NOT I

“The Child is to cause the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the hearts of many will be revealed.”  -Simeon, in the Temple, Lk 2:34

“ ‘I’m as good as you!’ “—the exclamation of us all, as revealed by C.S. Lewis in his book, The Abolition of Man.

 

If the Sanhedrin could have called out to Simeon in reply, it might have gone like this, albeit in more erudite terms:

“What you need this kid for? Looka all you got, here! You gotta nice Temple! Herod, he be good to us! Nice Romans, too. What more you need?  Good roads, aqueducts, low crime rate, and great specimens of human race, namely us, to give you friendly advice and plenty rules so you don’t got to think of anything. We tell what to do, huh?  Alla time, any time.  So no worries, with us on your side. Besides, we such great guys, who else you need?  You gotta problem with that?”

Messiah, Shmessiah! That be big fairy tale.  Everything you need, you got, right here. Besides, this all there be! You needa good lawyer?  We got lots, and reasonable prices too!  You wanna do good, fine, just follow directions onna box…”

Jesus is more and more seen as the Biggest Insult to Homo Sapiente ever.  “I think my good deeds outweigh my bad ones,” and then we refuse to admit that anything could be good or bad, right or wrong, true or false.  (But we do seem to sense that our nay-bores are “lying” about us!!!)

However, it turns out that the “res humana” needs help more than any other being on the planet; that he alone is prone to massive self-deception; which sets up self-annihilation;  he even wishes for it! (“Thanatos “)

 Think of it! Most people do not care about heaven and won’t even think about hell; we can’t see how anyone would be held that responsible for “every careless word.”  So as O’Connor said, we breathe nihilism and the majority aim at and religiously hope for complete self-annihilation, or at best “Nirvana” ie Nonbeing; in order to escape God and His Purity, Wisdom, and His Provision for entering at His Sheepgate.

But Messiah has come-so when He returns for His Harvest from the seeds he planted 2000 years ago, will he find a crop?  Or just crumbs?  And yes, all of human history proves that, left to ourselves, we will ruin or pervert everything good gift that we receive;  and attack the very ground that holds us up.  So this is "good enough?"

I don’t know about thee; but I would not ever claim to be, “As good as you,” much less as good as Jesus.  I don’t even technically know enough to ever support that claim. I don’t know you the way God knows you, nor does anyone else. And since we are too subjective to know right from wrong or even know  when we are really being wronged, it will never ever be up to us to uproot the weeds from the wheat. God knows what He wants; He wants His Son; and for us to be more like Him than anyone else.

The hearts of us all ARE being revealed. RUR?

`TWAS A DARK AND RAINY NIGHT.

And so it is.  So after a wonderful nap and dinner with wife and dog, maybe I can catch up with my scattered thoughtz.

Here’s a new word: miscellanophobia.  I invite the reader to contribute.  Several possible meanings:

Fear of your junk drawer.

Fear of  seemingly random “to do “ lists.

It could also be a fear of apparent disorder, other’s people’s inscrutable and puzzling thought patterns, and perhaps a suspicion of  our whole culture which seems to be increasingly patchworked together even as it is ripping apart at the “seems!”  It reminds me of the wife of Odysseus, among other legends, who held off her suitors by promising to choose a new husband (hers missing and widely presumed dead) when she finished a garment—maybe a wedding dress. These must have been very dimwitted suitors since it took them years to catch on.  Or maybe they were too busy partying and dropping in on her house to do so.  At any rate, things did not turn out well for the suitors; and if we don’t learn a lesson from them, we , may end up  at the point of Odysseus’ (and son Telemachus’) arrows.

 

One could certainly claim that Americans have been too busy “amusing ourselves to death,” to hear the sound of ripping yarns!  I get frequent reminders of this when I go to the free clinic, where people’s profligate medical spending habits just don’t stop. So I pray that they will either change  their attitudes and expectations according to the new realities, or go find someone else to give in to their exorbitant demands. 

The state of Illinois has not helped by supporting a Cadillac Medicaid program that once paid even for Viagra (but only one per weekend). Now our beloved state has received one of the few downgrades given by Standard and Poor’s to represent a very risky environment for investments and businesses, because of a state that promised much, spent much, and did not plan for the future at all, much less a less prosperous one.

 

But though this is a dark and stormy night, it does accomplish God’s purposes in weaning us away from God substitutes which are never enough, doomed by entropy, and unable to provide any solace. Or even any happiness, not even that of a well-fed dog, who at least gets some joy in licking plates or gathering crumbs.

Dogs only worry if they are at the bottom of a pack. Or the beta dog.

I PRAY GOD’S ABSOLUTE AND PERMANENT BEST for anyone who may come across the above. The call is clearly to trust Jesus wholly, i.e. more and more, As the Real and HyperReal Person that He is and said He was. “The same yesterday, today, and forever.”  Or as my friend Dr. Bill Lane once said, “Everyone will disappoint you, except Jesus.

From one imperfect person to the others,

Goodnight Rain and thanks that the creek is rising again;)

 

THE INN GROUP? OR THE STABLE SINGERS?

