Difficult Times

I had a few days this past year to travel back to my hometown area which shaped me into the person I am today.  Some of you might wonder about that statement, but it is true.  I cannot recall every learning moment of my youth, but I know they were there.  I learned humility, compassion, happiness, joy, achievement, and so many other good lessons for later on in life.  In that statement, you might discover that at the time, I may not have realized at the time when I was learning those life lessons that I was actually learning them - does that make sense?  

For instance, I may not have learned about my youthful decision-making processes until I actually had children of my own, who were faced with some of the same decisions that I had to make.  Even on into the autumn of my life (early autumn - more like the second summer of my life), I continue to realize things that I had gone through as a youngster and what it has meant throughout the years - how I have been shaped by those precious moments without even realizing it. 

One of the things which I have been thinking about a great deal lately is how I have always thought that life was simpler back then.  In fact, if you glance back through some of my posts on this blog, I'm certain I've mentioned that a time or two.  I know that each generation comes through challenging and difficult times.  In the 60's it was assassinations, Vietnam, racial strife, and the Cold War.  The 70's brought more difficulty - Watergate, drugs, high inflation and unemployment, energy crises, political scandals, and the still ongoing Vietnam War.  These issues contributed to a sense of national unease and a decline in public trust in government - something which has resurfaced and fueled the Make America Great movement in recent years.  

I could go on and on.  But this age we are in is an unprecedented moment in American history.  We have a government who is bent on making decisions and choices without the advice or consent of the elected people who are in Congress.  This government has carefully controlled the media to suit its own message - anything else is with fake news or just plain wrong.  We have our own military being dispatched to so-called problem cities to "police" them because the current administration thinks they are not doing their job.  We have sacrificed the dreams of many immigrants for something called safe borders, and our national leadership has allowed deportations to happen without due process.  It doesn't help matters much when the supreme law of the land has shifted its primary concern from the law and the constitution to the whims of the current administration.  I'm not saying anything new when I say that these are difficult times.

I purchased a tee shirt (seen here) that points a little fun at that message, but it is true nonetheless.  Being a music person, I thought it was funny.  On a serious note, I cannot remember ever playing a song that had a 13/8-time signature.  5/4-time - I came across that one a few times - the theme from Mission Impossible was one song which had that time signature.  No, it wasn't easy, but we learned how to play through it with practice and remembering the fundamentals of music.

So, yes, these are difficult times.

How can we expect to endure through them?  The message on the tee shirt might be cute, but the message from these days we are living in can be very frightening.  The way I figure it, the pathway ahead includes following the basic lessons of life we learned growing up.  We continue to respect one another.  We don't give in to negative practices or bullying tactics.  We might need to make changes, so, we need to work hard to make those changes.  And perhaps one of the most important actions we can take is to pray as though everything depends upon God and then work as though everything depends upon us.  Do it in that order.  Always do it in that order.

Eventually, I believe the times will straighten themselves out and an order will be restored.  I just need to return to the basics of a simpler life that I was taught long ago.  I wish everyone would do that.

But that's me.  Others might have a different time signature.

Batteries Plus

Every now and again life brings me to a moment when I am transported back to a simpler time.  It happened today when I was attempting to update the navigation system in my 2017 Ford Edge.  The online instructions seemed simple enough - download the files needed to a flash drive (make sure the drive is reformatted correctly), then with the car turned on, insert the flash drive into the USB and follow the instructions.  Seems simple, right?

Wrong.

When I inserted the flash drive into the car's USB port, I received an error message "LST_ERR05" which I immediately did not recognize.  Fortunately, there was an 800 number that I could call and they would help me with that error message.  Sounds simple, right?

Wrong again.

I called the 800 number which sent me through an automated system designed to make consumers lose their minds.  After what seemed like a maze of numbers, I finally heard a human voice, ever sweet and ready to help me.  This has to be the place where the story gets simple, right?

C'mon man... you know better.

