Blue Skies

If you had been traveling my rabbit trail today, you'd have noticed that the sky was the same color as the 'economy tarps' they sell at Harbor Freight. Yes, they were the same shade of blue! It was sort of hard to believe, even though I was looking straight at both. The sky, the tarp, the sky again.

The next rambling of my thought went to a sermon I'd once heard preached about how God has a sapphire throne, because if true, it mush have been leaking out some color down here. The preacher  had based that upon  Ezekiel 1:26, "And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire." 

Hearing that the Throne Room is sapphire perked up my thoughts, "Wait a minute!" because I had long thought the Emerald Rainbow of Revelation 4:3 "And a rainbow was around the throne, in appearance like an emerald," was rather conclusive: green, not blue. But...

I needed a tie-breaker.  It wasn't long until I found Exodus 24:9-10, when the Mosaic Covenant was sealed:
Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

Two votes for sapphire then.


Today, however, it matters not. I am not in any hurry to check it out; there will be time enough for that in the next age. Here in the now, the lighting of the sky is spectacular. And it glorious over my rabbit trail.

`  

Times and seasons

The first time that I was aware of the term "Tyranny of the Urgent" was in the 1980s as the title of an article reprinted from Inter-Varsity Fellowship. I'd later learn that was based on a 1967 essay by Charles E Hummel. It is such a great title that in just four words, the main lesson can be accurately guessed: Urgent things often rule our time while important things get pushed aside. Read the pdf in a new window
Urgent things always come with time-pressure.  Many of the truly important things in life don't. The essay continues with examples and explanations of what the author considers The Most Important Thing To Do. It is practically a paradox.  In a world where so many clamoring things are so urgent, Hummel says the most important thing to do is to wait to hear from God. He also says that making the time for daily waiting on God is "the greatest continuing struggle in the Christian life."

I am thankful that I read this essay fairly early in my child-training years. I know that having been exposed to this perspective made me a better mother. Much of what the world says that you must do isn't all that important in the long run. And many things that are important are not the in-your-face things. Too often they will quietly slip by if one hasn't taken the time to keep watch. 

 Hummel says this about waiting to hear from God, "Yet we know from experience that only by this means can we escape the tyranny of the urgent.  This is how Jesus succeeded."

The good news is that with practice, the waiting time generally gets shorter.  

 ♦   ♦   ♦   ♦   ♦

September begins tomorrow.
Where I live, the day will be two minutes shorter when measured by daylight. 
Labor Day is the 7th.
Patriots Day is the 11th.
The new moon will be on the 13th; this marks the new year on the Jewish calendar and the end of a shemitah year, which is significant because historically there have been economic upheavals associated with shemitah years. There will also be a partial solar eclipse visible from southernmost Africa and Antarctica.
Constitution Day is September 17th; it's the 228th anniversary of the final session of the Constitutional Convention when the delegates signed the finished copy.
The autumnal equinox is the 23rd.
The last of the blood moon tetrad will be the 27/28th, visible in parts of North and South America, Europe, western Asia and parts of Africa. The totality will last 1 hour and 12 minutes.  This is also the Harvest Moon.

Blue Moon

Tonight there's a moon called Blue;
It looks fully full, not new.
On the first, there was one,
But then just for fun,
Came July's full moon number two.

Why I am a School Supplies Addict

"My name is Emily and I am a school supplies addict!" I believe that is how the support groups say that a person should begin if they want to overcome the addiction. I am not certain that I do wish to overcome it, however. What is so wrong about finding delight in buying 70-sheet theme books for 19¢ and finding extra-fine line pens at a 50% discount?  At any rate, by the dictates of the marketplace it is a seasonal addiction, and it will end by Labor Day.

My gateway drug was a Goldenrod Tablet. Similar in texture to newsprint and of a color more truthfully described as 'sun-faded maize' than 'goldenrod,' these pads of writing paper once made me feel very grown up.  You can see that the cover was pretty enough, yet formal, not childish. The lines were spaced just right for writing with a standard №2 pencil—like a real scholar.

I didn't get to use my goldenrod tablet as often as I'd have liked, however. The teacher wanted the class to be kept at the same level, which meant that we all were forced to use a chunky pencil to draw our inch-high capital letters, the lowercase ones just tapping the dashed centerline, on school-issue penmanship paper. Never mind that my fine motor skills were ready to race to the next level. Being different was not an option.

On that occasion, I recognized that an autocrat wannabe was intentionally blocking my goldenrod destiny.  But too often in my early formal education, that truth—that I was being stymied by sinister forces—was discovered only by hindsight. Public school never nurtured my God-given dreams. Once in a while, like the grammarian I had in eighth grade or the folk-historian I had for senior economics, I would find a teacher who did a good job of equipping me for my dream, but none ever nurtured it.

