Love and Hope – Page 8

As of Old

Old is Not for Sissies With Skewed Memories

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Remember Days Without So Many Mosquitoes, Flies, and Wasps?

And No Smoke?

They Were

Freeking Cold!

Right?!

Jeremiah 30:20

Their children shall be as of old, their congregation shall be established before me; and I will punish all who oppress them.

Philippians 2:1-2

Paul wrote: If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Words of Grace For Today

Yearning for things to return to what they were, in the days of old, is understandable and common enough … and wholly misdirected leading often enough to disasters.

Memory of things in the past is an odd kind of thing. Reality may play a part, and we all hope it plays a large part, though we know more and more people live with a perspective of even their recent past (and also then their current days) that is quite disconnected from any reality – rather it is determined more by what they wish it had been and what they wish the current time would be. Most often how we see some more distant past, that is our ‘days of old’ with more of a disconnect from reality and more and more colouring from emotions, wishes, dreams, and (to be honest) games our own memories play on us.

When we wish for a return to ‘the good old days’, or the ‘days of old’, more often than not we want only a slice of the reality of the past and a huge slice of wishes made to exist when they never have in the past.

Some memories are best left in the past as past and not wished for as our future, lest we end up with less a slice of anything good and more and more disasters created as we try to either force things to be a certain way (which almost always goes awry if not for what we try to force, then for so many other things for us, and most often for other people) or we disconnect further and further from reality as we insist that things not only must be a certain way for us, but that they actually are for us – and usually that entails condemning others (though in reality they have done little to nothing to merit our condemnations.)

So how to move into a ‘better’ future for us and others?

Paul often directed his readers in various congregations to trust God’s promises in Christ as he does for the Philippians: if there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

If we are to accomplish that on our own, just be in full accord and of one mind, then we are bound to fail, and miserably. More disconnect from reality!

When we recognize all that God has given us, sinners that we are, then it becomes not only possible, but blessedly easy. Christ gives us encouragement, consolation from love, sharing with others God’s Spirit, compassion and sympathy, and complete joy.

As we live with and aware of those gifts pouring over us, we need not wish for some ‘days of old.’ Right now is just fine. In fact it’s terrific. It doesn’t get better!

And it never was better!

That doesn’t mean that life now is free of challenges and disappointments. It is that God helps us keep everything in perspective, in the perspective that we are God’s children and God walks with us and protects us.

Each day is, no matter the challenges we face or enemies that pursue us, beyond comparison just plain blessed.

When death comes it too will be a blessing. We will get to go home.

Oh, for the record, keep the smoke and bugs; give me the freeking cold almost any day, as long as I have enough wood to burn in the monster, and … and … and.

Coming Up Short

Again!

Thursday, July 6, 2023

The Light!

Look,

See,

‘Find’ Jesus,

Standing Beside Us,

The Whole Time!

Psalm 25:1-2

Of David. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.

Luke 19:3

Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature.

Words of Grace For Today

With all of our expectations of others, of how we should be able to progress through a day, a week, a year, a life, it is too common that we come up short. Of course we come up short when others measure us or we measure ourselves compared to others. (That’s how we pretend that we are better than others, others who are ‘shorter’ at life than us.) The real challenge is when we come up short according to our own measure.

That can bring on our old friend the blues very quickly, and that trusty friend can settle in for an extended stay, even sleeping on our bed because we cannot sleep well at all.

We all try to compensate, somehow or another. Some pretend to be real intelligent, some very wealthy, some very privileged, some very powerful, some from real old blood –

which reminds me of the guy who showed up to camp. Everything he tried turned out poorly. He couldn’t get a place to rent. Landlords kept renting out any room he showed interest in before he could come up with the first months’ rent. He had a truck. On the truck he had a camper, given to him, laden with black mould that he started to rip apart to get at the mould and get rid of it. Before he got very far the police came and told him he was camping illegally and he had to move somewhere else. But, and this came in a conversation after he told me of all his failings, he asked me how long I had lived here. I said five years, meaning this camp place. He proudly said he was bred and born in Cold Lake.

