(I don’t really have to write much about this picture, do I?)
We stopped at a small coffee shop after a nice sunrise beach walk. Black for me, vanilla latte for her, two whipped cream pup cups, and a chocolate. chip. muffin.
I’ll be honest. I staged this picture. Willow, our Great Dane, is not a jumper. But she can counter surf with the best of them, flicking her lengthy tongue at a butter dish, salad fork, bowl of pasta, bits of gristle from a steak, or some crumbs from my homemade sourdough bread.
I was not cruel. I gave her a few crumbs. But I put the chocolate muffin just out of reach for this visual effect.
Great illustration, right?
So much of what we want seems so close, but it’s just out of reach. If we just had more money, experience, influence, talent, friends, or whatever, we would have what we want. We would be happy. We woulds be satisfied.
It’s always just out of reach, isn’t it?
That muffin would be gone in a moment. Most of the things we pursue only last a moment. We get it, and then we want something else. We’re never satisfied.
It looks so close, but what we want is so far away.
Our cottage bakery got an email asking about a cookie order for a corporate event. Other bakers with similar businesses had described these larger-than-usual orders as the real moneymakers.
Our excitement turned to disbelief once we read his request: “25 dozen of a 4-pack of cookies of different flavors with the company logo printed on it.” I did the math and wondered, “Three hundred four-packs?” That’s 1,200 cookies!
Our three-and-a-half inch printed iced cookies start at $4.00 each. He going to spend $4,800 on cookies? That’s too much. Let’s offer 2-1/2 inch cookies at $2.50 each. It would still be a $3,000 order, but maybe that’s what he wants.
That offer was too much for the event budget. He countered, “How about twenty dozen cookies?”
We replied, “We can do 240 three-inch cookies for $3.00 each, a total of $720.”
He was happy with that order. So were we. That’s still a lot of cookies! Could we deliver to the conference venue in a neighboring town? We said we could.
I emailed him the invoice so we could start on the order. He replied, “Can I pay by e-check?” Of course. Our invoice takes you to a payment site with credit card and ACH options.
But his idea of an e-check was totally different than ours. He wanted to write out a check, take a picture of it, and email the picture to us so we could deposit it using our bank’s mobile deposit option.
Red alert! Defcon 5! Danger, Will Robinson! Are you kidding? There’s no way I’m doing that. A picture of a check does work like the real thing, as long as the bank clears it. There’s the catch. It takes up to a week for that kind of deposit to clear.
I learned that this is a set-up for fraud. Someone sends you a check for more than the agreed upon amount. All you have to do is send them a check for the overpayment. But when their check doesn’t clear, they disappear with whatever money you sent them.
I told him I could only take payment through our payment portal. He said he couldn’t do that, but looked forward to working with us in the future. When I looked him up on the corporate website, guess what? No such guy.
This all happened a few months ago. When I looked back at his emails, the first subject line “Cookies Enquiries” should have clued me in from the start. His request for different “flavours” should have tipped me off, too.
Apparently scams and fraud are business as usual for small businesses. Don’t ever let your guard down.
When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. (Jeremiah 8:4,5)
I’m old enough to remember LifeAlert’s 1987 television commercial that featured a woman on the floor, crying out, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” The LifeAlert system would make sure help was on the way.
Typically, when you fall down, you get up. Babies learning to walk fall back on diaper-padded bottoms and get back up as they find their balance and learn to walk. A pile of football players get up after blocks, runs, catches, and tackles, huddling up to get the next play. My grandkids run around the yard (and house), fall a lot, laugh and get up over and over and over.
But Jeremiah preaches to people who fall and don’t get up. They fall into idolatry and sin, but never repent, never return to God, never get back on the right track. It’s not that they can’t. They won’t. They refuse.
That’s Jeremiah’s congregation. They won’t listen. They refuse to change. They are impossible to teach.
The thing is, God wants to help you get back up. He knows you’re going to disobey, fail, blow it, and make a huge mess of things. But he’s all about forgiveness and restoration. He’ll do whatever it takes to get you back on your feet, even if you come away with a few bruises and lot of hard lessons learned.
So when you fall (fail), will you take his hand, or thumb your nose at God? When Peter walked on the water with Jesus, he suddenly began sinking. Jesus took his hand and pulled him up.
That’s the kind of God he is.
Are you going to pass that up? Are you going to refuse his help when you are out of answers? Are you going to dig in your heels when you know what you should do?
Yes, you will. Yes, I do. I am so thankful for his steadfast love and daily morning mercies!
Some “through the bible” devotional thoughts from Jeremiah 5.
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it. But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. (Jeremiah 5:22,23)
The ocean is an imposing body of water. It is powerful. A single wave can knock you over. Riptides pull you helplessly away from the shore. Offshore storms create waves that rip apart piers and wash away resort beaches. The seas toss huge ships around as if they were nothing. Pressure at the bottom of the ocean crushes the sturdiest submarines.
