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My neighbors had a couple of men over last week to do some kind of lawn project. I didn’t know exactly what they were going to do, even when I saw a huge pile of blocks. The blocks were in such disarray, I didn’t know if they had torn them out and the blocks were on their way to the dump or if they were incoming! But in a few days, there was a beautiful wall.

I didn’t watch them at work, but I know how they did it: one block at a time.

Often we’re in the middle of a mess and don’t know what to do. Or we see the situation as hopeless. Maybe we just have to move the next block. Or, as the old poem says: do the next thing. (It’s worth the read, and this rendition of it has a picture of a wall!)

Sometimes we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option. (2 Corinthians 4.8, Passion Translation)

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I’m always fascinated with the parable of the sower. I’m well aware of the usual application: “Make sure you’re good soil!” And there’s truth in that. But, something I learned years ago from motivational speaker Jim Rohn sticks with me and goes along with what I wrote yesterday on our having no control over when people believe. Here’s the lesson:

Keep sowing seed!

Consider this: A farmer went out to sow seeds. As he cast his seeds some of it fell along the beaten path and soon the birds came and ate it. (Mark 4.3, 4, Passion Translation)

At this point we have a choice: go after birds, or sow more seed! The sower sows more seed.

Other seeds fell onto gravel with no topsoil and the seeds quickly sprouted since the soil had no depth. But when the days grew hot, the sprouts were scorched and withered because they had insufficient roots. (Mark 4.5, 6, Passion Translation)

Some people stick for a very short time, then quit. When I was on church staff, frequently teams from the church would go into the nearby apartment complex and evangelize door-to-door. From time to time, a team member would come to me and say, “Someone received Christ! What do we do now?” I would say, “I’m running a follow-up class every Wednesday night. Go invite them to that.” I never met any of those “converts.” The evangelist never found them again. Now we have a choice, keep looking for the convert that is avoiding us or sow more seed.

Other seeds fell among the thorns, so when the seeds sprouted so did the thorns, crowding out the young plants so that they could produce no grain. (Mark 4.7, Passion Translation)

Some stick a little longer, but, as it says in Mark 4.19, “The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.” Again, we have a choice, go after them or sow more seed. (To be sure, if these folks are still coming to church, we’ll teach them and encourage them to return, but until their hearts change, there won’t be fruit.)

Finally, the sower’s seed lands on good soil, but even then results vary:

But some of the seeds fell onto good, rich soil that kept producing a good harvest. Some yielded thirty, some sixty—and some even one hundred times as much as was planted! (Mark 4.8, Passion Translation)

Jim Rohn says, “Don’t send your ducks to eagle school!

And [Jesus] said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” (Mark 1.38, ESV)

Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word...Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. (Acts 8.4…11.19 – 21, NIV)

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Then Jesus’ mother and his brothers came and stood outside and sent a message to him, asking that he come out and speak with them. (Mark 3.31, Passion Translation)

Seems kind of innocuous: “Your mother and brothers are outside seeking you.” But the reason they were seeking him is given earlier in the chapter:

Then Jesus went home, but once again a large crowd gathered around him, which prevented him from even eating a meal. When his own family heard that he was there, they went out to seize him, for they said, “He’s insane!” (Mark 3.20, 21, Passion Translation)

They wanted to seize him, thinking he was out of his mind! That’s why he said:

Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3.33 – 35, ESV)

The main lesson is that Jesus ignored his mother and brothers in this case because they weren’t part of the team yet. But the hope for the family is that they did come around later. His brother James is explicitly mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15, and he was a key leader in the Jerusalem church (see, for example, Acts 15). Jesus’ mother, Mary, is mentioned in Acts 1. We never know the order in which people will come to follow Jesus. Who will come first, second, etc. In Mark 3, Jesus’ family is not included in his followers, but they were later. As a disciple-maker, I can work only with those God gives me. I sow seed and invite, but God causes people to stick. 

Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. (1 Samuel 10.26, ESV)

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (John 6.37, ESV)

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I think I’ll make this the last blog related to the Alaskan cruise. Thanks for your patience! Our last stop in Alaska was Skagway, a charming little town, the gateway to the Yukon during the gold rush days. We took a train 20 miles to the top of the pass that leads into Canada, but that’s not what I want to write about. It’s when we came back into town that I had my surprise:

A 1960 Metropolitan!

