To Be Continued...

   I have been reading a book (again) entitled The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, an entertaining book which uses the format of a series of correspondence between primarily an author in England and various people on the Island of Guernsey on the subject of the German occupation in World War II.

   At one point in the story, and the various pieces of letters and wires do form a narrative, the lady in England decides that there is a book contained in all that is going on, so she leaves her place in London and goes to Guernsey to meet the people there face to face.

   It is the only way she can get a feel for the story that she wants to tell. The breaking of ties with one place, or with familiar habits, or just stopping a pattern in order to feel something different, or to let yourself see your world in a different sort of way.

   It is not necessary to travel away from home, although it may happen. The only thing is to put yourself in a mental spot to look through different eyes. Through a reflective time, through a camera lens, through meditation and prayer or some other breaking of the ordinary to reach further down.

   I want to try to blend the past with the present and look out as far as God would let me. I want to look around me, even in the ordinary things of life, and see with God's eyes, what it is that He wants to show.

   So there is a sabbatical in the offing for the next couple of weeks. I plan not to write, just to listen and look. Maybe to scribble some notes now and then, so as to jog my memory later on, but nothing formal and continuous. Maybe just sitting and soaking is the ticket, who knows?

   Even though I can hardly believe this figure, it looks like I have written 672 blog posts over the past 3 years on this site. The beauty of the Internet is that they are all stored for retrieval, and a fix is available for any needy reader, even the author. Maybe I should just sit here on my couch, or out by the pool in the sun, and reread what I have said I wanted to do, and see if I actually have paid attention to what my words have said.

   God willing, I will return…

   Just like The General

For Such A Time...

   As important as I think it is, the future is still out there in the future. I have been caught up in the last couple of days in thinking and blogging about how to look at those days out there, and I do think that it is important to keep those thoughts in mind, but a verse from Psalm 118 hits me. This verse was actually in yesterday's reading, but still open on my computer this morning:

"This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it."

   As it is important to think correctly about future events, and how I approach them, I am living in this day, and that is the one time period I can affect the best.

   Now I do not want to slight yesterday and the past before it, after all it is from the past that we learn, and August 19th was a special day, too. It was the 13th birthday of my Arkansas grandson (shown here in a recent picture with his sister).

   This teenager is a whiz, and I look forward to see what the future holds for him. His world on this day is 8th grade in the Conway Public School System, and it too is a day that The Lord has made.

   Yesterday turned to last night, and that in turn ushered in a bright new clear morning here.

   The past is gone, but not forgotten, and the future has not arrived.

"This is the day that the Lord has made;"

   The importance of this day reminds me of another verse in Esther:

"Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

   I need to open my eyes, ears and heart to see the special importance of this day as it happens in my world.

Being In The Light

   Maybe I did not do such a good job yesterday on that potential thing, especially the third portion.

   When I talked about the future and the potential for God to be in all of what might happen, my thought was that He was already there, and we had the potential for realizing that fact and living the time with that knowledge. Living in the light of God's potential is our choice, and realization of that fact is what keeps us from fretting too much about the "what ifs".

   Last evening we went down to the Village pier area for dinner and a relaxing walk around Neptune Park and the shops of that area. Naturally I took my camera, just in case, and I took a shot of the sunset from the pier. I noticed a man between my position and the sunset in the west, and when I looked at the result on the computer this morning, I realized it was a good illustration of my point on this third type of potential.

   (Well, it was potentially a good illustration if I could put down the words to explain what I was thinking.)

   In the lower left hand corner of the shot, there is a man taking a picture of that same sunset. From my vantage point, he is actually standing in the light of what he is shooting. Could he realize that from his viewpoint? I doubt it, but it was true nonetheless.

   The same is true for us. When we put the future in God's hands, and live in that thought as the future unfolds, He is there working for us, and we are in the light of His presence, whether or not we realize it at the time.

   I would like to be able to see the photograph taken by the man on that beach. He had a clear and unobstructed view to the west, and I'm sure it was a nice picture. Did he know he was in the light? Did he know what I saw in my shot from further east? Was his purpose to be in my shot and be an illustration of a point in a blog post?

   Regardless, he was in that light and the result is here.

   May I live in future events in a way that gives credence to the fact that God was there, and that I was in His Light.

Potential, 3 Ideas...

   When I think this morning of the future, the next hour, the next day, or week or month or year, I think of the word "potential".

   I guess you can look at any future that you want to envision in one of two ways. The potential for good for you or the reverse, and think of all the good or bad things that can happen in that same time period.

   I was reminded as I read a section of Psalm 107 this morning where the author lists two possibilities that could happen to the land:

" He turns rivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,

a fruitful land into a salty waste,
because of the evil of its inhabitants."

