December 29, 2024

Just like the little train, saying, “I think I can, I think I can”, I have been saying, “I will write again, I will write again”. So, here goes for at least one last tomb before 2024 disappears and 2025 shows up.
I have so many things I could put words to on this paper. How do I pick the right one? I know, that implies there is a wrong one. Is there a wrong one?
I have been reading all those articles, (well, at least more than one), about how to be successful in 2025, what’s on the list to make me the talk of the town, what to leave off my dance card in 2025 and what to put on it, and so on and so on. I will admit, I did not find one new thing that I haven’t either been saying for years or trying to implement for years.
All the admirers of the lists don’t know it but I think every one of the numbers on the list, beginning with number 1 and going to the end of the list, are all found in the Bible. I wonder how many of those making the lists and checking it twice even realize that fact.
I especially like the one about getting more industrious and becoming active on your goals. The Word talks about an ant that does the work of an army and a sluggard that does nothing until eventually the weeds cover him/her. I know there are exhortations about choosing your friends wisely, not waisting your time, keeping your mouth shut so no one discovers how stupid you are, and investing wisely because a fool is soon parted from his money.
The most important one is building your base on the Rock rather than sifting sands, which has many benefits and no negative outcomes. Of course, those of you who don’t know what that actually means, will find fault and attempt to argue the tornado and hurricane will destroy anything it their path, but the meaning goes way beyond simple tools of weather being the deciding factor of the negative outcome.
My 2024 was not particularly spectacular. I had to stop at mile 9 ½ at the Surf City ½ Marathon as the health issues reared their ugly heads. The man I was working for passed away on March 1, 2024, and there went the extra money I needed to buy my new running shoes. You are only supposed to put 500 miles on a pair and I probably have 5,000 miles on them because they are from at least 2015. Joshua, our four legged family member, is not doing well, and has what the vet calls, “Old Man’s Disease”. The VA did not use that term for me, but I read between the lines and caught their drift.
BUT, I have built my house on the Rock, not Dwayne Johnson, but the real Rock, Jesus Christ. My bank account may be empty and I can’t pay all my bills, but my account in heaven is full and the payment for my sin has been paid. The creditors may be knocking on the door and asking for money, but satan is unable to raise his hand to put his knuckles on the door, as the blood of Jesus is over the door and he must crawl away, defeated once again.
In the meantime, until the bell rings, signaling time for me to hit the pearly gates, I have to use some, (or all?), of those admonitions found in Scripture to make 2025 a better year than 2024 was. And maybe even start writing on a regular basis once again.

December 30. 2024

What do you know? I made it to day 2 of putting words on the paper every day for the rest of my life. Sounds kind of ominous, don’t you think? If I miss a day, is life over? Maybe I need to rethink that goal! How about I leave off the last part and say I made it to day 2 of my goal to spend some time with the paper and pen each day? Doesn’t sound so ominous now. But it has to be time with the keyboard and monitor each day. I could spend all day here just trying to get the wording right and proper! Instead I will give the command, “Forward, March”, even though I am not going to move from my chair.
While walking Joshua this morning, I was thinking about how our priorities change as the years increase in the ledger column. And how they may seem to be changing but are really just being readjusted. What was really important yesterday is not as important today is the adjustment I was allowing to roll around like a marble inside the empty space between my ears. I think the marble was a cat’s eye and I knew it would be a great shooter.
I would venture to guess there is a large audience out there trying to keep up and have no idea what I am talking about concerning the marble. If you are one of them, you missed an important part of grwoing up, learning to stick your shooter, while knocking the prize marble out of the circle and going home a winner, after maybe a little bruising of the knuckles or a chase after the cheater who picked up his marbles and tried to go home when they no longer belonged to him. And we all say, “those were the good old days”.
In order to get the marble to stop careening off the sides of the walls keeping everything from escaping to the wonderful world waiting for it, I found the subject of getting along with everyone being the stopper. I lit on the proposition of how I wanted to get along with people in my present day existence and has it been readjusted? Let me say, I always wanted to get along with each individual I ran over, I mean across, I mean, oh well, you know what I mean. The desire has not changed but the ability to make sure I got my point across diminished and I can allow the individual with the tire tracks on them to arise and go their merry way, without the benefit of my wisdom and experience.
Paul writes in Philippians 4:2 the following admonition: “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.” Chapter 4 of Philippians is one of the chapters a lot of people have memorized parts of, quoted parts of, and use in their daily life on a regular basis. But I dare say, the percentage who use or quote this verse is minute, (that means small for those of you who are word challenged). Why did Paul stick those two lady’s names in Scripture?
And it is not as if the Philippians did not know there was a problem, because he admonishes the readers to help them as it states in verse 3: “Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.” That is tantamount to telling the church today to help those warring women, (or men, because we are equal accusers today), to get their act together and get along.
Paul does admonish us to stand firm in the Lord in verse 1 and that admonishment is found throughout Scripture and is not up for debate. To that point, if you want to argue with Scripture, have at it, you will lose. You are not arguing with me, but with God.
While I may have wandered around like that marble was doing earlier, my thoughts this morning while cleaning up after Joshua were cohesive and on point. I want to get along, but if you want to go your own way, so be it. My priorities are now to let you go your own way on the wide path and not try and drag you kicking and screaming on the narrow path.