Who cares, you say? I do. I learned to drive on one of those. My first was a 1957 model, which we later traded in on a 1960 model, same as the one that lives in Skagway, except mine wasn’t a convertible. Otherwise, just the same, red on top, white on the bottom. The main difference between the ’57 and the ’60 was that the trunk was accessible from the outside on the ’60, instead of only through the back seat. It’s only the second one I’ve seen in the past 50 years.

I’m not a car guy, but I guess there’s something special about the car you learn to drive on, especially when it’s that cute and you don’t see one very often.

I’m amazed even now at how excited I was when I saw the car. I dragged the other eight people in our group out to see it: “I learned to drive on one of these!” I said at least three times.

There’s no real significance to any of this except it’s one of those little surprises (astonishments?) and joyful moments that God provides from time to time, and I am grateful. And Mark was thoughtful enough to grab the picture of me with the car.

Of course, Mark provided the whole experience. We always said that we had no desire to go on a cruise, but if we were going to take one, it would be to Alaska. So it happened. After we got back, I was reading about our particular ship, the Star Princess, and there was a fire on board back in 2006. So like any other travel, there are things that can go wrong. But nothing did.

Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Lord.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you… (Romans 1.8, compare also 1 Corinthians 1.3, Philippians 1.3, Colossians 1.3)

Rejoice always…In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.16, 18, NKJV)

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 107.1, ESV)

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I’m trying to practice astonishment more. Part of the life with God should be the predisposition to be astonished at what God is doing in the world, including all the wonderful inventions he allows people, as his co-creators, to produce. So I don’t take for granted, for example, that we carry way more computing power in our phones than the astronauts took to the moon. Or that, by and large, our cars work for way longer than they did when I was growing up.

But nothing is more astonishing than the salmon. This photo of a short explanation posted in the Macaulay Fish Hatchery in Juneau captures it, and on the right is one of their salmon practicing it. Coming home. After 2 years in the open ocean, the salmon find their home stream.

How do they do that? “Using these and other techniques” they find their way home. It’s astonishing.

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1.20 – 22, ESV)

There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a young woman. (Proverbs 30.18, 19, NIV)…and let’s add, the way of a salmon returning home from the open sea!

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching. (Matthew 7.28, ESV)

Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. (Acts 13.12, ESV)

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I’m still writing about lessons learned during our Alaskan cruise…

I’ve said that the ship was a marvel, like walking around a high-end hotel. How do they keep it like that? It’s at sea continuously–less than four hours after we disembarked in Seattle, a new crop of passengers was boarding, and off they went again.

Answer: continuous improvement.

One morning we came back to our cabin, and three guys were in there changing out the bedside lamps. Now there was nothing wrong with the existing lamps, but new ones were a bit nicer, including a place to charge your phone. And it’s a 15-minute process to change them since the bedside tables are anchored to the ship, and the lamps are anchored to the tables. With 1300 cabins, changing lamps is a significant process. So they keep chipping away at it, one cabin at a time while the ship is at sea.

Sometimes we wait to do something thinking, “I’ll wait until I have time to do it right.” Marie Kondo, for example, the tidying guru, advocates going through all your books at once. Take them all off the shelves and put back only those which “spark joy.” Same with closets filled with clothes. That makes decluttering a massive project that’s tough to find time for.

By contrast, in her book Decluttering at the Speed of Life, Dana White advocates a more incremental approach. If you see one book on the shelf that you don’t need and take it immediately to the giveaway box in the garage, you’ve made progress!

Continuous improvement: it applies to saving money. I have an app that rounds up my purchases and drops the money into a savings account. There’s over $2,000 in that account accumulated in just a couple years. For those of us that eat too much, can we just cut down a little? And start exercising…a little? Spiritually, the Lord would rather we spend a dedicated 15 minutes with him in the morning than NOT spend an hour! Memorizing chapters from the Bible might be nice, but how about one verse? And holy moments? we can start that habit now, too, even if it’s just one.

Our daily actions, the small ones, make a difference.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind… (Romans 12.2, ESV)

I walked by the field of a lazy person, the vineyard of one with no common sense. I saw that it was overgrown with nettles. It was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down. Then, as I looked and thought about it, I learned this lesson: A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber. (Proverbs 24.30 – 34, NLT)

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Yesterday I wrote about two beautiful gardens, each the product of one person’s vision and a lot of people’s work. Today, as another highlight of our Alaskan cruise, I want to share with you the beauty of the Tracy Arm Fjord, on the way to Juneau. This is the product of no person’s vision or work. No one built the waterway, and the mountains are as God put them.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1.1, ESV)

You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. (Nehemiah 9.6, ESV)

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I wrote earlier about the power of people working together, an important concept. But more often than not, what people accomplish together is the product of one person’s vision. The Jews had been back in country after the Babylonian exile for 90 years, and no one had the vision to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem until Nehemiah.

