Re Trusting and Waiting for our buyer, right before yesterday’s blog posted, THE OFFER came in!

The good news is that it’s a cash deal for the asking price. The not as good news is we have to wait until the buyers sell their home in the Phoenix area. We’re aiming for a closing of October 15th or earlier.

So the trusting and waiting continues, now praying for a buyer for a home in Phoenix!

Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD! (Psalm 27.14, NKJV)

Still waiting for the house to sell. There’s been a lot of action in the last few days, 10 showings total, which our son and real estate agent says is normally enough for an offer… None yet.

So we wait…

Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73.23 – 26, NKJV)

“You will guide me with your counsel…” I’m presuming that God guided us in this move. He led Mark to lead us to this house and gave us the desire for it. Everything has happened step by step as planned. Now, God just needs to finish it off.

But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, That I may declare all Your works. (Psalm 73.28, NKJV)

Our trust is in God. Not in our planning. And when it sells, I will “declare all his works.” Stay tuned.

If I can write about Hulk Hogan’s passing, I would be remiss not to recognize the brilliant satirist (and mathematician!) Tom Lehrer who passed on July 26 at age 97. (Google the news outlet of your choice.)

Unlike Hulk Hogan, there’s no evidence that Tom was a believer in any deity although he was Jewish by birth.

I have a “personal” connection in that I’ve sung some of his songs. I have a modest collection of funny songs that I can be persuaded to perform (badly) from time to time. “I’m My Own Grandpa” I learned from Andy Griffith (sung here by Ray Stevens with diagrams!). Allan Sherman gave me “You’ve Gott Have Skin,” which became one of my signature pieces.

Tom Lehrer? Just last week I was having a math conversation with a young man I’ve been working with for several years. He wanted to know about doing arithmetic in bases besides base 10. So I referred him to the Tom Lehrer song New Math in which he shows how to do subtraction in Base 8.

I can’t sing New Math, but I have done Poisoning Pigeons in the Park at places as diverse as the Christian Conference Center Spring Canyon, my son Mark’s wedding rehearsal, and by request at my 70th birthday party. At the wedding rehearsal, the pastor came up and said, “I bet you have “Vatican Rag” running around in there somewhere!” I replied, “I do, but I don’t do that one in public.” Tom Lehrer did, and it’s considered his most controversial song.

If you don’t know, the man was brilliant:

After graduating early from the Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut, Mr. Lehrer went to Harvard, where he majored in mathematics and received his bachelor’s degree in 1946, at 18. He earned a master’s from Harvard the next year… – from the NY Times Obituary

I thought that despite all that education, he made his living in music. For example he occasionally wrote songs for the television show “That Was the Week that Was.” Not so. The obit continues:

But his entertainment career ultimately took a back seat to academia. In his heart he never quit his day job; he just took a few sabbaticals.

He stopped performing in 1960 after only a few years, resumed briefly in 1965 and then stopped for good in 1967. His music was ultimately just a momentary detour in an academic career that included teaching posts at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, and even a stint with the Atomic Energy Commission.

In an era where song writers’ families earn money for generations from royalties, Tom posted a notice on his website in 2020:

I, Tom Lehrer, individually and as trustee of the Tom Lehrer Trust 2007, hereby grant the following permissions:

All copyrights to lyrics or music written or composed by me have been permanently and irrevocably relinquished, and therefore such songs are now in the public domain. All of my songs that have never been copyrighted, having been available for free for so long, are now also in the public domain. In other words, I have abandoned, surrendered and disclaimed all right, title and interest in and to my work and have injected any and all copyrights into the public domain.

…

Performing and recording rights to all of my songs are included in this permission. Translation rights are also included.

In particular, permission is hereby granted to anyone to set any of these lyrics to their own music, or to set any of this music to their own lyrics, and to publish or perform their parodies or distortions of these songs without payment or fear of legal action.

Some recording, movie, and television rights to songs written by me are merely licensed non-exclusively by me to recording, movie, or TV companies. All such rights are now released herewith and therefore do not require any permission from me or from Maelstrom Music, which is merely me in another hat, nor from the recording, movie, or TV companies involved.

In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.

So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.

