeds are slow, medium, and fast.  I think of my speeds as a little different.  The first one is “relaxed.”  These are the strolls watching the dog run around off leash.  Relaxed is sitting on the front porch with your grandpa, rocking away the afternoon just because you can, enjoying the company.

The next speed I would call “intentional.”  Now, it’s not called a stroll.  This is the speed that I go when walking by myself.  Now the number of steps recorded on the Fitbit matter, and the amount of time it takes matters.  “Intentional” is the speed of the conversation you have with the check-out person, or customer service (after waiting 16 hours for them to pick up.)  Intentional is the speed you use writing a business email, not a love letter.

And then there’s the speed I call “Costco.”  Have you seen this speed? If you belong to any of the insanely big warehouse clubs, you may have noticed that they trigger some kind of noticeable acceleration in people. Not everybody. You may not be one of these people. I offer more of a confession than anything else here: I am one of them. I see it in myself and am not proud of this speed. I confess this problem to you. The impatience starts out on the street because you must start looking at the line for gas while you are still on the street. You muscle your way to the shortest line of cars to get that elusive (inevitably middle) pump opening. Then you race to any open parking space to go inside. You do the Costco sprint to the collection of grocery carts, and that’s when the Costco bumper-car race starts. Oh, the slow people in the aisles! You have things to get, so get out of the way! And then, the same hunt for the shortest line at the gas pumps starts again for check-out, and then the final Costco dash to get past the people that stripe your receipt. And the diehards finish well with a dash to the car.

You may not have three speeds. You may not have these specific three speeds. But here’s my question. At what speed do you come to church? Are we sprinting in, sprinting out? What are our conversations like – with fellow believers and with the Lord? If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard someone say, “let’s say a quick prayer,” I’d be rich by now. I’m afraid that few are the prayers that I say which happen at the “relaxed” setting. Usually not “Costco” either. But God has all day. God has all year. God has eternity, and He’d love to sit on the porch and rock some time away with you on one of those Cracker Barrel rocking chairs. Do we have time to be relaxed with God?

Remarkable things happen when you just sit still for a bit. Out in the woods you start noticing animals. You feel the breeze. On a front porch you share more deeply. In prayer you remember others. In your own thoughts, God speaks.

Linger here today. God’s patting the chair inviting you to sit. There’s a lot to talk about. And to praise Him for. And things to ask.

Taking a breath,

Craig

We’re in no hurry, God. We’re content to linger in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you’ve done are all we’ll ever want. Isaiah 26:8 (The Message version)

What makes you smile?  A joke, a child, a scrumptious meal?  Maybe something interesting or new on the news?  Hearing about a bear hibernating in a house’s crawlspace this week made me smile, and cringe all at the same time.  Watching a diminutive muntjac deer face off with a gentile rhino made me smile – you may have seen these videos.  And car stuff makes me smile.  I read this week about an SUV with 1400 horsepower.  It can do 0-60 mph faster than a rumor sprinting through a small town.  And particularly funny this week was when I read about a guy who repeatedly breaks records of a human travelling in a trash can.  Yes, a trash can.  Current record?  65 mph.  Isn’t that something you wish you could do?  If the garbage can would do that down my driveway on its own accord, that would truly make me smile!

I think we need to smile more.  I know so.  Listen to what the Bible says:

A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.

There are times when our hearts are full of sorrow.  And should be.  We lose a loved one, or a job, or our health.  And the Bible teaches us to mourn with those that mourn.  I’m not suggesting we ignore reality.  But this world does offer a lot to smile about.  And as Christians we have plenty to smile about – we have an eternity to smile about!

The above verse from Proverbs 15:13 says that a smile comes from a glad heart.  We can fake a smile, and sometimes we must, but a genuine smile comes from a glad heart.  What is in our heart?  If Jesus, if His Holy Spirit, fills our hearts, and not worry or a steady diet of angry news on TV, then we will smile.  We will be happy.

The next verse in Proverbs 15 says:

The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.

