The El Rio Pathway provides me with a lot of thinking time. Lately, I’ve been spending a decent amount of time on it. It takes me a good while to walk the 12 miles or so from my house to its northern end where it has crossed Congress twice.

I have labelled different parts of my walk. There’s the hospital segment by Boca Regional. Then there’s the FAU segment (which I want to share a thought about), and then the intersection of the Tri-Rail station, I-95 and Yamato, all of which are bypassed by the Pathway. And then there’s the stretch to Costco (you never pass up Costco), and finally the Big Bend.

For the last couple of weeks, before we had these rains, the canal that gives El Rio its name started slowing down. Usually, a nice flow of water cascades over a little dam along the FAU segment of the walk (think 4^th Avenue and about NW 17^th Street). But as I walked from day to day, the cascade became a trickle, then just a trickle on one side, until last week when the flow had stopped altogether.

That made for a calmness reminiscent more of a pool than a river. I smiled at the tranquility; I think peaceful waters soothe us as humans. But it told me that drought season had started visiting us. And indeed, we had fires out west that first week when I noticed this. I started wondering what tranquil waters meant. Calmness is one thing, stagnation is another. Drought even more. What do March and April have in store for us? Is this exposed little dam a sign? And what does this drought-induced pond say spiritually? I’d run out of philosophical inquiry by Spanish River Boulevard.

On the way back, at that complex intersection where you go under the train tracks, I-95 and Yamato, you actually walk on a section of the path that is below the water level of the canal. It would have been great if they had built the retaining wall out of glass so that you could see the fish go by (or iguanas more likely). In this section of the walk, the wind had picked up a little, and the flow of the ripples on the water flowed up stream. The water was moving in the wrong direction! Suddenly I engaged the philosophical inquiry again. (This inquiry quickly ended at Spanish River again, just coming southbound this time).

The tranquil waters, or shall we call them stagnant waters, were now flowing in the wrong direction, subject to the whim of the wind. Instead of going nowhere, the water was going backwards. And you know that it could not really flow backwards, at least not for long. Sans the power of the water flow, the pooled water just moved back and forth at the whim of the wind.

I think this happens to us. If we don’t follow in the flow of God’s grace and His will, if we lose the power of the Holy Spirit moving us forward, we trickle down to stillness like the little pool down by FAU. And while it can look tranquil, it leads to stagnation and even to going in the wrong direction. Remember what Dr. Livingston said? “I don’t mind moving as long as it’s forward.”  If we stop moving forward, we have started the process of moving backwards. That is not God’s plan for us. That simply is not the best for us–we are made to move forward. Physically that’s true, even if our goals change, and it’s also true spiritually. Job 17:9 says it succinctly: “The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.”  It’s important to keep this axiom before us, regardless of our age, our health, our status, anything. The righteous keep moving forward.

This week the rain has started the flow again in the canal. Praise God!

Putting my walking shoes on,

Craig

 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”  Isaiah 43:18-19

I like to start out the day reading what is called on the internet the “verse of the day.” Usually, I go to the

homonymous website, but occasionally, usually because it seemed repetitive from the previous days, I will seek

alternative ones. And last Tuesday that happened, and I ended up in Leviticus 19. If you want to read some interesting old laws, read Leviticus 19! Occasionally in the news you read about some archaic State law that some legislator is trying to change. This is a list from, I don’t know, 3500 years ago? We don’t need to change them, but they are old!

Much of Leviticus 19 sounds like an amplification of the Ten Commandments. Verse 14, for example, reads: ”Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.” That is a logical

sequitur to loving your neighbor, but I think even today we disobey that law as a society. As I read law after law, a lot made sense there in Moses’ words.

But some laws are not as immediately evident as others. There is a triad in verse 19 for instance. The triad says:

“Do not mate different kinds of animals.

“Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.

“Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.”

Now, you could respond to that by saying “what, do we kill all the mules? Can I clear my closet of polyester on religious grounds?” And I would smile at that, granted. What’s wrong with synthetics anyway?

Personally, I think not mating different animals was a way of God saying, “leave the animals alone.” A good word. And not mixing two kinds of seeds makes for weird harvesting. And weaving two kinds of materials? Simplicity and elegance are best served by a single material. That’s just my opinion.

But taken as a triad, I think it’s a call to focus on “the main thing.” The verse actually starts with the words “Keep my decrees.” I think God wants us to focus on Him and stay focused there. Me? I weave faith and fear together, I weave trust in the Lord with self‑reliance, I weave worship with distraction, and devotion with compromise. I weave God’s will, what I know His word says, with my will and selfish desires. I could go on.

Jesus put it more eloquently: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other,

or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24).

Jesus’ call to make sure we have one master serves as an invitation to live a focused life, a “purpose driven life” as Rick Warren put it years ago. The hymn’s suggestion that we “turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face” is so that “the things of earth will grow strangely dim.” Focus helps clarity. All the fusion and blending of this world cannot match the simple goodness of following Jesus. We need not mix anything else in.

