Sunday, March 24, 2019

Love on

Sometimes it takes some pretty tough words from others to get me out of my worry state for people who are avoiding thinking about and vis a vis not making a decision I think would be good for their eternal life.
Yesterday a man reminded me, "You can't save everyone."
He wanted me to cheer up, be happier, lighter in my emotions but the conversation I had just had must have left worry on my face.
I talked fairly long with this person and I cannot be easily... the word ensnared came to mind but that would suggest I had been bamboozled into this lengthy refutement of each of his ideas. Basically, he is a stranger to me but it was at least the second time I had spoken with him. Because of the times we live in and probably because of the kind of person I am... even a first conversation will have any heavy topic in it... life, death, eternity... and I have at times been very good at giving situational advice to someone if I think they would benefit from the environment I suggest they try. As the conversation ended, this man said, "I'll tell you what... when I die I will come and tell you what it is like." My response was, "No, don't do that. Your story will be too sad and I won't be able to handle the sorrow."
There are days I wish I was more like I was in my twenties when within each of these conversations I would search for the seed of spiritual life within the person I was speaking to and, if and when I found it, I could be content that the person had the necessary exposure to truth so that a decision for eternal life could be made... should the person wish to.
Nowadays, I am not finding that seed in all people I meet anymore... or is it just that the rebellion to the seed they were given calls out louder?
This could be it.
So, this morning my thoughts were refined and simplified in one thought that came to my mind. People who are not saved do not wish to be.
As hard as that is for someone like me to accept, it is true.
'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' Romans 10:13
I believe that and every time I need help I call on the name of the Lord. If I didn't I would be calling my son all the time. I don't want to be a pain to him so you can ask him how many times I have called him to help me these last four years.
Not very many. That's for sure.
So, as I was helping another person out this week I asked... aren't you a Christian? The answer from this person was no so I said... 'Well, then you couldn't pray and ask God for help I guess.'
The facts are... anyone can call on the Lord for help but many are choosing not to. So, I helped out with this situation going way beyond what I normally do because this person was going to be in a big fluster until their momentary problem was resolved and the bigger issues of life were not going to be helpful to discuss further with this person. It doesn't mean that I wasn't frustrated with the one I was helping but I could only do what I could do in that situation.
When I relayed a bit of this story to a very young man later that day and told him that this person still had not accepted the Lord, his response was, "Too bad for them."
It came out of his mouth so swiftly, firmly, and matter- of- fact that he really surprised me with his instantaneous acceptance of the fact that people decide or don't decide to accept the Lord.
He really made me laugh because I cannot be like that but it sometimes takes a very young person to be that forthright... his 'hardliner' attitude freed me up immediately. He was just a youth so I am not going to follow his short road of experience but I will apply the basic idea his words indicated.
People choose... or choose not to.

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Love


What is love?
Firstly, you cannot love someone you don't spend time with.
But wait, children are an exception, right?
After all, twenty or thirty years was spent investing my love into them so I love them no matter what.
So, what I have learned from loving others is this... so far, I seem to be able to love others more than they can love me... I think I get that from Jesus.
His capacity to love is so far above and greater than anything I am capable of that it is that 'over 50 years' of getting His love that gives me some to give to others even when they cannot return it.
You know, sometimes I feel so discouraged by my search for a true mate of love... human man now is what I speak of.
One thing I was encouraged with this morning... having spent many years writing my novel and feeling strongly that God wanted me to do that I was wondering why it doesn't bring forth fruit. Should I not expect it to?
As I was listening to a 'sermon' this morning I was so very excited when I felt affirmed by the one Scripture I deliberately wrote into my novel.
       Jeremiah 31:5
I was trying to write a current story to represent the Bible and all the allegory was, I thought, brilliant but I also hoped it would be simple enough for anyone to understand.
Many years ago I met a man I went to church with... during the week by happen-chance, in a public place. I would not say I even had a relationship with him even though we attended the same church but, there we both were, meeting in a public place where we recognized each other and both stopped to chat about the sermon the previous Sunday.
As I listened to him and when he had relayed a frustration he had about the teaching from the pulpit I responded with... 'I think what he meant by that was...'
Our conversation wrapped up with his incredible words of... "Well, why doesn't he say it like you just said it? Then I would understand it! It's so simple the way you just explained it."
That day I realized that I have an ability to take complex teaching and distill it to a more simplified form for better understanding.
It's a gift from God... this is what a few men have told me.
It comes from a love of learning and years of reading the Bible and applying it to the current events of the day. 
I have to confess that I was so frustrated with what seemed like an impossible task when I listened to a young couple ask me questions in church a few years ago. The questions so reveal their understanding or lack of teaching/ learning and I was so disheartened that I have just found that 'responsibility' to be overwhelming and daunting. I thought... how do I explain everything they want to know in this moment when all the back story work has not been done?
I feel I gave my own children the guidance they needed but I do not think their generation all received that. 
So, everyone is in their own unique place of lifes' journey and the words I am applying today are... 'Don't give up!'
Each conversation, each interchange can be important if we all just keep working in this 'kingdom work of love.'

