Goodbye, California...

A post in two parts and two places

I am as Californian as it gets... or I have been. I was born in California, grew up in California, was saved in California, married and started a family in California, and have never lived anywhere else other than in California.

California is a pretty wonderful state. Just about everything you could want is in California, whether it be deserts, ocean, snow, lakes and streams: it's all there. It's a big, long state, and rich in beauty and natural resources.

However prosperity without Gospel faith and living always tends to ruin, and so it has gone in California. Tyrannical, obsessive over-regulation has is strangling the life out of its commerce and sending businesses running for friendlier climes, while politicians continue to multiply spending and taxation and fees in an inexorable cycle. While many faithful folks and ministries remain, California has a trajectory that is pretty dismal.

But it has a special place to me, for all the reasons I listed and more. My favorite area in the attainable world (this leaves out Scotland, for instance) is the Eastern Sierra. I've gone there probably since I was 2 years old. I remember 5-cent coffee at Schat's Bakkery in Bishop. As a young man, I traveled there as often as I could, scouting out places I'd eventually bring my wife and kids one day. And I got to do that, to my great joy.

But everything is subject to change except God, even one's lifelong place of living. Particularly when in pursuit of a larger goal.

And so last Friday I found myself seeing California recede in my rear-view mirror, at the start of a looong drive east and south.

Continued here