pair'o'parables; whataweekend!

Independence Creek was amazing; Here's one panoramic I took; I'll post some more soon.

I wanted to share 2 parables and a good example i received this weekend.

1. The Kingdom of God is like a man sitting on a ricktey pier surrounded by icy-cold spring-fed water on a hot summer's day in the middle of the desert in West Texas. He sits and is comforted looking at the beautiful water and so much wants to jump in, but fears: "what will the shock of cold water be like? Once I jump in there's no going back. I'm then committed to being wet. And cold, at least for a while. And then there's the whole drying off and..." This goes on for five or ten minutes until the heat of the day becomes unbearable. The man finally jumps in the crystalline water and is submerged and his senses are alive and he gains a new perspective and treading water he notices muscles he had forgotten; he is suddenly graceful, where on land he was lumbering; and he receives grace. endorphines are coursing; his eyes perceive new colors underwater; he is changed. the cool of the water soothe his body all over (who knew closed eyelids could feel so refreshed with cold water?) and he marvels at the energy spent on the pier thinking about the second of change when weighed against the beauty of swimming there in the day.

2. The emerging church is like a waterfall connecting parts of a spring-fed rivulet. Minnows swim happily in the God-carved pool above the falls; and other minnows swim happily in the pool below the falls. And above in the banked limestone shallows of the upper pool (where the current pulls water and algae and oxygen and particulates and minnows into the sluice leading to the waterfall), there are at least four kinds of minnows. Those who avoid the current, thinking they could never survive the strong current or could never imagine a sustainable life below the falls. There are also a few minnows who poise themselves in the current, yet resist giving in to the current; they grow into strong swimmers for life in the upper pond. Next, there are one or two minnows every minute or so, having already poised themselves in the current of the upper pool, use their gained strength to venture over the falls to experience life in the lower pool. Finally, there are the offspring of the third type of minnow: those fish who are natives to the lower pool, who, like the man who jumped into the icy water, have a hard time relating to the time before the plunge.

3. A really worthless, silly thought I thunk while wading barefoot in Independence Creek: A great example of a bell curve might be the size of fairly-smooth rocks and their propensity to hurt your bare feet while wading and walking around. The tiniest example (silica sand) is great to walk on, and doesn't hurt at all. Collectively, it cushions your feet. As you move up in smooth-stone size (coarse sand, then the finest gravel, larger gravel, then skipping stones, small rocks) you increase the pain to your feet, so that 2- or 3-inch diameter rocks can really hurt on a dry riverbed. Until ... .you reach smooth stones about two-thirds the size of one's foot. Then it becomes increasingly easier to walk as the smooth rock size increases. like I said, a silly observation.

what else?

- drove about 530 (paved) miles this weekend, (and rode on about 10 miles of unpaved ranch roads).

- saw more jackrabbits and cottontails this weekend than i ever have in my life. not many deer. maybe an audad. maybe a bobcat. several golded-throated birds that clustered in groups. couple random sheep and cows. lots of birds of prey. way up high. surfing on the thundercloud winds.

- my curious son picked up a poisonous centipede and wasn't hurt.

- i taught an old card trick to my son, and re-learned another old one from a friend.

- i had a great time watching 3-year-old Kate fall in love with minnows ("Nimmows"). She told me, "Daddy I wat to kiss them but they don't have lips."

- the parables were bourne from personal experience this weekend. i communed with God in a big, real way, floating for a half-hour alone in that icy pool after jumping in. i watched the minnows for a long time at the first falls while my kids and some others were building dams downstream.

- i stayed up way too late, took a few good digital pictures, and managed to not think about work and theology and big things. didn't get very sunburnt.

- my wife and i really enjoyed each other's company this weekend. i made up silly songs about Ozona, TX. to ease the road trip pain. she laughed until it got old. lots of forced rhymes for Ozona. Adam Sandler would be proud.

- i'm sure there's more. i'm tired. good night.

Comments

[bets]

I'm glad you wrote that, especially that first parable. Isn't it an interesting feeling, knowing you're living a metaphor at the moment it's happening?

[soup]

bets wrote: "Isn't it an interesting feeling, knowing you're living a metaphor at the moment it's happening?" --

yes; i'm sure it happens more than i realize; but it's often in retreat/mountain-top times that i have enough quiet centeredness or whatever to see it with new, learning eyes. most of the time i'm either wound-up, winding up, or spent from being wound-up. or asleep.