In LIfe and In Death

   A few nights ago we had been watching the evening news. At one point we decided that we had had enough of the political scene that was capturing the whole TV news, and we reached for the remote to look for something more.

   As the channel search rolled along, I noticed a couple on one channel singing a song. It was an old hymn, and we stopped to watch and listen. One song led to another, and we watched as the life story of Joey and Rory Feek played out on the screen in the midst of a Bill Gaither program.

   Joey Feek died the first part of this month from cancer.

   Rory has been writing a blog for the better part of the last couple of years that documents their struggle, both the highs and lows, a young couple dealing with the effects and trials of this terrible disease. You can read it here:

http://thislifeilive.com

   Joey did not want to die. She had a two year old daughter that she wanted to help raise. She had a music career that was a blessing to many, and she had a man that she loved deeply that she wanted to grow old with.

   But it was not to play out that way. God had a different plan, and she accepted that, in the midst of her own desires and those of her husband.

   All of us come to the end of our lives one day, but it is how we do it that is on my mind this morning.

   I remember a tombstone on a Caribbean island.

   The inscription on it said, "She showed others how a Christian woman ought to die"

   Do I look at death as an opportunity to be a blessing and an example to others?

   Looking at how this couple, Joey and Rory Feek, reflect God's will and His glory, I want more and more to be that kind of example.

   Both Joey's in how she handled her own mortality, and Rory's as he cared for her.

   God should be exalted by both.

God's In His Heaven, And….

   Did you know?

   That the famous line, quoted in the title of this blog, came from Robert Browning in a poem entitled Pippa Passes.

   The year’s at the spring,

And day’s at the morn;

Morning’s at seven;

The hill-side’s dew-pearled;

The lark’s on the wing;

The snail’s on the thorn;

God’s in His heaven—

All’s right with the world!

   That there is even a town in Kentucky named Pippa Passes.

   That I have even been to that town and stopped to visit.

   That this blog has nothing to do with that town or that trip.

   But the line came to my mind as I walked early in the dark of a Daylight Saving Time's Monday morning.

   You see, I was going over in my mind the final episode of Downton Abbey. One that we watched last night. After all those episodes in those years of seasons of the show, episodes that were fraught with tragedy and broken dreams and other drama, the show ended on a high note, a note of "it all works out in the end" and "all's well that ends well".

   And I like Happy Endings.

   As I walked this morning with the sky dark, but lit with many stars, the Heavens seemed to say that God was still in control, even though the world around seemed to be spinning out of it.

   Man's control, yes, but not God's.

   So I smiled to myself as I thought of the characters in the TV show and how the last episode had put all of them in a happy state. That, to me, seemed right.

   And as I open the freezer door to get something out for our breakfast, I realize that that last line of the poem has struck again..

   "All’s right with the world!"

   A "feel good drama"

   A star filled morning sky

   And a half gallon of Blue Bell in the freezer

   Life is Good

   God is Good

Is Dr. Carson Smiling?

   People tuned in to see a fight and a debate broke out..

   The image that sticks out in my mind, one that I woke up this morning seeing in my mind, was that of Marco Rubio speaking and Donald Trump raising his hand to indicate he wanted to respond.

   But I could not find such on the Internet, so I settled for this shot of Ted Cruz Speaking and Donald Trump listening.

   My takeaways from last night's Republican debate can be summarized like this:

   Ted Cruz had the dogmatic principles

   Marco Rubio had the passion

   John Kasich showed the experience

   Donald Trump had the votes

   And Civility was the big winner

   I wonder how it will all show up on next Tuesday.

   Dr. Carson might be smiling this morning.

 

Grumble, Even When Blessed…. Nah, Not Me..

   Maybe I should start this out in some chronological order…

   I walked along this morning and met a lady with a large dog. Her comment, "Sure is a pretty morning", and I reply "You are right, but the gnats are already out".

   At the end of that same short walk, as I prepared to enter our condo, our neighbor came out his door to get the morning paper. "Good looking morning, another pretty one for us, I think". And I reply, "and the gnats are already out waiting for you".

   Fast forward to my reading this morning from Exodus 15 and 16, and the words that struck me as I read:

" And the people grumbled "

   Those spoiled people. God had parted the sea. He had made the bitter water sweet and fed them with manna and quail. Couldn't they remember?

   Here the sun came up and lighted the steeple at Lovely Lane Chapel this morning..

   And I was more concerned with a few pesky gnats..

   Me grumble?

   Nah, not me...

It Is No Secret...

   It is no secret that I like to read. A good book is hard to put down. Fact or Fiction, both can hold my attention for hours or for days on end.

