MARCH 20, 2025
Life is Like Riding A Roller Coaster
See what I did there with the title? I made the great statement a lot more accurate than the famous one, “Life is Like a Roller Coaster”. What a difference one word makes. I could very easily fall down that rabbit hole but I am going to put that round table top sitting over there right over that hole and move on.
I read about a roller coaster that was at the Nevada/California state line, that was the tallest roller coaster at the time. The unique attraction about it was that you entered what was a black hole towards the bottom, so it looked like you were going to hit something solid. That doesn’t sound possible to me, but isn’t that how we feel when we are in that front car going down into whatever emotion we are about to wash over us, e.g., fear, depression, doubt, etc.?
Ali received a promotion at work yesterday. I just know she called her mom and told her. I found out when her mom told me what the left-over cake on the table was celebrating. Right before that, I had been helping someone and received great news about some work on the way home. So I am riding this high and then suddenly I crash into that solid black hole at 90 miiles and hour. We are now a, “good night, I love you”, and a, “goodbye, I love you”, on the way out the door for work, and no, hey dad, I got a promotion today at work”.
I could be making a big deal about nothing, but it is my dollar that paid for this roller coaster ride and I want to get my money’s worth. Now, I believe that is how almost everyone rides that up and down wave we are trying to ride each day of our life. If you think about it, that doesn’t have to be a free fall from the highest point into a solid wall. Granted, it is demoralizing if you take the worst possible result from your daughter not informing you of this exciting news.
I already know Ali and her mother have a relationship which I will never be a part of because I do not fit into that relationship. There are many reasons why, none of which are going to put anyone in jail or even get a backhand from the pastor. Personalities and beliefs can be a sticky mess on occasions and stubborn people make their bed and have to lie in it, as they say. If I was to tell on my part, I desire one to be able to say why they believe whatever they believe and not just be parroting the daily accusation as truth without some evidence other than an anonymous source. That makes conversations stop quickly at times.
But as one can discover, I am a gregarious individual, a good listener, and able to carry on a conversation with almost anyone in the room. But, if we seem to always be the same people in the same room, eventually the conversation has to drift past how the weather is affecting the crops this year. Therein lies the problem as the roller coaster car will begin chugging up the tracks towards the peak.
The ride up towards the top can be a short one if the hot topic subject is changed rahter quickly and the car starts back down before the wall can appear. In this case, I simply give some kind of congratulations, mean it, and move on. Or I can keep chugging up the tracks to the top, which could become the highest roller coaster possible in the Peterson house. Here is where the roller coaster ride is just a little different than a real one. I am chugging up the tracks at breakneck speed instead of slowly grinding my way up to the top. And that wall is right after reaching the top and starting down on the other side. But hitting that wall at 500 miles an hour after only two feet or two miles will cause the same pain and broken bones.
There is a side note to all of the diatribe above and that is the clacky-clack of the metal wheels on the metal track as it chugs up the tracks on the way to the top. It is noisy and can drown out the shouts of joy from the riders. In fact, the noise from the wheels on the tracks during the whole ride does not equate with the mood set by soft music. If anything, it assists in making the ride even more boisterous. What that has to do with the diatribe, I am not sure at the moment, that is why it is a side note.
I guess even though life does have its ups and downs like a roller coaster, some of which we have no control over, there are many times we have some choices whether we get on that roller coaster with the wall waiting on the other side when we reach the top and start down. The trick is seeing who is taking up the tickets, the guy in the red suit with the pitchfork or the Holy Spirit with the dove flying around and around and has a soft landing on the way down.
The first thing the debater wants us to acknowledge is that there is a difference in the forgiveness of original sin and then the forgiveness in the daily sin you and I commit, or at least the ones I commit. You may have reached the blamelessness of Job but I am still working on it.
But the debater has used his imagination to construct either a straw man or a red herring, take your pick. That is because the payment on the Cross covers all sin when we stand before God, (or whoever checks us in when we reach the gate), (or however the process works at our arrival in the heavens). I believe I could go down that rabbit hole I see looming before me, wide and beckoning, with days before I could return to the surface.
Alas, I must throw my ladder with a long extension across the gaping space before me and move on to the other side where my journey continues about how many times I can stop writing and start up again without a penalty being called by the referee. Did you not know that was the subject?
