Pruning

This poor tree looks really bad!  A few minutes before I took this picture it was a beautiful full pink grapefruit tree.  From this tree I ate a fruit every day for breakfast from January until the middle of May.  Sweet pink grapefruit!  I even shared some of the abundant fruit with members of our Home Fellowship.  Bob Taylor especially!  Now look what I have done!  Wait, however there is more to this story.
In my front yard a few yards away is a orange tree that gives us sweet fruit every winter.  Two years ago the tree looked ragged and tired yet it was producing fruit so I aggressively trimmed it much like the above picture.  During the summer months it grew new leaves and branches and produced some fruit, but not much.  This year it went wild with literally hundreds of blooms.  This coming winter are we going to have a great harvest!
It didn't take me long to figure out what to do to my near by grapefruit tree.  That brings us to the present circumstances.  Just this morning I looked out my bathroom window and in just a few weeks there is new grow already!  You can't keep a good tree down!
In the Gospels Jesus told his disciples a parable that pruning takes place when the branches produce fruit so that they might produce more fruit.  He wasn't speaking about grape vines or even grapefruit trees!  He was speaking about us.  One would expect that the pruning would be the result of us not walking as close to Him as we should, sort of a discipline issue.  That however is not what the text tells us.  The Lord prunes us when we are producing fruit so that more fruit might come.
In our little fellowship here in Mission Viejo  we have had some pruning going on, although not as extreme as my dear grapefruit tree, but pruning none the less.  When this happens there is always some pain involved and our first response is, "What did we do wrong?"  The words of Jesus however bring us back to reality.  Our little Fellowship has in the past and is producing fruit now and the Lord wants to see more of this taking place. 
In the last few weeks the Lord has put aside His clippers for the time being and we can sense a peace that has settled over the Fellowship and a feeling of excitement over what the Lord has in store for us in this new season!  Almost like the new growth on my grapefruit tree that I saw this morning!  What a gracious and loving Lord we serve. Pastor Chuck Smith had a phrase that he would say in light of the little bumps and turns that the Church would experience from time to time.  He would say, "Well let's see what the Lord is going to do with this."  Well said Pastor Chuck, well said.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This!

For many years my score for catching a legal Halibut was nearly a big fat zero.  On one of our church fishing trips I managed one by stomping on its tail before measuring!  Over the years I have caught many shorts, but me and the flat ones were not well acquainted.  The picture above was one of those days when my fishing buddy Nicholas declared, " It doesn't get any better than this."
We had launched early from Dana Point Jet Ski, picked up some sardines from the bait barge and headed out to a secret spot.  Almost right away we were getting bit on almost every other cast.  Anyone who tells you that Halibut are not schooling fish really doesn't know that much.  They were all together and they were hungry.  That morning we caught some shorts and some legals, but we released many hoping for a shot at some of the bigger ones.  As one can see we did real well.  This picture is a combo of our best fish of the morning.  As we paddled in Nicholas said something like," I almost hate to quit as I know this might not ever happen again."  He was spot on as it hasn't!
As I think about that morning I can come up with several lessons that might be of help for all of us to remember.  First, if we had allowed the busyness of life, the time involved in getting our kayaks and gear together and in the water to stop us we would have missed that one special day.  None of us have any guarantee on the days before us.  Each day presents opportunities that might only be there that morning.  In the  parable of the soils in the New Testament some of the seed sown by the farmer fell among the weeds and it says, "the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke out the word, and it becomes unfruitful." There is, of course, a spiritual application, but there is also a very down-to-earth one.  We all can be caught up in worries, seeking riches and desire for things that we miss the gift of life that the Lord has for us each day.  Before we know it that special event, that friend who could have made a difference in our life, that outing that can never come again will have quietly slipped away while we are all caught up in the weeds.  All of us are guilty at times of living among the weeds of life. The Lord, however, gently reminds us in this parable that He has something so much better for us. 