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Worse than awful

Have you ever had a day that was worse than awful? Today was 'worse than awful' a number of times for me.
I never quite know what to do on days like that. Nobody who is available to hug. Too much pain and alone-ness. I avoided a very big 'could have been terrible' accident tonight. The only thing you can ever control in life is yourself and what you are driving or doing. So, I practice defensive driving all the time.
People make mistakes sometimes when driving but if you drive an eighteen wheeler... it is important to 'not make mistakes.' Any of us who are 'in the way' do not have much of a chance against that weight, do we?
So, no thanks to the driver of that big rig tonight but I did very well in avoiding being crushed by his rig... on a bridge no less... worst place for that to happen.
So, tough day for me...
hopefully it gets much, much better!

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

What is pleasing?

So, I had a power start morning. How was yours?
I read the  most encouraging few words this morning. I will try to shorten the original writers' words to simplify his meaning, as I understand it and have experienced it. Personal experience, after all, is often accredited as the stamp of authenticity to the individual.
'You cannot escape ultimate and permanent happiness as you grow on and on. The more sensitive you grow the more clearly you will see the law that leads away from pain and ever toward happiness where all sense of time is lost when we are deeply interested or engaged in something.'
I experience much body pain but also much body healing. I do not know why it is so for me. I asked my son the other day if he did not experience and feel healing in his body but he said he did not feel it. Maybe it happens for others differently. It seems we all experience life in a unique way. Maybe healing happens for some while they are unaware of it and they just get up and go to a very physically demanding job and are able to do it. This would be impossible for me but it works for him.
Yesterday, my arthritis was so out of control I shut down everything but my attention to a specific task of finishing this quilt. Without any pain medication during a full and even considered overtime day for workers who have a job and get paid, I worked with determination and a set goal and have it almost complete. When the mind and the will focus together a task gets done and, when I am enjoying the project, the result is my yet greater enjoyment.
I never actually know how a quilt will turn out because I create as I go along. Until yesterday I did not know what the back of this cabin quilt would be but I try many combinations until I get something I like... this often involves limited supplies and the requirement to be even more creative all the time as I am required to combine materials for just the right mix of soft, hard, and clarity.
I could live in that mystical place in the woods that brings me much peace. This is why I often walk in the forest. But, I don't get much done in that mystical haze so the navy and white crosses fabric is representational of my logical side... sometimes uncompromising logical side but I can get a lot done when I hit that mood. Something clicks and I can make decisions one after another after another...
but it always starts with that 'Love' word... it just inspires me.
  People who build things must get tons of satisfaction from what they do... or, people who enjoy what they do just get tons of satisfaction.
I enjoy pleasing... I really do... even in the smallest little things. I got an adorable little compliment from a finicky little eater the other day.
"This is the best chocolate thing I've ever tasted," he said, as he munched on my cream cheese brownies.
I don't need or desire fame but to please a little person in such a small way. I enjoy that.