Journal 2004 12 30
I Like Winter
The Corps continues the activities of men bound by the forces of nature. The Mandans activities are similarly limited.
Great hospitality on both sides. Indians visit the Fort frequently and the men like visiting the villages.
The last few days finds the temperature moving between –20 degrees and –9 degrees. Clark notes that on the prairie –9 is not considered cold!
High winds and frosts bring a new look to the landscape. Evidently the heaviness of the frost, compared to snow, blown by the wind, virtually leveled the prairie. Probably looked like a large white mall parking lot minus the streetlamps and painted lines.
We have in many ways pushed away the limits imposed on us by the seasons. I’m not sure we are any better for it. Limited travel, limited exposure and limited work force us to interact with one another in winter. Winter forged relationships that were later bonded by work and adventure in seasons of growth and harvest.
Do we allow “winter” to take place in our lives? Is there a time brought on by external forces when we pull life into a protected place and allow one season to end and quiet preparation for a new season to begin?
Have we so controlled our world that we have deluded ourselves into thinking we can move outside the cycles ordained for us in the creation of the world and man? The word winter has several nuances. It is rooted in Hebrew words implying darkness, hiddenness, and a temporary residing. “Wintering” is best seen in our modern America in those we call “snowbirds”. Winter, reside temporarily, in Palm Springs or Arizona. Spring, summer and fall in the North. They take refuge from the harshness of winter by relocating. Before high-speed transportation people didn’t relocate for the winter, they closed off the harshness of the weather and drew into a dormancy ordained by God.
We must allow dormancy in our lives. One season must end for a new one to begin. More fruit can only come from trees that have been harvested, pruned and prepared for new growth.
Even bodybuilders have found over the past twenty years that for increased muscle growth they must have a period of time with no effort to build muscles. A “dormancy” to their routines that they might experience greater growth.
As we come upon the yearly fast it is winter. A great time to draw in and allow one season to end as preparation is made for a new one.
I like winter.
Inspiration for today from America's Greatest Expedition, the Corps of Discovery!
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Complete Records
Journal 2004 12 29
Complete Records
I don’t have the complete journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. I do not have Patrick Gass’ journal. I have many books on the expedition. The standard work being Bernard DeVoto’s edited journals of Lewis and Clark. Sergeant Gass kept a separate journal which in the end was the first published.
The unedited journals include an overwhelming amount of data collection relevant to the mission but cumbersome to the human telling of the journey. Some days, there were no entries. The men were human and like most of us, any diary has days when no entries were recorded.
However, I’m mindful of how in three different recordings by three different authors the tale of the journey emerges in full form. Lewis alone left big holes in his journals. He was faithful to the scientific information, but too many days went by when His mercurial personality would prevent him from lifting his pen to record anything of the day. Lewis was so steady that his recordings would not have brought the richness and life that Lewis was able to breath into his words. And Gass brought the view of one centered in the middle of the human effort required for the work of the mission to be completed.
In total, a record of the Journey is complete and still brings the sense of curiosity that drove the mission, the sense of adventure that fueled it, the work that completed it and the joy and wonder with which the report was received.
However great these recordings are, they are a faint glimmer of a reflection of the Bible. It ought to bring us great hope and inspiration that if we can rely on three faithful witnesses for this recounting of history, we can rely upon the witnesses of the sixty-six books that comprise the books that make up the whole of the Bible.
We are far removed from the times of Job and Moses and Isaiah and Micah and David and Mathew and Mark and Luke and John and Paul. (Pardon the grammar, used it for exaggeration.)
However, there is a divine joining of their lives and the timelines of their lives and writing. The old books of the Bible have specific genealogies to record, verify and validate their historical veracity. The are not some fictionalized, exaggerated musings of crazed prophets. They are reliable records.
The journals of the men of the Corps of Discovery are not questioned because they are near us in time and the succession of validation is unquestioned.
The recording of scripture is no different and is elevated far beyond the Lewis and Clark journals by their divine authorship through the hands of men.
When others question, we have history and reason. Stand confident. Truth will prevail.
