Friday, September 30, 2022

I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND

Sometimes you just have to vent.  If you don't want to read it, move on.

As I sit watching the news after Hurricane Ian hit Florida's Gulf Coast yesterday, I...again...ask my husband why in the world people want to "ride it out."  I completely understand if there are certain circumstances, like if you're caring for a person who can't be moved, maybe a person is alone in the world with no money or car or any other means of escape, and certain other situations.  I'm not addressing them in this blog post.  I'm talking about people who are capable of leaving.

I'm watching the news as they talk about a pregnant woman who is missing, an older man who fell in his home and couldn't get up and the water came in and, well, you know what happened to him.  People have to be rescued from cars that went into rivers.  I just don't understand why you want to "ride it out."  A relative rode out Hurricane Hugo in Charleston and said she would never do that again.  There isn't a thing in this world you can do to save your house, your vehicle, or your possessions when something like this hits.  If you're looking for a thrill, let's sit down and talk about other avenues.

Here's something that really upsets me, as if nothing else about this does.  First responders stay in place and they help rescue these people.  I'll tell you one thing.  I'd be an angry lady if I had a first responder in my family that you put in danger because you wanted to "ride it out."  They have enough to do without you...who could have driven out of there...complicating things and possibly costing that first responder's life.

In 2018, Hurricane Michael was forecast to move inland and affect the area where I live.  Easy decision...gather up stuff, put it in the car, get in and drive north.  So hubby and I did just that.  Easy peasy.  It didn't do much here.  Great.  No harm, no foul.  We came home the next day and in a few days enjoyed our new granddaughter who was born the day before Michael hit.  (Because of the low barometric pressure, it was suggested!)  She was born far enough away that we didn't have to worry about them.  And bless the hospital's heart, they wouldn't let them bring her home until it was confirmed that the electricity was back on in their house.  I was glad for that.

I just don't get it.  So folks who rode it out during Hurricane Ian, did you learn ANYTHING?  Anything at all?  Will you not just load up the car and drive away next time?  Take it from me, unless there are extenuating circumstances, it's one of the easiest things in the world to do.  If you lose your house, well, yeah, that's a bad thing, but it's not the worst thing that could have happened, now is it?

There are already 21 dead.  I hope they find those 10,000 people that are missing.  I'm praying.  I know the likelihood is that both of those numbers will rise, but I'm still praying.

Monday, October 29, 2018

SHOULD I GIVE UP?

I am tired.  At 64, the physical tiredness is often there, but the tiredness I speak of today is mental, emotional, and spiritual.

I had just about decided, and had even told my husband, that a certain ongoing project I found myself beginning several years ago just doesn't seem worth the fight anymore.  It doesn't seem that I make any difference.  I feel swallowed up except for an ultrathin shaft of light at the end of the tunnel.  It seems all but closed up sometimes.

Then a sweet lady approached me this weekend and said something to me that gave me hope and makes me think that I've made some sort of impact on that one person.  Could there be more?

This morning's Bible reading schedule encouraged me more.  I checked it and today's New Testament reading is 2 Timothy 3.  Here is the entire chapter, but verse 14 is the one that really spoke to me.

2 Timothy 3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, [a]haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of [b]godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who [c]enter into households and captivate [d]weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the [e]knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as [f]Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, [g]perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is [h]inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for [i]training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
I see the evidence of verses 1-5 all around me.  I'm even able to secretly pin names on most of the negative attributes listed there.  Maybe I'm not supposed to do that, but I do, not revealing them to others but knowing that these things are true for many people right now.  And I believe these ARE the last days.
I don't know if I'll continue on this project or not.  Maybe writing this blog indicates that I will...or that I never gave it up...or that these recent encouragements have made me pick it back up.  I don't know, but I'll keep praying and asking God to show me what to do.  The road is long and hard and the persecution goes completely against my sanguine temperament, but as Paul said, I look forward, fighting for the prize.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

TEACHERS...LOVE 'EM OR LEAVE 'EM

God sometimes has the funniest ways of helping us to get past things in our lives that have weighed us down.  Things that have been weighing us down a LONG TIME.

In my case, this has to do with teachers.  There were several things that happened to me in my school days that caused me...not at the time but as a young adult looking back on my life...to have, let's say, not such a high regard for teachers.  (The ones I respected the most actually seem to be the ones I had in the nine-month course I took at DeKalb Tech, now Perimeter College in the metro Atlanta area.  Maybe that will be a later blog post.)

When I was a child and teenager, respect for your elders was huge.  To the point where I always believed adults were right and if there was trouble, I certainly must be to blame.  Case in point:  When I was eleven years old and in the sixth grade, some of my close friends were, shall we say, blossoming.  I, however, could still pass for a fourth grader and was highly self-conscious of this.  I wanted desperately to look like some of these other girls, but it just wasn't that way.  Therefore, I knew the boys were looking at these girls and not at me.  If anything were to happen to betray to said boys the fact that nothing was happening in the way of physical maturity in my person, I would have just collapsed on the spot.  I would have been mortified, so I tried to stay covered up.  My mother made sure I was dressed appropriately when I left the house anyway, so there's that.

