Well-Watered Hillsides

California is nicknamed The Golden State, apparently for multiple reasons.  The golden poppy is the official state flower, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is instantly recognizable worldwide, and there was a gold rush here in 1849.  While never actually confirmed, I was once told that California was also called the Golden State because much of the land looks yellow most of the year, colored by the dried up vegetation that covers the landscape.  Having lived in Southern California, where it often does not rain for 6 straight months or more, the images of yellow, tinder-covered foothills that get set ablaze during the hot summer months are all too familiar, especially during the most recent period of extended drought that lasted from 2011 to 2017.  The drought in California was eventually declared over in early 2017, thanks to torrents of heavy winter precipitation, and this brought forth the most unusual transformation to the Southern California landscape.  The dried yellow-brown hillsides have been replaced with carpets of green, awash with beautiful wildflowers in various shades of yellow, orange, white and purple.  My daughter and I have taken literally thousands of photographs at local state parks, nature trails and flower fields.

However, I know that this transformation of color is short-lived.  There hasn’t been much rain for the last 3 months.  The vegetation will be yellow again in a few weeks, and the late summer heat will bring forth blazing brushfires that will soon consume many hills until rain returns in the winter.

Just as the plants and flowers of the hills need rain to grow, our spiritual condition requires regular nourishment and watering as well.  When we feel far away from God, we often say that we are spiritually “dry”.  David expressed his longing for God as a consuming thirst for Him:

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?  (Psalm 42:1-2)

We become spiritually dry when we are separated from God, our creator, and the source of meaning for our existence.  Nothing separates us from God quicker than unconfessed sin in our lives:

Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.  (Isaiah 59:1-2)

On the other hand, he who walks in obedience to God’s ways are described as a well-watered tree:

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.  (Psalm 1:1-3)

How are we doing?  Are we like well-watered plants, thriving, flowering and fruitful, or are we parched and lifeless?  We do well to examine ourselves to see whether sin is keeping spiritual nourishment from our lives.  If we continue to do what displeases God, even if we seem to thriving, it won’t be long before the soil beneath us dries up.

Getting Stuck in Deep Sand

"Yeah, but I read that it's easy to get stuck in the sand, and that it's really hard to get out..."

I listened in as my wife chatted with one of the local residents, after having second thoughts about her wonderful plan for us to hit the Oceano sand dunes the next day.  She had already paid a sizable deposit to reserve ATV (all-terrain vehicle) rides for the family, but she also read about possible dangers of vehicles getting stuck in the sand, collisions, and rollovers.  We were all ATV novices, and had never driven in sand dunes before.

"Oh, you'll get stuck in the sand a few times, but it's no big deal.  You'll probably have to push and move the thing to get it out.  If you keep throttling the engine, you'll get deeper in the sand, but only stupid people do that."

OK, I got this covered.  I wouldn't do anything stupid, I thought.  Unfortunately, it didn't take long before I did exactly what I wasn't supposed to do the next day.

After we received our mandatory safety briefing and instructions, I sat on a Honda 250 cc ATV, barely remembering how to throttle, brake and shift.  I figured that as long as I didn't kill the engine, I would somehow return intact after our two-hour rides.  I tried to act confident as I steered the vehicle out of the lot and into the dunes.  All was well, for about one minute.

I started to feel my right rear tire losing traction.  Somehow my right side ended up in very soft sand, and it was a matter of seconds before I realized that I was stuck.  Naw, that couldn't possibly happen, not barely a few hundred meters into the sand!  Perhaps I wasn't really stuck, I thought.  I hit the throttle.  I felt the right rear tire sinking deeper in.  OK, I was stupid.

Dozens of other vehicles passed me as I got out of my ATV, looking and feeling, uh...what is that word?  Fortunately, that feeling was transient as I managed to lift the back of the vehicle out of the soft sand, and after repositioning it on firmer ground, I managed to power the thing clear of the sand pit.  All was well again...except that my daughter also ended up stuck in the sand.  This would be a learning experience.

Many of us also tend to "be stupid" when we are mired in the sand as we cross through treacherous dunes in our journeys through life.  The soft sand traps are our bad habits, addictions, and dysfunctional situations in our work, relationships, and families.  Unfortunately, because of our own sinful inclinations, we find ourselves often digging ourselves in deeper the harder we try to drive ourselves out.  Change can only happen when we admit that we are stuck, be willing to get out of the cockpit, and resolve to point our vehicles in a new direction.

We need to repent.  We need to turn away from sin, for it is written,

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:23)

How do we turn away from sin and receive this free gift of God?  When Peter proclaimed the message of salvation to the multitudes, the first word he said was "repent":

And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  (Acts 2:38)

Hit the throttle.

Squiggly Image

"Oh, this one's going to be hard..."