I know this person was smart and gifted enough to help me.  I just had a very hard time trying to understand her grasp of English pronunciation as I hear it.  This isn't a racist thing at all.  I was trying very hard to catch every word, every phrase.  It just was difficult.  After about thirty minutes, I was finally able to get the proper files on my flash drive (the error message was all about not having the latest updated software system - it needed to be the 3.0 203.20.7 version.  I only had the 3.0 version.  Who knew?) 

So, let's go out to the car, start it up and get this update rolling.  Sounds simple now, right?

Seriously, you don't know hard it is to be me sometimes...

The car would not start.  I heard a familiar sound from my past of a clicking battery and what that meant.  The battery was dead.  No two ways about it.  My car was running just fine until I started this whole update navigation file thing.  I knew what I had to do.   I politely apologized to the woman who had been so patient with me for the past forty-five minutes and told her I would not be able to proceed until I got the car started.  She gave me my case number and went on her way to the next customer.  

I remembered where the hood release lever was and tripped it, opened the hood, and located the battery.  Here is where my Back to the Future moment happened.  A person used to be able to just remove the battery cables from the battery which was always located on the driver's side front part of the engine.  It was so easy to get to.  I was looking at the Edge's interior motor parts and trying to recall when the last time I had to take out a dead battery.  It was decades ago.  I used to have a Dodge Dart that I changed starters, alternators, batteries, oil, plugs... I was a regular Gomer Pyle at Wally's Service Station!  I wasn't the only one - we all knew how to do those things - and we did them!  Shazaam!

Fast forward to today.  When I looked at the Ford Edge engine, it took a moment to realize that the manufacturers had located the battery just underneath the back of the engine.  No longer easily accessible, it was wedged in a tiny space that was tricky to remove.  Anywhere else and I was going to get someone else to come and do this for me.  But I did get it removed and $243 tariff free dollars later (I hope), I was ready to install a new battery.  The installation went fine.  No hitches.  No glitches.  Just some blood, sweat, and tears along the way.

After all of that, the updated software never did get installed.  Not yet.  I guess I will wait for another reminder of a simpler time to accomplish that task.  At least my car starts - so, I got that going for me.

Faith Comes by Hearing

This has been a challenging week.  I'm not referring to anything that has been happening in the world.  I'm not talking about the fluctuation in the weather or the stock market.  I'm not even talking about the still high cost of eggs (and what are our plans for dying Easter eggs this year?  Someone suggested using potatoes.  I'm not seeing an Easter Spud Hunt.)

No, I'm talking about something that is really troubling in my life and there is nothing that I can do to naturally overcome it: it's hearing loss.  Yeah.  You heard it right.  Hearing loss.  This past week, it seems like my hearing has taken a turn for the worse.  I think it is the barometric pressure - a change in the weather patterns.  It could also be the tinnitus which I have self-diagnosed myself as having (I will know more in a couple of weeks because I have an appointment with a hearing specialist at Mayo).  I'm really hoping that this is a short-term deal, but I don't know.  It's tough to grow older, I guess.

Like I said, this week has been challenging.  And frustrating - for me and for others around me.  No one appreciates having to repeat themselves just because I haven't heard them.  They give you this exasperated look like you haven't been paying attention when you've been doing everything you can to try and hear everything that's being said.  And as one who is dealing with the loss, it's hard to sit in a room with others talking and not being able to participate because you cannot hear.

It's not a great feeling all round.  Nobody's happy.

Apart from setting up an appointment with a hearing specialist who can change the course of my life, there really isn't much I can do.  I can turn to scripture for help, but there isn't much that said in the Bible about someone who is losing their hearing.  The Bible doesn't explicitly address hearing loss as a physical condition, but it does use the imagery of "deaf ears" metaphorically to describe spiritual blindness or a refusal to listen to God's word.  While that might be timely for the world we live in right now, it's not really applicable to what I am dealing with.

I could study what it means to be patient.  The Bible encourages believers to be patient in trials, to wait upon God, and practice patience in their relationships.  Key passages highlight patience as a fruit of the Spirit and a path to peace and understanding.  One example of a biblical passage about patience comes from Romans 12:12: "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer".  I certainly could and will follow that advice.  

