Burnt Toast

 Burnt toast often happens when we least expect it. We get to choose how we handle it. We don't want this inconvenience at breakfast to ruin the rest of our day. Or the relationship of the loved one who fixed it for us.

We have options. We can forget about toast for breakfast. We can get out more bread and try again. Or we can get the jelly out. If you can't read the writing on the jelly jar it's because it was purchased in Israel a year ago. That tells you how little we use jelly at our house. 

Covid is much more serious than burnt toast. However we still have options in how we handle it. We don't want the consequences of battling Covid to be worse than the cause itself. Like burnt toast we don't want to lose relationships over differences and we need to respect others opinions. I hope others can respect mine as well. As a Christian I believe God put me here to run to a problem and not hide from one. I want to live an example of hope and not fear of the future. Especially to my grandchildren. I want them to see their grandfather live life to the fullest. Living, knowing God determines my days, allows me to do my best for His glory and others good.

Humility is not lack of strength or ability. Humility is "idling horsepower". God has taught me a lot over my years about pride and humility. And my life is still under construction with the goal to be always pointing upward. Jim continues to willingly and humbly haul soybeans to Burlington with this truck. Billy Graham once said, "Being a Christian is a daily process where you grow more like Christ every day".

Mike is busy building terraces. It's a blessing to have a son with the ability to improve farms in a stewardly way.

BJ has been tiling, and below he is trenching in tile for his brother Mark, getting ready for terraces.

Karl has been hauling honey. Honey is hog manure that is fertilizer for corn. Corn feeds hogs. And hogs make more honey. With BJ helping Karl by running a semi tanker from the hog shed to the field, they were able to get this job finished up for the year.

Alex and Layton have been busy with NH3. NH3 is short for anhydrous ammonia which is nitrogen for next years corn crop. We apply this for ourselves and others. We use this on fields where hog honey is not available.

The first part of the week I helped Kurt and others chisel bottom ground northwest of Pella where hog honey had already been applied this fall. These gull like birds were just thick as they dove for bugs and worms in the freshly turned over soil. Dale tells me they fly over from Red Rock Lake. These are cornfields we are getting ready to go to corn again next year.

The last part of the week Jan and I flew with 8 other couples to North Carolina for a board/staff retreat. We landed in Charlette, the home of Billy and Ruth Graham. 2020 has been a burnt toast kind of year. Billy once said, "I've read the last page of the Bible. Things are going to turn out alright". 

Do some of you older readers remember Cliff Barrows and George Beverly Shea? They were part of the Billy Graham Crusades. Jan attended a crusade with her youth group in Chicago in 1971. Seated below are Cliff, George, Franklin Graham, and his father Billy.

We were blessed to visit the Billy Graham library. Billy Graham was an evangelist for 60 years. He preached at Crusades all over the world. Even during some trying and troubled burnt toast kind of  times. He said once, "Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened".

Billy was an ordinary farm boy from North Carolina who helped on his families dairy. He just got average grades in school and was often sleepy in class from helping on the farm so much. He was one of five children. He never lost his roots. He was a humble man and always pointed upward.

God used this ordinary farm boy in extraordinary ways. I remember watching his crusades on my grandparents black and white TV as a kid. He talked about living with hope and not fear. He was invited by many presidents as an advisor, an ambassador, and a friend.

He and Ruth are both buried in the wooded farmland near the barn library. Their caskets were built by prisoners. The pillows and lining inside the caskets came from Walmart. Both of their gravestones are of local limestone. Ruth's stone says, "End of construction. Thanks for your patience".

Billy and Ruth had a vision to have a retreat for conferences and and a place of rest for pastors. So toward the later part of their lives they built The Cove in the Blue Ridge mountains near Ashville, North Carolina.

That is where we as The Family Leader board and staff had our time together. We celebrated God's faithfulness to us and our organization. We talked about our vision of a revived America. We discussed our mission in these current political times. We emphasized our strategy of working to keep our values, freedoms, and liberties in this country. To engage churches in the process. To encourage pastors to be shepherds. And to be willing to export our model to other states.

What is our purpose as ordinary folks in a year of burnt toast? We are to be engaged in the process. We are to give people in our communities hope. We are to live fully alive. We are to inspire others. Billy Graham once said, "God has given us two hands, one to receive with, and the other to give with". When we shovel out, God shovels back. And God has a bigger shovel. Count your blessings and have a great Thanksgiving week.