The second lesson is found in a passage in the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament.  It says, "and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near."  My fishing buddy Nicholas, attends church with me.  Some believers, because of experiences they have had in the Believing Community, have pulled away from attending church.  They still pray, read the Bible and would testify that they are followers of Jesus; they just don't assemble with other believers.  Are these folks going to miss Heaven?  Only the Lord knows their hearts, but I can tell you one thing they are missing. There are those in church who can greatly enrich their lives spiritually and in many practical ways like knowing the secret spot where the Halibut bite!  He who has a ear to hear let him hear.

Digging in the dirt

My dear wife Nancy calls what you see above as, " Neil digging in the dirt."  It is however much more  than that. A few days ago with it becoming obvious that winter here in Southern California was quickly ending that it was time to get ready for the Spring/Summer garden.  It was a warm February afternoon and I could picture tomatoes growing and squash hiding from me under their leaves.  The winter garden had been kind of a blow out.  Right in the middle of the cool months we had a string of warm eighty degree weather that just confused my winter broccoli-the heads were about three inches round! This past summer with our drought I gave the garden a sabbatical rest for the hot months except for a few tomato plants which didn't do all that well.  The folks at my local church have the idea that I'm some sort of expert gardener.  The past few months have put that idea to bed!  Hope however, springs eternal and so I grabbed my trusty shovel cleared out the weeds that had grown and turned the hard ground over in preparation for some spring planting.
There is something about working in a vegetable garden that is refreshing to ones soul.  The new seedlings and the seeds placed in the ground represent a new start.  Maybe the last season didn't go so well, but this new season is going to be different!  I'm not going to make the same silly mistakes as last year, the weather is going to cooperate  and our kitty isn't going to use my new seed beds as a potty stop.  This new season's garden is going to be a a booming success!  So with great expectations Nancy's husband began digging in the dirt.
The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah had a word for the people of Judah when he proclaimed, "Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns."  His fellow prophet Hosea had a similar idea  when he wrote, "Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord."  The words fallow ground give the idea of a plot of land that has been left uncultivated for a season with the intent of increasing it's productivity.  For these Hebrew prophets however their message centered around the idea that Israel had drifted away from the Lord and their lives were much like soil that had grown hard and filled with weeds.  These words call Israel to see their lives as being just that: not productive, empty, hard and filled with useless events that have no real lasting value.
In the New Testament Jesus tells a parable of a man who went out to sow seeds in a field.  His seeds fell among four types of soil: by the road, on rocky soil, on soil with weeds and on good soil.  Our decisions and life have a way of leaving us in a place where our hearts could be described as one of the above.  The only soil that produced fruit was the good soil-the soil that had been cleared of weeds and rocks and had been broken up.  Perhaps this year has brought on events and circumstances that have left us a little like the soil I was working on few days ago.  These words from Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament don't condemn us but tell us Spring is just around the corner and with it a promise of new life. Listen carefully to what our friends Jeremiah and Hosea say.

Little things that make your day.

Life can just roll along without too much excitement or joy.  Yet every once in awhile something happens that just makes that day one that you will never forget.  The picture above records one of those events.