I’m not sure about all that verse means, but it does say to me that our hearts are nourished by what we put into our heads.  And when we feed our minds folly (there I read useless and maybe even harmful stuff), we end up with hearts that don’t make us happy.

The last verse of this section says:

All the days of the afflicted are evil, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.

Being cheerful feeds itself apparently.  A virtuous cycle is created when we feed on good things, and the good things make us smile, which makes us want to consume more good and helpful knowledge which makes us happy, which makes us wan…. You get the point.

I am pursuing happiness today.  It’s why I am in church.  I come to please the Lord, yes.  But the idea that God might be pleased with my praise and my worship makes me smile.  Which makes the Lord smile, which makes me smile, which…  Oh, here we go again!

Glad to be in church,

Craig

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.  Psalm 122:1

The pharmacist told me he would have my medication in about 15 minutes. What do you do with 15 minutes? Go back home? Take a walk? Go to Taco Bell? Fifteen minutes…

I wandered towards the front of the store and happened to walk by the magazine rack. “That’s what I’ll do, I’ll sit and read their magazines!”  They didn’t have a single car magazine, so I had to see what else they had to offer.  A million women’s magazines…. no.  National Geographic and Time special magazines—Jesus is big at Christmas time. But as I paged through them, they seemed just like last year’s edition, same old questions and same old responses. 

And then, I found one I had never seen before.  It’s called, descriptively, Conspiracy Theories. What has this world come to that we heed the siren call of conspiracies to such an extent that they can produce a magazine about it!?  “Conspiracy Whatever Theories” is the way they present it.  Yes, the Epstein File redactions have made it into the collective consciousness so much that we associate a black marker redaction with conspiracy theories. Every page had varying degrees of black marker lines in it – those black lines graphically elicited the paranoia very simply and effectively.

And the conspiracy theories?  Let me list a few.  Was 9/11 an inside job?  Was the pandemic real?  Are contrails really poison in the sky?  (I was in Cuba many years ago and a pastor’s wife quietly told me that when jets leave those long cloud trails, it means that they are spying on you—that was a new one!). Did NASA actually land on the moon?  They elaborated on at least 20 conspiracy theories, so many my medicine was ready before I could learn whether the Clintons left a trail of bodies in their careers or not.

Christians are well acquainted with conspiracy theories.  Many skeptics have questioned the virgin birth, claiming it had to have been Joseph. God couldn’t do that! The Sanhedrin accused the disciples of conspiring to hide Jesus’ body while claiming He had risen. God  couldn’t do that! The feeding of the five thousand wasn’t a miracle of multiplication of bread and fish, it was a miracle of sharing. God couldn’t do that!  And as we start reading through Isaiah this month, many a conspiracy theorist cannot believe that a prophet could so accurately predict what foreign powers would do to Israel in the future.  God couldn’t reveal that to a prophet!  The book had to have been written after the events to get them right! I read just last week about a carbon dating test done in 2025 that suggested that the Dead Sea Scrolls version of Isaiah predates the last prophesies of Isaiah, hundreds of years after he died. Hmmm. Who’s conspiring now?

Conspiracy theories have their place. I think journalists and police need to pursue them routinely. You never know sometimes.  But when the questions rise to the level of magazine subscription levels, skepticism leads to disillusion at best, and madness at worse. Miracles demand faith, no doubt (so to speak). I believe that Jesus’ was a virgin birth. I believe that God raised Him from the dead.  Why?  Because listening to those stories explain why Jesus has transformative power in my life and in the life of others that I know. The reality is that Jesus makes a difference in your life. Prayer asking for intervention makes a difference. Heeding His teachings has changed civilizations and history itself.  How could that happen? Well, because Jesus was Emmanuel (Emmanuel means “God with Us”) on Earth and His presence and power today can only be explained by His eternal life received at the resurrection. And any hope that I have for an eternal zoe in the future is based on
Jesus receiving his bios back 2000 years ago.  (If you were in church last Sunday, or know a little Greek, you will know what I refer to here.)

I want to embrace the stories of the Bible. The conspiracy theories on the other hand?  Not worth the paper they were printed on.

Back from the pharmacy,

Craig

These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.  John 20:31