This is an unusual morning for me in that I am awake after sleeping at 7 AM. It is more typical that I am just going to sleep or have been sleeping for maybe two hours. My chronic pain and the need for narcotic pain relief keeps me on a backward schedule from the masses who do not perform shift work or have ages that start with a 1 or 2. I awoke about 6:30 and my mind immediately went to a friend who may have seen his last sunset/sunrise on this earth. He suffered a heart attack a couple of days ago and is being taken off his ventilator this morning. Doctors don't expect him to make it, but I do believe God is now, and has always been in the miracle business. Of course that is what we consider them as we only understand our well known dimensions of time and space. My God is not bound by either, so in his world, many of the things we call miracles are simple acts of kindness and grace for him. Ceph and I were not close friends at Erskine, but have become friendly via Facebook over the past two years. I am not advocating social media as the best way to sustain a friendship, but due to my physical shortcomings, that is what is possible. He has always been an incredibly kind man to me and I imagine to most from what I have come to know of and about him. I would like for God to see fit to leave him among us for a bunch more years, but I selfishly just don't want to see someone who I enjoy chatting with getting to meet God and ask all the unanswerable questions we have asked each other without being able to explain it to me. Since you speak in ways that I easily understand, if you do get to see God today Ceph, please go ahead and get those answers and you can explain them to me when that is possible.

After praying for Ceph and his family, I thought I would get a head start on my new Philip Yancy "Grace Notes" daily devotional and read Jan. 1. In it, he uses Jesus coming to earth as a metaphor for us understanding Christianity to the Rosetta Stone enabling man to understand hieroglyphics. Prior to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, we were simply looking, and guessing at the meanings of all of those pictures and symbols the Egyptians and others drew. I don't really know if we thought we had devised a code for them previously, but as arrogant as we tend to be, I imagine we thought we had them all figured out, but now we know for sure. I have no doubt that Jesus was and remains the perfect "codebreaker" for the Christian life. My problem lies in the fact that there is a huge leap from knowing to understanding and then an exponentially larger one from understanding to acting on that belief(s). It has, so far, been impossible for anyone else to lead the perfect life that Jesus set out for us an example of living the Christian life. The closer one gets, as seen by others, the farther away the individual believes him or herself to be. So, as 2013 ends and 2014 begins, my goal will be as it is each year, to be more like Jesus every day out of the next 365. When I told my 20 year old, Brooks, of my resolutions, he was wise enough and aggravating enough to ask; "how are you gonna do that Dad?". I was at least 30 before I even considered having a game plan for something I wanted to achieve so he is at least ten years smarter and wiser than I was. I will have to get back to you all ( the two who are related to me and will read this) on how I intend to accomplish my goal and possibly how I will know if I have made any progress as 2014 draws to an end.