What If? A Question to Ponder.

We live in a busy, hustle-bustle, hurry-up kind of world.  Because of that, we don't do a lot of pondering.  We don't do a lot of just sitting and thinking.....pondering.
We sometimes spend time pondering as we make resolutions and set goals at the beginning of a new year.  The beginning of a new year is a good time to ponder, but it isn't the only time.  In fact, we probably should do a lot more pondering than we do.

What does it mean to ponder anyway?  It means "to consider something deeply and thoroughly; to meditate; to weigh carefully in the mind; to consider thoughtfully."  (definitions from dictionary.com)

Just what is it we need to be pondering?  For starters, as the writer of the hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty wrote, we should ponder what the Almighty can do.  We should think deeply and thoughtfully about Who He is and all that He can do, all that He is able to accomplish in and through us.

But at this season of the year, there is something else to be pondered - what He has already done.  Here in the days leading up to our celebration of the Resurrection, it's time to ponder what He has done for us.  To ponder the price paid for our salvation.

How many times have you gone to the grocery store with shopping list in hand, only to leave the store without purchasing some of the items on that list?  You didn't make the purchase because the item cost too much.

You went to the mall and found a dress or pair of shoes you loved.  But you didn't make the purchase.  It cost too much.

Have you ever stopped to think about - to ponder - how different things would be if that's what Jesus had said?  What if, when confronted with the price He would have to pay for our salvation, He had said "no, that costs too much.  I won't pay that." 

Have you ever stopped to think about - to ponder - exactly what it cost Him to purchase your salvation?

In these days leading up to our celebration of the resurrection, it's a good time for some pondering.  Think about - really think about - ponder - the price that He paid.  As you're making you preparations, and shopping for new clothes, and doing your grocery shopping and cooking and baking, and planning your table setting, don't miss the most important part of Easter.  Don't forget the price He paid.  And why He was willing to pay it.

Where would we be?  What if He had said no?  What if He had said it cost too much.  What if?

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; he was despised and we esteemed him not.  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed."  (Isaiah 53:3-5 ESV)

"Then Jesus said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.......' and going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.'"  (Matthew 26:38-39 ESV)

Therefore

It has happened again.

Another terrorist attack.

We have seen far too much of this in recent years.

I've written about this far too often.

This time it's Brussels.

We grieve for the people of Brussels.  For the lives lost.  And for those who are left behind, without their family members and friends.

We grieve.

We are angry that this has been allowed to happen again.

And we grow anxious.

This time it's Brussels. 

Where will it happen next?

When will it happen next?

This time it's Brussels. 

Next time it might be us.

And our anxiety grows.

But we must remember.

Therefore. 

That's the word we must remember.

It's there in Psalm 46, right between verses 1 and 2. 

Therefore is a word of conclusion. 

It's a word that says because this is true.

Therefore is a word we need to hold on to.

When we grieve. 

And when we are angry. 

And especially when we are anxious.


"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea."  (Psalm 46:1-2 NASB, emphasis mine)

Which Is Better?

We hear a lot these days about healthy eating, and everywhere we turn, there's someone or some company offering the "best" solution for our health or our weight or for the environment.....

Everybody seems to think their plan is best.  The market is saturated with healthy shakes and smoothie mixes and low-fat this and gluten-free that.

But what about this?  What if, instead of eating an imitation-carrot-flavored-veggie-stick, we just ate carrots?  What if, instead of all these food-flavored products, we just ate real food?

Take that thought a step further.  What if, instead of reading books about the Bible, or watching movies and TV shows about the Bible, we actually read the Bible?  What if, instead of looking for easy-to-swallow substitutions, we just read the actual Book?

It's true for food.  It's true of the Bible.  It's also true of the way we think about the Savior.  What if, instead of religion and religious activity, we just focused on Jesus Himself.  What if, instead of religion, we had relationship.

Which is better?  A carrot-flavored product or an actual carrot?  (Or substitute some other fruit or vegetable if you don't like carrots!)

Which is better?  A substitute, or the real thing?

Something to think about.

Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."  (John 14:6)

An Important Word

This is going to be a busy week.  The countdown to surgery has begun, and there are still a number of errands to run and a number of things to get done before that day.  I've been making lots of lists so I don't forget anything.  At least I'm hoping I won't forget anything. 

I went out to an appointment last week thinking something was missing.  That I had forgotten something.  And sure enough, a quick glance in the mirror revealed that I had forgotten my earrings!  But earrings are not the only things I'm having trouble remembering these days.  As the surgery day gets closer, there are more things to remember.  Doctor appointments.  Getting the laundry done.  Running the errands.  Remembering the purchases that need to be made.  Cleaning the house.  Lots of details.  Being sick last week put me a little behind on my very carefully planned schedule.  It's all a bit overwhelming.  So much to remember.