Years ago, my family was playing a game of Pictionary with some friends from church, and it was my son Christopher's turn to do the drawing.  Pictionary is a guessing game that is similar to charades, where one person draws pictures to provide clues to a secret word or phrase that others must guess correctly as quickly as possible.  As an example, if the word is "chicken", the person who knows the word will try to draw a chicken, while the others blurt out what they think is being drawn until someone says "chicken!".  Sometimes the word or phrase is easy (most people know how to draw a chicken), but others can be practically impossible, and requires all the creativity and imagination that one can muster.  It appeared that my son would have to pull out some trick out of his sleeves for this one.

Tension filled the air as the timer went off.  Suddenly my son's eyes brightened as he approached the large piece of paper.  He drew what looked like a canoe.

"A boat!  No, a ship...a dinghy...an aircraft carrier!"  I started to yell mindlessly as the little vessel started to take shape.

He shook his head, and kept drawing.  Now he started to draw what appeared to be a person on the boat.

"Man on the boat...a sailor!  No, pirate?  Captain Hook?"

No luck so far, and the timer ticked on.  What could it possibly be?  Meanwhile, my son started to put some squiggly hair on the person's head, and drew a hat on top.

"George Washington!"

My son stopped drawing and fist-pumped into the air.  "Yes!  You got it!"

The air stood still for a second before everyone else in the room let out a collective gasp of shock and awe.  It seemed beyond understanding how I could correctly guess the words "George Washington" from the drawing of a person with squiggly hair and a hat standing on a boat.

"It wasn't that hard to figure out.  Chris was drawing Washington crossing the Delaware!"

It just happened that my son and I recently saw a reproduction of that famous 1851 Emanuel Leutze painting.  Chris' rendition of the man on the boat was not much closer to George Washington than Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland, but a little intuition led me to the proper conclusion.  It was, albeit an imprecise one, an image of the first President of the United States of America.

In a way, we are all somewhat imprecise images.  On the sixth day of creation, when God created man, it was written,

So God created man in his own image
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27)

Sometimes it's hard to imagine that there is much in us that reflects God in any way.  We are blemished, selfish, arrogant, shameful and without self control.  Some of us are tall, short, fat, skinny, funny looking or without fashion sense.  A well known pastor has often said that if you don't think that God has a sense of humor, just look at all the people around us.

Yet, despite all our shortcomings, each of us still bears God's communicable attributes.  God is beautiful and creative, and we enjoy the beauty of His creation.  God is righteous, and our conscience tells us what is right and wrong.  God is the source of life, and we value life and admire those who save lives.  God is community as a triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we are made not to be alone, but to live with those we love.

May we always remember to live our days as if we are created in God's image, though we may appear only as little squiggly lines when compared to our Creator.  May we also value each and every person, regardless of what we see, as someone who also bears His image in an unique way.

Allergies

I see a lot of children with food allergies in my pediatric gastroenterology practice. Most of them turn out to be babies with cow milk allergy, and the usual culprits for the reactions are regular infant formulas made with cow milk, or cow milk protein from a nursing mother's diet that somehow ends up in her breastmilk.. These infants usually aren't very sick, but can have worrisome symptoms such as fussiness, excessive vomiting, poor weight gain, rash, asthma and bloody stools. Treatment is typically quite straightforward, as symptoms tend to subside within a few days after the offending milk is eliminated, either by changing to a “hypoallergenic” formula or having the mother completely eliminate dairy products from her diet while breastfeeding. Eventually, virtually all of these youngsters will develop a tolerance to the milk, and most will be able to drink regular milk later in childhood.

Unfortunately, not all food allergies are similarly benign, as certain foods are notorious for causing potentially life-threatening reactions. Children with serious peanut allergies have been known to develop lethal swelling of the breathing passages with exposure to even traces of peanut butter on a knife, and I have a colleague whose son had several trips to the emergency room due to walnut and shellfish allergies. One of my patients has severe allergies to most food categories, environmental allergens, latex and several medications, and has nearly lost her life repeatedly despite her and her parents' utmost diligence in protecting her against accidental exposure to known allergens. This girl takes her allergist's diagnosis of specific food allergies as warnings that are as serious and solemn as God's words to Adam and Eve against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that “when you eat of it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17)

Most Christians tend to regard sin, i.e., transgressions against God's commands, rather casually. True, we realize that it is bad, we feel bad about it, and we sometimes suffer real consequences from our disobedience. However, because we also know that the penalty of our sins had been paid by Jesus on the cross, we forget the seriousness of sin too easily. We treat sin as minor reactions that manifest as a flare of eczema or runny nose, and fail to see it as a life-threatening event, for which we are without hope except for the atoning blood of Christ. My patient with the multiple severe allergies take daily medications and carry emergency drugs, including potentially life-saving injections, at all times. However, she realizes that the medications do not give her license to willfully violate her allergist's advice and eat something that is on the “forbidden” list. Her life might be spared by her medications and care at the emergency room and intensive care unit, but she still suffers real pain, and the fact of her survival from these attacks certainly does not diminish the seriousness of her disease. In the same way, we ought to regard any sin or temptation to sin, however minor it may seem in the world's eyes, as seriously as if it can kill us, save for God's grace and mercy. Only then will we truly abhor sin, and properly appreciate the price that Jesus paid for our transgressions.

