A Matter Of Perspective

If you're like me, seventh grade art class was where we learned how to draw perspective on a flat piece of paper. We used a ruler and drew lines the way the teacher told us to. After that we learned how to make roads, houses, boxes, and fences that looked real. We moaned and groaned as we learned the technique, sure that we'd never use perspective again.

This photo that I took last week in my back yard shows perspective that can be observed in the real world. The shadows of the trees and the spit rail fence converge on a single point of focus in the distance. However, the shadows of the trees and fence spread out and get larger as they get farther from the focus. Perspective shows us the effect of distance.

As a Christian, I'd like to say that my heart, my mind, my body, and my soul are always concentrating on a single focus. I'd like to say that I am focusing on doing all things as unto the Lord. If I compare myself to obviously wicked people, I think that I'm doing pretty good. However, if I compare myself to what the Bible says, I find I am guilty of being indifferent to the Lord. I don't let him take first place in my heart.

It's a matter of perspective. Either I'm sensitive toward godly things (being focused on letting Jesus live His life through me), or else I've given myself over to satisfying myself (greedy for more and more of almost anything that gives me delight apart from Jesus).

Let me explain.

Some examples of people trying to find satisfaction by ever increasing amounts of experience might be these: those who do drugs, addicts to pornography, and participants in extreme, death defying sports. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. Ephesians 4:19 No doubt you are nodding your head along with me, convinced that this kind of sensual greed is worthy of condemnation. It's like the tree shadows in the sunlit photo getting longer and farther apart, leaving their focus behind. We'd say to ourselves, we'd never be like that! But we are like that.

How can that be?

The Holy Spirit within us nudges us with a still small voice. A Christian must be sensitive to those nudges; God's gentle leading is felt that way. We'd never want to miss those nudges and lose our focus on Christ. But it happens. How can we recognize when that begins to take place? How can we recognize when we are becoming callous to God's prompting in our lives? This word callous in Ephesians 4:19 can also be translated as being past feeling and not being sensitive. How do we recognize that we are beginning to be callous toward God, not feeling His nudges, no longer being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit?

It's when we recognize we are starting to find our delight in all kinds of things that move us farther away from Jesus. It's when a variety of experiences spread out, enticing us away from our focus. The word "dissipation"describes this situation. Dissipation means "to scatter, to waste, to spend much time and energy on indulging in pleasure".

We'll find our own places of dissipation if we lose our focus on Jesus. For me, it's overeating. It's visiting bookstores. It's an obsession to keep up with the news. For you it might be clothes shopping or collecting new recipes. It might even be busyness in ministry or surfing the net. All of these activities can be good when done under the Lordship of Jesus. But when we find ourselves spreading out and expanding these activities to get more and more personal satisfaction out of them, we're no different than a drug addict looking for the next high.

We need to look at the shadows of our lives. Are they pointed toward a single focus? Or are they spreading out in dissipation?

If we find we are far from our Lord, not being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and not feeling God's leading in our lives, the remedy is simple. We need to turn from our dissipation's, and focus on Jesus!

Broken Flagpole

It's been a long, cold, and snowy winter. In addition, there's been exceptionally strong winds at times.

After a few days of February thaw, I discovered, to my dismay, my flag pole had broken off at its base during one of the windstorms, and the flag was resting on the ground. I had no idea how long the flag had laid there, hidden by the snow. I was mortified. I knew flag etiquette. My husband was a career military man. The American flag is not to touch the ground! Not ever!

I remembered when my husband was first assigned to Fort Lee, Virginia. One day I arrived on base about 5 p.m. to pick him up at the end of his work day. Suddenly, all the traffic around me stopped, the doors of cars and trucks flew open, and all the uniformed personnel jumped out onto the road and came to attention. Everyone had turned in the same direction, saluted and held their salute. On the sidewalk beside my car, men and women in uniform had likewise stopped in their tracks, turned in the same direction, and saluted. I looked in the direction that everyone faced, but I could see nothing to cause such a reaction. After a minute, at the same instant, everyone dropped their salute and returned to their prior activity. I was mystified. What had just happened?