Remember.

It's an important word.  But one we often overlook.  Remember is a word we don't often remember!

Particularly in this Holy Week, as we are focusing our attention on the events of that first Easter Season so many years ago, it's an important word.

"Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen.  Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise."  (Luke 24:6-7 ESV)

"And they remembered His words."  (Luke 24:8 ESV)

 "When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken."     (John 2:22 ESV)

Remember.

An important word.  An important lesson for us, wouldn't you agree?

Remember.

It's easy to follow Jesus, to serve Him, to be joyful, when everything in life is good.  When there's plenty of money in your checking account and all the bills are paid.  When you're healthy.  When there's no stress.

We tend to get forgetful when things are not going so well.  When the bills are piling up.  When there's too much month and not enough money.  When there's sickness and stress and anxiety and worry.  When relationships are strained.  When we're worried about our job.  When life happens.

But it's at those times that we most need to remember.

In the immediate context of the passage in Luke, the angel is telling the women not to be worried because the body of Jesus is no longer in the tomb where they expected to find it.  Remember what He said.  Remember that He told you He would rise from the grave.  Remember.

There's a broader application for us as well.  Here in the 21st century, just as back in the first century, we need to remember what He said. 

He said He would rise again.  And He did.  He said He will come again.  And He will. We need to remember that.  We need to continually remind ourselves of His words.  We need His words written on our hearts.

How do we do that?  By taking time to be in the Word.  The written Word of God is a great gift for us, and we need to treat it as the great gift that it is - the written revelation of God.  We need to read it.  To study it.  To treasure it.

Knowing the Word, being able to call it to mind, remembering the Word, takes more than a few quick minutes here and there.  It takes time.  We must be intentional about spending time in the Word.  Intentional about reading it.  Intentional about studying it. Intentional about committing it to our memory.

Then, when life gets tough, as it inevitably will, we can remember.

Remember.

It's an important word.  One that is far too often overlooked.


"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."  (Psalm 103:1-2 ESV, emphasis mine)

Orange Juice and Chicken Soup

This has been a rough week.  I've been a little "under the weather", as they say.  Make that a lot under the weather!  But I made it through, and on this sunny Friday morning, I'm happy to report that I am on the mend!  I can breathe again, which is always a good thing, and am feeling almost back to normal.

My diet this week has consisted of a lot of orange juice and a lot chicken noodle soup, and not much else.  That, in combination with the antibiotics the doctor prescribed earlier in the week, seems to have done the trick.

This time last week I had a pretty lengthy to-do list for this week, with lots of things I wanted to get accomplished prior to my upcoming surgery.  What I have actually accomplished can be described in two words:  not much.  I've done a lot of sleeping and a little bit of reading, and that's it.

Sometimes we have to just set our plans aside and do what it takes to get well.  In this case, orange juice plus chicken soup plus antibiotics plus a lot of sleep.  That combination has left me feeling refreshed and energized, ready to (slowly) begin to tackle that to-do list.

Sometimes we have to slow down.  (Although if I go any slower than I have this week, I'll be going backwards!)

It's probably a good idea not to wait until we get sick to allow ourselves some time for rest.  Some time to refresh.  Some time to be still.

We all need it.

Precious Memories. A Throwback Thursday Post.

I had the great blessing of growing up next door to my grandmother.  Some children go over the river and through the woods to visit their grandmother; I went past the swing set and the clothesline!  Grandmother Neil, my mother's mother, was one of the women I loved and admired most in this life.  Even now, more than forty years after her passing from this life to the next, it's still true.  I have often been told that I'm a lot like her, and I consider that a great compliment.  She was strong-willed.  Determined.  A woman of great faith.  A woman who loved her family.  Who loved her Lord.  And who loved to laugh!

Grandmother Neil worked in the local dry cleaners after my granddaddy died.  Every morning on her way to work, without fail, she stopped by our house and stuck her head in the back door just to say "good morning".  I can almost hear her voice even as I remember that!

Grandmother Neil made the best fried chicken and the best chicken & dumplings and the best banana pudding ever.  Ever!  And she made the strongest coffee, which she laced with cream and then poured out into a saucer to cool.  Did your grandmother do that?

This is a picture of Grandmother Neil, taken many years ago, holding my cousin Patricia. 

