The Art Show, Southeast Hospital and Dr. David Crowe

Yesterday I went to the Art Show at Southeast Hospital.   The intention was to preview the photography which Dr. David Crowe had given to the hospital.   He had given 10 pieces which had been lapped up by donors and the donors were asked to preview the works.  I picked one of them that I wanted to give in memory of my brother, Dr. Jim Cooper, and I wanted it to be hung on the bare wall in front of the surgery wing of the hospital.   There will be an engraved etching by the side of it saying that it was given in his memory.

I want his name to be there on the wall so I can see it.  I want his name to be there so that my nephew, James Shelby, can see it.  And I want it to be there so that people from Mississippi County can walk out of that hospital surgery ward and remember him.   I don't know why that means something to me but it does.  It does because I know that he talked to the University and said, "I didn't go here but I am a Southeast Missouri boy and I want to do this!"   I intend to do something at Sikeston Hospital also because he worked there every summer and he loved Bill Critchlow and Max Heeb.  I can still remember when he came home and one of his

female classmates, can't remember her name right now, but she married a Babb, came in to have a baby and she yelled for Jim to get out of the hospital room..  She didn't want him to see her having a baby and seeing her baby parts.  He was furious at her.

I feel good about this gift.   Someone once said that you should spend your life doing things that will outlive it.  I intend to use my gift from Jim to find ways to honor him.   He deserves to be remembered!

Luck of the draw

I am not a poker player so I can't vouch for being successful or lucky at drawing the right cards.  But I have learned that I have to figure out how to play the cards that I am dealt along the way whether they are in my family deck or in my business world deck or my social deck.   Sometimes I play them well and sometimes I could have done a better job of reading the signs of my partners.   Sometimes I have to just throw the cards on the table and admit what a lousy player I am.   It is usually not my finest hour.  I like to be successful in all things.

Learning to be a minister of presence takes the same kind of attitude adjusting.  Yesterday I went to a social event with my former boss and he was regaling people with stories about how I made him go with me to see donors and go to funerals, etc when we worked in the development area together.   Finally, he stopped and looked straight at me, and said, "Did I ever thank you for your persistance?   I would never have gone anywhere if I hadn't been able to latch on to your coat tails and mutter something after you said the real words!"    He added, "Now I go in to hospital rooms, funeral homes, everywhere and other people are latching on to my coat tails, muttering stuff."

Much of being a minister of presence is learned.   The art and act of caring is learned.  It helps to have a sensitivity for another person and a situation.  But the words, themselves, have to gradually become more than mutterings.   And the situation and the individual have to be learned by a constancy of presence.   Not everything works in every situation.  But the truth is, that sometimes when we are ready to throw in the cards,  God gives us a sign, unmistakable to the minister, that something in the game is working.  And it is more than enough;  it is an inner jubilation!   It keeps us keeping on!    

Blessings on the ones who have staying (and playing) power!

CBF and moving ahead

I went to a brunch at the home of Bruce and Becky Gentry this morning to meet Jennifer Graham and Harold Phillips from Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and hear about 22 years of change.  They even have a woman president!

I learned that Jim smith is now the head of the foundation!  I have lost my way; maybe i.ll go back in!  I like some of the things I heard in the presentation.  They were concerned about missions and they had a featured magazine about Ministry of Presence.   They are taking in churches all over the area and are on their way to University Baptist Church in Carbondale.   They are more Baptist that Southern Baptist and more liberal.   They have no way of knowing where they are going but they know where they have been.  I like Harold Phillips and I liked Jennifer Graham.  We will see what happens.

Buffalo gnats!

You can run but you can't hide!  Buffalo gnats are out there waiting for you this summer.  Don't even think of sitting out on your front porch for a summer's night.  They will attack you and chase you around the yard before you can get the can of aerosol which doesn't work, anyway!  All the citronella candles in the world will not protect you from these tiny swarming insects which go for the jugular.

Huge article in Southeast Missourian today, front page, about why they are rampant--wet climate--this year.  The Missouri Conservation agent, Kyle Booth, announced what we already know:  "The more water we have, the more spawning they're going to do and the more offspring."   They recommend that we put out something sweet, like vanilla extract and mixing it with water and spraying on yourself.   Sort of sweeting yourself up!

Hey, this could work for us as people and churches also to keep the gnats away! We could hold a special Wednesday night service instead of prayer meeting and spray all the pewsitters and then send them out to minister in droves.   Don't knock it if you haven't tried it!   But one small warning, first you have to get it passed through business meeting and it is a new, untried idea! 