But the ocean obeys its creator. They can only go as far as he permits.
People? They are stubborn. They are rebellious. They disregard the barriers of God’s law. They dismiss the guardrails of God’s statutes. They ignore his warnings. They go where they want. They do what they want.
Okay, let’s be honest here. Let’s correct the pronouns. I am stubborn. I am rebellious. I disregard the barriers. I dismiss the guardrails. I ignore the warnings. I go where I want and do what I want.
Let’s get it right. I’m a piece of work. I’m a mess. I’m greedy, selfish, judgmental, prideful, insensitive, and cruel. I’m the enigma Jeremiah describes. I’m the one part of God’s creation who doesn’t honor and obey the creator.
That’s a tough confession to make, isn’t it? It’s honest though, isn’t it? It’s truthful. It’s real. It’s puzzling. It makes Jeremiah’s words come to life. Yeah, he’s talking about me.
Once I get that right, the bible starts to make sense. I need help. I need God’s help. And I have a God who helps. With love, mercy, and grace he gets my attention, draws me in, and shows me how much he still loves me.
Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:12,13)
I love Jeremiah’s imagery here. He condemns a couple of habits that many of us can relate to. We don’t think God can fulfill our needs, so we pursue other things, people, and experiences we believe will satisfy us.
Those pursuits are just futile. They are sinful, unfaithful, and idolatrous. They reveal distrust, unbelief, and outright disobedience.
Convicted? Yeah, me too.
What are my cisterns? Approval. “Likes” for anything I write. Feeling “fit” compared to so many overweights who can barely walk into a store. A little money in the bank. 20+ likes for any blog post.
Why am I not satisfied with what God provides? Great question. I have no profound answers.
When I pulled up along side this truck, I did a double take. I’m glad we were at a red light so I could get a picture of the website. A lot of people want to build pools. A lot of people want better gastrointestinal health, too. It’s a win either way.
The drug store shelves are filled with products to slow you down or speed you up. I swabbed a few floaters to send off to the lab, so my doctor would know how things were down there. One side effect of medications advertised on my streaming services is “oily stool.” Sensitivity to every kind of food plagues countless folks with digestive challenges. If that’s you, you might want to contact the website on the door of that truck.
I wonder if someone doctored up the decal on purpose. Or that precious letter “L” might have worn off over time.
Yes, I typed in that web address. I got nothing. This is an opportunity. I’ll bet I could get that domain for cheap. I’ll bet many would type it into their browser. How much fun would it be to give them unprofessional advice, everything from prunes to cheese?
After yesterday’s post, the evening sky called and demanded equal time.
I’ve written about the colors of dusk before, awed as the sun painted the bottom of the clouds one final time before retiring for the night. No shade of orange was left behind at the end of this day.
While pink greets me at the beginning a new day, orange won’t let go when that day comes to a close. It hangs on like the embers in the fire pit that glow long after everyone has closed their eyes for the night.
Once again, before I passed two utility poles, the colors had faded, stars appeared, and darkness punched in for the overnight shift.
This picture reminds me of a moment twenty-seven years ago when wild fires burned out of control in our county. A day before we were told to evacuate, we could see the glow on the horizon, wondering if the flames would consume our home. Thankfully, the fire came no closer than half a mile. But the memory is seared into my mind, reawakened when the day ends drenched in every shade of orange you can imagine.
The rays of pink penetrating the dawn sky took away my breath. I took a picture, knowing they would last but a few moments.
For some reason, two-thirds of the way through summer, the sun, clouds, and sky collaborate to create living works of art.
Thick air greeted me as I stepped out of the house. Even though the sky was clear, no humidity had escaped overnight. The moon and a couple of planets hadn’t yet retired for the night. The birds had just begun to sing. The longer red and pink wavelengths stretched up from behind the trees, rewarding early morning walkers with a beautiful pallet of colors.
I’ve seen lots of pink dawn skies, but I’ve never seen this one. And I’ll never see it again.
We were almost home from a morning walk when I noticed a large circular contrail in the sky. I’m used to seeing the contrails of early morning flights crisscross the sky. I don’t remember ever seeing one that circled back on itself.
I took this photo facing east, so the jet would have been out over the ocean. We guessed the plane was in a holding pattern, waiting for clearance to land. As we looked, we could just see the plane at the front of the contrail, heading back north, most likely into Jacksonville.
When I looked up circular contrails, a conspiracy website said they were actually chemtrails. According to them, some sinister group was spraying toxins into the air to poison a population. That’s an imaginative idea to be sure.
Another person suggested it was a flight pattern for training. That’s possible. We’ve seen a lot of air national guard planes and helicopters overhead the past few weeks.
Anyway, it was a beautiful part of this morning’s sky.
Waite for it... 