Spiritual Reflections – Page 19

The Sabbath

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said “Let there be light” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the “light” day and the dark He called “night.”
And there was evening and there was morning – the first day.
Genesis 1:1-5

And that’s how it all started. In the beginning. From sundown to sundown.

Fort DeSoto, Courtesy of William Earnhardt

By the seventh day, God had finished all the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.
Genesis 2:2-3

And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1

Potatoes

I decided to make potato soup.

I had so many leftover red potatoes from a big bag that we had bought and they were starting to look — old. I had to use them for something. The skins were drying out and some of them were starting to grow roots. Ugghh!

Most of the potatoes were small and had to be peeled. And I have small hands so it made it a little hard to do.

As I was peeling the potatoes, a thought came to me.

Here I am trying to use potatoes that would probably have been thrown out by someone else. Thought of as useless, the trash would have taken them away easily.

Isn’t that how it is sometimes when people get older?

We think they don’t have anything of value left in them because they look old and wrinkly. Yet when you peel away the outer skin of their humanity, inside is a beautiful human being. All polished and ready to talk and share and do whatever they can do for you.

Yes, they are sometimes hard to work with because they are, as some say, “set in their ways.” And people will toss them away because of that, not wanting to peel away their outer being. It does take time.

But the beauty that can be found inside is worth every minute of patience and time that it takes.

I have found on so many occasions that just because the body is aging on the outside does not mean that the emotions on the inside have also aged. They are still vibrant in their thinking and would also be so in their life if given a chance.

They’re just waiting for someone to come and peel them.

Here are faces of some potatoes I know who have been peeled and found to be beautiful.

Funny, that’s how Jesus views us. Looking past the outer skin, he takes our hand and sees the beauty that lies within.

The Hippo Pet

We have heard of people who have unusual pets. Snakes, lizards, pigs, and monkeys are a few on the list.

But a hippopotamus? Seems a little absurd to me. But then, life has a lot of absurdity as viewed in the Youtube video below.

Unbelievable! This will be what heaven will be like. Man no longer having to fear the animal world.

Hannah

Her name was Hannah and she was married to Elkanah.

Hannah was not able to conceive children so Elkanah, although being a Godly man, took on another wife to perpetuate his name as so many did back in those days of old.

This caused jealousy between the two women — one who could bear children and one couldn’t. And the second wife would taunt Hannah. Human nature can sometimes be cruel.

The cruelness did not prevent Hannah from going to church and petitioning God for a miracle in giving her a baby.

When I re-read the story, found in 1 Samuel 1, I pondered my prayer and church life.

Unlike Hannah, sometimes I allow people to get in the way of my going to church for God’s blessings. And I further exacerbate the problem when I do go by holding up a higher standard for “church” people only to be disappointed. Then I have to fight against the tendency to judge people. Because, although it may be how they are, we just don’t know how they got there.

Inside us all, I believe, is God’s goodness just ready to burst out. If we could look at people the way God looks at them — with the potential to be good in spite of the bad that reveals itself on the outside –how different we would treat each other in life.

God answered Hannah’s prayer. And this time it was a loud resounding YES! Her baby boy, called Samuel, served many years in God’s sanctuary.

But whether God’s answer was yes or no, I believe Hannah would have continued her close communion with God trusting that He knew what was best for her.

A great example for me to emulate.

For a more detailed account of this story, click here.

PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS

Prayer

“Let every breath be a prayer.” My Life Today, pg 17, by Ellen White

So many times I hear people say “Oh, God” or “oh my God.” Is it an acknowledgement of God or just a phrase that’s been coined?

The saying “there is no atheist in foxholes” rings true to me. I believe at the core of every person’s being there is a belief in God. The world somehow smudges that belief and we have, well, what we have today.

How does one define morality in the world of no God? Does it mean we have no rules to live by? If we do have rules, whose rules do we choose? The government’s? Or perhaps we should go by majority rule. Or I have even heard that we should just be allowed to do whatever we want to do.

Until that is, other people’s actions affect us, or someone we love dearly, directly or indirectly.

Let’s take Jared Loughner, the accused Tucson gunman. Which moral standard should he have abided by? Which one should we hold him to? I believe States have laws against killing other people. But then, so does the Bible — “thou shalt not kill.”

Perhaps we should put it to a vote as to whether that law is good or bad. Uh, perhaps not. If the majority were to vote that killing is ok, that an eye for an eye is the right code to live by — well, we could have a revolution on our hands.

No. I continue to believe that inherently we really all believe and when push comes to shove, every breath is a prayer to the Creator God. Whether we want it to be or not.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric. One of the definitions, found at dictionary.com, is “the undue use of exaggeration or display.”

This morning, I was listening to a radio station and they have a “rhetoric meter.” Whenever the dj says something “inappropriate,” the rhetoric meter comes on and gives the level of rhetoric measured from 1 to 10 with 10 being the most rhetoric.

