Washington DC Monuments at night

Meg and I spent five days in Washington DC last week. We attended a reunion of Peace Corps volunteers from Tonga 1 and 2.  Forty five years ago this month, Meg and I entered training in Molokai with 127 volunteers our age to train to be teachers and nurses in Tonga, islands in the South Pacific that are mere ink dots on a map. Seventy five of us went to country, and forty nine finished the entire term. Training was intense, and we really did not get to know many people very well.  And once we went to Tonga, we were scattered throughout the island villages and had very little contact with each other.  So, this first reunion of our group gave us the chance to not only establish contact, but to get to know each other again, much more deeply.

We enjoyed many group activities, including a tour of the monuments at night--one of the best tours, anywhere, that I have taken.  The night light softens the lines, and creates a timelessness and a mystery that makes these much more hallowed.  A light rain fell off and on, allowing me to preserve some unique reflections on the pavement.

The ever present Lord

Meg and I have be gone from La Grande for three weeks. We leave Washington DC late this afternoon (Monday). We spent two excellent weeks with Michael and Sara in New Hampshire where we watched fall colors begin. Amtrak then brought us from Boston to Washington DC. We have enjoyed a reunion of our Peace Corps group who trained on Molokai in later 1967, and then spent 1968/69 in Tonga, in the South Pacific. Our lives met briefly then, and briefly now. Yet that two year experience deepened and matured each of us, and provided a strong foundation to contribute to family and community in the years that have gone by. And, with that background, this four days together has been exceptionally stimulating filling in the gaps and catching up.

I have realized as well how long my own faith journey has been.  God has never ceased to travel with me, no matter how much I have ignored, rejected, forgotten Him. The Creator of the Universe cannot be absent anywhere, or we and the universe would cease to be. As the One who knows even when a sparrow falls, His Presence remains constant and continual, whether I am waking or sleeping, whether I am speaking or listening, whether I am doing or being.

Kancamagus Highway, NH

Franconia Notch, NH

Compassion

As he so often does, Henri Nouwen provides a challenging, practical way to live.

"Compassion, to be with others when and where they suffer and to willingly enter into a fellowship of the weak, is God's way to justice and peace among people.  Is this possible? Yes, it is, but only when we dare to live with the radical faith that we don't have to compete for love, but that love is freely given to us by the One who calls us to compassion."

As I endure this political season with so much clanging noise/anger, so much talk and so little substance, I realize how easy it is to be distracted from Christ's reminder that "what you to do to the least of mine, you do it to me." Our response to His unqualified love must be to use our own hands and time serving others, not letting someone else do it for us.

Mt Emily Recreation Area, OR

Norse Creek Wilderness, WA

Nosu classroom, China

love never ceases

Meg and I had to put down Dakota, our fourteen year old golden retriever last Tuesday.  The decision was exceptionally difficult, but necessary.  His leaving was sweet, as Meg and I lay close to his head while the vet administer a strong anesthetic while Dakota rested outside on our driveway. What so deeply affected me during his last days was the incredible love he has given us.  We were the center of his life; he craved our attention and returned it with total devotion. I wish I could love my neighbor as Dakota loved me; I wish I could make God the same center of my life.  Yet despite my failings, I know that God, through giving me/us his son, Jesus Christ, loves us each so very deeply, so very tenderly.

“It is true that there is nothing too great for God’s power; and it is just as true that there is nothing too small for His love!”    Rosalind Goforth

Cape Meares, Oregon coast

God's Mercy

"In the world of the Bible, the real explanation for the force shaping the course of things is gathered up in one radiant word: mercy. Creation in its entirety is a work of God's love and though it is fractured by every sort of strife, it cannot escape the gravity of mercy.  God's mercy fills the earth (Psalm 35:5). Mercy is the deepest quality of God's love, the most stunning, unexpected evidence of God's generosity, the most enduring commitment of God's sovereignty.... Flexible and strong, mercy is capable of bearing sorrow's weight and of supporting every honest effort to build new life."

                                                         John S. Mogabgab

Seven Devils Mts in Idaho, taken near Hat Point, OR

Whale Island, Ohope Beach, North Island, NZ

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in the Norse Peak Wilderness

The Pacific Crest Trail traverses the Norse Peak Wilderness in Washington state through some of the most beautiful country my hiking companion, Bob, and I have traveled. Of the thousand or more miles of the PCT that we have hiked, this section does indeed, like its namesake, run close to the actual crest of the Cascades. We started at Chinook Pass which lies at the northeast boundary of Mt Rainier National Park and hiked north. We absorbed many views of this mountain as it rose above the trail.  The trail rarely varied more than five hundred feet, and we enjoyed many views of open park like basins. The meadows were rich with colors--green grasses and wildflowers of every imaginable color: yellow, white, blue, purple, red, pink, and many hues in between. Wildly joyous is the best word I can think when describing the mood of our hike!

Basin Lake

Pacific Crest Trail, south from Chinook Pass

Mt Rainier above Crystal Lake

Basin Lake from the PCT

Leaving the parking lot at Chinook Pass

We dropped down to Basin Lake at the far end of the trail

Sheep Lake

God's mindfulness and relationship with us

As I hiked on the Pacific Crest Trail in the Norse Peak Wilderness of Washington state this past week, I was deeply humbled by the infinitude of God's Creation and His relationship to us. In the billions of galaxies with their billions of stars, I am scarcely a mere blade a grass. Whether I live one day, or one hundred years, my life is not even an eye blink of eternity.  Yet God knows me, and each one of us. The whole Biblical revelation tells us that this omniscient God of this mind boggling vast universe loves each of us with an infinite love. "God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:8. God's greatness is certainly in the majesty of his infinite creation, but His greatness is equally and  awesomely shown in His justice and mercy and mindfulness to us, His mere mortals.

Mt Rainier, Norse Peak Wilderness

Norse Peak Wilderness