Candles in the Desert

Good morning my fine friends!

Alas, Forty Five years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable people. "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve".

Over the last week, many of you have written on my Face Book wall recounting memories that have long since faded from my view...ahh so good to reflect....ahh so hard at times to remember and to have said goodbye to so many friends...such purpose and meaning...

Birthdays are a mixed bag...I think.......you need them to stay alive, but each one checks off mercilessly the time allotted to each soul....Oh Lord teach us to count our days in order to make our days count....seems a little trite as I reflect over the last 4 plus decades of walking this world....

It is odd, that today all of these memories, bring me sadness..and to be honest, none were sad memories...so as I muse out loud...I am not sure why....

Thank you to all of you....it certainly will be a Birthday I will never forget, another year older as I blow out candles in the desert

JT

More Like Falling in Love

Greetings fellow traveler!

I just spent the last week hoping from FOB to FOB via "Huey Express"
So many thoughts tonight as I close out another week in theater...I have held 7 services in the last 4 days, on three different FOBs, each one grateful and hungry for worship, prayers, fellowship and the presence of the Holy in the midst of the Horrors of war....as I reflect on this ministry..so many things come to mind...there is a song by Jason Gray I think, that I would sing for you, but because I havent figured out how to attach videos yet, I will just share the words that describe my sense of the Holy today...

Give me rules
I will break them
Give me lines
I will cross them
I need more than a truth to believe
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet
It ought to be

More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It's like I'm falling, oh
It's like I'm falling in love

Give me words
I'll misuse them
Obligations
I'll misplace them
'Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
It's gotta be

More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It's like I'm falling, oh
It's like I'm falling in love

...It's like I'm falling in love, love, love
Deeper and deeper
It was love that made
Me a believer
In more than a name, a faith, a creed
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me

Most services, messages and opportunities to
minister would do well to answer the heart
cry behind this song, when they attempt to speak
on behalf of God..

We all would be better for it....

The one thing Jesus said was greater than anything else:

LOVE!

The Love of God to man, "nothing can separate us from the Love of God"
the love of man to man, "by your love one towards another"
the love of man to God "Love the Lord your God with all your heart...."

So in the spirit that this is written

I love you all

T

Siren's Song

I should be listening to Elk Bugling calling me to the alpine snow covered mountains, inviting me to come once again to our annual contest of man against nature. Instead of 20 degree temperatures tonight and snow falling, I sit in Afghanistan in 100 degree heat listening to the Imam call to evening prayer.


And so while my body is here tonight encouraging Soldiers to press on, truly my spirit and my mind, and my heart are elsewhere. Except this fall it is not the siren song of the Wapiti that have made my pulse quicken and my eyes take on a far off look...this euphoric existential experience is about the future, and yet many ways about the past, of going back to Oahu, to the life that beckons me daily to join in its oceanic rhythm of life, to walk hand in hand embracing each new day that the Lord brings with ecstasy and passion that too long traveling the deserts of this world can bring.

Yes tonight I dream of the sweet caress of the Island, of each new vista shared, of each new memory made, of paths yet to be discovered, of challenges to be met, laughing and a jumping all along its waterfalls.

I hear her calling, beckoning me back to Hemolele, never again will I look at life the same,or take for granted what yesterday seemed so trivial that now today I would sacrifice so much to have,....a working phone....a cup of coffee with a friend....time with my sons and daughter in law, a drive in an island smart car for the first time...to take the top off of my jeep and let the rain wash away the grime of the journey as I wait expectantly for the rainbow that I know is coming...the touch of a kiss that sparks thoughts of romance as the sun gently caresses the ocean's horizon. To sit on the shore and listen to the sound of the gentle breeze breathing in and out through the trees...to softly sing songs of worship and to be one.....

This is my Siren calling tonight.... the deep trails of North Shore, the ocean beaches, the evening sun sets, the mistress of my soul, oh how I long to look deeply into her eyes and to experience all that God has created....
to drink my fill of her essence,
to drink my fill of the Island until time is no more...
and leaves me in awe whispering softly

Who is like God

Aloha

GI JOY