Spider Web

The elaborate beauty of a spider web can be easily seen in the morning if dew drops are still clinging to the web and the sun's rays shine on it at just the right angle.  You can actually preserve such a spider's web; you simply spray the web with dark spray paint, and quickly, before the paint dries, bring a piece of white cardboard up against it.  The painted web will permanently stick to the cardboard.  This was a fun cub scout activity which I learned to do while I was a den leader in Virginia.  I have captured some remarkable examples of webs which my family still marvels over.

Spider webs can be admired with our eyes and minds for their intricate design.  However, can you imagine trusting a spider web to support you in time of trouble?  Or can you imagine weaving cloth from a spider web?  How absurd you say?  We can't imagine anyone doing such a thing!  However, the Bible speaks of people who do just that!

Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.  His confidence is severed, and his trust is in a spider's web.  Job 13,14

They weave the spider's web...  Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make.   Isaiah 59:5,6

This last week I've read of people who have done just what these verses say.

The first example was a recently published book on the history and features of the earth published by the Smithsonian Institute.  Rather than giving any credit to God for creating the heavens and the earth, there were pages and pages of diagrams and outlandish theories of how the earth came to be.  Without acknowledging God, mankind must fabricate elaborate schemes (weave their own spider web) to explain the wonders and orderly design of God's creation.

The second example was a sample lecture that came in the mail as an unsolicited advertisement for The Great Courses (great courses taught by great professors priced at the special sale price of 70% off).  Out of curiousity I listened to the CD lecture on the biological origins of mankind's behavior.  The professor was teaching that how we behave, who we fall in love with, the intensity of our spiritual lives, the degree of our aggressive behavior, etc, is not our individual responsibility but is based on the brain's biology.  He lectured with the premise that our behavior is based on how the brain developed through evolution.  Left out of the lecture was the fact that God will one day evaluate us a free, moral agents responsible for the choices we've made in behavior and thought.  The Bible tells us that, at the time of judgment before God's throne, we must have chosen to be clothed in the standard of righteousness that has been offered to us by God, namely the offer of Jesus Christ.   It will do us no good to stand before a holy God dressed in the spider webs of biological excuses for our wrong behaviors.

The third example of people I've seen who have chosen to weave clothing of spider webs were individuals I saw in photos that accompanyed a news article I read last week.  There was a picture of three, proud avowed atheists grinning over the popularity of their recent media ventures.  What were they pleased about?  They had organized athiests to plaster a specific proclamation across the sides of city buses all over the world- 800 buses in England, alone.  The pictures of city buses were:  one bus by the Brandenburg gate in Germany, one in Barcelona, Spain, and one in Toronto, Canada.  What was the same proclamation, respectively, in German, Spanish, and English on these buses?   Simply this: THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD.  NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE. 

This same group of atheists is now challenging teenagers to take the "blasphemy challenge" to publically renounce "any belief in the sky God of Christianity."  Psalm 2 tells how God reacts to these kind of people who want to dismantle the last remnants of Judeo-Christian faith remaining in our culture.  This is how God regards these people who spin deceptive webs to destroy faith in God:  ...The peoples plot in vain... against the LORD and against his anointed, saying, 'Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.' He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.  Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury... Psalm 2:1-4 

In nature, spider webs show evidence of God's wisdom in design and beauty.  On the other hand, trusting in the deception of man-made webs brings frightening consequences that last for eternity.  God will not be mocked.

Finding Significance

I've always been a paper pack rat.  I've kept newsclippings, wedding invitations, post cards, notes, teaching outlines, photos, journals, and other stuff that have been meaningful to me.  Throughout the years, I've been methodical about caring for these scraps of paper, my archives of past events.  I've punched holes into the side of each document that I've found worthy of keeping and entered them into a loose leaf notebook.  Dozens of these notebooks are upstairs in a closet.  In addition to my own memorabilia, I have possession of the old diaries of my mother-in-law and of my mother.  Over the years I have been tempted to discard these archives of the past, but I haven't.  More than once I've wondered about the purpose of keeping all of this.

It is said that when a person dies, especially an older person, an entire library of knowledge is gone.  And so it is!  But until that time, each of us carries a richness of life expeiences that make us who we are.  And those experiences are often what we share with other people in conversation or in other ways.  For myself, I find writing and artwork to be an outlet for reflecting upon the experiences and truths that God has blessed me with over a lifetime.

Lately, I've been going through my archives and jotting down notes to remind me of events and people from the past and then discarding the original documents.  My notes take up a lot less room than the documents.  There is significance in each document, a meaning to why I kept the scrap of paper.  For instance, in the above picture you can see a postcard of the girl scout camp where I was a counselor, my wedding invitation, a newspaper clipping of when I worked on the high school yearbook, an e-mail from my daughter-in-law as she awaited the birth of her first child, a picture of my husband receiving his warrant officer rank, and various other items.

All of us long to find meaning to our lives.  I think that is why I have kept my own personal archives.  As I am reviewing and consolidating my scraps of papers lately, I take note of the meaning of each item. At this time in my life, I find significance in how richly God has blessed me with people I have known and insight I have gleaned from the past.  I hope that these memories will be the means by which I can bless others in my attempts to write words of spiritual encouragement.

"Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.  Full of splendor and majesty is his work."  Psalm 111:1-3 

When I review the richness of my life, look at the marvels of nature, or read of Jesus Christ in the Bible, I cannot help but recognize God's work of splendor and majesty.  There is something to be said for pausing to study God's work in our lives (even in the hard times), His work in the natural world, and His redeeming work on behalf of mankind through Jesus.  It is in recognizing God's hand in everything that we find our life's greatest meaning and significance. 

