Not wishing to judge a restaurant solely on the basis of one visit, I found myself returning to dine at The Hungry Bear again tonight. Having spent another very nice day exploring the historically significant sites at Fort Flagler and becoming quit famished after another 6-7 miles of hiking, including some serious bushwhacking as I tried to locate some of the more elusive positions of such things as the CRF (coincidence range finder) and F'7 (fire control primary #7), I was as hungry as a bear as I passed through Eldon. The parking lot was decidedly less crowded this time and I pulled into a spot right in front, noticing through the windows that there were very few diners and plenty of empty seats. Upon entering I was immediately shown to a nice seat in the back dining room which has been made to look quite pleasant with the rustic decor nicely freshened up and new tables and chairs added. I chose a lighter fare this time and tried the clam chowder which was excellent and an appetizer of garlic prawns which also was delightfully delectable.

My waitress, who turned out to be the owner, was very friendly and helpful in explaining and recommending the offerings of the menu. When asked how I was doing, I complimented her on the food and briefly mentioned my experience of last Saturday, without going into too much detail as I did in my former blog. She was of course apologetic and informed me of a very unfortunate incident I had not been aware of last Saturday in which the waitress who had waited on me had taken a very serious fall in the back room and hurt herself quite badly. Not wanting to put the restaurant and other workers to any inconvenience given how tremendously busy they were, she refused to go home and rest despite pleas to that effect from her boss and fellow workers. So it was shortly after this incident last weekend that I happened to walk in the door and found myself waited on by this woman who was now very much in pain and terribly stressed by the workload of a restaurant completely packed with people.

I apologized and offered my sympathies for the woman of whose misfortune I had now learned and was reminded of the lesson John Piper had so emphatically preached last Thursday in the video shown at Bible study. Speaking on Romans 14:10-13, he emphasized that we are far too quick to judge others before all the facts are known, and even then are slow to offer mercy in cases where our judgment might be founded. Mr. Piper went so far as to say that the extent to which we offer mercy toward others will directly correlate to the amount of mercy shown toward us and we will be judged to the same degree that we have judged others. In short, a God who has been unceasingly merciful to our poor, undeserving souls expects that we too are to show the same degree of mercy and leave judgment to the One who has full knowledge of all the facts and will judge accordingly and in His time. I could only imagine how I would have felt had I been the one serving a full crowd of hungry customers, trying to ignore the pain of a recent fall and finding one more person for whom there is nary a seat to be found demanding to be fed. I shudder to think what attitude I might have had were I to be in that situation.

Tags: bible study
Current Mood: humble

We ended up with over 3 feet of rain for the month of January, and it looks like it has no end in sight.  We had another 2 inches last night and it is still raining.

I went up to Brinnon for another "revival meeting" with Pastor Al Wood last night.  I braved snow, hail, freezing rain and miles of slushy roads to get up there only a few minutes late.  The message was real inspiring and turnout wasn't bad considering the weather.

Tags: bible study, weather
Current Mood: hungry

Bible study tonight was a sermon from John Piper on Romans 13:8-12

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

He talked about how love never flows from a heart focused on darkness (sin or just doom and gloom attitude), but only from a heart filled with hope and the hope comes from trusting Jesus in all things. I need to wake from my spiritual slumber and look to the light of Jesus which dawns in the hope of salvation and future glory. I can not expect to fulfill my debt to love if I am caught up with the darkness of the world or my own woes. Also I can't be caught up with the dreams the world promotes which seem to offer joy, but never really do. John Piper says

"Do you want to spend your life asleep in the dream world of this glitzy age? Or do you want to be awake in the dawning rays of the age to come where Christ and His people will lead lives full of joy and love and justice and creativity that everything we thought was great in this age will look like the kindergarten of the universe."

What a great analogy to being asleep, but dreaming away of wonderful things as if they were real but never really experiencing the reality of them, only to someday wake up and find that the world's joys were only dreams which never really fulfill. Only in Christ will we find the reality of joy and love. Let's wake up and enjoy that which is real! As I write this it is almost snowing in Hoodsport. The snow is coming down fast and furiously up the Cushman road. It'll be a white winter wonderland up there tomorrow.

Tags: bible study
Current Mood: hopeful