Vickie J Blair

My dog friend, Katie, went back to her own home two days ago.  What a great week we had together.  Before she left, Father gave me another reminder of a vital truth to make our Christian walk sweeter each day.

It began with a pill.  Katie, because of her arthritis and joint pain, has to take two tablets a day, one in the morning and one in the evening.  She’s actually very good about it, and doesn’t put up a fight as I might do if someone began to poke a pill down my throat.  It’s all a quick procedure.  However, when she sees me coming, she does her alligator impression of clamping her teeth shut.  When I win and open her little alligator mouth, down goes the pill and that’s that.  She instantly looks at me with smiling eyes, nub of tail trying to wag what’s not there, and her whole back end swaying from side to side in delight at my praise of what a good dog she’s been for taking her pill.  We repeat this twice a day.

This daily procedure brought to my mind the verse in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” This verse and the passage where it’s found should be a great joy to every Christian, but too often it’s a disappointment.  That’s because we don’t really understand it.  We look at it with physical eyes and try to give it physical explanation.  We tell ourselves that we’ll live right before God, and then He’ll give us our heart’s desire, perhaps of needed finance, or improved health, or a job, or a list of anything we need in our physical world at present.  When things don’t go to plan as we had hoped, we live in the disappointment of God not giving us our heart’s desire.

Katie’s desire was to do without her daily pill.  Her whole body and alligator teeth clenching, let me know that in no uncertain terms.  She’s a sweet little dog that I love dearly, but she was going to get that pill, no matter her own desires were different.  She doesn’t know what the pills are for and how they give her better leg movement so she can walk and play with less pain, but I know it.  Therefore, in her best interests, down goes the pill day after day.

It’s the same in our spiritual world.  There are many difficulties and challenges to face in our physical worlds.  We desire they go away.  We don’t want to deal with them.  Perhaps we don’t even know how to deal with them but we come up with a plan that seems right to us, so we look at this verse and pray to Father to give us the desires of our heart.

I want to suggest that if we look at this verse with spiritual eyesight rather than physical we will certainly gain a beautiful understanding that will bring much joy.  To delight ourselves in God isn’t to put on some good behavior for the purpose of getting what we want; to delight ourselves in God is an implication to be delighted with  God.  David wrote in Psalm 27:4, “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord.” 

This is the key:  When our desires are to know Father more intimately, then we naturally begin to take hold of all His characteristics: His own strength, His own courage, His own wisdom, His own joy – to face any “pill” episodes in our own lives.  After all, we know Father never allows anything to come into our lives that we can’t bear.  He promised to never leave us, and He promised to give us everything of Himself to get through anything.

Is there a pill that Father says you must swallow? A situation you can’t get out of? A direction you’re uncertain of, filling your thoughts with fear of the unknown?   I encourage you – don’t concentrate on the pill – concentrate on the pill-giver and trust Him.  He loves you.  He knows what He is doing in your life and it’s always in your own best interests.  The bigger the difficulty in life, the more we need to meditate on Father Himself and all His loveliness and of His love for us.

When our desires are for more of Him, we get just that – more of Him, to face and get through whatever today holds.

I am having the joy of keeping my friend’s dog while she is away this next week.  Katie, the Schnauzer, arrived yesterday.  We’re already having a great time together.  I love my dogs that I regularly get to take care of when their owners are away.

Katie is a senior dog now and has her share of old-age woes.  Arthritis has taken a firm grip and is noticeable by the limp when she walks.  I live in an upstairs apartment.  Obviously, there are stairs that have to be climbed.  I put a strong and short hold on Katie’s leash when she is going down and I stand behind to give little boosts to help her up.

This morning she was all excited as usual as we both got ready for our first walk of the day.  It was daybreak and fresh and silent.  There is a small lake just outside my home with ducks and moor hens and coots. There is even a fox den inside some dense bushes at the edge of the lake.  I love this time of day walking around the lake, and was just as excited about the walk as was Katie.

I quietly opened my door and led the way to the stairs.  Katie stopped firm and fast.  Having just woken up, she was no doubt feeling extra stiff; her joints had not had time to loosen up.  She was prancing up and down on her front feet, so wanting to go down the stairs, but obviously fearful of doing so.

