I Have Plans...

   Most every day, I have plans.

   They may not be monumental, they may not be important, they are most probably mundane and not earth-shattering.

   They are simple, like getting up early, walking, reading and praying, making breakfast, dressing, playing, watching, and seeing what the day might bring. Routine plans that lend a structure to my day.

   Take today: I must have been anticipating the return to Eastern Standard Time tomorrow, because I woke up at 5am instead of my usual 6.

   My walking route was much the same, but the quiet and the wildlife were different. True it was a Saturday and people were sleeping in, but the raccoons were walking down the street under the street lights. I had not seen them lately.

   As I passed by a darkened house, I felt that someone was looking. As I looked up, there was a dark form sitting on the point of the roof. A new flag or something? Nope, it moved quietly then turned south and flew away with the sound of a heron. What in the world was he doing up there?

   The only automobile out was the paper guy, and the sounds of crunching acorns in the roadway as he smashed them on his route. That and the slap of the Brunswick News hitting driveways as he delivered.

   As I walked, I considered my plans for this day. I had an unexpected extra hour to work with.

   Then I was reminded of a previous day this past week. It was a "normal" day, and, in the back of my mind, there were things I planned to do.

   As I looked out on the back porch, watching the clouds turn color with the sunrise, between me and the light was a dark object. It was a new friend joining us from the outside. These creatures don't bother us, they may even keep the gnat population down, but my wife does not welcome them into our home.

   Knowing that we often leave our doors open to the back porch this time of year, there is always the possibility that these guys may decide to come in for a spell.

   So I got my glass jar and got him into it, for disposal out the front door of the condo and into the bushes below the first floor.

   Either he was really fast, or we had more of these guys outside our porch, because after the first episode, I saw another one on the screen.

   Before the day ended, I had captured and relocated 4 of them to the front door and out into that same bush.

   These were not in my plans for the day, but once they began visiting us, my wife made sure my priorities were changed to make sure they did not sleep with us that night.

   In a very short amount of time that morning, my plans for the day, whatever they might have been, were altered.

   It was a reminder to hold all my plans loosely in my hand. In a split second they could all change.

   I was also reminded of a verse that was on the wall of our church some years ago from Jeremiah 29:11

" For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. "

   Who might our visitor be today?

   Sometimes God may bring big changes to our plans, and sometimes He may just bring reminders to be ready.

   And I could use my extra hour to think on these things…...

 

"Let's Do It, Papa"

   I began thinking about a particular verse the other day..Micah 6:8, which reads in the NIV:

"the Lord has told you what is good,
    and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
    and to walk humbly with your God."

   Writing about "do what is right" here:

http://walkinganewpath-pilgrim.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-simple-thing.html

   Writing about "loving mercy" here:

http://walkinganewpath-pilgrim.blogspot.com/2015/10/two-faces-of-mercy.html

   But I have put off, not just thinking about, because I have really done that over the past few days, but putting my thoughts into words on this page, the words "walk humbly with your God".

   How do we do that?

   As I continued to think on that this morning, this thought came from my Psalm reading devotional:

Picture yourself running to catch up with your Papa. As you reach Him, you slip your hand trustingly into His. Walking along, you eagerly look into His eyes making your request, "Papa, open my eyes, don't hide Your commands from me... make me walk in Your paths. And Papa, help me to abandon my shameful ways... give me an eagerness for Your laws and the privilege of knowing Your instructions. I love You Papa!"

The Bible tells us to come to God humbly and trusting, like a child. We see this in the psalmist's trusting reliance in God to do the good work needed in his heart and his life.

   The analogy of God as Papa made me pause. Papa is my name to my grandchildren, and I have spent much time over the years taking them on walks, hand in hand, talking and walking. Those are some of my best memories.

   "OK, take my hand. We're going to cross this street" and the small hand takes mine as we walk safely across.

   When they are small, and not yet too big to want to do it themselves, they humbly and trustingly are glad to oblige.

   Isn't that the way to "walk humbly with your God"? Without pride in what we can do. Without a sense of shame in having to trust someone else.

   When my oldest grandson, Sawyer, was of the age that he liked his Papa to read with him in bed before he went off to sleep, we were lying there with one of his books when I asked him what he would like for us to do on the next day.

   Thinking about it for a minute, he answered, "I don't care what we do Papa, just so I can do it with you".

   No agenda, just a relationship.

   Isn't that a way to "walk humbly with your God"?

   "Whatever we do is OK, I just want to do it with You". Do we not think that God would like to hear that from us?

