Reflections?

Yep, it has been WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY to long since I’ve been over here to do an entry.  I knew that I needed to come do one, and I’ve been meaning to get it done for a “couple” of weeks now, but I didn’t realize it had been almost 2 months since my last entry over here.  Forgive my absence, as life has been whizzing by at a lightning speed lately.  Lots of appointments, lots of other goings-ons, and lots of stress, not to mention trying to keep up with the day-to-day things like keeping the housework done and such.  It seems like my days are WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY to long sometimes, as it is, and I STILL need about another 15 hours in my days!!!

I have been reading my Bible fairly faithfully the last couple of months.  It seems that that is about the only place to turn that MIGHT have some of the answers that I’ve been seeking, because no one down here seems to be able to tell me much.  I’ve noticed, though, as I read my Bible and such and as I pray and recite Scriptures that I’ve memorized over the last few months that I seem to be more confident in what is going to happen.  I’m not as filled with doubts and fears like I was!!!  God has given me a “peace that passes ALL understanding”!!!  NOW, if we can just hang on to that…and have it CONTINUE to build, no one and nothing will be able to stop us!!!  Of course, I have to admit that some of that peace probably comes from having a Pastor across the street again!!!  This guy is GREAT!!!  He’s always got a minute to ask how things are going.  He always has a word of encouragement.  And he’s got a sense of humor too, which helps on the days when things aren’t going all that great!!!  I have to admit, even though I’m not an official member of the church here, that I have been thanking God for bringing this Pastor and his wife to this community!!!  I just hope he knows how much his words of encouragement mean to me some days!!!  Thank you, Pastor!!!  And God BLESS you and your wife!!!

A church in this area recently got a new Pastor after being without one for almost a year.  I HAVE to admit, this new Pastor (who’s not really an official Pastor yet….more on that later…) has brought some GREAT ideas with him that he is slowly incorporating.  One of those ideas is adding an insert (or two) to the bulletin on Sunday mornings.  On one of these inserts here a couple of weeks ago, there was a little paragraph about one of the things that the church is supposed to do.  It said something about bringing encouragement and faith to those who are feeling down and lost because of “the cares of this world”.  Too many times, that little act of caring gets lost in the hustle and bustle of daily life.  And I HAVE to admit that, as a member of ANY church, it is one of the things that some people need the MOST!!!

Think about it for a minute….do the people of YOUR church do that?  Do they offer endless encouragement when things get rought?  Are they available, no matter how dark the days get?  Is there that certain someone who ALWAYS has the warm smile and encouraging word and the warm hug JUST when you need them?  I don’t think a church can TRULY serve and worship God WITHOUT those qualities!!!

Maybe I’ll write more about what this new Pastor is doing another time, but for tonight, I guess that’s your “Food For Thought”, so you can put that thought on simmer and mull it over for awhile.

At the University of Chicago Divinity School each year, they have what is called “Baptist Day”.  On this day, each one is to bring a lunch to be eaten outdoors in a grassy picnic area.  Every “Baptist Day”, the school would invite one of the greatest minds to lecture in the Theological Education Center.  One year, they invited Dr. Paul Tillich.  Dr. Tillich spoke for two and one-half hours proving that the resurrection of Jesus was false.  He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book.  He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the church was groundless, emotional mumbo-jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense.

He then asked if there were any questions.  After about 30 seconds, an old, dark skinned preacher with a head of short-cropped, woolly white hair stood up in the back of the auditorium.  “Docta Tillich, I got one question,” he said as all eyes turned toward him.  He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and began eating it.  “Docta Tillich…” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”My question is a simple question….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”and I can’t recite the Scriptures in the original Greek….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”I don’t know nothin’ about Niebuhr and Heidegger….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….He finished the apple….”All I wanna know is: This apple I just ate….Was it bitter or sweet?”  Dr. Tillich paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion: “I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven’t tasted your apple.”  The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at Dr. Tillich and said calmly, “Neither have you tasted my Jesus.”

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a ghost, and, for some reason, I just can’t grasp the idea in my brain good enough to figure out what I would like to do…hang around and haunt people, I guess.  Make them think they are going crazy by hiding things on them and then putting them in some place they have already looked in about 15 times.  Hey, I have that happen at my house regularly!!!  I wonder if a REAL ghost had the same idea I did?

This is a poem that Dad brought home awhile back.  I have NO idea of it’s origin, but I thought it was pretty cool!!!

Make a right onto Believeth Blvd.

Keept straight and go through the Green Light, which is Jesus Christ.

There, you must turn onto the Bridge of Faith, which is over troubled water.

When you get off the bridge, make a right turn and keep straight.

You are on the King’s Highway - Heaven-bound.

Keept going for three miles: One for the Father, One for the Son, and One for the Holy Ghost.

