Posts by KARL HOSTETLER

I was 10 years old when my dad built a house in the foothills above Upland. We lived there for 6 years. My growing-up years. It was a great place to grow up. At the edge of civilization, at the edge of the wilderness. The view over the valley was amazing, 30 miles in every direction when the air was clear, and at night, 30 miles of…

Five years ago my life was renewed, I like how that sounds, renewed. That happened because five years ago my life was demolished. Man, I don't like how that sounds.  Demolished, I want to say Aarrrgh. Renewed, I want to say Yoo-Hoo! I guess I need to decide which side of the equation I'm on.    The Demolished Side In general I like the word “demolished”.  Maybe because…

I’m thinking back to where my journey began. On that day, when I stood up and switched to another chair, the thought came, am I sitting on God's lap? As I thought about it I felt foolish. It sounded weird to me. Sitting on God’s lap? Well, that was 5 years ago and every morning  I am still sitting on the same chair. And I still feel…

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.      Eph 5.15-16 So I'm exploring this idea. What can I do with the time that I have? What can I do today, this week, this year? Obviously how much time we are allotted is unknown. But man, hour by hour, day…

What a weird title for a sermon about Genesis. It was a metaphor of sorts to supplement the sermon that was preached the week before. The sermon the week before dealt with a serious question, why bad things happened to good people. It was based on the story about Joseph (Genesis 37-50). A heavy topic with no pat answers. But with some observations. Obedience to God does…

My Notebook and my Heart  I just read a 600 page long book about note taking. It was called “ANTINET Zettelkasten” by Scott Scheper. What a weird name for a sorta weird book about note taking. Did I mention that it was 600 pages long? The core of this system of note taking can be described with four words. Analog, Numeric address, Tree, and Index.  This is…

The support and the love that came after my stroke was amazing. Although that happened four and a half years ago I wanted to say, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!  Hundreds of you offered prayers; every day dozens of cards arrived. All with basically the same message: Get well soon! I've been thinking about this saying, get well soon. Geez, me and my words. Is ”well’…

Here is the story I alluded to at the end of my last blog post. It’s a story about a house I framed, got ruined, and was rebuilt. But more than that, it’s a story about neglect. It was 1977 and I was working with my dad building a house in the foothills over Rancho Cucamonga. It was actually over Alta Loma when we started the project.…

My train of thought (posted Feb) was derailed for a couple months, hopefully now it is on track. If you recall, I've been working on my idioms, and the idiom I was working on before the derailment was: My frame of reference. So, I'm thinking about my frame of reference and I’m thinking about my life. My new life in a broken, divided nation. So here it…

I’ve always liked the book of Genesis. The first words written about our world. First principles that can be built upon to make sense of our lives. Things like light and darkness, and that we are created in God's image. The first principles in Genesis are so powerful, they are the foundation of how I understand life. Well, I discovered another principle. I read it in Genesis…