Gertie and Bertie

Gertrude screamed, both fists banging on her neighbor's front door. Recognizing her voice Bertram snatched the door open. "What's wrong, Gertrude?"

"Help me!" she wailed, turning and running toward her house. Bertram loped behind her, his royal blue robe flopping wildly and shaving cream flying off his face in the breeze.

Approaching her front door she cautiously entered, ran and jumped onto a dining room chair.

Bertram stood agape as he looked from her to the trembling creature behind the trash can.

"A harmless mouse?" he marveled.

"Harmless?!" she panted. "Nothing is harmless that can give you a heart attack!"


This is my submission to this week's 100 word challenge at www.velvetverbosity.com

Confused

As a writer of Christian fiction, occasionally I am invited to speak on the subject. As part of my presentation I include my testimony, how I became a Christian. After all, if a gal is going to write Christian books, she should provide her credentials, right? Wouldn't you want to know that? I recently explained this to an inviter from a local church, and she was perplexed and asked that I just speak on myself and my writing for fear of confusing some of the people. Then I was confused. If this was a Christian-type church, what was the fear?


This is my submission to www.velvetverbosity.com Their challenge this week is to write 100 words...no more, no less...on the word "credentials." This happened to me just recently. The story is longer, this submission is not.

He Lived, Though

The perpetually robust gentleman laying in the hospital bed murmured thoughtfully, "You know...I guess...I thought I was invincible." A blood clot to the lung will make the strongest of folks take a step or two back and look hard at life, though. For over forty years he had escaped serious illness, and this was quite a shock to him...and her. "Get a pen and paper," he said with trembling lips and moist eyes.

"Oh, honey..."

"Please...just do it, okay?" His wife bit her lip and scrounged in her purse for his request. "My life insurance policy is in the safe..."

Pointy Things

Sharp objects bring out the squeamish in me. I'm probably alone when I say that as a child of the '50's and '60's watching a western with my family, my peepers slammed shut when some unsuspecting cowboy received an arrow to the chest! And when Elizabeth Turner plunged a knife into the undead chest of Captain Barbossa I was a goner. Heck, I wasn't too thrilled last week when the guy next to me at Outback stabbed his steak knife into a rare t-bone. And don't get me started on tetanus shots. Anyone got any smelling salts? I'm feeling green.

APPEARANCES

The topic of how to dress for church comes up now and again, and I felt like addressing it in a blog today, so here goes.

I am one of those who feels like God loves us and accepts our worship no matter what we look like or how we're dressed as long as our worship is sincere and from the heart. With God, everything is all about the heart anyway. If you want to show up for church in jeans and a red plaid flannel shirt, go for it. Male or female. However, there is another way of looking at church dress that is also not wrong. You may want to think about this. Even pray about it.

I know that times have changed, customs have changed, hearts have changed...so how you answer the following questions is just going to have to come from your own stance in life. Here are the questions:

How do you dress to attend:

1. A wedding?
2. A funeral?
3. A 50th wedding anniversary celebration? Especially if it's your grandparents' or other close relatives'?
4. A professional or college ballgame?
5. A NASCAR race?
6. A tractor pull?

For my more affluent friends...yea, maybe even the snobs who may read this: (Not all affluent people are snobs, by the way.)

How would you dress to attend:

1. The opera?
2. A Broadway play?
3. A movie premier?
4. A presidential inauguration?

(As I said, times and customs have changed, so some of you would dress the same for a wedding as you would for a tractor pull; the same for the opera as you would for a NASCAR race, should someone who attends operas actually attend a NASCAR race.)

If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, (and He is, according to The Bible) then let's see what the Bible says about dressing for church. I would think what Jesus said then would apply now, since He is unchanging. In the Old Testament of The Bible, the priests (our modern-day preachers?) were to wear some pretty specific clothing to perform their duties. Really specific. Down to colors and styles. Exodus 28 is one of the places you can read about that. Men and women both wore robe-like or tunic-like clothing with small differences in stylng for the two genders.

