National Day of Prayer 2013 and Jonah

Since I was in first grade, Americans have prayed on the first Thursday in May for our nation’s needs. (Wiki on National Day of Prayer) But dissenters demur: people of equally informed consciences who want freedom from religion. (Freedom from Religion Foundation)

Our cultural heritage, Judeo-Christian, define our prayers from Scripture. The Bible urges folks who want GOD to intervene on their nation’s behalf to amend their own conduct so that God will hear their prayers.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

(2 Chronicles 7:14) 

And the land can get plenty sick.

In Leviticus, God spelled out what would happen to His people who went their own way – the blessings of obedience and woes of disobedience. (Leviticus 26)  Israel literally experienced all He said would happen. 

America is not Israel – so what about us? What of the church? Do these warnings matter today?

The mystery of the God of Scripture is that He still makes His appeal to return to Him, for there is no other Savior. (Isaiah 44:22 ) He still holds out His blessed hand, which even we resist – let alone those who want freedom from all things “God.”

"I opened my arms to my own people all day long, but they have rebelled. They follow their own evil paths and thoughts.” (Isaiah 65:2) 

The Chairman of this year’s National Day of Prayer Greg Laurie said, If God could bring a revival to Nineveh, surely he can do the same for America. Re-reading this short account then shows me how to pray for my nation, my fellow believers, and myself.

God sent an unwilling evangelist to a powerful nation of people who knew not God, much less their left hands from their right. (Jonah 4:11) Ninevites heard the word of God preached, and they repented –from the top down to the bottom, up:

The Ninevites believed God.  . .

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

(Jonah 3:5-10)

Frankly though, I think that what gave impetus to Jonah’s preaching was his appearance – when he showed up on the shores of Nineveh, he didn’t look like a man who had a life-changing message.  Before Jonah preached, God humbled him – so, his prayer is something to consider on this day of prayer – it reflects a man who was humbled: thrown overboard, swallowed up and spit out on a on beach covered in whale vomit is pretty humbling!   He had learned the limits of God’s love.

. . . But you, Lord my God,
 brought my life up from the pit.

⁷ “When my life was ebbing away,
    I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
    to your holy temple.

⁸ “Those who cling to worthless idols
 turn away from God’s love for them.
⁹ But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
 will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
    I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”(Jonah 2:7-9)

Unhappily, Jonah never seemed to love the people to whom he preached – he sulked when God did what He said He would do for Nineveh.  His little pity party makes me examine how I feel and act in my little world. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Christians live amongst a diverse and great nation of many faiths, including alarming numbers of those with no faith in anything but themselves. My prayer is that as God shows me this day my issues – He mercifully shows my fellow citizens the glory of Himself – and the power of His word. And that I will love well all those in my humble path today – it is no accident when we meet.

If God could bring a revival to Nineveh, surely he can do the same for America. (Pastor Greg Laurie, Chairman, National Day of Prayer)

May revival begin in me – and in His church, for His glory and our beloved nation’s good.

Warnings: If You See Something, Say Something.

This has been our government’s warning to us for over a decade, since September 11, 2001.  And because of folks who heeded this warning, we have saved lives.  

I see something – and I want to say something, and it’s news from a courthouse in Philadelphia, news that our press simply is not covering. In this corner of my garden, wanting to be more winsome than whiny, I wonder how to say what I see that is at best upsetting – and at worst, disastrous.  I will use others' words:  

·      A journalist who saw that few of the American press were covering the trial, and  reported on the Pennsylvania authorities who ignored serious health and safety violations for almost two decades.  And he described what happened in that clinic. The link is not for the fainthearted: What I Saw at the Gosnell Trial .

·      Andree Seu Peterson wrote, of this trial, “The shocking part of the Kermit Gosnell trial isn't only what's illegal.”  (Another link that that shocks: Courtroom Horror)

We can roll over, and ignore the alarms that some people are reporting, remembering the doctor may be exonerated.  

But, what then?   