I spoke encouragingly and placing my hand beneath her abdomen I proceeded to guide her down the stairs.  I wanted her to feel safe against a possible fall.  We took several steps together when all of a sudden Katie took obvious control and began a steady but resolute descent.  She no longer needed my help.  Away she went!

I find this same thing happens in our spiritual world.  We can be fearful about so many issues in our lives.  Sometimes the fear takes hold, like Katie’s arthritis, and we are fearful to move; we know our own pain and it could get worse.  We stay stuck at the top of the stairs, desperately wanting to get down but fearful to make a move.

I have found in my own experiences that when fear takes hold, I remain fearful as long as I merely stand at the top of the stairs looking down.  However, when I take a first step, boldness begins to grow immediately.  No matter how weak I feel, with each step taken, faith that speaks, “You can do it!” sounds in my heart. More steps are taken and with each step God pours in His own strength, and peace, courage, and joy.

May you be blessed in the steps you face today.  Take the first, God will give you strength needed for all the rest.

I’ve been visiting friends in Wales and they’ve shown me some beautiful and interesting sites.  One day they took me to the town of Hay-On-Wye which is known as the book capital.  The streets are narrow, and winding along gentle slopes.  There is a castle and a church dating back as far as 1070AD.  Surrounding this small town are valleys and hills, and at this time of year the colors are bright with bronze and yellow autumn leaves.

It was raining the day we visited, but even the grey wet of the sky didn’t take away from the charm of the town.  We walked along, peering inside old bookshops, its worn, wooden planks creaking its welcome to our visit.  When the rain got too much, we ducked inside a tea shop for a refreshing drink of the hot, golden brew.  It gave us a moment to wipe the rain from our faces and catch our breath from the cold, before we set off again.  We ducked inside several tea shops that day to escape the rain for a few needed moments.  Without it I think we may have ended up being more on the miserable side than the contented one on which we found ourselves.

As I have reflected on this day, I have been reminded of our occasional spiritual walks that take place in the rain.  Life brings us sunshine and it brings us clouds and sometimes storms.  They can’t be avoided.  Life is full of stormy challenges but in our spiritual world we may stop and take a rest with God Himself.  Even if just a moment in the midst of life’s rainy days, it helps to calm our inner spirit, and to wipe the rain of despair from our faces.  Resting with God is a needed warm drink in any storm of life.

Remember the words of Jesus when He said in Matthew 11:28 NLT, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

He also said, “Come with me, by yourselves to a quiet place, and get some rest.”  Mark 6:31 NIV

Jesus understands very well the rainy days of life.  He too took time to be alone with His Father.  Remember too: While it’s great and needed, to physically get away to be alone with God, there are mad moments in anyone’s day when that is not possible, but do not fear – Escape with Him in your heart, in the quiet places  where the Holy Spirit resides, and from where He will give you His own peace, strength, and wisdom to carry on through your day.  Needed rest is only a, “Help me, Father,”  away.

I have some of my father’s books and was looking through one of them when I found the following, type written on a yellowed piece of paper.  He must have had this for a long time.  It encouraged me greatly, must have encouraged my father, and perhaps it will be just that for you too.  The following is what I found:

At age 22  he failed in business. At age 23 he was defeated in legislature.  At age 24 he again failed in business.  At age 25 he was elected to the legislature.  At age 26 his fiance died, leaving him heart-broken.  At age 27 he suffered a nervous breakdown.  At age 29 he was defeated for speaker of the house.  At age 31 he was defeated for elector.  At age 34 he was defeated for congress.  At age 37 he was elected to congress.  At age 39 he was defeated for congress.  At age 46 he was defeated for the senate.  At age 47 he was defeated for vice president.  At age 49 he was defeated for the senate.  At age 51 he was elected president of the united states.

Who was this man who refused to quit?  Abraham Lincoln.

John Bunyan was unjustly put in prison.  Behind bars he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress.

Sir Walter Scott faced a half-million dollars debt for which he was not legally responsible but paid it off when he wrote his best classics in his old age.

Beethoven was almost totally deaf and in deep sorrow when he composed his greatest symphonies.  Handel and Mozart, both approaching death, gave us their most memorable works.

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My father liked to fill his mind with positive thoughts.  That is one of the many things I admired about him.  It’s also something that The Apostle Paul encouraged.  He wrote to the church in Philippians 4:8: “…Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

Filling our minds with positive thoughts might just keep us that way.

