Lyle's Blog

You never know when it’s too late. I’ve been gone three years from Spokane although I have made a trip back each year. There are just a few people I was able to see or should I say took the time to see. Time changes things fast. It’s only taken a couple phone calls to realize that if I want to see the people I care about, I’d better do it. If there is something I want to tell them, this trip is the time. One is rehabbing at home after a month in the hospital, another is dying of cancer, and that’s just two phone calls. I’m sure everyone isn’t in dire straights but it’s getting to that time in life when second chances aren’t always possible. This is just a reminder that today is the day you’ve been given. Don’t put off seeing those people you care about. Go ahead, make that call. Take the time to call and visit that one who needs to hear your voice. My pastor once said “you can pretend to care but you can’t pretend to be there”.

I was having coffee in a cafe on Petaluma Boulevard whilst my wife met with some old friends at Starbucks. There were two women chatting at the next table and I wasn’t paying them any mind. As I was leaving I heard the one say that a Hispanic couple were moving in next door and thank God because Sebastopol is to frikken’ white. Here was an old white woman (part of the hippie-slob generation) deploring her race being too dominant in the population of her town of Sebastopol. It is true that there are eighty eight percent white in her town. I know with all the laws against housing discrimination that the only thing keeping the town so white is probably that Hispanics really don’t desire to live there. Like all of California, Sebastopol is as liberal as any place else and maybe if this old lady spoke up some of those crackers would put their houses up for sale and make sure a non-whitey bought it. Furthermore if she herself were to move out or out of pure decency commit suicide, then there would be at least one less of those nasty white people to mar the landscape. As one looks around California you notice it’s run down and town after town reflects a population that can’t shake its hippie past and just hangs on to ideas that were birthed in drugs. We went by my wife’s old school. Unkempt, weeds two feet high, just third world looking. This is what you get when a bunch of Woodstock worshiping fools grow up and run everything. Nothings important, only the hair-brained thoughts of idiots are of any value. I’ll be back in Arizona next Saturday night and that’s not to soon

My son and I were at the park a couple days ago and we noticed person after person with there eyes fixed on their smart phones and it became apparent they were all involved in the Pokémon craze. I’m already irritated by people always staring at a little screen instead of participating in life, but here was the next stage in the creation of mind-numbed idiots. The little thing they hold in their hand is now programming them to be further addicted to control. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse; what more can I say? This is the hokey pokey and we all know, that’s what it’s all about.

Many years ago my wife by chance was offered a job. This wasn’t just any job. It was two houses away from where we lived. We had three kids and being I wasn’t especially talented with making money, she accepted the position. Over the years we were blessed beyond measure. We were so “lucky”. But it was who she went to work for that made such a difference in our lives. It wasn’t just the money but I do have to say they were more generous than they needed to be. It was who they were. Yes they were rich but they were more than that. They loved and followed Jesus Christ. They were Ron and Georgia Lee Puryear. They were an unbelievable Amway success story. The word Amway causes different reactions in people and you know what yours is. In reality it was really a testing ground and in Ron and Georgia Lee’s world a means to invite you into the kingdom of God. My wife and I attended many meetings, events, and of course were distributors of sorts. So we know a little something about the business. Ron was an excellent communicator. During the major events he would preach on Sunday mornings. Not everyone attended but the ones that did heard a message straight from his heart. I remember him saying at the beginning of his message on Sunday morning, “now here’s the real reason you’re here”. Why were so many there that weekend? To hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. To hear that God loves them and wants them to have a successful life; that they can live in confidence knowing that God has promised certain things and He can be trusted to keep his Word. Yes, they believed in the business of Amway, but they understood that without Christ you have nothing. You can make all the money in the world but you need Christ to live a fulfilled life. They exemplified Christ to us. They want you to have everything and Jesus Christ is everything. The last few years they attended our church when they could. They always sat in the back. I know that hardly anyone knew who they were. And that’s how they wanted it. Just two people who loved to listen to the Bible taught verse by verse. I could ramble on but I will save you that trial. I just want to say thank Ron and Georgia Lee; thanks for so much for everything. But mostly thank you for your unashamed testimony of what Jesus Christ means to you. That is the greatest thing you gave us for those words have ever lasting power. Thank you Ron. Thank you Georgia Lee. Thank you for Jesus Christ.

For years those of us outside of California referred to it as the land of fruit and nuts. New York was the “big apple” the place of unfettered contact with D.C. We in the middle are now being squeezed from both coasts by the unabashed wickedness of powerful, evil men. The desire of Sodom is celebrated from Seattle down to Los Angeles. Californian children are now required to learn the history and contributions of immoral men and women and criticism of such community is forbidden. Anyone not having their head in their butt (dare I say it that way) knows that when a group of any kind can’t be held accountable they become corrupt, powerful elitist and squash their opposition. I know, judge not lest I be judged. Judgment can’t be avoided. All I’m doing is posting a warning. A huge price will be paid by those who stay in California. Anyone with any morals will be fined, jailed or both for standing up to them. Pride comes before a fall and Californians if they are anything, they are a proud people. Of course their demented ideas have spread to the rest of us who reside between the two capitals of corruption. They are very polished in their ability to invent new ways to incorporate sin into the everyday life of the rest of us. It’s a cancer with no remedy, as they have embraced the deviant lifestyle of Hollywood and Broadway and rejected the only means of salvation.