Today's gospel reading is the parable of the sower and the seed. Of course this is a very familiar parable, and a favorite of a friend of mine. But today i saw it in a new light.
Here is an excerpt, from Jesus summation of the story:
"The seed is the word of God.
Those on the path are the ones who have heard,
but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
that they may not believe and be saved.
Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy, but they have no root;
they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.
As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life,
and they fail to produce mature fruit.
But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,
they are the ones who, when they have heard the word,
embrace it with a generous and good heart,
and bear fruit through perseverance.” "--Luke 8
What really struck me today was the final sentence ...the ones who...embrace it with a generous and good heart and bear fruit through perseverance.
I just had a sad conversation with a person that I care about a lot, who told me that she has ruined her life with her choices recently. I encouraged her by saying that Jesus will always take you back in His loving arms, no matter what you have done. Her sad response was "that doesn't work for me".
She had recently went through a phase where she was gung ho for Jesus this past spring. She seems to go through this every now and then in her life--try out the Christian life for a bit and then something happens... I don't know what, and she falls away. I don't know exactly what are the ingredients that help some people push through all that happens in life and still cling to God with all their might and the ones who do not. If I did I would bottle it and give it away for free!
I accepted Jesus over 32 years ago, and have been clinging to Him tightly ever since. There have, of course been times that I have had a wanderlust, but they don't ever get a real grip on me. Its like the value of knowing and walking with Jesus for me is beyond anything else in this life. And the more I get to know Him the more valuable He becomes to me.
Perhaps my friend has never been wholly convinced that Jesus really really loves and forgives her completely, from tip to toe. Perhaps she just does not have the eyes to see the love and forgiveness in His eyes for her.
I wish I knew.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Economy
It's obvious to me that the problems with the economy stem from 9/11/01.
I worked in the Home Improvement industry, and busness was just starting to roll that fall, and that day started out with promise. As the events unfolded on that day the store went dead. And the Fall Home Improvement Season never re-started that year.
The terrorists wanted to hurt us, as badly as possible, and the reverberations have been rippling outward ever since.
The following February we were just on the cusp of the Spring Home Improvement season and it looked promising again, as many people were feeling like they could resume thier lives from the fall.
Then we went to war in Afganistan. People held thier breath. We earnestly wanted to capture Bin Laden in that opening wave of fighting. The spring season was bitten with sober thought. Not as bad as 9/11 but still dampened.
On the national scene, travel and tourism industries had been gravely harmed by the terrorists and that was having its own ripple. As we have ground along, it seems to me that the ripples of 9/11 continue to hurt our economy, the fear and mistrust and divisiveness only stirred and made worse by politicians who undermine all that we are working towards with blaming and divisiveness.
All of the above has also been grievously exacerbated by the liberal media in conjunction with Hollywood who whittle away at our feelings of security and respect for our leaders.
When I was young, A president was respected and behaved respectfully just because he was the President, regardless of who voted for or against him. If we had been supportive of our president after 9/11 and Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and worked together to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem we would all be better off and more secure now.
Lets elect an honorable Military man for President and a hard working, sensible Christian lady for Vice President!
I worked in the Home Improvement industry, and busness was just starting to roll that fall, and that day started out with promise. As the events unfolded on that day the store went dead. And the Fall Home Improvement Season never re-started that year.
The terrorists wanted to hurt us, as badly as possible, and the reverberations have been rippling outward ever since.
The following February we were just on the cusp of the Spring Home Improvement season and it looked promising again, as many people were feeling like they could resume thier lives from the fall.
Then we went to war in Afganistan. People held thier breath. We earnestly wanted to capture Bin Laden in that opening wave of fighting. The spring season was bitten with sober thought. Not as bad as 9/11 but still dampened.
On the national scene, travel and tourism industries had been gravely harmed by the terrorists and that was having its own ripple. As we have ground along, it seems to me that the ripples of 9/11 continue to hurt our economy, the fear and mistrust and divisiveness only stirred and made worse by politicians who undermine all that we are working towards with blaming and divisiveness.
All of the above has also been grievously exacerbated by the liberal media in conjunction with Hollywood who whittle away at our feelings of security and respect for our leaders.
When I was young, A president was respected and behaved respectfully just because he was the President, regardless of who voted for or against him. If we had been supportive of our president after 9/11 and Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and worked together to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem we would all be better off and more secure now.
Lets elect an honorable Military man for President and a hard working, sensible Christian lady for Vice President!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Pelosi Debacle
Ok here I am throwing my hat into the ring on Speaker Pelosi's comments on Meet the Press.
Last Sunday Speaker Pelosi made some misleading and ignorant comments about the Catholic Church stance on when life begins. I have nothing against the lady, myself, I don't like to condemn anyone or be against anyone. But I have to stand up for the truth. The truth was misrepresented in her comments and needs addressing.
