And They Say God Doesn’t Perform Miracles Anymore!

I don’t often write about stuff like this, but in this case I must. On Sunday, September 16^th I had a massive heart attack and lived to write this.

We had been having fun in Cincinnati at King’s Island and began our journey home on Sunday. Normally, living south of Nashville, TN, we travel to avoid the big city because of the traffic. This was Sunday afternoon though and I had an appointment with the hospital coming up early on Tuesday morning so we decided to check parking availability since early is not a normal activity segment of our day.

We drove to the hospital and completed our research and left, but less than 3 blocks away I was hit with massive chest pains. Transferring driving responsibility to Catherine we returned to the hospital emergency room and they saved my life. They told me that if I had been any farther away there would have been nothing they could have done. God put me there at the exact moment to extend my expiration date once again. My life is different now and will be, but I have the ability to receive and treasure the love of my Catherine and my Joel, Jr w/ Candace, and the love and care of my beautiful Lord and Savior and my Father in heaven so my life is beautiful!

I am not afraid of dying, but I am afraid of not living so I will be busy enjoying God’s beautiful creation and praising His Name, not because He saved my life, but because of who He is!

Yes, I covet your prayers, but please make praise the prominent part of your prayer!

The Possum Tree

Since I wrote this many things have happened to make my childhood memories painful, but they are pretty good memories.

The limb fell. I looked at it yesterday and felt betrayed. There it was lying on the ground worthless. I heard someone talking about it saying, “Well, it will sure be good firewood for somebody”. Is that all there is to it now? I suppose it is, but it doesn’t seem right. The majestic oak whose majesty I failed to discover until now with nearly half of its regal being on the ground in disgrace has existed for so many years and pleased so many of us in so many ways. Is it possible that a friend, enduring for your entire life, whose mere existence brings grandeur to your playground and converts sticky summer heat into cool summer breezes, is not recognized by you as a friend? Unspeakable, but this is obviously one of the results of being confined to the limitations of humanness.

As the wheels of my car roll slowly on the driveway path that winds around under the limbs of this tree, I can’t help but reminisce about another time when the wheels rolling on this dark, damp, hard dirt path were also of a car, also mine, but one that was tied to a string and following my bicycle. The sounds of laughter and screaming can also be heard coming from the recesses of my mind. Nothing more than memories.

Looking to my left on the other path now, I see my brother’s eyes sparkling with excitement and then disgust as his car flipped over again. Heck!, he said, as he screeched to a halt and began to dismount. I hate these roots under this tree! They flip mine over every time. Next time, you ride on this side and I get to ride on that side, O.K.? Yeah was my reply, knowing that he’d probably forget anyway. Hurry up! Then he saw it.

Look! Where, I said. Up there! Up in the tree! I looked and I looked but I didn’t see anything. What do you see? Leaving his bike, he walked slowly to the base of the big oak and pointed up and out along the big low limb. Now I saw it. There it was crouched on the limb, almost invisible because of its coloring, but the bright pink nose was impossible to hide. Boy that’s neat! Living in paradise, you get accustomed to a lot of neat things, but there was something about finding a possum in the middle of a sunny summer day that was more than neat. It was downright exciting. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing when my brother said, Let’s get ’em! How in the world would you get something that could bite your hand off? I didn’t know, but my pal had already broken into a run past the chicken coup toward the house and I knew I was going to find out. Wait for me! I dropped my bike and took off after him following him past the house and down the hill to the boathouse. When I got there he had the scoop net that Papa kept in the tool room just in case we ever caught a fish large enough to need one. He had it in his hand waving it about. I never remember using it except to scoop seaweed out of the river or something like that. No, there was a time once when Papa tried to use it to contain a slimy eel, but the eel slipped through the mesh of the net and tangled itself in the net and the fishing line. Uh oh, see what can happen if you’re not careful digging around in the old memory chest. There’s a lot down there and it gets to be a real test of will pulling only one thing out at a time. We’ll get back to that story on another day, O.K.?

There he was, waving that darn net and saying something about one of us climbing out on the limb and shaking it and the other staying on the ground under the tree with the net. I couldn’t believe it. He was serious. After failing to talk him out of it, I found myself following him back up the hill. One of us was going to die. I was sure of it.

