Lots of Lettuce

 

"Wow, you sure got a lot of lettuce!"  I said as I was carrying in things from our minivan.  Elaine had just gotten a pickup at Sam's Club and there were many things that needed to be carried in as a result.  Five growing children do take nourishment on a semi-regular basis.

"Only what we usually get," my wife said breezily.  "It takes a lot of groceries to feed our family these days,"

At this moment our oldest, Anna, appeared.  "Mom, there's tons of cucumbers in the van!"  She said.

Elaine started to figure out something wasn't quite right.  "How many cucumbers are there?"  She asked.

The answer seemed to be 12 cucumbers -- and 24 "Hearts of Romaine" heads of lettuce.  Somehow she had pushed extra numbers beside those items on her order.

"I see a lot of salad in our future," I said prophetically.

There's an odd saying that "When life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade."  This statement, of course, assumes that you have access to plenty of sugar.  Beyond that, there are plenty of times when God sends heads on heads of lettuce our way and we don't even like salad that much.

What do you do when you come home with too many ingredients that don't seem to go together?

These days, with the internet it is relatively easy to type in the list of ingredients that we have and come up with some sort of weird dish that includes cucumbers, lettuce, and granola bars.  In the rest of life it isn't so easy.

Many times it seems as though we are given ingredients that just don't go together.  Worse, we are given foods that we simply despise.

I remember the story of the Israelites traveling through the desert of the Sinai peninsula.  Every day held the same food choice -- manna.  It was nutrition filled and well balanced.  It even tasted good -- the first eighty times they ate it.

Joy comes when we are able to trust that the Cook has gotten the right ingredients for our lives.  God is the Master Chef who somehow is able able to take the disparate ingredients and make something worthwhile of them.

Even 24 heads of lettuce and 12 cucumbers.

Source of Blessings

 

“Most of your blood work looks really good,” I told the middle aged man sitting across from me.

“You know, I try,” the man was emphatic.  “I’ve been eating a no meat diet for a long time!  I walk a mile and a half at least five days a week.  It’s not surprising that my blood work looks great.”

“Well,” I said.  “I was getting to the part where your cholesterol is up a little bit…”

“I don’t see how that can be,” he said.  “I’m doing everything you’ve told me to do.  I even take some supplements that Dr. Oz mentioned last year that could help.”

“I don’t know that it is something that you are doing or aren’t doing,” I said.  “For some people high cholesterol just runs in their family.  Genetic tendencies are really some of the hardest things to deal with.”

I'm afraid this is true.  Two people can eat basically the same diet and have vastly different blood work -- mostly because of who their parents were.  This can lead to discouragement or to a false belief that you have a significantly healthier lifestyle than your neighbors. 

I am afraid there is a real tendency for people to believe that they have earned the blessings they receive.  God is rewarding them for their wonderful service to Him.  The fact that they are healthy and have sufficient food for every meal is simply proof of their own goodness.

There are plenty as well who believe  that they have made their good fortune.  These are self-made men and women who eat healthy, exercise regularly, and follow Dave Ramsey’s financial rules to perfection.  They know that while God may have a hand in their success, it is their own hard work and perseverance that has really made the difference.

I really see this when it comes to health.  Recently, with COVID, there are many who believe that because of their healthy living, supplements, and research, they have been able to beat COVID without much difficulty.  I am sure that these things don’t hurt, but much of what decides how well people do with COVID has to do with age (which we don’t control), access to health care, and genetic factors.  Quite simply, if you are young, live in the United States, and have the right parents, you will sail through your experience with COVID.

If on the other hand, you live in India, are 60 years old, have genetic tendencies towards a bad COVID response, and your local hospital is out of beds and oxygen you may die. 

We don't need to feel bad for the benefits we receive, but we must not feel smug about them either.  I believe these God given gifts bring with them two responsibilities.

First, we need to share freely with others.  To whom much is given, much will be required.  There are many who are less fortunate.  Many people live in war-torn countries, suffer from ill health, and wonder where their next meal will come from.  As God gives to us, we need to give to others.