Then exit off onto Grace Blvd.

From there, make a right turn on Gospel Lane.

Keep straight and then make another right on Prayer Road.

As you go on your way, yield not to the traffic on Temptation Ave.

Also, avoid SIN STREET because it is a DEAD END.

Pass up Envy Drive, and Hate Avenue.

Also, pass Hypocrisy Street, Gossiping Lane, and Backbiting Blvd.

However, you have to go down Long-Suffering Lane, Persecution Blvd., and Trials and Tribulations Ave.

But that’s all right, because VICTORY Street is straight ahead!!!

As I sat outside, and watched the brilliant show of colors that God put on the horizon for the sunset tonight, I found myself thinking…about ALOT of different things.  I thought about how peaceful it was in our neighborhood at that moment…just the sound of the locusts in the trees…the song birds finding themselves some place to rest for the night…the bullfrog down on our neighborhood pond….the sound of the cats pouncing on each other as they played in the tallish grass in my front yard….yep, VERY peaceful!!!  I also thought about what has been going on in our lives lately….the steps we’ve already taken towards bettering ourselves and several situations…and the ones that are soon to come.  I thought about the day that my son and I spent together….playing, and talking about just about EVERYTHING under the sun….and just generally spending time together.  Don’t get me wrong…we usually spend the day together, doing various things, but today was different somehow….Maybe it was because the sun was actually shining today…I’m not sure.  I thought about the fact that it was a SUPER, WONDERFUL, VERY productive day.  No, not everything went as planned….but it was still a GREAT day!!!

More later about it, maybe…..

Some people say “Rain, rain, go away….come again another day”.  Other people welcome the rain, especially in the Summer.  Which one are you?  Are you the type that growls and wants to go back to bed when you see the rain?  Do you try to avoid going outside in it because it makes you depressed?  Or are you the type that loves walking in a nice rain?  Do you go out in it JUST to be out in it?  Rain, they say, can be relaxing.  Do you find it so?  If not, what DO you find relaxing?

…the way we, as society, has changed over the last few decades?  There was a time when society didn’t mind it if your clothes had dirt and sweat and such on them, because they knew, by those “signs” on your clothes, that you’d been doing something.  Nowadays, I have met people that basically consider having dirt and sweat and such on your clothes something that makes you undesireable to be around.  Of course, society seems to have changed the way it thinks about work too, over the years.  It’s hard to find someone who is willing to get out in the heat or the cold and do a job until it’s done.  Why is society, as a whole, changing the way it thinks about these things?  Is it what we are being taught in the schools?  Is something in the water or the air doing it?  Just WHAT is causing this?  Is there a way to reverse it?  Maybe society wouldn’t seem so messed up if we DID find a way to reverse it?

I guess that’s your “food for thought” bit for today.  Enjoy!!!

….that as our activities have changed over the last several decades, so has our health?  The general health of America has gone downhill in the last 100 years.  As we’ve gotten the inventions of television, and cars, and game systems, and computers, and more distance between places where we want/need to be, we find ourselves driving more, walking less, and sitting more when we aren’t driving.  We don’t ride horseback hardly anymore, even thought it’s actually one of the BEST, all-around exercises you can find.  We don’t ride bikes, we don’t walk anywhere.  We don’t even normally walk down the block to see the neighbor.  And then the world wonders why the kids, as well as adults, are overweight, and why we have so much sickness and disease running rampant in our country today.  Did you know that lack of activity itself will lower the strength of your immune system?  Oh, and did you know that sweating helps clean out the impurities in your body?  And, just so the record is straight, sweating never hurt anyone, as long as they were properly hydrated before AND after.  Sometimes, maybe a good, old fashioned sweat lodge is JUST what we need when we’re not feeling too great because of a cold or something like that?…*raises her eyebrows*….Might not be a bad idea, if you ask me!!!  If you don’t happen to have a sweat lodge handy, I challenge you to think about how much activity or lack thereof that you get everyday.  And, when you go to the store again, make it a habit to park at the far end of the parking lot, just so you can get that activity that you’re missing.

Have you noticed that, over the years, not only have the names of things changed, but also the activities we do?  There was a time when the favorite activity to do in the evening after supper was to sit out on the front porch and talk and make music and such.  Of course, that was before television and computers and PlayStations and such.  Now, it’s difficult for people to even remember where the front porch is.  They come home from work and turn on the television and/or the computer and there they sit until bedtime.  The kids used to spend ALL of their time running around outside.  Nowadays, it’s difficult to even SEE some kids outside playing because, if they are home, they are in front of a screen somewhere.  NOT good, in my opinion.  But then again, I guess that’s why I am who I am, and not a celebrity or something like that.  I have my opinions, and they are STRONG opinions in certain cases.  Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to live in a world without so much technology adding stress to our daily lives.  Have you ever wondered that?