You know how when you were a child and you would really get into a project such as doing your school work or coloring a picture or whatever and you would forget where you were because all you could think about was what you were doing?  Well, that happened to me in the sixth grade and I was all bent over my desk, apparently causing a, shall we say, wardrobe malfunction.  The little dress I was wearing buttoned up the front and was a thick enough cotton that a slip was not necessary.  Well, evidently the crouching over my paper caused a gap between two of the buttons.  I noticed a little boy across from me looking at me and realized there was a problem.  I'm sure inside I gasped but made little of it outwardly except to straighten up and continue my work.

Soon it was time for lunch and we all went to the lunchroom to eat.  Afterwards my teacher told the boys to go back to the classroom and the girls to go to the gym.  We were all very surprised.  This never happened.  We all wondered what was about to take place.  I actually don't remember anything that was said at this "meeting" until my teacher reached over to me as I sat among my friends on the bleachers and jerked the dress apart between two buttons and exclaimed, "Just look there!"  I immediately began to cry and she dismissed us back to the room.  I don't think anyone ever said anything to me.  Did they understand whatever it was that she had said?  Did they think I was a bad girl?  As I walked back to the room with my friends, I knew the boys would ask why I was crying, so I stopped at the water fountain and turned the water on so that it would shoot into my eyes.  That way if any of them asked, I could say the water shot me in the face.  No one asked.  At least no one asked me.  I don't know what might have been said among my girlfriends.  In fact, I was so traumatized that before I got off the bus that afternoon, I had blocked it out of my memory.  I didn't think of it again until I was grown and married.  I'm not sure what triggered the memory, but I remembered it one day and told Mother.  She was a bit aghast.  She said if I had told her she would have "gone down there."  Mother NEVER "went down there."  So this must have hit her hard, too.  I still loved this teacher because, as I said, the trauma sent me into a state of denial for years.  Two or three other instances occurred, not nearly so traumatic but still enough to affect me.  To wit:

When the end of seventh grade was approaching, we were given a form to take home to our parents.  It offered them a chance to keep their child at Walker Park for eighth grade or send their child on to the eighth grade in town at the high school.  Of course, I wanted to go there!  But my mother had other thoughts.  "You'll get more personal attention if you stay at Walker Park."  I was crushed but, as I said, respect for elders was paramount, and I didn't argue.  I didn't realize I could try to discuss it.  I just obeyed.  Mother later realized it was a bad decision.

Walker Park was a good place.  First through eighth grades were there and it was a nice quiet place out in the country.  I had started school there in first grade and so I stayed through eighth grade.  I lived out in the country, so I rarely saw any of my friends.  Pretty much never, actually.  So when the first day of eighth grade approached I could hardly wait to go and see my friends again and see who had gone to the high school and who had stayed.  I was not prepared for the sight.  When I got settled in the room and realized everyone was there that was going to be there, again I was crushed.  Many of my friends had gone to the high school.  Some of them I never interacted with again.  Actually, because of course lines taken, I don't even remember seeing any of them again until  years after graduation.  In the eighth grade that year, there was a handful of us that were friends and I was the most vocal.  The most trouble I ever got into in twelve grades of school was that I talked too much.  This was apparent to my eighth grade teacher and one day he declared that I was the ringleader of my tiny group.  It stung a bit.  It actually sort of made me angry.  We weren't trouble.  We just talked.

When I got into ninth grade, my first year in high school, my heretofore A's and B's turned into C's and D's except in French, Home Ec, and PE.  It was just a horrible year.  My mother realized her decision to allow me to stay at my old school in the eighth grade (for more "personal attention") rather than letting me go on to the high school for eighth grade was a bad move.  Everything was new and strange and things were said that frightened me ("If you are late to class, you have to go to the principal's office".)  I never went to the principal's office a day in my previous eight years except to relay a message from my father to the principal and to actually man the front desk while the principal went on errands outside the school!  Whoever heard of that?!  I hated doing that but they trusted me, so I didn't complain.  I think my mother was very proud of the fact that they chose me for that.  A trustworthy child is dear to a parent's heart.  "A wise son makes a father glad..."  Proverbs 10:1

So after I started getting C's and D's in Physical Science, one day the teacher stopped me as I was leaving class and said, "You used to make good grades at Walker Park, didn't you?"  I confirmed that I had and expected him to say something else, something to help me.  He didn't.  Ever.  He never asked me if there was a problem.  He never offered to help me.  He just let it slide.  I knew he had to have had a concern and looked at my previous grades to have known that.  I thought surely there would be some action forthcoming.  There wasn't.  He never mentioned it again.

That same year with C's and  D's in Algebra, my mother finally decided to "go down there" and have a conference with my Algebra teacher to seek some sort of help.  I don't know what happened at the meeting, but again nothing was said.  Ever.  He just let it slide.  No offer of help.

