First Baptist Church of Herndon Blogs
It might be a friend, or loved one, or co-worker. Sometimes it’s even a stranger. The conversation starts out normally enough but along the way it plunges into the depths of “oh, woe is me!”. We have all had it happen to us. In truth, most of us have done it to someone else at one time or another. But when someone starts verbalizing their concerns to us about how unfair life is, or how miserable they are, we need to remember they want someone who will just listen.
During the early months of our pandemic I threw myself into my knitting. It’s my pastime of choice and usually very soothing. Unfortunately, my anxieties, my posture, and the intensity of my efforts left me in pain and stressed. I had always worked to avoid knitting mistakes as though my life depended on it. Then I read a book about the ergonomics of knitting which said one of the first things a knitter should learn is how to fix mistakes.
Driving to the office on a cool, dreary, misty morning I happened to glance over and noticed two men in their rain gear playing a round of golf. Not the best weather for it, but they were determined to enjoy the sport they love, and weather was not going to stop them.
Back in August I wrote a parable “The Feeder”. This is not a parable, but somewhat of a sequel. The other day, a bright sunny and somewhat cool day, I noticed there was a lot of activity at my bird feeder. One might have called it a feeding frenzy. It was fun to watch. That evening when I went out to retrieve the feeder for the night, I was shocked to see it nearly empty.
In our Zoom Bible study group on Sunday we had been studying the exodus of the Hebrew people out of Egypt. It was easy for me to be critical of them constantly challenging Moses and God. One miracle after another and it seemed they still found a reason to complain. When we got to the lesson of the water from a rock, I had an “ah-ha” moment!
For as long as I can remember my vision of a garden party involved a lot of white linens or furniture, flowers, fancy food, and maybe the game of croquet. I guess you could say my vision came from literary sources. Even when my family would grill our food, the party most often moved inside. The fact that I am a mosquito magnet may have something to do with my lack of enthusiasm for lingering while eating in the great outdoors. Did I mention I own a lot of bug repellant?