Complete Records
I don’t have the complete journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. I do not have Patrick Gass’ journal. I have many books on the expedition. The standard work being Bernard DeVoto’s edited journals of Lewis and Clark. Sergeant Gass kept a separate journal which in the end was the first published.
The unedited journals include an overwhelming amount of data collection relevant to the mission but cumbersome to the human telling of the journey. Some days, there were no entries. The men were human and like most of us, any diary has days when no entries were recorded.
However, I’m mindful of how in three different recordings by three different authors the tale of the journey emerges in full form. Lewis alone left big holes in his journals. He was faithful to the scientific information, but too many days went by when His mercurial personality would prevent him from lifting his pen to record anything of the day. Lewis was so steady that his recordings would not have brought the richness and life that Lewis was able to breath into his words. And Gass brought the view of one centered in the middle of the human effort required for the work of the mission to be completed.
In total, a record of the Journey is complete and still brings the sense of curiosity that drove the mission, the sense of adventure that fueled it, the work that completed it and the joy and wonder with which the report was received.
However great these recordings are, they are a faint glimmer of a reflection of the Bible. It ought to bring us great hope and inspiration that if we can rely on three faithful witnesses for this recounting of history, we can rely upon the witnesses of the sixty-six books that comprise the books that make up the whole of the Bible.
We are far removed from the times of Job and Moses and Isaiah and Micah and David and Mathew and Mark and Luke and John and Paul. (Pardon the grammar, used it for exaggeration.)
However, there is a divine joining of their lives and the timelines of their lives and writing. The old books of the Bible have specific genealogies to record, verify and validate their historical veracity. The are not some fictionalized, exaggerated musings of crazed prophets. They are reliable records.
The journals of the men of the Corps of Discovery are not questioned because they are near us in time and the succession of validation is unquestioned.
The recording of scripture is no different and is elevated far beyond the Lewis and Clark journals by their divine authorship through the hands of men.
When others question, we have history and reason. Stand confident. Truth will prevail.
Monday, December 27, 2004
Christmas on the Prarie
Journal 2004 12 27
Christmas on the Prarie
Privates Shields and Willard are the Corps blacksmiths. They have set up their forges and begun to repair equipment and find the hot furnaces fascinate the Indians. Over the course of the winter the blacksmiths are a source of food for the Corps because of the Indians desire to trade food, like corn, for items made from metal.
Christmas has come and gone and the men celebrated by singing and dancing and “frolicking” until 9:00pm. The men ate food, “the best of what they had”. Each was allowed a small portion of rum and to shoot their rifles in celebration. In addition, they shot the “Swivels”, the larger guns that had been mounted on the bows of the boats and were now in the Fort.
Even on Christmas a small group of men were hunting to keep a constant supply of meat coming in.
Christmas on the Prarie
Privates Shields and Willard are the Corps blacksmiths. They have set up their forges and begun to repair equipment and find the hot furnaces fascinate the Indians. Over the course of the winter the blacksmiths are a source of food for the Corps because of the Indians desire to trade food, like corn, for items made from metal.
Christmas has come and gone and the men celebrated by singing and dancing and “frolicking” until 9:00pm. The men ate food, “the best of what they had”. Each was allowed a small portion of rum and to shoot their rifles in celebration. In addition, they shot the “Swivels”, the larger guns that had been mounted on the bows of the boats and were now in the Fort.
Even on Christmas a small group of men were hunting to keep a constant supply of meat coming in.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Do We Notice Winter?
Journal 2004 12 23
Do We Notice Winter?
The men anticipate Christmas on the prairie. They find great hospitality among the Mandans. Chief Little Crow and his wife come and bring corn and a special soup of vegetables for the men.
The temperature is 20 and a hunting party is out, as is usual.
Winter life is different than any other season and all the preparation and hard work have been measured and tested by the elements. The men have survived some of the coldest weather on the planet and appear to be prepared to continue on. And it is only December. What might January yet bring? We know now that this first winter among the friendly Mandans will contrast greatly with the rain-drenched winter among the Chinooks at the mouth of the Columbia River the following winter. The men will find the Chinooks to be a vile people, jaded by contact with traders, diseased and physically and morally repulsive to them.