       

Frozen Stiff

Years ago, on wintery days like the picture above, my mother wasn't able to hang the family wash outside to dry.  Instead, after running our bedding and clothing through the wringer washer and wash tubs every Monday morning, she hung the wet clothes on lines my dad had strung up in the woodshed.  Since there was no heat in that building, Monday evening my mom brought the laundry back into the house to finish drying it over a rack of wooden bars in the dining room.  What I remember best was my mom's attempt to bring my dad's long johns back into the house.  They were frozen stiff!   My mom tried as best as she could to manuver the freezing-cold, flat garments with stiff outstretched arms and legs through the doorway, but it was wasn't easy.

I thought of those frozen long johns the other day when I read a selection from one of J. I. Packer's books called Knowing God.  Packer writes  "Constantly we find ourselves slipping into bitterness and apathy and gloom as we reflect on past disappointments and present heartbreaks, which we frequently do.  The attitude we show to the world is a sort of dried-up stoicism, miles removed from the 'joy unspeakable and full of glory' (1 Peter 1:8) that Peter took for granted his readers were displaying."  Since it was on a nasty, freezing, and snowy day that I read this selection from J. I. Packer, I imagined that "dried-up stoicism" was about the same as "frozen, stiff long johns".

I don't know about others, but I find that I slip into bitterness and apathy and gloom at times.  I wouldn't be surprised that during this Christmas season, there are many others who, when reflecting on past disappointments and present heartbreaks, also slip into bitterness and apathy and gloom.  Somehow we manage to function outwardly when we are around others celebrating the season's festivities, but inwardly our emotions and spirits are stiff and cold, and we know it!  We can fool others, but we can't fool ourselves or God. 

There is a request made of God in Psalm 51 that seems appropriate for me and other Christian's to pray when they feel overwhelmed and emotionally frozen at this time of the year.  In Psalm 51 David, the Psalmist, confesses his sin and asks God to have mercy upon him according to His steadfast love.  David also makes this request of God: Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:12).

That sounds like a good prayer for this harried, frantic time of year.  What do you think?

Confessions of A Christian Writer

Writing is a lonely activity.

A writer has to wrestle not only with the thoughts that are in his or her mind and which of those thoughts to write about, but the writer must also think about the audience who will receive the words. What is the need of the reader? What effect should the writing have on him or her? What approach and words should be used, and are the phrases, grammar and spelling correct? All these activities are done in solitude; they are a matter of what takes place in the heart and mind of the writer.

As the writer of this blog, I have to make a confession. My thoughts lately have been much like the picture above. Weedy, sharp and barren. Quite honestly, people, things, news, teachings, circumstances, and my own self have been irking me. Outwardly I appear pleasant and relatively happy. But inside, when I wrestle with my thoughts, I have been irked.

Lets get this straight about what I've been feeling. Below are some words to describe my inner attitude. However, I don't think I'm alone in being irked. The chances are good that these words will describe what many other people feel at times, even you! Aggravated, annoyed, bothered, bugged, chafed, disgruntled, displeased, disturbed, driven up the wall, exasperated, frustrated, grated, hassled, incensed, inconvenienced, infuriated, maddened, miffed, nagged, needled, outraged, peeved, pestered, plagued, provoked, put out, riled, rubbed the wrong way, teased, ticked off, tried, vexed, worked up and worried.

The editorial pages of a newspaper and a great number of blogs are peoples' opinions about what is irking them. It is relatively easy to talk or write about things that bother us. It's easy to complain about things or blame others when things go wrong. However, as a Christian writer, I can't do that. I have to be careful how I write. I can't just write to get things off my chest so that I feel better. I have to write in a Christ-like manner. That's not always easy to do. The last few days, I've been struggling with this.

Therefore, this morning, recognizing what I was feeling inside, I turned to Psalm 73. The psalmist Asaph faced the same kind of situation I was faced with. He wrote Psalm 73 because he was envious of the prosperity of the wicked people that he knew. He was irked by them. He had tried to live a good life, and he seemed to be getting nowhere, whereas the bad people seemed to get along just fine. However, despite the psalmist's intense feelings about this, he was careful how he expressed his complaint. He had a holy fear of how his words would affect others. He said, "All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence...If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed the generation of Your children." Psalm 73:13,15 The psalmist was restrained in his speaking because of the fear of betraying the people God had put around him.

To think that our words, spoken or written, are powerful enough to betray the generation of people around us is a sobering truth. "Betray" is a strong word. It means to break faith with someone, to deceive them, or to even help their enemy who is against them. I know I would never want to do this to the people around me, and I am confident that you would not want to do that either.

I continued reading Psalm 73 in order to find out what I should talk or write about that proves my loyalty to others. The answer if found very simply and to the point in the last verses of that psalm, but most of all in the last verse. "But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works." Psalm 73:28

In prayer we need to give away our anxieties, complaints, and irritations (the things that irk us) to the Lord to take care of. But to the generation of God's children around us, we need to tell them of the faithfulness of the Lord God as our refuge. By that we prove our loyalty and care for them.

As I struggle in this lonely activity of writing, I know how desperately I'll need God's help to write those things which builds others up. But I know I'm not alone in needing God's help. Any of us who desire to speak or write as Christians will need His help so we aren't sharp, weedy, and barren.