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| Originally published at Piping Pastor. Please leave any comments there. Mt. Marcy HikeI love to hike to summits of mountains that are high enough and remote enough that about all you can see is God's natural creation (and you can't see any, or very much of things made by man -- like houses, cell phone towers, towns, roads, etc.).
On July 4th I had a chance to take such a hike up Mt. Marcy in the High Peak region of the Adirondack mountains with my two oldest sons, Scott and Gregory. It was a beautiful day and there were very few other hikers on the trail (which suprised us, since it was a holiday).
We had been planning to hike in to Marcy Dam late Sunday afternoon and camp there overnight, but it was too late when we got to the trail head at Heart Lake and the ADK Adirondack Loj. As the minutes and hours ticked by on our 5 hour drive there I was growing concerned where we would be able to spend the night since it was a holiday weekend and "no vacancy" signs were everywhere. The Lord met our need by allowing a "no show" at the Adirondack Loj camp grounds create a "vacancy" which gave us a place to spend the night (and with the added blessing of running water too!). We had a great campsite and I would love to go back again sometime.
On Monday, after waking to the sound of two red squirrels chasing each other up and down and around the tree next to our tent, we had our bagels with cream cheese (and we had the option of also having cinnamon Danishes - "Thanks, Dear Wife, for thinking of the nice extras!"). We also had hot chocolate and coffee before breaking camp and heading up the trail to Marcy Dam.
 Because we didn't get in to Marcy Dam the night before we had an extra 2-plus miles we had to add to our day's itinerary. Those first two miles weren't too strenuous (with only about a 187 foot actual ascent, though many of the natural up-and-down-and-up-again sequences that are typical of hikes) and the view at Marcy Dam was beautiful. Avalanche Mtn (with Wright Peak) reflected off the glass smooth lake in front of us to the south and west, while the sheer rock faces of Mt. Colden attracted our attention slightly to the southeast of Avalanche. Dark green spruce and fir trees bounded the lake and Phelps Mtn. was directly off to the east, and Whale's Tail Mtn. was behind us to the northwest.
 We took the Phelps Brook trail to begin the 2,978 foot ascent from Marcy Dam to the top of Mt. Marcy. The Phelps Brook is beautiful and flows alongside a long section of the trail. It is crystal clear and tastes great! (But if you go, be sure to purify your water! I don't know if it had giardia or other "nasties" in it or not, but I didn't want to take any chances!) It is a strong swift brook flowing over and between broad expanses of rock tables and gullies. It reminded me of the place my parents used to take my sister and me for picnics along a similar stream near Andover, Maine when we were children. This was our first rest stop. Of course we weren't making very speedy progress up Marcy, but we enjoyed the site.
 After Phelps Brook our next stop was Indian Falls, where we ate our lunch. This was a breathtaking vista with the slightly smaller Marcy Brook flowing along the top of a very broad rock table and then plunging down over the edge of a very high cliff. As you stood on the rock table at the top of the falls a smaller, unnamed peak stood off in front of you, perfectly framed on both sides by towering spruce and fir trees.
 After Indian Falls we continued the now rather steady uphill climb first southeast toward "Little Marcy" (4765 ft) but then turned southwest and hiked up a ridge that approaches Marcy from the east-northeast. Just before making the turn we got pictures of Marcy and you can plainly see the ridge that was to be our route to the top.
 The view from the top of Marcy was breathtaking. A haze had settled in during the day while we were climbling and it clearly showed the relative distances to the lesser mountains on every side of us. Depending on which trail signs you believe we had now hiked either 7.3 or 7.6 miles from Heart Lake and the Adirondack Loj. It was later in the day than I liked, but getting back to the car before dark still seemed feasible (but barely!). We took pictures of the panorama around us: the forboding Mts. Algonquin and Colden to the west, Skylight to the south, Haystack to the east, and the string of Basin, Saddleback and the Gothics to the northeast, and TableTop to the north. When I see such beauty as God's mountain ranges I am awed by his power and glory. I absolutely love to take in such sights. It gives me a wonder and appreciation of Him as well as increased trust in Him. If he can do all that -- he can take care of me and my petty problems.
 There was a wind on the top which you can hear howling on the panorama mpegs that we shot, and it was breezy enough that many would have found it more comfortable to wear a sweater than just short sleeves. At one point a yellow sightseeing plane from Lake Placid flew past us to the west. I don't know how high it was, but I remember thinking that if it was higher than we were, it wasn't very much higher!
