First rain in almost a year

7/30/11 Saturday
We had rain!!!! It was a significant, though small and short lived, cloudburst that dumped a decent amount of water for just a few minutes. It’s still early this morning and just getting light enough to see so I look forward to going out with a shovel and seeing how many inches of the surface it was able to penetrate. If it’s deep enough I will be able to get the tractor out for the first time this year and disc up the areas that have been scoured clean by the wind over the last eleven months. Being able to do this will reduce the erosion in those areas, where I have lost up to six inches of the surface soil. My logical mind had assumed that to disc up the soil would only increase the erosion but I learned that it actually decreases it by making the surface chunky and rough. Learned that from watching what other farmers do and seeing the effects as we drove through sand storms that suddenly diminish when we pass freshly disced areas. The problem is that this must be done while the soil is moist, otherwise you just loosen the dirt into fine sand, which will blow away.

This ran came right as we rushed home from the funeral, so I got to run to the house through the downpour wearing my good clothes. We had left my cell phone home in our rush to make the funeral on time and it had the phone numbers of the brothers I was to meet and ride with to the prison in Fort Stockton. So it was twenty miles home and twenty more back to Midland. My phone was ringing on the bed when we walked in and it was Ron inquiring when I would arrive to his house.

Let me speak a little on the funeral. In general funerals are not pleasant times, but this one was the most uplifting one I have ever attended. It was a celebration of life, not a time of mourning and sadness, though there is certainly some sorrow regarding Ken’s sudden departure. As I listened to people testify about the impact Ken had on their lives, and on the lives of hundreds of others, I could only hope that I might have a fraction of that type of effect on the world I touch.

It brought things into perspective. We all will die, period, unless we are alive when Jesus returns, and we will all answer for the choices we make. Having already died and then brought back to life, having gone from being worth (on paper only) over a million dollars to wandering homeless with my memory gone and mind severely damaged, and then having my life, faith, and marriage miraculously restored, I already have a deep awareness of the frailty of life, and a realization of what is ultimately important and what isn’t. The funeral enhanced my awareness and sadness regarding the pettiness of the church people who, fueled by gossip inspired from jealousy, envy, resentment, and suspicion, (and goaded on by the devil, who greatly enjoyed the fruit of his efforts) self righteously kicked me out of church, of the place we should have found friends, security, and fellowship.

Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11 not lagging behind in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse.

I was late meeting Ron, but we got on the road and arrived at the prison gate just in time. Inside I was warmly greeted by many, who all expressed how they had missed my presence and were glad to see me. I was able to get updates from several, whom I’d developed a relationship with, and help assure and advise some of them. I miss going but without reliable transportation and tight funds it has been difficult to get there. I will try to get there more, to overcome the difficulties placed before me. Prison also helps put things into perspective. Here there is division too, a mirror of the outside world, but with much more at stake should an argument break out, for in this realm there is a great propensity for violence and even death. But I met with brothers in Christ who are concerned about what they face when released, and many of them are close to being let out of prison. Some of them have spent decades behind bars, sometimes more years locked up than free, but have an earnest desire to be free of the demons that put them there and a greater desire to follow Christ, knowing that they too will stand before the great throne of judgment.
If you look carefully, you can see some watermelons developing.

There is more but I must go buy some diesel fuel and fire up the tractor before the sun dries the moisture we got. Just a few feet down the road the land hardly looks like it got any rain so we were evidently blessed to have been in the direct path of this shower. Bye now, work to do.