The second thing is that we should feel gratitude for the blessings we experience.  We didn’t pick our parents.  We didn’t decide all the opportunities we would have in our lives.  We didn’t choose to be born into communities that allow us to worship without persecution.

Many in this world do not have these things and still manage to be grateful.  We can do no less.

The biggest problem with self-made men and women is that they have a fallible creator.

It is much better to realize our smallness and our absolute dependency on God.

These gifts come to us, not because we are special, but because God is good.  Taking credit for them is simply ingratitude.  In a world full of sickness and war, it is vital that the people of God share with others and point to Him as the source of their blessings.

One Apple?

 

The fall is here, which means apple harvest at the Waldron household.  We have three apple trees and two of them are quite large and so you can imagine how long it will take to harvest all the fruit.

There will be apple sauce and pies and jams.  There will be apples aplenty for school lunches.  Who knows what all the glorious things we will be able to do with our harvest?

Or, maybe not...

You see, on all three of our trees, there is only one, solitary apple.  

There's a picture book that I always enjoyed that is called, "Who's got the apple?"  (by Jan Loof).  It revolves around the apple of a store keeper who is raising a single, beautiful fruit on a little apple tree in his backyard.  The apple has many adventures until ends up in the hands of the man in the striped suit.

Unlike that store keeper, our (my) plan wasn't to have only one apple.  Further, this isn't any kind of amazing or special apple.

Each year, I have tried pruning our trees and fertilizing them.  I read books about improving apple harvest.  I even prayed that my apple trees would shape up and do better.  Nothing really has helped a whole lot and every year we get between one and three apples.

Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

I look at the world around me and I don't see many of these fruits exemplified.  It seems as though kindness went out of fashion in the late 19th century and gentleness about a hundred years before that.  Few are joyful and don't get me started about self-control.

In the church, where these things should be ever present, I am afraid the harvest these days is pretty scanty.  "Oh yes," we say.  "I was patient last week.  I think.  And then, there was that time when, if I wasn't totally joyful, I was kind of happy.  And my kids ate the oreos before I could get to them, so that was kind of self control."

Maybe we Christians have too much in common with my apple trees.  The harvest just isn't what either it could or should be.

Should a Christian be satisfied with a harvest that happens once or twice a month?  Is God satisfied with an output like that?

Whatever our harvest is today, our focus must be on increasing it.  We must listen to the Spirit and let Him prune and nourish our lives till we are bearing everyone of His fruits and lots of them.

The harvest isn't scanty because of the Spirit.  He is the same as He ever was, willing to work wonders in our hearts.  It is the fault of His people who no longer are focused on listening to His voice and doing His will...

Or, even bearing His fruit.

School Days

 

"Are you excited to go back to school?  I asked the four of my children who were starting back to school.

"Yes!"  Victoria said, very loudly.

"No!"  Elliot said, just as loudly.

Regardless of what they thought about going back to school, they went back to classes this last week.  I can't say that their mother was totally displeased with their return to school.  

They went back to the normal things, school books and teachers, lessons and lunches, and back to the gentle grind of learning.

Most of us were glad when we reached the age where we were done with school.  It was a blessing to reach the point where we received a diploma and could finally begin to receive a paycheck as well.

Though we graduated with the highest marks, hopefully, that was not the end of our learning.

Learning in the school of life is not easy.  The Book of James tells us to "ask for wisdom."  When I was younger, I imagined that God would just appear in a dream, as He did to Solomon and just give it to me -- maybe when I turned old, like 32 or some age like that.  Then, I would know when to tell people to cut babies in half and stuff like that.

That isn't really the way that we learn or gain wisdom.

Romans 5:3-5 says, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Each day I awaken in life's school room with a challenge.  I must identify the lessons before me and then learn them as perfectly as I can.  More often than not, those lessons will involve some sort of trial.

I find these lessons harder than even the hardest days in Medical School.  They are no longer just about learning about a new disease process, enzyme, or medication class.  Now, I find the learning to be in areas like kindness, gentleness, and patience.

Unlike with the times tables, these are not easily learned and applied.  Instead, I feel like I am constantly learning and re-learning these lessons.

