Mr and Mrs Boring and the Pastel Purse

And now, the third segment in the Adventures of Mr and Mrs Boring. Go to mrandmrsboring.wordpress.com for the first and second posts. Soon, I will only post “the adventures” on that blog.

He had never had a full-time love before her, this woman who sat before him on the rocking chair. And maybe that is why he did not understand…

She rocked with abandon…because she could.

“What is it, dear?”

“I don’t like the doctor.”

“I thought we were going back to the doctor next week,” he mumbled.

She pursed her lips, and played with the same- the pink leathery one that hung from the side of the rocking chair. She eyed it, and played with the strap.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“It’s OK,” she managed.

He watched her rock, then forgot what he was going to say. finally, he picked up the newspaper and turned to page 2. He read the last few paragraphs from the article she had interrupted earlier.

“Do you like it?”

He peered over the paper a minute, his glasses at half mast.

“What?”

“Do you like my purse?”

“Well- of course, I like your purse, honey.” He flipped the pages and found an article about illegal ivory trading in Africa. He buried his mind in the article…

“I thought so. You don’t like anything I buy.”

He felt her stare. He lowered the paper.

“I said I liked it.”

“You didn’t mean it.”

“If that’s what you want…”

“You don’t like it, do you?”

“I never said that.”

He forgot about the conversation and finished the article. His eyes glanced at an ad for chicken wiring from Farm and Home Supply…

“You don’t like me either,” she snarled, knocking her glass on the floor. The red liquid puddled there and sank down deep into the carpet. She watched it in horror, torn between two choices, when Mr Boring looked up from his paper.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to live in the country?”

She slipped out of her heels and kicked them so that one covered most of the red liquid stain.

“Hey, what happened?”

She shrugged.

“That stain. What is that?”

“Since when did you actually care what happened in this house? Do you vacuum the floor? Do you wash the dishes? Do you soak the laundry before washing? No, I didn’t think so. You don’t do anything around here. You and your paper. You wouldn’t know if your wife just keeled over dead on the carpet…”

He threw the paper on the floor. The woman in front of him did not resemble the woman he married. She did not even resemble the woman he knew last Tuesday. She did even resemble the woman he brought home from the dentist last Friday. There were veins in her forehead that were not there this morning…

“You! I should have left you at the altar, you lazy…”

She stomped out of the room like a five year old high on candy canes and coca cola…out the dining room door, leaving Mr Boring feeling as awkward as a priest saying mass in pajamas…

And just then, the doorbell rang. Not once. Not twice…but three times.

And as he stood at the door, the figure in black tried to say something, separated by the glass rectangle between himself and…until the door opened…

“…to get here as soon as…”

“What do you want?” Mr Boring cried.

The figure in black adjusted his collar and fondled a silver cross.

“Well, isn’t it obvious?”

“No,”  Mr Boring admitted, leading his guest into the same living room as the red liquid stain and discarded heals. The man sat in the rocking chair as if offered and immediately began chastising his congregant.

“I  rushed over when she called. And quite frankly, I’m appalled,” the priest proclaimed. “I can tell you, I do not like it when I miss his holiness presenting mass live from Rome.”

“I am sorry, father,” Mr Boring said. “I don’t know why she would call you…although she has had a bad day and all…”

“Do you have EWTN?”

“Why, of course…it’s…”

And then, as he was flipping through the remote channels, eyes fixed on the screen…his junior holiness eagerly lurching forward on the rocker…the treasure of his heart came bounding in, cat like, snatching her heels from a surprised priest, who held them absentmindedly in his hands…

“What was that?!” the priest demanded.

“She took her heels.”

“Your wife…came in like a tiger, and took them straight from my…”

He looked away a moment…then stood…

“The pontiff,” Mr Boring pronounced. “from Rome.”

They sat in their chairs like little school boys, eyes moving with the ceremony on the screen…and as the pope raised the chalice, Mr Boring, all five feet seven of him, felt a tingling sensation, like watching a last minute super bowl touchdown…and the priest loosened his collar, and together the boys on the edge of their chairs punched the air with their fists…

“Yessssss!!!”

When you can’t love yourself

When you can’t love yourself

and can’t seem to grasp

not the world at large

but the window before you-

find a safe little place

for some supernatural space

and wait for the appearance

of God.

Return to me, and I will return to you

Return to me, and I will return to you. That is the message in the first part of Malachi 3.

Way before the Lord speaks about the tithe in the latter part of Malachai 3, the Word speaks of Christ coming. This Messiah does not seem to be all cuddly here. In fact, it states quite plainly that He will refine, purify, those who seek to offer sacrifices so that they will be righteous before God.

