A World of Kindness

When I heard that the Blog Carnival word was "kindness" I went to the web to find out what the world thought about it. My browser returned 24,000,000 hits!

To my surprise what I got was mostly... what The World thought about it. The Christian perspective seemed strangely missing. Isn't that odd?

It was a shocking illustration of a searching world and a yawning church! Maybe it just seemed that way. Maybe the church is so busy be-ing kind that it doesn't have time to talk about it. That would be nice.

I think the sign in this picture was one of the best messages I found. I know the term "random acts of kindness" is a little old hat now but the fact remains...a little kindness does wonders in this heartbroken world.





Photo is a Google re-use

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Poof...Gone to Azotus!

Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Acts 8:39-40

Say what? I don't recall ever reading this or hearing it preached. Philip told the eunuch about Jesus and the man believes, is baptized and then immediately God just translates Philip to the next mission field. How neat is that?!

More than anything I am wondering why the book of Acts is hardly ever taught. Weird. I'm reading through it and enjoying so much the adventure and wonder of the early church and how active the gifts of God were in their lives.

The church today seems dead in comparison. Were these gifts just for the apostles as some suggest or is this just an excuse to wave away our own ineffectiveness at delivering the gospel to the lost?

I wonder...

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Clavey Territory

My sweet neat friend nAncY, the administrator of the Cunning Poets Society has issued a February challenge to all its members. Write a poem with the theme "homesick".

Since I am very challenged this week with school and tests I had to draw one out of the archives. I actually had a few false starts on something fresh but my mind kept crawling back to this prior work that I hadn't thought of in a long time.

Some of my best memories are of the many camping trips our family took when I was a kid. Dad was amazing at finding the best never-see-a soul camping spot in the beautiful Sierras. California's not the place I grew up in anymore, that's what this poem is about.

(click photo to see the splendor)

CLAVEY TERRITORY

The Clavey was mine
I owned it as a child
spending weeks there
never seeing a passerby

I kept RC colas
icy in its waters
baked potatoes in its soil
fished and hiked and strung
my hammock from one pine to another

I sat by the fire
surrounded by crisp air
hot faces and wieners
on a whittled sticks

Its meadows were whispy
wide and wild with flowers
the smell of caterpillars, fern
and manzanita

Only a generation from then
my Clavey is a piece of piñata candy
scrambled after by those
I do not know

Now, pressing a piece of old
tent canvas against my face
I can smell our times together
It was my Clavey
it was mine.

I miss you dad.

Original version published by Blackmail Press in 2005

Photo is Albert Bierstadt's "Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains" (creative commons)

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Fly Away

when I was young
I held dandelions close to my mouth
blowing the seeds away
in one hard push
like dust from a book

these days
I twirl the stem at arm's length
blowing gently
watching the seeds
surf

to

the

ground
on waves of heat

Photo is: dandelion (google re-use)

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Would God Bury You?

Okay, not everyone's favorite subject, mine either, but it came up during my morning devotional time. Burial vs cremation.

For many years it's been my preference to be cremated. I mean it's just a body right? And when I'm no longer living in it then what's the bother about spending tons of money putting it in a pretty box that's going to be covered up with dirt and never seen again!

I figured it like this...Ideally, family and friends would gather after my passing to hug each others' necks, tell stories, eat some tacos and then spread my ashes in the deep dark ferny Sierra mountains.

I had settled in my mind that it was not un-christian-like to be cremated. I wasn't worried about God needing my body one day to transact a successful resurrection. After all, martyrs have been burned at the stake and unfortunate sailors have been eatin by creatures of the sea.

I know that the Master of the universe is able to gather and restore every particle of one's physical body no matter it's final demise. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord! I was not concerned.

Then one morning as I was reading my bible I came across the passage where God has Moses up on a mountain telling him he's going to die. I've read it numerous times but when I came to the following verses I saw what I had never seen before...

So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day. Deut. 34:5-6

Did you catch it? God B U R I E D Moses. In that very instant I knew that for me, cremation was no longer my preference. God preferred burial. This is what He himself did for the body of one of his beloved children.

I still don't believe, as some do, that being cremated is some unpardonable sin. I do believe for me, that if given a choice in the matter, it would please Him more if I were to choose burial. So I have changed my mind!

I love how the Lord gives me "the elbow" every now and again...


Photo is "Graveside" by Lorrie :-)


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