Warming Up

This summer has found me in a curious position of indecision, procrastination, and wonderment. There is no doubt that, in our sober moments at least, we all want our lives to have mattered; to have made a difference and hopefully improved the situation we inherited. Sorting out what is fact and differentiating that from opinion is of utmost importance and this is what has me in a bit of a quandary. An issue that has bothered me for some time, is the matter of global warming, climate change or whatever one may wish to call it.

Climate scientists overwhelmingly agree that the earth is warming and changing weather patterns are responding at a very fast (for such things) pace. That the scientists agree is not a matter of opinion. That I agree with their assessment makes it my opinion. Scientists also agree that warming of the planet is sped up by higher levels of gases that result from the burning of fossil fuels. Once again, that scientists agree is factual. My choice to agree with them is considered opinion. So here I am caught in a space supported by evidence and still considered an opinion.

Back to my assertion that we desire to make a difference. I would ask any who take the time to read my stuff to consider how important this matter of climate change is. There is little doubt in my mind that my opinions will not convince anyone with differing ones to accept mine. I would ask, however, that we all consider the evidence and the need to be serious about preventing runaway global warming that will make life, as we know it, difficult if at all possible for future generations.

Unfortunately the issue has become a political one and although single issue politics is less than desirable, I cannot support any candidate who believes that this issue is not real and therefore needs no attention. Our planet is a gift from God (opinion again I guess). But if you share that opinion then not supporting the care and preservation of the gift is no longer political. Unfortunately, it seems this is the arena in which the battle takes place. Jesus assured us that, "In this world you will have tribulation," But He never said, "Don't do anything about it."  Thanks for reading. Comments appreciated.

Stuck Up

Much of the lumber we use at Out of the Woodwork is material that has been milled, dried and machined starting with the log itself. It makes one appreciate the cost of a piece of lumber purchased at a retail outlet when you consider the time and energy required to turn trees into furniture. As with much of what I do, the concern is not so much with what it costs as with whether or not it is worth doing in the first place. There is little that can compare to the satisfying feeling that comes of taking a tree, an undeniable gift from God, and making something useful of it.

The expression, "windfall" took on new meaning this year with the great number of trees that came down in March and April storms. Since we only sawmill part time, we will be busy with the process for most of the summer trying to get out from under the great pile of logs we have as a result of the damage. The first of the boards from the mill are now stacked and stickered. Hence the title of today''s blog. Stickering is the process of placing dividers, called stickers, between each layer in the board pile and is necessary to allow air to circulate between them.

Unless one has a drying kiln, the process of drying takes years; several outdoors followed by a couple more indoors. It's a never ending process if we want a continuous supply of lumber dry enough to be used for most projects. I have entered that bittersweet period where it is obvious that some of the lumber being stacked and stickered today will be used by someone else because my woodworking days will be over before it is used up. But that's the way it works. Some of the material I use was put into piles by my father knowing he would outlive the need for them.

So, I ask my readers this. What is it that you have done that will enable the next generation to build on what you have done? Lumber is a very real material type thing. But what we build as good stewards of what God as entrusted to us determines the type of world our children and their children will inherit. We have all been given time, talent and treasure (The three "T's" of stewardship). Hopefully, we leave more than a pile of boards. But that's a step in the right direction.

Thinking Like a Piece of Wood

I encourage any who might be interested to pursue woodworking. There is something about taking a piece of raw material like a tree and transforming it into an object of practical or artistic use that seems to complete the person who does it. The number of people I've helped in the matter of building stuff probably numbers in the hundreds if you count the many school students I've had the privilege to work with over the years. Although some seem to have better innate skills than others, everyone can have success at some level. The only necessary ingredient is an honest desire to figure out what needs to be done. There is no substitute for a genuine sense of curiosity and willingness to go get another board when the one being worked on turns out wrong.

There's no denying that wood is inanimate and, although it was once a growing, living thing, it is quite content to allow the woodworker to cut, plane, drill, whittle or whatever until it becomes the proper shape and size to do what is needed. The difficulty arises when we fail to take into account the very nature of wood itself. Working wood requires that one thinks like a piece of wood. That's not quite as silly as it first sounds. What is that piece of wood going to do if I try to chisel out a groove in that place? is the kind of question we ask as we begin to think like a piece of wood. Knowing how a piece of wood thinks is not unlike considering how people think and just like people, different pieces of wood may think quite differently from another. Some wood is harder than others. Some is more split resistant. Some is better at being glued together. Being familiar with the wood with which we work enables us to come to think like the wood.