They will find the Mandans extremely hospitable, generous and pure of heart. History records this winter as one filled with anticipation, hope and joy. Good preparation for the demanding journey to come.
Do we even notice winter? By that I mean in our climate-controlled world do we notice and allow the seasons to have any influence over our lives? Any of us could conceivably control our world to the point where the natural world has little influence over us. We could eat the same foods on a regular schedule, maintain constant temperature and humidity and regulate most of our body functions by medication.
Many corporate execs complain of the dull sameness in their worldwide travels where all hotels look the same, room temperature is just that and large meeting rooms have no windows, only movable walls, dimmed lights and the same Powerpoint messages projected on a screen.
God created us in a garden. A garden depends on seasons for processes to work on seeds that fruit may be born.
That pattern still exists.
Spring, seeds are planted in freshly tilled earth and rains bring germination and nubile growth.
Summer, growth has matured and signs of fruit begin to show. Heat and long days of sun work on the plants to bring the growth required for full growth of the fruit of the plant.
Fall, harvest of the fruit. Joy in the bounty. Provision for winter. Once the work of the harvest is complete preparations for the dormancy of winter begin.
Winter, dormancy. Marked by preparation for survival. Shelter, heat, food. Simple. Renewal through retreat. Dormant, not dead. Alive, yet appearing dead. Dormant.
I’m not suggesting that we move back to a frontier lifestyle. I do know that God’s simple patterns are for our purpose. His pattern is eternal.
Wall street analysts would always be looking for springtime and harvest. Hope for a bountiful harvest and the actual harvest. Some would allow for the work of the summer, the growth from planting to harvest. Most have no patience for the dormancy of winter when reflection, review, planning, pruning and preparation are considered but not acted upon because of real physical restraints.
Don’t know which season God brought first. Could make an argument for any of them.
What matters today is our place in the pattern.
Are we only planting?
Are we only growing?
Are we only bearing fruit?
Are we only dormant?
He calls us to His pattern. Let each of the seasons work their divine purposes in our lives.
Don’t let the constant press to bear fruit keep you from the process that results in an annual harvest of bounty.
Let the Holy Spirit plant, grow, harvest and hide you in His eternal seasons.
He created us in the garden intending for us to live in it. That is still His intention.
Do We Notice Winter?
The men anticipate Christmas on the prairie. They find great hospitality among the Mandans. Chief Little Crow and his wife come and bring corn and a special soup of vegetables for the men.
The temperature is 20 and a hunting party is out, as is usual.
Winter life is different than any other season and all the preparation and hard work have been measured and tested by the elements. The men have survived some of the coldest weather on the planet and appear to be prepared to continue on. And it is only December. What might January yet bring? We know now that this first winter among the friendly Mandans will contrast greatly with the rain-drenched winter among the Chinooks at the mouth of the Columbia River the following winter. The men will find the Chinooks to be a vile people, jaded by contact with traders, diseased and physically and morally repulsive to them.
They will find the Mandans extremely hospitable, generous and pure of heart. History records this winter as one filled with anticipation, hope and joy. Good preparation for the demanding journey to come.
Do we even notice winter? By that I mean in our climate-controlled world do we notice and allow the seasons to have any influence over our lives? Any of us could conceivably control our world to the point where the natural world has little influence over us. We could eat the same foods on a regular schedule, maintain constant temperature and humidity and regulate most of our body functions by medication.
Many corporate execs complain of the dull sameness in their worldwide travels where all hotels look the same, room temperature is just that and large meeting rooms have no windows, only movable walls, dimmed lights and the same Powerpoint messages projected on a screen.
God created us in a garden. A garden depends on seasons for processes to work on seeds that fruit may be born.
That pattern still exists.
Spring, seeds are planted in freshly tilled earth and rains bring germination and nubile growth.
Summer, growth has matured and signs of fruit begin to show. Heat and long days of sun work on the plants to bring the growth required for full growth of the fruit of the plant.
Fall, harvest of the fruit. Joy in the bounty. Provision for winter. Once the work of the harvest is complete preparations for the dormancy of winter begin.
Winter, dormancy. Marked by preparation for survival. Shelter, heat, food. Simple. Renewal through retreat. Dormant, not dead. Alive, yet appearing dead. Dormant.
