Monthly Archives: July 2021

“Being Gratitude”

On July 28, 2021 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Here is a prayer that I just prayed by recording it in my journal:

“Today, my God, I am not making a list, but instead I am simply speaking my gratitude to you.

For the coming dawn, I thank you. Thank you for nature in all its convenient and inconvenient manifestations. Thanks for supernature as well. Thank you for all the blessings of life and for the blessing of life, too. Thank you for giving me life and for giving me new life in Christ. Thank you for recovering me from this terrible addiction. Thank you for Sharon and our dog, for children and grandchildren, for extended family, for friends. In short, thanks for everything!

Now, help me to live a life today that reflects my gratitude, a life that is attractive to others, a life that is pleasing to you. Whether that means scholarly work or weeding the flower beds and garden or taking care of my wife who isn’t feeling well, may I enjoy your presence, and may you enjoy my presence.

May I not simply be grateful today, LORD. May I be gratitude.”

I hope that you too, dear reader, will find a way to be grateful today. Even if you’re having a really difficult time, you might find something for which to give thanks if you look hard enough. If nothing else, you can come over to my place and help me weeding the flower beds and garden!

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“Making People Walk the Plank or Loving People as They Are?”

On July 22, 2021 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

You gotta love people as they are, not as they aren’t. If you love people as they aren’t, you aren’t. That is, you aren’t loving them.

I read a story today as part of my addiction recovery work. The story compared recovery to sailing. People were setting sail for the Island of Serenity onboard a ship named “Recovery.”

It was a good analogy, but I got off-course—of course. I said to myself, being cooped up on a small ship with a bunch of selfish, obsessive, compulsive people—yep! That sounds like recovery!

In fact, it sounds like the church, family, my softball league, my new chess club, and every other group of which I’ve ever been a member. If you put two or more people together in anything for any reason, then you have two or more selfish people. The closer the proximity the more that selfishness will wear on everyone.

There is only one person on the ship that I can do much about, and that is me. The others, I have to learn to put up with. Putting up with others isn’t the same as loving them, but putting up with them is a necessary precondition for loving them.

So, before you and I make anyone walk the plank, we might want to remember that we need all the crew members if we are to reach our common destination. It might help also to reflect on the fact that there are many times when others have wanted us to walk the plank.

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“But I Will Recognize You.”

On July 21, 2021 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“I probably won’t recognize you,” she said, looking me squarely in the eyes.

I returned her steady gaze and said, “But I will recognize you.”

Rewind the story by about forty-five minutes.

I was sitting outside a small coffee shop near my home. I had taken a book along to read, just in case my friend was late. He was more than late; he forgot completely. But it was a nice day, cool with a gentle rain. The coffee was good and the Danish pastry was delicious. I was content.

It was Lynne’s book that I noticed as she walked toward the door of the coffee shop. “Watcha reading?” I asked.

“Still Alice,” she replied. “It’s about dying and Alzheimer’s,” she said, staring at me with a steady gaze. “A fun read,” she added.

“Regular beach reading,” I commented.

“Yes,” she said.

While she was getting her coffee inside, I decided to hazard a serious and personal question. The lady and I appeared to be about the same age. I am genuinely interested in the stories that are people. Also, at my age, I don’t have time for chit-chat. Serious questions are the order of the day.

So, when she came out, I asked the lady my ultra-serious question. “So, are you dying, or do you have Alzheimer’s or both?”

She stopped and looked at me to see if I was being cruel or just trying to be funny. She saw that the question was a serious and compassionate one. “Both,” she said.

Her name was Lynne, and she had been dealing with her diagnoses for several years. The forgetting was getting worse. She had given up her volunteer work because she was afraid that she might harm someone. She was still driving, but only locally where she was familiar with the streets.

She had been a librarian. Now, she had to read the same page over several times. If she did that, she might remember something.

We sat and talked for a good while. Her life sounded as if it was worth several books. When we left, I said, “I’ll probably see you here again.”

“I probably won’t recognize you,” she said, looking me squarely in the eyes.

I returned her steady gaze and said, “But I will recognize you.”

In a letter to a church which the Apostle Paul had founded (and which was, in Paul’s opinion, drifting into serious error), Paul reminds them of their past when they were ignorant of God (Galatians 4:9). Paul also reminds them that they now do know God. At least, they know God in some measure.

However, right after saying that the Galatians now know God, Paul corrects himself. “Now that you know God, or rather, are known by God . . . .” (emphasis mine)

Knowing God is important. However, according to Paul, the thing that really matters is that God knows us.

Whether we have Alzheimer’s or are simply forgetful, it is a wonderful thing that God looks us in the eyes and in the heart and says, “But I will recognize you.”

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“Wake Up and Be Awesome!”

On July 19, 2021 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Public restrooms are not usually the sort of place where you find wisdom scrawled on the walls. However, the other day I saw something that woke me up better than two cups of strong coffee. It was an admonition on a plastic block:

“Wake up and be awesome!”

Appropriately enough, it was in the restroom of a local coffee shop.

I don’t find it easy to be awesome, but then I don’t find waking up a walk in the park either. I’m not talking about waking up physically. That I can do. But living an awake life—well, that is a different matter.

Henry David Thoreau said that very few people live lives that are truly awake. I am just awake enough to remember that Thoreau said that. However, having one eye open (or remembering that someone said that we ought to be awake) is not being fully awake.

The Scriptures speak of being awake too. Here are a few of these wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee verses:

Isaiah 52:1

“Awake, awake,

Clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion;

Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments,

O Jerusalem, the holy city;

For the uncircumcised and the unclean

Will no longer come into you.”

Ephesians 5:14

“For this reason it says,

‘Awake, sleeper,

And arise from the dead,

And Christ will shine on you.’”

Revelation 3:2

“Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.”

Romans 13:11

“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.”

Psalm 57:8

“Awake, my glory!

Awake, harp and lyre!

I will awaken the dawn.”

May you and I have an awake day!

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