Problems are for Solving

This just in from the “you can’t make this up” category!

from the Cato-at-liberty blog:

Iowans planning to eat pumpkins can still get a tax exemption if they fill out a form.

This sounds like added bureaucracy, but Iowa taxpayers should be happy. By this time next year, the bureaucrats will decide that some people are falsely claiming that they are eating pumpkins in order to dodge the tax. So the new form will require families to send in photos of pumpkin pie. The following year, some bureaucrat will decide that some of the pies were actually bought in stores, so tax exemptions will only be allowed if a bureaucrat is invited over for dinner. I’m just kidding, of course. At least I think.

(Read the rest here.)

I did something this week that I’ve never done before. I gave money to a political candidate.

Mike Huckabee.

Mike is running for president. I have heard him speak four or five times now, to varying audiences, and seen his performance in the debates. I think Mike has consistent values that are very close to my own, and I think he is able to put forth those values without sacrifice or compromise to differing audiences effectively without unnecessary offense.

Mike can win. Mike can win and he’ll be the kind of leader this country needs.

But right now he’s fifth in national polling (2nd in Iowa in some polls, though). He is rising and rising consistently but cannot win without more money. So I sent him some money–and if you want a President who can lead and who has strong values you should too.

Many are saying he can’t win. Newsweek says he’s the best chance the Republicans have of beating Hillary.

Some say he’s not fiscally conservative. I think if you look at Ronald Reagan’s tour as governor of California you’d have the same objections. Mike signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge.

So get out and vote in the primary and vote for Mike.

Note that I am speaking for myself and my family in this post and for no organization with which I am afililiated.

Until this year my job has offered opportunities for travel on occasion, and some of them have been required, though not all of them. I’d gotten opportunities to visit conferences and places I might not have otherwise, and sometimes even to take along my family.

This year has been different.

None of my travel has been optional, and it has been exceedingly great. As of this post, I’ve visited 28 states and logged over 38,000 miles this year. (Side note: this is the reason my blog posts have been so sporadic all year)

I’m tired. I’m tired of coming home and tired of not getting to stay.

For my birthday Raquel gave me a copy of Andrew Peterson’s album, Clear to Venus. I loved it instantly and it became my favorite AP album just as quickly. The title track, Venus, is about his struggles as he traveled around from concert concert and the wear and tear on his family.

The song makes me cry.

I am convinced that what I am traveling for is a worthwhile–in fact I am convinced that there is no one else who can do what I’m doing. Which means that just because I’m tired I can’t just give up–if this is what God has called me to then there is no where else I can be.

…It’s one more night at the Hampton Inn
It’s breakfast on the house again
Well, it isn’t home, but it’ll do just fine
Still, it isn’t home

We’ve got planes to catch, bills to pay
We won’t make it home today
We’ve got shows from Boston clear to Venus
But if America is listening, as long as I’ve got songs to sing
We can always make a home right here between us

(whole song lyrics)

But that doesn’t make leaving home and spending “one more night at the Hampton Inn” any easier. It’s been hard on me, and hard on my family, and every time I come home I long for Home.

38,000 miles is a lot, and I’m not done this year yet. By the end of the year I’ll be well over 40,000 miles. The song was especially meaningful because my year of travel started with a trip to Boston, and I feel like I’ve traveled clear to Venus. But thankfully, that’s not true. Venus is closest to earth at 40 MILLION miles. I haven’t traveled a tenth of a percent of the way to Venus.

It just feels that way.

I miss my wife and my family when I travel, and it’s hard to balance my callings at times. Here’s a link to Andrew Peterson singing Venus. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. And if it makes you cry, think of me and say a prayer for my family while I’m “singing my songs” to America.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

Oh Captain of my soul
Who guards my heart from trouble and leads me in paths of righteousness
Keep me from the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners, the seat of the scoffer
That I might be happy and rest in Your love and grace
Please listen and answer with Your guiding hand
Amen.

(Click on the prayer topic below to see other posts on prayer and collects.)

A few weeks ago we had to make a quick trip to northeastern Pennsylvania for a funeral. A man I admire had died.

This man fathered my wife’s mother–he is the first Christian in that side of my children’s line. And he was a godly great-grandfather to seventeen little ones, grandfather to sixteen and father of five.

He loved Jesus.

And so we were sad. And because we were sad we celebrated.

We celebrated his life.

Grandpa Rhodes now sits with Jesus. He has no pain and no sorrow and he will serve Christ forever with redeemed arms and legs and energy like he never dreamed of in his final days. And Jesus has shown him his inheritance and said “well done.”

My wife has been greatly influenced by her grandfather. She spent many summer days working beside him in the strawberry fields. She often talks of the hard summer and the hard work of the man who never quit. Retired three times he was always busy until close to the end when his 80+ year-old body failed him. And sin, and the death that comes through sin, became more real to him in that decaying body that lies silent in the grave now.

And so we celebrated. His sister told stories of when they were young, and his brother (who no-one expected to speak) pointed everyone there to the Scriptures that Alan Rhodes loved. This was a funeral he planned himself years ago after his stroke and it was a beautiful reminder of his life and his true life in Christ even as we grieved his death.

So long, Grandpa Rhodes. We will miss you here–but I would not wish upon you one more day in this dark, sinful place. May you enjoy glory forever. We will be there soon and then the celebration will never end. Because in that eternal celebration we will celebrate one death that conquered death forever–and we will rejoice in the life that he bought us. Forever.

Paul Tripp Ministries: Psalm 27: People in Need of Help

God is the ultimate Helper. He alone has the grace to rescue you from you.

On Sunday afternoons I often read Paul Tripp’s blog. Tripp has been a favorite of mine since I heard him speak in Lafayette Indiana several years ago–he has mastered convincing his hearers of God’s grace and one simple message when he talks.

I hope you find this post as encouraging as I have–it is good to be reminded of God’s help in our lives, and our inadequacy for so much of what He calls us to, unless we depend upon Him.

The Cedar Room: We Rebuke The Silent God.

Joshua Gibbs has an excellent post about “moments of silence” and the “silent God” that most Americans want.

Praise God that He isn’t silent.