In the New Testament, I don't see it addressed a whole lot. However, James 2:1-4 talks about two men who come to church, one in finery and one in filthy clothes, so it appears that both styles of dress were acceptable. The passage is instructing people not to favor the more finely dressed man over the one in filthy clothes. Even saying that if you do, you've become a judge with evil thoughts! Yikes!

Now it's time to think. Who is someone that you respect a lot? Really...think of someone. Depending on who's reading this it could be one of many types of people...an old friend, a seldom-seen-but-admired relative, your favorite performer (writer/actor/singer/dancer, etc.,) the president, the king/queen of some foreign country, whomever. How would you dress to meet that person, whether for the first time or after many years? Personally, I would want to look pretty spiffy. After all, it would be a bit of a celebration for me.

Doesn't the King of Kings deserve more respect than anyone on this earth that we could possibly meet? Shouldn't we respect Him enough to show up in His presence looking like we respect Him? I know, I know...I've already said that with God it's always about the heart and not appearances...but, really, if we respect and love Him as much as we say we do, shouldn't it be obvious not only to Him but to everyone else? If we have the ability, shouldn't we put on not just the garment of praise (Isaiah 61:3) but a garment of respect for our Savior? Just a thought. I know you have your own.

June 20, 2018 - Update - I discovered today a great youtube video that I think fits this topic perfectly.  Here it is:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXbI_NdcBaU 

PLEASE DON'T DROWN ME WITH QUOTES

Not sure why this is something I'm noticing lately, but it appears that Christians, especially pastors/preachers, over the past few years have obtained a fascination with quoting a plethora (I just love that word) of men/women/books/etc., outside the Bible...not that there isn't a place for that and not that a lot of sincere Christians don't have something to say that may be from the Lord. (Like me!) What I mean is that there seems to be a bent toward that practice...like suddenly the Bible isn't enough...or that it can't speak what God wants to say well enough...like something needs to be added in order to get its message across. This isn't limited to just quotations from other Christians (and, actually, some of the people quoted in Christian venues aren't/weren't Christians at all) but also contains prayers of other people. May or may not be anything wrong with that either, but I guess I'd rather hear from the Lord myself what He wants me to pray. I don't want other people putting words in my mouth. I feel like it's a distraction from what God may be wanting to say to me and I can't hear Him because I'm reading/praying what He said to someone else. Jesus Christ Himself gave us the basis for our prayers in The Lord's Prayer, not that I quote it every day or even most days, but I think we can all learn a lesson from how He taught His disciples to pray. After all, we're supposed to be His disciples, too.

I guess one reason this practice bothers me is that if folks are quoting so many other people, that means they are reading huge amounts of material outside the Bible. Lest you think I'm anti-reading-anything-but-the-Bible, let me remind you that I have written two Christian books myself and have two more tumbling around in my head. Also, on my website there are book reviews of some of the books I've read. In fact, I LOVE to read. I read the Bible every day, but I also like to read other books, articles, newspapers, magazines, etc. But if someone is going to read material in order to post to a networking website or develop a sermon, or whatever, I prefer to hear what the Bible has to say. Concentration and poring over pages and pages and chapters and chapters of what someone else said, inspired by God or not, seems to me to be a distraction from the Bible...which is so full that if we studied it as much as we should daily we wouldn't have time for a whole lot of other reading. Pointing the finger at myself here, too.

I know a lot of people are into that sort of thing, but it's time pretty much wasted on me. If you're posting it to a website that I frequent, I skip over it and move on, or if you've sent it to me in an e-mail, I hit "delete" and move on, or if you're preaching it in a sermon that I'm listening to, I zone out. A quote here and there, okay, I can get through that, but I'm talking about the constant barrage of who-said-what-that's-supposed-to-impress-me.

I know everyone isn't going to agree with me on this. That's obvious. But there are others who do.

Thanks for reading...and have a very, very "Happy Thanksgiving!" Remember the One to Whom we are to be thankful...God, our Father and the Father of Jesus Christ our Savior, Whose Holy Spirit empowers us.

MISUNDERSTANDINGS

Our pastor's sermon today was entitled "The Misunderstanding Test," and addressed, as you might guess, the fact that, at some point in our lives, we will all be tested by misunderstandings. I can attest to that. A terrible misunderstanding occurred in my life that left me shattered for a very long time.

