Tag Archives: School

Throwback Thursdays

TBT: Living History

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Living History Farms Day

Speaking of pushing an ancient olive press in Nazareth, for Throwback Thursday I’m posting a couple of different photos that are loosely connected. The above photo is of me, taken by my mother in our backyard, on the day my Woodlawn Elementary School class took a trip to Living History Farms in Des Moines. Living History Farms allows visitors to travel back in time and experience what life was like on an Iowa farm in the 1700s and 1800s. You get to see the utensils the farmers used, how they used animals in their daily work, and what daily life was like in authentically made houses from those periods.

Nazareth Village

When I had a chance to visit Israel in 2003, we visited Nazareth Village which operates on the same principle as Living History Farms. Instead of learning what life was like two hundred years ago in Iowa, however, Nazareth Village recreates what daily life was like two thousand years ago when Jesus was a boy growing up in the village there. The above photo is of me standing on the balcony of a typical home of the period built using period materials and methods.

Chapter-a-Day

When It’s Time to Break Camp

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The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Resume your journey….”
Deuteronomy 1:6-7a (NRSV)

There is a chill in the air this morning as I sit in my office and write out this post. The blast furnace of midwest summer has given way to the crisp mornings and cool north breeze remind me of what is to come. The past couple of weeks have brought about our annual transition from what Nat King Cole crooned about as those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” to the realities of routine school and work schedules.

Suzanna was home from college for the first time this weekend. When it came time to head back to school yesterday afternoon there was a fair amount of emotion expressed. Wendy and I surrounded her with hugs and prayer and reminded her that this is a normal part of life’s journey in which we learn the necessity of pressing on.

In this morning’s chapter, I picked up the retelling of the story of Moses and the tribes of Israel. As we pick things up in the first chapter of Deuteronomy, they’ve been camped out on Mount Horeb and have received from God the laws and commands about how they are to live as a nation. After the craziness of their exodus from Egypt, the mountain top experience of Horeb had been a welcome respite from their journey. But, God sends word that the respite is over. It’s time to break camp. The journey must continue.

Today, I’m reminded that the long, leisurely days of summer eventually give way to cool days of autumn and the realities of harvest. Summer vacations end and routines resume. Weekends in the familiar surrounding of home offer a respite from the anxieties of an unfamiliar college environment, but classes start again on Monday. Mountaintop experiences are wonderful, but eventually you have to break camp, leave the mountain, and resume the journey.

Press on.

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featured photo :  druclimb  via Flickr

 

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Proverbs 12

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English: Large amount of pennies
Image via Wikipedia

A hard worker has plenty of food, 
      but a person who chases fantasies has no sense.
Proverbs 12:11 (NLT) 

I one knew a man who chased fantasies. He did not go to college even though he could have done so free of charge because of his parents positions with a local university. Intelligent and personable, he could have easily made his way through school and found success in any number of life endeavors. He chose instead to chase after quick money in a number of schemes both legal and illegal.

For several years I had opportunity to run into this gentleman every year or so. Each time we spoke there was another get rich quick scheme he was chasing after. If there was an infomercial on at 3:00 a.m. claiming to make you rich in 30 days, my friend was putting up his money for the books, cassettes and DVDs and giving it a whirl. Of course, they never worked because he never worked.

Seeking endlessly after the fantasy job that will pay you more for working less will not lead to good places. Working hard at the job you’re given; Proving yourself faithful, reliable and willing to do the task you’re given leads to more rewarding opportunities.

As I read the proverb above from today’s chapter it struck me that “a person who chases fantasies has no sense,” he also has “no cents.”