Running back past the house a second time in the opposite direction, we had now gotten the attention of Ladybug. Ladybug? Oh yeah, she was our dog, a miniature beagle who used to follow us everywhere. That was before she got sick. Back in those days there was little you could do to protect your pets from things like heartworms. I remember when the vet had told us why she had gotten listless and was coughing a lot and breathing hard. It was hard for us to accept that she was dying. But this was enough excitement to get her up and chasing after us anyway.

By the time we reached the chicken coup again, I realized that the scoop net was in my hand. Now back under the tree, my brother was telling me where to stand with the net. I wasn’t really afraid though, cause I knew when it came right down to it, there was no way he was going out on that limb to shake that possum down, but then there he went. He’s really gonna do it! Oh man … and then as he got to the limb and began to climb out on it, Ladybug saw the animal. Woof, woof, woof. She was running around looking up and barking and going bananas. With shaking knees, I was standing there holding that blooming scoop net with both hands absolutely sure that something was going to go dreadfully wrong and one of us was going to die. Out on the limb he went, farther and farther attempting to shake the limb as he went. Finally, after traveling much farther out than I would have ever dreamed that he would go, the limb began to respond to his efforts. The possum, totally unconcerned until now, began to hold on tighter than ever. I began to feel a little more safe now realizing that it would be almost impossible to shake that sucker out of the tree. Then it happened! It lost its grip and fell right at my feet. I was supposed to catch it, but I wasn’t even close. I guess I was more concerned with living at that moment. By now, Ladybug was hysterical as I ran around with that scoop net chasing the poor little creature. Faster and more determined than Ladybug or I, the furry little being eluded us and ran through the fence and on to safety.

Totally devastated by our loss, we walked backed to the house, one of us carrying the scoop net and the other carrying Ladybug. She seemed more exhausted than we had ever known her to be. Laying her on her bed, we looked into her eyes and saw her tell us goodbye as she closed them for the last time. She was a good dog.

Joel I.Tanner 7/12/93

Thoughts on Christmas

If Christmas is the happiest time of the year, why do so many struggle through it? Tis’ the season to be jolly. Peace on earth . . . good will toward men . . .

Here comes Santa Claus, but Santa Claus is unemployed or broke. It’s a wonderful time of year . . . for family, but what to do about the empty chair?

It’s easy to forget that the celebration is all about the completion of God’s promise of deliverance. The birth of baby Jesus was confirmation of the love of God. Jesus was born to be humiliated and to suffer excruciating pain and to die to free us from the chains of sin and death that were placed upon us all by the deceit of satan and the weakness of Adam. From the very beginning God loved us with a love only He was capable of, a love that would lead him to bring His Son into the world for this purpose of humiliation, pain and death to rescue us from the hate and the evil that surrounds us. This is the cute little, sweet little baby Jesus whose birth we celebrate during this season.

The magnitude of this birth brings to this season an amplification of EVERYTHING, the good and the bad. The good things are extremely good and bring about a happiness and delight that can’t be matched at any other time of year. The flip side is that the bad things, the things that hurt the most rise up in our emotions and are overpowering. The negatives in our lives always get top billing and that is why it is necessary for us to pray a prayer of thanks every night to remind ourselves of the good things that occurred.  Otherwise we will not even remember them, much less realize how many more good things there were than bad and how much more important the good things were in our day. The greater the grief in the loss of a loved one, the greater the gift that was given us through that loved one.  It is important to celebrate the gift as much as possible over grieving for the loss.

The birth of this Baby Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah), is the reason for celebration and His birth is the source of our hope in God and His salvation for mankind. It’s ok to be sad and to grieve, but try to remember this birth opens the door that gives you the ability to experience the love of those you have lost again so that death, although painful, is a temporary separation for those who will simply accept the gift that God Almighty gave us through this birth of salvation and love. Satan brought pain and death and sorrow.  Satan’s interference in God’s beautiful creation brought us unemployment and sickness and our other life problems and he encourages our misery. We can and should deal with our problems the best we can and lean on God and His mercy and grace for help and sustenance.  God is love and His love is real and can overcome the most hurtful situations that can be encountered in this life under the sun.

When we wish you a Merry Christmas, let it be so. This birth brought us joy and is the answer for our sorrow!

Image of God

Genesis 1:27New International Version (NIV)

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

I have spent my entire life trying to understand who God is and what He is like and many years ago I came up with a plan that I still use today. He loves me in spite of every unlovable thing I have ever done so it’s only natural to want to know Him.

