Sorting Out

Sorting Out
Sorting out joys, sorting out sorrows,
Making plans, if there is a tomorrow.
Making plans--a hazardous endeavor
Yet one we undertake and never--
Or rarely--assume
The calendar has room
For a tomorrow, or even this hour--
Only God has the power
To be sure,
To know what will endure,
To assure what will,
And we must in that knowing be still,
Be still and know that He
Watches over we
Who are His own
From His eternal throne--
What comfort!
When sorting out,
Cast out all doubt

Anniversaries

Anniversaries
Last week an anniversary passed which I used to take serious note of. As I prepare to move and go through boxes of once-significant items, I realize that can be said of much.
In 2001 there were attacks on New York and the Pentagon and the thwarted attack that ended in a field in Pennsylvania. Those attacks seemed to unify this country and her allies. We were all patriots then. We mobilized and took on our enemies. Now?
In the early 2000s there were scandals in journalism; I found reams on them while going through my files. Then I thought, 10 years ago these were house-hold names few would recognize now. Ten years aren't that many but our memories are soon over-written.
Almost 20 years ago, we got a phone call from one of my aunts. My Dad had passed away between Saturday night and Sunday morning. That changed every significant date since, including Father's Day.
So there are anniversaries and there are anniversaries, and what is meaningful at one time to one person or one family or one craft or even multiple countries, quickly falls into the category of "just" history.
Tempus Fugit or Carpe Diem.

Spiritual Nutrition

Spiritual Nutrition
Some people have "green thumbs" and then there are those of us who have other colors of thumb, not being successes at gardening or even keeping gift plants alive.
There is a particular brand which boasts you can become a "green thumb" if only you use their products.
Well, this got me to thinking on this passage from Colossians 2:6-7: "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude."
What nourishes you spiritually?
Peter writes about the need for "the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation" (1 Peter 2:2)
Psalm 1 refers to the righteous as being like "a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither" and Psalm 92 states, "The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."
Jeremiah 17:7-8 is similar: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose truth is in the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the waters, that extends its roots into the stream and does not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield its fruit."
What nourishes you spiritually will be revealed in fruit in season and out of season.
2 Peter 3:18: "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and in the day of eternity. Amen."

Spiritual Retrofitting

Spiritual Retrofitting
Admittedly there is only one foundation to the Christian life: Jesus Christ. He is the foundation upon which the apostles built and which we are called to be built as living stones.
But sometimes there is an earthquake of sorts and then spiritual retrofitting is necessary. I thought about this when I recalled the extensive retrofitting done to some buildings after the 1994 quake. They had not stood up to the shaking and so expense had to be gone to to retrofit them.
Where am I going with this?
Sometimes a spiritual earthquake strikes. If our foundation has any weaknesses, they will be revealed. Christ will never weaken, but perhaps the work we have built upon Him will be shown to need some spiritual retrofitting.
Let us be honest and go to the necessary expense in that event.