Gleaning From The Walls

The best way to improve our recognition of God’s work in our lives is to tune the world out.  The Lord Himself exhorts us to do this very thing in Psalm 46:10 – “Be still and know that I am God”.

Our minds are often aloft with our own thoughts – our passions, our visions, our varied busy lives.  The tumults and irritations of the world will sometimes set our minds toward thoughts of despair and hopelessness.

Because of this, we cannot always understand where we are going or what our duty from God’s perspective is – we are distracted from that which is most necessary for God’s good people to live the way He wants and to perform that which He requires.

Occasionally and regularly, it is a good thing for us, as Christians, to gather in our straying thoughts, those passions, visions, and irritations that are so distracting and, with a humble heart, direct our attentions and observations to our Creator.  To say He is all deserving of this attention would be a gross understatement.

Whether we choose to seek to know God or not, He says: “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (v. 10).  This is not contingent on our agreeing with Him.  So, would it not just make good sense to join in this exaltation of our precious Lord?

The Lord’s exhortation, “be still and know that I am God”, is one for our good. God is God!  He is living, and He is working.  Therefore, it is only to our great benefit to know Him.  Additionally, since He is omnipotent, the vast amount of knowledge required to know all of Him is an almost unfathomable concept.  Nevertheless, we are still encouraged; no, we are commanded, to do so.  It is our solemn duty to do so!

What does it mean when God’s own are commanded to “be still”?  Sadly, there are those who are far from “being still”.  They “do all their work by the sweat of their own brow” and attribute little or no credit to God.  They believe that by “lifting up their hands” and by “taking courage,” they can survive and thrive by sheer will, having little dependence on God.

Those who are disheartened are commanded to take courage and admonished to fulfill their duties.  However, while we must take the initiative to fulfill our responsibilities and live our lives, we are constantly challenged as we live in a sinful, decaying world.  Personal initiative is no substitute for reliance upon the Lord (James 4:13-17).

This command “be still” forces us to think on two things: that we are finite, and that God is infinite.  That being the case, we need to drop our hands, go limp, relax, chill out, and “be still”!  Christian people ought to cease from “things” often and behold the works of Jehovah, and enjoy our confidence in and dependence upon Him (v.8) who gave us his Son.

~ Gerrie

So many wonderful words of the English language have been altered with the passage of time, sometimes for the better, but so often corruption has occurred along this passage.  To corrupt means “to alter from the original.”  This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it leaves a void between the original meaning and the one used in the present.  A space of time now exists when the alteration cannot be exactly pinpointed.  It is here, in this space of time, in this void, that individual interpretation takes place.  Individual interpretation relative to a person’s own situation is how meanings of words are changed, and eventually the original meaning is lost somewhere along the way.  Many words have been corrupted with little or no consequence, but some have the unfortunate experience of changing so much for so many.  “Success” is such a word, a word that has come a long way from its original meaning.  If asked now what the word “success” means by definition, few people, even some highly educated, would answer with the same definition.

To most people, success equates to wealth and fame.  Although these are correct in a sense, wealth and fame are far from the heart of the true meaning of the word.  Success is really synonymous with the word “prosperity”, another misused word.  It means “to advance in anything good or desirable.”  (The definition of “good” would also be open for debate, but that is another story.)  To be successful is to prosper, but the question is – in what!  Material possessions, or wealth, are the desire of a great number of people’s hearts.  I have even heard success referred to as the American dream.  To accumulate “things” is a goal long sought after from ages past.  When attainment has occurred, one is said to be successful.  Then what?  Does the journey to success end there?  Does the striving to accumulate more and more ever end?  I doubt it very much.  So, the effort continues and increases to acquire more.  However, onlookers may be puzzled regarding what they observe.  “The successful ones have enough!” – they say – “Do they not?  Why, then, are they not satisfied with a large amount of possessions instead of a very large amount?”  Here is where the corruption enters.  Success is not the accumulation of wealth and riches as many believe because such accumulation has no boundaries.  There will always be more to be had and those who do not know where to draw the line.  They will always want more.  Success, therefore, will always be just beyond their reach.  Their whole life’s purpose will focus on wealth and the insatiable desire for more and more “stuff”.  Sadly, the important and most enjoyable parts of the journey to success will be missed along the way.  These people are not successful.

