You feel the night wind.  The darkness folds around you.  You look up through the leaves to the dark-blue sky and shining stars.  You smell the dry sand and the fresh water and the flowers and the spicy desert plants.  Every breath you draw is new, untainted.  Living outdoors, by day and night, is the secret of my strength.”
–Zane Grey

“The person who forgets the ultimate is a slave to the immediate.”
–John Maxwell

Some of you are relatively new to the Daily Paines; some of you just delete it or say,”Oh, there he is again,” and there are some who read them.  Whichever category you place yourself in, realize that you are in the process of wandering.  One of the reasons I started writing the Paine was to get Christians to wonder and ponder.
Those who have been reading a while know that a common theme is wandering.  Now, that can take many forms.  There is wandering through life, wandering on a journey, wandering down the street.  Surely you have found yourself at times on a spiritual journey, wandering.  Remember, some wander with purpose, some wander aimlessly.  Perhaps we can even wander aimlessly, but with purpose.  Abraham was told to get up and wander, but to look for a land that God would show him.
Jesus wandered around the region of Galilee.  He knew the hills and ravines quite well, as also the shoreline.  Perhaps, before He began His ministry He wandered the region in a somewhat aimless manner, communing with His Father.  Later in life He wandered the same region touching physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people.  There were times when He was walking with purpose, yet allowed Himself to be interrupted by individuals with needs; people who were in their own way wandering as well.
In the world today I have the belief that much of our wandering is aimless and without real purpose.  To be interrupted would bring a curse from the mouths of many.  We are in a busy world and we run from one activity to another to another without regard to surroundings, without regard to others around us.  Busyness becomes the aimless wandering of the mind and often the emotions.
One thing I want to do is slow down some and wander.  It may be a walk in the woods with no place in particular in mind except to look at creation, listen to the wind rustling the leaves and then watching as one floats to the ground.  To watch a hawk leave its perch and dive toward its prey or to watch a squirrel scamper up the side of a tree.  Perhaps I would be distracted by a hummingbird buzz by as I walk.  I also want to wander from the desk in my office or my easy-chair in front of the fire.  I want to think thoughts, such as, “What was it like for the disciples to wander with Jesus?”
I like the words of Margaret Manning Shull:  “The busyness is not what is useful nor is it what brings meaning, beauty, joy, or wonder to living.  Creating space for wandering in the crowded days and weeks of our lives allows our thoughts to roam toward new priorities and paths, toward encounters along the road that surprise and nourish the soul, like the disciples who walked unknowingly with the risen Jesus.  Wandering–whether that involves the purposeless walking…being distracted by beauty in the person right in front of us or in the natural world, or the intentional withdrawal into silence, stillness, and prayer–is itself a purposeful work.”

“Yet, my brothers, I do not consider myself to have “arrived”, spiritually, nor do I consider myself already perfect. But I keep going on, grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasped me. My brothers, I do not consider myself to have fully grasped it even now. But I do concentrate on this: I leave the past behind and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal—my reward the honour of being called by God in Christ.”
–Philippians 3:12-14 (Phillips)

I have enjoyed doing a little commentary to the old hymns this year.  This may be the last one for a season.  Yes, I do plan on writing devotions in my retirement, but summer is coming and I never write every day during the summer.  There may or may not be a hymn coming out this summer.
I can well remember this hymn by Sanford F. Bennett.  It has long been one of the standards of the church and it tells of that blessed hope that believers have.  There will be that day when we will finally enter heaven and see that home that Jesus has prepared for us.  Now, we see it only by faith, but one day it will be a reality.

          “There’s a land that is fairer than day,
           And by faith we can see it afar;
           For the Father waits over the way,
           To prepare us a dwelling place there.”

There will no longer be any sorrow, nor any suffering.  Today, we sing of the hope that we have, but then we will sing the songs of the blest.  There will be no earthly sighing, no wishing or wanting, for we will be home and will finally be at rest in the home that He has prepared for us.  Yes, even this ol’ fence post will finally be able to hold a tune and it will surely be melodious.

          “We shall sing on that beautiful shore
           The melodious songs of the blest,
           And our spirits shall sorrow no more,
           Not a sigh for the blessing of rest.”

There have been songs upon songs about what it might be like when we enter those gates.  For sure we will be offering the Father praise.  We will bow in thanksgiving for the gift of His Son that showed forth His wondrous love.  After that what will we be doing; what other blessings will await us?  Reminds me of the words of another song, “The half has never yet been told,” but that’s a hymn for another time.

          “To our bountiful Father above
           We will offer our tribute of praise,
           For the glorious gift of His love
           And the blessings that hallow our days.

