Driving slowly through the Palouse on a summer afternoon It was one of those incredibly beautiful summer days that I have so often taken for granted. So now, 80 years young, I had no intention of " sinning-‐ away " another chance to fully experience this one! Fortified with an Egg McMuffin & gifted with a totally new glorious sunshiny day, we left Spokane and drove through some of the deepest & richest topsoil on the planet crowned with a gorgeous golden bumper crop of grain! Quickly I remembered that these little wheat towns were right out my past except for the huge amazing trucks and farm equipment. I decided it best not to try and tell anyone about having sown sacks on the back of combines as a teenager. It was refreshing when we stopped at the wonderful little restaurants and soon rediscovered how friendly true country folk can be! However, the magic of one of the world’s true breadbaskets soon turned to one of my lifetime’s most fascinating interests, the history of the Nez Perce, one of the most fascinating Native American tribes. It started when as boy I fell in love with the Wallow Mountains in eastern Oregon. It was so complete with that skinny little boy that I wished that I had been born amongst the Nez Perce in Hinmatoowyalahtqit’s (or more popularly known as Chief Joseph) band. O how I loved the glorious Wallowas! In fact they became more than a second home. The Wallowas were my personal Zion, a sacred place of spiritual retreat where, not unlike my hero young Chief Joseph, I discovered myself. It was in these colossal surroundings that I dared to be open to the Creator of those awesome galactic formations that appeared so close as I stared up from my sleeping bag from ten thousand feet on top of Eagle Cap, or snuggled down next to a singing stream in a high mountain meadow!
Welcome to Caleb’s Cabin Where we relax, reflect and dream of life as it ought to be
My name is Dale n’ good morning. Welcome to Caleb's cabin! Come on in and watch your step. We will sit here on the back deck and sip on a hot cup of high mountain tea. Isn’t this a great spot? You don't only have a great view of the mountains but don’t you love the roar of the creek?! Ahh...I have a great imagination, and yes I have a thing about mountain cabins. They have always been places where I could read & just listen to see what my heavenly father might be whispering to me that I had been missing. Mountain cabins have had a fascinatingly significant impact on my life. Even now, albeit technically mostly in my imagination, I can turn the amazingly private back deck of our little home here in Woodinville into a high mountain location especially with the help of a very sassy blue Jay & a group of tiny wrens who have become dear friends regularly dining at my table! Over the next weeks, months and years I am going to be sharing little thoughts and historical anecdotes from my life along with insights that I think may just make every week the greatest week you’ve lived so far. I hope you get a chance to join me. If you’re interested all you have to do is ether drop us an email or sign up for one of our crackpotcubes and I will send you audio and written goodies right from Caleb’s Cabin. You can listen to the stories on your phone, computer or tablet. I hope you get a chance to take a few minutes with me in the serene cabin atmosphere and get a chance to slow your mind down a little and reflect on what really is important in your life. So finish your coffee or tea, sneak a pastry or two and take a second to thank God for all you have in your life and I hope to see you soon.
Dale
Caleb White
Dare to make this the greatest Week you’ve ever lived so far!
Pastordale@team11.us
Caleb’s Cabin Say Yes to Life!
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Time Teaches Us So Much
We can learn from ancient history and history that is surprisingly not so long ago. We can even learn from the history of our own lives. Then we can make history in our lives, as it should be!
Anecdotal thoughts on the great American West: from tragic clichés and conundrums of the past to redemption and restoration in the here and now. Now, after a wonder-‐filled life & with more free time on my hands, I am fascinated to be able to walk in the place and on the dirt where so many sad and tragic things happened to the people who should be able to call these beautiful mountains their rightful home! Frankly, I am forced to be more ashamed today of those that called themselves Christians than the deep anger I feel because of so many of the original white settlers and especially our government, who bullied the amazingly civilized Nez Pierce who acted more like Christians than the alleged Christians who stole their land. Of course I new much of the tragic story but tried my best to believe the first missionaries were the good guys. T ragically, the more I learned the harder it became to defend them when the undeniable facts blatantly showed that if they became more ideologically Old Testament in its worst warlike context. This past Saturday, as I walked those historic grounds of the Spalding M ission and re treaded its history, I felt deep shame for how the Nez Perce drama really happened. Not only was I going to walk through the Department of The Interior display of artifacts, but I was furiously reading one of my favorite and most trusted authors, Kent N erburn’s frustrating and intensely researched work “Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce.....the untold story of an American Tragedy.” My first reading of Nerburn was some of his more p oetic and spiritual works like, “A Haunting Reverence" & " Small Graces ". Undoubtedly some of my very favorites, but now his attempt at setting the record straight for a
history that has been so sadly distorted has proven to become a classic scholarly, however honest and indeed heartbreaking it may be. It was entirely what I had reluctantly been forced to believe and an absolutely important correction that brought to light an embarrassing truth about the role of the white settlers and the US government! But worst of all for me was the "missionaries" which I intentionally placed in quotation mark because they certainly did not represent my idea of what it means to be a representative of the extremely clear life and teachings of Jesus!! Let me get right to the sad yet extremely important point I must make and that is the now clearly revealed and ugly truth about the indefensible arrogance of the Presbyterian missionary reverend Spalding and the way he treated the Native Americans at his mission at Lapwai, Idaho near Lewiston. Lapwai means “the place of the butterflies” because it was where the butterflies gathered each spring, and it is a beautiful place today with amazingly clear rivers and lots of trees, wild flowers and for me a place of ghosts if there ever was one!
THE HEART BREAKING PART: WAS THIS CHRISTIAN ? Maybe the most tragic part of the real story is Spalding’s total failure, in the midst of doing many kind things in other aspects of life, which was largely in accordance doctrinally with the American slave owners. This warped idea of Christianity was evident in those who tried to play the role of kind Christians, convincing themselves they had the right to treat fellow and equal children of the Most High like animals, and often times worse. Totally embarrassingly, Spalding clearly also was more of an Old Testament zealot than a follower of Jesus, the prince of peace! Frankly, the Nez Perce way of understanding God seems more like what Jesus taught and lived. Worst of all many of them had opened their hearts and lives to accept the doctrines of the cross, the resurrection and so on. Eventually however, reacting to Spalding and Whitman’s non-‐Christ likeness & the criminal actions of settlers and the US government’s unbelievable role in stealing the Native Americans land, they morally, justifiably and inevitably rejected the “manifest destiny-‐dogmas of the day”. So who were the true Christians during this sad saga in the American west? Was it the pastors and other religious leader-‐settlers who punished the Native Americans by treating them like
children & putting them in chains? I don't think so!! T hat was a sadistic, legalistic idea completely in opposition to the New Testament and the plain teachings & examples of Jesus!!! Of course there are super right-‐wing Christians today who believe & act this way in their families. They, the parents & leaders are especially an American phenomenon. Actually g eneration after generation think of themselves as superior spiritually. All the while equating harsh leadership and especially parenting with fraudulent spiritual greatness, and totally ignoring kindness and gentleness as tell tale fruits of Gods spirit! What are we doing to change this? What can you do this week to truly represent the spirit of Christ? The interesting thing from history is that we can see how just a few people can entirely change it, albeit for both good and for evil. You as an individual can change lives. You can be the difference that lifts sprits, that lets people know what true love is. I hope that we not just reflect on history but make plans to change the historic time we live in, and it all starts with you and with this week that God has given you. Let us continue to learn from history and in some real way make this the greatest week we’ve ever lived so far. Shalom,
Dale Caleb White