Whereas:  Mark and Allison are flying to Burma today;

Whereas: They shall not be seen in this country x 1 year;

Whereas: …except on Skype…and

Whereas: They will be serving Jesus Christ every day…

There Fore  be it resolved:

That I, he who writes this, shall henceforth and beyond:

Fully cast in my lot with not only with Mark and Allison

But with Him Whom they are serving and will serve.

Also I am resolved that, when Christ returns

He will find at least some faith on the earth.

 

I have also fully realized that evil will pursue. God’s work is never without opposition owing to the rebel choices of men and angels.  It does not matter if one stays home and tries to live a quiet life—one cannot, and still follow Christ.  God will not allow it, nor will His miserable opponents.

The irony of course is that those who follow idols will live to see them destroyed before their very eyes—if only at the last moment.  That the silver and gold in which we invest will be left to others, who are statistically likely to abuse them even worse than we did.  Shoah shows that.  But if only in this life we have hope—we are “to be pitied more than all men.”  It means we invest everything in an account with negative returns. 

 

“Peace on earth to men Upon Whom His Favor Rests:”  We have a say in that, apparently.  Those who turned Mary and Joseph away all had opportunity to bring them into their own rooms and before their own private hearths, for warmth and protection.  Even the inn who accepted them, kept them out.  The son of God was born with the animals, already rejected of men.

Do we want to be “The Inn Group?”  Those too privileged, too much seeking personal honor, cleanliness, privacy, and the peace that comes from having one’s own home undisturbed by aliens?

The Heavenly Host wanted Him back—as soon as possible.  If He does not have a home in the domicile of our hearts, what use to build “ceiled houses” (Habbakuk) here? If we refuse Him, we also refuse His Holy Spirit, the worst fate we could ever choose. 

Mark and Allison are in the OUT BOX.  Let those of us who pray, pray for them without ceasing.

 

"Shine" -- "make 'em wish that they were not/on the out side lookin' bored..."

T'Shoah

Agnes S., Holocaust survivor, begins her talk today:

“I was very very lucky.”

And ends with:

“Don’t hate.”

 

To which I can only add, “Don’t be paranoid.” 

 While it is true that your own neighbors may turn you in under the right circumstances: under equally or more daunting circumstances, they may hide you as well.  And you may not owe your existence to luck, but to someone’s good will.  In fact, we already owe our lives to someone’s good will; from once upon a time

 to the present. 

 Whose good will?  That “will” vary, on one level; but on the other plane, it is just this:

“…from Everlasting to Everlasting.” 

Lest we forget.

WHY BOTHER? WHY SUCH A POTHER, POOH?

“Why do we bother, Fawlty?”  -the Major

“ I didn’t know you did…”  --Basil Fawlty/ John Cleese; originally a Cheese….under his baited breath…

 

“Questions no one asked me so I asked them myself.” –Walker Percy

No one has had the cheek to ask me why I blog.  “It’s an interesting question”—Satan, after vaporizing the minion who durst ask the question.(George Harrison’s “Time Bandits”)

I don’t think the answer is at all difficult. I enjoy writing.  That’s about it.

Is this “an attempt to communicate”?  Or is it just super-secular Jacques Monod averring that, “The brain secretes thoughts,” like any other gland of the body?  (If ‘twere, it would be a great excuse)

 

How about, “Because I care.”?  Well, that has to be partially true—it’s pretty hard, even with 2 large mugs of coffee, to write about that which is of no interest to me personally; even if it is a passionate subject for others; c.f. Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines…or worse  yet, The Economist. (It is a pretty consistent thing with me that when faced with the subject of finance/s , my eyes glaze over.)

I am not boasting here, these are just facts that apply to me—and I don’t claim any great capacity for self-knowledge either.  Hints that the Word of God and other people give me are the only things that keep me from being as isolated as Screwtape in his den with his nice “smoking jacket” on.

But is it wise to give in to mere compulsion? Expiating it with the idea that this is a forge for my identity and a way to work out my sins and troubles and obscure motives, etc.?

The Word of God, to which I claim to hew; has a completely different view from mine, as usual; it is impossible for a mere man to maintain, much less conform to, the divine perspective.

I may quote more from this later; these quotes are  from a devotion by Henry Morris, entitled, “Loquacity.”

“He that hath knowledge spareth his words; and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.”

-PV 17:27

“In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin; but he that refraineth his lips is wise.”-PV 10:19

“Study to be quiet and avoid foolish talking.”  -Paul

“…be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath,” for he says, “the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, set on fire of hell.”—James

“…let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven and thou upon the earth: therefore let thy words be few.” –Solomon

Of course it must be said that the advice Solomon gave, he only honored in the breach; and what he wrote to his sons, ie Proverbs, he did not follow, which led to a permanent division of Israel between the descendants of David and the 10 –out of 12- Northern tribes—because of careless reactionary words from Rehoboam, who learned more from his Dad by example, unfortunately, than from his many words.

