Commitments

Commitments

It’s that time, isn’t it?

A new year.  A fresh start.  A bright beginning.

It’s just a good time to put my hopes up high and start what has yet to be accomplished.

Read the Bible in a year.

I’ve pieced and parceled my way through the Bible long enough in no particular order.  I am going to try and read it chronologically from beginning to end instead of the order it’s arranged.  I am interested how Job will be historically introduced from that order.  I am curious how the Psalms will be weaved in.  I love how some books will be shuffled in and out like a deck of cards in sequence of dates and times.

So, I’m making a plan.

But, I have some bases to cover.

I have a community group for accountability.  I have a plan that guides the process using my hardbound Bible as my preferred choice of reading, but there is also an online option available that is audible when necessary.  I have chosen a translation that limits complicated obstacles. I’m also following along with a guide and commentary called Bible Recap by Tara-Leigh Cobble.

You know, my 7-year-old granddaughter in her enthusiasm with a personal accomplishment said recently with glee, “I tried and my try worked.”

So with anticipated glee, I’m making a commitment to try.

If you want to follow online, try with the Holy Bible app and see if your try works.

If you want a hardcopy, try a personal Bible and see if your try works.

If you want support, try a community group and see if your try works.

If you want to start, try Genesis 1:1 and see if your try works.

Start with me.

“In the beginning.”

Pears

Tell me about an ongoing battle you have with a critter that’s trying to outwit you.

We have a pear tree outside our back door. It’s a tree that has really become the bane of my existence.

In the summer, this pear tree drops no less than 100 plus pears on peak days.  I know this because my grandkids won’t pick them up for a penny each, but they will for an M&M.  So, they count.

Apparently, these critical critters don’t care much for the pears themselves, but the seed inside is another matter.  So, they chomp and chew spitting all pear refuse outside our back door.  Spitting all refuse on our walkways.  Spitting all refuse on the lengths of our wooden fence.  Spitting all refuse over grasstop. You get the picture.

Here’s a lesson in pears, or maybe it’s a lesson in squirrels, I don’t know.  But, pears don’t just attract squirrels.  They attract flies.  They attract bees.  They attract ants to name a few.  Oh, and birds.  They attract birds who want the flies, the ants, and the bees. There’s a real fruit feast outside our back door.

And, don’t think for a second that whatever is outside, doesn’t want to come inside that back door.

So, whatever pears the grandkids don’t pick up, I get out my power blower and try to blast them away from the house or whomp them from here to there with the water hose until squirrels come back to do it another day.

Which means, everyday.

Well, there was one particular profuse pear day, where I had to take a deep breath and the heaviest of sigh when I thought this crazy varmint must have had enough of me disposing of his territorial pears.  A windowsill on the opposite side of the house was now lined with them. I mean, on my windowsill!

Imma Gonna……..

My husband plays with me that I’ve taken something too far and laughs at the degree of cleverness I’m attributing to a tree-dwelling rodent.

But, evidence is on the windowsill.

Everything in him was trying to hold back as long as he could while finding entertainment in a ridiculous rant I was having in believing something to be true.

With his guilty conscience he said, “It’s me. I placed those pears on the windowsill.”

Pause for my heavier and exasperated sigh at mockery.

Keep pausing.

You want to know how the good Lord diverted my attention that day?

“God’s people can produce fruit that survives even death.”

Produce what, I think?

“Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Gentleness. Faithfulness. Self-Control.”

Self - what?

I pause.

Well, to this species that tries to outwit me when I take things too far.

God is your Savior!

Galatians 5:22-23

Ziti

I never would have believed just twelve years ago how great a dog could be.  Everyone had clearly said so.  I just didn’t believe that could be true for me.

I did have one bad experience with a dog out of control.  But, I had one persuasive son that challenged this guilt-ridden mom who honestly believed every boy needed one of his own.  So, with reluctancy and hesitancy I agreed to pacify a request to at least go look at dogs at an animal shelter.

I was clever enough to evade that taunting adoption at our initial visit.  Then, I shrewdly escaped a purchase at our second one, too. The third time around with his two sisters on board, I got tired and depleted and finally conceded.  I got a dog.

Ziti.

Oh boy, was I scared.

It’s hard to imagine now all that was required of me to just hold a dog. What I wouldn’t give to find that first picture of me in a raincoat, wearing dish gloves, holding two towels and rain boots on my feet.  This was my full protective gear to pick up six-week-old Ziti.

I felt threatened.

So, it took a trainer; it took practicing visualization of desired behaviors; and it took way more time than you’d imagine for me to learn all barks don’t bite and boundless energy wasn’t an attack on my life.   My defensive barriers slowly began to come off and a relationship started to begin.

If Ziti could have spoken right away or utter her playful intent it clearly would have been easier.  Non-verbal is just hard.  She could be a rascal and meant no harm, but I learned quickly.  There was no other way. Like it or not, it was me she had to obey.

There was a time when God warned Jeremiah, a prophet, to tell people they were stubborn, foolish, and didn’t even know Him.  Basically saying we have eyes but don’t see and ears that don’t hear. The Lord says, “We are clever enough at doing wrong, but have no idea how to do right!”

But, Jesus says, “My sheep recognize my voice; I know them and they follow me.”

Training took time and it was necessary for Ziti to listen and learn my voice.

Likewise,

the Lord has a voice

and something to say.

We too,

are called to obey.

Believe it or not,

there’s no better way.

John 10:27

Jeremiah 4:22; 5:21

James 1:22

Good News

Dad’s birthday celebration would have been in July. He wouldn’t have wanted anything, though.  He never did.

While growing up, my dad never let me pay for anything. Not a meal, not a tip, not a parking meter, not even the price for him to repair something around my house. There was never a cost that was ever owed to my father.  I often asked when would he ever let me pay.  His response was always the same.

“Your day will come.”

Once my siblings and I surprised Mom and Dad with a trip commemorating their 50th wedding anniversary over a weekend.  And, they went.  And then, they took us back the next year.  And then the next year.  And the year after that.  And the year after that.

He lived to be 87 pulling out his dollar bills.

I’d always have to laugh at him,  “When will my day come, Dad?”

His motive wasn’t rooted in pride.  This was a father who understood the fatigue of finances and durations of difficulty building a business and putting food on the table with six placemats. He understood a candlewick that burned on both ends. He grasped the concept of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

With adult children of my own and emerging livelihoods and a number of placemats on their own tables,  I am a witness to their hearts towards sacrificial generosity and magnanimous benevolence.

These are the days that have come.

But you know, it is how the Good News went out.

Living as an example to people who were progressing in faith, Apostle Paul humbled himself by preaching the Good News without expecting anything in return.  He said, “I borrowed from other churches by accepting support from them so I could serve you at no cost.” He understood the degree of help needed to the people he loved.

That’s a message of the Good News.

You have a Father, too.

Try as you might though,

there is no cost to you.

2 Corinthians 11:7-8