Labor Day Traditions

I love holiday traditions. Our family has established a number of them that are unique to each holiday. Labor Day may be one of our most favorite because we go to the "Great" Geauga County Fair. We have attended a number of fairs over the years, but this one always stands out. I don't know what in particular in might be, but I suspect it is a number of things. Geauga County is a mostly rural county so you get an interesting mix of people from Amish to yuppies.

Then there are the animals - lots of them. Barn after barn of them. We also enjoy relishing in the food that is really bad for you, but we eat once a year. At the Geauga County Fair, we eat onion rings and 4-H milkshakes. We used to eat gyros too but now that seems just a little over the top. We usually went on Monday and got there early before it was crowded. This year, we went on Saturday and there were a lot of people and it was hot. Our tradition was to go counter-clockwise starting in the agricultural exhibits, then winding our way through the animals. The kids would start bugging as at that time to eat. After the animals, it was the gorging on the food. Finally, we would end up in the book barn where we would indulge in buying older library books for $1 a bag. On the way back, we would stop in the arts and crafts building.

I love the traditions of family. Now that are kids and grown and scattered, I see no reason to stop. While we vary it up a little (going Saturday and starting with the onion rings), we still follow the path we set out long ago and relish in the past and the current. Usually we see people we know but for whatever reason yesterday we didn't. It is a time to enjoy family and the blessings of life in NE Ohio.

Celebrating a Life in Ministry

A 23 year old young man walks into a small church. He is a new believer in Christ. He understands the change in his life, but he doesn't know totally what it means. It is so vital that he get exposed to someone who is mature in the faith. He needs someone to not only explain to him what a relationship with Christ is like, but to model it in how he lives his life.

If you haven't figure it out by now, the 23 year old young man was me. It was 1983 and I had just moved back to Cleveland and I was looking for a bible believing, bible teaching church. I found a small church through of all things the newspaper. I attended Little Church in the Vale. When I walked in, I immediately noticed I stood out. I think I was the only one under 30. A number of people took me under their wing including a gregarious older man who just effused love by the name of Bill Banfield. Bill was just one of those guys who seemed like he was always upbeat. The pastor of that church taught me how to read and study God's word, but it was Bill Banfield who taught me how to conduct myself in love (still learning), how a godly marriage looks, and how to raise a family with Christ as the center.

I married that pastor's niece and we raised our young family in that church. I dug the following video out of our family archives. It is a short snipped of Vacation Bible School in 1991. The theme was "Sonward Ho", kind of a western motif. Bill is the one leading the kids in singing "Good News". The little girl I zoom in on is our daughter Ashley. Our kids still remember Sonward Ho.

While we left the church a few years later, we never forgot Bill and Ada. Today we celebrated their retirement of Bill as an elder of the church. I got to tell Bill how much he meant to me as that young man. Today, I try to pour myself into other men just like Bill did to me. Bill of course led the singing tonight and I captured Bill leading us in "Oh For a Thousand Tongues to Sing". Brought me back to that day I walked in the church in 1983.

Bill is not done with ministry. As he said today, he is not old, he is just getting older. As he is spending more and more time with his extended family in North Caroline (10 great grandchildren), he knew when to step down. But he simply is transitioning to a new phase of ministry. I am grateful for men and woman like Bill and Ada and it challenges me to be more like them in discipling others.

The Towpath Diaries - Living Water

The Towpath trail follows along the Ohio and Erie Canal gateway.  The canal, built between 1825 and 1832, provided a successful transportation route from Cleveland, on Lake Erie, to Portsmouth, on the Ohio River. The canal opened up Ohio to the rest of the settled eastern United States. It follows along the Cuyahoga River where the river can range from rushing (not level 4 rapids, but pretty fast for a river) to almost stagnant.  More the former since we have had so much rain this summer.

People generally love water. Homes built along water or even with a view of the water tend to sell at much higher prices than those that are even a block away from water. Along the towpath, there are many views like the one above of the Cuyahoga. I love how therapeutic the sound of water can be. This morning, I was biking in the Bedford Reservation which adjoins the National Park by Valley View and just took a quick 10 second video of Tinkers Creek.

It is not surprising therefore to me that the word picture Jesus uses to describe Himself is "living water". A woman came to draw stagnant water from the well in John 4. Her daily routine required that she must do this to relieve thirst. Jesus says that He is living water that can perpetually satisfy the thirst within us. Parasites form in stagnant water. I get the word picture of smelly, contaminated pools of water. However, the process of living water going over rocks cleanses the water. The perpetual motion of the water over rough surfaces makes it alive. Even the dirtiest of water can be made alive if it is kept in perpetual motion. God is an active change agent so the water is constantly cleansing and renewing us and the parasites within us.

The living water does require one action however and that is to come to it and ask for it. The Cuyahoga does not come to you to enjoy it - you must go to it. Your action is simple - just ask God for it. God so much wants you to experience the living waters of salvation that come through Jesus Christ.

