Internalizing, understanding, feeling at one with St. Paul's assertion in Romans 9:2-3: "My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them."
My personal one is for those whom God has placed in my path - people in families adopting children, to whom they can not share the good news of God's love for them for they do not know Him either. Yet this has extended to the people who where charged to care for my children before they came to our family.
Lifeboat
Pulled from the wreckage of life,
Bound now for eternal bliss,
With heart breaking for others,
I seek to throw a line of life.
More than my place in the boat,
I would that others go.
I love them so.
- 18 Sep 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Friday, August 6, 2010
Peeling Peaches
Peeling peaches gives one time to think because it doesn't take too much RAM to peel them once you get into the rhythm of it.
This week doing that between Facebook, Gmail, the kids, I thought of the movie I've never seen but heard about - The Bucket List. The list of things you want to do before you die.
I have no such list - other than wanting to go back to China and perhaps.......
I do have a list but it is about others. It is a list of names of people whom I wish to introduce to the joys and blessings I've had these last 3 years, to the person who made this possible, the person who has worked out things for us.
The list mainly contains families who have crossed my path in the last year, who have adopted children from China or Taiwan, who do not know the person referred to above, nor can they introduce their children to this person. It is a list that has grown over time and each and every person represented on that list have become special to me.
A friend offered this in response, which I found very helpful - "Reaching folks about the One who has done so much for you, is like peeling a peach - you don't want to bruise it or rip the skin off. It must be handled gently and peeled slowly. When you do, you find a sweet gem underneath."
Thanks Barbara.
I've met, found, discovered many sweet gems this past year.
Soon back to peeling peaches and more pondering.
This week doing that between Facebook, Gmail, the kids, I thought of the movie I've never seen but heard about - The Bucket List. The list of things you want to do before you die.
I have no such list - other than wanting to go back to China and perhaps.......
I do have a list but it is about others. It is a list of names of people whom I wish to introduce to the joys and blessings I've had these last 3 years, to the person who made this possible, the person who has worked out things for us.
The list mainly contains families who have crossed my path in the last year, who have adopted children from China or Taiwan, who do not know the person referred to above, nor can they introduce their children to this person. It is a list that has grown over time and each and every person represented on that list have become special to me.
A friend offered this in response, which I found very helpful - "Reaching folks about the One who has done so much for you, is like peeling a peach - you don't want to bruise it or rip the skin off. It must be handled gently and peeled slowly. When you do, you find a sweet gem underneath."
Thanks Barbara.
I've met, found, discovered many sweet gems this past year.
Soon back to peeling peaches and more pondering.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Good Friday?
Today many folks have the day off, shortened work days as they prepare for an Easter mass or some other form of celebration preceding Easter.
Good Friday, per say is a croc. This 'holiday' was set up by the Catholic church. The time line just does not follow.
One can not die on Friday, be buried and rise from the dead 36 hours later and be called being in the grave 3 days.
Let's take Thursday for instance. If Jesus died on a Thursday, Friday started at 6 pm Thursday according to Jewish custom. Friday evening at 6 pm would be the end of the first day. Saturday evening would be the second day, Sunday morning would be the 3rd day.
But if he was in fact in the grave on Wednesday evening - ie Thursday morning - Sunday morning would have been the morning of the 3rd day which started at 6 pm Saturday.
The time shift of thinking of the day starting at 6 pm - the evening of the day preceding in Western thought, the morning being several hours later during the Western next day can easily confuse.
Good Friday, per say is a croc. This 'holiday' was set up by the Catholic church. The time line just does not follow.
One can not die on Friday, be buried and rise from the dead 36 hours later and be called being in the grave 3 days.
Let's take Thursday for instance. If Jesus died on a Thursday, Friday started at 6 pm Thursday according to Jewish custom. Friday evening at 6 pm would be the end of the first day. Saturday evening would be the second day, Sunday morning would be the 3rd day.
But if he was in fact in the grave on Wednesday evening - ie Thursday morning - Sunday morning would have been the morning of the 3rd day which started at 6 pm Saturday.
The time shift of thinking of the day starting at 6 pm - the evening of the day preceding in Western thought, the morning being several hours later during the Western next day can easily confuse.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Reaching Out
Reaching out across the strands of time
We seek the silvery threads of family
A memory here, a memory there,
Whispers on the wind, we grasp at these,
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time,
Here and there we catch a silvery thread,
A glimpse here, a glimpse there of some family member.
What were their dreams, their aspirations?
How has the world changed since "their time"?
What we would have of theirs?
O' to have a glimpse of their faces, to hear just once more the sound of
their voices.
Lonely are we, lost without family.
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time.
--------
- Tim Stowell, 31 Oct 2006
We seek the silvery threads of family
A memory here, a memory there,
Whispers on the wind, we grasp at these,
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time,
Here and there we catch a silvery thread,
A glimpse here, a glimpse there of some family member.
What were their dreams, their aspirations?