Some charitable Catholic bloggers/commentators have noted that Pelosi may have done the best she could with an unexpected question for which she was obviously seriously unprepared.
BUT, that does not free her from the blood-guilt of unborn children who have been murdered senselessly becuase of her choices as a Congressperson.
Question for you Speaker Pelosi? What do you call a lady who is pregnant?
Most people I know call her a mom or a mom to be. WHY? Becasue we all know that what is going to come out of her body is a baby. When did it become a baby? Is there some magic moment when it becomes a baby? at birth? Is that at nine months then? what about a test tube "baby". We call IT a baby? hmmmmm. why?
When we teach children about how they grew inside their mothers uterus, we call it the development of a "baby" don't we? That's because even young children know that there is no magic moment when the cells become a baby.
Once the miracle of sperm and egg come together and cell division occurs the "baby" has everything it needs to be a human but nourishment to grow. If something is wrong with the umbilical chord or Uterine sack then we worry about the "baby" and intervene medically to save the child.
If a murderer kills a pregnant woman and the unborn child dies, we call it a baby or child, do we not? That is because in our heart of hearts we KNOW it is a child.
SO my point of view is not very scientific, others can give you lots of the scientific argument, I am telling you that when a woman looses a "baby" to a miscarriage, she and the father mourn the loss. not of some cells, but of their unborn child.
Let us as a society mourn the loss of our innocence and integrity and repent of the horrible deeds we, corporately are guilty of in murdering these children since 1973, lets start our healing process as a nation and support those who were victims of this crime by teaching them that every child is a "wanted" child!
Amen
Last Sunday Speaker Pelosi made some misleading and ignorant comments about the Catholic Church stance on when life begins. I have nothing against the lady, myself, I don't like to condemn anyone or be against anyone. But I have to stand up for the truth. The truth was misrepresented in her comments and needs addressing.
Some charitable Catholic bloggers/commentators have noted that Pelosi may have done the best she could with an unexpected question for which she was obviously seriously unprepared.
BUT, that does not free her from the blood-guilt of unborn children who have been murdered senselessly becuase of her choices as a Congressperson.
Question for you Speaker Pelosi? What do you call a lady who is pregnant?
Most people I know call her a mom or a mom to be. WHY? Becasue we all know that what is going to come out of her body is a baby. When did it become a baby? Is there some magic moment when it becomes a baby? at birth? Is that at nine months then? what about a test tube "baby". We call IT a baby? hmmmmm. why?
When we teach children about how they grew inside their mothers uterus, we call it the development of a "baby" don't we? That's because even young children know that there is no magic moment when the cells become a baby.
Once the miracle of sperm and egg come together and cell division occurs the "baby" has everything it needs to be a human but nourishment to grow. If something is wrong with the umbilical chord or Uterine sack then we worry about the "baby" and intervene medically to save the child.
If a murderer kills a pregnant woman and the unborn child dies, we call it a baby or child, do we not? That is because in our heart of hearts we KNOW it is a child.
SO my point of view is not very scientific, others can give you lots of the scientific argument, I am telling you that when a woman looses a "baby" to a miscarriage, she and the father mourn the loss. not of some cells, but of their unborn child.
Let us as a society mourn the loss of our innocence and integrity and repent of the horrible deeds we, corporately are guilty of in murdering these children since 1973, lets start our healing process as a nation and support those who were victims of this crime by teaching them that every child is a "wanted" child!
Amen
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
A reponse
This is a response to a Catholic blogger who recently endorsed Obama.
Dear Sir,
Just to address one of the most glaring problems with your endorsement(though the pro-death stance of this candidate should be enough for you).
Universal Health Care is one of the scariest propositions ever put forth to the American people. Putting Government in charge of healthcare gives to the secular state a control that has apocalyptic implications. In future it would be all to easy for the state to decide to withhold healthcare from people of a certain age, or have diseases that would not be cured by the care. It would be all to easy for government to decide to let persons die who would not have the "quality of life" that some decision maker thinks they should have.
I have one friend who was in a dune buggy accident at 18 and has been unable to hold a job outside of menial work for many years, his health care has been astronomical over the years to pay for. He cannot converse with you and looks to the world to be stupid and in articulate. He is even in recent years unable to fingerspell or do simple signs any more because of the deterioration of his health.
However he is a valued member of our faith community, and his repertoire of moaning a bit to a song or worship is heartening to those of us who know he is openly and without shame expressing his love for God. He quick and snappy moan to a joke from someone he knows can make us all laugh. He has suffered for about 30 years looking weird and unable to date or even make friends outside of those of us who know him well. He drools easily and coughs in a gross way at times, becuase he cannot control these things. Yet when he survived a recent bought with Pneumonia there were several hundred people including Bob who were grateful for the "miracle" that kept him alive.
Think about it.
Dear Sir,
Just to address one of the most glaring problems with your endorsement(though the pro-death stance of this candidate should be enough for you).
