God's Authorship of all of life

 In reading the Bible every morning for approximately one month, (Old Testament, New Testament, a Psalm, and a Proverbs selection), I cannot help but notice in the Old Testament (currently in the book of Jeremiah), how sinful the people who ought to be the people of the LORD, are; how easy God's people are to forget that it is God who has made it all!  The Earth, the stars, the birds, cats and dogs; the giver of original life to our closest friends & family, is God!

In your day today, in what ways do you acknowledge this truth?  How have you demonstrated God's authorship of all of life?

Thoughts about a possible future

As I began to write yesterday, but had to pause to finish getting ready, and go, for/to work:
I have been blessed to have a good father. I continued,
As I sit alone in my apartment, at the dining table, and for the first time at its head position, all of a sudden thought about what it might ...
and I had to pause the thought while I went to work, but then, this morning, I finished the thought ...
 what it might, or rather, what it will, LORD willing, be like to have children one day, (as I imagined my son sitting to my right eating cereal with me, perhaps just the two of us there because my wife had taken our daughter to gymnastics class, or what have you), and specifically, thinking, as I sit alone now, what my son may be thinking silently in his little head beside me, about me? Would/will his thoughts be thoughts of admiration & love for his daddy? Perhaps, as he silently eats from his own bowl of cereal, could he be thinking about a problem he is facing, perhaps at school, and is trying to garner his courage to let the question fly, "Hey dad?" ... maybe he won't be thinking about me at all! Instead, I'm sitting here, years before, or at minimum, ~9 months prior to his birth, or perhaps, I'm thinking about a son who might never, ever, exist; but that's not the point I pen these words... What kind of father would I be? Or, what kind of husband would I be? There are a lot of ways of 'being,' but specifically, what kind of leader (and servant) would I 'be' as a husband or father? Some claim individuals have a distorted view of God because he or she had a bad experience/relationship with earthly fathers. If you, rather, me, can do something to create less obstacles for people to find the One true God, and His Son, Jesus Christ, why not do that something? Even though the people who have had bad earthly fatherly relationships cannot excuse, or use as a viable excuse before the judgment seat of God one day that, they had a warped view of God the Father b/c of a warped relationship with their earthly father, such that they couldn't believe in God the Father (BUT, I could be wrong, I'm not God, nor do I know His AWESOME and PERFECTLY JUST JUDGMENT methods) ... what I do think I know though, for me, is that I, want and desire (at least I think I genuinely do at the moment of writing this; b/c the Bible says man's heart is deceitfully wicked), I, want and desire to be as little of an obstacle, and as much as possible, a launching pad for my possible future children, to finding God and His Son Jesus Christ one day! How do I become less an obstacle and more a launching pad? Well, there's only one person on earth I've heard I can fix myself, and that's me (with the Holy Spirit's help). So, when I  hear my son's spoon hit the bottom of his cereal bowl, and he says, "Dad?" and I excitedly prepare myself to give my best thesis statement on who Jesus Christ is and why one needs Him, but first respond, "Yes son?," may the LORD give me grace to pass the cereal in as Christ-like way possible, when he responds, "May I have more cereal?"
-Paul Hart  August 16, 2017

War and struggle.

War and struggle. I can’t help but be interested in the idea of being an elite warrior. For some reason, the thought of being a Navy SEAL reverberates through my head… But why do I want to be a Navy SEAL? Is it just to be part of a brotherhood that not many people attain to? Or is it because I feel like I would be a contribution to that organization within the Navy?

Along this same line of thinking about being a warrior, comes the thought of knowing, that I, as an individual, am perishable. Yes, God sent His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ into the world, that whosoever believes in Him, will have eternal life. There is a speed bump in between however, and that is a physical, earthly, death. Unless Jesus Christ returns before I meet this phenomenon, I will die. Either as an old man, or from an accident of some kind, or in battle, or, who knows, there are so many situations that could have me hit the aforementioned speed bump.

Also, the thought of being a warrior, seems compelling, until, I can only imagine, you’re the one who takes a bullet, and renders you a paraplegic, or an invalid of some kind or another. I can only imagine, if you didn’t die in this situation, but instead were smattered to just shy of the ultimate breaking point, seeing your body in a state so very incapable of what you used to be able to do, would, I wonder, make me so very frustrated, and I know it would be a battle of its own, just to go on with life if I found myself in this situation. BUT, God would meet my needs! It would suck, the circumstances I’d find myself in, but even as a blessed physically speaking individual, how to do I impair my own self because I think I’m capable of doing things on my own, without God’s help, even though I do admit that I must learn to lean on God for everything, even when I think I’m strong, because only God sees everything.

