Ale for the Soul

As I grow older, the search for significance and meaning increases.  Most of my life has fallen through the cracks without much to show for fifty years of living on this planet.  However, I can take joy in and thank God for His continued Sheparding of this life and the manifold blessings evident all around me.  This world is not my home, but I can enjoy the journey with my eyes fixed on True North.  Father God and His Son, the Lord Jesus, are the only relationships that make this life worth living.  On April 4th, I underwent the second and final cataract and lens replacement procedure.  Knowing what to expect, I was a lot calmer while in the operating room.  Beyond that, the subsequent weeks of healing couldn't have been any more different from the first procedure.  There were lots of draining, irritation, and discomfort.  Wow!  I couldn't help but to become concerned I might lose the use of my left eye or come out with diminished vision that would have been worse than before h

...He is risen indeed!  This is the typical New Testament greeting from one brother or sister to another.  What impact does that statement have in my life?  Does it really make a difference?  It all boils down to belief, and more than an intellectual assent but a deep-seated belief found in the inner recesses of my heart and soul.  I can claim a born-again experience, but is it evident in daily living?  Thoughts, behaviors, and actions will quickly tell how true this may be in my life.  As I see how life has turned out, am I still trying to wrest my will out of the Hands of God instead of allowing Him to have unfettered access to all that I am?  As you can see, there may be more questions than answers; however, that is where faith comes in.  Many of the heroes of the faith couldn't see the larger picture of the puzzle as the pieces were getting put into place during the course of life.  Soren Kierkegaard said it best, "Life is best understood backward but must be lived forward

Every four years, an additonal day is added to the calendar to course correct our measure of time to better match the Earth's rotation around the sun.  According to a simple Google search, the Earth takes 365.2422 days to fully make one trip or revolution.  This adds up to roughly six hours per year or 24 hours over a four-year period of time.  Hence, the additional day to take care of the excess time and to get us back on track.  Six hours a year may not seem significant or noticeable, but I'm sure it would be over the course of a greater amount of time.  Seasons would become mis-aligned, day would become night, night would become day, and all kinds of havoc would be wreaked due to the accumulative affect of the excess time versus Earth's rotation around the sun.  While the Earth is taking advantage of its "free day" to catch up, how will I use the time?  Chores and other loose ends finally taken care of?  A day out in the state park hiking and celebrating life? 

Roughly two weeks ago I finally had the long-awaited cataract surgery for my right eye.  This was at least two years in the making as the wheels of bureaucracy at the county hospital finally ground down to the day of the procedure.  In the time since, I have been very pleased with the extraordinary progress of sight restoration and healing that has taken place.  In fact, I am so overjoyed by the results that I will adamently request a similar procedure for the left eye.  Initially, the doctors stated there wasn't enough cataract in the left eye to fool with.  At the time, I agreed,  Since I will still need "readers" for vision up close and considering the newfound vision on the other eye, I will now push for a second procedure.  We shall see what happens now.  This whole ordeal reminds me of the moments of spiritual clarity I have when vision in the fourth dimension become crystal clear.  Today was one of those moments.  This morning I attended the chapel service of South