Which Shall It Be, Today or Tomorrow?

   It is mind-boggling to think that there are so many people on this earth at this particular time and that God, not only has the ability to, but seriously wants to, connect with each one and cares about the lives of each one. I get so wrapped up in my own petty things that I easily forget the big picture, but one little verse at the end of a familiar passage draws me back to truth.

   The passage goes through the way that God prepares his world for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, stating that they are cared for even though they are "just a part of His creation", and how much more does he care about each of His human creatures.

   The 6th Chapter of Matthew's Gospel ends with these words: (from The Message)

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

   It answers the question about what we need to do to live in the knowledge of His love and care, and it is one that I need to be reminded of most every day.

   The verse speaks of several things, but two ideas loom large.

   1. Don't spend my time worrying about things.

   2. The time to live is today.

   God has given man the ability to think, to reason, to plan, but also the aptitude to project and to think of possibilities that can be out there. I can see what might happen, or could happen, but there is no way to see past the end of the particular minute or second that I am living in.

   Does He say that I should not worry because everything will turn out rosy? No, but He says He will be there in the hard times as well as the good. What more can I ask for than His presence and the fact that He cares. I know that is all that I need, but still it is hard to actually live that way.

   Another two listing: things that someone has written about planning:

   1. "Failure to plan is a plan to fail", and

   2. "If you want to give God a chuckle, present Him with your plans".

   God does not condemn planning, He just reminds me to hold those plans loosely in my hands.

   A few weeks back, I was reminded of these verses on worry when I walked through a wildflower meadow, and I realized that all around me were glimpses of His truth.

   And I resolved, once again, to live in the day that has been given to me, and see Him there, and I pray that I can actually do it.

   Oh, so easy to write these words and know they are true, but so hard to make them an integral part of my life each and every day,

   Each and Every Day

The World is Crowded

   Last week I wrote about Sydney's graduation from her school, Woodlawn. I am always struck whenever I visit up there in North Carolina, how much the parents and students at that K-12 school enjoy being there. There is just something about the atmosphere there that draws people in.

   I picked up a book, actually a compilation of letters from students to Dwayne and Karen on the 10th anniversary of the school they had started, and was struck by the many references to the outdoors as a reason the kids enjoyed their learning experiences. These lower school students loved the fact that they could get out in nature and do things to learn. They play outside, they eat outside, the garden outside and they just get out of the classroom into the larger world where things are going on.

   Now this school is not "a Christian school" in its charter and its teachings, but God is available to these kids on a daily basis. I may call it "accidental encounters", but in the long run, it is anything but.

   There is a quote from C.S. Lewis that I ran across the other day:

   "We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him."

   I always try to take the time to look around the school when I am there. I just like to see what the kids are doing and how they are interacting with each other and with their learning experiences. I saw some students going through the garden area, mind you school was out for the summer, and they were pointing out to each other various things that they had done and the plants that they were watching to see how they developed. That garden was "crowded" with God's handiwork.

   In another area, the 5th graders had made projects out of bottle caps and planted them in a portion of the field that adjoined the classroom area. I was drawn to the color.

   But as I looked closely, I saw this writing on the back of one of the plastic creations:

   Sounds like a Bible verse to me. It may have been featured as a lesson on respecting others, but was it not God "crowding" into that space?

   The verse that I read this morning was from Matthew 6:

“Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!"

   All I have to do is open my eyes and He is everywhere.

   How much I pray that all the students at that school and people everywhere will open up their eyes to the things that God has put all around us.

   The world is crowded.

Blessed With Treasures

   This has been a hard week to get some writing time in. Our VA folks have been in town for 5 days and our time has been well taken up.

   But I did read ahead in Matthew 6 and came across these verses:

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being."

   Most of the time when I read in the Bible about treasure, I think of money, of material things, of gifts that go to good causes, and of good deeds performed for others without regard for myself.

   But I think there could be more treasures that can be stored up for eternity, treasures of time spent, of attention given to, and of relationships that will last.

   So I give you at least three of my treasures,

                                          Drew

Caroline (with Roxie)

Lucy

A Response on a Monday Morning

   How busy these past few days have been. Graduation up in Charlotte with all of its trappings and now our VA family here for 5 days with 2 adults, 3 children, 2 foster kids and the dog.

   As I wake up early this morning, sit down to read, think, meditate and pray, my prayer turns to a pleading request:

"Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!"

   This is what I read in Psalm 55, just after expressing the same thoughts as I wrote out a prayer to God. I was feeling the disconnect of too much busy and too little God.

   As I was thinking and praying, the words from Matthew 6 came to my mind:

"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

   I have thought on these words many times, especially over the past few years, and one part of that prayer especially jumps out at me a lot.

"Thy will be done"

   An easy line to pray, but oh so hard to let it be a central theme in my life. So easy to pray in the mode of que sera, sera (Whatever will be, will be), but not in an active way that says the line is the best for my life at any given time.