I’m not suggesting that we move back to a frontier lifestyle. I do know that God’s simple patterns are for our purpose. His pattern is eternal.
Wall street analysts would always be looking for springtime and harvest. Hope for a bountiful harvest and the actual harvest. Some would allow for the work of the summer, the growth from planting to harvest. Most have no patience for the dormancy of winter when reflection, review, planning, pruning and preparation are considered but not acted upon because of real physical restraints.
Don’t know which season God brought first. Could make an argument for any of them.
What matters today is our place in the pattern.
Are we only planting?
Are we only growing?
Are we only bearing fruit?
Are we only dormant?
He calls us to His pattern. Let each of the seasons work their divine purposes in our lives.
Don’t let the constant press to bear fruit keep you from the process that results in an annual harvest of bounty.
Let the Holy Spirit plant, grow, harvest and hide you in His eternal seasons.
He created us in the garden intending for us to live in it. That is still His intention.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Worm, Squars and Spelling
Journal 2004 12 22
Worm, Squars and Spelling
“Worm”, as spelled by Lewis. Warm as spelled by us. The captains were considered learned men and Lewis spent several years as the student of professors and President Jefferson’s secretary and protégé. As you read the unedited journals it becomes clear that in the 19th century educated men fell short in spelling and grammar. They were able to communicate and they were indeed smart, brilliant in many ways. The tools available to each of us are really quite extraordinary when placed in context and compared to the history of man. Are we using all that we’ve been given?
Oh yes, and it was warm by comparison, 37 degrees.
Now for a piece of information I had not read before. Women had become frequent traders of corn and other plant foods the men needed to round out their fare. Evidently there was a group of Mandan men who after some form of vision dressed and lived as women and were accepted in this mode by the tribe. Don’t know anymore about it at this point.
One of the Mandan women, or “squars” as the journals record them brought a small set of rams horns from what we now call mountain sheep. It was a new species to the men from the Atlantic seaboard and they “procured” the “animale” sample for the biologists back home.
Worm, Squars and Spelling
“Worm”, as spelled by Lewis. Warm as spelled by us. The captains were considered learned men and Lewis spent several years as the student of professors and President Jefferson’s secretary and protégé. As you read the unedited journals it becomes clear that in the 19th century educated men fell short in spelling and grammar. They were able to communicate and they were indeed smart, brilliant in many ways. The tools available to each of us are really quite extraordinary when placed in context and compared to the history of man. Are we using all that we’ve been given?
Oh yes, and it was warm by comparison, 37 degrees.
Now for a piece of information I had not read before. Women had become frequent traders of corn and other plant foods the men needed to round out their fare. Evidently there was a group of Mandan men who after some form of vision dressed and lived as women and were accepted in this mode by the tribe. Don’t know anymore about it at this point.
One of the Mandan women, or “squars” as the journals record them brought a small set of rams horns from what we now call mountain sheep. It was a new species to the men from the Atlantic seaboard and they “procured” the “animale” sample for the biologists back home.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Knowing the Author of the Journal
Journal 2004 12 21
Knowing the Author of the Journal
My Dad, Eugene Cinkovich, keeps a daily wall calendar. On it he notes the weather, birthdays and any other events of significance. Never more than a few short phrases. Every so many years old calendars will get reviewed and those of us who lived in the house will laugh and cry as we remember the events noted and the concise manner in which they are recorded. His is the only record of most of those events.
As I read the journal entries from the Corps of Discovery I can’t help but picture those same dynamics as we review the journals for a sense of what it must have been like to be on one of history’s greatest adventures. The thirty-one men and one woman of the expedition would certainly see the journals with more life than we possibly can for the simple reason, like the Cinkovich family in Auburn, WA, they were there. The small notes trigger the greater context of the events and the unrecorded portions related to them.
Today’s journal entries note that the thermometer is climbing from –74 four days earlier to +16 today, a virtual heatwave! If we only read today’s entry we would think that it was cold and 16 degrees below freezing. In context, in the stream of time, we see that sometimes 16 degrees can become relatively warm. Those who lived in the camp would all have memories evoked around the record of the –74 degree day on the prairie.