The Towpath Diaries - From Junk to Beauty

I love to ride the Towpath Trail. For those who don't know the Towpath, it runs 85 miles north to south through the Erie Canalway. I can pick it up through Brecksville Metroparks reservation. I love to ride either north and connect to Cleveland Metroparks or south to Akron. It is a beautiful ride regardless and so peaceful.

I am awed by a sense of God's beauty as I go through this place. Many times, my heart is brought back to how God works in the life of his children through the wonder of nature, His handiwork. So consequently, I am thinking through yet another series to match up what we see every day.

In the early days of the Towpath, there was a automobile salvage yard that existed around mile marker 28 of the Towpath.  In the early 1980's that area was reclaimed, cleaner up and now is a thriving bird sanctuary and beaver marsh. I can't find pictures of the original auto salvage yard, but I can imagine it looked like this.

And God turns it into this.

As I was riding today, I noticed a Great Blue Heron about 5 feet from the bridge that goes over the marsh.

 I was reminded by how God takes junk and turns it into beauty. God does not create junk. But sin taints us and mars the landscape of our soul. Junk is deposited and what we have left is a salvage yard. There may be good pieces in there, but you have to find them.

But a life redeemed by Christ "reclaims" that junk and creates a new soul (2 Cor 5:17). The "old has passed and the new has come". If you look at the marsh, it is hard to imagine that there was a junkyard there. But over time, God through nature redeemed the marsh. He loves to reclaim and renew lost souls that have become a junkyard.

The first step is to let him come into your life and start the reclamation project. This act of faith was needed on the part of those who purged the junk. God simply requires you do nothing more than ask Him of obedience and faith to clean you up. God is in the business of renewing junkyards.

Top 10 Reasons to Love Northeast Ohio - Part 2

This blog is all about relationships. It is patterned after the greatest commandment - "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:34-40). This is the ultimate enriching life, a life of overflow. Part of home however is where we live.

We live in a community. The gospels are replete with the environment and community that Jesus and the disciples lived. Imagine the gospels without the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Samaria, and of course Jerusalem. So it is without apology that I carry on my top 5 reasons why I love my home, Northeast Ohio.

#4 - The Lakefront

If you had asked me the top 10 off the top of my head, I probably would not have listed the lakefront. I don't have a boat and I live 15 miles from the lake. There is also no doubt that the lakefront is underutilized. But I also know that is changing. Cleveland sits on Lake Erie and that makes it a hub of transportation and commercial activity. It is also a hub of recreation. Last Friday, Deb and I volunteered for the Cleveland Metro Parks at Burning River Fest. The festival was at Wendy Park. A year ago, I did not even know where Wendy Park was. We were promoting the new Water Taxi system coming over the next few years. I was privileged to work on this project as part of Leadership Cleveland II. The lakefront is a great asset and the best is yet to come.

 # 3 - The Park System

In my rankings, I could have easily justified this as number one or two. One of the major reasons we moved to Brecksville is because it is at the fulcrum of three different park systems - Cuyahoga National Park, Cleveland Metro Parks, and Summit Metro Parks. All are first rate and they almost seem to blend together. In fact, I used to think they were all kind of one big park system. Again my ignorance. The CNP is one of the top 10 most frequented national parks in the country. It is up there with the Yosemite's of the world. I have a much greater appreciation of our park systems as both a regular user and because of my friendship with a few leaders in CNP and Cleveland Metroparks. I think it is crown jewel. I love getting on my bike and just riding on the Towpath or Bike n Hike.

 #2 - SPORTS...

Hard to believe that I would put sports teams number two given that we haven't won anything since 1964. I was five years old at the time so I have no recollection of the event even though we lived in Euclid at the time. That makes it even more amazing that NE Ohio is still so sports crazy. I submit as proof that the Plain Dealer, our daily paper is almost always half devoted to our crazy sports teams. Count articles on the front page as indirectly related to sports. We have a definite bias as an area towards football - we will support that even if the team stinks which it has since 1999. Now we have added Johnny football - not sure what that will mean. But we also had 455 straight sellouts in baseball and one of the top attendance figures in the NBA for basketball when Lebron was here. Speaking of which - Lebron is back! If you have not seen Frank Calliendo's rendition of Lebron's speech in Morgan Freeman's voice, it is definitely worth a look.

#1 - The People 

A community is only as good as its people. I love the people in this community. By and large, they are down to earth, genuine, mostly humble people. To that point, I get to interact with some pretty successful people and the vast majority are wonderful people. I could not say that about growing up in the East Coast or what I have observed other places. NE Ohioans care about people. We care about our community. The biggest flaw we have is that we tend to have an inferiority complex but I think that is changing. NE Ohio is on a roll baby and it is about time the world sees it for what it is.