He said he would take the site down at some time in the future, but it’s still up: https://tomlehrersongs.com/

He brought joy to a lot of people. Faith Bottum of the Wall Street Journal concludes her tribute with:

I’ve always had a soft spot for Tom Lehrer. I discovered him when I was young going through my parents’ old CDs. Somehow I still sing his songs with surprising regularity. After being stuck on the highway after the car broke down. To cheer up an old friend. To laugh when I’m feeling down. Lehrer’s music was funny—funny enough for people to hum 70 years later. – July 28, 2025

I’ve written before, we ought to recognize excellence wherever we see it, and we worship a God who gave us music and humor.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38.4 – 7, NKJV)

Professional wrestler and over-the-top showman Hulk Hogan passed away last week at the age of 71. If you’re not familiar with his persona, this 8-minute clip from Rocky III captures it well.

I wouldn’t be writing about it except a pastor writing for World Magazine wrote Remembering Hulk Hogan on July 25, 2025. The tag line is:

The Hulkster showed that it’s never too late to repent and believe in Christ. – David Mitzenmacher, pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla.

The article is worth the read in its entirety, but here are a few snippets.

As a boy, I counted Hulk Hogan among my heroes. He told me (and millions of others) to say our prayers and take our vitamins, and I listened. I was the only son of a single mother, and Hulk Hogan offered a picture of manhood (cartoonish as it was) that taught me to protect the weak, work hard, and be courageous. Those exhortations were simplistic, but they pointed me to virtues much more real than the world of wrestling kayfabe.

When I was 18, working at a Kinko’s, Terry Bollea (his real name) came in several times to get copies made. I was always struck by the fact that if a family with kids came in, he would immediately stop whatever he was doing, step fully into the Hulk Hogan character, and spend time talking to the kids (always encouraging them to obey their parents and work hard). That momentary theater seemed, for him, a kind of joyful duty. It was clear that he understood the weight of his position of influence. Hulk Hogan was a character, but Terry Bollea was a genuine human being.

In December 2023, Bollea and his wife were baptized at Indian Rocks Baptist Church in Largo, Fla. He called it the greatest day of his life, describing the event as one of “total surrender and dedication to Jesus.” …Some doubt the sincerity of such professions, or point to past scandals as disqualifying. But the gospel does not operate according to our suspicions or cynicism. Scripture calls every sinner to repentance and faith, and it promises mercy to those who come. 

…His death is a sobering reminder that no man, however strong, can escape mortality. It is humbling to consider that the man with the 24-inch pythons who beat Andre the Giant, The Iron Sheik, and Yokozuna could not defeat death. But neither physical strength nor fame nor fortune can conquer the grave. That victory belongs to Christ alone.

…We can be thankful for the good we received from a flawed man without whitewashing his failures. Hogan’s public record includes sin, scandal, and foolishness. So does yours. So does mine. But the proper response is not to highlight moral failures as if grace were a reward for the worthy. It is to marvel that God saves sinners, even in the eleventh hour. 

Amen.

And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23.42, 43, ESV)

My friend and blog reader Kathleen wrote this comment to my house sale prayer request from Thursday:

I feel your concerns Bob. Our house has been on the market for a little over 5 weeks. Showings have picked up. While we elected to not do a bridge loan, I completely understand how you are feeling. I will keep you in my prayers for the sale of your home. Please keep Dan & I in your prayers that ours sells soon too. Trusting God’s perfect timing, not ours.

I assured her that I was praying for her house sale as I prayed for my own, and that day I came across these verses from Psalm 78:

And He led them on safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And He brought them to His holy border, This mountain which His right hand had acquired. He also drove out the nations before them, Allotted them an inheritance by survey, And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents. (Psalm 78.53 – 55, NKJV)

I can pray this for the house sale. It was a process getting the Israelites out of Egypt and into the promised land, but God accomplished both. Got them out. Got them in. In our case, he got us in through the cooperation of the credit union and the bridge loan. Now he will get us out.

For Dan and Kathleen, it’s the other order. God needs to get them out of their current house and into the house of his choice, as she says, in “God’s perfect timing.”

Or, to change the metaphor:

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out. (Luke 8.22. ESV, emphasis mine)

I had a really bad experience at a local building supply store a few days ago. Among the many issues was I was going to purchase a 4×8 piece of pegboard, which I would cut in half so I could get it into my car. I would have…except the saw was broken. “No problem,” an employee said. “We’ll deliver it to you.” When they rang up the sale, the price came up way too high. “Oh, delivery is $70.” I said, “There’s no way I will pay $70 for you to deliver a $25 piece of pegboard because your saw is broken. Cancel everything.”

