God's Day Off

 

            When you pray, do you ever feel like God took a holiday? Do you wonder as you pray whether He’s listening? Why do you suppose it sometimes feels like there’s nobody home upstairs? Why do you doubt Him? Who moved; you or God? Maybe you should check your connection.

            When I go into a room and reach for the light switch, I don’t hold my breath in suspense before entering—I walk right in, trusting the light will turn on. That’s what faith is. It’s not as though I were consulting a Ouija Board or rubbing a magic lamp. Or crossing my fingers,  hoping to get lucky. I don’t even pause at the door, working up my nerve to wonder if the light will turn on.

            No, I don’t even slow down! I breeze right through the doorway! That’s faith, Based on prior experience, I’ve learned I can expect consistent response as promised by the electrical engineer ( its creator). Rarely it happens that the light fails to illuminate the room, and I must run through a short list of possible reasons for its failure. Is the lamp plugged in? Is the light bulb burned out? But it could be something not readily defined—a mouse or squirrel chewing wires in the attic or even my forgetting to pay the electric bill—a few times. Ooops! All fixable.

            When you get into your car, do you wonder if it will start? If you have maintained its care following the guidebook written by its manufacturer, you expect it to start. Occasionally, it doesn’t. (Life comes with a guidebook too: the Bible.) Do you assume its life is done or go down a lit of possible problems that could temporarily interfere: Out of gas? Exposure to dirt and dust as it travels the messy road of life can cause battery problems due to corrosion. Is Satan chewing on your connection to your Father in Heaven? All fixable.

            Whenever I feel like my prayer doesn’t get past the ceiling of my room, I have learned that sin has corroded our connection, but with the Holy Spirit who indwells me, that is quickly repaired. All fixable.

            Bear in mind, sometimes we’re not ready for what we’re asking for, so there’s a delay while He prepares us and arranges our circumstances. Sometimes His answer comes through, reminding us of our childhood, when we begged for more candy than is healthy and our earthly parent hugged us and said “I love you, but no.”

            God’s loving reply always comes; it may be: yes, no, not now, or you’ve got to be kidding.

 

             So I say to you,: Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock                                                                        And the door will be opened to you.                    Luke 11:9 

               Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.        Colossians 4:2 

You still don’t find that connection to your Creator? Be sure you own that connection.

 

               For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

              

               For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever

               Believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life/ John 3:16

 

 

Do You Have a Story?

 Of course you do. Your life has not been ordinary—it’s unique. You’re not skilled with a computer and handwriting it is too slow? Get a cheap recorder and tell your story to someone you love and maybe someone you haven’t yet met; someone not yet born into your family.

Your memories were preserved to guide anyone watching you survive what life has thrown at you, to hopefully avoid the same pitfalls you made it through, however painful those days were for you. After all, why not let someone you care about benefit from the trail you blazed? 

I learned so-o-o much about myself and my Lord, my Teacher who taught me great lessons long before I was mature enough to understand the wealth waiting in my memory’s Savings Bank for me to become wise enough to withdraw wisdom for today and tomorrow. Seems like I just gradually became aware I wasn’t just wandering thru my days, I began to realize I was being pointed down a particular path. 

I began collecting family stories because I was amazed at the horrific impact of a broken home and faithless father, poured out to shape, each in somewhat different ways, the five surviving children: my mother and four siblings (twins had previously died at ages 2 and 4). The stories grew to become a book, written with love for family long gone, to share with beloved family here now and those yet to come. 

As I wrote my own portion of this saga, I could clearly see things I had been learning, though unaware at the time. Looking ahead to be sure your path leads where you want to go is important, but looking back to take stock of what experience has taught you how you became who you are as you move toward your ultimate goal. So much insight, so much wealth I had been withdrawing bit by bit from that savings bank! 

I’m not yet who I want to be, but I have traveled for over 8 decades now, so there has certainly been much progress, despite the occasional stumble. The only reason I am still here for others to take care of must be for me to share whatever wisdom has accrued during those years. The answer I was given? My blog. Yes! Despite numb fingers and failing eyesight I cannot ignore the call. Parables, Proverbs and Pearls shares many stories, the value of which I only learned when I looked back and studied them.  I pray they will bless any reader who reads and/or shares them.