Several years ago my family and I were involved with a large group of people that met often, had a leadership group with a chairman-type person, and we all became friends. Somehow the chairman figure got the notion that some of us would be interested in disposing of him. No, no, not in the Elliott Ness kind of way but in the pinkslipping kind of way. (It would become evident later that he suffered from deep insecurities.) There actually were a few people who weren't keen on his leadership abilities, or lack thereof, and several of them had quietly talked with him in private about it. He insisted that compromising by making some sort of adjustment in his leadership wasn't the answer. Still at no time that I'm aware of did anyone ask for his departure from the group. People continued to be unhappy and it became obvious that he had begun building his army, his group that would insulate him and "protect him" from the rest of us.

The large group was at times broken down into subgroups with leadership, of which my husband and I were a part. At times the subgroup leadership would meet with the chairman and overall leadership for discussion of any problems, concerns, or updates. At one of these meetings the chairman announced that one subgroup had disintegrated to the point that only two people from that subgroup were left and submitted that the reason was because the leader of that subgroup (now departed...no, no, not in the dearly-departed kind of way but in the I'm-outta-here kind of way) had talked badly about the chairman during that subgroup's meetings. My husband and I had been a part of that group. My husband surmised later that we were the only two people left from that subgroup. We were the two that the chairman was talking about. I was shocked because I never remembered hearing anyone speak unkindly about the chairman in those subgroup meetings. I think the chairman thought that my husband and I were speaking some of those unkind words within the subgroup and turning them against him. We weren't.

I do admit that those of us who were unhappy with his leadership were given to discussion about the effect he was having on the group as a whole, but rallying numbers for "our side" wasn't what it was about. Of course, I'm sure he and his following would never believe that. In fact, when he finally did leave, my husband and I wanted to talk with him and his wife to make sure there was nothing between us, but he wouldn't agree to it.

There was one particular couple in the group that he and others had a hard time abiding. This couple had been involved in forming the large group years before he had come on the scene. It was proven later that he had never really come on board with the group to be a part of what we were about but to make it what he wanted it to be. What makes me say that? Several ladies and his wife were talking one day and she became beligerent and said had he known about one of the by-laws of the group, chances are he never would have become a part of it. My response now...at the time my response was saucer-eyes and drop-jaw...would be, "You mean you came into the group not knowing what we were about?" The only sense I could make of that was that he wanted it to be about his concerns, with no vision for continuing what the original plan was for the group.

He did finally leave the group on his own, blaming that couple that he couldn't abide, which angered a long-time group member and member of the overall leadership. This man began an attack on the couple-at-blame which blew the group apart, leaving two sides, many people leaving the group, and broken relationships among people who had known each other long, long before the chairman had come on the scene.

There never was an apology from that man and his people who broke up the group, and, unfortunately, I don't foresee one in the future. Nominal gestures have been made over the years...a meal paid for here, a hug in public there...but no real effort to mend broken...no, shattered...fences. And hearts. Like mine.

Many years and tears later my heart has healed for the most part but not without a scar and, unfortunately, not without a (small) callous. My heart is not into things like it was then; however, new things have taken their place. I have written two books that probably never would have come about, and people like them. And I have two more tumbling around in my head. I am humbled. And it feels good. I feel loved again. That wasn't at all my reason for writing the books, but that's one of the blessings God has given me through it.

There were many days when I grieved for my friendships that are probably forever, at least on this earth, gone. There were days when I had to get out of my own home because I couldn't bear being alone with my grief. There were days when I would busy myself to fill my mind with something other than the pain. And there were the nights when I cried myself to sleep.

I'll never be a part of a group like that again. That is over. Decision made. But I learned something valuable, something I already knew in my heart but had never had to live until now: God really is the only One you can trust. Man is just man, but God is pure love and faithfulness. When friends and family turn on you, God never will. Through it all, He was my constant. I never once blamed Him for what happened. I never once wanted to turn my back on Him. And He has proven to me that my faithfulness to Him makes Him want to not only remain faithful to me but to prove it in tangible and intangible ways. My life is rich. The scar remains, but my life is rich. www.junebanderson.com