Looking around, watching the news, seeing a culture that seems to be throwing reasoning skills out with last week’s leftovers, I wonder, “Is there any wisdom among us?”
In the Bible, there is a book of wisdom called Proverbs.
This particular book has 31 chapters, so, in the very, merry month of May, I will be strolling through the proverbial park, and hopefully, taken by surprise by a pair of Godly eyes, as I try to find some wisdom to apply to this weird world I am encountering.
I hope you will take this walk with me, and feel free to add your own comments from the proverb of the day (corresponding to the day of the month).
I usually read the proverb and highlight a couple of verses that seem to catch my attention on this particular day, and think about it for a while.
My posts may not be on the exact day ( today is May 2 and today’s is on the one I read yesterday, Proverbs 1.)
If you have never tried this method in Proverbs, give it a try and take the walk with me.
You may be astounded how your mind will open up to ideas that come from your creator, and how your knowledge and understanding of Him and His ways will grow.
Or, you may prefer your simple life. You may have “more important things to do.”
But, beware. . . .
”“When they cry for help, I will not answer.
Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me.
For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the Lord.
They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them.
Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes.
For simpletons turn away from me—to death.
Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.
But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.”“
I know his name is officially Leslie Blair Wright, but my daughter, Chelsey, was his first grandchild, and she named him Pap.
Sometimes I called him Blair, usually Pap.
Pap grew up in the woods outside of Lindale. His mother and daddy always held the place of highest value in his heart.
They gave him what he needed to become the man he became.
He lived in the days when kids entertained themselves.
Pap has told us of the times when they lived at ” the old Taylor place” and he learned to hunt in those woods and fish on the Sabine River.
His best friend, Odum and he would climb the trees and play Tar-Zan, and do the Tarzan yell.
His family would meet family and friends on a weekend to stay the night sleeping by the river, cooking, drinking campfire coffee, and telling tales til late in the night, the men squatting by the river with their seats on their heels, fishing and talking.
Stories from these memories stayed with him and he never tired of passing these stories down to kids, grandkids, great grandkids, and anyone who happened to sit beside him at any time.
I joined the family in 1972.
I was young and untrained in any of the skills of do it yourself living.
He accepted me and taught me by example:
Acceptance, even when I didn’t deserve it.
Look for the good in others first.
Be slow to anger.
Be quick to forgive.
“You can figure this out if you take your time, look at it from different angles, think, and pray.
Sometimes a prayer in the evening and a good night’s rest, and the answer you’re looking for will come to you in the morning.
Mother used to always tell me, ‘You can find everything you need in the Bible.'”
When his legs started to betray him and walking became a bit more dangerous, I used to sit in the back seat with him while Wendy drove them to doctor appointments in Tyler.
It was the best time of my life, hearing these stories from the storyteller:
The old Taylor place
Memories of walks and wagon rides with “Daddy”
Time with daddy at the blacksmith shop
“Doc”, daddy’s nickname to his friends, healing a wobbly horse by hitting him in the head with a board
Memories of his childhood mischief that now made him cry
Memories of good choices he made that shaped his life
The dentist that threw teeth that he had pulled out the upstairs window in Lindale
The old used car that they had to tie used tires to the side so they could make a long trip
The story about his daddy moving a whole town in West Texas
Driving an ice truck when he was a teenager
Winning a jitter bug contest in a bar when he was too young to claim the prize of a case of beer
Betting Odum that he could shoot a roadrunner, and hitting it in the head
The time he and daddy were on the Sabine River when a flash flood came
The time Hollywood came to Lindale to make a movie
The time he was in Van schools and he showed the coach how fast he could run ( this was a little hard for me to believe, I never saw him run)
The stories went on and on and on.
They never grew old.
Everybody loved Pap.
Everybody.
If you sat down with Pap, you always had his complete attention.
The kids, grandkids, great grandkids all knew this without ever being told.
Pap lived his life slow and steady
Always calm
Always willing to give his money or his help
Loving acts of goodness, being good
Full of common sense (when it wasn’t all that common)
Always fair
Always just
Self- controlled,
Alert
Unselfishly loving the one standing beside you
Loving the God who made him.
In the last days, his memory and his strength began to fail him.
He couldn’t remember the stories, but he would smile when I reminded him.
We would hear him so many times in the other room just talking to God, holding his family up to the Father for protection and care.
From the very beginning, Pap was a man who poured his love out onto his family, always.
In the end, he seemed to be hearing God’s voice, feeling God’s pleasure, learning to rest in His arms.
The last Saturday Pap was at home, he told me, “Randy, I think we need to have Mary Jane and Wendy come in here, and we can make a circle, and you can pray for us.”
