Speaking Words of Wisdom

When we go through trials in our lives we often wonder why these things happen, and why us.

"Why me, O Lord, why me?"

We can search the Bible, we can turn to God in prayer, we can talk to our pastor or close friends. We can ask, "What purpose does this hardship serve?" But sometimes, we aren't told what we want to hear.

"This hardship will, in a way that we cannot understand, ultimately bring glory to God."

Well yes, I know that, but it brings up other questions: "How does it bring glory to God? Couldn't he have chosen some other way?"

Yes, he could have. And why he didn't, we will never know. In this life at least.

This is God's will. It may take days, weeks, months, or even years to accept it, but it is still His perfect and holy will.

And then one evening you're in the kitchen cleaning the supper dishes with pandora playing in the background. When the next song starts up you stop scrubbing the pot and stare out the window. You can't believe what you've just heard. A song you've listened to countless times suddenly takes on new meaning.

"When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be."

(But I'm a good old Protestant so I humbly suggest we insert 'The Holy Ghost' in place of 'Mother Mary')

"For though they may be parted
There is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be."

There will be answers in Heaven. And let me tell ya, I've got a lot of questions. But because I know that there will be answers later, I can trust God's plan for my life right now. I can let go of everything I've been carrying with me for so long and just let it be. It's the most encouraging piece of news I've heard in a long, long time.

I don't know, maybe the Beatles had an entirely different interpretation of this song. But for me, it means I can listen to the whispered words of wisdom, and let it be.

Let us take heed that we pray for others also. Let us beware of selfish prayers – the prayers which are wholly taken up with our own affairs, and in which there is no place for other souls beside our own. Let us name all whom we love before God continually. Let us pray for all – the worst, the hardest, and the most unbelieving. Let us continue praying for them year after year, in spite of their continued unbelief. God’s time of mercy may be a distant one. Our eyes may not see an answer to our intercession. The answer may not come for ten, fifteen, or twenty years. It may not come until we have exchanged prayer for praise, and are far away from this world. But while we live, let us pray for others. The greatest kindness we can do to anyone is to speak for them to our Lord Jesus Christ. The day of judgment will show that one of the greatest links in drawing some souls to God, has been the intercessory prayer of friends.

~ J.C. Ryle

This afternoon I made mom some more laundry detergent. Makes me feel all self-sufficeint and smart and clean. haha. But really. It might be a lot easier and faster to pick up some laundry detergent at the store, but that's not all that fun, now is it? And besides, home made LD is good to use if you have reactions to other laundry detergents.

The ingredients, minus water.


Grating the soap






And melting

Haiku

I've been writing some haiku lately. I'm not that good at it, and I don't always follow the correct form, but sometimes haiku is the best way for me to illustrate things. Here's one I wrote this morning.


heart-stopping news
tears for a friend
prayers to our God

or it could just be,

news
tears
prayers


For as Matsuo Bashō puts it, "The haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that reveal fifty to sixty percent, we never tire of."

Keep the Chips and Dip Coming

I just had to post this forward someone sent me. So hilarious. Enjoy.

(written by kids)

1. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHOM TO MARRY?

You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
-- Alan, age 10

-No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with.
-- Kristen, age 10


2. WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?

Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
-- Camille, age 10


3. HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
-- Derrick, age 8


4. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?

Both don't want any more kids.
-- Lori, age 8


5. WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?

-Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
-- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure)

-On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
-- Martin, age 10


6. WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?

-When they're rich.
-- Pam, age 7

-The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
- - Curt, age 7

-The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
- - Howard, age 8


7. IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?

It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
-- Anita, age 9 (bless you child )


8. HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?

There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?
-- Kelvin, age 8


And the #1 Favorite is .......


9. HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck.
-- Ricky, age 10

Rats in the Cellar

Another excellent excerpt from Mere Christianity. Mr Lewis is definitely talking about me.

"We begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult so I will try to make it clear from my own case. when I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate of premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are mostly likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light."
C. S. Lewis

Wild Rumours

Excerpt from C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity

What man, in his natural condition, has not go, is Spiritual life - the higher and different sort of life that exists in God. We use the same word life for both: but if you thought that both must therefore be the same sort of thing, that would be like thinking that the 'greatness' of space and the 'greatness' of God were the same sort of greatness. In reality, the difference between Biological life and Spiritual life is so important that I am going to give them two distinct names. The Biological sort which comes to us through Nature, and which (like everything else in Nature) is always tending to run down and decay so that it can only be kept up by incessant subsidies from Nature in the form of air, water, food, etc., is Bios. The Spiritual life which is in God from all eternity, and which made the whole natural universe, is Zoe. Bios has, to be sure, a certain shadowy or symbolic resemblance to Zoe: but only the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place, or a statue and a man. A man who changed from having Bios to having Zoe would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being a carved stone to being a real man.
And that is precisely what Christianity is about. This world is a great sculptor's shop. We are the statues and there is a rumour going around the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.


I love Mr Lewis