Siblings Many

One God

Friday, October 4, 2024

We crawled out of the soup eons ago,

what for?

Psalm 119:82

My eyes fail with watching for your promise; I ask, ‘When will you comfort me?’

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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Words of Grace For Today

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The Siblings

Two brothers:

One ate oatmeal for breakfast every morning, sometimes before bed as well. Slim, fit, though he worked little with his hands, arms, legs, and body. His was a labour of the mind, teaching students in high school, mentoring them on how to live in this wide world of challenges unending, as he provided the basics for them to become responsible citizens of Canada.

The other never disclosed his diet though it obviously was always sufficient, for his body was rotund. He also worked with his mind, a farmer of a large operation. And he worked with his hands, arms, legs and feet, labouring hard at various times during the year to raise crops and animals to feed many, many people well.

Two sisters:

One, solid and sturdy on her feet, worked endlessly to secure a safe and secure life for herself and her five children. The costs of raising children was immense, and her securing sufficient income was always on her mind, always dictated her decisions. She drove her husband harder than she drove herself, for he shared her focus, to earn enough money to secure a good life for himself and his family. Until he could not anymore, for the lies he had to tell in order to continue in his job were too much to bear. He switched occupations and started a thriving store, making more money than he ever could have before. But his body and his mind could not keep up with the pressure and after a year of severe sleep deprivation added to the stress of his own and his wife’s demands on him he succumbed to the depression that had haunted him since he was a teenager and he killed himself.

As a widow this sister continued working the store and her own job, letting the children raise themselves. As she approached 55 years old she looked back on her life, and forward to her future and she succumbed to deep depression. Her oldest daughter had murdered at least two people, and gotten away with it. Her to older sons had left home as soon as they could and never talked to her. Her younger daughter in her late 20s, still fully dependent on her, had followed her father’s exit from life. Her youngest son stayed in touch. Everything he did was about earning more money, and he was fundamentally unhappy, trying anything from travel, to drugs, to sex, to danger to try to find some meaning to life.

This widow’s sister was in comparison frail of body, though she had been graceful in her youth. Most certainly beauty had passed her by and she made little attempt to cover the awkward mismatched features she’d been born with. She had excelled at school, for it was the only thing she could do well. Music and math, history and languages, hard sciences and psychology, and even religion engrossed her. She had earned multiple Ph.ds. Her classes at a small university were always overfilled. She engaged her students, pushing them to not only master the subject before them, but the questions of life that lay beneath it all, and their place in the whole project of life.

She was still happily married to her first love, also a professor, he in philosophy. They had two children who had families of their own. Each made their way around the world on projects, one as a medical volunteer with various NGOs, the other as an organizer, speaker, and counsellor to leaders and vulnerable children alike.

The focus of this sister’s life, and her families’ lives, was to share God’s gracious generosity in any and every way they could with the people most in need. No one was wealthy in the family. More than a few times the children had come to their parents for help, sometimes for money. Lately the parents had gone to each of their children for help, organizing a project to educate and inspire people of all backgrounds to reach out with compassion to people in the greatest need around the world, starting in their backyards, with the homeless people in their city.

This year for Thanksgiving the second sister and her husband, with both children and their whole families, travelled to Tanzania to help start building a new medical clinic that would eventually become a full fledged teaching hospital outside the capital, Dodoma.

The first sister, with more than 8 million dollars in investments and assets, worked at her store, and exhausted spent the evening at home, taking a phone call from her youngest, asking for more money, this time to buy a new motorcycle to travel with some friends somewhere to the south. She transferred $80k into his account, sat on the couch in her fancy living room and a huge emptiness engulfed her, and she wept for hours like she had never wept before. The next morning she woke up feeling worse than if she’d had a hangover, which she’d had plenty of in her life.

Fraternal Twins, a boy and a girl

Fraternal Twins, a boy and a girl, were born yesterday to a distant cousin of the brothers and the sisters, in a small town near the SK border. Their parents attend church irregularly, aren’t really driven to do anything they do not need to, but they get by on their income living a rather simple if not poverty consumed lifestyle.

