The Muse is Loose

The Dallas Cowboys surely thought a twenty-four point lead was secure. They had NEVER lost a game in their history with such a big lead. Turns out it wasn't so secure. Some other teams over the week-end thought they were also home safe with good leads. They were not.

One team made sure their lead was secure. It was the High School Refugio Bobcats! When their game ended Friday evening they were ahead by seventy-six points! That is why they are ranked number one in the state in two AA. I had the privilege to speak there at First Baptist Sunday morning. Several of the coaches and players attend there. Ann fussed at a running back (in a nice way) after the game. She asked if everyone got to play. "Yes Ma'am" the young man replied. They were playing an undefeated team, but obviously a team that had not gone up against the likes of the Refugio Bobcats.

It was the black pitcher of years ago, Satchel Paige, who said, "Never look back, they might be gainin' on you.". Pretty good point. This talented athlete spent most of his baseball days playing in a Negro League because blacks were not allowed to play in the major leagues. He finally got to play in the majors when he was approaching fifty. He still was very good. I am sure Satchel had lived a life thinking they might be gaining on him. The "they" being prejudiced whites. Today college and athletic teams would pretty much fold up without the black athlete. Doing some research on the city of Refugio before I preached there Sunday I discovered they had had slavery in the area before the Civil War. Many of those freed slaves continued to live and work on the ranches nearby. Kids who had great, great, grandparents in slavery now lead the football team to great heights because of their natural athletic attributes. That is good to see.

The "Caller Times" ran a story Tuesday morning that stock of American Airlines parent company had dropped to a 2003 level on fears they were heading for bankruptcy. Apparently company employees had picked up on the rumor earlier for 129 American Airlines pilots retired last Friday. They are the only major airline that has lost money this year. They lost 286 million in the second quarter alone! Why would this company remembered as the best in the air years ago be stumbling toward bankruptcy? I have not a clue so I simply share what the experts say. They want to bring the labor and debt costs in line with other airlines who are making money. Is American Airlines broke? They expect to end the third quarter with 4.3 BILLION in cash reserves. Their liabilities, however, are about 9.77 billion.

Bankruptcy is a strange system these days. It has become a way out of a bad situation. I think I remember when it was a time when some person or business simply said..."I'm whipped. I am going out of business and you won't get your money because I don't have any." 4.3 billion dollars in cash reserves is not exactly broke.

Being an Apostle was not a lucrative business. I think it bothered Judas and he went for some easy money, he thought. The guilt of what he did cost him his life. Peter and John had not found their new way of life making them rich. A crippled man was taking his place at the temple gate to beg as he had done most of his life. "When he saw Peter and John he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him,as did John. Then Peter said, 'Look at us!', so the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, 'Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk!' Taking him by the right hand he helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk."

These two men who could be called "bankrupt" by the world had something far more valuable than silver or gold. Jesus had empowered these Apostles with His own power to heal. They may have appeared worth nothing but they were exceedingly rich! You and I are too as we have the saving love and grace of God. We will never have to file for spiritual bankruptcy.

The Rangers took another series and moved to only ONE MORE from playing in the World Series. It will not be an easy one with either the Detroit Tigers or New York Yankees as their foe. For old Astro fans (surely there aren't any new ones) you might enjoy the playoff game today between the Phillies and Cardinals. On the mound for the Phillies will be Roy Oswalt (former astro all-star pitcher), with Brad Lidge (former astro all-star closer) waiting in the wings. On the other side for Saint Louis will be astro castoff and former all-star, Lance Berkman. This "over the hill" player bats behind Albert Pujols, one of baseball's best.

Meanwhile astro woes continue. Jordan Schafer, outfielder they got for all-star outfielder and base stealer, Michael Bourn, from Atlanta, was arrested in Florida for felony possession of marijuana. A minor league astro prospect, Dustin Kellogg, was tragically killed in a crash of his pick-up and a
freight truck in Houston. He was only eighteen, and was picked in this year's amateur draft.We are so sorry for his family and friends.