   Oh, that I might never grow too smart, or too smug, or too independent, or too proud, to reply to God in the same way.

   I want to walk humbly WITH my God, not only crossing those dangerous streets, but all the time.

   And Sawyer grew up:

It Was a Dark and …..Night

   We had a discount dining certificate, so we went to Jekyll Island last evening.

   After a great supper, we had time for some exploring, in the dusk and in the evening.

         Which way to go?

         We could choose the path of nature..

          Like going to the ocean, where we had our choice of light..

            Perhaps from across the sound..

                 Or from above.

                 Or going shopping

                  Everything for your stay..

                     Life is good here..

                      These folks would have felt at home..

                      Accommodations for all..

                      Perfect for Thanksgiving with the appropriate message..

                         We'll leave the light on for you…...

Predictability, But Maybe Just Singing...

   One thing I like about being able to be out early in the morning before the sun comes up (well, it really does not come up as you know), is to look up in the heavens (if it is clear) and see the stars in that black sky.

   Sometimes I even think that Orion is my friend. He is there, almost above my head, and his belt is obvious and recognizable. When I spot it, I can think that all is well. The predictability is comforting in a world that is not.

   Then there is the movement of the various stars around in the sky according to the date of our calendar. For the past several days now, I have watched as the planets of Venus, Jupiter and Mars have changed positions in these early morning Fall days.

   But they are not just random positions. Astronomers can tell us how they will be aligned on this morning, as they did on yesterday and they will be able to predict where they will be tomorrow.

   There is order up there.

   All by random chance, or intelligent design?

   I know that if I wake up early, and get out while it is still dark, and the sky is clear, I will be able to spot these stars and planets as they cycle through the seasons of the year. Their orbits are fixed in a solar system that we can know.

   I can make plans for my life. I can set them in motion, but I can't even know how each day will work out. Who will I meet? Where might I be? What will I be doing?

   Who knows, I might not even live out this day. Then what about my plans for tomorrow and the next day, month or year?

   Maybe I can be comforted by the order in God's universe, but the only way I can live each day in His peace is to realize that He is in control. His will for me is the best, and if I am in the middle of that Will, all will be OK.

   Should I just sing?

     

1. Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
   Praise Him, all creatures here below;
   Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
   Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Amen
 

 

Two Faces of Mercy

   I looked at a verse the other day, Micah 6:8:

" the Lord has told you what is good
    and this is what he requires of you:
    to do what is right, to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God"

   What does God require of me?

      "to do right"

      "to love mercy"

   What is mercy? The computer Dictionary says this:

"compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence:"

   There are at least two sides to mercy.

   God is merciful to us. His grace and mercy are much more than we will ever deserve.

   How merciful toward others should we be?

Sure, God's mercy trumps ours every time,

but,

where we can,

He commands us 

to go and do likewise.

Do Right

Love Mercy

A Simple Thing?

   A few days back, I woke up with this verse on my mind..Micah 6:8:

the Lord has told you what is good,
    and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
    and to walk humbly with your God.

   It was written in such a way that it matches my desire for an easy formula. "Just take this verse and live by it. You can do it, it is only 3 things you have to remember. It is the path to pleasing God."

   That is what I want. One verse, written on a 3x5 card, pasted to the front of my computer, waiting to be noticed and lived by.

   "to do what is right". Now that is straightforward, just do it.

   But what is right? Your right? My right? I think of the verse that says "they all did what was right in their own eyes". The world wants to say that Right is relative. Is it?

   What would Jesus say?

   The other morning, as I walked in the predawn darkness, I spotted some litter along the cart path. Some golfer must have left it or dropped it off his cart. It was dark, there was no one about, and I did not want to carry it with me to the next tee box where there was a trash container. So I walked on, telling myself that the grounds crew would get it when they came to cut grass or something.

   I got a few yards down the path toward home and thought, "this is not right, that thing should be picked up now regardless of how silly I might look to another walker, and its not far to the trash container anyway".

   So I did, and I could check off the first command from the verse. Now to go through the rest of the day in the same spirit. That could be hard, but at least I got off to the right start and just maybe I can remember that action as other things come along my path.

   How many times during one day do I have the opportunity to do right? In relationships, or in the effort put into a task.

   How many times do I even notice that there might be something to be done?

   Sure I want to live by that verse.

   Sure I want to please God in my life.

   It is the right thing to do

Angels on the Trace

   I have been reading a book, Not Without My Father: One Women's 444 Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace. An interesting story, but not really what I expected.

