I See It, Now For Help To Live It...

   Some might say that I woke up early this morning so that I would be ready to play golf with my friends, but I feel something else. There was also some words that I needed to read and pass on in this space.

   Here are the words that came out of Psalm 106:

"Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people;
help me when you save them,
that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
that I may glory with your inheritance."

   And here is what they seemed to say to me:

   God, help me when I feel someone else, or maybe all the someone elses, are blessed more than I am. Help me to rejoice in the successes of others around me. Help me to look at other lives and not feel the pangs of jealousy or envy. First of all, I do not know their lives beyond what I see on the outside, but more importantly, I know how much I have been blessed, and it is so much more than I deserve. Help me to see that more than see anything about others.

   Thanksgiving and Satisfaction need to be my lot today.

   Oh, let it be so.

Where is That Missing Piece?

   I have a certain strategy when trying to put together a picture puzzle:

      Separation of pieces into groups: edges, words, objects, colors (whatever is distinctive)
      Completing the outside border
      Continually looking at the box cover to see the completed picture
      Putting any words together
      Doing the same with any objects
      Looking at the puzzle box for the complete picture
      Filling in around words and objects with the correct colors
      Looking at the puzzle box
      Tying objects, words and colors together
      Looking at the puzzle box
      Filling in the holes
      Seeing the completed puzzle that matches the box top

   Enclosed in this strategy is a continual looking at what it is supposed to look like when completed. I have seen puzzles where there is no picture on the box to guide a person. You have to put it together to see what it is. Now that is hard.

   It is the same in life. If I am striking out on my own, with no guidance, and no idea of what the result is supposed to be, I face an uphill battle. But if there is an end in sight, even if there are many holes without pieces in them, the path is much easier to follow.

   How about these verses from Proverbs 3 this morning?

     "Trust in the Lord with all your heart
     And do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶      In all your ways acknowledge Him,
     And He will make your paths straight.
⁷      Do not be wise in your own eyes;"

   There is help out there. God does not expect us to find our way without guidance. He is there, He cares, and He will help.

   Trying to do it on my own is like working a puzzle without a box lid picture.

   If I am having much difficulty living life with any meaning, maybe it is because God is that missing puzzle piece that I dropped on the floor, and forgot.

Puzzling

   Mayre and I like to do puzzles together. They are great time wasters, but are a fun thing to do with two people. They can be worked on together or separately, when the time is available. Nothing like just walking through a room where a puzzle is laid out, stopping for a moment, finding a piece, and then moving on. Or better yet, finding a piece and then several more that fit together in that spot.

   As I looked at the one that we have laid out before us right now I thought "there must be some life lessons in this puzzle application", maybe I could write about that this morning.

   I realize that I need to have a plan for solving it, a puzzle, as well as life. When I dump all the pieces out on the table, they are just a mess of different shapes, colors, sizes and sometimes lines. I know that they all fit together, unless I had an inept puzzle person (or machine) packing the 1000 pieces in the box for sale.

   So how do I start? I have already looked at the top of the box to see what the scene is supposed to look like so I can get the big picture. I looked at it the first time when I selected the puzzle to work, because I wanted to see if it would be fun and actually possible to work. I did not want 1000 pieces of clouds and sky with no defining shapes or even words to key on.

   So I have the puzzle pieces dumped out, and I see what it is supposed to look like when finished. Step II: Determine a way to start.

   My first task is to determine the boundary limits for the whole picture. I know from the box that, when finished, it will cover an area of 24 inches by 30 inches, so I know what space it will fit into. Then I know it has sides that are straight, so I can try to separate out all the edges and put them into one pile. When these are put together, they will form the framework for the puzzle, and they will also give me colors and shapes to hang the other pieces onto.

   Since I can't put all of the strategy of puzzle-solving into one blog post, maybe I should stop the process now and see if there is an application to life.

   What do I use for my boundary limits when I look at life in general and mine in particular? I need a roadmap, an authoritative source to refer to as things come up. I need a source of truth, absolute truth, that I can put my confidence in.

