Bittersweet Farm

A Day to Putter

Today (Monday, July 19, 2021) I did what I love to do. I started out with a quiet time on the porch with a big french press of bold, black coffee ground from beans I picked up in Oregon early in July. It was a glorious day and after I finished the luxury of my quiet time and coffee on the porch I started chewing through my “list.” Laundry. Mow. Trim. Wash the cars. Detail them. Blow off the drive. Weed. Organize the carriage house. Clean up the mess I made when I ran over Lois’ pot of annuals last night. Repot the plants. Tidy and putter. A little reading. A little writing. It was just delightful after being so long on the road. it been a good day.

I take great satisfaction in getting old Bittersweet looking like a park and having my cars neat and clean. Now I want to tell you a sweet story of a time last week when God “showed up” in a sweet way at a perfect time.

A Boy With Special Needs

I was speaking at a camp in northern Michigan last week. During the counselor circle they mentioned that one of the campers should probably have been in a special needs camp, but his mother wanted him to be with his age-mates. They would do what they can to include him and love him and help him have a good experience.

He did well. The other campers were good to him and tried to include him. The counselors were thoughtful and sensitive to him. I don’t know if he really followed my chapel talks. He watched me close but he was hard to read.

Later in the week I noticed that he would sometimes hum camp songs while I was preaching. All the campers heard him and smiled, they didn’t mind. I just kept going. I got used to it after a bit. One evening he sang quietly under his breath during the whole message. I suppose a young man singing is like a dog wagging his tail. I took it as a sign that he was at home and relaxed.

Usually during worship he would stand off to himself and just watch the others. Later in the week you could see that he began to sing some of the words, move with the music, and make some motions like the other campers. Still, mostly, he was off to himself.

The last session was a daytime session and it was difficult for me to get my heart and emotions prepared for the important last message. There had been some distractions and the campers had a lot on their minds. During the singing the first few songs were rowdy and boisterous and loud–almost playful but not reflective or meaningful. They were just fun and active.

The last song or two were slower and more meaningful. Late in the week the campers began to get comfortable with one another. On the last song I was praying and trying to get my heart ready for the last talk. The campers all joined together in long lines and put their arms across each other’s shoulders and began to sway back and forth.

The special needs camper was off to himself. I bowed my head in prayer asking God for help to preach with a warm heart–with unction. When I looked up God “showed up.” One of the young men, a popular athlete standing in the back row reached out to the “special needs” boy and motioned for him to come over and join the line.

The young man smiled and joined the line and finished the song with his arm across the back of the boy beside him, the boy beside him had his arm across his back. Together they sang, both of them just threw back their heads and sang.

And I was ready to preach. I am of the conviction that God often shows up at camp. I’ve seen him there, over and over again since I was just a boy.

Bittersweet Farm | July 20, 2021

Circuit-Riding

We returned from Oregon, drove to west Michigan for a wedding, drove home, mowed the grass and tumbled into bed. Sunday morning I preached at Bethel, attended an event to recognize our leaders and then headed north.

As I see it tomorrow is the exact middle of the summer. I like to say, “Life is swift as a sunset, short as an autumn day. Hold tight to those you love, the sun is setting and it will be over so fast.” How sweet it is to think that we who are destined for eternity with Christ and going to a land where time will never end and the sun will never set on summer.

I graduated from high school in Greenville, Ohio. Greenville is on US-127. My first and second pastorates were just a few miles from US-127. I was a youth pastor at a church in Jackson, Michigan which is on US-127. Bittersweet Farm is just a pretty drive in the country from US-127. Bethel Church is at the junction of US 94 and US-127. If you drive north away from Bittersweet Farm about 100 miles on US-127 and then about 40 miles south of where US-127 ends at Interstate 75 you drive east about 30 miles east on Michigan Route 61 you will be driving along the southern edge of the “Up North” region of Beautiful Pure Michigan. I made that trip again this year on Sunday night to speak again at The Springs Ministries Senior High Camp again. I drove out of the rain and arrived at camp about sunset. 

It’s a good bunch of young men and women at the Springs this year. They are attentive listeners. Most of them are believers. Some of them are considering following Jesus. This week some of them have trusted in Christ to save them. It never gets old helping kids cross the line of faith in Christ into the family of God. I just had lunch with a young man. I said; “Are you a Christian?” 

He said, “Not yet, but I am going to get saved tonight.”

When I come here I like to take 127 all the way to Route 61. Route 61 goes east into Gladwin and it is a beautiful way lined with forests of pine and and spruce and fir and birch that hint of the boreal forests a bit further north. It’s always refreshing to my spirit to leave behind the city, suburb, and farmland and travel up this unique peninsula.

I will return to the Bethel pulpit (just off US-127) Sunday and continue my series “Between the Fires: How to Have a Life-Long Passion for God.”

We Are Still A Family

Susan is a single mom. She hurries from work to the ball park so she won’t miss her little boy Sean’s game. But there was no rush. He won’t get in the game until the final inning anyway. Finally, she sees her little Sean get a helmet and walk out to the on deck circle. A lump forms in her throat and she begins to pray. “Oh God, please let Sean get just one hit this year. He wants so bad to get a hit. Help him, Lord. Please help him.”

He walks to the plate and stands tentatively looking like a frightened deer. Her heart hurts because he doesn’t have a dad to take him out in the pack yard to work on his pitching. She doesn’t have any time to get him to the batting cages before the game.

“Strike one,” the umpire calls as the ball smacks the mitt. The ball was down the heart of the plate and Sean’s bat didn’t move. The pitcher smirks and looks in.

Someone from the other dugout calls out to him; “Get it over with. Throw it by him, this kid can’t hit.”

Susan winces with pain.“God, please let him get just one hit. That is all I ask.”

The pitcher fires another fastball and Sean swings but way late.

“Strike, two,” the umpire calls as if he is eager to have the game over and get home. Sean digs in and a look of determination is etched on his little face. Susan prays. The opposing pitcher knows just what to throw. No balls, two strikes. He could just wind up and throw it past him, but he’s up in the count and can afford to waste a pitch. So instead of the fastball he throws a change up that will fall just short of the plate. Sean, eager to get the bat around quicker this time closes his eyes and swings with all his might.

“Your out,” the umpire shouts and the other team cheers. Sean drags his bat back to the dugout. When he gets to the car he can’t eat the little snack one of the team mom’s provided. Instead he begins to cry and Susan wants to say it doesn’t matter, but she begins to cry with him. Not just for the strike out but for the pain of the absence of a father in his life. For being different than other families. For feeling abandoned by God and alone in the world. It’s a hurt that won’t go away.

Susan turns the key and the radio comes to life. Steve and Annie Chapman are singing. “That’s all I need right now,” she thinks, “Another song about a happy family.” But the song is about a single mom getting her children together after daddy has left and saying:

 

We are still a family

We will always be a family

Though one of us is gone

We can still carry on

We are still a family

They sit and listen to the song a sense of hope lightens Susan’s heart. She smiles at Sean and says; “Sean, I love you.” “I love you too, mom,” he says eyes as blue as the sky. And she knows God is not going to leave them alone.

Seans dad walked out but as she puts Sean to bed that night she reminds him that God promises, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Susan still has a hundred uncertainties hanging over her head, but her hope is the in the Lord. Her confidence is in God’s ongoing involvement in her life. Through her difficulties, she is coming to know God in a deeper way that she ever thought possible. And to know Him is to trust Him, even when you have deep longings in your soul.

The Springs in Gladwin

July 14, 2021