Lessons Still To Be Taught

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What Was I Thinking?(!)

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Because an author referred to a passage from Ezekiel mentioning how poorly we understand the sin for which Sodom was judged, I started reading the Old Testament prophet. (In Our Lives First, by Diane Langberg, p.122)

Sodom's sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. (Ezekiel 16:49)

Dr. Langberg’s comments on this verse redirected my priorities in the current battle to redefine marriage, permitting men to marry men, and women, women. Unwise as this course seems to me, a deeper and more deadly spiritual threat continues in the church. That is what Ezekiel hammers on – Sodom, and her neighbors did bad things, things that God hated, and for which He acted (Ezekiel 16:50) But, for all their debaucheries, they did not commit half the sins Israel was committing. (Ezekiel 16:51)

Reading Ezekiel has been like hearing an annoying alarm clock clanking right beside my ear. (Remember Marley’s ghost in A Christmas Carol?)  

I can read Ezekiel as history – seeing what happened to the nations around Israel; what was coming to the unfaithful in Israel, and what the promises were for the faithful, the remnant.  He had to carry a message of judgment that is no fun to read.  Yes, he offered cups of comfort, that He would preserve a remnant. But, the message given to Ezekiel stressed that God sees beneath the façade of His people’s religion, and hates what He sees. God sees His priests worshiping the sun -- bowing their backsides to Him!  (Ezekiel 8:16)

To whom or what do I bow?

Trust me, I am having a hard time with all this . . . because deep down inside, I know God has my number, too. When He lays out His case against Israel, I can see myself. Oh, I am not as bad as I could be – but Israel wasn’t always as bad as her neighbors. She was bad enough – and so am I.  I go to church, read my Bible, as one of God’s people; I hear His word – read His word – but do not do it. (Ezekiel 33:31)

It wasn’t only the overt sins – like sodomy --  that tipped over the cup of God’s wrath – it was what was underneath – God’s shepherds who wound up calling evil good, and good evil, and starving His people. (Ezekiel 34) And they stiffed the poor in their midst! So, here I am this morning, reading God’s promise of one shepherd. As Israel would know there had been a prophet in their midst, she will know the Lord their God is with them.

My country is having a rough time – we are struggling to do the right thing for our citizens. People should be able to marry whomever they love, we say, overturning conventions.  But the bigger problem is when a growing number in the church bow to “the new wisdom,” forgetting what He says about His holiness and His peoples’. For me, reading Ezekiel, the problem is that we both know that God my Judge sees through my pontificating about same-sex marriages, abortion, ignoring the poor, being self-absorbed, or whatever. (Ezekiel 14)

  

I need a lawyer – One whose “birthday” the church is preparing to celebrate. (1 John 1:9-2:1)

If some in the church are hungry, hurting, and hopeless, how many more in our world have some needs we can meet? (Matthew 25:31-46) Whose name is first on our gift list this year, whose stocking will we fill first? *

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*from The Bishop’s Wife, David Niven's Sermon

A Christmas Carol: Have You Read it?

Six Years Writing

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Barely Scratching the Surface . . . 

Reality Check – What’s in My Hand?

One-liners can hook an imagination quickly. I heard one in a new movie “My Old Lady.”  It went deep – eviscerating excuses I am prone to make:

When you follow your own heart, you break someone else’s. (Matthias Gold, character in My Old Lady)

We bought tickets thinking we would see one thing, and realized soon into it, the movie would not be a romantic comedy, salted with caustic comments by a French Dowager Countess. A reviewer, who did not like the movie as much as we did, wrote:

There are numerous other surprise revelations, unveiled truths, and domestic connections to come in Horovitz’s narrative as he swerves away from what feels at first like farce and heads in the direction of intense melodrama as he examines problematic family relationships resulting from damaging parental decisions and self-serving behaviors. (Bill Wine’s Review)

As the movie took a turn into people’s personal pain, we got a look at the cost of adultery that children end up paying. In the case of the characters in this tale, it’s steep.

Sometimes, perhaps because of the season my life, I spend time looking back – reflecting on who did what to whom, and how it all affected me. (A.K.A. pity party) Seriously. I’d do better being sobered by how some of my choices may have influenced people in my sphere of responsibilities!

I guess that’s why that one-liner snagged me.  Following your heart hurt me – but my following my own heart . . . well, those were the days my friend . . .

Fortunately, a favorite fellow blogger closed her thoughts with a poem that is sound counsel, and gets me energized:  

It’s by the poet Hafiz:

Once a young woman said to me, “Hafiz, what

is the sign of someone who knows God?”