I found it rather comical as the meter would interrupt the dj to give him his rhetoric level over and over again. Then I wondered how different we might all be if we had internal rhetoric meters.

One for gossiping, one for judgment, one for jokes, one for flattery, etc.

The internal meter could give us an electrical jolt — the more rhetoric, the more of a jolt one would get.

Yes, I know. Someone has to evaluate what is considered rhetoric and the different levels.

Perhaps it would take a lot of the “fluff” in our talk away and make us more real. Or perhaps we just need to listen to the Holy Spirit when He speaks to our heart.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29

The Life of Jared Loughner

This Washington Post article details Jared Loughner’s last day prior to the Tucson shootings portraying him as being scary and acting odd.

The FBI is trying to piece together the life of this alleged murderer to try to understand what caused him to kill 6 people and injure many others.

His parents came forward and stated “we don’t understand why this happened” and they are being blamed for not being good parents, not reporting his strange behavior, not seeing the possibility of a mental illness gone awry.

We try to find reasons behind things that happen when sometimes we just simply can’t know. There are simply too many variables.

To try to put blame on his parents is shameful. How many parents haven’t had children who have disobeyed or done things that caused shame to the family? Growing up, a lot of teenagers do things that are unsafe and unwelcome in society. Yet, we don’t have a “place” to put them until they grow out of it.

I always think back to Adam and Eve. They had a perfect Father in heaven. One who created the earth and universe. One who could speak and things just came to life. One who cared about His relationship with them and walked with them in the garden.

And then? They disobeyed and decided to choose a different lifestyle. Shall we blame the Father? Shall we say that our God was not “good enough?” Absolutely not.

So many things can and do go wrong. First, we don’t have manuals on how to raise children. A lot of how we raise our kids is based on how we were raised. Some parents hit their children so the children hit their children, and so on. Some children who are hit are intent on not hitting their children.

Every person’s mind is different. And then we have to throw in the dynamics of sin in the world. The wiring in some of us has gone awry. Mental illness is rampant. I liked this article in USA Today that speaks to this directly.

I can’t imagine what the parents are feeling right now. Especially with people wanting to fault them for not doing enough for their adult son.

My response is not to blame them but instead to lift them up in prayer.

There is enough hurt in this world already.

Minnesota Snow

Woodbury, Minnesota

I am standing in a parking lot looking up at the trees.

The snow bank is really high as we’ve had many days of snow.

This January we have had snow every day except the 12th. Not a lot of snow — just a little at a time.

The sun is trying to peek through the clouds and the bare trees.

The clustered evergreen trees look like they are standing aloof from the bare ones.

I find beauty in the bare trees, the white snow and the cold.

In the seasons of our hearts, we sometimes go through periods of barrenness and the heart turns cold and loses it’s feelings of warmth. Then the purity of Christ comes to us to give us warmth and to make our cold stony hearts into hearts of flesh.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:26

We are no longer bare because the Son of God has infused us with His goodness and love. His character. And then we see the beauty and the transformation that has taken place.

We cannot negate the journey through the barrenness. It has a beauty all it’s own and we are never left without the presence and purity of God.

We just have to open our eyes to view His beauty.

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new Spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 11:19

Thanksgiving

Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2

Every November I, along with millions of others, would sit around the table at what we call “Thanksgiving.” I’d eat and laugh and reminisce on how another year has passed. And yes, I would be thankful. My tradition was to ask every person at the table to say what they were thankful for in the year gone by.

But how quickly I can forget the spirit of Thanksgiving. As my life gets entrenched in the routines of the day, my mind wanders and the thankfulness is forgotten.

There are times when its brought back to my remembrance. When a death occurs, an anniversary, a birthday.

The Scripture above reminds me to continue being thankful because I have been truly blessed. It is comforting to know that no matter what happens, I can find something to be thankful for.

So I’m trying to live with a spirit of thankfulness every day. Continuing to remember all that God has provided me in friendships, material things, health, family. Each blessing unique and each one filling my heart with contentment.

Thank you Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Things

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2

The world screams for our attention. I don’t know how many more reality shows they can come up with or how many more new gadgets they can make to help us live “simpler” lives.

But, I do know that my attention has to be focused on things “above.”

I had a dream a couple nights ago that I was being attacked by the “monster” that was on the TV show called Lost. I haven’t seen this show since it’s finale back in May/June of last year.

In the show, there was this smokey monster that would occasionally pop up and suck people up and kill them.

In my dream, a few of us were inside and we saw the monster coming so we put towels under the doors so he couldn’t come in. After we thought he was gone, we removed the towels and went outside. I then noticed that the “monster” was still around. He came up to me and passed my face. I thought I was safe. Then he turned around and sucked me right up.

Now, had I not watched this show, I would never have had this dream that terrified me.

Had I set my mind on things “above” — things that are beautiful and pure — this dream would never have happened.

“Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

The world screams for our attention. I don’t know how many more reality shows they can come up with or how many more new gadgets they can make to help us live “simpler” lives.