   I'll take The Bible for that source. I believe it is God's Word and applicable for any and all of life's situations. That will be my boundary, and I can trust it to put the rest of the puzzle pieces of my life into. But I can't just lay it out on the coffee table and trust that I will get what I need. I have to actually use it.  Just as I use the shapes, colors and sizes of the various puzzle pieces to make the puzzle fit together, so can I use the stories, the commands, and the encouragements of The Word to make my life fit together.

   I'll bet there are more life application lessons in that puzzle on the counter if I just look and see how they "fit together".

 

Never Too Late to Learn

   Perhaps I am just a trivia buff or one who likes to learn stuff. I like new information, especially that which has escaped me, and that I should know for some reason.

   Yesterday, late in the afternoon, Mayre and I took a little drive down to our church because, with all the rain we have had lately, the resurrection fern had come out green on a lot of the live oak branches, and I wanted to get some shots. (Aside: this resurrection fern is one of a line of plants that lies dormant through the dry season, looking like it is dead, but then comes out a bright green when we get a little rain. A subject for another blog, I'm sure).

   I took several shots of the fern, the flowers, the turtles, the church and whatever else looked colorful or interesting. Finishing there, I thought, "why not take a look at the area behind the church that faces the marsh". This area faces east toward Sea Island and offers some great marsh views, especially at sunrise.

   While driving through this area, I spotted a deer coming through a hedge line right near the marsh. Hoping to get some shots, I eased out of the car and moved toward where I though he would emerge. Not only one deer appeared, but three, moving along that marsh line.

   Now, we are blessed with a lot of deer on our Island, so it is not unusual to see them at night all over the place, but these were big deer, larger than our usual sightings, and it was still day, so I followed as close as they would let me.

   They moved into the marsh area and began to feed on the bushes and grasses. Every once in a while, one would poke his/her head up to see what that human was up to. I did not have a zoom lens with any great power, so I got as close as I could without spooking them, and took what shots they gave me.

   They did not seem inclined to move, so, after a period of time and several shots, I retreated to the car and left them to their supper.

   Just as we were about to take the elevator up to our condo, the door opened and out stepped our neighbor from down the hall. Seeing the camera bag on my shoulder, he commented on it and asked if I gotten any good shots. I explained about the deer, and he replied with two words, "Fallow Deer". I thought what are those, and he explained that it was a European species that had been brought over to Little St. Simons, a small island north east of ours. Some had swum the river separating the two bodies of land, and now we had a population of them over here.

   I should have known that. We have been here for almost 20 years, and I had probably seen them but not paid enough attention to separate them from our other deer, the white tailed kind.

   So I learned something new and came home and looked up more information on the Internet. There they were, just like I had seen.

   They had been here all the time. I had probably seen them several times without knowing what I was observing, living in ignorance of the true facts right in front of my eyes.

   I'm sure there is a lesson in all of this.

   It could be: Keep your eyes open and look around you, or maybe just:

   It is never too late to learn....

 

Living in the Sermon on the Mount, Maybe..

   I have heard people, when asked what they lived by as a guide for their life, would answer with the Sermon on the Mount, as found in Matthew 5,6 and 7. That all sounds well and good, but just the verses in the reading for today were enough for me to know that following those words of Jesus in those 3 chapters would be terribly hard. Take for example:

"Give to the one who begs from you"

   or:

"do not refuse the one who would borrow from you."

   or:

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"

   I read those in plain English and look for meanings other than the simple rendition that is right in front of my face. Let's take that first one above.

   Jesus says to give to the one who begs from you. Is the man on the corner with a sign that says hungry, is he begging from me personally? If so, what do I do? Do I question if he is really needy? Do I give him money? Do I offer to take him to lunch? Do I take some of my time, my valuable time, to interact with him? Is this a safe thing to do? Do I write him off as a professional panhandler?

   So, what do I usually do? Give him a dollar or two and then worry if I did the right thing in doing even that? That seems the least I can do, and maybe that is a correct assessment. I did the convenient thing, and the one that might make me feel good without being threatened or taking my time.

