I Have A Question. The Answer?

There is no such thing as a foolish question except for the one never asked.

We’ve lived in a freezer for most of our adult life. Alaska and Washington. The Pacific NorthWest. The keywords are “north” and “Pacific.” All my life, I’ve lived within an hour of the ocean. The Gulf Coast in Texas, and the variety of locations of the Pacific Ocean in the NW.

In any ocean, the further north you go, the warmer temperatures and weather patterns will adapt to the north. Experiences may seem similar, but the same storm ridden out in the south will be a frozen mess in the north. We call them Atmospheric Rivers, or more commonly, Pineapple Express, as they come out of the middle of the Pacific, swirling northward to our shores. As the warm weather hits our cooler shores, we get some freakish weather! When it’s cold… storms mean icy conditions, snow (sometimes a lot), and the wind funneling out of the warmer climes as the planet continues spinning like a top.

Last fall, we had nearly a week when the temperatures were in the teens. I know. We had to break the ice on the dog’s watering buckets. But that was 2023, albeit before the holiday periods we all enjoy.

Now it’s the New Year.

We’ve had a doozy. Sub-freezing temps for 10 days or so kept us bringing the hummingbirds’ feeder in at night and rotating them throughout the day. Finally, I hung a heat lamp near one so that it wouldn’t freeze at all during the daytime.

I bought another water bucket for the dogs with an electric heating element in the bottom. It took the dogs a while to get used to it. But their existing water buckets were frozen solid. Think Popsicle.

Anyway, one storm after another, rolling through, keeping us below freezing. As the latest one ends, the temperatures return to just freezing, and the snow turns to rain. (Sounds like the closing line to a song, I know.)

Yesterday, they kept warning of the dangers of the roads. Icy rain on top of frozen ground is no fun. I appreciated the warning. Our workers buttoned everything up early, and left before dark. Just in case. I agreed because it was smart, and they had completed their portion of the project.

Ignore the forecast? At your peril, of course! But I woke up this morning…the news wasn’t as bad as forecasted. Sure. It’s not perfect, but is it ever?

Bottom Line: Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

That is been banging around my mind and spirit.

The 24-hour news outlets should be telling of history and current events. Full of facts and without biases. Yes. Sports is the same way!

But the weather forecaster? They do exactly what they do so well. They forecast.

Can you tell me the mind of a weather event? There’s so much we still don’t understand about forecasting. It’s better now than it was, and maybe someday it’ll tell me what to expect, but right now? It’s still forecasting. (Synonyms include: Foretelling, predicting, prognosticate, prohesy…)

Throw into the mix everything else we try to predict. Stocks? Bonds? Interest rates? Expenses? Income?

It’s like Vision Casting. We try to see the future, understand the environment we are existing in, and look forward with the intention of determining what we can do with what might be happening this year.

On stope of it all, let’s factor in AI. Bill Gates suggests the whole world will be impacted during the next 5-years. Is he right? It’s a guess of probable results based on his investment and knowledge. It sounds a lot like SkyNet…(Terminator, a movie released in 1984, SkyNet (AI) becomes self-aware.)

It’s a real question in really difficult times.

Where is the church in this post-pandemic and potentially worse post-Christian world? In a conversation recently discussing the question, “Why is Church Important Today?” We tried to analyze the question without throwing in scripture after scripture that tells us how the church is supposed to live.

A nameless friend (she knows who she is…) posited that if the church is the Bride of Christ, does a marriage ever work well when we withhold our focus on being with the groom?

Hmmm…. Marriages don’t work like that! There’s a bond of love that crosses our desires and sets the stage for continuing hand-in-hand walking together until that final breath.

If you consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 24, which talks about the time of the end, you don’t stop with this chapter but continue the story into the next chapter. What’s there? The parable of the ten virgins. Five were wise, and five were foolish. They each had time to prepare, but it was the foolish ones who were not ready. This parable existed during the same telling of the end times in the prior chapter. The five wise made it into the supper. The door was shut while the five foolish were left scrambling for more oil to put in their lamps. For them? It’s too late. (Matthew 25:1-13)

What do we do now?

How do we keep ourselves ready for the end? It’s not by being foolish. Daily preparation cannot be minimized. Read and study, think and meditate, pray and worship, communicate and fellowship, feast on the Word, and along your path of life? Tell someone about Jesus.

Maybe you need a personal experience. I had one. 1971…[Click to read.]

You may ask why, but I cannot give you good answers that will change your heart, but He can.
Some think of God as a brutal personality with all the suffering. Why?
If he’s not come now, will he ever show up?
If you have ever had a blessing, an answered prayer, or a personal moment of dedication,
Can you step away from Him? Not me.

Thank you for reading.
Please share with others.
It helps me get my book written!