December 31, 2024

How many of you remember the story in the Bible concerning the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 long years? If you do, then you probably brought enough visions to the forefront to write your own pages every day for 2025. Maybe I will work on that downer of a subject for January. Or maybe not. Of course you know why they wandered all those years so I don’t have to go down that path this morning as 2024 comes to an end.
I will stop the suspense and let the cat out of the bag since I do not live in Springfield, Ohio, and mention the word “Manna”. How many of you knew that was where I was heading? Be honest! Remember, God sees all and knows all. I may have asked the question but you know who was peeking over my shoulder and listening to your answer.
The story about the manna is in Exodus 16 if you want to read it for yourself. It basically was given as a test and because there were a number of grumblers in the group, because they couldn’t traavel first class and smelled like camel after the day in the desert. There is always at least one who complains, even though he is being hung with a new rope.
Now, as I read the stroy once again, I see many paths I could take this morning. But the one that was giving me trouble was my trying to decide when I could write my exciting daily exhortations. During the periods I have spent time with this keyboard clacking like the train on the tracks, I have tried to sneak my words on the page for Tuesday on Monday and sometimes even make the week’s work done in one day. In all honesty, I have also gotten behind and tried to make up for lost time.
Without losing sight of the issue with the manna, I saw that at times it became something the Pharisees would like to make a big deal about as the legal eagles wanted me to make sure there was something there for each day, making it a burden, rather than something from the heart and reaching a goal of peace within my soul. I have to rather than I want to!
But the manna was brought to my mind because even though I have at least enough material sitting on the shelf to keep me going forever, just like the anna, when I do not work at it on a daily basis, the spoilage is evident to me. I spend this time reveling in the time with the Lord and whether everything comes out as clear as mud to the reader or clear as the smog less view of Catalina, it is satisfying to me. I think this must be how Spurgeon operated, how Finney prepared his sermons, how Mozart put the notes down on the sheets of music, and Rossini wrote the Lone Ranger Symphony, even though he named it an Overture to William Tell.
I seemed to have wandered all over the place, which I am prone to do. Let me get to what my main point is, that just like the manna was for a certain period and became spoiled if tried to be used outside that period, I have found that I am to spend my time pontificating during the period God sets for me. And that time seems to vary and if I become locked into a certain time, I struggle with making sense. I know some would say after reading my wanderings that it is hard to tell when I am not struggling! But I know when the nonsense is flowing and when it isn’t.
So, to my point, we are to be filled with the Spirit, Eph. 5:18, and Gal 5:16 Paul states, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” I am putting all this together with the manna verses, meaning I also can’t grumble or complain, which I will not do anyway because I don’t want to eschew the effort to spread my wisdom all over the place, not become legalistic as to when I get this accomplished, and keep praising the Lord, all the day long, while adding to the “Grist For The Mill” on a regular basis. I know I had hints from God over these past few years about this subject and may have even tried to figure it out in a previous version of the Grist, or maybe even in the daily emails, which were the precursor to the Grist, but now I know the truth and the truth has set me free.