“Flee from sexual immorality....” (1 Corinthians 6:18)

“Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.” (1 Corinthians 10:14)

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”

(Romans 6:23)

Texas Thumpin', A Near-Maulin' and Satan's Schemes

I have always enjoyed the drama of college football. Some games pit nationally ranked powerhouses against teams that have nary a fighting chance, and they predictably end up as blowouts where the outcomes appear certain from the outset. Other games are advertised as evenly-matched rivalries that promise to be nail-biters until their very ends. However, some of the most interesting stories in college football are the big upsets, where unranked underdogs somehow manage to dish out spectacular efforts and come up with unlikely victories. As it turned out, the UCLA vs. University of Texas game a couple of weeks ago was predicted as a mismatched blowout that turned into a resounding upset.

UCLA's football team seemed to be headed in the wrong direction from the very beginning this season, as it started with two losses, including a 35-0 thrashing by Stanford, before finally notching its first win against Houston. Texas, on the other hand, was undefeated after three games, was highly ranked, and was the home team of the contest. The entire town of Austin, Texas showed up dressed in school colors in support, expecting a one-sided slaughter. The Texas players were relaxed and confident as they finished their warm-ups and entered the field. Meanwhile, the UCLA athletes arrived knowing that they were not expected to win, and that a loss would practically spell doom for their season.

The game was not close. UCLA was the dominant team, and won handily, 34-12.

During the ensuing week, the UCLA coaching staff cautioned against a letdown as they prepared for the upcoming home game against the lowly Cougars of Washington State University, whose football program was widely regarded as being among the worst of all Division I schools in the country. Could the roles be reversed this time, and that UCLA be ripe for a major upset in the hands of the Washington State Cougars? It nearly happened, as UCLA trailed by 8 points late in the third quarter of the contest, before the team finally buckled down late in the game to secure a 42-28 win, and a collective sigh of relief.

It seems human nature for us to let down our guards immediately after we experience a great deal of blessing, victory or success. This is certainly the case in sports, and it is exceedingly uncommon to see even the most spectacular team of athletes compete for an entire season undefeated. The same is true in the spiritual realm, as Satan knows that we are weakest right after experiences of success and victory, because that is when we let our guards down. In the Bible, king David's most serious sins of adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband occurred when he was at the height of his powers, and the nation of Israel seemed secure.

An epic account of glorious victory and subsequent letdown involved the prophet Elijah, who faced off against 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah at Mount Carmel. By the power of God he gained a great victory, resulting in God being glorified and the prophets of the false gods utterly destroyed (1 Kings 18). However, shortly afterward queen Jezebel threatened to kill Elijah, and this mighty prophet of God, who barely finished praying for fire to strike from heaven upon the altar, became unsettled in his moment of weakness. In fact, the Bible recorded that,

“Elijah was afraid and ran for his life....” (1 Kings 19:3)

We are most vulnerable when we feel invincible, and need to be especially wary of Satan's attacks. These are times when we do not cling to God as tightly, thinking that we alone are able to fight the battle without His protection and direction. Remember, if God is with us and we cling to Him, there should be no upsets.

As for UCLA, they will be the underdogs again this Saturday.

Blind Spots

A friend sent me a web link to an instructional video on how to properly adjust one's car mirrors and minimize blind spots while driving.  I had already been driving for decades with a nearly spotless record, and was skeptical that I could possibly learn anything that I wasn't already doing.  I figured that the video would be about as useful as those with claims like, "Eat these ten foods if you want to die from cancer," or "Tax saving secrets that the IRS does not want you to know!"  The video actually was unexpectedly informative and well done, and I have taken the recommendations to heart ever since.  Every car has blind spots that can present serious driving hazards, but one is much less likely to swerve into adjacent vehicles if the mirrors are properly adjusted and used, and if one knows where the remaining blind spots are and checks them with a turn of the head before changing lanes.  However, even the best driver will occasionally fail to see the trailing vehicle in the adjacent lane, and it may take an angry honk of the horn from the other driver to avert disaster. 

I started to think of blind spots in a more metaphorical sense, i.e., each of us has certain blind spots in our lives and experiences that are likely to be sources of misunderstanding and conflict.  These blind spots may be maladaptive personality traits, ways of doing things, habits, anxieties, fears, viewpoints, etc., that are blatantly obvious to other individuals, but may totally escape our own attention until they are pointed out to us.  I certainly have many blind spots, and I know that they are blind spots because I often made the same errors repeatedly, and never saw them coming.  I suspect that such tendencies are not restricted to just myself and those who appear on Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer or The People's Court...the same likely apply to each of us in some way as well.

In view of this, it is good to figuratively "adjust our mirrors" once in a while, to occasionally turn our heads and to heed the warning honks of vehicles into whose paths we are intruding - through introspection, through prayer, and by being attentive to wise counsel.

A soft answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.  (Proverbs 15:1)

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!  (Psalm 139:23-24)