How that jury rules will tell us more about them and us than about Gosnell.

Still we have to ask:  How could such monstrous practices go on for so long? How could people be kept quiet?  How could medical malpractice procedures not ever be instituted? (Gadfly’s Muse: The Pathway to Kermit Gosnell )

I’ve been known to sleep through alarms, to ignore many obvious warnings – believing nothing bad could happen. But now, the warning I hear is old -- reverberating from somewhere in the tenth century B.C.  when Solomon warned his son get involved in saving people who are being butchered:

Deliver those who are being taken away to death,

And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back.   

If you say, "See, we did not know this,"

Does He not consider it   weighs the hearts ?

And does He not know it who keeps your soul?

And will He not render to man according to his work? . . .

(Proverbs 24:11-14 emphasis added)

Wake up O sleeper – and listen to what God said to Esther through her uncle:

Mordecai sent her this message: “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14 The Message)

May God lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil – the evil that is smack dab in front of us, and of our making!

WORLD Magazine May 4, 2013

The Week Begins

Here I raise my Ebenezer –

Here by Thy great help I’ve come –

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Saturday was another Ebenezer stone – weather that was unseasonal in its coolness and lovely in its fresh sunshine. It was a day to “do” small stuff – and enjoy all that is extraordinary about the ordinary, knowing all the while that being free to get a few chores done, and have the resources and mobility to garden will never be “ordinary” for those who were in Boston, or West, Texas. And these past two weeks show me getting home can be sudden, horrific and apparently quite random.

All kinds of emotions had been derailing me as I read of heartbreak, and broken leadership – but through a news program, I saw a recounting of another sorrowful time through which God brought America -- Birmingham Children’s March -- One huge memorial to show how far God had led African American parents to trust Him with their children.

It mattered in 1963 how Christian Americans lived; it still matters how Christians live in this broken  – upside down, opposite world. And Ebenezers are many and varied, just like people.

So, I have a choice; today, I read a piece by John Piper on staying steady in uncertain times:

“ . . . So, I can choose to let that brokenness govern me and turn it into sins. Or I can choose to say, “I’m going to deal with the brokenness I have and try to steer my way through my brokenness to do as much good for others and avoid as much sin as I can.” (John Piper)

I hope your Monday, and the week ahead is filled with “Ebenezers” gentle readers; memorial stones that guide your walk, and comfort your heart, and renew your mind. (See Romans 12:1-2)

You might enjoy:   Life in Perspective

Boston and Bible Study

Yesterday the bible study wound up – it was a nine month inquiry into Revelation; surely this has been a serendipitous use of my time. We went from apprehension about studying what we feared might be too complex or confusing, “end-times,” to being comforted, encouraged and edified no matter how quickly or slowly Christ the LORD returns. In this book, we learned how lost the lost are, and how secure the saved are, for our hope is anchored in HIS character.

His words resound: “Do not be afraid.”

The group Bible study may be done – but I feel like I haven’t wholly grasped it. Revelation is different from any other book in Scripture – to some its message appears hidden or frightening, or inscrutable. But to those who will read and hear, it is filled with [seven] blessings – blessings that meet every need of all the churches to whom John wrote. Its message is so simple a child can understand – as all the children’s leaders so faithfully taught little ones aged 2-5! These kids got it!  

Yet, I struggle to take it all in.

When I look back on what has happened since we began the study: a terrorist attack on September 11, “Sandy,” Newtown Connecticut, wounds, trials and illnesses within our church, and families, ending with another attack at the Boston Marathon, and a tragedy in West, Texas. And now, this morning’s news of murder and mayhem in Boston washes over my heart: What in the world is going on?

Seriously, Barbara?

Weren’t you paying attention?

The bottom line is people who hate God, hate people and want to kill them – for they have believed a lie fomented by God’s enemy and his servants. Christians believe that enemy was defeated at Calvary -- just as the Allied Normandy Invasion in June 1944 broke the back of the Axis. But battles abound – just as they did throughout the months leading up to August of 1945.  And until He returns, we all are on a battlefield.