Today

Working like mad on my book!  Had lunch with Jane Stephens and Loretta prater!

Job, Sickeningly Patient!

I have never been thrilled by the Biblical character, Job!  In the first place he just seemed, to me, to be the kind of person who "mealy-mouthed" around and sort of poor-me'd his circumstances (and he was plenty wealthy to begin with with almost a Midas touch).  It was a way too Christian approach for me.  I saw him as two-faced, less than mordacious, or anybody's dog who would hunt.  I really couldn't stand his attitude and this may have stemmed from the fact that I knew someone just like this, who was real old like Job, and I despised it when he conquered me and I had to listen to his whinings.

My mother would talk about a friend of hers who had the "patience of Job".   My brother and I had cynical views about this friend and thought she should deal with her problems, quit supporting a bunch of her loser relatives, and tell them to get a job and quit mooching off of her.   Patience was not a virtue I was interested in pursuing.

In the end, it paid off for Job.  He has a book in the Bible named for him and that's not easy to come by.
I still don't like Job.  His book is a big authority and his faith is undeniable.  But I don't have to like him in the process.  I think it is called non-identification.

A memorial presence

Memorial Day is a day that we choose to remember...our fallen and our dead.  We are doing just that!  Jim and Laurie have fixed flags to go to Bryan Walkers grave and the flag is flying on my house!   It is always good to remember the past!

And then turn to the present and think about new opportunities!

Presence of son

It is great to remember old times when the kids were little and life was more and less complicated at the same time!  We went out to shop and to eat at our fav breakfast restaurant. Cracker Barrel to be specific!  Laurie, my daughter in law was talking about how few people she knew had faith in God!   They need to know and feel the presence of God thru someone today!

I said 

Presence of St. Francis of Assisi

I can't believe that such people like St. Francis exist.  Way too perfect to be true.  My mind was called back to him again as I read my Facebook from Buddy Couvion, an alumnus of Southeast Un.  He quoted St. Francis:  "It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is preaching."  I had never heard that quote but it is oh, so true.   I know a lot of his quotes:  "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.  Where there is hatred, let me sow love." "No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm.  You have no enemy except yourselves." "Where there is injury, let me sow pardon."   He has pages of quotes on the web.   But his life speaks so much more than his words to me. 

He put together, by sheer force, an order called the Franciscans and took a vow of poverty and stayed with it.  I'm not planning to take a vow of poverty--unless the bottom falls out of the stock market.  I have been there, in that land of worry about how to pay the electric bill, and I hope I never am there again.  Here was a man who deliberately took this vow, didn't seem to waste time worrying about where the next meal was coming from, and talked others into not-buying into the same thing.  Now that was a heck of a man!   His walking was preaching!   I'm not saying that I wouldn't have loved to be around him.  He loved life and nature and laughter --he was just not into the trappings of it all!

And to put the final icing on the cake --he talked his cousin, Clare, into coming into the project with him and forming an order for women called Poor Clares.   And then he talked another male cousin into coming into his order!   When you can get your family to make a commitment to something that does not have possibilities for making them rich or giving them some political advantage, wow, that is something!  They had to know that he believed in this with all his heart!

Forgive me, St. Francis, I am headed to Macy's for their sale!  But on the way, I will find a way, sincerely, to let my walking be my preaching.  Alas, I am afraid it already is!

Presence in Mary, Martha and Lazarus Home

I was always into this Bible story because of type-casting.  There were only three of us at home when I grew up:  My sister, Rose Marie, and my brother, Jim, and me.   So I took to this story and mentally assigned parts.   I had the main part, the part of Mary, who listened attentively to Christ throughout every visit.  Rose Marie was Martha, who stayed on me constantly to do my part around the house which admonition fell on my deaf ears.  And Jim was Lazarus, who happened to be dead for most of the story. 

In the end, even Christ told Martha off for staying on Mary so much.   I never really quoted the Scripture to Rose Marie but I knew Scripture better than Rose Marie ever thought of knowing it.  If Handel had not written the score, she failed to recognize the words.  Jim was a screamer at both of his little sisters and threatened me with dire consequences if I dared to cross him.   I once announced at the supper table (sans the presence of my preacher-father) that Jim should be a preacher.  Then he could scream at all the sinners, "You get down this aisle this minute and repent;  if I have to come get you, you will be sorry!"

