#1931 Windmill Tilters

#1931

Windmill Tilters

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."  (Romans 8:28)

Two things you must overcome if you are to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, comfort and approval.  There are many things this writer has observed on this bumpy road we call life, the terrible smallness of men, especially those who consider themselves so large.  Most had dwelling within them a "cowardness" of smallness, the self delusion-narcissism of competence and confidence. 

IF you decide within yourself that you are a disciple of Jesus, in spite of everything, IF you decide that you are going to do right, in spite of everything, you will find yourself very much ALONE. 

Many times, alone, you must give up, EVEN family, don't expect even family members to understand or appreciate you, if you have become drenched in fulfillment, I mean by that, fulfilling what God wants from your life, because you were chosen by God, in the council chambers of eternity, before the Earth was formed for life and for doing certain things for Him.  He did not choose pretenders...from His word we know how much He hated hypocrisy: "Whited sepulchres filled with dead men's bones" (Matthew 23:27). 

Know right now, if you have not realized this fact, in this lifetime, you have two families: one you are born into, one your build for yourself.  The one you build for yourself, friends and associates, choose to love you.  Most of the time, more or less, your own family, even those who put their feet under your mother's table just as you did, just put up with you.  Most of the time, and I know this, because I have experienced this, and all of its hurt, your own family will be the first to criticize; will be the last to show you any appreciation whatsoever.

I never indulged myself with idleness, always reading, always seeking to achieve, even when young, I learned a new word everyday to add to my vocabulary.  I read books that others did not read, I despise the trash of senseless music-senseless lyrics-senseless "true" stories, such as the malarkey found in movie magazines.  If you have paid attention to the world around you, most "grown-ups" are like children, they just want "bedtime stories" where everyone lives "happily ever after".  Christianity is not complicated, just tough.  One must live Christ-like every moment of every day.  Why else would one want to live eternally with Christ in such a manner? 

Many of us get very little of what the world considers wealth.  I have not forgotten yet the beautiful story of the old couple, who had worked hard, lived frugally and faithfully, nearing the end of their life, was sitting in their sparse kitchen eating just some soup.  One said to the other, "All this and Heaven too." 

This writer can honestly say that he worked as very few men have worked not only in the poverty of an impoverished Eastern North Carolina tobacco farm but all the way through for an eight year university education.  I saved fifty cents of every dollar I ever made, invested twenty-five cents in securities, twenty-five cents in real estate.  I would have invested more if not for high taxes.  From the fifty cents left of each dollar, I gave most of that to the cause of Christ, awards, scholarships, church building programs.  Living alone all these years, taking care of myself, God has been so good to me...even as a totally blind, 100% disabled, medical officer veteran of the Korean War era, now, at 86, still working-saving-"stingy".  I was editor of one professional journal for eight years, published in many magazines; I hear these blogs read on national radio.  Yet, having lived in this present house for over forty years, only five blood-family relations have ever put their foot in my house, my sister-her children, three cousins.  My own two grandsons, who bear my name-my DNA have only been in my house one time in their entire lives.  My mother's family, a very large family, a reunion each year at Thanksgiving, and me, the oldest grandchild, was never invited...not once.  Is it envy, jealousy, some radical notion of non-acceptance that causes one's blood relations to act in this manner?  We are told that Jesus had very little relationship with his brothers, that even his brother James, by whom one book in the New Testament was written, did not accept him until after Jesus was crucified.  Jesus disciple John, cared for Jesus' mother Mary after the crucifixion, I visited the house at Ephesus where they supposedly lived.  Jesus prepared us for the non-acceptance-appreciation of our family (Matthew 12:50). 

There are more sermons preached from the book of Psalms than any other book in the Bible.  There are 1189 chapters in the Bible, and the one which most of us can recite is the twenty-third Psalm.  In the psalms we often hear the word "selah" which means think of it.  David wrote seventy-three psalms, praising God.  I often think of both David and Joseph, of the Old Testament, both of whom had brothers and their own brothers did not care much for them.  Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery and David was very much a pizza delivery boy to his brothers, as they stood quivering on a mountain facing the giant Goliath.  The great poet, Robert Louis Stevenson, said, "Sooner or later a man must sit down to a basket full of consequences."  No one must remind me of my flaws, I am just a sinner saved by grace.  But, as Charles Shelton wrote in his book "What Would Jesus Do", we cling on to Jesus' promises-God's faithfulness by the very nail tips of our fingers. 

I must remind myself everyday about my own emotional climate: I must consider the baggage carried around by others: I must remember the limit of life, the limitlessness of eternity.  The genome of a man is very close to that of a rat but the actions of most men are very much like those of a sheep.  Look at the twenty-third Psalm as if you are a sheep, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."  At the end of the road, it will just be a relationship-conversation between me and Him, no one else, family-lawyer-preacher, will be able to tilt the windmill.