The great book-signing adventure to Vegas is over. I flew back home late last night, and in a blink of an eye, all the flurry, excitement, tense nerves, chaos, worry, and hurry was over. It was a whirlwind of activity and frankly, I am dead tired. There were few peaceful hours. Vegas is a city of frenetic bling and bustle. It is over-consumption, and over-the-top bombardment to every human sense. Young and old men pass out cards of naked women, prostitutes, on every corner, and tell me, "It's just a job. I need to feed my family." Glassy-eyed gamblers never shift from their chairs in the neon lights and loud music of the casinos. The streets are lined with fake opulence, the facings of buildings crafted to imitate the real iconic structures from all around the world. Upper stories are painted fabric stretched across scaffolding. (When the wind storm ripped one off, the ruse was revealed.) Miles and miles of instant gratification and seduction. I would not mind never setting foot in Vegas again.
When we returned from Vegas to my sister Amy's home in the remote desert south of Tucson, calm descended. There is not a single store for twenty miles. Bumpy dirt roads keep the sparse traffic to a crawl. The landscape beckons without a single neon light. Everything in the desert is still, and quiet, and
real. The desert is peaceful, and breathtaking in its quiet beauty. Some Saguaro grow only 1.5 inches in ten years. That is taking the pace of life down a few notches! The skies in Amy's world stretch out forever, with more stars than you would think possible when night descends. The only sounds you hear in her backyard are occasional coyotes yipping, and the wind. We spent my last night in Tucson in front of a bonfire, watching the stars and taking a deep breath.
The entire time I was in Vegas, I felt a touch of shame. I just don't believe this is what God meant for us. When Amy and I confronted the pimps on the street corners, we kept reminding them, "We are made in God's image! Is this what He would want of us, His image-bearers?" I don't think so.
I think the Saguaro have the right idea -- slow, and steady growth without fanfare or bling or false adornment, inch by inch stretching heaven-ward.
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So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone
to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need
milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the
word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the
mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by
constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.
And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him
and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to
Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord.
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,
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