 

 

Good News

  

At 8 years of age, I was just becoming aware of exciting changes in my family’s daily life: we rented a nice house in a good neighborhood, I loved my new school, Daddy had the same job for several years,  he was getting his pilot’s license and there was a nice beef roast ever Sunday. I remembered days when none of those things were true, but mostly I remember Mama and Grandmother talking about how bad things had been during the depression—no jobs, no money, no hope.

The only uneasy note was that my uncle J.C. had joined the army right after his 18^th birthday and was sent straight to the Philippines.  His oldest brother joined too, but he lived far off – in Dallas. But life without J. C.—I couldn’t cope with the thought.  I counted forward to his return in 6 years: he would be 24 and I would be—14! I couldn’t imagine life without him for so long. Fast forward six months: December 7, 1941 and the world suddenly turned upside down. 

Normal life gone! Shortages, price-fixing, housewives taking civilian jobs, replacing all the men gone to war. Standing in line hoping to buy gasoline if you had a car, laundry soap, anything metal or paper, canned goods, meat, leather shoes--now that my family had tasted freedom to have a few luxuries like Sunday roast beef and Sunday afternoon drives? Not only did we now need cash but also ration stamps (government permission to buy limited amounts of goods now available to civilians after the armed forces received their necessary weapons and supplies). 

This was a simpler time when people pulled together for common goals: winning the war and sharing fairly what goods were available; they gathered at church to pray for their nation and for each other. There were a few opportunists who made their fortune selling goods they hoarded to the needy at exorbitant prices, but they were widely considered criminals. If shoes wore out before new ration stamps were available, you wore the old ones, hoping the shoe repair shop could keep your feet dry. Daily newspapers were eagerly devoured for hopeful war news and carefully recycled in some manner (such as creating temporary inner soles for your leaky shoes). School children were ordered to use both sides of a sheet of paper before discarding it. My life continued, but with a hole in my heart for my beloved J.C., who didn't survive.

And normal life didn’t begin to return for four years! 

As many years as I had been alive when it began. In another decade or two, we faced the polio epidemic, financial booms and busts, new diseases and cures, lesser wars with less involvement or personal sacrifice. But our nation stood strong and together we survived.

Do some of these things sound familiar today, as our world faces another crisis? 

Many lives were lost during World War II, and due to famine and disease through the ages, just as many are now victims of the current epidemic. Today’s crisis is not the only one nor the worst in history and as always, many will die but most will live.  During your lifetime, you will (unless the Lord calls His children Home) face other fires, floods, earthquakes, pandemics, just like the Bible warns us. 

Your older relatives remember how deeply that world war changed our daily lives and our future, just as covid-19 is changing yours. Most of you will survive but may face a different, less cohesive nation. The aftermath of divisive, selfish interest groups, political strife now unchecked by any moral healing—unless and until we remember to look up and seek guidance from our forgotten Creator, Healer, Teacher, Savior, Judge, who is waiting but whose longsuffering patience will soon end.

Whether or not you know God personally, you will go through these dark days—either alone and fearful, or with His companionship, guidance and support, knowing He will carry you during the worst; He will be beside you now and for eternity, beginning the moment you call Him.  He offers eternal life (beginning NOW!) if you simply ask. 

        Joshua 1:9  Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be 

        dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

 

 

 

 

A Parable

Bobby and Billy lived next door to each other. Beginning in elementary school, every morning they walked to school together. One day (all too soon, according to their mothers) they reached high school.  Eagerly they looked forward to fun, freedom, football. When they both made the team, they reveled in the attention.

Sadly their celebrations were halted when Bobby failed a couple of crucial tests and was dropped from the team. Billy was shocked. He had barely passed those tests and thinking of college ahead, resolved to study more to be sure he kept his grades up. Bobby was offended at his teacher who caused him to be kicked off the team—probably jealous that her son failed to make the team. He became bitter and dropped out of school. He found solace in the company of guys he used to think of as losers, hanging around the soda shop during school hours and on a dark street corner after dark.