I arrived safely back in England this week with my flight touching down at London’s Heathrow Terminal 5.  I travel to and fro on this flight quite a lot but each time I fly there seems to be a different way to go to the Arrivals and Baggage Claim.  There are long corridors to walk down, lifts to ride (for my American friends a lift is an elevator), escalators to bring one up or down to another level, more corridors to travel, an underground train to catch, another escalator and finally the destination of Arrivals and Baggage Claim is reached, following, of course, the Passport Control.  As many times as I’ve done this journey I’m still a bit amazed when I do indeed get to the right place.  There are so many wrong corridors one could go down and who knows where they would end up.  That’s the scary thought.  How thankful I am for the clearly placed signs that constantly point the way to Arrivals and Baggage Claim.

That’s a part of my physical world.  In my spiritual world I also need clear guidance that points the way.  Without paying attention to God’s Word, looking into His guidance for daily living, turning to Him to know the way, where would I end up?  There are so many wrong corridors in life to go down.  How thankful I am for Father’s own words that show me in all situations, where to go and how to get there.

It’s been a beautiful week of sunshine and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being outside.  I’ve had loads of fun doing some yard work (yes I really love mowing grass and trimming branches and bushes) and I got to feed the neighbor’s donkeys while they were away.  I love donkeys.  I’m an overall animal lover and nature lover.

At one point in the week I decided it would be fun to take a walk in the woods.  Immediately behind our house is a forest of pine.  I stepped inside the line of trees and the contrast was amazing.  My eyes were met by complete darkness.  I looked back from where I had just stepped and there was the brilliance of sunshine.  I looked back into the woods again and blackness filled the air.  It was stark and chilling.  I couldn’t see clearly.  I was a bit uneasy and looked back at the sunshine.  That was much better.  I looked back at the woods and slowly my eyes were adjusting.  I could now see further into the woods.  The blackness was turning to shades of grey.  In a few more minutes my eyes could locate the other trees.  Even so, I didn’t take the walk in the woods.  I suddenly remembered that snakes are crawling (two weeks ago my mom and I came upon a rattlesnake in our front yard) so I decided to exit quickly.  I stepped out of the darkness and back into the light.  I heard myself let out a sigh of relief.  It really wasn’t fun adjusting to the darkness.

As I walked back to the house I thought about the contrast of dark and light that fills our physical world but it fills our spiritual world too.  We can spiritually be walking in the light of God’s  truth, full of joy and peace, when all of a sudden darkness puts itself in our path.  We feel uncomfortable.  We want to turn away, but we don’t.  We keep gazing into the darkness and before we know it we are telling ourselves it isn’t so scary, we won’t stay long, we can handle the darkness.  In our spiritual world, darkness is everything God is not.  When the darkness of this world lures us in, we are no longer walking in light.  It’s impossible to walk in light and darkness at the same time.

Take a look at I John 1:5-7  ⁵ This is the message we heard from Jesus^[a] and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. ⁶ So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. ⁷ But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

Yes, the title is true.  I have super-glued my fingers together and I admit there were several minutes of panic and pain.  Pain?  Yes.  Did you know,  if you put a lot of super glue on your skin,  it begins to feel like fire, scorching you alive?  Well, it does.  Please just trust me and don’t try to find out for yourself.

It all started with very good intentions.  A few weeks ago when Mom and I were rearranging her bedroom, we moved her dresser from one side of the room to the other.  In our furniture moving venture we managed to chip a small corner of the dresser.  I had the piece and determined  I would glue it back on.  This was going to be a piece of cake.

I made certain both the piece of chipped off wood and the place it had come from were free of any debris.  Next I removed the cap from the tube of super glue.  Then I gently squeezed to put a few drops onto the piece of wood.  Ah, a problem.  No drops squeezed out.  I squeezed a bit harder.  Hmmmm strange.  This had never happened before.  The tube was nearly full.  What was the problem?  I took a small pair of scissors and snipped off a bit of the nozzle.  Probably plugged up,  I told myself.  I squeezed gently again.  Still nothing.  What in the world?!  I squeezed again with care.  Not one drop from that tube!   How dare that brute of a tube defy me!  I would show the tube!  Squeeeeeeze haaaaaarrrrrd!  Sploosh!  Ohhhh no!  A puddle of super glue on the dresser!  Ahhhhhh!  Panic!  I took a tissue from my pocket to mop up the puddle but the glue seeped quickly through the tissue and took hold of my skin.  Oh no!  My forefinger and middle finger were sticking together!  I attempted to flick the tissue away with my thumb!  Oh no!  My thumb was now stuck to my other two already stuck-together fingers!  Ahhhh it’s burning!