Troubles, like rain, usually comes, when it comes, in buckets! Just ask the Aggies and Cowboys.

The co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, did all that was humanly possible to keep his life going, but it was not to be. His battle with cancer that started in 2004 claimed another victim. He was fifty-six years old.

What started in a garage with a high school buddy back in 1976, Apple, became the most valuable technological company in the world. He had a never ending string of hits, including iPod, touchscreen iPhone, and the famous iPad. Most of these I wouldn't even know how to turn on.

His name will go down with such genius minds as Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin. He came from an unusual background. Jobs was born to an unmarried graduate student in San Francisco in 1955, His father was Abdulfattah Jandali, a student from Syria. His mother gave him up for adoption to Clara and Paul Jobs, a working class couple who early-on saw his interest in electronics and nurtured it. Jobs got his first job at Hewlett-Packard before he finished high school. He tried college but dropped out after a few months. Steve Wozniak, an older high school friend, made a homemade computer. Jobs saw it's potential and the two of them started Apple. Apple I was a computer without a case, keyboard, or monitor. Apple II in 1977 was the first one for a mass market. It was so popular that Jobs was worth $100 million by age 25.

But, as we read in the Bible over and over about great men....."and he died". His vast wealth and incredible skills could not lead the way to a cure for the cancer which struck him. "and he died".

Another word from the Book...."It is appointed unto man ONCE to die...and after that the judgement". That is a universal appointment we will meet. It matters not if we are incredibly rich or dirt poor. It makes no difference if we are brilliant or slow. We will each and all stand before the judgement with our Maker.

I have no knowledge of Jobs religious life or spiritual walk. I hope he was wise enough to settle that matter with the Creator before the fact. Ours is a loving God, not wishing that any should perish, but not making routes of escape for those who reject Him.

The larger question today is you and me; where we are in our spiritual pilgrimage in this ever-so-brief earthly journey.

No, it isn't an earthquake or hurricane in the Galveston area. They have been through part of that. They are trembling because I have packed my rods and equipment and am heading up there early in the AM! Meeting a long-time friend, Charles Miller, so we can fish and simply enjoy each other's company. We met at Ouachita College sixty-one years ago. We worked together in churches for several years. We learned to fish salt water together when it was nothing to go to Aransas Pass and fish the shrimp boat basin when water would freeze on our lines at three in the morning. We never had a boat in those days but knew where and how to wade. Caught more fish then than I ever did having a boat.

This trip to Point Bolivar may be a bit like that. We are staying in the place a friend of his has on a canal and near the Gulf. I am really looking forward to the event and fellowship with Charles. That is what fishing and hunting should be about. Game and fish should never be the number one purpose in an outing. I know it isn't for me.

So, the Muse will be quiet for a few days, at least as far as this BLOG is concerned. I have written 901 of these little episodes since Charles Fake talked me into doing it with him. I know it is about time to close it out, since Andy Rooney retired from "Sixty Minutes". He WAS 92, however, and doesn't give autographs. I am not quite that aged and DO give autographs. He was also a War Veteran of WW Two. I was not.

Long ago a dear friend, Al Cave, (also a WW II veteran of the battle of the Bulge) gave me a sign I hung in the garage at Taft. I still have it. It says, "Fish tremble when they hear my name". I used to think that was macho and I liked it. I realized one day. however, their trembling was from underwater laughter. It's a bit different to chuckle under the surface of a lake or bay. Small tremors go out like a rock dropped in the water.

We shall see who has the last laugh.......

I had the privilege this week of visiting the Bolivar Peninsula for a fishing and "old friends" time with long-time friend Charles Miller. We had access to a condo on a beautiful canal. I had never spent a single night on this peninsula just above Galveston.