Dark thoughts led to dark place, and dark deeds followed for Bobby with the inevitable outcome of brushes with the law. By the time Billy left for college with a sports scholarship, Bobby had run out of friends willing to finance his appetite for thrills and booze and half-heartedly looked for a job—even fast-food stores were reluctant to hire someone uneducated, with a tendency to show up late or high. No sweat. His good buddy who supplied him with drugs said he could always use his help—now he was solvent, dressed better, if a little flashy, and found he was suddenly attractive to the girls who followed his new group of friends—until he was arrested and jailed.

It wasn’t fair! Billy had all the luck, with a brand new college degree, employers called him—Bobby (or should we say Booby?) couldn’t get one to answer his call when he was paroled. Nobody befriended him now, and while on parole he was warned to avoid his former friend or else return to finish his complete sentence. No job, no friends, not much future to look forward to. Even if by some fluke, he were offered a job like Billy's, he was ill-prepared to perform. And now even Bobby had no time for him--he had a great new job with a big corporation, was engaged to be married and was buying a house. Good luck seemed to follow him around.

Good and bad things surround each of us as we travel our path. Both offer opportunities for growth and character development. When we are children, discipline is meted out by parents and teachers. As adults, we must exercise self-discipline, accept and learn from those uncomfortable “teaching moments” from God. (Have you noticed that you tend to spend more time with God when you're neck-deep in dilemma than when life is a happy tune?) If we accept the discipline, we profit and grow; if we rebel at the experience, we still go through the same discipline but choked by resentment, we get no wisdom, benefit or growth.

The ABCs of Planning Ahead

Remember back in elementary school when you discovered geography? You probably picked out a favorite place that appealed to you far more than all the other parts of the world, a place of daydreams, one perfect place you dreamed of visiting. As you grew, you read all you could find about it and yearned to someday go there.

And the more you read about it, the stronger your desire grew. Maybe it was the African jungle filled with mighty elephants and dangerous carnivores, or tiny Holland, carved out of land stolen from its surrounding sea and planted with tulips of many colors, riding a camel to see the great pyramids or the Holy Land where Jesus once walked. How thrilling if you should happen to be there to greet Him on the very day of His return?

Once your destination is decided, it will take planning and preparation, of course, to make the most of your travels. Perhaps you already have lists of sites you want to see, marked them on maps, studied tourist brochures and learned it takes lots of dollars to travel! If your trip of a lifetime will someday happen, you must start early and work for years to save funds for the trip.

A summer job  when school is out will cut back on days at the pool with friends. Some weeks  temptation will win and savings will suffer. It is depressing to see savings grow so slowly; it takes determination; to go to work while friends enjoy their holidays.

Diligence pays off! Now reservations are made, ticket purchased, passport in hand you finally set off in your car for the airport. After a couple of wrong turns and a detour or two, you're hopelessly lost. If only you had checked a roadmap--You go home disappointed, rebook your flight, Set your alarm to be sure you have ample time in case you hit a delay; all is well--except the flight is overbooked and someone  isn't flying today! This time you've done everything right, so far as you know,  but will it be enough? Random disasters happen ;;all the time through no one's fault.

Have you noticed your plans being diverted like this in other areas of your life? Reaching your ultimate desired destination demands discipline, careful, constant effort or you may be deceived by the devil who daily builds roadblocks in your path. Developing discipline will direct you to your divine domicile. Consult your Official  Tour Guide--your Bible--regularly to avoid being doomed to a deadly destination.  That would be devastating.  
                                                       And that's no joke!

Don't be a Birdbrain

                                            

A bird awakens one spring morning and is led to collect twigs and leaves and discarded downy bits of feathers and weave them into a nest. Soft, it must be, with high sides to keep her little ones safe. And soon her babes are cuddled together in their little shells, waiting for their time in the warmth of summer sun. Early every morning she flies out to find her breakfast. She will need her strength for her hatchlings, who will soon fill the air with their hungry cries. She knows her days will be spent bringing food to her tiny ones. They will need nourishment to grow strong little wings when their time to fly arrives.