Like I said, this role was mine for the type-casting!   The part that escaped my logic was the fact that Christ made a presence there so many times that he was almost a part of the scenery.   Who else but family would have called him to be there when death invaded their little circle!   But he came and he conquered!   Like no one else has ever conquered!   He was type-cast, born for his role!

The Driving Presence

It is

 

I never have a clue where Rick Hetzel and his wife, Cheryl Mothes, are!  She is my Edward Jones agent and he used to be Chief of Police here!  But they use every nano second for others!  This morning they sent me pictures of their work in Haiti!  They arrived there,  again, for their sixth visit!  A month ago they set up a statewide free dental clinic in Cape.

I don't know what makes either one of them tick.   It's easy to say that they have no children together and the world is their home but that would be condescending and untrue.   I have no children at home and I'm not traipsing all over the world and making life better for everyone here in Cape Girardeau.   Everyone tells me that that were drawn together by a common interest --need in the world--and it literally propels both of them all of the time.   I believe that.  I know how much they do because she has my investments and when I look for her, I like to know where she is.

Someday, soon, I want to sit down with her and talk.   I want to know what drives her and how and where she picked up her engine.   In a way, she is too sickening sweet to be real;  but I'm learning that she is real.  It really makes me uncomfortable in myself!

Friends, a Constant Presence

Last night I went to a Preservation Reception at the Flag House!  Missouri preservation was announcing its endangered list of sites! Could not believe my good luck when my college roomie, Sue Lemar Mayo was there.  Immediately we picked up where we left off and I had a blast!  The great thing with old friends is there is no need to make idle talk  --it is all about who we used to run with and where they are and our children and how we are getting around with all the aches and pains!

But I consider every friend a true gift!   Even when the friendship is frayed by a stress or when it fades out from lack of attention by either or both sides.   Sue and I will never be frayed;   we have stayed in touch and rejoice to see each other.  

 

 

Presence at ceremonial events

Yesterday my granddaughter graduated from wake Forest and I could not wait to get the pictures!  She is beautiful and talented and a source of pride to me!

So I rejoiced in the moment!  She is ready to go out in the world and face it!  And the world will know she has come to capture it!

In the Presence of Destruction

Our thoughts are on the people in Moore, Oklahoma where a terrible tornado hit yesterday afternoon and the people have faced such rampant destruction.   This is the very same place that was hit by a tornado in 1999.   This is such a terrible calamity.    But it pulls people together and the Ministry of Presence is not a theological misnomer;  it is a humane reality.    From the First Responders, to a slew of people who have come in to repair gas lines and water mains and dig in the rubble for 3rd graders who have drowned in their school hallways, people have responded with presence.

In fact, they are now asking for people to keep their presence to themselves because of the traffic congestion.  And not to bring piles of old clothes for someone to deliver and find a place for.   Presence sometimes means the "right" presence for the time and this is one of those times.

To all of the people in Moore, I send my prayers and my financial support to the Red Cross.   This tornado --2 miles wide and 20 miles long--has left a sheet of rubble in its path and devastation and death along the way.   May those 56 families who have lost someone feel the presence of Christ as they try to pick up the pieces of what is left of their lives.

Presence is Real!

Nothing needs to be said more about the validity of presence!  Landon Cheben came home today from Afghanistan!   Sky ping and computer are great alternatives for being there!

But second rate to presence!

A Presence for an Election

What a super way to spend a Sunday afternoon.. In Commerce at River Ridge Winery!   Fundraiser for Steve Hodges, an East Prairie boy!  And with great friends like Tom Meyer! (Pictured)

Richard Niehbuhr noted theologian says we have an ethical responsibility to participate in government and I believe that is a part of citizenship!  So I sip the wine, eat the kiwi and schmooze!  I hate what politics has become but it has become more and more viciously partisan!  Especially after Democrats elected a black guy!   Yuk on the haters of this world!

A blind presence

 
I went to the eye doctor yesterday for my check-up after the last cataract surgery and I was so thrilled to learn that the glasses were to be used only for close work from now on.   I could not believe it.  I have worn glasses since I was in high school.

Can you just imagine the joy of Blind Bartimaeus in a time when there were no Lenscrafter doctors, and no cataract surgeons who could do implant surgeries.   Christ just healed him instantly --no further checkups necessary!   One can read the full story in Mark 10:51 when  the deal happened and Christ said to him, "Your faith has made you well."   And his faith caused him to follow Christ!