It must be said, though, that much of the advice that we give, esp. the unsolicited type, is unconsciously given because of “too much information,” and perhaps not wanting our children to repeat our mistakes. But more of it is highly likely to be instantly adulterated yet unadulterated pride; uncontaminated by Christ.

All well and good, but it doesn’t work that way, which is why in the raising of our children I always deferred to the peaceable wisdom of my wife; and I thank God that even today my children are not usually interested in what I write.  And  I can also give thanks that eventually my journals—way too wordy but more meant for God and myself than for anyone else—will all bite the dust; just as will all my blogs be purged; if my multitude of words  don’t hang me first. God remembers… so I should pause, and shudder.

The question is always before me—should I continue, when one can be assured that the thoughts of our minds when exposed, will cause more of: “We all offend in many ways.”  Is a passion for record-keeping in place, outside of the medical record, or is it what Paul said in our marriage vows:  “Love keeps no record of wrongs.”  ---???

Not one of us is able to match up to our own standards, much less anyone’s else’s expectations, and surely God’s standards are continually ignored and forgotten because we can never keep up. Hypocrisy is therefore a universal sin, not peculiar to any “belief system”—a poor expression, surely: akin to the fashion magazine etiology of the neologism,  “lifestyle;” which trivializes the meaning of life to the level of a choice between chocolate or strawberry.

But if we are not content to let God manage the world, what then do we who “believe,” believe?

“To have lived is not enough…they have to talk about it.”—Waiting for Godot.

(Beckett gave up painting; but not writing! Yet the standard and the truth about us remains.)

 

 

 

 

 

Thurber Unchained

"It is no secret...

...what God can do/ what He’s done for others/He’ll do for you.”

Did it over occur to any of us that:

IF YOU TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, YOU HAVE TO LOOK IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION?

 

Now, while that’s sinking in, I have learned a great deal in the last few days.

There is no secret thing that will not be “published from the housetops.” --according to the only person Who would know. 

Next, it has been my suspicion for some time that, after 3000 page views and not much to show for it, that this blog needs to go into a different direction entirely.

Not to make it “popular,” God forbid; but to be less prideful and more conforming to Him Whom I claim is to be of Supreme Importance—because that’s the reality.

It was Jesus’ command, not suggestion, that a follower of His must not only turn the other cheek—no, there’s so much more

It has occurred to me in the middle of the night that in none of my previous  posts have I actually prayed for my readers, nor for anyone else.

“My house shall be called a House of Prayer.”

Note that while the politics of His time were even worse than ours, and  horrible cruciform injustices the rule rather than the exception, Jesus never favored one force over another.  Even when He said He came mainly for His people the Jews, He was easily intreated by a Gentile woman—several, in fact. He told the woman at the well that it was only important to worship “in Spirit and in Truth,” not whether they should go to Jerusalem or Samaria… and the “Good Samaritan” still is known in many disguises today.

So when it is pointed out that this blog has become too political,  those readers are probably right. But when I am I told I should not pray, I have only One to pray to, and it is up to the listener to decide, “Is it right to obey God, or man?”  So that’s that. (If anything it should be additional incentive to “civil disobedience,” a principle honored more in the breach of it than otherwise. )(What’s good for MLK is not for me--???)

 

Well, there I go again—this is not easy!  To us, who are so used to staking everything on our “group opinions.”  God, help me to:

“When life gives you opposition, make opposition-aid!”

When Jesus says to do good to those who oppose Him and His Father, He does not mean the lesser good of material “goods” unless the person is desperately needy and poor and has not enough of this world’s materials for life.  But for those who are well off, He means to give not things, but prayer. The Indisputably Greater Good, which is the trigger to the type of Love He means.

I think it safe to say that all of us who might read this already have too much of this world’s treasures-and most of us are sensible enough to know that we need to divest ourselves of much of it, even unto, “Sell what you  have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven.  Then come and follow Me.”

How unreasonable and shocking! To give away “My Precious” as Gollum called it!  Yet “he is no fool who gives away what he cannot hope to keep,” anyway.

“What I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”   “Could you not watch with Me for one hour?” 

So let me end, and start with this: I have a note on my dashboard which I use for those who do me wrong --as I think at the time, anyway--on the highway, or more often for those who just irritate me; or both (see  recent blog on man in the headlights and my near-death experience) It says:

I PRAY GOD’S ABSOLUTE BEST FOR YOU.

So let that be my prayer for all my readers, past, present, and maybe!  And God grant me grace to follow Jesus more and more, and my own inclinations and negative feelings and critical spirits less and less, preferably not at all.

 

My thanks to those who have given me a wake up call about my  getting off the plane of Jesus and onto   the shaky ground of my own turtle-soapbox. I don’t think turning my tiny temple of the Holy Ghost into a “house of prayer” will be attractive to many, who find prayer either repulsive or annoying, but it extends the blog effect, I might say, well beyond the blogosphere.  Only what is received in Heaven—and most of it will still be in secret I hope and as Jesus also directs us into our prayer closet—is going to be of any importance in the long run.  After all, if the Holy Spirit does not change hearts, they will not be changed no matter what I say or do—because it was always between them-and-THEM, anyway.