Memories

The Last New Year’s Post – Until 2013

/ Bill Jones / 3 Comments

    

Bluegrass Pickin' Party - that's me playing the banjo and trying to sing

     Back in our bluegrass band days, the bass player, John, and I sometimes borrowed an old Steve Martin Saturday Night Live skit. As we rolled up cables and put instruments in cases after a job, we discussed which songs worked, and whether the audience paid attention. On nights when things went especially well, we would talk about the future of the band and realize what we were saying – “…yea, we could start having regular practices…add more songs…we could really get serious and …” Then we’d stop talking, look into the air as if thinking about it, turn back to each other, shake our heads and say “Naaaah” – and laugh as we continued to put things away.

     It wasn’t that we didn’t care. Practice sessions weren’t needed because we played jobs at least once a week, and often more. We added new songs by working on them during breaks. We had worked up to a solid musical level, had great fun with it, and when the audience paid attention, they had great fun too.

     John and I knew our family lives and day jobs wouldn’t allow us to “really get serious”. As we expounded on the future, we had the luxury of letting the excitement seemingly build and then jokingly say, “naaah, this is good where we are.”

     As we talk and think about possibilities in life, we often feel the spark of excitement and begin to make plans. The plans are for good things so we make heartfelt commitments – and intend to keep them. The hard part then is consistency and diligence in the long term. Life gets in the way, and that spark of excitement dims.

     That isn’t always a bad thing. Whatever we were planning may have been impractical or the timing was wrong. But, often, as we allow the commitments to fade, we’re neglecting something that is practical and the timing is right, and the need is important (perhaps even critical).  

     In all our various roles as Christians, we don’t always have the luxury John and I had. We are called to good works, to obedience, to avoid becoming lukewarm.

     The New Year is a good time to ponder those things we may have let slide – what we once were excited about doing but haven’t carried through. If we have, in effect, decided “Naaaah, I’m good where I am”, we need to prayerfully ask whether God agrees with that.

“This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.” Titus 3:8 NKJV

 

Our Personal Rainbow from God

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments

          As my wife, Sharon, and I drove home from the grocery store, we passed in and out of areas of hard driving rain. As we turned into our driveway we echoed each other: “Wow! Look at that!” There was a rainbow in the backyard! It was lightly raining and the sun was peeking through the clouds just enough to make a perfect combination to split the light into the different colors.

          The bow started at the blueberry bushes, arced up twenty or thirty feet and came back to the ground about two hundred feet away in the old pasture. The band of colors was at least fifteen feet across and you could clearly see the transitions from the vivid red at the top to the soft violet at the bottom.

            We marveled at the sight a few minutes and then took the first load of groceries inside. The thought struck that it might be visible in a photo so I grabbed the camera and hurried back outside. I opened the lens cover….and it fogged up. Going from the air conditioned house into the hot, humid air outside had caused a thin film to form on the lens. By the time I wiped it off enough to get a clear picture, the clouds had blocked the sunlight and the rainbow had disappeared. But, boy was it beautiful while it lasted – what a blessing from the Lord!        

          In the Bible, we read of an ancient rainbow blessing from the Lord. Genesis, Chapter 6, tells that God grieved over mankind’s continual evil to the point He determined to destroy all the living creatures off the face of the earth. In judgment, He brought the Great Flood and wiped out almost every living thing on the dry land. One of the most wonderful verses in the Bible, Genesis 6:8, tells us why the devastation wasn’t complete: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” In His mercy and grace, God saved Noah and his family by shutting them safely in the ark Himself. 

            For forty days and nights the rains came down, the waters in the earth came up, and the world was completely covered. But the ark floated safely through it all. After many months of waiting for the waters to recede, God finally told Noah to bring his family and the animals out onto the dry land once more.

            At that time, God promised that as long as the earth remained there would be seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, and day and night.  The Lord made a covenant with Noah (and us too) that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. He told Noah that a rainbow in the clouds would be a token of His covenant.

            So, when we see a rainbow we can remember God’s mercy and grace in that He saved a remnant for Himself from the flood – and realize that we came from that remnant. We can be reminded that unless the end of time comes first, God will cause the sun to rise tomorrow morning and this season to pass into the next.            

            After our back yard show had ended, Sharon and I talked about the fable that says you can find a pot of gold buried at the end of a rainbow. Since one end was in the blueberry bushes we laughingly said that maybe we should dig them up. But then we agreed that the blueberry pies she makes from their fruit are worth more than the gold we might find.

            The other end had been in the grass of the old pasture next to our backyard. There were no valuable bushes or trees around to disturb, but there was also nothing in particular to mark its location. It would have required that I dig a lot of holes in hope of finding the right spot. That sounded like too much work, so we decided to forget the gold and just keep the memory of God blessing us with our own private rainbow. We gave each other a kiss, thanked the Lord for the mercy and grace he continually shows us, and went inside to put up the groceries He had blessed us with.

Comfort Food & God’s Love – Hot Stuff in Bowls

/ Bill Jones / 5 Comments

It was near freezing outside and there was a drizzling rain that made the cold seep into your bones. It was a good day to eat hot stuff in bowls, which is just what I was blessed to do! Breakfast was old fashioned oatmeal (with brown sugar and cinnamon, and actually cooked, not flakes mixed with boiling water); homemade chicken ala king at lunch (not always served in a bowl, but this was, which made it even better); and oyster stew for supper (if that one’s not to your liking, substitute your favorite chili in your thoughts).

The list of “hot stuff in a bowl” goes beyond what I enjoyed that day. How about homemade vegetable soup made with ingredients fresh from the garden, or gumbo (seafood or chicken or whatever else you like in it), or beef stew? Just thinking about those can make your tummy warm up! No wonder they call it comfort food.

Comfort food tastes good but also brings a sense of well-being. Many thousands (millions?) of bowls of hot soup (chicken and otherwise) have been served by mothers and grandmothers when their children and grandchildren had a cold. The soup itself has no healing power (I realize there will be debate on that). The taste is pleasing and the heat can clear your head and warm you from the inside, so you do feel better – thus it is a comfort. But the real sense of well-being comes from the fact that the one giving you the soup loves you. They want to take care of you…to help you feel better…to comfort you.

The Apostle Paul wrote a wonderful blessing to encourage and comfort the Thessalonians:

“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” 2nd Thessalonians 2:16-17 ESV

Our overriding comfort is an eternal one that has been given to us already – Jesus paid the price for that. Notice the focus Paul prays for in the present – he prays that God will comfort their hearts. The heart is where true comfort resides – from there our hearts can be established by God for good works and words.

Hot stuff in bowls is good on cold days. The taste and warmth make it comforting, but it only becomes true comfort food when our heart is affected by the love of others (like I was that day when my wife, Sharon, prepared it for me). However, our true comfort only comes when our heart is affected by the love of God.