I am not excited to study these lessons, but I know that I will not graduate from this school until it is time for me to "go home."  In the meantime, my goal must be to become more and more like my Master, one learning filled day at a time.

Messages From the ICU

 

"He was pretty sick," the nurse told me.  "He kept telling me that he was in his 50s and that he was pretty healthy except for a little blood pressure and so he had thought he'd be fine.  We started on him on dexamethasone, Remdesivir, heparin, and oxygen."

"How was his family?"  I asked.  

"His wife and daughter were pretty upset, but they all thought he'd be OK.  He felt pretty bad and kept telling us that he wished he'd gotten vaccinated."

She paused for a second then began again.  "Then, he crashed.  We had to paralyze him and intubate him.  We proned him -- did everything we could and by the next morning he was dead."

"It was really terrible for his wife and daughter.  Just so quick, you know?"

The sad thing is that this story is not a solitary one.  There are many stories about very sick people in the ICU telling their families to get vaccinated and telling them not to get COVID, that it is worse than they thought.

The interesting thing to me is how easy it is for people to discount these accounts.  Perhaps they believe that they are made up by the media, or that there was something really wrong with the patient that made them so sick.

Regardless, the messages from the ICU often fall on deaf ears.

I've been contemplating the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  This parable is simply the story of a wealthy man (given no name) and a poor man (named Lazarus).  We know virtually nothing about them except that they lived close to each other and they both died.

Lazarus after dying went Paradise, while the rich man went to hell.  There, in hell, he had a conversation with father Abraham where he begged Abraham to send Lazarus back, "For I have five brothers -- so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment."

Abraham denies this request, telling him that his brothers have Moses and the prophets (the Scriptures) to warn them of how they should behave.  

Still, the tormented man persisted.  "No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent."

Abraham's reply was simple.  "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they convinced if someone should rise from the dead."

It seems a strange thing.  Maybe Jesus was telling His disciples that many would never believe in His resurrection.  Perhaps He was speaking of people's unwillingness to hear voices that ask them to change their lives.  Change comes from within, not from outside forces.

I don't know why it is that people are so quick to discount good advice.  This really has nothing to do with COVID.  It has everything to do our desires and even the hardness of our hearts.

I see it all of the time.  People plan what they are going to do and then seek out counselors who encourage them in that path.

If you look hard enough, you can always find someone who will encourage you to continue to live dangerously.

Far better are those who listen -- to Jesus, the law and the prophets.  They will be blessed, both now and in the future.

Recruiting for the Kingdom

 

"Try Zip Recruiter, the smartest way to hire!"

I was listening to a podcast and this advertisement interrupted the podcast about history that I was listening to.  Since I'm not currently recruiting for new members of our family, I tuned it out.

Later, as my mind began to turn this ad over and over again, I began to think of God and how He recruits people to His service.  Certainly, He doesn't use Zip Recruiter or Linked In or any of the other normal internet job posting sites.

Isaiah 6 reveals a vision that Isaiah had at the beginning of his career as a prophet.  He saw God with all His might and glory, seated on a throne.  Then, Isaiah heard "The voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?'"  In response to this, Isaiah said, "Here am I, send me."

God is still looking for people willing to serve Him.  The problem is that so many of us believe ourselves over qualified for the positions that He has available.

It is a sad day when you are too big and important to work for the Creator of the Universe.

What would an internet board job posting for God's kingdom look like?  Maybe a little bit like this:

"In search of:  a man or woman who is willing to be small enough to listen, patient enough to stay, brave enough to go, and focused enough to remember who he or she is serving, regardless of what situation they find themselves in.  Willing to give up a lifetime of personal glory and accolades.  Short term anguish guaranteed.  Lifetime heavenly rewards waiting as well."

This posting is for all who follow Jesus.  It is not dependent on our talents or amazing abilities, but on our willingness to be small enough to be used.

The only real response to such a call is the one Isaiah made.  "Here am I, send me!"

Christians and Branding

 

"Is your nose a little stuffy?"  my wife, Elaine, asked our oldest son.

"Well, Mom," Vincent answered.  "I do feel the need to use a Kleenex now and then."  