Wearing wool socks today,

Craig

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26:3,4

Groundhog’s Day was a couple of weeks ago. I’ve never been clear as to whether seeing a shadow means more or less winter. I’ve never understood how you get a variation on a shadow (doesn’t that have to do with the time of day?) And I’ve certainly never understood what a groundhog has to do with it. All I know about woodchucks is that my Grandad loved to shoot them. Groundhogs poked their heads up at their own peril in Altoona, PA.

Several years ago, while walking in St. Petersburg, FL, I really wondered what would happen if Punxsutawney Phil came up in the middle of Williams Park in downtown St. Pete. Let me tell you about the park. It’s named after one of the two founders of St. Pete, General John C. Williams. The lore is that the other founder, Russian immigrant Peter Demens, having won a coin toss, got to name the city, which he named after himself and his hometown, St. Petersburg, Russia.

John C. Williams got the consolation prize, a park named after him. That park is right downtown today.

Across from that park, on the north side, is First Methodist of St. Pete, hence why I can tell you this story. Also, across the street, on the East side, stands the Duke Energy building, and the reason I am telling the story. As the sun begins to set (in the West of course), the sun reflects off the glass facade of that building (whose west side faces the park), down onto the park. So, as you traverse the park, you see your shadow both on your left and your right, one from the sun, and one from the reflection of the sun coming from the Duke energy building. That doesn’t happen very often! And again, what would they think of that in Punxsutawney, PA?

Whenever I walked in the park in the afternoons, I would smile at this anomaly. I’m not sure it’s an anomaly, maybe a curiosity? Phenomenon? I smiled, not because of Groundhog Day–that thought just hit me this month–but because I found it fun, different, thought-provoking. What does it mean that we can have shadows from two directions? Does it say something about me, as the creator of the shadow, or does it say something about the Creator of the light? I invite you to ponder that.

In the end, I think that I smiled because I felt the light, including warmth, coming from both sides of me. And spiritually that meant to me that God’s light is on me, not just shining from whatever the sun’s direction is from me, but from all over. God’s grace is all around me. I walk, or I can walk, in the center of His will, and that Light will create shadows in all directions. The walk in the park at that time of day comforted me and made me feel embraced by the God who is Light

(John 8:12). God is not Someone whom I have to chase, He’s all around me (including in front of me). God is not somebody I can flee from– “Where would I go?” asked the psalmist (Psalm 139:7).

These are beautiful days in Boca. They’re the reason we live here, right? Enjoy the warmth of the Son, I mean the Sun, as it shines all around us. And when you see your shadow, smile, it’s a sign that God’s light is shining on you. And if you see two shadows? All the better!

Walking in the Way,

Craig

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Psalm 139:7-10 NIV

The technological revolution of the last 100 years has definitely changed our lives. Sitting here with a laptop computer with no wires connected to it, with a cell phone with more computing power than the computers they used to send humans to the moon right next to me, I recognize the serious impact technology has had on me and the world.

As I write this however, the futurists (also a new term in the last century) tell us that robots are going to take over our lives. They tell us technology will eliminate work as we know it. I wonder. Do you remember the hype they built around the arrival of the Segway?  The inventors of that “Roomba with a Broom Stick” promised that their new product would change society. They were coy even about what part of society, they were that confident of its transformational nature. It turned out only lazy tourists following overstimulated guides would use them.

And there was the hype of Google Glass: eyeglasses that presented the internet on the screen of your eyeglass’ lens. What could go wrong there?  A few well-placed videos of guys reading a menu on their lens stepping into traffic with an emphatic thud of the encounter with a semi put the kibosh on those. Those videos were equally funny and terrorizing.

And then there are things we have heard of, but don’t understand, like cold fusion or the metaverse or decarbonization. They all promised revolutions right around the corner but seem to fizzle out as they come into focus.

People make big claims, too. Muhammed Ali claimed to be “The greatest.”  Isaac Newton claimed to be able to decode Biblical prophecy. Elizabeth Holmes is still in jail for claiming the ability to find every disease in a person from one drop of blood (although I think that one included defrauding people out of billions of dollars, too.)  Sun Myung Moon claimed to be Jesus 2.0.

Speaking of Jesus…. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to be God (John 10:30). He claimed to offer eternal life. He claimed He could heal the sick and raise the dead. And, well, He was all that and did all that. His claims were bigger than any of the ones I listed above. Jesus claimed to be God, to be omniscient and omnipotent and eternal. Those were BIG claims. The people (you and I) who believed Him did so because they experienced His power, found a better life in His commandments, and found a true transformation in their lives when they put their faith in Him. Those transformations have transcended any of the claims, realized or not, of technology, politics, religion, and their promoters. The reality in our lives proves the claims of our Messiah. And it’s what brings us here today in worship. The claims of Jesus have formed the world’s largest religion, have transformed history, and transformed even you and me.

Claiming the promises,

Craig

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Philippians 2:6,7 (1984 NIV)

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