The TBC part….

September 12th 2022

I’m not going to jump right in quite yet because I want to just say….I have really great people in my life. I am very very well aware of that and just when you start to feel a little lost and maybe slightly forgotten…they swoop in and love on you and it feels good. Dinner with friends, fun conversation, test driving cars, and even a sale of one…made for a great night. As we speak Hatcher is restacking our wood pile that fell over a long time ago. I don’t know what made he say “mom, I need a headlamp, I need to fix the wood tonight” but I am thankful he is doing it for me and choosing have-to’s over want to’s. That’s when you start to become a man. It kind of makes me sappy thinking about it. He was going to miss dinner but a cancelled Bible Study landed him at the restuarant. Late, but there.

I was working today…and a friend I have not seen in quite some time, but that I follow on Facebook, strolled in with her 3 daughters. It was so good to see her and have a short but deep discussion. She lost a sister too (to cancer) and she followed our journey with Mark but I haven’t been able to see her since all of this happened but in a nutshell this is what she said (don’t quote me Kim)

****God knows our beginning and our end and he knew it before we were born. He may only give us people for a short time but would we rather have them longer…but of less “quality”…just to have them longer? Like if we could choose the length of time over character…(I’m screwing this up)…would we? I would rather have had Mark for 20 plus years of marriage and 6 kids and have him 100% passionate about me, his kids and his Christ…making sure he was present and there…giving quality time where he could, than to have him longer…..but NOT at church, NOT serving as deacon and sunday school teacher. NOT pursuing his passions in flying, NOT always making sure we were on the same page and seeing eye to eye, NOT being at every event and even side coaching whenever possible..NOT making the kids stack wood…NOT always trying to make a better life for us, being a part of the community, our church and our family. I had him..WE had him and we had the best of him and we had a man who gave full on! He could be caught with his Bible every morning with fresh coffee in the corner chair (or in the hot tub. He had a waterproof Bible) or getting right into the action at family gatherings, and giving flying and his job 100% because he wanted to be a reliable and respectable employee. I did not have a mediocre man. I don’t know why people ever settle to be mediocre or take mediocre. We were not meant to be mediocre.

I got a bit side tracked on that…but when we were speaking about it…it really hit me. Maybe I did not repeat it well ( I know I didn’t ) but it spoke to me and I am so thankful I was at Blondie Blossom working today.

So..back to that Bible Study. Me and 2 of my friends are working through None Like Him by Jen Wilkin. “10 Ways God is different from us”. In chapter 5, we look at the fact that God is Timeless. Eternal. Much of it was convicting to me and I want to share blurps.

pg..71 “Moreover, all God’s actions within time happen at just the right time. He is never early nor late, never subject to the tyranny of a deadline, never in a hurry, never playing catch-up with a schedule that has careened out of conrol. Ecclesiastes 3 tell us that He assigns “for everything…a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”. ( uh, that was quoted in the orginal Footloose as well I think I should note) We like think we know appropriate times for everything..we don’t actually know crap. (those are my words).

pg 72 “God….has given time-bound humans a longing for timelessness, but in our limited understanding we cannot grasp what he is doing between time’s beginning and its end.” And further down the page, “But this does not mean that what God is doing is not perfectly timed. The problem lies not with his timing but with our perception of it.”

She talks about 3 things. #1 is letting go of the past. Sinful nostolgia is longing for the past and being discontent with present circumstances. I think we may have all done that..I know I do it now. “We can combat a sinful love of the past by counting the gifts we have been given in the present”, like the simple gift I had tonight. She also talks about regret. #2 is letting go of the future. We are told not to covet the next stage of life and that we feed anxiety when we live in dread of the future. #3 (and this is where the writer really gets me) is to Live Today Fully. “Both the lazy person and the compulsively busy person subtly reject the God-ordained boudary of time.” What??!! I mean, I have been told to say no…to be less busy…but I’ve never thought of it as rejecting God. “The lazy person will always believe there will be more time to get around to her responsibilities…like a profligate spender of money, she spends time without considering the cost, secretly believing she has an endless credit of hours.” “The compulsively busy person (Dusty Linsley) believes there will never be enough time to manage her responsibilties. She believes…she can pack in more than one day’s share of activities, complaining that there are not more hours in the day. She is characterized by exhaustion and overcommitment. Like a penny pincher, she wrings every ounce of produtivity out of every minute of the day, secretly believing that rest is for when we die. (I’ve actually said this!) Busyness believes that the time God has given is not adequate. (Yikes, claiming the perfector messed up?) We must redeem the present by leaving time to observe the practice of stillness and the precept of Sabbath, taking on the trusting posture of one who sits at the feet of her Lord. We are charged with redeeming the years he has given to us as a reasonable act of worship.”

A reasonable act of worship. Huh. Who would have thunk?

And then …Cora handed me a book by AW Tozer….

Opening paragraph about The Eternity of God:

“This day our hearts approve with gladness what our reason can never fully comprehend, even Thine eternity, O Ancient of Days. Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, mine Holy One?

We worship Thee, the Father Everlasting, whose years shall have no end; and Thee, the love-begotten Son whose goings forth have been ever of old; we also acknowledge and adore Thee, Eternal Spirit, who before the foundation of the world didst live and love in coequal glory with the Father and the Son.

Enlarge and purify the mansions of our souls that they may be fit habitations for They Spirit, who dost prefer before all temples the upright heart and pure. Amen“

He states on the second page that “God dwells in eternity but time dwells in God.” He goes on a couple of pages later to say, ” We who live in this nervous age would be wise to meditate on our lives and our days long and often before the face of God and on the edge of eternity. For we are made for eternity as certainly as we are made for time, and as responsible moral beings we must deal with both.”

He ends the chapter saying, “God’s eternity and man’s mortality join to persuade us that faith in Jesus Christ is not optional. For every man it must be Christ or eternal tragedy.”

You just should read both. One is a male author from the 1960’s and one is a female author from 2016 but both speak wisely on time. God is not bound by it but we certainly are and what are we doing about that? Well, I know most of us are gagged and bound as we speak! The Tozer book is The Knowlege of Holy, if you want to pick up a copy. It’s not big but I have to read it outloud to myself and be very focused to really grasp parts of it. Okay, so I’m not a polished scholar. I don’t need to be though.

I didn’t want to leave that portion of the blog hanging because so much will happen before this week ends and I didn’t want to foget.

Also, I want to write a book and I want to speak to women. I always thought I wasn’t scholarly enough….or that since I didn’t take Bible classes I wouldn’t be able to pull in scriptures but I don’t think that’s true. I have alot to say..about alot of things…that I have personally experienced and I want to share it.