It didn’t matter that we were standing 25 kilometres from Cold Lake, but this he had done better at than me. That made him worth something! I was a ‘newbie’ and he belonged here … until the police told him to move. –

It really doesn’t matter how we try to pretend to be better at life and in life than we really are, making such claims always makes us look just a tad foolish (well under it all we are through and through fools.)

Like David we may fear being put to shame by our enemies, but like David we often put ourselves in shame faster and more thoroughly than any enemy could. So we cry with David, O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me …

to which we add: save us, most of all, from ourselves.

Like Zacchaeus we may have tried to gather as much money and power as we can (at other’s expense) but we know there is more to life than these empty things we fill our lives with.

We want to see Jesus, the healer, the teacher, the one they say is the Son of God.

We don’t have to climb any trees.

Jesus walks here.

At least Jesus walks here with me wherever I go, even when it’s into a hell of a mess. And Jesus walks with me, guiding me and sometimes carrying me out the other side back into the light.

We may come up short, but we are never too short to see Jesus walking with us. Sometimes we need a saint or two or thousands to show us, but there Jesus is, pulling us out of our self made shame again, back into life where we can breathe and laugh and sing and dance … and share God’s blessings with others. Our only real ‘claim to fame’ is that we were born and bred here, we belong here …

with Jesus in God’s Kingdom. (But that’s not our doing. God chooses that for us!)

Dreams

And DREAMS

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Dreams Draw Us

Through the Fog of the Future

Into Many New and Wondrous Days

Psalm 138:2

I bow down towards your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have exalted your name and your word above everything.

1 Peter 1:23

You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

Words of Grace For Today

I have a dream

I have a dream: I have a dream that one day I will live in peace, away from the chaos of people, industry, and commerce.

I have a dream. I have a dream that I will own land as far as the eye can see, with lakes and mountains, where I can travel to camp among the wonders of creation, in solitude and in peace.

I have a dream. I have a dream that my home will have a zero carbon footprint, with solar, wind, and hydro power abundant, with insulation and design to be warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and be built to last for more than two hundred years.

I have a dream that fresh water in will be filtered and fed under pressure by gravity so that no pumps are needed to provide water, and that waste water will flow out by gravity power alone so that no pumps are needed.

I have a dream that I will have an airplane powered by electricity from my carbon-free power generation, with skis in the winter so I can visit remote places with a camera.

I have a dream that my friends will come to visit once a year, gathering in campers and guests cabins near my home. I have a dream that I will actually have friends, at least two or three. I have a dream that my family will come and visit once a year, gathering in campers and guests cabins near my home. I have a dream that at least a few of my family will actually be kind and honest, and that they will be the ones to visit and the others will come only every ten or twenty years to visit, if then.

I have a dream.

I have a dream, but I know God has other plans, at least God certainly has so far in my 60 plus years on this earth and there’s not much time to make any part of my dream come true, so what am I to do?

Knowing that I am born anew, not of perishable things but of the eternal Word of God I know God’s Word creates dreams for me.

So I have these other dreams. They grow from God’s faithfulness and steadfast love, from God’s Word of grace for me and for others, and they guide me to find the peace of God in the chaos of people, politics, conflicts, and storms. God’s Word guides me to value, more than my dream for myself, the peace that I can offer to others. God’s Word inspires me to take photos of where I live, to show people the beauty of creation that they often miss seeing: like a bright yellow flower in the meadow that belongs to a tenacious, invasive species of weed, like the play of light at 4 am as the sun rises above the smoke beyond the foothills seen from a mountain meadow (which is hardly a meadow since it’s a decommissioned oil well site,) like the trickle of water sliding down the rope holding the tarp in place over my ‘home’, a camper, a tarp that leaks so that the water drips everywhere, just not yet inside the camper, like the creek flowing in just one spot amidst the curves of snowbanks at -30⁰ just beyond the dry road to town that the grasshoppers own in the summer.