The horrors have caught many Americans of-guard for we have not endured what other Christians and cultures around the world have endured.

In Revelation 2-3, Christ reveals to John the extent of the battles, internal and external. “Intimidation and persecution” are hallmarks of the spiritual reality that Christ will see us through in the time before His return.   Christ’s promises to those who overcome what He knows we struggle with have never been more precious and essential. The hope and help that God revealed to John on Patmos is as much as a comfort to us today as it was to John. His promises are trustworthy and true.  The point of Revelation is as a movie or picture book of what Matthew meant in his Gospel, 16:18,when he quoted the Lord Jesus Christ:  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Whew . . .

His promises for reward and retribution in Revelation echo the prophets. Like many their messages, this is filled with condemnation and comfort. It is a picture of the sum of all consequences of individual choices.  We see the result of having things our way.  And we see God’s retribution in His time for His people.    

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! (Hebrew 10:31)

Therefore – when information overloads my mind, and horror engulfs my breaking heart, Habakkuk [still] helps:

I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled. Yet, I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
 to come on the nation invading us.

Though the fig tree does not bud
 and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails
 and the fields produce no food though there are no sheep in the pen
 and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights. (Habakkuk 3, esp. 17) 

God I believe -- help THOU my unbelief.  

Image source 

Voices

Usually it is my voice I think I hear reminding me of the next thing I should be doing, or chiding me for forgetting a task. Sometimes though I hear myself remembering times past, and wishing I had done things differently. Regret is a more regular companion nowadays, changing the conversations in my head. 

Regret is a gentler attendant than another conversation changer in my head – resentment.  Resentment revives old hurts and excuses me, while blaming and accusing others. Regret also revives memories – but differently. Regret helps me own my part in a hard conversation, or a painful experience. Resentment enumerates wrongs, real and imagined. Regret keeps me off my high horse. Regret urges me to confess and repent, and to repair what I can now, first to God, and then with the people I can.

Regret tells me of hidden treasures in moments I thought would come again – or never end, and reminds me to recognize these riches happening all around me now.  Others heard and wisely counseled listening to regret, and shutting off resentment:  

·      Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.  Carrie Fisher

·      A true repentance shuns the evil itself, more than the external suffering or the shame. Shakespeare

·      A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than yesterday. Jonathan Swift

·      If you have sinned, do not lie down without repentance; for the want of repentance after one has sinned makes the heart yet harder and harder.  -- John Bunyan

·      The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. Harriet Beecher Stowe

 “Don’t let the darkness talk to [me].” Ed Welch  

A First

A friend invited us to the Dallas Opera; for weeks, I anticipated seeing the whole production that includes a favorite aria: Nessun Dorma. I came to love the music from a YouTube performance by Paul Potts.  No, my grasp of opera is at best, limited.

Doug printed out the libretto – and I read up on the narrative and wondered how such a grim story could produce such wonderful melodies.  Turandot and all the characters had serious issues!  It would never make a good Disney movie. Even though the guy got the girl – what a guy, and what a girl! Talk about dysfunction!  

Unfortunately, I read the review of the first night's performance shortly before we were supposed to leave for the matinee – the critic in the Dallas Morning News; Scott Cantrell was not enthusiastic, describing many points in the production and performance that went over my head – but his comments dulled my enthusiasm.  My impression was now that it would be incompetent and substandard. 

 Perhaps it was on the night he saw it; maybe that production was disappointing – but the performance we saw was charming – more than competent – and enjoyable. (As long as I didn’t think about the meaning of the words that were being sung.) In Italian, the words sounded mighty, noble, romantic – thrilling. Reading them in English, I kept thinking – “Seriously, did she just say that?”

All in all, my first opera experience was wonderful, nonetheless. While I can’t say I will become an aficionado  -- I admire the talent and discipline of so many artists and musicians who managed to engage our attention, while telling a tale of betrayal, revenge, murder, suicide and narcissism.  It was like “Dallas” in Italian.   