I run to the kitchen sink yelling as I go.  My mother runs into the kitchen to see what was the matter.  “I’ve super-glued my fingers together!”  I yell out while the faucet is running full blast onto my fingers.  A soggy tissue dangles and mangles itself all around my fingers.  “They won’t come apart!”  I call out expecting some words of comfort or help from my mother.  I hear nothing.  Oh wait, I do hear something.  Laughter bordering on hysterical!  Imagine that – my own mother in my time of trial reacting like I’m putting on a comedy for her.  Well…laughter is infectious; soon, I too was laughing so hard I lost my breath.  I couldn’t speak for several moments.  What a predicament.

When I composed myself I suggested we go on the internet and google in how to remove super glue from skin.  There was indeed some information.  We followed the instructions and made a mixture of vinegar, dish washing liquid, and warm water.  I soaked and gently worked my fingers and after some minutes they gradually came apart.  I’m still removing bits of glue and tissue from my fingers….and palm of hand…….and wrist…..and elbow.  Don’t ask, I don’t know how it got to my elbow.

As I was soaking my hand in the solution, watching a blister form on my thumb, and listening to my mother still chuckling behind me I could suddenly in my memories hear my dad’s voice.  He had a quick wit and very dry sense of humor.  I imagined him there and easily heard him say something like, “I didn’t know you could be so stuck-up,” or “You sure are stuck on yourself, aren’t’ you.”  I could see his serious face and twinkling eyes.   I laughed some more.

A little while later, when my hands were free, I settled back with a nice, steaming mug of tea.  (The Brits really do know what they’re talking about – tea helps any crisis.)   I recalled again how I had thought of my Dad and could hear his words in my mind.  I smiled some more as I thought of both my fathers.  I so often remember the words of my earthly father and I remember  the words of my Heavenly Father.

When I feel I’m carrying a heavy burden I hear my Heavenly Father say, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”  Matthew 11:28

When I feel I’ve failed God- again, I hear His words speak to me from Philippians 2:13 “For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.”

Sometimes when I look at the world around me and see such chaos and difficulty everywhere, I hear His words from I Timothy 2:1-4 “I urge you…pray for all people.  As you make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them…for He wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”

I continued sipping my tea, nursing my blister, picking pieces of super glue from here and there, and smiling, being happy for memories of my earthly father’s words and thankful for living words from my Heavenly Father that guide me daily.

Each week since I’ve been back I have had the fun of getting on the tractor lawnmower and away I go!  I love being in the open countryside, the sun at my back, the wind in my face, the slap of branches in my face.  Oh wait, no, not that part.

Pecans are already clinging to the branches of our trees; looks like it will be another bumper-crop year.  It’s the weight of the pecans that are causing several branches to drop lower and lower towards the ground.  Each time I have to drive the lawnmower under the branches, I get thwacked in the face and on the head.  Every time!  After five weeks of this unceremonious thwacking of the head, it dawned on me – why don’t I trim the branches?  Wow!  Thunder bolts of ingenuity!

I get the proper tools and snip, crunch, snap, the offending branches are gone.  I gaze up at the tree and realize how much better the tree looks.  The branches were too heavy.  They were not doing the tree any good, no doubt would have broken the whole limb at some point and, of course, the continual thwacking did not bless me either.

I couldn’t help but see a spiritual lesson in these nuisance branches.  Every week I saw them and every week I just put up with them.  I could have removed them at any time but it never occurred to me until the face thwacking became too painful to endure.  How many nuisance branches do each one of us put up with in our daily lives?  There are all sorts of branches: branches of envy and strife, jealousy and hatred, laziness and irresponsibility, lying and gossip, forgetting about God in our lives and paying more attention to what the world has to offer, self loathing and loathing others too – the list goes on and on and on.  Everybody grows unhelpful branches.  Here’s hoping we can remember to do some regular pruning.  Either that or ouch! more face thwacking in all of our futures.