He paused a second, then said.  "I'm sorry.  I should have said, 'tissue.'  I really don't want to advertise for companies when I am talking."

"But what do you say when you are talking about off brand Legos?"  Elaine queried.

"Maybe you could call them 'Legos that aren't Legos,'" Elliot suggested.

"That's way too long," I put in.  "Part of the point of names to have shorter ways of referring to things than long descriptions."

"The right term for them, Dad," Vincent said with great conviction.  "Is 'Bricks with Studs.'  That is what people should call them, because that is what they are."

"Maybe so," I said.  "I think the real thing the word Lego has going for it is that it is short."

The world is full of brands.  In the south, most soft drinks are referred to as "Coca cola."  An insulated mug is a Yeti and a vacuum flask is called a Thermos.

The reason is that these companies have impacted the marketplace.  Their products stood out in some way that ended up sticking their names on all of the other subsequent, similar products that ended up on the market.

I think about the term "Christian" in the same way.  It has been nearly 2000 years since the first believers were called Christians.

In the beginning, the apostles and those who followed on their heels called themselves "Followers of the Way," but at Antioch, people who were not believers called them Christians.  Over the years since then, the term Christian has come to mean many things, some of them good and some of them very bad.  

I am afraid that when we tell people around us that we are Christians a mental picture is conjured up.  That image is not always a good one.

Perhaps, non-Christians think of the political stances that many Christians take on social media.  Maybe they remember the time they were waiting tables and a man with a WWJD bracelet short changed them on a tip or, got angry with a manager.  Maybe they think of a Christian pastor who was revealed to be having affairs or involved in pornography.

Those of us who are branded as Christians cannot change that past narrative.  The only thing we must be certain of is that as we speak into other's lives our impact is for good.  

Every action we do will speak to others of what it means to be a Christian.  Let those actions be filled with love and purity.

By our actions we can show people who a Christian really is -- someone who behaves like Jesus in every situation, every time.

Even on the Internet.

Top Ten Sins?

 

"List of the Top 10 Presidents," the caption read.  "Number 5 will shock you!"  I didn't bother clicking on the link.  The only thing shocking to me would have been if turned out that "Number 5" was Manuel Noriega.

I am often amazed at humans need to rank things.  They seem to ask themselves constantly what basketball player was the greatest of all time or, (if their interests lie in a more cerebral direction) what chess player was the greatest grandmaster of them all?  I'm not sure what purpose these questions and arguments serve.  It may be an interesting argument to rank Gary Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen ahead of Bobby Fischer, but since they never played each other in their primes, it is meaningless.  The same if you rank Kareem Abdul Jabber ahead of some more recent players.  Your answer to these questions says more about you than it does about the players.

These sorts of list aren't something new.  We know that a couple of hundred years before the time of Christ guidebooks had listed the Seven Wonders of the World.  They listed things that travelers of the ancient world couldn't miss -- things like the pyramids of Egypt, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

I have seen a concerning trend among American Christians to rank sins.  I'm not what the impetus behind this is, but often they seem to identify serious immorality or abortion as some of the worst offenses against God.

I think it makes sense.  First of all, these sins just seem really bad.  Even better, they are activities that most Evangelicals are pretty safe condemning.  They fall solidly in the "Someone Else's Sin" category.

Jesus never said what the greatest sin was, but He did say what the greatest commandment was.  He said, when asked, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment." (Matthew 22:37,38).  The second commandment doesn't even come into the Ten Commandments, but is to "Love your neighbor as yourself."

It follows from this that the greatest sin is a violation of the command to love God.  Pure and simple, the one thing that God despises above all else is idolatry.

Of course, Christians today do not make idols of wood and stone and bow down to them.  They do put many things in the place of God -- political figures, money, work, entertainment, and even themselves are all things that I have seen Christians vault above God in their pantheons.  They would never say that they value these things more than their relationship with God, but their actions tell a different story.

The Bible is clear that even if we worship God more than other things in our lives, that is not enough.  Not only is God not willing to be in second place, He is not willing to be the greatest God among many gods.  If we have any other things in our lives that we serve, even a little bit, this is sin.  God will either be our only God, or He will not be our God at all.