Image Source

Insight

Insight is the ability to see with our hearts beneath a matter and understand what is not clearly apparent. It is both a talent and a gift – some gain it quickly; others learn it slowly, and a few of us never seem to have it. It paves the way for wisdom – and that is both knowing and doing what is right. 


The problem for me now, is having finally developed a bit of insight, the world in which I live is redefining “right.” 

I am coming to recognize that Jeremiah knew a thing or two about our hearts, as unpleasant as his description was – my heart is deceitful and wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9-10) Even when I do the right thing, it’s often for the wrong reasons. But, what is right if everybody can decide for himself or herself what right is?

And what now is wrong? 



The honorable Congressman from Texas, Louis Gohmert, recently became the poster child for how hard it is to describe right and wrong, mixing up gun control, same sex marriages and bestiality. It’s as if too many sound bites from talk radio, the pulpit, and House floor speeches were whirling around his brain and splashed out of an open mouth, ruining any hope of a civil discussion of how to control guns and protect people’s rights, while limiting dangerous behavior. 

And what do I mean by dangerous?


Especially now in light of a new ruling that young women of any age can buy a morning after pill without their parents or doctors knowing. What could possible be dangerous or wrong with that? 



• I think we risk becoming the best-informed society that has ever died of ignorance. ~ Ruben Blades 



Isaiah surely could see into the increasing confusion Americans face -- and his insight is keen:

What sorrow for those who say

that evil is good and good is evil,

that dark is light and light is dark,

that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. (Isaiah 5:20)




My ongoing prayer:

• 


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

Getting in Shape with Shakespeare -- Today?

William Shakespeare observed,

“ . . . Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners; so that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry -- why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills . . .”   (William Shakespeare, Othello, I, iii)


How prescient and wise this commentary, though from a villainous character, whose intentions were not healthy – Iago.  He planted seeds of jealousy – and Othello reaped a murderous passion.  Shakespeare here posits real power deep within the soul of humans – the life force that is different than instinct; the mysterious mechanism that can propel us from or to pain and suffering, or to peace and joy.

When I blow it, the fault isn’t some wrong configuration of the planets or stars, any more than good times come when new astrological age dawns -- like the Age of Aquarius. I may be right where I am because of forces beyond my control; but how I choose to be in these circumstances, is, for today, a function of what I will.

Shakespeare wrote Othello around 1603 – adapting it from earlier works. The times in which he wrote were as uncertain as our own – and in them, he had known sorrow and financial loss: a new king and plenty of treason trials, and colonization of the new world was in its infancy.  Soon, a plot to blow up Parliament would be defused, while religious tensions continued. Disease, plague, remained a killer – and an unidentified illness killed Shakespeare’s son.  And modern research uncovered some shocking news about the Bard’s finances:

They report the great playwright did not entirely make his living in the theater. He was also a merchant, a moneylender and a tax dodger. In 1598, he was prosecuted for hoarding grain during a famine. (NPR Radio)

Yet, he urges – albeit through the lips of a rogue -- our will can generate gracious productive “gardens” – pleasant and productive people. Or, this same invisible energy can blight a life, making that “garden” uninviting.  But, its unseen authority can be set right; corrigible  means we can set and reset the driving force of our lives right.

That’s heady stuff to ponder on a day when news of powerful assassins capture headlines in Kauffman Texas – less than 50 miles from me, and North Korea is threatening a nuclear attack of the United States, and our nation’s debt accrues in amounts we be unable to repay.  

If the power of my will can change the shape of my "garden" -- what I look like, how I act, and how I influence others, I need to assess – inventory – my gardening goals and supplies, no matter the times. Thinking about this point of view is scary – it undercuts many of the reasons I often recycle for failure in matters small and large in my life. How do I do this – especially at this stage of life? If my body is [as] my garden, some parts show I’ve been not planting so wisely or so well! 

