Diminishing Returns

C.S. Lewis said: "a man can no more diminish God's Glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the Sun by scribbling 'darkness' on the walls of His cell".

The older I get the more I come into the realization that no human or human act can diminish God's power and glory. There are so many uncertainties that beset us as citizens of planet Earth that's it unlikely that any of us would dare to predict our future as a human race. This big ball we so confidently walk, live and breathe on never stops spinning. No matter how unfortunate or laden with burdens we become, life just goes on! An example of this took place this past week in a Colorado Cinema, when out of 7 billion people, the people who chose to go to the Premier of a Batman movie had their live inexorably changed! I'm sure their appointment with fate was not just another date on their
e-calendars, they simply went to a place where most Americans will go for relaxation, laughter and drama. Their plans were probably to go to a theater and get lost in a movie. Some may have been dreaming that they were one of the power wielding  heroes, some might have just been along for the ride of a good hour or so of entertainment. I don't know about you, but I usually go to a movie to escape the realities of life. But the fact is, the only one who planned the ensuing senseless massacre was the accused himself. And even he couldn't be sure of the outcome of his plans. You ask, "why didn't God intervene?". Do you mind if I put that question on hold? Sorry, you took too long to answer so you'll just have to come along on my detour! : )

I have a confession to make, I'm a romantic, a sensate, one who not only visualizes things but experiences the emotions involved in a very real way. This comes as no surprise to those of you who really know me. Has anyone ever told you to "get your head out of the clouds"? I use to hear just that all the time as a little girl. I had big dreams, like most of us do, but when I dreamed, I would become so engrossed in my fantasies that I would lose all sense of reality. I would feel, taste, and smell whatever I was visualizing. I would become so emerged in my imagination and daydreams that I would feel odd living my ordinary life. I even thought one day I would just vanish into my fantasies and never be heard from again, like Enoch. That is, unless the "rapture" didn't happen first!! Lol. Some will appreciate this sentiment. As a child I was highly imaginative and creative and as a teenager I became more and more immersed in dreaming about days to come...walking, listening to music, sunbathing (yes, regretfully so), or any activity would be turned into a creative drama played out in my head!! I was a responsive student according to my teachers, and my parents took great pleasure in this, little did they know I was multitasking, listening with one ear but indulging in daydreaming just to survive!! I could be painfully shy. After school I would usually go home and ride my bike and listen to the little AM radio strapped to my handlebars... making the melodies become the soundtrack for the extraordinary dreams in my head. Did anyone else have a radio on their bike? I thought I was so cool sporting my radio on my "monkey bars" on my purple and silver shwinn bicycle!!

When my children were born I realized that this was a hereditary trait, especially for a girl, signaling a "rite of passage" into the teen years. I tried not to interfere in their own private worlds by acting as if I wasn't aware of their muse. But as I grew older I lost the ability to daydream myself away, and watch as my days gave way to reality. Now many if these things I lived in reality were the things I had already dreamed of  but many of my fantasies did not manifest...and may I say thank God some didn't! I'm so glad I never became the only woman who went into space and started the only space lab inhabited by every creature on earth! Like a modern day "Noah's arc" escaping Earth's harshness and being celebrated for saving all animal life from extinction!! : ) Ha ha!!

No, I thank God that He allowed me to make every choice that has brought me to where I am today for the good or the bad! But in everything I have become more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me. If I had been given the ability to sketch out a blue plan for my life and live it out just so (with it's own soundtrack of course), it certainly wouldn't have taken many of the turns it has.

I've had sick and dying people as me, "where did I take a wrong turn? To which I respond, how do you know you did? If you put your trust and faith in God He promises never to leave you. He was on every path you took and in every turn! If you have a heart after God, nothing can keep you from becoming aligned with your purpose in this life. However, I do wish there was some trophy or plague that we are presented at the completion of that purpose. Maybe we are, maybe no matter how young or old when our purpose is fulfilled we are given a crown of life?

Now to answer that question, "why didn't a loving God intervene to save the lives of those in that cinema on that early morning?"
Well, how do we know He didn't? All I can say is that I know He has that power, He could have stopped it. He could have if He so desired delayed things for a while, caused the gunman to have an accident on the way to fulfill his insane plan. He could have caused the movie to be cancelled or caused the movie goers to get distracted  not shown up, and on and on. There are many ways a God of love could have stopped this brutality of innocent lives!
But He didn't and guess what? He's still God!! No one usurped His power by taking human lives. Now you can agree or disagree, but if I thought I had a God that cold and calculating, setting a trap, I couldn't serve Him.

