Is It Soup Yet?

How many times have we as parents heard, “Is dinner ready?”, “Are we there yet?”, or “When is this going to be over?”. Being patient is hard for everyone, especially children. Most of the time it really comes down to boredom management, but that is a whole other story. Spiritually, being impatient can be a real problem. "Hurry is the death of prayer" is a well-known quote, often attributed to John Mark Comer, from his book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.  I know the quote, sadly I haven’t read the book, yet. We often pray fervently, trust God, and look for the answer, yet spiritually tap our feet while we wait. The following is a mix of my thoughts and the musings of one of my favorite pastors, Dallas Jackson.

·       Trust – Once you give it to God, leave it there. He has a great memory

·       Patience – The waiting part. Being patient in a microwavable society is probably the hardest thing to do. Please remember that God is super-efficient. He’s not only working out things in your life, He’s intertwining events into a gorgeously complex interaction that affects many others. Who knows, maybe you are waiting for someone else to get up to speed. (It makes you think twice about obeying God right away, doesn’t it?)

·       Be in the moment (enjoy the journey) - Often the journey is half the fun. Sometimes it is the fun.  Don’t forget to notice the little things God is doing as He brings it all together.

·       God has our best interest in mind – Always remember that God is doing thing in our life to bring about the best result. I sometimes think we question God more that all the other “professionals” in our life (doctors, mechanics, remodelers). He knows what he is doing.

·       Noah was in the ark for over a year – Sometimes you have to wait for the flood to go down.

·       Do what you need to do while you’re waiting – Make sure you take care of your regular duties while you wait. By all means, rest, but don’t be idle when you have things you can do.

·       We don’t know the big picture – God is God and you are not. Don’t try to understand everything. Sometime you just need to go with it.

·       Don’t lose your joy. Watch for the butterflies 😌 – This goes hand-in-hand with being in the moment. Keep your head on a swivel and notice God’s hand at work.

·       Waiting makes us better. Lately we have been watching a lot of cooking shows at dinner time. The concept of resting meat comes up often. I’ll have to admit, when I cook, I am just hungry and want it now. Often, I tend to rush things. Maybe that’s why a steak from a good restaurant tastes so good. If you Google “resting meat” here’s what you find:

Resting meat after cooking allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat, resulting in a more tender and flavorful dish. If you cut into it immediately, the juices will escape, making the meat dry.

 Waiting is hard no matter how you look at it. How we react to it makes all the difference. I hope this helps!

Why Does Ice Float?

 

(For the first time ever, I’m blogging about the same thing in this blog and the one for my grandchildren, Notes From Papaw. This concept is fundamental to life, and I think, evidence of an intelligent Creator).

It’s really hot outside and you go into the house to get something cold to drink. You get your favorite cup and put in some ice. Then you fill it with your water favorite drink. You may not notice, but the ice is floating at the top. You might think “duh, it always does that”. But did you know ice floating is really unusual? Water is one of the few substances that expands when it freezes. Only a few rare metals, like gallium, can do that. 

So what’s the big deal? Well, if ice didn’t float, life would probably cease to exist on our planet. Imagine a lake where the ice sinks after it freezes. Ice actually acts like insulation and helps keep the water down below from getting colder.  Without an ice layer,  water can keep getting colder and colder and the lake would freeze all the way down. All the fish and plants would die.

In the ocean, ice that freezes on the surface is actually fresh water. If it sank, fresh water would keep sinking to the bottom and the ocean would get saltier and saltier until nothing could live in it. 

So how does ice expand? When water is a liquid, the molecules can slide past each other up close. But when it freezes, it forms a crystal structure. Imagine you have a bunch of friends over. How many can you get in your living room? Probably a lot. But what if you had to join hands with your arms straight out at 90 degree angles? This is kind of like a crystal structure. Now you can’t fit as many in the same space. Density is how much matter (or friends) you can fit in a certain space. The less friends, the less you all weigh. If you weigh less but take up the same space you would be less dense and would “float” (well, if you were ice). You can see the expansion of ice by putting a water bottle in the freezer. Look at the bottom of the bottle once it’s done. 