As those of you who have hiked before know, there is a "trail-stretcher" out there who "stretches" the trail before you hike back out. I know that those 7.x miles back out were longer than the 7.x miles in!! (Hmmmmm, maybe it was 7.3 miles in and 7.6 miles out??)
I changed from cross-training sneakers to boots at the top of Marcy before beginning the descent. Since I have weak knees I knew that I needed all the extra support I could get for the many rough places going down. I was getting a bit stiff in my legs and lower back and knew that we needed to make very good time to get out before dark. We stopped to rest as needed on the way back down, retracing the route that we followed in. We stopped at Indian Falls again, but the black flies and mosquittos thought it was dinner time when we arrived, so we didn't stay very long!
We thank the Lord that we got back to the car about 8:30 and were in Lake Placid at about 9:00 as they were getting ready to fire-up their fireworks presentation. If we hadn't had a five hour drive we likely would have stayed to watch it. I thank God for keeping me awake as I drove the lonely and dark Route 3 across the northern Adirondacks toward Watertown. He got us home safely about 2:30 Tuesday morning. It was a long, hard trip, but it was well worth it. We thank God for answering all of our prayers for safety and details working out!
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| Originally published at Piping Pastor. Please leave any comments there. Interview GameSome time ago (maybe 4 months?) I volunteered to answer questions for Scott, as part of an Interview Game. It took me awhile before I took time to answer them, and then I answered them longhand (yes, some people do still write by hand!). Finally, here are the questions and my answers online.
1. What do you think the greatest use for blogging is in the pastorate?
It could be used from time-to-time to "take the pulse" of church members and society-at-large who blog.
2. If you could change one thing about the modern Church (universal, not local), what would it be?
Only one ?!?! Awwwwww. Ok, here's my answer:
a.) I would like to see believers take their relationship with God seriously; and
b.) I would like to see a change of mindset from:
"me, a consumer of what the church has to offer" to
"me, a servant of God among his people."
3. Given the opportunity to ask any major world figure one question, who and what would you ask?
I would like to ask Osama Bin Laden (or some internationally esteemed Islamic cleric) the following question:
With the postmodern pluralistic mindset of the western world there is increasing openness to consider the feelings of the Islamic community and how their objectives may have been stiffled in the past. Now that we are becoming more sensitive to you as a worldwide community, when do you see yourselves becoming more friendly and less hostile toward us so that we can all live together in peace on earth as one big happy family with all of us tolerating each other's differences in harmony and with mutual respect?
4. I know you'd love to visit the United Kingdom. Given the choice, what one area/attraction would you most want to visit?
a.) If I were travelling with our family:
I would like to visit significant places of the Scottish reformers and covenantors. I would also like to see the traditional lands and properties of our clans in Scotland. And I would like to see the customary historic/tourist points of interest (including castles, battle scenes, etc.).
b.) If I were travelling alone:
I would like to take an unrushed walk over, along or through the highlands, the coasts, and the islands of Scotland with time to meditate and reflect on:
- the God who created those rugged lands
- the people who live there now (and I would like to be able to meet and interact with them)
- the general history of the peoples and land
- the specific histories of the covenantors, reformers and others who stood for God and were willing to hazard their lives for the principles they held dearest
- the places and people of the revivals in Scotland and Wales
- the life of a simple rural Scottish shepherd
- and, if time permitted, see the stuff mentioned in (a) above
- and, if time permitted, collect material for an historical novel I'd like to write about the Clearances.
5. Can God create a rock that he cannot lift?
No fair! However, here goes . . .
Simply: The question itself seems contradictory. There is only one infinite Force. It is God. He is one. The question implies the presence of two infinite forces, one for creation, one for lifing. Therefore the wording of the question itself seems to be set up soas to be contradictory.*
*Assuming our traditional understanding of four diminsions in the space/time continuum.
More abstractly: [I think that under Newtonian physics the following would also be an issue (however I don't know if one would answer that question under a different paradigm of physics)]:
Lifting implies the separation of said rock from another surface in a specific direction away from that surface. The implied problem is to overcome the gravitational force exerted on the rock by the body (typically a planet) against, or on which it rested.