Here's my truth, we don't know what happened in the atmosphere surrounding that theater that night. We are living out a dual existence and the only ones who can get a view of the final outcome of the events of that day from both sides is God and maybe the great cloud of witnesses!  The news people can report what happened in the fleshly realm, but only those truly tuned into God and His ever proceeding Word can even catch a glimpse of hope in such devastation. We can no more see what actually happened around those who passed, or those who were wounded, or even the gunman in the Spirit realm, which is ethereal, anymore than we can breathe under water. No one or nothing can ever know how it feels to be aquatic and be able to breathe water and thrive unless they are equipped with gills.

What I'm saying is we are spiritual beings but, but for whatever reason we don't see clearly now. We "see through a glass darkly". We will not see the reason or completion of event as they truly are until we shed our temporary tents. However God in His mercy gave us a telescope into how that other realm works through the life and actions of Christ.  I'm sure I need not give biblical examples, but I will. Jesus showed us so much. He made people whole, which reveals His desire for our good health. He called fish into nets of hungry fishermen, He commanded the storm with peace and defied earthly elements by walking on water and raising the dead to life. One of my favorite stories is when Jesus was traveling into the city of Nain and ran into a funeral procession. Seeing the grieving Mother and knowing this was her only son, He brought life back to a dead body. Then He demonstrates His power over death by "laying down" His own flesh to be resurrected Spirit!

For now, on this side we grieve, mourn and comfort those who have lost someone or something feeling a little out of control because we are!! I can't see any good reason for this horrible loss of life, but I can see Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Our decisions here do determine our future, but in God's eyes no one dies! And as I look into His eyes I hope I can shed some light of truth by telling His plans for you are good no matter what shape they take in this earthly realm. No one and no senseless act can diminish His glory. But your faith in Him can be diminished if we believe the lie that evil prevails. Don't let your faith return to Him diminished. Protect your faith, your mind, your heart, because in the end we know through Christ that hope lives and God is still rules and He is still God!!

Hello everyone!  

I hope you haven't been holding your breath waiting for my next blog entry.  If so I apologize and will see you in the great by and by!! I know, I know it's time already! I have not written in months, since last year! Yes, I have aged and do have more gray hair...by the way, has anyone noticed how the texture of the gray changes as it grows out? I will admit to hiding mine, my brilliant hair dresser has the formula that does the trick.  And some people are fooled about my age, but as you know, "you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Boy, does this ever hold true with kids!!  A few weeks ago my Granddaughter Ava and I were sitting out back on my patio and I had in hand a catalogue of swimsuits. I don't dare name the store that the catalogue comes from, but just imagine, itsy bitsy teeny weeny!  Anyway I was perusing this magazine and my granddaughter was peeking over to see, how pretty a few of the bikinis were.  I stated, "Well your Mom might could pull these off, but I don't think I can".  After a few moments of silence with the most sincere, caring little voice she could muster, she came back with "Well, Grandby, you just need to find a magazine for 'old ladies'."!  She was just trying to comfort me, but as I laughed myself to tears telling her Mom about it, I realized, she's right.  Maybe we're raising a generation of kids who aren't afraid to see through all the unrealistic facades, fixes, and expectations of life and just see it like it is.  And, as a matter of fact I do have a catalogue with swimsuits for women "my age". Lol. Along these lines I write to you today.  

Fortunately, my life has begun to settle down a bit in my new hometown of Spring Hill, TN, and I feel a freedom to write again.  I have to first thank God because He has led my every step up to this place.  Those of you who have prayed for us, thank you, your reward will be great.  I say that not because you prayed for me, as though I think I'm someone special.  I have to tell you that you won't be rewarded just because you prayed for me. The reward is yours because God loves you...and it's just that simple, He loves you! I know that might over simplify things but it's true...love holds the universe together, why not give love the credit its due? Why must we analyze and hypothesize, and exegete every single word in the bible?  Why must each of us think we have the "answer", or the "revelation" concerning God's standards and how to apply them.  I'm not trying to be indelicate, just honest!! Just about every time I open up Face book or my email, someone else has sent a notice that they are writing a book or doing a blog.  Don't misunderstand me, I like reading other blogs, and I write this blog.  However, I make it clear, and if I haven't I'm now making it clear, that everything I write is subject to personal opinion and not objective most of the time.  That's the reason I write, to share something of my life with others and to encourage them, and if no one reads it, at least I have written it for myself and chronicled it. 