I became very quiet, and looked deep into her

eyes, then replied

“My dear, they have dropped the knife. Someone

who knows God has dropped the cruel knife

that most so often use upon their tender self

and others.”

(The Best Thing We Can Do)

Three little words – Drop the knife! Shouted or whispered, they are worth remembering -- and doing!

Mothers’ Day 2014

Because I kept quite a little list of grievances, with few grudging compliments, I had trouble finding an appropriate Mothers’ Day card.  

from The New Yorker*

I was hard on my mother – and I am grateful that as I weathered my own parenting failures she truly kept her own counsel. We may not have made the same mistakes – but we shared defeats that were similarly painful. The wonderful experience, and best memories though, were sharing the joy of holding babies, taking toddlers for walks, and sharing the confidences of a child’s opinion of this old world. She never withheld her high opinion of each of her grandchildren and great grandchildren!

The same restraint and kindness was a hallmark of my mother-in-law.  Neither “mom” played the critic, and both were generous and helpful.  I wish there were a card I could send to express my regrets for not having more conversations and my gratitude for so much.

But I doubt I could afford the postage.

Mom and Me

Doug and his Mom

·      Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. ~Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, c.1420

·      God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me. ~Author unknown, variation of an excerpt from "The Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Neibuhr

* CARTOON SOURCE

Springing Forward, Part II

Springing Forward 

I know. I know. I’ve reached the age and stage when giving over even one hour of [beauty] sleep is risky. But it is a refreshing reward to have an extra hour of sunlight so early in March. And a necessary push.

The soft green haze on the trees has yet to come; lawns are still brown . . . but hope is stirring in my heart – hope that skeptics might dismiss as antiquated, irrational. Yet on a late winter’s afternoon, the slant of the sun’s rays at twilight are comforting – reminding me of the good spring growing season ahead of me, making me forget the heat and dryness that is summer’s M.O. in Texas.

During the recent spate of chilly damp days, when the sun still seemed to set too early, I had a good excuse to forego a routine neighborhood hike, albeit on level sidewalks. This afternoon, though, an hour’s light nudged me out the door: exercise is as beneficial a beauty aid as an hour’s extra z-z-z-z-z’s.

Use it or lose it, sunshine.

o   When told the reason for Daylight Saving time the old Indian said, "Only a white man would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of a blanket and have a longer blanket."  ~Author Unknown

o   You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.  ~James Matthew Barrie

o   Watches are so named as a reminder — if you don't watch carefully what you do with your time, it will slip away from you. ~Drew Sirtors



Springing Forward Part I 

Marking the Advent of Advent

Mose on Mt Pisgah

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Living with Smart Technology

A conversation with a friend this morning reminded me how “wired” I am.  I am so reliant on “smart” things, but I have NO idea how any of them works. If one malfunctions – well, remember HAL in 2001?

Take the other night: Doug wanted to know if I heard a buzzing. 

I did.

We walked around the house, putting our ears up to the microwave, freezer, refridge . . . we even opened the back door to listen to the AC unit.  Finally, I listened to my purse and drew out my phone, which was  trembling – no kidding – and emitting an annoying buzz. I couldn’t turn it on to diagnose the issue – it reminded me of when one our kids were sick, and before they were old enough to tell me where it hurt.

Was the battery low?

I plugged it in. No response, only buzzing. Doug nestled it within a dishtowel to deaden its persistent din. An hour later, it was still complaining and I wanted to go to bed.

Should I leave it plugged in?

What if a low battery was not the issue, and keeping it connected to a power source would fuel an explosion?

I remembered computer batteries can set a computer on fire –or something to that effect. So, I unplugged the phone, still kept it wrapped up, and set beside the front door. Yes, I did – that way the firemen could easily find the source of the fire that might consume us in the night. Just enough knowledge to be useless!

No such flare-up disturbed us. By the morning – the phone indicated to Doug its battery was low. So,  I plugged it in and within an hour, all was well. I still don’t know exactly why the phone, which I thought was charged 65%, went nuts.

So, although I don’t exactly why or how any of my electronic devices do anything, these conveniences have become oh so necessary for comfort and amusement, and community.  And I am not alone. The world is as dependent on invisible power, most of us cannot comprehend, for our entire well-being.

Consider our responses when we misplace a remote control, or the smart technology guiding our lives fails.  If I am not tearing the couch apart, looking for the control, I am yelling at a recording patiently asking me who I am, where I am, and in a word describe my problem. Or, I have just disconnected myself from its probing questions, or any possibility of solving the problem my smart appliance has dropped in my lap.  

Am I behaving toward the increasingly ubiquitous technology the way anti-theists react to God?