                    In the sweet by-and-by,
                    We shall meet on that beautiful shore.
                    In the sweet by-and-by,
                    We shall meet on that beautiful shore.”

We often have to go separate ways down here on earth.  Some will go on before us to that heavenly shore, and they will be there waiting for us.  Some of us “retire” and will leave the area for other places.  No matter though, one day we shall meet again on that beautiful, celestial shore.

A man’s needs run accordin’ to the country he’s in and the job he has to do.”
–Louis L’Amour

I happened to be on, I believe Facebook, and saw an advertisement about the Pagosa Springs area.  I’ve been through that regions a few times and a few years back Annie and I hiked some of the back country along the Piedra River.  I even thought of placing Miles Forrest there where he could build a horse ranch with Molly, but decided the Durango area was better.
What I saw on the advertisement was interesting.  There were rides on the river, lakes, fishing, hot-air balloons, mountain biking and other things of that nature.  Not really my thing, never has been.  What is wrong with just going out into the Wilderness and enjoying God’s great creation without all of the hooraw of the modern community?
We get so busy, and we need so much stuff anymore.  This is even true when we go out to the wilderness; we must take our “stuff” with us.  What was it that Daniel wrote? “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” (Daniel 12:4, NKJV)  One version says that “man will dash about…”
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“[I want] to drink from cup in Your hand…”
–Zach Neese

In church yesterday, this song was sung.  The words are good, and have some real sentiment.  But I wonder, I really wonder, if we understand what we sing.  Remember back to James and John asking to be set on the right and left of Jesus and He told them they don’t understand what they are asking.  Well, most folk who sing the song that they want to drink from His cup don’t know what they are asking. 
Jesus went on to ask if they could drink from His cup.  They joined in that they were indeed able.  Let’s look at it from the New Living Translation, “But Jesus answered, ‘You don’t know what you are asking!  Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of sorrow I am about to drink?  Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?'”(Mark 10:38)  James and John boastfully answered that they were able.  Jesus then replied, “You will indeed drink from my cup and be baptized with my baptism…” (10:39)
James was the first to die and John the last of the disciples.  James was put to death; John lived to old age but suffered much affliction.  They did drink of the Lord’s cup.  They next time you sing that song, reflect on the words.  We should mean what we sing, therefore, do not just be singing words, but understand that the Lord may require that you drink of His cup.

Hey, hey, hey snowflake,
My pretty little snowflake….”
  –Jim Reeves

“It’s bred into him to want to work.  He ain’t like a lot of people, lookin’ for a cool shade and a soft chair.”
–Elmer Kelton

This concept of entitlement is making my gizzard riled.  There have always been sluggards and sloths around us, but they were the minority, but now this new varmint is slouching around.  Previously they had mostly been quiet and in the background, but now they are everywhere and are very vocal.
These people are complacent and compromising and seek to be coddled and pampered by all around them.  The reason why? –just because.  This ideology is very dangerous for many reasons, but I want to look at the church.  These are the sons and daughters of those who used to sing “bless me, bless me, bless me” when they were really meaning “spoil me, spoil me, spoil me.”  Since I have taught more than a few years, one of the hardest groups of students to work with are the spoiled brats.  It is worse today and now it is dangerous as well.  There is the physical danger that one of them will simply go off their rocker and shoot, but there is even a more sinister danger and that is to the soul.
Jesus is seeking true disciples.  Those who take the call of Christ and commit themselves to serving Him with all aspects of their lives.  They know that they will never turn back.  But there are other “disciples” out there.  Those that will talk the right talk and say they will never turn back, but when the hard times come, when the disappointments and despairs of life hit them, they are likely to turn away.  This type of “disciple” does not heed all of the words of Christ.  They pick and choose what appeals to them and what they can get from it.
Read some of the sayings from Jesus.  Digest them, for He meant what He said.  He did not say to do this if you felt like it.  It was not pick out what you want in life, but He gave commands and expected obedience.  There is no one to appeal to for He is the final authority.  We must listen to Him if our discipleship is to be genuine and consistent.  True disciples do not and cannot reject and ignore the words and commandments of God.
So when I see these new “snowflakes” (the ones I always called twinkies, cupcakes, or creampuffs) who are now vocal and seem to be whining and whimpering all the time, I wonder how can they pick up their cross?  One thing to recognize about a snowflake is that any rise in the temperature and they cease to exist; they simply melt away.  I like what A.W. Tozer wrote, “I am just afraid that some of us have carried no cross this year.  When we die, we will have no collar sores, no scars on the shoulder that comes from carrying the cross.”

“So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples.”
–John 8:31 (AMPC)