Truth And Grace

This weekend is first season shotgun for deer hunting, a pretty big deal in southern Iowa. I stopped to check in on a hunting party just in time to see Brian show and help his 7th grade son Luke how to field clean a deer. Pretty cool father/son time.

BJ, Alex, Karl, and Mike have been tiling and building terraces in the mud in the county south of us. One morning the hitch pin broke crossing the double tracks and the tile cart rolled and landed down in a ditch. 

As they were assessing how to get the tile cart out of a deep ditch a neighbor and good Samaritan in the area happened by and mentioned he had 60 feet of log chain in his pickup. Once the cart was pulled over, out, and reattached to the pickup the stranger would take nothing but a thank you for his assistance.

Tile can be the difference between having or not having a good crop in a wet year. However sometimes it takes maintenance or repair. Mark has to first locate the tile line by digging across a waterway. He found tile that had been smashed during installation. 

It's important for equipment to be cleaned up after a season and before it's stored for another year. It's also the time to make a list of repairs. Otherwise next season will be, O yeah, I forgot about that. Thanks Pablo for your help.

It's interesting the deer in southern Iowa have less of a wild meat flavor since they are corn fed with all the crops around. The truth part of deer hunting is the hunting party, where to hunt, safety, and following the rules.

The grace part of deer hunting is the social time, the stories, the kids, Dads, and in some cases Grandads, and just caring about friends and neighbors.

Iowa is getting plenty of visits from candidates who would like to live in the White House. The truth part of picking who to vote for is looking at their list of accomplishments, their qualifications, and how well they work with others. The grace part of who to vote for is seeing and reading their heart to determine whether their attempts are for their own good or for the good of the country.

The truth part of this sidewalk is I didn't get it finished before winter. The grace part of it is Jan has been very patient about it.

These folks are not having a good day on their way to the Big 10 championship game in Indianapolis.

When in business together the truth part of business is assets and liabilities, profit and loss, organization and responsibilities.

The grace side of a business partnership is commitment, communication, and caring about the needs of your business partners as much or more than your own needs.

Hopefully when we go to church this morning we will hear the truth and our relationship with God. Hopefully we will also hear about grace and our relationships with each other.

In Bible times folks only had to look at Jesus to see what God looked like. Hopefully today folks should only have to look at us to see what Jesus looked like.