One day she saw a larger bird circling the tree where her little ones slept, waiting for their day to leave their shells. Perhaps she cried out, warning the strange bird to stay away as she left. While she was searching for her breakfast, the strange bird approached the nest and saw it was a fine nest, and decided it would do nicely for her own family.  But her babes would be larger than those who now slept here. There was not enough room for both little families. So one by one, she rolled the tiny eggs to the rim of the nest, up and over the side, to fall to the ground, smashed. Then she deposited her larger eggs in the nest and flew away for her own breakfast, leaving her babes to be cared for by the smaller bird, who perhaps wondered why her hatchlings were larger, hungrier, and more demanding than those she had raised last year.

This may explain the saying, “You can’t stop a bird from flying overhead, but you don’t have to let him nest in your hair.”

Perhaps you were raised in the church but your faith hasn’t developed deeper roots as you grew up, with new, larger problems to solve. Along comes a new idea which seems to have developed into a new, deeper understanding of secret things, exciting things entrusted only to a few very special souls  It seems to add something new and exciting to the Bible, but wait! If the Bible is what it says it is, it contains all we need to know spiritually, so what entity invented these new, thrilling "truths"?

Many years ago I briefly flirted with this mind control experience, which briefly made me feel powerful but which I learned came from my enemy Satan. This new spiritual knowledge is so appealing, it draws you to spend more time and energy learning how to harness your spiritual “powers”, really for your own personal profit. I have seen in others that little by little, it replaced their prayer time.  Anyone deeply  involved may notice they have "matured" beyond the scope of their former church, which they no longer have time for. Their view turns inward, trying to develop control over their consciousness to leave and return to their physical body or commune with spirits of departed souls. But what happened to the bird who left her nest unguarded? The bird who took over in her absence enslaved her to a life of caring for strange babes.

Dear Ones, I pray you awake from your enchantment and instead hunger for the presence of God which may have been “tossed out of your nest” to make room for self centered growth of mental control over your life. Like cotton candy, it looks appealing, tastes sweet momentarily but will leave you starving. This avenue of study doesn’t nourish your spirit. It will push your relationship with your Heavenly Father out of your nest, your heart.

Like the baby birds who were pushed to their death, these false teachings bring death to your spirit. Before you open your heart’s door to a strangely different idea, check its source.

What's His Problem?

Was it something I said--whether carelessly venting because of something someone said to me earlier? Before I growl right back, I’d better hit Rewind to review my last few minutes. Maybe I was a little sharp-tongued after that almost-auto-crash scared me so—and maybe that was partially my fault. I did back out without looking first. But she should have been watching anyway; I was still rattled from that spat when my 8^th grade daughter tried to blame her detention on her boy friend. Who wouldn’t be irritable after the day I’ve had?     Ohhhhhhh! Yeah.

Okay. My bad. I’ll overlook his rude remarks this time. Guess I’m not perfect either.

Really? Do you leave home with your boxing gloves on, ready to fight anyone who rubs you the wrong way? Do you expect others to handle you with kid gloves? For way too long, I expected undeserved animosity everywhere I went. 

Maybe a spiritual chiropractic session can help you. (It sure “straightened me out” ) Or a trip to your inner eye specialist to see yourself and others more clearly. Is there something so special about your life that other people should tread lightly in dealing with you because your problems should be considered more egregious than their own?  Oh, you didn’t realize they had problems requiring their attention?

Remember the old saying that, if given the option of trading your bag of troubles with anyone else, you would very quickly beg to have your own again? Maybe if you had someone to share your problems with, it would be easier to suppress angry words, enabling you to think about others without losing patience with them. And who knows what problems your companion is dealing with?

There’s a new thing to consider and it might shock you: maybe instead of his purposely goaded you into ange, he barely noticed you; maybe you and your misery are far from his mind. Maybe you are so much less important to his day that you are just a blur he passes by. But whether others barely notice you or whatever they think or don’t think about you shouldn’t wound your ego too much. You have a Heavenly Father who always has time to listen and wants you to share your concerns with Him.