Archive for October, 2009
A Time to Throw Away
Posted by: | CommentsA time to keep,
And a time to throw away; Ecclesiastes 3:6
Perhaps there is no time when I more identify with the writer of Ecclesiastes than when I clean out my refrigerator. ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” “What profit has a man (or woman) from all (their) labor in which they toil under the sun?”
I must confess I find it difficult to find fulfillment in menial household tasks such as cleaning out the frig. My soul cries out, “Surely life is more than this!” Yet at my house, cleaning out the frig falls onto the task list with my name on it.
So last week I accidentally found myself cleaning out the refrigerator. You know those moments. I pulled out something and threw it away. Then I took out some leftovers and gave them to Charlie, our beloved mutt. And suddenly, one thing led to another and I was doing it. Relentlessly tossing out everything that cluttered my frig.
I got so caught up in the experience that I began checking the expiration dates on my bottled dressings, peppers, pickles, you name it, I was on a mission to have the perfectly organized refrigerator and to get rid of everything old.
First of all, I must admit that I was haunted by the words I recently read in a magazine that reminded me that the most expensive part of our food budget was the foods that we threw away. Ouch. I really intended to eat that bit of leftovers. I meant to cook stuffed peppers but now they were, well, unstuffable.
Thoughts to Ponder
Posted by: | CommentsI often read Wes Roberts’ blog (the link is on this page on Favorite Sites.) I enjoy his thoughts, and he is always digging for treasures to share with others to encourage us all in our walks with God. I found these two posts there today and thought they might provoke some good thinking for you as they did for me.
The Real Work
It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
-Wendell Berry
Afraid of Being Hurt…….
We may need most to pity persons who have had no problems too big for themselves. Such persons have no remembrance of pain and loss and a crying in the night which will let them hear this in the life of another. Perhaps of all people they are the most lost—lost to self and to a world acquainted with grief.
Somehow we keep our lives so well hidden from one another that we do not guess that we are not alone. Distrust is among our subtle illnesses. We were given hearts for "reciprocal trust," but fear has built high walls. We are afraid of being hurt, and when we talk, we make ourselves vulnerable. What we say can be used against us or betray our loyalty to another, and so we add isolation to our own burden and the burden of others. ...
Encounters of the God Kind
Posted by: | CommentsSo pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
There is a Purpose
Posted by: | CommentsEccl 3:1
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
Can any statement be more disturbing? This suggestion that there is purpose in all the seasons of our lives?
Yes, we can believe that there is a purpose in birth, in love, in laughter, but how can there be purpose in death? In loss? In grief? In sadness?
But yet the basic fabric of our lives has to be built on the reality of purpose. The writer of Ecclesiastes goes on to say in Eccl 3: 11 that He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
At times, I find myself wanting to have a word with God on this matter! “No, God, surely this season is not beautiful and you cannot be working in this. I can’t see it.” I feel with the writer of Ecclesiastes that I can’t figure out this work that God is doing.
As believers, we grope and wrestle for meaning in the midst of our struggles because of the very eternity that God has put in our hearts. Encounters with God, whether we would categorize them as springtime, summer, fall, or winter, have eternal importance and all leave the taste of purpose in our mouths.
Welcome to My Journey