   Then I walk, thinking of that portion of the Lord's Prayer along with my personal plea for guidance and help. And what do I see?

   The light from the sunrise, just striking the top of the trees, letting me know it is there, but not yet reaching the ground level where I walk. There is a whole blog post contained in that sight, I know.

   Then there is a small white peg sitting on the cart path, and I think of golf and the "play it where it lies" aspect of the game. There is a lot of life contained in those thoughts also, but, alas, a posting for another day.

   How about the bird's song, loud and clear from a tree just to the right of the path, a tree full of leaves with the songster hidden in the branches? I stop and listen. I get closer and still the songs comes out. Where is he or she? Many times my search comes up fruitless in these situations, but then, there is the small brown and white creature sitting on a branch just about 6 feet or so over my head. As if to acknowledge that its job was done, it flew off after one more loud melody.

   Coincidences on a Monday morning? I hardly think so.

   The answer to a written prayer for connection?

   What more could I want?

   I am blessed, again

   "Thy will be done"

 

 

Experiences: Past, Present and Future

   On Wednesday of this week we experienced the glories of the Interstate Highway system as we drove to Charlotte, NC.

   On Thursday we experienced the graduation of our grand daughter.

   On Friday we got to experience the backroads of South Carolina as we drove home down Highway 321 going through Norway, Denmark and Sweden, all on one stretch of road, a story for another time.

   Is there a common thread? Sure, it is the experiences.

   I found a quote in an article about a professor at UT Knoxville (my Alma Mater) where he refers to something his dad often told him. "God does not waste any experiences. Every experience is useful; everything connects".

   We may waste the wisdom that comes from the experiences of our lives, but they are there for us, placed there by a God who cares.

   An Aside: I have been going through the Sermon on the Mount, reading and writing about various passages included in Matthew 5,6 and 7 and the word most used in the first of these chapters is "Blessed". When I think of being blessed, I think of my experiences over the past 56 years of marriage to a great lady. Today is our anniversary, and I salute her for her perseverance and faithful forgiveness. Our experiences together make my life.

   But, I digress. I thought Thursday, at the graduation, of all the experiences that had come into the life of this girl who was graduating, and her brother who had done the same thing 3 years before. Not only was she leaving the school that her parents founded some years back, but so much of her life was bound up in the experiences she had at that place.

   Now she moves on, and, if her life runs a "normal" course, she will have way more experiences in the future than she has had up to this point. Experiences placed there by a loving God who wants the best for her. Experiences not to just have been lived through, but looked back on at some point as guideposts to Life with the realization of what they meant and continue to mean for her.

   So I salute Sydney and pray for her as her experiences take a new turn.

   And I salute her parents who have raised a beautiful young woman.

   Ane her brother, a rising senior at his college, who is not too busy to sit and talk with his Granny Lou.

   And I wonder if they are talking about the past, present or future, or all three.

A Response to a Prompt

   This morning as I read these verses, I was reminded of a scene from yesterday. (From Matthew 6 in The Message):

“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace."

   Jesus is talking to his disciples about prayer. I know the gist of the verses may not fit my example, but just the word "prayer" got me to thinking of this.

   I was in the barber's chair early yesterday morning. There were others in the shop, but in the other room, and I was alone with my barber in the back room. When he finished, I asked a simple question about how he was doing. His response, "not so good". As he sat in the other chair, he began to pour out a story of medical problems and family issues. He talked, I listened.

   He is a friend, so I knew parts of the story, but I also realized that he just needed to get some things said.

   As the time moved on, and I knew I had to go, I had this prompting in my spirit and got up to stand behind him and pray over him. Just a simple time, a time of a short prayer for peace for him and guidance for his relationships, but I sensed that he and I both needed that short, special time.

   Sometimes I know I do not act on nudges from God like this one. This time I did.

   And I am glad.

Rightly Doing Good

   Recently we were with some people and got into a conversation about giving and recognition for those gifts. One person stated that if someone made a special effort to help their church or help someone in need, the church was at fault for not properly recognizing what they had done. He stated that if he was to do something like that, he would expect to be pointed out as a person of generosity and applauded for his good works.

   Where does this attitude come from?

   As Christians, we want to be generous people. We want to help others. But sometimes we want people to know it and to give us praise for what we do. Not that we should be ashamed for these acts, but that it seems to validate what we have done and who we are.

   But what does Jesus have to say about this?

   From Matthew 6 (The Message):

“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.

 “When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out."

   Do it in secret.

   There is even a problem in doing it the right way but with the wrong motive. The object of our generosity is not to get a reward from God, it is to do His will and help those that need it.

   God still comes first in this equation.

   The ones we help come next.

   My gifts are not even in the same ballpark.

   Again, as in so many of the things that Jesus talked about in the previous verses of the Sermon on the Mount, it is a matter of the heart. That shows us who we really are.

   Do good.

   Do right.