The current humanist world view would say this is just a happy accident. I myself think it’s evidence of a great design. Either way it’s incredibly amazing!

If this is still confusing, that’s ok. Many people get confused about this. You may find this site can help. 

https://www.thoughtco.com/why-does-ice-float-604304

Ok, now I’m thirsty. Time to go get a cold bottle of water! 

It’s Not Enough to Love Nature…

 Environmentalism seems to be at an upswing lately, which, in many cases is a good thing. We humans have a tendency to harm/destroy nature either by lack of knowledge, overindulgence, selfishness, or just greed. Even those passionate about nature can be at fault. They feed animals that shouldn’t be fed or worse aren’t even supposed to be there. (At present, we have a huge feral cat problem in the Central Valley parks that are decimating our native bird populations. please stop feeding them!) Residents balk at regulations that are intended to stop the spread of nonnative/invasive species because they are inconvenient. In most cases, that does more harm than good. You see, it’s not enough to love nature, you need to understand it.

Cases in point.  

#1 I had a good friend who was a biological consultant (independent I might add)  investigating the ExonValdez oil spill. Their report after a thorough investigation was: 

1. clean the oil off of birds and mammals. 

2. Soak up any loose oil (They have these cool diaper-like things that only soak up the oil.)

3. Put a barrier to keep more oil from washing up on the coastline. 

4. Spray the oil with a naturally occurring bacteria that eats hydrocarbons. (It was originally found around naturally occurring oil leaks.) 

Their prognosis was that in 6-9 months the beach would be basically back to normal. Instead, due to pressure from media and some radical environmental groups, Econ decided to steam clean the whole shoreline. Estimated recovery time? 80-100 years. 

#2 There is a cement company near Santa Cruz that implemented a trial of using 40% old tires for part of their fuel used in baking the cement. 3 different agencies verified that the tires burned so cleanly that toxic emissions went down since they used less coal. The steel in the radials was just the right amount as what they were already adding that they didn’t need to get any extra iron from mining. It was a win-win. Yet they had to shut it down because Greenpeace ran a campaign that “ Everyone knows tire burning is bad”. (Roll clip of a pile of spent tires on fire.) This was even after being presented with the piles of independent data! 

Gary Larson, most notably known for writing “The Far Side” comics, summed it up nicely in his book, “There’s a Hair in My Dirt”. It’s not enough to love nature  you have to understand it also. 

So before you complain, or are appalled at what scientists and conservationists are doing to solve a problem, find out what is really going on. It might just surprise you!

Amazon: Here’s a Hair in My Dirt

https://a.co/d/gQ4aFf3

Trash

While walking back from the beach I was picking up trash on the way.  My grandson asked me why I was picking up other people’s trash. If you don’t  already know I work for the California State Parks in the summer months. It’s what I do all I’m day, pick up trash. I explained to him that if I didn’t pick it up, someone else might not pick it up either. If that keeps up, the trash just builds up. What amazes me is that most of the trash is within a few feet from a trash can! Why would someone just throw it on the ground? Entitlement, carelessness, a poor sense of environmental concern? Na, I think it’s mostly laziness. It’s too inconvenient to walk all the way to the trash can. I have even heard people say. “Hey, I’m giving someone a job”. Seriously? There are lots of jobs to do. Picking up your trash should not be one of them! I do know that sometimes animals can get in the trash cans and make a mess, but that is the exception. I see people almost on a daily basis who throw their soda cans, candy wrappers, or napkins on the ground. And they were going to walk right past a trash can! Humans, we can do better than this! 

Here’s how you can help. 

1. Be responsible for your personal trash.

2. If you see something on the ground in front of you, go ahead and pick it up. 

3. Encourage others to be respectful and responsible. 

4. Put the cover on the trash if possible to prevent animals from getting in. 

5. Volunteer on clean up days. 

6. Stop being lazy. (I just had to throw that one in.)

The State Park’s Motto, 

“Take only pictures, leave only footprints” 

is a good thing to remember. Will you do your part?