That is one among the many reasons that I became a homeschooler for my own children.  I wanted them to have a teacher who would love their dreams.  God puts His destiny for each of us in our hearts. Sometimes it is hard to find, but it is there. If one sends his child to public school 7 hours per day, 180 days per year, for K through 12, that child will have 16,380 hours during which he was denied seeing his loving Creator implant and nurture the dream that was given him. No one will be teaching him how to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, (although there are some schools that offer curricula that gives instruction on meditation for whatever feels agreeable). And no one will be teaching him how to avoid walking in darkness, because that would require teaching the Gospel of John 8:12.

Unlike the addiction that causes a person to crave more in the future, my school supply addiction looks back to remind me that my God-given dream is still there. The teacher who tried to place chains on it has been in her grave for years now, but the world has no shortage of tiny tyrants who are willing to take her place. I have come to the realization that the main reason such people are desperate to control the circumstances is because they are led by circumstances.

And isn't this precisely what a public school worldview teaches and indoctrinates a child to accept?  To make decisions based on needs, preferences, and opportunities for gain? It is nice to have those, but what about making decisions based on the leading of the Holy Spirit's witness in your heart?  Do you really want to place your child in a position where he is steadily being conditioned with teachings that override his heart? How will he keep his heart tender toward the Lord when God cannot be mentioned?

It takes more than school supplies to train up a child. It takes supplies of wisdom and courage, of spiritual fruit, and a God-inspired dream. That is what the goldenrod tablet symbolized for me; it represented my God-inspired dreams. It was a place where I could create. It was a place where I could speak. It was a place where I could write what I loved.  

That is why I am a school supply addict.  I cannot throw away a crayon nub if there is still a picture left for it to draw. I cannot throw away a pen if there is still a story in it yet to be written. I cannot give up on my God-given dream.

Why the SCOTUS just gave the Biggest Boost to Home Schooling EVER!

   Now that the Supreme Court has foolishly declared that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, public schools will be forced to make their teaching compliant with this god-hating viewpoint.  Sooner rather than later, there will be a push to control home-school curriculum. For the time being, however, the tyranny is incomplete, and parent-directed homeschooling is a legal option in all states.  For parents who don't wish to forfeit their children's souls to godlessness, home schooling has suddenly become a better option than ever.

   I did not realize it at the time, but hindsight being 20/20, I can see where my college Bible fellowship really blew it—Bigtime. I remember a discussion on the first portion of 1 Corinthians 11. This is the chapter where Paul talks about head coverings. Everyone, including the leader, was pretty clueless. Instead of asking God to reveal Himself in this passage, they wrote it off as a cultural thing. See where that was going?  If man/woman status is determined solely by the culture, then gay marriage is not unreasonable. At the time, it was pretty easy to seize verse 13 which says, "Judge in yourselves," and conclude that this really was a 'cultural relativism' thing. And the icing on the argument-cake was that verse 2 clearly stated that Paul was talking about traditions, not commands.

   All of that missed the "image and glory of God" point that was made in verse 7 though. The purpose of that particular tradition was to provide a visual reminder that humans were created in the image and glory of God. And verse 11 confirms, "However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman." The sexes were not created independent of each other, even though the Supreme Court found a Constitutional right to defy the Creator's good sense and wisdom.

   Fast-forward fifteen years. I now had small children and a pastor who was willing to wobble on the creation vs. evolution issue. If we all got here by evolution, then gay marriage is not unreasonable. But in 1990, my creationist stance was deemed too divisive. "It's not like it's foundational," I was told. Except that it is. Now that the Supreme Court found a Constitutional right to insult the Creator by totally disregarding Him, I guess I have won the right to do the "I Told You So" dance, but frankly, I'm just not feeling it.

   For parents who believe that their children's spirits are precious to their Creator, home schooling has suddenly become a better option than ever.  The public schools are not likely to let your child recognize God in action; that's about 1,250 prime hours per year that are lost from a godly world view. That is a whoppin' big hole. 

How to get started in Georgia: http://www.ghea.org/
Oh, and the colors in the picture... no, they are not LGBT. I'm taking back God's rainbow. 

What I Learned from a Runaway Bride

    One of the plus sides of having a runaway bride in the family is that we have heard a wealth of condolence stories that others heretofore may have been reluctant to share.  Last-minute wedding jitters, and even full-fledged panic attacks, are so common that the bulk of this anecdotal evidence shows that pre-nuptial doubt and uncertainty are well within the realm of normal. 
    The part of the story that troubles my son is that,  when they had "the talk" before she ran, she told him that she still loves him, he was everything she'd ever prayed for, but was afraid she wouldn't make him happy in the long haul.   He said to her, "Don't worry about making me happy; that's my choice. Besides, if we're everything we've ever prayed for in a spouse, I don't see why this couldn't work."  Her reply—she just wasn't 100% sure and didn't want to have room for any doubt.

