Come on, God…
It is Friday. We tend to slow down just a bit. Pressing Monday morning issues have been long since conquered or will press again next week. The weather changes, the sun rises and tonight it will set. Life is what we are in. Yesterday we remembered that life is sometimes hard. It is also fragile and should be handled with prayer. For the Christian, life seems to revolve around Sunday services and gathering together with other like minded believers. For others it may be sports, hobbies, family responsibilities or just some down time. But it normally happens on the weekend and starts sometime Friday. It seems quieter at times; more jocular at others. It is Friday, the sixth day of seven. There are still places to go, things to do and people to see. Some of our friends are giving birth and some are in the last days of their time on earth. It is life.
As I read a piece over on The Internet Monk, by Jeff Dunn, bemoaning his current days of destitution, I was struck by the sheer volume of pundits seeking to weigh in with their take on his misery. I lurk over at www.internetmonk.com and this is probably the first time in a year I have dropped a thought there. I was stunned as I realized that no matter what your circumstance, it seems that everyone has an opinion about your life. They do not have to know you or anything about you and yet they can respond authoritatively concerning your plight. They can also belittle, badger and bully any other who attempts to hold them accountable for their comments.
I want to know why. I believe it is a good healthy thing to have an exchange of ideas concerning most things. But Jeff’s piece was really just a momentary “Come on God, why does it have to be so tough at times?” plea. He knows God’s loving ways are faithful and he knows he doesn’t see things as God sees them and he knows that most everyone else knows that he knows. So why is it the necessary marching orders for the army of (I’m not so sure about this) well intentioned naysayers to go on a Job hunt? (That’s Jobe not job) Perhaps it is simply intellectual freedom. Perhaps it is self aggrandized importance. Perhaps a desire to help someone see things through other eyes or perhaps the world is just full of insensitive jerks looking for a shot at brow beating the next victim.
All of these scenarios are probably true in some degree. Yet at some point I seem to want to quietly and incredulously say “really?” Are we so possessed of our own self worth that we have no sympathies or concerns for others. Now in all fairness there were those who just said, “Here’s a hug and an ear”. Usually that is the most appropriate response. Yet intellectual folks from around the world and at all levels of social standing felt it necessary to castigate the godly servant in his “Come on, God…” moment. Can some see the feeding frenzy? Just go yell fire in a crowded theater or shout “salmonella” at a large charity dinner. Life is what we are in. Life is sometimes hard. Not all of us are on such a level that we can respond with great self effacing humble utterance when something in life takes another whack at us. My reply was just a little reference to “Nothing in Life is Harder Than Now”. I hope it helps; because life sometimes sucks. Sometimes it doesn’t match the God image we see. Sometimes it is necessary to just say “Come on, God…”
(Nothing is Harder Than Now – is in the Writings section of this page)
Just a Thought
a Drop From the Bucket:
When the man on the inside becomes as becoming
as the man on the outside thinks he has become,
then the man he is supposed to be
is closer to the man he is
than the man he thinks he is.
SMHG John
Bestest Hero
Life is hard, Heroes are needed. I’m sure you’ve heard that before. Life is filled with treasures and joys and rewards and accolades. These each come with a cost of thought and struggle and effort and working at things we often would rather not do. One of the most difficult tasks I’ve observed is that of being an example others will admire and emulate. It is the art of being a leader, a mentor, even a hero.
In my book Ripples, I use short stories of real life events along with poetic applications of principles and events which have touched and molded our family and those around us. One of these is called “Bestest Hero”. The tag line says: How do I spell hero, it must be D-A-D For he’s the bestest hero there could ever be. Sometimes made up words fit best in a situation and this is probably one of those times. A couple of reasons might be because it is kind of “kid speak” and it is informally fresh. Spelling out Dee Aaa Dee for dad emphasizes the close emotional bond between children and their dads. The poem characterizes the differences you might see between someone who is just a father and one who has discovered how be a dad. It has been said that just about any male can be a father but it takes a man to be a dad. You can be a father without love but being a dad means you are giving someone love. A couple of telling refrains from the poem clue us in to the uniqueness of dads.
A band-aid for my scrape, Comes with a funny joke; Not a messed up scolding, Like some un-hero folk. I recall when I was 10 or 11 and had split my head open running into a metal pole in the basement at a Cub Scout meeting. My father rushed home from work to spank me for being careless before going to the hospital for stitches. I remember the blood squirting into the sink with every swat. I learned from that though. I learned not to do that. In my children’s home spankings were reserved for rebellion. Accidents and carelessness need another kind of attention. I am not advocating beating children or life without consequences. I am saying that when I have been angry with my children it usually has been because my ego felt threatened by the potential consequences of their actions and that is not a valid reason for applying the “board of education” to the “seat of knowledge”. (If you didn’t get that, ask a grandpa) Children desire to know what their boundaries are. They feel secure in their relationships when they know they can safely live within well defined parameters. They will rebel and be frightened by constantly changing rules. My Dad is the very best, Hero in all the lands, And there’s no better time, Than when we’re holding hands It doesn’t take a lot to win a child’s love. Not a lot of money, not a lot of promises of great entertaining or exciting things are needed to develop close father child bonds. In the 1960s the Beatles sang “I wanna hold your hand”. It was a simple truth about emotional intimacy. There is no better way to show your child how much you love them than by being there, available to hold their hand. As our children grew we spent a lot of time just being there. That also means when we went places they usually went with us. And we held their hands. Sometimes for safety and at others just to cement the bond that God began when they were conceived by His love. Some of that comes out in the Ripples. I still hold hands with my thirty something daughter. I hope you’ll take the time to read Ripples and be encouraged by the realness of the living it describes. Bestest Hero is probably more about the kind of dad I would like to have been than what I am. So whose hero are you? Do you know a hero? Or maybe you are about to become one.