Now that I am safely past that temptation to veer off into the clutches of what happens when I reach the final resting place, the question of whether the payment on the Cross by the shed blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ has to cover everything or only salvation itself and then I have to keep coming back each day to admit once again I have sinned and seek forgiveness. In other words, can I lose my salvation and get it back? I have to add a few extension on my ladder to get over this huge hole that looks like it could rival the Grand Canyon.
But I am on the other side and moving at a pace that could rival one of the elite runners in the Los Angeles Marathon. I know I can’t keep up that pace for long so I better some up for air and take a break.
April 5, 2025
THE SATURDAY ADVENTURE
I had Dorothy drop me off on her way to work on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago. I wound up with about 9 miles after catching the bus for about 2 more to get a little closer to home. I certainly did not intend to do 9 miles. It seems I always bite a little more then I can chew. Part of the problem is I do not take into account all the streets with no outlet. One I did today was 2.5 miles long so that made it a half mile round trip. And there were two of them next to each other.
So I had Dorothy drop me off at Maine Street this morning and headed North. I was headed for Arrow Highway with a few streets like the ones mentioned above on the way. I was about 2 miles up and met George, who was sitting at a trolley stop drinking a beer. He lives close but stayed at his sister’s last night because he got a little drunk and couldn’t make it home. We talked for a little while about where the trolley went, where the bus might be back on Romona or Los Angeles Street, a few nothings and off I went.
When I arrived at Arrow Highway, I saw a but stop for the 492 going East, which I would want to go West, and sat down to check my gear, (actually to rest and think about crossing the street and catching the 492 going West), and up comes a gentleman, whom I discover is named Omar. He is going to Glendale to work at a Pizza place. He is expecting the day to be busy because of the final four games on tv today. We talk about the bus routes and the 492 going West goes by on the other side of th road. I tell him I am only at 3 ½ miles so I better be able to do a few more miles and off I go.
I was going some of the streets going North and South using two streets going Eaxt and West just South of Arrow Highway. I started struggling after making it over to Baldwin Park Blvd. Those miles just seem to get longer and longer each time I go out there. So I went up to Arrow Highway and went West to Stewart, wound up with 5.64 miles and caught the bus taking me a block from the house.
I got home and Josh wanted to go out. I wanted to sit down. Josh wanted to go out. I wanted to sit down. Josh wanted to go out. I took Josh out. But I was walking slowly and Josh was not in charge of our speed as he usually is. Then, back and in the chair for a little while, eventually going for a shower and heating the burrito before the Final Four games.
Basketball is not my game. I played football and baseball and was pretty good at them. Not because of speed but because of great anticipation, e.g., when the ball was hit, I was already moving towards it. I was a catcher for a number of years and moved to third base. I liked catching because you were always a part of the play in some way.
Anyway, I happened to watch Houston play last week and liked what I saw. I liked Clyde Drexler back in 83 and 84 and thought Emanuel Sharp was a great player. He proved it again today as Houston came back from it seemed like being down 14 points with about 6 minutes to play to beat Duke for the championship on Monday night.
April 6, 2025
Backtracking
One of these times, I am going to forget to give the diatribe a title. Unless I have a starting title, I place a few question marks where the title goes and come back when I have been writing for a period or at the end and make a wise decision concerning a name for what I wrote. And it may not have been, “just wrote”. I could have taken more than a day to get er done.
While I was reading Leviticus today, I realized how detailed it is. I was reading chapters 6 and 7 about the offerings. Almost made my eyes become crossed. I was thinking how there have always been those detail types haning around. Thre weren’t any recorders as far as I know back then, so who was taking down the dictation when the Lord was giving the instructions? Did they have shorhand back then? I was going to learn shorthand when I started my law practice because it was hard to keep up with the judge as he or she was giving their verdict while a client was asking what all that meant in the other ear. You see why it could be a little difficult to keep up. I never did learn the official shorthand.
Then I started ruminating on how the Cross changed all those rules for sacrifices. But as I worked towards that goal, I thought about the results for disobeying the rules the Lord was laying down, e.g., break them and you are cut off from your people. And that was not for murder, it was for eating and touching things you were not supposed to eat and touch! The war cry is: “Remember the Garden”. And points also made in the text were: you would bear your iniquity, be guilty, grow hives, (my addition to the text), and definitely be cast out of the land. I think of those scenes where Stallone and Schwartzenegger get thrown out of the dome into the wasteland where the eyes get large and you explode.
