Bittersweet Farm Journal (Number 100) A Fresh New Year

The new year has begun and we have arrived at a milestone: Bittersweet Farm Newsletter Number 100. I have a new keyboard to work with this year. It was a Christmas gift from all our children and it is a thing of beauty. It has the look and feel of a typewriter. It has raised, round keys and makes a satisfying “clacking” noise when you write. It connects with my computer via a wireless bluetooth connection.I also have a new Bible for the year. So I guess I was on the “nice list” this year after all. My Bible is the ESV Reader’s Bible in six volumes. My intent is to use the “move the ribbon” plan to read it. I may have received some pens and knives as well. What did you get for Christmas? What did you give… if it’s not too private?

A Promising New Year!

Now it is the first of a new year and I have… not exactly resolutions, but aspirations, desires, and prayer requests. Here are some of the things I pray for, aspire to, and desire in the new year.

This year I want to learn to listen more and listen better. There are things I don’t need to say and I want refrain from saying them. I want to learn to hear with my heart better.

I aspire to be a capable and faithful teacher/preacher of the word of God. I want to keep learning digging and study to teach and exhort well.

In the new year I know it is my place to be a faithful pastor of the Bethel flock. I want to be faithful in prayer, faithful in nudging people Godword, helping them grow. I want to shepherd the soul of those who call Bethel home.

With God’s good help, I want to pray, love, invite and invest in people who are far from God faithfully. I want to be continually aware of people who God is drawing to himself and lead Bethel and Bethel’s leaders in simple, faithful discipleship, following Jesus and helping others follow Jesus.

There are also birds to feed, stories to tell, roads to drive, and paths to walk. There are mountains to climb and oceans and lakes to see and there are songs to hear and paintings to ponder and to paint and there are words to write. I want to make my own watercolor cards for people and write more personal notes.

There are grandsons and granddaughters to watch and love and enjoy and influence for God. There are our adult children to pray for and to support. There are books to write.

…and for the last over forty years I have had Lois to love and I want to love her well and bring her happiness. She is a precious soul and God has allowed us to build a live together and have a ministry together. We are in a good season. Our marriage and fellowship is aging well and I look forward to enjoying that.

In college two of my roommates had lost their fathers. Here we are over forty years later and Lois still has her mother and I stil have my mother and dad. We want to honor and love them, too.

So as you can see, we have a promising new year ahead. Jesus is going to return some day. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Until then I want to spring out of bed every morning with a list of good things to do with my life and a fresh new day and a promising new year. How about you? What would you like God to do in your wife in this fresh, new year?

My Car in College

In my second year of college I had three other roommates. Two of them owned late-model sports cars. One had a Datson 280Z and the other had a sparkling new yellow Camaro. I didn’t take the time to really get to know them. I was young and busy and selfish and I had my own pressures and problems and adjustments. I didn’t listen well.

I had to study and work to make it through school. I worked late into the night and returned to the room very tired. They were not always courteous or thoughtful, nor was I. One night I was wanting to get some rest and they were horsing around and I said; “I’m not a rich kid like you guys. I have to work to make it. I don’t have a fancy new sports car to drive around.”

The care my mom and dad gave me to use was a reliable and efficient sub-compact, a VW Beetle with a big dent I put in the hood one slippery night and a bit of rust. It was all I needed but I had to charm girls because my car didn’t’ turn their heads.

Todd, one of my roommates said, “Do you know how we got our cars?”

“No.”

“Both of our dads died young and we both got our cars with the social security money,” Todd said. I would rather have my dad and drive an old car to work every night.

I mumbled an apology and got dressed and walked out into the vast college parking lot. I found the little powder-blue ’72-model Beetle and put both hands on the roof and stood there for a few minutes in holy quietness. I thanked God for the little car and with a full heart I imagined how crushed and how lost I would be without my Dad. I prayed and thanked God for my Dad.

Today, over 42 years later my mother and dad still live about an hour away right here in Michigan and God has given me a fleet of reliable cars to drive over those year for Lois and for me and for all ten of our family members.

Every Sunday night or so I catch up with my folks and we talk about life and ministry and family and the things and the people we cherish.

This morning I’m remembering my old roommates and wishing God’s very best for them. I’m remembering my old cars and my all-night dishwashing job in college. I am thanking God for a good night’s sleep and over 40 years worth of churches to pastor, and I am grateful to God that my mother and dad are still alive.

God help me to be a good listener to the “roommates” around me. Help me to love the people in my life while we still have them. Help me to influence as many as I can to influence others to know Christ so that when this life does eventually end someday we enter into life eternal together forever.

Bittersweet Farm
January 2021

Do you have a picture of the car you drove when you were young or in college?