Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

It’s been a couple of weeks now, but I am still excited about the fact that eight of us from our church, Shrewsbury First Assembly, ran as a team at the Red Bank 5K Classic.   It was a beautiful day. The energy level was high. We did our pre-race photos. And before you knew it, the race had begun. So, off we ran with almost 900 other runners! Now, I’ve been running for about a year and I do most of my running on the boardwalk, which is very flat. At other times I run in my neighborhood, which is mostly flat. The fact is, I never run hills.   So, here’s where this particular race became a bit difficult for me: it had a huge uphill! Thus, like many of the other runners around me, I found myself pushing hard to get up to the top, one step at a time, doing my best to keep some sort of pace. I remember thinking to myself, for every uphill there has to be a downhill! That was my only consolation, though it seemed like an eternity until the downhill came.   In no way, shape,

Back in February I wrote about “The Squirrel That Won’t Give Up!” (See February 2, 2018)   Since then I have had a continual battle with two squirrels that would repeatedly get onto my birdfeeder and in one day eat up all the birdseed.   I tried everything in to book to keep them away—moving the bird feeder, cayenne pepper, a beveled metal top, greasing the pole with motor oil.   Multiple times, even as Kim and I were eating dinner, I would suddenly go running out of the house towards the bird feeder, making all kinds of mean squirrel noises to chase the squirrels away, causing them to scamper up the trees. Within a few minutes, however, they would be back.   I thought it was a lost cause!   I thought I had lost the battle! Then it happened! I came across what claimed to be a squirrel-proof bird feeder.   I had to try it. And, guess what! It works!   The food is put into an inner section that then has a wire metal sleeve over it. When the birds sit on the outer sleeve

--> Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had to spend some time trimming, cutting, and pruning the trees and bushes around our property.   Some of it has included cutting off dead branches that were just taking up space and threatening to break off in a storm.   Much of it has been cutting back excess growth in order to keep the trees and bushes from becoming overgrown and taking over the yard.   And, some of the work was about pruning back shoots that potentially sap life from the main tree, rather than add to the life of the tree. I’ve had to take out the clippers, power trimmer, and even the chainsaw – sometimes even getting up on a ladder. Yes, it’s a lot of work!   But without the work of trimming, cutting, and pruning, the trees and bushes on our property would become well overgrown and at times unhealthy.   No longer would they be for us an asset to our property, but instead a liability.   We wouldn’t be able to enjoy sitting in our back yard or even just driving

As some of you may know, for a number of years my sons Jonathan, Nathaniel, and I have been going to rock climbing gyms. A few years back we all took a class to learn how to belay the ropes and then got our own gear (shoes, harness, chalk bag).    It’s been both fun and challenging to develop the strength, stamina and technique to climb 30-40 foot walls using routes of greater and greater difficulty.   However, this past week we faced our greatest challenge of all (that is, when it comes to rock climbing): we went climbing on real/outdoor cliffs! About a month ago, Jonathan took a class to learn how to set up the ropes for outdoor top rope climbing.   And, he purchased all the gear needed: specialized ropes, belay device, carabiners and helmets. On Monday, when Kim, Nathaniel, and I were down visiting with Jonathan and his wife Danielle we went to some cliffs by the Potomac River known for top rope climbing. Jonathan set up the ropes and first he, then Nathaniel, and t