For now, while all of these questions are stirring in my head, there are some parallels I’ve thought of to being a warrior in the here and now. For example, to act against a static environment like a dirty room, my dirty room, I would have to actually ACT, and perform, and fight against enthalpy. God created ex nihilo, and I will never, ever, do or be capable of that kind of creation. BUT, made in God’s image, as a human being, I have the opportunity to push against the static situations I find in my current life. I have the opportunity to wage war, and be a literal warrior in pushing into territories that I hadn’t owned before, or capture information and knowledge, that before I battled to learn it, I didn’t know before. What a blessing it is, and would be, and a blessing it is, and it is not easy when the sense of euphoria dies away, to be a disciplined individual to wage war against nothingness to create space for one’s own self. It is not glamorous, even when on a euphoric moment, euphoria does not make a man of steel, or historic resolve to better his station in life. It is a thankless task, and one that I feel at times, doesn’t even have a moment to be enjoyed, the space you make for yourself, because it’s just, plain old, work. What would make this work worth it? Being able to help someone else because I had worked hard to know how to help someone in need that didn’t know what I did in order to save them from continued physical harm or disease (a doctor, MD). Or, to learn about the law, get a law jurisprudence degree, so that I can defend, and litigate against others who have acted contrary to the law (a lawyer). Would I be rewarded in the enjoyment-sense by providing a service to another person, and get off (to use a very crass term) on the knowledge that I helped someone because I could, and was happy to do so? Or, is it simply the fact that you know, as an individual in any of these situations, you were able to contribute to something much larger than yourself? Or, another reality I’m sure, and trap, would be to bathe in one’s own ego of accomplishment… is this prideful? Is this an improper fulfillment of hard work, ego boost type mentality? I saw a simple sign today at Office Max, “Work hard, and stay humble” it said.

So, where does this leave me right now? What can I do now? I am certain of one thing, I can battle, even in the smallest way, to create situations that didn’t exist before, or straighten up a  messy room, that had I not existed, and done the work, it would have remained messy and unordered (and a physical hazard to anyone who would want or had to, visit me). So, I would like to, every day, start very, very, small. To finish each day with having done at minimum, however small, ONE THING with the human existence I’ve been blessed to experience, to create, to organize, to clean, to learn, to study a new subject, learn a new foreign language word (even ONE word!), so that at the end of each day, I will be better for it, and I commit this plan to the LORD. Hopefully, after some discipline sets in from even one simple or little thing accomplished each day, I’ll catch on and realize how much more potential each day has in store, LORD willing, for I’m sure a day can have realized, much more than one simple new accomplishment aforementioned!

~Paul Hart~ Thursday, June 15, 2017

Muddy footsteps? Needn't worry!

As I read the following verses, I couldn't help but think about mud & muck on the bottom of shoes when someone walks through or over wet ground. You could encounter this on a hiking trail, short-cutting the "long way" of the side walk by taking the grassy route, or simply, "splash!" ... to which you then exclaim, "Darn! My socks are definitely going to be wet shortly!" So, what's the verse?

     I waited patiently for the LORD;
        he inclined to me and heard my cry.
     He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
         out of the miry bog,
     and set my feet upon a rock,
        making my steps secure.
                                   - Psalm 40:1-2 (ESV)

That's, or rather, those, are the verses. My thought process though wasn't if-then though... It was more of a continuum (I described the mud & muck to make sure all y'all were on the same page) ... My thought process when I read about being drawn up from 'the miry bog' was followed immediately by the plight of the rock. In my mind's eye, the rock was white & smooth, upon which there was shortly to be muddy shoe prints! Then I imagined, or wondered, if, as the person who had been drawn up from that 'pit of destruction' continued to walk along (albeit now on a secure path, "making my steps secure"), the mud on the bottom of that person's boots slowly fell off, and the muddy track eventually became untraceable.

I'm not putting forth a theological discussion asking that we read between the lines of "out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock," in that one could ask the question, "Does God clean our feet/boots before He sets us down upon the rock?" Rather, I put forward a picture for your mind's eye: a trail of muddy boot-prints growing ever fainter as the believer continues along the rock that is our Savior. Muddy footsteps? Needn't worry! I bet (and am sure if you yield yourself to the work of the Holy Spirit within) that mud will wear off with time!

He had been straining to reach the top. The summit had finally come into sight, making the excrutiating journey a little more endurable. The treeline had long been broken and with sideways glances the climber knew that he had reached the last phase of his effort. Not many things were running through that focused mind, distractions no longer had a foothold as the attraction of his destination had taken complete control. The environment was exacting the climber's final surge to succeed or fail. Success or failure, as clear as black and white, stood imminent ahead.

With only two options staring down at the mountaineer, the climber's plight is much different than my own. In my life, I can live a day and the result can be neutral. Nothing gained, nothing lost. My environment of modern day civilization calls me to embark on many endeavors. Before me lie many roads to success, and many to failure. The government, educational systems, countless employment opportunities, requests of family members, religious institutions, all call to me to choose, to participate. Bookstores offer unending literature, the compliation of thousands of people's live's work staring up at me from shelf to shelf, and yet the climber sees one summit. How refreshing that concept is to me, to look above yourself and see the destination, a singularity that my soul cannot deny. Often, my ideas of success materialize in a place that mimics a concept of being above my current location, not below. The dillution of lateral endeavors almost brings my heart to a place of apathy. Lost in the immensity of possibilities any soul would feel lost, or frightened, and yet the climber's goal is resolutely above him.

Through out history one name has stood out. Today, you hear this name in both positive and negative speech. This name has coupled with it a host of implications that rise up as soon as it leaves the speaker's lips. As I will shortly write it now, you will experience your own reaction. It will stare you down, as if from a mountain top above, foreboading, as if waiting to hear if you will start to climb up the mystery this name pronounces. Prepare yourself to see the summit, a clearing ahead will open your eyes to a singular outcropping on your mind's vision. The name is Jesus Christ.