 ♦     ♦     ♦

    I did a web search to find the most common causes for a bride's hesitancy to go forward with a wedding. Most of the possibilities could be scrapped in this particular case: causes like histories of drug use, violence, and various other addictions don't come into play, and neither did stress over awkward divorces and estrangement of extended family that could explode during a ceremony or reception.

    Using deduction, three possible candidates were left on the top-ten list.

§  Fear of turning into one's mother.

§  Failure to separate from one's parents.

§  Setting standards impossibly high.

I'm not going to play amateur psychologist and say which one of these, if any, applies in this case.  For all I know, it could be a cocktail mix.  What I am going to address is the fallacy of the "being 100% sure" standard.

    Marriage is a walk of faith. There is no 100% sure outside of faith. God designed it that way, and as such, it's an echo and type of Jesus' relationship with the Bride of the Lamb. If we want to get to the heavenly Jerusalem, it's going to be a walk of faith. The assurance comes with the covenant cut in faith.  Assurance does not come from looking at the circumstances, and mature Christians have learned this by both the Word and by experience. Sometimes, the old clichés nail a truth: You have to go with your heart. 

    Of course, there is plenty of scriptural back-up for that: "for with the heart a person believes, resulting in approval by God." Romans 10:10   Virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting—all of these things which are present when one is acceptable to God are both born and borne in the heart. Second Corinthians 5:7 reinforces this, "for we walk by faith, not by sight." It's an inward spirit-knowing, not an outward sight-knowledge.

    When we walk by sight, we are liable to get it wrong. It's a lesson that goes back to the beginning of time. In the Garden of Eden, the fruit on the Tree of Knowing aced a 3-point sight test, (a) good for food, (b) delight to the eyes, (c) desired to make one wise.  What went wrong was that there was no faith—no trust in God.

    Now the Lord God had planted this garden. All the provisions were there— all kinds of trees grew out of the ground. Some met one kind of need, some met another.  Watching the divine planting over the past six months of marriage prep has been awesome. I watched as spiritual, physical, social, financial, and even employment provisions were planted. God is so good. And for once, I was positioned to see it unfolding in real time instead of as hindsight. (Very cool, even thrilling!) But there was a snake in the garden.

      Some people get fussed over a sensible and prudent query - is it possible you listened to the devil on this one? I learned that those who are walking by sight won't see a devil; they will see only Eve's jewel-bedecked serpent who is "looking out for their best interest." For them, any hint of 1 Peter 5:8 is a personal insult: Be sober, vigilant, because your opponent the devil, as a roaring lion, doth walk about, seeking whom he may swallow up.

   Trust does not come from the mind. One trusts with his heart. Proverbs 3: 5 makes this clear: Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. "Heart trust" and "leaning on one's own understanding" are separate. It is possible to believe with the heart and doubt with the mind. General consensus, majority opinion, feelings, logic, emotions, mental reasoning, chance opportunity, and the seeking of signs are not elements in being led by the Holy Spirit. You can feel strong and still be wrong. If you are led externally, by feelings, then you are easily misled.

    What I have learned is that, even among many who have "been in church" all their lives, there is a wide and widespread gap when it comes to trusting the voice of the Lord or the leading of the Holy Spirit's inward witness. Children are rarely taught how to hear God, and too few adults practice developing and honing that skill consistently. It is as if John's record of Jesus' words, "My sheep hear my voice," (10:27) are glossed over as a given, without ever asking "How does that work?" How does the real perceiving and consideration—the real hearing and listening to His leading, come about? 

    One thing I realized in the fallout of the runaway bride was that the occasions during which the organized church has offered me teaching and insight on how to be led by the Holy Spirit have been few and far between.  Most of what I have learned so far has come by taking personal responsibility for learning and seeking it out on my own. The good part about that is I am much steadier in my confidence in hearing the voice of the Spirit. The downside is that many who haven't worked at it that way will not believe it is possible, and so are quick to judge accordingly.
    And there is this, a truth not so much learned for the first time, but reinforced as to make it unforgettable:  The devil's greatest weapon is the power of suggestion. He endeavors to enter one's thought-life to sow doubt, both doubt in oneself, and especially in God's ability, character, and provision.  Doubting God ends in tragedy. Believing Him ends in victory.

    So, is the "being 100% sure" standard unattainable? Yes, in the walk-by-sight realm, 100% confidence is unattainable. But how attainable is the "being 100% sure" standard in the spiritual realm? The answer to that is a question: How much can you believe God will do what He says?  If you cannot trust God 100%, you won't be 100% sure in the spiritual realm either. That difference is the percentage that must be walked out by faith. 


pictured - bronze statue by Paul Manship, 1916, public domain photo