And given the news, why bother?

I guess the answer is because with God’s help I can – just for today.  Today is a day I ask God to guard and guide me, protecting me from evil, and prompting me to do good while I can.  And I ask Him to help all in leadership to know and do right. (Psalm 27 )

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:  Unload the gun before fear pulls the trigger.*


 Would that Othello had bothered to control his fear, and Iago his treachery!


(*from A New Day --- 365 Meditations for Personal and Spiritual Growth.)




 The Bard of Avon

Certain Hope Easter 2013

First rose 2013

Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection into eternal life . . ..  Book of Common Prayer "The Burial of the Dead" (1662)

·      Meaning for life when we see it mangled by each other, crippled and destroyed by human wantonness – when one too many headlines that shocks my heart and crushes optimism. 

·      Purpose for life when it is cut short –

·      Courage for life through the day when I know my own failures, unfaithfulness and cowardice –

A problem well stated is a problem half solved.  ~Charles F. Kettering

How others have hoped:

·      Could life so end, half told; its school so fail?
Soul, soul, there is a sequel to thy tale!
~Robert Mowry Bell

·      But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.  ~Walter Raleigh

·      There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou - Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.  ~Emily Bronte

·      Faith can move mountains, but don't be surprised if God hands you a shovel.  ~Author Unknown

Job 19:25-27

New Living Translation (NLT)

²⁵ “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and he will stand upon the earth at last.
²⁶ And after my body has decayed,
    yet in my body I will see God!^[a]
27 I will see him for myself.
    Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
    I am overwhelmed at the thought!

The roses are again budding in our garden – the wordless evangelist across the street has put on green gossamer foliage . . . my hope is that faith, in Christ, will not disappoint – that it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Happy Easter 2013

Hopes gleaned from Christians quoting and the Quote Garden

Jesus at Starbucks?

Answering a disgruntled investor over advocacy of same sex marriage Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz offered investors this advice:

“If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it’s a free country. You can sell your shares of Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much." link 

An interesting challenge [again] faces investors and customers:  How are we using our money, and to what end – whether investing a nest egg or just buying a small coffee – I mean short coffee. 

Every major corporation uses its profits as it sees fit to invest in opportunities, political, economic and social to advance the best interests of itself.  They often give to many charities representing a variety of services, not all of which Christians would consider worthwhile uses of their money. (Think Microsoft and Amazon and Apple.)  And some corporations, even those espousing  “family” values, have gotten rough press about how they treat their employees.

Starbucks has been a wonderful and successful company, putting employee well being right up with customer education and satisfaction, and the company has indeed made many investors a lot of money. See Howard Schultz’ biography and How Starbucks Saved My Life. 

A thirty-eight percent return is hard to beat, but, Starbucks’ investors and customers now have a clearer understanding of how the profits their money earned is being used, including knowing their money is providing health care and other opportunities to the employees.

What we do with this information may vary. Some of us may apply there for a job! Others threaten boycotts. One Starbucks friend urged a kinder, gentler response – describing the Lord Jesus as perhaps enjoying a latte at a local Starbucks, with fellow customers and baristas.  No, doubt Joanna would have been buying! (Luke 8:3)

How He would have addressed the CEO’s gauntlet, I can’t imagine— “pride goes before a fall?”

Possibly some of us will stay with Starbucks – perhaps believing it to be the lesser of many evils in today’s world. Or, a few of us will now think of how better to invest our time and talents and resources differently, thanking Mr. Schultz for his gracious invitation to try other venues for making money.  Maybe others of us might strike out on our own, having a bit of vision, passion and talents, like the skills that propelled Mr. Schultz?

Mr. Schultz' invitation prompts me to inventory how I “use” money.  Dolly Levi in “Hello Dolly,” said, “Money, if you will pardon the expression is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow. 

I wonder if it’s time to rethink how and what I am encouraging to grow. 

