bierkergaard

At 5:55 am each weekday morning, I pause for five minutes to reflect on God and be still. I wake up at 5:20, eat from 5:20 to 5:40, and from 5:40 to 5:55 read a devotional and pray. Then, I stop and sit on the couch in the Great Room for all of five minutes...300 precious seconds. That five minutes is divine space for God to speak to me. The verse where Jesus warns that His Word gets choked out by the cares of this world, not wicked and heinous sin, is a slow dying to life of the soul, where all of our doings undo us. Like a tractor trailer going down a steep mountain that can lose its brakes and needs to drive up one of those inclined side roads with a pile of sand at the end to stop the rig, I need that five minutes a day to be still, come to a stop, and do nothing. Because even nothing, in God's hands, is something.

I was just outside a moment ago after doing my run down to Grubb Lake and back. It is always nice to rest on the front porch after the jog to catch my breath and cool down. Since I tend to sweat quite a bit, sitting outside for a spell allows me dry like that cycle in the dishwasher. I was peering up into the beautiful blue sky and a saw a hawk in flight high above. While all of the smaller birds were furiously beating their wings to stay afloat below, the hawk had the wing span to soar and catch the draft and hardly had to flap its wings at all. And, in less than 15 seconds, it crossed the sky. Grace in flight... Like this verse in Job 29:36 By thine understanding flieth a hawk Shoot, if God helps a bird understand, surely He will help me...

On Saturday, during my Suzie Homemaker stint of laundry and cooking, I counterbalanced that effeminate-like behavior with homebrewing a Belgian-style Ale. So far, fermentation seems to proceeding well. Yet, only the taste will tell. With both the laundry and the homebrewing I had to use a measure of bleach to clean and sanitize. Chlorine bleach is harsh and caustic stuff. Get it on the wrong material and/or not rinse materials off with hot water, and the damage can be permanent. Not sure if non-chlorine bleach should be called bleach at all...the point is that chlorine will clean and whiten when nothing else works. Kind of like low fat cream cheese. There is a contradiction there in both products. I had a pair of white pants that had two stains that would not come off in previous washings...I did not resort to bleach to start with, it was a tool of last resort. So the pants and all-other clothes white, were washed. Now I feel like Mary's little lamb with my fleece as white as sn...

I like my coffee strong...that beverage equivalent of Pat Toomey's Republicanism. Lina automatically puts in about 20% milk to decrease the jitters and the gag reflex. My recipe is 6 or 7 teaspoons for 12 ounces. High-test, for certain. One time when we were driving to BWI, she had a bad trip on my coffee concoction. That happens to one degree or another if she does not lactify. For awhile, I have been caught in a trilemma of sorts. Can't drink too much caffeinated coffee in the morning before work. My job is stressful and already provides substantial natural adrenaline response. Can't drink coffee in the afternoon without staring at the ceiling at 1:00 a.m. I have done that too many times to plead innocence and ignorance. If I only drink caffeinated coffee on the weekends and then go decaf during the weekend I spend Monday and Tuesday going through a weekly withdrawal, headaches and all. Yippee! A weekly detox whupping. But drinking decaf all of the time seems sissified......