Autumn in Yosemite

Since it is now officially Autumn, and Annette and I have plans to camp in Yosemite again on Halloween weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to share a short article I wrote a number of years ago for FamilyFun magazine. The subject was Fun Fall Outings. I was asked to share our favorite family fun memory. It wasn't hard. I hope the article communicates the joy and fun we've had over the years.

Our Autumn in Yosemite

By Dan Schaeffer


I plant my beach chair firmly in the clean white river sand, shoulders aching from carrying approximately 3,000 pounds of necessary supplies along dirt and pine needle trails. We are half a mile from our campsite in Yosemite Valley and a world away from our home in the Southern California suburbs.
Each fall we pilgrimage to this one special spot in the valley. We come for decompression. The millions of people who visit Yosemite Valley leave it nearly deserted in fall, and the Merced River is part of our prescription. An emerald colored body of rushing river in the spring, it is now quiet, tired, and content to flow gently by.
Christi, our oldest, dashes to the icy clear water. Putting her foot in, she shrieks in mock horror. Andrew, her brother, and Katie soon join her and before long they are laughing and splashing about in the shallow water near shore, skipping rocks across the surface, and making sand angels. Mom and Dad watch the whole scene from our beach chairs, doing precisely what we came to do, exactly nothing.
Every year we return, because we want our kids to know that somewhere there is a place where every square foot is not covered by asphalt, houses, crowds, or shopping malls. Here they create memories and learn important lessons of childhood. Everything that is really fun to do doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Living in America is an incredible blessing. Life doesn’t have to be lived at warp speed, and Dad will catch whoever splashes cold water on him in the middle of his nap and tickle them until next Tuesday.
As the hours drift slowly by, they frolic in the raft, splashing each other with paddles as wild Mallard Ducks fly by so close to the water that they touch it with their wings. As the sunlight fades we trudge back to camp.
After dinner, and much pleading, I allow Andrew, under very careful surveillance, to start a fire—in the fire pit. Nearby, Mom assembles the makings for S’mores as the kids race for the coat hangers. Soon three children are sitting in front of a crackling campfire roasting marshmallows. Roasting is perhaps too mild a term. Many become flaming torches, melting into gooey black muck.
The fire blazes warm, comforting, and serene. But the smoke, controlled by an erratic mild breeze, appears magnetically attracted to wherever mom chooses to sit. At least that’s what she claims. As Andrew searches for twigs to toss in the fire, Katie, sitting on my lap, gazes up with me into a veritable sea of stars, stars not visible in the light polluted town where we live.
“Look at them all,” she murmurs. “I never knew there were so many.”
“Why can’t we see them at home?” Andrew asks, and I explain the problem of light pollution. We turn off the lantern so that the only light visible is the soft glow from our campfire. While mom makes hot chocolate, Christi points her flashlight up one of the many nearby trees so tall that the beam of her flashlight cannot reach its topmost branches. Suddenly, Katie announces that she has dropped her gooey S’more on my sweatshirt, eliciting giggles all around.
As the night grows still, our kids stare sleepily into the fire. Somewhere it may get better than this, but I can’t imagine how.

Why are so many people afraid of Bibles?

I was recently reading an article on AOL about a town in Frisco, Texas that was up in arms because the Gideons left Bibles for Junior High and High School students at unmanned tables designated for that very purpose. You can read it for yourself at: http://news.aol.com/article/gideon-school-bibles/490719

It got me thinking. Why are parents so afraid that their Junior High or High School students would be reading Bibles? Even more frightening was the reasoning of one parent who said, "They should be giving those items wherever they worship. School is a place to learn, not a place to worship," Michael Baier, the parent of a high school student, told Fox. So...reading the Bible and what it has to say isn't learning? Why are the parents so afraid of their children reading Bibles? My wife teaches Junior High in Central California. She teaches 7th grade World History. Teaching about the Protestant Reformation is REQUIRED by the state. California realizes that it is impossible to understand history in the middle ages without a knowledge of the role the church played in it, and as a result the scriptures. The Protestant reformation was based on scripture and its interpretation.

It used to be the left wing of our country that was adamantly opposed to banning books anywhere. Now we have parents worried that children might actually be exposed to a...drum roll...book! Ironically, I know a Gideon who hands out Bibles at universities in our town. He tells me how many of these students have NEVER READ A BIBLE. They are eager to get their hands on one. How can they tell if they believe, disbelieve, respect, or disrespect the book WITHOUT READING IT? Since Bibles are as easy to get as a cold in America, why haven't these kids been able to get their hands on one?