Fame is another one of success’ newly acquired dimensions.  However, sometimes having fame may have greater drawbacks than not being famous at all.  Everything comes with some kind of price tag attached, and the price for fame is high.  Just ask famous people.  Ask them about the things they may give up, willingly or not, because of their fame.  Things like privacy, for instance.  Celebrities have very little of this precious commodity, and what they do have is fervently guarded.  Some celebrities even shut themselves up to avoid the prying eyes of privacy invaders.  Then they are looked upon as an oddity, a recluse.  Many famous people are unhappy for various reasons, yet are considered quite successful.  Some have even lost their very lives, perhaps tragically by murder or suicide, yet they are still envied my the masses of those not famous.  In a lot of cases, these tragedies can be directly linked to their fame.  So, if famous people are considered successful just because they are famous, and then later their fame wanes, does that mean they are no longer successful, that their success has somehow escaped them?  No, fame does not equate to success any more than wealth does because they both must be maintained.

Success is actually the favorable and prosperous termination of anything attempted; a termination that answers the purpose intended.  The purpose intended is the key to being successful and only hard to understand if, when defining success, merely fame and wealth are mentioned.  It is a journey indeed.  Compare the businessman who occupies the penthouse of a corporate high-rise with the janitor who empties his trash bin at night.  Who is the more successful of the two?  The former’s intended purpose was to climb the corporate ladder and acquire power and prestige.  The latter’s, to support his family modestly, learning to be content with enough to maintain his living expenses, plus a few extras maybe, but allow him more time with his family.  Again I ask, who is more successful?  Submit the question to each and they will probably both say, “Yes,” and both would be correct, from their own perspective.  What about others, though?  What would they say?  Would the janitor be considered just as successful as the businessman?  I think not!  These two equally successful people will unfortunately be defined by the amount of dollars in their pocket books.  Nevertheless, both intended purposes were fulfilled and, therefore, favorably met.

Success, a uniquely inspiring word, can be the determinant of one’s self-worth or just another end to an enjoyable journey.  To think some people actually base their self-worth on their success is sad; but with the accurate perspective and a good grasp of the meaning, all people can attain success, and not just once, but many times throughout their lifetime. ~ ‘98

~ Gerrie

Despereaux looked at his father, at his gray-streaked fur and trembling whiskers and his front paws clasped together in front of his ears, and he felt suddenly as if his own heart would break in two. His father looked so small, so sad.

“Forgive me,” said Lester again.

Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love, a powerful, wonderful thing.

And a ridiculous thing, too.

Isn’t it ridiculous, after all, to think that a son could forgive his father for beating the drum that sent him to his death? Isn’t it ridiculous to think that a mouse could ever forgive anyone for such perfidy?

But still, here are the words Despereaux Tilling spoke to his father. He said, “I forgive you, Pa.”

And he said those words because he sensed that it was the only way to save his own heart, to stop it from breaking in two. Despereaux, reader, spoke those words to save himself …

Despereaux stood before the Mouse Council, and he realized that he was a different mouse than he had been the last time he faced them. He had been to the dungeon and back up out of it. He knew things that they would never know; what they thought of him, he realized, did not matter, not at all …

After he was gone …

Only one mouse said nothing. That mouse was Despereaux’s father. Lester Tilling had turned his head from the other members of the Mouse Council; he was trying to hide his tears.

He was crying, reader, because he had been forgiven.

~ Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

Forgiveness serves two purposes – to heal the sorrowful heart of the offended and to heal the sorrowful heart of the offender. When we offend our heavenly Father, His heart is sorrowful. When we ask for forgiveness, and He forgives, then the sorrow of the hearts is shadowed by the love of forgiveness.

~ Gerrie

I heard as a child, and learned as an adult, that one cannot miss something one has never known. However, I do not believe that is so with love. When not loved, the heart misses it anyway because it is designed to give love as well as receive love. Although the heart may not be able to put a name to that which is misses, there still exists there a void, fillable only with the knowledge that we are loved.

When we are loved, we feel not just the love, but the many things that accompany it as well – we feel safety and security; we possess a sense of belonging; we are cloaked with a warmth that is beyond explanation; we are excited with expectancy; and we are filled with hope.

Sad little Edward Tulane was too vain and self-absorbed to feel the love he unknowingly possessed. It was only when he was brought to his lowest points that he began to see the difference. He began to love and to feel loved. Then when he was removed from those who loved him, missing the love caused him greater pain and despair than he ever thought he could feel – so much so, that he wanted nothing more to do with love at all.

Because of the words of a wise old doll, Edward opened his heart once again to receive love only to discover that it never really left him – it was there all the time.

“Once, oh marvelous once, there was a rabbit who found his way home.”

~ Gerrie

The ruled by fear, when met with warnings, file them away hoping retrieval will never be necessary.
They disregard their natural sensibilities.

They are destined for oppression.

The ruled by lust for power are by their own greed driven.
Throwing caution to the wind, their natural sensibilities abide not in their hearts.

They are destined for destruction.

The determined to survive make mistakes, yes –
however, they purpose to learn from them to repeat them no more –
thus even more finely tuning their sensibilities.

They are destined for greatness.

These little rabbits aren’t so different from us after all … are they?

“These shadows had no power either to send him away or to hurt him, except with his own consent …
for they had no power to move him except by fear.”

Richard Adams, El-ahrairah – Watership Down

~ Gerrie

by Dean Koontz

To what lengths will one go, when driven to desperation, to relieve that one whom he loves from some evil done them through no fault of their own?

Indeed, what would drive one to do the evil in the first place? Greed borne from moral degradation! And in the wake, the innocent suffer and emerge innocent no more.

Again, Dean Koontz is able to lay before me a tale that keeps me wanting more. This one I read in two days, a record for me in reading a book. This says more of him than me, of course. I would never put that much effort into a book not deserving or able to hold my attention beyond all else.

Quickly paced throughout, The Husband is not always intense, but more often than not sitting on the edge of intensity. It was almost as if I could control it. The faster I read the more intense; if I slowed my pace, I could take a breath.

I longed for the ending to come quickly, but at the same time, knew I would be finished with the book. As it turned out, I found myself turning circles of boredom afterwards, finding nothing to do that would occupy my time as immediately satisfactorily.

~ Gerrie

by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

“Oh, Frankenstein! generous and self-devoted being! What does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee by destroying all thou lovest.”

“Your repentance,” I [Robert Walton] said, “is now superfluous. If you had listened to the voice of conscience, and heeded the stings of remorse, before you had urged your diabolical vengeance to this extremity, Frankenstein would yet have lived.”

“I pitied Frankenstein [replied the Monster] … but when I discovered that he, the author at once of my existence and of its unspeakable torments dared to hope for happiness … then impotent envy and bitter indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance … I knew I was preparing myself a deadly torture; but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested, yet could not disobey … Evil, thenceforth, became my good … I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen.”

“I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery.”

“Polluted by crimes, and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in death?”

“The bitter sting of remorse will not cease to rankle in my wound until death shall close them forever.”

(Creator and Creature, desperately wanting something greater in their lives reject their better natures and descend into spiritual darkness and physical destruction.)