This is a challenge.  We live in a real world.  We have to work.  We need money to eat and to do many basic functions.  We need times of rest and enjoyment.  These things must never slip into the category of a god.

I don't think it is helpful to rank the Commandments.  They should all be done, but done because we love and worship the God of the Universe.

If we never kill, never covet, and never commit adultery, but do not love God with all that we are and our neighbors as ourselves, I am afraid it is all meaningless.

This world has lost its love for the important things (if it ever had it in the first place) and it is not surprising as a result that there is darkness upon the face of the deep.

Rather than focusing on behaviors, the church needs to start at the beginning.  We need to recapture a love for God within our own hearts.  Then we can teach this world to love.  Nothing else will change the church.  Nothing else will heal this world.

A Stopped Clock?

 

“Vincent,” my younger son said to his older brother.  “You know that even a stopped clock is right twice a day?”

I have heard this sort of statement before and while it is a kind thing to say about stopped clocks, it doesn’t seem to mean much – particularly not in the digital age.

“Yes, Elliot,” Vincent said.  “But unless you also have a clock that works, how would you know when your stopped clock is right?  I don’t think it really matters that it happens to be right two minutes out of the day.”

These days there are a lot of people who are free with their thoughts and opinions on things ranging from the COVID to vaccines to the economy.  Working through the ideas contained in the various memes and posts that bombard me every day that I open Facebook has brought a few things clearly into my mind.

It isn’t enough to be right occasionally.

A stopped clock is right twice a day.  There are still 1438 minutes out of each day that it is incorrect.

I think about this in terms of COVID.  A year ago there were people posting about how H1N1 was worse than COVID and criticizing the people who were predicting hundreds of thousands of deaths. 

Flash forward 12 months and there have been 550,000 deaths from COVID in the United States and while hopefully the worst is behind us, I wonder how many people have owned up to the fact that they were wrong -- dead wrong -- about how bad things would get. 

I have been writing about COVID over this last year and honestly, if I read over the different things that I posted, I think they have aged fairly well.  Certainly COVID got worse than I expected, but the things I shared are still correct, even though I have at times been attacked for sharing them.

I don’t say this to “take a victory lap,” but simply to say that we need to be careful what we share and whose words we repeat.  Some sources are wrong more than they are right.

We cannot be experts on everything, but the Internet is an easy place to do a bit of research on things we post and share.  It is worth making that effort.

There are simply too many "stopped clocks" on Facebook and not enough that are consistently accurate.

It is dangerous to use “God” language.

“The Word of the Lord came to me…” is a scary way to begin a statement.  I don’t say many things with this sort of preface.  If I say that God revealed something to me, whatever words that follow must be the truth, nothing more or less.  Even if I do not initiate a post that says this sort of thing, if I repost something that claims to be the Word of the Lord, I am putting my stamp of approval behind that prophecy.

It is OK for me to be wrong.  I have been before, I am sure I will be again.  It is not OK for me to put words in the mouth of God which prove false.  “God is not a man that He should lie…” 

I read a few too many messages before and since the election that claimed to have divine inspiration for events that did not come to pass.  Those who posted or reposted these things fit the category of false prophet.  We know that the judgment for false prophecy is harsh.

The focus of our message should always be healing, not foretelling.

I am afraid that many read through the prophets in the Old Testament and conclude that they were a group that focused mostly on predicting the future.  When I read these writings I do not see this at all.

The prophets were focused on justice.  They were intent on seeing the rifts that had developed between God and His people healed.  They wanted to see the people of Israel behave towards the poor with love and mercy.

They did bring messages of judgement, but that judgement was almost always conditional.  “Turn from your wicked ways and I will heal this land,” was the message that they carried to the people.

The fact that judgement finally came does not change that the prophets were focused on seeing that those ways change and judgement averted.

In the same way, the goal of what we share should be to see mercy and justice prevail.  Our ultimate goal must be to see the hearts of men and women turned to God.

It is important to share truth – even when it doesn’t jive with our own biases.

All of us have biases.  In our hearts we have ideas about things that work in our society and what things don't work.  Websites know this and they serve up a beautiful buffet of opinion and "fact" pieces specifically tailored to our preconceived notions.  This is not enough.