How has the world changed since "their time"?
What we would have of theirs?
O' to have a glimpse of their faces, to hear just once more the sound of
their voices.
Lonely are we, lost without family.
Slipping, slipping, slipping,
Down through the sands of time.
--------
- Tim Stowell, 31 Oct 2006
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Faith
Faith - believing in something you cannot see, trust.
Faith seems almost like an emotion in that it is like fine silk, passing through our lives, just as silk slides through our fingers.
Sometimes faith is strong, sometimes it is weak. Sometimes faith is in people which for the most part will at some point fail on you. Sometimes faith is in material goods, that are lost, stolen, destroyed, lose value. Sometimes faith is in this or that god either contrived or known.
Faith is personal. It changes over time due to our experience with it or from knowledge received because of it. It may change as we change in our perception of the world around us, events or just how we feel a certain day.
Sometimes though one's faith in a particular instance may be in some primary entity in one's life, like God, with a capital G, referring to the god of the Israelites of ancient Palestine and later the nation of Israel.
As the story of the Bible unfolded through the Old Testament and into the New Testament, followers of Jesus began to accept the God of the Israelites as their own God to worship. These followers were comprised not only of Jews but also from non-Jews in various parts of the Mediterranean world of that time. This group expanded over time landing more so in Europe than in other places.
It seems that around the time of the Reformation, that an element of Christianity lost for many centuries to the masses, that of personal faith started reappearing. Instead it seems to have been gobbled up by organized religion in the emergence of the Catholic Church, that becoming the official religion in many countries.
Martin Luther with his writings started questioning the official church on several points among them faith.
Which brings us via fast forward to today.
Personal faith - that which one can claim as their stake to which the rest of their life is tied. We all have faith of one kind or another, something we believe in to help us in times of need, something to cling to, trust, relate to.
Faith seems almost like an emotion in that it is like fine silk, passing through our lives, just as silk slides through our fingers.
Sometimes faith is strong, sometimes it is weak. Sometimes faith is in people which for the most part will at some point fail on you. Sometimes faith is in material goods, that are lost, stolen, destroyed, lose value. Sometimes faith is in this or that god either contrived or known.
Faith is personal. It changes over time due to our experience with it or from knowledge received because of it. It may change as we change in our perception of the world around us, events or just how we feel a certain day.
Sometimes though one's faith in a particular instance may be in some primary entity in one's life, like God, with a capital G, referring to the god of the Israelites of ancient Palestine and later the nation of Israel.
As the story of the Bible unfolded through the Old Testament and into the New Testament, followers of Jesus began to accept the God of the Israelites as their own God to worship. These followers were comprised not only of Jews but also from non-Jews in various parts of the Mediterranean world of that time. This group expanded over time landing more so in Europe than in other places.
It seems that around the time of the Reformation, that an element of Christianity lost for many centuries to the masses, that of personal faith started reappearing. Instead it seems to have been gobbled up by organized religion in the emergence of the Catholic Church, that becoming the official religion in many countries.
Martin Luther with his writings started questioning the official church on several points among them faith.
Which brings us via fast forward to today.
Personal faith - that which one can claim as their stake to which the rest of their life is tied. We all have faith of one kind or another, something we believe in to help us in times of need, something to cling to, trust, relate to.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Hope
Hope springs eternal... so said -Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733.
Statements that last that long, down through human memory or postings not lost, must have some validity, else they would have been lost in the shadows of time.
At some point Hope must give way to Trust for while we may hope something may happen, if it is to come to fruition at some point we must Trust that it will else we are hoping on air.
Trust seems to go hand in hand with Faith that He that puts desires in our hearts puts Hope and Trust there as well.
Rush Limbaugh once said something that has stuck with me since then - "Words mean things". I know they mean things from painful experience. I've known many words that hurt either by my usage of them towards others or others towards me. I also know the painful experience of using words when I was using them without understanding.
Therefore going back to Faith, Trust and Hope what do they mean beyond the dictionary meaning to me?
There is the blurb in the Bible that says - Faith is the evidence of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. Based on past performance we hope things will continue in that same vein and our faith is believing in things we cannot see be it God or some action we have faith in people to perform.
Trust is built on repeated actions either by God or man, a pattern emerges of their actions and thus a trust relationship with this is formed. From time to time they may not act as we would have them act but as they continue to show the continued pattern that what they say they will do, trust continues to grow.
Hope is more nebulous for while it may be a product of faith and / or trust, it may also be for some new action as well.
Sometimes though these all seem to blend into a fluid almost blended set of actions so that we may forget that they are indeed unique parts. They may be like a biscuit in that a biscuit is made of many individual parts but we usually don't think of them.
Statements that last that long, down through human memory or postings not lost, must have some validity, else they would have been lost in the shadows of time.
At some point Hope must give way to Trust for while we may hope something may happen, if it is to come to fruition at some point we must Trust that it will else we are hoping on air.