What is unique about us when comparing us to His beautiful animals? He made us in His image, not His animals.

· We laugh and animals don’t, so it leads me to believe that God has a sense of humor and delight and that He probably chuckles as He watches us do stupid things!

· We love music and we sing. I know birds sing, but they sing to us. Their communication with each other involves singing, but not for the love of music. Therefore I believe that God loves music and is delighted with whole hearted praise and worship and probably enjoys Bach and The Beatles too! He gave us birdsong because He loves us!

· We love all of the beautiful colors of Spring and Fall and the animals could not care less. This leads me to believe that He loves color too and that He created His beautiful world in a manner that would delight us with beautiful colors that He enjoys also. When we paint a room or buy a car, maybe we should be a little more thoughtful.

· There’s only one other thing that I’ll mention here although there are many examples of who He is. We cry . . . and animals don’t. Knowing that our beautiful God has feelings and cries makes me unbearably sad. We do so many things that I know hurt His feelings. He loves us, each and every one, and seeing us reject Him and do things to ourselves that shorten our beautiful lives and disgrace ourselves must be extremely hurtful to Him. Many of my prayers now begin with, “Oh my sweet loving God Almighty, I am so very sorry for what our nation and our society are doing!”

One other little tidbit:

When God joins us together as husband and wife He makes us one. When He created Adam, He made Adam from the dust of the earth. When He made Eve, He did so by removing a part of Adam, not from dust as He did with Adam. He created Adam in His own image and then removed part of His image from Adam. He then made Eve with that part of His image that He removed from Adam. I believe that His image is only complete when we bind ourselves together as husband and wife and become one – again as per His instruction. God is not male or female, He is both and His image is not of a male or female, but rather of male and female bound together as we were when He created us in His image and called us Adam. I believe that those who choose to marry should do so with this in mind and not overlook the charm that our Almighty Father has in store for us by failing to genuinely become ONE according to His recipe.

A Pristine Reflecting Pool

Out the back door of the Amicalola Falls Visitor Center and on to the trail up to the base of the falls and toward the terminus or trailhead for the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain we went. It’s winter so the foliage is bare, but beautiful. The beauty that our loving God created for us is not limited by season or terrain. It is just different. Without the foliage the distant wonders peek through to our limited eyesight and reward us with otherwise unknown delights. A scurrying chipmunk is revealed when it would never be noticed at a different time. We cross a manmade road to get to the other side and more unspoiled beauty by the hand of God. OK, there are some ugly manmade picnic tables that are a blessing for those who need them and will enjoy them, but just beyond them is the beautiful babbling stream in and around and over the rocks and boulders. Now we take a small incline and find ourselves on a parking lot. Yes it’s ugly, but helpful for those who need it to access the wonders of God Almighty’s awesome creation. Then we come to the pool, the reflecting pool. Beautiful clear water lightly covered with ice from low temperatures and a cold breeze. We cast our eyes over this delightful comforting kiss from God and sigh. Thank you sweet Lord for this amazing gift!

As our eyes glide over this small wonder shock and disgust overwhelm. A large piece of paper in the pool brings anger from the surface of the pool to the surface of my heart. Enduring one man scourge to another to find an untouched piece of art created by the Master of Masters, the Artist of Artists and to find that even it has been spoiled is heartbreaking. Yes, it was only one sheet of paper and maybe I should just be more tolerant, but it’s hard. I see two worlds. I see the world that God created for us to delight us and thrill us and to make His love known to us and I see the world where we have replaced His beauty with convenience through ugly manmade structures and devices. I understand the need for the manmade, but I’ll never understand the lack of respect for God’s awesome handiwork and artistry and gestures of love and comfort and grace.

The Truth Shall Make You Free!

Christianity is a Jewish religion.  Are you stunned?  Are you angry?  Please continue and you’ll settle down, whether Jew or Christian.