I can even appreciate how God makes it a point to single out the older adults among us (which I am now a part of) - listen to these words from Isaiah 46:4: "God promises to continue carrying his people through old age, stating, "And I'll keep on carrying you when you're old.  I'll be there, bearing you when you're old and gray.  I've done it and will keep on doing it, carrying you on my back, saving you" (paraphrased from The Message).  I know I have the gray hairs that are a requirement for this passage!

These are all helpful.  I know I will not always have weeks like this.  I'm actually looking forward to the results of my appointment and what it might mean - to hear clearly again.  And to my friends or strangers who are reading this post, I offer a word of encouragement and advice - please, do not take your hearing for granted.  It is just one of the precious gifts of being human.

You hear me?

The Betamax

It was sometime around the early 1980's, I believe, when one of my best friends at the time worked as a radio DJ and he had just started working at relatively new outlet store selling a machine called a Sony Betamax Video Cassette Recorder.  Mike must have been a good salesman because even though VHS had just come out, he insisted the Betamax was the perfect fit for our recording television show needs (up until they invented something that could record a television show, I didn't even know I had that need).  

So, I bought one.  A brand-new Sony SL-20 Betamax.  Over the years it has served its purpose - recording shows, movies, sports events - playing camera recorded events and the like.  But the VHS was a cheaper model which really took hold of the market and Beta taped movies became harder to find.  We eventually bought a VHS video recorder, and the Betamax was rendered idle, sitting unused for years.  Because we had recorded some family memories on Beta tapes, we couldn't get rid of the Betamax.  Plus, there wasn't a really good market for it.  So, it kept moving when we moved.

Advanced technology eventually caught up with the VHS companies... Compact Disks or CDs entered the market and before you knew it, VHS tapes were in danger of becoming obsolete as well.  CDs flooded the stores and homes became inundated with this new way of watching entertainment.  But it didn't take too long before the CDs were on the outs - the digital age had arrived and live streaming became the order of the day.  No more trips to Blockbuster or mailing the movies back to Netflix.

But what of the lonely Betamax?  My machine was still in pretty good condition - or so I thought.  I recall there were some precious memories on some of the Beta tapes and I wanted to convert them to digital files so that the kids and grandkids could enjoy watching them.  But there was a problem.  Who knew that moving eight times in 34 years would cause a machine to have some issues?  So, I found a guy who fixes these kinds of things (for a pretty high cost, I will say).  But I couldn't put a price on a memory now, could i?

I sent in the machine, and it just came back after about three weeks.  Works just a good as new.  Even looks new!  See the picture - mine is on the bottom - the brand-new model is on the top.  It was worth it because it had reminded me of a time in my life that I hadn't really forgotten but was grateful for the video reminder.   

The pictures you see below are just some of those precious memories. taken over one Labor Day weekend in northern Minnesota.  Yeah, they are a bit on the discolored side, but that is due to the age of the tape.  Goodness, those Beta tapes are over forty years old!  I took a few still shots of some of the kids' moments that are etched in my own memory.  The thing that is really cool is I see their movements, I hear their voices, I marvel at how small and precious they were at the time.  I would almost pay any price to preserve those memories.

Because kids grow up.  They have their own families and memories to make - as it should be.  This is not a lament over lost time or where has the time gone.

I am just grateful I have a reminder that tells me where part of the time was spent... good family time.  Spent together.  No devices in the way of conversation.  No worries but each day in and of itself.  It was a simpler time.  It was a joyous time.  Don't get me wrong, we had our problems of the day, like any other family.  But we had so many good days.  We watched our children learn, grow and become young people.  I am reminded of part of it because my friend Mike sold me a Betamax.  

Turned out to be a timely investment.  Thanks, Mike!

Advent Meditation

For most folks, this is the time of year to prepare for the Christmas celebration.  Lots of activities to in which to participate... decorating, baking, parties, Sunday School Christmas pageants, sending Christmas cards - just a few of the things we do during this time of year.  