My husband explained it to me. Flags on military bases are retired for the day (lowered) at 5 o-clock. Military personnel are to come to attention and salute the flag during that time. All over Fort Lee through loud speakers, the trumpet call for lowering the flag had sounded forth. That's why all the vehicle traffic and pedestrians stopped at the same moment. But I protested. Why did everyone face in the same direction. I looked. I didn't see a flag going down. He said that everyone was faced toward the main flag on the Army base. It didn't matter whether you could see it or not, that was the direction to face!

There were other occasions when I learned flag protocol:

• I taught my den of cub scouts how to fold a flag into it's three cornered shape after being removed from a flag pole.


• Years later, we raised and lowered the flag daily in front of our family business. On those days when the flag was to be flown at half mast, it was proper protocol to raise the flag to the top of the pole before being lowered for the day.


• I was the recipient of the folded flag after a military funeral. Folded inside it were the spent bullets from the honor guard's volley in honor of my loved one.

It was for those reasons that I felt shame and guilt to know that I had allowed the American flag to lay on the ground under a covering of snow for days, perhaps for weeks. Without meaning to, I had allowed it to be defiled.

Since then, I've been thinking of other times when we do things unintentionally that lead to the same kind of shame and guilt. Things that we won't ever be able to undo, no matter what. Things that the Bible describes as unintentional sins: "But if you sin unintentionally..." Numbers 15:22a Things like running over the family pet with your car. Telling a joke about a funeral without realizing the person you're talking to was just notified that someone they loved had died. Walking in on someone undressed in a room when you thought the room was empty. Forgetting to put your car in park, so that it rolls down your driveway, across the street, and bashes in the side if the neighbor's restored 65 Mustang. All of us have committed these kind of unintentional sins that we cannot ever make right.

Isn't it wonderful to know that we have a God who has provided a remedy for the guilt we feel over these things. In the Old Testament, there were atoning sacrifices for unintentional sins. They're described in Numbers 25. However, now there is the better way that sin has been dealt with. Jesus Christ came as the final atoning sacrifice for all sins. We no longer have to carry the guilt and shame of unintentional sins (or deliberate sins). When Jesus was dying on the cross, he said, concerning those who were putting him to death, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34 The rest of the New Testament testifies that Jesus continues to ask this of God on the behalf of all mankind, and especially on behalf of those who call Him Savior and Lord. Isn't this a comfort?

Davy Doesn't Swim Very Well

"Davy doesn't swim very well," my daughter said.

I had just hung up the phone from talking to a friend. I turned around and looked at my daughter. She stood in the open door, bundled up in her winter coat from playing outside.

Davy was the same age as my daughter, three years old. He was the next door neighbor's child. She and Davy played together all the time. Davy shouldn't be swimming. It was winter in New Jersey. Something wasn't right.

"Show me where Davy is," I said.

My daughter took off running as fast as her little legs could take her. I followed. I remember feeling the cold sand underfoot through my stocking feet. We ran through our back yard gate, across a couple of the neighbor's yards, and through the open gate of a chain link fence. There ahead of me was a swimming pool half filled with water, crusted over with a thin sheet of ice. In one corner of the pool the ice was broken, and Davy was floating face down in the water. The air trapped in his winter coat held him up.

Horror filled me. I screamed at the ghastly sight; I let out a blood curdling scream of terror. People from the nearby supermarket parking lot and people from up and down the street heard it and started running in our direction.

Although I can swim well, I remember evaluating the situation. I saw that if I jumped into the water near Davy's body, I would still be able to hold onto the edge of the pool for my safety. I jumped! Once in the icy water, I knew I had to throw Davy up and out of the pool. Holding the edge of the pool for leverage, I reached out with my other arm, putting my hand squarely under Davy's belly, and I heaved with all my might. I was able to throw him out onto the pool deck. I remember hearing the clunk of his head landing on the concrete.