This is as surprising to me as the man's well-placed faith.   He saw need and realized that people needed to ally with Christ.   He did not run to tell his family nor did he run to sow his wild oats;  he did not run to a psychiatrist to help him deal with the change in his life.   He hitched his wagon immediately to the star player.   Go and do thou likewise,....and this means me!

The Presence of Boundaries comes early.

This book on "Boundaries" is fascinating.   It hits one in the face.   It says that defining boundaries often starts in childhood.  Parents and children read the Scripture in Proverbs 22:6 where it says, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it."   Neither the child nor the parent realizes that times will change and that there are many things that should not be set in stone.   This is monumental to me because I battled more, as I tried to set boundaries, with the memory of my parents and how they would want their children to be life-committed to each other.  I have said often, "My parents deserved better than this!"   I had to realize that what my parents would want more than anything is for me to find my own independent happiness.   Their presence still is instilled in me;  I just needed to figure out that their judgment would have been based on the facts as they are now.  

And then it hit me.   I will never cease to love my family.   This boundary-setting has nothing to do with whether I love them or not.  That is not in question nor has it ever been.   This setting of boundaries has to do with whether I love myself enough to demand limits.   No one ever made me do this or that to help out.  I made all of those decisions for myself.   And when things did not turn out as I expected, I pulled out of the fray.  That, too, was my decision.   Now, it is way past time for me to move on without a hint of second-guessing or regretting any decision.   I need to grow up and settle in with the boundaries.  

This setting of boundaries affects others.  It causes anxiety and discomfort.   It affects decisions and relationships.   But it is necessary in order to establish what those boundaries are.   I am moving on and I need to do this for my own sanity and growth.   No one is guaranteed safe passage in this living experience but life is worth the living!

The Presence of Boundaries

I think that most people in the world have heard of this book "Boundaries" written by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend but I just bought it at Barnes and Noble on Sunday.   I haven't heard of it till late but I have lived it and I am alive and well because I have established and kept some boundaries.  I have been besieged these last years by family problems which I took on because I was needed but as I realized that my life was going down the tubes (thanks to some wonderful friends, and my children who "confronted" me, I decided to establish some boundaries.  

I was amazed when I read the book at how I did (by instinct) all the things that the book suggests that one do to deal with and set boundaries.   Definition:  Boundaries are personal property lines that define who you are and who you are not, and influence all areas of your life.   First, I was taught, rightly or wrongly, that when family call, you try to answer that call and help.   First, I had to decide whether this call was mine to respond to.  Does the caller have children that need to do this helping?  Does the caller need help in the first place?   Is it helpful, or does it make it worse, to even listen to the caller?   My confrontational group says the sum of all the calls was making me spend all my conversation and efforts in helping someone else, who was unhappily ugly in their response!   They insisted that I put up boundaries which demanded that I stop listening and start living my own life again!  The authors say:  "Any confusion of responsibility and ownership in our lives is a problem of boundaries."    I am guilty of this.   I have responsibility only for my life.  What others do is their problem with their own boundaries!    Others have no right to intrude in my life, unless I have  invited them in!  I decide the visitor's list on this!

Proverbs 14:10 says:  "The heart knows its own bitterness, and no one shares its joy."  The authors go on to say that we have to deal with what is "in our soul" and boundaries help us define what it is.   I intend to live out my life deciding what is my heart's desire and not what someone else thinks I should do with all my time.   I have learned, from sad experience, that in the end, even when you are willing to give up your 24-7, very few appreciate your kindness and sacrifice.   I do not want to live in bitterness;  I want to live in joy.  Experience is a great teacher for teaching the necessity for boundaries.

A Change of Presence

Women and hair,  what is it about the twain?   But I have decided to let my hair go natural and it causes discussion between me and Debbie Bickings, my hairdresser , and my daughter, Sara!  I want it done!  I do not want to be one of those old women with bright red hair!  Hey, u can dye it again in 2 seconds!

What is wrong with changing one's presence?  Nothing.   I have to look in the mirror and I have to face the wrinkles and the droopy chin and other things.  There are times I wouldn't wish that off on my worst enemies .

So here we go!  Done today!  Picture has been sent! What you see is what u get!

Circadian clock presence

Yesterday I played catch up with my sleep rhythm patterns;   I could do nothing more.   Sara and Bailey were here for three days and we never stopped moving our legs (or our mouths).   Then they left and Monday, I had two events in Malden and Sikeston.  So yesterday, I crashed.  My circadian clock presence and its rhythms said stop.   A friend came by and wanted to talk about a major problem and Gloria came to clean the house.  When they both left, I hit the couch walking slowly and I only left it to go to the bathroom, get some food, and go get the mail.   I needed the respite in a big way!