We've been doing some of those very same things.  But I've also been working on a project that started several years ago: the task of reducing the amount of stuff I have in my possession that my kids will not have to deal with one day.  We have made countless trips to Savers and Goodwill, the recycling center, the landfill.  Back in Worthington we filled three huge dumpsters - and we still have stuff.

One of the boxes of stuff I've been going through had several items that actually surprised me.  I didn't realize that I had kept them all of these years.  What are these items, you ask?   They are every year end tax forms since I first started filling out tax forms.  Yeah, no kidding!  From 1974 (the first year I actually started to fill out a tax form) until last year, I had evidently saved every one of them.  Here is a copy of that form (with ss info blocked out for security reasons).

What is wrong with me?  

Don't ask me why... I suppose it just became a habit - something I wanted to hold on to over the years but didn't need to.  I checked this out - a person only needs to hold on to the last three years of their tax returns.  According to a tax expert, a person really should hold on to the past seven years.  And I read this quote which really opened my eyes: No one needs to keep twenty years' worth of tax documents.

Guilty.  Not only guilty, but excessively guilty.  I discovered that I have tax returns from the past fifty years!  Who does that?

Not me.  Not anymore.  Sometimes you just have to make a decision to stop let something that you've been holding ono to for decades go.  Maybe it's tax returns.  Maybe it's a behavior that is actually harmful to you or others.  Maybe it's a grudge and you haven't forgiven that one thing.    Isaiah 43 tells us to look ahead to the new thing that God is doing - forget the former things.  Do not dwell on the mistakes of the past.  

Perhaps that is easier said than done.  But it does hold a lot of merit.  During this season of Advent preparation, get rid of the old things which you've held on to that haven't been helpful at all.  Holding on to them will only tax your spirit.

Get it?

The Mystery of the Cube

I've always enjoyed a good puzzle.  My dad was a big fan of puzzles.  We'd always have a puzzle that we'd be working on, using the card table to put it together.  Of course, throughout the years, little games like Wordle, Scrabble, Words with Friends and the like were always an occupation of my time here and there.  I fancied myself as an excellent puzzle solver.  I could usually figure out any puzzle that was put before me.  Expect one.

The Rubik Cube.

I was never able to solve the cube's secret - getting all of the colors on their own side.  I was never able to solve the progression - turning the cube this way and that until finally all the colors were on their own side.  Out of the blue, I suddenly decided that I was going to do this.  If there was one puzzle that I was bound and determined to solve, it was going to be this one.  I picked up the original Rubik's Cube from the nearest store and started to work on figuring it out.  I have no qualms about using Goggle to help me figure this one out either.  

But I ran into a little bit of a problem right away.  I could not figure out how to get the cube out of the package!  All of the writing on the package was in French (I think).  I took two years of French in high school, so I could tell that there were no specific instructions on how to "ouvrir le paquet" - the French translation for "open the package").  I twisted the package - no luck.  I looked for a tab that might spring the puzzle from its package - not happening.  I even Googled how do you open the package of a Rubik's Cube?  

Nice!  The first hit was the following: To open a Rubik's Cube package, simply locate the sealed edge of the box, usually a glued or taped section, and carefully peel it back to access the cube inside; most packages will have a designated tear line or tab to help you open it cleanly.  Well sure, that seemed easy enough, once I knew the answer.

Solving the Cube will be a different story.  It's complex.  It's not easy.  And don't let them fool you into thinking it's so easy a three-year-old can do it.  Lies!  Nothing but lies!  Even having all of the technological advantages of hundreds of digital clues, it is not that easy to solve the Rubik's Cube.

I think there is a parallel between my inability to solve a puzzle block to solving some of the great mysteries of life: What is the meaning of life?  What did I do to deserve this bad luck?   Why do I press harder on a remote-control when I know the battery is dead?  Why do I always forget where I put my keys?

Just joking on some of those, but it is true that some of the most perplexing mysteries of life may never be solved - in this life.  I've learned to be okay with that.  I don't have to know the answer to everything.  In fact, if I only know a few things, that's good enough for me.  I know my family loves me, even though I am clueless sometimes.  I know that the Vikings may never win the Super Bowl in my lifetime, but I still enjoy watching them each Sunday.  I know I am a better than average pastor, or so I've been told.  And I know that I am not perfect, but I'm not supposed to be.  