I don't remember how I got up out of the pool. Adrenalin must have given me strength to pull myself out. Kneeling by Davy's side, I turned him over and saw his blue face. I tipped his head back and began to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After a minute or two, I looked up to see people racing toward us from all directions. My children and the neighborhood children were the first to arrive since they had been playing close by. Next I saw Davy's father crashing through brush and leaping over a couple of fences. As he arrived, I turned over the attempt at mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to him. I herded up all the children and took them into my house. I didn't know what the outcome would be; I wanted to shield the children from the worst.

Davy began breathing again, and he want by ambulance to the hospital. He stayed there overnight and was home the next day. He was fine and had no aftereffects. Davy and my daughter played together often after that.

I learned something very important from that emotional ordeal. At that time I was a busy mother~ watching children, doing housework, being the family chauffeur, catching up on news over the phone, teaching Sunday school, etc. I immediately realized that if I had not been hanging up the phone on that fateful day, I would have not paid any attention to my daughter's remarks. I would have been absorbed in my own thoughts and conversation on the phone instead. In other words, if I hadn't been hanging up the phone at the very instant Davy needed rescuing, Davy would not have survived. And who knows? Perhaps my little daughter would have gone back by herself to try to help Davy, and she would have ended up in the pool, too. I shudder, even now, to think of such a probability.

In our complicated society, we're tempted to multi-task and not listen to the people right around us. We're proud to be busy doing many things at same time. But, I wonder. How necessary is it? Isn't most multi-tasking just vain attempts to demonstrate to ourselves or to others how indispensable we are? Or how bored we are with our present circumstances or company? In the book of Jeremiah, God says over and over to His people "Listen!" He was telling His people to listen to Him. But He also wants us to listen to one another. "Take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." James 1:19

It'll be a couple of weeks before I write here again. I'm going out of state to visit my family. During that time I'll not be blogging. For you see, something else is more important to me. A new baby has arrived and needs to meet her grandmother. You can be assured that while I'm with my out-of-state family, I'll listen to the grandchildren tell me about their skinned knees and the spider they found on the floor. I'll listen to my daughter-in-law tell me all about her labor and delivery. I'll listen to my son talk about his work. I'll listen to their silly jokes and their hopes and dreams.

I'll choose to listen, not only because I love my family, but because God has told me to.

Snowy Owl's Gaze

For many days cars stopped on the shoulder of Route 20A where groups of people would gather with binoculars and spotting telescopes. The draw? A snowy owl that arrived mid afternoons to perch on fence posts, a tree, or telephone poles near the Wyoming-Livingston county line. It was a rare sighting. Perhaps a once in a lifetime sighting. Most snowy owls stay much farther north in the polar regions.

Usually I don't have my camera with me. But one Saturday afternoon I had it with me as I passed the owl's usual hangout. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge bird swooping behind some trees. Could it be the snowy owl? I turned my car around and slowly drove back the way I had come. There! Some 200 feet ahead, perched on the telephone pole sat the owl. Knowing how skittish the owl was, I walked forward slowly, taking pictures as I advanced. Glancing at me only occasionally, the snowy owl kept looking all around. (Owls can swivel their heads 270 degrees.) I advanced until I was standing right across the road from the owl. I marveled that my presence hadn't driven him away.

I wanted the snowy owl to look at me, so I whistled. His head snapped around in my direction, and his eyes looked straight at me. I took a picture. Then the owl looked away from me and around at the surrounding fields. I whistled once more. Again the snowy owl looked directly at me, but this time he lifted his huge wings and gracefully and silently took flight.

I thought of the verses I had read that week in Numbers, the 4th book of the Bible. In that place, God revealed the words by which His people were to be blessed. It's the same benediction that we still hear recited in our churches. The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26 Isn't it wonderful to know that God can look directly at us. And in doing that, He wants to bless us.

How interesting, I thought, that we long to have others look at us. Whether it's a snowy owl, other people, or God, we want to be noticed. Obviously, I couldn't be content with just any picture of the snowy owl. I whistled to get his undivided attention. And, likewise, we do all kinds of things to get and keep the attention of people we admire.