In May of last year my dear wife and I along two friends (Ciro and Marsha) traveled to Italy made possible by the generosity of some of the folks at our Church as a retirement gift.  We spent ten days traveling around enjoying the sights and the people.  The highlight for me was to visit the town where the Travisano family came from.  Laviano is a small town south east of Naples.  While there we  connected to some people who were gracious enough to show us around town.  The town had be badly destroyed in an earthquake in 1980 so the rebuilt town looked nothing like it did in 1913 when my Dad was born.  At the end of the day we made our way to the town cemetery and found my Grandfathers grave stone and a large number of others who were related to my grandparents.
As we were leaving we stopped to take a picture of our little group and asked the lady, pictured above, who just happened to be walking by, to help us. She was more than happy to do so, but as she did she kept looking at me.  She pointed at me and said in Italian, " You're from here!"  She asked my name and when I told her she knew of my Grandfather and his father!
Between this event and walking about in the town I had heard so much about since I was a child I felt so connected to all those in my family: both those who had lived and died there and those who traveled to America so many years ago.
In 1981 my late wife Cindy and I had the honor to travel to Israel with Pastor Chuck Smith along with 50 other pastors and their wives.  We had never been to Israel and we were looking forward to spending the time in the land we had all heard about for so long.  As our plane neared the coast of Israel at night we could see the lights of some of the cities.  Pastor Chuck began to sing a chorus of praise and almost all of those in the plane joined in.  I looked out the window at the lights and teared up because even though I was not Jewish I felt as if I was coming home.  How was this possible?  My home town was in New Jersey yet in my heart of hearts I felt so connected to the land of Israel.
Several years ago I read a book called, "Heaven," written by Randy Alcorn.  In it the author gave a detailed account from the pages of scripture what he believed Heaven would be like.  As I read it I became more excited about going there.  The more I read about Heaven the more I felt like being in Heaven would be like coming finally home.
The Travisano family, as far as I can tell, had it's origin in a small town in southern Italy. They landed in Ellis Island,settled in New Jersey and New York.  Some of them have had hearts connected to the small country Israel and a place called Heaven made possible by a man called Jesus who was not Italian but Jewish.  I was born in Newark New Jersey, but I don't think I want to live there anymore. I've thought about having my remains buried back in Laviano where my family had it's start, but I don't think I want to live there either.  The Israel of today is far removed from the Israel we read of in the Bible, so it's a nice place to visit, but I don't see myself living there.  There is a place however that I am looking forward to living in: the New Earth in a body that will not have any of the hindrances that this present one has.  That day last year in Laviano was a day when I felt so connected to who I am and I was blessed.  It however is no where near to that day that I am looking forward to: when I'm finally at home. I wonder if you have thought about going home?  The way there begins with an honest look at the New Testament and a open heart to what it proclaims.  Hope to see you there.

All in the Family

I've been thinking about family lately.  My Dad and Mom had four children: Phyllis, Fred,Gail and me.  From those four came a total of ten children.  Their pictures are above.  The top on was taken in Florida and the second was taken in New Jersey.  I don't have a current picture as they are scattered around the world: from Florida to North Carolina to New York to Minnesota to Laos.  They have grown up, chosen their field of work, some have started families of their own, with some even being grandparents.  Such varied group coming from Fred and Peggy Travisano.

What got me thinking about these folks was this past Christmas.  As I was sitting in Church at our Christmas Eve Service my mind drifted to many of the years past.  One can get to a place where the past seems so much more pleasant than the present.  We don't remember the difficulties we were going through or the heartaches that were part of those times.  The truth is that the past and the present are not that much different.  All of life, past or present, has problems.  It's not what you are going through that counts, but how you respond to it that matters.

As I was thinking about these kids, I thought that I didn't do them that well.  I could have been a better father or uncle.  Perhaps if I had been a little bit more perceptive, a little more less involved in my own issues things might have turned out better for them.  I look at that earlier picture and see what could have been.  All of us do that don't we?  Sometimes we wish we could go back in time and make things right, but we can't. 

In the New Testament the writer of Philippians looks back at his life when he did things of which he was later ashamed of.  He writes, "forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead..."  How could he write that?  There is only one way.  He must have found some way to rid himself of the guilt of the past and at the same time find something to have hope in for the future.

Life is a journey in which each of us must find reconciliation for the errors of the past we made in selfishness and some reason to have hope looking towards the future.  If that hope is only in ourselves our history tells us that sooner or later there will be a need for more reconciliation.  I would like to say that all of my faults and mistakes are in the past, but that would not be true.  In the present I am often not the best father, uncle, grandfather or husband.  I'm sure in the future I will look back at this time and have much the same thoughts as I have today.  What is the answer?  In the letter of I John the writer speaking to believers writes, "But if anyone does sin,we have and advocate with the Father.."  The writer of the letter Romans tells us that, "we all groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for..the redemption of our bodies." Earlier he had written, "What a wretched man I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

Becoming a Believer does not deliver you from the troubles and mistakes that come in life.  It does however give you a place to find reconciliation and hope for the future even in light of ones current failures. The answer began for me with a careful reading of the New Testament and a realistic evaluation of where I was going.  I encourage you to move in the same direction.

Coming to Terms With a Shark

At some point, we'll all have a difficult experience, a time when we're hard-pressed to either quit or hang in there. The answer isn't always easy to come by: how do we really know when enough is enough? Well, a few years back I was put in just such a predicament: I was fishing in my kayak when I caught a large Thresher Shark. 

