Campbell River, Vancouver Island, B.C.

Branta canadensis.

This summer Janice and I were blessed to spend a week in Courtenay/Comox, B.C. on Vancouver Island and to make the trip north to Campbell River.  A member of Holy Cross who served in the Canadian military and was stationed in Comox told me that I had to make the however-many-kilometers trip to Campbell River.  And I'm glad that he did.

These Canada (not Canadian) honkers were peacefully swimming at the mouth of Campbell River as it entered into the Strait of Georgia.  Not a concern in the world. As you are probably aware, many of these birds have decided to winter where they summer.  They've stopped migrating.  Why?  One reason given is that their former predators are not as numerous as they once were.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything." Philippians 4:6a NLT

How I envy these geese.  The reality of our lives is that our "predators" are always laying in the grass ready to pounce on us at any moment.  What's even more difficult is that the predator isn't always "out there" sometimes the predator is inside of us.

Prayer is not a magical act that guarantees that the bad guys will disappear and we'll live happily ever after.  Prayer is about a relationship with a God who understands what it means to be hunted and to be killed by that predator on a cross.

In the next verse Paul writes, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philipians 4:7 ESV  This peace is gift that God has for you.  Peace doesn't come because you stop worrying.  It's the other way around.  The antidote to worry is the peace of Christ that already rules in your heart.

May you find yourself at peace today because of the God who gives you peace.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

Wilkerson Pass, South Park, Colorado

The critical role of clouds.

The enemy of landscape photographers is a cloudless sky.  Even one puffy cloud will add interest to a photograph.  There is nothing more boring than pure blue sky; at least in pictures.  Take out the clouds in this picture and the horizon becomes indistinct, the aspen lose their appeal and it becomes more difficult to determine depth.

Yet my guess is that most of you were not drawn first to the clouds.  You might have noticed the aspen, the hills or the treeless patches of land that make up South Park but not the clouds.

John the Baptist understood his role. "He must increase, but I must decrease."  John 3:30 ESV

When John comes on the scene in the gospels crowds flock to him, listen to him and are baptized by him.  But his role changes the moment that Jesus walks out of the Jordon River dripping from the water of his baptism.  John knew that his role, his purpose, was to point to Jesus.  Though John baptized with water, he pointed to the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John played a critical role in Jesus' ministry.

The Church plays a critical role in Jesus' ministry today.  Our role is not to point to ourselves but to the manifold color of God's grace in Christ in a broken, sin-filled world.  More important than people seeing us is that they see Jesus.

Take the clouds out of the picture and I delete it from my hard drive.  Take the Church out of the world and there is no one pointing to Christ.

The Church plays a critical role in society.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

Paint Mines, Calhan, Colorado

A community of thanksgiving.

I wonder what difference I'm making in the vastness of human existence.  Okay, let me say it more like Doug Brauner would say it.  Why am I here?  Those of you whom I have been privilege to pastor over the last thirty years might wonder how I can say this.  It's easy.

It doesn't matter our position or station in life, the question of our existence is important to us.

From the President of the United States in the White House to the homeless person laying under a house of cardboard, we question the purpose for our existence.

But why would we question our existence?  Maybe it's because we see more of our failures than our successes.  Looking out over the landscape of life we feel that our contributions are minimal at best.

However, in the picture above, the lone Indian Paintbrush makes the picture.  Though the prairie rolls on for miles, this flower gives the picture life.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."  Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

God speaks through Jeremiah to the nation of Judah.  The nation of Judah was made up of people with whom God had made a covenant to be their God.  They were not alone in their daily struggles of life.

Dotted throughout this picture are hundreds of Indian Paintbrushes each one giving color to the place it's planted.  And so it is in the church.  We exist in community even when it seems like we're standing alone.  And in this community called the Church, God accomplishes his plans for wholeness and a future of hope.

On this Thanksgiving Day may we give thanks for the redeemed community of God's people gathered at the foot of the cross and know that through this community God lives out his purpose in the vastness of human existence.

And by the way, you are an important part of that community.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

Pancake Rocks, Pikes Peak, Colorado

The cumulative effect of life.

No, this is not another blog on ducks, though I'm still recovering after Saturday's loss by the Oregon Ducks to Stanford (how can a team named after a color win a football game).  These rocks piled one on top of another are a good picture of what I sense going on in my life.

Life is a compilation of experiences.  One event is stacked on another until they take on a life of their own.  As a result, what I see happening in me is that present events are blown out of proportion.  Something happens today that is attached to an event of the past and makes it worse than it really is (or better).

Janice and I have an argument.  That argument is piled on top of 34 years of arguments.  As a result that one argument stacked on top of others contributes to the picture of our marriage.  And no one's picture looks like someone else's.

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us."  Psalm 103:11-12 ESV

Though this side of the grave we live with the reality that our experiences are stack one on top of the other, in God's mercy every day we start over.  I know that I've written about this before, but it is such an amazing, freeing concept to know that because of forgiveness today I start over.  That is the power of the cross.

We might be shaped by the cumulative effect of life, but the power of the cross is greater than the compilation of these events.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

Life Happens

Brauner Backyard

"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."  Matthew 9:36 ESV

Someday I think that I'll be able to recline like this gnome and enjoy life. But such is not the case. Just as soon as I think things will settle down the phone rings, a deadline approaches or the car breaks down.  It seems that there is always something that gets in the way of relaxing.

This gnome keeps on smiling no matter the weather conditions, no matter if the dog knocks him over.

What are the things that harass us? Is it the mundane daily rituals that seem to invite boredom? Is it the relentless pressure of deadlines? Is it the constant, unsolicited "surprises" of life?

Things haven't change much since Jesus' day have they? Sheep without a shepherd is a good description of our lives.

Yet there is a Shepherd who has laid down his life for his sheep that they also might recline in the green grass of his love. No matter what attempts to steal your enjoyment of life, know that the Good Shepherd is your ultimate source of joy. It is he who keeps you smiling.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, Colorado Springs, CO

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder."  Part III

When people think of the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel they picture the Protestant chapel.  But I enjoy heading down the steps to the Roman Catholic Chapel.  (Don't worry my Lutheran brethren I'm not converting.) You have to admire how the chapel tells the story of Christ through the way of the cross.

Unfortunately, most days the chapel is fairly well roped off so that you cannot travel the nave to meditate on all the stations of the cross.  But two of the sculptures could be viewed up close and personal.  And here is where the story of the chapel finds its true purpose. To see the chapel's message you have to go deeper into its recesses.

"For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God." 2 Corinthians 13:4a (ESV)

This message is cradled in the spires, surrounded by its beauty and in-bedded its walls.   May that also be true of our lives.

Our bodies cradle the message of the cross.  Our lives display the beauty of the cross.  Our souls tell the message of the cross.

If you ever make the trip to Colorado Springs I hope you will make the journey to the Cadet Chapel.  Come in through the Academy's north gate, expect to show your ID and open your trunk to be searched.  Then travel up the hill to the visitor center.  Granted, you can park closer to the chapel, but its worth the short 1/3 mile trek.

And when you make this trip, may you see Jesus.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, Colorado Springs, CO

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder." Part II

A bride had better be in good shape to walk down the Protestant Chapel aisle.  No only is it a gazillion paces to the front, it also sits over 7,000 feet above sea level (oxygen not provided).  And dare that the bride turn around and see the pipe organ consisting of 83 ranks and 4,334 pipes.

Though the altar, reredos and pulpit are spectacular, the focal point of the chancel is the cross.  Made of aluminum like the outside of the chapel, the cross is 46 feet in length, with a wing span of twelve feet and weighs in at 1,200 pounds (I don't need to think about that the next time I do a wedding and stand under that cross).

Yet it is a simple cross.

"For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

Though the focal point of the chapel is the cross, I wonder how many of the 800,000 to 1 million people who visit the chapel every year actually see the cross.  I know that I spent a great deal of time looking back at the organ, noticing the colors shining through the windows and observing the symmetry of the chapel.  I didn't take a detailed picture of the cross.  I took pictures of the organ, windows and chancel, but I didn't see the cross.

How many of us miss the cross?  Maybe its too simple.  We want the spectacular, the magical and the awe-inspiring.  We don't gravitate to the simple.

Jesus Christ crucified.  May we put aside the distractions and focus on  what is most important.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, Colorado Springs, CO

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder." Part I.

Many people equate Colorado Springs with the Air Force Academy.  When you think of the Air Force Academy you can't help but think of the Cadet Chapel.  My next three blogs will take you deeper into this amazing structure.

I have been blessed to officiate at two weddings and a baptism in the chapel, however, it had been a while since I'd made the hike from the visitor center to the chapel.  Seeing a picture of the chapel in a magazine and finally having some time on my hands, I made the journey.

If you enlarge the photo you will note that the outside of the chapel consists of 17 spires that reach 150 feet into the sky.  Seventeen doesn't really have any biblical significance.  I understand that the original design included two more spires but money was an issue.

The chapel is the dominant feature on the academy grounds.

Two important biblical structures were lifted off the ground.  The first is found in Genesis 11 where a group of people wanted to make a name for themselves and built a tower into the heavens.  The other was a cross.

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."  Galatians 6:14 ESV

If we stay outside the chapel and view its spires from a distance then all we have is another tower of Babel, a monument to human ingenuity.

To understand the Cadet Chapel we have to move deeper into the structure.  The same is true of our places of worship.  God invites us not to stand outside but to enter and receive what he has to give us in his Word.

It is inside that we hear of that other structure that was lifted from the earth.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

"It's Not Easy Being Green."

Spruce Mountian, Greenland, Colorado

I have often told people that to live on the plains of Colorado you need to like different shades of brown.  In the winter even green is brown.  So how does land on the east side of the Rockies get the name "Greenland"?