~ Gerrie

by Max Lucado

“We are a nation that believes in having it all. In 1950, American families owned one car and saved for a second. In 2000, nearly one in five families owned three cars or more … Americans shell our more for garbage bags than 90 of the worlds 210 countries spend for everything … America has double the number of shopping malls as it does high schools.” M. Lucado

As many times as I’ve read the “parable of the talents” in the Bible, I’ve never understood it to be referring to anything other than money or something tangible. A talent in ancient times did refer to money, of course, but today it mostly refers to a person having the ability to do something very well. We say, “He or she is talented.” Moreover, were they a humble person, they would hopefully acknowledge their talent is a gift from the Lord.

In Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot, Max Lucado has given me a new perspective on an old lesson. I’ve come to see the talent (money) of Bible times as the talent (giftedness) of today.

We are not all endowed with the mind of a rocket scientist, the courage of a soldier, the communicative skills of the world’s greatest teacher, or the grace of the most humble of those who serve in our church. However, we are all gifted in one capacity or another.

God does not create useless beings. Therefore, the work here is discovering where your giftedness lies and not only being satisfied with it, but grateful for it – whether it is in humble service or in rocket science, for there is a need for both.

In the Parable of the Talents, one servant receives 5 talents, one receives 2 and the third receives 1. Then the Lord returns for an account of His investments. The results?

“The 2-talent steward who faithfully fills soda cups for the homeless receives the same applause as the 5-talent evangelist who fills stadiums with people.” M. Lucado

These two servants used their uniqueness and took risks, risks that placed them outside of society’s expectations and inside what Max Lucado calls their “sweet spot” – that place where you do what you do best most because that is where your talent or your giftedness lies.

On a personal level, and speaking in general terms – look at the idea of the aforementioned, the “America that wants it all”. Now, we may be the land of the free and the home of the brave nationwide, but applying those same terms on a smaller scale, are we really free, and are we really brave?

Are we truly free when we are such slaves to debt? The lack of bravery enters in when we consider the measures it will take to not only free ourselves of debt, but also determine to live no longer slave to it. The lifestyle changes that will be necessary to accomplish this will be difficult to become accustomed to again – the change in attitude from “I want it all” to “I have enough”.

Are we truly free when we maintain the lofty ideals of others (no matter how they grate against our conscience)? Again, the lack of bravery enters in here when we consider the measures it will take to not only free ourselves of pre-conceived ideals, but use our own minds to discover those things that are soothing to our own conscience, those things that motivate our own selves, finding them from within our own selves.

I’m coming around to a point, so just bear with me, and remember I’m speaking of me particularly here, not everyone.

I, as a woman, have been created to be the nurturer of the home and the raiser of the children. That’s God’s design. Society, however, has bombarded me with the notion that I need to be ambitious, career-oriented, no longer one tied to the home “barefoot and pregnant”, at least that’s the impression with which I grew up and believed for many years. Because of this, I was torn between doing that for which I was created and that which society expected of me.

I was not “free” to live in complete fulfillment and contentment of my God-given talent because I was not “brave” enough to defy the mindset I have allowed to penetrate and dictate my reasoning and actions.

I can honestly say that this book – Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot has left me free to feel guilty no longer for being content fulfilling my purpose and using the talent the Lord has given me.

My mother once told me that when I was a child and asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was “a wife and mommy”. I don’t remember that, but I’m glad she did. I’m doubly glad she recalled it back to me.

For years, I tried to convince myself that I should be at least part contributor to the financial well being of our family, while at the same time trying to balance job and home and family. I’ve always disliked being out of the house, feeling divided between doing my 100 percent best in a traditional job and my 100 percent best in building a home and raising my children, mentally floundering most of the time, trading off doing my best at one or the other. Somewhere along the way, one always suffered, at least in my mind it did. It may not have looked like it to observers, but I knew it because I know there is only one 100 percent of me and I’m uncomfortable feeling divided.