Fishing for sharks in a kayak may seem a bit over the top, and it is. I had seen pictures on the internet of guys who caught Thresher sharks in their kayaks, and thought to myself, That's just plain crazy. I would certainly never do such a thing. Yet that picture above is no fake: I ended up being one of those guys. How exactly did that happen?

Well, it wasn't exactly my choice. At the time, my wife and another couple from our church had been invited to travel to India for a Pastor’s Conference. We would be gone for two weeks, and I had one day off before we left, so I jumped at the chance to go fishing.

I launched out of Dana Point Harbor early that morning.  I was planning to fish for halibut up against the kelp near Salt Creek beach.  My fellow yaker wasn't able to join me, but I went out by myself anyway. Going out by yourself isn't necessarily a bad idea, unless you're about to catch a shark. Then it very much is a bad idea. 

It was a beautiful day out: sunny, clear, not too much wind. It was a good day for fishing. But the problem with fishing it's sometimes it's just that: fishing, with not a whole lot of catching going on. But I stayed out, paddling around, dropping my line in different spots, and by the early afternoon I was ready to head back, with at least a forty-five minute paddle back to the harbor.

I planned to troll as I made my way back.  (For those of you who are unfamiliar with fishing terminology, "trolling" is when you drop a "lure" (a fishing hook concealed by what looks to be a small fish or squid) behind your boat/kayak as it's moving. The lure is attached to your fishing pole, and while dragging behind you, the lure looks like live, swimming bait.) I have this lure that looks just like a squid and I thought, Hey, there could be a White Sea Bass lurking around here. I attached it up to my rod with 60 pound braid and a 30 pound leader and started paddling to shore. 

No sooner had I gone but a few yards off the kelp when something big hit the lure. It was so big, in fact, that it turned my kayak around. The fight was on. 

I smiled as I thought, That's a big enough White Sea Bass for dinner plus lots to give to others.  This fish was clearly big, as it began to drag the kayak away from the kelp and out to sea.  As I continued to try and reel it in, and it continued to pull me out, I soon realized that this was a little bit bigger than a White Sea Bass. Maybe it's a Black Sea Bass, I thought, which have been known to get up to several hundred pounds.

I tried my best to bring the fish up to the kayak, but as soon as I would make any headway, the fish would just peel off another couple of yards of line. There were even times when I couldn't even lift my pole from the edge of the kayak, and I was just being dragged around with no real control at all. 

After about an hour of fighting, I was done. I was completely exhausted. I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere, and was just about to cut the line and let it go. But I figured that I would give it one more push, so I tightened down the drag as much as I could and attempted to turn the reel. 

And as soon as I did that, the fish stopped fighting. All of a sudden I was reeling it in. The line hadn't snapped: I could feel the weight of the fish on the other end– it had just given up. In a few minutes it was just under my kayak, and I saw what had happened. The lure had hooked the tail of the fish, a very long, whipping tail, and I realized I had a Thresher shark.  

The shark was still very much alive and the thought of wrestling him up into the kayak or dragging him back to the harbor did not appeal to me at all.  I looked around. A few hundred yards away I saw a small private boat whose engine had just started. I yelled and the boat came over. After a few minutes, the two guys agreed to drag the shark back to the harbor and leave it at the dock where I had launched from.

*

There are times in our lives when events seem to just take control and drag us around.  We can be positive at first, but as it continues on and we are get nowhere, we reach the point when we are ready to give up.  How do you know whether it is time to cut the line or keep fighting? 

The writer of the Book of Romans says that if we are believers in the Lord we should “be led by the Spirit.” He is making an appeal that we should consider what the Scriptures teach in light of what we are facing.  The Spirit of the Lord would never contradict the Scriptures, as He is the author of the same.  Too often our response when worn down is to just do what feels right, or lean on our own understanding. It is only later that we suffer the consequences of our actions. By doing the right thing we can often find ourselves surprised by the Lord, as He provides for us in the most unique way.  