 In the same manner, God blesses those who call on Him:

" He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water."

   He says these two different outcomes are associated with the lives and actions of two classes of peoples, one blessed and the other cursed because of what they do.

   When I look out into any future time, my mind can conger up all kinds of scenarios, but they will fall into two distinct pictures, one of the good that can happen and one of the bad. The potential is there for either or both, but my attitude as I try to look forward has a lot to do with how I live in the present

   I can see an army of problems marching toward me, and I can worry, or that same image can be of blessings and good things, and I can rejoice. What makes the difference?

   Of course, I think of a picture in my files to illustrate my thoughts:

   Two shadows, faceless forms on a bright orangey fence. One can be the potential for bad things to happen in my future times and the other can be the good, but there is another potential that I need to key on.

   That is the thought that God, who is not bound by time and space, has already "been there" in any potential situation, and I can trust that what He has in store for me is good, if I walk with Him in His Will.

   The dominant aspect of that shot above is not the two indistinct shadows, it is the bright fence, illuminated by the Son who can turn even the dry desert potentials into pools of life-giving water.

   I need to not live in the worry about whether any day of the future will be good or bad (in my definition), but live in the potential of God's future as I follow Him.

   Three Potentials for any future, live in the realm of the Third One.

   Let God's bright color overwhelm the shadows of worry.

  

Dreaming, And What About...

   I woke up this morning with a dream on my mind. It was strange and much too complicated to write down, but it pointed me to some things I have been reading lately.

   And it gives me a chance to highlight one picture from our recent visit by our Arkansas kids. Does this not look like a "dreaming" pose?

   Taken form a landing in the lighthouse, looking out over the earth from 100 feet up so so.

   The prayer book that I have been reading talks a lot about our dreams, and I think about the questions of what dreams do I have? Are my dreams about life and health and kids and grandkids? All of these are good but do they qualify for "God-sized" dreams, things that will not happen unless God does them.

   At my age, do I need to have dreams, or is the thought just to persevere until my time runs out?

   The Psalmist says in Psalm 27:4:

"I have asked the Lord for one thing—
this is what I desire!
I want to live in the Lord’s house all the days of my life,"
   What is my desire, my dream?

   I read in another blog this morning:

   "I believe God created us to dream"

   All of us would include even those of us in the older generation.

   Would it not be better for the dreams of my life to come from the depths of prayer and revelation from God, rather than the left over meatloaf of last night?

   I went back and listened to the "I Have A Dream" speech by Dr. King. Now that was a God-sized dream, spoken with the conviction and purpose of a man who knew the rightness of his cause.

   Oh that my dreams would be so in touch with the will of God.

   And I contemplate the question: What Are My Dreams?

A String of Coincidences? Not...

   Coming toward me on the cart path this morning was a man wearing an Auburn shirt. That is AUBURN spelled in big letters, and I could read it from quite a distance. As is true of a lot of folks on the path in the early morning, he had a dog walking beside him. I knew neither he nor his dog was familiar to me, so I prepared to say hello and keep moving.

   But his dog, Maggie, I found out later, wanted to visit, so I stopped to pet her and strike up a conversation. He mentioned that Maggie liked to chase deer, and he had seen a couple while walking last evening. My wife and I had seen these also as we drove out to meet some friends for dinner.

   The man, Joel was his name, I found out in passing, just said that Maggie like to chase deer and squirrels back home, and so I asked where he was from. Monticello was the answer, and I commented that we had been there and then told him about the courthouse tour that we were on. Monticello is the county set of Jasper County and had a nice older courthouse, built in 1908 which we had visited.

   Then, as if this was the main news event in the country the past few days, he asked if I had heard about the tragic fire in Hancock County, to which I replied in the affirmative, telling Joel that we had been there and had taken that photo.

   I then told him that I remembered an older white church in Monticello that I liked and had a photo of.

   He knew the church and, in fact, had a lumber company nearby.

   I asked him about what brought him to St. Simons, and he said his wife had inherited a house in that area and they came to stay periodically. Of course this led to more questions and I learned that Her parents were the Fowlers, who lived in our old neighborhood, came from Atlanta, and were the first people who had us over to dinner after we moved here in 1995.

   After we talked for a few minutes about his family and mine, we parted to continue our walks, and, as I walked on around, I got to thinking about the places and people we had in common.

   How often is that? The reason it all came to light was because a dog wanted to be petted, and two people were able to share.

   I'm sure I would be able to share lives with more folks if I just took advantage of opportunities that walked up to me like that.

   There just could be a deeper reason for all that conversation this morning. God knows it was not just a chance encounter, but I would never know unless I did more than wave and say "hello".