What are people so afraid of? Would these same parents have been afraid of a book on the virtues of Darwinism being left on the tables? Books are meant to be read and assessed and then either believed and followed, or discredited and discarded. Furthermore, reading the Bible is not an act of worship as atheists and agnostics do it all the time (for research) in the same way that Christians read Origin of the Species by Darwin, or the Koran, or any other book.

If the Bible is just a book, no one is in any danger in reading it. No one. If the Bible is more than just a book, and if it effects people in a very powerful way, then there actually could be some danger in reading it--if a changed life and world view is considered dangerous. Of course, then you would have to ask yourself, what is in a Bible that would radically change someone? What makes it so different? Why is it far and away the world's best seller of all time? And why, why, why would someone be afraid their teenager might get their hands on one?

The Decline of Religion--an interview

Not long ago a local Central California reporter and a cameraman walked through the doors of our church and asked if I'd be willing to do an interview on a recent report on the decline of religion in America. Though hesitant, I said yes. Here you will see the entire video that the reporter did including a short interview with me. Overall I thought the interview was very fair and honest. They say that we each get 15 seconds of fame! If that's so, I still have about 7 1/2 seconds left!

While they asked me a lot of questions, they only had time for a short part of what they filmed. Ironically, when the reporter asked me what denomination I was a part of, and I answered, "The Evangelical Free Church of America," her eyebrows went up and she said, "Well, actually, that's one of the few denominations that is growing!" The entire interview was worth that moment! Enjoy the interview by copying and pasting this link.

http://www.keyt.com/news/local/41230257.html

The Divine Whisper of Spring

I was sitting on my back veranda one day not long ago gazing over our beautiful Santa Ynez Valley countryside. It was barely spring, and as I was looking at a row of trees that line my neighbor's long driveway I noticed something that seemed amiss. One tree, amid a cluster of old brittle leaves that had still not fallen, had one single solitary bloom. We have some powerful winds that blow on the top of our hill and it amazed me that the old leaves had not yet fallen off. For some reason, the old leaves stubbornly resisted leaving, but that couldn't stop the new life from appearing.

Over the next few weeks I noticed that more blooms were appearing, but still a number of old leaves refused to abandon the branches. I couldn't help thinking of our human natures, mine at any rate. While God is causing wonderful new things to grow in our spiritual lives, blooms like patience, kindness, and a hunger for His Word, older leaves, old habits and sins still cling stubbornly to us. At any given time these two realities struggle within us; the new man and the old man. It can be so very discouraging to be the host of two competing powers, the power of death and sin and the power of new life.

Today I look out at the same tree and the old leaves are gone, they finally had to fall. Only new blooms and the green tender leaves they produce are visible. One day this will be what happens to those of us who are in Christ. The old leaves of sin will no longer have a host, they will have to fall away. Only new life will be found in me, fresh new life that finds its source of power and life in God. In that Better Country that I will one day enter, the leaves will always be green and alive, and death will have been destroyed forever. Spring is God's eternal whisper that death and sin cannot prevail.

Where have all the Demons gone?

Recently I have been doing a study of Satan and Demons in scripture. The reason I began this study was a growing awareness that the ministry we are engaged in is receiving hostile opposition from spiritual places. Simple things become hard, things that shouldn't go wrong, go wrong, attacks coming from many different directions that slow, or even stop effective ministry. I'm currently doing a study which will probably lead to a sermon, and/or an article.

Why did Jesus teach us to pray "deliver us from evil?" Why did Paul warn us "not to be ignorant of the schemes of the devil?" Why did Peter warn us that "the devil prowls about like a roaring lion...be on the alert." Be on the alert. That's what I'm seeking to finally do. I've always understood that demons were active somewhere, but never as clearly as I do today that they are active all around me. We don't have the conventional "demon possession" happening in America as we see in the New Testament. But that isn't surprising, since anyone exhibiting these kinds of symptoms would be so heavily medicated they could no longer function. Either way, the person is out of commission.

They have changed their operations so that we would not be aware of what they are doing in OUR lives. Friends, be on the alert. There is more than just "fate" and "circumstances" that we are battling against. Spiritual powers in the heavenly places are arrayed against us.