essays 184-191

1. #191 Storm Warnings
2. #190 Blue Goo Again
3. #189 Thread Recognition
4. #188  "The Prime Directive"
5. #187 I did it my way--when I should have read the manual!
6. #186 A Barbell of Stumbling
7. #185 Guess I'll Go Eat Worms!
8. #184 Cobwebs and Silver Linings

#191 Storm Warnings

The warnings started already on New Year's Eve, 1998. By New Year's Day '99, the warnings were firm and frequent: Winter Storm Warning, 8-14 inches of snow expected here in NE Indiana with strong winds. So many of us prepared for a weekend at home, besieged by the weather. Bread and milk were flying off the grocery stores on New Year's Day. We were ready for the long haul. We waited. Maybe the warnings were wrong; we could only hope. But the snow came, right on schedule. How thankful we were to have heeded the warnings. As long as the snow didn't turn into an ice storm and knock out the electricity, we would be OK.

But there are other storm warnings that many are ignoring. You've seen the signs: "Jesus is coming soon--are you ready?" We don't have merely a 2 day warning; we've been warned for years. In fact, we've been warned for so long that we don't really believe the warnings anymore. "Where is the promise of His coming?" we scoff. "We've been hearing that for years but we are still here." And so, we don't take the warnings seriously. We don't prepare and we aren't ready. "Jesus returning in wrath? Returning to judge the world?" Nah--that's not the kind and gentle Jesus we've heard about. He would never do that, would He? (see Jude 14,15)

Storm warnings. Yes, we are familiar with them. There is the ever-brewing trouble in the Middle East; and especially the contentions over the status of Jerusalem. (see Zechariah 12:2,3) May 4^th, 1999 is only four months away--that is when Arafat has said he will unilaterally declare a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Does that sound like warnings to you?

What about the leadership vacuum--how many world leaders are in poor health or political trouble? (Clinton, Yeltsin, Netanyahu, Arafat, Jordan's King Hussein). How about the coming reality of a United Europe? The euro was just introduced this month as Europe's common currency (the paper currency itself won't be in use until 2002). We've had weird weather producing monstrous storms ("the sea and the waves roaring"--Luke 21:25), computer technology advancing at a meteoric rate ("many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased"--Daniel 12:4) Why, Hollywood itself seems to be warning us with all of those blockbuster disaster movies released in the summer: asteroids, biological warfare, all sorts of end-of-the-world scenarios.

"As it was in the days of Noah" --Luke 17:26. Life goes on as usual.     The economy is good and markets are once more on an upswing--that is all many of us seem to care about.

"As it was in the days of Lot" People were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building--but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, fire fell. In fact, the Lord could not destroy the city until Lot was safely escaped (Genesis 19:22) Lot's warnings fell on deaf ears--his own sons in law didn't believe him. Noah's warnings fell on deaf ears as well; only his immediate family was saved. What about you? Are you ready for Jesus to return? Check those ears--can you hear? Can you?

1-3-99

#190 Blue Goo Again

I have a tube of blue goo setting upside-down on my sink. "Blueberry lavender facial gel" is the full name. It wasn't always on the sink; it used to be next to my hairbrushes. However, one day I didn't snap the lid on tightly and it oozed blue goo all over my combs, brushes, eyeglass case, and pocket mirror. After that messy episode, I began storing the goo on that little soap ledge on the sink (remember when everyone actually used those little ledges--before the ubiquitous liquid soap replaced those homey bars?). Today I noticed a tiny blue stream trickling down the sides of my sink into the drain. Blue goo again. How could I have been so careless?

Carelessness with bottle tops causes messes. Carelessness with people's feelings causes messes that are much harder to clean up. And it seems the closer you are to people, the more likely you are to be careless with their feelings. Sometimes I act as though I am the only one who has feelings. But my husband has feelings, too. So do my children. If I hurt a friend with a careless, caustic remark, it is never my fault--it is her fault for being so thin-skinned. Does any of this sound uncomfortably familiar to you?

But perhaps you are honestly not careless with people's feelings; instead, you are careless of their time. You often make others wait for you by showing up late. Or you impose yourself on others and make a pest of yourself. You think it's no big deal but it is. You are being discourteous--and careless of their time.

