In case you missed my poem on "Septermber 11, 2001" ("WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?)

Wild winds, destructive floods, unrelenting rains...hurricane after hurricane...but the heart and soul of the people living through them, though battered, will not give up.  They will reach out to each other, pull each other up, instill hope, and rebuild.

I have seen this already, watching the news - about the storms, but also about the ways people are holding up, helping, encouraging...pressing on in the determination to not allow this disaster to take heart and soul from them.

In the midst of the attacks of Nature,  the U.S. , along with other countries, remember the greatest man-made attack of its history, when terrorists tried to destroy our hearts and souls...September 11, 2001.  They tried to take heart and soul...but couldn't do it.  I pray to God they never will!

I wrote this poem in the days after the event, and included it in a blog post several years ago.  Since some of you may never have seen it, or read it so long ago that you don't remember it, here's the link to that post.  (Note: when you open it, just scroll down a ways til you come to the poem.)


"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"...MY 9-11 POEM


Whatever calamities threaten, those who have learned to trust in the Almighty God and have given themselves to his keeping, can echo the psalmist's prayer of confidence in his power and kindness.

"Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in You I take refuge.  I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed."     (Psalm 57:1)

Meditations of a sort-of-Cyclops (sigh!)

As I woke up Wednesday morning, my left eye

signaled its great unhappiness.  It didn't like the feeling of a "foreign object" encroaching on its delicate cornea!  Since I agreed with the sentiment, I carefully opened the lids, trying to dislodge said object.  Didn't work.  So I waited impatiently till Germán woke up and enlisted him in my endeavor.  He didn't find anything.  So we went to his lovely niece Alma, an ophthalmologist.
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Apparently, whatever got into my eye did its damage and then high-tailed it out before we could catch it. It was only a tiny cut, so she put a patch over my eye (see picture) so it would rest and heal, AND so I could still see out of the other eye without discomfort.  Supposedly. It wasn't all that easy.

Not accustomed to being one-eyed, I couldn't see too well even then.  Depth perception was impaired.  (The next  morning, I managed to get the toothpaste to drip down the side of the toothbrush...instead of onto the floor!)    

I couldn't read, as my reading glasses didn't fit properly over the patch, whose tape tentacles reached up over part of my nose.  So I mainly lay on the couch and listened to the news...and thought...
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I thought of the eyes of our heart and soul. I thought of I Cor. 13:12: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then we shall see face to face."  Even with two good spiritual eyes, we can't see everything about our Father...yet.

In the O.T. we often see verses like Judges 21:15: "All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes." And that always boded ill!  It didn't work then and it doesn't work now...

...because: "The LORD sees not as a man sees...the LORD  looks at the heart."  (I Sam. 16:7)

The psalmist said, "The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes."  (Ps. 19:8)  So the best thing we can do is adopt his pleas as our own:
--"Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law."  (Ps. 119:18)
--"Turn my eyes away from worthless things..."  (Ps. 119:37)
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   Paul wrote these beautiful words to his readers...and that includes you and me!

                      "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened 
                                          in order that you may know 
                                   the hope to which He has called you."
                                                   (Ephesians 1:18)               
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44 years ago...the first of three!

"Let this be a sign among you..." Those were the words of Joshua, when he told twelve Israelites to gather stones to memorialize what God had done.  (Joshua 4:4-7)

In giving Moses instructions for the high priest's vestments, God said, "As a jeweler engraves a signet, you shall engrave the two stones..." These were to be a memorial. (Exodus 28:11-12)
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This is a picture of our "ring exchange",  a custom prevalent 44 years ago, in the small-town area where I lived (in Ecuador), to "announce" an engagement...to "be a sign among you", so to speak.

The engaged couple would buy the wedding bands, then wear them on the right hand.  (They were taken off before the wedding ceremony, during which they were placed, as usual, on the left hand.)

As in Exodus, we had the jeweler engrave our initials and the date for our wedding, inside each ring.  (His initials on my ring, and mine on his.)  We also decided we wanted to have our little "ritual" in church, with the congregation as witness (and the news would spread via grapevine to those who hadn't attended that day - and hence to the whole town!) and, even more importantly, with a special prayer of blessing.  (It was explained to the congregation that this was NOT a wedding! Just in case...)
                 
This was the first of three ceremonies.  They were pretty close together.  We met in early July, had our ring exchange August 5, our civil (legal) wedding (at the civil registry) September 19, and the religious wedding September 22. Whew!!
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Imagine life without these memorials...special celebrations. Weddings, birthdays, engagements, anniversaries, graduations...even funerals! They all make life more interesting, to be sure, but they also enrich us,  make these occasions stand out in our memories, help us organize our inner "timeline" and, in some cases, hold us to promises made.