The same author also wrote in another letter that “...the Lord provides a way of escape out of every trial or temptation.” There was no way I was going to get that fish back to the harbor and eventually onto the many tables of thankful folks at our Church. Rather than giving up, I chose to fight on, and then once I did, I found that the fight was over. I had won. 

Are you fighting what seems to be an endless battle?  Don’t give up, look to the Lord and the Scriptures, they will make a way for you. 

Follow us in our journey at: cmvchurch.com

  

  

Memorial Weekend 1996

For most families, Memorial Day weekend is the start of the summer season. For others, it is a time to remember those who gave their lives in service to their country. For me and my two children, we remember it as the anniversary of Cindy, their mom and my wife, going home to be with the Lord. On that Sunday morning in 1996 she ended her fight with breast cancer. 

In November of 1990, after noticing an unusual formation in her breast, she went to the doctor and found that she had a very aggressive form of breast cancer. She had told me years before that as happy as she was with our family, she felt that something bad was going to enter her life that would change everything. At the time I told her that she was being silly, because at heart Cindy was a very positive, up-beat type of person. After coming home from her appointment, she couldn't stop crying, and I tried my best to comfort her. In the morning, however, she was up and ready to give her all to beat this disease.

Over the next few months we did the chemo treatments and the surgery to remove her right breast, along with reconstruction. The picture above was taken by a dear friend the day before we began our struggle. Our doctor told us that the biopsy had shown that her cancer was very aggressive and was being encouraged by her own body's estrogen. As we drove home she said, “This thing is going to kill me.”

The next day, however, Cindy was ready to go on as best she could. The doctors gave her some meds that kept her estrogen away from the cancer, and within a few months she was cancer free– as far as they could tell. With that good news, we went back to living a normal life, enjoying all that we had with our church and family. 

Then, in July of 1995, Cindy discovered a little pimple on her right side, and a biopsy revealed that her cancer was back with a vengeance– it was now in her lungs and brain. More chemo followed, but only with the hope of slowing the cancer. 

As a family we were able to get away to Hawaii in February. Towards the end of that trip she whispered to me out (of the kids hearing) that she felt terrible and wanted to go home. 

A few days later, I came home and found her planning her memorial on the computer, smiling as she did so. That was just the kind of person she was! Yet as the days passed, she could do less and less and spent more time in bed. One morning she had finished her shower and was sitting down on the commode wrapped in a towel and she said, “I’m done for the day.” We laughed.  Then she said to me, “Honey, why is this happening to me?” I told her that I didn’t have a clue, and we both ended up crying in the bathroom. Cindy had never smoked, only drank an occasional glass of wine, had become a Christian when she was in grade school, married a Pastor, and sang in the church worship team. If there were ever anyone to not deserve cancer, it was her.

On the morning she passed, I was asleep in the recliner near the bed and I awoke around 2am, not hearing her (now usual) heavy breathing. I lay down beside her, told her I loved her, kissed her, and she was gone. It was Sunday, and so we went to church and told the congregation. We sang some songs, told some stories about their experience with Cindy, and then the three of us went back to an empty home. Over the next few weeks I had to catch myself from saying to the kids, "When your Mom comes home…” because she wasn’t.

The other day I was reading an article in a Christian magazine and I found the quote, “If Christ is raised, nothing else matters. If Christ is not raised, nothing matters.” Over the years I have pondered the question Cindy asked her husband and pastor in the bathroom that morning– why was this happening? If my faith is in vain, then everything is all the luck of the draw, and there really is no good answer to the question of why.

And yet, even if what the Bible proclaims is valid and true, I still have no good answer to that question we all ask. In my 43 years as a Christian, I've seen some really strange and difficult events take place. Afterwards I sit back and say, “What was that all about?” In the end, as I look at the twenty years Cindy was in my life, I can’t explain why she passed as she did at such a young age. I do have a thankful heart for the grace the Lord gave me through her, the two great kids she blessed me with, and the sure knowledge that we will see each other again. 

Paul wrote that believers "will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” Every Memorial Weekend our family remembers our dear sweet Cindy and the blessed years we had with her. We grieve, yes, but not without hope. 

Some of that hope can be found in the New Testament and as we talk about it at www.calvarymissionviejo.com