Something About The Joy

  Here’s a message I just sent to a young friend I am corresponding with through a mentoring website I belong to that is sponsored by Power to Change .   It’s a message we all need to remind ourselves of right now, when it seems like the world is spinning out of control and we are uneasy with the uncertainty of it all. We want to do something to fix the mess around us but we don’t know where to begin, it all seems so impossible.   So I said to my young friend,   I feel sympathy for you in your striving.   I have always been a striver too--and have struggled with perfectionism. Now I am older and wiser and more at peace with just living from day-to-day.   The “need” to “do,” especially for God’s eternal Kingdom, still pushes at me, but more and more I realize that all I have to do is relax into His sovereignty and not worry so much.   A few years back I ran into a meme that changed my life.   It says:   All we need to do, as Ch...

     1.  If you want to put off accepting that you are old, avoid mirrors. 2.  Wear comfortable shoes.   Always.   No matter what they look like. 3.  Talk to yourself, especially when you need good advice about things like what to wear or what to eat or what movie to watch on Netflix. 4.  ALWAYS hold handrails when going up or down stairs. (Yes, you can fall upstairs.) 5.  Offer to take a grandkid out to eat if you want to chat. Also offer to give them rides when they need them. (NB, enjoy this while you can because it will not be as effective after they learn to drive.) 6.  Be very careful not to offend your friends by calling them “old folks” even if you think of them that way. 7.  Do something constructive every day before you read or watch TV. This is how you avoid feeling guilty when you sit down. 8.  Go to bed early and get up early. Your best sleep comes before midnight. 9.  Go out to run erra...

Today, for my quiet time, I am reading an ancient text, written over 2500 years ago, on the topic of conspiracy theories. Apparently, there was a plethora of them buzzing around when Isaiah wrote His diatribe, about and to, the rebellious nation of Israel just before they were conquered by stronger enemies and their people were disbursed into the far corners of the known world.   This is an ancient story, but it seems unnervingly relevant to us living in North America today.   I should not be surprised. This whole ancient collection of books that make up our Bible constantly surprises me with its contemporary relevance.   This may be because the Bible is full of stories that unflinchingly portray human nature, which seems not to have changed a bit since the beginning of time. But the Book portrays more than human nature. It also shows the nature of the God who created human beings and cares, deeply and doggedly, about them.   Isaiah’s book is a commen...

  In this blog post I am going to digress, for a moment, from a pursuit of the meaning of my life in order to pursue the meaning of the universe.   I realize that's quite a leap--one might even say a significant one--but I can't help but feel there might be a connection between the two in the end.     My pursuit of the meaning of the universe came about the other day while I was pondering the meaning of my life and playing spider solitaire while I waited for inspiration.   I began to ask myself, "What do chess, spider solitaire and the Rubix cube have in common?"     There might be several things those games have in common, but the one that struck me is that they are all concerned with putting things in their proper places--getting things to their perfect final homes.   Finding meaning, order and purpose, you might say.   But even more than the pursuit of that ultimate goal, the solutions in all of these puzzles require--yes...

   I have a First World problem: I have lost my TV remote. I've looked everywhere--around the house, in the garage (which is so cluttered it could easily be there without my seeing it) and even in the garden shed, where I spent some time yesterday. I'm concerned about this because if there is a way to watch TV without using the remote I have no idea what it is.   My sister suggested looking in the fridge where she found hers the other day.   I did that, out of desperation, even though I couldn't imagine myself being quite that ditzy (my sister is a blond, after all), but it wasn't there either.   My best friend suggested the loss might be a case of divine intervention. I know she's kidding, sort of, but I have to admit that thought had occurred to me. I have been more or less addicted to the TV lately. It's an easy go-to antidote for COVID ennui.   It also occurs to me that boredom, itself, might be a First World Problem.   It might not...

Reading further in my March 24th journal entry:   Today it seems like I am reaching a climax in my search for what I am supposed to be doing instead of just killing time.   It's like I need answers to this question so badly I will (finally) quit trying to escape into activities, or mental distractions, and confront Him a final time for the answer.   I have spent the morning sorting through some books to put in the church library. I had been fasting, but I finally heated my coffee and fixed some breakfast. As I sat eating and looking out the window, I told the Lord (or was He telling me?) that I had done all I could to settle this issue of what I needed to be doing.    I suspect He was thinking that it was about time.  (Please excuse the pun.)   I have been reading in John 15 about Jesus being the vine and us being the branches. It seemed God wanted to remind me that it was HE who chose me, for fruit-bearing, whatever that looks like. ...

  I've decided to start blogging some of my journal entries here.   I'm a bit nervous about this, because when I journal I often go so deeply into my thinking that I wonder if what I say will make sense to anyone else. Or even to me in the end. Am I just musing myself into some wasteland of random thoughts that I will one day read over, scratch my head and wonder where I was coming from?   But lately some of my entries have made a little bit of sense and even helped me enter deeper into my walk with God, so I will share those with you, my reader.   Feel free to pick and choose. If there is anything that resonates with you, take it, and just leave the rest.   This March (2021) I began a new journal. It has been a strange year, immediately following the last strange year: two years like no other this generation has ever experienced, all over the globe. If nothing else, COVID has stopped the world in its tracks. It has forced us to slow down, give up, an...

My previous post talked about how to find peace in the middle of the mess of our lives, but it didn't really answer the "how to" part of the title! That post talks about the fear that drives us, especially in this anxious day and age, and claims that God does not mean for us to live in fear. This post will give you the promised 10 ways I have found to conquer fear in my life. Sometimes anxiety comes over us without an obvious reason. We have no idea why. Perhaps a little hint of a fear creeps into our thinking sideways, as an afterthought, or a quiet suggestion, and before we catch it and pluck it out, it has grown into an anxious worry. A while ago I struggled with an unexplainable cloud of anxiety and heaviness. I have no idea why. There was no logical reason for this disruption to my normal state of restful trust in a good God. My circumstances had not changed. And He had certainly not changed. I was well cared for, as usual. He had carried me through my whole ...

  The Bible tells us 365 times that we should not fear.   If you look you can find a different "Do Not Fear" verse for every day of the year!     Perhaps there's a reason for that.   Fear is rampant in our society.   This has been true in every age and culture, but it seems that today, because of our technological progress in the area of travel and communication, everywhere we look, reasons to fear literally stare us in the face.   On the news we are confronted with towering dangers, all over the world, many of which seem beyond the control of any human being or government. Politically, physically, financially, relationally--in every realm of our existence we see reasons to feel insecure and vulnerable.   If we're not feeling fear for ourselves, we're feeling it for those we love who are going through struggles we can't do anything about.     When we look around us, we have great reason to be overcome with anxiety.   ...