Several men attempted to hunt bison during this time but discovered it was just plain old too cold. In the modern world we know it was extremely dangerous to be out in that temperature. The slightest mistake and a visit from Mr. Murphy would mean death. Four days later the same mistake may go unnoticed with no penalty because the conditions changed.
We are reading a book at church, a big book, 66 books bound as 1, containing a record of people and time. Are we reading it as a look at God’s journal? If we are, that is good. However, we are missing something if we only read it as a journal. He tells us to read it as a family member. He knows we were not present when Moses held his arms in the air and the water parted and the people walked through on dry land. We also did not see Noah build the ark, but we are told of the event not as a story, but as an account recorded by one who was there. He knows we cannot know exactly how we would have acted had we been in the crowd when Pilate brought Jesus out before them. But we are told the story from one who was there.
Scripture is recorded for our benefit. It is recorded for us to know the “family history” that we have been adopted into. The Holy Spirit was ever-present and chose to record the events we read about that we would know our Father, and His Son through His Spirit. The “Living Journal” serves us in this manner through His perfect design.
I know my father and have a sense of what he recorded and how it tells a much larger story. It helps me to trust the story my Father in Heaven is telling me regarding my adoptive family.
God’s Son is called the “Living Word”, the embodiment of the record. But the Bible is more than a record. It, like God, is eternal. I AM is His name. Always was, is and will be. Not past, present and future as we know it. Only now. Everything is now. A concept we really don’t understand.
When we read the Bible we must see it as more than a record. We must allow it to have life and live and breathe in, around and through us.
Like the short recordings of Gene Cinkovich tell a story that the family remembers, let the Word of God tell a story that each of us as part of the family not only remembers but sees as a living record, current guide and future agenda for life as a member of God’s family.
Knowing the Author of the Journal
My Dad, Eugene Cinkovich, keeps a daily wall calendar. On it he notes the weather, birthdays and any other events of significance. Never more than a few short phrases. Every so many years old calendars will get reviewed and those of us who lived in the house will laugh and cry as we remember the events noted and the concise manner in which they are recorded. His is the only record of most of those events.
As I read the journal entries from the Corps of Discovery I can’t help but picture those same dynamics as we review the journals for a sense of what it must have been like to be on one of history’s greatest adventures. The thirty-one men and one woman of the expedition would certainly see the journals with more life than we possibly can for the simple reason, like the Cinkovich family in Auburn, WA, they were there. The small notes trigger the greater context of the events and the unrecorded portions related to them.
Today’s journal entries note that the thermometer is climbing from –74 four days earlier to +16 today, a virtual heatwave! If we only read today’s entry we would think that it was cold and 16 degrees below freezing. In context, in the stream of time, we see that sometimes 16 degrees can become relatively warm. Those who lived in the camp would all have memories evoked around the record of the –74 degree day on the prairie.
Several men attempted to hunt bison during this time but discovered it was just plain old too cold. In the modern world we know it was extremely dangerous to be out in that temperature. The slightest mistake and a visit from Mr. Murphy would mean death. Four days later the same mistake may go unnoticed with no penalty because the conditions changed.
We are reading a book at church, a big book, 66 books bound as 1, containing a record of people and time. Are we reading it as a look at God’s journal? If we are, that is good. However, we are missing something if we only read it as a journal. He tells us to read it as a family member. He knows we were not present when Moses held his arms in the air and the water parted and the people walked through on dry land. We also did not see Noah build the ark, but we are told of the event not as a story, but as an account recorded by one who was there. He knows we cannot know exactly how we would have acted had we been in the crowd when Pilate brought Jesus out before them. But we are told the story from one who was there.
Scripture is recorded for our benefit. It is recorded for us to know the “family history” that we have been adopted into. The Holy Spirit was ever-present and chose to record the events we read about that we would know our Father, and His Son through His Spirit. The “Living Journal” serves us in this manner through His perfect design.
I know my father and have a sense of what he recorded and how it tells a much larger story. It helps me to trust the story my Father in Heaven is telling me regarding my adoptive family.