God’s Word guides me to write as I can, words that share the Good News of God’s steadfast, unconditional love for us all, words that inspire people to remember God’s dreams for us, for us all.

Beauty

In All Creation

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

God Makes Even Weeds to Reflect God’s Beauty.

Isaiah 49:26

I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

Words of Grace For Today

Gruesome. That’s what the Isaiah passage starts out with. Just Gruesome images of revenge on the oppressors.

Gruesome use of power, and that power is God’s power, imagined as revenge and destruction of evil people.

Jesus says that power and all authority to use it is his. He though is not about to do the gruesome revenge thing. Instead he uses the power of self-sacrificial love, unconditional love, especially for the sick oppressors. With that power he not only makes such gruesome punishment unnecessary, he wins the hearts and minds of all people.

And indeed all people will know the power of God, but not as gruesome to be feared, but loving and kind, merciful and gracious, to be feared by evil (especially the evil in us that would be gruesome) and loved by all.

If we want to take power into our hands to force things to be, then God is not for us, but walks with us to entice us down another way of life.

Living as Jesus’ disciples though is as challenging as ever, for we cannot hide in ourselves, among ourselves, safe in our small worlds. Jesus sends us out into the world.

And that is where we make a difference, not gruesomely so, but lovingly and kindly so.

Walking

The Wonderful Way

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Even When the Way Looks Obvious,

There are Dangers,

and Choices:

Coyote Ahead?

or Take the Other Path?

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Philippians 2:5

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

Words of Grace For Today

If it were so simple, then we would just have to be humble and walk with God, love giving kindness to all (especially those who certainly do not deserve it, and they are many), and do what is just and right.

Trouble is, even for good people, it is hard to do these things. The ways of the world are everything but these; the pressures to be successful in the ways of the world are intense and unrelenting; even in small daily exchanges humans fudge reality in order to get along with others and to seem to be just a bit (or maybe a lot) better in their own eyes and in others’ eyes than they really are; and, let’s face it, walking with God is not something that is even possible because God goes so many places that we cannot follow since we are just not omnipresent, all powerful, and capable of transcending time and space. Even a tele-transporter or time travelling space ship would not make it possible. It’d be hard to follow God for a stroll on a planet with no breathable air, or – imagine this simply – to the centre of the sun!

So often, we hear that we ought to be like Jesus, to live as Jesus did, to make decisions as Jesus did. Besides that we simply cannot (sin gets in the way all the time), if we did we’d all end up crucified by the age of 30 or so. Today’s passage is a bit more realistic: let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Ah, that is passive. It is to let the Holy Spirit put that mind in us, and let us be as Jesus was, kind, just, and humble.

Now if we let the Holy Spirit work unimpeded in us and through us, then there is hope that we might indeed, do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God

One day at a time, one step at a time. God walks with us, so that we can walk humbly with God.

And that walk is a wonderful, and even the most wonderful, way to proceed through life!

Or did you have other plans for today, and the rest of your days, plans that you cannot or will not cancel?

Awe

An Awesome Thing

Friday, June 23, 2023

Like Sunshine Reflected

Precious, Golden

Off The Ice-glazed Snow,

So God’s Great Works

Reflect Off Our Hearts and Minds

To All Around Us.

Exodus 34:10

He said: I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been performed in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you live shall see the work of the Lord; for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

Matthew 4:23

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Words of Grace For Today

There is much in life that can surprise us, but nothing blows us away like the works that God does among us.

Take …

Well take any old day, of any random person, such as yourself.

Look closely.

Perhaps it is filled with unpleasant or downright terrible things.

Look past all that.

Look at how, in spite of it all, you still breathe.

With breath in and out, you can smile.

And with a smile in the face of all the terribleness of any old day of any random person like one’s self,

one can know that God has worked yet another awesome thing.

Awe is the reality of seeing God at work,

Smiling with gentle steadfast love for us, for us all.