I never knew my other grandmother.  Grandmother Austin, my daddy's mother, died just a few weeks before I was born, so my memories of her are all second-hand, based on what others have told me about her.  Those memories all paint a picture of someone I would have really liked to know.  Even though I never knew Grandmother Austin, I had an "almost like a Grandmother" in my life.

My second cousin Anne Sevier was in many ways like a Grandmother to me.  Anne was the daughter of Nettie Daniel Sevier, the sister of my Grandmother, Eudora Daniel Austin.  Nettie had died after giving birth to Anne's brother, Richard, so Anne and Richard were raised by my grandparents.  Anne was older than my dad and his siblings, so even though I knew we were cousins, in many ways she filled the grandparent role for me.

Like Grandmother Neil, Anne was a woman I loved and admired very much.  She was independent and feisty, a woman of strong opinions and great determination.  Anne taught English and Literature at Winthrop College (now Winthrop University), and I would often visit her there during the summers when she typically taught one session of summer school. While she was in class, she often made certain I was properly settled in the college library under the watchful eye of Miss Schinn, the college librarian at the time, where I sat on the floor in the children's section, blissfully surrounded by more books than were contained in our town's library!  When I wasn't in the library, she arranged swimming lessons for me in the college pool.  I much preferred the library to the pool, and am still a terrible swimmer!

As I grew older, Anne would sometimes leave me alone in her apartment, where I enjoyed the company of her collection of porcelain figurines of characters from Dickens' novels.  I'm sure she would have been horrified to know that I played with them as though they were my dolls!  Of course, she was likely astute enough to know they had been moved about on the shelf!

Those "Dickens people", as we now affectionately refer to them, are among my treasured possessions.  They were a gift from Anne when she moved into assisted living many years ago.



All these memories have been triggered by a look at the calendar and realizing that yesterday was Anne's birthday.  If she were still with us, she would now be 109 years old.  She didn't make it quite that far, but she did live to be 106!  Here we are on the occasion of her 106th birthday:

Anne lived just a few months beyond her 106th birthday.  Although she had lost her sight and most of her hearing, her mind was still sharp.  On that day back in 2013, she quoted her favorite poet, Robert Browning.  Spending time with her that day and hearing her quote Browning one more time......that's a precious memory indeed!

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in His hand

Who saith "A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!''

(from "Rabbi Ben Ezra" by Robert Browning)

The Quality of Silence. A Book Review.

Have you ever decided to read a book based solely on its setting?  Such was the case for me with The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton.  This novel is set in Alaska, more specifically on the North Slope, in the middle of winter, and that's what drew me to the book.

The book's jacket describes the book as "thrillingly suspenseful and atmospheric".  I think that may be a bit of marketing hype.  The book is listed as a psychological thriller, which I think is inaccurate.  There is mystery, to be sure, but I don't think it rises to the level of "thriller", and I think it is political more than psychological in nature.

This is the story of Yasmin, an astrophysicist from London, and her pre-teen daughter Ruby, who is deaf.  They have arrived in Alaska to visit Matt, their husband/father, who is a wildlife photographer and who has been on location in Alaska for several months.  When they arrive, they learn that Matt has been in a catastrophic accident where an entire village had been inexplicably burned to the ground.  Unable to accept his death as fact, and unable to convince any of the authorities that Matt is alive, Yasmin and Ruby set out on their own to find him.

This was a frustrating book for me.  The descriptions of Alaska in winter were wonderfully written, but the pacing of the book was all wrong.  It seemed to drag on and on until finally we got to the point of the whole thing in the last fifty pages.  This was not one of those books you begin and can't put down until it's finished.  It was more a book you have to force yourself to continue reading in hopes it will get better.

I love a good mystery, and there was certainly a mystery to be solved here.  Was Matt really dead, or was he somehow still alive?  Where was he?  What caused the fire?  Eventually those questions were answered, but it took a long time to get to that point with no hints along the way.

The Quality of Silence gives a realistic picture of what life in northern Alaska is like in winter, especially for truckers hauling oil between the North Slope and Fairbanks.  On the other hand, the book stretched the bounds of reality when Yasmin and Ruby take off on their own to find Matt.  Yasmin convinced a trucker to give them a ride to Deadhorse.  When that trucker has to be returned to Fairbanks for medical reasons, Yasmin and Ruby set out on their own.  That Yasmin, the astrophysicist from London, can drive a big rig in Alaska in a blizzard with no problems at all seems preposterous, yet that's exactly what happens.

Overall, in spite of its flaws, I liked this book.  But I didn't love it.

A copy of The Quality of Silence was provided to me free of charge by Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest opinion.