There are times when there is nothing left to do but give in and watch endless hours of television and doze off between shows.   That is a part of my rhythm patterns.   Today I got up invigorated and ready to do some of the work which has piled up in the last four days.   And I am off to a good start.   I think that Christ understands these days of withdrawal far more than I ever will.   It is a form of mental suicide, at times, for me so I can regain some structure or let my mind go blank.

Anyway, thank God and his goodness for a day and night of rest.  I thank him and my circadian clock thanks him.  Peace is close at hand.

A presence with friends

I had a wonderful night last night reliving my past in Malden with athletic department!  I even spoke!  Bobby Phillips, billy Hampton, Virginia and Jeff Hoehn, Gary Karlish and Terry McDonald among others. I reminded them about our record of 1-10.  I was so excited about seeing everyone I could not sleep.

Nothing stirs up the juices like remembering the past.

  Bobby Phillips and Terry McDonald

Terry played basketball but Bill coached basketball one year as assistant to Gary Gilbert.  Listed below is Virginia Hoehn and her son, Jeff.  Her son, Steve, played ball for Bill and later played at Arkansas for Frank Broyles.  Steve is in a nursing home in Malden and could not come.   What a wonderful night of memories.

Presence in presence

This morning I went to Sikeston for the funeral of Swayne Byrd.  I sat in the small annex but had the opportunity to visit with Swayne's brother, Hugh Hunter Byrd, who was my classmate!  It was a way to say goodbye.  It was my way of saying I care to my friend, Hugh Hunter!

At the funeral I visited with Dr dale Nitschke, dickWithers and Dr Sue Shepard.

Friends Continued Presence

I loved Francine Erlbacher Seier and cherish her memory!  She was whacko! Francine was the kindest of her ilk.  Once I conned her into driving me to dump a stray dog that wouldn't leave our house and she agreed.  She cried all the way home.  We decided to stop for a coke so the kids would  not know she was crying.

When we finally got home, that dog was sitting in the front yard.  Francine, you were one of a kind.

Presence of children

What a wonderful thing it is to welcome children and grandchildren home!  Especially for Mother's Day!  We went to eat at Dexter Barbecue and Bella Italian,went shopping at Coldwater Creek and Macy's and went to Annie's!

Mostly we laughed and remembered and we decided that we had made a good life of memories!

A Maternal Presence

 This weekend is Mother's Day!   How lucky I was to have Janie May Lawrence Cooper as my mother!   She was the Presence of God on this earth raising children and making them stand for something!  Her mother died as well as her father by the time she was 8 and she was raised by Aunt Minnie and Uncle Ollie.   She had no guides for being a mother.   Then she married her second cousin, Allen Britten Cooper, and his mother was a "screaming mimmy" by some accounts.  She got left out of the maternal role models.

Didn't matter.  She found it or she discovered it along the way.  She had 8 children and she found a niche to each one of them.   I was the baby.  It was easier to find by then!   What a wonderful cook she was!  No one better.  But she saw the value in sitting down at the table together and eating good food.  And she did it on what was available in her garden, in her hen house, and in the barn where the milk cow was!

And her religion flooded every room.   People would say to her, "Say a little prayer for me" and she would say, "None of my prayers are little!"   Her hands and her heart were the hands and heart of God.

The Social Media and Presence

 And yes, the times they are a-changing!  I have never been a fan of any television preacher except Billy Graham.  (I'm telling my age!)   The truth is I am still not but I know when I say that, I am shutting out the way that God may be showing he is a God of the ages!  But I am beginning to read about Joel Osteen and what he brings to ministry besides the fact that he is following in his father's footsteps in a television ministry--which I hurriedly scanned a few times and quickly opted for anything else.

In the last campaign at Marlins Park stadium, seven people in the press box got the word that the prayer requests of the audience were not going through and were in some "digital ether".  People at home who were turning in on Osteen's Night of Hope were grappling with problems that they wanted to share with pray-ers who might have more "evangelical pull" than they did.  At least, it couldn't hurt; it might even help.  In the digital world, people know when there is no one out there answering their prayer, even acknowledging their prayer had been sent in.   Pastors no longer have to buy television time to tell the story;  they can use the social media, which is free, accessible at their fingertips, and growing by leaps and bounds.   There is interaction if it is done right without human mistakes.  It is personal!   One doesn't have to leave home without it!  One does not have to enter a church with it!