   Stories that are real, that show how a person can succeed on their own, especially ones that involve some physical quest and accomplishment, draw me into them. Their struggles and their discovery about  themselves. Real people doing real things.

   I was touched by an incident near the end of this book. An incident that I want to quote in its entirety. One that will stick with me for a long time.

   The author, Andra, began her trek at the southern end of the Natchez Trace, and, as she reached the end, a man, in his white SUV is parked beside the road. This conversation ensues:

   "Ma'am. You okay?" A man sat in a white SUV, his mouth obscured by a handlebar mustache. I took in the logo on the side of his ride. A federal ranger. The first one I'd encountered since Jackson, Mississippi, three fourths of the Natchez Trace Parkway.

   "I'm great. Been walking the Trace. This is my last day."

   "You come all the way from Natchez?" He leaned through the window and ran his fingers over the United States Government emblem.

   "Yeah. I started March 1." I held my breath and waited. Rangers south of Jackson greeted me with doubt. One even regaled me with the story of a couple who tried a through hike, only to be washed out at milepost 90. His tone dripped with, "And they were more fit than you".

   The first federal employee to admit I might succeed was a surveyor at milepost 222. It was radio silence from there.

   He pounded his door."We been talking about you for weeks! The maintenance crews have been cut back and all that-budget nonsense, you understand-but they've been doing extra runs without pay just for you. "Gotta check on our girl! Every day they've been following your trek on their own time."

   "Really?" I thought about the trash collectors I came upon at pull-offs, the foresters I encountered as they removed fallen trees and debris. The trucks that honked as they rattled past. When I talked to them, they said they were doing their jobs as well as they could with no funding, trying to preserve a forgotten place. I blinked back tears with the realization that underpaid, unappreciated people gave their own time and resources to make sure I was safe. To pave the way for me to finish. I swallowed. "Everybody's been following me?"

   "Yep. I'm so glad I got to meet you. And you're finishing today."

   Still shell-shocked, I nodded. "In about a mile. Yes".

   "Well. Good luck to you. We're all rooting for you, wherever you go from here."

   She had walked for a month on that road, and she never knew…

   Isn't that a picture of God's involvement in our lives?

   Just like the footprints-in-the-sand narrative, where the person asks God where he was when she was having all that trouble, as she told him about the one pair of footprints in the sand, and He replies that those footprints were His as He carried her through those times.

   He sent those angels on that road for Andra as she walked, and He is still in the helping business for us.

   And I am thankful.

 

Kermit and Me

   There was a verse that has been on my mind for a few days now..Psalm 92:14

"But the godly will flourish like palm trees
    and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon.
13 For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house.
    They flourish in the courts of our God.
14 Even in old age they will still produce fruit;
    they will remain vital and green."

   Not the part about being godly (V.12) but more the part about being old.

   "Vital and Green"

   How about those words? We all want to be vital. Vital to something or someone. Like being in charge or a leader, but other younger folks are those leaders now. They have the energy and the push to get things done. They are the "up front" folks now.

   Mayre and I were on a little trip the past few days. Yesterday her first words as she woke up in a strange room, in the dark, were "Where am I?"

   As I explained the where and when and why, her comment "I am sure glad you are here to tell me all of this, otherwise I would have no clue."

   When I thought about that on the drive home, my mind went to Kermit the Frog on Sesame Street and his song,

It's not that easy being green;
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves.
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold-
or something much more colorful like that.

It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water-
or stars in the sky.

But green's the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like a mountain, or important like a river, or tall like a tree.

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder? Why Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!
And I think it's what I want to be.

   And I thought:

      Sometimes I want to be the flashy and bright and impress others with what I can do, but it is not where I am in life, or where I should be.

   I'm green and that is where I want to be...

A Rare Movie

   We do not go to movies often, but when a lot of our friends told us that we had to see this one, we went.

   I have see most of the Christian movies that have been on the screen recently. There is a church, I believe over in Albany, GA that began a few years back making films with a distinctly Bible flavor.

   Their first one was entitled Facing the Giants. The story line was good and the plot also, but the acting and direction was very amateurish. The message was great, but…

   Their second film was Fireproof, and it was better, a step up from the first.

   Now this one was professional. The message was good, and the cast and directing first class.

   The Movie is War Room, and we really enjoyed it.

      The story was plausible..

      The acting was very good..

      The directive action was fast paced..

      And the situations were right out of daily life with real life applications of Biblical Truth..

   Go See It! You can see a good movie, and be blessed at the same time.