In tenth grade I had a really nice General Math teacher (yes, I escaped further humiliation with Algebra, etc., by taking General Math for the other required math class) and trusted him and liked him.  Still, I had matured only a little physically since sixth grade, and one of the good-looking and popular football players was in my class.  There was a discussion of some sort one day during class and he called me Bird Legs right out in front of everyone.  You're thinking the teacher called him on it, right?  Nope.  I just sat there mired up in humiliation.  I knew I was underdeveloped.  Did I need Mr. Perfect to point that out to the whole class?  Not really, no.  What I needed was for someone to defend me.  The teacher should have at least made him apologize to me in front of everyone, but he didn't and I think I lost a little respect for him that day.

Teachers, what you say to little children (and bigger children) makes a huge difference in their lives.  Maybe you think it's cute to call them "Meathead" or "Dimwit" or "Ya-Buncha-Goofballs" or some other derogatory name because the other kids will laugh.  It's not cute and it's not cool and it's certainly not professional.

As I said, God has this funny way of helping us get past things.  You're wondering what He did here for me, aren't you?  Well, my daughter and her husband are BOTH teachers!  So now I have to look at it from a little different perspective.  Although my daughter is home schooling now.  That should tell you something.

I've had a couple of significant surgeries over the decades.  I got over them very nicely but there are tremendous glaring scars. Like these surgeries, the things these teachers did to me cut me deeply and viciously.  I've forgiven them, but the scars live on.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

CARNAL METHODS

I have again found a youtube video that says what I want to say probably better than I could.  I don't agree 100% with anyone whose youtube videos I find and listen to and post, but there is a gem in so many of them that I continue to listen.  Here is a gem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f6iVWVqugc

What do you think?

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

YOU'RE JUST NOT A GOOD FIT ANYMORE

This is just an old saw, folks.  An excuse.  A cliché.  It has become popular now that when someone in charge is ready to ditch an employee...or a pastor...they tell them, "You're just not a good fit anymore."  You can probably already tell this riles me a bit.

In the case of pastors, I have to wonder...at what point did he start to "not fit?"  I've had shoes before that didn't fit, but they didn't fit to begin with and I should have never bought them.  Don't ask me why I did.  I guess I liked the way they looked so much I thought I could live with them.  I didn't think they would rub my heels or crush my toes that much.

Or maybe the shoe doesn't fit because I gained weight?  Or lost weight?  If the shoe started to "not fit" after I bought them and wore them for awhile when they actually did fit to begin with, the fault could very well lie with me.

So...what happens when a pastor that's been in his pulpit for years all of a sudden "doesn't fit anymore?"

Did the congregation start complaining about him?  No.  Was he caught in an illicit affair?  No.  Was he embezzling funds?  No.  Had he forgotten how to preach?  No.  Was his wife a problem?  No.  Were his children a problem?  No.  Maybe the leadership changed and had a close friend they wanted to pastor the church.  Maybe the leadership decided to steer the church in a different direction and the current pastor doesn't want to captain a ship that's making what he considers a wrong turn (or is unstable.)

Maybe the church has heard about things that other churches in other places are doing to entice visitors, things that maybe aren't quite square with how the Bible says we should be conducting church and the pastor has pointed this out.  Maybe there are some new, hip goings-on in those other churches that might be fun or different to do at this church and the pastor points out that they are not quite in line with the Bible.  Maybe these things don't square with the denominational tenets.

In that case, "Pastor Fuddy-Duddy, you aren't a good fit anymore."  The pastor then has to wonder what happened because the leadership didn't give him any other reason for giving him the boot.  It's just that he's "not a good fit anymore."

Well, folks, this doesn't set well with me.  A person shouldn't just be sent packing.  Everyone deserves to know the reason he's no longer wanted in his job.  I abhor it when people are mistreated.  If the pastor has done something illegal or immoral, that's one thing, but when he's done nothing and you blindside him with not fitting anymore, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Climbing down from my soapbox now.  My shoes are hurting my feet.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

IS NOTHING SACRED?

I'm sorta into looking at or listening to youtube videos in the mornings while I get ready to start my day, and some of them are doozies!  I listen to mostly Christian-related stuff (notice I didn't say that I listen to mostly Christian stuff because sometimes this stuff is way out there...a bit off from being Christian yet seeming to present itself as such!)  Sometimes there's a little something political that jumps up and grabs my attention and I'll give it a listen.  Sometimes I listen to praise and worship songs.  Sometimes there's a preacher that I'll give a nod to.

Recently I saw a video that caught my eye, and I just had to check it out.  It's just 3:17 long, so it won't take you long to look at it.  Some of you will turn it off in a few seconds.  The listing said it would make me laugh.  It didn't.

Now I can't tell you if this is a children's church choir performance or if it's a secular performance where they are costumed.  If so, the costumes have a large cross right in the middle of the chest, linking it to the Christian world.

I really want to know what you think.  It made me emotionally ill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPdqdqj3ghY

COFFEE IN THE SANCTUARY?

Apparently I'm not the only one that's agitated about coffee in the church sanctuary.  It's rare for me to let someone else do the talking (!!!!!!!) but this youtube video speaks to how I feel about the topic in question pretty well.  I can't say that I agree with everything he says, but at least he is speaking to it and making us think.  The video is only about 4:40 long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ch-i8XssIo


What do you think?