It is a perfect vehicle for evangelical Christians.   Both are concentrated on the way that information spreads and both want to manage and/or fashion that information to meet the needs of the culture as they see it.  Is presence a reliable tool of the media?  There are choices to be made by the person who confronts the presence.   And that is always present!

Even Whangdoodles have presence!

I have loved Julie Andrews since I saw her on stage in New York in 1956 in "My Fair Lady".  She opened up her mouth and let the tones come out and the songs remain a permanent fixture in my brain.  But I sold her short;  it's an easy trait to get into.   Not only could she sing but she could write and write she did, "The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles".   I read the book to my son, Jim, time and time again!   He would tell me what he thought a whangdoodle was!   And it changed and grew with time!   Just like the author, the subject was not content to be static!

He said his model for a whangdoodle was that the whangdoodle looked like a moose with short legs, he had horns and a bad sweet tooth (so did Jim!)  The Whangdoodle grew a new set of bedroom slippers on his feet every year.  (We bought Jim a new set of unattachable bedroom slippers each year).   And the main Whangdoodle trait was that the creature loved candy!  (Candy gave Jim a high as well as it gave us high dental bills.)   Jim had a unique way of reading himself into any book that he loved.   I called it identification with same;  he called it loving a particular book.

Books are so important for modeling for children and adults.   One could throw the entire Bible out and remember two verses and have a modeling initiative:   God is love and Be Ye Kind.   Even a whangdoodle could and should remember those six words.   Even a fanciful creature could grow a new set of bedroom slippers over those six words if he/she would remember them and react favorably and often to them.

Maintaining presence

Today I had my second cataract surgery and I am thrilled to have it over!  I AM a huge chicken and I put this thing off for so long. I even thought about not having the surgery at all!  How stupid could I be! It's a simple surgery and it opens up a bright new world!

Dr. Kinder just called personally to see how I was doing!  Now that, my friend, is presence personified!   I need to be reminded how valuable Jane Hull, the nurse was to me!  I felt a sense of caring in a cold, sterile setting!

We need to reach out where we have been sent!

How about the man in the red hat?

 

Resculpting presence

I am not really into the wordsmiths of persuasion out there who sum up what you need to do and what not to do in your life and get paid to come up with slogans, etc.  But recently I saw a quote which said, "You are the Michelangelo of your own life.  The David you are sculpting is you.  And you do it with your own thoughts."   The quote is cited to Dr. Joe Vitale, a promoter and public relations guy with a couple of doctorates also cited.   I do not plan to check his professional references but I do like this thought.

First, I love it because I was first awestruck when I was in Italy and met Mr. Michelangelo's work in person and fell in love with its power.   The idea of sculpting anything out of a rock of stone amazed me and then to be able to see flexed muscles, curls, bones in a hand, on and on caused me wonder and shock.   I kept wondering how long it would take to sculpt even a head of curls and an ear.   Sculpture takes talent and training but it also takes persistence and stick-to-it-ness to get it exactly right.

Vitale is right.   Most of us spend a lifetime perfecting (or rather, honing) our traits and our talents and our judgements and our integrity.   And a great deal of that re-sculpting has to do with learning to deal with the words that come out of our mouth and what is appropriate, necessary, becoming or kind.   God expects each of us to be his sculptured David on earth, his presence, on earth but most of us are not ready to be viewed in a public gallery for the world to see.

I'm still working on getting some weight off my sculpture and lassoing my tongue and my e-mail fingers!  Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.   Whoever said that has problems of insensitivity!

Presence in the poorest of Bible teachers

When I was in grade school I went with my parents to the church where Daddy was pastor out in the country.  But when I went to high school, I started going to lst Baptist Church in Charleston because my parents wanted me to go to church and choir with my friends.   I am happy that they made that decision because I had a wonderful "church" time and even fell madly in love with the preacher's son there, Benny Bledsoe.