September 13, 2008 was a devastating day for Bolivar, as well as Galveston and other small towns and cities strung out along the Gulf. Hurricane Ike came ashore, and when He left entire communities along the upper Texas coast were simply wiped out. Elevation is about six-feet in most places. Winds and storm surge reduced houses to protruding poles or bare concrete slabs.The peak surge reached twenty-one feet. Water depths on Bolivar were from five to fifteen feet. The town of Gilchrist had about 1,000 buildings. 99.5% of them were knocked off their foundations. Of those off their foundations some were destroyed and others were simply washed into the swampland behind the town.

Today, three years after the devastation, there is clean-up and rebuilding. It is amazing to see the resolve of folks to make a go of life on this strip of land. It is beautiful, in it's way. The efforts put forth are phenomenal. Bolivar Peninsula lives once again! Near Port Bolivar and Chrystal Beach is a new school building, Crenshaw Elementary and Middle School, K 8. High School kids ride a ferry each school day to Ball High School in Galveston.

Had the people stayed on that peninsula hundreds, even thousands would have died. They wisely evacuated as they heard the call of extreme danger.

We are not so wise in hearing calls of warning in other areas of life. The Book gives out such messages throughout it's pages. Perish or perished is used over a hundred times. Some of the times it was directed toward nation. In other cases it is quite personal. The clearest example is this: "God so loved the world that he gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not PERISH but have eternal life."(John 3:16). How much clearer could a warning be? We either believe in Who and What Christ is and does, or we perish.

Dolores Edwards left this earthly life during the night. This is not a recounting of her incredible life lived in service for the Lord. It is simply a report of God releasing her from the clutches of ALS to be in the presence of the Lord she loved and served.

Her Book, "A Drop In The Bucket", is her telling of the missionary experiences of her family while serving in Colombia. Her influence and blessings on others was enough to fill a washtub. She taught us how to live and how to die. She will be missed bodily, but will always be in the hearts and memories of all who knew her.

"If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord." (Romans 14:8)

Our dear friend, Dolores Edwards, who will be remembered in a memorial service Friday morning at First Baptist Church, Rockport, was a Missionary Nurse who assisted her husband, Robert, in surgery at unlikely places while serving in Colombia. She gave an account in her book, "A Drop In The Bucket" of one such surgical setting. I want to share it with you.

" In Sucre the people made us a surgery table by burying four bamboo poles into the dirt floor, placing a split bamboo table across them, and then covering this with a woven bamboo mat. The height and width were just right for us. It was the first time we did not have to lean over and suffer terrible backaches at the end of the day. The room had a dirt floor, thatch roof, and bamboo walls. We had chickens, dogs, and pigs running under the operating table. There was a hen that was accustomed to laying her eggs in the corner of the room and every time that the door opened she'd run to go to her corner - and one where we soaked our instruments in sterilizing solution.We were afraid that she would contaminate everything so we were constantly running her out. She was so persistent that we finally had to remove our solutions and let her in. She laid her egg, cackled her triumph, and left happy - until the next time. We had to learn how to be flexible in these circumstances. The bonus was that we had a fresh egg for breakfast."

I doubt any of this was mentioned in nursing or med school. Such was often the life of medical missionaries going where the people were in need. It takes a special calling to do those kind of medical events. Robert and Dolores Edwards had that special calling.

So send I you, by grace made strong to triumph
O'er hosts of hell, o'er darkness, death, and sin.
My Name to bear and in that Name to conquer,
So send I you, My victory to win.

So send I you, My strength to know in weakness.
My joy in grief, My perfect peace in pain.
To prove My power, My grace, my promised presence.
So send I you, eternal fruit to gain.

So send I you, to bear My cross with patience.
And then one day with joy to lay it down.
To hear My voice, "Well done, My faithful servant.
come share my throne, my kingdom, and my crown!"

As the Father hath sent Me, So send I you.

E Margaret Clarkson

Dedicated to "faithful servant", Dolores Edwards.