We did. Two days later he went to the hospital, and the Father began the process of bringing him home.
Two weeks later, after having his family with him continually, his last words to us were “I love you,” he puckered his lips to kiss his beloved wife of 73 years, said “I love you MaryJane,” and, a few minutes later his words to the Father, “Dear God!”
Brother David asked me what Blair’s favorite scripture was and I couldn’t answer.
But, he loved to bring the Lord into our conversations.
I know that he is with Jesus now.
He is the best man I have ever known.
Now this is very important. I want you to hear this.
He’s not in heaven because he was a good man.
He was a good man because he trusted Jesus to bring him to heaven.
He got it right.
”How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither;
With our 51st anniversary looming on the next day, Wendy and I took a little day trip to Frisco, Tx.
I told her, all I really wanted was to eat at Cheesecake Factory.
We have been to many restaurants over the years, only to find that our tastes are geared more for Cracker Barrel and Cheesecake Factory, than those fine dining places that charge so much for plating, but often fall short on flavor.
So, we had a good meal at CF in Frisco, then decided to spend some Christmas, Birthday, and Anniversary money from Wendy’s parents at IKEA.
We can always find little things that we didn’t know we needed.
It’s funny, though, every time we go we feel like we are in a grand assortment of nationalities, quite more varied from our rural East Texas daily life.
But, this day, I felt an affection for these sharers of our space, trying to catch an eye to share a smile while watching them interact in their own languages, in their own cultural ways.
I noticed, though, that their eyes avoided strangers, and only occasionally would I receive a return smile.
Wendy and I talked about the different ways cultures interact with one another, how difficult it must be to come to a new country, to experience maybe a New York, or a Dallas, and then to encounter someone from a small town with a culture of friendliness and try to know how to respond.
This world must experience that same uncertainty when those of us carrying the LIFE of Jesus inside us as we seek to share His love with those we come across as we walk this path so carefully ordered by Our Father.
Walking through the store, I saw these two pictures, and they each struck me in a different way.
One was an ordered, geometrical, predictable array of lines, and though interesting in composition, a bit plain to me in its lack of life. ( I would have wanted a face in the picture somewhere, to give a bit of meaning. . . Maybe a child playing on the the balcony, absorbed in a world of his own imagination.)
The other, a scene of action, horses running with joy, the wind blowing through their mane, the dust rising from the ground with each hoof thundering against the earth.
I just finished reading again C.S. Lewis’s book, Mere Christianity.
In his last chapter, he speaks of the sameness of the world who has yet to discover the infinite goodness of the Creator of the universe who desires to give them the LIFE that He intended them to have, and the extreme variety of gifts and personality and creativity of those who “have allowed Him” to finish the creation project inside of each of them to become who He designed them to be.
The picture of the side of the building is stuck in place.
The horses are using the strength, might, and speed for which they were created.
Maybe, we need to start kicking up a little dust, find the purpose of our lives, not by trying to fix ourselves, but by seeking the One who can finish the work He began.
There comes a time in everyone’s life when he starts to think about the end of life.
The older I get, the nearer it is.
The older I get, the more difficult it is to “change my mind.”
If I perceive that there is a heaven awaiting me, the only real question is how can I get there?
I have done things my whole life my own way, and now, realizing that my own way hasn’t brought me as much peace or joy or happiness that I expected, how can I change that?
Is it too late to change?
The Bible talks about a double minded man being tossed about, being unstable in all his ways. James 1:6-8
The eye is the lamp of the body. If, therefore, your eye is single, your whole body will be filled with light. Matthew 6:22
Doesn’t feel like I am full of light, does it?
This is not talking about my actual eye. This is speaking to my ability to focus on one true thing. To not be double- minded.
If your eye is bad (or evil) your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matt 6:23
Maybe, now is the time to see the darkness and wonder, “How do I get this single eye? I would like my body to be filled with light?”
Good news and bad news.
Bad news: I can’t get a single eye on my own.
“Unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 (the One True Thing)
I can’t do it. I am dead. I have to be made alive.
Good news: If I can see the darkness and desire to see the Light, I am being offered the gift of LIFE, given the choice to turn from the darkness and to step into the light.
I did this, for real, in 1978.
God showed me my darkness, and offered me life.
I said,”Yes.”
I gave up my right to have my own way and put myself into His hands to have charge over me.
“Yes, Randy, but I am not like you. You don’t know how difficult my life is,” you say. “I just don’t see how any of this can get better, just by saying a prayer.”
