Thursday, November 17, 2016

courtesy




 

 

 

Well my dear ones,

 

 

A long LONG time ago, I read a series of books,

called The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

(written by Stephen R. Donaldson, the hero

 is actually a leper...great characters...

 great dialogue...a re-read may be due =>)

wherein one of the characters had a line so cool

that it has stuck with me all these years,

"Courtesy is like a drink at a mountain stream."

 

I love that line, and I think about it, well,

every time I see people being discourteous,

which is, sadly, quite often these days.

 

Here in the USA, we just had an election

that kind of brought to light a sharp divide

in the way the urban folk view life as

as opposed to those in a more rural setting.

 

Almost sadder than the rampant discourtesy

is the lack of knowledge of history on display.

I’ve been out of it for so long that

I’m not even sure they teach history in school.

 

(for example, here is a piece on the difference

 between a democracy and a republic...

 ...I thought this was common knowledge...

 ...I would hope they are teaching these types

 of things in schools; if not,

 please let me know. =>

 http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/as-i-see-it/article115423528.html )

 

I loved history!

In order to progress in the future

you need know what happened in the past,

as well analyzing why it happened.

 

To me, I see history as literally “His Story,”

as in, the way God is working things out

(not that we don’t have the free will

to join in that process if we so choose =>).

 

And, as my pastor often says,

“Whether you are liberal, conservative,

 or libertarian...God can use you.”

 

Well, that’s surely true.

But no matter what our backgrounds are,

or how we may differ in how we see life,

I hope and pray to see

“the age of courtesy”...

 

Even if I don’t see it,

I plan to keep on praying for it.

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave

 

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,

For wisdom and might are His.

And He changes the times and the seasons;

He removes kings and raises up kings;

He gives wisdom to the wise

And knowledge to those who have understanding.”

             --- Daniel 2:20-21

Thursday, November 03, 2016

the door





 

 

 

Well my dear ones,

 

 

 

While many people have been spending time contemplating the big things in life,

I have been meditating on the small things.

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about the door.

 

The door was a door that, several years ago,

a small kitten belonging to a little girl

got her head stuck in.

 

The door was the door of a church that this,

about 10-year-old, girl came to check out.

She’d brought her kitten along,

and the poor little thing got nerved out

and ran at the (propped open) door,

getting its little head stuck

between the door and the doorframe.

 

It was a heavy, metal-framed, glass door;

had it sprung shut,

the kitten would have been decapitated.

 

The little girl started yelling,

“Help my kitty!  Help her, please!”

 

The little spud was totally freaked out now,

just stuck and meowing

with its fur sticking out.

 

A half a dozen guys were like,

“Let’s just rip the door off its hinges!”

(i.e. no time for tools; save the kitten now)

 

*shrugs*

I know those guys, all big dudes,

way bigger than me;

they surely could have torn that door off,

and we could have fixed it later.

 

Their hearts were in the right place,

but none of them were “cat people.”

So I asked them to give me a minute.

I went and talked to the kitty,

calmed her down,

and scratched her under the chin.

 

Then she let me turn her head sideways

and push it back out.

 

Her owner was so thankful,

not just to me,

but also to the other six guys,

the ones who wanted to tear the door off

to save her kitten.

 

My Mom always raised me to believe

that actions speak louder than words;

it’s easy to speak about the love of God,

to talk about how much God cares for us.

 

But besides the good message

that the pastor spoke that day,

I think that little girl left there

thinking something to the effect of:

“God must really care about me;

 He send me six men who,

 without a second’s thought,

 were ready to rip the door off the church

 in order to save my kitty’s life.”

 

Yay for the kitty!

(it was a small orange tabby, and way cute =>)

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave