Shade Tree Wisdom 3/24/11

What do they do with all that dirt?

As you know the Reliant Stadium in Houston for three weeks is home to a Rodeo and livestock show each spring, and this year the same place is also home to the Final Four. So in one week, they transform it from that to this. It takes 35 trucks to haul away 6,000 yards of dirt. Then they add extra seats, set up 17,000 chairs. About 500 workers are busy. 93,000 square feet of carpet is unrolled. The court, made in Idaho Falls, will be installed Friday, and the stadium will be ready for the Final Four.

That’s what’s in the news around here right now. I did notice in passing that two Big Ten Schools reached the final 16 and Wisconsin is one of them.

The world is also watching the struggle in the nation of Japan. Meanwhile, you and I have our own lives to live, and that is what concerns us most each day. And that is why we are using the Lenten Season to grow in faith.

St. Peter mentions trials and tests, both from outside and from inside. One of them he touches on is the animosity of the world at the Christian for no reason except we are Christian. “They think it strange that you don’t join them in their life style”, he writes.

That points up a real test for us, the animosity of the world. Because it does seem as if those who hate God would want to remove every reference of God from our world. For those who hate God are never neutral, they are actively engaged in fighting God. St. Paul explains this sort of behavior, “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. . .being haters of God.” Romans l,28-30. Sad, but true, militant atheists are not neutral, they actively oppose everything of Christ.

Let your Lenten mediations during these Lenten hours think deeply on Paul’s advice to Timothy. “In humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps would grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth” 2 Timothy 2,25.

Knowing the truth of this makes you a stronger Christian, for you must learn to “Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord.”
Psalm 27,14.

Blessings manifold into your life.

GPD 3/24/11