Nestled in the Woods

Today we mourn the dead.
Unlike the one we lay to rest,
Our grief lives on beyond this test;
We hold the memories to our breast
Each future step we tread.

We grieve in different ways …
With tears or silence or regret;
With normal functions all upset;
With thoughts of what we should forget;
Not knowing what to say.

We who are left behind
Must grapple with mortality.
The fallen leave a legacy
That all will face eternity …
Nor can death be declined.

If we can understand
That Purpose guides experience,
And when it seems as little sense
That life is cut at great expense
There is a Higher Hand.

No death is met in vain,
For there are never accidents
In God’s all-perfect Providence …
He makes no selfish ordinance,
But rather timeless gain.

We say our last “adieu”,
Yet we who meet to pay respect
Would face a certain grim prospect
That by the Sovereign Architect
Next meet for me or you.

I had hoped “Soar Above the Yesterdays” would have been released by Thanksgiving. It is a little behind schedule, but we have high hopes that you will be able to have your very own copy within two to three weeks.

To refresh your memory on the book, it is a sequel to “All Things”, and takes Susanna into some more decision making. Old characters are revisited; new characters introduced; there is mystery, history, and romance to add to the excitement. Susanna has two paths she can follow. Does God have a role in His perfect plan for her with her musical talents, or is there an entirely new and different path for her to travel?

For autographed copies of either “All Things” or “Soar Above the Yesterdays”, contact me at: jwb@junebarebooks.com

I Corinthians 10: 13…No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

The end of the string,
and the concert’s not done;
but more string is essential
to complete the potential…
the symphony once begun.
Should I choose the same
or make a different choice?
The sameness is melodic;
a difference is harmonic.
Which sings to me the best voice?
The point…to connect,
and the choice is my own.
The Amen is not in sight,
nor should I take wings in flight
until He calls from His throne.
Meanwhile, we play the tune
with those of like kind,
and even when alone
it’s never monotone,
but textured with ties that bind.
God’s love keeps us not
from strings that can break,
but He’s the orchestrator
and none can e’er be greater.
He gives no more than we can take.

Not fear, but faith,
And with the faith, relinquish works of pride
And wisdom and our wits.
Fear is a wraith
That mocks God’s mercy that He brings beside
The hurt and never quits.

Grasp the conflict?
And try to turn it downside on its head?
Where God’s voice can’t be heard?
That effort’s vain,
And then will break apart the fragile thread.
It’s futile and absurd!

Don’t hold to stuff
Or conflicts that we nevermore can win,
Because the victory’s won,
And it’s enough.
The battle’s His.  To fight against Him, sin.
He sees the deed as done.

Ol’ Blackberry Ben saw his shadow today
    and slipped himself back in his hole.
“Another six weeks I will stow me away
    to live underground like a mole.
Those humans can live with the ice and the snow
    and fatten some more by the fire,
While I shall go hungry and thinner I’ll grow
    as I in my burrow retire.
But ah! In six weeks I’ll emerge with my clan
    to feast and to bask in the sun,
While citizens toil–both the woman and man–
    when once the warm weather has come.
Now I have the best of the bargain of life–
    a cozy home under the land:
I sleep in the winter along with my wife–
    my children there close by my hand.
But humans must worry with funds and with food;
    they fret about how to keep warm;
They run to and fro in a terrible mood,
    concerned they’ll be caught in a storm.
They should learn a lesson from groundhogs below–
    a lesson from under the sod:
To quit their pursuits and just go with the flow,
    and let everything up to God.”

BB/jwb

WEARY IN WELL DOING
Do we get weary in the process of life?  Is weariness wrong?  Is there ever a stopping point?  “Where is that verse, ‘let us not be weary in well doing’?  Do we continue to do good even when we fear that others would take advantage of us?  “I’m getting weary, but I want to do the right thing.”

The verse referenced is Galatians 6:9. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (KJV)  The subject is more complex than weariness in well doing, and the larger context is necessary to understand the implications.

I used to think that this “well doing” meant that Christians are to concentrate of living a righteous life and not giving up.  If taken as a statement alone, such a suggestion might be legitimate…especially if Christianity is all about me being “saved”, me living right…just Jesus and me, and so I can be more spiritual. Obviously, we are to live right, but living right includes compassion…always.