I’m pleased to say that while a wee bit frustrated, I did not get angry. (I think that’s the fruit of the Spirit at work over the last 50+ years!) Anyway, this little parable from Sahil Bloom speaks to it.

A monk goes out on a boat in a small lake to meditate. After a few hours of uninterrupted silence, he suddenly feels the jarring impact of another boat bumping into his.

While he does not open his eyes, he feels the irritation and anger building within him.

“Why would someone do that? Can’t they see me here? How dare they disturb my meditation?”

He opens his eyes, ready to shout at the person in the other boat, only to realize that it is empty. It had come untied from the dock and was floating in the middle of the lake.

In that moment, his anger and frustration disappears. After all, you cannot be angry at an empty boat.

I don’t think the store was out to get me, personally. The store is just poorly run. Sahil writes:

If you convince yourself that every collision is a deliberate action by a bad actor, negative emotions will control your entire life. In others words, your interpretation of the collision creates your own poison.

The Empty Boat Mindset is the reminder that most of these collisions you experience in life are with an empty boat. There is no negative intent. There is no desire to harm. They are simply the random collisions of objects floating along on the lake of life.

So, the next time you feel a collision and find your negative emotions growing, pause and ask yourself a simple question:

Am I just getting angry at an empty boat?

“…your interpretation of the collision creates your own poison.”

Bitterness is a pill you take and hope the other guy dies. – Skip Gray

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. (Ephesians 4.31, ESV)

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. (Hebrews 12.15, ESV)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t share the story of the world’s best golfer, Scottie Scheffler, a believer from Texas, who ranks golf #3 in his life after God and family. Scotty just won The Open (it’s name is not “The British Open”) last Sunday. Before the tournament started, Scotty gave an interview that caught the attention of people around the world.

A lot of sportswriters picked up on it including our local Paul Klee of the Colorado Springs Gazette. His summary was:

From Jokic to Scheffler to Broncos, the world’s top athletes are prioritizing life. – Paul Klee, July 22, 2025

Paul’s article, which includes two Denver-based professional athletes, is worth the read. I will base the rest of this blog with little comment on Jason Gay’s piece in the Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2025.

Golf’s best player romps to another major title, but not before kicking off a healthy debate about the purpose of it all.

“Why do I want to win the Open Championship so badly?” Scheffler asked the assembled press, channeling Socrates. “I don’t know, because, if I win, it’s going to be awesome for two minutes.”

At another point, he said: “This isn’t a fulfilling life.”

“It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment,” Scheffler elaborated. “But it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places in your heart.”

Jason writes:

The whole ecosystem around sports is so consumed with the how that it almost never pauses to ask why… 

What if you get everything you’re working for, and it doesn’t make you whole?

Scheffler isn’t an especially flashy personality, and hasn’t strained himself to be one. He’s been candid about his spirituality and home life, how he prioritizes his faith and family over his profession. 

That’s his ballast. He reiterated it after winning the Claret Jug Sunday. 

“Golf is third in that order,” he said. “Golf isn’t how I identify myself. I don’t identify myself by winning tournaments, chasing trophies, being famous, or whatever it is.” 

Scheffler surely didn’t intend to launch a worldwide dialogue on the meaning of winning. But his words struck a chord in a distracted digital world, in which happiness is fleeting and there’s a gargantuan economy selling quick fixes (apps, pills, ice baths) without any hard thinking about what’s happening underneath. 

“I love the challenge,” Scheffler said. “I love being able to play this game for a living. It’s one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.”

Here’s the good part. Scheffler knows what fills him up. That became clear in the aftermath of his victory Sunday, when his 1-year-old son, Bennett, made an adorable attempt to ascend the 18th green. 

You could see it in Scottie Scheffler’s face. He’ll remember that moment forever.

That’s what matters. That’s all the meaning anyone needs.

Wow.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath… (1 Corinthians 9.25, ESV)

Scotty seems to be one of the few to know that the awards are temporary. And maybe that’s why God has him where he is “for such a time as this.” Before the final day of the 2022 Masters, which became his first Masters win, Scotty reported this conversation with his wife:

I cried like a baby this morning. I was so stressed out. I didn’t know what to do. I was sitting there telling Meredith [my wife], “I don’t think I’m ready for this. I’m not ready, I don’t feel like I’m ready for this kind of stuff.” I just felt overwhelmed.

