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 Ramblings from Retirement – Real Dads By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen June 21, 2021 My father was one of those quiet dads that didn’t say much but when he did you usually listened. My older siblings had a hard time with this which I could never figure out. However we all knew that if Dad said, “don’t” it was don’t, if he said, “yes” it was yes, and the same with his “no”. No was no and we didn’t dare go ask Mom. My father had advice he would offer up to us once in a while that I kind of tucked away. He would tell us that “Nothing in life is free.” Meaning that there is always a “catch” and we needed to be aware of this fact. Another was similar when he would remind us that the “Government never gives you something for nothing.” He would also remind us that “Freedoms are easily lost but hard to regain.” This last one I did not understand until later in life. He would offer up humorous ones as well, like “Do not be so open minded that you let your brains fall out of your head” and that “You

 Ramblings from Retirement – Trust By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen June 2, 2021 Sometimes we can become so myopic in our daily lives that we forget the people around us or the Lord who made us. Jesus reminded his listeners that the two greatest commandments were to love God totally and others like you love yourself. Fussing or fretting about things you have no control over can lead to anxiety and frustration with your circumstances. Yet when we focus on loving God as we should and loving others as he commanded the things we have no control over seem to fade into the background where they belong. I used to fret about family members who did not know the Lord and I began to wonder if God was actually listening to me when I prayed about my concern for them. I was gently reminded by a brother in Christ that perhaps my prayers were not really for the benefit of those I was praying for but to satisfy my selfish needs. Of course at first I was offended that he would claim I was being selfish when

Ramblings from Retirement – A Whole New OS By Pastor Lee Hemen June 1, 2021 I recently have been trying to load a new OS (operating system) to an old laptop I have. Doing things like this is enjoyable for me. I also just replaced a hard drive, reformatted it, and loaded the OS for an Xbox system. It is like when my father in law would find joy in his carpentry and a job well done. Doing computer or cell phone geek stuff and having it go right gives me enjoyment. However with trying to get this old laptop working with a different OS has proven a bit frustrating. I am sure the final outcome will be fine but the work and the constant failure for it to load properly is frustrating. Life can be that way for some of us when it seems like we are constantly rebooting ourselves and it seems as if nothing is working. Perhaps the answer is using a better OS for your life? I’ve learned that trying to do the same things the same way with the same results is foolish. Perhaps your life needs a reboot