Are you careless of your responsibilities: you make promises you don't keep; you often let others down; you make other people cover for you? You are like the driver who is blissfully unaware that his driving habits have caused a traffic pileup behind him. You yourself are carefree and happy-go-lucky but you give ulcers to those around you.

And how about carelessness in spiritual matters: careless speech; carelessness about prayer, Bible study, fellowship with other believers, or charitable giving. You mean well but gossip just slips out. You didn't mean to swear at that driver but--he cut you off! You'd like to spend more time in your daily devotions but you are tired enough as it is; there just isn't the time. And giving--you'd like to give more but your wallet is empty and your credit cards full. Carelessness seems like such a little thing, anyway--but then, what is that verse about a "little leaven"? (Galatians 5:9, I Cor. 5:6)

1-2-99

#189 Thread Recognition

I couldn't find my spool of brown thread. I discovered that it was missing when I looked in my plastic Ziplocâ bag of dark-colored thread spools. I didn't need brown; in fact, I've only used it once. But it was lost and that irritated me. Some of you know what I mean; some of you have torn the house apart searching for a missing item that you don't really have to have. Or maybe it was an item that could be easily and cheaply replaced--like an 89¢ orange peeler (that was me, last week). You search for an item, not because it is irreplaceable (I'm not referring to library books and car keys here) but simply because it is lost. Perhaps it has sentimental value? (I don't think I'd put my brown thread in that category.)

No, I didn't need my brown thread, but I wanted badly to find it. It was a power struggle of sorts and I would not be bested by a cheap sewing notion. So I dumped out both thread baskets twice; (and I have a lot of thread.) No luck. Then I went through the fabric boxes under the thread shelf, in case that brown spool had taken a tumble over the edge. All I found was a small gray bobbin and an old phonics book I thought I'd given away: "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons."

I gave up. And then I had one last flicker of inspiration. I thought of "The Case of the Purloined Letter": the mystery classic that demonstrated that the best place to hide something was often in plain sight. Perhaps life was imitating art right there in my sewing room. I carefully dumped out my sack of black and gray thread spools one more time, this time examining them in front of a sunny window. Sure enough, one spool I had mentally labeled "black" was actually my long-lost brown. It was never really lost at all; I simply failed to recognize it. In my mind, I'd remembered it as being lighter in color, more of a medium brown. I had eyes but didn't really see. I was looking for the wrong thing.

The same thing happened in Jesus' time. Many of the common people gladly heard Jesus (Mark 12:37) and some even saw Him as the Messiah (John 7:41) but many of the priests and Pharisees--those who were steeped in the Law--failed to recognize Him. He did not quite fit their picture. Listen to the sarcasm in John 7:52--

"Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet."

Jesus even said that he was come so that the blind might see and the seeing might be made blind. (John 9:39) And so it happened. The chief priests and Pharisees didn't like the way Jesus was upsetting the status quo. They didn't want to endanger their cushy position with Rome. (John 11:48) And some people were looking for a different sort of Messiah. They would be happy to crown Jesus as King (John 6:15), to hail Him as their long awaited Messiah at the Triumphal Entry (Matthew 21:9) but not to embrace Him as the suffering servant. Even His own disciples never really understood--until Pentecost--that it was not the time to set up His earthly kingdom. (see Acts 1:6)

But there were a few who recognized Him--even as a babe. There were the shepherds, the magi, Simeon and Anna in the temple. There were a few. Why were they able to recognize their Savior while others were blinded? They were expecting Him, for one thing. Some of them had been patiently waiting and watching for Him, perhaps for years.

And some of us are looking for Jesus to return--perhaps very soon. Are we waiting as eagerly as Anna and Simeon? Do we seek Him as diligently as did the magi? Maybe we do. Perhaps we are ardently anticipating His second advent, to the point where we have all the details worked out in our heads. Yes, we know exactly how He will come.

Or do we?

We could be wrong--we could be off just a shade or two. Let's just not be off enough to miss Him. We don't want to be among those who will be ashamed at His coming. (I John 2:28) No, we don't need to have every detail neatly pigeon-holed. What we need is to be watching and waiting, studying His Word, and being ready spiritually. Jesus Himself kept warning us to "Watch". So keep on watching--with an open mind. We don't want to miss His storm warnings because of our own prejudices.
1-2-99

#188  "The Prime Directive"

I'm not a Star Trek fan but I did catch part of an episode the other night. Something struck me about this phrase: "The prime directive". For those of you not familiar with the show, the law above all laws for Starfleet is this "Prime Directive". The gist of the law is that one is not to interfere with other cultures to try to change them--even if change is in their own best interest. You are to leave each culture just as it was before; you are to respect their belief system and not challenge it. The consequences of disobeying this "laissez faire" directive are dire indeed. (Demotion of an officer to ensign rank, plus 30 days in the brig, in this particular episode.)