Where will each of these twins find themselves in 20 years? In 30 years? In 55 years? Will they find meaning and joy in life? Or will they pursue life selfishly only to find life meaninglessness easily engulfs them?

Could we make a difference if we knew these twins, these sisters, these brothers? Does God equip us to share humility, purpose, joy, reasons to give thanks, and grace with those most in need?

Who are we?

Everything

Is Good!? NOT AT ALL!

Friday, September 27, 2024

Some Things, Some Moments, Some People,

Maybe,

But Everything is Good?!?

Com’on, Get Real!

Isaiah 65:18

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.

1 Timothy 4:4-5

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Who can say that everything is good!?

Evil abounds.

Rottenness corrupts even the strongest parts of creation, and people most of all.

(Maybe we are the weakest part of creation?)

So how can all be good?

Except neither writer says everything is good.

Both say that what God creates is good.

Then we go and mess it up, making it evil.

So how to not do that?

Probably, given all that is written and experienced through the ages, that is not possible.

Yet today we have the possibility of giving God thanks,

and in giving thanks we help somethings retain their goodness that God created,

even the goodness that God created in us.

So give thanks

for All that God

has created good!

Signs?

For Some, Maybe.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

You May Well Be The Only Glimmer of Hope For So Many This Day!

Psalm 65:11-12

You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy

Acts of the Apostles 14:17

God has not left us all without a witness of God’s doing good—giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.

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Words of Grace For Today

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The bounty that God provides reaches the tables of some, but not all people. Not by a long shot.

Millions will not have enough to eat today, as for days or years before and so it will be for days or years to come.

Yes, the land produces enough food to feed all the 8 billion plus people on earth.

But

we do not distribute it fairly, to all people. We do not even distribute it unfairly to some people; they get next to nothing. We distribute it cruelly. For people who go hungry, and without sufficient water, know that there are places on earth where people get plenty to eat and have more than enough water for each day.

What do we do about it?

What can we do about it, today?

Start by giving God sincere thanks for everything that keeps us alive, including food and water.

Then pray that God will forgive us our sins.

Then start paying attention to how one can help distribute food to those without enough: food bank donations and volunteering, soup kitchen contributions and volunteering, political awareness and actions focused on encouraging and supporting politicians who work to distribute food equitably, who work for food security for everyone!

Then end the day with thanks to God for all that one can do, for all the people one has been able to help,

and for all the people still waiting for enough

to survive

another

day.

Thanks

For the flow?

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Welcome to Paradise,

is it the Wilderness?

Deuteronomy 6:10-12

When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you have eaten your fill, take care that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

John 6:32

Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

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Words of Grace For Today

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Poverty is a wonderful lesson in humility,

or so they say,

Those who are not poor.

Thankfully the food bank is a steady and good supply of most basic foods and some others,

actually some very odd food that I’d never try or eat if I didn’t get them there.

Take Cookies and Cream Oatmeal.

A treat in a breakfast food.

Well I suppose they’ve made and sold lots of sugar cereals for decades, so why not this, too?

With

all

this

food

I easily forget

how hard it was

before

the food bank.

Not that I forget (life is too hard) how much God provides.

Every morning I thank God for everything that keeps me alive, and it’s more than just enough.

Lately there’s been so much meaningful labour

it’s hard to keep up

as winter is coming

and autumn is not that long

And there’s still wood to start collecting.

But,

little by little

a thing here and a thing there gets done

and

I start to think

I may even be ready, for winter,

‘God willing and the creek nor rising’.

So today

first the thanks,

then the celebration,

then the meal

then

flat out work

if the rain is not too much or

the smoke too thick.

And how is your day shaped? With thanks, remembering who supplies all that keeps you alive, celebration, meal, and work?

Or is it something else.

