On being 45

Yesterday (September 25th), was my 45th birthday. Yes, that right, on that day in 1960 I entered the world just before 2am on a bright Sunday morning. (There has been much contemplation on which 2am I was actually born. In those days, the switch from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time occured at 2am, the last Sunday of September. So was it 1:50 am PDT or 1:50 am PST? My mother, now deceased, was too busy to notice. It's a good thing I don't believe in Astrology -those star charting folks would have a devil [who I think is most happy when people believe in that nonsense instead of the Creator of the stars, BTW] of a time trying to figure it out.)
As always, I contemplate whether or not I have fulfilled the promise of that new life begun 5 decades ago. However, that promise was not made to my parents, nor even was it made directly to me. Instead, have I lived my life these 45 years in a way that honors the One who "created my inmost being, [who] knit me together in my mother's womb..., made me in the secret place... When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, [Whose] eyes saw my unformed body."
Often, I have disappointed Him, other times I have delighted Him. But, God willing, should I live another 45 years on this earth, I pray that the moments of delight outweigh His disappointments.

Thoughts on Prayer

After a recent gathering of the youth staff, I have been pondering the sort of praying that I've been experiencing lately in corporate settings. One thing that one of my friends observed is that we spend too much time praying for God to show Himself powerful or to move over people with His Spirit. Perhaps we should instead be praying for people to see God as powerful or to see His movement in the lives of others. I feel the need to pray that students lives be completely broken, that their love of the world and the things of the world be utterly shattered.
I realize that, in my own life, the most powerful prayers were ones that sought a change from my own sin-infested mindset to an alignment with God's heart and mind.
I know that the Holy Spirit is there interceding and praying the right prayers for us even when we are so clueless, but it seems like a waste of breath to pray for things that have already been made available to us like His love, His power, His gifts if we would just open our stubborn, disobedient eyes. It's kinda like my cat screaming at me for food after I already put it in his dish. Hello, Kitty? Look at your bowl.

Approaching Autumn

Well, here it is, another summer gone and the crisp air of fall -wait, I live in SoCal, fall air is not very crisp when you compare our autumns with say, New England's. Today we had a freak rainstorm with both lightning and thunder. It was so odd to hear the rain beating down on the skylight in my room early this morning. Late Septembers are usually hot and dry, perfect for brushfires or as my father and brother prefer it, for harvesting Lima Beans. I talked to my brother today and the rain wasn't too much to ruin the dry limas. All the rain we received in January was going to produce a bumper crop, so even if they lost a few to the weather, it would still be huge for them. It's amazing how much the weather affects our lives and yet we have so little control over it. Whether it brings devastion like Katrina or the gentle rain that waters crops at the right time, we don't know if and when these things will occur. One person prays for rain while another for sunshine, one wants relief from the heat, another tires of the cold.
Matthew 5:45 says, "...He [God] gives His sunlight to both the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too." (NLT)
Like the other things in my life, I just need to trust that He knows exactly what is best. The weather and everything else I experience in this world has a purpose for being the way that it is.