God’s Son is called the “Living Word”, the embodiment of the record. But the Bible is more than a record. It, like God, is eternal. I AM is His name. Always was, is and will be. Not past, present and future as we know it. Only now. Everything is now. A concept we really don’t understand.
When we read the Bible we must see it as more than a record. We must allow it to have life and live and breathe in, around and through us.
Like the short recordings of Gene Cinkovich tell a story that the family remembers, let the Word of God tell a story that each of us as part of the family not only remembers but sees as a living record, current guide and future agenda for life as a member of God’s family.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Finding the Unknown
Journal 2004 12 14
Finding the Unknown
It’s a heat wave! The temperature climbed twenty degrees to zero. A group of men went eighteen miles downstream in pursuit of bison. The ones they saw were so scrawny that they passed on them. Clark and the hunters took two deer, spent the night (an inch and a half of snow fell) and continued hunting.
I’ve been in Fairbanks when the temperature went from about fifteen below to fifteen above. It was like a heat wave to those who live there. But I slept in a warm room in the hotel with the car plugged in to a heater outside. Can’t imagine spending the night out in the open. We do live in a different world today in America.
What are the equivalent challenges today that arouse our sense of adventure and exploration? What obstacles are we willing overcome to meet the challenge? What risks are we willing to take?
What are we skilled at that can be of value to our pursuit of the unknown?
Are we looking for those places that are unknown? Are we asking our Father in Heaven to reveal them to us?
Finding the Unknown
It’s a heat wave! The temperature climbed twenty degrees to zero. A group of men went eighteen miles downstream in pursuit of bison. The ones they saw were so scrawny that they passed on them. Clark and the hunters took two deer, spent the night (an inch and a half of snow fell) and continued hunting.
I’ve been in Fairbanks when the temperature went from about fifteen below to fifteen above. It was like a heat wave to those who live there. But I slept in a warm room in the hotel with the car plugged in to a heater outside. Can’t imagine spending the night out in the open. We do live in a different world today in America.
What are the equivalent challenges today that arouse our sense of adventure and exploration? What obstacles are we willing overcome to meet the challenge? What risks are we willing to take?
What are we skilled at that can be of value to our pursuit of the unknown?
Are we looking for those places that are unknown? Are we asking our Father in Heaven to reveal them to us?
Monday, December 13, 2004
Clothed for Cold
Journal 2004 12 13
Clothed for Cold
Twenty degrees below zero overnight at Fort Mandan! Captain Lewis has a lynx pelt with three inches of fur that he has made into gloves and a hat. No polarfleece, Mongolian goose down or other synthetic fibers on the prairie two hundred years ago. But I believe that fur still serves the same purpose quite well as is evidenced in Siberia yet today.
Captain Lewis measures the Missouri River at five hundred feet in width. The river is iced over so thick that herds of bison cross without a problem.
It has been so cold that an “ice fog” has been present for the last two days. Ice fog is created when the air temperature is so cold that any moisture in the air is frozen. I’ve seen the ice fog in Fairbanks, Alaska and it is pretty incredible, and cold! The problem is worse today in our modern world because of pollution. We don’t have this problem in Western Washington where we simply wash away all our problems! (Maybe a mold and mildew problem instead?)
Back to the Corps of Discovery, all the men with frostbite are recovering nicely.
Clothed for Cold
Twenty degrees below zero overnight at Fort Mandan! Captain Lewis has a lynx pelt with three inches of fur that he has made into gloves and a hat. No polarfleece, Mongolian goose down or other synthetic fibers on the prairie two hundred years ago. But I believe that fur still serves the same purpose quite well as is evidenced in Siberia yet today.
Captain Lewis measures the Missouri River at five hundred feet in width. The river is iced over so thick that herds of bison cross without a problem.
It has been so cold that an “ice fog” has been present for the last two days. Ice fog is created when the air temperature is so cold that any moisture in the air is frozen. I’ve seen the ice fog in Fairbanks, Alaska and it is pretty incredible, and cold! The problem is worse today in our modern world because of pollution. We don’t have this problem in Western Washington where we simply wash away all our problems! (Maybe a mold and mildew problem instead?)
Back to the Corps of Discovery, all the men with frostbite are recovering nicely.
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