After

All God Has Promised, Really?

Thursday, June 22, 2023

The Colours Of Peace Vary.

God’s Promises

Do Not Vary At All.

Thank God!

Jeremiah 14:21

Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonour your glorious throne; remember and do not break your covenant with us.

1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Words of Grace For Today

I woke to take this photo of a peaceful morning after a few days or rather weeks of lots of not so much peace.

In order to get my photos off the cell phone I have to email them and often I write something short and maybe pithy since empty emails don’t do so well. Sometimes pithy ends up to be not so short, as this photo elicited a longer train of thought:

‘After’

after smoke

after dry

after rain

after thunder & lightning

after strong winds

after obnoxious loud music from the neighbours

after it all

peaceful blue skies & green grass & trees & bright sun.

I’ll take it.

…

after an allergy pill 😐

…

Almost as good as a bright winter day with no bugs.”

Reality seen wonderful can too often be tempered by a bit more of reality.

The reality that God promises us is founded only on God’s good Grace and Love for us.

There is nothing that tempers that reality, for God’s Grace and Love already take into consideration all our sins, all evil, all trials and temptations, all storms and challenges of life … everything bad!

As well as everything Good!

What could we do were God to revoke God’s promises?!

What could we do were God to abandon God’s one-sided covenant with us, to be loving and gracious always?!

There is no ‘allergy pill’ to deal with the realities that God’s Grace and Love consider and deal with for us. On our own it would be a disaster, exactly what many people take life to be because they do not accept God’s promises.

What wonder it is, though, to live in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, a fellowship of imperfect and broken and ‘loud, obnoxious music’ people who are almost as bad as us 😐 !

What a wonder to wake each morning, whether it is a calm and peaceful weathered day or a stormy, raged, and ‘filled with sins that break everything in sight’ day, and to know that God is faithful and true, loving and gracious with us, healing us from all our broken hearts, minds, spirits and bodies, forgiving us all our destorying sins.

What a wonder to know that God remains God, loving and merciful.

What a wonder!

At Sunrise

And At Sunset …

Saturday, June 17, 2023

The Sun Sets,

Through the Smoke From Wildfires.

Psalm 50:1

A Psalm of Asaph. The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Luke 17:20-21

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’

Words of Grace For Today

The sun rises.

The sun sets.

Life on earth goes on (for some of us, but for many not!)

Climate change, and other troubling developments, lead us easily to say we are seeing the end of all time, the Apocalypse, the Parousia.

Yes, climate change is human created destruction of the environment that sustains life on earth, at a rate never seen or heard of before.

But this is not a sign of the end of time. It may well be the end of life on earth as we know it. Already the severe weather of last year has become the norm for this, and it scares any sensible person about what the future may bring, for it will get much, much worse!

Even in this time, with crises of wildfires and pervasive smoke across Canada, Jesus is already with us.

Jesus is already with us.

Jesus is here, with us, suffering with us, celebrating with us, and showing us how to care for each other, the earth, our environment,

and pointing us to the mercy and grace of God which will give us renewed life each day, in such bounty that we can share it just as bountifully with everyone.

The sun rises.

The sun sets.

And God makes it so, also mercifully giving us new life as the sun rises and as the sun sets.

Bus u. Bet Tag

Begging Day

Monday, June 12, 2023

With the Heat Above 30⁰ Now For Days

Remembering -38⁰ Doesn’t Help.

Begging God for Deliverance Does.

(It motivates us to chill. A little heat is nothing compared to the heat, smoke, drought, floods, storms, and disasters of all kinds, which others suffer already, and we may well suffer soon enough.)

Psalm 25:18

Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.

Luke 15:7

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

Words of Grace For Today

Hah!

I’d like to meet even one of those 99 people who do not need repentance!

…

Of course I’d like more to see one of those 99 in the mirror each morning, noon, and night.

But it just ain’t so for me.

Nor for any other living human being, or for any now dead, when they were still alive (since after we die, it’s too late for repentance.)

