a short visit

Got to buzz down to the bay for the weekend to visit with sis' and mom. Made great time (3hrs 15min). It's really not how fast you got, but rather trying not to slow down. The only mess was the bit of highway that burned and melted...that's made a slow spot for my communting brethren in the east bay. Sort of a bummer, but the trip has to be short 'cause I need to be in Chico on Monday morning for work, much less tying up all those loose ends prior to heading out to China at the end of the month. I've been so busy I haven't had time to think about going, much less get really excited and think about what to pack for travel snacks.

I hope to get out to El Paso when I return from China...I got a line on a truck, and I think I can pull it off. The only requirement would be some bbq at Stateline down at the border. That's good food, and after 1000 miles or so, it would be a loss not to get a fist full of ribs.

I get to visit my sister's church on Sunday. She's getting baptized in early June while I'm out of country. She's excited, and I'm just amazed at where we're all at compared with years past. It used to be that I'd just see the difference in my own choices. Now I get a better view of the Father's work, a bit of a vista if you will. Great stuff.

When I return from El Paso, it'll be off to Idaho. That's the plan anyway. I've been reading Saving God's Green Earth, and getting some insight into the church's responsibility to environmental stewardship:

Let all regard themselves as the stewards of God in all things which they possess. Then they will neither conduct themselves dissolutely, nor corrupt by abuse those things which God requires to be preserved - John Calvin

It's a busy season for a fellow livin' in a garage...not to mention the deaths, births and marriages I get to brush up against in a community I've never experienced. This, and the odd social goings on and mis-steps, lead to a fuller appreciation of God in my own life. Finding how my feelings often win for pulling the train that is my life, I often laugh when He asks me just to be still and actually have a good look at all His creation (not mine)...

An unformed thought - It's good to be Holy, but not if it's structured with a 'kind' of subtle legalism that cuts off or perverts the humanity in the here and know. In this life-body-existence, I am held to humanity...in a fashion. I think it would be a sad state to lose (or deny) this connection to the world, and those that live in it. We try and believe that we do good works, and hopefully not because we've been given a reward, but rather we are compelled to do from a change in our heart. Truth be told, I don't have a grid for the here after...just an unformed feeling that it ought to be really good. It doesn't compel me. And if it did, if it was the reason that motivated my choices, it would seem to be odd. Sort of like trying to train your dog by describing the possibility of everlasting scoody-snacks if he'd just quit peeing on the carpet. It's good to be Holy with the right heart, but we are human, here and now, for a purpose. Hmm, like I mentioned - a thought, not fully formed.