Like many phrases I write, the weight of the words doesn’t hit the bull’s eye until I read them later. “Tide in, tide out” is one of these… My wonder at being 64 is shown in variations of an Old English phrase dating back to the 1300s: TIDE AND TIME WAIT FOR NO ONE…It means that,…
Have you ever seen your convictions or ministry or trust in someone ground up and blown to… Well… so did the Apostle Peter. On the threshing floor of decision, God used Satan to “sift” Peter’s ego from his ambitions. (Luke 22) Tribulum A tribulum was a sled constructed with shards of rock or iron driven…
An unseen world exists inside a drop of water. Parasites, fungi, amoebas, and toxin gobblers (called rotifers and copepods) feast and swim in 1.5 sextillion (a number with 21 zeroes) water molecules contained in a single sparkling droplet. Invisible predators prey upon other microbes within this one .05 milliliter-sized drip. Now—consider the millions of creatures…
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. (Hebrews 11:7) Like Noah, we are constructing a family “ark” to save our loved ones from…
The tour bus trundled along a muddy ribbon bisecting 6 million acres of pristine wilderness: Denali National Park and Preserve. From their windows 35 deaf visitors studied Mt. McKinley, the Crown Jewel of the North, and delighted fingers intimately shared wonders of the wild. Black bears and grizzlies wandered the 85-mile stretch of gravel…
Rowdy the Raven never knew what hit him. The last thing he remembered was grabbing one last bite of rabbit flesh near the yellow center line on the highway. This time his aerobatic maneuver was a split-second short of a clean escape and the pickup’s fender slammed him into the ditch. When he awoke,…
Body language is communication via the movements or attitudes of the body. If I tap my foot I’m showing impatience. When I kneel or raise my hands to pray, my body language expresses surrender to God. If I jiggle my leg in church my wife elbows me. This “communicates” that I’m distracting people. Some of…
That raspy staccato “quacking” — like a tiny, frantic duck — isn’t one. You are being serenaded by an Alaska wood frog (Rana sylvatica). In spring, wood frog males congregate by ponds and call females to procreate. Some of these old amphibians have overwintered in harsh Alaska conditions for up to 10 years. Wood frogs…
The Story of Roy O Written by Richard Drebert ©Good Catch Publishing The Butcher Baker is a convicted serial killer. He was also my barber. And while we talked, sometimes his eyes glazed over as he drifted in his own private universe. He had confessed to murdering at least 17 women. I was serving jail…
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? (Luke 15:4) The shepherd will not rest UNTIL he rescues the sheep. A sheep is seldom cooperative. A sheep will “try” the path,…
When confusion overwhelms, When financial ruin seems inevitable, When betrayal defeats us, When stress overpowers our peace, When bad memories assail us, When panic scatters our well-being, When unbelief smothers our hope, When we discover that what we “own,” owns us, When we realize the logical way is the wrong way… It’s time to scrap…
Are you standing at the edge of a ruined reputation, bankruptcy, mental breakdown, illness or other unnamed trials? Are you huddling on the strand, waiting for God’s direction, unable to see a way forward? Sometimes there is no possible “way forward” yet… You cannot retreat. The Egyptians behind you are bent upon enslaving you or…
Do I take time to think? To take stock of my relationship with God? THIS is a believer’s reality: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam…
“Anyway” means: In spite of everything; without regard to drawbacks or consequences. “Anyway” is the powerful fulcrum that, with proper positioning, leverages our choices. Anyway can help us “lift” the impossible. We position negative and positive “anyways” every day. We eat it anyway, or look at it anyway, or go there anyway. The gauge blinks…
Have you become CREATIVE in hauling around worries and cares? “
The black-capped chickadee handles Alaska’s subzero temperatures due to its ability to convert seeds to fat quickly. Their plumage acts as insulation and they can gain eight percent of their body weight every day. At night they drop their body temperature to conserve fuel needed for foraging the next day. What a memory! A chickadee…
The Midnight Gardener arrives in February to trim back willow and alder branches encroaching on our paths. Mule ears prick toward every sound—her nostrils flare, two craters in a prodigious roman nose. Our gardener leaves a trail of cloven imprints in her lumbering wake, and her long, stiff shanks carry a gaunt frame draped with…
As I look back in my journal, the size of two books now, I see a pattern: I think I know, but I do not “know” at all. I stare at events like a painting and distinguish primary figures while completely missing the background that makes the picture come alive. I never see the complete…
A little blue sky and above 40 degree weather and we all get a little crazy. Easy girl. Spring is coming, in a couple months or so… After 30 years in Chugiak, Alaska (20 miles north of Anchorage), the Chinooks (warm winds) stir up longings for a new season to commence. February is our moose’s…
Therefore I [Jesus] tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:24) When we committed our bones to Jesus, he invaded our space. God replaced our Heart 1.0 with a brand new upgraded version: Heart 10.0. Our new spiritual heart is able to…
Perhaps it’s time to stop searching for an answer to the question “Why?” and embrace the mystery of God’s grace instead. Jesus was 12 years old when he traveled with his parents to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt. Thousands of bleating lambs and the voices of children and parents filled…
On the way to the hospital to visit our 18th grand-baby on January 4th, my wife and I considered how blessed we are. Not everyone would see it this way: Due to the earthquake, the building we have used as floor space for our business in Anchorage is tagged unsafe. We are scrambling to move…
“Gramps!” I turned to Ivan’s voice and my heart stopped beating. Ivan stood inches from a 14-foot drop at the edge of the shop roof, smiling proudly. He was four years old. I had been nailing roofing panels, my focus upon lining up edges on a chalk line. The steep pitch didn’t scare me much.…
