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You just have to love black bears … at 500 yards or further from you! This past weekend the love of my life and I went on a little camping retreat to Big Lake in the White Mountain region of Arizona. This is one of my most favorite places in the world to view God’s creation.

We were alone (read no children and in a dispersed camping area) quiet, calm and relaxed. Our wooded campsite overlooked a meadow in front of a pine forest with mountains behind the forest. As my wife was cooking dinner, I was watching a herd of about 200 elk grazing in the meadow. Since it was early June and late spring, many of the elk had their calves with them. I was meditating on God’s goodness and how wonderful His creation is. I could feel the cool breeze blowing on this very comfortable (75 degrees) evening. What a perfect retreat! All was so peaceful AND THEN:

Most of the elk got up unexpectedly and trotted away. I was kind of indignant. How could they leave and ruin my peaceful, picturesque postcard view? About two minutes later, another 15 or so of the remaining elk took off running and I mean RUNNING. I though to myself, “what in the world?” That is when I saw it. A huge black bear burning after, you guessed it, a baby elk! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Running on all fours, the bear’s back was about as high off the ground as the young elk (I am guessing at least 4 feet). It was almost as fast as the elk. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Even though I was watching through binoculars more than 500 yards from the action, my heart was racing. Just at the last moment the elk swerved and the bear couldn’t adjust and kind of skidded to a stop. The bear got up on it’s back legs looking for the elk. He had to be at least 7 feet tall standing. He took a second, located the young elk and made one last ditch effort, but the elk ran into the forest and out of sight. The bear kind of gave up and strolled back to the section of the forest he came out of. Despite all of the commotion, there were a couple of stray elk that hung around in the meadow.

As I think back upon the incident, I can’t help but coming to the conclusion that God is everywhere, involved in everything, aware of all, concerned about all and able to make it all work together.

How many times do we feel like everything is going great in our lives? Things are so swell. God has provided us with a nice healthy calf (read little family), a wonderful meadow (read a nice place to live and provision) and a beautiful, tranquil setting to enjoy it all in. Things are going so merrily that we almost forget about the creator and get caught up in the creation. Isn’t that usually when the “bears” of this world come?

Now don’t go PETA on me. We understand that due to Adam’s fall, the lion no longer lays with the lamb and won’t again until Christ’s return. Bears simply sometimes eat elk. It is a fact of life. Don’t miss the application. Bears are only symbolic of the snares and traps we face on a daily basis.

I think that God was reminding me that even in such a perfect place like Big Lake, Arizona … I need to keep my eye on the Creator and not the creation. He was reminding me that even though I so often know where to turn in trouble, I also need to remember to turn to Him when things are looking good on the surface.

As you might imagine, the knowledge that a hungry, frustrated bear within 500 yards of my campsite did have an effect on the rest of my stay. As you might imagine, I was even more careful with my trash, made sure we didn’t eat anywhere near our tent, and didn’t go strolling through the woods across the meadow. I made sure to take every precaution to keep my wife safe.

You know, the elk didn’t return to the meadow the next night. They were taking precautions too. How much more should we take precautions in guarding not only our physical bodies, but our spirits? After this simple lesson, I have to ask myself:

Am I keeping my heart away from places I know the bear is?
Am I looking out for signs of the bear near me?
Am I listening for any evidence that the bear is closing in on me?

or

Am I keeping my heart away from things that tempt me to sin?
Am I daily examining my heart for signs of sin around me?
Am I putting myself in places that could lead me to sin?

Lord, help me to always be aware of my sinful nature, help me to make a conscious effort to avoid places and things that may cause me to sin. Lord, help me to always keep my eye on the Creator and to never forget that anything that is good comes from you and left on my own, I might be caught off guard by a bear.

No matter what anyone thinks about Don Imus, no matter what they think about race relations, no matter how they feel about the media, the thing that concerns me the most is FREEDOM. Specifically freedom of speech.

It scares me when ANY group can restrict the words of another group for any reason. As a Christian, my main concern is that someday, and possibly sooner than later, we will no longer have the luxury of free speech. If we continue to narrow the topics that are allowed to be spoken about and restrict the words that can be spoken, how long will it be until Christianity itself is outlawed?

Let’s not kid ourselves, racism is ugly and not Christ-Like. Additionally, reverse racism is also ugly and not Christ-Like. But I am willing to allow the Don Imus’ of the world to speak. I am willing to let the Al Sharpton’s speak. I am willing to let the David Duke’s speak. I am willing to let anyone speak. But do not tell me that I can not speak.

You can always turn the radio station dial or choose not to purchase a gangsta rap cd. In fact, you can always walk away from someone speaking something you do not want to hear. But don’t you want the freedom to choose to hear the message? Are we better served by less choice? By less freedom?

I do not want to be told that I can no longer listen to Don Imus. However, I value the freedom to CHOOSE not to ever hear his voice.

Hmmm, it has been just over a month with no new post and this after I promised myself that I would make certain to post more frequently. You see, when I post something, the main purpose of the post is almost always to address myself. So having said that, either God hasn’t been speaking to my heart, I haven’t been listening or I have not been taking the time to re-affirm what He has been speaking to me.

You guessed it …. I am a lazy bugger! I bit of a goof-off. So, it is understandable then that my idols growing up were Larry, Moe and Curly. Boy I can recall so many funny episodes. I can almost hear Curley’s “woo woo woo”. I can see Moe’s little mustache as he is the new emperor of Moronica. I can hear the boys shouting “hail, hail Hailstone”. I can see Moe pulling off a hunk of Larry’s hair. I remember “Swinging with the Alphabet” and Gailee “shaking her gams”. I can remember so many little silly things about those guys and their films.

But I can’t remember what pastor Jeff preached about last Sunday. I can’t remember where to find the book of Micah (I think it is either before or after Jonah). I can’t remember the last important thing that God laid on my heart in prayer.

I need to get my priorities right. I know I am exaggerating a bit to make my point, but think about it. I bet that I have invested over 1000 hours watching 3 Stooges shorts. In fact, I have about 100 episodes on DVD. How much time have I spent reading God’s word? How many opportunities to pray have I missed out on? How many witnessing opportunities have I missed as I sat in front of the box?

Lord, I know that you encourage us to experience some leisure, but change my heart to desire to spend more time with you. Give me a new passion for your word. Give me a desire to spend time with you like never before. Change my heart Oh God, mold me and make me new.

I don’t want you to say to me someday … “not bad, my sometimes faithful 4th stooge!”