Did you catch that first item?  They enrich us. God knew what He was about when He instituted the  feasts and celebrations for the Israelites. They were a great tool for making important things stand out, for emphasizing essential truths about God, for helping them keep their hearts and minds oriented toward the One Who loved them and led them, and for reminding them to Whom they needed to keep their promises.
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Most feasts and celebrations were joyful...just like our weddings and birthday parties and anniversaries today!  And they serve a further purpose:  to fill our hearts with gratitude to God for his blessings!  We are thankful year-round, but on those special days, we take the time to honor, to reminisce, to evaluate...

And so, today, as we think back to when my husband and I began our journey together, I thank God for what He started in our lives 44 years ago.  We have gone through ups and downs, tough times and delightful days...and we are grateful!
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"The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts Him, and He helps me.  My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him."  (Psalm 28:7)

Burdens: Samwise Gamgee...and Jesus (Part II)

Samwise offered to carry Frodo's load when he saw that his friend's exhaustion under it had left him unable to move. But it turned out to be impossible. Most of us rarely get that bad, but when we do...?

Others sometimes help us out...though not always. They may wish they could...but be unable to.  But we shouldn't get discouraged! There is always the One who walks at our side (if we let Him) and is ready to carry our burdens.

          His shoulders are broad enough to handle the heaviest load,
          his arms strong enough to secure the most crushing burden.

"Cast your burden on the LORD (release it) and He will sustain and uphold you..."  (Psalm 55:22)

"Yet it was our grief He bore, our sorrows that weighed Him down."  (Isaiah 53:4)

"Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you."  (I Peter 5:7)
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Samwise couldn't carry Frodo's burden, but he could carry Frodo himself.  Few of those close to us can carry us.  But, again, we shouldn't get discouraged! The only One capable of lifting us up and carrying us as far as we need Him to is just as present and willing as He was millenia ago when He reminded his people:

"You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to Myself."  (Exodus 19:4)
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Where does He carry us?  "He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart..."  (Isaiah 10:11)

For how long?  "There you saw how the LORD your God carried you...all the way you went." (Deuteronomy 1:31)
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Those of us who are "getting on" in age  can delight ourselves in this next verse...and you youngsters can hold the promise in your heart for the future!

                            "Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, 
                                   and I am He who will sustain you. 
                                I have made you and I will carry you;                                                                          I  will sustain you and rescue you."   (Isaiah 46:4)

                                  Thank You, Father, for this promise!     
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(P.S. If you're wondering about Galatians 6:5, "For each one should carry his own load", the meaning is very different. It's saying that we are each responsible for our own conduct.  On the Bible Hub, it is well-explained thusly: Each one of us "must answer directly to God for his actions.  His responsibility cannot be shifted on to others." )

Burdens: Samwise Gamgee...and Jesus (Part I)

Poor beast!  (Have you ever felt like this?) The load he pulled was so heavy - and lopsided -  he ended up unable to move, unable to do anything to help himself.  There are burdens that can  virtually paralyze.

I am finally getting on my feet after almost two weeks of illness, most of the time spent laying either on my bed or on the sofa.  Since I couldn't do much of anything productive, I watched a number of movies. In the latter part of The Return of the King, I waited for one of my favorite parts.

Frodo and Samwise struggle up the rough, rocky mountainside, both of them exhausted.  Frodo carries a crushing, paralyzing burden  - the Ring -  and cannot keep going.  Samwise knows the ring must be thrown into the volcano, and offers to carry the ring for Frodo, who explains why that simply can't be. So Samwise musters all the strength he has left and says, "Come, Mr. Frodo! I can't carry it for you...but I can carry you!"  Lifting the smaller hobbit, he carries him to the completion of their mission.
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St. Paul wrote: "Carry one another's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the requirements of the law of Christ {that is, the law of Christian love}."  (Galatians 6:2, Amplified Bible)*

There are times when, though we would like to "carry another's burdens", we find it impossible...like Samwise did.  He was able to pick up the burden-bearer and continue. But there are times when we simply can't "carry" that person as he/she labors under a heavy burden. What can we do?

There is never "nothing I can do".  There are usually other ways in which we can help, but most importantly, we can always pray...and pray that this person will end up where this short poem ends up!

                                             Falling

                                    I'm falling...falling...
                                    can't keep holding on.
                                    My grip is too weak
                                    and my strength almost gone;

                                    down through miasmas
                                    of fainting and fears;
                                    down through the sandstorms
                                    of turmoil and tears;

                                     grazing the claws
                                     of our Foe's deadly charms;
                                     falling...falling...
                                     right into Your arms!
                                                                                        ---Becky Rhon
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What a wonderful place to end up!  In fact, I think we could say that the troubles and difficulties that affect us can actually be "blessings in disguise" IF the outcome is to fall right into our loving Shepherd's arms!