Low Information Christians

Both Bill Maher and Rush Limbaugh describe some constituencies as Low Information Voters; skewering people they think are poorly informed about many important issues.   Apparently, there really are voters who pigeonhole candidates and vote on assumptions such as candidates’ physical attractiveness, sex, race or how the names appeared on ballots.  And,

 An analysis concerned with the "puzzling finding" that incumbent legislators in mature democracies charged with corruption are not commonly punished in elections found that less-informed voters were significantly more likely to vote for incumbents accused of corruption than were their better-informed counterparts, presumably because they did not know about the allegations. (Wiki on LIV’s)

Seriously, she asked sheepishly?

I know I am guilty of having projected my aspirations for personal peace and affluence on candidates, some who could never nor, would ever deliver on all they promised.

If I could have been so uninformed about making political choices, how about other choices I’ve made? Like religion.

I am an American, and like 74% of my fellow citizens, I choose “Christian” as my religion. (The Pew Forum Reports) But what [all] Christians believe is not an easy pigeonhole into which to stuff us. If George Barna has accurately sampled us, we disagree on all kinds of things, especially on moral issues.  (Americans and Moral Concerns)  Perhaps this explains why a few prominent American Christians have changed their support for marriage as the union of a man and woman to the support of same sex-marriages?

Many American Christians of all stripes get the message Christ urged about compassion and social justice, and a commendable number practice the conviction that we must love our neighbors as ourselves.  What we might not get is practicing the first part of Christ’s summation of the Law: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength. (Matthew 22:36-40)

And unhappily, some Christians who capture the world’s attention are, shall we say, “low-information” Christians. Either they promote God’s compassion, but play down His holiness, or, they wax eloquent on His Judgment, and forget to mention His merciful grace.  Both misuse the Scriptures – perhaps because they don’t read it. (What Americans Think About the Bible) 

Low information Christians are unwittingly – or deliberately – denying others who would follow Christ a level path; they are refusing healing to those who need Christ’s help, and hope. (Hebrew 12:12)

  

So, if given a chance, we must explain that His love and mercy can’t be understood apart from His justice and His wrath.  The hard part about offering the love of God in Christ is that we must not withhold the truth -- the two-pronged truth that

·      God is holy.

·      Humans are broken and we need restoration to our right relationship to God and each other that only God gives – and – we can’t keep indulging the sinful conduct that separated us from Him. Or approve others who do.   

Easter is a great opportunity to pass on the information:  remember the power that raised Christ from the dead, is freely available to any who want out of the dead-ends in which they find themselves.

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, Bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits;
Who pardons all your iniquities; Who heals all your disease;
Who redeems your life from the pit;
Who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle. (Psalm 103:1-5)

Energizing Our Easter Baskets

Today is Extra Terrestrial Abduction Day.

Here’s a link: Extra Terrestrial Abduction Day.  One of the simple pleasures I enjoy in Texas is a radio station that plays classical music and works hard for have DJ’s and programming that appeals to a wide audience. So, in addition to hearing and learning about music, I learn stuff I never knew. (Classical Music)

 

And spring arrived at 7:31 A.M. Spring is nature’s way of saying “Hey, Let’s party.” (Robin Williams)

That oak tree across the street is getting dressed: it has a gold/green haze that popped out in what seemed like one day – the drey, or squirrel’s nest -- is less distinct against the morning sky. And in an email meditation, I read

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.
--- John Muir

I look out the window and see beauty I had no hand in creating – I am listening to music whose sounds delight and whose origin are another human’s gifts. Balance, order, and purpose in what I see and hear – until the news breaks through.  And I learn of troubles that are assailing people – troubles I didn’t cause, and can’t control or cure.  It seems like chaos. So, today’s electronic message counsels:

Even in the face of day-to-day uncertainties, we are reassured by the order and symmetry of the universe.  The unvarying cycles of nature --- the precise arrival of this season --- remind us of God's ability to bring harmony to all things. Through the orderly unfoldment of nature, we are shown once again that we can rely unreservedly on His wisdom and power, now and forever.