And one more thing - I know that Jesus loves me- this I know - for the Bible tells me so!

Checking the Time

When I go to work at St. Mary's Hospital at the Mayo Clinic, I usually park in the East Parking Lot - a huge parking lot for Mayo employees.  I get out of my car and walk a short distance to where a Mayo bus is waiting.  The bus waits a few minutes and then proceeds to the Mayo Clinic downtown where many of the employees work.  I get off that bus and get on another that is called the "intercampus" bus, which drives about ten blocks to St. Mary's where I begin my workday.  I repeat the process in reverse when I am ready to go home.

I haven't met many people or befriended many people on these short bus excursions.  In fact, I do not believe I have met anyone that I even remotely recognize, especially if they work at St. Mary's.  I do recognize some of the bus drivers - there are fewer of them.  There is one common denominator that is present whether I am coming to work or going home that is very recognizable: the number of persons who are on their cell phones on the bus is remarkable!  I looked today when I was coming home and - no kidding - almost 100% of the persons who were heading home were on their cell phones - checking texts or Twitter posts, talking to loved ones, watching videos from Instagram, or if you are old school, checking the emails on your phone.  

I don't have any issues with anyone who is on their cell phone.  I do wonder what life was like before we got them.  I can only imagine I might have met someone and actually talked with them while on the bus.  I can only speculate that over the sound of the air brakes we might hear conversation between people who know one another.  

I do know this - cell phones are an amazing invention that is not going away any time soon.  It was back in the middle of the last century when speculation about what the future might look like was interestingly accurate.  Like this clipping from The Tacoma News Tribune from 1953.  Or the forward-thinking comic strip Dick Tracy, showing his two-way tv wristwatch.  In some ways, these predictions were uncanny in their accuracy.

But there are things that we sacrifice for the convenience and ability to connect is these modern "space age" ways.  We miss the connectivity of relationships.  It's so easy to talk on the smartphone or text someone or even FaceTime with them (which is closer but still lacks that warmth of the human touch).  But in this time in which we live, it is much harder to meet people and talk with them face to face.  

We have forgotten how to do that, quite frankly: how to meet others in the scope of normal everyday living.  Think about it - how challenging is it to strike up a conversation with someone who is using their smartphone?  Or even not using one, we lack the skill set that would have been developed over the years - where we learned how to converse with one another.

Trust me, I use my smartphone everyday:  I check arrangements with our family members; I want to know what today's weather will be like; I need to take a photo of our dog Maisy doing something that only dogs can do; I need to post that once in a lifetime picture instantly on my Facebook account; I check the news; I listen to podcasts; I set up live stream for worship services; I get updates on sports scores; and I can map out the next travel destination.  There are thousands of things I can do with my smartphone.  I would miss many things if I didn't have a smartphone.  I'm confident I would survive, but life would seem much quieter and simpler.

But I can't check the smartphone's feelings like I can when I'm talking with someone about their challenges.  I can't know the pain the smartphone might be going through like I can when someone is hurting.  I can't receive a warm hug from a smartphone like I can from a friend or a loved one.  For as much as the smartphone can bring to my world, it cannot bring me meaningful relationships with my friends - or begin ones with strangers, for that matter.  It requires personal interaction, something we need to be better at.  I do think about what this world would be like if we spent as much time cultivating our one-to-one relationships as we do checking our devices.

I'm not advocating anyone get rid of their devices.  I would guess that some are reading this post right now on a device.  But look up every so often and breathe in the air others are breathing.  Check in with a friend by meeting them face-to-face.  Put the phone down and read a book.  Paint a picture.  Go for a walk to see the fall colors on the landscape.  Don't miss the joys this life has to offer just for the sake of checking your phone.  It will be there.  Give yourself the gift of time.

"Time is a gift. But the wise know that this gift will eventually run out."

Psalm 90:12