I looked up the meaning of "countenance" in Webster's. It means the look on a person's face that shows approval and support. Isn't that what we desire from others? I know I do! Unfortunately, we find that even our most dearly loved family members and friends will eventually disappoint us in this regard. Their faces turn away from us. They may even leave us (like the snowy owl left me). When the approval of our loved one is not upon us, we sense the loss of support, grace, blessing and peace. Not to have our loved ones looking at us with a shining face of love is heartbreak! Devastating heartbreak!

That's when the words from the Bible become precious to us. Although human beings fail us, God won't. He's revealed His heart toward His own in these words from the Bible.

The Effects of Fear

The wind blew hard and the temperature returned to zero. The week of warm weather was over and ponds and rivers turned again to ice. On the Genesee River behind the Mt. Morris dam was a huge reservoir of water accumulated from the recent thaw. At the base of the dam (constructed for flood control in the 1950's) water was slowly being released. This water created a slowly revolving whirlpool of open water. Inside that whirlpool floated circular chunks of ice. They looked like water lilies floating in a garden pond. However, it definitely wasn't the time of year for flowers. And lilies don't slowly rotate like a giant merry-go-round.



However, the scene reminded me of something else. It reminded me of how we respond to fear. Especially in the middle of the night, don't our fears and apprehensions go around and around in our minds? Isn't it as if we're locked into our thoughts and can't see any way out; its just like these chunks of ice trapped in this slow whirlpool.

Icy fears grip us. Around and around our worries go. The thoughts of failing health or impending death. The uncertainty of the economy. The heartbreak of broken relationships. The threat of terrorism and war. The consuming guilt of wrongs that can never be righted.

We should take comfort that one of the most prevalent phrases that God speaks to His people in the Bible is- Don't be afraid! The Old Testament and the New Testament says this dozens and dozens and dozens of times. Isn't it amazing that God wants to help us in the icy fears that trap and paralyze us.

In a few weeks, the ice will leave the Genesee River. The warmth of the sunshine is all it takes. In the same way, all it takes for fear to leave, is to get to know the God who says to us Don't be afraid, the God of the Bible.

White Is Covering The Treasures Beneath

Lake effect snow from Lake Ontario blankets our lawns, our roads, our cars. It's Western New York in February! What else can you expect? Last week's snow was wet, sticky and wind blown. For a short time it adorned a neighborhood barn, highlighting its old boards, until the sun came out.

Old barns like this make you wonder. What's inside? What treasures?

We pass old barns and sheds in the summertime when tangled brush and scrub trees nearly obliterate them from our sight. In that season, we hardly notice the ancient relics. We're too busy with modern activity to slow down and observe the old things. As the farmers in our rural area say- We're making hay while the sun shines. No time to stop and wonder what's inside old barns.

It's the same with people. There comes a time when older people are crowned with gray or white hair (or no hair). Their activities and movements don't attract much attention. Especially from young people who are in the summer of life. They find it hard to imagine that white haired people were ever as young and vibrant as themselves. They find it hard to fathom that white haired people once groped for meaning to life, for love, and for excitement. They find it hard to understand that white haired people sinned (and still sin) just as they do.

What's inside the white crowned people in our midst? Treasures. A library. Volumes of stories and lessons learned in the school of hard knocks. Perhaps that's why God gave us instructions to rise in the presence of the aged. "You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God." (Leviticus 19:32) Long ago, when people rose as an old person hobbled into a gathering, there was recognition for the value of a life lived long and a life lived well. Society, as a whole, no longer does that. It's a shame. It's missing out on its treasure.

Thankfully, however, there are many wonderful young people who do value the treasures among them. They stop their text messaging, take their MP3 players out of their ears, and they sit down face to face and talk to older people. Sometimes they lend their arms to the older person to help them get around. Sometimes they go up to person, blinded by macular degeneration, cheerfully greet them and ask for the old stories.

These young people have stopped along the way in the summer of their lives and have asked to see the treasures inside the white crowned building. God bless them!