. . . Many smart technologies are heading in another, more disturbing direction. A number of thinkers in Silicon Valley see these technologies as a way not just to give consumers new products that they want but to push them to behave better. Sometimes this will be a nudge; sometimes it will be a shove. But the central idea is clear: social engineering disguised as product engineering. (Is Smart Making Us DUMB?)

When people get angry at God, or with the idea of God it is often because He’s laid out some game-changers for our conduct. Most who resist the God of Scripture have heard about Him, but not studied His word. It’s up to Christians to be the closest thing to the Bible the world may see – and we aren’t always so great at doing this.  But, perhaps the warning in the Wall Street Journal piece mentioned above can apply to us?  

Truly smart technologies will remind us that we are not mere automatons who assist big data in asking and answering questions. Unless designers of smart technologies take stock of the complexity and richness of the lived human experience—with its gaps, challenges and conflicts—their inventions will be destined for the SmartBin of history.

Unless we see the humanity in those with whom we differ, and until we learn to speak the language, and feel the pain, of this generation, we may be like I was: hearing a buzz, feeling the tremble, being terrified I could be harmed in the encounter – but not having a clue how to be useful.  

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Where is the Baby Nest?

My daughter and her family have a collection of crèches – all are kid-friendly.  But one figure in the largest crèche they withhold until Christmas morning – the infant Jesus. The manger, filled with hay, is empty.  The children handle all the pieces – indeed the figures in the crèche migrate;  sometimes the Virgin Mary goes into the play-mobile kitchen –and sometimes Joseph and the shepherds join Darth Vader in an adventure or two. But one morning our grandson couldn’t find that hay-filled manger and tore around the house crying out: Where’s the baby nest? 

It became a question I asked when I learned that Revelation 12, the current topic of our weekly Bible study has been described as another view of the Christmas story – reading it, I want to know where that baby nest is too!  What John saw sure doesn’t sound like what Luke and Matthew report! Eugene Peterson agrees and writes:

It is St. John’s Spirit-appointed task to supplement the work of St. Matthew and St. Luke so that the nativity cannot be sentimentalized into coziness nor domesticated into drabness, nor commercialized into worldliness. He makes explicit what is implicit in the Gospel stories . . . The splendors of creation and the agonies of redemption combine in this event, this center where God in Christ invades existence with redeeming life and decisively defeats evil. It is St. John’s genius to take Jesus in a manger attended by shepherds and wise men and put him in a cosmos attacked by a dragon. The consequence to our faith is that we are fortified against intimidation. Our response to the Nativity cannot be reduced to shutting the door against a wintry world, drinking hot chocolate and singing carols. Rather, we are ready to walk out of the door with, as one psalmist puts it, high praises of God in our throats and two-edged swords in our hands. (See Psalm 149:6, Reversed Thunder –The Revelation of John & the Praying Imagination, pp121-122)

Is that how the remembrance of Christ’s birth inspired you? 

 In spite of good spiritual intentions, I bought into the world’s celebration of a baby’s birth, holed myself up with loved ones, and had myself a merry little Christmas. By the season’s end, I am just so glad the hoopla is past, and so looking for a fresh start in the New Year, that I forget to remember the person whose birthday I just observed is A Savior – which is Christ the Lord.  No wonder, I don’t have much of a new song, nor have I much of a sword.  

           

Revelation depicts spiritual warfare – the supernatural battles between God and Satan.    Such a revelation isn’t the lens through which most of us admit we see the world in which we live, even as we live in a world filled with spiritual longing and superstition. The Bible is plain, though, from Genesis to Revelation that God is an infinite and personal spirit. (Not symbolic) And His enemy, while not flesh and blood, is also spirit, and masquerades so we don’t immediately recognize him, or his servants. (2 Corinthians 11:14) He is no symbol either; he is God’s most unwilling servant.  A created being, he serves God’s purposes. Unhappily, the visible church says too frequently – Satan isn’t really real – and the Holy Spirit is just a symbol. (George Barna)   
 

Dealing with realities beyond us doesn’t make them non-existent or invincible.

C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, wrote: 

"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight." 

And he warned

"The safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
 

Curling up and falling asleep in the comforts of this great nation is a great way to gradually squander a great inheritance. Willfully ignoring a holy and personal God may seem desirable – Eve thought so.

 God help me wake up and sing --   – and make useful a limp sword.  (Hebrews 4:12)

"Only when we stand in awe of God will we cease to stand in awe of Satan."  (Erwin Lutzer, The Serpent of Paradise) 

Talk on Revelation 12 

Clearing the Decks . . .

