Shade Tree Wisdom 10/13/08

Cool and delightful this morning with the promise of maybe some thundershowers in the later afternoon. Such a day to rejoice and be glad in. And we do, for it is a day with some good news on the athletic front around here. Texas beat Oklahoma in their annual Red River Valley shootout, and the Houston Texans finally won, by the skin of their teeth, and at the last 7 seconds. But they won, after they had lost the week before in some really inept and ill-conceived final 4 minutes in which the Colts scored 17 points and won! It was the kind of game that owner Bob McNair said, “That kind of a game is hard on old guys like me”.

But beyond that, news is of the kind that caused the Psalmist to say, “I say to God, my Rock, why have you forgotten me? Why must I go mourning, oppressed by the enemy, . . . as my foes taunt me saying all day long, ‘where is your God?” Ps. 42,9.10.

Because it does seem as if all good values are under attack. Here is a film deriding our President, another makes a mockery of religion and sneers at what I hold of great value. It does seem as if religion is under harsh attack, bold and centered. And the financial crisis looks worldwide. The elections near which we approach with prayer and care, The Psalm resounds a truth that we see worked out in our lives.

And my thoughts go back to the Book of Solomon’s that seems to express such futility. Ecclesiastes, in which Solomon looks at the world and sighs, “Vanity, vanity, All is vanity.” Look at one finding. “I have seen. . .God gives man wealth, possession, and honor” [ this is an exact quote that God said when God promised him this in addition to the wisdom to ‘rule this great people’ (See 2 Chron.1,12.)] and then adds, “but a stranger enjoys them”. Eccl. 6,1.2. We know that stranger too. The Bible calls him, “the devil, as a roaring lion walking about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith”. 1 Peter 5,8.

It leaves me with a puzzling thought, often near despair. But I remember that Solomon sees what he sees “under the Sun”. That is not taking God into the account. And when we do we hear Him say “Do you not know, have you not heard, the Lord is the everlasting God . .His understanding no one can fathom”. Is. 42,28, or this word, Is. 55,8, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”.

It was an ancient heathen king who said: “He does as He pleases. . .and no one can hold back His hand or say to Him, ‘what have you done’?” Dan. 4,35.

An unknown poet wrote “The Loom of Time”. I quote a selection:
“Not till the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God reveal the pattern, and explain the reason why.
The dark threads were as needful, in the weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver, For the pattern that He planned”.
What we see now is the tangle of the underside, he twisted knots and frayed ends that lack meaning or beauty. But from God’s perspective, it is all under control. God is the potter, I am the clay. So the Psalmist whom I quote in the beginning ends like this:
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Psalm 42,11 I end with that comforting word, rich in hope with my future in God’s loving, caring, hands.

GPD 10/13/08