My talent, my giftedness, that which I am called to do, is domesticity. It always has been, and now I know it always will be. Sure, I want it all just like everyone else, but not enough to step outside myself and stop doing that which fulfills me the most. In reality, I already have it all – I know that now, I’ve probably known it all along.

This is not the life for all women, but it is certainly the life for me. It is where I thrive; it is where I am most happy. Oddly enough, it is what enables me to serve in other areas in and outside the home.

As for the third servant, the one who received the 1 talent – we don’t know what his talent was because he never shared it. “He made the most tragic mistake of giftedness. He failed to benefit the master with his talent.” M. Lucado.

He went through life trying to live up to the expectations of others, not free and not brave.

~ Gerrie

The first Dean Koontz book I ever read was Whispers. It was over 20 years ago, I’m sure. That book defined horror for me. It literally had me scared. For an author to write a story that moved me to that point … well, suffice it to say that I have been a Dean Koontz fan ever since.

Forever Odd is the second book of Koontz’s using the character of Odd Thomas (the first being of the same name). I loved the first one and enjoyed the second just as much.

Odd Thomas is a young man, 21, from an unstable background involving abuse. In spite of that, he grows into a senstive young man with an unusual talent, or gift, as he calls it. Odd Thomas sees dead people – not something he enjoys either.

The spirits he encounters know they are dead, but linger for one reason or another. When he comes upon them, or they upon him, he tries to convince them to “cross over”. He encourages them, telling them that what awaits them is much better than what they endure in their present state. Sometimes they comply, sometimes not.

One of his most frequent visitors is Elvis – he likes Odd for some reason, but Odd often feels sorry for him because Elvis refuses to cross over. Elvis clings to this world because he worshipped his mother in life, but did not live up to the measure with which she thought he was capable. Elvis feels guilty of this so does not feel himself worthy to spend eternity with her. This is Odd’s theory, not mine.

I like Odd Thomas. He possesses a unique childlike innocence for an adult, but at the same time, he seems a sort of pitiful person. He feels cursed with this “gift” at times. It manifests itself of its own accord, Odd cannot conjure it up or turn it off. He has not reconciled himself to it either, but he does seem resigned. That is where the sadness of his life begins and ends.

Dean Koontz makes you want to care for Odd, take care of him. I wanted to just put him in a box and protect him from all the evil and sadness of the world. I know I cannot. Odd knows it, too.

Odd will do what he needs to do. One of his friends is the Sherrif of the small California town of Pico Mundo in which he lives. He often helps Chief Porter with the crimes of the times, using his gift to give the Chief insight into the evildoers involved. He is loyal to a fault, and those that know him love him.

Odd takes one day at a time, one spirit at a time, awaiting the day when he can join his beloved (his girlfriend, Stormy) in death. He longs for the day.

My Favorite Quote: “We’re all a little odd beneath the surface.”

~ Gerrie

If you have never been berry picking, you have to try it! I went to Moorhead’s Blueberry Farm this morning with the senior group at church (The XYZ’ers – which stands for Extra Years of Zest) and picked blueberries. It was absolutely the best of fun things to do for the summer. I came home with 8 pounds of berries, along with a blue tongue and blue fingers, and at $1.50 per pound, it was quite a bargain, too. Do you know how expensive a little package is in the grocery store this time of year?

I had never seen a blueberry bush before. Mom was with us and she was concerned there would be a lot of stooping to get to the berries. Quite the contrary, these bushes were very tall. The best berries were at the top of the bushes, and so we had to pull some of the branches down and hold them to get the “pick of the crop.”

We were not there very long, only about an hour and a half. It was very hot, and even though we got started about 9 AM, we were melting by 10. Some stuck it out for a half hour more to fill up their buckets, including me. It was well worth it, though, and everyone was pleased with all the wonderfully sweet-tasting berries.

I must admit, there is something quite satisfying about doing my own picking rather than buying a few ounces in a plastic carton. I’m collecting blueberry recipes already, and cannot wait to start some serious baking!

~ Gerrie