Universal Health Care is one of the scariest propositions ever put forth to the American people. Putting Government in charge of healthcare gives to the secular state a control that has apocalyptic implications. In future it would be all to easy for the state to decide to withhold healthcare from people of a certain age, or have diseases that would not be cured by the care. It would be all to easy for government to decide to let persons die who would not have the "quality of life" that some decision maker thinks they should have.
I have one friend who was in a dune buggy accident at 18 and has been unable to hold a job outside of menial work for many years, his health care has been astronomical over the years to pay for. He cannot converse with you and looks to the world to be stupid and in articulate. He is even in recent years unable to fingerspell or do simple signs any more because of the deterioration of his health.
However he is a valued member of our faith community, and his repertoire of moaning a bit to a song or worship is heartening to those of us who know he is openly and without shame expressing his love for God. He quick and snappy moan to a joke from someone he knows can make us all laugh. He has suffered for about 30 years looking weird and unable to date or even make friends outside of those of us who know him well. He drools easily and coughs in a gross way at times, becuase he cannot control these things. Yet when he survived a recent bought with Pneumonia there were several hundred people including Bob who were grateful for the "miracle" that kept him alive.
Think about it.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
From a Nike Commercial
A Dream Deferred
by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
--Knocked this off from a Nike Olympics commercial--fit my mood well
Monday, August 18, 2008
Fading
All is black and white
The color gone
like twilight
I look at my hands
what do they say?
they tell a story
but who will write it?
They want to caress
to love
but no more.
No more will they dance gracefully
no more
they fade to
black and white
and shades of grey
its hard to see
hard to hear
animated no
more.
s
The color gone
like twilight
I look at my hands
what do they say?
they tell a story
but who will write it?
They want to caress
to love
but no more.
No more will they dance gracefully
no more
they fade to
black and white
and shades of grey
its hard to see
hard to hear
animated no
more.
s
Sunday, August 17, 2008
A confession
One of my jobs is at a local Department Store. I have worked there for almost 2 years supplementing my income as a part-time faculty member at a local college. VERY part-time lately it seems with enrollment down especially in my area.
It has been very frustrating to be going to college in a Bachelors completion program, and then getting bumped by faculty with more seniority and not teaching at all. This drops my income by 2/3 of what i made last year. So I work doing part-time work at one or two other jobs to make ends meet.
I have a lot of frustration in my personal life too. So I have to confess I have recently looked at my store manager at Macy's, a lovely, competent and kind lady, who is much admired, and about ten years my junior. She is a Christian that i have always been grateful to for creating a very pleasant and quality atmosphere at our store.
After a particularly frustrating day at home with my kids. I looked at Stacy(our store manager) and I thought, "God, why does this lady have looks, success, a loving Husband, money, and nice kids and I have kids that still struggle from my divorce, over 17 years ago, I struggle to survive and i have no one in my life to love and cherish me. Here i am in the latter half of life and I never did get to travel, or take my kids on the trips I wanted to take them on as children. My kids have never had the traditions of vacations as a family, and keeping the holidays that i would have wanted to keep with them as a family. We are a broken family. Why God, does this lady have it all?"
Wednesday night, when I arrived at work, I was pulled aside and told to "sit down for this". Our beloved store manager, Stacy, only 39, with 4 children at home, and a loving husband, was killed in a car accident the day before.
I feel guilty for envying her and her family. Now her children will not grow up with a mom.
What more can I say? Her life was cut short. I feel guilty for thinking that my life is so terrible.
It has been very frustrating to be going to college in a Bachelors completion program, and then getting bumped by faculty with more seniority and not teaching at all. This drops my income by 2/3 of what i made last year. So I work doing part-time work at one or two other jobs to make ends meet.
I have a lot of frustration in my personal life too. So I have to confess I have recently looked at my store manager at Macy's, a lovely, competent and kind lady, who is much admired, and about ten years my junior. She is a Christian that i have always been grateful to for creating a very pleasant and quality atmosphere at our store.
After a particularly frustrating day at home with my kids. I looked at Stacy(our store manager) and I thought, "God, why does this lady have looks, success, a loving Husband, money, and nice kids and I have kids that still struggle from my divorce, over 17 years ago, I struggle to survive and i have no one in my life to love and cherish me. Here i am in the latter half of life and I never did get to travel, or take my kids on the trips I wanted to take them on as children. My kids have never had the traditions of vacations as a family, and keeping the holidays that i would have wanted to keep with them as a family. We are a broken family. Why God, does this lady have it all?"
Wednesday night, when I arrived at work, I was pulled aside and told to "sit down for this". Our beloved store manager, Stacy, only 39, with 4 children at home, and a loving husband, was killed in a car accident the day before.
I feel guilty for envying her and her family. Now her children will not grow up with a mom.
What more can I say? Her life was cut short. I feel guilty for thinking that my life is so terrible.
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