It is important that we listen to others and hear the truth they share about their experience, and are willing to accept it as valid.

More than that, we must be willing to share things that speak truth into our lives, even when that truth shakes our world view.

Our focus must be on God more than ourselves. 

If there is one thing that is clear from the lives of the prophets, it is that they were not focused on themselves, but on the One who was giving them messages.  They were not in it for the image they would gain or money they would make from the career of prophet.  The true prophets suffered in both of these respects.

These days, everything is different.  Everyone who shares something seems to be getting something out of it.  Maybe they are gaining money from clicks on their page.  Perhaps they are getting the opportunity to write a book expressing their views or profit from speaking engagements.  Sometimes they are pursuing the transitory “fame” that comes from having a post seen by a few thousand people.

We call these things “ulterior motives.”  Very few people are honest about why they are sharing the things they do.  

It is important for each of us to evaluate why we post and share things.  It is worth the effort to stay positive and bring hope and love to other's lives.

All of this is a long way of asking each to think about what sort of messenger they are.  We must speak truth and listen to others who speak truth.  We need to speak that truth with love and focus most of all on the One who gives messages.

Only then can there be healing in our society and the world.

The Theory of Gravity

 My 17 month old daughter, Elise, has just discovered gravity.  It isn't that she has figured out the equations that explain how fast objects accelerate in gravity, like Isaac Newton.  I would say that she is more like Galileo and understands that if you drop things out of your high chair they eventually hit the ground.  Further, if you drop things from the top of the stairs, they make a huge racket as they clattering all of the way to the bottom.

One of the side effects (benefits?) of gravity is that it gets other people to pay attention to you.

It is interesting that for the most part we must discover things for ourselves.  Certainly there are places we can read about life's lessons.  Somehow those lessons don't stick as well as those learned in the school of hard knocks.

I suppose this is why there are so many self-help books.  Authors who have been through a serious struggle or, have helped others through trials wants to share the things they have learned with others -- and make a little cash in the process.

These books seem to sell well too.  Just about everyone, except for the most narcissistic among us is interested in better themselves, obtaining more friends, losing weight, or having a better marriage.

I am sure these books contain a lot of good information.  Those who are able to apply their recipes for success find benefits.

The problem is that simply improving our own ignorance is only a partial solution at best.  The problem is really putting our knowledge into practice.

Life and books may teach us what works and what doesn't.  It doesn't stop humans from trying the same actions while hoping for different results.  It's as though we think that maybe, just maybe the theory of gravity doesn't apply as much at the top of the stairs as it does when you are seated in your high chair.

The Four Seasons

 

"Just think, Dad," my son, Vincent, told me.  "If Vivaldi had lived in Florida, we wouldn't have had the Four Seasons Concertos!"

"I guess that's true," I said.  "Do you think he would have written two concerti instead, "The Hot and Humid Concerto" followed by the "A Little Cooler Concerto?"

"Probably so," Vincent said as he stuffed some pancake in his mouth.  "It is really fortunate for posterity that he was aware of all four seasons."

I know that people differ on whether they like the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, or whether they believe it is a piece that has been played a bit too much.  It certainly isn't my favorite piece of Baroque music, but I can listen to it on occasion and enjoy it.

I have spoke to enough people who don't enjoy aspect of certain parts of the seasons -- particularly winter.  "Winter, Ugh!"  One lady told me with a look on her face like she had just discovered a mouse in her refrigerator.  "  I hate snow!  And don't get me started on ice!"

I didn't argue with her.  I happen to like snow (not so much ice), but these sorts of conversations don't typically have obvious consensus points.  

I love snow days.  It is a chance to stop for a second, to breathe, and see how beautiful the world looks when smothered in a blanket of white.

More than that, it is a blessing to experience different things.  Having four seasons, both times of cold and darkness as well as heat and light, gives us more experiences to draw from as we minister to the needs of others.

God can use all of these things to mold us into the characters that He desires -- even if we don't enjoy all of the chilly and snowy days along the way.

Fear of what...?

