Where in the World Am I?

Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life.

Let me more of their beauty see - wonderful words of life.

When one takes on the task of writing a daily blog, you expect there to be hiccups from time to time. You come down with an illness, receive an unexpected visitor, have a little accident, race to an emergency at work, etc., etc., etc.  If you are gone for a day or two, those who read your blog don't think much about it - they expect hiccups as well.  But when you disappear for weeks (months?) at a time, there are those who wonder why.  Are you ill?  Have you changed jobs?  Or have you simply quit blogging?

The answer is - none of the above.  The answer is quite simple:  What happens when you run out of things to say?

I do not have a huge readership, and have never tailored this blog to be on any certain topic or in any set style.  I have tried to write from a devotional standpoint, but have also written Bible commentary, social issues commentary, political commentary, and current events commentary.  I have shared favorite hymns, singing groups, soloists, and choirs.  After almost two years of blogging, I began to have days when I could not think of a thing to say - not a single topic that brought inspiration.    Eventually it became obvious that I needed to take a break.

I still enjoy writing, and have just finished a set of seven blogs on the church website and Facebook page (one per week) to go along with a sermon series.  As fall approaches, I'm beginning to feel the pull of wanting to write in this blog again.  I will not write every day - possibly three times a week.  If you are a loyal reader, I apologize for my absence.  If you are seeing this page for the first time, drop back by in a few days for a different story line!

A Soft Answer

A soft answer turns away wrath,
But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1

 

My Internet service used to be relatively unreliable when I was running it through a cheap, discount store-bought modem.  Due to my daughter's graduate school needs, however, I upgraded several months ago to a better system through my Internet provider.  Since that time, my Internet access has been mostly perfect.

 

Today my daughter went to the gym for her weekend workout with her trainer.  She discovered, at the end of her session, that some things that were promised to her when she signed the very expensive personal training contract were not, in fact, the current policy of the gym.  It appears that it was a "policy" to get her to sign on the dotted line rather than an actual reality.  This circumstance was going to cause some hardship for her over the next two months, and she did not take the news well.  In fact, she blew her top.  After spouting her dissatisfaction to the powers that be, she drove home - calling me on the way to berate the injustices of the system.  I had warned her about this particular gym from previous experience with similar problems, but I managed to keep my mouth shut and just listen.

 

After she arrived home, she grabbed her lap top and proceeded to write a letter to the head of the gym division that is at the root of her problem.  A few minutes later, she asked to read it to me.  When she was finished, I suggested that she wait a bit, calm down, then remove some (all?) of the harsh vitriol from her writing to make it more effective.  She was having none of it.  They deserved her wrath and were going to get it.  She punched the send button, and.... nothing happened.  She tried to send the email again.  It just sat there.  "Mother," she said, "the Internet is not working!"

We went in to the office and fiddled with the network settings on the main desktop, fiddled with her laptop, and then rebooted the modem.  Nothing.  I was leaving to go on a hike, so suggested she wait a while and then try again.  She waited a half hour and tried again.  No luck.  She went about some other tasks, then came back to the email, rebooted again and tried to send it.  As she stewed in frustration over the lack of service, she began to reread the letter, and my advice to tone it down came back to her.  She removed the harsh words and accusations, and added a paragraph apologizing for losing her temper in the gym earlier in the day.

 

When she had finished her revisions, she read through the letter once again, then hit the SEND button.  The usual movement of disappearing email flashed across the screen as her letter sailed into cyberspace.  The Internet was working just fine.

 

What's Your Hurry?

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved,

clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,

gentleness and patience.

Colossians 3:12

 

I was driving home today from an afternoon of banking and errands, driving in the fast lane of the parkway that is my most direct route home.  The speed limit had just increased to 60 mph (a speed most of us had been doing long before it changed), when we became backed up behind a driver in a little blue Kia Rio, going the speed limit in the fast lane (heaven forbid!).  I pulled into the middle lane, and gradually increased my speed to 65 (only 5 over!). 

I happened to notice in my rear view mirror a large silver car flying down the fast lane behind the Kia.  When the driver realized that there was a slowdown, she looked for the tiniest sliver of space to cram her car into in order to move over.  No such space existed.  She then moved up so that the front bumper of her Chevy Malibu was about two feet behind the back bumper of the Kia, and just sat there.  When that intimidation tactic didn't have the desire effect, she began to lay on the horn.  The lady in the Rio finally increased her speed so that she could pull into the middle lane, and the woman in the Malibu tore off down the road, quickly leaving the rest of us behind.

 

What in the world happens to human beings when they get behind the wheel of an automobile?  Where does the compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience go when we have our hands on a steering wheel?  What was so urgent for Ms. Get-Out-Of-My-Way-Now that would cause her to drive so rudely and so dangerously?  The experience certainly brought me up short - reminding me that every other driver on the road is just as precious to God as I am.  He expects me to love them the way I love myself ALL the time - including the times when I am driving.