I have been told countless times that I am only a Christian because I was indoctrinated as a child, and in my young adulthood I returned to my indoctrination and believed something without thinking in order to make my life better.
Funny thing is, though, I really couldn’t think so well, when I was dead. Dead men have dead thoughts, with no thoughts of life.
When I was “quickened” (Romans 8:11) I began to “see” the kingdom of God, to “think” the thoughts of God (1Corinthians 1:2).
When I learned to “see” the invisible world, a began to see with a single eye, holding everything in the natural world, that was all I could see before, up beside the new world that I was now ready to perceive; discerning truth from error, Spirit from natural.
It all began with a prayer: Oh, God, my life stinks and I can’t fix it. I want You. I want to belong to the world that You have for me. I know now that I have sinned against You my whole life and deserve nothing but death. But you loved me when I was unlovable and sent your only begotten Son, Jesus, to pay for my sin, and to give me Life.
I accept the payment.
I am yours.
Everything changed.
Is my body full of light?
Sometimes, when my vision is merging with the Vision of my Father.
Do I still go through times of darkness?
Yes, when I slip into double-mindedness.
But, now, I hate the darkness.
Now, I love the Light.
I can instantly turn the light back on by turning back to the One True light.
By letting my eye be single. . . .
”Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.“
Isaiah 26:3 KJV
Would you like some of “this perfect peace”?
If you have read this and feel a desire to experience this new light of life that I speak of,
DO NOT PUT IT OFF A MOMENT LONGER!
THE FATHER LOVES YOU IN SPITE OF YOUR SELFISH WAYS, AND IS CALLING YOU TO HIMSELF.
”Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,“
Dad drove the six of us in his new 1960 Chevy Bel-Air to the new Griff’s Hamburger joint in Lochwood shopping center.
15 cent hamburgers.
Six hamburgers for ninety cents.
For some time now, my oldest brother’s favorite food was my mom’s spaghetti.
I liked it, too, but, apparently, the rules were, I had to come up with my own favorite food.
When he chose apple pie, I chose cherry pie.
So, when he chose spaghetti…
Yep. I chose hamburgers.
And now, if Dad could only come up with fifteen cents, I could eat hamburgers any time I wanted.
So we took dinner home in a paper sack, and ate these hamburgers at the dinner table.
I guess, in theory, it was a hamburger, but really, thin meat, bun, pickle, mustard, and ketchup somehow just didn’t seem to fit into the “favorite food” category.
Then, Hardee’s came along with “flame broiled” hamburgers…also for 15 cents.
Much better…, well maybe a little.
But, they still wouldn’t stand the test of “favorite food”.
But, that was my introduction to the fast food industry, and, that industry became a part of my generation’s culture.
“It takes two hands to handle a Whopper “
“Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun”
“Where’s the beef?”
But, when it got right down to it, the convenience and the price point never quite brought you to the place of saying, “Man, that is one great burger!”
We were studying the sermon on the mount in our Sunday morning Bible Study. (Matthew 5)
“God blesses those who…”
The thing is, the blessings from God come from a long term lifestyle… An immersion into a state of being…
Being poor in spirit, and realizing your need for Him…
Mourning a loss…
Living a life without selfish pride…
Looking for justice…
Offering mercy…
Keeping your heart pure toward God…
Making peace…
Being teased and persecuted and bullied for being a follower of Jesus…
Apparently, the blessings that God gives don’t come in a paper bag at a drive through.
Wednesday morning after my first stop, I discovered that I did not have my wallet with me. It held multiple credit cards, gift cards, drivers license, a few receipts, and 400.00.
I spent the entire day trying to remember every step I had taken since I last used it the day before.
I decided that it had to be at my house, either in the yard a couple of places I walked that night and the following morning, or in the house.
I prayed, “God, I know it is at my house somewhere. You know exactly where it is. Please show me.”
At my next to the last stop, I told my customer of my frustration level at having lost my wallet.
Before she said another word, I saw her close her eyes, standing in the kitchen, with her hands leaning on the counter and say “Lord, you know where Randy’s wallet is. Speak to him, and lead him to it.”
My heart leaped for joy. I could hardly wait to get home. My faith was so confident that I would find the wallet that had somehow eluded my wife’s sight all day.
When I got home, I DID NOT FIND IT.
Wendy was fixing dinner. I told her I would have to spend the evening canceling credit cards.
“Before you do, could you go to the store and get some spinach for the soup I am making?”
I started my truck. As I pulled out of the driveway, I heard a grinding sound coming from my brakes.
Great! Another thing!
I stopped at the drive through at the bank across the street to cancel my debit card, then stopped at the store for the spinach.