I remember like it was yesterday when World War II was over. First, Germany was defeated. Japan's defeat followed months later. I sold "extras" up and down the streets of Fort Smith, Arkansas, yelling "War Over" (That was the headline) People could hear me because their windows were open in the days before air conditioning. There were no TV's for them to be listening to.I sold a lot of newspapers that day.

Yesterday it was announced that the war in Iraq was ended and troops would be home by Christmas. This war which strung out over eight years, cost more than 4,000 lives of our service people. Thirty-eight thousand others bear the scars of battle. In financial cost it was estimated at 1.3 trillion dollars. There were NO weapons of mass destruction. There is no stable government. There are no parading crowds in Iraq wishing us well. Saddam is gone but will probably be replaced by another in years to come. Another war has been fought without a clear victory. At the same time another deadly one goes on in the isolated mountains and cities of Afghanistan.

Here at home there is no horn-honking and dancing in the streets. Another war to enter our history books that are filled with them.

As we approach a season of Thanksgiving and Christmas we will know that peace only comes through the Prince of Peace as he lives in our lives.

I was part of a peace-keeping army in Germany ten years after the last shot was fired. We were there, not to control Germany from becoming another Hitler-controlled country, but to guard the borders from an attack from Russia who had been an ally in the war! In TEN years an ally had become a feared enemy. Nuclear missiles dotted the countryside in secrecy. It was strange and frightening. Today, troops are still located in Korea more than FIFTY years after the fact.

I guess there will always be wars or rumors of wars. Peace can only be found in our inner being as we acknowledge the Prince of Peace as Lord.

The only horn-honking we will hear is from happy football or baseball fans. Strange isn't it?

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright.
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout.
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out!

Ernest Thayer 1888

It wasn't the mean and nasty Casey. It was the awesome, loving, benevolent and mightily feared Albert Pujols who went down swinging, even as the catcher sailed the ball to second base for a second out. What could have been the end of the trail for the Rangers became a trip to game SIX with a World Series championship in their gunsights.

Albert Pujols is the best player in baseball today. He is awesome at the bat and dependable in the field. For his size he can run. Pujols had almost single-handedly blown the Rangers away the night before with THREE towering home runs. When he came to bat in the ninth inning with a man on first it was scary for all Ranger fans. This guy had been intentionally walked THREE TIMES in the game. They couldn't do it in the ninth with a man on first. But he "went down swinging", as they say in baseball.

Did you ever hit three home runs in the game of life and go down swinging the next day? It happens all the time. We are at the top of our game and can hit everything thrown at us on one bright day, and then a change-up, slider, and fast ball down low and inside, send us back to the bench wondering what happened.

Simon Peter on one day was saying: "Even if I have to DIE with you I will never disown you!". In just hours he would go down swinging by saying, "I don't know the man!". Whiff! The mighty Simon would strike out.

It wasn't his last at bats. God kept him in the game, and in weeks he would so proclaim the Word that 5,000 people would join up in following the Lord.

I wouldn't count Albert Pujols out just yet. He will not become suddenly an easy mark because he struck out in game five. He will be up their swinging in game six. Will you?

While our American companies are struggling to stay in the air, NIPPON AIRWAYS soared past us in the new Boeing 787, nicknamed the "Dreamliner". In an odd twist the "Dreamliner" is made in America! The Boeing Company near Seattle went to work on this state- of- the- art plane in 2004.

The "Dreamliner" carried it's first passengers yesterday in a flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. It is not noted ( as the French SST, no longer flying) as a speed demon. Instead it is to be far more comfortable and TWENTY PERCENT more fuel efficient. How did they do that? It has a carbon -fiber frame. The frame allows a higher humidity and larger windows (30 percent larger).It is a quieter ride, with some engine improvements. It will also have added a turbulence- dampening system that will anticipate a sudden drop and compensate for this. There will be "mood" lighting and natural light coming in. Eight hundred have already been sold. The first US airline with the "Dreamliner" is scheduled to be United Continental next year.