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.”  …And they said, “Let us rise up and build.”  (Nehemiah 2.17, 18, ESV)

On our Alaskan cruise, we saw this phenomenon twice in visits to two gardens: Glacier Gardens near Juneau and Butchart Gardens near Victoria, B.C. Both were the product of one person’s vision: Steve Bowhay, a landscape architect in Juneau, had the vision to reclaim land devastated by a major storm and landslide. The now world-famous “Flower Towers” in Glacier Gardens resulted from what they now refer to as “a beautiful accident.” Jennie Butchart, wife of Robert Butchart, owner of Portland Cement, had the vision to plant a garden to beautify a quarry originally used for cement. Both turned ugliness into beauty. 

Don’t underestimate the power of one. God chooses one to mobilize many. Does God want you to join a movement…or start one!

The angel of the Lord appeared to [Gideon] and said to him, “God is with you, O mighty man of valor…Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Do not I send you? (Judges 6.12, 14, ESV)

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I mentioned yesterday that we started our travel day Saturday before the cruise watching our son Mark (and cruise host!) winning the Mile Stadium stair race for the 5th straight year. Mark is a nationally ranked stair climber—these are people who race up skyscrapers. For example, one highlight of our trip was a visit to the Seattle Space Needle, an engineering marvel dedicated in 1962. (I actually saw it that summer as I was on tour with a musical group from my high school.) Anyway, Mark is one of five men in the world to run to the top of the Space Needle in less than 5 minutes!

So what does a nationally ranked stair climber do while on a vacation cruise? The same thing he does every other day: he trains! Mark had a training schedule mapped out before he left, including running laps around the ship using the jogging track, running up and down the stairs on the ship, and even getting into Skagway early to do a 90-minute trail run. The last night of the cruise, we all got in just before midnight. Mark was up at 5am running the ship’s stairs one more time. From Deck 6 to Deck 17 in 55 seconds with a leisurely 2-minute run down…13 times.

Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4.7, 8, ESV)

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9.25, NIV)

One more thing. We don’t train spiritually just for ourselves—it’s for others. Bible study without application and passing it on is like going to the gym to get strong but never helping anyone move their piano!

Mark’s fitness is not just for himself as he demonstrated on the last day. The only way we could make our suitcases weigh less than the airline’s 50-pound weight limit was to put some excess into my backpack. Oops. I put more into it than my left knee (the one not replaced last year!) wanted to carry. So, Mark to the rescue.

Mark put Galatians 6.2 literally into practice! Another holy moment.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6.2, NIV)

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Saturday before the cruise was a long day. We had gotten up early to watch our son Mark run (and win!) the Mile-High Stadium run for the 5th straight year. Then straight to the airport, fly to Seattle, negotiate the commuter train system (thanks to the help of a friendly Seattle native) and arrive at our hotel in downtown Seattle about 12 hours after we had gotten out of bed. 

I had gotten a text saying, “Your room is ready. Just stop by the desk to pick up a key.” So we went into the hotel, and there was a desk with a young man behind it. I said, “I’m here for my room key that the text said would be ready.” He smiled and said, “No problem sir, let me have your identification, and I’ll get it for you.” 

Only after he had left did I realize I was at the concierge desk, not the check-in desk! A minute later he came back with a key and wished me a good day. As we made our way to the room, I noticed a long line to get to the check-in desk. My mistake and his cheerful response had saved us a lot of time when, as I said, we were tired.

It was a holy moment on his part for which we were very grateful. Most hotel employees, even at nice hotels, would have said to me, “Sir, the check-in desk is right over there. They will take care of you.” 

Do I do just the “letter-of-the-law” of my job, or am I willing to go above and beyond? 

Do everything readily and cheerfully… (Philippians 2.14, MSG)

Put your heart and soul into every activity you do, as though you are doing it for the Lord himself and not merely for others. (Colossians 3.23, Passion Translation)

Encourage the believers to be passionately devoted to beautiful works of righteousness by meeting the urgent needs of others and not be unfruitful. (Titus 3.14, Passion Translation)