Doesn’t sound like a mercifial God, does it? And how does that reconcile with the Cross and seemingly mercy for everyone, no matter what they have done? For me, I realize part of the answer is there is a principle at play here. There is no way that God changed, or He could not be the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. What He has done is made it easier for us to choose which path we want to go down and allow the drapes to come down for all to see who we are following. The principle is you are either going to follow the Way and the Truth or you are not. I have some thoughts on that subject for another day.
I think it is hilarious that many have no idea their choices are obvious to the Spirit filled Christain. It is even more hilarious that many of those who claim to be filled with the Spirit have no idea when God is giving them directions. I will admit, I have to work to hear what God is telling me quite often. There are many times I have learned the hard way that either what I thought was God speaking was my own ego, or even worse, I was uncertain, went the way I wanted and found myself at a dead end and having to backtrack and retrace my steps. I believe I am in a step retracing period for not listening at a period of my life more than 15 years ago. I hope I don’t have to take retracing steps to backtrack for more than 15 years to get back to the place where I was when I didn’t listen!
April 7, 2025
CHURCH ATTENDANCE
Another day. Who would have believed Monday would show up just because Sunday completed its 24 hours? But here it is. If I had Walter Mitty powers, I would do somethig about it.
I came close to finishing the San Marino streets today. I had a short window and got one section done that was not really close to the four final streets, which are not connected. I may do them when I finish the South Pasadena section that is close to them.
I tried to talk to a guy moving a little slower than my slow jog, only he was walking backwards in his slow jog. I made a couple of statements, to which he grunted, and finally asked him if he was counting and received a nod of the head. Off I go and just a little farther, I met Ernesto, who was tying up a tree. Guess he was going to rob it of all its leaves.
This was in front of one ot those mansions in San Marino. There was about a 20′ section of ground, which Ernesto told me they had just laid new sod, with roses and tress littering the area. Ernesto had been working there for about 10 years, along with 3 or 4 other mansions in the area. He was at least in his fifties and quite possibly older.
On another street, which was one of those streets with no outlets, there was a huge area where the street bent with a huge circular planter which had a giant tree growing in the middle. A Gardener was using one of those outlawed blowers as I went by. On the way back, he had about a 6″ high pile of leaves he was trying to move towards the curb. Another gentleman was standing there with a plastic bag, either waiting to give orders or waiting to receive orders. Both these guys were drawing Social Security. They must require one to be drawing Social Security to work outside in San Marino. Merit and experience are the key, no DEI for the rich. I did come to the conclusion they must not pay much as the gardeners’s trucks are almost as old as the ones driving them.
I seem to be struggling with church attendance. I am great at making excuses. I can’t use car trouble though as I walk to church. That is one of the better excuses and it is off limts for me. I have a hunch that one of the reasons is I was thinking how great I was for not missing a Sunday for a long period. I was patting myself on the back for being so faithful and wondering where some of the other prople were who did not keep my schedule and follow my example.
Another reason is I had some great ideas to try and reach the youth in the area. I was going to put the back part of the church to use as it was just sitting there, begging to be used for outreach. When Pastor Josh came in, he did not discourage me, but he did not encourage me either, I know he had a lot of things going on as he was trying to bring to Revive what the Lord was asking him to make God’s glory shine to Revive.
I had written up a plan during the Life Group meetings and was sharing it with anyone who would listen. I have always been a visionary and a self starter. I don’t need someone for the initial push. But what I have learned I do need is, depending on the project, what I would call the detail person. I can make the plans, make the appointments, make the goals, etc. but someone at some point has to see through the big picture and draw the connecting lines between all the “makes”. I can do it, but I just seem to take it for granted the line will be apparent, so why waste the ink.
Not everyone likes operating on the fly. And not everyone likes being tied down to a paper with your directions spelled out and no deviations allowed. That is why not everyone can stay at coach Sabine’s home for a vacation and Air BnB became popular with certain crowds.
So, God has made me realize once again, I am not the answer to every space not being utilized to its fullest. I was trying to fulfill Dorothy’s statement: “Roy will not let a flat space lie empty. He will fill it with something.” And I think I got my undies in a bunch somehow without even realizing it until this weekend when I did not attend church one more Sunday and carried that 5,000 lb. rock of guilt around for a couple of hours.
Its a bitter pill, but I must sallow it. I repent, Lord. I am still struggling with the time, the translation of everything into Spanish, and the lack of real relationships. But it is for You, Lord, that I attend church, resulting in me becoming a better person. I may go to Seventh Street next Sunday.