It would appear that there is an analogy here in thinking like another person. Heaven knows, we have some real difference of thought right now in the people we encounter. Working with another person closely enough to think the way they think is essential if we hope to have civil discourse about matters of which we think differently. We are all rather quick to let one another know, "what I think". Being effective in human relations is quite a bit like woodworking in that until we take the time to know others and "what they think" and, more importantly, why they think that, especially, if their thoughts differ from our own, we are left with a pile of splinters.

Each of us has come into being and have what we have by the grace of our Creator. If we believe that we are loved by that Creator to the extent that He sacrificed His Son for us and that the Son is the only example of how we are to live, then we owe it to one another to think like one another. Being a carpenter, Jesus knew how to think like a piece of wood. More importantly, He knew how to think like the people he encountered. We have been charged to love one another. That can not happen unless we become familiar enough with one another to think like one another and agreeing to seek His righteousness
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Board? Sure. Bored? Never.

At Out of the Woodwork, the ministry of woodworking that has been going on for several years now, there is a lot of lumber that comes into the shop and gets turned into practical (usually) items. The transition from a board (or sometimes a pile of them) to a usable item can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks. Although we try to schedule extra time if possible, we regularly meet in the shop only twice a week, three hours each time. So the process from board to whatever can take quite awhile. This seems to work for the folks who keep showing up and the virtue of patience is pretty much in evidence. A good outcome of this work awhile and then come back later allows for considerable thinking to go on between sessions, usually resulting in a better end product than if it was done for eight hours every day.

The thinking that surrounds woodworking is almost as rewarding as the woodworking itself. That thinking may start as early as when a board is first run through the planer (often the first step in making rough lumber into usable boards). Checking to see what that finished surface looks like often changes ones mind about how the board will be used. The fact that most boards have a look all their own and the shape of knots and grain pattern say, "Use me for that table top," or  "Wouldn't I look great in the middle of a cutting board?". Amazing how an inanimate thing like wood can stir the circuitry in this computer we call a brain. Each time that happens, another project idea comes to mind and soon sketches and drawings are made so the idea doesn't get lost in that computer's overworked hard drive.

I have reached that uncomfortable age where I'm pretty sure the projects I have in mind (or on paper due to the aforementioned overworked hard drive)  are too numerous for the years I have left. I suppose this could be considered a somber idea, knowing you will die with some things definitely worth doing being undone. But that is not the way to look at the situation. We are assured that we know not the time we will leave our earthly existence and we have been blessed to create a lot of projects with the material we have been given. Knowing that the ideas for things to do will outlast the time we have in which to do them means no boredom, no thinking, "There's nothing to do," And when the projects are ended, there should be no sadness for any woodworker or anyone else who has placed their trust in Jesus Christ. He has promised us an eternity of being with Him, in happiness beyond anything we can imagine. At this point I can't imagine something more pleasing than turning a tree into a table. I think Jesus understands that. After all, He is a carpenter. Do you suppose He has a woodworking shop in that eternal place He has promised?

Nailed It

Fastening wood pieces together has been a necessary part of woodworking ever since some historical carpenter needed to join pieces of wood together. For much of human endeavoring to fasten wood pieces together metal nails were used sparingly, if at all, because of the cost. Bronze nails were in use as early as 3400 BC. Nails essentially had to be forged one at a time and in colonial America many households did some forging in their fireplaces to produce nails for the use in construction. The time involved in making nails. since they were made by hand even in the nail manufacturing establishments that found a market for their product in most towns, kept the cost high. It was not unheard of for a building to be burned to salvage the nails with which it had been built.