   I have struggled with this over the years, but don't come close to following the commandment that Jesus puts forth here, much less the ones that follow.

   If I just stay here on my couch, with my Bible in my hand, and read and agree, is that good enough?

   James talks about being hearers of the Word and not doers, and it is not good. I want to do more, but it is hard sometimes.

   Maybe I should just stay home...

A Sign From the Past or a Light For Today?

   I have been caught up in a conversation of sorts with my grandson who is finishing his sophomore year in college. One of my blog posts some days back concerned the supposed banishing of God from the  educational system, and he was kind enough to read it and to write back a three page paper in a rebuttal of sorts.

   Without going into a lot of the nuances of my earlier post and his thoughts in answering, I pick out one thing that he reported to make his point. Of course this is from the college perspective and not the elementary or high school realm, and, in this case, the example is from his school and may not apply to others. But, again it may.

   There is a building on his campus, built in 1894 and renovated in 1998, that houses the departments of Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science. There is this inscription above the front door.

   "Nature's Laws are God's Thoughts"

   I looked all over and could not find the source of the quotation, but it is a good one, I think.

   Questions arise: Who said this? Why was it used on this building? Was it applicable back in the last of the 17th century? Does anyone notice it today? Does it indicate that God does have a place in science? Do any of the students and faculty who use that doorway read that, and would they agree with the inscription?

   Of course, I cannot answer any of these, but they are interesting food for thought.

   I'll see if I can get a student there to find out for me. I might have to change my opinion of liberal college education.

   And then this, from the Dedicatory Program of this same building in 1894:

   "From I Thessalonians: “Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good.” A fitting Scripture for a Science Building, and I would define "good" from God's perspective, not man's.

 

Today, What Will It Matter?

   My routine is shattered, but it does not mean that the day is lost.

   After rising, my wife and I went to the church for a 7am prayer time in conjunction with the National Day of Prayer. There will be various events around our community today, and over the country as a whole, that call us to exercise our conviction that prayer matters, and that our country will be better because of these offerings.

   So we were encouraged to pray for people, leaders of government in the various levels of our society, for institutions, like schools and churches and the media and in business, and the leaders involved in each, for our military and the individuals serving in many places around the world, as well as those making policy and plans for these men and women.

   As I looked around in that largely empty church sanctuary this morning, I questioned whether it made any difference in the great scheme of things, that we were there. Evidently not too many others were concerned. I know it was early, and there would be other services throughout the day and evening, and the families all had stuff to do and places to be early, but it was a sparse crowd.

   Then, as I searched the Internet for an image for this National Day, I ran across a Washington Post article, on their Faith page for today, that was a cynical put down of the evangelical movement in the US, and in praise of our multicultural religion and faith ideas, especially of the "nones" as they were called. Nones are referred to as those who espouse no particular religious belief, and the author held them up as an example of what is good about our land.

   Then I read the official presidential proclamation for this May 2nd Day, hoping to see some reference to God, hoping to see some reference to thanksgiving for His blessings and calling on His help in our various crises, but the only thing I saw was God used as a hyphenated adjective that referred to our religious liberties. No calling for guidance or help was evident. The whole statement seemed to be a call for Americans to live up to what they could be, and, if that was the action, that we could bring our country through to a new land of freedom and opportunity. "We Can Do It" (without help).

   So, I sit here now, a little down at what I perceive to be the national mood of this day, or any day. I sense no contrition of past wrongs and sins. I sense no call for us to return to any moral roots that we might have had in the past. I sense no call for any help other than that we can do for ourselves, if we put our mind to it.

   In short, I feel a fear for our country, and not just that faceless mass of people called Americans, those that I know and that I don't. I fear for the conditions that my kids and grand kids might have to live in.

   But there is hope. God can do miracles, and the promises of II Chronicles 7:14 still ring true. "If my people will......"

   The ship of state is like a big battleship or cruise liner. It cannot stop on a dime and turn with the nimbleness of a Sea-Doo, but it can begin on that way when the people realize where it is headed and ask, in humbleness, for guidance from God who can give it. So...

   "and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."