Whatever, may it be blessed,

and may you remember who blesses it,

even if you live in the land ‘flowing with milk and honey.’

Breathe?

Give Me Air!

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

For All That is Good!

We Give God Praise and Thanks!

Psalm 111:1

Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

Revelation 19:5

And from the throne came a voice saying, ‘Praise our God, all you his servants, and all who fear him, small and great.’

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Words of Grace For Today

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From the smallest things to the grandest things, always it is good and right to give God thanks and praise.

There are so many challenges, onslaughts, attacks, failures, bullies, liars – there are so many reasons to wonder if God has any good planned for us still,

but breathe in (carefully if there’s heavy smoke about).

If we live, we have the greatest reason of all to give God thanks and praise,

for none of us deserve the goodness of life

and if we breathe, God gives us new opportunities to confess our sins, to repent, and to return to God, to put our whole trust in God’s steadfast love.

Breathe.

And sing God’s praises,

giving thanks

for the smallest and the grandest of things that contribute to our survival and that give evidence of God’s love for us, for ours, and for everyone.

Bugs, Heat, Smoke, Liars, Rain, Snow, Dark, Cold

Nothing Changes Our Trust and Hope In …

Monday, September 9, 2024

two winter months, two summer months are HARD, right?

the rest is up to us?

No, it’s all up to us?

Psalm 40:4

Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.

John 1:41

He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed).

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Words of Grace For Today

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Winters are harsh. When one does not have a home, an apartment or house, to shelter one from the weather, then one would do well to prepare, and to prepare well …

first to keep the rain and snow in all forms from one’s living area, whatever that may be.

For if one is wet at -40⁰, one will not survive long. If one has to continually shovel snow, that may provide good exercise, but after a while, and as one ages beyond one’s working years, that may indeed provide a requirement for survival that one may not meet.

Putting one’s trust in oneself is a fool’s life, a fool’s mistake.

There is summer to prepare for winter, at least those days that are neither too hot nor too smokey, during which one can construct whatever one can to keep water and snow that will become water when warmed out of one’s living area.

Putting one’s trust in one’s own efforts, necessary as they are, to keep water and snow at bay, and all the other challenges of winter, like dark and cold – putting one’s trust in one’s own efforts is also a fool’s life and a fool’s mistake.

The harsh days of winter like the bugs, smoke, and heat of summer, can simply drive one mad, in all senses of the word. One can be angry at the days, at life, at the circumstances that have led to one living without proper shelter, or at the way that the environmental challenges are more extreme than when one was young, or that age has limited one’s abilities, or that last year’s extremes have become this year’s normals.

One can become insane trying to understand the cruelty of people that have contributed to one’s circumstances, and the stupidity of those who continue to make it more difficult than it is already. But that kind of stupidity, cruelty, and the worldviews that support them as if they were normal simply cannot be understood.

Not any more than it is possible to understand clearly the insanity of the pursuers of violence, in wars of aggression (taking another country’s land), in civil wars (attempting at the cost of the civilian population to rule over the population), in bullies who use fists to communicate and insist on their own way, or of those who in such refined manners serve up lies to ensure they get their own way.

One must, facing the insanity of people and the harshness of the human messed up environment, place one’s hope in a gracious God, who can and will deliver one from all threats.

Following the invitation of the saints through the ages, we know we have found the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Saviour of the universe and of all souls therein.

So we say, too, also this day: Come and see, for we have found our Saviour. Nothing will make this trust waver. Not bugs-heat-smoke. Not rain, snow, dark or cold. Not bullies, liars, corrupt individuals or systems. Not even our successes, small as they are, of preparing as best possible for the coming days.

For we know, through all our trials and tribulations, God’s steadfast love and protection have accompanied us, and seen us through to green pastures and still waters, and peace no matter what the turmoil that swarms around us and the world.

Return

To God

Thursday, August 22, 2024

See and Acknowledge God’s Gifts Today

Jeremiah 15:19

Therefore, thus says the Lord:
If you turn back, I will take you back,
and you shall stand before me.