When this happens, it states that God will act. But you have to go back to Isaiah 58 to understand how to get into this acceptable place of acceptable sacrifice.

True fasting is found in Isaiah 58. The definition of fasting has been obscured by traditions of men- just as God revealed through the prophet Isaiah. God desired that each of us walk humbly with God, and:

* Repent of sin (turn away from being in any state that keeps us from a close relationship with God. “God, I am sorry. I want to do things your way.”)

The next action requires complete submission to God as you need to be willing to be a spiritual warrior (if you are a follower of Christ, you will know what I mean).

* Loosen the bonds of wickedness (Now “wicked” is not good, it is cruel evil- when someone is attacked by a cruel evil, we are to help that person under attack. In fact, God tells us so many times not to be wicked. If you follow Christ, you are to do what you can – in action and in prayer. This is part of an acceptable sacrifice, part of an active fast)

*Break every bondage (Bondage is anything that has a hold on you- it might be drugs or another kind of addiction, but it may also be emotional bondage- baggage- or even mental bondage.)

*Free the oppressed.

*Divide your food with the hungry.

*Bring the homeless poor into the house. In fact, if you are homeless and your relatives ignore you, Isaiah 58 insinuates that your family members who turned you away are totally out of touch with God, therefore, in sin.

*Clothe the naked.

*Be available to family- do not turn them away. See above.

*Do not accuse anyone. If you accuse, you are doing the same thing that satan does. So, stop it. Yes, we are to reveal the works of evil…but not be an accuser.

*Satisfy the need of the afflicted.

So, it seems to me from this passage that we have a lot of work to do. If you say you are a Christian or a Messianic Jew, and you believe you have no time to act like this as you live out your daily life, check your pulse. You are alive. God gave you life again today. Are you ready to walk humbly with your God?

Justice and mercy

I struggle with diabetes. Many years ago, I worked in a high stress, high performance, high profile career that contributed to a food and health lifestyle that lead to the development of that diabetes. It didn’t help that I made my own bread, pasta, and pancakes. Or started the morning with a mountain dew and a couple of candy bars.

When I came into the office in the morning, before we went out to work, everybody else was sleepy, waking up. I was zigging one liners, feeling totally off-the-wall. And, sometimes, I felt out of control, like I couldn’t stop being goofy. I had no idea I had high sugar levels. No one in the family had it…

I say all of this to say that this morning I have an A1C test, a particular blood sugar test diabetics would quickly recognize. I had been doing better, but a diet high in vegetables, low fat, and some fruit, with occasional forages with lean meat, is very difficult for a guy who grew up eating hamburgers, pasta, and potatoes nearly everyday for years.

So, I have listened to the doctor, studied on my own, and read the Word. It is the latter that I now know is the place to start in fighting this disease. The Word speaks of living a life that is not fast-paced, not high-stress, and requires vigilance.

It is not just what we eat that brings on diabetes. It is also how we think, how we live, where we live, what we do for work…so many factors effect health. In light of my present circumstances, I have more time to contemplate that Word. In essence, I am fighting diabetes, but also need to be sure of God’s direction- I am job searching.

How then shall we live?

What is required of us is  this: to do justice, love kindness (some versions say “mercy”), and walk humbly with God. (Micah 6:8)

*You cannot work in a high stressed job where people want you to manipulate people and “do justice.”

*Mercy (or kindness) does not include a job where we treat the poor with contempt. Being kind and merciful, walking humbly with God, would quickly bring a conflict there.

*A job that encourages senseless wealth accumulation at the expense of others cannot conform to this Word.

I would appreciate your thoughts, comments, and reflections.

And you thought you had problems…

I am breathing. I ate something today. I have a place to stay.

Maybe my world looks “turned upside down,” but I still walk on a path right-side-up with a God who already knows what I need. The haters who tried to destroy me haven’t destroyed me. I do not know how God will provide, or where exactly He will take me…but I know what I have come through, and I know He will see me through.

What does your world look like tonight? Does it feel upside-down?

People will let you down, but God will never let you down. That doesn’t mean you might not suffer. That doesn’t mean you might not experience some things beyond your comprehension. But I can attest that God will listen, if you humble yourself. That also means forgiving  every one who has hurt you- every one.