The entire passage (Galatians 6: 1-10 read it) gives a broader and more correct view of well doing.

All people, including Christians, get caught…entangled in situations that place them under a burden.  It’s part of our fallen world.  When we see that, it is our responsibility to “restore” them in the best way we can.  We must remember that we, too, live in a fallen world and are not immune to entanglements.  Confront them with the truth, urge them to confess and repent of their own wrong doing, and then lift them up.  We are to…Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  The law of Christ is found in John 15: 12. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  How did Jesus love us?  What burden did He carry?  Not just the cross, but our sins.  We could not carry them ourselves.  We can try to live right, obey the commands, and even believe, but that is not the point and it will not justify us in God’s sight.  The point is that Jesus died in our place for the egregious sins in our life…and one sin in a lifetime is egregious to a Holy God. 

If Christ so loved us that He bore that burden and freed us forever, we are to be Christ-like and bear the burdens that cause others to struggle.  We cannot look at a situation and say, “That person is unworthy of my help”, or “it’s not my responsibility”.  That is pride.  We must not get in the way of God’s leading with that pride.  What motives do we have for what we think, say, or do?  Does false pride or a matter of “keeping up with the Jones” influence our actions?

The Apostle Paul confuses the situation by throwing in this statement: …each one should carry his own load.  There is no contradiction here.  The above burden is one that an individual cannot bear alone.  We walk along side and carry it together.  Our own load, however, is a matter of accepting God’s providence in our lives without comparing ourselves with a lighter load that someone else may have to bear.  Do I have too much on my plate to care about someone else?  Am I ready to walk away?  Do I see my load as too overwhelming to share a burden with another?

The Apostle gives a good example of bearing another’s burden: Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor. Those who provide spiritual care many times have material burdens.  We receive their instruction; therefore, we make certain they can live to instruct. 

The next passage gets to the heart of our original question:  Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.(Galatians 6: 7-10)
Yes, we do get weary in the process of life.  Weariness, in itself, is not wrong.  The good news is that He will not present us with opportunities that we can’t bear. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (I Corinthians 10: 13)  When the opportunity comes to serve, He will give us the ability to do what He asks.  If we neglect the opportunity He gives us we deny Him, and we have yielded to temptation.  To be caught up in prideful control, greed, or seeking our own pleasures, is to lose sight of the needs of others.  We sow; we reap.    If we neglect the needs of other we will end up on the short end of the stick. 

Therefore…

Don’t be weary in well doing…do good; seize the opportunity to do good to all people.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  (Proverbs 3: 27)  Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so.

Is there ever a stopping point?  What if the one under the burden seems to want more and more?  The leech has two daughters—Give and Give! (Proverbs 30: 15) We do need to discern real needs in contrast to felt needs, hopes, and dreams.  America has a complete social structure of leech’s daughters…3rd and 4th generation welfare.  Welfare perpetuates welfare.

Discernment is the key word, but it is also the most difficult part of the picture.  We love others and want to carry their burdens, yet how do we know how much burden to carry?  Pray for guidance; base decision making on the Ten Commandments; live Jesus’ “Law of Love”.

There is that time of morning
Between confusing dream and conscious thought,
Before the darkness dissipates—is conquered by the sun,
Before some thought of warning
Or trouble creeps back in my mind of naught
But yesterday’s unwise mistakes and duties left undone.

I waken with a hoping—
A clean page willing to be written full
Of joys and new accomplishing that I’ve not done before—
Desire for a coping—
A rise above an errant, worldly pull,
And write that leaf where faith grows wings that take their flight and soar.

In my strength I’d be failing
In each endeavor for a perfect flight.
Those wings would droop and plummet me to depths below the ground.
In God’s care I’ll keep sailing
And reach beyond a fore-accomplished height,
For in His arms I’ve ridden free and lofty summits found.

Now that “All Things” has been published, I have begun a new book.  Tentatively, the title is “Soar Above the Yesterdays”, taken from the poem below.

Forget the past.
Oh, I don’t mean to kill those pleasant memories;
But rather yield those things that haunt the mind~~
    Pain and disappointing days;
    And even lock away the little victories.

Forget those things;
And with forgetting press on toward the final prize,
Where each event points to the finish line~~
    Soar above the yesterdays,
    And seek those things that reach beyond these cloudy skies.

Philippians 3:13-14…Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.