  . . . is an idiom, which means to finish dealing with what you are doing so that you can start to do something more important. Its original usage was,  “If navy officers clear the decks they prepare a ship for war.” (Source)

War is hell – but we, Americans, have been embroiled in them throughout our history: literally and figuratively. After more than a decade of literal war against an ideological enemy bent on destroying us, our brave soldiers and our citizens are exhausted, and our resources are depleted. After waging war on poverty and illiteracy, the news is as draining and discouraging.  And many folks I love are in hellish battles to recover their health, finances, marriages and children; some are fighting for their sanity and sobriety.    Turning a page on a calendar doesn’t ameliorate the heat of the battle.

But one idea that this idiom reinforces is making sure extraneous stuff isn’t lying about to confuse ongoing preparation for war. I hope our elected leaders can clear the decks and see their way clear to fight for our nation’s security: financially, militarily, and diplomatically. 

This goes for all the radio, TV and Internet pundits and prognosticators: SHUT-UP with the diatribes! 

And for the folks I love, today is the day to clear the decks of our minds and hearts – turn over everything to God. That Baby grew up, as I have said before; He has the muscle and the resolve to do what we can’t: clean up our act! He will enable us to forgive, reconcile and persevere in troubled relationships and troubling circumstances.  

His promise is to show us solutions when we ask that we could not imagine. (Jeremiah 33:3) Our hope, when we call to Him, is that He will do immeasurably more than we can conceive. (Ephesians 3:21-22)

·      Faith is not without worry or care, but faith is fear that has said a prayer.  ~Author Unknown


Faith is like radar that sees through the fog.  ~Corrie Ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord


Reason is our soul's left hand, Faith her right.  ~John Donne

And I repeat a favorite quote from Winston Churchill that seems apt after we have cleared all those decks: If you are going through Hell, keep going.  

 Image Source

So Simple a Child Could Do It

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Unfortunately, Doug and I have no [little] children readily available, and returning to one’s second childhood doesn’t count when changing the water filter on the refridge.

Now, I have done this once or twice before – and I understood the instructions. But I must have been slightly off center when I shoved the canister of chemicals to remove the chemicals in Dallas’ water supply – for the filter only went so far and no further. Then the cap popped off. Doug reattached the cap, but even he could not wiggle or cajole the mechanism.  Thankfully, a grown-up plumber is on his way.

What’s the connection to my gardening lessons?

Often I need a fresh filter, purifying my attitudes, words, and deeds, for I am doing the wrong thing – or saying something poorly – or feeling toxic. Fretting is the most noxious of my emotions that can distort what I want to do or say.  Fretting proliferates when I am hungry, angry, lonely or tired, and ignore the acronym, HALT! 

Do not become hungry, angry lonely or tired. (AA Slogans)

I’ve known these instructions for decades, but I can still get jammed up and as impossible to budge as that filtration cylinder. So, I must call for help.

Turning to The Daily Walk Bible reading for today, June 8, five psalms are suggested, Psalms 37 through 41. The sum is number my blessings and my days. “Instead of worrying about things we cannot change, David exhorts us to concentrate on attitudes we can change.” (TDWB, page 592) 

Here goes:

·      I have a helpful hubby – who is not afraid of a cranky appliance, or wife.

·      We have a plumber who is willing to come today.

·      We have a refrigerator!

·      I have a program whose principles work when I work them. 

·      I have a higher power who listens to my cries. (Psalm 40:1-5)

I wonder what is keeping that plumber . . .

 An Update: The plumber arrived -- and used a large wrench to disengage the canister, which I inserted slightly skewed.  A costly tutorial, but I am grateful.

Babysitting

It’s a privilege and a pleasure, even if it’s not always pleasurable, my husband said about the request. Our kids asked us to babysit for a spell while they enjoy a much-needed vacation. We’ve gone from the sidelines to frontlines of kiddie-care.

Whew. If I was an older mother of young children – I am an older grandma of young grandchildren.  Spills, squeals, dirt, tears . . . laundry; some things don’t change. But what is more precious are the cuddles and conversations. Grandkids give super hugs! And the conversations are terrific.

My oldest granddaughter said she had a had time imagining what I looked like when I was little.  She then asked how long papa and I have been married. When I told her forty years this July, God willing, she asked if I were little when I got married.

It is a distinct honor to be asked to care for these little beings – and it has reinforced the truth that parenting is hard work – better entrusted to the young.  I may have a bit more understanding about little kids’ foibles – but not enough endurance.  

I salute all the grandparents who have stepped in and helped raise their children’s children for the long haul, not just vacations.