Many of my friends and family have very applicable and insightful blogs for inspirational purposes, and God knows we all need men and women with wisdom. But here's the thing, when I was coming up, if something was in print, it had to be true!! I'm sure everyone knows by now that this is no longer the case.  I won't name them but the "tell all" magazines at the check out counter in the grocery store show the untruths that will be published just to sell a magazine. But when people are in need or trustful, their eyes and hearts go searching for anything that might give them hope or justify the way they are feeling, or even make them feel better about themselves because "at least I'm not like them". And, this is just my opinion now, there is a plethora of irrelevant and, or misinformation out there, written under the guise of "religion" and I would venture to say that Christianity holds a corner on the market of publishing men's opinion. I'm not saying there's nothing good written about religion...but I'm just sayin..., so now I'll add my written opinion to the pile!! :)   

In one of my former lives, no, I don't believe in reincarnation...referring to when I was in my 20's, Wes and I were members of, and often attended the Christian Booksellers Association annual conferences.  Now, if you don't know, this is where every Christian publisher goes to introduce their new publications and try to sell them to bookstores, vendors and churches.  At the time, Wes had started "Kingdom Publishers" and had published a few books. We went to sell books and did sell many books, some authored by my Dad, some by others, but everyone wanted to get their point of view "out there".  There were aisles and aisles of booths filled with biographies, auto-biographies, how tos, expository studies on every book of the bible and on anything and everything, Sunday School curriculum, every subject you can think of.  There were books on how to have church, how not to have church, on what Jesus meant and what He didn't mean.  There were books on when Jesus will return and what it was really like in Bethlehem when He was born, how to heal, how to make miracles happen...go into any Christian bookstore and look around and multiply that a thousand times and you would be seeing an image of the CBA in your mind's eye. 

I'll never forget the year we took my Dad's book entitled "Sex is God's Idea" into the CBA arena.  Now remember, this is the 80's... and the organization was then, a predominantly Southern Baptist organization.  And I love my Southern Baptist friends, but you can imagine the surprised looks on customer's faces when they rounded the corner to see a huge duratran rendering of the cover of that book...which was a big shiny apple...with the title "SEX is Gods idea"...and of course it had lights behind it so it glowed into the aisle.  Many people were drawn in to see what it was all about, but many people would walk all the way around the aisle, even to infringing on the booth across from us, just to escape our clutches! We sure sold a lot of books for the booth opposite us, and I think they published books about how to make Sunday School puppets!! Lol My Dad's book was a good book, simply written about relationships and how to relate to God and others, but the provocative title made it so controversial.  We were the talk of the convention, and simply because the word "sex" was used in the book title.  I would say, "well, did or did not God make us to be intimate and have sex with our mates?  Just read the book and see if you don't agree, and if it offends you or your buyers we'll reimburse you."  And some replied, "well I know God made everything but this subject just isn't appropriate in this arena"!  Really?!! REALLY?!!  I get it, and I'm sure you do...there is a time and place for everything, but in today's culture, that's just it...you can get a book on anything...read it on line, on Kindle, on ibooks, and in plain old book form, which I prefer, simply because I enjoy the paper, anyone with me?  

So to the point of my story, I read very few "Christian" books simply because I usuallly find  the view of God to be so limiting.  Jesus is my Lord, and He is my God and I believe myself to be Christ mindful...but I don't need a book on what to believe about everything. And your story better be pretty heart pounding and interesting for me to read how you came to know Christ.  Boy, I must seem angry today, but I'm not.  In fact, I am writing a book myself, not to share what I know, but how the things I don't know have helped me find myself.  There's nothing wrong with writing, and there's nothing wrong with making our writings public, but once we do, we take on a great responsibility for our words and words hold weight.  And that's just my opinion! 

So, Yes I am writing again...the break I took was so that when I came back I might have some clarity as to what I think, which evolves daily. I'm afraid when I do finish the book, I will have to write far too many sequels because I'm always changing.  And I guess that's exactly what we are suppose to be doing, growing closer daily into the image of Christ.  That's why it is taking me years to write this book. So I hope this will answer the question that some of you have asked "when is the book coming?".  I don't know, some days it's slow and some days I'm in hyper drive!  It just depends on life. But it will be written!!! And kudos to those of you who dare to share any honest experience to help someone else in any form, be it book, song, testimony, or simply sharing.  After all, we are all different for a reason, we are the counterbalance for another's strengths and weaknesses, that's what life is all about.  So, for now, I hope you will read me, and give me a chance to share life's little lessons, not from a standpoint of being above them, but under them, around them, and how I think they may look from the outside in. Let me remind you how God is always love and love is always "the Source" and if I can help anyone by sharing my pains and joys in discovering that, then I have just begun to accomplished my task in life. To encourage you!

And that's just my opinion:)

Roma Beth