                        

The entire Holy Bible was written by Jews, the Old Testament and the New Testament.  They are both Jewish.  Way back in Genesis God promised Abraham that the entire world, not just the Jews, would be blessed through his descendants.  Abraham’s descendants through Jacob (Israel) became God’s Covenant People.  He chose this family.  They were His Chosen People.  When you choose someone, why?  To do something, right?  God chose the family of Israel to bless the entire world by bringing a Messiah, not just to Israel, but to the world!  Through Moses, He put them on a diet (Kosher) that would build a strong, healthy and beautiful race that could be inhabited by the Son of God.  Through Moses, God gave them laws in which a citizen could live a sinless life and be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.  Many of the Christmas carols that we sing are words taken from the Jewish prophet Isaiah in  the Old Testament.  The Apostles were all Jews.  These apostles had no “New Testament” to preach and establish a church with.  They wrote the New Testament.  They had to use the Old Testament to explain that Yeshua Ha’Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah) was crucified for them and that He rose from the dead.  When God saved the Jews from slavery in Egypt He did it with the blood of a sacrificed lamb on the door posts.  To save us from the heartbreaking slavery of the sin in the world He had to do it with the blood sacrifice of His own perfect Son.  The family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were chosen to bring this about and they did their job well.  Through them we have been saved, not just to go to heaven, but to live a charmed life here under the sun.  Many of the Jews failed to accept this gift from God and still do.  Many were expecting a different kind of Messiah and still do.  As Christ followers, we have all been given, not only this freedom through Him, but also many gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Even though they have been given to all of us, many of us do not accept them.  We are all human and tend to legalize everything even when God says to come to Him as little children.  He is a God of love and merely asks us to accept His love and the gifts that come with it.

Yes, Christianity is a Jewish religion.  Israel is our homeland.  The Jews are our greatest benefactors.  Yes, I dearly love all of the Jewish people whether they accept their Messiah or not just as I love all Christians whether they accept all of God’s gifts or not.  As commanded by God Almighty, “The Great I Am”, I love all of my neighbors from one side of the globe to the other, but the Jews have a special place in my heart because of what they have gone through and continue to go through in being God’s Chosen People on my behalf.  God says He will support the nations that support Israel and destroy those who oppose Israel.  Obviously I support Israel because God Almighty commands it of me, but more importantly because of who they are.

OK, so you are asking what this has to do with EARTH TIME . . . . Everything!!!!!!!!

Catherine

She sleeps and the world is still

caressing me in the softness of the night.

She stirs and the stars twinkle

winking at me beside her.

She wakes and the darkness begins to move

to allow the sun to shine on me.

She prepares the world for me.

It beckons to me as I arouse.

She moves and the trees sigh.

I walk in their shade.

She walks and the breezes dance along with her

and cool my brow.

She speaks and the birds sing

to thrill my soul.

She touches a flower.

It illumines her beauty and I gasp in awe.

She gestures to the sky.

God kisses her hand and blesses me.

She tells me goodnight.

I know that it is and I succumb to its softness and security.

Thank you God for my Catherine. I love her so.

Joel

Written with love in 2001

A Momentous Day!

On this day 33 years ago I was totally out of my mind with wonder and passion, with fear and trepidation!

August 14, 1981 I took my date, Catherine Mauldin Stokke, to dinner with the intention of proposing. I had questioned my mother and father and had spent considerable time talking with my 8 year old twin daughters, Kristi and Kerri, who I had been raising by myself since they were 2 in an effort to make sure that I was doing the right thing. It is one thing to pick a wife for yourself, but quite another to pick a mother for your children. My parents were thrilled with Catherine and my girls were so excited. I tried to calm their excitement because I was pretty sure Catherine would turn me down.

I took Catherine to the restaurant at the Hilton and just couldn’t believe that THIS particular night they had chosen to serve a buffet of all things! Catherine was fine with it, but she was unaware of my motives for this particular date and couldn’t understand why I was so displeased, but agreed to go somewhere else. We drove downtown. We went to a restaurant on the highest floor of the round Sheraton Hotel (many different brands since then). The restaurant was named “The Top of the Bay” since it looked out over Mobile Bay. What can I say? It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! I was so sure she would say no that I left the rings in the glove compartment of the car, but to my shock and surprise she said YES!!!!!!!!! I guess I was a little overwhelmed and when the staff figured out what was going on they brought us flaming bananas foster and so my “charmed” life began.

We planned for a wedding in the Spring, but our plans changed within days as we saw how complicated our wedding would become. Within a few days we had gotten the time necessary for printing the invitations, etc. and everything else. We added two weeks for mail and landed on Sunday Morning, October 11^th at sunrise on the banks of Fowl River 20 miles south of Mobile.