That made me think of the "prime directive" Jesus gave to His disciples just before the ascension into heaven. We call it "the great commission". Notice the contrast. Jesus didn't tell us to leave other cultures alone so that they could continue ignorantly worshipping their false gods. Neither are we to force others to worship the true God by coercion or violence. (True worship cannot be forced, anyway.)

Read His words. We are to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature", to "teach all nations", to "preach repentance and remission of sins in His name." We are to be His witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth. We are not commanded to leave the world as it is. We are commanded to preach the truth of the gospel so that people may be transformed by His power, translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

But how many of us (myself especially) act as though that other Prime Directive is our guide? We don't want to offend others by telling them about Jesus. We would rather leave them in their sin and ignorance than shine the light of truth. We don't like feeling uncomfortable, or accountable, or embarrassed.

We are not to be pushy--we are to be "winsome Christians", as D.L. Moody put it. But we aren't to go merrily on our way, keeping all this good news of eternal life and forgiveness to ourselves. Salvation is free and freely available. Why do we hoard it to ourselves?

(I am so guilty of this "sin of omission" myself that I have to quit writing now before my conscience condemns me further...)
12-14-98

#187 I did it my way--when I should have read the manual!

Anybody else have a day like this? Last night, I noticed that my computer keyboard was blossoming with lint. I blew on it a bit (ever had lint stuck to your tongue?) and then got out my bent sewing tweezers to pull some lint out of the corners. I must have been a bit too zealous with those tweezers. This morning, my spacebar was acting erratically. I kept typing run-on words (maddening!). I decided I'd better take the spacebar off and put it back on again. Perhaps this would be a good time to tell you that that is exactly how I goofed up the keyboard on our old computer--breaking off the little plastic tab that held the metal rod. Well, I was determined to be careful this time--and I was. I thought I'd put everything back just right and I was so pleased with how clean that spacebar was that I popped out all of the keys, one row at a time to clean them too. (and did I have trouble trying to decide which way those arrow keys went--not as inter-changeable as they looked). I had a trusty box of alcohol-dipped Q-tips to do the job.

Ah, it was so clean--almost sparkling! I went to answer some mail, confident that the problem was solved (probably just some lint under that spacebar rod.) Now, to my horror, not only was the spacebar crazy, the left shift key didn't work either. I started to break out into a sweat. If I had just calmed down enough to read my sister's advice to "bang down hard on it when the computer is turned off", I would have saved myself some time.

I'll save you the details, but they involved searching for a Gateway gold premium service card and tearing apart the whole desk in the process--then finding the card seconds after I got on my knees and begged God "there is no reason why you should help me with this but I'm desperate!". But before I placed that call to Gateway, I decided to try to fix it myself one more time.

I popped out the shift key and noticed that the little green piece wasn't quite snapped in. I pushed it down gently. Hey! That fixed it! So then, I shut off the computer (something I didn't do the first time I cleaned it), very gingerly snapped off that spacebar, lined it up evenly, and then gave it a good hard smack in the middle (sort of like kicking a vending machine--same principle, any way.) Well, I was too nervous to see if it would work so I turned on the computer, went into Word and typed a few "letting off steam" sentences--with my eyes shut (along the order of "how could I be so stupid? I'll never, ever do this again") I opened my eyes and--voila! Several misspelled words (I'm not that hot a typist with my eyes open) but no run-on words! And I never had to call Gateway! Praise God for mini-miracles!

p.s.--hey, maybe you'd like YOUR keyboard cleaned out--I'm available! (just kidding--it's strictly compressed air from here on out--just like the manual said!)

Don't try to do things your own way--read The Manual. Guess that goes for more than just computers....

#186 A Barbell of Stumbling

Does anyone else out there have to vacuum around a 40 pound set of barbells? We live in a mobile home where space is at a premium. My husband's barbells (you didn't really think they belonged to me, now did you?) are on the living room floor, right next to the "space-saving" treadmill. He actually uses the things quite regularly, so I can't reasonably expect him to put his weight training equipment back out in the shed. But they sure are in the way!

