For your comfort

Psalm 91

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.[a]
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

Ok, now here is my evangelical moment.

You have Isaiah: because of your sins, he does not hear you

You have Revelations: whomsoever will

Without the revelation, you don’t get the promises of Psalm 91, right?

Accountability

The Oz Principle defines Accountability as:

Accountability: “A personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results—to See It, Own It, Solve It , Do It®.

I’ve really tried to embrace the philosophy because it’s highly regarded at Turner.  But it always seemed to be adapted from Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, minus the emphasis on personal development.

At the root of my struggle was the O.P. definition.  I couldn’t wrap around it.  Today I hit on a definition from Tony Schwarz that I do identify with:

“Accountability is a means of regularly facing the truth about the gap between your intention and your actual behaviour.

At its best, accountability is both a protection against our infinite capacity for self-deception and a source of information about what still stands in our way.”

Now that’s perfect.  It’s quiet mornings like this one, that I acquire the most knowledge.  Now let’s go hold myself accountable to my mission statement.

A Change of Seasons

At the end of a few days off, I sit on the back porch, early in the morning, marvelling at change of weather.

Yesterday, it was sunny and in the 90’s.  Last night, there were loud, vivid thunderstorms that dropped almost 2 inches of rain.  This morning, the cold, wet fog is being torn apart by a northern wind and peaks of sunshine.  It feels like football.

The garden, now taken over by nature, reminds me of spring, and how long ago that feels.

The world, poised on World War III, and all I care about is the Georgia-Clemson game.

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

It has been a long, long time since I felt this comfortable.  Believing in Jesus, trusting in God, staying grounded in Literature, especially the Scripture, has paid dividends, I couldn’t have believed unless I had lived it.  Reading the Scripture is like knowing the future, and using unlikely weapons like a cup of water or turning the other cheek is AMAZING because it works!

A broken screen

I have a screen door that leads to the garage.  It’s had a tear in it since around Christmas.  It was one of those jobs that I wanted to get to, but there were always other priorities that seemed to pushed it away.

I finally tackled it this weekend, and the effect on my mental health has  caused me to re-evaluate how I prioritize tasks.

I looked at that screen every day, and it was a reminder on how things are always breaking down.  As you let tasks like that linger, you will come to believe “everything is breaking down”.  So in the future, if the task affects how I will perceive things, I will add a “factor X” to its priority.

I’d love to hear your take on that subject.

Problems I make for myself

If it’s not bad enough to confront ordinary problems, one is confounded by problems we beget of our own making.  Such is it with these three fellows.

catproblem2A stray cat showed up, staying under our back porch.  She went away, or so we thought, until one day we were ambushed by a snarling cat, protecting a litter of kittens.  We trapped the mother and took her to animal control, because she was aggressive, but the kittens were too light to set the trap, and too fast to catch them all.

I had never seen kittens grow up, and grew rather fond over the circus act they put on every day.  Time has gone by, and now they are almost cats.  What should I do?