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day and I have been thinking of the wonderful teachers I have had along the way in educational settings.  Then I started thinking about the teachers I have had in Sunday School and one stands out immediately, way above the rest.  That was Willie Smith (Mrs. Frank Smith) who taught us for all our high school years -- only the girls, no boys allowed in the class.  Besides Emily Ann Hux also was wild about Benny Bledsoe and that would have set me on edge.     The problem was that I don't even think Mrs. Smith read her Sunday School lesson and I can't remember her quoting one Scripture all those years.  Her job was to keep us quiet and stop us when we got into an argument.  She tried to make us talk about religious stuff but we did not want to talk about anything except what we did the night before and who hated who!   (She did not like for us to say "hate" and the best she could do was to get us to say "despise".   But that was something and she was pleased with her efforts!)

So why do I appreciate her still after all these years!   Simple.   She would see  that we had wonderful Sunday School parties with good food and fun and we could invite our friends and she simply, for whatever reason, let us know that she loved each of us...no matter what we said or did!   It was a matter of acceptance on the part of each of us.  

I saw her presence in every ham salad sandwich and bowl of chili.  And I still think about her when I sit down to every combination of the two.

Presence may be disputed!

Logomachy means that there is a dispute about words and their meaning.  But if actions really do speak louder than words, there can be a bombshell dispute about actions!   And I don't know the word recognized by the dictionary for a dispute about actions!    But consider the major dispute that is going on in Texas when a Texas high-school track team was disqualified after the team won and one of the team pointed to the sky!    The father says his son was giving God the credit;  the Superintendent of Schools, a man who will probably be running to get the heck out of Texas, says that raising a finger or shouting out obscenities, while in the competition area, is taunting the opposition!

But right now, this team will not be going to State and, right now, this team will not be claiming their final victory before going to State.   Fireworks may still be seen and the Superintendent probably better be dusting off his resume!

I thought and thought about this.  The truth is that Christians put themselves in so many situations by their own actions and sometimes they don't realize that they are not in the competition area.   But they are constantly judged by someone else's rules.   That will not change.  Christ faced it in his own lifetime.   He did not fit in with the rules of the Scribes and Pharisees so he set about writing down his own set of rules and values and conduct.   He realized that he, along with his followers down the line, would have to live in the competition area.  And he tried to tell them and us what the new rules should look like.

This track star, in all probability, meant no disrespect to any existing rules.   He was probably into the moment.  But in our words and our actions, all of us who call ourselves Christians, need to think about logomachy and stupid acts and stunts that hurt our winning message of hope to others!  And how someone else, looking on from afar, might misinterpret our words and actions!

Presence in church gatherings.

Last night I went to Trinity Lutheran Church with Bev Hickam and her mother and sister, Nancy.   They had a Cinco de Mayo party and had all the Mexican food in the world.  I barely made a dent in mine.    But I felt at home--pastor came up and talked to me about going to the Church in Charleston for Azalea Festival --then I saw Rick Wieser, John Hillin, people one after the other.

It is amazing how you feel the Presence just walking in and just sitting down at a church dinner.  This was a fund-raiser for the youth to go to San Antonio but it could have been for any church.  People gathered after the dinner and we even took pictures.  I sort of felt like an honored guest!

Yes, you can go home again!  Even if it were never your home! It just makes you think of your church homes along the way!

  With the pastor

Patty Lessmann, Marty Roth, Vicki Boren, me and Dr. Harold Hager

Bev and Nancy Hickam

 

  John Hillin and his children.  (He was Baptist, too --son of Jim and Anita Hillin).

Art as Presence

I have two grandsons and both of them are artists!   My painting ability is nil  --it was a laughing stock when I was in the 7th grade at Eugene Field School and my tree was held up as an example of how NOT to draw a tree.  I still hate that teacher!    Yesterday my grandson, Colin Dyer, who is graduating from SCAD this month, sent his latest commission on Facebook.  It is a painting of the late "Godfather of Soul" James Brown, the musician, whose birthday was celebrated and recognized.

I loved it!   I could not begin to understand the intricacies of such a composition but I can look at it and in one moment, decide if I like it.  And I do!

Art has long signified the presence of God.  Long before photography had come into its own as an art form, people had painted images from their own interior soul.   Many of these were Biblical scenes which permeate our thinking of what constituted that episode on that day so far away in time and space.   Most of us have grown up picturing the Virgin Mary as Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassaferrato painted her.   The copy of the painting was an attachment in my first complete Bible and as far as I was concerned, it was the gospel. 

  The Madonna in Sorrow

 Painting allows the painter and the artist of any medium to express creative ideas in their own way.  Benedetto Croce, the Italian idealist philosopher,  wrote in his essay, "What is Art" that one could define art as vision or intuition.  So who would be damaged mentally if I painted the Virgin Mary in an entirely different way  --maybe she would look more American or maybe she would have an evident flaw in her complexion!