My brother, Powell, who flew for TWA before his retirement talked about the 767, which he flew round-trip New York to Switzerland, as being so sophisticated one could almost fly itself, including landing and take-off.

When you take your first flight in a 787 peek into the cockpit to make sure real pilots are at the controls. If your flight attendant says something like this: " Our peelot for des treet is Captain Robot Humavee. Seet bock un unjoy de fight...fight....fight....fight." You could be in trouble.

At times I thought I was watching men playing Little League ball! There were mistakes that would have sat High School players on the bench. At other times the play was phenomenal. A blaze of red-coated Cardinal fans began the game with hankie waving, then later became almost silent as Ranger bats broke out and gave a comfortable lead. No doubt, some gave up and headed for home. The Cardinal players, however, never gave up. They came pounding back again and again. Desperate managers on both sides emptied their benches of players. Starting pitchers became reliefers. One could see the tide turning in the eleventh inning. It was like the Rangers were running out of petrol and knew they had another day. Through the red-hot bat of an old Rice University player, Lance Berkman, the Cards made their final move toward game seven. David Freese, received forgiveness for an earlier bungle by hitting a triple and then a homer. It was a fun game of baseball.

I am pulling for the Rangers. Texas needs to have at least ONE World Champion in baseball. I am not so sure they are going to make it, however. They will be facing St. Louis' ace pitcher and a frenzied mob of fans. We shall see. Anyway, the usual boredom of a baseball game was shattered by the men in red and white making the Rangers truly blue. Go Rangers!

A cloud of dust and a hearty..."we blew it!".......and the Rangers ride again...into the sunset to think about all the opportunities that came their way to be World Champs. Instead they have to use that over-worked cliche...."We'll get um' next year.".

It was a fun series however. They used all seven games. The Cardinals deserved the championship because they hit and pitched at the right times.......but what about Prince Albert Pujols? Where will he call home next year? I am guessing the Yankees because they can shell out the cash. He just might re-sign with the Cardinals. One thing for sure the Astros will not be in the bidding. They are building with young players who are less expensive.

So baseball is finished for now. There is no pro basketball. It has to be football or x-treme craziness as athletes go head-to-head to see who can survive the dumbest and most dangerous stunts.

O...there IS college football! Now what conference is Texas in? Talk about craziness this shifting conferences has to be the worst yet. It is all about money from the TV contracts. Fans are not really all that important to the greedy AD's and college Big-Wigs.

Basically we are seeing a "What's in it for me?" mentality. Obviously, the Christian virtues take a back seat in the fray. This attitude permeates most everything about us.....BUT.....how refreshing when a person or group takes a stand for what is right and good and best. It does happen, you know.

Did you ever wonder what we do on that night? I will tell you. If possible, we go out to eat!!!! If a special young family or relative has small children we buy some goodies and give them a safe place to come to before we go out to eat.

Another thing we do is recall days of yore when the emphasis was on tricks. Like what? Well, where I moved for one of those years it was turning over an "out-house". You may have to ask some older person what that was. Think Sears/Roebuck.

The year when our family lived in Centerton, Arkansas , a little town about ten miles from Bentonville and Wal Mart headquarters, a young man in town, already known for his antics and trouble-making, went to the Main Street of this little town ( that looked like a set for a western movie) and tied a rope or chain to one of the wooden posts holding up part of the ancient porch over the sidewalk. He proceeded to pull the post out and and cause part of that porch to fall. Funny? Not hardly. It was destructive and also against the law.I was in sixth grade and remember the next day seeing the damage. I was turned against ever doing destructive things on that night. Several outhouses in the little town were also pushed over.

Today, the emphasis is on treats instead of tricks. That's good. But all that candy? That's bad. So what is the best action on Halloween? Go out to eat! Booo!