·      My grandkids believe I'm the oldest thing in the world.  And after two or three hours with them, I believe it, too. . . I don't intentionally spoil my grandkids.  It's just that correcting them often takes more energy than I have left.  ~Gene Perret

·      A grandmother is a mother who has a second chance.  ~Author Unknown

I’ve never lost my temper

 

. . . because I know I still have it! 

Just when I think patience and self-control may be resident qualities of my character – life’s little adventures remind me though my fuse is a bit longer, it’s still combustible. Most recently, on another beautiful spring morning, facing no pressure except to get on with my day, a glitch got me – and I got mad.

My computer kept locking up; several times the tiny psychedelic ball whirled interminably, refusing to let me do what needed doing. After what seemed like the fiftieth time, I called the store to make an appointment. Apple’s automated answering machine boasted it could understand sentences – so, feel free to be specific about my problems.  I then was directed to schedule the appointment on their website.

“He-e-l-l—l-o I can’t get to your website; my computer is malfunctioning!”

 Why get so angry at an inanimate object?  It’s not like a computer cares that I am going nuts.  And yes, I yelled this into the phone, even as I knew Doug and his computer were nearby. He calmly scheduled an appointment later in the afternoon.

Then, I got on with my morning, and arrived at the Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center to be a Christian volunteer. There I found the receptionist on her knees, fiddling with the office computer. This larger and older inanimate object had also frozen up, and her considerable translation work was held hostage, threatened with erasure if she had to crash the computer – she was praying aloud while pushing buttons.

Frustrated? Yes.

Fuming? No.

And when the screen came back on, so did her work – and she praised the Lord, who is always good.  

Was there an object lesson here?

Later at the repair place, when the technician ran a diagnostic test or two, she stated the hard drive was OK, and suggested reloading the operating system.  Given my outburst –yelling at a computer – and the object lesson, maybe, I needed my operating system reloaded? (Psalm 139:23-24)

Anger is a risky emotional component in my character.   After all, as some wise soul observed: Anger is one letter short of danger.

What’s dangerous to me threatens others, too.

Will Rogers observed, “People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.”  Giving into anger can harm more people than me, just as planes that make bad landings can hurt more folks than the pilot. (I Pushed Jesus!)

In my time, I have banged pans, smashed glass, slammed doors and banged cabinet doors shut – and I have yelled, removing all doubt I lost my charm – and some brain cells! It seems indulging frustration is like losing my mind – literally! The Roman poet Horace warned, “Anger is short-lived madness.”   Now science has quantified that an angry outburst destroys brain cells – definitely a diminishing asset at my age!  Therefore, this adage bears repeating:

Before you give someone a piece of your mind, make sure you can get by with what is left.  ~ Author Unknown  

Apple’s computer-generated voice remained unresponsive to my angry outburst: I can’t access your website! 

I wonder what God’s response might have been, if, like my friend, I had prayed instead of fumed? I know Doug ’s morning would have been more serene. 

She that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and she that ruleth her spirit than she that taketh a city. (Proverbs: 16:32) – Or, in plainer language: It is better to be patient than powerful; it is better to have self-control than to conquer a city. (The New Living Translation)

Can I Afford Not to Vote?

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April Fool’s Day  is not a favorite day for me.  Probably because I am never clever enough to pull off a convincing prank, I remain obtuse enough to be fooled repeatedly, and therefore do not like the mirror this day affords. But the reminder of how easily I can be fooled, and how willing remains a timely one.

I finished reading a book (better described as a pamphlet) by Andy Andrews, How Do You Kill Eleven Million People: Why Truth Matters.  (Electronic edition) It is an expensive choice of reading material – but its content provides valuable insights – You have a mind – USE it! The real purpose of the book is to get readers to answer that question for ourselves. (Page 49)


Come on over to my NEW autumn's garden to see how I update the review of an important book:http://autumns-garden.com/citizenship-is-no-joke/

Time Flew

Last night wasn’t the best use of my time, and the host told me what the experience would be like before the party started: a bunch of millionaires giving gold statues to each other. He was right – that’s all Oscar's night was.

The film clips from the spectrum of movies honored suggested artists had been at work – the presenters and recipients’ words, no so much.  But I “taped” it so I could speed through the commercials or other boring portions. So, I pressed on.  The recording stopped itself, however, in the middle of one of the last speeches – Meryl Streep’s – almost as if the recorder were saying: “Enough!”

No wonder I make so little progress on my great American novel!

Unlike the time I have spent watching “America Idol,” she wrote defensively, and then realized she was without excuse for the management of her time.  

 Time is the coin of your life.  It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.  Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.  ~Carl Sandburg