Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

Some years ago, when we were looking at the possibility of buying our first house, we toured a house in a community near ours.   It was one of the oldest houses in the community and the price was in our price range.   But it had a big draw back; some particularly difficult and expensive repairs would need to be done by the buyer. The house had been built on some land that had been cleared of some big trees.   Instead of building a foundation of rock, brick or cement, the builders chose to use the stumps of the cleared trees as the foundation.     You might already suspect what happened over the years!   As the stumps began to decay and crumble, parts of the house began to sink.   Floors slanted.   Walls went out of plumb.   Ceilings cracked.     The difficult and expensive repairs would include raising the house in order to put a new foundation under it.   Once that was done, then the house would go thro...

It was supposed to be a vacation.   It was, sort of, until toward the end when I got the news that I would need to self quarantine once I got home! It turned out that my trip fell under the recommended CDC guidelines for a 14 day self quarantine.   So, here I am, self quarantined and, to be honest, feeling quite stuck at home.   But as the virus has continued to spread, I have come to accept the need for an abundance of caution and my quarantine is certainly a necessary part of social distancing. While I was on my trip, I read about a different kind of quarantine:   “And you shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for it will take seven days to ordain you.”   (Lev 8:33) In Biblical times, those who had leprosy had to practice social distancing, including quarantines, due to the disease and how it spread.   But a type of quarantine for an ordination?   I had...

As I was listening to the radio one day, a person called in and was describing a new opportunity that had come up that would significantly change the course of their life.   The on air announcer then told the caller that it sounded like they were getting a new lease on life.   While I’ve heard the expression many times before, this time, for some reason, it really stirred my attention. In researching the expression further, I found some more details on the web regarding “a new lease on life”.   The expression, with its allusion to a rental agreement, dates from the early 1800s and originally referred only to recovery from illness. By the mid-1800s it was applied to any kind of fresh beginning.   So now, it represents a fresh start; renewed vigor and good health.   Fresh beginnings are great!   In fact, one of the greatest of all new beginnings is when we first put our faith in Christ:   “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creat...

“The power of limits” - the words were painted on a piece of modern art.   I’m not really sure what the phrase was supposed to mean but the words really did stir my curiosity. We don’t often think of limits as having power.   In fact, it seems the opposite is usually true.   Limits, well to put it simply, limit.   How can there be power in that?   Even more so, power and limits seem to be mutually exclusive. And in trying to decipher it further, if the opposite of power is powerless, then limits and powerless seem to be mutually inclusive. Mutually exclusive or inclusive?   I’m not really sure but let’s explore power and powerless and limits to see if some light can be shed on these things… In the fifth chapter of Romans, we find that we are limited in our ability to deal with our sins:   “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless , Christ died for the ungodly.”   (Rom 5:6)   While the assessment of our o...

Last week, I wrote that we often do not have control of things once they leave our hands.   In this week’s post, I want to take being out of control to a whole new level. Our flight home was supposed to take about 30 minutes once we took off.   But, after two attempts to land, our plane was rerouted to another airport to take on more fuel. Our flight from the refueling airport to our original destination was supposed to take about 35 minutes once we took off.   But after another two attempts to land, we had enough fuel for just one more landing attempt before we would have to fly again to an airport for refueling. It was all a bit nerve wracking.   As each of the landings was attempted, there was enough visibility that allowed the plane to begin its descent.   But, in each case, as we were within just a few miles of the airport, an incoming cloud would sweep in and reduce the visibility to the point below which it was safe to land.   It was a ...

It wasn’t necessarily hidden in the 24 hour news cycle, but it also didn’t get the super heightened attention.   The stories, however, did surface and for many it was quite disheartening to learn that plastic items that were supposedly destined to be recycled were often ending up in local landfills. The reports further indicated that some of the countries that had previously been buying plastic items were no longer doing so.   For the most part, it was just pure economics for those countries.   But for some of the individuals who had been consistently and diligently putting plastic items in the recycling bins, doing their part to save the planet one plastic container at a time, the disturbing reality was that their noble efforts to recycle were not achieving guaranteed results. The overarching reality is that we often cannot really obtain guaranteed results or outcomes.   We can do everything that we know is good and right but once it leaves our hands, we m...

Bound by cloth, he appeared helpless. Bound by cloth again, he appeared to have no say in the matter. The first time, it was the swaddling cloths, those strips of cloth that are wrapped around a baby to bind them for their comfort and security. The last time, it was the burial cloths, those strips of cloth that are wrapped around a body to bind in the burial spices to mask the odors during the mourning period. The first time, the Savior entered the world as a baby. [1] The last time, the Savior left the world as a corpse. [2] The first time, the cloth was removed as the baby grew. The last time, the cloth was left behind when the Savior rose from the dead. The prophet Isaiah wrote about the things that bind:   “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound ...