Tim Bongard
Detailed Models
and
Building Projects
Life is a scratchbuilding project
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Build Boldly!
S͏e͏p͏t͏e͏m͏b͏e͏r͏ ͏1͏3͏, 2026 ·
WRATH AND LOVE DON'T MIX
SIRACH 27:30 - 28:8
I have to say that the Daily Mass Readings never fail to speak some profound truth each day if we are seeking truth, but there are some days when what they say is like a thunderclap that makes you jump at the power of what God's Word says in light of current events...
Sirach Chapter 27: 30 Wrath and anger are also habits to abhor,
yet sinners will have both of them.
Chapter 28:1 Everyone who acts vengefully will have to face the vengeance of the Lord, for he keeps a strict account of his sins.
2 Forgive your neighbor for any wrongs he has done to you;
then, when you pray, your sins will be forgiven.
3 Anyone who harbors anger against another
can hardly expect healing from the Lord.
4 Anyone who refuses mercy to his peers
cannot rightfully seek pardon for his own sins.
5 If a mere creature cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?
6 Keep in your thoughts the end of your own life and set enmity aside; remember corruption and death, and be faithful to the commandments.
7 Remember the commandments and do not bear ill-will toward your neighbor; keep in mind the covenant of the Most High, and overlook faults.
8 If you refrain from quarreling, your sins will be fewer,
for a hot-tempered man provokes strife.
May we all, ALL, find ourselves being messengers of kindness, peace, mercy, and love ALWAYS, not selectively.
M͏a͏r͏c͏h͏ ͏3͏1͏, 2026
Easter Week Thoughts
My dear friends,
I just wanted to share these three quick and important thoughts as we move together through the rest of this Holy Week and the days beyond.
As we've ventured through this Lenten season, if you are like me, there is a bit of feeling like "Oh my gosh! It's Easter Week already!"!
Did you ever feel like there is so much left to do and so little time left to do it? If you've ever experienced a planned exit of some kind, like leaving a job, or moving from one home to another, or getting ready for a long trip, there can be that feeling of there being so much left to do and the mad push to complete it all before you go. It's a challenging feeling of not wanting there to be anything left undone and some uncertainty of what's next and yet to come.
If you read the Gospels, you will see that Jesus experiences a bunch of these feelings as events rush up to His passion. He too felt and expressed some of these same feelings with His disciples and followers in this week, but He, as always, shows us where there is a calm in the storm. Jesus knew, and we have been promised, that The Father already knows the next steps. He ALWAYS does and they are in His hands and His care. The promise of Jerimiah 29:11 is that He knows the plans He has for you and will see them AND YOU through them, just as He did for our Lord Jesus.
The second thought is what I called the "Talladega Effect". I worked NASCAR teams for a while, and it was a dream of mine to watch a race at that huge track from the pits. I actually got a chance to do that and, while it sounded really exciting, it turned out to be a lousy way to watch a race. The cars zoom past and disappear. Then, a minute later, they zoom past again though perhaps with some position changes, though that's a little hard to grasp. By lap 30, your concept of what's going on is completely scrambled and lost - and there are TWO HUNDRED laps! It's far better to view the race from the Suites at the top of the stands or even watch it on TV. The zoomed-out perspective is actually better! And this is precisely what the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus got on the evening of Easter Sunday. The view from the pits during Holy Week being up front and right in it was disorienting to say the least! But Jesus wants us to see and experience life both ways - to be IN it and to see the bigger picture and UNDERSTAND it. My advice to you as you journey through this week is to indeed immerse yourself in each day and follow what the disciples did and experienced but to also take the time to step back and find the wider view and meaning of Christ's Passion for YOU personally. Don't just finish this season's journey catching glimpses of the week's events as they rush by. Endeavor to step back and embrace what Jesus did for YOU and hang on to that with dear life and deep appreciation, for He loves you with an everlasting = EVERLASTING Love.
Finally, watch for this one and then embrace it for yourself: "The Lord ALWAYS meets us where we is, not where we ain't." Emanuel With Us culminates in the Great I AM doing for us what we can't ever and could NEVER do for ourselves. From the hindsight view of the lives of the disciples, Jesus met them - and meets us - where we is. Just like the disciples on the Emmaus Road, Peter needing forgiveness and restoration, Thomas needing his faith restored, the disciples all hiding in the Upper Room in unsettled anxiety, or for that matter YOU wherever YOU is. All we need to do and say in this moment, in this season, and always is to say, "Yes Lord. Here I am...". He WILL meet you where you is, not where you ain't.
God bless you abundantly in these days to come!
Tim
GETTING A SNOOT FULL
July 7, 2025
Have you ever had anyone discipline you by allowing you to get EXACTLY what you wanted or were asking for? I have, several times. And to my shame, it’s been some real dandies too. It’s called “getting a snoot full”. That basically means you nearly drown or choke on whatever it is you’re foolishly pleaded for before finally coming to your senses.
Each time, I started with what I thought were honorable or at least good intentions, reasoning that whatever or whoever it was, was so good, it was going to set my world on fire, though the blaze never quite worked out the way I intended or imagined. It all seemed to make sense at the start. Passions have such a glorious way of clouding your judgement or seeing / sensing God’s TRUE direction.
The Old Testament is full or accounts of patriarchs, and the nation of Israel as a whole, being “stiff-necked” and “stubborn” (His words), often blindly, to the point of exasperation – repeatedly. Those accounts are there for all of us to take as a lesson and warning, though I think if we all are honest, we are all, individually, as congregations, and as a nation, often right there with them.
How can we not see it? We convince ourselves that our purposes are so lofty, so noble, even so righteous perhaps, that we lose sight of our ethical anchor points as our desire for that thing, person, position, power takes over our being like an all consuming storm. The next thing you know, you are wondering how you ever thought whatever it was, was actually a good thing when It clearly was not.
The next time you start to see or feel little red warning flags or start to hear a little voice in you head saying, “Hang on for a sec…?”, try running whatever it is or who it may be, through this filter: Ask yourself, where does this honestly fit? What is this REALLY, HONESTLY driven by? Saint Paul says, “Now the works of the flesh are plain: illicit sex, impurity, acting without restraint, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, 21 envy,[a] drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:20-23)”
You either fall into one camp or the other.
If you have chosen a way that is earning you a snoot-full, change your direction. See it, whatever or whoever IT is, for what it REALLY is. Confess it and get out of it, and then learn from it before you drown in it or them.
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