In my book Ripples, I use short stories of real life events along with poetic applications of principles and events which have touched and molded our family and those around us. One of these is called “Bestest Hero”. The tag line says: How do I spell hero, it must be D-A-D For he’s the bestest hero there could ever be. Sometimes made up words fit best in a situation and this is probably one of those times. A couple of reasons might be because it is kind of “kid speak” and it is informally fresh. Spelling out Dee Aaa Dee for dad emphasizes the close emotional bond between children and their dads. The poem characterizes the differences you might see between someone who is just a father and one who has discovered how be a dad. It has been said that just about any male can be a father but it takes a man to be a dad. You can be a father without love but being a dad means you are giving someone love. A couple of telling refrains from the poem clue us in to the uniqueness of dads.
A band-aid for my scrape, Comes with a funny joke; Not a messed up scolding, Like some un-hero folk. I recall when I was 10 or 11 and had split my head open running into a metal pole in the basement at a Cub Scout meeting. My father rushed home from work to spank me for being careless before going to the hospital for stitches. I remember the blood squirting into the sink with every swat. I learned from that though. I learned not to do that. In my children’s home spankings were reserved for rebellion. Accidents and carelessness need another kind of attention. I am not advocating beating children or life without consequences. I am saying that when I have been angry with my children it usually has been because my ego felt threatened by the potential consequences of their actions and that is not a valid reason for applying the “board of education” to the “seat of knowledge”. (If you didn’t get that, ask a grandpa) Children desire to know what their boundaries are. They feel secure in their relationships when they know they can safely live within well defined parameters. They will rebel and be frightened by constantly changing rules. My Dad is the very best, Hero in all the lands, And there’s no better time, Than when we’re holding hands It doesn’t take a lot to win a child’s love. Not a lot of money, not a lot of promises of great entertaining or exciting things are needed to develop close father child bonds. In the 1960s the Beatles sang “I wanna hold your hand”. It was a simple truth about emotional intimacy. There is no better way to show your child how much you love them than by being there, available to hold their hand. As our children grew we spent a lot of time just being there. That also means when we went places they usually went with us. And we held their hands. Sometimes for safety and at others just to cement the bond that God began when they were conceived by His love. Some of that comes out in the Ripples. I still hold hands with my thirty something daughter. I hope you’ll take the time to read Ripples and be encouraged by the realness of the living it describes. Bestest Hero is probably more about the kind of dad I would like to have been than what I am. So whose hero are you? Do you know a hero? Or maybe you are about to become one.
All About Me
Sometimes it is easier for me to express thoughts poetically. For those who do not like the rhyming poetic style, I apologize. It is just the way I am wired.
In this piece, the thoughts of each line comfortably goes on to the next, forming continuing sentences which could easily start from any line.
In recalling a recent conversation with a talented and intelligent individual with plans to conquer their neck of the woods, I found it easier to communicate with this:
ALL ABOUT ME
Thinking I’m special is not new you’ll agree
Daily I proclaim my goodness with glee
Making sure others fail not to see
I’m so much better than most in life’s sea
Who are drowning in their own rotten debris
Despite their pitiful and mournful plea
My talents and skills are of greater degree
If they grow flowers, I’ll grow a tree
Would they achieve greatness to decree?
My response will make them bow the knee
I flit, I float, I glide and I ski
Surely there’s none as marvelous as me!
The sadness of this verse ‘tis true
There’s not another just like you
For God designed you in love to do
All you are blessed with hitherto
Strength and cunning and your clever ado
Was purposed to improve as you grew
No one else will ever fit your shoe
Nor achieve all the honors you will accrue
But He purposed for your breaking through
To glorify Him and let others renew
The praises and worship He is due
When His love became the best you ever knew
Yet at this moment it’s looking pretty grim
For you can’t be His if you’re filled to the brim
When you and your pride are out on a limb
The light of His presence grows mighty dim
Your heart is His goal where He wants to swim
He’s paid for the forgiveness you need from Him
So don’t keep Him waiting out on the rim
See Him as great treasure and yourself as slim
Know Him as your God and invite Him in
The roughness and edges that He needs to trim
Will disappear as He molds you proper and prim
Then rejoice in the Lord, singing out a new hymn
So it is okay to be all about me if we’re all about Him.
Otherwise, the what’s it all about, looks pretty grim.
SMHG John