Back to the Basics

This month marks the 5 year anniversary of my move to Sun City in Georgetown, TX. A 55+ “golf cart” community with three 18 hole golf courses, and all the amenities you could want. With a population of 15k+, it’s considered “resort-style” living, where I put more daily miles on my golf cart than I do my truck.

Rick Idell drove back with me after my recent trip to California. To say he fell in love with this place, and Texas, is an understatement. Not long before he left, he was already making plans to return. “Hoove,” he said, “I think I want to come back in September.”

Looks like that’s not going to happen.

Because he’s coming back on the 29^th.

Of this month! (June)

Looking forward to his visit (again), and who knows, September is still an option.

But it wasn’t always “resort-like” living.

I moved here in the middle of the insanity called “covid,” and this place was like a morgue.

Most things were on lockdown, and with the exception of golf courses and swimming pools it was a ghost town.

I remember my first trip to one of the outdoor pools. Getting passed the feeling I was in a scene from “Cocoon,” I heard the music poolside. Their playlist was better than mine! We may not look like we did 40+ years ago, but we still have the best soundtrack to life.

Didn’t take long to notice our bodies weren’t the only thing that has changed over the years.

Pool conversations had gone from “Ford vs Chevy,” and “Giants vs Dodgers,” to “burial vs cremation,” and “implants vs dentures.”

One day you’re doing cannonballs splashing your friends, the next you’re floating with a noodle and wearing a sun hat the size of a sombrero. (For the record, I don’t do that…not the “sombrero” anyway)

Today I was in my inconsistent routine of working out in the gym, then hitting the spa and pool. Doing my rotations from the spa at 104 degrees to the pool and back. Less for pure enjoyment and more to stimulate the Vagus nerve.

Things change.

Anyway…

While on “cool down,” I overheard a man say, “You have to exercise if you want to be healthy as you get older.” To which a woman floating nearby replied, “For what?! I don’t want to get that old and you can’t change my mind.”

Here’s hoping our little ray of sunshine has settled the “burial vs cremation” debate.

But I found her comment interesting.

Two people in the same pool, living in the same community, with the same opportunities, and completely different perspectives on their future.

Two different mindsets.

“Mindset refers to a person’s attitudes, beliefs, and ways of thinking that influence how they interpret and respond to situations. It shapes how people view challenges, success, failure, and their own abilities.” (As defined by ChatGPT)

Over the last few months there have been a handful of verses continually confronting me. At the forefront is Colossians 3:2.

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (NKJV)

What is my mind “set” on? Where is my focus? What is it I find myself meditating on and what occupies my thoughts as I’m falling asleep?

Spoiler alert – It wasn’t heavenly.

One of the great joys of spending 3 days in the truck with Rick was reminiscing about the “good old days.” It always begins with what it was like growing up on the “east side” of Porterville, and how we became best friends in 5^th grade. Our time at Alta Vista, taking bikes someone left after school and riding them on the roof. Then raising them up the flagpole and letting them drop to see how high they’d bounce. (probably Ricks’ idea)

Then onto High School, and the plethora of great memories. Football, rallies, cruising, “magilla the gorilla”, talent shows, band concerts, first cars, parties in the orange groves.

Turns into a pretty exhaustive list.

We remember the “things” we did, but it’s the friends we did it with that made it special, and even today brings us joy and makes us laugh out loud.

I have a great appreciation for those friends, and wish I could go back in time and do it all over again…well, most of it anyway.

I left Facebook a few months ago because I was getting drawn into the “vortex of hate.” My thoughts, emotions, and overall mental health was suffering, and hate is exhausting.

Worst of all, I sensed my heart changing toward those with whom I strongly disagree.

And that’s a tragedy.

Both on a personal and spiritual level.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.”

I was doing a terrible job of doing just that.

Notice the phrase “above all else.”

As a Christian, guarding your heart is priority.

When you are born again, God takes away your stony heart and gives you a heart of flesh. (Ezk 11:19) But if you don’t guard it, you will find it beginning to harden.

And when it does, we lose our witness to the world.

So let me write this to those who are Christ followers…

Where is your heart? Is winning souls more important than winning a Facebook argument? (Proverbs 11:30) Is loving your enemies, and blessing those who persecute you more important than being right? (Lk 6:27) Do you pray for those with whom you disagree, or do you disparage them with name calling? (Lk 6:28)

The 2^nd chapter in the book of Revelation is a letter to the church of Ephesus. It’s also a letter to me…and perhaps you as well.

Take a moment to read it and ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart. Is this you? Have you also “abandoned your first love?”

Scripture makes it clear without love we are nothing. (1 Co 13:1-3) To the world, we’re just a bunch of noise, no matter how “right” we may be. All of our works and sacrifice, if not done in love, gain us nothing.

In John 13:34-35, Jesus said, “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.” (AMP)

“By this everyone will know that you are My disciples…”

The word “Christian “ was first used in Acts 11:25-26. “Then he went to Tarsus to search for Saul, 26 and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.”

It was a name given to the disciples from outsiders, not one they self-proclaimed. Those who observed their lifestyle could see they were living as Jesus lived. And for the record, it was not a term of endearment.

Would those around us do the same? Would they look at our lives and label us as such? Is there enough evidence in our lives to convict? Or do we rely on our t-shirts, bumper stickers, concerts, and social media bios for that.

I know this sounds a bit harsh, but that’s what love does. It confronts our hypocrisy. Ephesians 4:15 “But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head — Christ.” (CSB)

Back to Revelation 2…

The Holy Spirit tells those of us to whom this truth applies (me),to remember how far we have fallen, repent, and do the works we did at first.

We need to agree with God (confess) that we have abandoned His love, and repent (change direction…a paradigm shift). We are then to do the works we did at first. When we do, we will once again find ourselves being transformed, shaped into the image of Christ, and a pure heart. (Ro 12:2, 2 Co 2:18, I Pet 3:3-4)

Acknowledge, confess, repent, and return.

Final thoughts…

One of the things I like to do when friends come to visit, especially those of my generation, is take them to Luckenbach, Texas. It’s a cool little place outside of Fredericksburg, and we all grew up with the song. Who doesn’t want to visit “Waylon and Willie and the boys.”

Many of you can probably sing it, but do you know the title?

“Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)”

If you haven’t heard it in a while, take a moment to revisit the story…

“Maybe it’s time we got back to the basics of love”

In 1992, the group “4Him” recorded a song that encapsulates much of what I’ve been trying to say. (link below)

Chorus:

We need to get back
To the basics of life
A heart that is pure
And a love that is blind
A faith that is fervently grounded in Christ
The hope that endures for all times
These are the basics, we need to get back
To the basics of life

Who wants to meet me in Luckenbach?