I know (somewhere on a subconscious level) that I should be watching out for those barbells when I sweep. When it comes to a contest between my little ankles and those barbells--well, it is no contest! It happened again yesterday. I backed into those heavy barbells with my right ankle. Yowch! For Stan, these barbells are helps. For me, they are definite hindrances: they are barbells of stumbling and barbells of offence! What is the difference: perspective? Attitude?

What is your response to adversity? To challenges? Do such things make your faith stronger (as using those weights does for my husband's muscles) or do they make you stumble? When you are weak, are you merely weak? That is how I often feel. It is so hard to see things through God's perspective: that "when I am weak I am strong"--through Christ's strength. It is so hard to see adversity and problems as anything positive. I know that you can't build strong muscles if you only heft one pound weights but I wish the same didn't have to be true in my spiritual walk!

I don't glory in tribulations (Romans 5:3), in infirmities, reproaches, distresses, etc.  (II Cor. 12:9,10) How was Paul able to do that? Could he see beyond the present trial to the future benefit? If he looked at 40 pound barbells, would he see strong muscles instead of pain and tedium (and sore ankles?) Help me with this one, Lord--I have a long way to go!

12-2-98

#185 Guess I'll Go Eat Worms!

If you were expecting exotic recipes for unconventional sources of protein, you've come to the wrong place. I'm talking about confidence and self-worth (as opposed to mere self-esteem.) It all started with that new recipe for "Spicy Beef Stew" that I made for supper last night. After choking down the last bites, my sons hid the recipe from me. I guess that tells you how well it went over. Honest, it wasn't that bad. Sure, some of the carrots were on the "al dente" side, but next time I'll remember to stir the crockpot's contents occasionally. I still don't believe that the meat should've taken two hours to chew. And now the recipe is missing. My sons want to guarantee that they'll never see that meal staring up at them from their soup bowls ever again. (Ah, you should have seen them panic when I said I had it all memorized anyway. They aren't quite sure whether or not they believe me.)

My point? Ah, yes, confidence and self-worth. It is a good thing that I don't measure my self-worth by how well I rate with my three young-but-severe restaurant critics. Of course, I'm not known far and wide for my beef stew (a status that is not likely to change!). However, I am known for my cinnamon rolls--and sometimes they even flop; and at the most inopportune times (this fall's bake sale comes to mind). Everything that I have done well has also flopped at one point in my life. Think of your strong points--am I right? Is perfection still a distant goal?

That is why it is wonderfully freeing to realize that self-worth comes from God--you have value and worth because of who you are (His child, His creation), not because of what you do. And confidence? That comes from God as well. God-confidence will never fail you. Self-confidence will be shaken. (And if it is not, you will be unbearable to be around!) Quiet confidence that comes from a strong faith and sense of who you are in Christ--that is the anchor that will not fail.

--11-24-98

#184 Cobwebs and Silver Linings

"Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Today, when I lifted up my head, all I saw was--cobwebs. Some days are like that. Maybe that verse meant I was supposed to go outside first. Maybe then I'd look up and see one of those clouds with a silver lining. What is that saying supposed to mean, anyway? What is zipped inside that lining--rain? Wouldn't that freeze the silver zipper shut? It is awfully cold up there in those clouds. (So I'm being literal to the point of absurdity today.)

I look up and see cobwebs. I look down and see clutter--and dust bunnies nesting in the corner. I look at my children and see untied shoes, unbrushed teeth, and peanut butter mustaches. I've spent all day looking at the negatives instead of the color prints.

I know I should be thankful for:
Those dirty dishes piled in the sink. (Looks like we had food to eat again today.)
Three loads of laundry. (We're not lacking for clothing either.)
The dripping kitchen faucet. (No, I didn't have to carry buckets of water from the pump, did I?)

So maybe our "shelter" is a bit cluttered and slightly cobwebby. It is warm (and I didn't even have to bring in wood) and it keeps out the wind. Sure, my sons are mess-magnets but it would be dull around here without them. That black brooding cloud in my mind has gradually morphed into a puffy little rabbit's tail cumulus. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! And now, I need to go grab a towel and swat a few cobwebs. (Ouch! I forgot about that sore muscle in my back. Let's see, I'm thankful for the pain--it shows I'm still alive...)