Why We Read

One my favorite lines in Shadowlands, a movie about C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham, is: "We read to know we are not alone."

I'm a writer who loves to read. What I have learned from other people's writing cannot be measured.Their research and insight have enabled me to answer questions, relax or understand more about something that interests me.

A great day is one where I can sit in a comfy chair with a blanket over my lap, a cup of coffee or tea by my side, and what I call a real book in my hands - the kind with printed pages, maybe some illustrations and sometimes, if it is an old book, a certain smell. Those days are luxurious.

In the last few years, some brick and mortar bookstores have disappeared. This has largely been due to the change in the publishing industry. With electronic readers, laptops and phones that connect to the internet, the business of publishing newspapers, magazines and books will never be the same.

Happily, people are reading more - not less - because of these changes. Although I prefer reading a book in print, I travel so much that I seldom carry heavy books with me. Even though I don't have a reader, I download free classics on my laptop and take a library with me. Something to read is always available. 

While reading someone else's writing, I get ideas for my own articles, devotionals or books. If I didn't want someone else to read what I was writing, I would simply keep a private journal, like I used to do. Occasionally, someone will give me feedback about something I wrote and I know that I have connected with my reader. That is gratifying because I write to let others know they are not alone.

It was so important to God we know His love is real that He sent His Son, His living Word, to make that connection between Him and us. His inspired Word, the Bible, lets us know we are not alone. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God....And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-2, 14 NAS).

From Frazzled to Fruitful

When we lived in California, we had many fruit trees in our yard. Some produced better than others. The lemon tree in our front yard had some really strange looking lemons. We were told it was because we were not giving the tree enough water. Neglect had produced a less than superior product.

However, in our back yard, we had the most prolific fig tree I have ever seen. When we moved into our house, that fig tree was practically a stump because it had been pruned so much. I remember wondering if it would produce any fruit at all. Since it was in an area where we planted grass and watered regularly, that particular tree was not neglected. It produced the most amazingly bountiful crop of figs. Attention to that tree brought the desired results.

It is like that in our spiritual lives. As Christians, those of us who desire to produce fruit in our lives must pay attention to how we are living. The fruit of the Spirit, present in every believer, may lie dormant from neglect, but when the Spirit is allowed to nurture what is already there, there is an obvious difference in productivity.

Life is full of stresses - some good, some bad - but we sometimes allow those stresses to rob us of the joy of the Lord and the peace that comes with knowing Him.  Instead we feel frazzled or stressed out.

So often we measure ourselves - or others measure us - by what we do. Our measurement should be God's standards. Paul gives a list of the elements of the fruit of the Spirit of Christ. That fruit is measured not by what we do, but our character, who we are in Christ. God does desire that we produce tangible fruit, but it is His character that will produce good works, not ours.

How is it possible to keep from being frazzled or completely stressed by the cares of life? Act and react in love. An action is something you originate. A reaction is how you respond to other's actions. When we act and react in His love, God will do through us what we cannot accomplish in our own strength.

Paul describes some elements of a frazzled or stressed lifestyle just before he lists the fruit of the Spirit. Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, etc.  - not one of these deeds of the flesh brings to mind a calm and fruitful person who is trusting in God. They are, in fact, opposites.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul describes the cure for a frazzled and stressed out lifestyle by his next words,which are:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law...If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23, 25 NAS).

Learning as a Choice

I recently attended a class my husband taught on how adults learn. I learned a lot during that session. He defined learning as a change of behavior as a result of experience.

In school, many children learn simply because it is a requirement. The goal is to know the material well enough to pass the test and move on. In that environment, because some subjects are not particularly interesting to the student, the information may be lost after the testing is over. Only those subjects that are of the student's choosing are retained and built upon.

An adult, more often than not, learns because he wants to. When a person is motivated to learn, he will do much more than what is required. He will research on his own and study often in order to increase his knowledge.

As a flight instructor, my husband was also able to give an illustration about those who want to learn to fly. The closer in time the lessons are, the faster the learning. In other words, it is best to fly once or twice a week rather than once a month. The frequency helps set in place the things that have been learned, making it easier to build upon the next principle.