The world may not look right-side-up for some time, but if we seek God with all our hearts, communicating with God, our world will change. Mine has in the past, so I expect He will change it in the near future.

the road to the top of nowhere?

i have a headache the size of a mountain this evening…and it does not come from scaling heights to glimpse a fantastic view, like this one above Lost River, deep in Nowhere, West Virginia. No, it is a problematic headache, the kind that Jacob had before he wrestled with the angel, or the kind that Moses had as he looked up at the peak  they called “the mountain of God.” I admit, sometimes in this walk of faith, I feel like a Sontaran in a candy shop- not quite knowing how to respond tactically to something that currently makes no logical sense. Still, I cling to what has always worked- to wait expectantly for the Lord…as He is the God of my salvation. (Micah 7:7)

This picture- from the past- reminds me of the time I climbed this mountain- not alone then. It reminds me that people, in their selfishness, can choose the wrong road, the wrong mountain height, only to find themselves so waylaid and so far from home. I do not want to go there…so I will continue to trust in the Lord, even when my thoughts are so much smaller than those of the Lord.

In the blank space on the bookshelf

To everything…there is a season…Ecclesiastes claims, the Birds (not the angry ones) sang, and ’tis true. The trees, the leaves, the plants of the field, all change with time. And, so too, the ages of a man or a woman. And this we all know by a particular age- or will one day know. But life is so much more complicated than that, as Plan D changes into Plan E, so far removed from the Plan A we dreamed about when we were still wearing teenage haircuts and sporting waistlines that somehow elude the present evolving pull of gravity. Life is a complicated stretch of seasons, and often those seasons do not come into complete focus until they pass on…

So I sit by my computer contemplating how it has taken me three years to discover the principal spiritual purpose of this particular season, and why, after all this time, I failed to see the season for  what it was- only a season. In our great intelligence we believe that somehow this season will last so much longer than the previous one…but often that is not true.

Seasons, like an old bookshelf or bookcase, have bookends. Today, I rarely see the portable bookends, but the analogy should be recalled in order to understand how a life’s season is set. Chapters of each seasonal saga form books in our lives, and these are set off by the bookends- a beginning one and an ending one. Most of the time a dramatic event marks a solid bookend, and we know then that a transition stage- the blank space on the shelf between the sections of books- will take over until we are firmly established again in a pattern of books that make another season.

It is to this blank section on the shelf that I have jumped, not finding a bookend nearby yet, and hoping I do find that solid bronze or metal reminder, identifying the beginning of the next season. I do not fear this space, it is neither purgatory nor limbo, it is simply a space. I pray it remains blank until I can plainly see the other bookend. Meanwhile, I can watch the other leaves of books accumulate around me, as each person collects more seasons between shelves of this library. And soon it will be my turn to set the bookend against a new book, a new chapter, a new season in the continuing sage of life.

When lies multiply like flies

Put anything rotten outside in warm weather and you’ll have flies before you know it. Flies are attracted to garbage, just as accusers are attracted to lies. When one rotten morsel is tossed into your path, you know the flies will follow. Flies multiply as the garbage piles up, and lies multiply as rotten lies are piled up.

The Word of God states that spiritual things are discerned by the spiritual. A person in right standing with God knows the truth.

But one who lives a lifestyle of lies cannot discern the truth. Worse yet, liars believe liars. They believe a lie is the truth. Pack several liars together and you have a whole lot of accusations toward those following the truth. It is no wonder that so many businesses and organizations are falling into judgment, simply because they believe liars.

But the liar in his or her heart will say, “So what. Nothing will happen to me.” Just like the mass of Israelites who murmured against God in the wilderness, spreading lies among those called out of the darkness of Egypt. Well, those liars were swallowed up when the ground opened up. I know many people will say: “But..that doesn’t happen today.” Look around you, judgment happens…besides, if it doesn’t happen here, it will happen in God’s own timing.

But this isn’t so much about judgment- which is God’s job, not mine. It is more about those lies spreading like flies. It is more about being aware that a person who has lied to you two or three times will probably lie to you again, and many are so deluded, they actually believe the lies they tell. If you are a child of God, beware…there’s a whole lot of rotten stench out there. Watch where you walk…

What the Word says

Count it all joy, my brethryn, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. (James 1)

“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5, 11, 12)

The Word does not lie.

Diagnosis: Hope

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The word “hope” here goes way beyond the same concept of  “hope” we have in English because it is literally “a knowing assurance based on spiritual truth as evidence.” But one can only operate in that kind of hope with a mindset that is literally “renewed.” How else can you place faith in something impossible to everyone else around you? When you’ve been told there is no hope, there is only hope to line yourself up in the place God calls righteousness. That only comes in a right relationship with God. And a right relationship can be tenuous unless it is fed that substance called faith.

The bible states that it is impossible to please God without faith. Living a life of faith requires trust in what many will call crazy. But, you know what? I would rather be called crazy than miss out on all the blessings God has for me.