   Maybe it is the fact that reading is a quiet activity, but a good book also informs. The author can fill me with details of events of history that give me a deeper understanding of the hows and whys of what has happened in the past.

   And an author can make me look within myself, to see how I might have handled a situation. The best fiction books for me let me see myself and cause me to ask the question, in the quiet of reading, "What do these characters, or these lives, show me about myself?"

   One of my favorite authors is Charles Martin. A local boy, he writes fiction that takes place in our part of the world. His is not just entertainment, there is real meaning in the story, meaning that causes a reader to see how they fit into the narrative.

   I just finished one of his books yesterday, one that held my thoughts for days, as I followed the main character in his fight for redemption and release from the circumstances that had held him in limbo for most of the novel.

   This book, if you might like to read a good novel, is:

(You will enjoy all of his books)

   But it is also no secret what God can do.

   This old song was on my mind as I awoke this morning. I'm not sure why, I have not heard it sung for a while, but there it was, mentally playing as I got up. A Stuart Hamblen song:

The chimes of time ring out the news,
Another day is through.
Someone slipped and fell.
Was that someone you?

You may have longed for added strength,
Your courage to renew.
Do not be disheartened,
For I have news for you.

It is no secret what God can do.
What He's done for others, He'll do for you.
With arms wide open, He'll pardon you.
It is no secret what God can do.

There is no night for in His light
You never walk alone.
Always feel at home,
Wherever you may go.

There is no power can conquer you
While God is on your side.
Take Him at His promise,
Don't run away and hide.

It is no secret what God can do.
What He's done for others, He'll do for you.
With arms wide open, He'll pardon you.
It is no secret what God can do.

   Secrets are sometimes things that are not to see the light of day, but not these.

   I can heartedly recommend Charles Martin's books. You will get a good story with some insights into your life as well.

   And I can say also that there is real meaning in the old song.

   Some secrets are better off shouted to the world.

 

He Does Not Have to Shout..

   I stayed up last evening, as long as I could stand it, and watched the "debate".

   I'm sorta glad that Dr. Carson spared himself the agony of standing on that platform.

   I woke up this morning, way before the sun, with what I would term a "disquieted spirit".

   I still am partial to John Kasich.

   This was my reading in Psalms this morning:

Psalm 33:6-11English Standard Version (ESV)

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
    and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
    he puts the deeps in storehouses.

8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
    let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
    he commanded, and it stood firm.

10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
    he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
    the plans of his heart to all generations.

   And I know who is in control.

   And He does not have to shout...

An Alabama Town That Might Be Calling My Name

      This story has a beginning, but, at this moment, I do not know the ending.

   Let me begin in this way, by describing a time and a situation where a name was recalled in my memory:

   Last year, at Thanksgiving, we decided to drive to Arkansas to be with our daughter and her family for that holiday. Since Tuscaloosa, Alabama is about the halfway point between our home and theirs, we made reservations at a motel there. The motel was located on Harper Lee Drive, and as we drove in, I told Mayre that I knew that name, but could not put it in context with anything else.

   Putting it out of my mind for a time, we registered and then went out to find some supper. On the way it hit me, Harper Lee was the author of To Kill A Mockingbird. I realized that the only way I remembered this fact was that we had worked a jigsaw puzzle some time back, a puzzle showing best selling books, and her book was one of those depicted.

   I was happy to have remembered, but did not think much more about it until one morning when Dr. Albert Mohler mentioned her in his weekday morning podcast, "The Briefing".

   I Googled her name and read some things about this woman, whose one published book had won a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. (It is also true that she had written another book previous to "Mockingbird", but it was not published until 2015 after being discovered by her lawyer in a safe deposit box.)

   Nelle Harper Lee, born in Monroeville, Alabama, died in Monroeville, Alabama at the age of 89. She had not lived all her life in that one place, New York City was her haunt for a lot of her life.

   As I read stories about this lady and her book, I came across this picture at the top of one article:

   It shows a sculpture of a young girl, perhaps Scout, reading "Mockingbird" on a bench with a distinctive building in the background.

   Although I have never been to Monroeville, Alabama, it is easy to determine that this is the county courthouse. I have seen so many of these buildings all over the state of Georgia, and they are not easy to miss. Those clocks on the four sides of the cupola give it away.

   Even in an old one in Washington County GA, where the clock is stopped.

   I also realized that I had never actually read the book. Watching Gregory Peck in the movie of the same name, I'm sure, is not quite the same thing as the reading. I need to do that.

   But, after looking at the picture above, I'm pretty sure that I would like Nelle Harper Lee's hometown.

   That old 1904 courthouse seems to be calling my name, and my shutter finger is itching.

   One Day

   This story is not ended yet, stay tuned...