   Makes me wonder who I have missed in my hurry up life.

   Slow down and see.

A Happy Error

   The events of yesterday, with the fire in Hancock County at the old courthouse, caused me to put some effort in planning another trip to photograph others that I had not gotten to as yet. That exercise led me to realize that Hancock County was not on my new list of ones to cover, and, looking back at my database, the knowledge came that I had erred. I did have pictures of the courthouse and some other shots besides. 

   I am happy, really happy, to be able to share what I found, but, more than that, I had not missed getting that great old building in my file. I know there are lots of pictures in a lot of files, but they were not mine, and I wanted the pleasure of the find, and I wanted to have the personal enjoyment of having spent some time in that place.

   One of the interesting things to me about that post yesterday, and the scenes that it entailed, were some subconscious memories that I must have stored away back when I was there, but did not know that I was talking about this particular courthouse.

   For example I wrote:

   "We have seen them from outside small towns, their clock towers hovering over a cluster of buildings, some of which may have seen much better days. We have sat on front porches and inside on wooden benches. We have seen people coming and going, transacting business with the county in the same way as their parents and grandparents had done over the years. "

   And here is what I took pictures of in Sparta that day:

   Another example from my blog yesterday:

   "We have looked into old courtrooms and sat on those old chairs and pews, wondering about the many things that had gone on in that room over the years that court had been held there. We wondered about what those pieces of furniture could tell us if they could. We thought of, and speculated about, the stories of men, women, boys and girls whose very lives were bound up in the events that took place inside those old buildings."

   When you have traveled around the state and photographed 116 courthouses, you are hard pressed to picture each one and remember the shots you were impressed to take. It is amazing to me that, when I wrote those thoughts in that blog, I had actually done those acts and had those thoughts in that very building. I knew they were general thoughts that had passed through my mind several times in several places, but, until I found them in my file, I did not know it was in this place, and that I had pictures to go along with them.

   I am still sad that this grand old structure burned, and I know the folks who lived and had business in that courthouse are still sad, but I am happy that my time and memories from there are intact.

   The County was in the process of renovating that building, even fixing the clock so that it had hands and show the correct time on all four sides, and I do not know what they will do now with that shell of a structure, but here is what it looked like last September.

   Now to go get the other 43 that I need for completion.

   

I Am Sad...

   The Death of a friend that I never knew…

   I got the news from a friend last evening on Facebook. Her words were "Don, I hope you got to photograph this one", and showed a picture of the old 1883 courthouse in Sparta, GA, the county seat of Hancock County.

   As I quickly looked up my records to see if I had a photo in my files, I knew I could not remember being in that town, and, sure enough, that was one of the old courthouses that I had not gotten around to. I had 116 of the 159 courthouses in our state of Georgia, but Hancock was still missing from the list.

   Over the past couple of years, Mayre and I have had the opportunity to move around this state and see, as well as take pictures of, these courthouses, many of whom are over 100 years old and still in use.

   We have seen them from outside small towns, their clock towers hovering over a cluster of buildings, some of which may have seen much better days. We have sat on front porches and inside on wooden benches. We have seen people coming and going, transacting business with the county in the same way as their parents and grandparents had done over the years. 

   We have looked into old courtrooms and sat on those old chairs and pews, wondering about the many things that had gone on in that room over the years that court had been held there. We wondered about what those pieces of furniture could tell us if they could. We thought of, and speculated about, the stories of men, women, boys and girls whose very lives were bound up in the events that took place inside those old buildings.

   I'm sure that there are folks in Sparta and Hancock County that will drive by those ruins and remember life that was lived in that place, and I am sad that we will not have the chance to take some time to just sit and think in that building.

   Is it silly to be sad over the death of a building? 

   It is always hard to lose a friend, even one that you never knew.

My Reading List This Summer

   Sometime back I read a verse in Psalm 101 which states:

"I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;"

   That admonition caught me, mainly due to the fact that I like to read and am prone to read a lot of things that sound like they would be good, but turn out to have little in the way of redeeming value.

   Now I realize that the verse covers a lot more than just reading, but through the eyes come a multitude of images that affect my thought processes, some good and some bad, but reading came to my mind first.

   It may be because  I am old, but there is not enough time to read all the good stuff much less waste time with the other. With that in mind, the first part of this summer I found a post by Dr. Albert Mohler that talked about the 10 books he wanted to read during June, July and August. Since he seems to be big on history, especially in this list, I decided to search out those titles and read along with him.

   My reading has included 5 of the 10 books so far.

