I am in the midst of painting the main living areas in our condo: scaffolding and ladders, ups and downs, bending and lifting, brushing and rolling, moving and cleaning … the whole nine yards day after day.  Thus, I really do not have the time nor the energy to write anything.  However, since this project gives me the precious opportunity to reflect upon the wonders of our creation and redemption, I will simply share with you part of something I started writing years ago.  I call it “Basic Questions of Life and Faith.”

This past Sunday the sermon at the church I attended started with some audience-response questions.  The pastor said, “I will say a word and then you respond with the opposite.”  Then he said, “Heavy” and we all said, “Light.”  He said, “Morning” and we said, “Night.”  After a few more times where we were all in sync he said, “Believe” and I (and a few others) said, “Doubt”.  Then, just as I was catching myself in my mistake, he called us out on it.  The opposite of believe is not doubt, but rather unbelief (or non-belief).

It is just starting to settle into my mind how busy I must have been for the past +40 years … and how good it feels to be wasting time with the realization that those old deadlines and responsibilities will not catch up to me because of it.  Vacations in the past, while providing needed time of refreshment and relaxation, also always included time for preparing and planning (not to mention the interruptions).  Now when I get up in the morning the first pressure question of the day is, “What day is this?”

The Tigers looked dead in their opener … and I’m not just talking about the first game, but the entire series.  Many were lamenting – perhaps myself included – that this year was going to be worse than the previous, even though those three games covered only the first 1.7% of the season.  They looked like the same old, lame kittens … striking out way too often, sloppy in the field, with pitchers hesitant to throw meaningful strikes.  I think Tampa Bay outscored them by something like 20 runs over the three games, and the Tigers never had a lead.  Talk about a dead opening!