 

“Mom,” Elliot told my wife about a year ago.  “I’m afraid!”

“Afraid of what?”  She asked him.  There wasn’t anything particularly going on to generate fear.

“Of wallpaper!”  He returned in a very concerned voice.

“Wallpaper?”  Elaine asked.  This was a fear that we hadn’t dealt with before and certainly didn’t seem to be the sort of thing that would show up on many lists of top ten things folks are afraid of.  At eight years of age, it wasn’t as though he had read the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” either.

“Yes, wallpaper!”  And then it all came out.  “I was reading in a book about deadly things and wallpaper was in it!  It has all kinds of toxic things in it, like arsenic and mercury and when it gets too warm, those get into the air and it can kill people!”

“But we don’t have wallpaper,” I put in.

“But what if we get some?”

“I don’t think we will,” I said.  “But regardless, I think the book you were reading was talking about a time over a hundred years ago.  Wallpaper that you get at Home Depot these days actually has minimal amounts of arsenic, lead, and mercury in it.  They really couldn't sell it in this country if it had all that stuff in it.”

Elliot has grown up quite a bit since that time and he isn’t afraid of wallpaper anymore.  I don't think I can blame him for his fears.  It is a human tendency to be afraid of things – many of them fairly foolish.  Fear is simply not a rational emotion.

Recently, I have been reading my way through the book of Isaiah and I came to chapter 8, verses 12 and 13.  It says, “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.  The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow and let Him be your dread.”

It really feels like a passage written for our time.  Isaiah was writing at a time when the tiny nation of Judah was being invaded by the countries of Syria and Israel.  We do not know what conspiracies he was talking about, but the specifics of what was going on wasn’t what was important.  The people felt threatened and had little trust in their government to protect them.

There were two things that were important.  First of all, God’s people were afraid of the wrong thing.  The second thing was that the solution for their fear was to find their sanctuary in God.

It feels like these days Christians have gotten side tracked.  Many have gotten the impression that the kingdom of God was to be ushered in via the political process of the United States and when that didn't happen, they have fallen back on anger and fear and conspiracies.

I am no prophet.  Maybe the United States is on its way for communism.  Maybe Google and Facebook will destroy life as we know it.  Maybe radical groups will dominate the future.  (I'm optimistic that none of these things will come to pass).  None of that would change the mission that Jesus set before us.

Our goal, our ministry, is to go into the all the world and share the Gospel – to live the Gospel – in such a way that no one questions who we are serving.

As we focus on that mission, our concern with conspiracies and our fear of the future will slip away.  A heart that has its refuge in God will not live in fear, regardless of the sorts of times in which it finds itself.

I find it a blessing that God has promised to give us strength to overcome our fears – even a dread of wallpaper.

Magnify the Beauty

 

"Why does it take you so long to write a letter, Anna?"  I asked my oldest child.

"It just does, Dad," she answered me, but I knew the answer without asking.  The thing is that she is into calligraphy.  She carefully draws letters and words into cards and on envelopes, sending off little epistles to friends of hers.

It amazes me.  To graduate from medical school, you have to take a handwriting exam -- and fail it.  At least that's the way it seems to those who have tried to read my scribbling that I call cursive writing.

I remember an older patient of mine watching me write something out with a shocked look on her face.  "Young man," she said to me.  "If I had taught you in school you would write better than that!"

"I'm sure you are right, Ms. Hilda," I told her sheepishly.  Truth to tell, my teachers did the best they could with the material they were given to mold.

I suppose we can argue about whether calligraphy is worth it.  Even if I wanted to write that way, I don't think I could.

It is a beautiful thing to turn a letter into a special thing.  Ecclesiastes tells us that, "He has made everything beautiful in His time..."

We have only to look around us to see the effort God put into the smallest and largest parts of Creation.  Whether you are using a microscope or a telescope, there is a loveliness in Nature that didn't just happen by chance.

A bigger question comes to me, "How much effort do I make at beautifying the lives of those around me?"

I may not be able to write beautiful handwritten letters, but there are many things that I can say and do to make 2021 a beautiful place of those who know me.

To magnify the beauty is a resolution that I would make for 2021.