Trust seems to go hand in hand with Faith that He that puts desires in our hearts puts Hope and Trust there as well.
Rush Limbaugh once said something that has stuck with me since then - "Words mean things". I know they mean things from painful experience. I've known many words that hurt either by my usage of them towards others or others towards me. I also know the painful experience of using words when I was using them without understanding.
Therefore going back to Faith, Trust and Hope what do they mean beyond the dictionary meaning to me?
There is the blurb in the Bible that says - Faith is the evidence of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. Based on past performance we hope things will continue in that same vein and our faith is believing in things we cannot see be it God or some action we have faith in people to perform.
Trust is built on repeated actions either by God or man, a pattern emerges of their actions and thus a trust relationship with this is formed. From time to time they may not act as we would have them act but as they continue to show the continued pattern that what they say they will do, trust continues to grow.
Hope is more nebulous for while it may be a product of faith and / or trust, it may also be for some new action as well.
Sometimes though these all seem to blend into a fluid almost blended set of actions so that we may forget that they are indeed unique parts. They may be like a biscuit in that a biscuit is made of many individual parts but we usually don't think of them.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Broken hearted
Thought sparks from many different occasions. While reading another blog's comment section there was the notation - blog torture, it should be a crime along with talk about a corn harvest reminded me of corn feeding the world.
It also made me think of broken hearted. Odd that two such seemingly random thoughts should come from the same root. This post will not seek to tie those two thoughts together for other than coming out of my head, with its own random thoughts, I see no connection at this point.
As to broken hearted it is often hard to put a handle on such unless one has some specific event or cause to tie it too and even then it may be hard to describe just how such affects us. This will be an attempt to do so for one specific situation.
At the moment I am broken hearted for some I love and care deeply for but am unsure how to reach out to with that love and deep care without pushing them away. I feel so inadequate on so many fronts, in this relationship, as I wander through this minefield of thought, speech and actions.
Prayer has helped in some respects as I seek wisdom, ask for guidance that I will act, do, say only those things that are not hurtful, are helpful, that explain what I believe without denigrating their beliefs, loving them, coming along side them, being there for them in whatever life throws their way, letting them know that they are family even if they are not biological or in any way legal in family.
We adopt those who we feel kinship with just as we too are adopted by others to include in circles of love and admiration and make them family. Most people don't realize this but I believe such to be fact if one cared to analyze this for what it truly is.
Why am I broken hearted? I am broken hearted because I know how inadequate I am in this respect. I feel that I've missed the mark, that while I had hoped for one thing, that hope is diminished. I do trust that perhaps progress that I cannot see, is there, that in some small way, my inadequate and bumbling actions, will not negatively effect this relationship or any other relationship.
Some of this comes from our modern world where we seek instant gratification, everything tied up in a neat little package like a TV show resolving everything in a short time frame instead of realizing that relationships with people take time, as each party feels out the other, ideas are exchanged, hearts blend together in common purpose while maintaining individual purpose as well.
I need comfort in the fact that I have done nearly all allotted to me for this time and space and that I must trust to the future the opportunity to come again to further till the soil, water the plants or reap the harvest of a relationship well founded.
It also made me think of broken hearted. Odd that two such seemingly random thoughts should come from the same root. This post will not seek to tie those two thoughts together for other than coming out of my head, with its own random thoughts, I see no connection at this point.
As to broken hearted it is often hard to put a handle on such unless one has some specific event or cause to tie it too and even then it may be hard to describe just how such affects us. This will be an attempt to do so for one specific situation.
At the moment I am broken hearted for some I love and care deeply for but am unsure how to reach out to with that love and deep care without pushing them away. I feel so inadequate on so many fronts, in this relationship, as I wander through this minefield of thought, speech and actions.
Prayer has helped in some respects as I seek wisdom, ask for guidance that I will act, do, say only those things that are not hurtful, are helpful, that explain what I believe without denigrating their beliefs, loving them, coming along side them, being there for them in whatever life throws their way, letting them know that they are family even if they are not biological or in any way legal in family.
We adopt those who we feel kinship with just as we too are adopted by others to include in circles of love and admiration and make them family. Most people don't realize this but I believe such to be fact if one cared to analyze this for what it truly is.
Why am I broken hearted? I am broken hearted because I know how inadequate I am in this respect. I feel that I've missed the mark, that while I had hoped for one thing, that hope is diminished. I do trust that perhaps progress that I cannot see, is there, that in some small way, my inadequate and bumbling actions, will not negatively effect this relationship or any other relationship.
Some of this comes from our modern world where we seek instant gratification, everything tied up in a neat little package like a TV show resolving everything in a short time frame instead of realizing that relationships with people take time, as each party feels out the other, ideas are exchanged, hearts blend together in common purpose while maintaining individual purpose as well.
I need comfort in the fact that I have done nearly all allotted to me for this time and space and that I must trust to the future the opportunity to come again to further till the soil, water the plants or reap the harvest of a relationship well founded.
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