Nature is a splendid declaration of God’s handiwork – John Muir, though steeped in the Bible, preferred natural revelation to God’s word.  (Wiki on John Muir) When life gets crazy and mean, looking at nature does bring a sense of calm – but what about when people I love get weird. Or, when I get crazy and mean?

Staring at a tree only helps so far – and the pain of broken relationships or thoughts isn’t always lulled away with good music. Here’s where Scripture helps – it gets at why spring is so dazzling, but depression is such a reasonable response when we take a good look at the world around us – and within us. (See Psalm 19)

The God of my understanding is One who is faithful – especially in crazy, mean and dark times. Jeremiah described His unfailing provision in the midst of awful troubles – troubles Jeremiah did not cause and surely could not control. Jeremiah had a rough time telling Israel the truth about her coming troubles – nobody wanted to hear it – he wound up in more than one pit, from which the Lord delivered him. The prophet felt walled in, with no clear way of escape – and his prayers bounced off the ceiling. Being beamed up by an extra-terrestrial might have been a huge blessing!  But Jeremiah looked to the unseen hand of God and remembered the mystery of God’s wrath and His mercy. (Lamentations 3)  

Some might hope that they will never meet Jeremiah’s God; I hope I will.

. . . Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me. (Abide with Me, by Henry Lyttle)

The Word for the Day: DREY . . .

Which means squirrel’s nest.

For years, I thought of squirrel’s nest as a euphemism for a messy, disorganized room, sloppy thinking or an untidy hair-do. But no, some squirrels built their homes high up and stuff them with twigs, leaves, pine needles, or grass, and line them with shredded grasses, fresh leaves, moss, and lichens are used to line the inside of the nest. I never saw one until recently – when I looked up from my desk, and saw the oak tree across the street silhouetted against a winters’ sunny sky.

The tree across the street now is completely bare – and I can clearly see a squirrel’s nest or two. They look precarious – too large for the supporting branches – and it seems as if they could crash to the ground with the slightest provocation. We’ve had several days of extra breezy weather – enough so as I wonder how that drey stays put, and I wonder if there are little critters inside it, how they are managing.   For now, I can see plainly, what will be hidden in the coming weeks as green haze deepens into an enormous verdant canopy. 

Some days I feel like those squirrels’ nests look – precariously resting on limbs that may not support me – and completely exposed. 

Perhaps this is a gentle reminder to keep editing how much I hang out in cyberspace. My sister-in-law’s gentle observation of the various flowerpots dotting our garden’s perimeter has become a mantra: you need to edit the pots.  Too much of even a good thing is still too much.

Or, these precarious feelings may bubble forth from all the joys of maturity continuing as they present themselves: stumbling, bumping into things and sometimes falling can really wreck a girl’s confidence; losing words; forgetting names. Too many examples are still too much.

·      In a [woman's] middle years there is scarcely a part of the body [she] would hesitate to turn over to the proper authorities.  ~E.B. White

These feelings when intertwined with memories, resentments, fears, disappointments and guilt can be like those squirrels’ nest I see; they need editing – and deleting – as surely as the embarrassment of mangy looking flower pots dominating our garden.

·      You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.  ~Douglas MacArthur

To that end, I heard some good old advice recently at a meeting: Don’t believe everything you think.  Or, just because I think something is so doesn’t make it so. A timely reminder not to lean on my own understanding to prop myself up. What I think may be as wobbly a support as those bare branches appear to be! (Proverbs 3:5-12)

Fear can be the stiffest breeze blowing through my branches – Hope is the red marker I am using to edit my thoughts – as well as gratitude.  Looking up, the squirrels’ nests are holding in the current winds blowing through Dallas. Looking around the garden, I have edited the number of pots – just in time for spring planting.

·      There is always a lot to be thankful for, if you take the time to look. For example, I'm sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt.  ~Author Unknown