In the 1800's large scale nail manufacturing came on the scene and nails were mostly made from sheets, each nail being cut from the sheet and usually forged a bit to form the head of the nail. By the 1900's. wire nails were being produced in automated factories and the cost of the preferred fastener for construction dropped considerably. Interestingly, my grandfather who was born in the late 1800's never got out of the perception of nails being valuable. It was unthinkable for him to throw away a bent nail. Bent nails were saved and straightened out as an indoor winter activity and saved for projects yet to come. Granddad left behind several pails of bent nails that he never quite got around to straightening.

Cut nails are still being manufactured and are often sold as hardened (heat treated to resist bending) and sold as masonry nails. Because cut nails closely resemble the shape of the nails depicted in illustrations of Christ's crucifixion, they are often used in craft projects designed to remind folks of that remarkable sacrifice. The difficulty that some folks have encountered when using cut nails that way is that efforts to drill a hole through the hardened nail usually result in broken drill bits and language that is quite inappropriate for someone trying to make an object to remind us of the One who warns us to temper our language.

So when a fellow preacher from the pews asked if I might be able to drill holes in a bunch (over 100) of cut nails for a sermon illustration, I was hesitant. I figured that I knew enough about basic metallurgy to anneal (soften) the steel in the nails to make them drillable. It took a longer time than I was happy with using a propane torch to get a nail heated to the necessary temperature (glowing red). But, eureka, the cooled off nail yielded, if somewhat reluctantly, to the drill bit. A Google search on a blacksmithng forum proved to be just what I needed. The suggestion there was to put a bunch of nails in a stainless steel can and throw it in the wood stove at bedtime and pull them out in the morning, It worked great and although the drilling required slow feed, holes were accomplished.

I got thinking about what had transpired in this silly little experiment and find a great satisfaction in the fact that what ancestors probably did (making and straightening nails by a wood fire) required an internet search by me. They would have had no access to any such thing. But then they didn't need it. They were closer to the origin. Hopefully the nails will serve the purpose for which they are being prepared; reminding us that because Jesus took the nails for us we can be forgiven and follow Him knowing that the promise of eternal life can be ours. 

Our Fathers

One of the difficulties we have in our society today is what is called "The Missing Fathers". So many children are born into this world and have no, or perhaps worse, a poor relationship with their fathers. It is not surprising that men have a hard time being dedicated fathers when they have no model or a bad model of what a father is to be. Parenting is a tricky responsibility in the best of circumstances and folks who have never experienced the true joy of growing up with a loving, dedicated father are surely at a disadvantage.

The truth is, we all have two fathers. One is earthly, likely biological, flawed and sinful. The other is perfect, without sin and loving beyond imagination. For those whose relationship with their worldly father has been less than ideal, chances are that was due to circumstances over which they had little control. However, with the other Father, the relationship is completely up to us. We get to decide what that relationship looks like. The other Father has expressed His great love for us and gives us the freedom to choose to return that love and share it, or not.

I am one of the fortunate ones. My earthly father cared deeply for me and provided all kinds of opportunity to learn and grow. He modeled faithfulness and dedication to supporting his family. And yet, the truth is, he was sinful, sometimes selfish, all together human. I'm blessed to have had a model and have been led to know that I too, am far from perfect. Today marks the tenth anniversary of Dad's death. I think of him often and especially when I find myself alone in the wood shop he left to me. I have been blessed beyond measure.

Then there's the second Father. The One who claims to be Father to us all. The One who loves us enough to let us choose if we desire a relationship with Him. It's likely that the readers of this blog will represent the full range from those who had loving, responsible worldly fathers to those who never met their fathers. Let me encourage all that the Father of us all is waiting to have you, if you haven't already, make the decision to have the relationship with Him that will last eternally. He is the source of all love and we need it more than ever.

Humility Trumps

There is a situation that has me in quite a quandary. Please understand that I have no desire to make this blog into a political boxing ring. But there is something that keeps happening that keeps me wondering just what is going on. So, with that said, I want to find some explanation for the discrepancy that exists between me and my friends concerning the person we have elected to represent us and our country on the world stage.

Let me begin by expressing my opinion and the difficulty with which it is formed based on the diversity of the thoughts of many friends, some of whom agree and some of whom do not. I do not like Donald Trump. He reminds me of others I have known over the years that were uninformed know-it-all's. They were brash, loud, egotistic, usually male, and convinced that theirs was the only opinion on any matter. In the case of all of these, I have the option of associating with them only as much as I choose. That all changed when Donald Trump won the presidency. I have no choice at this point to deny that he represents me. That is what an elected leader is supposed to do.. The fact that half the people in the country with enough gumption to vote didn't seem to mind being represented by him makes it ever so much more difficult.