Spruce mountain (a gem of a five mile hike on which not many people travel) is a bluff that sits on the Palmer Divide.  The Palmer Divide receives more precipitation than Colorado Springs: more snow in the winter more rain the summer.  The grassy fields that surround Spruce Mountain are actually green in the summer.

You might consider Greenland as an oasis of life in the midst of death.  That is our call as Christians; to be life in the midst of death.

Hours before experiencing death on the cross, Jesus told his disciples, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you."  John 15:13-14 ESV

Kermit the Frog sang that "it's not easy being green."  In a world where you and I experience many shades of brown it is difficult to be the life God created us to be.

Jesus experienced every shade of brown in his death for us, laying down his life on a dead tree.  And in his death we have received life...and we give life; his life to a world dwelling in many shades of brown.

Consider this today: You give life to people by simply being what God in Christ has redeemed you to be.  You are an oasis of life in the midst of death.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.    

Coors Field, Denver, Colorado

Veteran's Day

My father was proud of his service to our nation in World War II but it wasn't until later in his life that he started sharing with me what it really meant to be a veteran of that war.

My siblings and I heard many stories of my father's friendships but we never really heard about the horror of what he experienced.  I remember a phone conversation I had with my dad about a year before he died.  It was the first time that he shared with me just a little of the ugly aspects of that conflict.

We're learning a great deal about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder through the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, a condition that has existed in every war.  For those of us who have not experienced war we will never understand the depth of terror related to it.

So, our thanks to our veterans can never be enough.

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a holy and living sacrifice--the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him."  Romans 12:1 NLT

The sacrifice of our veterans is the picture of the sacrifice of self which is our act of worship.  Was my father scared when he served his country in the Philippines and New Guinea?  Absolutely.  Sacrifice can be frightening.  Living a life of sacrifice can be that way.

But it is the way of God.

Thanks vets, for your sacrifice and service.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.     

Finding Space in a World without Margin.

Colorado Springs, Colorado

"And he said to [his disciples], 'Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.'" Mark 6:31a English Standard Version

There is not much margin in life. For some reason we think that we have to fill up every minute of every hour of every day. Yet when we go to bed at night we wonder what it was that we accomplished in that day.

It is hard to find time to sit and enjoy a good cup of coffee, a Louis L'Amour novel or conversation with someone we love. We don't even know how to have conversations anymore.

How about scheduling time to do something absolutely outrageous: to simply BE instead of DO.

Jesus understood the need for rest. There is nothing wrong with resting; with being instead of doing. God rested after finishing the work of creation.

Go ahead and grab your espresso and sit at the roadside cafe. Smile at someone walking past you and imitate God by enjoying creation.

And if you don't mind, I'll join you.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

Grandpa Brauner

Pointing the way.

Today would have been my father's 89th birthday.  It is hard for me to believe that he joined the Church Triumphant over three and a half years ago.

I remember my father for his love of my mom, his provision for our family, his love of sports and most of all for pointing the way to Christ.

My father wasn't perfect.  We all knew this.  But he knew the One who paid the price for him. 

And in a way that was uniquely Ken Brauner, he pointed the way to Christ.  I remember family devotions, attending Sunday Bible classes with him and that rare occasion of getting up early for the men's breakfast Bible class (we had to be at church extra early as my dad helped make the breakfast).

"Teach [these words] to your children, and talk about them when you're at home or away, when you lie down or when you get up." Deuteronomy 11:19 GW

I owe my dad a lot.  He taught me to see the world as an artist.  Many of the photos that appear in this blog owe their beginning to my father.  He taught me about light, color and composition (though most of the time he did so indirectly).

I look forward to the day that I will be with my dad in the presence the Artist.

Marantha! Come quickly Lord!

By the way, a good song for today: "My Father's Eyes" by Eric Clapton.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.  

Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Westcliffe, Colorado

Election Day

For many of us today couldn't come fast enough.  We're tired of all the adds, phone calls and signs.  We're ready to get this thing over with.

After the ballots are counted and a presidential candidate is declared the winner there will be many people who are happy and almost equally as many people who will be disappointed.  There will be those who say our nation has been saved and those who will say that our nation is going to...well you know where.

Which ever side of the fence you fall, remember this, God's love for you and for his people will not change.

You will get up tomorrow morning, eat breakfast (oatmeal with blueberries here), brush your teeth and begin your day.  I invite you to take a deep breath.  Whoever is president will not save us nor will he damn us. 

In the midst of our frustration with this election, there is only One person who needs to be trusted.

"Be still, and know that I am God.  I will be exalted among the nations.  I will be exalted in the earth!" Psalm 46:10 ESV

There are people who still live in this house near the Sangre de Cristo mountains. This home appears to have been here for quite some time.  Daily the picture of the mountains change.  The sun rises and sets.  It has weathered many other elections.  And so will we.

Whether it is true that in heaven there is no beer is up for debate, but I can guarantee this, there will be no elections.  There is only One who sits on the throne, and there he will remain for all eternity.

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.