Matthew 10:32

Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven

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Words of Grace For Today

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After years of having barely enough water, food, supplies, shelter, heat, and transportation to get to town, the old man had developed habits to not waste any thing. Bits and pieces cluttered the ‘resource pile’, a place to go for raw material to be cut, bent, and drilled in order to fabricate a piece of something needed to keep things working, or to improve his situation and chances of surviving. Every morning he had cereal with berries on top, with coffee. When the bowl of cereal was empty, instead of just washing it or wiping it with a paper towel before washing it, he rinsed it with coffee, and then carefully wiped all the remaining traces of berry juice around the bowl into the coffee in the bottom of the bowl. This he drank with gratitude for all he had.

His morning prayers before Eucharist started with, ‘thank you God for everything that keeps me alive.’

Turning back to God comes in countless ways, even for each of us.

How, today, will you return to the Lord? How will you turn back and give God thanks for all that keeps you alive? How will you acknowledge before others your Saviour who gives you faith, though none of us can do anything to deserve such Grace?

The Beginning

Hearts and Hands

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

In the Wilderness, Or Comfortable Homes …

Lamentations 3:41

Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands to God in heaven.

James 5:13

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.

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Words of Grace For Today

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The beginning of everyday is to give God thanks

for saving us

though we do not deserve it, not at all.

It matters not if we are doing well, or suffering terribly.

The most determinative thing in life is that, by Grace alone, God has set us right with God, saved us, blessed us with many gifts, and sent us out into life to be God’s embodiments of that same Grace for others.

Hearts and Hands.

And Voices

And Minds

And all we have

giving God thanks.

That’s a start, the best start, to a day of striving to do the best we can,

Out of fear of God, and love for God and thanks for all God gives to us to share with others.

Memetic Desires

Or God’s Way?

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Dreary Woods, Wishing For Someone Else’ Life?

Living in God’s Country, a Paradise?

Psalm 116:12

What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?

Luke 17:15-16

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

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Words of Grace For Today

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While so much of what goes on around us, towards us, and finally in us has to do with insecurity, and our fruitless efforts to escape its ugly claws on our hearts and minds, there is nothing so refreshing for our souls as to

a) take a vacation to a warm, sandy, sunny beach in the Caribbean?

b) win an all expenses paid ski vacation to a destination of our choosing and at a time of our choosing?

c) inherit $100,000,000?

d) move into one’s dream house with views to the mountains out the front windows and over a river valley where the sunrises each morning, with no mortgage, a gift from a secret admirer?

e) …

Oh, stop that crap produced by generations subjected to memetic desires through advertising and others ‘possessing’ what we come to want and then need, until we use innocent scapegoats to resolve our misunderstood desires.

What God offers is life, life at its best!

All we need to wish for is the continued ability to be thankful for all we have already, gifts from God’s good hand and gracious dealings with us undeserving, sinful people.

Filled with thanks, our days progress with less outrageously unfounded covetousness and conflict – outward with other people, and inward with our own hearts and minds.

Thank God for thankfulness,

and may we have a greater dose of it each day, if you please.

Maker

Maker Glue

Saturday 20 January 2024

Even the ‘glue’ that holds snow

to the branches

under the bright sun

in the c.c..co..cold.

Jeremiah 10:12

It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

Colossians 1:17

He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

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Words of Grace For Today

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To the tiniest piece of physical reality (a quantum is it now?) to the greatest galaxies turning about themselves and in themselves,

and also here on earth as we twirl moving around the sun,

each held in place in relation to the rest by

gravity and …

well held in place by far more complex physical and sub- and meta-physical things than I can name

–

all this God created

and God holds it together.

So also God created each of us, our hearts, minds, and spirits,

holding us together as we breathe and live and move and hope and love and

…

and everything we do and are.

This day again we pray in thanks for all things that keep us alive, especially for the Grace of God that gives us life and hope

and everything.