As president, one is sworn into a position of leadership that may well be the most critical a citizen may attain. There are qualities that define good leadership and these qualities have been documented by good research. Effective leaders have one trait in common It turns out that many traits may be essential for good leadership. However, the one unconditional necessity for a good leader is humility. Therein is the difficulty. A good leader will not have much success if that leader considers themselves more important than those they lead (represent), Donald Trump has shown himself, time after time, to be completely lacking in humbleness. Count the number of times he has admitted he was wrong on any subject. Humility is not in his play book.

I surely do not want to lose friendships over this matter and would hope that those who have a different opinion of the president would feel the same. No doubt those who support him are equally puzzled by my refusing to do so. I guess the ultimate difficulty here is the fact that Christian friends, those who claim Christ as their ultimate leader and model of humility. in some cases, still defend Donald Trump as a leader and a Christian. I would seriously ask if, based on a year of watching the Trump administration unfold, can he still be defended. I believe that change is possible for anyone. But that takes admitting I am wrong; difficult for anyone and especially for Donald Trump. I love and pray for him each day. But so far, I still don't like him.  

Carrying Burdens

Every once in awhile, (well actually quite regularly) I find myself opening up new tabs because of distraction in the original search, bringing me to a place of discovery. That happened tonight as I was checking on a timeline of Chinese history, a subject that I find fascinating. One of the comments on the inventiveness alluded to the invention of gun powder (initially used only for fireworks). I guess it didn't take long for someone to figure out that it could be used in a device that allowed for a much nicer way to dispose of those with whom they disagreed than say: stabbing, bludgeoning, or hitting with a rock.

The gun powder thing, was old knowledge for me. But in the same section the credit for inventing a less threatening device was attributed to one Ko Yu sometime around the start of the Christian Era. Interestingly enough, the purpose was military and was treated as a secret weapon. The humble wheel barrow was the deciding factor in war in that troops who had wheel barrows had a tremendous advantage in keeping soldiers supplied in areas where other wheeled devices were impractical. It also eliminated the need for draft animals and their care and feeding. How about that? Multi-wheeled carts and wagons had been around for a couple thousand years. But an inventive mind saw a better way.

Interestingly (well maybe not), I just used a modern version of that old Chinese contraption to bring wood a little closer to the stove today. How many things like the wheel barrow do we take for granted, assuming, because we've never been without it, that it has always existed. About the same time as the wheel barrow came into the world, so did God in the form of Jesus Christ. Let us keep things in perspective good readers. Man's inventiveness is something for which we must be grateful. But there is no comparison to the exceedingly great love of God exemplified in His Son.

Time and Time Again

I was surprised to receive a call from my father's cousin earlier this year to suggest that since she and her husband were downsizing for a move to smaller housing she had some things that I might like to have. To my delight, she offered me her grandmother's shelf clock which I never even knew existed. To be sure, this is a family heirloom although, to be fair, her grandmother who would in normal circumstances have been my great grandmother was not related to me at all. But that's a story for another post one day. Suffice it to say, the genealogy in that generation was confusing.

One of the employees that works for my son does clock repair and has agreed to try to get the old time piece ticking and tocking once more. Actually, I was not as concerned about having the clock work again as I was in finding a place for it in our home. It is now on a shelf that was installed as a nice, indoor New Years Day project. The shelf was a Christmas gift for my wife Jennifer who, although she liked the clock, was beginning to view it as one more thing to clean around. She was a bit skeptical about a shelf that was of no use until it was installed somewhere.

The clock is now on the new shelf in the room at the bottom of the stairs and it will be a constant reminder of a generation that lived off the land and counted a clock like this as a special luxury in an otherwise practical lifestyle. Clocks have faces and come face to face with any who check to see what time it is. As I pass by, I would like to believe that all those faces that have been reflected in that old dial are looking back at me. I have been blessed with many generations of hard working country folks who have made my life what it is. Hope they are looking at me with some sense of approval.