Some have said that there is an inner artist in all of us.   May we find the courage to find our own freedom of expression....and may we ignore a teacher in the seventh grade who does not understand how we could see a tree as a series of giant protruding sticks, bigger at the bottom.  It is all in the eye of the beholder!

The Presence in Holy Fire

Churches quibble about everything --even when Easter should be celebrated!   Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter and the Resurrection of Christ on May 5, no matter when the secular world decides it should be held.   This photograph shows the candles being held up at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem last night.

But services are held everywhere.  Lamentations services are held to remember the dead, to welcome the living, to send fires up above in remembrance.   People welcome the presence of Christ and the reverence of his crucifixion in many, many ways and on different dates.   The Bible says in Acts 16:31, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."   I am not one to quibble about that statement.  I believe it!

I must find ways that call me to remember!  Perhaps I will do some studying on religious icons and their history in the church.   I just read about Seraphim O'Keefe and his painstaking work in writing a history of icons.  Someone said that painting icons is a way of praying.   Since I can't paint a straight line, I must find my own way of remembering.   But I love icons --and so did my brother, Jim.

The Presence in one's children!

Today is my son, Mark's, 54th birthday!   Can't believe it!  Where did the years go!    I called him this morning to"guilt-trip" him by saying (accurately) that those were the years when the fathers sat in the waiting room and only one person was in there pushing!  It was more than a droll experience!

 

Mark has made me mighty proud over the years!   He continues to find ways to bring me joy and happiness.   I got a real good deal in that hospital room 54 years ago today and I will never stop pushing him (or his brother and sister)!

 

Every time I look into their eyes I am in "thin places".   I sense the presence of God as well as the joy of being a parent.  There is no higher commitment for me!

 

Happy Birthday, Dr. Mark Allen Stacy

 

 

The Presence in "Thin Places"

There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart but in the thin places that distance is even smaller.  Thin places are those places where one can feel the presence of God and know that God is close at hand.  Some say it is a place where the veil between this world and the other world is thin and closer at hand.   It seems that truth abides in thin places and finding that space captures our imagination and desire.

Mahatma Ghandi, the Indian leader, believed and spoke about this saying, "A thin place is where one feels that indefinable mysterious power".   He believed that that power was God.

I want to do more reading on this.  There are all kinds of books out there that talk about the wheres and the whys and the hows of finding these "thin places".   But I want to do more than read about them;  I want to experience this sensation in a real way.   I want to be certain that I am not missing opportunities every day, along the way, waiting for something that is potentially close at hand.

C. S. Lewis talked about this:

...the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it.  It comes the very moment you wake up each morning.  All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.  And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back;  in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.  And so on, all day.  Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings, coming in out of the wind.

In the Name and Presence of Christ

Last night I went over to Show Me Center and was stunned to see people lined up awaiting this morning so they would be first in line for the free dental clinic! I could not believe that these people were prepared to sit in the rain all night! It made me sick all over!  They come from all over the state.

Jan Brunton Roupp is the head of all this. I remembered her wonderful father, Del Brunton, also a dentist , who taught Sunday School in 1st Baptist with me!  Thanks, Jan, for being willing to take on this monumental task for Missouri.  They have called the effort rightly, "Missouri Mission of Mercy."

These people talk about how important it is to have dental care and they seem to be so grateful and  praise all the dentists and volunteers! "Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these."   I know that many people receiving this treatment of extractions, fillings and cleaning of teeth feel the mixed joy of receiving such needed care.

Kudos to all involved which includes 100 dentists and 1000 volunteers.

Presence in Gardening

I went out to the Farmers market last night in the plaza and my eye hit on the purple columbine. I came out for fresh tomatoes since I am no gardener! But I thought of my mother and how she loved columbines and blue cornflowers in her garden of serenity away from the house and kids! I bought the plants and loaded them in the car!

I can't speak for why she loved to pull that hose all over our huge yard or why she never wanted our help but she walked out there in her wide-brimmed sunbonnet and waited for dusk to set in! I can hear her singing, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" right now!  I thought it was her way of praying because she never uttered one word in public in the church that I heard.

May Lawrence Cooper taught me some real lessons about living a life and cooking meals and being steadfast in the faith and gardening! She, more than anyone else in my life, understood Christ as a Presence in every phase of our lives! Even in the planting of columbines!

Yes, that is me and my Mama!