   1. Mission at Nuremberg by Townsend (a book about the Nazi war crimes trials)

   2. The Lion's Gate by Pressfield (a book about the 1967 Arab-Israeli War)

   3. The Good Spy by Bird (a book about Robert Ames of the CIA)

   4. The Dead and Those About to Die by McManus (a book about D Day)

   5. I Heard My Country Calling by Webb (an memoir by former VA Senator Jim Webb)

   Perhaps I spend too much time with my nose stuck in my Kindle, but I am reading good stuff, at least in my opinion.

"I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;"

   There may also be better books to read, but I don't think the above will qualify as "worthless".

   Books, movies, TV, magazines and anything else that my eyes spend time on. All are subject to God's definition of "worthless".

   And I need to consider that, all the time.

 

 

Prayerful Punctuation, How...

   For some years I have used a punctuation tool without really knowing that it was one. As an example think about this usage:

   "God always answers prayer, but…"

   The way I used those three dots at the end of that short blurb that introduces a blog post has been for me more of a hook to draw a reader into the post rather than the use of a real form of punctuation.

   Let me illustrate by quoting from a a passage in The Circle Maker, a book I have referenced before here in this space:

"That’s where most of us live most of the time — in the triple-dot punctuation known as an ellipsis. The ellipsis indicates a pause in speech or an unfinished thought. When we’re waiting for God to answer a prayer, it’s a period of ellipsis."

(Batterson, Mark (2011-12-20). The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears (p. 89). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. )

   I think about how I pray, and what I pray for. My requests directed toward God may be noble or they may be selfish, but I usually end any thoughts with the simple phrase from the Lord's Prayer in Matthew, "Thy Will Be Done".

   I note that I put a period at the end of the previous sentence, but maybe that punctuation should be change to an ellipsis. When I put the period there, it seems to me that I can be saying that I know that God's will is best and will be the outcome, but am I also saying that, since any request to God is ultimately out of my hands, I am praying this and then leaving it there, not to be visited again?

   Is that the way to pray? Just throwing out a prayer with a finality that may show my concern about the matter, but with no anticipation of the outcome?

   Or…

   Should I use the ellipsis instead of the period?

   Hmmm...

"Wait for your Papa"

   Our condo is quiet this morning. For the past 4 mornings, there has been a sense of activity, from the early hour of 7AM well into the evening hours. There have been things to do and places to go and meals to go out to and meals to fix for hungry people. There has been fun and talk and games and even some sleep.

   But, of course, we would not trade it for anything else. It is family, a family that is scattered around the country, and it is a chance to do some things together once again.

   We put our Arkansas family, well most of it anyway, back on the plane for home late yesterday afternoon. Our daughter, the mom, and her two growing up kids.

   And as I walked in the quiet this morning, I thought of the passage of time and how it was manifested to me in these past few days. I read it also in the Psalms this morning and even felt the implication of it as the wind blew around me.

"He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again."
   I see it in the faces of kids who used to be little and are now growing up. Not getting to see them much tends to make the contrast of their sizes more manifest.

   And I see it in my own activities. I see it represented in our lighthouse. No longer is it just a pretty symbol of our Island, it is 104 feet of height and 129 steps to the top. It seems like just yesterday when I would get in that circular stairway and zip to the top without missing a beat. Now it is 21 steps and a needed rest at the next landing.

   But my mind says that I am the same and I can do this just like I used to. My body and lungs, however, do not agree, and they trump.

   And I hear the voice of my daughter at the top of that stairway, "Wait on your Papa, he'll be here in a minute".

   But the view is still magnificent, and I can still enjoy that with my family, this time around anyway.

   And I am grateful to God for the experience and the reminders of life to be lived and enjoyed.

And There He Was...

   I had an observer on my walk around this morning, perhaps more than one, but this one I saw eventually, and I was reminded. He (or she) was already out there before I got to that spot and saw him. I wished for my camera as he appeared in my vision and then disappeared into the woods on the other side of the fairway.

   One day, sometime back, I did have my camera and got this. Maybe it was the same owl, who knows?

   But let me say what he had reminded me of:

   As I prayed this morning for my day that was stretching out in front of me, the thought hit me that I did not have to worry about what might happen or not happen that day, God was already out there, and, when I got to a point that I did not know how to act or what to do, He was already there, watching, knowing and ready.

   I saw in my mind's eye, that owl as he flew across the path that I had just walked on. I had turned around to see a couple of herons wading in the pond, and there he went. He had been there all the time, but I had not looked up.

   My daughter and her two kids will be coming tomorrow, and I will spend some time today getting ready for their arrival and looking forward to some good times together for a few days, but that is not all that today is for.

   God is already out there today. This day is important too.

   Maybe I had better look up.