Yes, He carries us!  The Word of God has many references to God carrying our burdens AND carrying us.  In next week's post, we'll look at some of these beautiful, heartening verses.  Please join me!
                                 
(Here's a "preview".)

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens."   (Psalm 68:19)
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(*Yes, there's a verse that says each person should shoulder his own load. That's not a contradiction.  We'll look at it next week, OK?)

Tyndale's prayer...Henry VIII's edict

Last night we watched "God's Outlaw"...and it left me thinking.  William Tyndale dedicated his life to translating the Bible into English, passionate to make it available to everyone in England. *

Tyndale was later executed (1536) for "heresy". His dying words were, "Lord, open the king of England's eyes." That prayer was answered.

Henry VIII had hounded Tyndale and others...but after "divorcing" England from the Catholic church, as the new "boss", he changed tactics.  In 1538 his royal edict ordered that "one book of the whole Bible of the largest volume in English" be allocated to every church in the country. Each was to be set up "in some convenient place whereas your parishioners may most commodiously resort to the same and read it".  Double-whammy for the Pope! The Bible in English, and everyone having the right to read it for himself.

I thought of the fact that many churches today have a stand or pedestal, usually at the front, with a large open Bible.  Does that custom derive from Henry's edict, a hold-over that continues into our times in some churches?  (I haven't been able to find any information.)
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Now let's switch spaces.  Where is the Bible "displayed" in our lives? In a position of honor? Do we often "resort to the same and read it"? Do we allow it to be "the largest volume" that others can "read" in us as they observe what we do and say?

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work". (II Timothy 3:16-17)  The Word is given to us to be digested, used and lived...not just read and set aside, not just heard and then forgotten.
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Even when evil takes place around us, we can relish the beautiful images this passage from the Bible evokes and wrap them around our hearts.  Our God says,

"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is the word that goes out of My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.  You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."  (Isaiah 55:10-12)
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              Father, help me to keep your Word in its proper position in my life. 
          Thank You for promising "you will go out in joy and be led forth in peace".  
                                               You are AWESOME!!



(*In case you wonder, Wycliffe translated into English from Latin, Tyndale from the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.)

The "Great Horse Manure Crisis" of 1894

In 1894 The Times made this prediction:  "In 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure."  Phew!

It's understandable, due to "equine nature".  I read that a horse produces 15 - 35 pounds (!) of manure a day. In London there were more than 11,000 hansom cabs on the streets; AND  thousands of horse-drawn buses - each using 12 horses a day; AND a slew of smaller "vehicles", like delivery carts...all using horses...all of which contributed to what became known as the Great Horse Manure Crisis.

I assume the "nine feet" would be the result if the manure were never shoveled. There must have been crews trying to clean the stuff and leave the streets...if not clean, at least less gross!  But I can't imagine how the people stood the stench of all those horse droppings.  Did they just get used to it?
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After reading of this curious Crisis, I wondered if God, when He looks down on Earth and sees the streets of our lives "deep in the manure of sin"...with its attendant stink...wonders, "How can those people stand the stench of their sins?  Do they just get used to it?"

Manure is a perfectly healthy (for the horse, at least) by-product of "equine nature".  Sin is a perfectly unhealthy by-product of "human nature":

"But I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me."  (Psalm 51:5)
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Back in the Israelites' history, God at times got really fed-up with them:

"Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption...."  (Isaiah 1:4)

Later in Isaiah, talking about the ones who were defiant and arrogant in their sin, "These people gag me.  I can't stand their stench."  (65:5)  Did the people just get used to the stink?
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The solution to the Great Horse Manure Crisis was the arrival of the motor car.  There was now a way to avoid the stench and pervasiveness of the manure.  And the solution to Man's Sin crisis was the arrival of the Son of God who payed the humanly-incomprehensible price for our forgiveness.  There is now a way to avoid the stench and pervasiveness of Sin.

"He Himself bore our sins, in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed."  (I Peter 2:24)

(After motor cars arrived, one could still have used a horse if he wanted - but he would have to deal with all the manure.  And though Jesus provided the way to be free from sin, we can still decide to disobey if we want - but we will have to deal with the consequences.)
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"But now that you have found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you...a whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way!..God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master."   (Romans 6:22-23,  The Message)
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                                                     Father, bless You!  
                                         You not only provided The Solution, 
                     You also gave us the incredible gift of eternal life at your side. 
                                           Help me to always listen to You!