Scrolling through my phone I came across this photo I obviously took accidentally. My initial response was “delete,” but as I looked at it a bit longer it grew on me. In this I am reminded of a line from a Radney Foster song — “half of my mistakes, I’d probably make ’em again.” I don’t know about the “half” but I’d sure buy into “some,” as what seemed to be a “mistake” at the time turned out not to be.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34
Of all the words in the Bible I find these among the most human, perhaps mostly because of the dry, understated nature of the last sentence which reeks of weltschmerz (one of my favorite words). Having told us not to worry, that tomorrow will worry about itself, that would be the natural end. But the last sentence is added, and as it is read you can hear it as one of those under the breath somewhat sarcastic comment we (okay, I) tend to add at the end of a bothersome thought – “Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Indeed, it does, and there is no need to shift tomorrow’s trouble, whatever it may be, into today’s pile.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:6-8
I think the key phrase there is “in due time.” I tend to want to be lifted up on MY time, not “in due time.” Intellectually I know that sometimes growth, development, learning lessons, a honing of skills or abilities – they all require me to be stretched a bit, reshaped, maybe even broken a bit and rebuilt. Hell, some of the pieces that fall off may not be worth replacing. All this requires me to be taken out of my comfort zone, to stay in the fray a little beyond “MY time” and to remain until “due time.” I get that. Still…
All this only emphasizes the next line. “Cast all your anxiety on him….” I hope he’s got a bit basket to hold it all!
“Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.” Max Ehrmann
As I see it, to consistently “strive for high ideals” IS heroism. We tend to lean toward defining heroism by results, but the person who jumps in the riptide to rescue a swimmer but drowns in the process is no less a hero than the one who accomplishes the task and survives – both had high ideals. So it may be just playing with sentence structure, but I would eliminate the “and” between “high ideals” and “everywhere.”
Indeed, “many people strive for high ideals” and that, in large part, sustains us all.
I lost my glasses recently. Luckily, while waiting for a new pair I was able to retrieve from the bottom of a drawer a pair of glasses that I had replaced some years back, a pair that I had not relied on in perhaps five years, maybe more. While the old glasses were sufficient to let me function, they certainly weren’t optimal. What was made apparent to me in all this was that my natural vision is deteriorating over time and as I age I require more help to allow me to see things clearly. It then occurred to me that the same is likely true in the less physiological sense. As I get more and more set in my ways, more suspicious of change, more inclined to do things because “that’s they way we’ve always done things,” I need more help to allow me to see things clearly. Lord, help me!
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
It occurs to me in reading this that one of the things I most appreciate about Paul is his distance from the “Prosperity Gospel.” There’s not a suggestion here that you “get what you ask for.” Granted, there is an “if/then” approach, but the “then” is a bit uncertain in nature – like in this passage, the “then” is “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.” Which somehow takes me to the Stones – “But if you try sometimes, you might find, you get that you need.”
“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”
George Bernard Shaw
Golden – be a “force of nature” used for a “mighty purpose” instead of “a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world would not devote itself to making me happy.” That is, of course, a lifetime of work, more “mighty purpose,” less selfish little clod of ailments.” Onward.
“Each man is a good education to himself, provided he has the capacity to spy on himself from close up.” Pliny
The more I contemplated this, the more it intrigued me. It occurs to me that we regularly acknowledge the education we receive from other sources, from books, from other people, yet it seems true that if we let them, our own experiences, and our reactions and responses to them, stand to be our greatest teachers. But there is that condition in the quote – “provided he has the capacity to spy on himself from close up.” I might replace “capacity” with “willingness,” but either correctly implies both a reluctance to and a cost of this spying “from close up.” Any amount of honest introspection will reveal a healthy share of bonehead moves, blunders, and over/underreactions to things from my past. And while it makes sense that these provide fertile ground for education to blossom, well, let’s just say it is generally less painful to learn from others experiences than from my own. Still, the point is, I have a lot to learn from myself.
“Fret not thyself; it lendeth only to evil doing.” Psalm 37:8
Chambers focuses today on fretting. (All other aside, isn’t that a great word – “fret.” It carries with it so much more of what it is than its poor substitute – “worry.”) On this passage Chambers writes: “It is one thing to say ‘Fret not,’ but a very different thing to have such a disposition that you find yourself able not to fret.” So true!
As usual, Chambers cuts to the heart of it: “Fretting springs from a determination to get our own way.” It springs from, if you will on this day, our “Declaration of Independence” from God. (A declaration that is destined to be less successful than the one in 1776.) It comes from things not working out the way I have projected and played out in my mind, things not meeting MY expectations. All that to say that fret puts God in the background, in an advisory or observer capacity, if in fact He is in the equation at all. Or as Chambers puts it, “All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God.”
From Luke 15:28-30, the discourse of the older son after the father asks him to come in and join the party for the returned, younger son:
“But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you have killed the fatted calf for him.’”
The younger son who swallowed his pride to penitently returned home and the slighted older son — It is difficult (sometimes more than others) to pick a side here. But it occurs to me that perhaps that is the point of the parable, at least one of them — We don’t need to pick a side. The father didn’t. He did his best to make things work out in light of the facts presented. There is nothing to indicate that the father, hearing of the return of the prodigal son, let out a sigh and then grudgingly trudged down the road to meet him. No, Luke says he ran down the road to meet him and welcomed the younger son back. Likewise, when a servant reports that the older son is not joining the party, the father doesn’t throw his hands up in frustration, he goes out to meet his elder son and get him to join the party.
Often, I am faced with what seems like “either/or” situations that might well be “both” situations if I am willing to put the time in. It is, most often, just easier to pick a side, and most often, I pick mine!
It occurs to me... 