His Gift Is Free

Author: siggy

His gift is free as it states in the first two lines of Isaiah 55 in the Old Testament:  ‘Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy wine and milk without money and with out price.  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?…’

I know all too well what those lines mean.  So many times I become consumed with the wrong things, that really don’t matter in the long run.  And I have to come back to Him.  He is the only gift that truly matters.  And He is free.  You just have to accept Him.  He loves you and will not force you to come to him.  He is a free gift.

I can’t react blindly to my mate.  Otherwise, I am controlled by her.  I have to choose my reaction.  If she is angry, I can’t react in anger.  I can deflect her moods better that way.  This was not my idea but I read it in a book.  And it makes perfect sense.  I balked initially.  But I tried it out.  And it does work.  Anger begets anger.  It says this in Proverbs (which is in the Old Testament).  The idea is not new.  There is a time for anger but not all the time.  It is a powerful emotion and you have to be careful when to vent.  Otherwise, it gets abused.

Somehow I have to refrain from becoming angry.  I need to develop more patience.  There is a time and place for anger but if I fly off the handle too easily something is wrong.

I have to slow down, listen more closely.  ‘Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.’  Those words from Proverbs suggest a formula to avoid anger.

The first part of it forces you to slow down.  That is the only way you can be quick to listen.  You first have to refrain from talking, focus on the words of the person talking.

At the same time you may be able to digest the words spoken to you better.  The last part of the equation ‘be slow to anger’ suggests that if you listen better and also do not talk it may become a little easier not to react in anger.

These scriptures from Proverbs give me hope.  My wife has told me I repeatedly interrupt her.  I have to work on this.

Every day is a privilege and why do I act otherwise.  I act as if my days are endless and as King Solomon says, ‘Life is but a vapor.’

I waste (our) days sometimes.  I act as if my time on this earth is infinite.  I know.  I have been there repeatedly.  I have to remind myself each day is a gift.  I know I am a master of rationalization.  I act as if I will be forever here.

It is marvelous what a shower and putting on clean clothes (and dressing nicely) does to your attitude.  I am saying today matters.  I will respect my time here.  It is truly a gift.

It is so easy for me to fall down in the dumps to use a cliche.  I really have to work at it and sometimes from the outside first and my attitude towards the day will change.

Every day I am on this earth is a privilege and I have to treat it as such.  I really matter to the one above so I have to give him the respect due and treat each day that the Lord brings me as a gift.  It really is.

I always thought there would be tomorrows but now I am not sure.  My visits with my doctor made me realize this so I decided to plan the trip to San Francisco I have wanted to do since the late sixties.

I do not know what my fascination with San Francisco is but I have wanted to go there for forty years.  I want to go in style:  I will take a “sleeper” on Amtrak with my wife from Chicago to San Francisco next spring.

“The California Zephyr” goes across the United States:  I have always loved trains and they are my favorite form of public transportation.  I have almost six months to plan out this trip in next April.

I do not want to put off this trip any longer.  Who knows what the time will bring?  ‘Time is indeed a vapor’ in the words of King Solomon from the Old Testament.

‘Life is but a vapor.’  King Solomon’s words in the Bible.  If that is true and it is so what’s the point?  Your life will be over before you know it.

He tempers those words in the Old Testament with the statement and I am paraphrasing:  It is a gift to enjoy our life.

The Greek has several words for the word “time” and right now they escape me.  Nevertheless, one means the chronological passage of time and another means the significance of that point in time.

It is true, time seems, in retrospect, to flee you but not all points have similar value to you.  It is the points in time that have significance to us so don’t despair over the passing in time.

Cherish the moments you have been given for there is no more precious gift that can be given to you than today.  We all have so much and none of us knows exactly how much.  And that makes our time on earth here that much more valuable.  We never know when it is going to run out.

There Is Only Now

Author: siggy

There is only now.  If you are stuck in the past or the future you never get to the now.  To truly experience what is going on you need to be in the present.

As I watch my four dogs it is readily evident they know no other reality than now–the present.  If they are hungry or happy, you know it instantly.

The now is all that matters.  Yes, you can linger in the past or look into the future but if you stay in either realm you are not experiencing life to the fullest.

Being in the present is always being aware of your surroundings, your current feelings a constellation always fluid.  There are so many universes occurring simultaneously and to become aware of some of them is to be focused on the present.

There is beauty (and horror) everywhere.  In Ecclesiastes, a book in the Old Testament, it says in one passage that a gift given to us is to enjoy the daily pleasures of life–a paraphrase but nevertheless if you are not aware of life in the present you are missing out your enjoyment of life–the now.

Somehow you have to banish the past and do not linger in the moments to come and simply open up yourself to the present.  The world is yours to enjoy.

Each person has a mission (or calling).  And when we think we are finished, we are not.  Someone else (in some distant future) will pick up the threads of our life.

That is how it always was:  You take on someone else’s mission and at some point someone, somewhere will continue your unfinished business.

All one is asked is to do His will.  It should not be your concern even if you think you have completed the job.  Someone may come along and take your life’s work in a different direction.

All you are asked is to fulfill your own mission.  In the Old Testament it says, “God has set eternity in our hearts.” (the words of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes).  We never can see the complete picture.

Each person only sees his/her part and sometimes all we can do is to take the next step.  And that is all we are asked to do:  to take your next step.  And that takes faith in the unknown.

I had a major struggle with a bipolar disorder (then called manic-depression).  And there was a seven year period where I was out of control (until I was stabilized on lithium in 1972).  It took even (???) years until I was properly diagnosed.  I went through hell and pain.

I never tortured myself with the question, “Why?”  There are no answers to that.  Life is not fair.  Every one has varying success in overcoming their hurdles.

But if you start asking the question, “Why or Why me”, there will only be silence.  God allowed the devil to take away everything from Job (in the Old Testament) including his family, his possessions.

Eventually the devil gave up on him.  God restored Job and his health.  I am not saying that if you are ill God will do the same.  But if you look at yourself and rail at God for your station in life, it will only make your life harder.  And make those around you miserable.

Accept the things you have no control of, change the things you can and have the wisdom to know the difference (really a paraphrase of the serenity prayer).  Stop asking yourself the question why and just move on with your life.