Luckily, I had a bit of cash in my pocket, because I DID NOT HAVE MY WALLET.
Driving home, I saw my mechanic walking in the parking lot of his shop, so I swerved in, rolled down my window, and asked him if he could replace my brake pads on Friday.
“Oh, man,” I said,”I lost my wallet today; credit cards, drivers license, 400.00.”
He reached through my window, put his hand on my shoulder, and said, “Ahh Lord God, this man has been walking with you for years. I pray that you would have the man who found his wallet, call him on the phone, and restore this lost wallet to him, and that you would have Randy give him a reward. In Jesus’ Name.”
He told me a story of losing his wallet in 1974 with 67.00 in it, and some guy found it and returned it to him, intact. “Don’t doubt God, Randy. You call me when you get that wallet back. I don’t care if it’s 1:00 in the morning. Call me.”
When I took the spinach home, I got my iPad out, set it on the kitchen table, opened my bill paying app, and cancelled my first credit card.
God spoke in an audible voice (sounded like my wife, but I knew it was Him), “Don’t do it now, help me get dinner finished. We can do this later.”
I started to make a salad, my phone rang.
“Hello, this is Randy.”
“Randy, this is Jimmy B_____. You cleaned my chimney this morning. Did you lose something?”
“Jimmy! Did you find my wallet? I was sure I lost it at home.”
“My daughter just found it in the restroom.”
I told him about my mechanic’s prayer ten minutes earlier.
“Yep, God does that kind of stuff!” He said.
I thanked him excitedly, told him I would drive out tonight after dinner.
I called my mechanic. His Joy was exploding.
I called the lady who had prayed earlier. Her Joy erupted.
After dinner, I asked Wendy if she wanted to go with me.
In our three hour round trip, we made a date night of celebrating the exceeding great joy of the ways of God.
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: Fear the LORD, and depart from evil.”
When I was a kid, in junior high (Is it middle school now?) I had to do a book report on The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Now, I was a good reader, thanks to my mom’s early instruction, and my teachers loved me from the first grade on, at least in regard to the reading part. By junior high I had become a bit of a smart alec.
My phonics helped me to sound out most any word (except misled, but that is a different story) and I could spell most words pretty well by the same skill.
But, I didn’t usually look up a word for its meaning, because that would slow down my reading.
Did I say that I was a fast reader?
Anyway, I had to write that book report.
Looking back, I remember the gist of the story. The character, Heather Prynne(?) had committed adultery ( I don’t think I really knew what that word meant, (I didn’t have time to look it up) and I guess I realized that that was not a good thing, so the judge made her wear a scarlet A on the front of her dress for punishment.
I have no idea what the rest of the story was. I guess I figured the moral was “Don’t do bad things or you will be embarrassed,” but I had to write a report of a certain number of words, and that phrase wouldn’t cut it.
So, I wrote what would now be considered a Kamala Harris style book report and put together as many words as I could to reach my goal.
Honestly, that was quite a long time ago, and, on reflection, I think I might like to reread the book and see how it all came out.
But, I remember one line I wrote in my report.
“With a dictionary always by my side, this book really came alive for me!”
I don’t remember what grade I got on the paper. I guess it was okay.
But, I do remember the teacher’s comment.
In the teacherly red ink of the time, she wrote,
“Really? That usually takes away my enjoyment.”
The moral of the story to readers: If you don’t know what a word means, look it up. It will help you understand the meaning of the story and to remember it when you get old.
The moral of the story to writers: Tell your story with words that we understand.
Apology to Nathaniel Hawthorne: I believe when you wrote the Scarlet Letter, vocabulary skills were much higher. I apologize for our current generations.
Since your friend blocked me, I figured I needed to respond to what you said.
I hope you see this.
NAN: I’m writing this in hopes Randy sees it, even though he may not be able to respond.
Your “level of peace, presence of joy” is not exclusive to believing in Jesus or your god. It is available to ALL. It’s just that believers want to assign these attributes to some airy-fairy entity because they have been convinced they cannot find them on their own.
There are multitudes of atheists and non-believers who live happy and satisfying lives. When you say that such feelings are only available via an unseen and mute “god,” you are simply spouting religious indoctrination.
RANDY:
Nan, I’m not talking about ” happy and satisfying lives.”
I have actually found that type of life unsatisfying.
Like something was missing.
Bouncing from one happy to another.
The peace I refer to is the peace that comes from belonging to God instead of being His enemy.
The joy comes from Him, not my circumstances, when I “feel His pleasure” by finding His purpose for me.
My Rainy, Windy Life 