We were anxious for everyone to be a part of our vows, but didn’t expect many since it was 20 miles south of Mobile and at sunrise, but we had nowhere near enough chairs. The crowd was amazing and we were thrilled! We had beautiful music! My brother Max sang. My sister Sandra read Psalm 100. My brother Peter gave vows to Catherine and Kristi and Kerri. Yes, Catherine married me AND my daughters, putting rings on their fingers. My nephew Max, Jr. was the perfect ring bearer!

Then our vows began . . . .

As a part of our vows we read passages from the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament of the Bible to each other and our union that our sweet and Holy God Almighty bound us in began and the charm in my life became entrenched! Our daughters waved good bye to us as we pushed off from the dock in a boat piloted by my brother Peter and began our journey into our future. At midnight that night I was gasping for breath having just pulled my beautiful bride back and away from a cliff at Little River Canyon in North Alabama that was hidden in one of the darkest nights in the history of the world. Clinging to each other has become a well practiced habit since then.

Julep Point

One of the neat things about growing old is that you can say “years ago” when talking about your own life! So . . .

Years ago on a beautiful night with my beautiful wife God’s charm filled the world around me! Down on Mobile Bay there is a magnificent hotel named the Grand Hotel and for good reason. It is on the Eastern Shore in Fairhope, AL and has an amazing romantic and tragic history. In front of it there is a very small section of the waterfront that juts out into the bay. It is called Julep Point. On Julep Point there was a gazebo that invited romantic couples to look out over the bay and revel in the glorious moon glow or sailboats or porpoises or ships in the ship channel. It may still be there . . . I don’t know since all of the hurricanes and, after all, it was years ago.

I have lived my life always in awe of the beautiful musicals in awesome ballrooms featuring Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Bennie Goodman, Glenn Miller, and so on. Born a little too late for anything but the dream. There was one particular night, though, that this dream came true! Granted it was not a ballroom, but rather a gazebo on Julep Point. It was not one of the big bands from the movies, but one that would rival any of them. Bob Schultz and his orchestra played under the moon on a glorious night on Julep Point!

Those of you who know my beautiful wife Catherine can imagine her beauty that night as we danced under the moon! In a bright red flowing dress and her long hair in a bun on the back of her head with her beautiful big eyes shining, she moved with grace and made me weak in the knees. All of this happened under the moon in a gazebo on a little piece of land called Julep Point and remains one of the most precious of my memories.

Just a little thought while in the midst of our “Pre-Anniversary Season”.

He Thinks He’s Dead!

It was a tractor accident.  I’ll admit that I don’t remember a lot of the details, but the important things I get right in this.  My Uncle Chink was lovingly called that because everyone said he had “chinquapin” eyes.  His given name was Harry Owen Tanner.  He was a really neat guy, laid back, soft spoken, and had a permanent smile and a wife named Mary, who was one of my favorite people on the planet.  He was a dairy farmer and grew sugar cane and made sugar cane syrup the old fashioned way with a huge cooker and a mule that went round and round grinding up the cane.  The smell was one of the most beautiful scents I have ever experienced!  He had some of the biggest bar-be-cue  cook outs you could imagine with everything from sausages to pork to goat to deer and on and on and on!  Uh oh . . . getting side tracked . . . that’s another story.

Back on track now . . . Uncle Chink was working with his tractor out in the fields.  He failed to come in when he was expected.  When they went to look for him they found him.  He had fallen off of the tractor and it had rolled over him crushing him and leaving him very near death.  He was rushed to the hospital and was given very little hope of recovery.  Days went by and more days went by but he didn’t regain consciousness.

Aunt Mary kept trying to get them to agree to open the window, but they refused saying that dangerous germs would enter the room from the window and make things worse. By the way, this was back in the day when hospital windows could be opened.  I don’t think it’s even possible now.  Aunt Mary was so upset!  She screamed at them and cried and stomped her foot!  They tried to calm her, knowing how worried she was, but to no avail.  They finally asked her why she wanted to open the window.  She acted like they were idiots.  She said, “He’s just laying there in a white room with no noise, no fresh air, no sunshine, and no rain.  HE THINKS HE’S DEAD”!!!!!!!!!!!!  After this outburst from her they agreed to open the window for a couple of hours that afternoon.  You know the ending to this story . . . yep, he woke up that afternoon and was discharged a couple of days later.

Thank you sweet Lord for Aunt Mary and all of our beautiful wives who love us so dearly and are always keenly aware of what us old dudes need and will do anything and everything to make it so!