Experiential learning is much better than knowledge of theory of a subject. When you put into practice things you have learned, they become part of you. It is more than temporary knowledge. It is true learning.

Many people know things about God. Some have even gone to religious schools or passed catechism classes. However, some are like the demons who believe that there is one God and shudder. Knowing about God does not mean that someone has experienced His love, truly knowing Him.

Only those who want to experience a relationship with God really do know Him. The test of that knowledge is whether or not God's love, received through His Son Jesus Christ, resides within you.

Those who truly know Him will want to spend time with Him. Just as student pilots retain their desired information better when they fly more often, believers grow in the Lord by spending frequent time with Him - learning from His Word and His nature. Christians are different because of Jesus. Experiencing His love changes their behavior. They want to become like Him.

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me: and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves (John 5:39-42). The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love... We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:8, 19 NASB).

Is the Grass Really Greener on the Other Side?

Driving down a Texas country road is an interesting experience. You can pass large manicured ranches, trailer homes that have seen better days, old barns that must have been beautiful at one time, oil rigs, hay bales, and much more. The interesting terrain is adorned in a variety of ways, but the land is often occupied by livestock -  horses, sheep, deer or cattle.

On one such drive, I observed an interesting situation. A Texas longhorn - a very large Texas longhorn - had forced his head through a fence in order to eat what seemed to be the greener grass on the other side. Whether he had done this before or not, I don't know, but I wondered how he was going to get his head back through the fence once he was through with his snack. It certainly must have been easier to put his head through the fence than to back it up again.

I guess I will never know his trick as we didn't wait until he was through to see how he did it. I knew that if he had problems, I wouldn't be able to help him. I am not comfortable around a large steer and could possibly get injured in the process. It would have taken someone who knew how to handle such an animal to assist him if he needed help.

People are a lot like that Texas longhorn. We often don't think of the consequences when we see something we want. It appears to be there for the taking. The grass seems greener on the other side.

Like that Texas steer, reaching out to take what we want may lead to complications. Once the decision is made, we may discover that it was not good for us after all. It is possible to get stuck in the fence, having to call on others to help us, possibly injuring ourselves and them in the process.

That is exactly how sin began. Can't you imagine that Adam and Eve wished they had left that forbidden fruit alone? On their own, they could not get back to the place where they had been before they sinned. They lost their place in the Garden of Eden.

God knew how to restore His relationship with man. He sent His Son, who was injured and died in the process of helping us, to bring us back where we need to be - safe and secure on God's side.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she also gave it to her husband ... and he ate...Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life and live forever" - therefore the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6-22-23)....Then he showed me a river of the water of life...On either side of the river was the tree of life...There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him (Revelation 22:1-3). 

The Privilege and Responsibility of Voting

Everyone knows that voting is a privilege. Not every country allows their citizens to choose their government officials. Even some countries who have elections rig the outcome, so that it is not really the voting of the people that elects an official. It is a charade. 

I am very fortunate to live in a country where I get to have a say - realizing that even though my vote counts, the candidate of my choice may not be elected. I often say that I don't have a right to complain if I don't vote. So, I not only understand the privilege that is mine, but the responsibility that goes along with that privilege. 

Voting is more than a right. My responsibility is not only to cast my vote, but to do so with as much information as possible. Unfortunately, that means filtering out the prejudice of the media and the innuendo of the opponents. In America, this has become more difficult than ever before. It is a shame that politicians don't have enough positive things to say about themselves and their own agenda that they must take up their advertising time with accusations against the other candidate. 

Particularly distasteful are those politicians who are so careful about their stand on an issue that it is really difficult to find out what they believe. Many of them wait to see how the population sways on an issue - then they will go that way. Whatever happened to integrity? Francis Bacon, Sr. (English lawyer and philosopher 1561-1626) said, "It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity."

In the end, of course, only God knows whether what we say matches who we are and what we believe.  He does make it clear, however, that He will judge us accordingly.

For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12: 34b-37).