Let us hope

Let us hope that I have already made the biggest mistake of my trip, which included leaving my laptop and cash-laden Carry-on bag in the taxi van from the hotel to the airport a few moments ago.
It doesn't much matter whether you realize 30 seconds or 30 minutes too late, when your newly issued local mobile doesn't yet have any minutes and you have no idea who drove you to the airport anyway (how often does one obtain the contact information of one's drivers? Not often enough, I will now always say).
I borrowed a phone from another volunteer, called the hotel, to plead my case to a very nice lady adept at the art of whispering. Excuse me, Cebu blind people who sing at the airport for our small change, let me go outside, dodge the honking horns, and wedge the mobile into my ear canal so that I could just make out that since the hotel did not schedule the taxi, it does not know who took me. Pretty sure I made her repeat this conclusion three times for good luck before finally hanging up in a lightly subdued panic.
Searched old emails and found the name and number for last night's driver, who I awoke (dropping us off at the hotel at 2:30am last night, he had the good sense to be asleep at 6:40am when I called for help). Taximan Pip said he'd call dispatch.
I wait.
Wait.
11 minutes, 13, 17.
I call Pip back, but the mobile network won't connect.
Try again: no network.
Again: no network.
Amidst some fervant prayer, where I commit one of my daughters to a convent, I try again: no network.
21 minutes after hanging up with Pip, 38 minutes after hanging up with the hotel, 41 minutes after realizing my mistake, the unnamed hero, Mr. Cebu Taxi 2013, calls out my name from across the parking lot, and we rush to each other with... Well, nevermind what happened next.
I have my bag, and now await my last flight.

First Generation

Maggie gave me a wonderful Christmas present a few years back: Portland General Store Whiskey Aftershave. It is truly lovely.

Being a full-time tweaker, I've ventured into the world of homemade aftershave, and am introducing sok’s Made in the USA, never tested on animals, GMO-free aftershave products. Introducing them, actually, on unsuspecting male family members and a few close friends this Christmas. My adoring wife Maggie has signed off on their quality; a sign of her affection for me or quite possibly her appreciation for their bouquet.

Introducing the following first generation products (with anticipated future changes in red):

The Shop, my attempt to capture the soul of a proper barber shop: 2 c vodka, 8 tsp dark rum, ½ tsp ground Allspice, 2 sticks cinnamon, 2 orange zests.

Open Field: 2 c vodka, 1 c witch hazel, ¼ c glycerin, 20 10 drops of peppermint, 20 drops of eucalyptus, 30 drops of lavender.  

Mint Tea: 1 ½ c white rum, ¾ c witch hazel, 3 tsp glycerin, 20 10 drops of peppermint, 30 drops of tea leaves.

Old Town: 6 tbl apple cider vinegar, 3 tbl witch havel, 1 tbl glycerin, 1 stick cinnamon, 6 whole allspice, 10 drops of orange essence. This went putrid towards the end, and was never bottled.

My muse, Whiskey Jack: ½ c Kentucky Whiskey, ¼ ½ c witch hazel, 1 tsp glycerin, 5 3 cloves, 5 3 whole allspice, 1 stick cinnamon, 10 5 drops of orange essence.

Mix in Mason jar, stirring daily for two weeks, while keeping in the dark. Not sure why in the dark; I think it has something to do with cutting off then end of the Christmas ham the way my grandma always did it. 

What does He expect of us?

Are we intended to continually want more of our Creator, His Redemptive Son Jesus, the Counselor Holy Spirit? Intended to essentially insist on being spiritually dissatisfied, knowing that each moment we look down we are not looking up? Chasing after an infinite God is in its essence a never-ending pursuit, and likely as not, an exhausting one.

We experience the powerful presence of God in points of time and try to extrapolate a continuum from them. Yet in each day, each moment that we forgetfully find ourselves centered in our natural world, the moments between the moments of God’s presence, we feel a spiritual failure.

We must pursue God, desiring Him and His activities. It is a high calling, one clearly given to us. However, may we temper our full-time God-centeredness, knowing that the God who created us knows our days and our minds, our capacity to witness Him as well as our tendency not to? While our pursuit of God honors Him and changes us, He is complete in Himself, regardless of our efforts. On one hand, we will never finish glorifying God, as He has no end. On the other, we just might bring Him glory by a life well-lived.

We cannot fully seek Him (or at least I cannot). We must find contentment in something less than full absorption in the presence of God. When we appraise each distraction as a failure, we judged ourselves harsher than our Father Himself does. 

Seek God in appreciation and respect for who He is, rather than to 'achieve' faith. God is fully complete and healthy without our efforts, and He is likely content with our God-honoring lives, knowing even before we do that we will turn our eyes away from Him.

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

II Timothy 2:13