She told me, “Who are you to say that you are not ready?” What we talked about is that God is in control and that the Lord is leading me; and if today is my time, it’s my time. – Scotty Scheffler, 2022, as reported in the NY Post

For exaltation comes neither from the east Nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, And exalts another. (Psalm 75.6, 7, NKJV)

God has people everywhere, for which I am thankful.

You go nowhere by accident. Wherever you go, God is sending you. Wherever you are, God has put you there. God has a purpose in your being there. Christ lives in you and has something he wants to do through you where you are. Believe this and go in the grace and love and power of Jesus Christ. – Richard Halverson, former chaplain of the US Senate

Today marks the beginning of the third week our old house has been on the market.

Real estate agents really like the “move out first, sell later” strategy since it allows a thorough cleaning and “staging.” It’s also easier on the homeowner not to have to leave the house every time there’s a showing.

In my case, the downside is the bridge loan I took out to buy the house we’re in now. Everything has gone smoothly so far. We just need to finish the process by selling the old house.

I’m asking God for:

• The right people – good neighbors to my former neighbors
• The right price
• The right time – sooner rather than later would be good

To put it even more succinctly: right people, right price, right NOW!

When tempted to be afraid – what if it doesn’t sell? – I remind myself:

He will have no fear of bad news. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is secure, he will have no fear. (Psalm 112.7, 8, NIV84)

My house sale is not the most important thing in the world, but it is important to me. Therefore, I follow Paul’s instruction:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4.6, 7, NIV)

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64.4, ESV)

We close out our reading of Proverbs. If you’re following the Bible Reading Schedule, you’ll see that we’re back in the Psalms (Book III, Psalm 73) today! But we won’t leave Proverbs without a look at the last chapter, Proverbs 31. It begins with a warning to leaders about drinking wine (Proverbs 31.1 – 9). The chapter concludes with the well-known section on the virtuous woman (Proverbs 31.10 – 31).

It’s a lovely passage, a tribute to hardworking, resourceful women, ending with…

Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her: “Many daughters have done well, But you excel them all.” Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, And let her own works praise her in the gates. (Proverbs 31.28 – 31, NKJV)

“Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.” Good stuff.

There are those who emphasize other scriptures. A well-known Bible expositor…

…taught on Titus 2 and the apostle Paul’s instructions that women “be busy at home” and “subject to their husbands” (v. 5). He said that women should not work outside the home and families should not require two incomes. The leaders of the church decided the staff, not just the leadership, needed to be all male. – Christianity Today, July 14, 2025

It’s hard to reconcile such teaching with the Proverbs 31 woman:

She considers a field and buys it; From her profits she plants a vineyard. (Proverbs 31.16, NKJV)

She makes linen garments and sells them, And supplies sashes for the merchants. (Proverbs 31.24, NKJV)

The Proverbs 31 woman may have worked from home, but she certainly didn’t stay home. And her contributions were a significant part of the family’s income.

God clearly honors such industrious women. The first convert in Europe was a female merchant:

Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us. (Acts 16.14, 15, NKJV)

We like to talk about Paul’s tentmaking as a means to support himself, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone comment that it was a husband-wife tentmaking operation that he joined:

After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers. (Acts 18.1 – 3, NKJV)

“By occupation, THEY were tentmakers.”

In our family, June’s piano teaching studio helped put our last kid through college and later helped us pay off our house.

Kudos to all of God’s women out there making important contributions inside and outside the home, as I wrote in this year’s Mother’s Day tribute.

Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil All the days of her life. (Proverbs 31.10 – 12, NKJV)

A few random observations from Proverbs. First, I’d never seen this connection between something Jesus said and a proverb written long before.

Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, And do not stand in the place of the great; For it is better that he say to you, “Come up here,” Than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, Whom your eyes have seen. (Proverbs 25.6, 7, NKJV)

Jesus expands on it…

So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14.7 – 11, NKJV)

James does the same thing – expand on a proverb:

Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth. (Proverbs 27.1, NKJV)

As with Jesus’ expansion of Proverbs 25.6, 7, the James version is more detailed:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4.13 – 16, NKJV)

Finally, Proverbs 27 contains verses which encouraged The Navigators, especially in the old days, to give specific correction to one another:

Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, but to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet…As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. (Proverbs 27.5 – 7, 17 NKJV)

The concept is supported in Proverbs 15:

The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. (Proverbs 15.31, 32, NKJV)

Proverbs 29 opens with a warning on not receiving rebuke:

He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. (Proverbs 29.1, NKJV)

Good stuff all, as promised:

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity; To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion— A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1.1 – 7, NKJV)