What is wonderful is that there is great joy in heaven when we do repent.

So today, call it Buss und Bet Tag, (day of repentance and prayer)

In our prayers and repentance we can beg God for mercy, for Christ promises us God will be gracious with us

again

and again

always.

Bullies and Liars

Come in All Sizes

Saturday, June 10, 2023

God’s Grace Meets Us All!

Can You See It?

…

Do We Need To

Zoom In Closer?

Jeremiah 31:25

I will satisfy the weary, and all who are faint I will replenish.

Matthew 5:3

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Words of Grace For Today

Driving to town at 80 kph two vehicles passed me and an RCMP patrol car pulled up behind me. A few minutes later it turned on its lights. I pulled over, with a bit of pre-PTSD rising in me that I stuffed down. As I waited, I pulled out my Driver’s License, Registration and insurance papers so the cop could not accuse me of reaching for what? Something to threaten with?

He arrived behind the driver’s window, which I had rolled down as I saw him approach. “How are you, today?” “I was doing fine.” “Do you know why I stopped you.” “Not a clue.”

M. Tobias went on to say that the speed limit was 100 and I was going 80. That lots of cars were piled up behind me. That I was impeding traffic.

I told him in no uncertain terms the reason I was going 80 was because I was broke. I didn’t bother filling in that I am broke in large part because the RCMP had harassed me and aided my ex in sending me to jail for a crime that never happened. I have filed a 50 page complaint with the RCMP detailing their harassment, warning them that their sins are bound and if they bother me again I will sue them for harassment.

He asked for and took my papers. When he returned he handed me a print out of a warning. He threatened that it would be entered on my record.

I told him that neither going 80 nor being broke are crimes. I warned him in no uncertain terms that he was harassing me and I would sue him if he continued.

Later I noted that he had not indicated how I had ‘impeded traffic’ nor that I was going 80 kph. No doubt because if he did it would make him look like the fool and bully that he is.

I guess I should be more poor in spirit, not able to know when I’m being bullied and harassed, know when a cop is full of it, and not be so able to state my case clearly … then I’d be in the poor of spirit that God blesses, because

…

this flagrant abuse by a cop is not the first nor the last time cops will be fools and bullies, harass innocent people, and abuse their power, and

being the focus of that abuse is no blessing.

Or is it?

I was not able to work the rest of the day. That’s the PTSD running loose on my edges wiping out all concentration needed to work.

But I did get some badly needed rest. And when I cleared my mind of the event, I indeed was able to see how replenished I was, how God had indeed restored me to a peaceful heart, mind, and soul. Which was needed to deal with my ex’s lawyers either blatant incompetence or malicious malfeasance (not following a judge’s order and improperly filling out and sending a form to me that attempted to undermine the effect of the order).

I guess bullies, fools, and evil hearts will always be a part of one’s life. The question is how one responds.

God help us all, for as God must need respond graciously to our foolishness and sins, so we need help to extend that same grace to others.

But will that help M. Tobias stop bullying people and actually do the work he should be doing, like dealing with the real crimes that are committed on a regular basis around where I live: all the drinking and driving and tossing the cans out, cooking drugs in the campground, or cutting down living trees to make the ‘roadways’ wider, or camping for months and that within 30 metres of the lake (illegal in all of Canada!)

We can only pray, and hope that God will tend to our hearts, minds, and bodies.

When the red and blue lights stopped me, I was on my way to the food bank. That cop stop cost me another $3 or so; every trip to town is another $25, $30 if I go over 80 or ‘gun it’ out of the stop signs/lights. So how many cop-stops does it take to make a trip to the food bank impossible because I don’t have the money to pay for the trip?

Thankfully God walks with me, and suffers everything that lawyers, cops, and everyone else does to me; so I am not alone, nor deserted. I am accompanied and given help and hope that does not fail.

How’s your day looking? Ready to be challenged by people doing evil things, grounded in God’s presence, and humble but not defeated by evil?

Have at it. God protects us.