However, any rock of that nature would have a mass that would exceed that of any other entity in the universe because it is assumed that since God already created the Universe, there is no question on whether he can handle anything already in existance in it. Therefore this question (were it not self-contradictory) implies that this has to be an act of creation of something with greater mass than anything God has already handled.) To make it really "challenging" for God it would have to be increadibly "massive" -- like infinite.
However, since "lift" implies direction away from the more substantial body (typically lifting a rock from a planet, like earth), it is assumed that the body from which God would have to "lift" the rock would be more massive than the rock itself [therefore having more gravitational force, and defining the direction of the "lift"].
So, get this, the rock is already of infinite mass. Now you need a planet on which to set it with a mass greater than infinity. . . . Yeah, right!
That's as much time as I can put into the question!
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| Originally published at Piping Pastor. Please leave any comments there. I\'m a cistern, not a wellA truth hit me the other day. I'm a cistern, not a well.
I'm realizing that I need to keep this truth before my eyes all the time. A well has an automatic incoming source of water, a cistern does not. Jesus Christ is a well. He is an inexhaustive source of water. I constantly need to come to him for refilling. When I don't, I go dry. Unless you refill it, you can only pump water from a cistern for so long.
I'm thankful for Christ, who is my well. May I, by His grace, keep full with the water that he supplies, that I, as a cistern, never run dry. | | |
| Originally published at Piping Pastor. Please leave any comments there. He opens and closes doorsRev 3:7-8 ¶ "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name." (NAS)
Wow, that is an awesome statement! I read these verses in my devotional reading this morning and stopped to meditate on them.
While the promise is specifically for the pastor of the church in (ancient) Philadelphia to whom it is addressed, it represents an awesome statement about God.
We all "know" that God can do "anything." But how often to I apply this knowledge to the things for which I "fret?"
Like the recipients of James letter I "[desire] and do not have," because I do not ask of God (Jam 4:2), or ask with the wrong motives (Jam 4:3). And sometimes God's answer for the moment is "no."
Yet if I come to grips with this verse (Rev 3:7), and let its truth soak into my soul, I will realize that if God has kept a door closed it is because it is best for me that it be closed. I must rest in the knowledge of his goodness (Ps 119:68 "Thou art good and doest good; Teach me Thy statutes." ) and trust him. The door isn't closed because he can't open it, but because he wills it to be closed, and NOBODY is going to open it unless it is his will for it to open. Likewise, if he opens a door, NOBODY is going to close it.
The key is that HE opens and closes. It is all about HIM! I like that. I can rest in confidence of him making the right decisions. | | |
| Originally published at Piping Pastor. Please leave any comments there. Yawwwwwn!! I\'m waking up!Greetings!
After a Rip-Van-Winkle blogging nap I'm gradually waking up.
As most of you who read, or try to read, my blog know, I have been taking bagpipe lessons since January. Frankly, I have not been making blogging entries for a couple of reasons, of which the primary one was time. I have been trying to use every spare moment here-and-there to practice my practice chanter. That has left me very little "discretionary" time for blogging. I have now worked out a schedule for summer that should give me time to blog from time to time. As far as the bagpipe / practice chanter lessons are concerned, they ended last week. The instructors will be offering several more lessons the end of July and in August, but last week was the end of the series for which I signed up. I have been told that I am ready to go on to the bagpipes, and that I should get a set soas to start practicing them this summer (so they can be practiced outside while the weather is warmer!). But, alas, bagpipes are expensive, and I can't afford to buy a set now. I do, however, have a 1961 Ford F-250 stepside, longbed, pickup truck for sale. The original straight-6 engine only has a few thousand miles on it since it was rebuilt in 1977. Anyone interested? If I can sell it for enough, then I'll be able to get the pipes, and the pipes will cost more than a monthly mortgage payment! On the practice chanter I have now "roughly" learned about ten songs. I say "roughly" because I didn't get each song PERFECT before I went on to the next one, nor did I memorize each song. I'm planning to work on perfecting and memorizing them between now and whenever the next series of lessons begin and/or bagpipes arrive at my front door (lol). Although bagpipes can be purchased more cheaply on eBay, EVERYONE says DON'T buy them there. From the horror stories that I've heard, I understand that many of those bagpipes are so poorly made they are often impossible for even accomplished bagpipers to play. Now, does anyone have a good set of African Blackwood bagpipes they would like to trade for a vintage pickup in restorable condition? Or do you know anyone who wants to restore a rare old truck (rare, in that there are many more fleetside, F-100's out there than the stepside, larger capacity, F-250's)?
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